There is indeed a sign on the door with hours of operation.  Looks like they are open every day, usually starting at 1:00pm, and open until 10:00pm on weeknights or 1:00am on weekends (and shorter hours on Sunday).

Galen walks into the tobacco room and immediately notices the change in scent - tobacco and marijuana mixed together, as you would expect, and a little fainter than in the other room.  There are no windows, just the lights from the ceiling.  Furniture is similar to the main room, but with the lighting it feels less inviting than out there.  There is indeed a heavy door at the back of the room with a neon Exit sign above it.  The door has a push bar to open it, with a chain hanging from it that suggests it can be locked shot if needed (after hours, presumably).  There is only one person here, a young man absorbed with his phone and nearing the last few puffs of his joint.  He glances up when you walk in, nods vaguely, and then turns back to his phone.

Coming home from the library, with plenty of thoughts, and some information, to share with his comrades, Rob sees they are not back yet.

He thinks it is best he did not go to the pot shop, since he'd end up testing some produce.
So, in the meantime, while waiting for them to return, he fires up the computer's protection and countermeasures, and starts looking around for how to get more information.

He sees that, though not as well protected as he would expect, the UAE gov' sites would take a bit too much effort for now, and maybe a better hacker than he-- especially to avoid leaving a footprint.

But the company, the ECG sites, do seem penetrable, even if rather well guarded.
He just hopes that they are not as good at finding out where a failed attack originated from.

So, he starts typing away, trying to get in--

Spending 2 of my 4 Digital Intrusion points (updated my sheet in Character Details)
23:00, Today: Rob Zwartnacht rolled 3 using 1d6+2 ((1))

--but he now realizes that he is not proficient in Arabic, so he has no idea what to type... nor even what keyboard to use to get the correct characters!
This message was last edited by the player at 21:02, Sun 06 Sept 2020.

After a quick glance at his surroundings Galen gives the other man a curt nod and promptly heads out of the door marked exit. Assuming it empties out into a side street (and not a sealed yard or similar) he walks back around to the front and meet with Tyr - intending that they all head back to the office to compare notes.

The exit opens into an alleyway which does indeed lead out to the street, and then back around to the other street, where you are able to reconnect with Tyr.

So once you eventually reconvene and get up to speed, what's your next move?

OOC: My thinking is that we'll want to head back to the coffee shop and surveil it again tomorrow to watch for suspicious patterns but that leaves plenty of time to look into other things. Not sure any of the leads from Rob's research were things we could look into from central Amsterdam were they?

Seeing his two friends return, Rob shares the information he has garnered so far:
"Not sure any of this is pertinent, nor that it helps..."

"What do you guys have planned?
I was thinking I could take another go at ECG if needed, but with some Arabic software to help out!
Or else have a look at who owns the pot shop we're going to.
Do you need help checking the shop out full time, to see if anyone else if scoping the place out?"

After taking a lot of photos... mostly of the cafe... but also of a few other places as his cover.

Once Galen exits the shop, Tyr joins him and they head back to the office.

He laughed to himself a bit as he realized he had an 'office' job. It wasn't really an office exactly, but the term worked to deflect probing inquiries.

At Rob's information and question, he replies.

"I don't think we need to do that. If it's a professional hit, the assassin has already got all the intel he needs. For that matter, he could be camped out on a roof already, or in one of the rooms overlooking the place."

"If it's a personal amateur, we'll never anticipate his move. Gun, knife, poison, bomb..."

"By all means, though, we should do a deep dive on the people involved... including the owner of the cafe and all his employees, plus their relatives. I'm thinking 'six degrees of separation' here."

"There's something going on here, but I can't just put my finger on it... yet."

Rob looks at Tyr-- deep dive into the owner, his employees, relatives... Hmmm...

Rob will at least have a look to see who owns the pot shop, and if there is any info' about the owner doing anything other than running his or her shop.

Finding the owner is easy enough - legitimate coffeeshop registration is public record.  Dikke Rups is registered to a Xandra Andriessen.  With minimal effort you are able to find her social media accounts.  You don't find anything immediately accessible that suggests a criminal record or involvement in anything shady, but you could certainly request an official background check if you want.

Rob just gets some pictures from her social media to give to Tyr if he wants to check having seen her or not around the place.

The door to the office opens, and Evelyn Shepard walks in. "Hey, fellas. Sorry I couldn't get in earlier," she says, having spent the morning finishing the final report for a client. Evelyn unloads her purse and jacket onto her workspace before taking a seat to listen to her colleagues.

"How're things shaking out so far?" she asks.

"Hello, Evelyn!"

"You know about our new job? Playing baby sitters?
Tyr and Ives are casing out the place-- a pot bar!
I've been trying to get some info' from the library. They only have coffee there, no pot, though!"

Rob shares the information he has gathered so far.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:51, Thu 17 Sept 2020.

In reply to Rob Zwartnacht (msg # 42):

"Rob," Evelyn replies with a smile. "Yeah, I got a chance to look over the file. No pot, huh? Missed opportunity," she kids, pulling out her work laptop.

"For my part, first things first I want to get eyes on Tobias Brinkerhoff. Have you guys found a good history on him? Do we know if he's a legit reporter yet?"
This message was last edited by the player at 23:09, Thu 17 Sept 2020.

Rob smiles at Evelyn's kidding--

--before giving her what he typed out and collected on Brinkerhoff.

Tobias Brinkerhoff
He is a reporter for the Agence France Presse, covering political news around Europe.
About ten years ago he was awarded the Wächterpreis der Tagespresse for exposing a vote-rigging scheme in Bavaria.
More recently he covered the events transpiring in Transnistria, a small breakaway state in Moldova which (according to Brinkerhoff's articles) might be receiving covert support from Russia, even though the latter has not formally recognized their independence.
A few other outlets have mentioned this story as well, but it seems like no one had noticed it until Brinkerhoff brought it to light.
Brinkerhoff's reporting about Transnistria got a lot more attention from the Russians than you would have expected. Multiple Russian denials, and even veiled threats (FSB officers allow themselves to be quoted in the news talking about the need to "respond to slanderous accusations").

Evelyn reads through Rob's report carefully, nodding.

"Sounds more like the profile of a potential secondary target than a likely threat." She taps through some old internet archives on her laptop, all agreeing with Rob's history of the reporter. Unsurprising: Evelyn knows her colleagues are more than good at what they do. "Do we know where Grecocitto is hiding out before the meeting?"

Galen greets Evelyn warmly as she enters and, when Rob finishes, takes the opportunity to give a rundown of what they found at the location. Summing up, "So seems to be a fairly normal establishment at first flush. Might be worth another pass later in the week though, just to get a better feel for it."

He did not give his address when he met with the group earlier.  He did give a phone number in case you need to contact him before the meet on Thursday.

"No, we don't know where he's staying," Tyr replies to Evelyn with a wave of greeting. "He seems to be using his own 'security' to get to the meeting but wants us to provide protection once he gets there."

"Good point... that Brinkerhoff could be a secondary target. On the other hand, he could be the main target and Grecocitto is the secondary and the decoy and the smokescreen."

"I wasn't expecting this Xandra to be a criminal herself, though you never know. No, I was thinking she might have a shady brother or cousin or even a boyfriend. I'm just wondering why the pot shop was chosen as a meeting spot."

"In fact, now that I think about it... are we being set up?"

"Anyway, two things to look into... the surrounding buildings line of sight, potential sniper nests... and whether the pot shop has a basement."

"By the way... have we got a chemical sniffer in our arsenal of equipment? Portable metal detector?"

In reply to Tyr Thorvald (msg # 48):

"Eastern and Southern European subjudicial killings are generally done by poison, often administered by injection;, so if someone with ill intent had any influence in choosing the meeting location, it was probably because it's some place an agent could get right up close to them without raising suspicion. They could always poison the coffee but indirect poisoning is a less reliable method that big agencies over there tend to avoid."


"I think the question of a potential set-up is worth asking," Evelyn replies with a slow nod, mulling it over. "Any agent worth their salt would catch up to him before the meeting to get him out of the way ahead of time, not at it, where he has a chance to spill the beans. If he's as clued into state secrets as he claims to be he should know that sort of thing, but apparently he feels confident that he only needs extra security at the meeting. It doesn't track."

"I'm sure we've got a metal detector around here somewhere, but not sure about a chemical sniffer." She looks towards Rob for that answer, assuming his science expertise would make him the man with an answer.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:01, Sat 19 Sept 2020.

"Well, it's always possible that 'they' are letting the meeting take place to see just how much Grecocitto knows," Tyr replied.

"If they can somehow monitor the meeting and find out Grecocitto doesn't know as much as he claims he does, then they don't have to kill either of them."

"Monitoring the meeting can be done two ways that I know of... planting a bug, which could be done ahead of time, and long range listening using a parabolic mic or a laser on the windows. So, we should definitely bring a bug detector with us. A bug is the easiest way to go."

"Damn. Never did check to see what kind of glass was in the windows. Double pane would eliminate the laser, probably the parabolic mic, too."

"Too many ways to die; we can't cover them all. For instance, this could be a set-up for some agency that wants Grecocitto dead and they plan on blaming Malta. So, a rocket launcher could do the trick."

"Do we want to put our own sniper up on the roof the pot shop, keeping an eye the surrounding buildings?"

He thinks back to the buildings he looked at, trying to remember how close they were together. Could an escape route over the rooftops be possible?

On both sides of the street were rows of connected buildings with shops on the ground floor, and two floors of apartments above them.  The roofs were flat, which would make it easy for someone to run down the length of the whole block that way.  Although they would still need a way up and down.

"Rocket launcher in Amsterdam would be pretty messy, even for a set up. My money's on poison, maybe a sniper."

"Yeah, I think we should have someone on a rooftop. We need as wide a vantage point as we can get."

"I want to lay eyes on Grecocitto before this meeting. I'm going to try and find out where he's staying. We have his cell number, so it shouldn't be that hard to nail it down."

Wanting to get going on her first real task, Evelyn starts up the necessary software to locate their client through his cellphone.

OOC: Using digital intrusion.

21:47, Today: Evelyn Shepard rolled 6 using 1d6+1 ((5)).
This message was last edited by the player at 01:51, Mon 28 Sept 2020.

"Yeah, I can see poison being used," Tyr agrees. "If Malta wants it to look like death from natural causes, like a heart attack, that would be way to go. I doubt if the authorities would look too deeply into it. Unless they have reason to suspect foul play, they wouldn't delve too deeply into a drug screen."

"Keep in mind, though, that there are four ways to poison someone. The first and obvious way is if they ingest the poison either through food or drink. The only way we're going to prevent that is if we give all the staff the day off and we run the places and we bring in all the food and drink ourselves."

"The second way is to inhale it. In a pot shop, that would be an obvious choice. Of course, that depends on whether Grecocitto indulges himself. Keeping with the natural causes scenario, I'd use something that was slow acting so that it would take effect until later, even to the point of killing the journalist, too."

"And there are other ways for him to inhale it... perfume laced with it, for instance. Wait! Does anyone know if Grecocitto has any allergies?"

"The third way is through the skin. Mix the poison with DMSO and it'll get absorbed right through the skin with just a touch."

"Fourth way is injection. Usually just a little prick is enough, especially with something like sarin. Certain areas of the body are less sensitive so that any little distraction might let the prick go unnoticed. Even if it is noticed, it'll be too late by then."

"You know, the more we look at this, the less likely it is that we'll be able to protect him. We simply don't have enough intel. So, that brings up two questions: have we been paid in advance? And just how does Grecocitto know he's targeted? Is he just being paranoid?"

Galen nods his agreement with Tyr's thoughts, "Maybe that's what we need to do - ask him upfront whether his concerns are hypothetical or if he's got a concrete reason for believing he'll be targeted? If he worked for the government over there he may also have some insight into just how they might come for him if that's what they want to do. Anything else we need to know from him? We've got his number so may as well use it."

Grecocitto followed whatever is your standard protocol when taking a job - presumably that includes a deposit, which he paid in cash.

Evelyn has no difficulty getting into the phone carrier's files.  The number he gave you is on a pay-as-you-go plan, so probably a burner.  When you look up the address that is registered with it, it's an apartment building in the trendy waterfront neighborhood of IJburg (and yes, it is spelled with the double capital like that).  No apartment number is listed.