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Post by Pelch Gobwit on Jun 7, 2010 17:51:56 GMT -5
I was already for work when the Doc walked in but still a bit nervous about the UCAS. I had decided it would be really silly to cut an run from such a lucrative paycheck and besides I would have been out all I invested just to get this far. Maybe the explosions covered up enough of the mess that they couldn't be sure what happened.
The Doc seemed in a good mood today as I sent in the first over padded, wealthy matron to be coddled. The Doc does not maintain a waiting room for his wealthy clients. Wealthy clients think they are the elite and they don't like to wait no matter what the surroundings. So the Doc maintains a very strict schedule on who sees him and how much time they can spend. The bill this pigeon was about to incur in time and talent was close to 15,000 NuYen per hour. 5,000 NuYen for twenty minutes.
While the doc was working on the fat stupid cow, I scanned the sec logs from last night. A rigger called Winter had spotted some Spiked Wheels hanging about the building. Now I'm not that familiar with the gangs of Seattle but the local stations had quite a bit on them and I had no problem hacking into the public files there for a look see. They looked like plenty bad slags and they were as Winter had pointed out to her bosses way out of their hood.
What was worse the Templeton people had ignored the alert because it appeared Templeton could not be reached until this morning. Then he had told them to fragging ignore it. Stupid. It was easy to change the priority level and the message itself and elevate it to Honest Pelchy himself. Let him deal with Templeton when he saw it. Templeton would figure out the file was hacked but it would only lead them on a false trail to the UCAS. It would be interesting to see the reaction. I then checked the rigger feeds, the Spiked Wheels were still out there.
I went and checked on my latest smart frame. I had set it up last night to run and I wanted to see what it had pulled in this morning. What was it running?
First, it was running the pictures I took of the UCAS, people and the cars and checking it against public data files. Maybe I could find a match and get some background. Second, I had looked into the Sec cam logs and found where Honest Pelchey had been approached by the two UCAS goons early on when all this started, the conversation was enlightening, and two times again later. I was running background on those jerks too.
What I was really counting on though was the three names they had given old Pelchey. Miss Elver, Charles Boyson, Athbell Marting. It was pretty obvious with the UCAS computer being blown that it would take them at least a week to procure new equipment and restore the files from backups. Then they would have to re-secure it so what happened to it wouldn't happen again.
That meant I had to look elsewhere for the information on this. The best place was to look in the public data-files to see what was known about them. My smart-frames were searching but so far I had no luck. I would most likely have to go deeper and that meant a quiet place and time to do a run. I think I was well on my way to finding out what this mess was about. I was going for a bonus on this job.
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Post by Pelch Gobwit on Jun 7, 2010 17:28:41 GMT -5
I spent a fine peaceful night catching up on my rest. The next morning it was a fine breakfast. It was magic time. The first thing I did was check out the local area, only the part I rented. Nothing inside the Fab IV treatment. No watchers, or astral presences. I quickly put up a nice strong ward around the work area and my private quarters then, I masked the ward.
If the UCAS was hanging about magically it certainly didn't seem to create any interest. Of course it shouldn't anyway. Do you know why? This is where I am going to be working (supposedly) and it would make sense that I would want the area shielded. It's in the contract anyway, chummer. I mask the ward, because I'm a neighborly kind of guy and I don't want to irritate the neighbors. If you believe that though I want to sell you a cat in a bag for pig prices.
How many people can mask their aura's and do so to hide their abilities to astral snoopers but never think to mask their ward's as well so that someone snooping will stumble into it, thus alerting you? You can mask trap spells too just like I did with the pendant. Taking old spells and using them in new and exciting ways is what the magician is all about.
Of course, now that I had a ward I set a few magical traps. Things that look magically active just need to have their nature hidden my the mask or made to appear to be non magical so they excite no interest at all, until activated. Some things like the safe and medical supplies were heavily trapped. Then I placed a water elemental on patrol. Water elemental aid in creating illusions. It would watch and maintain what illusions I wanted maintained even to cameras. No one would know the guardian was there until they blundered past the ward and while dealing with the pain it dealt the elemental would deal with them.
Feeling that I was adequately shielded for the moment, I was ready to continue on my quest to foil the UCAS. I know it's only a matter of time until the UCAS people recover from their recent set backs and I wanted to be ready.
Today is a good day to see some patients and of course gives me a good excuse to do some magic. Might just as well make some NuYen. I buzz the secretary to send in the first pigeon.
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Post by Pelch Gobwit on Jun 6, 2010 14:15:36 GMT -5
They call me the Duk. Not the Duke you fragging pantywaist. The DUK. Don Duk. I'm what you call a soldier in the Spiked Wheels. I'm one of the yard monsters that keeps the other fraggers in the gang in line. I answer to the War Boss, he's called The Pipe. Yeah, he likes to use red hot pipes on people. A bad troll to cross.
It appears he was approached by the biz department. In case you don't know it chummer the gangs now-days operate like a biz. They have departments. The biz side tells The Pipe that some Johnson is offering good Nuyen, if a certain Honest Pelchey were to get roughed up. Maybe a couple of legs broken or an arm or a head. Two thousand NuYen. We do this kind of stuff all the time. The Pipe tells me to take a couple of guys and go case out the place. No killing but I could put the hurt on him all I wanted and then deliver him a message. "We ain't forgot you." Whatever that means.
I figure it means someone is putting the pinch on the guy trying to sell insurance and he hasn't been making the payments. To me it's like a miracle come true. This Honest Pelchy is about as honest as a two bit whore. He did time in UCAS prison and he killed my brother Daffy. He didn't do the job face to face either. He paid off the Arryan Brotherhood and they sliced him up in little pieces.
I was looking for some extra payback, and if the slotter got dead, well, accidents like that happen.
It was starting in the nightly rains out here and Lone Star was cruising the neighborhood, like they meant it. We had to keep moving and ducking the foot patrols, vehicle patrols and they had some drones out too. Unless he came waltzing out it was going to be a slitch to get at him. The grounds were being patrolled by Templetons. They were a cheap joke in the plex. Figures the dwarf would hire them, they were the cheapest. They had out some foot patrols and that was about all I saw. Talk about lame.
What I would have liked to do was get a couple of war teams, drive right into that underground garage and start blowing up cars. We could grab all the stuff we wanted and be out of there and heading for I-5 in minutes. We could spray paint the message on the wall and wait some more for him to show. Later, when the heat was a little less.
It sure looked like we weren't going to get a straight shot at him tonight. Maybe tomorrow night, or the next, or the next...
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Post by Pelch Gobwit on Jun 6, 2010 13:37:18 GMT -5
OOC: A double cross implies you are betraying your allies. When people get greedy give them what they want, just not in the way they want it.
As the new kids on the block Fall and I got put on the Graveyard Shift... of course. No seniority. For her standing outside the mages door for the next 12 hours had to be the pits. You don't go anywhere, you don't do nothing, you just watch an empty fragging hallway and wait for an elevator to stop on your floor. Then you look all stony faced and chill. It sucks, but the pay is good.
My job sucked as well but it was a little more fun. I didn't have to stand. I laid back in a nice chair and plugged in a jack. I started out with a quick scan of the cameras and set them up to alert me if anything crossed their path. The other ten riggers hooked in beside me probably had all done the same thing. Then you get to run a drone for roving patrols. In my case I got a Cyber Designs Stalker 800. Not top of the line but serviceable. It looked like a spider about as big as a small puppy. It's job was to cover one side of the building, in this case the South side, outside, to make sure no one tried to come in from that angle. It gave a good view of the grounds and with the sticktite feet it could move around to watch for entry through windows. Each of the four sides had one and then they had a Cyber Designs Stealth 500 Condor Series with a foreman on over watch to monitor us and give useless orders.
The other five had interior positions and used different drones, combat models. One foreman, four other riggers all keeping an eye on the interior areas while staying out of sight of the customers. Since that is harder to do with combat drones, the senior people had those positions. They also got all the nude shots as they moved surveying from room to room. Seniority, they always get the Bennie's.
I flashed the telescopic eyes off to the street. Lone Star was doing some heavy no nonsense patrolling out there tonight. The boys in blue must be a little miffed at two attempts on the same corp building in one week. I established locks on the patrol vehicles just to keep me informed where they were in case I needed backup. Then I saw something that really honked me off.
Spiked Wheels. Trolls go-gangers. Way off their territory and staying out of sight of the boys in blue. They weren't doing a very good job of staying out of the spotlight of building security. When I touched base with the other four Stalkers they quickly picked up on them as well. The Spiked Wheels were obviously casing the joint. We all sent alerts to the foreman at the same time. The foreman started to establish locks on them and began feeding the data to the interior sec force. I had already alerted Fall just in case she was asleep and the cyber eyes were scanning for her. She was already awake and alerted her partner.
We all then watched and waited for our bosses to make a decision. You know those guys dithered like a bunch of old hens? No wonder the place kept getting broke into for frag's sake. They didn't want to make a decision. They tossed the question off to the Templeton HQ. The night people there didn't want to be caught making a decision either. It might be wrong and they decided they weren't being paid enough to make it anyway. They popped it up the chain of command and tried to call Templeton himself for a fragging decision.
Now get this. They couldn't reach the guy. For some reason his communicator was off so they couldn't trace him either! Our orders from these scru-ups was to stand tight until they could reach him. Take no fragging action. How stupid can you get? Did these corporate hoop-holes need a written invitation to realize that the Spiked Wheels were up to no good and that the best way to stop them is slap them down NOW, while they were still in the planning stages?
If I had had time to install a little extra gear here I might have had a backdoor they couldn't monitor. I could have alerted the Blue Crews as a favor and skated away with no one the wiser. This was my first night on though and all I had was the standard Templetons equipment which was monitoring everything that I used it for. Sure, I had my special Commlink V with scrambled circuit in my head to Fall but that would only go to her and she was in worse position to do something than I was.
It comes down to this. Take action using the Templeton gear and no matter how it turns out I get drek-canned for making a decision. Or do nothing and wait for the Spiked Wheels to tip their hand in such a way that I can legally take action then. Now if it was just my job, I might say frag it, but Fall is on the same job. I muck it up and she gets canned too and we need the fragging NuYen.
This corporate by the numbers drek really heats up my hoop.
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Post by Pelch Gobwit on Jun 5, 2010 15:18:14 GMT -5
A busy day. I had tapped into Honest Pelchey matrix connections today. I found the bugs and cameras in my room. They had to transmit somewhere the smartest way was to use Honest Pelchey's own matrix connections. They were now transmitting innocent stuff. Why remove them. When you have a pipe there are TWO ends, chummer. One was watching us, but the other was where the watchers were. I was going to watch the watchers for a BIT.
I know you're going to ask how I got into Pelchey's security. Remember that contract chip? Yep. Management is always the biggest security risk in any company. They think security doesn't apply to them. They have access to everything. When Pelchey slotted that chip under his password it released a smart-frame. I don't care how many times it was copied either. It copied the smart-frame with it. My bet was he wouldn't scan it before he downloaded it to his mainframe. Was I right?
Remember I told you my method of operation was to get inside the company and then hack my way in? This is just one of the ways. I had the run of Honest Pelchey's matrix. I was surprised how extensive it was. Seems this Building;ding was used for spy work at one time. Most of the records are still in here. Some after a certain point were wiped. I was doing data searches now on someone called Mao, Widow, BB, Freddie and others who seemed to be involved. The main one's though were a man called Smythe and a woman called Janie. Janie was UCAS. Janie was UCAS Secret Service. Bells and alarms were going off in my head.
It wasn't until after the News at Eleven that I heard about the UCAS bombing. If my smart-frame had been copied and it was taken and downloaded to the UCAS computer for analysis, it could account for that. UCAS SS booby trap there computers not only with the BLACKEST ICE but they physically booby trap them. You might get a decker trying to rifle files and you can take him out with the bomb in the works. The MATRIX may be slick tech but even slick tech can be destroyed trapping the person inside. When I heard the computer facility went up I just knew.
Frag it, now the UCAS will be out for blood. Should I stick or run?
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Post by Pelch Gobwit on Jun 5, 2010 15:00:25 GMT -5
After I got back to my apartment, I caught a meal and shower. I had the clown suit given to Good Will. It had served it's purpose. I just knew the UCAS was watching and waiting. When you have to deal with stupid as often as they do you sort of get used to the idea that criminals do stupid things. I gave them what they wanted. A target. The suit was so obviously a ploy to attract attention that I just knew they would be looking for something. Then I gave them that something. The Stick Pin. You might call it the Stick-it pin. I wanted them to be suspicious.
You see I knew it was going to be darn near impossible to contact Gobwit at this meeting. They had all the advantages in personnel and tech. The answer? A booby trap. I watched on the early news the word of the robbery of Honest Pelchey. They even had some video of someone punching the dwarf and taking the stuff. Pelchey played it just like I knew he would, a greedy fragging dwarf. He wasn't going to let them steal something that valuable without a fight. No Sirree. Typical dwarf. They had to take it and that convinced the UCAS they were on to something.
Now the trick is if you steal or take something get rid of it as fast as you can. Which they did. Then they promptly got shot, but when I heard that Lone Star had yet to recover the items I smiled big time. That meant they were taking it home to the heart of their Lair to examine.
I had considered in this ritual that someone might have been using the UCAS as a front. It was very possible. It wasn't until the news at eleven when the explosion went off in the UCAS Government Center that I was finally sure the UCAS was really the culprit. After all UCAS badges and plain suits are easy to get. It MIGHT have been someone just using the UCAS.
The ritual was designed to not only make the tie pin a big fragging magical bomb it was also designed to mask that. It would become obvious that the pin was magical but not in what way. All it needed to activate was someone magically trying to penetrate the magical shield. KaBOOM!
Now I would take a couple of days to see what the UCAS would do. If they have backed off then I can easily make contact. If they get rabid, it's back to the drawing board for phase two. Meantime, I'm having some wine and eating some cheese. I'm afraid Lone Star will never recover the stolen item.
Never trust a mage.
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Post by Pelch Gobwit on Jun 5, 2010 14:36:58 GMT -5
Janie and Addams were watching the news. Some dwarf biff was being interviewed. She had on a 'Templeton's' Uniform. Several Lone Star officers in gold and blue armor that made them look like insects were working in the background.
Addams, "Those were our people that Lone Star just took down. Our teams saw it, but by the time they knew what had happened our guys were already down. We cracked into the Lone Star files, Gobwit said they robbed him. The fragging animal set them up. He offered a bounty."
Janie, "Lucas and Skater were stupid. They thought a badge was instant protection. Any animal will bite back if you push too hard. I'm more worried about the level of visibility. Lucas and Skater carried badges. Lone Star when they put the forensic people on it will find those ID's and badges. They will make queries. I've already had the files change to show those badges and ID's were stolen of two other UCAS cops a month ago. I'm also having the files replaced with phonies. We are going to deny ever having known the pair of them."
Addams, looking disgusted, "Then you are going to let him get away with this?"
Janie, smiled, "Not at all. Something you may not be aware is that Lucas at least remembered his field craft. After he left Gobwit's office he passed the items to another man to deliver to us. They just arrived in the lab. We may have lost two fools but we did accomplish what we set out to do. If those things contain some type of message to Gobwit from a possible Shadow team, and we suspect they do, we'll know very soon now."
Addams grimaced, "Given the fact that Gobwit just had two of our people wasted, have you considered the message was ALREADY DELIVERED."
Janie waved a hand in disregard, "He was never alone with it. I have the video from the cameras. He slotted the contract. We watched it registered in our files as a recorded contract. We know a copy went to the Lair. We could crack that copy but there is no need to and it might alert Gobwit that we can crack it despite it's security. He never touched the pin, and he did pick up the pen but nothing happened to it. He never acted like he got a message."
Addams looked at Janie, "You assume that they didn't get a message to him earlier, somehow. How many men have we lost this week? Two tonight, that made a primary contact with Gobwit. A five man team tracking the secretary in that riot. We know they somehow got a report that our guys were tax men looking to levy new taxes for the UCAS but no one knows who started it. Then their is the eight more wounded and two more dead trying to pull the team out. Not counting the civilians we wasted. The count on that was twenty-eight dead fifty-nine wounded. Are you really sure he doesn't already have the team and the three of them set this all up?"
Janie thought, "No, I'm not sure, now. Like you I don't believe in coincidence. We may have to change the game plan. If they already did let Gobwit know and he has hired them, we still don't have a clue as to any of the other possible team members. They might have some people on the Lone Star staff or even in our new hires. They could have infiltrated Templeton as well with all the new faces he has."
Adams smiled an evil smile, "Well you got what you wanted. If Gobwit has put together a first class espionage team how do you plan to ride that tiger home? We started with all the advantages, but we've taken a pounding this week and he has opened the operating space around him. We're starting to see gaps in the coverage where we can't monitor 24/7 what he is doing."
Janie smiled, "Good. We change the plan now. We let them hit at ghosts. We pull everyone out. Everyone currently on the project but, you, I, and people we know are clean stay, the rest get assigned out of sprawl to training units. Then we wait for Gobwit to pull his team into the open and make the next move. After someone pays him a courtesy call. I would suggest you hire some Spiked Wheels through a fixer. We don't want him dead, but we do want a message delivered. That will keep him on the case and he will make a run at our files. Let's see how far he gets."
Suddenly there was a huge explosion in the building. Luckily it was some distance away and the armored glass and walls of the office held. Alarms sounded. After some hours they learned several things.
1.) The tie pin when examined by a mage had exploded in a fiery blast that had killed everyone in the room.
2.) The chip had been slotted for examination, unfortunately, the teams never scanned it first. It contained a smart frame virus that infected the mainframe. The mainframe finding itself compromised promptly exploded, but the virus had deactivated the audible warning on the self destruct device.
3.) The pen turned out to be just a pen. It was later recovered in the lab and tested carefully.
Loosing two men on the News at Six was one thing, explaining the explosions and deaths on the News at eleven at the UCAS Central Government Facility was another.
It was going to take a little time to clear up the mess.
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Post by Pelch Gobwit on Jun 4, 2010 14:36:26 GMT -5
Fall and I had done well in our negotiations at the Templeton agency. It seems they needed some new faces pretty desperately. Fall got assigned to the team on the Doc's door. The one that had been robbed. They issued her a nice uniform and an Ares Special with armlamax rounds. I got the camera security for the floor. We each got panic buttons and comm units. They were going to assign us a room together right on the premises. Looks like my old landlord wasn't going to get that late rental payment after all. We had cleaned out the place, loaded it in my Aurora and we were gone in less than an hour. It would probably take him a day or so to realize we were gone.
As I pulled into the lane for the underground garage we were stopped by a Lone Star cop. I hit a button and the canopy slid back. "What's tox?" I asked.
Lone Star saw our Templeton Security Uniforms and badges pinned to our chest. He nodded politely, we were part of the fraternity, I could begin to like this job. Normally the Star goons would have been muscling us.
"Looks like another robbery. I swear the runners in this town have to be brain-dead. The place gets hit a day or so ago and they hit some High Level suit's personal apartment and trash it. You would think they would have robbed it and sold the stuff, but no, that's too much like work for the chip crazed hoop-holes. Now it looks like the same idiots just did it again but this time they went after Pelchey himself. We got the alert and we have two FRT's waiting for them when they come out of the building. into the parking lot."
Fall smiled, "You need TWO Fast Response Teams for this bunch? How many are there?"
"Just two, but they're going to be killed resisting arrest." He smiled. Lone Star just loves the chance to use those weapons. Two heavy FRT squads means they came in armor with At least two auto-shotguns plus missiles. That meant they were going to be geeked when they cleared the building enough so the damage would be light.
Fall nodded in agreement. "Hey maybe we can help, sort of be eye witnesses and tell the holo people when they get here. We get our faces on the news and make our boss happy and you got some righteous witnesses to make you all look good."
Lone Star nodded, "I like that. I'll let the Lieut, know. You girls just stay here buttoned up and you'll see the whole thing. Nice to see some citizens get even with the scum for a change and maybe we can work some deals later."
Fall nodded as he walked away and I closed the window. "Now we got a contact in the Star. That could be useful." I nodded. It was a smart move. I saw two suits with shades come out the door. I looked twice. Those guys looked like standard street dress for UCAS Secret Service. I didn't get a chance to say anything. They were hit from all sides at once. They had body armor. It kept them alive just long enough so they could feel themselves die. One guy even managed to clear his holster but he never got a shot off. The boss cop came up and looked. It was going to be hard to identify them. He motioned us over.
We stepped out of the car. Fallon picked up the UCAS cops gun with her gloves on and fired four shells at the ceiling. She tossed the gun back down. "No powder burns on your boys and they won't check me. Definitely, some desperate scum here. They deserved what they got." The Boss cop smiled but it turned into a frown. The hoop-holes stashed the loot somewhere or gave it to someone else. Frag IT! He turned to the team members. "Let the holo people in, and let's look good for the news We at least got half the bounty. It's still a win as far as I'm concerned.
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Post by Pelch Gobwit on Jun 4, 2010 13:57:16 GMT -5
The elf style Popsicle is gone. The room seems darker already.
I slotted the electronic copy of the contract, under my personal pass-code. It dumped the original and rewrote the original back onto the chip with some tough encryption. All information safely stored and registered I reset the chip back on the desk.
Wouldn't you just know it, about that time my current hoop holes waltzed into the room. Like they had been waiting for me to get done with the elf. It was going to be one of those fragging days. I picked up a silver pen the secretary had left, probably by mistake, who cares, it's mine now.
PigONE: "Still wearing Bill Blasted suits I see. The elf should have stuck with Vashon Island. That thing he has on makes him look like a badly dressed pimp."
I glared at them, "Now what do you two fraggers want? How am I supposed to get anything done if you keep coming in to mess with me? What's worse, you tie me up talking and wonder why I can't get anything done."
PigTWO: "The attitude hasn't improved much but we can cut you some slack. We want that pin, that pen and the original copy of that contract. Give us that and we'll let you have a couple more weeks. Give us a hard time, we take it anyway, and we start coming after you now."
I looked at them my mind racing. The pin looked to be worth some money. I wasn't going to let that go so easy. The original copy of the contract was already registered and under layers of ICE in the lair. I could just give them the chip and they would never know the difference. It would take them a while just to break the encryption. If they thought they could muscle money out of me with what was on the contract, they were too late. The pen was one of those silver things that corps always seem to give out when some chump retires. Nothing special, pricey, fancy looking but you always end up losing them anyway if they don't run out or leak on you in the first week. That got me to thinking more.
Now why would they want a fragging pen? If they were willing to back off on the time schedule to get it and the other items, then maybe I finally had me some leverage. The question is, how much?
"I can be reasonable, but the pin was given me by the Doc, it's worth quite a bit. He might be a bit miffed if I was to lose it or not wear his gift. As for the contract, since when does the UCAS want to see a standard contract? You boys planning to go into business for yourself? Trying to get a piece of the action or looking for blackmail material? I don't think your bosses are going to like that. As for the pen, I got a bunch. Tell you what, for a dwarf anythings for sale, make me a package offer. Two weeks and the cost of the pin? Or maybe three weeks?"
PigTwo backhanded me out of my chair. Seems I had no leverage at all. He pocketed the three items on my desk. Turned and walked out, followed by his girl friend.
PigONE, "You always got to do things the HARD way don't you." They slammed the door. I was pissed. I dialed Lone Star. "I been robbed. I'll pay a bounty dead or alive. 50% of the value of the recovered items if you kill the bastiages resisting arrest, another 50% if you recover the items intact." I sent them the feed from the sec cameras showing them backhanding me taking the stuff. I stopped it there. They didn't need any of the words. "I think they're armed. If you hurry you can nail them as they leave the building." Lone Star promised me an FRT probably two.
I smiled, maybe I was killing two problems with the same boulder. It would be worth the expense.
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Post by Pelch Gobwit on Jun 3, 2010 7:31:38 GMT -5
Stated Addams as they carefully watched the video's of the contract signing. Janie nodded, "He's trying to distract our attention. Watch his hands."
Templeton had come whining to her about the cost of this operation, but the UCAS had him solid on income tax evasion. As a result, while his people were making a big show of finding all kinds of cameras and bugs, they were only pulling out the redundant ones, or ones they KNEW had already been located. As for the firings, well it was easy enough to create a back history for the new applicants and place her people right in the place.
Let the dwarf think he was making progress. She had a large budget on this one.
Addams motioned to the stick pin. "That's the only thing he has handed over. The room was magically shielded but we are certain it's magical. Outside of the handshake it's the only thing they passed to him."
Janie disagreed. "The contract itself and the copies. The pen they signed with came from the secretary and she left it on the desk. The electronic chip with the handwritten copy of the contract so that it could be electronically filed. Then of course the tie pin, which seems pretty obvious to me. Still obvious works sometimes."
"The costume was to distract us. It wasn't a bad attempt, but the elf usually dresses in Vashon suits. The cape, ruffles and lace, with that stupid hat are all to distract. The part that bothers me is he grabbed Gobwit's hand twice."
Addams nodded, "A smart cookie like him could be assessing the dwarf for his aura so that he can make magical contact. He had nothing in his hands that he passed. We slowed down the copy and checked it frame by frame. no sleight of hand there. We also watched the secretary and Gobwit. If they were the runners he doesn't give anything away that they are making any abnormal contact. It does seem to lead directly to the tie pin. Somehow it appears to be a trigger."
Janie sighed, "The secretary never actually touches Gobwit at all. She places things on the desk and picks them up, she catches the contract from her boss but doesn't touch him either. Have we got a more extensive background check on either of them yet?"
"No. It takes time to dig that deep and we are having to light fires under people in different sprawls. You know how it is when you mess about in someone else's pool. You're ruling out the secretary because she never made any kind of contact with Gobwit?"
"Of course not. She may be just a sideshow but she standing in the background while her partner is deliberately attracting attention. I want a frame by frame of her starting from when she walked into the office. Maybe she's planting something. We get that stick pin and let our mages check it out."
Addams nodded.
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Post by Pelch Gobwit on Jun 2, 2010 17:50:20 GMT -5
I'll admit it.
I like gold. The look the feel. The things it buys and the power kick it gives me. People kiss my hoop, and treat me like I'm the most important thing around. This contract with this rich doctor is going to bring me a lot of gold, NuYen, lucre, cold hard cash. I thinking gold when the doc breezes in looking like a fragging purple pimp.
I spit my drink. I coughed.
A fragging elf. No one told me it was going to be another fragging elf. An elf with no fragging fashion sense to boot. A giraffe's tongue of a twit with fragging ruffles around his neck, lace on his sleeves, white fur boots and belt. He even had a cape. Seat covers had died to make that cape, car seat covers from the Atzlan. The outfit was deadly. My dreams of gold went South faster than a north bound skunk.
The secretary was all right. Maybe I could hide behind her so I wouldn't get too sunburned from the glare. Her face didn't show it but I suspected she was in almost as much pain as I was. Why hadn't anyone warned me that this idiot in search of a village dressed like this?
Anything for gold. His checks had cleared. At least he was a paying customer. I bravely stuck out my hand. Luckily he could see and pumped it vigorously. I bounced.
"Honest Pelchey, Fragging glad to meet'cha." He said with all the hearty sincerity of the super rich. "Now where's that contract?"
I slid the thing forward hoping it wouldn't burst into flames. Luckily it didn't. The secretary gave the doc an electronic scribe so he could place his name on it. Luckily it wasn't in purple ink. I placed my signature on it as well. She inserted it into her deck and we soon each had copies. I carefully put mine aside to place in my vault area in the lair later. The doc carelessly tossed his copy to the girl. I assumed she would file it away later.
"Now that the biz is done, I got a present for you old boy." He handed me a tie stick pin. I had to admit it was pretty expensive looking and had a gem in it that caught the lights. I thanked him and offered to buy lunch but the doc seemed to be in a hurry. He took my hand and bounced me a couple of times and then the tornado followed by the girl left.
I clutched my pin in shock.
OOC: Did they make contact or not? MUA HAH HAH HAH!
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Post by Pelch Gobwit on Jun 2, 2010 8:22:50 GMT -5
OOC: Four-Eyes gives new meaning to that old phrase.
I've just put on a chic new black Zoe skirt that goes to about mid-thigh. A nice white blouse and a silver headband to hold my hair back. Black heels that make me about an inch taller and bring out the shape of my calves real well and shows off the expensive hose. With my deck clipped to my silver belt, I'm ready for work. Just in time too. The Doc comes knocking on the door.
I tell him to come in. He's dressed in an expensive purple suit. I haven't seen anything this garish except on a pimp. Somehow, maybe because he's an elf, he pulls it off. Lavender shirt, lilac tie and suit, White fur boots that go to mid-thigh. Lace on the cuffs and neck. White fur belt. He tops it off with a wide brimmed hat with of all things fragging feathers! I think I'm going blind.
It's so awesomely garish that I stare in dumbstruck amazement. He must have taken my look for approval. Well at least we'll save on the light bill. He turns slowly, I guess to give me the full effect.
"This is the kind of suit that shows what's what." He remarked with a gleaming elf smile.
Yeah. What's what is either the most brain dead pimp in the Sprawl or he's looking to get a man. I'm not sure which. At this stage of the game. I don't want to know.
Whatever possessed him to wear such a God-Awful suit?
I remind him that we are going to be late to meet with 'Honest Pelchey'. He nodded and took my arm. The guards must have had polarized lenses in their shades. They were able to see the door to lock it when we left.
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Post by Pelch Gobwit on Jun 2, 2010 7:59:02 GMT -5
Nightmares are just the preview of the Hell to come.
So are we all damned?
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Post by Pelch Gobwit on Jun 1, 2010 17:39:18 GMT -5
OOC: Last Friday the count was at 187 views. Today it's at 239. People may not be playing but somebody is reading. I don't think we wrote over 50 entries out here since then. Hello Lurkers!
That Vulpine sure came through. The lawyers got the law to back off. Security got improved. I got a big check for my losses. I also collected an insurance check on my own. I do insure my stuff. I also got an insurance check from the building's insurer. Honest Pelchey it appears, has renters insurance. I was able to have 10,000 NuYen wired off to pay off my book. Now criminals wouldn't be hunting me down, just the UCAS.
Another thing is I got an upgrade in my suites both professional and private for one year at no cost. It appears the Security people have also offered to replace the equipment and medical supplies I use gratis, for a year. Man it's all pure profit. I immediately went to a private tailor well recommended by the Mayflower staff. I spent most of the morning replacing my ruined wardrobe and items. All gratis as well. I could get to like this.
It appears Honest Pelchey is not as tight-fisted with the cred as I was led to expect.
I had to laugh. The UCAS had jumped the gun. They went through my room and stuff and there was nothing there to find. If they had waited till I came back AFTER the ceremony they might have discovered the very expensive magical tie-pin I had prepared and that wouldn't do at all. Now I kept it safely hidden on myself at all times.
I headed for Izzy's room and knock on the door. She was in and told me to come in. It was almost time to make contact with Pelchey.
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Post by Pelch Gobwit on Jun 1, 2010 13:36:33 GMT -5
"Hey Winter! Have you heard the latest?"
I tried to shut out the noisy voice of my twin sister. Her names Fallon or Fall for short and we both are. That's because we are dwarfs. You got a problem with that, go take it uwith someone that cares.
I was under the carriage of a Fredericks Aurora IX. I was installing a brand spanking new GAZ-Willys G8 Torque Converter. The things was built like an anvil and trying to shoehorn it into a racing machine like an Aurora IX was a real Slitch Kitty. I didn't need Fall's aggravation right now. I ignored her.
Bad move.
Fall don't know when to quit. She's also got enough cyberware in her to make the Terminator XIII drek his pants. All this means, she has all the tact and empathy of a brick. "Frag it, Win! Did you hear me? I got some news." She lifted the front end of the car. "I know you're down there somewhere. You're always working on this thing. Listen this is really good."
I sighed and slid out. Gaz Willy still clutched in my hand. Fall was like a rock slide. I wasn't going to get nothing done until I got rid of her. I had two choices. A shoulder mounted Panther Assault Cannon, or pretend to listen to her, nod knowingly, tell her to check it out and then when she left get back to work. Gaz-Willys ain't going to install itself. "What do you want?" I asked bored.
Fall let the car fall and I winced as the tires bounced. Good thing I had installed 'Peerless' off-road shocks and Valiant AD stabilizers yesterday. In case you haven't guessed yet, this is my personal ride. It's got a Krass Tornado 12 cyl. engine with aircraft octane and nitrous bleed. The tires are of course, run flat, and it has enough armor on it to shrug off most major armaments. It's my pride and joy.
Fall stamped her foot leaving an impression in the ferro-crete. If you looked carefully you would see at least a dozen more. "Fall, stop crapping up my floor and get to the point! I told her angrily."
Fall shrugged apologetically. She may be King Kong but she knows if she frags me off to much I'll disable her cyberware. I had built it all myself. Then she went to her Doctor's to put it in. She was smart enough not to frag with her source of parts.
"Word is that 'Templetons' is hiring again. Seems that some classy site on Z Street was broken into last night. Probably Runners. Anyway they ripped off some really rich Doctor and the drek hit the fan. Here's our chance."
I wanted to get back to my baby. "Forget it." I advised her.
She looked at me like I was stupid. "What do you mean forget it? YOU were the one said we needed a job instead of robbing other people as poor as us to make ends meet. You're the one who said the landlord was on her case about paying rent on the garage or we we're going top lose your ride. You were the one...."
I put my hand up, not the one with the Gaz. "I know what I fragging said last night." I told her coldly.
She looked at me with those big brown puppy eyes. She was right. We were in a tough way. The economy was bad. Not many jobs to be had especially for a couple of twin dwarf girls who didn't spread for every guy with the NuYen. I hated the thought of losing my baby. "Z Street, that's Pelchs place now, used to be Ace Tomato?"
She nodded. Lots of talk in the sprawl about 'Honest Pelchy' and his criminal cronies. Sure he had money and that was a plus for any dwarf, but that also meant he wouldn't be inclined to part with it readily. "How much is Pelch paying?"
Fall stamped again. Cracks appeared. I winced. "Pelch's building is just what you guard, moron. Didn't you hear me? Templetons got the contract there. We'd be working for a human not a dwarf. The money is good and they specifically mentioned that those with affiliation to UCAS are not welcome. I know how much you hate the UCAS so I just knew you'd be interested."
I glared out of my ice blue eyes. That's why they call me Winter, Blue eyes and white hair. Fall was all browns and reds. She's also the eldest. Same mother, different fathers. Don't ask how twins can be like that. It's the Sixth World chummer. She was right though. The UCAS was a bad spot in my memory. I thought about it a spell.
"Lift the car up. need to finish putting this in." I told her. She smiled like a happy child.
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