Protection detail is annoying

It's an old Runner cliché that Mister Johnson will always betray you. It actually happens a lot less then Runner folklore would have you believe, and when it does, it's often more by accident then any deliberate effort to screw you over; a hold in their intel, an unexpected turn of events or the like. I'm not saying that Johnsons are trustworthy, mind you. Anything but. They're still corp suits and they still need their companies to make money, and so if leaving your team dead in a ditch will help them, then they won't hesitate to do it.

And then you have those times when the Johnson is actually on the level, but it's the actual run that is all over the place. This last one I was on was a perfect example thereof.

Minster had been contacted by Willard Johnson, the NeoNET suit that he had worked for before (and apparently had a good relationship with). W. Johnson had a protection job for him that was a bit bigger than his usual one-man deal, so he had in turn come to us for some support. This lead to me, Minster and Neon meeting W. Johnson and getting the details of the job.

On the surface it was pretty straightforward, the sort of protection detail that was right up his alley. Our detail was one Frank Wurzler, a data security expert from one of NeoNET's European offices. Wursler was a middle-aged Dwarf with a bad heart (it had been replaced by an artificial one but that didn't stop him from eating a lot) who was privy to some of their highest-level security protocols. And since the contract for the corporate court's security was up for renegotiation, NeoNET wanted to make sure that nothing went wrong. Given their currently precarious situation, the last thing they needed was to lose such a big deal contract.

Stage one of this plan was laying down some groundwork. Minster took the lead here as this was entirely his area of expertise. From this, I learned one very important thing; protection detail is insanely expensive. Minster booked rooms for two nights in two different luxury hotels in Manhattan. Once he had Wursler's agenda, he pre-booked a series of limo rentals so that we'd never use the same car twice. I even got myself a nice armoured business suit so that I could look the part. All of this quickly devoured our advance on the job.

At least we get to rid around in comfort

I was also travelling light, only carrying my Predator and my Agent Special in its quick slide. Minster appeared to be similarly lightly armed, but the truth was he was hiding his axe in a suitcase; apparently it can be compacted for travel, which is actually pretty damned awesome. I mean, you don’t expect the guy who looks like a generic suit to suddenly whip out an axe that is bigger than he is.

Day one was relatively straightforward. We would meet Wurzler and take him to NeoNET in a rented limo for him to do whatever business he had to do there. Once he was done, we'd collect him in another rented limo and take him back to whatever hotel we thought was best suited to his needs. (The other one was there as an emergency fallback in the off chance that our hotel room was compromised. And yes, we were still paying for it even if we weren’t in it). At each step, Minster and I would be in the limo, while Neon would be tailing in Minster's car. Simple.

From the outset, it was clear that this was going to be An obnoxious job. Wurzler was about as wide as he was tall, and from the outset was fussy and demanding. Even though me and Minster were doing our best to stay cool and the like, he was very quickly getting on  our nerves. So it was no small relief when we dropped him off at NeoNET, managing to get a couple of hours to ourselves. For my part, I wert to the backup hotel (Which was checked in under one of my fake SINs) and took advantage of all the luxuries available to it. Soak in the hot tub, have a good meal, get a little bit of sleep in a soft bed and the like. Might as well use it.

We rendezvoused back at NeoNET with our new limo and headed back to the hotel. Unfortunately, this is where things began to go wrong. Minster noticed that there was a DocWagon ambulance that seemed to be following us, which rang a few alarm bells. The fake ambulance is a classic Runner gambit, after all. Sure enough, as if on cue, Wursler suddenly started having heart trouble, with the ambulance immediately switching on its lights, sirens and emergency AROs. Funny that.

This is probably not a legitimate ambulance. Look for the
subtle clues

Neon confirmed that there was a signal coming from the ambulance straight to Wursler, and figured that somebody was hacking his heart to give hin an attack. The next step in this plan would be for their "EMTs" to load him into their "ambulance" and spirit him away to their extraction point.

If we let them.

Between New York traffic and the sheer stonking size of our limo, we weren't going to be able to get away, so we turned to option two; fight. I put a stick-and-shock round form my Predator into the van; while it didn't do any damage to the vehicle, it disrupted their matrix access enough for Neon to get a chance to mess them up. She cut off their access to Wursler, saving his life, as well as immobilizing their van. Unfortunately, we were still stuck in New York traffic in a massive car, so we couldn't get away from them. us. Sure enough, four mercenaries armed with assault rifles poured out of the van came steaming towards us on foot.

Minster and I used the car for cover, slowing their advance. While they in theory had the superior range and firepower, they also needed to be careful lest they accidentally hose down their target. After going to such lengths to extract him alive, accidentally shooting him would not go over well. This allowed us to make up for the difference, giving us an advantage even though we only had pistols. Sure enough, they closed in, which was their biggest mistake.

One of them tried to come around the side of the limo, only to have me kick the door open in his face. While he was recoiling, I put him down. Another tried to sneak around the limo, only to run head-long into Minster's axe. Having left that guy as half the man he used to be, Minster put a third down with a throwing axe. I finished off a fourth, while Neon reported that two more, likely their decker and rigger, had gotten away on foot.

We quickly swapped comfort for expediency, abandoning the limo (and the poor, terrified driver) and piled into Minster's car. Fortunately, it had a Medkit of its own, and we were able to tend to Wursler while making our escape. We got back to the hotel where we were able to give him a more thorough check-up, but apart from some shortness of breath and a red face, he was fine. Despite this close encounter, however, he was determined to stick to his agenda, all common sense be damned.

He got a good night's sleep while the rest of us took shifts at watching over the place. In the morning Wursler ordered a gigantic breakfast (I admit we did add to that order; real bacon is a rare treat and to be savored) before setting out to the first step of his agenda. This was not a NeoNET/Corporate court business day, however; intead he was going sightseeing. Of course. And yes, we did point out that there had been a threat on his life, but he wouldn't hear a thing against it. Clearly he was an idiot, but it was our job to make sure he remained an alive idiot in NeoNET's employ.

Old but cool

The first part of the day's tour was dull but safe at least. He was on a swanky river tour of Manhattan, on an expensive chartered tour boat that was full of stuffed suits and their very bored bodyguards. It was dull as all hell, but at least nobody shot at us. The second item on his agenda was to go up to the top of the Empire State Building. Yeah, it's far from the tallest building in New York, but the view from the top is just pain iconic. It's a thing you do when you're in New York, even if it's giving your security detail a fit.

So while we were up there I was looking around for snipers or hang-gliding ninjas or whatever else. What we weren't expecting was for ninjas to suddenly pop up over the railings, having climbed up at least fifty-five floors to be there. Their attack did not go as planned, however; the first one to pop his head over the railing got itr removed by Minster. The second ate a round from my Predator which didn't stop him but definitely threw him off his game.

Neon was cornered by a third; I went to bail her out while Minster secured Wursler. Vaulting over the heads of the crowd of the platform I was able to kick him into the wall and knock him out. I finished off the third as we hassled Wurlser away, but not before Neon stole two of their commlinks so she could try to get into them and figure out who was behind the attack.

Despite this and against all our advice, Wursler insisted on continuing with his plan for the day; he was shaken, yes, but not enough to let common sense prevail. Idiot. So the three of us spent a painfully unfun evening standing around watching him devour a meal at a five-star restaurant with fantastic views over Central Park. Me, I wanted to murder everyone in the room.  After that festival of fun we returned to the hotel, taking turns to take watch and so on. Neon occupied her time by sifting through the commlinks to see what she could come up with, although a part of her motivation was just the chance to screw with high-end Renraku tech.

Morning rolled around of what was mercifully the last day of this torturefest. All we had to do was drop Wursler off at the corporate court so he could do some vital security upgrades, then take him to the airport and he'd be out of our hands (And anything that happened to him on the plane wouldn't be our responsibility anyway). The first part went well, with our walking him through the gates and handing him over. So far, so good.

Naturally, that's where it all went off the rails.

Red Ninja: Note, not
like this

Neon told us about something she’d found in the lead ninja's commlink. First of all, these weren't just any ninjas; they were Red Ninjas, the little known covert counterpart to Renraku's infamous Red Samurai. The second problem was one of the numbers they had been communicating with just before the attack - Wursler's. What they were doing wasn't so much as an extraction as it was a defection, and we'd fouled it all up.

Oh, and now he was messing with one of NeoNET's highest profile contracts for the benefit of their biggest competitor. While it was normally the sort of case where I’d go 'screw it, let him', it was also the sort of thing that could cost us our pay at the end of the day. So we needed to get him out of there, and do it in a way that wouldn't tip off him or Renraku.

Minster came up with a plan that was both brilliant and ironic at the same time. Within moments, Neon was at work, hacking into his artificial heart to give him a fake heart attack in much the same way the first extraction had tried. Within moments his DocWagon alarm had gone off and there was a medivac chopper on the Way, Meanwhile, we’d alerted the Corporate Court security as to our client's medical emergency and they pulled him out of the Mainframe core ASAP.

The DocWagon team arrived and stabilized him (aided by Neon flipping his heart back to normal mode) and the piled him onto their helicopter for extraction. We suggested that they head to NeoNET so he could be put into the care of their facilities. Wursler did look a little distressed at this point, but was in no position to argue. Score.

W. Johnson was... upset at what had happened, but was thankful no less for our quick thinking. More to the point, we'd ensured that Wursler would remain with NeoNET, regardless of how he felt about it. So call it a win, or something that resembles one.