Session 14: Behind the Dagger

Shadowrun
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Chapter 2
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F.A.T.E. PCs
Anastasia Ellison - CS Dmitri - CS Eric Black - CS Gideon Wexler - CS Hector Radcliffe Kumiko Nakamura - CS Oni - CS

Briefing

Suggested music: [1] - Rurouni Kenshin - Revenge of The Ghost

Krista Lively, a fellow U.C.L.A. graduate of Wex's, regularly updates an independent blog that keeps tabs on the off the record happenings of local megacorps. As a courtesy to an old friend and because it relates to his job more than Wex lets on he typically keeps up with the blog for anything that might be of interest to F.A.T.E. or himself. This Monday when she updated the blog weekly she wrote about the recent increased usage of corporate hit squads on their own employees. Not exactly news to people who take a less naive approach to the mega corporation world than the blog does, but she somehow managed to dig up names and details about a particular in-house operation that struck a little close to home. Krista had uncovered details about Lockheed's in-house hit squad due to the move of one of their corporate security mangers from Los Angeles to CFS territory. Wex has long suspected Lockheed was responsible for his parent's death, now he's looking for proof and vengeance.

Wex has already been in contact with Krista, to get any additional information that she had held back from posting onto the matrix and received a bit more info. He followed up with that information with Patrick Coughlin who got back to him a few days later with some additional information and had Dimitri start searching the matrix for anything he could dig up. The information gathered to date is as follows:

Target: Orran Goffard

Location: Currently residing in Lockheed's arcology in Sacramento, not sure if this is a permenant or temporary residence.

Political Affiliations: Recently promoted from an undisclosed position in Los Angeles to Regional Head of Corporate Security in California Free State Region. Holds a significant amount of influence across the private security sector in both Pueblo and CFS.

Security: Besides being a cyberware enhanced security expert himself, Orran is thought to travel with Lockheed security guards at almost all times. Even when within the arcology. Since his recent promotion he has rarely left the security of Lockheed territory and has yet to establish a reliable routine to scout out before hand.

Investigation so far has given Wex two possible locations for an assassination attempt:

Lockheed Arcology: Lockheed's arcology is similar in design to many such facilities around the world, to this extent at least F.A.T.E. is familiar with it. Sacramento's office was able to supply information pertaining to the public parts of the arcology at least. The area is a campus set up around three connected towers of 20, 40, and 80 floors respectively with a series of underground tunnels and sky bridges connecting the three. The towers are named officially by serial code and building number, but most Lockheed employees and people familiar with the facility refer to them as 'The Three Mary's'. Mary James stands 20 stories tall and is the most heavily guarded of all three, access is highly restricted and approaching the building without clearance can result in serious consquences, it's assumed this building contains the labs and research centers necessary to keep Lockheed one of the leading tech companies in the sixth world. Mary Cleopas stands 40 stories tall and is the most public of the three towers, the lower 10 stories of the building are almost entirely public and contain various shops, retailers, restaurants, and even a small technical college. The upper 30 stories are mostly employee living quarters, we think Orran will be living among these floors at least temporarily. Mary Magdalene stands 80 stories tall and is filled mostly with corporate offices and the bureaucracy of the megacorp, almost all corporate executives have an office here. Safe to assume Orran does as well.

Three Sovereigns: Three Sovereigns is an extremely high profile restaurant in downtown Sacramento, their client list is exclusive and private. Reservations aren't just difficult to get, they expensive are to secure. Beyond that a meal at Three Sovereigns costs a small fortune, but is considered to be some of the finest food in CFS territory and beyond. Dimitri has managed to find a reservation with Orran's name on the list, apparently Lockheed is footing the bill for Orran's celebratory dinner. Orran and three of his co-workers (all Lockheed executives to be sure) will be dining at Three Sovereigns on Friday, March 11th at 8:30 PM.

---

Wex has secured J.P.'s blessing to carry out the assassination and at least limited use of F.A.T.E. resources has been cleared for his use, including asking San Francisco's team if they're willing to help. The mission is not sanctioned or officially approved by F.A.T.E. in any way, consequences of the mission if caught will land solely on those who agree to take part. That said neither J.P. nor Barry would miss having the new cut throat security chief in their territory and Wex is asking for some help. The assassination as a one man show would probably be a suicide mission. Anyone who objects to extracting a bit of personal vengeance should probably stay home.

Notes

• The mission will take place in Sacramento, we'll be executing the mission ourselves but at least some of F.A.T.E. Sacramento's resources will be available to us. They have their own business to work on and are considerably less staffed than the San Francisco office so don't expect their personnel to assist in mission. Barry Stearns has promised to make at least some of his time available to meet with us.
• Sacramento is watched a little tighter by the megacorps than San Francisco is, F.A.T.E. keeps a lower profile here as a result. Barry has asked J.P. to ensure our agents keep with this policy during their time in Sacramento.

Session Synopsis

Wex, Doc, Anna, Oni, and Eric set off for Sacramento in F.A.T.E.'s van with Doc driving, the group discussed ideas and possibilities on the drive from one city to the next. When they arrived they drove by Three Sovereigns restaurant to scope things out before checking in with Barry at the Sacramento office. Security into the building was as tight as expected, if not tighter. The only realistic entry point seemed to be from an underground parking garage that could only be accessed with a reservation to the high class establishment. Eric explored the garage by astral projecting and found the magical security was noticeably looser than the physical security, though the restaurant itself was very secure access to the garage as possible. After throwing out some of their more flashy plans, they decided to honor Barry's request to keeping a low profile. At least they would plan to.

Dimitri hacked into the restaurant's computer system and added a reservation for Friday night for Eric and Anna to dine in the restaurant, this would get their limo access to the garage while Orran and his co-workers were there. Doc dressed as the chauffeur and distracted Orran's limo driver while Wex used invisibility and stealth to sneak inside Orran's empty limo. When Eric and Anna finished their dinner, where neither made any progress towards socially impressing the other despite their attempts, they returned to the limo and left with Doc. While inside they had observed that Orran traveled with a personal body guard, but neither he nor the body guard was awakened.

When Orran entered the limo Wex came face to face with the device that Orran used to protect himself from magical forces, a small ball of GloMoss which he always carried with him to detect nearby magic. Luckily for Wex he was able to counterspell the effect before it gave away his presence, Wex patiently waited as the limo drove out of the garage, careful not to touch Orran or his body guard. Once they were on the street Wex drew his knife and pressed it to Orran's throat, slicing it open without revealing himself. The body guard quickly drew his weapons and fired blindly in the cabin amid a mist of blood from Orran's throat, though he was dying he wasn't dead yet. Wex took a moment to finish him off before he leapt out of the limo and into traffic.

Wex managed to dance through traffic while maintaining his invisibility while Eric covered him from the approaching watcher spirits, Eric was able to easily dispatch of the watchers before they could return and report what they had found. Astral and physical security was approaching quickly, Orran's body guard pursued with the GloMoss which detected Wex for a moment, however when he pulled the trigger of his gun it exploded in his face and destroyed the GloMoss orb. Without that the security was unable to track the invisible Wex or astral Eric as they both returned to the van before reinforcements could arrive. Though it only took seconds for the two to return to the van and be on their way back to San Francisco, security was already moving into the area.

Aftermath

Suggested Music: Kill Bill - The Long Day of Vengeance

Neva Etherton looked into the bloody cab of the limo with a look of disgust and a shake of her head, Orran Goffard hadn't been in the city a month and he was already assassinated. Worse yet there was no sign of the assassin, despite having a body guard inside the cabin with him. Whatever magic had been responsible was already scrubbed clean, there were no witnesses or tracks, no weapons, or motive. Only a body. Hardly enough to begin a real investigation... another unsolved crime. A professional hit squad had carried this out, it was ironic considering Orran's background. But who exactly had sent it? His own company?

Neva was walking away from the scene as the other security personnel moved in around, a perimeter was set up and cybereyes of dozens of security officers were recording every detail of the scene. The streets, sidewalks, and local businesses were shut down. They cast their net as wide as possible, but nothing was caught in it.

"Detective. Over here." One of the local grunts called out from near the police line he was setting up almost a block away.

Neva walked over to the sidewalk where the man was set up keeping the crowd back, he was looking down at the pavement and pointing. She quickly picked up on what he was pointing to, small droplets of blood seemed to be fading into existence on the sidewalk as they starred at them.

"I'll be damned...." Neva crouched over the blood drops and started to follow them with her head down, tracking the trail of spread out small drops of blood two blocks over before they suddenly stopped at the curb.

"Get me a sample of that blood and any video of traffic along this road, the get away car was here..."

---

Doc merged onto the highway headed back to San Francisco at a safe driving speed so not to draw any attention, this time of night the roads between the cities were relatively empty despite the city nightlife being at it's peak. He flipped two switches on the dash quickly, the first to activate the auto-pilot software to guide the van back to F.A.T.E. HQ and the second to morph the license plate of the van, just in case. They'd already done an extensive sensor sweep and they weren't being followed by land or air, no GPS tracking was underway. A clean escape by all accounts.

Meanwhile Wex was in the back of the van trying to clean up the best he could, the blood from Orran's throat had sprayed everywhere in the small limo cabin when he was cut open. Wex's skin and clothes were no exception, as he cleaned himself up a small pool of drops accumulated at his feet; Wex starred down into the pool for a second before Anna tossed another roll of paper towels at him to mop up the mess.

"Hector will be pissed if you get that guys blood all over his van."

"Yea..."

Results

Status: Complete.
Dates: March 10th, 2073
Quote of the night:

Wex climbs into the van covered in blood.
<Anna:> "Kinda gross Wex."
<Wex> "Like you once a month."

Nuyen: None.
Stipend: 5,200¥ Remaining. (-100 for limo rental) (-500 for dinner)
Karma Awarded: 7 Additional Awards:

• Wex receives +1 Street Cred for successfully assassinating Orran Goffard.