Kate and Felix make their way to the Riad Rouge on foot - a fairly pleasant walk through the crowded streets - and arrive on the right street as the sun is starting to set.

The hotel itself is easy enough to identify, a large sign in English and Arabic proclaims the name and that it still has vacancies. A number of people, mostly locals with some tourists thrown in for good measure, mill around the streets chatting or eating street food and generally enjoying the evening air. A cafe at the far end of the street appears to be a popular tourist hotspot and most of their outside tables are occupied.

From the street you can see inside and the layout is very similar to your own hotel. A large central courtyard with rooms around the outside walls over three storys. As a slight difference to your accommodation their restaurant is apparently located on the well advertised 'rooftop terrace'. There is a small reception desk located just inside and to the right of the door occupied by a bored looking member of staff.

Felix glanced down at his phone again, then around at the rest of the street as though trying to get his bearings.  A tourist trying verify his whereabouts. He was really taking the moment to look around for any other searchers.

If he noted any or not, he made mental note and headed into the Riad.  Dabbing at his brow, he looked around the lobby admiringly.  Using his phone, he began to snap tourist shots of the lobby....the courtyard...the balconies...  Making sure to get whatever folks might be around in each shot as much as he could.

Kate walked in with Felix, modestly dressed and wearing hijab per local customs. She linked an arm through Felix’s and looked around, playing the part of tourist whilst looking around for cameras, tails, spotters, or other people who might have nefarious purposes. “It’s lovely here, honey. What are you thinking; shall we stay here?”

It hadn't been immediately obvious but, when looking more carefully, you can tell there are some men watching the entrance to the Riad. Though calling them men may be a little overgenerous.

Two young locals are lounging on motorcycles nearby, watching the entrance and trying a little too hard to make it look like they aren't. In their early twenties, if that, they look like local toughs rather than professionals. A third motorcycle sits, unused, next to them but there is no sign of a third youth.

"I don't know...," answered Felix absently, still looking at his phone as he continued towards the front desk.  He added, just loud enough to probably be heard by the person at the front desk, "The reviews are not so good..."  In truth, Felix was sending off the photos to Sidney to review.  Hopefully she was quick.

To the man at the front desk, "Gutentag.  Ah...  Um...  No..  Um...  Bonjour?  Parlez vous francais, monsieur? English?"  Tourists...

Sidney comes back pretty swiftly as befits her top level skills. There are no hits from most of the photographs but one of the youths with the motorbikes outside comes back as known on a police database for petty crime. He's essentially a local gangbanger - pretty much exactly as it says on the tin!

Of Olivia Liu there is no sign.

Kate turned away and looked around the lobby as Felix tried to get the attention of the front desk worker. "Three bikes, two lookouts," she whispered to him and continued looking. She had the wide smile of a tourist on her face but was looking for the not-so-evident. She wanted to see if there were any professionals in the lobby or looking from the outside in.

You can't see anyone who appears like a professional spook. It's just tourists and locals as far as the eye can see.

Felix nods very faintly to acknowledge the whispered mention from Kate.  Other than that, he continued to play his part.  He and the proprietor settle on French as the medium of their negotiation.  Felix made polite small talk, both praising and slightly undercutting the place.  You have to haggle.  With such competition in the area, the proprietor is eager to make the deal.

So it doesn't take much convincing to get the innkeep to escort he and Kate up to see the room before they agree.  Which will let them have a nice escorted wander of the whole place.  Because, they simple must see one of the top floor rooms.  Something with a view.

As expected the owner takes little convincing to embark upon a tour of the riad for Felix and Kate. It proceeds with the usual sales patter you would expect as you are shown the general layout of the building and one of the vacant rooms - a nicely appointed en suite bedroom decorated in a traditional style.

As you pass back down the other side of the riad the owner stops suddenly at the sight of one of the room doors. It looks like it has been jimmied open, the wood splintered slightly around the lock, and sounds of what could be hurried packing from inside. Your tour guide coughs slightly in embarrassment and mentions something about needing to get the handyman to look at it before trying to get you, now in slightly more of a hurry, towards the exit.

"How about it, love-are we going to stay?" Kate asked as they continued on their way. She kept looking around but was doing so to disguise the fact that she was looking at the room which had the broken lock. She had a feeling that's where the third lookout was and they had missed their target.

Felix tried to seem confused at first by the proprietor's pause and distracted by his lovely wife's attention, "Well, it was a very nice room..."  He tried to seem as though it was taking him a bit to come around to the notion.  Then, to the innkeep, "Is that...  Is that door broken in?  Mein gott...  What do we do?"  Trying to spur the man into some sort of action to see what fell out next.

The proprietor seems obviously very keen to move you and shrugs, Oh I'm sure it's not a break-in, this is a very safe area. I'm sure it's just a...mechanical issue. Yes, just a technical problem." He gives a half-hearted, an obviously forced, little laugh "I'll send someone up to fix it straight away. Now, if you want to stay I can set you up in room four, the other side of the building. It has a lovely sunset view."

You don't get the impression that he is trying to keep you from anything which may be happening in that room specifically, just that he's trying to make a sale and he knows hotels with break-ins are unlikely to be top of your list.

"Technical problems, of course!" Kate laughed with the proprietor. "Such things happen. I will leave it to you to choose, my love. A sunset view does sound wonderful, yes?"

She looked down in the lobby to see if there was anyone watching the room.

There's no sign of anyone showing any particular interest in the room or in your group as you have toured the riad. The bikers you clocked outside certainly havent entered the hotel.

Felix, playing the role of oblivious tourist, accepted the innkeep's "distraction".  With a nod, he offered the man a smile, "A sunset view does sound nice...  Room four you say?  How soon can it be ready?"  Ultimately, he wanted to stay near the broken door or, even better, talk the proprietor into going to get some papers....or keys....or something...  And let them "explore" the hotel while they wait.

OOC: Getting rid of the proprieter won't take much effort at all. You're not behind security doors or anything so if you ask for some time to discuss the options, or just say you want to book a room, he's going to beetle off to sort something out. Feel free to assume whatever ploy you use to get rid of him is successful.

Once he was gone Kate looked back at the room with the broken lock. "Cover me." She reached under her clothing and slid a suppressed USP Tactical out from beneath her loose blouse. She kept it hidden between them until Felix indicated her was ready.

Felix held up empty hands and shook his head slightly, just enough to indicate that he had nothing with which to provide said cover. He instead maneuvered slightly to be in place to open the door and lead the way in...allowing Kate and her pistol to provide the requested cover.  With Kate's assent, Felix will move in....

Kate moved quickly and cleared the corners before taking a look at the trespasser. She wanted to clear the rest of the room but only after they had secured their mark.

The broken door swings openly easily and reveals a small room pretty much identical in layout to the example room you had been shown on your tour. The curtains are drawn over the one window leaving the room in gloom though there is enough light to see it has been enthusiastically, if not thoroughly, tossed. Papers, clothes and bedding are strewn across the floor along with drawers and other items of furniture which have been carelessly tossed aside.

The cause of the chaos is obvious. A thin youth, exaggeratedly whispering into a mobile phone clamped to the side of his head, is using his free hand to grab papers from a handbag and shove them into his pockets. He turns as you enter, the light from the courtyard coming into the room telegraphing your presence, and his initial shocked exclamation is replaced by a sneer crossing his lips...

Kate raised the pistol and pointed it at the boy's head. "Put the phone down, keep your hands where I can see them." she said in Arabic. Her voice, and hand, were rock-steady and there was no doubt, if the boy looked in her eyes, that she was ready to commit rather unpleasant acts upon his person.

Felix shed the tourist act as soon as they had stepped through the door.  He left the boy in Kate's sights and gently, quietly nudged the door behind them closed again.  His eyes he kept on the boy, seconding Kate's tone, except in French, "Drop everything.  Lay down.  Now."

I'll burn an Intimidation point to get him to comply.

The man pulls up short at the sight of Kate's gun and the sneer drops slightly, but not completely, from his lips. He very slowly reaches out one hand and drops the phone to the floor but it's obvious at a glance the call is still connected.

As he raises both hands to just about shoulder height he responds, in Arabic, "You won't shoot - you'll bring half the police in the Medina running" despite this something in Felix's tone makes him slowly slide down onto his knees though he remains glowering at you.

"Put your hands on top of your head with the palms up and fingers interlaced. Cross your ankles. Do it now. In case you failed to notice this pistol is very well suppressed. A shot will be ignored over the ambient noise."

She moved so she had a clear sight line and was away from the window. "Check him." She hands Felix some zip ties as he walks over to the man.

She pulls the phone over with one foot whilst Felix has him under control.

Felix accepted the zip ties and set about the suggested work.  He wasn't gentle, but wasn't pointlessly cruel.  Efficient would be a good wood for it.  Checking for any dangerous implements or obviously out of place items.  As long as there is no resistance, he'll zip tie hands and feet.

Would Streetwise give me a general sense of the level of criminal we're dealing with?  Punk kid with no real training?  Something more?

The man puts up some slight resistance, making Felix's job more awkward than it needs to be, but doesn't outwardly resist and is quickly tied and searched. His pockets contain a selection of papers, some likely lifted from the room and others just general pocket litter, and a nasty looking switchblade but little else of particular interest.

Just as Felix finishes up you can make out the sound of feet heading towards the room from the balcony outside. The steps are hurried, though just short of running, and there's more than one set...

OOC: That's absolutely a fair use of Streetwise. No need to spend a point - this is so obviously the lowest grade of criminal thug that an agent of half your skill would be able to recognize it!

Kate reached down and picked up the phone. "Call off your men or all of them will die. After you call them off we may talk," she said in Arabic and turned to the door.

Felix, the young thug-to-be handled, concentrated on gathering up and glancing at the papers that the boy was so interested in stealing.  No time for in depth study, but he had a lot of practice at scanning through papers for the highlights quickly...

Just looking for a general sense of what the papers are regarding.  Like...  Anything at all to do with the person we are looking for?

Almost all of the papers have been obviously lifted from the room but, at a general scan, most are rubbish. This kid hadn't done a particularly selective search and seems to have grabbed every scrap of paper he could.

There's a series of receipts, some TripAdvisor printouts of locations in Morocco, old airline tickets (in the name of Olivia Liu) and a sheaf of papers which seem to be printouts of information from the internet which you don't have time to read. Of most immediate interest is a handwritten note with an address - for the 'Kozybar' - in an area which you recognize as being a few miles outside the Medina. It looks like it has been written in a rush, as if someone jotted down as they were given it over the phone and then left in a hurry...

As Kate picks up the phone she can hear hurried breathing from the other side. It's a safe assumption whoever your captive was calling are the same people heading towards your room. There's a startled sound from the other end when you start talking, they weren't expecting that, and a couple of second's pause before a male voice responds, in Arabic, "If you want to talk, send out Jalloun - then we can talk. No tricks though, we've got six guys out here and we're not playing". He punctuates it with the, overly theatric to your professional sensibilities, cocking the hammer of a gun.

Kate reached behind her and pulled out a Glock 36 which she handed over to Felix along with an extra magazine.

"I don't think so. Right now he's more useful to me right where he has. You seem to be the leader so you come in alone and unarmed. If you don't I'll cut off one of his fingers. For every 15 seconds you fail to come in as directed I take another one. That's 150 seconds for you make a decision and the clock starts now."

Felix quickly finished folding the papers and shoved them in his pocket.  The gun was accepted with the care and respect due a gun.  It was swiftly and efficiently checked, loaded and readied.  He may be a desk jockey, but there were certain skills you didn't skimp on.  Quietly, in their shared native German, "She was here.  New location."

"Id rather not shoot our way out of here," she replied, also in German. "But if they leave us no choice. Can you stuff something in his mouth?" She indicated Jalloun before pulling out a knife and pressing the slide to make the blade pop out the top with a small click.

"10 seconds and I take a finger. If you think I'm bluffing then feel free to wait. I doubt Jalloun will be happy with you," she told the man on the phone.

As Kate makes her threat you can make out a muffled conversation as if someone has covered the mouthpiece with a hand, then the call is ended and you just hear the tone of a dead line.

After a bit more murmured speech just outside a figure moves into view in the doorway, unmistakably one of the youths you saw loitering about outside the Riad just a short while ago. He appears unarmed or at least he isn't holding any weapon or carrying one where you can see. He looks almost annoyed to be there and casts a disapproving look down at the prone Jalloun, "I'm here, now untie him and send him out or we're coming in and it's to hell with the consequences. We take him with us and you can do what you like with this dump."

Felix had done as asked, stuffing a crumpled wad of one of the more useless pieces of paper into the boy's mouth before his friend entered.  Job done, he stood and stepped back to observe the friend's entry.  His pistol was held ready and obvious, but not threateningly in a stance or anything.  Just, making it known.

"Smart man," Kate told him when he walked in. "I have a counter-offer: we all walk out of here together so we can all make sure no one tries anything foolish. Just a group of new friends who are leaving to go take in the sights. Jalloun will walk with me and I will have my gun pointed at a point at his lumbar spine that, when severed, means he's in a wheelchair and wearing diapers the rest of his life."

She kept her gun aimed at the man's head. "I suggest you take the deal because it is the only one you are going to get that gets all of you out of here alive."

The man eyes the two guns warily and shoots a questioning glance back at the door that he came through. A voice sounds from round the corner outside the door and you get the impression that the guy who came in might not be the organ grinder, "Okay lady, you got a deal. We all walk out of here and go our separate ways in the street, nice and easy."

OOC: For the sake of expediency you can assume that, if you keep to your end of the bargain, you'll all walk out of the Riad without incident. How you then manage to disengage from the group when you're in the street may be a different challenge though...

Felix offered a friendly smile as the boy agreed to the plan.  As though we're all good now.  All friends.  Leaving the gun toting to the quite capable Kate, he clicked the safety on his own and stuck it in the back of his waistband under his suit.  No need to go parading it around.

He took just a few moments to gather up a few more of the papers.  Quick check of the hand bag for anything else useful...  But then its time to go and he leads the way out of the room.  Again, all smiles.  Friends.

As they pass the desk clerk, Felix offers the smile and notes in French, "Tour guides.  Highly recommended.  We'll be back.</pre>"

As a nice 'friendly' group you leave the room, Jalloun now untied but sporting several inches of gun barrel jutting from the small of his back. On the landing outside; far from the small gang you had been threatened with there is just one other young man - the other youth you had seen on the bikes outside.

The five of you walk out, the two of you somewhat nonchalantly and your three friends with a distinctly shifty air. You get a couple of surprised glances from people, not least the proprietor who showed you around, as you pass but nobody says anything.

In the street outside you walk over to the parked bikes and there is an awkward pause while everyone decides how to proceed. However, you get the distinct impression that there's no fight left in these guys and they just want to cut their losses and go at this point. Jalloun does stick his open hand out, surly curl to his lip, at Felix - you think he wants his knife back...

"Let him have it," Kate said to Felix in Arabic. "Then we go our separate ways, part as friends, yes? If any of you follow..." The barrel of her pistol rises slightly from where she has it at her side, hidden in the folds of her skirt. "I trust I've made my point?"

Felix was already bringing out the knife, quickly folding it into some of the spare papers.  Don't want to go flashing around knives on the street.  This was handed over in a friendly fashion, "What were you looking for anyway?"  He asked it in his chosen French, hoping it would hold up as well as Kate's Arabic...if not, perhaps she would kindly translate.

Pushing Reassurance here.  All friends, all friends now.

At Felix's question two of the men immediately turn to look at the third - the one who never stepped into the room with you - who seems to mull it over for a second, "Someone asked us to grab any paperwork we could find in there and turn the place over. Five hundred dollars, US dollars, gets you what we know about him..."

Kate looked at Felix and gave a Gallic shrug. "It might be worth it to find out who is behind this lot," she said in German, speaking in a low voice. "No honour amongst thieves. We can make this work to our benefit."
This message was last edited by the player at 23:22, Sat 19 Sept 2020.

Felix did not immediately agree to the price.   Agree too quickly and they might see their information as even more valuable.  But he didn't feel like stretching out the haggle either.  He made some guesses based on his own experience with such matters and such minor street criminals.  But ultimately, he was willing to pay but he needed the negotiation to be more balanced and not tip his hand.

Negotiation helpful?  Money is not the problem.  Being seen as too wiling to pay whatever might be though.  Balanced by the need to get moving.

The man pockets the money slowly and points one grimy finger up the street, "English guy came up to us and paid us to ransack a specific room at that Riad. Good money too. He was sitting at a table outside, you can now see he's pointing to the cafe at the top of the road, "but looks like he's gone now. Shifty looking, was in shorts and a flowery shirt. Looked like a prick but he was good for the money."

With little further ado the three men mount their motorcycles and take off with an antisocial roar of engines and a cloud of dust, they don't look back as they turn the corner.

OOC: I've had them drive off to move things on, they don't have much more useful information. If you did have any further questions for them feel free to say what you would have asked before they went and I'll answer it retrospectively.

Felix is more than happy to leave the conversation, and these thugs.  As they go, he turns away as well, for now in just another direction.  His retrieved his phone again from his pocket.  A few quick taps as he walked dropped a location pin at a location labeled "Kozybar" a few miles outside the Medina.

A few more taps group messaged the entire crew with the location and a message, "New location identified.  Status?

Alive. Met trouble and overcame. We have a vehicle now. Enroute to check on you at Riad. Can rendezvous at Kozybar or at hotel. Preference?

Felix kept walking away from the Riad, tapping out a response on his phone.  He drops a quick pin in the navigation map to designate an intermediate rendezvous point, "Meet us here.   We could use a ride."
This message was last edited by the player at 18:03, Sat 03 Oct 2020.