Session 6: Shopping and Shipping - kaseido/NeoTokyo GitHub Wiki

304 Rand 4 Sun – Bezos 1 Fire

The Team scubas over to Mirage TransHub. Flipper is tremendously proud. They come out on the docks and ask for Watanabe. Word among the dockworkers is that the boss is stressed, but a solid bribe yields results.

Lane approaches Watanabe, who is visibly gobsmacked. “Lane?? OMG, is that you?! It’s Elsi Cantos! After Silver Conflict got killed in that investigation of yours, I got a bodysculpt, new ID, and got the hell off the mainland. How did you find me?! And why now of all times- things have gotten hot again, and I’m moving on – maybe into the outback.”

Watanabe is not telling Lane shit, other than change all your IDs and get the hell out now: the hammer is coming down. She’ll take cash for one of the warehouses, though, and readily turns over all her access keys to the security and computers before getting the hell out.

Odessa sold the warehouse “as is:” she was out to fleece the client anyway. The team moves into the warehouse and kicks everyone else out. They had no problem dropping crates and heading for the gates. Lane hands Watanbe’s access data over to Rina to get into the system. Rina gets the system to roll over for her. She starts by pulling a client list: it’s all shell companies all the way down. She’ll have to bring the info back to TreeHouse. She does note that starting two days ago nothing got shipped out Theoretically this place should be piling up with crooked people’s goods, but instead the goods are heading out the door with all the staff. It’s pretty clear Watanabe is clearing out with all their stuff.

She heads to the nearest data station to hack in deeper. All the black ICE stands up and salutes as she walks by. She finds the double books: both the “legit” files and the real stuff. No info though on who’s behind any of the shell companies on the contracts. Deadman gave them the what, now they have the where.

Kestrel finds about 10 million NB in navigational electronics – surface, air, undersea. He starts looking for an 18 wheeler to steal. He stands in front of a truck and offers 5k to the driver, who jumps out and runs. He drives the truck back into the warehouse.

Rina makes her little robot minions help Kestrel load. She’s pruning the information left in the system.

Kestrel notes that all the criminals Lane pissed off will be showing up soon to discover all their stuff is gone, but they’re there. They all might want to leave right now! It’s a warehouse at ground zero for a lot of explosions- he suggests she get the money back for the warehouse right now!

Rina quickly takes out a ridiculous amount of insurance on the warehouse 😊

There’s a thud off in the distance, and alarms start going off. They have 2 million in non-liquid assets aboard. Kestrel is standing on the step outside the truck, driving it through interface plugs, with his bow out. Jiefan’s literally riding shotgun, and told everyone else to get in back.

There’s chaos at the gate! Jiefan yells out “Go offroad!” Rina and Lane head for the water – they’ll meet back at TreeHouse. Rina’s got the data, Kestrel’s got the illiquid assets.

Kestrel does a great job driving the truck out of the jam by the gates and through the complex. They come to the edge: concrete bollards and a really tough fence. Jiefan lays down the last of her grenades to take out the bollards, and he drives on through.

He calls Lane to tell her to ask the hotel to be prepared to unload the truck. They agree for 5 grand to unload and 10 grand a week for storage. Lane is keeping receipts for Eloise. She calls with information about the goods being stored. Eloise charges 20% to liquidate the goods and handle any blowback.

Kestrel notes that the parts of the spaceplane could be valuable even if they can’t get the whole thing. Lane notes the more of Zhukov’s stuff that stays intact, the bigger their cut of his assets. And she might end up with the spaceplane. SO they need to find and kill Zhukov without a lot of collateral damage.

Back in the conference room, Rina passes over the data from Mirage to the research team. Flipper finds something! Contract elements went through Okushiri Ridge Logistics Hub, 100km out in the open ocean. Lane wants to swim! Everybody else says no. Kestrel asks for recon: satellite images or something. What kind of a platform is it?

Calder says they have all the data on the place back when it was in business. He volun-tells Flipper to do some recon. Flipper entirely coincidentally splashes Kestrel on his way out. “Could you buy him some extra krill or something? Gourmet chum? I don’t know what he eats, but I feel I’ve inconvenienced him.”

Dr. Madison suggests they take the evening off while she runs data. Kestrel wants to take them all out on the town! They landed a lot of cash today!

Rina puts in her insurance claim, declaring it a lost asset, so the insurance company can spend their own money clearing out the goons, and just take the payout. They get a payout for 150k NB. “Did we just commit insurance fraud on top of grand theft? I’m so proud of us!” “We didn’t do that, we just engaged in house flipping!”

They’ll use the 150 to buy a different property for the cats. Rina calls Kaito the cat leader and tells him he’s got a budget of 65k to find a home for the colony. Kaito sends the cats around to reconnoiter. He’s thrilled to finally be getting the respect that he and his Colony deserve. It’s time to explore the resort’s offerings! They invite anyone from TreeHouse to join: Calder and Madison accept – the resort is mer-friendly.

Lane asks Kestrel if it’s okay to wait till tomorrow to get the emergency boat. He’s fine with that, if partying is on option.

They head back to the hotel, and change out of their corporate stuff -and Kestrel’s wet and fishy-smelling stuff, into party gear. Lane heads to the hotel dress shop and picks up a chainmail dress with an elaborate headpiece. Kestrel picks up a peacock-themed three-piece suit, while Rina finally gets out of a hoddie and into a really cute lavender metallic dress with a skater skirt. She likes playing with the swishy skirt!

They head down to the club, Abstraction. It’s got a zero-g room that draws a big mer crowd, dry floors, hip-deep dance pools, and portable antigrav units for nautical folk wanting to mix with drylanders.

Madison shows up in an elaborate beehive coiffure with embedded seashells and fish swimming in little terrarium bubbles, and body glitter on her human bits – nothing else. Lane can’t resist -she’s hanging out with Madison! They head to the zero g room, and Madison is super into her. They stay in the hotel and take advantage of their fine mixed-environment rooms. It’s a phenomenal evening, and Lane doesn’t even throw her back out!

Rina dances, and gets the occasional milk from the bar. She lacks supervision and good sense, so she leaves with somebody to party all night in a bunch of really strange locations.

Kestrel gets a massage, then dances, does some designer drugs, and samples some amazing bar food. Later, he buys a jetski and is sharing it with two nubile half-naked people, and they’re doing naughty things.”

Jiefan and Rook hang out at the bar watching the dancers and performing “threat assessment,” and at a reasonable hour (e.g., after all the rest of the team vanished) head up to the suite for a normal night’s sleep.

Late, late evening Rina gets a call: it’s Moopsie. Rina knew she was in a bad space, but this is so much worse: she’s sobbing and barely coherent over a rhythmic background noise – sounds like she’s on a train.

Moopsie says she knew there was an attack threat on the Wreck, and she had a whole bunch of cat and human guards, but she heard that an assault force backed off, no details. But it got so much worse!! (much sobbing)

The slum building got firebombed. Trance, the spy kitten left in the Lavigne warehouse, ID’d the same squad that hit there: their patches were for the new Zhukov Amalgamated. Hayate and 11 other cats are dead, including Nebula and Stripe, the kittens who were your decoys. Trance and two adults out fishing survived.

She sold the clinic to Nynphie and used the money – she called the Shadow Barker. Yes, yes, she knows, he’s always had it in for the cats, but he knows everything, or he’s supposed to. They say he has agents everywhere, even in the wreck. Anyway.

She’s going to kill Zhukov. She knows where he’ll be in two days: at the coming-out ball for Princess Yekaterina, she’s the daughter of the heir apparent to the Crown in Exile. The Shadow Barker was able to hack Zhukov’s private calendar.

She says she’s had some work done, and she’s going to kill him.

Rina’s not having any of that. “No! This is my job! You tell me where he’s going to be! They told me to protect them, you gotta tell me! You can come here b ut do not, not by yourself, this is mine, they gave it to me, this is my job.”

“Go to the bar first, Ruin.”

“Yeah, I’ll just get off the train there, that’s easy.”

“Don’t leave, we got attacked in Haiphong.”

“Just stay safe, I can’t lose anybody else.”

“Go to the bar, the Vole will take care of you. I’ll see how to get you out here without anybody finding you. You gotta be safe.”

“OK, but promise me, I’ve gotta be in on this.”

“We gotta make plans. You can’t go off without me.”

“It’s not your fault, it’s my fault.”

“No, it’s Zhukov and he’s gotta die. Don’t die!”

Sometime before sunrise Lane and Madison down in the poolhouse, and Jiefan and Rook up in their suite, are awakened by the WHOOP WHOOP WHOOP of an alarm, then a loud synthetic voice saying “This is a security alert. Please stay in your rooms: they have been locked for your safety. Security is currently resolving a minor issue, and we will unlock your rooms shortly. In the meantime, all drinks and snacks in your minibars are half off for the duration: please enjoy the hospitality of The Emerald Blossom Resort.”

Explosions rock the building – which suggests that the sale might be on a good while. Lane’s and Madison’s suite has a poolside view: lots of figures in gray armor – clearly Zhukov Amalgamated, same as almost hit them in the warehouse in Haiphong – are moving in.

A team is setting up some sort of large tube on a tripod – oh yeah, the Ferengi had these, they’re breaching mortars. Seems to be pointed up toward the team’s suite. One of the armored figures points right at that window, and brings his arm down sharply. Looks like a command to fire!