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Post by sleepingdragon on Jun 5, 2021 13:48:48 GMT
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Post by sleepingdragon on Jun 5, 2021 13:53:51 GMT
sd: The three of them sat late at night in a stolen car, beneath a large clock that told them it was 09:04:35 am.
In reality, 9 am was still another six and a half hours away, but one of the clocks of the Old Town Clock was set permanently to that time, the instant on December 6th, 1917, when Nova Scotia's capital was devastated by an enormous explosion. Two ships had collided in the harbour below, and one of the vessels was deeply laden with high explosives. The city was flattened, nearly two thousand killed, and thousands more wounded, many blinded by shards of glass from the windows that shattered across the city. So it was that Halifax became a casualty of a war fought on another continent, without an enemy in sight or even taking any action, in the largest explosion in the history of the world at that time.
A hundred and sixty-six years had passed, and the explosions over Hiroshima and Nagasaki had surpassed that of Halifax. The atomic shadow they had cast over the world had made the kind of open wars between great powers that had scarred previous centuries a thing of the past - though they had come close within their own lifetimes.
Now, the great powers of the world now spent as much on containing their internal enemies as external ones, and millions of petty conflicts played out in the shadows. Just such a conflict had brought them here.
In modern battles, the targets and spoils of conflict were often no more than digital ephemera - information and cryptocurrency. And they had been promised a large sum of the latter if they could obtain the former, because in the right, or wrong, hands, information could be as explosive as the SS Mont-Blanc.
There is a supercomputer in the basement of the McKenzie Lyon building on Barrington Street, the hacker named scorp10nst1ng had informed them. They're involved in a secret research project, Project Silver. Whole thing is off the grid - no connections off-site, all software is proprietary and built on-spec. The only way to get to the files is to hack the supercomputer in person. I'll pay you five times as much as the last job if you get me the files. That much nuyen would keep them going for a half a year or so. Whoever and wherever scorp10nst1ng was, he had deep pockets.
The day before, he had sent a runner to them, bringing a small black phone - it didn't appear special to the outside, but the apps on it were of scorp10nst1ng's own programming. These, he said, would help them get access to Project Silver. Now they sat watching the phone impatiently, awaiting the hacker's signal to move. Melquíades: A well-pressed collared shirt. Tight-fit synthdenim jeans. An easy smile and artfully tousled hair. Melquíades, as he was known professionally (Marco to his companions, Agustín to his long-absent friends), watched the phone with slightly glazed eyes. The effects of his preparatory narcotic had kicked in some time ago, and he was now peaking into the moment when endless clarity came most easily. If the signal came at the exact right time, when his body and mind were in tune, he knew things would go smoothly. If it came a little late, he'd start leveling off, maybe getting jittery toward the end of the job, maybe even need a little booster. But he'd still do what needed to be done. He leaned back, eyes fixed on the phone, though he could see his companions in his peripheral. He tapped two fingers on his leg, slowly and rhthmically - tick... tock... Bran: The thin young man in the driving seat sat quietly, his keen green eyes watching the area around them although he didn't seem to move, except one to flick one of his unruly dark curls away from his face. The other two had already noted his extraordinary calmness even in tense situations. They knew little about him apart fom the obvious - his Irish accent was not faked, though his name for their current run - Tomás Finneran - was. He was clearly well read but what had brought him to this place and work, they were still unsure. Amber: Kohaku or rather Amber as generally known looking at the phone as well, wondering what kind of relics are awaiting for her. Her angular eyes and apperance seems to give a clue as to where she is. Her hairs are kept short with dark brown so dark that can sink into them. Her shiny relics are not on display as they are too flashy for such an important job tonight. However her attention is focused on something as if she is distracted by something on. "All these new yens..." She muttered to herself in a Japanese accents. sd: the phone buzzed as scorp10nst1ng messaged them the all clear. Initial sweeps done, you're ready to go. Security here is by a company called HMHSec. Ex-military and special forces, mostly. Local office had a party last night, shouldn't be much of a presence. Msg me when you're inside. Melquíades: Melquí smiled. "You ready, pals?" Even as he said it, he was popping up out of the car. Bran: Bran joined him, checking his harness and slipping his medikit into one of the deep pockets of his jacket. "All ready." Amber: Amber's attention was drawn back to the phone and the reality today, She took the phone with her so they can be kept in touch. "As one can be although no doubt, there will be troubles born ahead." Melquíades: Melquí pulled a long jacket out of the car's trunk, checked the pockets for his gear, and swung it over his shoulder. Bran: Bran checked around, ensuring they were not being watched. "Seems all clear." sd: they left the stolen car behind and then made their way along Sackville Street towards the McKenzie Lyon building. It was very late on a Sunday evening, or perhaps Monday morning more accurately, so almost no one was around except for the occasional homeless person sleeping in the stairwells of abandoned buildings. Canada had hit a hard recession in the 2050s, and the ensuing rounds of IMF loans, American demands, and enforced restructuring hadn't left the country better off. More than a few buildings looked to have been abandoned for many years. A long-closed bookstore was covered in graffiti and slogans, mostly illegible. One had obviously been added more recently as the bright red stood out over the other faded marks. SMASH THE COMPRADORS, YANKS OUT it read. The symbol beside it was in the shape of the traditional hammer and sickle, but in place of the sickle there was instead the trailing, curling wire of a datajack. The letters CPC (MLMG) were beneath this, presumably the initials of some underground organisation.
They turned onto Barrington Street, and across the road they could see their target. The McKenzie Lyon building was a six-storey glass corporate tower, unremarkable among many others except for the blue and gold corporate symbol, and the large amount of space between it and the surrounding buildings. There was a front entrance leading into the lobby, though this was likely to have a guard even this late at night. The maps scorp10nst1ng had sent them also showed there was a large side entrance near a parking lot, which was mostly used to bring in supplies that couldn't easily fit through the rotating glass doors to the lobby. sd: there were surveillance cameras at both entrances, although the camera for the main lobby was actually inside the building itself, while the side entrance camera overlooked the parking lot Bran: Bran stared accoss, noting the cover and shadows they could use to avoid detection. sd: they decided that the safest option was to simply sneak in by the side entrance - it was wiser, they thought, to avoid having to risk talking to anyone unless they had to.
They swung around by the side of the building and spent a few minutes hidden on a side street, watching the pattern of the security camera and working out how the large double doors could be opened. there was an electric panel with numbers on the side, which presumably could be hacked, but rather than trying to guess the password while the camera rotated they decided they'd simply jimmy the physical lock. a light snow began to fall as they crouched and studied.
after picking out the right route, they ghosted through the parking lot. there were four or five cars here, and they weren't of the quality that a suit would own - presumably a few wageslaves were around the building, even this late.
they crept quickly and stealthily around the camera by using a blindspot, then turned and made their way to the double doors. it was a simple matter for Bran to pick the lock, which swung open into a small access stairwell.
their target was in the basement, but the maps scorp10nst1ng had sent them didn't show any routes down - the hacker had guessed that since the supercomputer was a secret that these had been left off the blueprints. they'd need to find their own way down. Bran: "Must be a lift, to take workers and supplies down," Bran muttered. Melquíades: "Well, stairs or elevator? I doubt the elevator takes us to the secret basement," mused Melquí. "Unless it can be hacked?" Amber: Amber was surprised at how smooth this has been so far. "In," She texted back to their hirer. Amber: "Mind you, these supercomputers are heavy." Amber: "They need the lifts anyway to bring down the goodies." Bran: Bran stepped silently over to look through at the elevator doors. "We'd better check them in case." sd: Poggers scorp10nst1ng messaged back. Between his Simpsons avatar and his occasionally bizarre expressions, the hacker apparently was fond of the early 21st century. Amber: Amber frowned at such silly messages but new yens rules Amber: Edit: Not Yen sd: they crept out into a small room. there were four sets of elevators there, a large flatscreen TV that had been turned off on one wall, and opposite that were doors leading to the main lobby. there were security barriers and card scanning machines just past those doors, but of course they had bypassed those already.
they called the elevators to them and stepped inside. there were a series of seven buttons along the wall, indicating floors 1-6, and one button marked B below. next to this latter button, there were small card scanners built into the elevator panel. Amber: Amber looked closely at the card scanner and "B" button. "I might be able to convice the scanner." Bran: "I could hardwire it if not'" Bran said, examining the panel. Bran: "What you reckon Melqui?" he asked. Melquíades: "A hardwire's more likely to be detected on camera, or if someone decides to take a ride. Maybe try Amber's way first." Amber: "Hai!" As she did her know-how on how to fix it"#] sd: Amber pulled out the phone they'd been given and set to hacking the scanner - the software used here wasn't one of the kinds she was used to, and for a while she was concerned she might have completely botched the job, but then she got the hang of it and soon she was able to persuade the scanner that her phone was, in fact, a staff pass. she pressed the basement button and the elevator silently began its descent. Melquíades: "Nice one, Amber. It's like magic, no? Knowing the mind of a computer like it's your mark in a con?" Amber: Amber looked satisficed with her work "Hope we can keep this magic up until the job ends." She looked around, making a note of any cameras if any/ Bran: "Grand work Amber," Bran flashed her a smile. sd: from the time it took for them to descend, they guessed they must have travelled down more than one floor before the elevator came to a halt. it was cold down here, even by the standards of a Canadian February.
when the elevator doors opened, they found themselves in a small lobby with a vending machine and a small door that led out into a corridor that appeared to run to the right and the left. There was a security camera on the opposite wall, directly facing the elevator. Bran: "Feck!" Bran swore under his breath. Melquíades: Melquí signaled to the door and moved quickly. "If we're lucky, they're playing WarSpark instead of looking," he murmured. Bran: "There's always a chance your man is in the jacks," Bran said, exiting rapidly and moving out of sight of the camera. Amber: Amber nodded as she looked around sd: noticing that the camera could simply be physically moved, Amber motioned for the others to hang back. then, with a sudden movement, she burst out of the elevator, darting almost instantly directly underneath the camera - only someone who was watching very intently at that moment would have noticed the blur of motion. then she smoothly reached up to the camera and shifted it a few inches over, allowing the others to easily exit before she put it back in its original position Bran: "That was fierce good Amber," Bran grinned again, his usually rather solemn face lighting up. Melquíades: Melquí nodded his approval as he opened the door and peeked to the right and left. Amber: "Thanks." She replied softly as Amber headed over them, eyes looking out. Bran: Bran moved forward and checked the door for locks and alarms. sd: to the left and right, the corridors curved very gently, seemingly bending back around to some central point that they couldn't yet see. along each corridor were doors leading into a variety of small single offices. strip lights on the walls shed a very gentle blue light through the corridor. none of the offices in their immediate field of view were lit up, although they thought there were still more further along past the bends. Melquíades: Not wanting to dither, Melquí immediately chose the left and began moving forward cautiously. Bran: "Unlocked doors," Bran muttered. "Lucky." sd: they started to make their way down the left-hand corridor. the corridor curved gradually along before ending, some distance ahead of them, in an imposing metal door which had a panel access. there was a large red alarm built into the wall next to that imposing door.
before they could get there, however, they would need to pass by the offices to their left. although the first few they passed were obviously unoccupied, two that were nearer the chamber appeared to be occupied, from the faint lights that could be seen within them. even in the dead of the night on a Sunday, some few wageslaves of the McKenzie Lyon corporation toiled away. sd: the office doors were all of glass - at the dead centre point of the corridor was the ladies' room, which had a solid door to provide a bit of privacy Bran: Bran moved quietly forward, hoping to see in the first room. sd: they crept along the corridor, with Melqui taking point again. Bran, noting the glass doors, tried to look into the first occupied room as they went by. he had time to take note of a harried, tired looking woman in her early 40s sitting at a desk when his foot caught a snag in the carpet. he overbalanced slightly, and as he tried to catch himself his shoulder brushed up against the glass. the sound was only very faint, but here, even the faintest noise was a potential danger. the woman reached up and pulled an earphone from one ear, and her body clenched as if she was about to stand up and look around. sd: realising that he had messed up, Bran was able to clench his body enough that the contact was only very light - the woman took her headphones out and seemingly strained her ears for a moment, but no more than this, and ultimately thought better of getting up. Bran breathed a sigh of relief and silently thanked whatever targets McKenzie Lyon had set that made their workers go into tunnel vision mode so easily Melquíades: Melquí tensed, looking like he was ready to leap into action if the woman moved to the window or door, but when the danger passed he turned back and crept with the others past the offices. Bran: "I thought our time was up, there," Bran whispered, taking a deep breath once they had got past. sd: they went past the second occupied office without risking stopping to look - one brush with fire had been enough. they crept along and got to the very end of the corridor. there was a heavy, imposing metal door there, with the only entry point appearing to be a numerical access panel. this door, very clearly, was alarmed - a large red bulb was set into the wall by the door. Amber: Amber shook her head at that door, "Seems to be your field here Bran." Bran: Bran nodded as he examine the access panel. sd: while Melqui kept lookout, Bran retrieved some technical tools from his gear and used them to cut a very small, precise hole in the access panel. Amber kept her hands on the section he was cutting, to make sure that it didn't suddenly fall and make a noise bouncing on the floor. it was a tricky job, but they were able to get it done and then Bran spent a moment examining the wires. the scheme was non-standard, but he wracked his memories until he remembered a similar arrangement which allowed him to work out how to rearrange the wires to allow them to open the door. Bran: Bran slowly let out the breath he was holding and gave Amber a quick hug of thanks, then stowed the tools away. Amber: Amber sighed with another hint of relieft, looking forwards to see what kind of treasures await inside sd: the rewiring work Bran had done would allow them to slide the big metal door open without worrying about setting the alarm off, so they were able to do this and peered inside.
as soon as the door began to open, the temperature immediately rose from the heat radiating from thousands of processors. there were ventilation ducts around the walls as part of the cooling system, but these could only partially off-set the energy being used.
there were a half dozen long, narrow files running down the length of the room, taking up a distance so long they thought it must go back almost to the chamber where the elevators had taken them down through. from what scorp10nst1ng had told them, at the end there should be some kind of access terminals which would allow them to connect directly to the supercomputer
there was also another big door directly opposite them, presumably leading to the opposite corridor path. off to their left, at their end of the chamber, they noticed there was a security drone, about the size of a human child, armed with a carbonfibre rod. it stood silent and unmoving as a gargoyle. sd: Melqui nudged them as they entered. there was someone in the second file nearest to them - McKenzie Lyon's late working wageslaves were apparently not only confined to their offices sd: having noticed this person, Melqui picked the file furthest away from them to sneak down. they silently passed down towards the access point. they had got three-quarters of the way there when Melqui suddenly paused, having noticed that there was a security camera cunningly concealed in the floor, beneath the stacks of computer processors, which they had been just about to pass. they doubled back and worked out where its blind spot would be from a distance, though spending so much time in this chamber was nerve-wracking.
at the very end of this large room, there was a triangular shaped open chamber. there was a large wall there with about a dozen display monitors and several keyboards. as they approached, they saw that a man was there, with his back turned to them, monitoring the readouts on the display and occasionally taking notes on a tablet he carried. he never touched the keyboards, but they would have to. the only way for them to access the Project Silver files was to manually access the computers here and establish a connection with the phone scorp10nst1ng had provided them. once they did that, he'd said, the apps he'd installed on the phone would do the rest. Bran: Bran took a hypodermic out of his medikit, and indicated they could creep up on the man at the display. Amber: Amber stood back, keeping an eye out if anything goes wrong sd: Melqui took the needle Bran had proferred and silently advanced on the man, ready to inject it into him with a sudden movement. unluckily, at the precise moment Melqui was preparing to pounce, the man stood, his legs giving a slight tremble in the universal language indicating a man that needed to piss, and he turned.
"JESUS CHRIST!" the man screamed as Melqui leapt onto him. the potent morphine injection did its job and rapidly put the man out, but in response to his shout a woman in the second file called out "Jason? Are you alright?" Melquíades: Thinking quickly, Melquí did his best to mimic the man's voice. "These readouts! Come check it out, the server..." He signaled to Amber, who quickly underscored his point by producing some worrying-sounding computer noises. Bran: Bran quietly drew out another hypodermic and crept forward behind the woman. Amber: Amber went after Bran, attempting to use her faint memory of "self-defence" training against the woman. At best, sliently her more forcefully if needed sd: the woman was taken in by Melqui's ventriloquism for a while, and she began to move forward, but then she seemed to doubt herself. "You're not..." she said, and began to turn, but at that moment Amber reached out and grabbed her around the mouth while Bran sank the hypodermic into her. she was too surprised to even try to bite, and Amber lowered her carefully to the ground. Bran: "I thought we were fecking banjaxed there!" Bran breathed. "Now it's your moment Amber." sd: Amber sat down at the terminal. with the two wageslaves subdued, there wasn't much pressure and she was very rapidly able to establish a connection to the phone.
That was fast scorp10nst1ng messaged as the files began to transfer across. When this done, I'll send nuyen while you're leaving. Not yet. Don't want to break cnxion til files thru. Don't try to look. Bran: "What do you think is in these files?" Bran asked, as they waited. Amber: Amber looked at the odd glimmer of the screen. "Could be anything. Demons, gods, epsecially rhese pksyers ongings" Melquíades: Melquí had busied himself moving the two unconscious bodies to a well-concealed position. "Let us know when you're ready, amiga." Melquíades: *edit: "when they're ready" Bran: "Maybe Psyker AI?" Bran suggested. sd: the progress bar ticked up quickly, if erratically. 95%...97%...93%...99%...completed. It was time to move. Amber: Amber stared at Bran for a moment, almost a second too long, almost thinking about this strange idea. "Done!" She sighed with a relief. Bran: "Let's go then," Bran patted his pockets making sure he had everything. Amber: Amber quickly wiped the keyboard with wipes to clean any fingerprints just in case Amber: before leaving the temrials. sd: they sneaked quickly back down the corridor from which they had come. the woman Bran had nearly disturbed before rubbed at her face as they went by, and seemingly decided to get up to go to the toilet. by the time she had actually massaged her weary bones into rising and leaving the room, though, they had already burst past and reached the elevator room. As Amber pressed the button to call the elevator, she pulled the phone out to check on the progress of the transfer of their nuyen, to find one message that had come through seconds before. Shit.
Before she had time to message back, they heard a sudden noise. The alarm had been activated. When Amber looked back at the phone there was a connection failed message and the app that was transferring their pay had crashed. Melquíades: Melquí's expression hardened. "Time to get the hell out of here." Bran: Bran looked meaningfully at the camera. "We may find that difficult." Amber: Amber swore in Japanese before looking at the others, "We must try at leas" sd: the camera was less of a problem, they soon realised, than the elevator - as soon as the alarm had rung, the buttons had lit up and a shutdown sequence had begun. it might be possible to, very rapidly, hack or hardwire the thing, but it they failed then they were in deep shit sd: Melqui channelled a rapid burst of psychic energy, allowing him to rip off part of the panel and allow Bran direct access to the elevator's wiring. he overrode the shutdown, though the wires shocked him as he worked. he shook this off, but perhaps not as well as he'd have hoped - when the elevator went up, rather than taking them to their intended destination on floor 1, they instead went careening upwards and ended up in the lobby of floor 3. sd: they exited the lobby and ended up on a large open plan floor space. They looked around, and when Bran glanced out the windows overlooking the main entrance he saw that a dark car with some kind of insignia that hadn't been there previously was already parked there. had the security team arrived so quickly? it was too dark to actually read the text. Bran: "That's not a wage-slave's car," Bran said, pointing it out to the others. Amber: "Very odd." As she looks around to find a good climing route sd: Amber flipped out the phone to check over the maps scorp10nst1ng had sent them...then her blood ran cold. The files were missing. Not only that, but when she checked the messaging app, the entire messaging history had been deleted, and indicated that no such account as scorp10nst1ng existed.
she had to push this to the side and use her memory alone, but then she remembered there was a spot on the north face of the building that overlooked a nearby low building - it wouldn't be much of a drop from there, and then they could easily clamber down into the streets. as long as they could break the window, their escape shouldn't be difficult. Bran: "What the feck is going on/" Bran panted as they rushed after Amber. "Has that gombeen screwed us?" Amber: Amber glared at the phone with fury. "I will find that "gombeen" again and tear it apart personally." Melquíades: "Right. But we need to get out of here first," said Melquí, moving quickly in the direction Amber indicated. Bran: When they reached the window, Bran pulled a tube of paste and a rod out of his utility belt. Standing on a chair he squeezed the paste around the window, then held the rod with both hands as he directed it at the paste. Melquíades: Meanwhile, Melquí was readying his climbing gear. Bran: As he reached the end of the line of paste, Bran pushed the window and the glass fell leaving a clean gap. sd: the thermite rod made quick work of the glass, cutting an even hole for them to escape through. snow floated through into the office as they clambered out, lowered themselves below with Melqui's climbing gear, across the roofs, and then back down into the street. they quickly made their way into the concealing darkness of the nearby St. Paul's Cemetery - though their hearts were beating fast, their brains reassured them that the security team would presumably head below, where the alarms had sounded, and check that their precious and expensive supercomputer hadn't been damaged first before sending out a search party. they had got their hands on the Project Silver files, but their nuyen had eluded their grasp. they would need to retreat and plan their next move.
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Post by sleepingdragon on Jun 12, 2021 14:48:17 GMT
sd: after escaping from the McKenzie Lyon building, the trio regrouped and made their way back to where Bran had parked his sportster and drove off into the late night. As Amber checked her phone, it became clear that scorp10nst1ng had cut off every possible way they could contact him. His profiles were gone without a trace, and the one email address Amber had managed to find bounced back an undeliverable email receipt. Bran AKA Tomas Finneran: Bran angrily muttered something in a strange language when Amber revealed this. Amber: Amber drowned with annoyance as she looks at the phone. "Now I would like to know what file that is we are stealing." Bran AKA Tomas Finneran: "We might as well have taken a look," Bran said frowning, Bran AKA Tomas Finneran: The tyres on the green roadster squealed as he took a corner fast, twisting the steering wheel angrily. Amber: Amber looked around and said, "If we do this next time, we at very leas try to see what we are taking" She told herself about this. sd: given their uncertainty about scorp10nst1ng's motives and the possibility that the police would be after them, rather than heading back to the cheap hotel where they'd been staying, they instead went to crash with a contact of Melqui's, who he hadn't spoken to since before scorp10nst1ng hired them.
as it happened, Melqui knew a few people whose hours were irregular enough that a call after 4 am wasn't considered unusual, so they were able to drive out into the snowy night and retreated to a small house in Enfield on the outskirts of Halifax, arriving near to 5 in the morning. It had continued to snow the entire time, and with any luck the inclement weather would hinder anyone trying to find them. Bran AKA Tomas Finneran: Bran pulled off the road and into the drive. "This snow will help us, as long as it doesn't blizzard," he said, pulling his long jacket around him as they left the car. sd: Melqui's friend had a garage where they were able to put their car - regardless of the precautions they'd taken, they thought it was best to get that particular vehicle off the road.
they ordered breakfast through an app and after a tired looking delivery driver dropped off their food they retreated to a messy kitchen to eat and plot their next move. Before they could get far into the particulars, however, Amber noticed she'd received an email, sent to a temporary email address which she had set up specifically for these jobs and which she'd used for no other purpose. Its subject line was Stung by a Scorpion? and its sender was named PCross. Amber: Amber looked at the email address and was surprised to see the email. Maybe someone else know the same every so temprory employuer of ytheir. She opened the email sd: To the trespassers at McKenzie Lyon,
If you've been stung by a scorpion and want answers, you should come to meet me at the Capital Group Hotel at 12:00 today. I'll be alone - I only want to talk to you. I think we have a common enemy.
Peter Cross - Haven, Mumford and Haven Security Bran AKA Tomas Finneran: "You OK Amber?" Bran asked, noting her expression. Amber: Amber's eyes risen in surprise once she read the email, "Well, it looks like someone from Heaven, Mumford and Haven Security got in touch with us. Asking to meet us at Capital Group Hotel at 12 today. This "Peter Cross" seems to think that we have a common energy Bran AKA Tomas Finneran: "That shitehawk Scorpion?" asked Bran. Melquíades: "Tempting," said Melquí, mouth half full. "Of course, we don't know if they're in league. Or if they're both trying to screw us." Amber: Amber;s eyes narrowed, "Let assume everyone will screw us anyway. More safer that way" Amber: Amber as a side job decided to look more into this Peter Cross Bran AKA Tomas Finneran: "If he's in security, we could be useful to them. Scorpion got his info from someone." Bran said, helping himself to more food. For a thin man he seemed to have a limitless capacity. Amber: Amber nodded, "And we might actually know what we are stealing files for in the end. Beside, we can always takes preaucations if needed" sd: it took Amber very little time to find several social media profiles belonging to a Peter Cross - he was the Head of Marketing for Haven, Mumford & Haven Security, reporting in to one of the directors, George Haven. From his pictures, Cross appeared to be in his late 40s and had graduated from McGill Business School in 2059. He'd worked in senior roles at a string of megacorps, most notably the entertainment megaconglomerate Redcarpet, before joining HMHSec in 2081. He had a thin face and short black hair, and wore a grey business suit in his profile picture. He was attempting to smile and look casual, but it didn't reach his eyes. Bran AKA Tomas Finneran: "Course he could always actually BE yer man Scorpion, the gombeen," Bran suggested, with a quirk of his brows. Melquíades: "He's got the look of the kind of guy I used to know who would do the real vile shit without hesitation," said Melquí as he examined the picture. "Suppose corps and cartels both get use out of men like that. Still, can't just ignore this, can we?" Bran AKA Tomas Finneran: "He's a cold fellah, right enough." Bran AKA Tomas Finneran: Bran sighed. "No." Melquíades: "Well then, we can visit this hotel. But we'll be ready." Amber: "Hai, at least we should make sure that we can fend for oursleves if it go hot" Bran AKA Tomas Finneran: "Should be less risk in a public place like a hotel but yes," Bran said. sd: after having a few hours of rest, they headed back out - Melqui's friend lent them a car so they wouldn't need to take the sportster out of the garage, although it drove frustratingly slowly for Bran's taste. they had fortunately avoided the heavy Monday traffic, although some streets hadn't yet been cleared after the snow - since arriving in Halifax, they had all heard grumblings from Halagonians about the useless snowplow contractors the city had hired several years before, who they couldn't fire yet without having to pay a huge fee that would effectively triple the costs of clearing the streets for the next few years.
after taking a few detours, they reached the waterfront and parked the borrowed car before making their way along to the hotel. it was a metal and glass building seven storeys high. Though it attempted to appear upmarket and contemporary, its signs and frontage were badly weathered and it had likely been several decades since the building had been properly renovated. Bran AKA Tomas Finneran: Bran eyed the run-down hotel with distaste. "That's a cheery place. You'd expect a high and mighty Head of Marketing to frequent a better class of extablishment. " Amber: Amber eyed the surroundings, maybe to try to find that car they spotted while fleeing from the building Melquíades: Melquí had a relaxed demeanor, and his clothes were newly pressed. He didn't say anything, just walked confidently toward the entrance. sd: there was no sign of the HMHSec car they'd spotted the night before - of course it was entirely possible Cross may have just walked here, depending on where he'd been before this meeting.
they entered a brightly lit bar which was playing Barrett's Privateers, a song they had probably heard seven times a day since arriving in Nova Scotia, very loudly over some ancient speakers. there was hardly anyone in the bar, just a few holidaying families eating lunch, and one lone man sitting in a booth, reading something on a tablet and drinking a soykaf. They recognised this was Cross from his profile picture, and he looked up at them with recognition when they entered. Presumably he had reviewed at least some of the security footage from the night before. Bran AKA Tomas Finneran: Bran looked to the others, then set off towards Cross. He kept a careful watch in case this was some kind of ambush though it seemed pretty unlikely in this setting. Melquíades: Melquí sauntered up to the bar and ordered himself a coffee before heading over to Cross with the others. sd: "Good afternoon," Cross said quietly when they came over to him. He had on dark grey business suit, and had some kind of metal briefcase which he picked up carefully when the party advanced. "We'll speak up in the room I've rented, it's easier. The elevator is around that corner there." Cross stood up and told the barman to charge the party's tabs to his account for the afternoon, then made for the elevator. Bran AKA Tomas Finneran: "Hang on a minute!" Bran went over to the barman and spoke to him for a moment, then returned with a big smile on his face. Melquíades: "Keep an eye on that briefcase," murmured Melquí when Cross wasn't close. Bran AKA Tomas Finneran: Bran nodded. He eyed the briefcase, considering what it might contain and why Cross would handle it so carefully. sd: once they'd gathered their drinks, Cross pressed the button to summon the elevator, which came down noisily with a ding to announce that it had reached their floor. He stepped inside and held the button to keep it open while they entered, then pressed the button for the top floor.
"I hope you managed to catch a bit of sleep after your work last night," Cross said coolly once the elevator began its ascent. There was no hint of malice in his voice. Bran AKA Tomas Finneran: "Sleep's never a problem," Bran said, holding his cup of tea carefully with the saucer on top of it. Melquíades: "Never a problem? Lucky man. Gotta say, I was a bit restless last night," said Melquí. sd: "We're grateful that you didn't kill anyone, although the two you injected will have some difficult shifts trying to work through that this week I suspect," Cross said. The elevator reached the top floor and he stepped out and into a short hallway. These doors relied on an electronic locking system, so Cross was able to enter by simply waving his tablet at the scanner on the door. the room had a single bed, a little table, and a large TV mounted on the wall. "Prima, turn on the TV and connect it to the tablet," Cross said to the automated assistant.
"Sure thing!" said an impossibly cheery electronic woman's voice, and the TV switched on and began connecting. Bran AKA Tomas Finneran: Bran thought of a clever response but held his tongue. Better not to give too much away to this man. Amber: Amber nodded at the mention at the fact of no one was actually killed. Melquíades: Melquí likewise didn't speak yet, though he had his questions. sd: as the TV connected, Cross swiped at his tablet for a few seconds and opened some kind of video conferencing app which he put in fullscreen mode just as it began displaying on the TV. "My boss wants to speak to you," Cross said. "He sent me on my own because we wanted it to be clear we don't want conflict with you, regardless of what you did last night. You have, in all likelihood, been used as a catspaw. This man Scorpion left some obvious security holes in the app that was supposed to send you your money, which is how I got your email." Bran AKA Tomas Finneran: Bran shook his head in disbelief. "Fecking bastard set us up." Amber: Amber replied, "I see. Well, I am still itching for revenge persoanlly" Melquíades: "Your boss seems like a reasonable guy. We'll listen." sd: "He'd hoped to get you in that mood," Cross said to Amber. "I'll connect him now."
After a few seconds, a man's face appeared on the TV - he was in some kind of corporate office with a glass window, which, from the position of the sun and the amount of light, must have been somewhere on the west coast of North America. The executive was in his early 50s, with a lined face, dark eyes and greying hair. His nose looked like it had been broken at some point in his youth.
"Good morning," he said when his audio had connected. Cross pulled out a small stand from a drawer and put the tablet atop it on the table, so the party could gather around and speak into it easily. "I'm George Haven, I'm a director of HMH - the second H specifically. I'll be direct with you. I have a personal score to settle with the man you know as Scorpion Sting, and this is far more important to me than the damage you caused last night. I could use a team of shadowrunners to do some work with me, and after last night's fiasco I can't imagine you're very pleased with your former employer either." Bran AKA Tomas Finneran: "You could say that," Bran said with a wry smile. "What kind of work would that be?" Amber: Amber stared at this man's face, "It would be nice to ruin our former employer's day even more." She replied. sd: "The kind of work would be killing Scorpion Sting, but I suspect you'll need to do a few other jobs first before you get to that," said Haven. "Or if you want to earn a big bonus, capturing him and keeping him alive so that I can kill him. I thought I'd done all my killing when I was younger, but maybe my last kill won't end up being some Chicom in Manila." Melquíades: "Mind sharing how that dude got you so mad, amigo?" Bran AKA Tomas Finneran: Bran eyed the man who looked like he'd seen some action earlier in his life. He had thought fighter, boxer... but maybe soldier? He awaited the answer with interest. sd: Haven nodded grimly to Melqui, and as he did they noticed that his right eye suddenly went red - the cybernetic work was clearly extremely expensive as there was otherwise absolutely nothing to indicate that eye wasn't natural. "I've been hunting Scorpion Sting for the last year," said Haven. "Because of this." He clicked a mouse, and a video file began to play, with a date stamp indicating the footage had been taken at 11 pm on April 3rd, 2083. sd: the video was footage from some kind of stark white building, showing an elevator in a lobby. two men in dark suits stepped out of the elevator. one of them had a quite muscular build, and he was speaking to the other as they exited the elevator - unfortunately there was no audio in the footage so they couldn't tell what was being said. it didn't continue for long regardless - as soon as the two stepped out of the elevator, the bigger man held up a hand and motioned for silence.
there was a blur of movement, then suddenly a large masked man burst out from towards the rear of the shot and came rushing at the two suits with a metal baseball bat. his broad swing struck the smaller suit on the head, sending him crumpling to the ground in a pool of blood while also driving the bigger man back to the edge of the shot. Once he had a moment to recover, however, the muscular man soon took control - clearly he had extensive combat training. He dodged a second bat swing, then lashed out with a kick that took his attacker's legs out from under him. as the masked man tried to rise, he took a barrage of hard punches to the head and collapsed.
The muscular man took a breath and knelt by the fallen suit. He wiped away some blood and was about to administer more first aid when he stiffened and turned slowly to face something that was in the direction of the camera.
the big man put his hands up, and began to speak. They saw the words please don't... form on his lips before another figure entered the shot, blocking the view of the man's lips. The new figure was a white man in dark clothing, with messy brown hair and an agile build. The direction of the camera meant they could only see his back and hands, one of which held a pistol pointed at the muscular suit. sd: the figure stood still as if listening to something the big man was saying, but after about sixty seconds he obviously decided he didn't like what he was hearing. He leaned in, back still to the camera, and shot the muscular man in the head from very close range. The suit crumpled, then for good measure the gunman leaned in and shot him twice more in the head at point blank range. Coldly, he then did the same to the other suit who'd already been knocked out earlier.
the gunman then held up his hand to someone off camera, as if indicating they should stay back, and he slowly backed away without ever turning to face the camera. a few seconds after he left the shot, the footage cut out. Bran AKA Tomas Finneran: Bran leaned forward, wondering who these people were. "What happened there?" he asked. sd: "This footage was from a secret facility in Montana, where we were providing security for researchers working on behalf of the US military," Haven said. His cybernetic eye glowed hot red. "The man with the gun in that footage was, I believe, our good friend Scorpion Sting. And the one he shot while he was trying to surrender was my brother Marcus, one of the founders of our company, who had come into his office unexpectedly with an associate. His computer was one of several that were hacked that night. Some very sensitive and confidential files were stolen, both research files and relating to our company." Bran AKA Tomas Finneran: Bran looked questioningly at Haven. "I have to say your security is shite. They got inside to kill your brother - and presumably knew where he would be. But what leads you to believe he is this Scorpionsting? Amber: Amber watched the video and replied, "Your desire for revenge is suddenly more understandable." She added afterward Bran AKA Tomas Finneran: edit* They got inside to pinch the files, & presumably knew all about them. sd: "Any security can be cracked by a skilled enough team, and this Scorpion Sting is by all accounts a very skilled hacker," Haven said. "I'll get into why I think - know - that the gunman is him. After this raid on the facility in Montana, I've been trying to find him. I believe he's been stealing confidential military information recently - I'm aware of three other raids, other than yours last night and the one on that camera, hitting bases in the US, Canada, and in Europe, over the last year. It took me until winter to get any kind of a good lead, but then I found one." Haven then began playing another video. Amber: "But as you managed to spot some security holes in his app so, prehaps he is not that skilled after all." Amber commented Bran AKA Tomas Finneran: "So it's not personal on the part of Scorpionsting then," Bran said, half to himself. "I had wondered if he targeted your company for some reason, but it seems he's been spreading the love around." sd: this footage was in a dark room, and the datestamp read 1:17 am, on November 21st, 2083. there were two men in the room. they recognised that Haven was one, and a black man in his early 20s with faded bruises on his face, who was shackled to a table. Haven asked him sharp questions about the night his brother had died - it soon became clear to them that this man he was interrogating was, in fact, the masked bat-wielding figure who Marcus Haven had managed to disarm and knock out prior to being shot. Haven referred to him by the name DeAndre Miller, to which the man replied that he was called Bricks.
the man was, quite clearly, a shadowrunner. Bricks said he wasn't there when Scorp, as he names him, hired them for the Montana job - this was handled through their fixer in Seattle. He only met them in person the night before the job, when they were already on-site in Montana. The few times that he spoke, Bricks had the impression he was from the southern US.
He paid them well for the Montana run, and then left while Bricks and his group went back to Seattle. About six weeks later, Scorp hired them for another job, raiding a drug lab belonging to a gang in Seattle called the Talons.
They managed to get inside and past the initial layer of security, with Scorp hacking in remotely, but then he tripped something and the Talons came down on them hard. In the ensuing firefight, only Bricks escaped, and Scorp deleted all the accounts that might have been able to be used to track him down. Bricks was certain that he betrayed them deliberately - the Talons' cybersecurity was nothing compared to what they saw on the Montana run, which Scorp easily defeated.
Haven pressed Bricks heavily on Scorp's identity. Bricks said he was a short, mousy guy who didn't seem to brush his hair, and he thought the clothes he turned up in were ones he'd worn for at least three days. He had blue eyes and some marks at the bridge of his nose, which Bricks thought probably indicated he'd once had a nose piercing he didn't wear anymore.
After some prodding, Bricks remembered that on the morning of the Montana run, their leader, Acid, sent him in to check on Scorp, and Bricks got near enough to notice him checking on what seemed to be a passport. When Scorp realised Bricks was there he slid it away, but not before Bricks got a faint look on it. It had some kind of Eastern European name on it and he thought he saw a face that looked like Scorp. Haven then spent some time showing Bricks pictures of different passports, before Bricks recognises that it was the Polish passport. After some pressing, Bricks replied that he thought the name was 'Slus-something - I don't fucking know man, I only speak English!' Bran AKA Tomas Finneran: "Strange - Polish passport and name with a southern states accent..." Bran mused. sd: "You're a shadowrunner, have you never heard of a fake passport?" Haven sounded concerned. "It was enough for a lead. Eventually - by which I mean two weeks ago - I uncovered a passport in the name of Grzegorz Slusarski. One of a number of false passports I've found with the same man's picture in it, and other hallmarks of forgery." Melquíades: "So he has a pattern of turning on crews," mused Melquí. "Dude sounds slippery though. You have anything beyond traces? Something to locate him?" Bran AKA Tomas Finneran: "The kind of forgery that could get a person caught out," Bran said, with some asperity. "Unless Scorp has an ear for languages." sd: "Most of the passports I've found are from English speaking nations, but not all, and I have reason to think he speaks - at a minimum - English, French, Dutch, Polish, Spanish, Mandarin, and Arabic." Haven sighs. "I had to bribe many, many people to get access to the databases where I got this information, but it was worth it." Some image files popped up on screen. All showed images of the same man - with unkempt brown hair, blue eyes, and fading marks on the bridge of his nose. Grzegorz Slusarski, of Poland. Peter North, of the United States of America. Herman van Dirk, of the Netherlands. Jonathan Jones, of Canada. Callum Sirota, of England. Andre Castellanos, of Mexico. The dates of birth on each were different, though all indicated he was in his early to mid 30s, which seemed to be correct from the photos. Bran AKA Tomas Finneran: "Many aliases but always the same face," Bran mused. "He doesn't try to disguise himself." Amber: "Sound like he is very confident of himself." Amber replied, "At least we now know what he looks like." sd: "I suspect he thinks he doesn't need to. He betrayed Miller and his crew, the way he betrayed you - I think he intended you to all be killed by our security team last night. Did you notice how our team were very quick to respond after the alarm went? That's because there was another incident, on the same street, at another building where we provide security. It happened within five minutes of you entering our building. Some thugs smashed a bunch of windows in an extremely unsubtle manner. They ran and the alarm going off in the McKenzie Lyon building meant our men had more pressing business than chasing them, but I suspect that them hitting another site of ours, so close to McKenzie Lyon, wasn't a coincidence. Nor was the app that was meant to pay you having such large security flaws a coincidence. They only allowed us to find you and to set off an alarm - they didn't give us anything about Scorpion Sting, other than that alias, which he's already deleted all accounts relating to." Bran AKA Tomas Finneran: "Have you any idea where he is now?" Bran asked. "The more intel the better." Melquí: Melquí nodded. "We have as much reason as you to want to deal with this 'Scorpion'. But he sounds tricky enough that we'd need any edges we can get." sd: "I do, yes, but we'll come to that." Haven said to Bran. "Incidentally, have any of you ever expressed opinions of a..." Haven's eye glowed red again and he spoke with some disgust, "socialist variety? I only ask because after the raid last night, I've become aware of some posts in clandestine online spaces claiming to be from the Halifax branch of the proscribed terrorist group, Anti-Fascist Action, claiming responsibility. I suspect this branch doesn't actually exist, and the poster is actually Scorpion Sting attempting to get you in hot water under the Suppression of Communism Act, but according to this...hmm yes." Haven quoted, "'Three Halifax Antifa comrades have successfully carried out important sabotage against the imperialist war machine.' It continues in this vein for some time, 'smash fascism and corporate rule', etc, etc, etc." Bran AKA Tomas Finneran: Bran shook his head. "Not us. More of Scorpions trouble-making it would seem." He didn't actually answer the question about socialist opinions. Melquí: "Never had much use for politics myself, though I gotta say, that description makes us sound way more heroic." Amber: Amber shook her head as well sd: "Yes, that's usually the intention of leftist propaganda. Anyhow. As for where Scorpion Sting is, well, most of those passports are no longer in use, but a few of them are, and from those I've found a number of stamps to indicate airports he's visited. He's been all over the world - Germany, France, England, Russia, the Philippines, South Africa, Australia, Japan, even China once - but there's one airport he's gone to more than any other, six times at least in the last two years. The most recent of these was ten days ago. I'm proposing to send you to that city. You'll probably need to ingratiate yourself into the underworld there but I have no objection with helping you do that and you can of course keep any money you make while you're doing so. I have no financial interest here - my intention is to kill the man who killed my brother." Bran AKA Tomas Finneran: "So we go undercover to hunt him. Which city is that?" Bran asked. sd: Haven tapped at his computer for a moment and brought up an image file. It had a green stamp indicating entrance at an airport - the lettering was in Arabic but Haven had included a translation:
Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Mohammad bin Salman Memorial Airport - NEOM, Islamic Kingdom of Saudi Arabia - 03 February 2084 sd: "You needn't worry if you don't speak Arabic, I've been to NEOM and more people there use English than the actual language of Saudi Arabia," said Haven. "It's a little slice of the West in Saudi. Some information in a moment..." he paused and sent a file.
sd: The great city of NEOM (نيوم ), located in northwest Saudi Arabia, was initially conceived in the late 2010s by the visionary Mohammed bin Salman, Crown Prince and later King of Saudi Arabia, prior to his assassination by a terrorist group.
Financed by a $500bn USD (2017) investment from the Kingdom's sovereign wealth fund, NEOM was planned as a 'smart city', powered fully by renewable energy and making extensive use of robots and the most cutting edge AI technology.
A city for the 21st century, NEOM requires no cars or streets, but instead is connected by THE LINE, a revolutionary three-layered ultra-high speed rail track running 170 km (105 miles), enabling the entire city to be traversed in only 20 minutes.
NEOM's judicial system, government, and labour and tax laws are part of a special zone separate from the rest of the laws of Saudi Arabia. Its ultra business-friendly, competitive tax codes and labour regulations are extremely attractive to entrepreneurs, investors and wealth creators from across the globe.
Since its foundation, NEOM has grown to be a city of 5 million people, enough to rival the capital of Riyadh. Perfectly situated between East and West, NEOM has been the site of many conferences and treaties, most notably the Sino-American Pact that ended the Second Cold War. It is a major international finance hub, and a central site for Psionisis research and energy generation around the world. Bran AKA Tomas Finneran: Bran's eyebrows shot up. "Interesting... " Melquí: Melquí gave a half-smile. "Suppose I've always wanted to ride The Line." Amber: Amber sniffed at this grand claim of "The Line". Nothing can possibly compares to the trains back home in Japan. "Sound like an insane place to go to. I am up for it." sd: "Well, the Line is now the New Line. There was an accident at a Psionisis plant several years ago that meant they had to detour around some of the original location, and also some of the spots by the coast are now...well, underwater. I'll send a map." Bran AKA Tomas Finneran: Bran studied the map with interest, then looked at Haven. "This will be an expensive exercise for us - the travel, new documents and personas as the damned Scorpion knows us as we are, and expenses. We'll need that up front. And the job itself of course..." sd: "Naturally. I'll be paying for all the necessary expenses. When I discovered that Scorpion Sting was regularly travelling to NEOM, I sent an associate of mine, who previously lived in NEOM and has some familiarity with the criminal world there, to set up a base. It's not much, just a small apartment at the moment - not Lineside, I fear, those are very difficult to get your hands on - but it will be a place for you to stay and build up links. He can be your fixer and get you jobs. I suspect you'll have to wait a few months before we get news of him being in the city again, and until then you're free to work on your own jobs and keep all the money. Meanwhile, I'll keep digging. We need to be careful, because I suspect he has more passports that I don't know about so I might not get warned when he's in the city again. I've also no idea who he's met there or what he does, but it must be important for him to keep returning." Bran AKA Tomas Finneran: "And something to do with all sensitive data he's been pinching?" Bran asked. Melquí: "NEOM's at the crossroads of a lot of things. Too many reasons he could be there to count," said Melquí. sd: "In all likelihood. I can't give you full details on the data, in part because I don't know entirely myself, however I can give you some idea as to what Project Silver is in very broad terms, because it might prove useful in catching this bastard. McKenzie Lyon were hired by the US military - well, actually they were hired by a subcontractor of a subcontractor of the US military - to analyse and research four things using their supercomputer. Brain pattern activities of psykers and burnt out psykers, drone combat subroutine optimisation, advanced decryption algorithms, and cybernetic augmentation optimisation. I suspect he's only interested in some of that, but stole the lot so that we couldn't work out exactly what he was after." sd: "I should also mention, because it may prove useful to you, that I have been searching very carefully for hackers from the southern US in their early 30s who may meet Scorpion Sting's description, and I found an image of a young man in the 2070s who I believe is him, and even has what I think is his real name, as well as some details of his past." Melquí: "More to go on than we had. And with that information, perhaps Amber can find more." Amber: "Something to keep an eye and ear our for anyrate." sd: Haven sent them a file, which had a picture of a young man in his early 20s sitting at a computer, though he was faced away from it and towards the camera. It certainly could be the same person as the gunman, though it was hard to be certain. They noticed that the man had several Simpsons posters on his wall, including one depicting Herman Herman, the same character whose avatar scorp10nst1ng had used. The file was a news article from 2078, indicating that a 'troubled young man' named Jordan Aragon had gone missing, and the Santa Fe police were looking for information. Aragon had apparently been displaying erratic behaviour since his late teens, having never got past the death of his father, a US soldier, in the 2068 fighting between Israel, Iran, and the allies of each power that had ended the Second Cold War - and very nearly led to full nuclear war. He had been a promising computer engineering student, but was expelled - and narrowly avoided serious jail time - for attempting to hack the computer of a professor he disliked to alter his records in an attempt to get him fired. sd: "The police found some signs to indicate that Aragon committed suicide a few weeks after this article, but I think he faked it so he could go undercover. It's not uncommon for career criminals to do something like that." Bran AKA Tomas Finneran: "That all certainly fits what we know of him now," Bran said, looking at the picture with interest. Melquí: "Can't be too many students in the 2070s that into a show from... what, the 2020s? Seems likely to be our guy." sd: "It seems probable. He had travelled a lot as a young man with his father, there were extended tours in Poland and the Netherlands which would explain our young friend's linguistic talents. His school records were mysteriously deleted but I sent some people to Santa Fe to ask his former teachers, he was apparently very skilled at languages but was extremely vindictive. Apparently his attempted hack on his disliked professor was to plant a link on the computer which, after a certain period of time, would download child pornography onto the hard drive. Since it was a download link and not any actual files, it did not strictly count as possession, or Aragon would probably still be in jail and my brother would still be alive." Melquí: "Impressive work, Mr. Haven. I gotta ask though - why us? You seem to have the resources that you could a team with more... reputation on this job." sd: "Because I can't rely on finding a team that Aragon might not be able to flip. You, on the other hand, have almost as much reason to hate him as I do. I believe in the power of hatred." Amber: "He will pay in the end..." Amber replied simply Melquí: Melquí smiled at that. "One thing we can all know to be real, whatever your creed." He subconsciously reached a hand to his chest, where tattoos were hidden beneath his dress shirt. Bran AKA Tomas Finneran: Bran nodded without speaking, but he was thinking hard as he looked at the face of the damaged man who they were being sent out to kill.
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Post by sleepingdragon on Jun 19, 2021 17:16:38 GMT
sd: after accepting Haven's offer, they prepared for an unexpected trip to the Arabian peninsula. Haven bought the tickets they'd need to travel to Mohammed bin Salman Airport, but flights to NEOM were infrequent, so they had to wait a few days. their final days in Halifax had almost continuous snowfall, so there was little for them to do but attempt some crash research on their destination or take a few quick Arabic lessons online, though these wouldn't do for much other than the most basic phrases.
they were at last able to set out on 17 February 2084, with Cross arranging to send them a driver to take them to Stanfield Airport. they brought their more innocuous pieces of equipment with them, but their larger or more dangerous gear would have to wait - Haven paid to have them sent to the Arabian Gulf on a ship, but it wouldn't arrive until at least a week after they did.
Stanfield was a quite small, comfortable airport, which Amber alone of them had passed through before. since the end of the Second Cold War and the mutation bomb attack on New York, security on planes had been ramped up heavily, even though that attack had had nothing to do with airports. it therefore took them several hours before they could finally board their flight.
not only were there no direct flights from Halifax to NEOM, there were no flights heading to Saudi Arabia that didn't force them to detour via Toronto first to pick up sufficient passengers. they then took a connecting flight through London Heathrow, before, at long last, setting their sights for NEOM itself. with multiple boarding and take-off procedures and a brief period in Heathrow before they could get on the last leg of their journey, the whole ordeal took an entire day. their bodies ached by the time they finally began their descent towards Saudi Arabia.
Bran AKA Tomas Finneran: Bran had travelled to Halifax by ship and found the long flights both boring and stressful, but he had managed to force himself to sleep for much of it.
sd: Haven had told them that he'd got them a flat at the al-Muntasser building in the Primazon.com district. this was currently being occupied by a businessman of Haven's acquaintance, Leo Ziegler, who would serve as their fixer for at least a while until they got their bearings in the city. he had sent them pictures of Leo so they would recognise him at the airport - he was a very short, squat man with a dark complexion. the three middle fingers on his right hand had been cut short and the tips replaced with some kind of cybernetics, though exactly what this was for they didn't know.
once they'd touched down, they pulled out their phones and got online. the Internet was censored quite heavily in NEOM, though not quite as stringently as elsewhere in Saudi. only permanent residents of the city had easy access to sites elsewhere in the world - the ordinary people only had access to walled areas of cyberspace, mostly local intranets managed by the large megacorp, lgrthm.
as they connected, they each received a message which came from the number Haven had given them for Leo. it had been sent about an hour ago, but of course hadn't actually come through until now.
I can't meet you at the airport. Little complication has come up, think you should be able to handle it. Need to make sure I'm not being followed so I'm heading to al-Tayir cafe in Primazon district. Here's the location - come and meet me there - LZ.
Bran AKA Tomas Finneran: Bran frowned at this. "Little complication could mean big trouble..."
Melquíades: "When do these sorts of jobs ever not have complications," said Melquí, not seeming too bothered. "But yes, we should keep an eye out."
Amber: Amber managed to stretch her arms properly once they arrived. Clearly she is used to long haul air travels after snoozing her way on uncomfortable crappy seats. It just occured to her that they should have badger the chap who is paying for their flight a bit further since it seems her colleagues had some trouble. "We are new here so no one will know us here... yet." She replied innocently enough
Bran AKA Tomas Finneran: Bran grinned at that. "Well, let's see what the Line has to offer, and if it can compare to your highspeed trains" He seemed relaxed enough but was keeping his eye out for anyone paying them attention.
sd: they passed through customs without incident. MbS Airport was thoroughly Westernised - the signs were in English and Arabic, the staff wore clothes that wouldn't look out of place in the US, and they all spoke English. it was apparent that the majority of the airport workers weren't Saudis - there were large numbers of Filipinos, Bangladeshis, Indians, Pakistanis and Indonesians. panels all over the airport featured pictures of smiling airport workers, with quotes in both the primary languages in which they explained how glad they were to be part of the NEOM family.
Amber: Amber flashed a grin, "Still unbeatable! These slow trains are still uncomparable!"
Amber: Amber flashed a grin, "Still unbeatable! These slow trains are still not comparable! to the one backs home" She nodded out of somewhat like pride for her home country
Bran AKA Tomas Finneran: "We haven't seen them yet!" Bran grinned again, but his eyes were looking over Amber's shoulder at the crowds behind them.
Melquíades: "The more they smile in the posters, the less they smile off-the-clock," said Melquí, as they walked past the signage.
Bran AKA Tomas Finneran: Bran sighed and agreed.
sd: they finished passing through customs, gathered their luggage, and set out of the airport. it was a bright and sunny day, and even in mid-February it was warm - especially after the Canadian winter. NEOM employed some cloud-seeding technology to overcome the otherwise sweltering temperatures, but this could only go so far.
MbS Airport was at the edge of the McKinsey district, one of the wealthier districts of NEOM - they took a quick subway ride which then joined them directly to the Line. they didn't even need to go aboveground - the trains of the Line were all on a lower service layer below the surface.
when it had been in planning stages, the planners of NEOM had boasted that the Line would enable high speed transport from any one point in the city to anywhere else in a mere twenty minutes. critics of the time had pointed out that this required trains that were faster than any on Earth at the time, and although this was no longer the case, it still took them a half hour to reach the Primazon.com district, which was the newest, central district of the city. This had not originally been part of NEOM at all, but fourteen years ago a huge explosion at a Psionisis plant had destroyed the original Line, as well as the parts of NEOM built around it. no one was quite sure how many people had been killed in the blast, though all estimates seemed to indicate it was in the thousands. the areas around the city were now hazardous to human life due to mutagenic materials that had been scattered about - there were clean up efforts underfoot, though the reports they had read seemed to indicate that these had turned into a debacle and the firm that the Saudis had contracted was reduced to doing little more than patrolling the perimeter of the Stain with drones to prevent any desperate scavengers from trying to go there.
the Line had been rerouted far to the south, and this is where their new home, the Primazon.com district, was. leaving the Line, they went above ground and saw that the Lineside buildings were mostly large, luxury apartments. a few had skypools, or individual balconies for each flat, decorated in a multitude of contrasting styles.
their own building was further into the interior of the district, but rather than heading there, they made towards al-Tayir, which was almost at the southern edge of the district. the majority of buildings here were simple tower blocks, thrown up very quickly in the years since the explosion. there were also a few 3d printed houses, often of local clay, and some neighbourhoods of a more traditional style of the Arabian peninsula, large mud-brick buildings built close together to provide greater shade. the roads were full of people from a multitude of cultures, but most seemed wary of them. they heard occasional snatches of conversation in English, Arabic, Hindi or Farsi.
sd: they finished passing through customs, gathered their luggage, and set out of the airport. it was a bright and sunny day, and even in mid-February it was warm - especially after the Canadian winter. NEOM employed some cloud-seeding technology to overcome the otherwise sweltering temperatures, but this could only go so far.
MbS Airport was at the edge of the McKinsey district, one of the wealthier districts of NEOM - they took a quick subway ride which then joined them directly to the Line. they didn't even need to go aboveground - the trains of the Line were all on a lower service layer below the surface.
when it had been in planning stages, the planners of NEOM had boasted that the Line would enable high speed transport from any one point in the city to anywhere else in a mere twenty minutes. critics of the time had pointed out that this required trains that were faster than any on Earth at the time, and although this was no longer the case, it still took them a half hour to reach the Primazon.com district, which was the newest, central district of the city. This had not originally been part of NEOM at all, but fourteen years ago a huge explosion at a Psionisis plant had destroyed the original Line, as well as the parts of NEOM built around it. no one was quite sure how many people had been killed in the blast, though all estimates seemed to indicate it was in the thousands. the areas around the city were now hazardous to human life due to mutagenic materials that had been scattered about - there were clean up efforts underfoot, though the reports they had read seemed to indicate that these had turned into a debacle and the firm that the Saudis had contracted was reduced to doing little more than patrolling the perimeter of the Stain with drones to prevent any desperate scavengers from trying to go there.
the Line had been rerouted far to the south, and this is where their new home, the Primazon.com district, was. it took a half hour to reach there, rather than the promised twenty minutes. leaving the Line, they went above ground and saw that the Lineside buildings were mostly large, luxury apartments. a few had skypools, or individual balconies for each flat, decorated in a multitude of contrasting styles.
their own building was further into the interior of the district, but rather than heading there, they made towards al-Tayir, which was almost at the southern edge of the district. the majority of buildings here were simple tower blocks, thrown up very quickly in the years since the explosion. there were also a few 3d printed houses, often of local clay, and some neighbourhoods of a more traditional style of the Arabian peninsula, large mud-brick buildings built close together to provide greater shade. the roads were full of people from a multitude of cultures, but most seemed wary of them. they heard occasional snatches of conversation in English, Arabic, Hindi or Farsi.
Bran AKA Tomas Finneran: Bran concentrated on looking as if he was familiar with the place. "We should be keeping a low profile, this is not good."
Melquíades: "We stand out a bit, it seems," agreed Melquí.
Bran AKA Tomas Finneran: "At least we could have dropped our luggage, instead of looking like lost tourists."
Amber: Amber on other hand was slightly annoyed with the trains, "Well, the trains were not as good as they claimed as they are. The trains didn't leave on time. after all" She told herself as she carried a lightly packed bag.
Bran AKA Tomas Finneran: "Not as good as Japanese trains, we know," Bran said, his tone light, but his eyes watchful as he hefted his own bag. He had already put his documents and anything valuable into inside pockets of his clothes.
sd: by this point, they were near enough to al-Tayir that it was easy enough to complete the trip. al-Tayir was a 3d printed building consisting of a dozen round, joined sections which were laid out in a vague S shape. as they came near, they noticed a pair of workers across the road lying their tools against a wall to have a break, and after a brief discussion one of them started to walk across to al-Tayir, presumably to pick up some kind of drink. the two workers were scrubbing a brightly coloured image that had been drawn at the base of a tower block - it was in the shape of a woman - though her lower half was now gone - with a cybereye, and a cyberdeck tossed over one shoulder. A grenade with bright blue lights had just left her other hand. there had been some kind of slogan in Arabic drawn there, but only a few characters of this remained.
Melquíades: Melquí glanced at the half-washed away mural. He'd seen similar things plenty of times in Mexico, and in the US (if less so, because revolutionary sentiments were more quickly addressed). In any case, there was usually an ad in its place not long after - the rebel replaced by the smiling worker. There was a certain unease in this process, but there wasn't much to be done. So he kept walking toward al-Tayir. You whisper to Bran AKA Tomas Finneran: the image seemed familiar - as he searched his memory he remembered seeing a news item about six years ago, about a terrorist attack in NEOM, targetting the stock exchange. one of the primary pieces of footage was this exact woman, who had been captured by a security camera in the act of hurling an EMP grenade which caused extensive damage to numerous computer systems. although he couldn't see on the mural due to what had already been erased, he recalled that in the footage, she had worn red, green, black and white, the colours of the Palestinian flag, and the news anchors had named her as the leader of the terrorist group, although he couldn't for the life of him remember who the group or the woman were. Player "Melqui" is not connected. Player "Melquiades" is not connected. You whisper to Melquíades: it seemed a familiar image - he thought he had seen some news footage of a scene like this out of Saudi Arabia several years ago, some kind of terrorist attack, but the details were elusive.
Bran AKA Tomas Finneran: Bran was looking at the mural. "That's familiar," he said, scratching his head and trying to recall. "There was something a few years ago... a group attacked the Stock Exchange here, and there was film of this woman throwing the grenade. Banjaxed their computers as I recall. She was dressed in the Palestinian colours. Stuck in my mind."
Melquíades: "Someone here remembers her well, it seems."
Bran AKA Tomas Finneran: "I wonder what happened to her."
Melquíades: "People who stand out in a way the governments and the corps don't approve of... well, nothing good usually happens to them."
Amber: Amber shrugged, "Who know, she may be dead already"
Melquíades: "Unless you've got other backing that's strong enough," Melquí murmured more quietly after his first point.
sd: they headed inside and went to look for their fixer. there was one section of al-Tayir which had been set up to allow smoking inside - it was sealed from the other sections by a stout glass door, and all the serving inside this section was carried out by drones, and this is where they found Leo. he was a very short, stout man in a dirty brown suit, with greying hair. he had positioned himself at at table which allowed him to see anyone entering this section, so he saw the three of them immediately. at the moment, there were only two other people in the section, a young couple smoking and talking in a corner.
Leo pulled out a cigar from his pocket and pressed it to one of his cybernetic fingertips, which let out a little flame. He grinned and put the cigar in his mouth, waving the three of them over.
Melquíades: "You got another of those to spot me?" said Melquí, nodding at the cigar as he sat. "It's even okay if it's not Cuban, I'm not picky."
Bran AKA Tomas Finneran: Bran nodded to the fat man and took a seat. Privately he thought the trick with the fingertip lighter was rather strange and pointless but he kept a straight face.
sd: "I do, and it is Cuban," Leo said with a grin, pulling out another cigar, lighting it, and passing it to Melqui. "Drinks are on this menu here, when you know what you would I'll ring this buzzer here and it'll bring a drone over," he said. "Best place to talk around here without getting overheard, and someone's keeping an eye on me at the flats. Sorry to pull you out here without even getting to drop off your stuff, but until the little problem gets sorted out it's better that you don't go in there."
sd: *what you want
Bran AKA Tomas Finneran: "What kind of little problem would it be?" Bran asked.
Bran AKA Tomas Finneran: He studied the menu and requested a cold beer.
Melquíades: Melquí took the cigar and took a few well-practiced puffs until the smoke flowed from it more freely. He leaned back as he studied the menu, nodding along as he read the possibilities. Might as well enjoy one's time in a place like this.
sd: Leo sighed. "Right. So I was last in NEOM four years ago, doing some work for a corp that I'm no longer associated with. Don't need to bore you with the details, but we were bidding on a local construction contract, I had charge of the bid. Some local competition bribed one of the bureaucrats from the Council around here, and she was one of those types who if they've taken one bribe, they don't take another, larger one. Very irritating. Anyway, so she had too much to drink one night and fell onto the Line, some preposterous fucks started spreading stories about me - you can imagine the sort. I had to leave town but some people know my name." Leo paused.
"So what I guess Haven didn't know about the place he got you - not that I suppose there was a way for him to know - is that there's some white knight journalist," Leo spat, "who also lives there. Must have recognised my name on something, now she's making a nuisance of herself. If we want to set up a crew there, we need her out of our hair - well, your hair, I guess, I ain't got much left."
Bran AKA Tomas Finneran: Bran stared at the man. "Haven sent you here despite you're having a bad reputation? That doesn't seem very well organised."
Bran AKA Tomas Finneran: edit* bad reputation in the city?
Amber: "How... honest of her for not to accept the second larger bribe." Amber said with a hint of surprise. She went on to order some sakes.
sd: Leo grimaced. "I owed him a favour, and he figured it would have blown over by now - some minor scandal from years ago. It would have been fine if not for the fact that this nosy woman is literally in the same building as us. Bad luck." A drone came over and they tapped in their orders on an alphanumeric keypad built into its body.
Amber: Amber nodded once she finished tapping her order. "|I wonder if we can take out her flat out more permanently. Hard to live in a burned out room." She causally suggest the idea as she looked at others
Bran AKA Tomas Finneran: Bran frowned. "That seems extreme. How is she making trouble?"
Melquíades: Melquí, finding that he couldn't get the exact drink he wanted delivered - a Bloody Maria - had a Bloody Mary without the vodka delivered, alongside two shots of tequila he mixed in himself. He listened to the conversation without yet speaking up himself.
sd: "She followed me yesterday, and she's been asking questions about me and the flat - I bribed the building manager so he told me about it. Said specifically she was working on some kind of story. I need you to persuade her that it would be best if she moved out and didn't publish. I'm not really too bothered by how, though it'd be best if you didn't damage the building you're going to be living in."
Melquíades: Melquí took a puff of the cigar in his left hand followed by a long sip of the drink in his right, and smacked his lips. "We can talk to her. Make sure she sees reason. I'm sure there are other stories more worth telling."
Bran AKA Tomas Finneran: Bran sighed. "Keeping a low profile this is not... A good start to our time here dealing with a journalist, in the same building!"
sd: "Well you don't need to talk to her direct if you don't want - if you hacked her site or left her some messages in her flat when she was out, she'd probably get the idea," Leo said. "I should send you her details. She's quite a few floors below us - third floor, we're on eighth. Indian woman called Naima Hallal, from Bangalore. Been here a few years though, long enough to have still been around when I was last here. Usually NEOM has some pretty quick turnover among the people who aren't permanent residents, which is most of the city."
sd: Leo tapped on his phone and sent them a few links - one went directly to Hallal's blog, and others to her profiles on the local intranets
Bran AKA Tomas Finneran: Bran decided it would be better to discuss how they dealt with this problem when they were alone. He had already formed a low opinion of Leo.
Melquíades: Melquí shrugged. "Amber's the one who can do that sort of thing. We'll talk about it." By contrast, he seemed to have taken a liking to Leo, though that might entirely be due to the Cuban cigar. "What're you gonna do well we deal with this situation, güey?"
Melquíades: *while we deal
Amber: Amber drank some sakes down before, "It should be pretty straightforward potentially." She agreed with Mequi.
sd: "I'm going to go stay with a friend who lives nearby - I'll send you the address in case you need it. His company does the security for this place - Firestone, they're called. Good lads, I worked with them when I was here before," said Leo. "I doubt she'd try to follow me there."
sd: edit: good boys
Bran AKA Tomas Finneran: Bran was glad to see the back of him. He needed a shower and something to eat.
sd: "Keep that tab open and it'll charge me, feel free to eat or whatever you need, just don't go nuts," Leo said. He put his cigar out on the ashtray, then stood up slowly. "I'll start putting out some feelers to get you some other work in the meantime while we wait for Haven to send us word about...well, the other business."
Melquíades: Melquí raised his glass to Leo. "Gracias amigo. Don't get yourself noticed again, okay?" He turned his attention back to the menu.
Bran AKA Tomas Finneran: Bran felt himself relax as Leo left. "So much for Haven's professionalism - he gets us a fixer who sticks out like a sore thumb."
Bran AKA Tomas Finneran: He scanned the menu for something interesting to eat. Also to see if they sold cigarettes. Skylarious has connected. Skylarious is disconnected. Melquíades is disconnected. Melquiades has connected.
Amber: Amber looking at some options, anything with chickens in them
Amber: After looking at the options and looking them up on the internet to see what they are. She went for Ruz Rukhari which is basically roast chicken and rice
Melquiades: Melqui decided on some lamb kebabs and flatbread, and ordered a lager to go with it.
Bran AKA Tomas Finneran: Bran picked out chick pea tagine with couscous and yoghourt, with flat breads on the side.
sd: although al-Tayir were obviously not the most insistent about Islamic requirements, given the alcohol they served, the food was all halal, of local traditions, and quite good
Bran AKA Tomas Finneran: After enjoying his meal, Bran ordered another beer and lit one of the Turkish cigarettes he had bought. He took a long drag and leaned back, enjoying the strong taste.
Melquiades: Melqui enjoyed his meal and patted his stomach. "Well Amber - time to put your skills to use and find out more about this woman?"
Amber: Amber nodded, "Let see what kind of technology she got on her side" She looked at gathering informaiton
Bran AKA Tomas Finneran: Meanwhile Bran looked up information about the journalist herself and her work.
sd: Amber began searching for information about Hallal's computer systems, while Bran scrolled through her blog and posted profiles for details of the stories she'd written and her motivations.
Bran found that Hallal was a freelancer who seemed to not have a particularly good reputation, although it wasn't clear exactly why. Her stories were fairly pedestrian, mostly minor updates about local news on almost every local site. Every now and again, she'd write something about cases involving corruption or fraud, but these didn't seem to get much engagement, so far as Bran could tell. She appeared to simply be a standard freelance hack, writing for whoever would send her creds.
Amber probed her blog and profiles and was quickly able to work out what devices had recently connected to each of them (a phone which she presumably carried with her, and a desktop computer), as well as, more tantalisingly, the host servers for her blog and email address. if they wanted to take down her blog, or hack it or her profiles, this would be a very easy thing for them to do with this kind of information.
Bran AKA Tomas Finneran: "She doesn't seem to produce anything of great import," Bran concluded when he had read through the information. "Occasional corruption stories but hardly earth-shattering. We need to be wary we don't give her more ammunition!"
Amber: Amber passed on the information she found the host servers for the email address and blogs, "We can mess around with her blog and email addresses and so on if needed"
Melquiades: "Hm. I wonder if someone else is behind her looking into Leo, if she doesn't have a reputation as a firebrand anti-corruption type."
Bran AKA Tomas Finneran: "I wouldn't be surprised if there's something he's not telling us," Bran said. "Maybe some personal reason she has it in for him."
Bran AKA Tomas Finneran: After what happened with Scorpion and the file, maybe we should take a look at what she has on him," he added. "Insurance if nothing else."
sd: Amber decided to start hacking into Hallal's emails to see what information she'd be able to access. it wasn't as easy going as she had originally thought, although the knowledge she had of Hallal's defences meant that she didn't make any missteps she might have done otherwise. it was a delicate operation, however, and she was now deep enough that simply pulling out wasn't feasible without risking leaving a trail.
sd: at length, Amber was able to get access to Hallal's primary business account. she immediately noticed that in the last two days, she had sent out feeler emails to seven different local news organisations titled 'The return of a killer? Leo Ziegler back in NEOM.' It was clear from even a cursory glance that Hallal had written these up off her own back to try to sell a story - it didn't seem likely that anyone had hired her, or she wouldn't have needed to send so many. There were three rejection responses in her inbox which had already been read, and one more recent email, which had an unread symbol, from a corp called Telenex.
Amber: Amber passed on the information and highlighed that she can download all the emails which they can study.
sd: Amber was able to do this with little difficulty, deleting the recent email from Telenex - they could always read it offline, but it was better if Hallal didn't see it.
sd: edit: a quick glance at the email once it was downloaded revealed that Telenex were the first company that might actually be interested in the story, though they said they would need better proof than hearsay - they didn't particularly want Leo to sue them if they published something that might be defamatory Melquiades is disconnected.
sd: they read over the emails closely. Amber saw that the seven emails she had sent were almost all identical, save for a few additional details she inserted to mention previous work she'd done for whichever corp she was emailing. her basic thesis was that Leo had hired a hitman, most likely from the shady local 'security' firm Firestone with whom he was known to associate, to kill the government bureaucrat, a woman called Washma Saleem, over her refusal to grant a construction contract. the evidence, however, was sketchy - the official ruling was that her death was an accident due to her being drunk. Hallal believed her drink had been spiked - there had been eye witnesses, including a barman who had been named in articles at the time, but who she'd yet to track down, who said she never should have got that drunk on how little she had, especially since Saleem had been known to drink heavily and had high tolerance. furthermore, there had been a camera malfunction a few minutes before Saleem's death, so there was conveniently no security footage of the incident.
Bran and Melqui, meanwhile, noticed that, digging back further in her inbox, she had exchanged a number of emails about three months ago with a corp in Beiwo district, further up the Line, about possible corruption and racketeering at a Chinese corp based there. The editor of one of Beiwo's larger news sites was interested in working with her, but wanted to be able to discuss more matters off the record, for which he needed her to relocate to somewhere in that district. She had rejected the offer as this would have meant her rent increasing, but they noticed that, after a few months of inactivity, the editor had sent her a chaser email a few days before reiterating his offer, which she had yet to respond to.
Bran AKA Tomas Finneran: "So if she got more info for the Chinese corruption story she'd likely leave anyway," Bran said thoughtfully.
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Post by sleepingdragon on Jul 10, 2021 18:07:22 GMT
sd: their investigation had found that it might become possible to divert Naima's attention away to the corruption story in the Beiwo district they had found. a quick read over her emails revealed that she'd been in discussions with a news editor named Markus Oldham, at a site called Lightning news, but the emails were quite vague about the details of precisely which Chinese corp it was they were intending to investigate. some of the emails referenced discussions they'd had in person or over the phone. it was clear enough that Naima was the one who had approached Lightning, so presumably she had been the one to first uncover the story. if they wanted to continue down this line of enquiry, they'd need to dig a bit more. Bran aka Tomas Finneran: Bran looked around the bar they were still occupying. "Are we going to stay here to keep digging? Could do with a shower. Maybe we should take a room for tonight." Melquiades: Melqui shrugged. "You're from Ireland. I think you'll get sweaty as soon as you step outside again. But not a bad idea to have somewhere more private." He began skimming through hotel options as Amber continued to look at the data they'd collected. Amber: Amber agreed, "Especially we will need a place to stay hidden as well just in case we got intto troubles." She kept on going with her work Bran aka Tomas Finneran: "I bet Haven doesn't know half the shit that poxer Leo is causing." Bran shook his head in disgust. Amber: Amber ordered another drink on Leo's open tab, "Shame we can't bankrupt Leo's tab" This time something sweet. Bran aka Tomas Finneran: Bran sighed and did the same, though in his case he scanned the list for a half-decent whisky. sd: they had a last drink and Amber continued to check through the files while Bran and Melqui sorted a hotel. it was a very cheap place which consisted of thirty shipping crates that had been welded together into one large structure. it was located nearly as far from Lineside as it was possible to go in Primazon.com district without outright leaving, and as they approached the site a scantily clad woman called something out to them in Arabic. the rudimentary courses they'd taken weren't enough to actually understand the precise words, but the intent was fairly obvious. they briefly spoke to the site manager who fished out a key from a cabinet. near the rows of keys they briefly spotted a small square of a flag near the corner, but it was open and closed so quickly they only caught a glimpse of red at the top before it was hidden again. Melquiades: Melqui paid little mind to the flag or to the accomodations, being focused on the job. "Alright Amber. Think you can get us more?" Amber: Amber smiled, confident in her skills, "I am sure we will get something out of the files" sd: Amber began searching through the files again, wondering how Naima had been turned on to this corruption story in the first place. She soon discovered that, in late October, she'd received a direct message on a messaging app, from an account that had obviously been set up as a throwaway and deleted, containing a link to a drop site with many files. The link was now dead, but there was enough indication of its contents that Amber was able to quickly hack back onto the journalist's system and find where she had downloaded them. she was in and back out in a matter of minutes, with the files in hand. now it was clear why Naima and Markus had been hesitant to put details in writing. the corp she had been assigned to investigate was none other than Beiwo itself, the district's sponsoring megacorp, and one of China's largest financial and media conglomerates, middle men in hundreds of different governmental outsourcing projects in NEOM and beyond. their NEOM branch had several minor princelings from the House of Saud on the board - very dangerous people for an independent journalist and a small media corporation to tackle. the anonymous person who'd leaked the files mentioned that they were a long-term supporter of Naima's work - they had appreciated her commitment to justice ever since her early time in the city. they mentioned a particular story Naima had leaked about Deslauriers, the security firm that acted as the de facto police in Primazon.com district - years before, she had claimed they were responsible for the deaths of a number of Indian guest workers, who had gone missing while building a new rail line. Naima's story claimed they had mutated due to faulty equipment and that were then killed by Deslauriers in a cover-up, which she had backed up with some internal documents, however she had been forced to back down and recant the story due to legal threats. the leaker said that they had always believed the story and suspected Naima still did as well. the Beiwo files appeared to indicate that large quantities of money, some of which came from contracts with the NEOM government, was disappearing off the books. the leaker was clearly a Beiwo employee, but didn't identify themselves. however Amber had the idea to check the files' metadata - sometimes, less technically inclined persons might forget to remove traces of their access to these files. sure enough, that had happened with some of these files. multiple files had been accessed on the same day as the email by the same person, Radwan Musa, who appeared to be a mid level bureaucrat at Beiwo NEOM. Amber: Amber raised an eyebrow at this very intresting information. "Maybe we can use this information to blackmail her into leaving the building or something else" She suggested an idea Bran aka Tomas Finneran: Bran sighed. "A better way would be to uncover something to start her working on the story again. This Musa person took an incredible risk to send her the goods, and it will be risky for both of them if Naima follows it up, but it's a racing cert she'll go for it if there was real evidence." Bran aka Tomas Finneran: "And we can stick it to these Beiwo bastards at the same time," he added with a grin. Amber: Amber looked thoughtfully at this, "Always a bonus. I could try to find more evidences though...." Bran aka Tomas Finneran: "Is there anything we can do to help?" Bran asked. Amber: Nodding at Bran, "You can look through the files if you like." She transferred the relevant files for him to look through Bran aka Tomas Finneran: Bran settled down to examine the files. sd: Bran and Amber continued looking through the files, and while they were at it they had the idea to do some searching around for any information about Radwan Musa - if they wanted additional leads, he might be someone to go to. very quickly, Amber found an answer. on 15 February 2084, the day after their meeting with Haven, there had been an article on one of the Beiwo local news sites, mentioning his name. Well loved Beiwo employee Radwan Musa, 42, was found dead in his apartment by his wife Hafifah, 39, in the early hours yesterday, of an apparent overdose. Brightrock Securities are investigating this sad and untimely death, which appears to be as a result of suicide. Bran aka Tomas Finneran: "How convenient," Bran said grimly. Melquiades: "Well, she's certainly in danger..." murmured Melqui. Bran aka Tomas Finneran: "The question is has this scared Naima off or made her more determined? She seems willing to court danger to some extent," Bran mused. Bran aka Tomas Finneran: "Or maybe she doesn't know he is dead?" Bran aka Tomas Finneran: "If we send her an anonymous message about the death of Musa, revealing that he was the source and died under questionable circumstances, she might run with that." Amber: Amber perked up with that idea, "That sound good and we can always plaim that we are from Beiwo as well." Bran aka Tomas Finneran: Bran nodded. "Though she might want to get more information from us, which we don't have. Best say we want to stay out of it in case the same thing happens to us." Amber: Amber suggested to Bran and Melquiades that they write the emal since they got a better idea and she can send it and hide it Amber: *their track Amber: EDIT: since they got a better idea on how write the email in such a way to have the best chance Bran aka Tomas Finneran: Bran used the information they had gained about Musa and Beiwo to outline the message. sd: they posed as Beiwo employees, saying that Musa had confided in them prior to his death - as they didn't know if Naima even was aware of who Musa was, they included some documents (which Amber checked carefully to make sure they couldn't be traced back) they had recovered the metadata from, showing Musa as the source. they mentioned that Musa had suddenly died in an apparent suicide, but that they suspected foul play and were remaining anonymous because they feared similar retribution, and urged her to investigate the matter urgently before more people died. it would normally be very difficult to know what her response would be - especially since they didn't want Naima coming back to them - but fortunately, given Amber had already hacked the journalist's inbox, it was a simple matter of monitoring it until she noticed the email. Bran aka Tomas Finneran: Once they had completed the task, Bran lay on one of the narrow beds with a sigh. Amber: Amber keep an eye on the emails as she drew on another drink she bought home from the bar, "Would be so nice to relax properly." Melquiades: "If all our jobs are like this, it's gonna be an easy time for me," said Melqui with a grin. He was already thinking about heading out to see the sights. Bran aka Tomas Finneran: "I'm sure they won't be!" Bran let himself relax for a while. He had an enviable knack of being able to nap when he had the chance, like a cat. sd: after spending part of the night out, they returned back to their rented shipping container, and soon afterwards Amber checked and saw that the email had been read. about thirty minutes later, she checked the sent items and found that Naima had emailed Markus at Lightning news - clearly she had swallowed the bait. they might need to wait a few days for her to move out, but it looked like they had succeeded. Leo was grateful when they messaged him to let him know, and he said he'd contact the al-Muntasser building manager so they would be informed once Naima had left - for the time being, Leo would pick up their hotel bill. Later on that night, he called them. "I'm going to start pulling a crew together for you guys, you could use more backup than just a shortarse who can shoot fire from his fingers," he said self-deprecatingly. "The Firestone boys are helping but we need to know what kind of crew you want. Are you looking for muscle, or hackers, or smugglers - that kind of thing? You don't need to answer me now, just let me know when you've discussed it."
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Post by sleepingdragon on Jul 17, 2021 17:47:48 GMT
sd: after some discussion, the party had Leo start searching for relevant contacts in the underworld, looking particularly for burglars and others skilled in subtler work. Leo went to work, seeding for them a reputation as a discreet, group who put the shadow in shadowrunner and left no trace of their passage.
they spent about a month establishing themselves in NEOM, making their own contacts and learning the lay of the land. acclimating themselves to the heat of Saudi Arabia wasn't easy after a Canadian winter - even now in March it already got into the mid to low 20s centigrade on most days, and in their first month in the city they saw no rain at all. there was cloud seeding technology at work in some districts along the Line, but here in the back of the districts, no one with the money to do such things even cared. the distinction between Linesiders and the rest of NEOM was impressed on them basically every day - their own building, the al-Muntasser flats, were overlooked by two huge Lineside luxury blocks, which were joined in the middle by a floating pool suspended 150 feet in the air. they bathed and swam in comfort while they sweated. Amber: Amber glared at the pool.dreaming of smashing the pool floor so the rich swimmers can fall so gracefully until to their sudden stop at the ground. Still, like others, she was busy learning Arabics via various means. However, during their last job, she was painfully aware how unprepared she were for more stealthy tasks so she spent times training for creeping and stealking arounds the place. Still, she spent some tme going after some of her more erotistics hobby Melquiades: Much as he had in Halifax, Melqui spent much of his time consorting with the locals, though in this case he was focused on soaking up the language and culture rather than enjoying the details of peoples' stories. He proved a quick learner, and the money he spread around helped keep the best impromptu teachers around him. Soon, he was able to converse passably. The remainder of his time he spent practicing his technical and observational skills, before collapsing in bed each night. Amber: EDIT: esoteric Bran: Bran seemed even more affected by the heat than the other two - the cold Canada had been a shock but nothing could be further removed from the mild wetness of Ireland than this. The sharp contrast between the idle rich at play and the sweating workers and poor families angered him - there was plenty of poverty in Dublin but your face wasn't rubbed in it. Annoyingly he found trouble getting to grips with the language but made do with signs and smiles where he could. At least he could work on his technical skills. sd: after a month of inactivity, Leo sent them a message late on Saturday, 25 March, with news of three jobs they could take. the final details had all been put together in the last day or so, with one client who said their job was incredibly urgent and that she would need to meet with them tomorrow.
their first offer was from the Beiwo megacorp, which caused them some amusement as this was the very megacorp that they'd redirected Naima onto. Beiwo wanted them to break into the local headquarters of the rival megacorp, the AI firm lgrthm, and plant some files onto their databases. this job was the best paying, which was no surprise since it came from a megacorp.
the second offer was from Leo's friends at Firestone. they'd recently learned that an abandoned Psionisis plant had been undertaking secret cybernetic research, using prototypes stolen from another corp, but the business had failed before they could complete it and some of the models had been left behind. unfortunately the old plant was now being squatted by mercenaries, and the leader of the mercs had ties to the local police, the Deslauriers corp. they wanted the group to chase the squatters away so Firestone could recover the prototypes.
their final offer was the most frantic. a woman called Kifah Selim, a site manager for a local company called Arco Logistics, had come to Leo in a panic. her eighteen year old daughter hadn't returned the night before and now she'd received a video message showing that she was being held hostage. she'd not yet received a ransom demand, but had been told one would be coming. having had run-ins with Deslauriers before, she couldn't rely on them to get her daughter back, so she needed the help of shadowrunners. Amber: Amber went through the list of the jobs, she was tempted by visiting that abandoned Pisonsis plant the lure of earch researchs. However, have someone working in Logistics is veru handy for the team Bran: "Recovering the woman's daughter is the most urgent too," Bran said. "I vote for that one." Melquiades: Melqui was skeptical of taking the ransom job at first. "This seems like a good way to make the wrong kind of enemies. Who knows who took the girl?" But when the others pushed for it, it was clear his sympathies drew him that way as well. "Alright, alright. We'll be the pendejos who try to save everyone." He was smiling slightly as he spoke. Amber: Amber never heard of this particular word before so had to look pendejos up sd: in the morning, Amber knew a new profanity and they had a new client to meet. Leo arranged to clear the backroom at al-Tayir - this time, as he had warning, he passed a little bribe to the security team so they would block anyone other than the runners and their client from entering, so they could have total privacy. the group arrived first and had time to order themselves a drink before the client arrived.
Kifah Selim was a woman in her early forties, who turned up in a dark blue business suit and a rose-coloured hijab, along with thin-rimmed glasses. she had dark circles around her eyes, which was hardly a surprise in the circumstances.
"Thank you for meeting with me," she said in a hoarse voice as she sat down. "I have no one else to turn to." Bran: "We'll do our best for you," Bran said, his face serious. "Please give us the details." Melquiades is disconnected. Melqui has connected. sd: Kifah nodded. "I've been working very long hours lately, I got promoted six months ago and assigned a construction site which we're handling procurement and recruitment for," she said. "So I've not been keeping as close an eye on Rafa as I'd have liked to. She's been out drinking more than I'd have liked but I have too much to handle."
"When I came home from work late on Friday she wasn't home - that wasn't much of a surprise to me since it was a weekend and she's not been happy with me so we've not been talking as much. I thought she must have gone to stay with a friend - she hasn't been very comfortable in our new apartment, and she'd messaged me at about 7:30 that night to say she was going to see her friends."
"When she didn't turn up yesterday I started to worry, I tried calling her but her phone was switched off. I tried contacting some of her friends - the ones I have numbers for - but you can imagine how enthusiastic teenagers were about talking to their friend's mother. Then when I started panicking I got this message through TeLePath, a number I've never seen before but there was a video attached and...well it shows that Rafa is being held hostage." She shivered. "I suppose that you'll want to see it." Melqui: Melqui's demeanor had turned gentle but composed in speaking with her. "Yes please, madam. It will help us in finding her." sd: "Alright. There aren't many clues. I must have watched it a hundred times by now hoping these horrible people would have slipped up and caught the corner of a letter or something like that in the shot but there's nothing..." Nevertheless, she pulled out her phone, opened the TeLePath encrypted messaging app, and pulled up a file. She turned her phone towards them.
The video had been shot in a dark room with a forest green carpet. The camera was tilted down towards this, obscuring most of the room. It was aimed down at a pretty eighteen year old girl with dark hair, a white t-shirt and jeans, and a blindfold drawn over her eyes. A gloved hand belonging to someone off-camera to the right held a pistol directly to her forehead.
The hostage sobbed and spoke something in Arabic to the camera, which Melqui translated for them. "Mom? Please Mom, help me, I'm scared. They grabbed me near th..." Suddenly the sound cut out and, after a moment, so did the video, replaced by a black background with white Arabic text, which said that the kidnappers would be sending their demands on Monday morning, and that Kifah would comply with all of them, warning also that if she tried anything foolish that she would never see Rafa again. Amber: Amber watched the video and asked her to share the video and checked the phone number to see if thy can get any relevant pictures. She also compared the forest green carpet and the room to any potential hotel pictures avaiabale on the internet Bran: Bran stared at the video, trying not to let emotional reactions block any clue there might be. "Could be a corps that used that shade for its offices too," he suggested. Melqui: Melqui spent less time focused on the video itself than the others, instead thinking back to his own 'professional' experience to try to determine where the most likely spots for holding a kidnap victim would be in the area. Bran: Bran asked Kifah if there were any particular places her daughter might have visited, particularly if she had any idea of what the cut off name might have been. sd: Kifah spoke while Amber took the phone and analysed the file, hoping there might be some electronic clue that the kidnappers had left without realising it.
"There are a few places. I've been distracted and haven't been keeping up with exactly where she goes, but after I got this confirming she'd been abducted I managed to actually get one of her friends, a girl called Shireen, to talk to me last night. They last saw her in a club called Metalwerkz, they play a lot of techno and industrial music. She thought Rafa was about to go home when she last saw her a little after midnight - she wasn't sure what she'd done after that but said she'd try to find out for me. I can give you her number so you can contact her yourself if you want." Melqui: "Please," said Melqui with a nod. "Individually these clues might not find her, but together they give us a chance." Bran: "We could also visit this club," sd: meanwhile Amber checked the file but didn't find much information - she took a note of the phone number it had come from, but from her own experience she knew it was a trivial matter to buy a used phone, pop in a SIM card, use that for one job, and then throw it away so it couldn't be traced back. if you were careful, digital tracks began vanishing even as you made them. sd: Kifah gave Melqui the number. "Shireen is one of Rafa's oldest friends, her father works with me at Arco, although he got promoted to a job similar to what I'm doing now a few years ahead of me so I haven't spoken to him much since," she said. "You could call her with me here to put her at ease, or I could just send her a message saying you'll be in touch." Bran: "Maybe best if you speak to her first," Bran said. sd: "Do you want me to call her now? And did you want me here when you spoke to her, or should I just say you'll be in touch with her soon and to expect to speak to you?" Bran: "You call her and explain, then we'll speak to her." Bran: "Unless you think there are things she won't say with you here...?" sd: "I hope not in a case like this, but even if there are you can always phone her back I suppose." Kifah took her phone back from Amber and dialled Shireen's number, which rang four times before a young woman answered in Arabic - even Amber and Bran had enough Arabic by now to recognise the simple greeting.
"Shireen, I have some private investigators here with me," Kifah said in English. "They want to speak to you, but I wanted to call you from my number so you wouldn't be suspicious. I'm going to pass you to them and they can ask you about what happened on Friday night, is that ok?" Shireen agreed, and Kifah held the phone out to them. Bran: Bran took the phone and ensured it was on speaker. "Hello Shireen, thank you for talking to us. Did you find anything about where Rafa might have gone after the club on Friday night?" Melqui: Melqui also assured her that if anything was easier to explain in Arabic, that he or Kifah could translate. sd: "No, English is fine," Shireen said. Her English sounded more like it came from an American than someone in Saudi Arabia. "So I didn't actually speak to Rafa much that night, she was mostly with three of our other friends - Mark, Zeinab, and Ismail. I stayed at Metalwerkz for a few more hours, but Rafa suddenly said she was going to go home and the others were about to go on to another venue, the Steampit, so they walked with her almost all the way to the Line before they turned off to go to the Steampit." Melqui: "So she would have disappeared somewhere between where they turned off and her home," said Melqui. sd: "Yes, unless they grabbed her at the other end, but her new place is Lineside just by the station so that would be very hard to do without getting spotted," said Shireen. Bran: "She may have been about to say they grabbed her when she was near the Line," Bran said thoughfully. "Shireen, would Mark, Zeinab and Ismail be willing to speak to us do you think? They might have seen something helpful." sd: "They will if they don't want me punching them in the face," Shireen said. "Not that I think they'd refuse, Ismail in particular feels terrible, he's blaming himself for not walking with her all the way to the station. I'll send their numbers to Mrs - Miss Selim's phone." Bran: "Thank you," Bran said warmly. "One thing, can you think back to the club and recall anyone who might have been watching Rafa and her friends? Perhaps people you didn't know, or who followed them out when they left?" sd: Shireen thought for a moment. "Ummm, no, but like I said I wasn't with her most of the night, and it was rammed in there. The others are more likely to have seen something like that." Bran: "You've been most helpful," Bran said, looking around at the others to see if they had more questions. Melqui: "Thanks Shireen. We'll call you if we need to confirm anything," said Melqui. "We're doing everything possible to get her back safely." sd: "It's all ok, just make sure she doesn't get hurt," Shireen said. "Bye." Bran: Bran ended the call. "We'll see what the three friends have to say. And worth walking the route she would have taken." sd: only a few seconds after the call ended, Kifah received three straight messages from Shireen, giving the numbers for all three of their friends. Bran: "Shall we call them individually or arrange to meet up with them somewhere?" Bran suggested. Bran: "They might help each other with details." sd: this question was answered pretty quickly - when they tried phoning one of them, they found that all three of them had already got together and were trying to piece together what had happened the night Rafa vanished. "I knew we should have fucking walked with her the whole way," Ismail raged. "I looked back over my shoulder when we'd gone down the street and saw she was looking down a side street, it didn't even lead to the damn Line. I was worried someone had put something in her drink. We should have gone back." Bran: "Did you see someone taking an interest in her at the club?" Bran asked. "Could they have slipped her something?" sd: "There was a guy in there I've seen once or twice before," Zeinab said. Her English was more heavily accented than the others. "Young guy, only a few years older than us I think. We moved tables at one point and I noticed he'd moved too, was keeping us in sight. I don't know who he is. I doubt anyone could have slipped her anything though, the three of us brought her all her drinks and didn't let them out of sight. Unless you were distracted Ismail, you were talking to that American girl you like a lot."
"I didn't get distracted," Ismail said. "Definitely nothing in the drink. She didn't seem particularly drunk when we left, just tired and unhappy." Melqui: "Anything you can remember about her behavior prior to this?" asked Melqui. "Had she been seeming run-down for a while? Hanging out with anyone unusual?" Bran: Bran looked sharply at Melqui but then he nodded as though understanding. sd: "Yes, she's been hanging around Mark and Ismail a lot," Zeinab said with a nervous laugh. There was a noise as one of them seemingly gave her a light shove, then a pregnant pause.
"Ok fuck it," Ismail interjected suddenly. "Yes, she's been run-down and pissed off for a while. I'm sorry about this Kifah but...uhh...well she's been really angry with you lately. She hates living Lineside." Melqui: Melqui was focused on the phone, forgetting the sympathetic glance he might have given to Kifah earlier. "And did she talk about wanting to do anything about that? Or do you think she might have gone elsewhere to put off going home?" sd: "She's been talking a lot about wanting to do something about that," said Ismail. "She said she's almost been wishing she was with her dad even if it did mean living in Dubai and having to cover up all the time." Kifah's face was a stone mask as she listened silently.
"She might have gone somewhere else, but I don't see why she'd have done that," Zeinab said. "If she'd wanted to do that, she just had to come with us, and she didn't even know if Miss Selim was home yet. She's been working late a lot, few days she's stayed overnight in the office." Bran: "Did you notice anyone leaving the club same time as yourselves?" Bran asked. "How about the young guy? Or anyone following you?" sd: "No," said Ismail. "You two?" Mark and Zeinab both said that they hadn't noticed they were being followed. "Of course someone might have been following us who we didn't see. We'd had a bit to drink and a few pills, and Mark was pretty anxious - he wanted to meet a girl over at the Steampit and we were already late. Rafa had had less to drink and no pills, but I don't think she was in a very alert state of mind." Bran: "Could you send us the details of the route you took and where you last saw her, and this sidestreet she was looking down?" Bran suggested. He gave them his own phone number. Melqui: "And as much description of the young man as you can remember. We'll check in at the club about him as well." sd: "I'll get you a map, hang on," Mark spoke for the first time in the background, as it wasn't his phone they'd called on. After about a minute of him muttering at his phone, a link came through to Bran.
"So this young guy, he's probably in his early twenties I think, not much older than us," said Zeinab. "He's got short dark hair and he looks like he's..." she paused. "Well I don't know what you three look like but you don't sound like you're from anywhere in the ummah, and he does. Probably local. Bit out of place, I didn't see him dancing much and he's been on his own every time I've seen him. Sometimes reading something on a tablet or even an actual book while he's there. Why you'd try reading while listening to industrial I don't know. Clothes weren't particularly much to speak of, I don't imagine he lives Lineside." Bran: "Is the club open tonight?" Bran asked. sd: "Yes. Usually pretty quiet on Sundays," said Ismail. "It won't be open for a few hours but there's almost always someone there, you might be able to persuade them to speak to you out of hours. Course that would mean they might realise what you were looking into, and Shireen said Kifah is trying to keep this under the radar and not have to go to those Deslauriers pricks, so you might not want that." Bran: "We'll work that out," Bran said, non-committally. "You've been very helpful." sd: "If we think of anything else we'll call you, we'll be together probably most of the rest of the day," Ismail said. Amber: "Might be worth getting her number". Amber commented. "Even they did decide to get rid of the phone, it may still be trackable." sd: "If you mean Rafa's, I think they destroyed it," Kifah said. "I have a locator app for it, I tried using it after I got the video and it said it couldn't locate the device." Amber: "I see." Amber agreed, "We will do our best" She try her best to assure them sd: Kifah sent them Rafa's number anyway, in case they might be able to locate it Bran: "Still, worth having the number in case," Bran said. Melqui: Melqui thanked the three for their time before they hung up, and turned to the others to plan their next move. Bran: "Have you checked Rafa's room and so on, in case there are any clues?" Bran asked Kifah. sd: "I checked it yes," Kifah said, "but there wasn't anything out of the ordinary there. No bags or credsticks suggesting she was planning to run away. I know she's been unhappy. I worried that her father might have grabbed her but he's been in Dubai for four years and I don't think he has it in him to pull something like this off, even if the divorce wasn't pleasant. Oh, I haven't been able to access her computer since it's locked, but I don't think it's likely there's anything there. She only uses it occasionally and most of her communication is on her phone. I suppose I can give you her email address and you might be able to hack into it and see if there's any clues there." Melqui: "Amber works wonders with such things." Amber: Amber agreed with Meiqui's words, "Should be able to unless it got some secuirty protection instead" She went on with the email hacking once Amber got the email address. Bran: "Someone could have been encouraging Rafa," Bran suggested. "Her state of mind would make her more easily suggestible." sd: Amber tried to hack into the email, however she clearly underestimated the security features of a standard free to register address. Soon she found that she had inadvertently tripped the email's inbuilt security features, and access had been locked. There was a message indicating a recovery code had been sent to a phone number...which ended in the same digits as the device Kifah had said had probably been destroyed. sd: "There's one other thing you should know," Kifah said. "Like I said, I'd worried that her father was behind this, but I doubt it. There's someone else who I think has a reason to hurt Rafa - well, to hurt me, but maybe he'd hurt Rafa to hurt me. There's a man who used to work for me, he was my assistant. John Harrington is his name. I fired him a month ago because I caught him embezzling from Arco. He's not the man Ismail and the others spotted in the club, before you get that idea - he's a few years older than me and an American." Melqui: Melqui raised an eyebrow, surprised she'd saved this until now. "Another good lead. We'd best get to work." Amber: Amber's expression barely changed although her face puffed out in annoyance and went puu after they went off Amber: on her failure to get into the emails Bran: It was still early. Bran suggested they walked the route to the club before the heat got too excessive. sd: "Thank you for doing this for us," Kifah said. "I'm going to try to get some sleep - I've had about two hours in the last two days - but I'll keep my phone. Please don't hesitate to wake me if you want to come and look at Rafa's room or computer or ask anything." Bran: "Do you reckon you could hack into her computer Amber? Maybe we could come round later, when it's too hot for walking the streets." sd: *keep my phone on Amber: Amber suddenly looked at Bran, "Worth a try at leasy."
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Post by sleepingdragon on Jul 24, 2021 18:01:33 GMT
sd: Kifah left them to get some sleep, and they were left alone in the back room of al-Tayir. she had left them with several leads - Metalwerkz, the club where she'd been just prior to disappearing, and the location of the street where her friends had left her to continue with their evening. There was also John Harrington, the assistant who Kifah had fired recently. She sent them his address - although she said he would no longer be there given that the flat was tied to his employment with Arco Logistics - as well as the name of a club he liked to frequent, Greased Lightning. Bran: "A lot of clubs in this place," Bran was surprised. "Somehow didn't think it would be like this." Melquiades: "There are always many faces to a place," said Melqui. "But where best to start? Going to Metalwerkz might alert people of what we're doing, so perhaps we should try this Greased Lightning, and rule out Harrington." Bran: "It's too early for the clubs to be open, so checking on Harrington's place would be good. A neighbour might know where he went," said Bran. Melquiades: "Yes, let's look there first, then we can walk the streets for any signs if we have extra time before going to the clubs." Bran: Bran agreed. sd: Harrington's old flat was in a tall apartment block very similar to their own - not quite Lineside, but nearby, and of decent quality. they rode the lift to the the fourteenth floor - which, superstitiously, succeeded the twelfth floor - and went to flat 145, the number Kifah had supplied them. they knocked on the door but received no response. Bran: "Try the neighbours?" suggested Bran. Bran: "You'd think Arco would have kept a forwarding address," he added. Melquiades: "Yes, they might know something." Melqui approached one of the adjacent apartments. sd: they knocked on a few doors and rapidly noticed that almost every inhabitant on this floor was a Westerner - they doubted more than a few had the slightest bit of Arabic. their fourth door led them to a woman who had been friendly with Harrington. "That bitch Kifah was planning to knife him from the start I think," she said, while scribbling down an address - it wasn't where he lived, which was apparently a hotel somewhere in the district, but was instead a storage unit - living out of a hotel meant he could hardly take all his furniture with him. She guessed the storage people would know where he lived, though whether they'd tell them was another matter - if nothing else, she guessed they could hang around there until Harrington turned up. "He was telling me one night over a line or three, she cut him out of a key contract - didn't tell anyone in her team who she was making deals with to bring bodies in." Bran: Bran didn't need to fake surprise. "We thought there was more to it." Melquiades: "So she was bringing in labor under the table, profiting off it, and not letting anyone else in on it? Shady. You hear anything more about this scheme of hers? Did John think about getting back at her?"" sd: "Lots of people on the site are guest workers - come in for six months or a year from Iran, or Iraq, or Pakistan or India or wherever she gets them from - work hard for a year or two, send money back home, then leave. He said she made a deal with some outside group to bring some of them in. I didn't really get much of a chance to talk to him much after she fired him but John's not the sort of guy who takes having his life wrecked lying down." Melquiades: "None of us would," said Melqui, nodding sympathetically. "I hope you get a chance to do some more lines together one day. Thanks for your help." Bran: "Can you get us the address off the storage company Amber?" Bran suggested once they had moved off. "And it might be worth checking out the actual unit, see what he might be holding there apart from furniture." Amber has connected. sd: Amber hacked into the storage site's database - she found it strangely hard going at first, and she had to use a risky method that she suspected would leave a digital footprint. She made a mental note not to use that burner account for a while and then accessed the files. Unfortunately they didn't have details of what was actually held inside the unit - there were electronic sensors that estimated that Harrington had used 79% of the available space, but nothing more specific than that. fortunately it also had an address for him, which was at a nondescript hotel on the western edge of Primazon.com, only a few streets over from the storage facility and near to the Greased Lightning club he was fond of going to. Melquiades: "Great work as usual, Amber. Shall we try his place?" Bran: "Leave his storage for now - if we suspect he's using it for dodgy dealing we can look later," Bran agreed. Amber: Amber looked at the addresss of the hotel. "Let have a look at the hotel address. If we are really luckly, mybe that where we will find her" sd: the hotel where Harrington was staying was in terrible shape, despite the fact that this district of NEOM hadn't existed less than fourteen years ago and no building should be showing structural problems by now. it was a long three storey block facing east, with the sun of the Arabian peninsula beating down on them. each floor had a long bit of decking running along and there were fifteen small rooms on each floor - Harrington's was the seventh along on the middle floor. the curtains were drawn and the small window closed, and looking through they didn't see any lights on - it was possible he might not be in at the moment. they noticed a long crack in the wall running between Harrington's room and the neighbour to his left Bran: "If he's reduced to this, no wonder he's mad," Bran frowned. "So knocking at the door? I'd say he was sleeping with the curtains drawn, but who would leave the window shut? Unless it's to prevent anyone seeing or hearing what they shouldn't..." Bran: "I can open the door without much trouble," he added. Melquiades: "Let's start with knocking then, and take it from there." Melqui knocked at the door. Bran: Bran stood to the side, ready to stick his foot in the door if anyone answered it. sd: they got no response to the knock Bran: Bran pulled a small jemmy from his pack. "Give me some cover in case anyone is around." sd: the lock was very easy work for Bran, and they found themselves in a shabby hotel room. Off on the right hand side of the room, out of view of the window, a naked John Harrington - Kifar had sent them a photo - lay in a daze on a cheap cloth couch. There was a table in front of him which had a half-eaten pepperoni pizza in a takeaway box, next to the powdery remnant of a line of cocaine. There were a few bags behind the couch containing those belongings Harrington hadn't put in storage. They entered and had to step carefully to avoid a copy of the Qu'ran, with half the pages torn out, which lay against the wall, where it appeared to have been thrown from the other side of the room. Harrington was seemingly dead to the world and didn't stir at all at their entry. Amber: Amber eyed Harrington wondering if he was really dead instead Bran: Bran shut the door softly, and indicated they should search the room. He went to inspect the mangled Qu'ran. Bran: First checking on the comatose man on the couch. Amber: Amber went onto search the room insytead sd: it took only a moment to determine that Harrington was definitely still breathing - he had obviously simply overindulged the previous night and was insensible. Bran: Bran grinned at the others and gave the thumbs up, returning to examine the Qu'ran. sd: the Qu'ran appeared to simply be a standard edition copy of the Islamic holy text - presumably these came as standard in these rooms in much the same way as a Gideon Bible in many Western hotels. it was written in Arabic so Bran could only read a few words. if there was any rhyme or reason to which pages Harrington had ripped out - some of those lay scattered on the floor - he couldn't tell what it was. Bran: Bran gestured to Melqui to take a look. sd: there was nothing remarkable about this Qu'ran apart from its desecrated state, an offence that would have carried possibly fatal punishment if done a few miles to the south - but Harrington was safely ensconced in NEOM's special legal zone and protected from any consequence.
meanwhile Amber started searching the room - she nearly dropped a bag at first, causing a brief rustling noise, but she shifted her weight expertly to make sure her actions didn't wake the slumbering Harrington. Most of the bags were full of clothes - absurdly for the climate, Harrington had some leather jackets, as well as hair gel and other accoutrements suggestive of a 1950s greaser.
among Harrington's belongings, she found a few pieces of paperwork on Arco letterhead - she guessed Harrington must have stolen these prior to his departure. most seemed innocuous, however she noticed one set of papers because they included a death certificate, dated 13 December 2083, for one Devdas Dey, ruling an unknown cause of death. among the files were some printed emails between Harrington and Kifah - she noticed these were not from their @arco.com domains, but from separate emails - indicating that they thought Dey was 'another' suicide, but that for the sake of reducing the company's liability it was important for Harrington to persuade the local police, Deslauriers, that it had been due to heart failure. Bran: Bran frowned when they examined these. Bran: He took out his phone and photographed everything that looked interesting. Melquiades: "Meant for blackmail?" Melqui mouthed silently to the others as he looked at the documents. Bran: Bran shrugged and extended his hands. "Why didn't he use them?" he mouthed back. Bran: He looked into the kitchen and bathroom, and checked the places things could be hidden - even inside the fridge and the sisten of the lavatory. Bran: He also kept an eye out for keys - there must be some way to access the storage. sd: they searched carefully, but didn't find anything indicating Harrington had any knowledge of the kidnapping. Bran managed to locate a set of keys in the pockets of some trousers which Harrington had thrown haphazardly behind the couch- one was obivously for this room, but there was another with branding that matched the storage facility. the one other item they'd not searched was Harrington's mobile - this, they realised as they did another sweep, was actually underneath his body, so it would be exceedingly difficult to get without waking him Bran: Bran looked at Amber, indicating she could probably hack Harrington's phone anyway. Amber: Amber nodded softly agree with Bran. Maybe she is heopful Bran: Bran took out his syringe and vial, just in case the man woke. sd: Melqui carefully moved close and reached for the phone. it was hardly a pleasant experience, having to carefully lean in close to Harrington's naked and unwashed body and put his hand under his chest. Melqui nearly slipped at one point, but was able to steady himself and carefully slide the phone out from underneath Harrington without waking him. Bran: Bran grimaced and put his equipment carefully away again. Melquiades: Melqui handed the phone to Amber, waving his other hand in front of his nose to theatrically clear the smell. Amber: Amber tried to hack into the phone trying to get any relevant information sd: Amber started working on the phone. with some intense concentration she had worked out the combination and was about to get onto the phone when suddenly it rang - the ringtone was a very loud piece of music that she recognised as coming from a classic 2050s first person shooter - which startled her tremendously. She almost dropped the phone in her surprise Bran: Bran started, then reached to remove the vial and syringe again. Amber: Amber reacted very quickly to reslove the problem sd: fortunately Bran didn't have to waste a hypodermic - Amber was able to hang up quickly and get onto the phone. A quick glance through some text messages revealed that the person who had been calling appeared to be Harrington's coke dealer.
Looking through Harrington's emails and encrypted messages, it seemed clear that he had switched phones following his firing from Arco. there was nothing to indicate that he had been behind the abduction of Rafa - or if he had, he had carefully kept everything offline. Given how easily they'd waltzed into his room and stolen all his information literally in front of him without him waking up, she doubted Harrington had anything like this level of cautious planning. There was one thing that she noticed, however - his bank account had received a payment equal to about three months wages ten days ago, from what appeared to be a private account on a mobile payment service. there was no indication of what the payment was for. Cross-referencing his texts gave little clue as to what the payment was for, whoever she noticed one message, from a woman who he had apparently met in the Greased Lightning and had had sex with several times in the last few weeks, the day after the payment in which she asked who the young Iranian he'd been speaking to in the club the night before was. Harrington casually dismissed her question with a derogatory reference to him not bothering to pay attention to which Arab was which - his texts had already revealed that Harrington was quite obviously extremely racist, and either did not know or care that Iranians were Persians and not Arabs - and had given her no further clarification. Bran: Bran indicated they should take photos of the interesting messages. sd: Amber was able to take photographs of all the useful information. by now an hour or so had passed and Harrington still seemed dead to the world - they could only be thankful that he had obviously knocked himself out with drugs instead of drink, or he'd likely have woken for a piss by now sd: edit for clarity: the young Iranian man he had spoken to the night before Bran: Bran took the key to the storage unit and slipped it into his pocket with a grin. He looked at the others to see if they were all set to leave. Bran: He picked up the room key and slipped it into the lock, so Harrington would think he'd left it there and forgotten to lock it in his confused state. sd: they departed and headed to the storage unit. fortunately this was extremely low-tech and didn't feature any kind of scanners or required photo ID that might have given things away - it was easy enough to get access. as they went through sign-in Melqui overheard two supervisors holding a conversation in Arabic off to the side of the room, arguing over whether an irregularity one of them had noticed indicated that their system had been hacked. the other one, who appeared to have superior rank, didn't believe it and waved the other man away.
they descended into a cool basement and went along a corridor before coming to Harrington's unit. They soon found that the system's estimate of 79% capacity was somewhat of an underestimate - or at least, it didn't account for protruding pieces of furniture that were extremely awkward to maneuver around. sd: they searched the area thoroughly - managing to bang several pieces of furniture against the corrugated iron walls in the process, making a tremendous racket. The great majority of the things in storage were furtniture, but there were also some boxes. searching through these, they quickly concluded this was a waste of time - there were no incriminating documents such as those they'd found in Harrington's hotel, just old clothes, an acoustic guitar, some stacks of photographs that all seemed to be at least twenty years old and indicated Harrington had almost been sent to fight in Iran during the final encounter of the Second Cold War, and other personal effects Bran: "I think we've got all we can," Bran spoke softly. sd: it was now into the early afternoon. they suspected they had a few hours before the clubs opened, although they had other leads. there was a slim possibility they could attempt to trace the online payment service which had been used to wire money to Harrington - although this would take a while and was notoriously difficult to do, as such services were heavily encrypted. alternately, there might be other possibilities, such as examining where Rafa had gone missing, or trying to search out the woman Harrington had slept with to see what she could tell them about the Iranian man he'd met Bran: Bran suggested they go to Al-Tayir to eat and cool off, while Amber had a poke around. Amber: Amber decided to see to been paing Harrgonmtpm sd: Amber ran some traces. these kind of accounts generally aimed at being incredibly difficult to trace - Amber had at times had a dozen such accounts running herself under various different names - but they weren't completely impossible. they were hard to match to a specific individual, however if they were overused they could sometimes leave digital traces.
this account had not been overused - the only payments were to Harrington, ten days ago, and four other payments made three days ago, to four different accounts. Amber began to make a note who they'd gone to, but she realised that by this point in the process she was deep into the system and there had been traces of her passage left - purging them all would be extremely difficult and if she didn't, then this could alert the person whose account it was that it had been accessed. sd: Amber had to work furiously, leaving some gaping holes in her security at times that could if left open risk causing her device some significant damage - but she perservered and eventually managed to delete all the signs of her entry. she now had four other similar accounts she could check, although having done this once already she thought she had a better grasp on what she'd need to do sd: her confidence rising, Amber traced the remaining four accounts with clinical ease. the most interesting information was on the second account. over the several days, there had been repeated orders for takeaways, about two a day or sometimes three - to a particular address, which she quickly cross-referenced and found was a house which was rented out privately for lodgings on an ad hoc basis, and had most recently been rented seven days ago, from a payment which she located in one of the other three accounts. most of these deliveries were at set times of day - one around mid-day, and another around eight o'clock - although on the night Rafa had been abducted, the eight o'clock order wasn't present, and instead had been delayed until about 3 am yesterday. the prices paid were a bit more than what the three of them would typically spend - presumably there was another person or two, she guessed five since there had been one account initially and then four others which had received payment shortly before the kidnapping. sd: there had already been one order to that address today - presumably there would be another in a few hours, but at any rate it seemed likely that whoever this account belonged to, who'd been paid by the same Iranian man who'd paid Harrington, was there Melquiades: "If that's not where the kidnappers are, the delivery timing that night is quite a coincidence..." said Melqui, musing over the information. Amber: Amber replied. "It is certainly worth checking" Bran: "We can take the place of the delivery person, I expect they would be happy to earn a bit extra to let us do that," Bran suggested, excitement rising in him as they seemed to be getting close to finding Rafa. sd: Bran and Amber did some checking online for information about this rental building, which appeared to be an unremarkable two storey house. they scanned through the photos online and stopped dead - the second bedroom, which was the smaller of the two and was upstairs, was clearly photographed no more than two months ago with the same forest green carpet they had seen in the hostage video that had been sent to Kifah Bran: Bran punched the air. "That's it!" Melquiades: A smile spread slowly across Melqui's face as he stared at the room. "Oh, dudes, you're fucked." He cracked his knuckles. Amber: Amber grinned for a moment at her friends' reactions
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Post by sleepingdragon on Jul 31, 2021 17:56:49 GMT
sd: it hadn't taken long, and now they had the location of the building where Rafa was being held captive - a very ordinary looking home on the eastern edge of the district, closely packed with other nearby homes to minimise the effects of the Arabian sun. they even thought they had a reasonable idea of the room where she was - the spare bedroom on the second floor, which, from the pictures Amber had found, was west-facing and had a small window, which had a carpet matching the video that the kidnappers had sent to Kifah. it was now coming up on five o'clock - the sun wouldn't set for a few hours yet. Amber: Amber decided to find the blueprints to see excatly where the easiest route to get to the relevant room sd: they couldn't find any exact blueprints, but it was quite easy to piece together the layout of the house from the photos on the site where it was being rented out, as well as from several posts they located of people who had rented it previously and taken photos inside. the spare bedroom was on the second floor, to the left of the stairs. the second floor had a small landing which connected three rooms - the main bedroom, which doubled as a living room, a bathroom, and the spare room. Bran: Bran went out the small van they had acquired, checking what they might need to use. He had organised the sale of his sports car in Halifax, and as soon as the money reached his account splashed out on a drone which he was busy configuring. Amber: She was pleased with the results despite having no access to the actual blueprint Bran: Bran came back in and studied the information Amber had found out. "Do you think one person to make the delivery and distract while the other two aim for the window of that spare room? Should we check out the situation first with the drone?" sd: as they discussed this, a message came through from Kifah, asking if they'd learned anything Melquiades: Melqui responded that they had a potential location and were making plans for operations later that day - giving no real details. He suggested she be available for calls just in case. sd: Kifah texted back saying she'd stay by her phone and was praying for their success. Bran: Bran drove their TacNet to the street where Rafa was being held, not parking too close although their small van would probably not arouse suspicions. He showed the others the new drone - a small object rather like a chunky beetle with short legs, with cameras for eyes, and antennae which picked up sound. The metallic plates covering the drone were coloured camouflage green and brown, with stubby wings and a low-toned propeller. Bran launched the drone into the air and it zoomed off behind the house. sd: the drone circled around the house and they watched it through a monitor inside the van. the windows on the first floor were all open - one entering the main hall, another in the kitchen, and one in the downstairs bathroom. Upstairs there were three more windows - the bathroom and the main bedroom, which were open, and the spare room, which was closed. the windows had heavy blinds, so seeing in wasn't possible without getting close - and in the case of the guest room, even that was incredibly unlikely since the window was shut and there was no opening to try to see through. the windows appeared to have quite simple latch mechanisms and they didn't think they'd be especially difficult to open. there was a very faint noise coming out of the main bedroom - most likely a television. the house had no garden but there were several nearby buildings of a similar height, built very close to minimise the effects of the heat Bran: Bran examined the feed from the drone with interest, looking for a way to climb up to the closed window. Amber: Amber looked at the feed as well, "Could get one of these heat camera one day." Bran: "There are quite a few extras I'd like to add, when I get the time," Bran said, pleased with his new purchase. sd: they concocted a plan - since they knew that the kidnappers would be ordering food at around 8 o'clock, they'd simply wait in the TacNet, which could monitor their communications, and once they knew that the order had been placed, Melqui would intercept the delivery driver and then bring the food himself, hopefully catching the kidnappers off-guard and getting them to open the door themselves. This first part of the plan went smoothly - the driver, a harassed looking young woman with far too many orders, was all too happy to pawn one of them off someone else, and didn't ask too many questions about someone who appeared to just be another driver, on an electric bicycle Melqui had rented.
Melqui rode back towards the house - from a quick glance at the order, it appeared they had Persian food on the way, which made sense given that the ringleader appeared to be Iranian. it was a quick journey back, and after telling the others to be ready through comms, he rang the bell.
If Melqui was hoping that the men would throw the door open wide and allow him easy access to the building, he was disappointed. He heard the thumping of several men coming downstairs, but the door opened only a crack, and one large Arabic man in his late twenties stood in the gap. "Thank you," the man said in English. He pulled out a wad of riyal and thrust it out at Melqui as a tip. "For your trouble." Most delivery systems had inbuilt tipping mechanisms - which the order listing indicated they'd not selected - but many delivery firms were notorious for stealing these, so most drivers preferred cash even though it was rarely used now. sd: behind the man, Melqui could hear the sound of plates and cutlery being retrieved Bran: Bran had slipped out of the van and readied himself to sneak around to the back of the house. Bran: "You coming with me?" he asked Amber quietly. "We need speed." Amber: Amber made ready as she went with Bran, "Yes." quickly Bran: While the kidnappers were distracted by Melqui, they nipped down the side passage. sd: with Amber giving him a boost, Bran clambered up a drain pipe - he nearly slipped and twisted his shoulder, but managed to catch himself and haul himself up to the window ledge Bran: Bran took some deep breaths to calm his breathing, then tied the rope he had brought with him to the drainpipe and let it down for Amber. Melquiades: Melqui almost immediately moved to shove into the narrowly open doorway. He huffed as if he'd hurried there with fear. "Man, do you know these guys down the street? I was riding this way and they started chasing me. They were calling out something about 'Delivering to that fucking Iranian and his boys'. I think I lost them, but I gotta get in here for a minute..." Though the large man was blocking his way, Melqui shoved him aside with impressive force, doing his best to continue to appear as if he were merely concerned for his safety. Amber: Noting that Bran managed to get himself up a drain pip, she climbed up the rope lowered down by Bran. sd: before the Arabic man could react, Melqui had shoved his way past and into the front hallway, to the great surprise of the people inside. there were three others in the kitchen - a young woman who looked to be Filipino, another Arab man who was much smaller than the one Melqui had just pushed past, and finally a handsome man in his early twenties. he had short dark hair and tanned skin, and was clearly the Iranian man who they'd been told about by several people in the investigation. When Melqui had been pushing through the door he had been just about to pick up a book he'd put down - as an avid reader himself, Melqui's eyes were instinctively drawn to the title, which was On Guerilla Warfare by Mao Zedong.
the Iranian man pushed the book away and looked Melqui in the eye. "I'm sorry, what did you say? You were being followed?" Melquiades: Melqui put the food down and wiped his brow. "Yeah, they followed me for a while, shouting about delivering to..." He looked at the man with faux-concern. "The Iranian. I think they might have given up going after me. But I'd appreciate it if I could keep off the street for a few minutes." sd: the man Melqui had pushed past and the Iranian man clearly didn't believe him and were about to do something foolish, but the Filipino woman interjected. "If he's telling the truth then you should listen to him - surely we have the time for another worker. And if he's not then perhaps he could still tell us something useful." sd: on the windowsill, Bran quickly and stealthily unlocked the window. they didn't know exactly what they'd find when they pushed it open, but he and Amber knew that they'd need to act very fast. Bran: Bran carefully slid the window open, hoping and praying there wasn't someone waiting to catch them on the other side. sd: Bran and Amber tried to push the window open carefully, but nearly overbalanced as they did it and made more noise than they'd have liked.
shoving the window open, they looked into a small, airless, stuffy room with a green carpet. in the far corner of the room was Rafa, who was blindfolded, gagged, and tied to a chair. close to her, but spinning around to look at the window, was a young Arabic woman with chestnut eyes and short hair. she had a pistol in her hand - it might even have been the same one pointed at Rafa's head in the hostage video - and time seemed to slow as she whirled towards them. sd: Bran had brought a blowgun with him and had prepared a poisoned dart for stealthy work. As the woman turned towards him, levelling her silenced pistol, he fired and struck her in the next. She slumped backwards, but as she jerked involuntarily her arm flung out and she inadvertently squeezed the trigger...
which was pointed at Rafa. there was a moment of horror as the young woman's life hung in the balance - due to sheer blind luck the bullet went down, rather than up, so it struck her in the leg rather than somewhere that would be definitely fatal, but blood still pumped from the wound. she gave a scream that was mercifully muffled by her gag. Amber: Amber sighed for a moment as she creeped into the flat room. Sje quickly rushed over to the fallen woman and try to take her gun. Bran: "Fuck!" Bran swore as he leaped forward to the wounded girl. "Guard the door Amber. I've got this!" Pulling out his medical pack he quickly removed a large pad, holding it to the wound and strapping it tight. "It's alright Rafa, we're here to get you to safety," he said gently, untying the blindfold and putting a finger to his lips, then removing the horrible gag. Amber: She took the gun and aim it at the head level where the door is Melquiades: Meanwhile, Melqui was looking back and forth between the handsome Iranian and the Filipino woman. He raised his arms as if surrendering. "Yeah, yeah. Ask any questions you have, I'm happy to answer, as long as I don't have to go back out there right away." Amber: (after reloading it) sd: "So how many of these men were there chasing you?" the Iranian asked Melqui with a hard edge in his voice. Two of the others - the big Arab man and the Filipino woman - moved close to him, ready to start some serious violence if he didn't talk fast. Bran: The bandage held but it was already staining red. "We have to go now," Bran explained to Rafa. "Out of the window but it's not far and there's a rope. Amber will you go first and help while I lower Rafa down?" Amber: Amber nodded quiickly as she went down the rope while keeping the gun in use Melquiades: "Three of them, maybe a fourth - hard to tell as there were others on the streets. They must have seen the delivery box and the way I was going..." As Melqui spoke, he was slowly moving - perhaps intimidated, or perhaps finding the best position to inevitably fight or escape. Bran: Bran quickly checked the young woman who he had drugged, then helped Rafa to the window, fastening the rope around her waist. He lifted her onto the sill and carefully began to lower her down to where Amber waited below. sd: "You're wasting my time. You should tell me who really sent you." When the Iranian spoke this time, Melqui felt the hairs on his arms rise. He knew the feeling well - he had felt it many times when channelling psychic power sd: they carefully lowered Rafa, who was trying to muffle her crying from fear and pain, and then they went back down into the street. glancing out, they could see that the door was still open a crack Bran: "Let's get her into the van. Melqui may need some help!" Bran said, putting Rafa's arm around his shoulder. Melquiades: Melqui looked into the man's eyes as he spoke. He sensed the mental intrusion, but rather than resisting, he let it flow into him, and spoke. "The girl's mother sent us. Kifah." He glanced up in the direction of the room where Rafa was being held, and when he looked back at the Iranian he was smiling. He cracked his knuckles. "So, shall we do this?" Bran: Bran pointed out where the van was. "Get in and lock the door. There's water if you need it. We'll settle this and be right with you." sd: Rafa gave a shuddering nod and got into the Tacnet, locking the door Bran: With great care Bran slipped another drugged dart into the blowgun and nodded to Amber. sd: "No, we won't do this," the Iranian man said. "We have the girl upstairs and she's under guard. SARINA!" he shouted up the stairs. "If you hear me shout again, shoot her in the head!" He paused as if waiting for a response. Melquiades: Melqui paused, putting a hand to his ear as if listening carefully. "Sarina? You up there?" He called with mock concern. Bran: Bran looked at Amber as they approached the door and heard the shout. He mimed throwing the door open. Amber: Once Amber made sure that the target is safe, she heaard that Meqlui is in trouble so Amber went over brusting through the door, "You Bastard" she yelled at Meqlui as she quickly approaching him looking really angry and put off by his appperance Amber: She pulled out the gun ready to fire the gun Bran: Bran had his blowpipe ready to his lips. Melquiades: Melqui glanced at the "intruders" as if suprised for a moment, then turned and spun his body, sweeping the Iranian's legs out from under him and then rising with a wicked looking steel blade in his hands. As the large Arabic man lunged toward him, he twisted aside from a fist at the last moment, plunging the blade into the man's chest and letting him collapse beside the Iranian. Bran: Seeing the big Arab fall, Bran sent a dart at the woman and she collapsed with a sigh. Amber: Amber targeted another of their enemies. She started at her target with no compassion in her eyes whatsoever. She fired the gun that was literated from Sarina into the another man, fully intenint to kill him sd: in just a few chaotic moments they had felled all of their opponents but the Iranian psyker, who lay at Melqui's feet. "You fucking corporate bastards!" he said, his hands up. His eyes were on the gun which he clearly recognised. "I surrender. If you can save either of my comrades, please do it. They're both worth a thousand of you!" sd: the Filipino woman gave a groan and tried to struggle to her feet - she was obviously hardier than she looked, and Bran's poison had not completely taken her down, but she was in no shape to fight. Bran: "I'll do my best," Bran said, hastening forward to examine the man Melqui had stabbed in the chest. "Because even kidnappers and murderers human, not for any other reason." Bran: *are human Amber: Amber looked confused for a moment as Brain rushed to help the wounded one and sighed as Bran rushed to help them. sd: the Iranian man looked like he wanted to rise to that remark, but seeing that Bran was tending to the dying men's wounds, he held his tongue. Bran: "They should survive," Bran said, cleaning his hands. "Now what do we do with this bunch?" Amber: Amber muttered to herself in Japanese. "Why leave our potential enemies alive? Sure it is better if we just burn the building down along with their bodies." before starting in English, "I don't like this. What if they come after us in the furture" Amber: Amber asked as she helped out Bran Bran: "It's an age-old problem," Bran sighed. "What to do with a defeated enemy. We need to know more about why they did this and who paid them anyway." sd: the psyker laughed. "I have a better question. So kidnappers and murderers are on your list of even they are human - that's very big of you, not that anyone was at much risk of dying here until you three showed up. Do you include slavers on your magnanimous list? I suppose you must since you work for one." Bran: "It would be good to know more, but there are two here who will die without further medical attention," Bran said. "And a girl with a bullet in her leg." He looked at the others. sd: Bran inspected the two men who had been shot and stabbed by Amber and Melqui, respectively - he'd done a good job of stitching them up, so they weren't imminently about to die, although in time they'd need more care than he could provide here. They tied up their prisoners and left Melqui watching them, heading out quickly to check on Rafa. She was still badly shaken and going a bit pale, but she had recovered enough to thank them when they came in the Tacnet. Bran: Bran checked the girl's wound again, now that they weren't in immediate danger. sd: Bran was able to clean the wound - it wasn't as bad as it had first appeared, though it would probably leave a scar - and had her bandaged up quickly before they returned back into the rented house. The Iranian psyker watched them coldly. "I can answer at least one of your questions immediately - no one is paying us. We're class fighters, not shadowrunners." Bran: Bran laughed. "D'you know we took the job with Kifah because it wasn't just one corp or dodgy organisation trying to score off another. So what were you trying to acheive by holding the girl here, all strung up." Melquiades: "Sorry to hear it," said Melqui. "Nuyen at least makes up a bit for the guilty conscience of doing this kind of thing. Though I guess ideology can make you feel better about it, too." sd: "Do you know what the conditions on the site that Kifah is 'procuring' workers for are? Enforced overtime, no safety checks to speak of, abusive overseers, and 'guest' workers who are brought over by slavers and have their passports stolen so they can't leave. I was going to force Kifah to tell me who she's made this deal with in exchange for her daughter, along with a few other concessions, but you've put shot to that now." The psyker put his head in his hands. "There's been thirty deaths at the al-Raed construction site so far, in six months. Quite a few suicides - which Kifah passes off as deaths from natural causes so that Arco doesn't get stuck with liabilities or investigations - and a few deaths from heatstroke in the early stages. There's going to be a lot more of those soon, far, far more. We were going to force them to give their workers actual contracts and a limit on the working day. Do you know what it's like to work fourteen, sixteen hours a day on a construction site in Saudi Arabia in June?" Bran: "No, but we can imagine." Bran frowned. "Has this been going on long or is it recent?" sd: "That depends on what you mean by this. This site has only existed for six months. This kind of site has existed for decades. Dubai and NEOM and all these vanity projects in the Gulf states are built on this kind of forced labour. The world has never given a shit. Before we were born they had a World Cup in Qatar and literally thousands of workers died for it. No one did anything. In the capitalist-imperialist system the lives of workers are worth little, the lives of Muslims worth very little, and the lives of Muslim workers are worth absolutely fucking nothing." Melquiades: "So you came up with this convoluted kidnapping plan, where you were lucky it was just Kifah hiring us to come after you, rather than corp enforcers. And you lost to us three - what were you going to do once you found the name of some Arco exec with greater security? With your abilities, you couldn't think of anything better?" Melqui shook his head. "All you did was traumatize some girl and her friends to eventually get yourselves killed." Bran: "That's terrible and it's wrong, but how will kidnapping one girl and forcing some concessions from her mother - which she'll no doubt go back on - make a difference?" Bran shook his head. "Even if you got the name of whoever Kifah is dealing with is there anything concrete you can do about it?" sd: "We knew Kifah wouldn't bring in corp enforcers - she can't let Arco know that this happened, because if they find out they'll fire her as a security risk. We could turn the screws on her only. Eventually she'd go back on it in all likelihood, but we could at least buy time. And there's a very concrete thing we could do about whoever it is she's working with." Bran: "You mean execute them?" Bran asked. sd: "Obviously." Melquiades: Melqui shrugged. "Well, you're lucky Kifah chose the one crew with a guy who seriously follows do no harm" he said, nodding at Bran. "Or at least, patch up the harm you do. We'll be taking the girl back, because she doesn't deserve this, and because we were paid to do a job. But I don't plan to work for Kifah again. Not when I'm getting paid less than by the bigger corporate assholes, anyway. If you ever figure out a plan that might actually do some good, and give a reasonable paycheck, maybe give us a call." Bran: Bran nodded. "What he said." He checked on the wounded and the woman again. "Sarina should also be ok, apart from feeling a bit hung-over." sd: The psyker looked nonplussed. "So you're going to let us go? Or I assume so, unless you wanted me to call you from a black site run by the House of Saud's mercenaries." Bran: For answer Bran came over and released the man's bonds. "You had good reason for doing what you did. We aren't being paid to work as unoffical police." Melquiades: Melqui nodded. "Just don't go after Rafa again, or anyone in her orbit. If you move against Kifah, do it with some subtlety, damnit. I don't want anything coming out saying we let some kidnappers go - I know your faces now, and some of your contacts, so we can make things hard for you that way if you cross us. And you really don't want to be our full-blown enemies. But yeah, I'm not gonna off some dumbasses trying to improve things, especially when that wasn't part of the contract. We'll leave you some info so you can get in contact with us indirectly, if it comes to it. And in case that happens - what should we call you?" sd: "I'm Nazim Nejad. We're a...well, a kind of union, except that organising unions in Saudi gets you fired and blacklisted, as I learned. I'm sure we can patch this over, it'll be easier to persuade the others since none of us died." Melquiades: "Maybe, maybe." Melqui nodded, not looking entirely convinced, and wrote a contact number for a burner phone on a slip of paper, leaving it by the Persian food. He stuck a cigarette in his mouth and lit it, still holding the gun in his other hand. "Glad we can part on better terms, eh? Adios, amigos."
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Post by sleepingdragon on Aug 7, 2021 16:08:03 GMT
sd: leaving behind Nazim Nejad and the rest of his crew, they returned to the Tacnet to find Rafa there. She was now stable despite the gunshot wound - she'd need some more long-term care in all likelihood, but she was safe for now. sd: as they drove Rafa to an arranged pickup point, Bran spoke to her for a while, probing about the unsavoury news they'd learned about her mother and exactly how much the girl knew. It became clear that Rafa was aware of the poor conditions at the al-Raed site - had seemingly already been aware even before she'd been kidnapped and held hostage in a bid to improve them. it was clear to them that this was part of the reason she'd been angry with her mother for some time, but that there were likely also personal reasons that she wouldn't speak of.
she was more forthcoming when talking about how she'd been abducted - when her friends had left her near the Line station, the psyker had implanted a suggestion in her mind, indicating that she'd dropped something down an alleyway (although once the psychic fog had cleared, she had realised she'd never been down that street at all). while trying to find what she'd supposedly dropped, two of the psyker's gang had overpowered her, put a gag in her mouth and a sack over her head, and then brought her down into a disused section of the Line's maintenance layer and along to the house where they'd been keeping her. she said her treatment had not been particularly bad - although she was quite hungry, because once she realised her captors were of a more idealistic nature, she had deliberately refused food in order to prick their consciences. Bran: Bran thought the girl was intelligent and observant. "Have you spoken to your mother about the issues that are bothering you?" he asked her as they drove. sd: "Yes," she said curtly. "Can we stay off this topic? I'd at least like to be able to sleep after being, you know, kidnapped and then shot." Bran: "Of course," Bran said in a mollifying tone. Amber: Amber nodded with agreement and said "No problem" She agreed with Bran sd: they dropped Rafa off and reported back to Kifah, who was extremely grateful although understandably concerned that her daughter had been shot during the rescue. they vaguely told Kifah that the kidnappers had escaped, but not without taking some significant injuries and that they wouldn't be likely to trouble Rafa again.
"They took me," Rafa then interjected acidly, "because you treat the people who work for you like shit. I hope the promotion is worth it." And, without awaiting a response, she went off to her room. Kifah's face showed no reaction. Amber: Amber watched Rafa as she went into her room and looked at back at Kifah without any expression on her face, "At least she is back home alive." She commented. "A successful result." She nodded at that. sd: "Yes, very successful, and thank you for doing this so quickly. I can't put in too many good words for you since I can't exactly tell many people what happened here but...well I suppose money will have to do hmm?" Kifah clearly had no interest in engaging with what her daughter had said, especially in front of her hired guns. Melquiades: "Yes, money will do," said Melqui expressionlessly. As they collected, he spoke once more. "Let me just add that if you ever hire anyone like us again, you'd best be more forthcoming about why you might have made enemies. I imagine I don't have to spell out the lesson here about making enemies in the first place. I wish your girl a speedy recovery." Bran: Bran nodded in agreement. sd: "I'll that take into consideration, but I trust I can rely on your discretion as well." sd: they headed home and relaxed for a time after a successful run. they worried they might have left a few more footprints than they might have wished to - Bran and Amber bursting through the front door with weapons armed had not nearly been as subtle as they might have liked, though it had only been for a moment and their weapons had been silenced - but if it attracted any attention from the local police they didn't hear anything about it. Amber spent some time over the next week searching online, deleting their digital trail.
three days after they returned from rescuing Rafa, all three of them woke in the night with a sense of dread and despair settling in their bones. The irrational feeling lasted for several hours, during which sleep was impossible - they could only sit upright, sweating in the Arabian heat, and relive past traumas, ruminating and wasting time thinking about paths they didn't take and were now lost in the mists of time. then the next night the same thing happened.
they were aware that there was, within the psychic realm, such a thing that was alternately called an 'echo' or an 'imprint' - a powerful and intense emotion felt by a psychic channeller, that had seeped into the psychic realm and was now inexplicably spewing forth into the material world. For whatever reason, this was now affecting their apartment.
Melqui had heard of such entities before, although he'd never before had to interact with one. He spent some time meditating, a process helped along liberally with some hallucinogenics he'd acquired, and waited for that time of night to come again. Eventually he saw it, from the corner of his eye, a dark shape. It looked like a man, hunched over in fear or despair, clutching a spectral head in its hands. When Melqui came closer, it shifted shape, flowing like a sentient oil spill, attempting to slide past him. Melqui didn't let it, and struck out with one powerful blow from his fist. When he struck the echo he felt an intense wave of horror and sadness wash over him for a single moment - and then dissipate. Melquiades: Melquiades spent the remainder of his time continuing to train and spending his newly earned nuyen frequenting the bars, restaurants, and hookah spots in the vicinity. He introduced himself to the regulars there as Marco Torres, a security consultant from Mexico, and told the occasional tall tale about the things he'd seen working in hotspots across the globe. More often though, he just listened, sipping a drink clinking with ice or languoring in sweetly flavored tobacco. He showed equal interest in the stories of the highly paid experts and the aching-bodied laborers, putting himself in their shoes for a time. After a few evenings of this, he appeared refreshed from the ordeals of their prior missions. Amber: Spending time with an information broker, she found some strange and odd theories about what might be causing that big explosion in the heart of the city. During her time, she also managed to finish learning on how to read and speak the local language giving her more advantages in seeing new information avaialable in Arabic online. Amber quite enjoyed that weird shit that happened earlier despite other's people reactions. As she managed to get a slienced gun from their last job, she worked with Bran to see whatever it is possible to make it much easier to hide and did some proper training with her gun, remember from her training when she was conscripted in Japanese Armed Forces.. Amber: EDIT: Eventually, she ran out of Nuyens and need to see if they can start look for another job Bran: Bran sought solace from the dark influence of the spirit and the tension of recent events in the only way he knew - moving from bar to bar, drinking on his own for a while, then with others. His mood lifted as he laughed, joked, told stories, played a game of chance after learning the rules in one bar, walked to the next with some woman draped around him. As the drinks kept coming he became reckless, as always - talking too loud and too freely - until someone took exception and the fight started. He arrived back at the apartment late the next day with a black eye, a bloody nose and skinned knuckles, went straight to his room and slept. Next day Bran was up early, his usual calm self. Bran: Having got that out of his system, Bran concentrated on improving useful skills. Despite assistance from Melqui he still wrestled rather hopelessly with the Arabic language. On the other hand when Amber requested him to modify the gun she had liberated from the kidnappers to make it more easy to hide, the work went smoothly and well. sd: about a week passed. they'd had several contacts about other jobs they could do, but had prioritised saving Rafa since it had seemed to be the most urgent. they then started looking into the other offers Leo had received. by this point the Beiwo megacorp had apparently passed their offer to another team, however Leo's friends at Firestone were still interested in hiring the group to strike at an abandoned Psionisis plant on the district outskirts to recover some cybernetic prototypes. Bran: "This time we should check everyone out beforehand," Bran said. "Whoever we work for, they'll never tell us the truth - forewarned is forearmed." Melquiades: "Indeed. At least in this case we know everyone involved is likely to be a bastard." Bran: Bran gave a short humourless laugh. Amber: Amber looked up at the mention of Psionsis plant, "Sound interesting and a chance to practise my aim as well." Bran: Bran grinned at Amber's comment. "Let's see what they've sent us," he said, opening a dossier. sd: Leo sent them an encrypted dossier which Amber effortlessly decoded - they preferred to avoid a face to face meeting, so they would have plausible deniability if everything went badly.
the currently unused plant was on the southeastern edge of the district, only metres away from the invisible line that demaracted NEOM, with its more liberal legal and political systems, from the rest of the Islamic kingdom. It had been unused for the last few months, owing to a bitter legal dispute between the primary owner, an American businessman of Swedish descent called Magnus Ostfeld, and his former business partner, Prince Abdul bin Abdallah, a junior member of the House of Saud.
prior to the shutdown, Ostfeld Enterprises had clearly engaged in some corporate espionage, stealing some plans for cybernetic prototypes from an unknown rival megacorp. unlike the majority of cybernetics, which were entirely products of machinery, these experimental implants were powered by the psychic energy Psionisis.
Magnus Ostfeld was, by most accounts, an incredibly corrupt and egomaniacal entrepreneur. He had inherited his wealth from his father, a real estate developer, and although the younger Ostfeld was very good at getting his face on television he was reported to have less money today than he did when he made his inheritance. he was continually around the edges of the news for various affairs or connections with criminal figures. Firestone had connections with one of these, who they prudently didn't name, and it was from them that they'd learned of the prototypes.
for the last six weeks or so, the abandoned site had been squatted by a team of perhaps a dozen men, most of whom were ex-Deslauriers security. it wasn't clear why the men were there, although Firestone suspected that they were hired by either Ostfeld or Prince Abdul. they did, at least, know that the leader of this group was a man called Guy Montagnard, a French mercenary turned police officer. Deslauriers had recently been forced to let him go after a string of allegations of sexual assault - although several of the women involved had recanted under threat of violence, a few had pressed on and Deslauriers had decided to let Montagnard go rather than deal with the public relations issue. Bran: "He sounds like a lovely fellah," Bran said with a grimace. "Do they have plans of this place, any detail to help us?" sd: the dossier had a layout of the plant - a round white industrial building about the size of a city block, surrounded by a chain link fence topped with barbed wire. it had three entrances - two main entrances which faced Primazon.com, and a larger entrance for vehicles which faced south, towards the rest of Saudi. Melquiades: Melqui mulled over what they'd learned. "This one will be tricky. We'll need to figure out where these prototypes are being kept, and figure out how to avoid or deal with that many men. I doubt they're going to be easily conned into letting us in." sd: the dossier referenced that the research laboratories were underneath the main building - the prototypes were presumably there, though precisely where was still unknown. Bran: Bran stared at the plan, looking for lights, cameras, motion sensors and points of access. Amber: Amber like Bran was considering looking for any visisble singals from the area as well. Amber: "If this building was abandoned, then the fence may degrade enough to have gaps to sneak through prehaps" Amber: EDIT: Wireless signals sd: they spent an evening examining the plan carefully, making notes of where there were cameras and motion sensors and what routes they could take to avoid these. the front entrance would presumably be the most heavily guarded - a more logical entrance would seem to be at the rear, near the vehicle gate, where there were a number of unloading bays, some of which adjoined the main facility itself. of course, they couldn't fully plan an approach without an idea of how the squatting mercenaries were holding the building, as they might well have blocked off certain entrances or moved cameras. Bran: "We could do with scanners that picked up sound, movement or heat through walls," Bran said. "Can send the drone over." Amber: Amber replied postively, "Worth a try, especially at the behind."
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Post by sleepingdragon on Aug 21, 2021 17:41:25 GMT
sd: they'd studied the layout of the Psionisis plant carefully, determining an angle of approach and making note of where the dossier had indicated there were security cameras. they had thought the most logical entry point would be the rear entrance, which had previously been a supply entrance for vehicles, however they couldn't be certain without looking at the site live, or at least through the drone - the squatters might, after all, have moved some of the cameras or closed off certain doors. Bran: Bran prepared the drone and the TacNet for scoping out the plant. sd: they sent the Tacnet nearby, and Bran operated the drone remotely, flying it delicately and carefully to make sure no one that might be on guard might spot it. Bran had a specialised joystick which had come with the drone for this kind of work - he was glad he'd put in a lot of practise playing some of the innumerable stealth-based video games which had been released throughout the 2070s, allowing players to take innumerable roles of US military operatives or spies during the Second Cold War - he had even illictly obtained a few of the analogous games that had been released in the Eastern bloc, hidden behind the Great Firewall or barred from Western publication by the Suppression of Communism Act, which had almost identical gameplay but instead featured heroic agents of the People's Liberation Army.
the drone made several wide circuits of the plant, then carefully moved in for a closer look. it was clear that the squatters had men on lookout at all times. there were two main lookout points, and each had one person there at all times, armed with a rifle and keeping watch for anyone that might dare to approach the plant. one was stood atop a small platform overlooking the two main gates, which was where the workers had entered when the site was still active. another was up on the roof and looked out over the back towards the vehicle entrance. from the footage obtained through the drone it was clear that the squatters had realised this back entrance might be trickier to guard - they had blocked certain areas off with tape or wooden barricades to slow any potential intruders, and they had also obviously repositioned several of the cameras to have better angles of view. the unloading bays had all been locked with heavy padlocks, though these could at least theoretically be picked by someone skilled enough. sd: as it watched, the drone saw the moments where the guards were switched over - it seemed that their shifts were about four hours long, and continued even into the late hours of the night, when the guard on the roof, who had been looking out over the spotlit concrete, was relieved by an armed woman who had clambered up from a stairwell leading into the plant itself. Bran: Bran frowned as he thought of how they could get past the heavy protection. "Could you maybe hack into the cameras?" he asked Amber. Amber: Amber considered Bran's question carefully sd: assuming the cameras were connected wirelessly, which was standard, then it was certain Amber could try to do this - of course if she switched the camera off for long this might be noticed, or her attempt might fail and, if anyone within the plant was watching the camera system then the hack attempt could be detected. Amber: Amber replied. "I can give it a go but if I don't do it carefully enough, they might find out that I tried or even noticed that the camera is not working properly. The best thing I can come up is to freeze the image on the cameras and hopefully we get there. There is still a risk of someone finding out that we did try to hack the cameras" Bran: "We need the time to get from the fence to those loading bays. At least there we can be under cover." Bran said, wondering how quickly they could cover the open ground. sd: they examined the dossier again and laid out a plan. they'd approach the back gate, which had an access point Amber was confident she could hack, and then she would disable one of the security cameras to allow them to dart across the spotlit yard and towards an unloading bay that was positioned almost directly below the rooftop lookout, in a complete blindspot. they'd approach under cover of night, and time their entry to coincide with when the lookouts changed - this would allow them to take advantage of the fatigue of the old lookout and the distraction of the new one.
since they wanted to approach at night, they had to wait most of the day, which gave Amber plenty of time to spoof them guest passes and allow access to the rear gate - with a quick hack she also ensured that any automated logging service would show as if the entry had actually happened six months ago, when the plant was still active, rather than showing entry now which would be suspicious if anyone happened to look.
the first part of their plan went very smoothly. they dressed in black and crept around the back, using Amber's phone to guide them and ensure they didn't accidentally stray outside the boundaries of NEOM - certainly Amber's attire was not what would be expected of a woman under the strict Wahhabist legal code that prevailed in the rest of the Kingdom. about five minutes before the guards were due to change, they opened the rear gate with their spoofed access cards and crept in very carefully, making sure to only open it very slightly so it wouldn't be visible from above. they darted through at high speed, since that area was lit particularly brightly, and then sped towards their chosen unloading bay. as they moved, Amber used her phone to hack the only security camera that had sight of them. they kept low to the ground, using the barricades the mercenaries had used to shield them, and picked their way across the yard. even late at night it was still very hot.
they'd crossed about half the distance they needed to when something went wrong. Amber kept an eye on her phone to ensure that the camera remained hacked, however as they took a quick breather she saw signs on the system that someone was investigating. She didn't think they were actually looking directly at the hacked camera - more likely they were simply performing a general sweep - but she realised that if she didn't abandon ship and disconnect her device from the plant's systems, then they'd notice the illicit access and this would give them away. alerting the others, she hastily ended her hack and disconnected from the security system, covering her tracks - but now the camera was active again. sd: the spotlights in the yard moved, but their movements were automated at set intervals and were quite predictable as long as they weren't being manually operated. they knew they were going to move soon and would alight on their position, so they had no choice but to keep moving. they thought that if they stuck to one side, they could approach their chosen unloading bay, wait for the spotlights to move to the right place, and then dart under the security camera and temporarily disable it while they unlocked the door. they crept around, ducking under a barricade and ghosting towards the plant.
unfortunately in their haste they misremembered the exact layout of the cameras and motion sensors - instead of keeping away from them, they had instead moved almost directly into one of the sensors before Melqui realised it lay ahead of them. they backtracked, but now they had only a few moments before the spotlights moved again and they would be completely visible to the sniper on the roof. they had only a brief window of opportunity - the security camera was currently angled away from them, but it would turn soon. they had no choice but to dart for the bay with as much speed as they could and pray that the tired guard didn't hear them. sd: they threw caution to the wind and sprinted hard, darting out just ahead of the spotlight moving to the space they'd occupied moments before. their movements were rapid and fluid, so they neither collided with any of the barricades that had been left, nor made any scuffing noises that might otherwise have given them away. with one final burst of movement they ducked under some crime scene tape that Montagnard had presumably stolen from his previous employers and pressed themselves up against the concrete wall of their chosen unloading bay, in the security camera's blind spot. the door to the unloading bay's adjoining office had been fitted with a padlock to prevent entry, and the step in front of it was always within the camera's field of view - they'd need one of them to disable it while another worked the lock. Amber: Amber focused on the camera to disable while praying to gods that it work Bran: Bran took a deep breath and flexed his fingers, uttering a silent prayer to the old Irish gods and any other spirits to look kindly on his efforts. He started work on the padlock. sd: the lock was harder work than Bran had hoped, and Amber was acutely conscious that there was someone actively monitoring the network and therefore her intrusion would be noticed if it lasted too long - therefore they had to break off halfway, have a rest, and then start again after an interval. the second attempt was more successful, and this time Bran managed to work the lock and they made their way into the little office. once they'd slipped in, Bran put the padlock back in place and carefully closed the door. The padlock remained unlocked, but this wouldn't be obvious to anyone looking through a camera unless they had incredibly sharp eyes. Amber ended her hack on the camera and again disconnected herself to avoid detection. Amber: Amber sighed with a hint of relief but still on the edge about the potential danger ahead, Bran: Bran breathed out, wiping a hand accross his forehead. "That was a wee bit hairy," he muttered. sd: they were in a small rectangular office, with a large glass window on the left-hand side which looked out into an empty unloading bay. there was a little desk there and a computer which appeared to have been off for months. out in the bay they could see many crates which were scribed with glyphs. Psionisis crystals that were produced at plants like these were notoriously volatile and, if subjected to sudden jolts or movements, had been known to release mutagens or even explode. they were kept in specialised containers to reduce the risk here, though some particularly greedy corps had been known to cut corners on such things before if they could get away with it (which they often could.)
directly opposite them was another door which led into the plant proper. they knew there were three ways down into the research labs. there were elevators, which according to the blueprints they'd seen, would be off to the right once they went through the door, near the main workstations that had been used when the plant was still active. there were two others off to the left - a main stairwell, which was near the plant's cafeteria, and beyond that, not far from the main entrance, there was another staircase which was intended to be used for emergency fire escape. it was difficult to tell where, precisely, the squatters might have positioned themselves - although given that the guard on the roof was about to change, they might be able to spot them coming back down if they were careful enough. sd: Amber quickly scanned to see what devices were online - if she could trace where they were, then this would give her an indication of where the squatting mercenaries were. she could only scan quickly and get a very vague sense, given the continued surveillance that was going on - she thought that the majority of the devices (probably phones) were located in or near the cafeteria, but there was another cluster over near the workstations. Amber: Frowning for a moment, Amber told the others, "Very hard to find anything these day but it seems that there are some in and around the cateteria and more over by the workstations!" sd: thinking for a moment, she concluded that wherever anyone else may be, the workstations were the likely location of whatever annoying person was monitoring the security network - it's not as if there were usually sophisticated computers in a cafeteria sd: Melqui opened the door a tiny crack and they all looked out. from the drone footage they knew whereabouts the opening to the roof was - and it was a good thing, as the man had just clambered down the staircase and was now on a metallic walkway one storey up and about forty feet in front of them. He was a lanky man with blond hair in his early 40s, and they would have known he wasn't from the Middle East even before they noticed the patch on the left shoulder of his leather jacket, which was an American flag set with insignia which indicated an Army unit he'd presumably once been part of. They couldn't spot the dates, but from some mental arithmetic, if he'd signed up he would have been in the Army in the last years of the Second Cold War, before the United States was forced to withdraw its forces from the Middle East after the Chinese checkmated them with the unveiling of their nuclear defence system. the man didn't have a rifle with him - presumably they simply swapped this between whoever was on lookout - but he was still packing heat, with a bit of a pistol grip being visible sticking out of a pocket.
he waved down at someone they couldn't see, but could tell was obviously located over near the elevators to the research lab, and then clambered down a short set of steps and headed for the cafeteria. Another man came out to greet him and they spoke for a few minutes, the second man shuffling a pack of cards absent-mindedly as they did. the blond man mimed a playful punch at the other's head which he easily dodged, then they both headed for tables inside the cafeteria, beyond their sight. Amber: Amber made a start of quickly moving their away toward the ememrgency exit sd: they ghosted across with ease - there was a side passage which took them through a secondary work area, with just a few workstations, and there were only a few security cameras there that they had to bypass. they glanced into the workstations in curiosity as they went, as none of them had been in a Psionisis plant before.
work in a Psionisis plant was notoriously hazardous and boring, and almost always resulted in psychic burnout if not mutation, but with few opportunities for advancement many poor young people took it nonetheless, sacrificing any potential development of their psychic abilities for cold cash. Psionisis crystals were created by continuously channelling a trickle of psychic energy into a metal and glass receptacle, generally slightly smaller than a human fist, which was creatively referred to as a psi-chamber. the interior of the psi-chamber could be set with moulds to force the crystals into certain shapes useful for the refining process. the interior of the chamber was also typically set with small retractable cutting devices, operated by the crystal-shaper, which allowed the crystals to be scored or shaped for particular purposes - there were various standardised machinery which called for different shapes and patterns. the primary usage of the crystals was in 'climactic reconditioning', to reverse and repair some of the damage that had been done to the environment due to the failures to reduce carbon emissions in the late 20th and early 21st century, when the most devastating effects of climate change could have still been prevented
it took several hours of continuous channelling to create a crystal, during which time it remained in a latent state which was extremely volatile and required constant monitoring. since crystals that were created by multiple shapers were notedly inferior in quality and produced less energy, each crystal-shaper was required to monitor their own crystals continuously. since you could neither predict how long it would take for the crystal to fully form, nor could you leave it unmonitored for any length of time, this meant that a day in the life of a crystal shaper could be both extremely boring and incredibly uncomfortable. almost every shaper regularly relieved themselves at their work stations, and their shifts were of wildly irregular length and generally only ended when they finished their final crystal for the day, even if this meant staying several hours beyond their nominal end time.
passing the work stations, they peered quickly into the cafeteria - there were four people in there altogether, two of whom were the pair they'd spotted earlier, now playing cards in a corner - and then passed into a large hallway lit by electric blue strip lights set into the floor. there was a small metal door off to their right which was marked with emergency fire symbols. sd: as with most emergency exits, the door was alarmed as it wasn't supposed to be opened other than in an emergency. while Amber and Bran dealt with this, Melqui peered into the dark stairwell and noticed that the squatters had set up their own 'alarm' - presumably anticipating that someone might try to get access here, they had rigged up a shotgun in a dark corner, overlooking the door, and a tripwire ran up and to the trigger where it would squeeze. now that he'd spotted it, though, it would be trivial for them to step over it, or disarm it if they chose sd: thinking that it was safest not to leave a loaded gun behind them that they might trip over if they had to flee in a hurry, Bran was able to safely cut the wire and then, with a boost from Melqui, managed to reach up and pull the gun down. it only had one shell in it, but it could come in handy in a pinch, or if not they could bring it home and add it to their trophies. this accomplished, they took a breath, and then continued down into the laboratory.
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Post by sleepingdragon on Aug 22, 2021 17:45:45 GMT
sd: they disabled the trap they'd found, took the loaded gun, and then headed down the stairs and into the main laboratory. they came out into a long corridor that ran off to their left and right, each of which curved off in the direction they were facing. there were security cameras at each end of the corridor, facing them.
almost directly ahead of them they could see a kind of control chamber through a glass panel. there was no entrance on this side, but there appeared to be a door directly opposite them, which was presumably accessed from elsewhere in the corridor. the control chamber was lit from above by an eerie electric green light. there were many computer screens and terminals within, although the great majority of them were off. there were many thick wires running along the floor of the chamber, and a thick mechanical arm descended from the ceiling, powered by Psionisis crystals which were set within its shell. Amber: Amber eyed the mechanical arm with a wary looks if she expects it to launch itself through the windows. She eyed the cameras carefully, consideirng how to short it out Amber: sort them* sd: staying at the edge of the staircase, shielded from the security cameras, Amber and Bran put their heads together and worked out how to subtly scramble the image, though it took longer than they'd have liked. it'd give them protection now - only someone who looked very closely would notice the distortion in the moment - but later on they thought someone might be able to undo their work and spot them as they went past. that, however, was a problem for another time. with the cameras scrambled and no door into the control chamber from here, they faced a simple dilemma - to take the left-hand path, or the right? Bran: "I reckon we always tend to the left rather than the right," Bran said with a grin. "Let's go that way." Amber: Amber stopped short of pulling the blueprints up before realising that it is likely not have this place on the map. She nodded at Bran, "Might as well. I don't think the blueprints is up to date anyway. Melquiades: Melqui nodded and moved purposefully toward the left with the others in tow. You whisper to Melquiades: as they reached the end of the corridor, Melqui was about to round the corner when he tensed and heard a low, mechanical noise. It was a sound he recognised from many old runs - the low thrum of a patrolling combat drone. He had nearly stepped out into its view. Taking a peek, he saw that it was a pretty standard model Hiromishi SecuriBot. It moved on runners that glided along the ground, had an oval shaped body about the size of a young teenager, and had two 'arms'. This model was obviously equipped for close quarters action - seemingly the owners of the place didn't want to risk a bot that might fire a gun near their expensive and sensitive equipment. Usually this kind of bot had some kind of stun attack like a taser, and another simple heavy strike, although Melqui couldn't be sure as its 'arms' were currently retraced into its body. There was a red light like an eye near the centre of its 'head' on the side facing them, but Melqui knew this kind of model usually had eyes on all four sides for superior monitoring. He'd need to watch it to see what areas it was patrolling. Melquiades: Melqui held up a hand as the reached the end of the corridor, craning his neck. He glanced back at the others and mouthed a word: "Drone." Bran: Bran used a gesture to ask if it was coming their way. Melquiades: Melqui traced a line in the air, indicating that it looked to be patrolling, but shrugged as he wasn't yet entirely sure of its route. Bran: Bran pulled back his coat, drew a device from the utility belt he wore and pointed it in the direction of the drone. sd: the spatial scanner that Bran had retrieved made it much easier for them to monitor the drone from a distance, although they still needed to follow it a little to observe its route. it was a pretty standard model Hiromishi SecuriBot. It moved on runners that glided along the ground, had an oval shaped body about the size of a young teenager, and had two 'arms'. This model was obviously equipped for close quarters action - seemingly the owners of the place didn't want to risk a bot that might fire a gun near their expensive and sensitive equipment. Usually this kind of bot had some kind of stun attack like a taser, and another simple heavy strike, although they couldn't be sure as the 'arms' were currently retracted into its body. There was a red light like an eye near the centre of its 'head' on the side facing them, but this kind of model usually had eyes on all four sides for superior monitoring
it was patrolling the upper half of the left-hand corridor, then turning right and curling back towards where they had seen the entrance to the control chamber through the glass. actually getting in the chamber without alerting it would be a chore - they'd have to time any picking of locks or hacking of access panels to coincide with when it had turned back down this corridor. Or they could simply disable it somehow. at the end of the corridor, they noticed that as well as curling back to the right, towards the control chamber, there was a side passage to the left, which appeared to curl back down and run parallel to the corridor they currently stood in. Amber: Amber was interested to see a drone so common in use back in Japan for "live action training". She considered an option for a moment. Amber: Interested to see if other side got the same type of drone, she went over to other side very carefully, paying close attention to same old hum of the drones, Bran: Bran came after her, scanner at the ready sd: they headed across to the right-hand corridor and waited carefully. Bran's scanner didn't indicate anything other than the drone they'd already found on the other side, and after a time Melqui poked his head around the corner and watched for a time. there was no movement at all - this corridor didn't appear to have any kind of drone patrolling it. Like the left-hand path, this also seemed to have a side passage that curled back around and ran parallel to them. Bran: Bran found it puzzling that the lack of a drone on this side would leave the door unguarded at times. Could there be something else installed here. sd: they looked up and down the corridor. Melqui and Amber, who took a few steps along, both thought they had spotted something and wanted a closer look, and only just in time they stopped before inadvertently blundering into a tripwire underfoot about a quarter away along the corridor. Someone had hidden a small duffel bag in a little compartment above, which the tripwire would cause to pull open and spill out the contents - they didn't know what they were, but they very seriously doubted it was confetti and birthday cake. Bran: When they indicated it to Bran, he stared at the thing. It seemed rather primitive compared to a drone. Amber: Amber sighed with a hint of relief on the verge of getting blown apart. "Such a surprise!" She stepped over the line but keep a close eye for any other potential traps. Bran: With great care Bran followed her over, his eyes darting about for any more nasty presents. sd: they headed down the corridor and reached the end, using the spatial scanner to make sure they turned the corner when the SecuriBot wouldn't be able to see them. The side passage off to their right led down to a series of small chambers with heavy doors which they couldn't look into - there were eight of them all the way down the length of the place. At the very end of the side passage was an elevator, which they knew led up close to the spot where Amber thought whoever it was that the squatters had doing network security was stationed.
Meanwhile, off to their left was the corridor leading to the control chamber. The control chamber had a thick door with a mechanical lock and a camera directly overhead, looking down at the door. they'd need to defeat both the camera and the lock to gain entry, and as soon as they stepped out to do it they'd be on the clock - take too long, and the drone would come round the corner and spot them. if they wanted to make a move for it, they'd need to time it very carefully and make every second count. Bran: Silently Bran indicated to Amber "You do the camera, I'll deal with the lock." Bran: Bran passed his scanner to Melqui to use. Bran: Silently he unrolled a small kit and held it ready for when they moved to the door. Amber: Amber made a start on the camera quickly with her device and started open her favouities totally illegal apps on the device. After a moment however, her face slowly was frowing as she found it more difficult to do. "Cannot do it in time" She quickly said as she disconnected from the camera and retreated from the door to avoid that drone's daze Bran: Bran skipped back with her and waited, heart thudding, while Melqui watched the progress of the drone on the scanner. Bran: When it had passed out of sight, they made their way swiftly back to the door. This time Amber, with some help from Melqui, nodded to Bran in confirmation that the camera was out of action. He rapidly selected the right lockpick and got to work. The lock clicked open, but in withdrawing the lockpick Bran felt the end snap, and he swore silently. sd: they managed to open the door and slip into the control chamber. they closed the door just in time as the patrolling drone came round the corner, oblivious to their entry.
the terminals here were all but certainly the place to look for any sign of where exactly the prototypes were being stored - it seemed likely to them that the small chambers in the side passage might be the place, but they thought it was likely that trying to find a specific location would be speedier and bring less risk of discovery than trying to tear through eight different storage rooms. they might also be able to access some research notes with any luck Bran: Bran straightened his black mask and peered around the room, wondering where to start. "We should check out the unopen terminals. You reckon the others are connected to the goons upstairs?" sd: Amber turned on one of the terminals and went straight to work. there was a database which she ran several automated searches on to find an indication of where any valuable prototypes might be, while elsewhere was a partitioned drive which she thought might have research notes. there was no way they had the time to study these now, but they could read them afterwards and it was possible someone in a related field might want to buy them if they had interesting findings. Amber felt her skin tingling - something in her gut told her they were on the edge of something bad happening and that they needed to get those prototypes now and then get out. she worked at great haste. the files she found indicated that most of the prototypes, which were referred to using the absurd portmanteau of 'psibernetics', were of an experimental type. cybernetic enhancement was known to dampen and weaken the psychic ability of anyone who was so enhanced - these prototypes were meant to counteract this by using specialised Psionisis crystals which the implantee repeatedly channelled into. the majority of the prototypes had apparently been duds - indeed, far from working, they seemed to actually increase the risk of mutation associated with prolonged exposure to Psionisis. however, there were a few - mostly eye-implants, and one cyberarm implant - that were promising, and these were located in three separate chambers down the side passage near the elevator.
as she hastily read this, she also downloaded the research notes to her mobile, although she did this so quickly she wasn't sure she'd got everything. Melquiades: "You got 'em, Amber?" said Melqui, glancing back toward the doorway. "Time to grab what we came for." Bran: Bran had waited nearby ready to assist but Amber ignored him. He folded his picks away carefully and then slid a dart into the blowgun and held it ready as he moved to join Melqui at the door, taking the scanner from him. sd: using the scanner, they determined when the drone would be in the wrong place, then slipped out and headed back down the side passage. the small chambers here were locked and the notes Amber had found indicated the things they wanted were in three different chambers, but at least there were three of them and once they had the doors open they could grab them quickly. Bran: Bran examined the locks and brought his picks out again. There wasn't time to do this delicate work on all of the doors, and in his rush to get one open he nearly wrenched his wrist. Melquiades: Melqui watched Bran work subtly, but realized they wouldn't have time for him to open all the doors that way. He looked to Amber, nodded, and went to work on another door, kicking at it with impressive force to weaken it before giving it a final charge and knocking it open. Melquiades is disconnected. Amber: Amber focused on one of the doors and looked at it. Rather than wasting time to open the door, she went back slightly, quickly looked a tthe door and charged at it with using training from her military time. She managed to went through the door although her shoulder was feeling sorer but thankfully, she was wearing some armour that managed to reduce the strained shoulder's issue Bran: Bran looked around the room he had entered, scanning the objects stored there. With a sigh he realised that rather than the eyes, which could have been slipped into a pocket, he was faced with a human sized arm. Or, rather, the skeleton of a cyberarm, wiring attached, and a solid panel containing an extraordinary oblong Psionisis crystal. To make matters even more awkward, it was held in a long ungainly case with a clear window, so that it would be hard to hide and even harder to explain away if spotted. Bran looked at the crystal warily, then he hefted the case and carried it out to the corridor. sd: the other two managed to get the eyes, which were also in prototype form and thus not as solid as a full cybereye - they were delicate as eggshells and had been tightly packed in small protective boxes which had identifying barcodes which Amber had located while she was on the terminals in the control centre. They had what they'd come for and now they just needed to get out in one piece. they could go back to the emergency fire exit which they'd entered through, but this would mean slipping past the drone - alternately they could take the elevator which was right next to them, although this went up to an exposed area and they might be spotted if they did Bran: Bran indicated they could use the scanner again, and slip back the way they had come. Amber: Ambr paid the attention to whomever got the scanner and after loading her precious goods, she is ready to move out once the drone is away. However, she is also ready to use her gun which was crated by Bran just in case this building get really hot sd: they slipped past the drone, the still scrambled cameras, and back out into the fire exit where they'd previously disarmed the rigged up gun that had been left there. As they began to ascend the stairwell, their hackles rose. There was a dreadful tension and as they climbed they suddenly realised they could smell blood in the air. Amber: Amber went tense at this familiar smell of blood again, she held her gun, ready to shoot any enemies that stood in their way Bran: Bran put the scanner away and drew his blowgun. sd: Melqui drew his blade and they carefully moved for the hallway. He opened the door a crack and looked down.
at the end of the main corridor heading to the plant's entrance, back in the direction of the cafeteria, they saw the man they'd spotted earlier with the American flag patch on his leather jacket, who'd been on watch on the roof when they slipped in. he was trying to crawl towards the main entrance on a badly twisted leg, and blood was pouring from his face. before he could get far, another man came up behind him.
This new arrival was built like a truck. His arms must have been very muscular when he'd still had ones made of flesh. The ones he owned now were made of black metal, and he reached out and plucked the ex-Deslauriers man from the ground as easily as a cat picking up a mouse it's tortured near to death. He turned and slammed the man against the wall - and, very fortunately, when he did so, he turned his back to the passage.
Melqui knew an opening when he spotted one. He gestured to the others and with as much haste as they can they sped out - from the sounds of fighting elsewhere, trying to go back the way they'd originally entered the plant would end very badly indeed. As they went, they heard the man with the cyberarms speak to his victim.
"Did you think Prince Abdul was going to let you just squat here forever? You don't fuck with the House of Saud in NEOM. We get the prototypes, and Abdul gets your bodies to send to Ostfeld. Maybe next we can get the Prince his body, who knows?" His English was heavily accented in Arabic. "Certainly you won't get to know." There was a horrendous wrenching noise, and then a thud. As they slipped through the main entrance, they stole a glance back over their shoulder and saw the guard lying on the floor, his mouth open wide...very...very wide. His lower jaw had been torn straight off his face and hung on by only a gory strand of flesh. The man with the cyberarm didn't turn in time to see them make their escape. Amber: Amber mentally started swearing to herslef as they fled from this damned place quickly as posisble bvackj to the TacNet van and home asap! Bran: As they fell into the van, Bran slid the damned arm into the back and turned round with a huge breath of relief. He removed his mask and wiped his face with it. "That was... too close for comfort." Amber: Amber ageed with that! "Better to keep our heads down for a while I thinK" sd: there was little doubt that the man with the cyberarms and his compatriots would be extremely displeased when they found their prize was gone just ahead of them, but close or not, they'd entered and left without detection and this would, they hoped, mean that any pursuit would be in vain. at least now they knew they'd need to keep a look out over their shoulders. they would keep a low profile for a while, but soon enough they'd be sneaking through the night streets of the dark city of NEOM again, beneath the sweltering heat and the neon Lineside lights.
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Post by sleepingdragon on Sept 4, 2021 17:48:22 GMT
sd: they enjoyed a few days to rest and recuperate after narrowly escaping with the cybernetic prototypes, and avoiding notice from the man with the cyberarms who they'd seen killing one of Montagnard's crew at the end of the infiltration. they assumed from the sounds of fighting and from the things he'd said that the man hadn't been alone, so they'd have to keep an eye over their shoulder now. Although they'd worn masks to hide their identitites, and they had passed the prototypes to Firestone, they guessed that cyberarms-man and his crew had been less than pleased about finding they'd been beaten to their prize. And from what he'd said, they'd been in the employ of one of the House of Saud, which made them very dangerous indeed. Melquiades: Melquiades spent his time continuing to hone his skills, tirelessly going over each moment of their previous operations to determine how best to improve his performance. Multiple times he expressed a particular fascination with the man with the cyberarms, and being prepared if they ever faced each other. This interest seemed to go beyond ordinary professional caution, however - their discovery of cybernetics with links to psychic powers was a surprise to him. He knew his own abilities as an adept made him more dangerous in close combat than anyone he'd ever met who was un-augmented; these cybernetics were perhaps even more of a game-changer. Amber: Amber spent some time meeting her dealers in secret epistemology which relax her a little after such a close shave with their potential enemies. The fact their enemies just basically smashed through the door without any care in the wordl suggest they are quite strong and well backed. Indeed, as she understand, the fact it is one of the ruling class in this godforaken lands doesn't help either. Still, she spent few days focusing on improving her black ops skills further. Ulimately though, she helped out in a research to find whomever that is may be after them. Still, she is ready for her next job and still slightly wore out from the last job. Bran: On the first evening that they had time to themselves, Bran appeared in what he called his 'going out clothes' and left the flat. By next morning he had returned, though he only rose about noon, still looking somewhat the worse for wear, and with a bruise on one cheekbone. From the way he favoured one arm, it seemed that was not the only injury, but Bran said nothing in explanation. After that day his energy and good temper returned and he threw himself into several projects. His efforts with learning Arabic paid off, and he was able to converse with local people, many of whom struggled with ill health for which they could not afford treatment or insurance. With advice from some of the locals Bran put his training to good use, setting up a small free clinic, and gained the trust of the people he treated. In return he increased his confidence and ability to communicate, and even to influence others. sd: Amber reached out to Leo for help with looking into who the man with the cyberarms might be, and their fixer agreed - considering he had reason to come after both them and Leo's friends at Firestone who'd been responsible for the run in the first place, he thought it was best to help. A few days search eventually turned up an image of the man, standing in the background of a metal gig that had been held in Primazon.com district just a few weeks ago. Although he wasn't identified, it was very clearly the same man, and it didn't take much effort to find out exactly where the gig had taken place, who'd been playing, and who the organisers were. Before they could take this further, however, Leo got two offers of work, in quick succession, both from clients who wanted the party to work immediately.
the first was another local gang, the Black Circle. they'd discovered that one of the strongest crews in the district, the Street Sweepers, had got their hands on some Psionisis crystals with interesting and potentially hazardous mutagenic effects. they wanted to hire the three of them to find out where the crystals were being held and steal them for the Circle.
the second offer came from a corporate client. Episoft, an American firm, were unhappy that their rivals at Beiwo had beaten them repeatedly to public contracts of late, and they believed this had only happened because Beiwo was using corrupt links to the House of Saud and bribery. Episoft wanted to turn the tables on their rival. Beiwo was holding a gala event to celebrate their latest success, and this meant that their headquarters in their own district might be more vulnerable than otherwise. They wanted the party to access a junior executive's terminal, and with this, insert several embarrassing admissions into their internal reports. Episoft would then use these to help in a court case they had planned. Bran: "The Episoft job seems more worthwhile," Bran said thoughtfully as they looked at the details. "And we know Beiwo are notable shitehawks. Would be grand to see them brought down a peg." Amber: Amber considered the options, "I like them both but I am more worried about angering one of the strongest crews in the area, They would almost find us much easier. So I would go for this Episoft job" She replied Melquiades: Melqui shrugged. "I'm more comfortable dealing with gangs than corps. And I'd rather find out more about these Psionisis crystals personally. But I suppose we can investigate that separately. I'm just happy to make the nuyen." Bran: "We could look into the crystals once we've done this job?" Bran suggested. Melquiades: Melqui nodded. "Yes. Once we've figured out more about our cybernetically enhanced friend." Amber: Amber smiled slightly, "Not a problem then, Crystals eventually as well" Bran: Bran grinned. "We could work on cybernetic arms too" Amber: Nodding thoughtfully, "We need to balance the odds somehow" She agreed with Bran. "I like a challenge as well!" sd: deciding to take the second job, Leo reached out to Episoft and, on the morning of 9 April 2084, they arranged to meet with one of Episoft's representatives at al-Tayir. as normal, Leo arranged for them to have the back room entirely to themselves, so no one would interfere.
the Episoft representative was a man called Andrew Martin, a freelance public relations consultant currently working for the firm. They weren't surprised to be sent a freelancer - corps often used consultants for this kind of work, to provide them with plausible deniability if everything went badly. Martin was in his late 30s, was clean shaven, and wore a red tie and dark business suit that smelled faintly of some kind of raspberry flavoured e-liquid. He already had some flecks of grey in his short dark hair. He reached out and shook hands with Melqui, who was sat nearest to him. "Thanks for meeting with me," he said. He smiled as he spoke, but to them he seemed distracted and worried. Bran: Bran nodded in greeting then looked to Melqui as their spokesman. Melquiades: Melqui smiled in return. He was dressed in a breathable button-down and slacks, and could almost be mistaken for some corporate IT guy, but something about the way he carried himself made it obvious that he was a Runner. "Of course, Mr. Martin. We're looking forward to hearing more of the details of this situation." Amber: Amber eyed over this Martin-san and wait to see what he have to say,. sd: Martin nodded. "Our rivals at Beiwo have beaten us to four public contracts in the last year. We're convinced that our bids were more competitive for at least three of those projects, most particularly this most recent one, but every time they win out. The Chinese have had too much influence over the royal family here since the incident in Tehran." This was an extremely casual way to refer to an attempted nuclear strike. "We know that Beiwo is a very corrupt corporation, even by the standards of the firms here in NEOM. I was working with a freelance journalist to get more information to use against them, but now that's sunk so I needed to reach out to you." Bran: Bran kept his face expressionless, though he had a strong feeling the journalist was likely to be Naima Hallal. the woman who had been investigating Leo when they arrived. Melquiades: "Sunk?" asked Melqui. "Beiwo isn't on to you, are they?" sd: Martin grimaced. "They were onto Naima. Her body was found at the foot of her apartment building two days ago. Apparently she fell out of the window. Total bullshit of course, but the police in that district are contractors on Beiwo's payroll." Melquiades: Melqui's hand squeezed into a fist, but his expression didn't change. "This will be a challenging operation then. We may want to go in as corporate partners, or contractors." sd: "Contractors, yes. In fact I have an idea for that, but I'll get onto that in a moment," Martin said. A drone came and brought him a soykaf which he drank from deeply. He licked the froth from his lips and spoke again. "So what we need you to do is this. Before she died, Naima uncovered some solid evidence of Beiwo's corruption, and she had some leads that she was working on that she unfortunately didn't get to follow up on. But so be it. Beiwo are holding a company event at their headquarters in their own district to celebrate their successes over the last year, especially in winning this contract. Their headquarters would normally be locked down pretty tight, but tomorrow night many execs will be drunk or distracted and security will mostly be stopping their own wageslaves from making public disgraces of themselves. I've identified three junior executives who worked on this latest contract. I need you to select one of them, access their terminal, and then simply add Naima's evidence into some of their internal reports. The wrinkle is that they have a disaster recovery site on the other end of their district and it has backup servers, and some information Naima found suggested that these would look for any discrepancy like this. So once you've hacked the terminal in the Beiwo headquarters, you'll need to move like the wind to their DRS and amend the reports there too." Bran: "How long would we have to get there?" Bran asked. sd: "Their backups run at least once a day but I don't know when and it could be more often. I'd suggest 'as quickly as possible'. If you feel up to it of course you could split up and hit both places at once but that has its own risks." Amber: "Indeed, especially it is risky enough to hit one, let alone both at the same time," Amber considered this. "Maybe a speedy transport at ready would be handy." She considered this ver. Bran: "We can organise all that back at base," Bran murmured to her. "It'll require exact organisation." Amber: Amber nodded, turning slient on this sd: "I've already managed to acquire invitations for you to the event tomorrow night - you'll be appearing as contractors," Martin said. "There used to be an executive at Beiwo NEOM called Xi Xiabei, who died in the fall of an overdose - heroin apparently. He wasn't very popular, but he had some specialist knowledge and connections to a powerful family in China so he wasn't easy to dismiss. He tended to work in very small teams with outside contractors, on projects with relatively little oversight or input from the rest of the company. If you present yourselves as having worked under him shortly before he died, there's few people there who'll know enough to challenge you. I know a few video editors nearby who work discreetly, if you have time we can shoot a few videos and they can create some deepfake footage of you with Xi. That'll make things much safer for you." Melquiades: "That sounds wise. With that kind of support and some luck, we should be able to get through relatively unchallenged." sd: "Indeed. You'll have to suffer a boring corporate party I fear - the culture at Beiwo is very paranoid. Most of the company and a host of related contractors will be there, along with their cronies and allies - if you work for Beiwo and you miss this kind of thing, you're never getting a promotion. You'll need to play along for a while to blend in but I'm sure you can endure and find an opportune moment to slip away, probably once most of them have got drunk or begin chasing the white dragon. The party might give you an opportunity at any rate to observe the three junior execs I've located, to work out which one's terminal you're going to access." Bran: "We'll need detailed background," Bran said. sd: "I can give you what Naima uncovered about them, and after that well - you have until tomorrow night to research more, and you have the party itself as well." Bran: Bran nodded. "We'll need images of the junior execs so we can recognise them," he said to the others. sd: "I have images of all three," Martin said. "Let's go through them one by one." He retrieved a tablet from his briefcase, unlocked it, and turned it round.
the first photo was of a man who appeared to be in his mid-thirties, wearing a Zhongshan suit. He was tall and lean, with a clean shaven face. "This is Chen Weixu, Beiwo's youngest executive. He was only promoted two years ago - he came to NEOM about ten years ago and worked his way straight through the middle management ranks with tremendous speed. His teams always outperform their targets and when needed he works eighteen or twenty hour days for long stretches, sleeping at his desk. When he was younger he was an engineer for the Chinese army, he was a drone operator in the Iran-Israel war."
Martin took a sip of his soykaf. "Now the most interesting thing Naima uncovered is that Chen is apparently friends with Prince Sultan bin Sultan - who is the brother of Faisal bin Sultan, Commander of the National Guard and one of the most important figures in King Abdulaziz's cabinet." Martin showed them some photos of the two men together, some from public events but others that were apparently taken at some kind of party at the Prince's estate in the royal district. Bran: Bran took a sip of his own ersatz coffee. "Would put the cat among the pigeon if we pick him." sd: Martin nodded. "Our second candidate is Ma Xiulan," he said, and showed them an image of a woman in her mid-forties with long dark hair and a pleasant look on her face. "Ma Xiulan is...well, driven, according to all accounts I've heard. Her motto is 'no excuses' and she expects everyone to follow it. She works extremely hard, has boundless energy, and, if stories are to be believed, a bad cocaine habit." He showed them a tabloid image of her from about four years ago, exiting a nightclub with her husband. There were definite traces of white powder on her collar - seemingly that line hadn't been snorted as cleanly as it ought to have been.
"Ma Xiulan is from old money and has been rich since the day she was born. Her family already owned property in Riyadh and since she moved to NEOM back at the end of the Cold War she's been amassing her own throughout Beiwo district. In this most recent project she seems to have acted as a liaison with the local civil service. Naima found some evidence that she had a meeting with Halim Soltani, the civil servant in charge of the procurement process, but we don't have any more details." Amber: "Interesting. especially her ties to the civil service." She commented, waiting to see what is the third candidate, sd: "The last of the trio is Long Zemin," said Martin, "though he seems more round than long to me." The image was indeed of a rotund man with greasy hair and glasses, in a dark business suit. "Long Zemin has been a junior exec for fifteen years and doesn't seem likely to advance. He is...well, not a very hard worker, and he gets drunk a lot and has many affairs. Naima spoke to a Beiwo wageslave off the record - unfortunately I don't know who - who said Long nearly got fired a few years ago, but managed to dodge an internal disciplinary process after he was suspected of embezzlement."
"His main skill appears to be that he's good at talking and can even be pretty personable as long as you don't need him to do anything actually useful. He acts as a liaison with the Islamic Progress Party, who run what passes for a legislative body here. Not the most useful task in a totalitarian monarchy, even one with a faintly democratic facade like in NEOM, but it's still not nothing I suppose." Melquiades: "He seems like the softest target - literally and figuratively," said Melqui. "But of course there's more to our choice than that." Bran: "He might be the easiest of the three - more likely to be slapdash," Bran mused. "Ma Xiulan has a weakness if she's into coke. Chen would be the most satisfying to fuck up." sd: "Whichever one you target is likely to end up either in prison or fleeing to China the moment Episoft sues," Martin said. Melquiades: "Yes. A consideration. But I don't think we can make a final decision until we have more information - so we'd best get on that." Bran: "And the footage," Bran said. "We'll need to be quick." Melquiades: Melquiades spent that evening at some of the most popular night clubs with the Chinese corporate elite. While swapping stories between lines of coke, he worked on picking up any information he could about Ma Xiulan - and asked about Long Zemin at times as well, hoping to find information that would be useful to Bran's efforts. Bran: Bran decided to research the drunken slob Long Zemin. Surprisingly he had little success - perhaps the man just hadn't made an impression outside of his self-indulgence. Amber: Amber decided to look into Chen Weixu who was the first one mentioned. After trawling ling the internet, she did find some information but not enough yet. sd: Melqui went to several clubs and managed to speak to a few contractors who had negotiated with Ma Xiulan, as well as a handful of ex-Beiwo wageslaves who had worked under her. The latter explained that Ma Xiulan was a truly awful boss who pushed her people relentlessly hard. "She said 'no excuses' to us," she said bitterly, "but when it comes to her own failings, that slogan turns to 'no, excuses!'"
Melqui also managed to hear a few rumours about her dealings with Halim Soltani, the civil servant. According to them, there had been no bribery, per se, in their dealings, however rumour had it that Soltani was now on holiday in Riyadh and appeared to be staying gratis at the Ma family's sprawling estate there. sd: Amber did some hunting online for details of Chen Weixu's life. This wasn't easy to find - the sources in English or Arabic were extremely sparse, and she had to take a moment to brush up on the little Mandarin she had learned while conscripted into the Japanese army to decipher some original Chinese sources.
Chen Weixu had grown up in a rural area of northern China, where he'd been one of the best students in his school. he'd joined the Communist Party of China from a young age, then later signed up to the People's Liberation Army as an engineer where he served as a drone operator. after China's victory in the Second Cold War he was discharged and went to work for Beiwo.
In all her research, she found only one incident that seemed to indicate Chen ever having any trouble or difficulty in his meteoric rise up Beiwo's ranks. Chen's teams and departments had always substantially outperformed their targets, which most credited to his incredible stamina and work ethic, and about four years ago he had lobbied the uppermost management within Beiwo hard to ensure his entire department were rewarded appropriately. He was eventually successful, but in the process he'd seemingly made quite a few enemies, seemingly suggesting that his own teams simply worked harder and were more motivated than those who were run by less talented people. this had delayed his advance through the ranks as he'd clearly ruffled quite a few feathers. sd: after researching for the whole day on 9 April, they awoke on the morning of the run and decided to contact Martin again to arrange to shoot the deepfake videos he had mentioned. this led them to a small studio in a tasteful little row of buildings not far from a Line station, built underneath an arch. Martin met them there, along with a Yemeni man called Omar who was the cameraman and greeted them in perfect English.
"So what we need," Martin explained, "is to put up some videos of you in a few situations - acting as security for Xi, perhaps, looking tough, but also sitting in meetings with him and so on. I'll pretend to be Xi so it's more natural for you, and then Omar here will do his work and edit the video. There's a greenscreen room back there, Omar will be adding the relevant backgrounds and then cutting me out and putting Xi in my place." This kind of deepfake technology had been used before, mostly to make videos of long-dead celebrities and have them endorse products that hadn't existed until after they'd passed on. sd: they spent the morning shooting various videos. It was a bit surreal, pretending to be with a dead man they'd never met before and acting in front of a green screen, but no one had ever promised that the criminal life would be easy or normal. Bran proved to be by far the most natural actor among them, so as the morning wore on Omar's camera turned more heavily towards him, mostly having Melqui and Amber appear in the background as extras carrying suitcases or looking tough. they shot a great number of scenes - them in a board meeting, another of them in a coffee shop, others of them walking in a NEOM street - and Omar then started working on editing these. knowing that a run might be upcoming, Martin had already created a fake website, which he had ready to launch. he'd also acquired false security certificates and had bribed several archive sites to make it appear that the website of their false consultancy had been active for over a year. Bran: "Most impressive," Bran commented as they looked all this over. He had never thought of himself as a performer before. Melquiades: "You've got a talent, my man," said Melqui. "You should start putting it to use more often." sd: they went home for some final preprations, and Amber found some time to try some more research. Since Bran hadn't had much look finding details on Long Zemin the day before, she took this over and dug around online.
the most interesting thing she discovered about Long, beyond what they'd already been told about his almost being fired for corruption, was that he and his wife Long Xia evidently hated each other and had nearly divorced a year ago. Long Zemin was known to have had numerous affairs, including one with one of Beiwo's senior executives who had apparently saved his skin during his disciplinary proceedings. There were some scurrilous rumours stating that Long Xia was herself having an affair with her husband's assistant, Pang Feng, although there was far less evidence to substantiate this than there was for Long Zemin's well documented infidelities. Bran: "I might well do that," Bran replied with a grin.
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Post by sleepingdragon on Sept 11, 2021 17:22:21 GMT
sd: Of all the dark and grimy deeds they thought they might have to undertake while living the life of a shadowrunner, they had never expected that one would involve corporate themed karaoke.
after finishing their research, they had taken the afternoon to prepare themselves. Episoft provided them with appropriate clothes to wear to a corporate gala, and in the late afternoon they went up to the Line and took a train to the Beiwo district, which was part of the same city but was about sixty miles away from their usual home in Primazon.com.
after a half hour trip, they found themselves in the Beiwo district and took a quick stroll to the corporation's headquarters. As the district was named for a Chinese corporation, they found there were many more people of Chinese ancestry here, or from other countries in Asia that were part of the People's Republic's sphere of influence. many signs were in Arabic, English and Mandarin.
the Beiwo corporation, which specialised in computing and electronics but also contained a vast array of insurance, finance, media, and similar enterprises under its umbrella, was headquartered in an eighty storey glass and steel skyscraper, which looked out over the Line and the stark, sandy plains and rocky outcrops that characterised the eastern regions of NEOM. all around the corporation's headquarters was a great square. within were patches of manicured grass, a great multitude of outbuildings, and, at the moment, many temporarily erected pavilions, or huge television screens so people could stand and watch what was happening elsewhere at the event. there was a large stone wall with metal gates that completely encircled the headquarters and kept out the riff-raff - only the Beiwo corporation's workers (which it referred to as its family) and honoured guests and contractors who had worked with them were invited in to celebrate the megacorp's latest success.
since the Beiwo corporation employed hundreds of people in every single district of NEOM, to say nothing of the thousands in this district which was named for them, this meant the square was still rammed full of people, who were all contractually obliged to be here. for entertainment there were a vast array of events, all of which were carefully organised and curated by the Beiwo corporation, and the majority of which were directly themed around the megacorp. there were corporate themed relay races, in which the racers would run along and pass on some object meant to represent some particular corporate goal, for example 'the next phase of the project', or 'delivering excellent customer service' to the next person in their team. there were introductory games - people from different departments and sites would be randomly mixed together under the watchful eye of a manager, stand in a circle, and everyone would have to introduce themselves, tell the group one unusual fact about themselves, and then explain which bird they would choose to be and why.
Episoft had advised the trio to use this opportunity to gather information, select which executive to target, and then find an opportunity to enter the headquarters and hack the right computer before departing and then making with all haste to the disaster recovery site on the opposite end of the district. to do this however they would need to blend in. and so it was that, after a few mis-steps and with Amber finding herself speaking to a half-Japanese senior manager who said he had known Xi Xiabei and insisted on introducing them all to his team, that they found themselves in a pavilion where unfortunate Beiwo workers were huddled together, singing, with all the enthusiasm they could muster, renditions of popular songs with lyrics that had been reworked to be about Beiwo. most of the workers were clearly bored and unhappy and a few of them were obviously not at 100%, but any Beiwo employee who let something as minor as a cold or the flu keep them from being seen at such an event would be going without a pay rise for the next year.
of course, to add to the jovial spirit, everyone in the pavilion was expected to participate in the karaoke, usually in small teams of three or four with each singing one or two songs. as they could hardly refuse without looking out of place, they soon found themselves shoved up onto a raised platform, in front of some speakers and a screen that displayed altered lyrics. the senior manager who'd been speaking to Amber went and stood next to another manager, who wore a dark suit and glasses that didn't conceal the dark bruise under one eye. this latter man began frowning at them in annoyance as the opening notes of Celebrate Good Times, creatively retitled Celebrate Beiwo, began to play... You whisper to Bran: As the song began to play, Bran looked at the man who was frowning at them and his heart began to beat fast. He never fully remembered everything that happened when he went out drinking. He would wake up with a splitting headache, a bruise or an injury from some unknown source, and he would nurse it as best as he could. Although he left carnage behind him, he could fade into the anonymity of the city and go on with his life. Never before had he found himself face to face with someone who he'd fought on one of these occasions.
Now, however, he had a sudden awful flashback. This miserable shiteheel had cut in front of him in line for a refill, so of course some punches had been exchanged and Bran had found himself escorted from the premises by a broken-nosed bouncer as thick and square as a refridgerator. How could this same piece of shit end up here, only days later, in front of him, looking at him when he had to sing a song? if he realised who Bran was, their cover was going to be blown fast, and any chance of doing this quietly would be gone. Bran: Bran - who had introduced himself as Patrick Feeney, known as Paddy - had up to now been acting the part of an unwilling drone forced to perform these ghastly corporate rituals. Now his face lit up and he grinned like an idiot who was happy to make a fool of himself in front of a crowd. Melquiades: Melqui mingled in relaxed fashion with the corporate drones, putting to use his long experience with conversation with strangers. He introduced himself as Marco Torres, a security consultant, but underplayed the danger of his past work this time, not wanting to gather too much attention. He threw himself into the company-mandated joviality, albeit with a hint of sarcasm behind his eyes when he extolled the virtues of Beiwo. Bran whispers: Bran felt his heart beating faster, and sweat break out on his forehead, but that wouldn't look unusual in these circumstances. He let his eye wander accross their audience, without trying to avoid the wretched man he'd knocked sideways. Amber: Amber on meeting the rest of the team revert back to more Japanese style more typical of Kyariaūman as she introduced herself Melquiades: Melqui stepped forward as the lyrics began to scroll on the karaoke machine. He pulled the enthusiastic Bran and the somewhat less enthusastic Amber up beside him, arms draped across their shoulders in a display of corporate-familial love. "Beiwo! This is your celebration..."
Soon they were at the apex of the rewritten masterpiece by whatever HR staffer had been assigned this particular song. Melqui closed his eyes and rocked back and forth with his friends, belting out the lyrics with unwavering commitment.
There's a family goin' on right here A corporate family to last a thousand years So bring your good times, and your hard work too We gonna celebrate your family with you Bran: Bran joined in, singing as if he could think of no better way to spend an evening. Amber: Amber tried to do her best but alas, her heart was not in it sd: Melqui's contributions in particular were extremely well received by the various managers who were in attendance. the man who had been frowning at them applauded loudly as he watched Melqui, and the lower level workers in the attendance seemed to enjoy the group's complete lack of self-consciousness as they sang and danced on the stage. they did precisely the right kind of good job - well enough that they could flee with what remained of their dignity intact, but not so well that anyone demanded an encore. Bran: Bran indicated to the other two that he wanted to say something. When they had found relative privacy, he muttered. "Your fellah with the dark glasses and the bruise, we need to keep away from him." Amber: Amber nodded, "He does look suspicious" She said without any hint of hypocrisy that they are very suspicious themsleves Melquiades: Melqui nodded. "For now, let's focus on getting some more info without raising suspicion." Bran: "We, er... kind of met one night," Bran said with a grin. "Hence the bruise." Melquiades: Melqui laughed. "If you'd stuck with conversation for your evenings out, he could be a contact right now." Amber: Amber sighed for a moment as she scanned around the crowd. Bran: "The bouncer threw me out," Bran said, sounding disappointed. "Just as I'd planted that Shitehawk on the floor." Amber: Amber smiled "At least you got a practise out of it." sd: having escaped from the karaoke, they had a few ways they could proceed. they might stick around this pavilion and see what the people here might know - though this would mean a risk of Bran reacquainting himself with his friend from the bar - or they could slip out into the main square and look elsewhere. sd: they slipped out of the pavilion, getting away from the dreadful music and the risk of bumping into the man Bran had punched, and went out into the square. they spoke to people as they went, introduced themselves, and bought many drinks.
they were able to get information on what all the three executives they were looking for were doing. Ma Xiulan was the easiest to locate by far. At Beiwo, the corporation believed strongly in the practice of 'sunshining', which had originally been introduced by the defunct American firm Netflix in the early 21st century. To sunshine meant to publicly stand up in front of your coworkers and to discuss frankly and honestly a mistake you'd recently made, how you were going to avoid making it again, and to explain that you knew how the error had hurt the company. Ma was an especially fervent advocate of this method, and could be found on a grass plot near to the main building, sunshining both in the metaphorical sense and also standing out under the beating Arabian sun.
Long Zemin, meanwhile, had apparently already been seen having consumed a few too many alcoholic beverages and had had some tense exchanges with his wife. The two of them had gone off in opposite directions, with Long Zemin planning to let off some steam with some karaoke - though at least he had picked a different pavilion to the one the party had just escaped from.
Chen Weixu was by far the most popular of the three executives - more than one person they spoke to mentioned having received a pay rise several years ago because he had put up a fight at the management level. He was a quite athletic man and enjoyed doing relay races, even absurd ones with forced corporate themes. "In fact he's just over there, I think I see him," a woman said, pointing off to a spot behind a nearby outbuilding that obscured where a group of people had gathered to race. Bran: "It's still early, we can take a look," Bran suggested. sd: they headed over to watch Chen. Nearby speakers kept the air filled with anodyne, unthreatening elevator music.
in the photo Martin had provided, Chen had been wearing a Zhongshan suit, the kind that had been made famous by Sun Yat-sen and Mao Zedong, but this was hardly appropriate attire for running a relay race so he had changed into shorts and a t-shirt with the Beiwo corporation logo on it. as they came over and watched him stretching, they saw he was just finishing a conversation with an Arabic man in a dark suit, who had a lanyard around his neck which bore a non-Beiwo logo - presumably he was some kind of consultant. Chen and the man were very close to each other as they spoke, and the Arabic man was rubbing his face to obscure his mouth. Chen waved him off and the man headed off into a nearby crowd of onlookers, moving with poise and grace. Bran: "Now that is interesting!" Bran said quietly. Amber: Amber looked at Arabic man's face as passing glance, trying to remember the face for furture reference along with noticing the non-Beiwo logo to search online eventually. "Indeed" sd: they quickly moved into the crowd after the man as the race was just about to begin. as Amber led them, a manager carrying a tray of drinks suddenly appeared in front of her and very nearly crashed into them - it took some very quick footwork to avoid a collision that would have made a significant scene.
the Arabic man had moved off to the side of an outbuilding, shading himself there and glancing at his phone. an insect landed on his shoulder and he irritably shooed it away. sd: in the brief instant that the man was flicking the fly away, his phone turned slightly so the screen was visible for the slightest instant. it was only visible for an instant, but Amber and Melqui both thought they recognised something and when they consulted for a moment they were both sure of what they'd seen. there had been an article open on the man's browser, and the writer of the article had been Naima Hallal. Melquiades: "They might be more prepared than we thought," murmured Melqui. Amber: Amber agreed, "Maybe it is worth avoiding Chen this case" Bran: "If Chen has suspicions, he seems the kind of fellah who would take it on himself," Bran said thoughtfully. "We'll have to tread carefully either way." Melquiades: "Indeed. And avoid that consultant as well." Bran: "We could do with finding out who he works for. Security d'you think?" Melquiades: "Worth looking into. But not the priority now," said Melqui. Bran: "Let's check out the other two then," Bran said. sd: the relay race was a pretty dull affair - there was a section where a small pouch had to be thrown from one contestant to the next, which required a bit of skill to pull off. it was tedious and uninteresting, but slightly less awful than karaoke. at least they didn't have to actually participate in this bit of corporate jollity. Amber: Amber was pleased that she didn't have to join, at least it can't get any worse! sd: after this, they went to locate Long Zemin, who, they'd been informed, had already had too much to drink and was letting off steam with some karaoke. they made their way into a large temporarily erected pavilion and looked around for him.
although they'd been told that he and his wife had already been seen going separate ways, they seemed to have reunited. Long Xia was in her early forties and had a few streaks of white in her hair, and she wore an immaculate business suit. as they entered, several poor wageslaves were singing more paeans to the virtues of the Beiwo corporation, although with less gusto than they themselves had earlier.
as the current singers finished, Long Zemin took his wife's hand and spoke to her quietly but insistently, trying to pull her towards the stage, but she icily withdrew from him. the exec had a dark look pass across his face for a moment, then he took a sip of his wine and handed his cheap plastic cup to someone standing nearby. "Now it's my turn!" he announced dramatically. He quickly collared someone who, from their body language, appeared to be one of his subordinates, and took from her a long and absurd stuffed toy that appeared to be a fluffy white snake, though of truly terrible quality. Long Zemin draped it over his shoulders, spoke to the man who had the computer which controlled what song came next, and after a short negotiation, the music started.
Long Zemin had chosen the infamous Britney song, I'm a Slave 4 U, and they quickly noticed that this version had the original lyrics. The sight of a fat, drunk, sweaty businessman singing and attempting Britney's breathy vocals and sensuous dances, draped in a ridiculous snake, soon had almost everyone in attendance laughing til tears ran down their faces. sd: the only people who appeared unamused by the act were Long Xia, and a young Chinese man in a business suit who moved up to speak to her quietly. The two of them took one final look at the scene and slipped away. Bran: "Interesting," Bran said, watching them go out of the corner of his eye, then turning back to the dreadful spectacle on the stage - it drew one's attention like a particularly unpleasant car crash. Melquiades: Melqui said nothing, but instead slipped away from the others after Long Xia and the businessman, walking confidently as if he had somewhere else to be. sd: Melqui slipped out and followed the pair at a close distance. they were talking and he could hear clear tones of disgust in their voice, although the fact that they were speaking Mandarin foiled any hope he had of hearing precisely what they said. they appeared to be headed for the corporate headquarters, but partway along the businessman paused and then indicated they should head towards one of the portaloos that had been erected to accomodate all the extra people.
for the whole time that he followed them, Melqui had detected a distinct 'having an affair' vibe from the way the two held themselves around each other. this was only confirmed when, as the young man went to join the queue for the toilet, Long Xia quickly reached out and let her hand brush across his crotch. Melqui had managed to get quite close to them, pretending to need the toilet himself, so he was very nearby. In her quick movement he saw something slip out of her bag and land on the floor - a temporary pass for the Beiwo HQ. If he moved quickly and quietly he might be able to snatch it up before some helpful busybody gave it back to her. Melquiades: Melqui hesitated for a moment, realizing that if he moved forward and bent down to grab the item he'd likely draw some attention, even looking like he was oggling Long Xia. Thinking quickly, he folded his "Hi, I'm... Marco!" sticker nametag and stuck it to his shoe, then walked over the pass, picking it up in the process. Once he was out of sight, he finally pulled the pass off his shoe and returned to his companions. Melquiades: Melqui surreptitiously showed off the pass to Amber and Bran. "This'll make things easier. Shall we go take a look at Ma?" Bran: Bran nodded. sd: Ma Xiulan was, as they had been told, quite near to the entrance to the headquarters, where groups of Beiwo workers were engaged in sunshining sessions while anodyne corporate music played in the background over the speakers. The music and the oppressive heat of the sun, even now in the early evening, added to the atmosphere of misery and despair.
Sunshining involved groups of Beiwo workers standing up and recounting their failures and what they'd learned from them. These consisted in many cases of confessions of trivial errors, or in some cases, of not doing enough overtime or of not fully taking on board the messages that were cascaded down from senior management. As these sessions went on, Ma and other managers in attendance at the session would make 'small improvement plans' to ensure that the errors weren't repeated.
After enough people had filtered in, Ma took a microphone and called the disparate groups together. "Thank you for all coming. We'll run another session tomorrow for those who are having to work late on the current project," she said. "Now it would be no good if I just expected you all to come up and talk about what's not gone well, while I judge you from a distance. We're all human, we all make mistakes, and we should always shine the sun on them. You'll all know that recently I let Nadia Haq go. She's done some great work for the company over the years and it was a shame to see her go, but work at Beiwo isn't necessarily for life. We expect the very best, and only very special people can make the cut."
Ma paused for emphasis. "But I have to admit, I let my emotions get the better of me and I let her stay on for far longer than I should have. She wasn't working at her best for months, there were far too many days off sick, and I'm sorry for the effect my mistake had on you all. I'm grateful to Rayhan for stepping up and filling Nadia's shoes while we recruit a replacement, and I promise that in the future I'll never let my emotions get in the way of doing what's right for this company and this family." There was a round of applause from all those watching, but the looks on more than a few faces were not appreciative at all. Melquiades: "How noble of her," said Melqui with an eye roll. Bran: Bran applauded with the rest, though he was filled with an instant loathing for this vile woman. "I'd like to see her receive her just deserts," he muttered. sd: as the applause ended, the current piece of elevator music playing in the background ended, and it turned over to another song. this one seemed out of place as it had a grand, folkish sound, and then a choir of voices sang in Chinese. they got a quick glimpse of Ma's face, which could have curdled milk, as two verses played before being abruptly cut off. Amber, who spoke a bit of Mandarin, was able to make out the few words that were sung before the song was cut off.
Dōngfāng hóng, tàiyáng shēng Zhōngguó chū liăo ge Máo Zéd... Amber: Amber decided to look up the translation on her gadget. sd: Amber quickly found these were the initial verses of 'the East is Red', a propaganda song lionising Mao Zedong which had been the unofficial anthem of the People's Republic during the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. whether this had been included to satirise the company and suggest they ran a similar personality cult, or as a sign of leftist defiance, was hard to tell. Melquiades: "Who has access to the audio, I wonder..." mused Melqui. Amber: "It might distract them even" Amber said after explaining what she have heard. Bran: "Everything in the Beiwo garden is definitely not rosy," Bran said. "Let's find where this geebag's station is." Melquiades: "Yeah. With any luck her next sunshining will have a much bigger 'mistake' to admit."
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Post by sleepingdragon on Sept 18, 2021 18:12:58 GMT
sd: having decided to go after Ma Xiulan, they regrouped and waited for more people to get drunk and begin filtering out. The celebrations were continuing until midnight, but most people would not be continuing nearly that long - feigned enthusiasm could only carry most wageslaves so far, and only those truly devoted to the company or to their next promotion would be likely to stay the distance. by around 10 o'clock, a large number of people had already left, and many of those remaining had already had too much to drink and were not at their most attentive. Bran: "Time to go to work!" Bran said with a grin. Amber: Amber nodded, faint amusement on her face but her eyes looks out quickly, darting around to make sure that they are not discovered, especially the secururity ho may be picking people and throwing them out like bouncers sd: since Melqui had stolen a temporary pass from Long Xia, they decided that rather than trying to break into the building that they would use that to bluff their way in instead. they entered the foyer and spoke to a security guard, who made them enter their (false) names in a log of people entering the building. strictly, they should have had three passes rather than one, but fortunately the guard, who worked for an external agency and who was obviously somewhat distracted by regular reports of various forms of drunken disorder coming in on his computer, didn't press the issue.
the information Episoft had given them had included details of where all the three offices they might target were located - Ma Xiulan's was on the sixty-seventh floor, and her team, which focussed on mergers and acquisitions, worked there. there were six lifts in the foyer, any of which they might take up to that floor, or if they wanted to stretch their legs they could walk - the latter of course would take longer, but there might be less risk of bumping into anyone on the way. Bran: As they entered the building, Bran had the curious feeling that they should avoid a woman who had walked in with them. He started talking to Amber about someone they would be meeting on a different floor. Melquiades: Melqui gestured toward the stairs, indicating that they should probably go that way to avoid any other busibodies. Amber: Amber made her way towards the stairs, horror beckons as she considered the numbers of levels. This is NOTHING compared to what she have suffered in her training from hell in her time Amber: "As she recalled a training session that involved running up the stairs before an ice cube melt in the hot summer air* Bran: Bran started at a fair pace but not too fast, pacing himself. sd: fortunately, no one else was using the stairs at such a late hour - presumably Beiwo's fitness gurus had tired themselves out running corporate themed relay races earlier. the long climb got their hearts beating, but they were all in good shape and managed it without exhausting themselves.
Melqui, who was the first one up the stairs, opened the door a crack and looked out at the 67th floor lobby. there were the elevators there, and then a main door leading into the open plan office. amazingly, there were lights on and as he looked in, he saw a tired looking man come back from the toilets and go out onto the floor. there appeared to be a number of people at work, even at this late hour and during a party - thinking back, he recalled that Ma Xiulan had mentioned that there would be separate sunshining sessions for those colleagues who were working on some kind of project. presumably these were the self-same people. given that the floor was quite large, they appeared to have all congregated in one part of the office - although it wouldn't be easy, he thought it would be feasible to simply sneak past them by sticking to the near wall and remaining out of sight. sd: they went out into the lobby, Melqui scanned the pass, and then they rapidly darted out into the floor, sheltering themselves behind a pillar. although they probably spread out more while working normally, the people in the office tonight had all grouped around one bank of desks, making it relatively easy to avoid them apart from one brief moment where they had to pause while one woman got up and went to the lounge to bring back a round of coffees. what snatches of conversation they heard were not entirely work related - two wageslaves speaking in Arabic were discussing Ma Xiulan, who they obviously loathed, and how the recently departed Nadia Haq was trying to pull strings behind the scenes to have her old boss ousted and herself reinstated.
they managed to sneak through - Amber almost got her foot caught on a trailing computer wire at one point, but she managed to disentangle herself without twisting anything or, vitally, being seen. they crept along behind various support beams, plants, and desks until they finally got to Ma Xiulan's office itself, at the far end of the floor. it had a glass window that allowed her to surveil the whole floor, but mercifully she'd closed the blinds before she left, which meant that once they were inside there wasn't any risk of them being seen. it was, however, locked. Bran: Bran carefully removed a small rolled bundle from one pocket and withdrew a lockpick. With practised ease he inserted it into the lock which opened smoothly. sd: they hastily crept inside and closed the door behind them. most large office spaces might give you an idea as to the character of the person to whom the office belonged - there might be pictures of their children, or small tokens indicating their hobbies - but Ma Xiulan had none of these, just walls of diplomas showing various business degrees, and internal awards for various good services. the only pictures were of her shaking hands or sharing stages with various senior execs. clearly she wanted nothing that might remind her of the external world in her workspace. Amber: Looking at these screens, it often reminds her of karoshi, a japanese version of overwork death. Such life is not ver productive. Melquiades: "I knew some guys like that, with their only identity being the gang," said Melqui. "Always the most maladjusted motherfuckers. And that's something, considering the line of work." Bran: Bran gazed at the room and sighed. "It's like the woman was grown in a laboratory... " Bran: "We're going to break her..." he mused as they prepared to hack the terminal. "This is all she's got." He shook himself and thought of the workers in Ma's team who would be relieved. Amber: She carefully reached for the termial, no doubt ready for amazing high level corparate security measures that such companies are famous for. Instead, she managed bypass all the firewalls that endless number of wageslaves spent on crafting anf creating to ensure that their bosses and buyers get better protection. Alas, for Amber on this day at least, such efforts are all for naught. "Bingo" She commented as she managed to finish her task. sd: Amber easily hacked through. she first opened the registry to amend the CPU's internal date, which made it appear that all the edits she was making had occurred in the past, and then she set about uploading the various amended files Episoft had provided. since some of these reports had been circulated by email and signed off in that manner, she also needed to hack into the Beiwo email server and manually amend these to instead attach the edited file, which was a tricky task but nothing beyond her abilities. as she worked, she realised that some of the files that she was scanning past might be useful if they wanted to investigate the corruption at Beiwo that had seemingly cost Naima Hallal her life - in a lull while a process was working in the background, she uploaded these to her phone. it would take a long time, but there might be more answers there, and some journalists or rival megacorps might even be willing to pay for these files if they gave them the chance to disrupt Beiwo's activities or to engage in some blackmail or corporate espionage of their own.
soon they were done, and it was time to slip out. Martin had told them they'd need to reach the disaster recovery site as quickly as possible, or Beiwo's backup process would run and risk ruining their work. they had no time to waste. sd: they ghosted back to the lobby using the same route they'd taken on the way in, then hopped in the lift - they couldn't afford to try to take the stairs this time. fortunately, no one else got in and they easily went back down to the main lobby and out. by this point, it was about 11 pm and there were many, many drunk people celebrating. there were several largescreens showing a looped speech from the Beiwo NEOM CEO, praising the company's successes this year, but everyone else seemed to be paying it as much attention as they were. it was time to get to the Tacnet as quickly as they could manage. Amber: Amber slowly made her way back once she downed down a shot of spirit to steady her nerves. After managing to avoid these miserable yet bright folks, she finally got back to the car. Melquiades: Melquiades was seeing everything in slight slow motion as his high peaked. He deftly wove through the crowd alongside his companions, envisioning himself in a music video full of revelers making out and picking fights, except instead of beautiful 20-somethings in a club, these were corporate drones finally releasing their pent-up work anxiety. Bran: Bran slipped through the crowds behind them, avoiding the mass of drunken revellers. A woman made a grab for him and he ducked under her reaching arm, breathing a sigh of relief as he reached the outside. "Too fucking sober for this," he muttered as he opened the door of the Tacnet and slid behind the wheel. Melquiades: Melqui grinned at Bran. "I bet you are. Let's do this." Bran: "Hold on to your arses, we're in for a bumpy ride!" Bran grinned manically and the tyres squealed as he floored the accelarator. Melquiades: Melqui leaned out of one window, arm draped over the side. He scanned back and forth, watching for incoming traffic and calling warnings and suggestions to Bran to help get through traffic quickly. At one point he missed a newly-forming clog of vehicles and they were forced to slow down, but they soon managed to find a route around. Amber: Amber pulled up the routes between them and the building they was aiming for. She shouted out the direction and somehow managed to find another route that is quieter than normal. Bran: Bran listened, but his eyes were fixed on the road ahead, scanning the way through. The TacNet veered and bucked as he threw it around corners and shot through tiny gaps. sd: in his original vision, Mohammed bin Salman had insisted that NEOM would be a city without streets. the consultants he had hired had gently pointed out that the notion of a city without streets was impossible to fulfil, but totalitarian monarchs were significantly resistant to reality and therefore the city and its various districts had originally been launched with little in the way of planned streets - the whole city, they had thought, would simply hug the Line. once each district had expanded, however, streets had grown up organically, except they had done so in an unplanned and chaotic fashion. so the route they picked across the Beiwo district was bumpy and difficult, but they completed the whole journey in around a half hour, flying from one end of the district to the other.
the disaster recovery site was a small, squat brick building with a surrounding wall lined with security cameras, with a locked metal gate. Bran: Bran resisted the urge to smash straight through the gates with the van, and he drew up quite sedately a short distance away, outside the range of the cameras. Amber: Amber grinned as the van finally came to the job, impressed with Bran's ability to be such a speed junkie. Noticing the security cameras, she worked with Melqui on scrambling the cameras. She then give a thumbs up to Bran, "Scrambled like an egg" Bran: Bran got out his picks again and set to work. It went a little less smoothly this time - the lock was more complex - but it soon clicked open. With a flourish he opened the door and they went in. sd: the disaster recovery site was small, consisting only of a single floor, and once they were in it was a very simple manner to locate the server room and for Amber to set to work on a final hack - given the familiarity with Beiwo's systems she'd obtained while accessing Ma Xiulan's terminal, it was no trouble at all for her to do the same here. they stepped back out into the night, eluded the cameras easily, and returned to the Tacnet. As Primazon.com was a sixty miles away, they gave their legs a stretch, gave Martin a call to inform them of their success, and then set out on a long drive. The Arabian heat beat down on them, even now that it was almost midnight, but even it wasn't as hot as the nuyen that Episoft soon deposited as payment for another smooth and successful run
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Post by sleepingdragon on Sept 25, 2021 17:38:07 GMT
sd: following their successful run at Beiwo, they drove back to Primazon.com and took a rest. they had a small problem to deal with when they returned - a member of their crew had been caught cheating at dice by a member of another local gang, the Yemeni Circle. the Circle wanted the man dealt with, but the three of them decided to stick up for their crew rather than let themselves be pushed around. Melquiades: Melquiades continued to alternate between training and interacting with the locals. While the latter was partially his usual means of destressing, he also had started to think getting to know people in the area would be valuable for the group's work moving forward - they had found in recent missions that information was a valuable currency, and local gossip could be an important source of that. Amber: Amber spent time in efforts to improve her skill such as engineering just in case she stumbles across something she cannot hack, she can hack through the saw instead! Amber also spent times to research various avenues on topics as well. She is still smarting from her bragging of amazing achivement of hacking through the corp system Bran: Bran was on a high following their extraordinary success, but as soon as they returned to the apartment his mood became dark and he was unable to settle. He spent a long time in the bathroom and dressing, then left without a word. Bran went through his usual round of bars, but somehow however much he drank he still felt edgy. Eventually the alcohol began to work through his system - by now he was at the garrulous stage... He returned the next afternoon, even more battered than usual, and reeking of spirits and scent. The following day, Bran returned to his usual bright self, attending to the many patients who came to the free clinic. It was gaining a good reputation among the locals. In his spare time, Bran trained, finally mastering Arabic, and helping with the research. sd: over the next few days, they continued their research. they had wanted firstly to learn the identity of the man with the cybernetic arms, who they'd seen killing one of the defenders of the Psionisis plant where they had completed a previous run. after some digging, they learned that a group of men, all clearly and cybernetically enhanced, had set themselves up in a recently completed apartment block on the southwestern edge of the district. the group called themselves 'Electric Blood' and had already nearly had a street brawl with another gang. they had no reason yet to think that they'd had any success in locating the party, but it was clear they'd need to keep an eye on them. Amber: Amber smiled at their efforts achieved some fruits, made a note to be keep a very close eyes on that gang as well keeping an close eye on the term "Electric Blood" as well Melquiades: Melqui was relieved to find Electric Blood was seemingly unaware of them, but agreed that they were to be watched. sd: Amber also spent many hours poring over the data she'd recovered from Ma Xiulan's terminal. much of it was hard to decipher - they were none of them accountants - however after several late nights comparing data they began to notice a trend. projects going over budget wasn't an especially unusual thing to see from a corporation - indeed it was rarer to see projects come in under the expected budget. Over the last few years, they noticed that, when finished, projects under Chen Weixu's supervision almost always came in very close to the projected amount, but when they looked back at reports from a year before they had typically suggested they would actually beat the projected total. heavy costs were seemingly incurred late on a regular basis. exactly where these late costs were being incurred was hard to tell - in the later parts of a project, people were typically so concerned with finishing on time that a more in depth accounting seemed to be getting missed. there was no hard proof, but it was exactly what they'd expect to see in an embezzlement scheme Bran: "So Mr Honest Chen is not as clean as he paints himself..." Bran mused. Melquiades: "I don't think anyone rises up in one of these corps being fully honest," said Melqui. "Much like in gangs - honesty has its place, but only as part of a broader strategy." sd: they rested for a few more days. that week there was to be a public holiday to celebrate the birthday of King Abdulaziz, albeit for many people who had little choice but to keep working they wouldn't actually be able to take the day off - and, it seemed, neither would they. on Monday 17 April, Leo contacted them in some excitement - a businessman called Khalid bin Omar wanted to hire them for a very delicate operation, and was offering the enormous sum of 30 nuyen if they could carry it out, with some of this being paid up front. the details, however, were too delicate to be forwarded on - he wanted to meet them in person to discuss the operation Bran: Bran expressed interest in this, though when they found out what it was they might have reservations. Melquiades: Melqui's eyes lit up when the sum of payment was given. "That'll buy a meeting, at the very least." Amber: Amber considered the meeting, "We should be on guard" She said warily, "On other hands, I won't say no to 30 newyens" She agreed sd: they arranged to meet with Khalid later that day at al-Tayir. Their client was in his late fifties or early sixties, and wore a dark suit and traditional Saudi head wrap. "Good to meet you. I've heard that you're discreet and resourceful, and bold as well. That's what I need now. I have an operation to carry out on Wednesday on the king's birthday, at a location that will be very crowded. It'll be hard to pull off but it could be very rewarding." Bran: Bran raised his eyebrows but stayed silent. Melquiades: "We're interested," said Melqui, arms crossed. Amber: "Nice to meet you." Amber replied, looking at Khalid with interest sd: "I am..." he scowled, "or I should say I was, a director for the al-Nawaz corporation. We undertake a lot of construction work and locally we operate a large arena that hosts some sporting events as well as drone and robot combats. On Wednesday the arena is going to play host to a very large demonstration of robotic warfare. There'll be many different companies showing off their newest trinkets, and generals and politicians all watching - as well as people who just like to gamble. There's one particular company - CyberDragon, a Japanese firm - who are going to be showing off the newest of their Megadrones. I want you to sabotage their combat routines so they perform well under expectation, and I have an idea on how you can do it as well." Bran: "Can you tell us the reason why you want us to sabotage that particular company?" Bran asked. sd: "I might call that an unnecessary question, but fine. They're the reason I'm now an ex-director of al-Nawaz instead of a current one. They're cheats and cheapskates and when I tried to renegotiate some bad contracts with them they pulled strings to get me put out of the way instead of being reasonable." Bran: "Thank you for being honest with us," Bran said politely, though privately he took explanation with a pinch of salt. Amber: Amber nodded at the recognition of the name, "Ah, CyberDragon. About same level as Hiromishi theni if I remember right" She commented on that name and nodded, inviting Khalid on the idea on how they may do it although they may reserved their right to choose their own choice. sd: "What I have in mind," said Khalid, "is that there is a supercomputer in the basement of the arena that analyses the combat routines of the various drones. The idea is that we can subject this data to high level analysis, then sell this on to combat developers and suggest tweaks and optimisations. All bots fighting at al-Nawaz have to agree to connection to the supercomputer. So even though their combat routines are powered by their own internal CPUs, it would be possible to hack them this way and amend them. If CyberDragon's latest toys fail badly and get beaten up by outdated tech, well that would be very embarrassing for them and could cause considerable losses." Melquiades: "Interesting, and potentially feasible. Do you know much about the security systems around this computer?" sd: "I've never been down there, but I suspect they have drones down there, and the usual cameras and motion sensors. I do know that it's only reachable through the employee section of the arena, which may be tricky to access. Obviously there's going to be many people working that day, although there will be some distraction provided since Prince Bandar is going to be present. I have some blueprints which I can send you." Khalid reached for his phone. Bran: "Fake ID would be useful," Bran said thoughtfully. "Maybe as al-Nawaz employees?" sd: "You'd need fake ID and some uniforms," Khalid said. "There'll be enough people working, in a chaotic environment, that as long as you keep your heads down then hopefully no one will notice what you're up to. I can't supply the ID, but if you look around you might well be able to find some former employees - or even current ones who are corrupt - who'll lend or sell you theirs." Amber: Amber nodded in agreement, not surprised in slightest about the general corruption of the staffs Amber: Once she had some spare time, she worked with Bran to look for more videos regarding the place so Melqui can match up the blueprints with actual apperances, Melquiades: Melqui went through the provided blueprints in detail and compared them with the videos from Amber, looking for short routes and also planning contingency routes. Bran: Bran set out to find ex-employees of al-Nawazm, starting in some of the bars he hadn't yet visited and taking Amber with him. They soon found workers who were disgruntled with the company and in need of cash, and were able to negotiate the necessary ID and uniforms. Amber: Amber after some efforts managed to find a old video proudly showing off amazing statistics on the supercomputer. She passed it onto Melqui who soon found more details containing the room. Bran: Later Bran returned to trawling the bars, to see what further information he could glean. The workers he spoke to were able to corroborate some of the information Amber had found. From them he learned which superviser's office had the entrance to the supercomputer. Better still, that particular manager would be too busy brown-nosing the Prince to be around much.
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