[inca1980]

@Woofer
A flash of thunder instantly wakes you from an all too familiar bloody nightmare to the pitter patter of rain tapping on the window.  It's that time of year again when a smog-seeded stratus cloud deck wraps downtown Seattle in a rain-soaked blanket and the the whole day just looks like a grey 3:00 PM, even if it's 8:37 in the morning.  And that's what time is flashing from a soft neon-blue Augmented Reality Overlay incoming-call icon that suddenly jumps out from your commlink which is burried in a crumpled mound of clothes on the floor.  The only calls that ever come in at 8AM are jobs or dad....so it's probably best to put the call on standby, start up the soykaf machine, get out of bed, wash your face, and answer it.  Once you actually take a good look at the ARO, you see it's your fixer Angel this time.....at least he doesn't ask as many questions as dad.  You throw the ARO over onto the breakfast table which is littered with printed out blogger clippings and other case files ..with only a little corner left for actual breakfasting.

Angel: "Listen man, i don't got forever cuz I need to be cross town in a meeting in half an hour, but I got a job for you that doesn't need much explaining.  It doesn't need much explaining because all I know is that it's a client who for sure's got the cred, he's pretty agitated...but he won't tell me a thing....but it's not the usual 'cat-stuck-up-in-a-tree' type job Woof'  He's impressed by your resume but he says he'll rest easier if he's got your whole team working on this one.  Half-up front, half when it's done....he'll discuss the financial details in person.  Keep your mouth shut about this if you're not taking the job, but I scoped him out a little for ya....his name is Germaine Robinson and you won't believe this...this elf's the regional HR director for Visteon.  He ain't no professional Mr. Johnson...this job looks more personal.  Smells to me like a guy with the cred who's out of options ...but that's why people call me.....and I call you.   So if you want the job i suggest you call your group of 'usual suspects' asap before other fixers book them first.  Let me know when you're ready, and i'll set up the meet."

[Sludig]

Woofer sighs as he looks at the latest news reports, "Thanks Angel, I'll take it, give me the meet details."

[inca1980]

Angel: "The meet's at noon in some fancy little restaurant up in Bellevue at 94th&24th....it's called "L'armoire"....only a few blocks east of the Bellevue Visteon enclave.  Reservation is under Robinson party of 5.  Keep me posted."

@Mercedes
Your commlink shoots you a message from Woofer which pops up on the periphery of your field of view just as you're wrapping up your closing statements at a local the regional "MCT Quantum-Computing and Beyond" convention.  You have no idea what you just said for the last 30 min....but judging from the raging applause, you know whatever it was you said really got this room full of geeks pretty excited.  The text message is a job Woofer just got with the meet time and location.  You thank your lucky stars because one more of these idiotic public speaking gigs and you might snap and just open fire on a packed audience.

@Cynthia
The call from Woofer wakes you up to a world of hurt.  The fall you took last night from a 3 story building trying to evade those KE roto-drones would have landed most fools dead or in the hospital....but luckily or unluckily for you, you always end up getting to peel yourself off the plasti-crete and limp home.  You lost the drones, but now your fake SIN is burned...it was shitty to begin with...didn't even look like you.  As soon as KE saw something fishy was up on a routine Random Citizen Safety Search and Seizure check; you bolted.  You're gonna need the cred to grab a new fake SIN...a good one this time....so hopefully this job pays decent.

@B.B.
Last night you didn't even bother catching a little shut-eye.  Just as your VR Icon pumps a chromatic dragon full of energy pulses, bringing you to level 85 of the MMORPG "Planes of Eldoran", Woofers incoming call reminds you that...yes...a world outside of the gleeming hallways of Kalimdor Keep does exist....And in that world, if you want to keep playing until level 100, you're gonna eventually need the cred once you splurge on what you got in the bank right now.  If this was just some regular "Starlore" script kiddie's game, you could've hacked the main server for all the play-time you want.....but "Planes" is a bonified hackers game....good luck ripping them off.

[OOC: so post what you're gonna do in terms of preparations, i.e. what you're gonna take with you.....and then go over to the meet site]

[Kontact]

LOC: Brian's pad. 5th floor Corner of Fairview and Thomas, Downtown.  9:30am

As B.B. left the sim, he deflated a bit.  Real life had a way of doing that to him.  On the flipside of this, a marathon session of PoE was a lifetime in itself.  In some ways literally.  The VR sculptors had built the game around the "speed of thought" concept, and so, they made the world go faster in time with the player's increased perceptions.  The result was that time in the game felt like much longer than time in the meat world.  Brian was a little slower than the top PoE-goers though, since he was part of the cold-sim underclass.  Most players kicked it hot, but it hurt like a bastard when you got derezzed, and the addiction potential was unreal.  Despite that, Bee had a hard time saying no to that little voice that told him to go for it anyway.   Maybe if he got enough cash squirreled away to pull a nice long grind...

Brian shook his head a little to clear it.  Master Woof had called and it was going to be a short time before he was on a job.  Time to hunker down a little.  Get serious.  But first, he needed to scrub up a bit.  L'armoire was pretty classy for Bellview, and he could use a nice long soak...

LOC: Brian's pad. 5th floor, Corner of Fairview and Thomas, Downtown.  10:30am

Partially rested, and quite refreshed, Brian was ready for a piece of biz.  He slipped on his form-fitting ballistic armor shirt, and strapped the discrete forearm and shin guards in place.  When you're three-foot-nothing in a six-foot man's world, you don't take chances on the cross-town bus.  Top of that, he put on a white button-down shirt, dark slate gray slacks, black belt and shoes, a tan sportcoat, and his brown leather driving cap.  Trodes underneath, natch.  Earbuds in ears, Goggles, pulled up onto the front of the driving cap.  He clipped his com to his hip, secured his stun baton into the coat's discrete holder (a shallow pocket in the bottom with an elastic band at the top,) and started to pack his bag.  He took his Scanner, his Ceska, and all three clips of ammo, wrapped them in his shadow-blue coverall, and unceremoniously stuffed them into his orange and tan backpack.  As a final gesture, he added his AR gloves on top.

"Always be ready to work..." he said only to himself, dropping a Betel into his right hand from the little corp-candy holder on his wrist and popping it into his mouth automatically.

With that, he was on his way out of the building to hop the 14 bus to Bellview and, hopefully, big bucks.  ..Not the joyboi club Big Bucks... no.  I meant money.  It was...
Anyway, he was off.

[FastJack]

Mercedes makes her way backstage, shaking the hands of some of the lower suits that helped put together the panel. She approaches an elder executive, bowing low and saying "Ohayou gozaimasu, Kurosawa-san. I hope my performance was to you liking?"

The executive raises an eyebrow at her, then nods his head in response to her bow and smiles, "Your Japanese is improving, my dear. And, as always, your speaking made an otherwise dry lecture something memorable. Hopefully we'll be able to do this more often. Arigatou!"

Not if this job pays off tonight. The perfect rendition of a grateful smile is plastered across her face, "Anata wa totemo yasashii desu ne, Kurosawa-san. I am always available for you." With that, she bowed again, certain that the cred had been transferred while they were conversing, then headed to the exit of the auditorium, carefully waiting until after she had left the building before checking to verify the cred was there.

Bringing up the message from Marcus, she read over the details, sketchy as they were, then shot back a message letting him know she'd be there. Flagging down a cab, she then went home to change and get ready for the meeting. Once she was changed into her "business" clothes, she loaded her Elan and slipped it into her leather jacket's oversized pocket, then went down to her bike and drove off to the meet.

[Sludig]

Woofer sighs, and decides a shower might be a good idea.  After tossing and turning for much of the night, slept like crap, "Coffee and a shower, as usual." *heads in and starts running the water*

After a shower makes him feel a little more human, he dresses in one of his nicer looking clothes, or at least nicer than what he wore investigating crime scenes, and heads out, gear in trunk.

[Walks Through Walls]

I make a quick search of the public data bases to find out what I can about L'armoire. Suspecting that it is a high class club/restaurant either french or elvish (either way snobish) they won't like me showing up in "working" attire. So I deck out in the auctioneer business clothes. Toss all my other gear including my chameleon suit in a duffle bag and grab a taxi to get me to the meet about 11:30 (unless one of my chummers will give me a ride ) I'll case the place out and look for exist strategies and possible security concerns.

[Walks Through Walls]

I'll contact woofer on the way there even if he isn't able to give me a lift to see if I can't meet up with him to toss my gear in his trunk also

[Kontact]

[OOC:]  I'd like to do a host of knowledge skill checks on the way to the meet.  All to help us get a feel for the Seattle you want to play.
Regional Knowledge (Seattle) to give me an idea of the conditions in that part of Bellview.  Should be 5 Intuition + 1 Skill + 3 Limbic Nanites for 9 dice.
Seattle Gangs to see if there's any presence in the area, like the Lake Acids.  Should be 5 Intuition + 1 Skill + 3 Limbic Nanites for 9 dice.
Law to see what the basic attitudes are for things like coatcheck/gunchecks in upscale places.  Should be 7 Logic + 1 Skill + 3 Neocortical Nanites + 1 PuSHeD for 12 dice.

Also, Brian is dropping his goggles down over his eyes once he hits street level.  He should be hyper-aware enough to scroll while he strolls, thanks to Multi-tasking.

[inca1980]

Intuition 5+Regional Knowledge (Seattle) 1+Limbic Nanites 3 = 9 DP 9d6.hits(5)=3. 
Most people who know Seattle know that this part of Bellevue is corp residential enclave central, which means KE definitely makes keeping these streets clean a priority.

Intuition 5+Seattle Gangs 1+Limbic Nanites 3 = 9 DP 9d6.hits(5)=5.
There aren't any street gangs in this area.  Any crime in this area is directly controlled by the Yakuza and that includes after-hours gambling houses and high-level escort services.  Besides a drug dealer named Sebastian who has an apartment on 96th street, that's pretty much all you can think of.

7 Logic + 1 Skill + 3 Neocortical Nanites + 1 PuSHeD=12 DP 12d6.hits(5)=4
Legally concealed carry is permitted with a liscence for hand guns.  Anything heavier than that needs a corp security liscence.  Establishments other than ones with ties to corporate security must notify individuals before submitting them to a scan.  Corporate citizens of extra-territorial entities within the boundaries of the Seattle metroplex enjoy immunity. 

[inca1980]

The four of you meet a block north of L'armoire near a park bench.  It's not everyday you see each other dressed like a couple of corporate wunderkinds on their way to some upper-level-exec promotion interview.  The rain right now is only an intermittent drizzle that makes carrying an umbrella not even worth it.  All of you smirk at each other fully aware of how out of place you all really are in this part of town at this time of day.  After placing your bags of gear into Woofers car, you make your way to the restaurant.

Despite the time of year, the outdoor dining tables in front of the restaurant are completely full thanks to a few strategically spaced proximity-heating devices.  Even though all your PAN's are on passive, as you enter under the awning canopy which juts out under the silver sculpted "L'armoire" sign, an ARO request for an AR weather reality filter awaits your approval if you choose to dine outside.

As the four of you enter the ornate glass and cherry-blossom wooden doors, a host cuts off your advance almost too eagerly.  He's a 6'4'' elf dressed in all black with silver-white hair stretched so tightly into a short pony-tail that it's a wonder he can even blink.  As he asks for your reservation with a slight french accent and looks down at a menu shaped ARO hovering near his palm.  As soon as Woofer tells him "the Robinson party" he raises his eyebrows without ever looking up from the screen.  "Ah yes, please come with me" he says as the ARO disappears into his clenched fist.  He leads you through a small path which makes it's way through several different landings of neatly arranged tables and eventually brings you to another set of smaller glass and cherry-blossom wooden doors.  He opens them up and politely motions for you to please enter.

As soon as the last one of you enters he closes the door leaving you in a private dining room with medium sized elf pacing back and forth nerviously.  He pauses momentarily, looking rather annoyed when he sees B.B.'s small stature, but then looks back up at Woofer and the two beautiful elves beside him and goes back to looking nervous.

He shakes Woofers hand and says "Germaine...you must be the investigator Angel contacted."
"Thank you so much for agreeing to help me with my problem on such short notice.  Angel has come highly recommended to me, so I do sincerely hope that you prove to be just as competent.  Please take a seat."
He motions to the dining table which has not even had the plates set and the four of you sit even though he continues to pace.

"I suppose I should start at the beginning.  It all started 2 weeks ago when my son, Jeshua, and a close human friend of his, Isamu, left the Visteon enclave and have not returned since.  Usually those two boys just stay up in my son's room most evenings playing their VR games....and only occasionally go out.  The camera's saw them leave and check out of the enclave to go shopping at 6:20p.m.  Security cleared them to go and they noted they would return well before the cerfew of 9:00.  At Visteon we strongly believe in taking care of our corporate family and like most responsible corporations we require children of employees to be tagged at birth with RFID locators.  My son had an especially advanced RFID system which also logged all nodes which he has ever come in proximity with.  My personal security detail whom I can trust found their RFID tagged clothing dumped only a block from the enclave.  So unless they were travelling across town stark naked, the must have had a change of tag-less clothes.  Apparently they took an auto-taxi straight to the eastern edges of Bellevue and into Renton where they went to an apartment residence  and at this location, all of a sudden their personal RFID tags went offline at about 7:45pm.  This apartment in Renton is still on the map of zones permitted to our employees, and their tags have showed them stopping there briefly on occasion before....security never thought much of it.  This is all I know.  And here is where my real problem begins."

"If my son ran away or is involved in 'risky' a-social behavior this will permanently tarnish his otherwise perfect VEAL score....or should I say Visteon  Employee Aptitude and Loyalty score.  If it were no skin off of my back, then I could care less if the boy decides to throw his life away, but he will be a valuable asset to me in the coming years once he achieves executive management status on the accelerated path which a high VEAL score affords."

"As you might know, Visteon is an Ares subsidiary.....along with Knight Errant and this makes it simply impossible for me to go to the authorities.  All the employee scoring systems under the umbrella of Ares are tied to a universal Ares Employee Assessment Quantifier which even a director like me is rated with.  As an incentive to raise good corporate citizens, my son's VEAL score actually has an influence on my score as well, thus compounding my dilemma."

"As of now, the official story is that my son and his friend have gone to stay with some of our relatives in Portland....and it has cost me every ounce of influence and connections I have to maintain this ruse....but it can't go on more than a few more days before security starts asking questions that I can't answer.

"Now, if you can locate my son for me, dead or alive, I can pay your team up to 100,000 nuyen....half paid out right here, and half paid out once my son has been located and returned."

The shear callousness with which Germaine speaks of his son's potential demise is rather shocking to anyone who's foreign to megacorp family values....or to the pure ambition any high level exec needs to have gotten where he has.  He then sits down and falls into silence after asking: "I will entertain any questions you may have and will assist you in your investigation to the extent to which it does not compromise me."

[OOC: If you have questions then you can just post them....i.e. you don't need to wait until he answers somebody else's question before you ask yours ....i'll just address all the questions as I'm able to post.  If you guys want to consult each other, only those of you who can view AR through a Sim-module connected to your brain with trodes or a datajack can communicate via mental text message with out alerting him.  Otherwise he'll know you're texting.  I'm not saying you have to keep your communications on the DL though.  It's up to you.]

[Sludig]

Woofer sighs, "Always hated that system, can you give us a list of possible friends from his VR games, or even his screen ID?"
Woofer thinks, "Also, do you perchance have a still good DNA sample? And this is for two reasons, first, verification, the second is if they didn't think of, astral tracking."

Woofer, though looking terrible, seems to shake off his funk, in territory he has done countless times.

[FastJack]

Mercedes gives Germaine a comforting smile, "You mentioned that he was at the Renton address before. When was the last time he was there previous to his dissappearance? And how long did he stay? Also, an give us a little more information on your son? Age, description, some of his interests other than VR games?"

[Walks Through Walls]

"Also any additional information you have about your son's friend, Isamu would be helpful."
"The RFID tag that was implanted in your son at birth do you know what type of tag it was? Also where on his body was it implanted?"
"Has your son shown any other signs of rebellion in the past?"
"Has any of his friends or classmates seemed to show any particular interest in him not being around?"
"Do you have any enemies that might have snatched him to get at you?"

[Kontact]

Oh god... fascists..  When am I going to free my life of these petty fascists...  At least this one isn't pretending to be human.  When they smile and pretend, that's the worst.
"I'll assume you want us to avoid contact with Ismaru's family.  Anyone else we shouldn't talk to, or is that background stuff not even necessary?"
"Also, did they ditch their comlinks along with their clothes, or have the links just gone dead?  They.. did have more than just KidLnks, right?"

<<@ Team:  "50 grand up front!?  This guy is awfully forward.  Think the kid took something important with him on this little jaunt?  Something worth the six figures this guy is shelling out to cover his rep?  I mean if he's willing to write the kid off, he could have just declared it a kidnapping and saved face.  His blatant callousness could easily be a limited hangout...">>