A rare day when nothing explodes

As you’ve probably noticed by now, our team tends to be rather casual on attendance. A lot of it depends on who’s available at any one time, what they’ve got on, urgency of the job and about a zillion or so other things. That’s one of the reasons why I so rarely work with Abbey; she seems to be doing her stuff all the time, and as such I rarely even see her. So when I recently did a job with her, it was a novelty to say the least.

I had been following up on our Ares Johnson issue, especially given how crawlingly involved he seemed to be getting and the worrying idea that he knew where we lived. It seems that he’s been going around the Barrens, even the really drekky parts (by Barrens standards, I mean. That bad) with an armed guard, apparently like he’s looking for something or the like, but we got no idea what or why. But it’s not like he’s doing anything immediately malicious, though at the same time, I don’t like it one bit.

Anyway, job. So we were approached by the same Azzie Johnson who had hired us in past even though we had kidnapped her (Though in all fairness, Freddie and I weren’t so hostile about it and wouldn’t have had to if Captain Cancer hadn’t fragged it all up but…) who had a new job for us. It was very last minute and on a deadline, which meant that only me and Abbey (and Neon as backup) were free to take it on. So what we got is probably our strangest team yet. On the other hand, she arranged to meet us in a really nice French restaurant with views over the Sound, so that’s not bad.

The job looked simple on paper. A guy called Hayden March was going to be taking delivery of a magical artifact from somebody in Eastern Europe. She wanted us to not only take it, but switch it with a decoy so he wouldn’t know it was gone. Added to that, she suggested we swipe something else from the place in order to keep him distracted and not thinking about his newfound toy. Sounds simple, right?

To serve and protect (Service and protection based
on if you're up to date with your payments)

There were a number of complications, however. The first (and least worrying) was that his house was in a gated community in Belleville, complete with SIN checks at the entrances and KE security on the grounds. Furthermore, March lived in a nice house there with his wife and infant child, so there was almost certainly going to be someone there no matter what.

The second was that Hayden himself was awakened and a mage, which meant that his house had a huge-arse magical ward on it. Added to that, he had a lodge in the basement of not inconsiderable power. So not just was it going to be protected, but if we met the man himself we’d be in a world of trouble.

Oh, and the third was that he was an Azzie himself, high up in the Seattle Pyramid. What the hell?

The only flaw we found in the site security was the entrance to the community itself. Each day they had to let in a gaggle of Au Pairs, Nannys, Cleaners and whatever else. The KE goons on the gate clearly weren’t trying too hard to check them, which gave us the basis of a plan.

Azzie Johnson had provided us with a replica of the real thing which we were going to use for the swap. Abbey had also gotten a magic-proof bag that would mask the astral signature of the thing so it wouldn't be picked up magically on the way out. Armed with a pair of 'burner' SINs on burner comms, the pair of us were going to head in, be checked by security (at which point Neon would have hacked their scanner to insert our new IDs) then disappear onto the grounds. We'd watch the house, wait till the thing was actually delivered then get in there and make the swap. The best part of it was that if all went well, nobody would even know we were there. Added to that, Neon would be lurking nearby in Abbey's car doing matrix Overwatch and feeding us help as needed.

We almost fumbled at the first step; the KE scanner let me through when I claimed to be a new nanny hired just the other day, but then it got antsy when Abbey tried to go through. Apparently, it got residual Cyberware signals on her which could have only come from me. Well crap. I was subject to a re-scan during which I lied and said i had a pin in my ankle. The guard bought it (I don't think he wanted to make things any more complicated then they had to be) and let us through anyway. So far so good.

March's house presented another problem. We could see that the place was covered in cameras, which would make getting in difficult. Added to that, his extensive garden was designed to help slow down and confuse attackers, which would make our approach just a bit harder. Oh, and he head Monowire on top of the garden walls. Seriously, the place was like a fragging fortress. We made it over the wall using one of the monowire-free posts as out precariously narrow perch, then dropped down behind the topiary.

Once there, we quickly dumped out Domestic Help outfits for the Chameleon suits we had underneath... And then waited. And waited. And waited. Seriously, this was taking forever. I  was almost hoping something would go wrong, just so I had something to do. The only good of it was that the extensive floral fortifications made hiding easy; essentially, turning their own defenses against them.

Finally after a zillion hours the Delivery boy arrived just as the Nanny was leaving to take the bub out for a stroll. That meant things also got awkward as the package needed to be checked out by a grizzled old KE guy who was in the house. Seriously, is this guy paranoid or something? Wait, he's an Azzie who another Azzie has it in for to the degree that she’s hiring us to mess with his stuff. Never mind. Either way, the package was in and there was now only the one person inside. Time to go to work.

We effortlessly got in via the laundry window; we had to cut through the glass to do such, and even though it was replaced they will notice eventually. Hence the 'steal something else' plan to create a logical string of events that steered away from the actual magical doodad we were here for. The pair of us split up to case the place and try to find where the thing was going, both wary for the KE goon on-site. The interior of the house was very well appointed, by the way; real wood paneling, nice furniture; the lot. Whoever March was, he was really big at the Pyramid.

Abbey found that it where it was being kept, which presented another problem. March had a private office that was secured with a two-stage combo Physical/Electronic lock. Picking it would require us to hit both stages of the lock at once, something that was damned near impossible without setting off the alarms. Or it required one of us to have the key, something which was presently in the possession of the Guard. Unfortunately, we also couldn't knock him out as he doubtless had a monitor that would set off alarms if anything happened to his vitals.

Plan B was for Abbey to try and lift it from him. So while she followed him to the kitchen, I remained on the lookout for any signs of anyone approaching the house. She was able to lift it from him while he was getting himself a sandwich, and immediately headed back to the office... Just as nanny and bub were approaching. I sent her a quick warning before falling back to the dining room and watching carefully. Fortunately, it was enough distraction for Abbey to get in, (the key wasn't fingerprint locked, thank god) and make the swap.

With that done, I put the backup plan into action; weaving my way around nanny and kid, I was able to get into the master bedroom and make off with some of Ms March's jewelry. In the meantime, Abby dropped the key on the kitchen floor so it would look like the guard had knocked it off while making his snack or something. The pair of us rendezvoused in the laundry and were quickly out the back and away. A quick swap back to our hired help outfits and we were away without anyone ever knowing that we were there. Noice.

Ms Azzie Johnson seemed to be rather pleased with us when we dropped off the thing, sending through payment immediately, as well as covering some of our expenses (chameleon suits, fake SINs, a Noizesquito that Abbey bought for reasons, and so on). I'm not going to ask why she was trying to backstab one of her colleagues, especially given that she's relatively nice and friendly for an Azzie. Plus, as a bonus, Abbey's fence was able to make some more yens off of Ms March's jewels, which made the job that much sweeter.