Previous Team The Thief The Johnson UPDATES

The Job

"I represent parties looking to aquire some property. 
> A litterary work by Ehran the Scribe is to be
> published by Sylvan Information in the near future. 
> My employers do not wish that work to see the light of
> day, but they cannot afford to be implicated in any
> theft.  And that is where you come in, my friends.  My
> contacts report that you may be the finest
> shadowrunners in this sprawling city.  The mission I
> offer has two objectives.  The first is to penetrate
> the Sylvan offices here in the city and get Ehran's
> manuscript.  Being a bit archaic, Ehran has written
> the manuscript by hand, so it will be easy to
> identify.  Second, you must penetrate the Sylvan
> computer mainframe and leave behind a virus in the
> datastore that containes electronic copies of the
> work.  It is a simple viral program, which I will
> supply.  Once activated, it will wipe out the
> information as well as plant some red herrings for
> anyone who many investigate."
> 
> "For a variety of reasons, the SAN access to the
> Sylvan system is very succure.  I would most strongly
> recommend entering the system from within the physical
> building."
> 
> "Time is of the essence, so you will have only one
> week to accomplish this run."
> 
> "Payment will be 5,000 nuyen each upon acceptance and
> 5,000 nuyen upon delivery.  I am adding an additional
> 2,000 nuyen as compensation for leaving intact any
> data not related to this run.  Grubbing for extraneous
> data can jeopardize the operation.  But you do seem to
> know how to accomplish your job with a minimum of
> force, and I respect that."
> 
> "Your payment will be rendered in full once the
> manuscript is delivered to me."

Given business card with Morlock's commcode.

The Target

"Sylvan is a publishing company, much like any other. 
They have simply had the good fortune to aquire the
rights to the manuscript that my employer seeks." He
takes another puff on his smoke, letting it go in a
perfectly concentric ring. "As for Ehran, he is a
writer of some talent. He's on the older side, of
course, and has some interesting ideas about the way
things should be done. Anything beyond that, I'm
afraid, is between he and my employeer."


"There is only one copy of the manuscript. It is,
after all, hand written. Sylvan is a high tech
company of the sort who wouldn't even consider
retaining paper copies. Any copies in Ehran's
possession are inconsequential. The only completed
copy is the one at Sylvan." He takes another puff. 
"And the manuscript is to be brought to me, intact."

Morlock waves his hand dismissively. "Any copies of
the manuscript existing outside of Sylvan's facilities
aren't your concern. The return of the manuscript to
me, however, is vital." He takes another puff from
his smoke and makes another dismissive guesture. 
"Physical security is light, particularly at night. 
Their main defenses are on the matrix, since few
people will resort to grabbing manuscripts from their
physical building. This is," he pauses again,
smoking, "a special case."

• Dr. Riley: "There really isn't much else that I can share with you about Shouts-at-Stars. I mean, a simple Matrix search will tell you that he was arrested a few years ago, but that he was not convicted... Other than the fact that he was one of the 1000 SINless people who was granted a SIN under the terms of Dunklezahn's will, I really can't think of anything else of interest to you."

• To your question about the statue, Riley shakes his head. "It's a tribal artifact, valuable more for it's historical and cultural import than anything else, but it is unique enough to attract Shouts-at-Stars attention."

• To the latter question[re: why Riley wants to set up thief], Riley gives you a tight-lipped smile and answers in one word: "Research." [How do I know he isn't here to set us up for more research?]

  "Mr. Shouts-at-Stars is part of a long-term, longitudinal study," Dr. Riley says. [Long term enough to include us?]
  

• -Given holocube w/ "recent" holopic
  

• "His address is 346 B North Yamima Avenue," an address in Tacoma, not far from Garfield Park.

  • At the house, he's got a secure house. Inside, a good collection of artwork with safes hiding behind some wall pieces. Also file cabinet with information: "One filing cabinet is completely filled with architectural information. There are blueprints and floor plans for everything from single dwelling houses and apartment buildings to supermarkets and hospitals to bus stations and banksto shopping malls and schools. Another cabinet holds what seems to be civic information. It contains maps of various North American cities and details the power, water, and sewer lines as well as gas mains, Matrix hard points, and phone lines. There are hard print out computer files on wattages, water pressures, temperatures and the like. The final filing cabinet contains assorted, for lack of a better term, commodities information -- the value of gold, silver, diamond, etc. It also has detailed drawings on several pieces of jewelry and artwork. The files also contain histories and mythologies associated with the items. It also lists the insurance values of these."

  • A flute of note was found by Zora: "file on this flute. According to the file, the flute is one of a trio that was crafted by Michael Stormdancer, one of the survivors of the Great Ghost Dance. The first, a garnet red glass flute, the file notes, is owned by Lofwyr, who bought it at auction for just over 350,000 nuyen. The second, a crystal clear flute is listed as the property of the Catholic Church. A handwritten note in the file mentions that the flute was stolen from the Jesuit Monastery in Tallahassee, and that its current whereabouts are unknown. This flute, the third, is listed as being the property of a Lawrence W. Wellington, a professor of Magic Theory at MIT&M. The file notes that it is insured for 275,000 nuyen."

• "His LTG is 5206 (13-7765)"

• Has another address which Riley does not know.
  

• Running Shouts-At-Stars' name on message board returns In one of the hiring halls, several discreet references to him. From what Al'addin can piece together, he is an accomplished cracksman. He is well known for doing high end burglary of specialty items.
• There is another big section on him from trial three years ago. Following the thread, it becomes clear that the prosecutor, David Grimes, missed the ball on the case. Shouts-at-Stars was proven to have been framed and set free. The running joke on the board is that Grimes brought Shouts-at-Stars to trial for the only crime of that sort in the city that the thief actually didn't do.
• The next section deals with Shouts-at-Stars getting another fifteen minutes of fame when he became one of the lucky 1000 to win a SIN from the Draco Foundation as part of the bequest from Dunklezahn's will.
• The most recent bit of posting you've seen is from Shouts-at-Stars himself. Nothing in the last three weeks or so, but before that, he was quite active. He has spent much of the time since inheriting his SIN throwing his voice and his money in the direction of SINless rights. He's argued a lot for enfranchisement of all people. From his comments on the board, it seems that he associates with Tableau Rosa and some of the other CISS big-wigs. He's also active in the free Michael Decon movement. [Who's Micheal Decon???]

Riley's Goals

• Dr. Riley nods. "Alright," he says. "Two days ago I hired another team to do what should have been a simple job. They were simply to watch a house at a certain address and wait. I had information that there was going to be a break in there, and I had something that I wanted left at the scene afterwards. They were to go into the house after the thief had left the house and leave it."

• Previous team was to watch and leave a vial behind of Tony Shouts-at-Stars' "material evidence" with samples of blood, hair ect. Previous team possibly still in possession of vial.

  "But as things turned out, everything pretty much fell apart. The house was hit by ... someone else... The thief was taken... and the team called to ask for instructions. I told them just to follow, without being seen. I wanted to know where the thief was being taken. They lost him, but were able to find him again. They reported that he appeared to be being interrogated. Once more, they asked me what to do, and I told them to just observe. But they were unable to follow even these simple instructions and went in to try and secure the thief themselves. Which lead to two of their team being hospitalized and the third disappearing... And to me having no idea what has become of the thief."

  "Now ladies and gentlemen," Dr. Riley says. "What I want is the thief back -- alive."

• Riley: "The address [of the home robbed] is 2047 Rainforest Way in Auburn," he says. "He was [to retrieve?] a specific object of art, a statuette of Navajo origin." . . . "And I knew he was going to be there because I hired him, through an intermediary, to steal said item..."

• Pay 25,000 with successful return of Tony Shouts-at-Stars ALIVE with 5,000 up front. 5,000 bonus if successful within 24 hours.

• -Given Riley's business card with LTG and contact info

Updates

• Bulldog's located target via Astral Ritual at Nelson's Corner in Everett Data is about 10 minutes old.

• From what you pick up in the 'Trix, Nelson's Corner is almost entirely residential. Most of the addresses are for independent, stand-alone houses. There are a few small apartment complexes, separate sprawled buildings, not high rises. In addition there are a few Stuffer Shacks and small strip centers, but those commercial zones are few and far between. You do find two elementary schools and a middle school in Nelson's Corner, as well as a branch library, a Lone Star station, and a fire station.

• Message board reply from Al'addin: "Nelson's Corner? Up in Everett? Frag, chummer. Not a good place to do biz if you have a choice. Does the phase "sleepy little bedroom community" mean anything to you?" "It's the sorta place where the neighbors actually call in lease violations because the fraggin' red wagon your kids left on your lawn clashes with the trim on their siding. No frag! They actually had a case go to court outta there on whether or not some guy could fly a UCAS flag on a pole that was too tall for the "community standards." Haven't heard much about that case in a while, though. It kinda got lost in the military police action. Never heard how it turned out."

  "If you have to do biz there, and if you have to go in armed, do it discreet. Your big guns and any armor that ain't concealed will make you stick out like a sore thumb. And while Nelson's is not is bogged down with private security as say, Bellevue, the Star's response time is pretty fraggin' good there -- even with all the fallout from CISS and the like. And the neighbors there *will* fraggin' call it in. Noise violations, and all that. It might hurt their azaleas or some such drek."

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