CY_BORG: VIP Abduction

[Stormbringer]

Sorry about the delay.

16 on the D20

No problem! We're keeping the pace slow here after all, to keep it manageable for everyone.

+ + +

"All right, all right, no need to pull a gun on me!" says Talsequin, smiling with his hands in the air.

"Tell your friend I'm sorry about the deal falling through, but, this here..." he nods at the bike "...if I were to buy this particular piece of hardware, I'd be looking over my shoulder for the rest of my life, wondering when ACGS were going to hunt me down and send me to Borghold!"

He retracts the camera on the steel tendril back into his coat sleeve, likewise with the other tendril that's plugged into the Cyberbike.

"You take care of yourself now."

Smiling benignly, Talsequin 8-D7 turns about and walks unassumingly back down the street the way he came.

[Mantis]

Zola honks the horn of the taxi incessantly in the hopes it will impress upon Volley the urgency of their rapid disappearance from the locale.

[Wrathbone]

Hearing the buyer suggest the bike was a bad sale, I look slowly from the bike to the mall to my credstick several times, cogs whirring, until it dawns on me that maybe those heavily armoured medics were here for the biker.

“Uh, boss… you think that maybe… maybe those guys tearing up the mall are here for the biker dude? And, you know, maybe they won’t like that we… liquified him for creds?”

I take aim with my rifle at the mall’s back door from the rear seat of the taxi.

[Animalmother]

Volley will jump into the backseat of the taxi and slams the door shut.

[Mantis]

Zola speeds off towards the nearest main road.

"Chill out chooms, they got no proof it was us, dude was a goner anyway, not like we iced him ourselves."

Zola nervously tries to recall if he saw any security cameras on their path through the mall.

[Stormbringer]

With a wheelspin and a screech of tires, the stolen taxi speeds away from Hypermall #1994 into the traffic of the Arcs district.

Moments later, a news update pops up on the punks' RCDs on the CyNews/Update feed:

G/M/T LAWYER KILLED IN ARCS DISTRICT AMBUSH

CENTRAL, 08:30 — Gravf/Mellberg/Tosk lawyer Tomi “Toad” Dian was killed this morning in a violent ambush near Hypermall #1994 in the Arcs district.

Surveillance footage shows a group of armed assailants dragging Mr. Dian’s body through the mall’s west entrance and into a clinic trading under the name Ol’ Trusty Joe’s. There, the attackers fed the victim whole into an Organ Booth, reportedly in an attempt to exchange his organs for creds.

One suspect was simultaneously advertising Dian’s ACGS Cyberbike on the Net. The vehicle’s lease was linked to an ACGS life-insurance policy, which automatically triggered an Emergency Response Team recovery operation. By the time officers arrived and sealed the building, the victim had already been processed by the organ donation machine.

A bystander, identified only as Vira, told investigators: “I saw three men carrying someone into the clinic. I spoke to one—he seemed intoxicated.”

Hypermall central management say no business called Ol’ Trusty Joe’s is registered on-site at #1994. The clinic’s owner could not be located, and the premises have been closed pending a UCS investigation.

A local witness captured the suspects fleeing in a taxi, believed stolen. The Cyberbike was recovered and remains in ACGS custody.

A. Gustafsson, a board member for ACGS, issued a statement:

“This was a senseless and deplorable act. Mr. Dian was a valued customer of ACGS, and a respected lawyer whose loss will be deeply felt by both Gravf/Mellberg/Tosk and his main client Tulles & deVerte. We commend our emergency team’s swift action and have full confidence that UCS investigators will bring those responsible to justice.”

A looped video-reel runs along-side the article, showing footage from Hypermall CCTV cameras, video-call interviews with the various parties concerned, as well as 8D-7's footage of Zola, Sen and Doze scrambling into the taxi, then Volley pointing his revolver at the camera-owner's face.

[Wrathbone]

I mean... as new reports go, it's only partially inaccurate.

Would it be fair to assume that even if we had concrete proof that we didn't cause the lawyer's death, the police and the courts wouldn't care?

[Stormbringer]

Probably. The only police are private security, who work for the corporations.

But don't worry about it too much; this was all just a prologue, for setting the scene and building up to the first proper 'job'!

(not a bad sequence stemming from a randomly rolled city event)

+ + +

A few moments later, an email pops up on Zola's RCD.

It's from Lorne (@lorne-195384)...the boss of his former (and proper) gang! Before they kicked him out...

@Zola-463677, my man! Did I just see you on the news?! UCS might not recognise you yet, but I'd recognise that excess jewellery and that 'oceanwave' look anywhere!

How you doing, bro? You took out Tomi the Toad?! INSANE! What a stunt! Toad had it coming, but...man...I didn't expect it to be you!

Listen...I know you're a lone wolf now, bro, but I might have some work for you, if you think you can hack it? I'm talking 7000¤ work! No joke!

We're after somebody else from G/M/T. One of the Tosk heirs. Lukas. Lukas Tosk. Not murder, though...I'm talking kidnap. These G/M/T folks are worth a lot more alive than dead. You know what G/M/T are all about right? Law, risk management, security, credit, real estate, marketing, financial services, etc. Lukas is a top-layer executive; works in the G/M/T HQ in South Central: the Golden Spire. But you won't be taking him from there, NO SIR! That would be suicide.

We've got some intel on Lukas. He has an 0-Sleep addiction, see? At 12:00, on his lunch-break, he's going to take an armoured limo from the Golden Spire south through Inkwell Heights and into the Edda Crawl slum. There's a waterside safehouse just at the edge of the slum, overlooking the Optima Depths. Technically it's outside Cy limits. The safehouse is a Virid Viper drug-manufacturing lab. Lukas will arrive at the safehouse at 13:00, pick up his 0-Sleep supply, then head back to the Golden Spire in time for his afternoon board meeting.

Your job, Zola, is to make sure he doesn't make it back: instead, you're gonna bring him to us. It's 7000¤ for Tosk. If you bring back the limo as well, that's an extra 50%.

If you're not too busy, get yourself to that safehouse for 11:00. That gives you a couple of hours to scope the place out and plan out how you're gonna take him. You in, mate?

[Animalmother]

"There's no vids of my...incident with the Sunshine drug is there?" pipes up Volley from the back seat. " I got a rep to maintain..."

[Sly Boots]

What's the market value on the souped-up drone I just nabbed?

[Stormbringer]

Sitting in the passenger seat, Doze does some Net research on how much a second-hand, modified flyer drone would sell for.

The suggested figure is 1000¤.

[Sly Boots]

Doze will wait until we reach our next destination and then place an ad.

I'm thinking about investing in a cyberdeck as I'm wondering if we might be able to hack the limo in some way for the mission.

[Stormbringer]

Yes, you're thinking along the right lines here. The flyer drone could be exchanged for a Cyberdeck+; it's roughly the same value.

[Sly Boots]

Yes, you're thinking along the right lines here. The flyer drone could be exchanged for a Cyberdeck+; it's roughly the same value.

Perfect!

[Mantis]

Zola acknowledges the message he's received, fires a few profanities at him for leaving him high and dry before sheepishly asking Lorne to hang fire while he briefs his new crew, explaining the details of the job.

"What you say choomboys? We could do with that sweet dough, I could buy some new wheels now this one's days are marked. Easy job, no sweat, grab that limo while the sucka is in the clinic dosing up. Big league games now boys, show me you're down to hang Oceanwave style."