Making for the back right corner alcove of the bar, you find a man sat there, busy prepping a plastic inhaler device of some kind that appears to contain a thick golden coloured substance. The small table in front of him is littered with cigarette butts, several empty beer bottles, and another empty inhaler.
"Can I help you?" The man asks as he notices you looking into his alcove, stopping his preparations and draining one of the beer bottles with a final swig as he looks at you expectantly.
Li Fei narrows her eyes at the man as he pockets his phone. What, he think I'm going to walk off with it? Psh. I don't want to know where that thing has been.
She glances expectantly at Reiji, waiting for him to take the lead.
"We're looking for a truck, pretty distinctive one at that," Reiji begins, giving their target a quick once-over and crossing his arms. "Heard you might've seen it. Think you could help us out?"
Ryoko nods to the others, glancing briefly at the text sent by her cousin about the lax security. She glances around to see if there appears to be a good route to sneak past the bouncer. OOC
"Hey, look - I'm no snitch," Wenters says holding up his hands .
"If you need a new VIN, new plates, cracking a vehicle's firmware, whatever - I'm your guy, but if I'm anything other than good at what I do, I am discrete. A lot of my employers like to keep things on the down low, and they're not the sort of people you want to mess with," he says, somehow managing to turn dismissing your question into something resembling a sales pitch.
Ryoko
Watching the bouncer during your time perched at the bar, you have noticed he has not moved much from his post stood by the door and would be hard to sneak by as a result. However with the lighting, crowd and noise of the dancefloor, it seems like it would be relatively easy to sneak past him should something distract him and move him further from the door.
"I get that, Eduardo, I do," Reiji says, putting his hands up in a level of resignation. "But in this case, your employers were far from discrete, even if you are. That's kinda unfair, no? Expecting your discretion when they're the ones swiping a bright pink truck owned by a corpo exec. They knew someone would come asking, but still wrapped you up in it." Maybe can make him realize he's a pawn and he'll turn against them.Mechanics
Wenters lets out a heavy sigh. "Ok but you didn't get any of this from me right?" He says, grabbing a beer bottle from the table and pausing to take a large swig.
"So these smugglers from up in Northlake - The Northlake Outfit - hired me to clean up a truck they stole. Make it untraceable - I guess to sell it on. Not really their usual line of work, but who am I to judge? Anything to make a buck right?" He explains, talking quickly as he rattles through the details of the story.
"Anyway, I finished up working on it yesterday. They had it in some delivery company place, a front, down by the river. Quick Drop, that was it," he says, pulling out his phone from his pocket and showing you a pin on a map of Hawthorne. "Here - now remember, we never met," he adds, looking to you for reassurances. Updated Map
Li Fei raises an eyebrow as Reiji's angle proves successful. "We were never here," she affirms, noting down the Quick Drop on her own phone. She taps Reiji on the elbow gently. "Let's go." She murmurs a word of thanks to Wenters before heading back toward the stairs.
They might've moved it already, but at least we're one step closer.
Reiji cracks a smirk as their contact spills the details and gives them a better lead. Discrete, unless a smooth talker rolls up. Good thing his employers won't find out about this. He gives a nod and a wave to Eduardo, wordlessly stepping away with Li Fei.
Only a few minutes after talking their way in, Li Fei and Reiji make their way back upstairs, the doorman stepping aside as they emerge from the venue's subterranean drug den, assuming they were successful in preventing Wenters from exiting the Empress in a body bag after his alleged overdose. They head back over to the bar and rejoin Kindred, Ryoko and Elodie.
Li Fei continues past the bouncer, clutching her medical bag and giving the man a bored look. She makes her way over to the others with Reiji.
"Northlake paid Wenters to scrub the truck's record, make it untraceable. Sounds like they're looking to sell the pink shitbox. The whole thing's odd, considering these guys aren't the usual type to steal and flip vehicles. Anyways, our guy said Northlake was storing it at a delivery company down by the river. Quick Drop." She shares the location with a flick of her smartphone. Updated Map
"Yep. No guarantee it's still there, but it's a lead. Gotta be some evidence left behind or something," Reiji chimes in with a nod. Damn, feels like one of those crime shows. Get the evidence to the lab and run for prints. Heh.
"Thank you for getting that information." Elodie notes down Eduardo's name and his habit of fixing cars for crime rings. Something is up with that car. I really need to give it a good look once we've got it, she decides. "Then, shall we take our leave?"
"Yeah," Li Fei agrees, eager to get to their next lead. "Let's move. Hey, lemme get a lift this time." She taps Reiji's arm. "That cool?" she asks, glancing between him and his cousin.
The detective and his assistant are nice and all, I guess, but they're hardly my speed. I wanna see Helmet Guy's bike, see if he's a poser or the real thing. Plus, I'm sick of riding that piss-soaked bus.
"You guys work fast," Ryoko says, shrugging as her plans to slip by the bouncer prove unnecessary. She frowns as Li Fei requests a ride from Reiji, but shrugs. "Only fair," she continues, turning to Elodie. "I don't suppose you'd mind lending me bus fare til we get paid for this, huh?"Need to get wheels of my own soon, this lack of transportation is getting old.
"Deal, but don't blame me if you get helmet hair," Reiji says, flashing a smirk toward Li Fei. "Beats bugs in your teeth though."Love my bike, but damn I wish we had a car right about now. Maybe can find something cheap at a used lot. Doesn't need to look pretty, but... well, I don't wanna be driving a piece of crap so yes it does.
"No need," Li Fei says, sliding her bus pass out of a pocket of her paramedic coat and tossing it over to Ryoko. "They don't ever check it anyways."
She rolls her eyes at Reiji's smirk as she walks past him, looking to leave.
Ryoko
The New Sevastopol Rapid Transit Pass is printed with the name Kiara Gregory, and has a low-quality photo of Li Fei's face. Her hair is shorter in a pixie cut, and she looks a few years younger based on the more mousy features.
"Well it doesn't look like me at all," Ryoko says, gazing at the pass, then back at Li Fei. "But if they won't check then I guess it won't matter," she says, shrugging as she tucks it into a pocket. Hopefully these two are good conversations, at least, she thinks as she glances to the detective and his assistant.
With the transit authority unapproved transfer of bus pass complete, you leave the Empress and make your way across Hawthorne towards the East River and the Quick Drop location.
You arrive as the sun has begun to set, its rays painting the sky a vibrant mix of purples and oranges through the ever present haze of pollution that sits over the city, reassembling across the street from your target building.
The Quick Drop distribution centre is a low, squat structure built to maximize efficiency and minimize both expense and attention. It blends in seamlessly with dozens of other, similar, warehouses in this industrial area of the city. The front of the building appears to be a few small offices, while the rear is a large, square, warehouse. The building's perimeter is guarded by a chain-link fence.
On the East side of the building, a protrusion from the structure appears to be a large air filtration system of some kind. Quick Drop’s worn logo appears to one side of the main entrance, a pair of double doors that look securely locked.
"Guess they've closed shop for that day," Reiji says, squinting into the hazy dusklight as he looks over the building before them. "Anyone in for a little B and E? Even if the truck's gone by now, might be a paper trail or some cam feed we could tap into."Bound to be a door some careless prick left unlocked, right?
Li Fei steps off Reiji's bike, glad to not have to ride the bus for once. "Thanks," she says flatly, before they soon regroup with the others. She makes sure to take the bus pass back from Ryoko.
"You see a way in?" Li Fei asks, her eyes following the chain-link fence. "Those doors look sturdy but check that out." She points toward the large protrusion on the building. "Air ducts. Might be less secure."
"Could always hop the fence and see if there's another way in," Reiji says, eyeing the chain-link perimeter. Of course Mr. Detective doesn't look as spry, but maybe he'd surprise us.
"Or, worse comes to worse, there's the timeless universal key: a brick through the window."
"Keypad on the door, probably not even networked. I could crack it open in a flash," Li Fei boasts. She approaches the chain link fence, gauging its height.
OOC
Str/Exert to get over?
Anyone else have wire-clippers? Could that be something I might have in a cyberdoc bag for trimming cyber hardware wires?
Li Fei winces at the height of the fence, instead cocking a glance back at the others. Noticing the sheathed blade on Ryoko's back, her eyebrows raise. "Think you could get us in?"
Ryoko nods and draws her blade. With a single fluid motion she carves through the fence, the katana's enhanced micro edge slicing the links in half, opening up a human sized gash in the fence.
"Open sesame," Ryoko says, sheathing her sword as she steps back from the hole.
"Maybe leave the B&E out of your notes Miss Lind, should our lead prove to be a false one," Kindred says, pulling the fence apart slightly and stepping through into the compound.
"Noted," Elodie replies, pocketing her notebook, and following after her boss who pauses to hold the fence for her.
She cut through that fence like it was butter, Li Fei considers, watching the enforcer work. I'd hate to be a mook on the other end of that blade. She slides through the gap in the fence after Miss Lind.
"Cover me while I get to work on that keypad." She moves toward it in measured steps, taking her cyberdeck out of her oversized coat and snaking the wire out from its hardshell.Mechanics
It only takes Li Fei a few moments to crack the rudimentary lock on the doors. The light on the keypad flicks from red to green and you hear the click of the door as it unlocks.
Stepping through the doors, you find yourselves in a the building's L-shaped lobby. A pair of couches and low coffee tables flank the main entrance, while ahead of you, in front of a set of large double doors, sits a desk. As you enter a man sat at the desk looks up from a computer screen.
"Hey! How did you get in? You can't be here," he says firmly, standing up from his seat. He is dressed in a security uniform, a pistol on his hip, however his arms are heavily tattooed and he carries himself with more swagger than you would expect of a typical 9-5 rent-a-cop. Map
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Li Fei glances at the security mook, rolling her eyes. "You're paying by the minute for this, Carlotta," she whines, glancing back at the pristinely dressed Elodie. "And tell your guard dog to stand down."
She points toward the double-doors. "Is it this way to the server room?" Li Fei asks, looking between Elodie and the mook, hardly waiting for a response from either as she paces towards the doors.Mechanics
Damn, they hired some muscle. Guess they've got more than a few secrets. Reiji eyes the guard uneasily, fixating on the pistol for a moment before stepping up. "We're paid to be here," Reiji says, cocking his head toward their would-be exec. "Surprised they didn't send a memo, but you know how much of a clusterfuck management is." He turns to Li Fei, adding matter-of-factly, "Got a call that the servers were on the fritz. Connection been a bit sluggish lately, yeah?" Mechanics
Elodie goes to speak, following Reiji and Li Fei's lead, but the guard cuts her off. "I don't know anything about that. You all need to leave right now," he says, placing one hand on his gun while he keys a radio with the other. "Intruders, front entrance," he says into the radio, eying you with suspicion.
