Caduceus listened to what the others were saying, but did not comment since he was busy trying to get info from his mortician friend.  However, the wheels in his head were already turning, trying to think of ways to exploit the information Noruas found.  Cross-referencing Noruas's intel with the intel White Duck procured should certainly produce some results they could use.  He wondered if Gingersnaps or Chloe might know anything about Cooperman's involvement with the Blood Rumblers.  Or maybe Sonny or Lord Abyss had come across something about the mystery project.  Maybe even Sly Mike could be helpful, if Caduceus thought of the right questions to ask him.

"Yeah, no dragons," Caduceus finally commented, albeit with his hand over the receiver of his phone.  "Or suicide.  Yes to the burners."  He then refocused his attention back on his phone call.

"Alright, so, CH, which of these drawers is a burner in?" he asks, looking over all of her neatly arranged gadgets and gizmos and seeming slightly confused.

"'Fraid I dun got one.  Ya gonna have ta grab one from da stuffer shack up da street."

Caduceus calls Kaira the mortician. It's a bit early, but she picks up. "Hey. Is someone dead? If no one's dead I'm going back to sleep. Corpse full of holes? Yeah, we have tons of them. Most of them are no-ID gang bangers. You don't want to know what we do to the bodies. Counts have gone off the chart in the past few days. Why, this your doing? Because if so, you can frag your skinny ass all the way back to the NAN. I was supposed to be on leave this week."


Copperhead continues her chat with Alfred on the other line. "That's unfortunate, about Miss Goldenhair. If I can be so bold, I do imagine that will be a positive influence on her pricing. I will see if I can locate her. Call be back in a few hours and I will provide what I've collected. Mr. Cooperman should be easier, and I anticipate having his contact information when you call back."


As the clock is ticking, I assume White Duck will procure a phone and go back to visit the two. They are in the room packing, and clearly look nervous after the initial knock, but settle when they see it's him. Hendrix accepts the phone, "thank you, but that wasn't necessary. Tech, at least, we have our own tools. Here, I can give you the number for a mailbox. We won't be online real-time, but I try to check it regularly. We probably won't be here tonight."

Noruas looks at the time and asks to be dropped off by his car.  He was going to be late for work.  And he's fairly certain 'she' is not going to be happy about it.

The rigger looked at Noruas like he'd grown a second head.
"Fer real?"

"Duck, 'parently da decker's gotta day job.  Don take too long chattin' er he might get in dreck wit his boss"

It's not immediately obvious whether the rigger is poking fun or playing it straight.

"I gotta line on Freya an Cooperman.  Should have contact info inna couple hours.  When we's done here, mebbe we should all grab a nap.  Cept Noruas I guess."

In the mean time I will also be needing a nap.  Wake me when we get to my ride.  Thanks, replied the dwarf tiredly.

Duck had nodded to Hendrix and re-warned him of the danger of the situation, and since there was only so much he could do without forcing them into the back of Copperhead's van, he'd let it rest at that, hoping any possible assassins were slower than the group he was with in operating.

"So, uh, what are these chips for anyway? Not equipped to slot them myself but I don't get why they're apparently hot shit."

After getting a response, he returns to the van, getting into the back and looking to the others.

"Right. I'd like to set up a meet with Manes' people to keep them updated- let em' know we're earning our paycheck, but I s'pose we can place that call after we all get some sleep. Since they've only really talked to Cad and myself, I think I should make that call. Any particular reasons I shouldn't?"
This message was last edited by the player at 15:56, Thu 07 Apr 2016.

Caduceus tsk-tsked into his phone in reply to the mortician.  "You give me that sass, Kaira, but you know it's guys like me that keep you in business.  But no, it wasn't me.  Not my style.  I'm not looking for a banger though.  Not specifically.  She was probably dressed like a street mage, if that helps you narrow down a database search more than just the estimated time of death.  Since you said yourself that you're not on leave this week, you should have all the time in the world to look this up for me, right?" He couldn't help but poke back at her at least a little bit.  "Of course there will be a bonus for you if you can get me credible info in a timely manner."

At this point Caduceus pulled the receiver from his mouth and turned toward Copperhead's window.  He made some complex gestures with his free hand to indicate he could walk to his motorcycle from here.  He listened for some form of acknowledgement over the mic before starting his short trek back toward the store he had started from.

Since none seem to be in opposition to Duck's intended plans, he goes ahead and calls the number Manes' people had given him, hoping it wasn't the kind that would leave him put on hold.

Tee Hee gets shifty under the question. "It's uhh... illegal. But I guess you knew that. They're DreamChips. Like a personality chip of some sort. I don't have all the deets. Junior handled that end of it. You just plug 'em in and you're the man or woman of the chip. Still unstable though. You pop it for too long, you can lose yourself forever."


Caduceus keeps pushing his contact. The line goes silent at his leave crack. But she picks up again in a moment.

"Mage-type. That helps. Hummm... I have a leg here, has tribal tattoos. Looks like a fella though. This one is identifiable. Burns over the entire body. But she's outside your date range. Hmmmmmm..... No, no mages lately. At least, no female mages in the past two days with bullets in her. Sorry. But if one turns up, I'll give you a buzz."


Once White Duck is done with his questioning (and you can insert more questions to the duo if you'd like--I don't think it'll impact the timeline) he steps out and calls the number Roxanne gave him. It rings once and picks up. He recognizes the familiar voice of the blonde who hired you at the beginning of all this.

"Go."

"Uh, you sure you're talking about the same Junior here, Tee? The one I met seemed like a bit of an oaf that wouldn't recognize toilet paper if it wasn't white. You, on the other hand, seem more like someone I'd ask about chips- what with the datajack, decker clothes, the nature of the work you did, and the fact that you're on the run. You sure there are no more deets you aren't holding onto? It's pretty clear now that if I was here to screw you over, it'd already be done, so I don't see why you'd be holding out on me..."

***


"Got some leads for you. Possible your communications are compromised. Is this line safe?" he says, remaining objective as he lights up another smoke, hoping that Roxanne would understand his terse discretion.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:20, Thu 07 Apr 2016.

From a timeline perspective, is the advent of BTLs or are they already known?  Trying to figure out whether I'm upset or just confused :>

Tee gives Duck a funny look. "You know he's management, right?" like that explains everything.

"Nah, I worked on a different project. The whole personachips thing is a new field. Junior just knew what he wanted."


"The line is safe on our side. If you'd prefer, we can meet in person. I can be at the Banshee in ten."

You should be upset. BTLs are already common.

Duck shrugged at Tee-Hee's statement. "Unfortunately job titles aren't really a significant indicator of intellect, especially if you were born into them. Anyway, lie low, omae, and keep safe."

He waves and moves back to the van.

***

"Right." he says, not really buying Roxanne's level of confidence in that statement, but of course she didn't seem to know that someone who could probably have her fired would be listening in. Then, he remembered something.

"Banshee attracted party crashers last time we were there, if you recall. Not as secure as you might be thinking. Let's go for the diner on (insert directions here) instead."

"Thanks Kaira, I appreciate it.  I'll compensate you through the usual channels.  And when you do get some down time, let me know if you want any help finding good deals on recreation.  I owe ya one.  In the meantime I'll do my best not to add to your work load."  With that, Caduceus ended the call and reported his findings to the group.

As he made his way toward his motorcycle, he reported, "Hey guys, it seems the mage body from Tee-Hee's story is still MIA.  Either she's still out there, or her body was disposed of more discretely than usual.  You guys want me to look into the Blood Rumblers or Cooperman's Mystery Project next?"

"Whatever ya kin do.  I gots a contact who kin help wit da Rumblers, but 'e don like me 'nuff ta wake 'im up dis early."

To be honest, there weren't a lot of people who'd appreciate being woken up by the rigger, but Eddie was a late sleeper who usually needed a hair of the dog or two before he made it to what passed for 'sociable'.  She'd try him when she woke up if they didn't have a better lead by then.

ALright, I'm just gonna presume that I'm already dropped off at my ride somehow.

I'll look into the Cooperman situation if I can.  I'll see you all later in the evening after I get some more sleep, and with that said, the dwarf hops out of the van and enters his car.  He drives off to work.  He parks in his car in the underground parking lot before pulling out his 'back-up work clothes' he had stowed in his car for this very occasion.  After quickly changing and rapidly brushing teeth as well as using a wet wipe to clean away any residue from his mask's glue, he heads to the elevator and up to work.

Roxanne pauses for a while.

"Alright. We can do Crusher. I'm trusting you to arrange security. I'll be there in fifteen." With that, she hangs up.

The barrens are still waking up at this hour, and the ride uneventful, even with the detour to drop off Noruas at the subway station for his commute to work.

Copperhead called down her drone to the pavement and spends a couple of minutes swapping batteries.  The old one was the original and didn't hold a charge as well, but she figured it'd be good for about 90 minutes - more if she perched it somewhere for a while.  She hooked the other one to start charging off the van's alternator and maneuvered rapidly through the early morning traffic.  As soon as she got in range of the bar, she sent the drone on to scout ahead, watching for any vehicles she'd seen at the previous bar or anything that seemed out of place, as well as getting a good sense of the street layouts and building entrances and exits - both the official ones and the not-so-official.  Garbage chutes could be handy sometimes.  She relayed everything to White Duck in the back.

"If da limo comes back wit da orc, ya wan me ta give'it some 20 millimeter engine troubles?"

"Hmm, well, I'm expecting him to come back, to be honest. I suspect that Junior's either got Roxanne on his employ or he's following her closely. Simple enough layout, key feature being the glassed-out front. Handy if you need to get your droid's POV inside. Should be the hangover crowd, and us there'll seem like I'm on a date that already went well." Looking out from the windows, Duck plays with his lighter a bit.

"I'm literally a block and a half away from home turf there, but it's likely that we won't need immediate egress. Either way I'd rather you disable his vehicle after he gets out if he shows. I'd love to see the guy panic if he tried to run and couldn't."

When Caduceus reached his motorcycle, he hopped on and revved it up.  He contacted the group one last time, however, before driving anywhere.  "With Noruas looking into Cooperman, the only thing left on my schedule right now is to get some sleep.  You guys going to need any backup or should I head home?"

Whether they wanted him to go home or to Crusher, Caduceus took a slightly indirect rout in order to keep an eye out for anyone tailing him.  Either on land or in the air.  It seemed extremely unlikely, but they had been followed before and he figure it wouldn't add a lot of time to his drive anyway.  (Plus he didn't know this team well enough yet to assume any of them wouldn't try to find out where he might live.  He was not quite ready to be that personable with them yet.)

"Seein' as we 'ad party crashers at da last meet wit da J, back-ups a good plan.  Den we kin all catch some shut-eye.  I's got a stim-patch if ya need it, but you finger-wigglers don' genrally like 'em.

I'm gonna give Duck a bug an a bug cam.  If da Orc does show, mebe we kin get 'im ta 'criminate his self.  'Fore Duck pouns 'is 'ead."

Copperhead evaluated whether she needed a stim-patch herself, but decided against it.  She'd pulled shifts a log longer than this.  With a whole lot more lead flying throughout.

Her voice pipes into the rear compartment:
"Bugs is in da drawer 2nd from da bottom.  Ya kin wear da audio one.  Stick da video one where ya tink is best.

If ya wan 'em."

The last is added as an afterthought, apparently her attempt to avoid any further antagonism.

Duck smirks, then diligently rigs himself up with the bug/camera combo, taking the cam onto the back of his mempo, which he usually doesn't have on, but would be about chest height.

"Shame is, this cam won't capture half my grace and style. Too bad they don't make fly-sized drones, neh?" he muses, fidgeting with his box of smokes as the team travels.

"Dey's got some dats da size o li'l dragonflies.  An I spect da corps and da mil-spec folks a got smaller ones.  Don got da contacts er Nuyen ta get 'em doh."

The RV pulled up at the bar right in front of the doors to drop off the face.

"Give da case ta da snake dude er just lay it flat wit a good view o anyone comin ta yer table.  Ya kin take da scorpion if ya wants it.  Keep yer com in so I kin let ya know if der's compny."


Once he'd disembarked, she retreated to a place that was a bit less conspicuous but had as good a line of sight on as many entry and exit locations as she could manage.  Her drone continued a semi-random search pattern about a klick up that ensured it had good coverage of anything her van didn't.  She settled back in her seat, and worked firing solutions on the various pedestrians and vehicles in the area to keep herself from being tempted to nap.