[Mirikon]

Kitten sighed as she looked at the message on her commlink. That was just perfect. Well, no use sticking around here, then. She finished her drink, and got up to leave. She'd have to rendezvous with the hacker and figure out their next course of action soon. Such a bother, but they were getting paid 1250 a day for this, so...

[eighth circuit]

Sleet

Matrix actions are Skill rating + program (+ encephalon in your case), so you'd roll 11 dice for matrix perception (I'm assuming you included logic in your pool, which shouldn't be). In this case, however, I don't have a list of nodes with ratings for every neighborhood in Hong Kong, so I'm just gonna wing it--the above is just FYI.

You're able to find a few street cameras near Dante's with lax security, and a few of them have the entrance in view. Dante's isn't super-busy this time of day, but there is a steady stream of stylish party people going in and out. One thing that catches your eye is a scraggy-looking dwarf--maybe a homeless man?--who walks out of an alley and into the club.

Grind

Your search on the various corporate committees of Xiao-Renraku brings up nothing of interest, just a lot of mission statements, corporate buzzwords, and fluffy news pieces. You get the sense that this guy Fong is very well-connected but doesn't actually do anything important.

Sleet and Sweep

You pull up in front of Dante's. Before you can do anything, Linda runs out of the van and into the club. Byron the host smiles as she walks in. "Well hellooooo Mrs. Fong. Starting the night early, are we?"

Linda smiles back. "Hi Byron. I'm actually here on business right now. You wouldn't happen to have seen a disheveled, surly, dark-furred elf walk in here, would you?"

Byron bristles at the thought of that filthy elf uglifying his club. "Well yessssssss... I do seem to recall someone fitting that description. What do you want with that urchin? Has he stolen your purse?"

Linda asks to be taken to see him, which Byron does, even though Kitten's table is ostensibly a private one.
let me know if your characters follow Linda or wait in the van

9th Level of Dante's Inferno--Kitten, Grind, Menzo, and anyone who followed Linda

As the party is getting up, an angry Chinese woman bursts into your private chamber. "YOU!" She glares at Menzo. "What's the idea of up and leaving me like that? With those filthy Renraku goons. I swear, if those people come into my house again...." She calles a waitress over and sits down. "Sorry for yelling. I need a drink. I've hired my own security team, since YOU," she pokes Menzo, "seem intent on leaving me in the dust." Not gonna happen. I'm tired of being kept in the dark. I wanna know what's going on. And I figure if I want to be safe from the people who got my husband, the people looking for them might be the best ones to be around. Maybe we can even help you out.

"In fact, I do have something that might help you. I didn't say anything earlier, Menzo, when those security officers were there, because I don't think I'm supposed to know this. But I think my husband might have been in the running to represent Xiao-Renraku in the next election. Not sure if the kidnapping has anything to do with this, but I thought it might be useful to you."

[vinnmun]

Grind rubs his head as the asian woman comes storming in jabbing at Menzo.

@Randal: Hey buddy, you've been quiet. Would you mind working on something for me?

Grind stays in the background listening and waiting to move, he figures going after cheng with quality numbers is going to be the best route and hopes Cheng is there for awhile.

[thecommabandit]

In the period of awkward silence at the table, Menzo coughs and, after a second, introduces himself.

"Eh, well. The name's Menzo. Little Miss Mage saw fit to blackmail an' strongarm me inta finding yer man Fong." He rubs his face tiredly. "Frankly, it's the wrong time o' the day to be askin' me ta do anything. But she didn't give me no choice in the matter."

"Hey, hey, hey," he barks as Linda comes in, yelling and pointing fingers. "Listen, lass, I've known ya fer less than a day an' ye've got me inta two shits of trouble already. An' fer yer information I know just about shit all. Yer husband went missing, and I've been threatened inta helping find 'im. That's all I've got."

"And I've no fucking clue about corporate politics. So I got no idea what you just said."

"Ehh, miss..." he says, not knowing the name of the woman across the table, "this is Linda Fong. Our man's wife an' an... acquaintance o' mine."

[Scarecrow71]

When Linda jumps out of the van, Sweep immediately gets out, switching the pilot program into gear and grabbing his armor jacket.  Using his commlink, he gives the van the command to go park itself somewhere, and he follows Mrs. Fong into the club, shielding her from anybody that may look like they want to do her harm.

Up at the private table, Sweep takes a look around the room and takes stock of those sitting there.  When he hears Menzo's name mentioned, he looks over to Sleet, nodding slightly at the completion of their latest task.

He notices that there are a couple of chairs that are empty, and he could make the decision to take one of them, but instead he stands behind Mrs. Fong, his large troll body still comfortably fitted with a business suit.  The armor jacket is now draped over his large frame, providing even further concealment for the pair of Savalette Guardians sitting in their holsters under his arms.  And what was even more comforting was the telescoping staff, compacted into a nice short stick, sitting in a lined sleeve on his right leg, at just the right spot so he could pull it out with one hand easily and extend it should need be.

He looks down at Mrs. Fong and the others, his arms crossed to show that he is on duty, and his stance behind the lady showed everyone that she was his client and in his charge.

At least, I hope they realize that.  Although, I wonder what is going to happen now that we've found Menzo?

[LeighFox]

Switching from cold-sim to meat was simple enough, taking mere moments; Sleet shifting position in the seat before resetting it into its upright position, then unbuckling the belt.

As Mrs Fong darted out of the van Sleet let out a soft curse beneath her breath, then quickly opened the door. Although she didn't particularly enjoy meat-operations, she knew it had to happen once in awhile... and the young hacker did NOT want to risk a thousand nuyen per day job. Stowing her private comlink into a breast pocket on her blouse then tugged on her own lined jacket, checking to make sure Alta was tucked away in its concealed holster.

That done, she moves to follow Sweep and the chinese woman, offering an apologetic nod to any staff that gets in the way; as she moves, she quickly activates her public commlink (SIN: Sylph Al'sharrii, Tir Tairngire) and sets it to passive mode, while of course the private commlink is set to hidden as always.

The group of people around the table which Mrs Fong approaches causes Sleet to twitch just a little, a feeling of discomfort trailing down her spine. Sighing softly again, however, she moves to stand to Sweeps left and a half-pace behind, doing what she can to not draw attention to herself.

--
Sleet is a tall, five-foot-ten or so, lithsome female elf of indeterminate yet obviously young age; probably late teens or twenty at the oldest. Rather strangely, she is even more pale than is normal for a typical elf, let alone a hacker elf; her flesh (what can be seen around the black lined coat, dark crimson blouse and black leather pants) stands out in contrast to her darker clothing as being nearly pure white. Deep violet eyes peer out from beneath creamy brows, while similarly hued straight hair tumbles down to just past her shoulders, making her look very much like a ghost. The young elf wears a bit of a dour look, seeming perhaps a little uncomfortable in these surroundings.
--

[eighth circuit]

Linda, now on her second vodka, looks around. "Oh, sorry! I suppose I really should have introduced myself." She nods at Kitten and Grind. "I'm Linda, and my husband is Wei-Lei Fong, the man you're looking for. I had been hoping Menzo here would help out with my security, but since he ran off I decided to hire my own team: this is Sweep, and Sleet. Don't be shy, fellows." She looks at the elf and the troll, as if expecting that they wouldn't be this antisocial, and sighs.

"Now, I understand you probably don't want some dumb girl tagging along with you. But I know a lot of people, and I may be able to help you out. Plus, I've got my own safety to think about, and at the moment I don't feel Renraku territory is the safest place for me. So since I've hired these two, they may as well help out, right?

"So what's the plan now?" She downs her glass and orders another.

[vinnmun]

"Where we need to go is not going to be any safer lady." he sighs as he now has to bring along three more people. "Alright, well last person to know your husband's where abouts is in Macau, he was handled before that at a warehouse, that I have not fully checked as it's locked. So I'm ready to go to Macau, I do not think we need to send the calvary over, but hey who am I right?" And at that he makes his move, impatient and focus, hates hunting on cold trails.

[Scarecrow71]

Sweep continues to stand behind Mrs. Fong, watching the rest of the people at the table and trying to keep a cyber-eye on Linda at the same time.  He mostly pays attention to the conversation, hearing something about the island of Macau and a warehouse, but his ears perk up when he hears Linda attempting to insert herself into whatever mission the others have going on.

"Forgive the intrusion, ma'am," he calmly but firmly states "but Sleet and I are charged with your safety.  I do not think it is wise of you to want to go traipsing all over the Indian Ocean looking for your husband when these guys here are more than capable of doing so.  However, seeing as you have all but volunteered myself and Sleet..."

Sweep takes about 3 steps towards the nearest chair and drops his large frame into it easily, leaning forward and resting his elbows on the table itself.

"Hostage extraction is my specialty, and you will probably need all the help you can get.  So I have a few questions of you before shit goes south, so to speak.  Namely, why hasn't the warehouse been checked yet?  And secondly, how trustworthy is this source you have that is sending you to Macau?  And finally, once you get to Macau, where exactly on the island are you going to start looking?"

Sweep eyes the others, waiting for the answers that he hopes are coming.

[vinnmun]

He counts on this fingers, "Warehouse was locked, source is very reliable, and what to do...figure that one the way. Mercenary island, talk to people, look stuff up. Legwork." He gets to the door, "NO times to sit down, I don't like my trails cold, and I think the warehouse might be a bust right now."

Goes to summon a data sprite.

What happened to Randal?
Data Sprite with Encrypt Rating 5 (11d6.hits(5)=4, 5d5.hits(5)=1)
3 Services

Resist 2 Fade (10d6.hits(5)=3) Fade Resist

@Data: Cross Reference 289s with Macau island and Awakened activity in Macau.

Data Search (10d6.hits(5)=2, 10d6.hits(5)=5, 10d6.hits(5)=7, 10d6.hits(5)=3, 10d6.hits(5)=5, 10d6.hits(5)=3, 10d6.hits(5)=4, 10d6.hits(5)=4, 10d6.hits(5)=2, 10d6.hits(5)=2)

[Scarecrow71]

"You let a simple lock stop you from searching the warehouse?"

Sweep turns to Mrs. Fong, almost laughing.

"You sure these guys are ok to look for your missing husband?"

[vinnmun]

Grind shrugs, "That was before I got roped into all of this, so think of it as a favor. If you wanna start somewhere other than Macau, than go there and see if anythign was left behind, I'm going to grab Cheng," he looks over to Mrs. Fong, "That's the guy who kidnapped your husband." Grind sighs as he has to deal with another punk with a mouth, "But you newcomers have a seat and relax, I'm going to do what I was sent to do." he says this looking at the troll that was about to sit down and at that he jots down the warehouse address and a commcode with his nickname on it, lays it on the table and than walks out of Dante's to head off for Macau. He sends a text on his way to his bike over to his lawyer buddy from Eastern Tiger, Liu.

@Pong: Mr. Pong, it's been sometime. Give me a call when you are available, I need a favor.

@Randal: Randal, buddy why so quiet. Think you can find me a ferry or some sort of charter to Macau?

[eighth circuit]

Grind

There isn't much information on Macau, but your sprite turns up a few links between the 289s and a mercenary group, The Heroes. Compared with Hong Kong, there is not as much of an awakened presence in Macau, and mercenaries tend to stick to more mundane methods.

[auto-reply from Pong] I am a busy man! Leave me a message and I will get back to you at the earliest convenience!

[Randall] Sorry dude, got distracted. Lots of crazy stuff going on in this place! As for ferries, there's the official hydrofoil ferry, which leaves every half hour from Victoria Harbor and costs 20 nuyen each way. You have to go through customs, though. Some people prefer to run anonymously with the smugglers out of the Container Port in Kwai Chung, who don't ask for ID.

All

Linda eyes Grind. "Are you going off on your own?" She looks at Kitten and Menzo. "How do you expect to find anyone, if you can't keep track of what your own people are doing? I think it he's got a good lead we should go along, though it would be nice to have more information first.

She turns to Sleet. "Sleet honey, would you ask these people what they know so far, and maybe search the matrix for any clues that might turn up?"

There's an info dump on Fong upthread. Assuming the others are cooperative, you'll have access to that--Grind has been looking into some of the info. Just wanted to make sure the new players know about it.

[Scarecrow71]

Sweep turns to Mrs. Fong, nods once, and then addresses the entire table.
 
"I don't mean any disrespect to what you have already accomplished or where you think you need to go.  But it has been my experience that having as much information as possible is always for the best."
 
Sweep stands up and takes up a position near Mrs. Fong, ready to protect her if something bad were to happen.
 
"There are currently 2 leads on the table, so to speak:  Heading to Macau, and checking a warehouse.  And while it may be that Mr. Fong may be on the island of Macau, where exactly is he?"
 
He waits for a few moments, enjoying the silence, before speaking again.
 
"Exactly - you don't know exactly where on the island he is.  So you could spend days, weeks - hell, even months - looking for him and not even sniff a trace of where he is.  Not to mention that you don't know who else is on that island, or what defenses they may or may not have.
 
"My instintcs tell me that the warehouse should be searched for any potential clues about the kidnappers, where they may be on Macau, and what they may have done to him already.  It may also tell us WHY they took him to begin with, and what they may be looking for out of his capture."
 
Sweep then stands there, looking at the table, waiting for a response.

[vinnmun]

*Grind hops on and  starts his bike, gets the blip display about 289s and The Heroes and reads it*

@Data: compile a list of smugglers out of Container Port with the highest praise and possible prices.

*he continues to read the article and when he's done*

@Randal: So whacha doing?