[Jack_Spade]

Deep Black Sea

Maxime #18 of Maximally Effective Mercenaries: If the officers are leading from the front, watch out for an attack from the rear.

Seattle, earlier today:
"You know, that's quite a dangerous mission. Are you sure that will be your best course of action?"
"The best? No. The best would be for me not to go down there. But I can't pass up the chance. The potential is just... incredible."
"So you want me to find a team to protect you, to trust you and all of that on the pittance of a retainer you pay me?"
"Ideally yes, but luckily I've still got some money left on our bribes, black ops and quality-control budget for this year. How does 50k sound to you and a quarter of a million for the team?"
"I'll get back to you."
*Click*

Maxime #21 of Maximally Effective Mercenaries: Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Take his fish away and tell him he's lucky just to be alive, and he'll figure out how to catch another one for you to take tomorrow.

Seattle, now:
Slobertooth's comlink alerted him with a sharp buzzing sound to his fixer's wish to speak with him. Kazuya Armstrong's voice sounded a bit stressed: "Slobertooth, time to move your ass from that comfy chair of yours. There's a client that wants to hire you and your friends. He is one of my most valuable and trusted associates, so be at your best behavior. He is treating you all to a midnight snack at that new restaurant down by the marina, the Ancient Mariner. Table's reserved for Schmitt and company.
I strongly recommend you listen carefully to his proposal. There is a lot of cash riding on a successful deal. Be there at midnight. And try their Calamari Ripieni. I hear it's won some prize or something. Keep me posted.
And don't forget: Play nice."

The connection went dead and a look at the display showed that it was just a few minutes to 22.00h. Traffic wouldn't be as bad at that time of night so no more than half an hour to drive there. Time enough to get ready...

[SquirrelDude]

Slobbertooth grumbled into the dialtone, "I always play nice, K."  He paused and then continued, "Until I don't." (Or'zet). His joke was funny enough to make him smile, as he shot K a text message, "Plz remember to say how much Mr. J is paying."

Slobbertooth put his commlink away and went about the house, alerting the rest of the team that they had a job. "bnc, Krestov, wake up. Torrent, stop being moody and come out of your room to play with the rest of the kids. We have a client lined up. ETA Midnight. ETD 1 Hour."

[SgtBoomCloud]

Krestov had not quite gone to sleep yet, the big troll sitting crosslegged on his cot, hands resting atop his knees as he focused on his breathing, mind flitting and sifting through distant memories with each passing breath.  The knock on his door by the ork Slobbertooth brought him out of his reverie, sky blue eyes blinking into focus in the dimly lit room.  Another night-time client...with any luck, this will fare better. 

Sighing, he hopped to his feet, the loud shaking thud against the floor his reply of acknowledgement as he dressed, grabbing his gear.  Cargo pants, tanktop, and his jacket, the Crusader sliding under his arm and out of sight like always.  Lacing up his boots, Krestov was in the living room in less than ten minutes, standing up straight and ready to go.

[SquirrelDude]

Slobbertooth came out of his room, stowed his Ares Crusader under is armored jacket, and started to hook up his micro-transceiver with one hand, while the other carried his HK-227. He wasn't expecting to need either firearm at the meet up, but wanted to make sure it was in the van in case they needed to quickly head to the operational area.

He saw Krestov standing at attention and dressed and ready to kill in the living room, or do whatever the job had in mind. Slobbertooth reminded himself that he needed to be more specific the next time he mentioned they had a client, especially around their favorite ex-military.

"At ease, soldier. We're about to meet a client, not go on a run, so relax. Don't want ya to be stiff in front of Mr J., unless you're the Cassanova type."

[Volker]

bnc doesn't respond. She's in full VR and hears nothing.

After a while (hopefully) Krestov or Slobbertooth calls her on her 'link. Sighing, bnc says goodbye to her buddies in her favourite Austrian online bar, McCoy's, and returns to her meat body about quarter an hour later.

"Jeez? It's 10pm, boys. Can't we play tomorrow..? Hope the payment's bastante grando"
Grumpily bnc leaves her room, already wearing her pyjamas. Sie runs her fingers through her hair, blinks lazily and sees Krestov standing in the middle of the living room, in boots and armour. She immediately bursts into laughter.

"Hell, big 'un! Whazzat?" She chuckles, wiping the tears from her eyes and looks down her pink and grey pyjama and her fluffy rabbit slippers. "Huh, seems I'm a bit underdressed, n'est-ce pas?"

She stretches, then returns to her room. "Slobby! Please be a buddy and send me the record of the conversation, any related texts and a list of your favourite sex positions. Should I check on the phone or are you hupro sure he's your fixer?"

Another couple of minutes later, she returns. She wears black trousers and her electrochromatic T-shirt which presents itself now as a purple band-shirt. Her hair is black - as almost always - with a purple touch. Over the shirt is her armor jacket. You can't see Tom, her gun, but you're quite sure it's there, somewhere. "Gotta brush my teeth, then I'm ready to go. Oh, jeez, I should take a shower ... we still have some time, yeah?"

She hurries to the bathroom and locks herself in for another twenty minutes, then comes back, looking exactly the same, but smiling. "Let's get ready to rumble, laddies!"

[Sabato Kuroi]

Torrent was actually sleeping.
He didn't believe that the early bird catches the worm, but he knew for a fact that sleeping in the same house with a Troll whose footsteps were so heavy that could shame an earthquake, and a Tusker whose voice could win an argument with a war siren, was a rare commodity.

When he emerged from his room he was dressed with black pants and a dark grey shirt.His armor vest was underneath it.His dark skinned face also wore that familiar half-smile.He gave Slobertooth a nod

"My man..."

[Jack_Spade]

The drive to the marina was neither exiting nor memorable. Yacht after yacht were moored for the night and the parking lot was only moderately crowded.

A casual check on Slobertooths com revealed to bnc that the message had indeed come from his fixer and that Armstrong was currently within the wifi coverage of a Seattle downtown five star hotel lobby.

The Ancient Mariner was a simple two story building with an expansive glass front towards the harbor and a hardwood deck directly adjacent to the water. Bushes in massive terracotta planters provided respite from wind and noise to the guests. Highly inefficient patio heaters forced the chilly night air away while wide marquees prevented the occasional acid rain to sour the guests desserts.

An for the time of night unreasonable chipper female dwarf acted as hostess, directing guests with expansive gestures and her decidedly lowtech clipboard guest list to different areas of the outside dining area.

On the matrix the site wasn't especially impressive: A low level host designed with a lot of off the shelf textures and a few AR markers with infos about their services was all the new restaurant had to offer.

All in all, it was a textbook example why most restaurants folded after about half a year...

[Volker]

bnc jumps into the car and fastens the seatbelt, eager to meet Mr. Johnson. She's still a pup, and giddy when it comes to a new run.
As they draw closer she decides it's time to do some intel. "Hold me," she tells Krestov. She dives into Hot Sim, her body goes limp. She travels to the place, checks it out, and finds it uninteresting.

When they arrive at the parking lot, she scans the host again, deciding it's protection is too poor for this world. She attacks the guest list, looking for one Mr. Schmitt. If she finds it, she checks out the room he's supposed to be, looking for any icons running silently or loudly.

After that she reboots her deck, enslaves our smartguns and the weaker 'links to her deck and creates a communication channel for the whole group, sending an ENTER ARO to her three favourite boys.

[Jack_Spade]

The host was a brand new installation up to and including the default admin passwords. It took bnc no longer than a few seconds to find her target: A reservation for Mr. Schmitt revealed a table for five directly at the edge of the water, screened by lots of greenery.

The only matrix activity there seemed to be an expensive Fairlight Caliban running on the public grid. The device identified itself readily as belonging to a Dr. Gerhardt Schmitt, complete with a little business card for "20kMUS Marine Defense Technologies". [Matrix search: 9d6.hits(5)=4 hits]
His profile picture shows a white man with dark blond hair in his late 30s and ice blue eyes. The rimless glasses on his nose look as if they had cost more than two months of rent for you.

Besides the target there are about 50 other icons to be found, with half of them belonging to the restaurant and its staff. There is no sign of silent icons.

[SgtBoomCloud]

Krestov relaxed upon Slobbertooth's jibe, giving a nod.  "It is old habit, da.  Casa..nova?  I know not that reference, but get your point."  Nodding at the ork's loadout, the troll grabbed his helmet and ballistic shield, along with his taser (which strapped to his boot) and tactical belt, just in case they did transition from meet to job without pause.  Running his hands through his mane of hair, he decided it may be a good idea to smooth his look over, but was promptly stopped as the frail girl bolted herself in the bathroom.  This gave him a chuckle, as even with a run or two under her belt, the hacker still looked the most normal of the bunch...and that was saying something.

As they traveled to the marina, Krestov looked out at the yachts, sniffing the air as he took in the smells.  One hand was firmly planted on bnc's shoulder, supporting her torso, head and neck from being jostled while she was in cyberspace.  His thoughts focused on the smells.  Fish, salt in the air, oils on the mooring ropes...Reminds me of when I ran with that decker Judge in Hong Kong...that was a fun chase through the pier...I'll have to see if he's still alive and ask him if he got the smell out...heh...  As the restaurant appeared to view, the troll leaned forward, speaking slowly and just loud enough to be heard by everyone in the car, running a speech-to-text message to keep bnc in the loop.

"I remember not meeting a Johnson with such calm waters.  It will be a refreshed pace change, that how you say?  To make sure no toes are on stepped, who should lead the meeting, do we think?  While it is not negotiating a hostage, I am sure talking to a J, as Slob puts it, has some sameness.  What do you think?"

[SquirrelDude]

Slobbertooth shrugged at Krestov's question. "As much as I wouldn't mind trying to win him over with my glowing personality, most people have issues looking past the teeth and the green skin. And also they aren't a fan of the sour personality."

"I'm fine with leaving this to you."

[Volker]

bnc stirs after just a minute or two, finding herself lying comfortably in Krestov's armpit. She stretches and says:
"I think I like Dr. Gerhardt Schmitt. We have a seat with sea view. Oops, we don't know yet!" bnc sets up the kind of will-I-be-told-off face teenage girls show when they let out a secret. Since she is a teenage girl, the face suits her perfectly well. She chuckles.

"Mr. Sch ... Dr. Schmitt works for 20kMUS Marine Defense Technologies. His damn glasses look like they cost more dough than any decent job should earn you in two months. You know what that means: He's gonna pay, and we let him pay mucho grande, leidln.
I got you a picture posted on our channel.

"I'd propose we skip the receptionist and head right over to him. And yeah, you seem to be our Prince Charming. Jeez..."

[Jack_Spade]

While the team discussed their next steps, the wind around the marina freshened up. Lampions begann dancing on their lines and dust devils began to dance in the parking lot.

An obviously drunk man helped by his obviously irritated spouse to their SUV. Here and there heavy drops of rain began to fall.

[Volker]

"Waitwaitwait a tick..."
bnc's expression becomes serious. "Something is wrong. This dude is running his Fairlight - a Fairlight, grand dieu, on the public grid. That's like having a machine gun and filing in each bullet separately after you shot because you can't or don't want to afford a proper bullet clip. It just doesn't make any sense. Except...hm"

bnc smiles. "Did I mention that I liked that dude? Let's get inside before the rain starts to get heavy. I don't fancy arriving there all wet. Especially not with Cassanova hanging around."

If no one objects, bnc jumps out of the car and heads for the safety of the marina. Johnson time.

[Sabato Kuroi]

Torrent shrugs

"Well, maybe this guy intends to scare   snoopers away by showing them he's the baddest cat in the digital block.His corp is all about high tech  stuff.Milspec."