Deck-Con report, days one and two

Just when I thought that our jobs couldn't get any stranger, they go ahead and manage to become stranger still.

The Job started off on an odd note. The Johnson arranged to met us at the nightingale Clinic, a high-end body shop in the heart of Downtown Seattle. Intrigued, me, Freddie, Captain Cancer and Neon headed there to see what was going on and what this job was all about. On arrival, we were greeted by the receptionist who was expecting us, but addressed us by aliases and then showed us through to a consultation room. Things didn't get any better after that.

Inside we met with our Johnson, a woman who was taking the oddly anachronistic step of wearing glasses (Rather then just getting new eyes, because with the expensive suit she was wearing she certainly could afford it). She explained that she was hiring us for a very specific reason. We were going to be attending Deck-Con, the biggest Matrix and Tech expo in the world, because Danielle De La Mar, architect of the new "safe" Matrix would be there as one of the guest speakers. More to the point, there was going to be an attempt on her life as she made a keynote address on Saturday, the third day of the convention, Our job was to prevent that from happening.

The enemy of anyone who has
ever tried to use the Matrix for
anything even vaguely illegal

And yes, that specific. Not "there was going to be an attempt on her life" or "we know somebody is out to get her" (Because, frankly, who isn't at this point?) but "at this exact point at this exact time". And the Johnson was going to pay us a lot of money to stop it from happening. In addition, in order to make our job easier, she was going to get us all new Fake SINs that would include VIP access to Deck-Con which we were then free to do with as we wished once we were done. (And why they wanted to meet here so they could get impeccably accurate Biometric Data from us) Assuming they weren’t all burned to the ground by whatever we did while there, of course.

Despite massive misgivings about a job that seemed to be just pain bizarre on every level, we agreed half because of the money and half because Neon looked like she was going to burst into tears at the thought of missing this opportunity. We did manage to also wrangle a substantial expense account from Johnson above our new SINs. And so we walked out with our new identities (Meet Nicole Carmine, an investor from New York who is looking for smart new tech start-ups to pour money into).

We immediately began doing some research into the con while also engaging in some gratuitous padding of our expenses (Anti-theft systems for my bike, a Ruthenium Polymer throw rug, more Fly-Spys and whatever else came to mind). The research turned up a few interesting things about Deck-Con and the goings on behind the scenes which suggested possible weaknesses.

First of all, Deck-Con was effectively divided into two section. The "show floor" was all-access and was mostly about the newest hardware and software and all that sort of stuff, and would be where the bulk of the attendees would be. The VIP section was For the big corporate shows where the important tech would be on display, as well as the new research and innovations. It would also be where the big speeches, demonstrations, unveilings and the like would be going on, including De La Marr's address. Only VIPs got access to this section; so corp suits, investors and people with very good fake SINs.

Our CEO is a Dragon. We
literally eat our rivals

Up until recently, the con was being run by NeoNET, but after their recent 'problems' (Like Boston falling off the map) it seemed that the Con would be cancelled. Saedler-Krupp stepped in at the last minute, buying out the con and taking over running it. What was really interesting was that SK were handing the security for the con as well, which had caused some strife with Knight Errant. That was seen as one potential weakness that we'd need to look at.

We also scoped out the Convention Center itself, noting that the VIP car park had a few blind spots where a vehicle could be ambushed rather easily. And while the threat to De La Marr was Specific Place, Specific Time, we weren't willing to risk somebody taking a shot at her otherwise. After all, it was no good our saving her from the threat at her keynote speech if somebody had taken her out half an hour earlier on the way there.

Investigation of the local Shadow community did turn up a couple of interesting things (Besides Neon bragging that she now had VIP access to Deck-Con and all the other deckers wanting to know how she did it...). There was a Decker called RGB who was doing some poking around about the con. What made him stand out was that he was the guy who had been working with Kristoff during that last race, and had in essence turned our cars into a mobile hack on KE. We immediately eyeballed him as being a threat, and possibly the source of the planned attack.

The biggest problem we were now facing was that we didn't have De La Marr's schedule, which would be useful if we wanted to protect her outside of just the designated time and date. We did figure a work-around to that, however, which we executed on day one of Deck-Con itself.

Seattle Convention Center

We all headed into the con separately with different missions. I was cruising the floor in the VIP section, keeping an eye open for trouble while also getting the lay of the land and the like. Captain Cancer was also cruising the events in order to see if anything was going on there, but the truth was that he was mostly just being lazy and falling asleep in the back row. Meanwhile, Freddie had Fly-Spies set up at several key points to keep watch on things while he himself was on the trade floor, keeping an eye out for anything out of place.

Neon in the meantime was also cruising the trade floor, but for a different reason. She was using all the processing power on the floor to hack into Deck-Con's systems and try and get a copy of De La Marr's full itinerary. That's when the first problems hit. Neon noticed that there was somebody else doing exactly the same thing, and that the attack had all the hallmarks of RGB's hack on KE earlier. Over in the VIP section, I spotted RGB himself, so I began to tail him while Neon tried to shut him down.

Robert Williamson, professional Eskimo Ice
Fisherman (aka John Jackson, Peruvian
coffee farmer)

At the same time, Freddie was having problems of his own. A pair of obvious Rednecks, an Ork and a Dwarf with a ferocious mullet were cruising the floor, being as out of place as tye could possibly be. According to Con records, they were Robert Williamson (Eskimo Ice Fisherman) and William Robertson (Chinese Grandmother), or in other words the two most gratuitously obvious fake SINs you’ve ever seen. While they seemed harmless, we figured that the pair if them could be plants sent to keep Con security busy. Certainly we could see no other reason why they were here.

Oh, and Captain Cancer was busy flirting with a Sam-turned-Mage called Livewire who had been hired as 'additional security', hired by an unspecified individual at the con.

Then everything went bad at once. Con Matrix security jumped on both Neon and RGB at the same time, sending both of them into panic mode while physical security tried to hunt them down. RGB made for the exit with me on his tail, while Neon did her best to lay low. Unfortunately, the situation was complicated by the two Rednecks trying to break through to the VIP section while everyone was distracted. Captain Cancer stopped them by Using an Influence spell to calm the Ork, in doing such making himself obvious to Livewire and also being very thankful that he took a magic license on his new fake SIN.

I followed RGB as he made for one of the exits, only to be briefly distracted by running into Blindsite of all people. We exchanged a few quick words before I took off again, trying to keep tabs on RGB. He'd gotten out through a service entrance and made his escape in Kristoff's BMW i8 Interceptor (Which was now running clean and no longer covered in fake junk). The pair of them headed off, with the team deciding to follow.

Upside of all that mess was we now had De La Marr's itinerary. She wouldn't actually arrive until Saturday Morning, and would spend next to no time at Deck-Con itself. In short, the only window that anyone would have to attack her would be around her address. Funny that.

We tracked RGB and Kristoff back to a hotel where they met with three others; two human women and an Elf man. They were also loading up on weapons, suggesting that whatever their plans were that involved Deck-Con they were going to be ready for a lot of violence. Almost like they were planning to kill a high-profile guest or something.

Kristoff's Car. Yes, it is actually a police interceptor

The five of them piled back into the i8 and headed off, with our following them. They stopped in A rougher part of town at a bar, with the Elf going in while the others waited. A little while later, the Elf emerged with a rougher looking man, whim one of the women then laid out with a shock weapon. They bundled him into the boot and drove off.

We called KE on them, planning to use the cops as a distraction or obstacle if nothing else. What we didn't expect was that when confronted with a KE patrol car, they'd decide to shoot at the officers inside, escalating the situation out of all proportion (Way to screw yourselves over, guys) we dropped in on them, trying to take them down in a surprise attack which was sort of successful.

I quickly fried Krstoff with my shock gloves, only to then be nearly shot in the back by the blonde woman. Some quick thinking and my insanely fast reflexes saved my life, but also left me open to the other woman who turned out to be a mage. She effectively immobilized me, giving them an opening to try and get away. Or rather, it would have, had Freddie not sent a swarm of Rotordrones to shoot up the car and completely destroy its engine,

The mage turned invisible and took off with the Blonde Woman also getting the hell out of there, albeit more visibly. RGB and the Elf ate a car full of neurostun grenades before Freddie sent the drones after Blondie, managing to flashbang her into unconsciousness. We bundled her back into the car and left them minus Kristoff for KE.

Their boss was rendered to an abandoned warehouse where we engaged in a little bit of mage-assisted interrogation. We quickly confirmed our suspicions that he was indeed after De La Marr. The man they had kidnapped was a KE guard who was fitted with  Move-By-Wire system; they'd planned to have RGB essentially hijack his system and use him to kill her when she gave her address. He was confident that they'd get away (and also wasn't afraid to take shots at cops) because he had a highly-placed friend in KE who was looking out for him and, incidentally, was also how he'd gotten his hands on the BMW (Which he was hoeing more concern for then he was for his team). We told Theresa of all these facts, and she was very, very thankful for that when she came and collected him off of us. I can imagine that Kristoff's ally may have soon been sharing a cell with him.

Nothing much of note happened on day one, allowing us to return for the night and plan our next moves. Day two was a lot slower, but there were still some interesting goings on. For starters, we did as bit of research about Livewire. Turns out that she was indeed a Sam who's magical abilities awakened late, which kind of screwed them over big time. So, in other words, like Captain Cancer in reverse. The pair of them spent much of day two hanging out in the events room and bitching about how they couldn't smoke in here.

Likewise, I met up with Blindsite again and had a quick conversation with him about what we both were doing there. He confirmed that he was indeed there for a job (without saying what) and that he was working with Livewire. I likewise said that I was here for a job without naming specifics.

Conversely, this was the Redneck's getaway car

And then trouble struck, in the form of our returning Rednecks. True, they were now John Jackson (Peruvian Coffee Farmer) and Jack Johnson (African Warlord wanted for war crimes) and the Ork had the Mullet, but they still gratuitously stood out and were up to no good. It didn't help that we'd done some digging and found that these two morons were wanted all the way across the CAS for a host of minor (and dumb) crimes, and today was no exception. In this case, the Ork was actually leaving his fingers hidden across the convention center for reasons we couldn't begin to fathom...

...until he detonated the smoke bombs hidden inside of them, throwing the place into chaos. He and the Dwarf again made a run for the VIP section, only to be cut off by Freddie tackling them. The Ork managed to get out of the dogpile, and threatened to blow everybody up with a finger grenade... Except he'd run out of detachable fingers. And then Freddie tased him and security dragged them both off.

At the end of the day, we had an unexpected meeting with our Johnson. She didn't so much ask us how things were going, as she out and asked if the attempt on De La Marr's life was on schedule. Okay, that's just... What the hell? Really. I mean, what is this job, actually?