[Mercy Merchant]

Snow looks at Yuri carefully.  "I am in need of upgrades to my 'link for Firewall, Signal, System, and Response to grade 5.  I am also interested in good ECM and basic TacNet software.  Can you help?"

She waits a bit then adds, You are a smart guy.  I have been sent here to see what needs to be done to get the Vory presence here increased.  What do you know of the competition and would you be interested in helping me?  The rewards could be significant." 

[Crossbow]

Snow looks at Yuri carefully.  "I am in need of upgrades to my 'link for Firewall, Signal, System, and Response to grade 5.  I am also interested in good ECM and basic TacNet software.  Can you help?"

She waits a bit then adds, You are a smart guy.  I have been sent here to see what needs to be done to get the Vory presence here increased.  What do you know of the competition and would you be interested in helping me?  The rewards could be significant." 

"Well, I do specialize in tech.  I help my friends find a market for their work and try to get goodies where I can.  I know some people who do this kinda stuff, some of the hardware is going to have to be custom work, and the software is definitely going to need to be farmed out." Yuri says making some notes on his commlink, "It's not going to be cheap and it will take some time.  Do you have sensors to go with the tacnets or what?  How many sets?"

"I trust Eddie, but these people don't code for free, I will need something up front to give to make them prioritize the work."  The fixer seems truly non-plussed by your offer of rewards, "Look, I toldja, all I did was pay a guy from the old neighborhood a cut to do business, I wasn't in a crew or anything.  Now, I pay somebody else, I don't like it, but it's business, that it.  I ain't looking to get jumped in."

[Mercy Merchant]

Snow looks at Yuri carefully then shrugs.  "I can understand your desire to remain out of any conflict.  Do you know someone who might think differently and who might want a cut when the Vory picks someone to lead the operation here?"  She pauses as she lights a cigar from her silver case.  "As to the software, what sort of upfront costs am I looking at?"

[Crossbow]

Yuri thinks about her words for a second, then shrugs "There were some smugglers that I was put in contact with back in the day.  I heard they were still in operation, but I ain't reason to reach out until now, I could arrange an introduction for a modest fee, I will tie that into the earnest money for the coding work and gear, which I still need specifics on, let's say 10 K for now."

[Mercy Merchant]

Snow looks at Yuri through the smoke of her cigar.  "Come now, we barely know each other and you are saying 10K like we were married.  Let's say 3k to get the process rolling and we can talk a higher finder's fee if anything comes of it? And I am just interested in the TacNet software.  My main concern is the upgrades to grade 5 for the basics; firewall, system, signal, and response, as well as a good ECM package.  My basics are already at grade 4 so it should not take much to improve them.

[HydroRaven]

Clementine simply looked at the footage and waited for the meeting to come to an end. She didn't need to add anything else, simply leaving Torley to his theatrics and formalities. Once everything was said and done, she fired a quick message to O'Connor and to Snow. <We have a job starting right now, and we have a narrow window. We need to find someone that goes by the name of Bacchus, and we need to squeeze him before tomorrow. Snow, we need you to get started on finding his location.>

Clementine sent them a copy of the information she had obtained from their latest Johnson along with an explanation of the job and then turned over to her teammates. "I think we're done here. I need to go back to the hotel and get my gear if we're to convince this guy to hand over the footage."

[farothel]

"Good idea," Sammy said, continuing as soon as they were outside of Mr. J's hearing, "And I'll see if Bacchus wants the famous Sammy Delavine on his Pito network."

She took her other commlink and activated Sammy's Pito, looking for Bacchus' gang and asking for an invite into their network.  She also started going over the public footage to see if she could find a location they often frequented.  With her knowledge of LA she might be able to get an address without much searching.

[Mercy Merchant]

Snow gives an inner groan.  *Tonight might not end as well as I had wanted.*  She hits her internal 'link and begins the matrix searches for the name Bacchus as it applies to modern L.A., as well as a Pito search for the name or related gang activity.  She also looks at Yuri,  "Can you tell me anything about a man in LA that goes by the name Bacchus?"

[Crossbow]

Yuri smiles and leans backs, suddenly more comfortable in this part of the conversation.  "Ah zolotse, this is no good, we were getting on so famously and now you want to throw all that away on a few filthy rubles. Consider it an investment expense, if you are looking to get back in here, a little goodwill can go a long way, and I assume you want to keep this under wraps, secrets can be expensive.  I need eight thousand if you expect me to take you seriously." He waves off the information request to concentrate on the matter at hand.  "he is a banger with a Pito show, who cares?  I can look into it, but I need to see the cred before anything else."

[Crossbow]

Sammy's research reveals similar results, her request to join Bacchus' circle is auto accepted based on her rating, but it is a bot doing the accepting and the person himself is not broadcasting.  She begins going through some archived programming from A Gang's Life, the A-kidz reality show, but nothing she recognizes has come through yet.

[Necrogigas]

O'Connor was very tempted to ignore his comm, but the ringtone told him it was from a teammate. After reading the message, he cursed, "God fragging dammit. This is such bulldrek." After giving off a resignated sigh, he broke the bad news to the girls, "My team's picked up a time sensitive job, starting now. As much as it pains me, I'm gonna have to take a rain check. You know who this Bacchus a-hole is?"

[Crossbow]

"uhmm...Roman god of wine?"

[Necrogigas]

"Fun factoid, but I don't think I'm going after an ancient Fifth World god. Thanks though." O'Connor traded numbers with the girls, "I'll be hitting you up once this is all said and done. You can most definitely count on that." He exchanged rather exuberant and drawn out goodbyes with the girls while he waited for Snow to finish up her business.

[Mercy Merchant]

Snow looks at the man opposite her.  This man has no respect for the Vory and that is almost the most blatant mark of betrayal she can imagine.  To Snow, the Vory is everything.  Her holy trinity is Vory, Honor, and Family and this man has just stepped on all three.  She was born Vory and has lived her entire life as Vory.  She remembers how the bosses look when they are angry.  The most frightening are the ones who keep their calm and just speak.  She leans forward a bit and her face loses expression.  Her voice assumes a Russian accent that she has been careful to not show here before.  "Listen, to me well.  The Vory is coming back to LA and soon.  I am just the first and highest ranking member to visit.  You recognized the arm tattoos.  You know that they represent my place, my rank.  But it is the tattoos you cannot see, the ones hidden under my clothes, that should frighten you more.  Do you think that the ink on my arms comes free; that I have not paid my dues?  My voice carries weight at home and my opinion is considered.  I came here to find people that can step up and lead the Vory back here.  If I find no one I can trust I will bring in people from home to clean up.  Do you want to be one of those left standing when the clean up crew leaves?  You would do well to not haggle or try my patience.  I do not have time for games."

She sits back and smiles.  "Now, I do not mean to be rude, but I do not haggle.  That is for other people.  I do not know you.  I will offer 3k to get you started.  If that is not enough for you then leave and I will find another source."

[Thvor]

Sam decided that his best option for trying to find out where this Bacchus or his gang could be found was to go back out to the party and see if he could find someone who happened to follow their Pito feeds. It was a long shot, but they were on a short deadline and he didn't have his usual resources. His first attempt was to return to the writers he'd been talking with earlier. "Sorry, had to deal with an agent issue. He wants me to come up with a real-life story of some ganger named Bacchus. And, of course, he wants it, like, tomorrow. Any of you follow him or this "A-Kidz" gang? I need to track them down tonight or I'll miss out."