SLA Industries: I Spy

[Roman Totale]

Well, pending a response from TSD (though I'm sure Eraser will be up for having a chat with Langley), I'm going to go about finding out where our friend Lloyd is.

I'll call the station and ask his secretary (or whoever) is she knows where I can find him:

I want it to be a nice surprise - like a present. Just don't tell him I'm looking for him.

Persuasion: 8,7,+5 = 20

Damn but I'm smooth.

[Dog Pants]

Wow, that's so sweet. Well Mr Langley's not at work, but I think he said he was heading over to La Bomba - that's a noisy bar on the outside edge of uptown. Need the address?

[Roman Totale]

I think I know it, but ping the address over anyway. You're a dear.

[Dog Pants]

She does so. It's on the Uptown side of the wall between there and Suburbia, about half an hour away.

[Roman Totale]

Woop, Dirk's going clubbing! I shall hop on the gauss and head over there. Rather than speak to him in the club, I may try and lure him into a nearby alley.

Or should I speak to him in the club?

Hmm, decisions.

If I speak to him in the club, he may not feel suitably threatened to reveal anything. Conversely, all of this may just be some paranoid fantasy in Dirk's head, and he may potentially rough up an otherwise kosher contact and BPN provider.

I shall call the others and see if they know what sort of place La Bomba is (I did a Streetwise roll, but it was bad). Maybe if we make a scene he'll start talking.

Gah! Right, I'll just head over there first and see if I can spot him. If he's with anyone in particular (e.g. Sumner) that might affect my decision.

Balls, I'm thinking as I type here, but I might give Haynes another call.

Haynes, Dirk here. Pick your brains? I may be going off in the deep end here, but something doesn't feel right about this BPN we've been given. Listen to this and tell me what you think...

I'll play him the recording of Sumner I took earlier.


I think I'm going mad.

[Dog Pants]

A Prop? Ask yourself why she'd hire you to do a job a Prop could, and why a SLA employee would use a black market hired gun in the first place. Might have just been an idle threat, but at her SCL she should know better. Careless talk costs lives - usually the talker's. Tread carefuly, but you might be onto something. Don't get yourself fired, I need you for another BPN soon.

[The Shutting Downs]

Yup eraser wil Follow Dirk's lead

[Roman Totale]

Right then, reckon I'll just go for the persuasion route rather than the full out intimidation route. Still, Eraser's looming presence is great for conversation.

I shall make my way into the club and look for Langley.

Detect: 2,9,+8

For the doods following the woman who is our actual mark, what do you think about approaching her directly? She may have information about Sumner, which is why she's being targeted.

[deject]

I'd like to just observe for now, seeing as all we have is Dirk's paranoia to suspect Sumner of anything.

[Dog Pants]

You spot Langley in the club, talking animatedly at two sceptical looking women and using wild gesticulations.

[Roman Totale]

I shall approach Langley from the rear (oo-er) and embrace him like an old friend.

Lloyd! Fancy seeing you here! And who are these two delightful ladies? You remember Eraser don't you?

I'm sorry to impose ladies, but we simply must have a chat with our old friend here. Oh look, there's an empty booth over there - let's take our drinks and carry on this conversation somewhere more discrete.

Whilst propelling Langley boothwards, I shall also plant a bug on him (tracking and sound). Now, with Reality Folding I get a free ability of sleight of hand - do I need to roll anything to attempt the plant?

[Dog Pants]

Nope, you can put it in his underpants and he won't feel a thing. At least not in this scenario, I reserve the right to make you roll if you're trying to break my game.

Dirk! What a pleasure - excuse us ladies, business to attend to! Taking a break from the grind?

[Roman Totale]

The grind, yes indeed. Tell me Lloyd - why did you put us forward for this job? Surely by now you must have realised that we do a thorough job - no stone unturned and all that.

Really, I'm just a little hurt that you had so little expectation from us. You see we've been doing a bit of digging. Not on the target, but on Sumner herself. Very, very interesting - but still disappointing none the less.

Now, I like you Lloyd - you seem a good person, and we've had a good working relationship so far. So I'm going to let you tell us your side of the story first. I'm reasonable and patient like that. Eraser here, well, he's not so patient. I was going to come here alone originally, but when Eraser found out about Sumner he wanted to hear it from you direct.

So, let's chat.

Persuasion: 2,5,+5 = 12

[Dog Pants]

Langley looks hurt. You can't tell if it's genuine or not.

Woah guys, guys. What about Sumner? She wanted a discreet team to keep tabs on her PA, and she came to me because we've worked together before. I don't know the details, although I do know she got twitchy when you started talking about kidnapping the girl. You really thought I'd set you up? Come on, I deserve better than that don't I?

[The Shutting Downs]

She wanted discreet, but when she starts talkin about Props, well, the bells start ringing don't they.

You never know who's listening Langley, one person in the office wiv a chip and the off hand coment get you in trouble.

[Dog Pants]

He looks a little more serious.

Ah. Yeah, alarm bells. Well look, she came to me because she knew me and didn't want me asking too many questions either. She's a department executive, who am I to question her integrity? I figured it was probably just a bit of a personal thing and she wanted to skip over some of the process. You've no idea how much paperwork raising a BPN takes. I don't know why she'd want to use a prop, but how dodgy can it be if she went for Ops?

[Roman Totale]

Lloyd, I believe you - but it doesn't change the fact that there is something incredibly fishy about this whole set up. What processes did you skip to get this job raised? Remember, these processes exist for a reason - to stop internal corruption. Now I can't help shake the feeling that we're being duped into doing Sumner's dirty work for her. Yes Props would probably have got her less questions asked, but using Ops gives it an air of legitimacy.

I think you need to call her and put on a show - tell her that you've had a pang of responsibility and that you're filling in the forms in full. Play up that this is going to be a fully documented BPN. We'll listen in.

In hindsight I should have left a mic pointing at her place.

Also, is anything happening with the other targets?

[Dog Pants]

Look guys, you might be onto something and you might not. But harrassing your employer is going to leave both your account balance and my reputation less healthy. Now those two ladies I was talking to before you arrived are sisters, Kick Murder, straight out of Meny. I think I need to get back to them before some shark Financier gets to them.

[The Shutting Downs]

Go talk to the girls then, but we need to get all the info from your friend before we find ourselves in trouble and you lose a squad that makes you money

Dirk an me'll wait

eraser wanders off to the toilets, and is back 5 mins later

*edited due to dogers posting first

[Dog Pants]

Oh yeah, the others.

Grimme was chased off by the Johannas, so he's outside in the rain.

Deject, Briony leaves the building in a pink raincoat. She heads off on foot.