[UmaroVI]

"I'm sure your faith in us won't be misplaced, KM."

"Well, as I said earlier, I go by Abdiel. The Good Lord saw fit to give a talent for discoursing and proselytizing, on which note I recommend y'all delegate to me the negotiations as to how much we get paid for this."

Abdiel paused for a moment. Gotta sound enthusiastic about the magic...

"I've also been blessed with some magical ability. I'm not all that powerful, but I can cast a few spells of note: healing, levitation, and a bit of combat magic."

[Sichr]

Ex-Star. Not that I have any roots here in texas, Im from Emerald, well some things never change, and the crime is one of them. Id almost say it is second universal quality of metas of all coulours, shapes and beliefs...the first one being hatred to everyone different... or maybe tendency to substance abuse. Serrious crimes investigation makes man to ruminate on such things. Got my experiences in the corps. Then the crash hit the fun...and you know that. One day you are cop, another day you are nobody. At least I managed to get my SIN back, well with most bio and service records lost...and also with some serrious injuries I got during the riots

Dwarf raises his heavy duty cyberlimb, crushing empty beer can, then hiding it into his pocket, he continues

there was only a little chance I get my life back. So I`ve used what Ive learned, and since then I`m hunting bounties. having some skills here and there, it would be pleasure to support you in any negotiations, Abdiel.

CHAR(3)+Con(2)+EMO(3) (8d6.hits(5)=5)

[Tsuzua]

"I'm Jackalope.  I'm a tech.  I can fix most machines you throw in front of me, debug their nodes even faster, and slide past their firewall faster than that.  I can do it anywhere you need me to without having to lay around like a caterpiller after New Year's."

[SeriousOne338]

Drake reaches into his duster pulling out a half done cigar, biting it between his lips he lights the cigar with an old match. "Not much to say about myself. I used to work with the law but we've parted ways. Now I work as a hired gun, or a bounty hunter. Not much else to say about myself."

[Rusalka]

"And I, too, am a mage," Incipits adds stiffly, with a pointed look towards Abdiel. "Though, unlike our lovely preacher here, I-"

She stops briefly, adjusts her collar slightly, then smiles politely and continues: "Though unlike the kind preacher, I happen to focus solely upon this craft, to the exclusion of most others. I shall promise, however, that this will not result in my becoming a security breach, even in the areas wherein I am less than stellar." At this, she nods politely at Jackalope, before adding: "After all, being careful is a universally valued skill, and one requires but the slightest of wits to prevent the gravest of errors. As for the rest, I trust that the experts can handle those. My own field of expertise happens to lie in the field of illusions, covering various means of concealment and reconnaissance. Oh, and I am somewhat experienced literary theorist, but let us be honest, that should hardly come in handy, now should it?"

She chuckles softly, then settles back into her stiffened smile. You need the money. The money is what matters. Flea-ridden cultists have already lost you one job; don't let them make you lose this as well. You can endure, just for now.

[spoiler=OOC]I apologize if this roll is not sufficiently well-annotated, but Invisible Castle won't send me the blasted registration email. Sorry, I'm terribly new at this:
Willpower + Intuition to resist Prejudiced (WIL 4 + INT 3 = 7) (7d6.hits(5)=3)

I assume that nobody is Astrally Perceiving, given the lack of mention thereof?[/spoiler]

[UmaroVI]

[spoiler=OOC]Abdiel isn't Astrally Perceiving (he's a Mystic Adept and doesn't have that power).[/spoiler]

[Sichr]

So I guess thats whole gang?

[Tsuzua]

"That's everyone unless there's someone hiding the cupboard.  So we've got two bounty hunters, two mages, and myself."

[spoiler=OOC]Jackalope is going to see if he knows the missing person.  I can make a memory roll as well.
Knowledge: Rural Texas Int 4 + Skill 3 (7d6.hits(5)=1)[/spoiler]

[The Big Peat]

KM looks like he's about to say something for a moment, then shrugs. It looks odd on a man with only one arm.

"Well then. Looks like its about time I introduced you to our Johnson. Come this way, the other room's a lot comfier," he says, leading you from the dojo to a sitting room at the back of the house. There, in a room with teal green wallpaper and prints of cranes, sitting on a low couch with a cup of green tea resting on a low table, is a suited man with slicked back dark hair and gaunt cheeks who looks up with a nod at you.

"Mr Johnson, my associates. Associates, Mr Johnson. I'll be in the kitchen if y'all need me - elsewise, nothing's going to disturb you," the Texan in the kimono withdraws, leaving you alone with this corporate suit, who waves a hand vaguely at the other seats in the room.

"Well. Shall we begin?" he says, his accent difficult to place beyond Southern and educated. "Twelve days ago - give or take - a Ms Monica O'Carolan, who is employed as a secretary by close friends of mine, went missing somewhere in the Dallas-Forth Worth area. The current best guess at exact location at the time - both that of my friends, and that of Lone Star - is somewhere in the Garland district. Ms O'Carolan grew up in the area and still has extensive friends and family in the area. Me and my friends would like to see Ms O'Carolan repatriated to those who care about her. There has been a delay in acting, which I appreciate will complicate matters for you; let us just say there have been elements more concerned about their credibility than her well-being. We are moved beyond that."

"For your co-operation in the matter we are willing to pay two thousand nuyen each straight up, with eight thousand more each upon successful return of Ms O'Carolan, or, should she be dead, proof of this and the location of her body. Should you be able to locate but unable to extract her, you will receive four thousand. The up-front payment will be made directly, the rest of the money shall be held by Mr KM in trust. Your own associates will be able to assure you that he is utterly trustworthy."

"If this is acceptable, I can start to answer any questions you have about this and go into further details."

For Tsuzua
The name has not been featured on rural Texan news at all

[Sichr]

Are there any local resources aware of our presence and willing to cooperate?

[UmaroVI]

Suppose I could do worse than rescuing kidnap victims.
"I believe we should be able to handle that, although I must express my concern about the consequences of the delay in action. Now, fine gentlemen such as ourselves would never be able to leave a lady in distress - but with the trail this cold, she could easily be in another city or even across a border, and it might take quite some time for her to track her down and retrieve her. And these sorts of investigations can get expensive real fast..."

[spoiler=OOC]Trying to negotiate a better deal. Charisma (8+5), using HC to sustain, Pheremones 3, Kinesics 3, Influence 1 = 20d6, http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3483939/ 2 hits, wow that was a bad roll. I guess Abdiel's heart isn't in trying to get more money for rescuing kidnapped women.[/spoiler]

"Aside from the details about any investigating you've already done, I am curious why an upstanding gentleman such as yourself is going through us, rather than through Lone Star."

[Rusalka]

"Personally, I have no objections to these terms, though the lack of detail on the nature of possible threats, suspected enemies and similar, prior to the acceptance of the job, may reflect on my personal willingness to go the full way and extract the target. Merely professional concerns, you understand."

[The Big Peat]

"Travel's cheap these days," the Johnson smiles slightly as he dismisses Abdiel's concerns, quickly realising that the man doesn't have his heart in arguing "And besides, our statistical analysis leads us to believe she's an unlikely target for cross-border extraction. Now, if the data's wrong, and it turns out she's in Amazonia or in Lofwyr's private typing pool now, then call KM and we can talk again. I'm not an unreasonable man."

"Lone Star have looked at the case, and Lone Star have gone through the motions - and Lone Star are too busy and overstretched to go around chasing missing secretaries. It's not what they're saying out loud, but it's definitely what they're thinking. They might be willing to talk, off the record, if it ends up in better stats for them for no work, if that's what you mean," he turns to Steam. "If you mean do I have any local resources willing to help, then the answer's no. You're it."

"Details," he turns to Incipit now. "Ms O'Carolan had no known enemies, of this magnitude, either inside or outside her workplace. Now, either this a corporate extraction - which we find unlikely - or there are enemies we don't know of. Or there has been a random accident that has kept her hidden for a couple of weeks, which also sounds unlikely. If she has links to dangerous groups, then the most likely candidates are one of the go-gangs in the Garland area. We don't know of any connection, but that doesn't mean she wasn't hiding one. If it is corporate, then while there are no obvious candidates, any major corporation in the Aerospace or Defence sectors might have been interested. I again stress the unlikely nature of this. I trust that goes some way to alleviating your concerns."

[Sichr]

That was exactly on my mind by local resources. Well, asn an employer, you would have her verified curriculum vitae, I guess. Since you told us she is in the area she grew up, there is high possibility that something from he personal history might have trigerred this situation.
Also, I guess that secretary is ussualy well checked, since she knows a lot of sensitive details about her employer, maybe you would have a file on her behaviour and social contacts, possibly even matrix activity monitoring. We may find some useful leads in such data.
And, last but not least I`d like to ask you right now, and since we need to be mutually honest, Id like to have honest answer...
does you have some activities in the target area, present or historic, that could have made some locals angry? Anything that may had caused active local resistance? And if there is somthing like that...does she carried away something valuable?

[SeriousOne338]

"I'm a door buster and gun fighter this whole running down leads is not my short of game. Now point me at someone who knows something I'll make them talk, even dispose of the body if need be."