Business
by shapcano
The Johnson sat motionless, starring at the carvings and graffiti of the booth's tabletop as though it held the secrets to the universe. His seeming pre-occupation with the scarred laminate had less to do with the potential wisdom it might contain and more to do with the protective coloration it lent him. While it was true that fragging with Johnsons was generally frowned upon by both management and patrons, there were enough dissatisfied 'have nots' in the seedy bar for good business sense to have taken a short holiday. The muttering accompanying the hostile glances at his table told the corper that the general mood was shifting in favor of a frank, free, and physical expression of dissatisfaction with their lot in life by his potential employees. Like a lone herbivore on a carnivore rich stretch of veldt, the Johnson carefully avoided attention.
I won't be doing any more biz here Tommy "Face" Fatagante thought as surreptitiously surveyed his environment. This place even smells like trouble. Glancing at the antique timepiece on his wrist, Face immediately adjusted his cuff to cover the watch. That was stupid he thought, the watch costs more than most of this scum will see in a year. Just the sort of thing to get me knifed before the damned 'shadowrunners' arrive. It also limits my cover.
Sitting back far enough to bring his arms below the table, Face quickly removed and pocketed the watch. He mentally reviewed himself for other items which might indicate his true status and finding none brought his arms back above the table.
Before the suit could begin his oft rehearsed mental lament about the unreliability of the SINless, his appointment made their noisy way into the bar. Young, jazzed about the opportunity to enhance their rep and jealous of anything that might detract from it, the Ghost Riders had no clue that they were hopelessly overmatched by their Johnson. Because he looked like a sheep that had wandered near a wolf pack, because they considered themselves the alpha wolves of that pack, the runners thought they were more than a match for the suit. They had just successfully completed a mission where hot lead, frosty tech and otherworldly magic were all arrayed against them and they had saved an entire forest from being poisoned, so how tough could a paper pusher from the legal world be? How little they knew.
"Face" Fatagante had "Johnsoned" more than 300 major runs in 6 different cities over the past dozen years. He was respected/envied/hated/feared by his fellow executives in corporate operations because he was so good at "thinking outside the box". His supervisors, while initially thrilled with his successes, eventually came to realize that transferring "the Face" was necessary to maintaining their own positions as "office politics" took on a completely new meaning when dealing with someone so good at using "extra-legal help". The last boss who had been too slow to understand this lesson had been, unfortunately, "extracted" by shadowrunners supposedly working for another corp. Face had, of course, accepted the promotion into the vacant slot "for the good of the corporation". Although he had since set up 3 separate matrix runs to clear any warning labels from his personnel file, no matter where he went his supervisor seemed to know that "use him and lose him" was the best policy for the Face.
A master manipulator and experienced negotiator, Face quickly sized up the attitude of his runners. Nervously glancing around, he drew a white silk handkerchief from his pocket and began wiping his hands. The contempt evident on the face of the team's shaman was almost as comic as the decker's look of pity. Seeing no reaction from any of the team's "muscle" including the samurai who led the Ghost Riders, Face decided that an actual stammer might be overkill. He opted instead to be "distracted", but was conscious that with a magic user in the mix he'd have to be very careful to avoid outright lies.
"Look," Face blurted out when everyone was seated. Immediately "catching" himself speaking too loudly he dropped his voice to a whisper and gushed "Look, I need a reliable crew. I think Hanvey's gotten his hands on my research. I don't know how he did it but he definitely couldn't complete his presentation without it and I certainly didn't give it to him......"
"Stop" Jackknife, the samurai leader of the Ghost Riders, said. "You're getting ahead of yourself. First of all, you've got to tell us what the pay is. Then give us the outlines of the job. If we decide to take it then you can go into the details."
Face looked alarmed, like he was afraid he had said to much and noted one of the Ghost Rider's razors was giving the rigger a small head shake. Satisfied that he was on the right track, the corper nodded too many times and continued-
"Sorry, sorry.....I..uh....I've never done this before" swallowing a gulp from his water glass to cover "to you" against some lie detector spell. "In the lab I'm uh......" a sigh from Candyman brought the researcher up short. "Right. Money. Uh.... I can offer 8,000¥. You'll need to get into Sand........uh, a lab. Four story building in an industrial park. The uhm, target is a process for accelerating the exchange.....sorry, uhm, a chip enhancement. It's in a safe in an office on the second floor. Is that enough information?"
"No" Jackknife responded. "We need to know more about the security before we can decide if it's enough pay for the job. Is there magical security?"
"I don't know" a crestfallen Face responded.
"What about physical security?"
Face took a moment as though working through what "physical security" meant. "There's a guard station at the elevators by the main entrance and uhm....magcard locks on the offices. I don't know about the safe."
"Any retinal scanner locks, roving security drones, anything like that?" the samurai asked.
"No, we're.....I mean the company isn't that big."
The Ghost Riders looked at each other for a moment and when it was apparent there weren't any other questions for the Johnson, Jackknife cleared his throat and said " We'd need 10,000¥ for a job like this."
Rather than go with tears of frustration Face decided to stick with overwhelmed. Reacting as if he'd never conceived that the shadowrunners might raise the price he first sputtered and then looked dejected. Shaking his head he mumbled an apology and rose to leave. A hurried conversation among the Ghost Riders ended with Jackknife calling the corper back and taking the job for 8,000¥.
Face's relief was almost tangible. "Thank you, thank you. You don't understand what it means to me. I'm so relieved." Gushing out the details Face continued "It's the Sanderson/Digital labs. Riverside Industrial park. I've got half the credits here. I can pay you the rest when you hand over the presentation tomorrow night at the corner of......."
"Whoa, hold on there." Jackknife interrupted, "You didn't say anything about a time limit."
Face allowed some frustration into his voice as he clarified- "It's got to be before the presentation on Friday. That's the whole point. Once he's shown it upstairs they won't care about what he did to put together his data. They'll commend him for being aggressive! My work...........Unless I can get this before the presentation it will be completely worthless." Behind the earnest facade Face was quite pleased that he had not told a single outright lie while creating the impression that he was a research dweeb in some electronics company worried about losing credit for his labor. He was also quite pleased that he had withheld the info on the deadline for the job until after the initial attempt to up the price. Since the runners knew he had no more credits they'd swallow the timing on the run without upping the price and because the deadline was so near their legwork would be directed at the run rather than at their employer.
The corper noted which of the Ghost Riders were most concerned with this latest wrinkle and "innocently" pulled out a certified stick with 4,000¥. He held it out towards the samurai who seemed least concerned about the deadline and was pleased when Kayo snatched the stick out of his hand.
"I'll have the other half tomorrow at Liberty park, corner of Water and Dominion streets. I want to switch there because this neighborhood doesn't seem safe." Not surprisingly there was no disagreement with this understatement. "Here is my personal com number. Call me when you want to meet and I can be there in 20 minutes." Looking like he wanted to shake hands but was afraid shadowrunners wouldn't do such a thing, Face hesitated a moment before a hurried "Thank you. Thank you very much. Uh...Goodbye." He then left the Ghost Riders to discuss their plans.
Because the magic user might have put a trace on him, Face headed directly back home. Once in his apartment and cleanly through his bug detector, he checked his watch as he placed it back upon his wrist. After a quick review of the facts he sat down at his desk and jacked into the matrix with his personal deck. His icon, a faceless business man in a bowler hat entered Star's Virtual precisely on time. Star's icon conducted his to a private virtual meeting room.
"Time is money, gentlemen", he announced without preamble. "Thank you for coming. Let's get down to cases. The job is a slash and burn with patsy provided. To use the patsy will require an observer near site to detonate pre-set packages at the appropriate time. I know by your reputations that each of you has access to sufficient quantities of c-12 to destroy entire city blocks. I only require enough to bring down a single building. Pay is 2,000¥ per man. Total time on site should not exceed an hour. Questions?"
"Way in-way out?" one of the three other icons asked.
"Your concern, not mine." Face responded curtly. "If you can't sleaze into the cleaning crew or building security, find some other way. This is pocket change pay for a tiny piece of biz because we have a large job in the offing and I want you available but don't want you asking for advances. Understood? Any other questions?" Face waited to see if his hints of future riches and no-nonsense approach had placated the demolitionists' egos enough for them to take the relatively low paying job. Nobody demurred.
"All right, the patsies will hit the target tomorrow after the close of biz. Too many people around for them to try it in daylight. That means that you will have to set the place up after the end of the work day and before it gets dark enough for shadowrunners to be comfortable. The building is to come down while they are inside so neither the corp's sec people nor the Star have any reason to look any further into the issue. The patsies were chosen because they have a rep that includes environmental causes. I envision a headline that reads ' Eco-terrorist shadowrunners blow themselves up destroying electronics manufacturer.' Simple, straightforward, easy to understand."
"Details- Sanderson/Digital labs, Riverside Industrial park. Half payment available here." he said as he handed out electronic cred sticks. "These 'files' contain 1,000¥ each. Final payment to be made at Water & Dominion streets. Call the number on the file when ready for final payment. Last chance for questions......No? Very well."
The faceless business man in the bowler hat jacked out.
Using an elaborate system of e-mail relays and cut-outs Face created a message for corporate security. Using a string of code words that had previously been attached to worthwhile tips, the suit anonymously suggested that the terrorists responsible for the bombing had Ludite affiliations and wanted an end to all machines. He further mentioned that their rally point after previous attacks had been "Liberty Park" and that it might prove an excellent start point should an investigation be launched. The note concluded with the caution that the Ludites were issued c-12 suicide kits and that the possibility of dead-man switches suggested capture might not be an option.
Face smiled as he thought back on how much he had spent making his anonymous tipster believable. Now he would reap some of the reward for establishing a conduit to corporate security. He set the e-mail to go out at the first newsfax mention of explosions at Riverside Industrial Park.
Now lets see that shit Hanvey make me look bad. Face thought, I can't possibly be expected to produce a working process on time when I'm attacked by terrorists. My entire plant was blown to hell, for crying out loud, how could I possibly make the deadline.
A stickler for detail, before he went to bed Face deducted 7,000¥ from his corp slush fund. Marked "cash payments for data on terrorists groups esp. Ludites" he backdated it 4 days. Details, he thought, that's the way to succeed in business. Take care of the details..
End Trans
This story is copyright of the author. Shadowrun is a Registered Trademark of FASA Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Used without permission. Any use of FASA Corporation's copyrighted material or trademarks in this file should not be viewed as a challenge to those copyrights or trademarks.
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