Episode Ten: The Asset Forfeiture Job - kaseido/NeoTokyo GitHub Wiki

13-15 Minsky

We pick up right where we left off: the app has been released, and the nail polish is in fabrication.

Star’s business manager tells her she’s netted NB400 the past few days on point-of-purchase ad revenue, but it seems to be dropping off fast. They recommend terminating the spend, but Star orders it continued: she wants to monitor spikes from the rollout of the drugged kibble. The team meets to go over all the issues they’ve got going on. Paragon and Star decide that banging Paragon’s ex-fiancé probably isn’t time-sensitive, so they let that one sit a bit. There’s some question over what to do about the kid who’s been seized in asset forfeiture: Star and Paragon seem to think that selling her off to a corp family is a good idea, but somehow the team members not raised in a corporate environment disagree. Carbide vetoes talk of kidnaping another kid to swap out for the one they feel guilty about getting sold into indentured servitude. Carbide feels like he’s scolding cats who’re just staring at him as he talks.

On other matters, Carbide mentions that he has a childhood friend, Birdseye, who’s a pretty famous indie news podcaster, the guy behind “The Voice of Old Dome.” He might be up for working with media/marketing team of Friction and Goodbytes (who massively get on each other’s nerves after about 20 minutes, as exes). Well, maybe work with them: they’re extra extra together. He places the call right there, and is completely honest with him about the situation. Birdseye’s happy to do the story, but he needs some hard evidence, like correspondence ordering the execution of the maids.

This matches with what Paragon was thinking, that they’d need to do a netrun against Sekushina Meido! They discuss sending Paragon in to apply for a job, but reject that approach in favor of Star setting up an appointment to legitimately discuss temp staffing for her upcoming cult extravaganza.

Star and her entourage – Paragon, Night, and Friction – meet with VP of Business Development Maxwell Grayson. After pleasantries, Star begins to haggle, with Night and Friction adding to the distraction as Paragon does her netrun.

This is her first time up against a serious corporate system, and the defenses kill one of her Sword programs and do some serious brain damage. However, she’s able to get a classified letter from Bai Jie at BSP to the Chief Legal Officer of Sekushina Meido! It demands that the termination clause be invoked, given the sensitivity of the confidential documents and irreplaceable historical artifacts accessed by the thieves. If the termination is carried out, the matter will remain confidential, and BSP will continue its contractual arrangements with Sekushina Meido!

it points a finger, but in and of itself it’s nothing especially out of the ordinary. However, it’s dated 20 Bezos, the day after the second theft and a month and a half after the first, the one the maids actually almost walked in on. It should be enough to prove that Jie is smearing the team by conflating the two incidents.

She’s also able to get Harb’s contract, the active employee directory, and shipping and receiving information for the next week, which she hands off to Night. Star then sends her out on a tea run to cover for her injuries, and wraps up a deal with Grayson.

Carbide hands their discoveries off to Birdseye, who was able to corroborate that the maids were fired immediately after the first theft, well before their fatal termination. He puts a story together, but it gets swamped by a corporate sex scandal. Friction and Goodbytes, however, manage to get it to take off on social media. At Star’s suggestion, they ensure that her minor nemesis Lady Chaos gets word, so that she’ll spread it even further.

Star tries to play on Night’s guilt over the maids and the kid to get her to pick up the tab for the temp contract, but she isn’t buying it: Star can set up her own cult on her own funds.

Paragon does some research into asset forfeiture: foreclosure sales are every moku-youbi, in 2 days (the 15th), at Crazy Yoshi’s World Of Bargains, on Level 8. Security isn’t sophisticated, but it’s brutal, since they sell everything from bulk lots of kibble to latinum sculptures. There’s far too much physical security for a smash-and-grab.

The team reviews the online sales catalog, and notices there are a number of “livestock” sales: three toddlers, including the maid’s, a boa constrictor, and a rather under-fed targ. They build a scam: they’ll “discover” that the kid has been infected with “Klingon Blood Fleas,” and force a fire-sale price. Paragon whips up a bunch of web pages on the Klingon Blood Flea Menace while Vir combs the kitties, collects some fleas, and dyes them bright red.

The team attends the preview, and calls for the livestock to be brought to the display room. Vir plants the fleas and “discovers” them. Carbide builds up the menace of “pentapox” that they transmit, and starts ordering Crazy Yoshi’s henchmen to assemble chemicals for a treatment spray. It takes some really tough negotiating, but Star is able to get Yoshi down to an affordable price for the kid. He’s grateful for their help in combating the fleas, and sprays his own hands down with the horrid pine-citrus “antidote” Carbide synthesizes. Yoshi demands certifications for the remaining livestock that they’re free of Klingon Blood Fleas. Paragon devises secure forms, and Vir signs them as “Dr. Goodbytes.” Paragon sells the forms to Odaiba Spaceport Customs, which has become aware of the menace and imposed restrictions on targ importing.

They take the kid back to the Hideout. Vir doesn’t entirely believe that Star didn’t buy her to use as a human sacrifice for her cult. Night chips in half of the NB10,000 purchase price, and the team members reimburse Star for the rest. Star then totally manipulates their housekeeper, Mica Khansa, into taking the kid, claiming that it’ll be good therapy for her daughter, Jade, as she’s being deprogrammed.