The night wore on and on, more drinks more cards and more random convocation. Things were starting to get a little hazy, but he still remember the majority of what they’d talked about. Red had gone into herself a little, but mostly talked about the matrix and hacking – things Thorin listened to but could only half understand. It all seemed so complicated to him, one of the main reasons he hadn’t gone into hacking himself. That and the fact hi talents always seemed to lie in a completely, more ‘hands-on’ area.

Quicksilver opened up a little more, even talking about his parents who had been erased by a corp. From there he had made things happen for himself, getting himself to where he was today off of his own back. Asking in return Thorin had told his own brief story, nothing spectacular or involving anything really interesting for him. He’d gotten old enough to try his hand at work, and he was young and enthusiastic. The first little gang to give him a try wasn’t sorry, and from there he excelled and moved upwards – becoming an enforcer. From there he kept the details vague before saying how he’d one day needed more money, and so one day started doing jobs that would get him more money.

The rest of the night was hazier still, but in the end he hadn’t done so badly at the poker, though Quicksilver seemed to be playing even better. Thorin had almost forgotten that they were in Leverage, and when they did finally make to leave the music seemed all the more unbearable to him, and he grumbled loudly about it as they went. He wasn’t really so sure what had happened from there, but he knew that he’d woken home and alone. Somehow Red had managed to make it so that he’d just taken the girls number, somehow making it seems like a real good idea to him at the time. All in all he had passed out with a smile on his face, especially as he’d left the bill at the club – the drinks all being charged to the private room (after all he figured Mr Johnson had the nuyen to cover it).

The next morning was a much less jolly affair. Thorin awoke with a pounding headache that even paratechmol couldn’t get rid of, in the end he used his wired reflexes to dull the constant throbbing, getting ready for their meet in next to record time. This time he made sure he was fully packing, bringing his entire arsenal including his Ranger Arm sniper rifle, all disassembled and packed away into its special briefcase. It only made sense with him to have his gear at the safe house ready and waiting for the moment he needed it. He even wrapped his longsword in a cloth bundle and carried it in his other hand, meaning he was taking pretty much all he could carry.

On the way there he made sure to stop at one of the many 24hr convenience booths and stock up on cigarettes and even a few bottles of cheap whisky.As he was about to leave he hesitated before adding several food items to his shopping cart as well, just enough to keep him going for a few days. He intended to stay at the safehouse until this whole thing was over, and didn’t want to be popping out to get ‘supplies’ every time he was hungry or needed a smoke.

Looking at the apartment, you might think someone had built it with the express purpose of converting it into a runner safe house. In fact, it wouldn't be the first time something like that had happened.

The small space (just slightly bigger than last night's back room of Leverage) is situated in a regular apartment complex in Auburn. The building's filled with the usual yelling of blue-collar workers and children, many of whom belong to the Goblinized portion of the population. Inside the apartment, however, it's dead silent. Someone obviously went to a lot of trouble soundproofing the safehouse. In some places the insulation's showing. Apart from the door (the hallway's covered in retrofitted sensors, of course), there's another exit: the only window is large enough for a troll to fit through, and the fire escape, an old, rusty thing, is right outside.

The apartment itself is sparsely furnished, each room clearly set up for function rather than comfort. The walls are unpainted, and the fluorescent lights are exposed, casting an almost uncomfortably bright glow over the entire apartment. It ain't pretty, but it makes sense: you're here to work.

Thovren's van pulled up behind the apartment complex that at best could be described as 'needs Improvement.' As he unplugged him seld he tried to ignore the shouting and questionable noises that were loud enough not only to pierce through the buildings poorly kept walls. But also then penetrate his vehicle. For an employer invested enough in this mission to afford six doc wagon contracts. They seemed to want them tested fairly immediately.

He unjacked himself from the van and sighed as he moved to the back, collecting his pistol and datachip from the workbench. He went over each of his drones and the various parts he kept in the back. Making sure all were snug and secure. He was loathe to leave these were they were but he did not want to draw attention to himself by marching in with a private army of metallic servants. It would be rather obvious at that point what he was doing in the building.

He stepped out of the van into the burning sun. He worked quickly to maglock his van and rush towards the safety of the inside. He hated such intense and direct light. It literally stung him just being under it. He cursed every employer that wanted to do business in the day. He pushed through the hallways and ignored the various stenches that seemed to seep through his masks filter. Hearing questionable things behind doors and not doubting there were criminals in this building far worse than himself. He made it to the designated room and pushed through the door.
Inside he was assaulted with more discomforting light that itched his arms and swore creatively. He did his best to push past it though it was still quite noticeable to him despite his efforts. He focused on the room itself. The undesirable noises seemed to stop completely when he closed the door behind him. That was something at least. The room was bare, just enough furnishings for the team to sit down while they talked and strategized that was about it. He decided to spend his time hunting down the light switch to end this damnable itching and discomfort while he waited for more people to arrive.

She stepped off the bus, and immediately Auburn greeted Red with the familiar sound of constant factory work. She knew a lot of honest, hard-working people here. It was almost like coming home.

This particular building though? Not so much. The sex work was no problem—chummers gotta work—but she'd heard rumors of organleggers and bunraku parlors working out of the apartments. Judging from the sounds (and smells!) coming from the rooms around her, they might be true.

Her AR glasses identified the right door and highlighted it. Either it was already unlocked or some sensor had noticed her coming, because when she pressed on the door, it swung open. The room's only window had been dimmed electronically, and the lights were off. Her cybereyes switched to low-light with a slight snik, and the rigger appeared in front of her along with the rest of the safehouse. Early start. Not bad!

"Morning, chummer. Good to see you up. I'm guessing you don't wear that thing for looks. Allergic to something?"

Lei Ne was dressed very differently today than she was last night. She was wearing pants for one, skinny jeans yes, but not as tight as most. She also was wearing a loose shirt. It looked almost over sized on first glance. However on closer inspection it's obvious that it was made that way. The top was large yes, but it narrowed down at the waist via scrunchy that accented the Asian woman's slenderness. Today she also dispensed with her umbrella, her color scheme a more subtle green. Her hair was less over the top too, now more white than any other color. In fact there appeared to be no other color than white.

Lei Ne clumped up to the building in her fashionable combat boots. Her neon pink lips were blinding as she smiled at those around her. At least until she got in the building. Then she just hurried to the designated room as fast as possible. She checked each door for the proper indicator and when she found the right one, she slipped on in. There she noticed both Red and the elf. What was his name? He was the Rigger. She smiled at the two of them as she closed the door and played a little mental game to remember the elf's name. Thor? Thorn? No, it was Thovren. That's it.

"Morning Red. Thovren." Lei Ne looked around at what was supplied and wrinkled her nose. "Too cheap to spring for proper seating." She bemoaned as she sat down.

You know that feeling? When you stepped out of the back of a van or had to duck to get below something? And you hit your head really hard! Thomas was having that feeling right now, several of them to be fair. Memo to self, do not use Trolls as measurement for your own intoxication. Luckily he had skipped the last couple of round and started with coffee and water, which he could both use at the moment as well. As he got out of bed Thomas decided against open the drapes and instead went into the kitchen to brew a cup'o. Open a cupboard he took the can of instant hot coffee out and pressed the pad at the bottom that made the can heat up. He also took a can of plain water and pressed a similar pad to cool it down. Sipping on both drinks, coffee in the left and the water in the right hand, he started pacing through the mess that was his room. Broken pipes, some clothes and a smear of blood decorated the room. Thomas had already disposed of the body several days ago. The samurai didn't like living in one place for long and thus he sometimes 'borrowed' apartments from his previous contracts. Cheaper than renting, the samurai thought during his morning piss.

After Quicksilver was done pacing and finished his drinks he had a mental list of things to pack and started to do so. He spread his armor out on the bed and laid his katanas next to it. He grabbed a couple of can of drinks, a couple of canned meals and two packets of beef jerkey. Thomas went searching for his cigarettes after that, alas they were gone... A few in my trenchcoat and that it, have to pick a few pack up before arriving at the safe house. As came back from his coat he lit one of the remaining six cigarettes and threw all the food items in a small bag. After that he dumped a couple of his clothes and a couple of those of the previous owner in a backpack and added the small bag of food and drinks to it as well. The compartment behind the clothes and food was already filled with two skintight suits for under the armor, a repair set and two magazines for his handgun. The samurai started getting into the third skintight suit he owned and felt the coldness of the points where the armor was to be attached on his skin. It was quite a hassle to get in on correctly but Thomas was accustomed to it now, after that he open the gas furnace. Once he had the suit on he fashioned a ponytail of his hair and started attaching armor.

After he had also donned the pants, his hakama, and the two katana's the samurai put on his trenchcoat, checked the gun in the chest holster and slung the pack over his shoulder. As he came outside, helmet under his arm, he lit a cigarette and closed the door. The whole apartment was closed off now, the gas still pouring in. The street samurai walked down a couple of flights of stairs and came down to the street. He flicked away his cigarette and put on his helmet. Nothing much to do in the neighborhood, good, let's fire things up a bit shall we? the man thought as he drew his gun and aimed for one of the windows. As the samurai stood close to one of the vehicles he put on his augmented reflexes and shot. The reflexes made him jump into cover straight away, but he could still feel some of the warmth of the explosion. No evidence is good evidence. Nobody had to know that he had been here and the samurai started heading towards the safehouse at an easy pace.

After quite a stroll the samurai ended up in front of the safehouse. It wasn't much, but it would suffice. It is not that he had expected luxury, but he couldn't help hoping for it every time. Inside was even less to write home about except for Red and Lei-Ne. The Elf was also there, so he was the fourth to arrive? "It's me, nothing to worry about there. Its just a hassle dragging this armor around, takes up quite some space, you see." The samurai opened as he saw at least one puzzled look on his current colleges. He removed his helmet and grinned. "I want to start with some good news!" The man continued in a really upbeat voice, "My headache's gone!"

"Way you were drinking last night, I'm surprised you're even here this early." It had been unprofessional of them to drink before the job, and Red herself had a slight headache, but she was happy to see Quicksilver here already. Looked like they'd be able to work together just fine. She wasn't too sure about the suit of armor, though.

"You gonna keep that on the whole time? Gonna smell pretty funky by the end of the week."

Red sat down next to Lei-Ne and accessed the apartment's node. The security was second-rate—she'd have to do something about that—but the connection was excellent. Video feeds and other sensor information appeared at the edge of her vision as she addressed Lei-Ne and Thovren:

"Right, me and the muscle had a chat last night. Got to know each other a li'l bit. But I'd like to know a little bit about you two as well. Previous work, stuff you're good at. Like, I'm really good at hacking on the fly, stuff like creating accounts while people are shootin' at me. So: strengths? Weaknesses? Hopes and dreams?"

Thovren muttered when one of his forced companions casually mentioned allergies after seeing him in his mask. "The light.... Burns my skin." he admitted. His rare allergy to sunlight and intense lights in general was not something he enjoyed admitting to. But it already cost the lives and more importantly the success of a job once. So he decided he could let his weakness slip to his companions. If it meant a successful run and getting paid, they would probably guess at it in the end anyway. "Sunlight is the worst." he shuddered at the thought.

He satisfied himself with finding a particular room and turning off all the lights inside of it. Resting against a wall in the shaded room he looked out into the main room where the rest of his team was quickly gathering. This way he could hear their conversations and still remain somewhat comfortable. He considered what this woman was asking both him and the Asian woman. He was wondering how frankly to answer this. he could easily say to much that could potentially bite him in the ass in the future.

"I build drones, work with machines. I admit there are not many drones or vehicles I cannot jury rig or take apart and build again. As many of you may have guessed I do not enjoy bright lights. Or natural light." he took a heavy breath. "It can irritate or even burn me easily. Until recently it also had the potential to blind me." he let that sink for a few seconds before continuing. "With that said I request the light be kept at a more..... Reasonable level. Or off entirely."

Thorin glanced up at the shabby apartment complex and the several others situated closely by to it. There was nothing out of the ordinary, nothing that made him look up more than just the once. Moving through the apartment hallways he heard several very questionable noises for first thing in the morning, at least noises that he wouldn’t be wanting to make quite so early. As he neared their particular apartment a door in front of him opened up and a half rotted looking orc poked his head out before noticing Thorin and hurriedly slamming the door once more shut. Thorin didn’t want to guess what you had to shoot yourself up with to make bits of you start rotting and dropping off whilst you still walked around, but it could barely be worth whatever buzz or high you gained in the process.

The door to their little slice of this haven opened and he waltzed in he nodded in greeting to the others as he removed his sunglasses and glanced around. Lei Ne was sat at what would likely pass as their planning table, the only free space large enough to serve such a purpose. Red was only a short way beside her, the woman not looking quite as bad as he felt after the previous evenings events. The rigger was skulking at the edge of the artificial light, obviously preferring the darkness so having had set himself up in one of the few small side-rooms. That left quicksilver, the street samurai having clearly arrived a few moments before him, his helmet removed and what seemed like a grin on his face.

Thorin simply moved over to a free counter and began dumping the things he had brought with him and sorting through them. Food, alcohol and cigarettes he placed in a lower storage compartment built into the counter. His weapons he lay on the counter as he began to make sure they were all in fully functioning order, loading and unloading each of them and testing each moving part. As he did he occasionally looked over at the others, it seemed that Red was asking about the others, Thovren and Lei Ne. He listened as the rigger explained why he was hidden away, something about being allergic to the light. That had to make things more than a little difficult, he though ideally as he finished each of the checks he had wanted to. He turned to face the others as he leant against the counter before he lit up another cigarette, ready when the others were to get the specifics of their plan all figured out. Just that little mage fellow left to arrive, he mused as he waited.

Lei-Ne couldn't hold in a laugh after the street samurai had been put down by the hacker Red. Though she quickly covered her mouth with her hand and tried to cut off the giggle. As soon as she was composed a few seconds later she looked over at the samurai and shrugged. She didn't bother saying she was sorry, because she wasn't. The smaller Asian woman was intrigued by the rigger's allergy to light. It rang a bell somewhere in the back of her mind, but she couldn't place it. Maybe she had heard of him before. Whatever the case she mentally shrugged it off.

Lei-Ne's eyes watched the troll light up a cigarette and she frowned. She debated for a quick second before she got up and reached out, snatched the infernal toxic thing and mashed it into the ground. After ascertaining it was out she returned to her seat and turned to Red. She smiled her signature smile. "I think telling a little about myself is fair enough." She leaned back in her chair, her posture completely relaxed.

"Lets see. First was previous work, correct?" Lei-Ne tapped her painted lips before continuing. "I've been running for a while. You've probably haven't heard much of my work despite the display last night." She smirked. "I like ti be forgotten by everyone. But not everyone does." The last part had her smile slipping a little before it was back in place. I am extremely good at disguises and getting people to talk to me." She fluffed her hair in a little self congratulations.

"I guess that covers strengths too. As for weaknesses." The Asian woman shrugged. "Physical combat?" She chuckled. "I'm more of a talker, not a fighter. So if you leave me in a fight, I'm ditching you all too. And I think that about covers me." She purposely didn't cover hopes and dreams. Something strangers didn't need to know. "What about you Thorin? Some of us weren't there for the after party." Lei-Ne waggled her eyebrows a little.

"Hm?" Red swiped a FastFax window away from her field of vision as the rigger's response sank in. "Oh, right. Drek to be you. I'm fine with keeping the lights off. Guessing most of us have low-light, right?"

Thovren's condition was probably gonna complicate matters. Although, he probably had a rigger bus parked somewhere. Red had a feeling he wasn't much of a hands-on type of rigger. She knew the feeling, but VR was VR wherever you jacked in. She'd need a bit more time before deciding how she felt about the elf. She didn't like the way he'd been about the drone last night. Eyefragging the thing behind that mask.

As Lei-Ne began talking, Red discreetly zoned out again. Feeds to check. FastFax slipped back into her view—trouble at some arcology—along with a popular shadowrunner forum. She wanted to check out the others, at least see if any of them had a ShadowSea rating. She was still listening with one ear.

"Yeah, fightin' in the meat isn't exactly my forte either. I can fire a gun, fight from cover, but I'm counting on you guys to keep me out of trouble."

When Lei-Ne brought up Doomstrider—his name was Thorin, apparently—Red pushed away the feeds once more and lit up in a grin. "Hey, yeah, Doom. Tell them about the job you did on Christmas!"

Thorin continued to watch the others, but his attention was immediately drawn when Lei-Ni stood and took a few steps towards him. As she snatched the cigarette from him he watched in almost disbelief as she ground it into the hard floor thoroughly and returned to her seat and unleashed that beaming smile she often did, before going on to tell them about herself. Thorin’s hand had frozen in the position it was before she had taken the smoke, and he frowned glancing down at his now empty fingers before looking to the destroyed thing on the floor to Lei-Ni and back.

Looking a little like a wounded kitten Thorin decided against lighting up another cigarette and instead stared towards Quicksilver as if to say ‘Can you believe that?’ without any words. Normally if someone had done something like that Thorin would have responded with either numerous profanities or even with his fists, but Lei-Ni was obviously far too good at her job, already Thorin felt like if he was given the chance he’d try to romance her rather than beat her.

Just as his thoughts started to wander towards what she’d look like without the skinny jeans and loose-fitting top, she asked him a direct question which brought his eyes back up to her face.

“What?” he asked, flinching like he’d been caught stealing candy from children. “Oh yeah, well my strengths are… my strength I guess” he began somewhat awkwardly, before he cleared his throat and continued in a much more usual fashion “that and shooting things, blowing things up and anything else which pretty much gets the job done violently.” As he spoke he reached into his jacket and took out his hip-flask before taking a quick swig and returning it to its place with a quick glance at Lei-Ni as if he were worried she may mash that into the ground like she did with his smoke.

“I’d obviously say I don’t have any weaknesses, but realistically for the job you should know that I don’t work well with machines or other computer related things. I don’t like them and they don’t like me” he said as he absently scratched his head. “As for my hopes and dreams? Well I hope that one day I’ll be rich enough that I can buy some tropical home far away from this or any shithole like it and drink and smoke myself to death in peace” as he said smoke his eyes once more shot across to Lei-Ni.

Going back to his work he listened as Red spoke, again stopping as she said with a grin on her face "Hey, yeah, Doom. Tell them about the job you did on Christmas!"

She was obviously looking into each of them, or at least he assumed so if she was asking about his Christmas job. He groaned and replied rhetorically “Nothing slips past you does it?”

Out of habit he reached for another smoke as he began to tell the story, but soon stopped as he realised what he was doing. He began to explain how he had been offered a job by who he thought at the time was a wealthy and successful corporation, a job that required him to steal a priceless artefact from a small independent art dealer that was going broke fast. After a few days of planning he had done the job, the whole thing going more or less uneventfully and all to plan. It was only when he had come to deliver the artefact that he learned the person who had offered him the job was actually the owner of the store who was attempting to claim on his insurance policy.

“So it turns out that he couldn’t pay me even a quarter of what we’d agreed, so in the end I kinda… uh… lost my temper and smashed the stupid thing over his head before… inserting more of his art into him. Unfortunately for me it turned out that several people would have actually been more than happy to pay me twice what he’d offered if I hadn’t of smashed it into pieces. The same goes for the rest of the stuff that I’d trashed putting inside of him, funny thing is the only thing that I did take – what I thought was some old priceless Asian vase, was pretty much the only fake in his entire collection.”

Finishing his story he smiled fondly as he remembered the man’s shrieks before adding “No one has offered me a dud job since then, at least not without telling me upfront what is actually going on.”

Once he was finished speaking he moved towards the centre table which now had all of the information they had so far displayed (through his cybereyes which seamlessly were now linked with the feed coming from Red). Looking at each of the objectives and things he began to rub his hands together and said “Right, so what is the deal here? Which of these objectives are we happy about accomplishing, and which do we need to do more work on?”

He was eager now to get stuck into the work and to earn their nuyen so he would be one step closer to reaching his hopes and dreams.

"Well, I've been worse, let's keep it at that." The samurai responded to Red's statement about drinks. Heavy drinking came with the job, Thomas guessed. He and the Troll had been in the zone pretty well last night. Both of them liked alcohol and both of them loved to smoke, same interest always made talking easier. Especially if one of the interest was lubrication for any conversation. Then something about his armor... Yes, if he was actually planning to life as the tin man from the wiz, he would smell really bad. With a slight grin and a wink Thomas tried to express the need to put down this hacker sometime in the coming week. This could become interesting... The door of their apartment swung open with quite some force and the Troll walked in. Thom looked him in the eye and nodded. The Troll immediately began working on the arsenal of guns that he brought with him. Thomas inspected them from a distance and was glad with the Troll's selection. The range of the guns varied from point blank to the other side of the city, which was nice. The samurai nodded in agreement with the Troll's choice.

The hacker, which he and Trorin got to know a little bit better last night, wanted to get to know some of the stuff the others had done as well. So she started asking around. The Elf disclosed something about his allergy to light, to which the light were dimmed. Thomas's eyes immediately switched to low light settings and the Elf continued with his previous work. The Asian girl apparently only had the gun for show and was more of a talker, figures really. Red already had told the muscle she was good at doing things fast, in the nick of time and all that good stuff.

The Asian girl, not a real fighter, displayed some balls when she grabbed Doomstride's cigarette and put it out. Thomas, glad he didn't get rid of his armor already, got a bit on edge and played with the thought of putting the reflex trigger on. Luckily, the Troll just glanced at him, looking kind of sad. Thomas tilted his head to the right a bit as if he was saying, I feel you brother. "Next time, just ask, will you lass?" Thomas told Lei-Ne, "I heard you were good with words, so next time, show us." The nerve on that woman...

Doom began telling the best Christmas story Thomas had heard so far and the only Thomas could remember that involved smashing things. During the story, Thomas began to remove his armor piece for piece. Starting with the arms, the legs and finishing with the chestpiece. He peeled the skintight suit down a bit, just to get more breathing space. As Doom finished his story Thomas could finally take a deep breath. Letting the air flow out of his lungs again Thomas laughed, he slapped the Troll on the shoulder and then followed him to the center table. "I'm also curious about what we need to fix. I like to see myself as a problemsolver of sorts."

"I'm also curious about what we need to fix. I like to see myself as a problemsolver of sorts."

She smirked. Weren't they all problemsolvers in their own right? She approached the table, adjusted her AR gloves.

"Right, I'm guessing I've got the best grasp of the data among us, so I'll go point on this." She tapped the table a few times to bring up the blueprints. "Let's deal with the main job first: snatching the data. Like Mr. J said, it's pretty unlikely that we're gonna be able to reach the schematics from the Matrix, which means that either we bring me to the server or we find a way to access it from the outside, which means dragging a fiberoptic cable or getting a repeater drone to jack in, something like that. That all depends on stuff like security measures and how the building looks today, which is probably nothing like it does on this old thing." Red gestured at the blueprint, which displayed a tiny September 2070 in the corner.

"We're gonna need some up to date intel in order to find McIntosh and the drone—if it's still in one piece—anyway, so I say we make that our priority one: blueprints, schematics, security intel, you get it. I can look around on the 'Trix, but it doesn't seem likely that it'll be readily available, so I might have to dig for a bit. I suggest we do some physical recon, get some eyes on the building itself. And our girl here,"—she nodded towards Lei-Ne—"might be able to pull some strings, talk to some friends. Maybe even make some new ones. I bet there's a corp slave in an after-hours bar somewhere who wouldn't mind some pleasant company."

She stepped back and looked them all over, her expression serious: "I'm sure we can all agree that it'd be best to deal as little lead as possible. I think we should make stealth a factor. And as soon as the fraggin' mage shows up, we need to talk magical security. Where is he, anyway?"
Speak of the devil. The table bleeped, and a message appeared. She scanned it.

"Drek. Mage is out. Left the city real fast last night. Wouldn't be surprised if Mr. J's sending some muscle his way soon.

"Okay, that adds another task to our job. We need to find a way to deal with Koch-Huang's MagiSec. Hire another mage, get somebody to scope the place astrally, something. I don't know how these things work, and as far as I know, none of you guys are Awakened, am I right?"

Lei Ne decided she rather liked the bemused look on Thorin's face. His surprise made the skinny woman chuckle, though she hid it behind a hand. She knew the other look on his face too. Chances are he'd never fit though. Shame that. She just smiled as he cast another furtive glance as he pulled out his cask. She happily sat back and watched her new teammates. It was obvious by body posture that the samurai wasn't quite smitten with her. He backed it up with words.

Next time, just ask, will you lass? I heard you were good with words, so next time, show us.

Completely non-offended Lei-Ne kept smiling. "In my experience asking only gets you rude gestures or a beating." She crossed her legs and snuggled a little further into her seat. "Though I suppose I will next time if only to keep you from actually shooting me or whatever your preferred method is." She tilted her head to the side like a bird watching a worm. She eventually moved her eyes away and to the door as Thorin continued talking about his past job. The troll seemed to be genuinely happy to be relating the story. She added that to her opinion on him. So far there was only two people in this room that she might trust.

The first was herself, duh, and the second was Thorin. She didn't trust either the rigger or the samurai as far as she could throw them. From what she saw, they were looking out for themselves only. Not that she was blaming them. She probably wouldn't go out on a limb for anyone in this room, the troll included. If she got in over her head she was more likely to bolt without a word. Of course, before that her signature bad luck would probably kick in making everyone's life a living Hell.

Lei Ne was pulled out of her people watching as the subject changed back to the job. She leaned forwards, opening her mouth to mention they were still missing their mage when Red said it first. Lei Ne clicked her mouth shut and sat back with a dainty frown. Of course. She shook her head as she reviewed the information. She could chat up some suit to get info. Simple. She might even be able to get the blueprints also if Red couldn't.

Okay, that adds another task to our job. We need to find a way to deal with Koch-Huang's MagiSec. Hire another mage, get somebody to scope the place astrally, something. I don't know how these things work, and as far as I know, none of you guys are Awakened, am I right?

Lei Ne nodded her head to the question. She didn't even realized she just completely lied when she did so. Lying was mere second nature at this point. The dissemination of false and true information had kept herself. And she didn't really trust anyone where. Why would she tell the truth when in a way the lies had become the truth. "Red." Lei Ne frowned at one of her nails. "Can you get me an employee list, faces, names, and where they live?" She should get a start on gathering Intel.

Whoa... Lei-Ne was good with words. Pity though that she mistook Thomas's intent. He had been on edge because of the reaction that the Troll might have had. The samurai had seen Trolls lose their temper before and it wasn't pretty. In my experience asking only gets you rude gestures or a beating, she had said... What the...? Obviously this face wasn't used to work with the more experienced shadowrunners, they weren't selected by means of who ever gets the job done. They were hand picked for this job, the remark made the Asian drop a couple of points in Thomas's book. And the nerve on chopsticks, was she baiting him? Respond to the bait, don't respond, light a cigarette just to piss her off... Ah, to hell with it! "Lass, I want to keep you alive, for as long as I have need of you at least. I'm not your average thug, Mulan, otherwise I wouldn't have lived to see my age. Do with this information as you like, but don't mistake me for one of your previous colleagues." Thomas did want to keep the team alive as long as he needed them, which mostly meant until the end of the mission. Chopsticks could do as she liked for all he cared, Thomas just rather didn't deal with a Troll in berserker mode.

Red began taking the lead on the initial investigation. She sported a priority list and expressed her concern about the use of bullets. Thank god, the samurai thought, I rather not mess with the full defensive force of a corporation. She told the group that she wanted to go over magical security as soon as the mage arrived, but a message told them the mage would be a no show. Damn, now they would even have a bigger problem. If anyone of them was awakened? Thomas sure wasn't, too much metal in him to even try if he was awakened.

"Do some corporations not use enforcers as part of their defense protocol? Maybe Thorin and I could get to know a few of them, or maybe just kidnap one of the guards and beat the information out of him? People go missing all the time, if we found one with some kind of problem, gambling, substance abuse, debts." Thomas said, continuing with the planning phase. "We could also pay someone off for the information of threaten someone's family," he continued, then, looking at chopsticks, "It's not that I necessarily like violence, it's just that it's easy and it works most times." Trying not to look down too much on her, somehow the Asian didn't look all that bad anymore. The face, go figure.

Thovren listened to the bickering and rifts forming in this group. Already the asain woman and the troll seemed likely to be at each others throats when the fighting started. If this mission went sour he could only imagine how fingers would be pointed and accusations would be flying everywhere. This hacker woman seemed to have somewhat of a head for this job. He would take what he could get at this point.

"If we need information." he began, speaking for the first time from his shadowed room while the rest were arguing and eying each other with distain. "And you are able to hack a few camera's or at the very least a few sensors offline for a moment or two. I can get a few spies inside the walls." he had two dragonfly drones just perfect for this job if they really wanted an inside view. It had its risks to be sure. If there was an electromagnetic sensor active inside the complex to prevent such micro drones from doing just as he intended to do. Then that would lead to their short circuit and he would be down two valued comrades. And they could possibly trace it back to his control deck but his was unregistered and made from scrap without a serial number. So good luck tracking him physically. "They can get in quietly and quickly if we need them. And we don't have to rely on second hand information from questionable sources."

Thorin remained focused on the array of information before them as Red spoke, summarising where they were with each objective. Firstly there was getting the blueprints of that damned drone from their server, and from what he was hearing it seemed that one way or another they either needed to get Red a direct connection to the thing, either through a drone or fibre cable or by just by literally getting her in front of some kind of connection port. He already knew there was little he could do to help in regards to that, but if he was needed to protect Red then he’d be more than willing and happy to cover her whist she worked.

From there it was just the ‘bonus’ objectives they’d need to worry about - the objectives that would secure them a 100% increase in payment. She summarised that in order to plan that part more thoroughly they would need to get better intel than the out of date stuff that Mr Johnson had provided them with, plus it would likely help them make better decisions regarding how to get to the server and back in one piece. As he was about to speak Red again did, though this time considerably a little more negatively than before.

"Drek. Mage is out. Left the city real fast last night. Wouldn't be surprised if Mr. J's sending some muscle his way soon. Okay, that adds another task to our job. We need to find a way to deal with Koch-Huang's MagiSec. Hire another mage, get somebody to scope the place astrally, something. I don't know how these things work, and as far as I know, none of you guys are Awakened, am I right?" she asked them glancing around.

No one responded positively, Thorin himself shrugging and shaking his head. The thought of bringing in a newcomer at this later stage made him frown, not only because of the fact they’d have to brief them on what was what, but also because it would mean having to split their pay with them. As Lei-Ne asked Red about a list of employees and matching data to go with it he scratched his chin thinking about what could be done without their mage.

Quicksilver chimed in after a few words to Lei-Ne, the pair of them exchanging a quick few jabs in what Thorin considered simple banter between colleagues, hoping that there wasn’t any real rift hidden there. "Do some corporations not use enforcers as part of their defence protocol?” He asked before going on to suggest that the two of them used aggressive persuasion to get what they needed, pointing out that there were more than enough ways to do so. The Troll simply nodded along, his mind still on the mage issue.

As Thovren spoke it reminded the Troll that he was still there, skulking in the backroom and listening to everything they said. He pointed out that he had drones that could do the direct recon, however it sounded like it would be maybe something better done at the time of the mission as opposed to before-hand to him.

“Maybe…” he began “I think we could do most of what’s been said, get as much intel as we can do to make a direct and clear plan we can follow to the letter?” He paused briefly before continuing “So we let beautiful here take her pick from the list of employees, get close to some lucky schmuck before taking all of the information she can from their possession. Meanwhile me and Quicky here will be beating seven shades of shit out of some unlucky schmuck, trying to get pretty much the same information outta him. From there I’m sure we can learn most of what we need, anything else can be gathered on the day by our nocturnal friend here’s drones? In the meantime Red can be hacking out whatever she can, and I’m sure Thovren here can find something useful to do whilst we are doing that?”

He finished speaking and looked at each of the others briefly before going on, changing the subject only slightly “As for that little slot Old Soul, good riddance as far as I’m concerned. Kid was unproven and unprofessional, not to mention as irritating as a bad rash. I say we hire some two-bit joytoy mage and when we are done with them we just blank em and dispose of their body and then we just split his twelve-thousand or so nuyen five ways?”

It made perfect sense to Thorin, the thought of killing some inexperienced tool barely even registering to him as morally shady. He was keen to get the plans finalised, so waited to hear what the others thought. He moved away from the group and into the side-room that the rigger had occupied, his cybereyes turning fully into low-light mode as he did. Moving far into the rear of the room so he could only just see the others he lit up a cigarette and kept his eyes focused in the direction of Lei-Ne lest he attract her wrath once more. He figured that if the rigger complained he’d throw some comment at him about the mask he was wearing, but he figured that most likely he’d just ignore the Troll providing he did the same.

Great, more bickering. Looked like they'd be arguing a lot even without the rookie mage. Red Five just hoped the five of them would be able to behave on the actual job. Their suggestions seemed sound enough, though.

"I think we can do it all—except maybe killing a mage," she said, glancing at the smoking troll. "Get us a real bad rep real quick. Paying a low-level mage to assense the place might work, though. If the MagiSec's high, we can always get someone more powerful on board."

She sat down and pulled her one-metre Sony fiberoptic cable from a Velcro pouch on her belt. One end was plugged into her commlink, and at the back of her head, her fingers found the ornate datajack. A slight push, and she was jacked in. She closed her eyes as data filled her mind, manifesting as complex, digital thoughts. Her commlink noticed the connection and chirped a welcome. Red grinned at Lei-Ne and spoke, pausing every so often to focus on mental commands.

"I'm configuring an agent to check the public records of Koch-Huang on the sly as we speak. I might have to rummage around a bit for addresses and even the names of some of the higher-level employees, and it takes a bit longer if I'm talkin' all the while, but we've got time, eh?

"Thovren, the drones are a good call. You know more about this than I do, maybe it'd be a good idea to stick to outdoors recon for a few days? Get an idea of schedules and access points? I figure you can control the drones without hanging out in the sunlight. As for Quick and Doom, maybe don't cause too much chaos. We don't want K-H to catch our scent this early on. I trust you know how to go about it."

Seeds of a few different plans rooted in her mind already, and she smiled at Quicksilver. She felt confident; they could do this.

If he'd worked for a megacorp, someone with proper housing, maybe an arcology, perhaps house arrest wouldn't be so bad. Of course, they weren't calling it house arrest. He'd heard of "protecting their assets", "assuring his safety", pretty much anything except the plain truth: Devon had gotten a job offer, and Koch-Huang didn't want him leaving. Not that Devon had wanted to leave, anyway, although he was beginning to have second thoughts.

He'd only told Koch-Huang of the offer to maybe hustle a pay raise out of 'em, but they went ballistic, basically locking him inside the compound. Afraid some team of mercenaries was gonna extract him in the middle of the night. He slept in one of the coffin rooms, the two metres by one metre pods reserved for employees spending the night. They weren't designed for extended stays, though, so for a large part, Devon spent his time lying in his pod as well as in offices and cubicles retrofitted for his work.

If this had been an arcology, he'd have access to an internal Matrix, letting him at least browse some approved sites. As it was now, he requested trids, books, and podcasts from one of the big German goons "protecting" him who'd procure it for him. Needless to say, it wasn't optimal. There was a reason he was slowly trying to create a backdoor in the system from the puny commlink provided for him.

He was almost hoping for an extraction.