Allen1
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Ricco, the new hotel security chief, called them on their juristically misstep and they replied by putting a bullet in each one of his legs!
(From the Cotton Kingdoms 2047 thread)
.....And apparently the Cotton Kingdoms crew have had some similar issues with police violence!
So - there are situations in which awful things happen to powerless PCs and those situations have major OOC implications and effects. They get arrested and interrogated or Alabama cops kneecap them or or or or.
It's really been my experience that most players hate it when stuff like that happens. I'm really curious to know how Ricco's player reacted OOC to that event, because I know these things can derail games and destroy gaming groups - afterall, if the game ceases to be fun, there's no point playing it!.....
Companero brings up some very good points here. Trust between players and the GM is crucial if a campaign is to survive and be fun. The trust in our group has been forged over years of playing together but has fractured on a number of occasions. Still, friendship and camaraderie have always won out in the end over suspicion and bad feelings. Both GMs and players have made mistakes, but all of us never lose sight of the fact that ‘it’s only a game’. As to losing characters, well our group’s motto has been for years: “Have your back-up ready”. That said, our group loses surprisingly few characters. Through 55 episodes of the Burn Notice Campaign only two died. One was given a ‘hot shot’ by the C.I.A. (the GM) and killed. Cruel? No, he committed a murder and left so much evidence around that there was no way to ignore what he had done. When confronted by the police, he surrendered. Still, he was given an option of pleading guilty to manslaughter and just serve a little time before getting out and having that character again to play. He chose death. The second was lost to an errant shot by a PC. OK, one PC ended up being sentenced to 5 years in Federal prison for extortion. Was the imprisoned player happy about this? No, but his guilty plea to the crime saved his family, friends and teammates. This character, Sam Fisher is now the lead PC in the current Fall of the Cotton Kingdom’s Campaign. His ‘street cred’ for doing the time has done a lot for his reputation. (As would have been the case with the PC who chose the ‘hot shot’.) Also, Sam’s sacrifice for the Team has induced the current GM (me) to reward the player by putting him at the center of this current tale.
Sometimes we (as a group) may seem a little hard ass, but three of us founded it years ago after playing in various campaigns and game systems where any sort of accountability for a player’s actions was almost non-existent in the march to attain levels, power and magic items. On a campaign you could beard the ‘evil magic-user/crime lord’ etc. then snap your fingers in in face and fear no retribution in the next tale, even if it occurred ‘just down the road’ so to speak. We put together a group that valued ‘role playing’ over ‘roll playing’.
But I digress. What happened with Ricco and the Alabama State police as written in Cybercountries was just a snippet. The following is an excerpt of the rough draft of Episode 1 narrative of the incident:
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Ricco arrives first (at the resort’s trailer park where the Alabama State Police had gone) with Sam and Crank about thirty paces behind. The Alabama cops have four heavily cybered officers in a small perimeter (around the suspect’s trailer), two more have thrown a man (their suspect) on the ground and are cuffing him roughly in front of his hysterical, crying wife and children. The Brazilian security chief calls to the officers and points out that they are out of their jurisdiction.
“Fuck off, asshole,” replies one officer. “This is a hot pursuit case.”
Since the man and his family already have their camper and lawn furniture set up, Ricco doubts this, but two of the Alabama cops are wrestling their prisoner into their police van. The Brazilian ex-cop pulls out his handgun and tries to shoot out the tire of that van. The bullet hits the solid rubber tire for negligible damage. The closest Alabama trooper lets loose a three round burst from his assault rifle at Ricco as the two remaining perimeter officers turn their weapons towards the approaching Sam and Crank, who hit the ground with their arms outstretched.
One bullet hits each of Ricco’s legs. He goes down, knocked into serious condition with his legs still attached thanks to his skinweave. The Alabama troopers are all over Ricco and it seems they are going to take him into custody too. As the police go through the Brazilian’s ID, they see his corporate badge and credentials granting him corporate immunity by Disney. The trooper in charge decides he doesn’t want the hassle of dealing with a mega-corp over one of their employees. They keep Ricco’s firearm and leave him lying on the ground as they drive off with their other prisoner.
***
You should note that in this incident Ricco never identified himself as the hotel security chief. As to the OOC response, was the player happy about this? No, of course not. Was the player happy to be alive? Yes, much more so. (On a personal note Ricco’s player is my fiancée and an extremely experienced player, GM and writer. She didn’t make me sleep on the couch that night!
) One of the other GMs of our group called me later in the week and chided me for being so merciful. He said he would have shot Ricco done like a dog! The introduction and briefing to the campaign had stressed the viciousness of the Alabama State Police. As GM, I didn’t have everyone open up on Ricco because of the seven Alabama State cops there, one was dealing with the family, two were wrestling there suspect into police van, one of the perimeter troopers was out of sight behind the camper, and with Sam and Crank, two large and dangerous looking men, so close, the remaining two troopers could ill afford to give them the opportunity to fire and yet would not shoot down two men, who were showing absolutely no aggression. I felt the cop’s reaction (a 3 round burst) was appropriate to the situation. Two of the three rounds hit and randomly struck the legs. With skinweave and light armor in his pants, enhanced antibodies, nanosurgeons and the doctor’s care the PC was hobbling around the rest of the afternoon and then just a little sore for the next couple of days. It was the PC that went to gunplay first. Since his attempt was non-lethal, it was not grounds for a massacre, but the Alabama State Police’s reaction had to be one of violence, not a ‘halt, or I’ll shout halt again’. Here I strived for a sense of “realism” as Companero believes (and I agree) should mean “internally consistent”......Another is consent - I know that in my case, the player at most risk from the situation had said right at the beginning of the campaign that she didn't want to find her character in situations in which awful things happened to her and gave her no chance to respond, and that basically determined how I ran those sessions. The whole Lines and Veils idea comes into this, I feel. I do feel that any campaign that's going to cover deeper emotional material than simply kicking in doors and killing non-human archetypes should probably start with a conversation about what people aren't comfortable with (and i'm saying this as someone who tends to run quite "light" games, even in Cyberpunk)......
I also (as does the other three GMs in our group) talk to each player before a campaign about their thoughts, goals and wants for the upcoming adventure. All four of us then take our campaign idea and weave this with what we have learned and know about the PCs. This way we craft a story that interests all the players and gives them an investment in the story. Destecado puts our campaign formula we have developed very well in the following post:
http://vfte.cyberpunk.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=8402
Sometimes our players have felt that the GMs were abusing their PCs. On reflection, I do not believe that any of our GMs have done so deliberatively (except in one case, many, many years ago involving a mini-gun and an execution of an unconscious player character, wow! That sounds bad.) Surprisingly the PC’s OOC reaction was very mild. That player had been personally needling the GM for months and enjoyed watching him ‘pop his cock’ more than losing his character. We all laugh about it now. However, did this disrupt the game and campaign play? No, it was a lesson learned for all and off we continued without a hitch!
Our GMs strive not to ‘play against’ the party or just serve as enablers to the mindless acquisition of wealth and power. We try to present challenges and have the PCs grow beyond just a bunch of stats on a sheet. Sometimes they live, sometimes they die, but it is in how they do it that counts. Destecado ran a wonderful campaign years ago about the island of Grenada. A new PC to our group (one of my sons in RL) had gotten drunk and drove home along a dangerous winding road on a cliff by the sea. We had all been warned about it. Destecado called for a drive roll (primarily to give the player some Drive IPs) at the most dangerous part of the road and the PC rolled ‘1’. The second roll confirmed the botch. The PC was granted a roll to regain control, again a ‘1’ and that botch was confirmed. Since the PC’s Luck points had all been expended earlier in the evening he had none to mitigate the botch. The effect roll sent him over the cliff and the car exploded on impact. The fall alone killed the PC, and I always believed that the fire was just for spectacle. The OOC reaction of the player was one of glum resignation for about ten minutes. Then he asked the GM, “Well, was that one of the most spectacular death recently?”
As he had bounced off two trees, went spinning out of control and screaming off the cliff to his fiery death, the answer was yes. None of us could think of any others for a long while.
“Awesome!” was his reply, and he began rolling up his next character.
Cyberpunk is a game where ‘bad shit happens’ – a lot! It is after all the ‘Dark Future’. Players have to realize that but GMs have to bring that sense in without constantly beating their players down with it. A good way of dealing with the ‘powerless issue’ is to occasionally give the PCs the power, and see how they use it. As a GM moderate your actions next time the situation is reversed by how the PCs reacted when they were in ‘the catbird seat’. If they object, remind them of what they did.
Still, when someone loses a PC, especially one that has been worked on over time, our group allows and expects that the OOC reaction by the player will be one of sadness and perhaps a little anger. The player has that right. If a player can’t ever deal with his character being killed, then play D&D or Pathfinder and always have a high level cleric available to bring them back. Personally I find that situation boring in the extreme. If there is no real chance of failure or death, why play?
For a gaming group to survive these various disappointments, the key word is Trust. We have always strived for that. Maybe not always successfully, but we try. As our core group has been together for over twenty five years, we feel that we have a good and evolving formula.
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Years ago I read the famous T. Harry Williams biography of Huey Long and got the impression that a Southern landscape of political militias, authoritarian state governments and inbred dynastic families would make a wild Cyberpunk setting, because any of those elements could be made strange by the simple application of some high technology. A modern version of the southern Democratic Bourbon hegemony with (very quiet but effective) transhuman upgrades to the leadership would be a frightening enemy.
I think there's also lots of scope for juxtaposing a desolate, obsolete, almost ancient landscape (because presumably nothing here has been repaired since the 2020s) with the presumably hi-tech forces of the Alabama security state. Drones hovering over Lovecraftian bayou swamps...
Hey, Companero, did you hack into the game notes on my computer and read them?
Most of what you wrote is what is waiting for my players in the panhandle of Florida. I’ve taken some local maps and flooded the barrier islands. The rising waters have turned a lot of the inland low lands into primeval bayous where people don’t go, or if they do sometimes don’t come back. The smaller towns that have survived have become very insular and suspicious. Religious fundamentalists, smugglers, pirates and just plain folks (saints and sinners among them) try to get along in a state (Florida) where the government is mostly absent because they don’t have the funds to do much. The Interstate (10 in this case) is well maintained by the military for defense purposes, but once off there and out of the cities, everything is falling apart. And yes, Rockwolf, the kudzu is out of control and covers anyplace that is not constantly tended (which is pretty much most of the place).We have done the first episode already and it will be posted in a few weeks. We are still writing up the end of the Burn Notice Campaign. As these are the product of a writing and editorial process of Destecado, SnowCrystal and myself passing them back and forth, often followed by the other players involved reading it first. This takes a while since we got a little behind doing what turned out to be 55 episodes.
In the first episode of our tale of the Florida panhandle they ran into a bunch of teenage boys having a fist fight being egged on their girlfriends. Sam Fisher, the ‘manager’ of the hotel, managed to get himself stabbed by one who woke up a bit punch drunk. He wisely refrained from snapping the little twerp’s neck, since the kid was really incapable of hurting him much. However, later, an assassin’s bullet to Sam’s head, while not killing him, has sent him to the hospital. Just the GMs way of telling him, “Hey, ex-C.I.A. man (and often played character), you have made a lot of enemies in your lifetime (of gameplay), and they haven’t forgotten you!”
The Alabama State Police have made their first appearance at the hotel in Florida chasing down a suspect. Ricco, the new hotel security chief, called them on their juristically misstep and they replied by putting a bullet in each one of his legs! Still, they mostly made good decisions, like not being assholes to the locals. We are scheduled for Episode 2 next week. I have created the hotel and the Town of Blackwater in Santa Rosa County over the past 3 months. So far there are 80+ NPCs (they’ve met about 20) who are drawn from my years living and working at a (somewhat seedy) Resort Hotel in the Big Cypress Swamp in Collier County, Florida. Fortunately the statute of limitations has expired on most all of incidents I will be incorporating, and as I think about it, I feel lucky that I survived it. I’ve ‘punked it up a bit and gotten it ready to throw it at my players.
It has surprised me how easy it has been to give the area a cyberpunk feel. The attitude is there. Add some occasional cyberware and the rot left over from the collapse and there you have it.
I'll second Comp here. I know from experience that without constant effort the "land" will take back whatever you build down in those regions.
I had a client years ago that manufactured steel trusses for construction. They went bankrupt and when I was back in the area 15 years later I stopped to look at the facilities.
There were no facilities, it was all blackberries, gum thickets and rabits with HUGE rattlesnakes everywhere.
there were rusty remains of trusses and sheet metal around but you had to dig. That's how I found out about the rattlesnakes
Nice imagery there Dog Soldier and very true! Mother Nature devours what man builds and doesn't keep up. And yes, the rattlers can get big (bigger in cyberpunk I’m thinking). I shot Eastern Diamondback down there that was 6’ 2” long. You know, they don’t always rattle when you approach. Especially when they’re planning to kill you, which was fair enough, since I was going to (and did) kill it. Now before anyone starts the bleeding heart shit, that snake was where I took horses and tourist through daily. I choose dead snake over dead horse (or person) every time. Besides, the damn things taste great!
I am still working on the setting so any ideas or imagery would be appreciated. VFTE is always a great source of inspiration. I hope when we get to posting the episodes it will provide you all with a little entertainment!
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Episode 51: Turnabout is Fair Play
Kyle and Cat (as Luka and Lena) attend a party hosted by George Brazzo. The swanky soiree is merely camouflage to conceal a covert meeting to plan the destruction of another favela. The two finally meet some of the fixer’s co-conspirators. Most are merely pawns (powerful pawns, yes, but still pawns) of the people they are seeking. Yorgi Valenchenko attends. Any animosity he may have had towards George seems to have been resolved. The two undercover operatives are in, but the danger is growing exponentially.
The fallout from the kidnapping of the Deputy Minister’s son and botched extraction has put Disney’s political foes on the defensive. Hoping to divert public scrutiny, they have initiated a smear campaign against Dr. Gordon Freeman, the inventor of the cyberbrain. This tactic may bear fruit as the doctor has not bothered to employ a public relations manager or media consultant, opting instead to handle such matters personally.
A Disney employee is found to have been involved in the kidnapping plot and botched extraction. He attempts to flee and the Team is sent to bring him back to face (corporate) justice.
Background
The Team has arrived in Rio de Janeiro aboard their (pilfered) 194 foot mega yacht, the Windfall. They have been brought here by the Disney Corporation, who runs the giant theme park, Fantasia. The Brazilian Supreme Court is expected to overturn the 1975 Presidential Decree (The Fusion) effectively re-establishing the city of Rio as an independent city-state within Brazil. Factions have begun to align, in anticipation of this decision, to vie for control of the city. The notorious favelas of Rio de Janeiro present a powerful voting bloc, one that several of the players in the political struggle seek to eliminate. By taking away the voting rights of the poor, the conspirators hope to move closer to their ultimate goal of eliminating the favelas, reclaiming the valuable real estate for redevelopment. The Disney Corporation opposes this agenda and has contracted the Team as ‘consultants’ to counter the maneuvers of rival factions.
Dramatis Personae
The Team
Allison Cole: 17 yo kleptomaniac sexpot and one of Cat Ortiz’s best friends from Atlantic City High School. When she became a suspect in a heist in Atlantic City, she followed her friend to Jamaica and has now joined the Team. Her skill as a Prowler is formidable.
Cat (Fisher) Ortiz: Officially she is Sam Fisher and the late Maria Ortiz’s 19 yo daughter. Now back in South America, she is using her “mother’s” last name again. In actuality she is a full memory clone of late Caitlin Jones, the original biogenetic assassin construct built by the now defunct Bio Works Corporation. This is known only to Kyle Vaduva.
Doc Freeman: Former professor at UNLV, former assistant coroner and (formally) disgraced cyber researcher. He is the inventor of the “cyberbrain” with which he claims to have cured death itself. Although courts around the world are still deliberating the ramifications of his work, the Disney Corporation has honored their agreements making Dr. Freeman rich beyond his wildest dreams.
Kyle Vaduva: Former C.I.A. agent, burned by the agency for crimes he did not commit. His efforts to expose and eliminate the Section, a freelance spy ring that had infiltrated the C.I.A., led to a review of his record and exoneration. He was allowed to retire with full benefits. Kyle has reunited with his lover from the Romanian Operation, Caitlin Jones (see Cat (Fisher) Ortiz above)
Ricco Torres: A former member of the Rio de Janeiro Civil Police who became a private investigator when his friendship with certain ‘unsavory’ characters came to light. Although he was not corrupt, he left the force before a case could be ‘made’ (manufactured) against him. Recently he has been hired by the Disney Corporation and been given a corporate ‘badge’. He serves as liaison between the Team and Disney.
Victor Kane: He is a 28 year old street racer (Runner). After being cashiered by Petrochem’s security arm, Kane, as he prefers to be called, earned extra money dabbling in smuggling.
Roca Terrier: Actually, she is one of the oldest characters from our game group. She is the only self-mobile A.I. in our game universe. Her existence is a result of a now ended secret military project. Her creator was a genius who tried to create a self-learning A.I. built from his memories of his deceased daughter. However, the Pentagon perverted his invention in an attempt to create the perfect weapon system. Now a citizen of the Republic of Mars and a respected scientist, she was formerly married to General Pershing, the current Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the United States. Their divorce was a political move to advance the general’s career and the two are still very close. Roca is also a member of the Collective and sits on their ruling council. She and Cat know each other.
William Eller: This is a cover alias for Thomas Rifkin, who is the major domo of U. S. Senator “Roy” deChartier, a member of the Consortium, a group of powerful and wealth business and political leaders who cooperate to “make things go their way”. Thomas/Max/William is a 10% owner of the Morgan’s Harbor Hotel.
Nicholas (Nicky) Vaduva: Zar’s (Kyle’s) 18-year-old son from our Romanian adventure. Nicholas is unaware of this, believing Kyle to be his father’s cousin. He serves as third officer on the Team’s yacht, SS Windfall.
Caitlin Diaz: One of Cat’s Biotechnica created clones, who is working with the Team masquerading as Catherine Ortiz (Cat 2.0).
4.06531: A 4th generation Nietzschean operative, who is masquerading as Kyle on the Windfall. He is also known as Janko Mesic during this mission.
Wyatt: Roca’s personal technician. He is the son of the original chief tech on the project that created the A.I. The father and Roca are fast friends and this son has replaced his dad who is now retired. To Wyatt, Roca is family and vice versa.
The NPCs
Daniel Gomes: A Disney employee involved in the kidnap plot against the Brazilian Deputy Minister’s son. He is currently attempting to get out of Rio.
David Lau: A Chinese gun runner in Rio who is working with George.
Diesel: George’s driver and bodyguard.
Ezekiel Moura: A scrounger who works with George.
George Brazzo: A high level fixer and criminal in Rio. He is a facilitator who rarely gets his hands dirty himself. He has a large bribery slush fund and two lawyers who keep him out of trouble. When Ricco Torres was a Rio civil policeman, he tried unsuccessfully to put George away several times.
Hans Streckler: A known and wanted Europe 3000 terrorist who is acquainted and possibly working with Yorgi Valenchenko.
Hector Benetiz: the head of Disney security in Rio.
Israel Ansari (nickname Moolch – ‘likes money’): A divorce and contract attorney.
Joelle Marzenge: A native black African involved in George’s Favela Plot.
Kendra Parsons: A former model now in her 40s. Technology has kept her looking young, but the bloom is definitely gone. She is a friend of George Brazzo.
Karl Straub: A man involved in George’s Favela Plot who is possibly South African.
Marco Pereira: A Brazilian who seems very knowledgable about local politics and is involved in George’s Favela Plot.
Maria: A local girl who works as a maid for one of the hotels in Disney’s Fantasia. She gets picked up by Victor in a bar and her whole life starts getting turned upside down
Maria Haddad: A lesser known media working for Al Jazeera.
Melanie: A young, female employee of Disney Fantasia, who lives in Disney’s Arbor Estates employee housing.
Renee Jardino: A business person in Rio associated with George Brazzo.
Roger Kincaid: the Disney executive in charge of the political situation in Rio.
Royce Dunlop: An associate of George from South Africa who is involved in the Favela vote plot.
Solon: The A.I. that runs Kaliba Integrated Logistical Systems (KILS) which built and runs the Rio Operations Center that controls the city’s security cameras, power distribution and police/fire communications. Solon wants to dispossess the favela residents of their voting rights and have them forced from the city.
Su: A young, female temporary worker from Japan at Disney Fantasia, who lives in the Arbor Estates there. She is leaving for home soon and interested in ‘making memories’ before she returns to school.
Syreeta: A local associated with George Brazzo.
Yorgi Valenchenko: A Russian FSB operative, cousin and partner of the late Kiril Vadjek, a gun runner working with George who was recently assassinated by Cat at Kyle’s bidding.
Walt 2.0: An A.I. that helps run the Disney Corporation. He was programmed with everything known about the original Walt Disney including his private writings and journal. More importantly he understands the original Walt’s vision and has the capacity to grow beyond his original programming.
Zago: A hired gun and reportedly former French Foreign Legionnaire.
The Action
Monday, January 8, 2046:
Roca contacts Solon stating that Walt 2.0 thought it would be a good idea for the two of them to talk. Solon agrees to a meeting in principle, but declines to set a date. The Kaliba A.I. is up front about his reasons for delaying. “I have no answers for your questions. The recent turn of events was as much a surprise to me as anyone. We can meet after.” Solon does not elaborate, but Roca assumes that the kidnapping and subsequent media storm requires his undivided attention. She does not push the matter.
Disney has offered to provide car service for Doc Freeman till he secures a new vehicle. Unhappy with the corporation knowing his comings and goings, Doc takes Victor to the Cadence Dealership at the first opportunity. Instead of purchasing an AV, as Cat suggested (ordered), he buys another Cadence Sentinel 4000 limousine. The salesman quotes a price of 148,000 eb: 12,000 eb more than he paid for the exact same limo less than 3 months earlier. Victor is ready to make a stink, but Doc is not interested in haggling. To him, 12,000 eb is pocket change. The car will arrive in a few days.
Ricco gets an earful from his former boss, who is still security chief for Fantasia. Other than Allison’s frantic call to Disney security, the corporate cops have been left out of the loop. Sadly, the investigator is as much in the dark as Hector. Ricco accidentally volunteers that he only knows what he has seen on the news. The security chief strongly suggests that he investigate and report back. A call to Roca scores him an invite to her beachfront condo.
Outside of her building, a small knot of protestors is parked in front of the entrance. They don’t block his path, but the ex-cop takes note of the messages emblazoned on their banners and signs: US Out! Marines Go Home! Only after he makes his way upstairs does Ricco realize that Roca’s new security detail is the target of the protestors. It is only after the A.I. vouches for him, that he is allowed past the two armed marines stationed at her front door.
Ricco tries to question Roca about what is happening. She is polite and answers what she can, but many of the investigator’s questions are met with, “I’m sorry, but that is above your pay grade.” Ricco tells the A.I. that the few pieces of intel he has gathered will not pass muster with Hector. Taking pity on their liaison, Roca writes a report for Ricco to turn in to his superior.
Luka and Lena (Kyle and Cat) mingle with the other guests at George’s house party. The posh home overlooks the recently rehabbed Botafogo section of the city, behind the Copacabana. Among those in attendance are members of the fixer’s regular crew, like Israel Ansari (attorney) Ezekiel Moura, Diesel (George’s driver and bodyguard), Zago, and David Lau (gun runner). The two spot Yorgi Valenchenko, who also seems to take note of them. The opportunity for introductions never presents itself, as the FSB agent intentionally avoids them.
Luka and Lena do make the acquaintance of Kendra Parsons, Renee Jardino and Syreeta. Kendra, a former model, used her fame and industry contacts to establish her own modeling agency. High priced bio-sculpting has allowed her to retain her looks, but the subtle beauty of her youth has been lost. Renee is an apparent business person, but doesn’t volunteer his line of work or why he is at the meeting. His jovial unassuming manner is either genuine or well rehearsed. Syreeta is also an enigma. She is definitely a local, but beyond that Luka and Lena are unable to glean anything else from their encounter.
Satisfied that all the key guests are present, George finally invites those assembled to join him in the dining room (to begin his ‘Wannsee Conference’ on the ‘final solution’ of the favelas). After the room is sealed, the fixer coldly outlines his general plans for the destruction of the Favela Vila Parque da Cidade (located just to the north of Lebon). George takes a brief moment to acknowledge the passing of their colleague Kiril Vadjek. This brief commiseration provides an opening to introduce Yorgi Valenchenko and to announce that the two have come to an understanding. George invites those assembled to welcome him to their coterie. Most appear to already be familiar with Kiril’s cousin (and partner), but politely nod to acknowledge his presence.
Continuing with the introductions, the fixer identifies Luka and Lena to the group and announces they will be working with David Lau to arm the rival factions in the Favela Vila Parque da Cidade. George takes a moment to outline the current situation in the neighborhood. There is a power struggle for control within the favela. Although there are some bit players, the project has targeted two factions in the neighborhood: the Fraternidade de Anjos (Brotherhood of Angels), and a militia, Homens de Aço (Men of Steel). The existing conflict between these ex-cops and the drug gang has been complicated by a third player, The Orochi Resource Group.
ORG is claiming juristictional rights on two former Arasaka satellite properties in the area. The first is the Sócio Dinâmica Aplicada (Applied Dynamics Partners) at 256 R. Mary Pessoa. The second is K2FS Sistemas e Projetos (K2FS Systems and Projects) a few blocks away at 36 Estra. Santa Avito. Both are located 400 to 500 feet from the southern edge of the Favela Vila Parque da Cidade.
Shares within these companies were not held directly by Arasaka, but through a convoluted maze of subsidiaries. These subsidiaries have subsequently come under the control of ORG.
The conglomerate’s interest is not so much in the companies themselves, but the land they sit on. ORG has announced a plan to provide water and possibly power to the favela using a closed system and new technologies they are developing. Neither Arasaka Japan or Amazonian Security have yet to decide to challenge ORG’s claim to the properties.
(GM Note: George’s backers are trying to tie up a ruling in court, but they have also urged George to find a more direct solution to the problem.)
After George’s presentation, the attendees break into smaller business and social groups. ORG may not be the only interested party from Africa operating in Rio. While talking with Karl Straub, Lena catches subtle inflections of a possible South African accent. Her suspicions are reinforced by his use of Afrikans slang while speaking to Joelle Marzenge, who has a strong native African accent.
Marco Pereira joins the conversation. He seems very knowledgable and opinionated on the subject of Brazilian politics and ORG in particular.
“ORG is sniffing around several sites in South America.
“They are trying to undermine Amazonian Security.”
Marco mentions two other security firms that have moved into Brazil and have taken an interest in the changing political situation in Rio. The first is a US company named Blackridge. They are made up of former members of Militech Mexico who broke with the parent company and sided with Mexico in the Nomad-Texas Border War. The second is a Shanghai based corporation called Shikumen—‘Stone Gate’. They are branching out into personal security from their core business of installing and managing security systems. The company derives its name from a traditional Shanghainese style of architecture that combined Western and Chinese elements. Shikumen has the security contract in Rio’s Chinatown. Pereira also shows a good knowledge of the current disposition of Amazonian Security.
As the night progresses, George takes a moment to speak with Luka and Lena in private. The project is currently in the intelligence gathering phase. He plans to have something for them in about ten days to two weeks, if all goes well. As the meeting breaks up, Cat notices that Yorgi Valenchenko is picked up by Hans Streckler, a known and wanted Europe 3000 terrorist! Cat recognizes him from her own work with that organization. The party has provided a long list of people to research.
***
Tuesday, January 9, 2046:
The Windfall arrives off the Cape Verde Islands and begins to cruise through them slowly. In the afternoon Kyle 2.0 and Cat 2.0 fly the Spinner coupe ashore on a ‘wine buying’ shopping trip for the ship.
***
Wednesday, January 10, 2046:
A normal work day and everyone goes about their mundane tasks. That evening at the Arbor Estates, Su’s friends (Kane, Maria, Melanie and Roca) throw her a send off party. Her flight leaves in the morning.
***
Thursday, January 11, 2046:
Weepy and slightly hung over, Su gives them all a fierce hug before disappearing down the boarding ramp.
The media frenzy surrounding the kidnapping and attempted extraction continues to churn. Roca receives numerous requests for interviews. She selects a lesser known media, Maria Haddad from Al Jazeera, and schedules a meeting for the following day.
***
Friday, January 12, 2046:
The Windfall anchors in the harbor of the capital, Praia, that afternoon. Kyle 2.0 and Cat 2.0 go ashore on another ‘wine buying’ shopping trip.
Maria Haddad from Al Jazeera interviews Roca at her apartment. Her questions are at first rather innocuous, but become more pointed (if not leading) as the interview continues.
“Isn’t the presence of a United States Marine contingent a “bit of overreaction”?
The media turns her questioning to Doc Freeman. She is especially interested in whether Roca participated on his cyberbrain project (no). After several questions related to the good doctor’s activities (rumored atrocities) in Romania, she posits as a hypothetical scenario, “Is it possible that the kidnapping of the Deputy Minister’s son and the attempted extraction of Doctor Freeman could have been faked? Could they have conspired to garner sympathy and support for their goal of legalizing the cyberbrain?”
Is that what happened? No. Is such a scenario within the realm of possibility? Roca has to concede that it might be possible and finds herself answering yes. Having received the answer she was hoping for, the reporter does not press the A.I. to elaborate. The interview ends soon after. A grateful media thanks Roca for her time and assistance.
***
Saturday, January 13, 2046:
Kyle 2.0 and Cat 2.0 go on a very public trip around the capital of Praia looking at the tourist sights and mixing with the locals. At the same time Luka and Lena are very publicly attending a horse race at the Jockey Club in Rio de Janeiro.
***
Sunday, January 14, 2046:
The Windfall sails a little before noon and heads northwest up the island chain towards Mindelo on the island of Santa Luzia.
Maria Haddad’s report appears on the Al Jazeera news service. The Disney people were hoping for a ‘puff piece’, instead it hits the news wire like a mushroom cloud. Rather than focusing on Roca, the story is an open attack on the character of Doc Freeman. It drags up every sordid detail ever reported about the physician. The clincher is an altered clip of the interview with Roca expressing her ‘belief’ that Doc Freeman and the Deputy Minister were behind the kidnapping and failed extraction. Roger Kincaid hits the roof. Disney’s spin doctors go into overdrive.
***
Monday, January 15, 2046:
Kyle 2.0 and Cat 2.0 fly to Mindelo on the last of their ‘wine buying’ shopping trips for the Windfall. On the pair’s return, the ship heads out to sea and sails for Port-of-Spain, Trinidad.
Yorgi calls Luka and asks for a private (confidential) meeting. Lena suggests that they invite him to lunch on Thursday. Yorgi graciously accepts.
Roger Kincaid calls Doc Freeman in for a meeting. Victor accompanies him. Roger is none to happy about the Al Jazeera piece. The Doc’s opinion on the kidnapped child is succinct. “I have to care enough about a kid first, and I don’t.”
Dr. Gordon Freeman, it seems, is not burdened with an undue amount of Empathy. This is not the reason that Roger wants to see him. A Disney employee, one Daniel Gomes, was involved in the plot to kidnap the child and extract Doc Freeman. Daniel has run for it, but his shoemaker has decided to sell him out for more money to Disney. The fleeing executive has checked in to a nice hotel in Rio under the name of Fernando Mendonça. The owner of this hotel hates Disney and has a first rate security service. Daniel Gomes will be checking out and disappearing in 48 to 72 hours. The Team has that amount of time to acquire the wayward corporate and deliver him to Roger Kincaid.
After getting their briefing, Doc Freeman decides to wait until the Team’s NET meeting (tomorrow night) to make the rest of the team aware of this time sensitive mission. Victor Kane can’t be bothered to tell anyone either.
***
Tuesday, January 16, 2046:
At the Team’s weekly NET meeting, Doc Freeman finally gets around to mentioning the extraction assignment from Disney. Both Kyle and Cat are dumbfounded.
“So, you (Doc) thought it would be fine to let 30 hours of a 48 hour time sensitive mission pass before you told anyone about it?” asks Kyle with his voice dripping with sarcasm.
“Well, you and Cat are on the yacht thousands of miles away and you have no cell reception,” was the Doc’s reply.
“You know the Windfall’s radio is monitored 24/7. We are contactable almost instantly,” Cat reminds the good doctor.
“What about me?” offered Ricco. “I am right here in Rio. I could have been researching this and setting up surveillance.”
At this point Kane puts his two cents in. “Doc, you are the dumbest smart person I know.”
Kyle’s rage starts to build. “You were there, Victor! Why didn’t you say something?”
“Hey, I’m just the driver,” is the reply.
Cat is still speechless, but as excuses pour from Kane’s mouth followed by ideas on what to do, she finds her voice and asks Kyle, “Why is it (Victor) still speaking?”
Kyle realizes this is no time for recriminations. A plan must be made immediately. Roca drops into the NET and finds the hotel’s website and booking computer. There is a convention at the hotel and no extra rooms are available. The room of one Fernando Mendonça is located on the third floor of one of the buildings and a rough floor plan of the hotel is acquired. Ricco makes a couple of calls to find an AV for the extraction. None is available, but a commercial Boeing VS-5 spinner is. Again Ricco has to expend a favor to his brother, Felipe Torres, to secure the needed transport.
With the clock ticking away, there is no time for subtlety. They will strike in the very early hours of Wednesday morning and it will be a ‘smash and grab’. Roca will use her custom Eclipse body (which is NOT registered as being in country) and sneak on to the hotel grounds. She will approach Gomes’ room from the outside balcony, (hopefully) sneak into the room, drug the man with a sedative provided by Doc Freeman and run to the beach for a fast pick up by the Boeing spinner. The spinner will deliver its cargo to Doc Freeman and Victor in his waiting limo and Daniel Gomes will then be delivered to Roger Kincaid on Disney property.
The evening NET meeting breaks up. Ricco finalizes the spinner transportation and works out the pickup with Roca. Ricco will be riding in the spinner to make sure it is there when it is supposed to be. That evening Wyatt drives Roca out of their private garage to the drop off. Outside the apartment building, a group of protesters is there. Unfortunately, so are the police, who start following the two. These policemen are not spies. They are a protection detail. The Brazilian government doesn’t want another extraction attempt against Roca, who has Martian diplomatic status as a Trade and Industrial Attaché.
Wyatt makes an attempt to lose the police, but to no avail. These cops know their job. Wyatt and Roca return to the apartment complex. Roca uses her skills and Eclipse body to sneak away unnoticed. This puts the plan two and half hours behind schedule. The A.I. reaches the hotel at about 2:00 am Wednesday morning. The only visible security is the occasional man or woman walking around with a taser.
***
Wednesday, January 17, 2046:
Roca scans Gomes’ room from the outside. She is not surprised that her thermographic vision cannot penetrate the building walls, but the window is also IR blocked. That is unusual as none of the other rooms appear to have IR baffling. Already behind schedule, she pushes such thoughts from her mind and begins her ascent. Reaching the balcony, the A.I. listens at the sliding glass door. There is only the sound of a single person breathing. The door is locked, but her augmented borg body is more than up to the task of ripping the door open. Roca readies her hypodermic needle and sharply jerks the door handle, which snaps off in her hand.
(GM Note: The player failed to notice (or check for) the security bar blocking the track of the sliding door. Given a choice between the handle and the bar, it’s the handle that gives way first.)
The snapping handle makes a loud enough sound to alert the room’s occupant. Roca throws caution to the wind and simply crashes through the glass. Stretched across the pane is a thin film that proves no barrier to the charging borg.
(GM Note: This ‘film’ is a cheap IR suppressing sheet that helps hide any heat signatures in the room.)
The target is in a chair in the corner. He breaks something in his hand as the borg crashes into the room. Roca is on him in an instant and jams the needle right through his SP14 clothes. Daniel Gomes falls unconscious. The remains of a bent Blackridge Security card (similar to a Militech card) fall from his hand. The clock is now ticking.
Hoisting the man on her shoulders, Roca runs through the vacant frame of the sliding door and leaps off of the balcony. It’s close, but she is able to miss landing in the pool. Her reinforced joints absorb the impact of landing and she is off like a shot towards the beach. Roca radios Ricco that she is heading for the extraction point. The pickup is flawless. With the target safely stowed, the craft races away low over the water, before the Blackridge operatives on site (at the hotel) can react. There are quite a few security personnel on the grounds, as Blackridge was handling security for the conference.
(GM Note: Gomes’ new ID would allow him to blend in with the attendees of the conference and leave Brazil when they did, under the protection of Blackridge Security. Gomes had hired Blackridge to protect him after fleeing Disney. He didn’t have enough funds to pay for both a personal bodyguard and cover the cost of the extraction, hence why there was no one else in the hotel room with him. Gomes hope was to lay low until the end of the conference.)
Roca runs a bug detector over the unconscious Gomes. She detects something implanted in his chest giving off a signal. The A.I. pops the monoblade on her Eclipse and with her First Aid and anatomy skills quickly excises the device. The man goes into immediate cardiac arrest. She has pulled out his pacemaker!
The A.I. begins immediate cardiac CPR and notifies Doc Freeman to be ready for emergency surgery. The pilot of the spinner looks back and sees a cyborg with a mono-blade deployed and blood everywhere in the back of his craft. The man’s eyes snap forward. He doesn’t want to know. In fact he is more worried about his current life expectancy.
The spinner quickly arrives at the limo. Doc Freeman has pulled his medical gear from the trunk and set up a sterile field, as best as he can, in the back of his Cadence Sentinel 4000. Daniel Gomes is still clinging to life as Roca puts him in the back of the limo. Ricco departs with the spinner and its pilot. There is a lot of cleaning to do there. Victor drives as quickly as he dares to Disney. Here the runner earns his pay as he navigates the roads quickly and provides the Doc with a stable ride to perform emergency surgery.
The limousine arrives at a Disney hanger at the airport next to Fantasia. Roger Kincaid is waiting. The executive is horrified at the scene of blood in the back of the car. He demands to know what happened. When told of the pacemaker, Roger is perplexed. There is no record of Gomes having such a device, yet this is definitely Daniel Gomes.
During this chaotic rush of explanations and meatball surgery, Kane asks to leave and take the car with him. Roger looks at him incredulously and tells him to, “Shut the fuck up!”
Despite the buckets of blood and gore, Doc finishes working and pulls Daniel Gomes through. A further examination of the device found in the man’s chest reveals that it was transmitting traceable telemetry. Roca is unsure of the range, but she is fairly certain that Blackridge wouldn’t be able to trace the signal (after she ripped the device from Gomes’ chest). The extraction is successful even with the few glitches the Team encountered and Gomes is left to the not-so-tender mercies of Roger Kincaid. Everyone returns home to get some well-deserved rest.
Next: Episode 52: The Situation in Rio Starts to Boil
-
Episode 50: Welcome to Your Extraction
The Team (or most of them) gathers for a NET meeting and learns of the possible impending A.I. Civil War from Roca. Xu Jun, the Chinese Consul General for Rio de Janeiro, pays a surprise visit to Doc Freeman, Dr. Chen and Roca’s research laboratory. Allison hosts an interior designer at Doc’s and her mansionette. Victor gets another stunt driving job for the guerilla movie that is being filmed.
A security breach at the aforementioned lab turns from a case of corporate espionage to a case of political kidnapping involving a sick child. Doc Freeman discovers (the hard way) why people like him usually keep a small army of bodyguards around as the kidnappers target him for extraction to save their dying charge. The political situation in Rio burns red hot!
Background
The Team has arrived in Rio de Janeiro aboard their (pilfered) 194 foot mega yacht, the Windfall. They have been brought here by the Disney Corporation, who runs the giant theme park, Fantasia. The Brazilian Supreme Court is expected to overturn the 1975 Presidential Decree (The Fusion) effectively re-establishing the city of Rio as an independent city-state within Brazil. Factions have begun to align, in anticipation of this decision, to vie for control of the city. The notorious favelas of Rio de Janeiro present a powerful voting bloc, one that several of the players in the political struggle seek to eliminate. By taking away the voting rights of the poor, the conspirators hope to move closer to their ultimate goal of eliminating the favelas, reclaiming the valuable real estate for redevelopment. The Disney Corporation opposes this agenda and has contracted the Team as ‘consultants’ to counter the maneuvers of rival factions.
Dramatis Personae
The Team
Allison Cole: 17 yo kleptomaniac sexpot and one of Cat Ortiz’s best friends from Atlantic City High School. When she became a suspect in a heist in Atlantic City, she followed her friend to Jamaica and has now joined the Team. Her skill as a Prowler is formidable.
Cat (Fisher) Ortiz: Officially she is Sam Fisher and the late Maria Ortiz’s 19 yo daughter. Now back in South America, she is using her “mother’s” last name again. In actuality she is a full memory clone of late Caitlin Jones, the original biogenetic assassin construct built by the now defunct Bio Works Corporation. This is known only to Kyle Vaduva.
Doc Freeman: Former professor at UNLV, former assistant coroner and (formally) disgraced cyber researcher. He is the inventor of the “cyberbrain” with which he claims to have cured death itself. Although courts around the world are still deliberating the ramifications of his work, the Disney Corporation has honored their agreements making Dr. Freeman rich beyond his wildest dreams.
Kyle Vaduva: Former C.I.A. agent, burned by the agency for crimes he did not commit. His efforts to expose and eliminate the Section, a freelance spy ring that had infiltrated the C.I.A., led to a review of his record and exoneration. He was allowed to retire with full benefits. Kyle has reunited with his lover from the Romanian Operation, Caitlin Jones (see Cat (Fisher) Ortiz above)
Ricco Torres: A former member of the Rio de Janeiro Civil Police who became a private investigator when his friendship with certain ‘unsavory’ characters came to light. Although he was not corrupt, he left the force before a case could be ‘made’ (manufactured) against him. Recently he has been hired by the Disney Corporation and been given a corporate ‘badge’. He serves as liaison between the Team and Disney.
Victor Kane: He is a 28 year old street racer (Runner). After being cashiered by Petrochem’s security arm, Kane, as he prefers to be called, earned extra money dabbling in smuggling.
Roca Terrier: Actually, she is one of the oldest characters from our game group. She is the only self-mobile A.I. in our game universe. Her existence is a result of a now ended secret military project. Her creator was a genius who tried to create a self-learning A.I. built from his memories of his deceased daughter. However, the Pentagon perverted his invention in an attempt to create the perfect weapon system. Now a citizen of the Republic of Mars and a respected scientist, she was formerly married to General Pershing, the current Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the United States. Their divorce was a political move to advance the general’s career and the two are still very close. Roca is also a member of the Collective and sits on their ruling council. She and Cat know each other.
William Eller: This is a cover alias for Thomas Rifkin, who is the major domo of U. S. Senator “Roy” deChartier, a member of the Consortium, a group of powerful and wealth business and political leaders who cooperate to “make things go their way”. Thomas/Max/William is a 10% owner of the Morgan’s Harbor Hotel.
Nicholas (Nicky) Vaduva: Zar’s (Kyle’s) 18-year-old son from our Romanian adventure. Nicholas is unaware of this, believing Kyle to be his father’s cousin. He serves as third officer on the Team’s yacht, SS Windfall.
Caitlin Diaz: One of Cat’s Biotechnica created clones, who is working with the Team masquerading as Catherine Ortiz (Cat 2.0).
4.06531: A 4th generation Nietzschean operative, who is masquerading as Kyle on the Windfall. He is also known as Janko Mesic during this mission.
Wyatt: Roca’s personal technician. He is the son of the original chief tech on the project that created the A.I. The father and Roca are fast friends and this son has replaced his dad who is now retired. To Wyatt, Roca is family and vice versa.
The NPCs
Colin Hughes: He is a (senior) executive from Petrochem on assignment in Rio de Janeiro. The man is from Victor Kane’s life path. Kane and Colin vied for the affections of Marybeth Bascom, daughter of Texas US Senator Howard Bascom. All three young people were “gear heads”. Kane beat out Colin, who arranged Kane’s separation from his job at Petrochem.
Dr. Chen: A chief researcher and executive for the FuGen Corporation, a Chinese Biotech firm. He is known to Kyle, Cat and Doc Freeman.
Ernesto Cruz: Nico’s direct superior in the Red Command. He is a killer and a stone cold psycho.
George Brazzo: A high level fixer and criminal in Rio. He is a facilitator who rarely gets his hands dirty himself. He has a large bribery slush fund and two lawyers who keep him out of trouble. When Ricco Torres was a Rio civil policeman, he tried unsuccessfully to put George away several times.
Gustavo Benaziz: A follower of the Voice of the Wastes and a known Islamic terrorist and half-brother of Marcellana Barbieri, a Commonwealth media. He is working with Pedro de Costa of the Third Command.
Hector Benetiz: the head of Disney security in Rio.
Maria: A local girl who works as a maid for one of the hotels in Disney’s Fantasia. She gets picked up by Victor in a bar and her whole life starts getting turned upside down
Melanie: A young, female employee of Disney Fantasia, who lives in Disney’s Arbor Estates employee housing.
Mystery ‘Men in Black’: A six-man high level edgerunner team up to no good in Rio.
Pedro de Costa: Leader of the set of the Rio gang, the Third Command, in charge of the Favela Barrio Nova Alianca. He is working with Gustavo Benaziz, a known Islamic terrorist and half-brother of Marcellana Barbieri, a Commonwealth media. Pedro is having an affair with Marcellana.
Roger Kincaid: the Disney executive in charge of the political situation in Rio.
Ronaldo Chaves: He is the Brazilian Deputy Minister of Mines and Energy. At present he is involved in a dispute involving the digging of a mostly underground electrification project to divert river water from the interior and move it to a generation facility near Rio to supplement that city’s failing power grid. He opposes the project since current plans (not yet finalized) will displace many poor people. Deputy Minister Chaves is firmly in the pro-favela vote camp.
Solon: The A.I. that runs Kaliba Integrated Logistical Systems (KILS) which built and runs the Rio Operations Center that controls the city’s security cameras, power distribution and police/fire communications. Solon wants to dispossess the favela residents of their voting rights and have them forced from the city.
Su: A young, female temporary worker from Japan at Disney Fantasia, who lives in the Arbor Estates there. She is leaving for home soon and interested in ‘making memories’ before she returns to school.
The Action
Tuesday, January 2, 2046:
The Windfall sets sail from the island of Fernando de Noronha off the northern Brazilian coast with William Eller, Kyle 2.0 and Cat 2.0 aboard heading for the Cape Verde Islands.
That evening the Team meets in the NET. Roca discloses what she has learned about the A.I. civil war brewing in Rio. Among the newly created A.I.s are several human consciousnesses that have been copied or digitized. A faction within this group was involved in the recent attacks on I Corp netrunners. Her research tracks back to the defunct Barrows Corporation, formerly one of the largest construction and engineering companies in the United States.
During the 1950s Disney imagineers worked with the Barrows Corporation on a project for the DoD (Department of Defense). The plans were for the construction of a series of large underground bunkers meant to house a significant segment of the U.S. population, as a contingency against a nuclear exchange. The connection to the I Corp attacks reminds Cat of the information they uncovered about Fabrini Air, during their earlier investigation.
Ricco reports the successful conclusion of Henrique’s stalker problem. He is now ready to undertake the investigation Kyle and Cat requested (looking into Raul Azevedo, President and CEO of Furnas).
Cat is contacted by the Collective with the dossiers for the C.I.A. team ‘vacationing’ at Fantasia’s Laurel Resort and an additional tidbit of information. They are not the only C.I.A. team operating in Rio. The Collective needs more time to track down leads on the other team.
In the meantime, Kyle and Cat decide to pass along the dossiers to Gustavo Benaziz. Treason or no, it is a calculated risk to garner the trust of the terrorist. After his treatment at the hands of the Agency, such considerations matter little to Kyle. With the exception of a personal affection for her Uncle Nathan (Nathan Forrest, Deputy Director of Clandestine Operations), Cat shares his hatred for the C.I.A.
***
Wednesday, January 3, 2046:
Colin Hughes calls with an apology. Company business will keep him out of Rio longer than he anticipated. Allison’s subtle manipulations cause him to volunteer more information about his trip than he might otherwise reveal. A corporate emergency is forcing him to travel to the State of Bahia (on the north coast of Brazil). Allison sends him another naked picture to ‘tide him over’.
Lena (Cat) visits Pedro’s to tell him they have information to give Gustavo. She purposefully maneuvers the gang leader to a position where the team’s listening devices will pick up the conversation. Pedro will make arrangements.
***
Thursday, January 4, 2046:
A lab assistant interrupts Doc Freeman’s work to notify him of a special visitor to the research facility. Dr. Chen has authorized a tour for Xu Jun, the Chinese Consul General for Rio. Doc Freeman decides to join Dr. Chen in welcoming their guest. Their meeting is warm and cordial and the three continue the tour together. The good doctor has trouble following much of the conversation during the tour, as he does not speak Mandarin.
Pedro calls Luka’s office to arrange a meeting for the data transfer. “I’ll send a car to pick you up.”
Something in how he says it raises concern. Lena counters with her own demand. “You should come to us. Come to our offices.”
As if to explain her reasoning, she adds, “This is sensitive information. Security is important.”
Pedro agrees to come to their offices, but with one modification. Upon arrival, he directs them to take the information to his car.
“The courier is downstairs in the car. Just give him the data and he will take care of it.”
Luka refuses. He demands to meet the courier. The gang leader appears completely unfazed and cheerfully agrees to bring him upstairs. Both Luka and Lena are starting to get annoyed.
Pedro returns with a large box. He pulls off the top and sides. Inside is a pigeon in a cage! Luka and Lena stare at the bird dumbfounded.
“We are NOT entrusting top secret information to a bird!” Luka tells him.
“Oh, he’s very trustworthy,” Pedro responds with a self-satisfied sneer.
Lena’s eyes narrow as she stares at the still smiling gang leader. “This is NOT acceptable. We need a secure drop location.”
Pedro nonchalantly takes a chip out of his pocket and says, “Well, in that case, just send it to here.”
He picks up the cage and leaves still smiling. Lena looks out the window and watches as Pedro leaves the building and walks down the street. She picks out someone following the gang leader and uses her Nietzschean tele-optics to check him out. She recognizes him as one of Cruz’s men from the Red Command.
Kyle and Cat tap into their surveillance feed to watch Pedro on his return to his HQ. The gang leader is laughing his ass off as he tells his friends about the expressions on Luka and Lena’s faces when he showed them the pigeon. It seems he also knew about his tail and revels at the thought of what Cruz will do when he hears about Pedro releasing the bird as if it was carrying a message.
After listening to this, Cat turns to Kyle and says; “I so want to kill him (Pedro).”
***
Friday, January 5, 2046:
An unexpected visitor to the Doc Freeman mansionette arouses Allison’s suspicions. He produces his credential and after some urging Allison remembers that she requested an interior designer to redecorate the house. Still she is cautious. Leaving the man standing on the doorstep, she calls Hector Benatiz to confirm the man’s identity. The head of security is less than amused by the interruption and transfers Allison to one of his subordinates.
The designer ‘checks out’. Allison lets him in, but refuses to allow him to look around the house. Trying another tack, the designer reaches into the pocket of his jacket. The young edgerunner reflexively tenses, but he produces a pair of glasses, rather than a weapon. The glasses are programmed to digitally overlay his designs on the existing surroundings. Allison is less than impressed by the brightly colored tropical island theme. She asks to see a more sober palette with darker and browner tones. The designer leaves with a promise to forward the new plans to her in the next couple of days.
Just before noon Doc Freeman receives a call. A security breach has occurred at the laboratory. He quickly heads for the research facility with Allison in tow. Once he arrives, the doctor is updated by the head of security.
The laboratory mainframe has been compromised by a cyber-incursion. Security feeds were hijacked and the system scrambled. It is unclear if any files were taken or if the system was crashed to cover their escape. Security personnel have been deployed to guard the section of perimeter fence destroyed during the intrusion team’s escape. A security sweep of the entire facility and grounds is still underway, but one of the test subjects is unaccounted for.
Doc Freeman is unfamiliar with the test subject and questions his colleagues. The boy is part of a special project. He is the son of Renaldo Chaves, the Deputy Minister of Mines and Energy. The boy is deathly ill and undergoing special treatment to keep him alive while his father seeks permission to have experimental surgery performed to save his life. Without treatment, his condition will begin to deteriorate within 72 hours.
(GM Note: Unknown to Doc Freeman, the father wants the government to approve the use of the cyberbrain, which he feels will save his son. Given Renaldo Chaves’s position, this might be a political kidnapping.)
As the security sweep continues, Dr. Chen notifies the Chinese government, and Doc Freeman calls in Roca.
Victor is called by the director of the film he has worked on as a stunt driver. There is another stunt tomorrow and he wants to know if the runner is interested. When asked for details, the director tells him it involves driving a car through the front wall of a building. Victor asks to look at the building and the car.
The location is an abandoned storefront, a squat stand-alone cinderblock building. As they tour the ‘set’, crew members busily chisel out the cement surrounding the blocks on the interior side of the front wall. Once the cement chips have been swept away and the cloudy front window cleaned, the decorators swoop in to dress the set.
Victor heads to a garage to check out the car, which is still being reinforced with bracing. The doors have been welded shut, with a safety cage built around the driver’s compartment. The grill is also replaced with a substitute made of high density material to provide added protection and act as a ram on the wall. All of these safety measures will hopefully prevent the vehicle from folding like an accordion on impact and killing (or trapping) the driver. Kane examines the car and everything looks good. On his return to Fantasia the runner invites Maria, Su and Melanie to come. Maria has to work tomorrow, but the other two enthusiastically accept.
Roca spends her morning researching churches in Rio. She plans to attend several, to continue her studies on human religious practices. When notified of the break-in, she drops everything to head to the laboratory. By the time she arrives, the security sweep is finished. The test subject is nowhere to be found. A security guard and lab tech are also missing and a problem has arisen with another patient.
With systems still down, it was only when technicians were let back in that anyone realized a second patient was missing. A corpse of similar build had been left in his bed and the medical sensors had been spoofed to return normal readings. This second extractee was a recent volunteer. Security now suspects he was a plant.
Techs have identified parts of the coding used by the netrunner. They were also able to recover bits of security footage from the time of the break-in. The footage shows a ‘run and gun’ by a black clad team retreating to a waiting panel van. The vehicle punches through the security fence as it escapes. There is a good image of the plate, which is promptly forwarded to the police. The van was reported stolen early in the morning.
Roca examines the recovered coding and recognizes it (with a roll of multiple 10s rolled for a 56 result). She does not know the netrunner’s name, but she has encountered similar coding in her research. This is someone who works for either Kaliba Integrated Logistical Systems (KILS) and/or Furnas, the electrical giant. This is disturbing considering the current political situation. Though Kaliba may be involved, Roca makes it a point to express her belief that, “this wasn’t the work of Solon,” the A.I. who runs Kaliba. She sends this information to Doc Freeman, Dr. Chen, the police investigators and Cat.
***
Saturday, January 6, 2046:
Victor heads for the film shoot with Su and Melanie. On the way he learns that Melanie is a cast member NPC at Fantasia’s Dream Park. She urges Victor to come down and give the attraction a try.
Su and Melanie are a bit confused when they arrive on ‘set’. All they see is an abandoned store front. Victor doesn’t completely understand the particulars of guerilla moviemaking himself, so he finds himself stumbling over an explanation. There are no niceties like crowd control, permits or any sort of official permission. This is ‘flash mob’ style filming with multiple cameras run from a van that can leave the scene quickly in case someone calls the police who are unusually prompt.
The ‘villain’ is photographed dragging the ‘heroine’ into the store. Rather than exiting his car and chasing them through the door, the ‘hero’ crashes his car through the front of the store. There are several remote cameras set up inside to capture interior shots of the stunt.
The director tells Victor to exit the vehicle through the driver side car window after he crashes and immediately head out the back. He executes the stunt perfectly. The car rams into the building and punches through. There is much screaming outside as a number of onlookers don’t realize this is a movie.
Rather than following directions, Victor ‘ad-libs’. He puts the car in reverse and backs out of the wreckage of the building. People on the street have their cell phone cameras out and are taking shots. Others think this is a real accident and are yelling and crying. In the distance the sounds of sirens are approaching. Victor attempts to drive the stunt car away, but while it does still move it does so only very slowly. It is also belching smoke from under the hood. The runner bails as the sirens get closer. He heads back towards the garage where he came from.
A van swings by and picks him up. Inside are Su and Melanie who are aghast at what just happened. They get away clean (or so they think) and after a short debriefing are on their way back to Fantasia. Victor turns his phone back on and sees he has a message.
George Brazzo contacts Luka. Things have cooled off in Rio so it’s time to discuss business. The fixer invites the gunrunner to a party on Monday evening at a home in the valley behind the Copacabana. This is a nice, newly rehabbed neighborhood inside the favela exclusion zone. Luka asks about how ‘dressy’ this affair is and George responds, “Dance casual.” Luka tells him they will be there?
Roca gets an update on the lab security’s investigation. By now, security at the lab has questioned all the employees about yesterday’s break in and extraction. One piece of information sticks out. A number of people reported that the missing security guard wasn’t acting like himself. He seemed more nervous and on edge than usual. His attitude change wasn’t too pronounced so it didn’t seem important at the time.
Doc Freeman and Roca decide to go to the man’s home and have a talk with his family. They decide to bring Allison along. Since Victor is doing his ‘movie thing’, Doc decides not to call his driver. “Hey, I can drive my own car,” he claims.
The guard’s family lives in a moderate neighborhood.
(GM Note: This means there are police security cameras watching the streets. The cameras mostly work and occasionally someone is even watching them.)
The Doc and Roca are riding in the front of the limo with Allison in the back seat. The divider is down. Facing backwards in her seat to converse with the doctor’s assistant, the A.I. notices a non-descript panel van that appears to be following them. She informs Doc Freeman while simultaneously drawing her weapon.
“No problem,” he replies. “I can lose them.”
While passing a cross street, the medtech hits the gas and bangs a sharp right turn. It might have worked too, but Doc Freeman turns too early and T-bones a parked car.
(GM Note: The player botched the Drive roll and then forgot to spend Luck to lower the severity of the botch. It’s sadly a replay of a similar incident from Episode 38, when he botched a Heavy Weapon shot and blew away poor Randy, his teammate.)
The limo is well armored, but neither Doc nor Ricco had bothered to buckle up or let Allison know what was going on. No one is really hurt (except the Doc’s new limousine). They have, however, lost the element of surprise.
The panel van pulls up six to eight meters to the rear of the crashed limo. Roca yells, “Drive! Let’s get out of here!”
Doc Freeman pulls his handgun, slumps in his seat and replies, “No, let’s make like we are knocked out and ambush them when they open the door.”
As the two argue in the front seat, Allison readies her Sternmeyer 35 and wishes she had worn something more than her light, unarmored sun dress.
The A.I. tries to convince Doc Freeman that this isn’t a good idea when something heavy lands on the roof of the car. A small inch and a half metal barb punctures the roof in the center of the driver’s compartment. A three inch shaft drops from the barb, exposing four small vents. Roca grabs the shaft and snaps it off, causing the anesthazine gas to shoot straight down, instead of being dispersed throughout the compartment. The three in the limo dive out the doors.
Roca is out first and immediately sees a figure in a black jumpsuit crouching on the roof. Two more men in those same jumpsuits are behind the Team’s vehicle with hand held tranq guns. A fourth is at the wheel of the van. The A.I. points the .454caliber Boss Arms Nikita in her right hand at the assailant on the roof and puts two shots in his head. <clang!> <clang!>
‘Oh crap!’ she thinks. ‘A borg!’
The borg on the roof immediately unleashes a Panzerfaust kick back at her. <clang!>
Now it is the turn of the borg on the roof of the car to think, “Oh crap! A borg!”
Doc Freeman rolls out his door and takes aim at the two assailants behind the limo with his Armalite .44. Their tranq guns prove ineffectual against the doctor’s heavily armored clothing. The attackers drop the tranquilizers in favor of some serious heat. Freeman charges the two shooters and fires his Armalite twice at one (his BOD is high enough to allow this). The first shot hits, but the black clad solo’s armor turns most of the damage. By the time he is ready for his second shot, Doc is in point blank range. The cyber researcher is now happy he took Gun Fu lessons from Cat. He puts his weapon in the hooded man’s face and blows his black shrouded head off.
Meanwhile, Roca brings the .454 Nikita in her left hand to bear. She does not shoot at the borg on the car roof, but puts both rounds into the head of the other attacker at the rear of the limo. The first doesn’t drop the man, but an almost maximum damage second shot kills him.
Allison dives out the passenger side and scampers low out of sight behind a parked car and calls Disney security on her phone.
The black clad cyborg on the roof is none too happy with the fixer who hired them at this point. The fact that Doctor Gordon Freeman hangs with a cyborg (and a well-trained combat one at that) was NOT in the briefing! The metal man rolls off the roof to the driver’s side and drops out of Roca’s sight.
Roca charges around the limo getting up enough speed for a Panzerfaust flying drop kick at the retreating borg. She becomes aware of the fifth man on their attacker’s team as his A-80 lights her up. Bracing the assault rifle on top of the passenger seat of the van he lays down a stream of covering fire. Eight rounds slam into the A.I.s body. Luckily her Gemini is made with the latest materials. She is barely slowed as she rounds the driver’s side to deliver her kick. The target is fast and skilled, dodging through the open door of the limo to avoid the blow.
Doc Freeman moves towards the van and jumps up on the front bumper. Sticking his handgun through the hole in the windshield, created by the assault rifle, he blows the driver’s brains all over the rifleman in the rear, and then drops down out of sight.
Allison is still running away from the combat, zigzagging through the yards of houses in the neighborhood, while screaming the address of the ambush into her phone to Disney security.
Roca decides the borg she is chasing is the least of her worries. She must get the doctor out of here. Abandoning her pursuit, she runs towards the van and a crouching Doc Freeman. The man with the A-80 fires again and puts the remaining ten rounds into the charging cyborg. By now the damage she has sustained is approaching a danger point. Retreat is the prudent course. Scooping up the good doctor, she disengages from the combat. As Roca flees with Doc Freeman, the limo erupts in a fireball.
(GM Note: The borg Roca was pursuing had dropped a termite grenade in the limo’s front seat as he escaped from the incoming flying drop kick. He assumed that Roca would follow him into the vehicle. While he didn’t get the A.I., Doc Freeman’s new 136,000eb Cadence Sentinel 4000 limousine is now a pile of flaming scrap.)
The A.I.’s speed is too much for the remaining two attackers. The man with the A-80 has to switch clips and the Alpha class cyborg is delayed by the exploding limo. The rifleman shoves the dead driver out the door and the cyborg jumps back in the van. The two escape. Allison grabs a cab and heads back to Fantasia.
Disney security has no authority to enter Rio proper, so they call the police. Rio police response time is abysmal, unless it’s someone important calling. The attempted extraction of two corporate executives (in broad daylight) gets their attention. Every law enforcement agency in the city descends on the scene.
Roca calls her tech, Wyatt, who comes and picks the two up in an AV. Within forty-five minutes of returning to her beach front penthouse, the building management calls up to report that a United States military AV is requesting permission to land. Roca grants it and a Marine strike team secures the premises. Brazilian police investigators arrive to interview Roca and Doc Freeman. They are not pleased at the presence of the Marines, but that becomes a diplomatic matter.
The A.I. is NOT pleased. She calls Victor, who is in the middle of filming the stunt. His phone is shut off, so she leaves a message, “You failed!”
The runner finally turns his phone back on while heading back to Fantasia. After listening to the message, he immediately calls Doc Freeman. Having recounted the story several times for the police, he delivers a fairly thorough account of the attempted abduction. Brashly Victor states, “I’ll be right over to pick you up.” Doc Freeman tells him not to bother, assuring him that they are all fine.
Victor then inquires about a thing near and dear to his heart, “How’s the car?”
Doc replies, “Well, there was this thermite grenade…”
“WHAT!”
“So it’s kind of all burned up,” continues Freeman. “How did your stunt go?”
Kyle and Cat (as Luka and Lena) find out about the extraction attempt as they are watching the evening news. They contact their Nietzschean netrunner who arranges a NET meeting with Doc Freeman, Roca and Victor that appears to come from the Windfall. Cat is furious that Victor wasn’t driving, but Doc Freeman comes to his rescue. He informs her that he didn’t call the driver in and the man is blameless. The biogen tells them both that from now on Victor will ALWAYS drive Doc Freeman when he goes off Disney grounds. Roca suggests the Doc get himself an AV-3 as a substitute for his now destroyed limo. When Victor informs them he doesn’t know how to pilot an AV, Cat tells him to learn. (Meaning to train up to level 2 on a Sega-Atari system). She will arrange lessons for him to bring up his skill. The news of the failed extraction goes world-wide. Both the United States and the Republic of Mars deliver strong notes to the Brazilian government, who had assured those poleis of Roca’s safety.
Cat sends Roger Kincaid, the Disney executive in charge of the political situation in Rio, the NET evidence that Roca collected and her suspicions that this might be a political kidnapping by their corporate enemies. At the very least the current evidence could be used to ‘dirty up’ the opposition.
***
Sunday, January 7, 2046:
It is announced at a press conference in the morning that yesterday the kidnappers had secretly demanded that Deputy Minister Chaves reverse his opposition to the tunnel construction and electrification project in return for his son’s release. The distraught father with a grim and foreboding Doc Freeman (the Doc’s Empathy is in the toilet) at his side appears and begs for his son’s release on international television. Kincaid, FuGen and the Chinese government have been busy. The apparent corporate sponsoring of the kidnapping of a sick and dying child to extract political concessions outrages the world. The normally somnambulant Brazilian police organizations spring into action. Since this involves a government minister, the Federal Police enter the fray. Kaliba and Furnas’ political allies can’t protect them against this groundswell.
Solon is also outraged as he actually had no knowledge of the plot. The kidnapping of a sick and dying human child is NOT his style. Kaliba and Furnas cooperate and identify the netrunner who did in fact work for Furnas. A major manhunt is immediately undertaken to find him. The fixer who contracted the extraction team is found dead with his neck snapped. The police locate the extraction team’s Alpha class borg near the scene and pursue him. The cyborg fights and is brought down by a BOPE unit. The police continue to search for the remaining two extraction team members.
Early that evening an anonymous call leads authorities to a warehouse where Deputy Minister Chaves’s son is found alive. He condition has not started to degrade. The kidnapping and attempted extraction of Doc Freeman has proven a public relations disaster for the forces trying to strip the vote from the favela residents. The Disney Corporation (led by Roger Kincaid) and FuGen (with the backing of the Chinese government) unleash a crushing PR offensive against their opponents. Chalk up one for the Team!
Next: Episode 51: Turnabout is Fair Play
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A Campaign Idea Centered on the American Gulf Coast - 2047
As our group winds down on our Burn Notice Campaign, the next installment of our Cyberpunk history is being readied. For those following the meta-plot, the United States government under President David Whindam has been drawing together the fractured United States in an attempt to strengthen the union (and his own personal power). A number of Free States have been brought to heel, Texas (by former Vice President Hargrove) and Norcal along with the reentry of Connecticut and New Jersey as states. Now President Whindam has his eye on the ‘Cotton Republics’. He has succeeded already in the first phase of his plans by changing the name with which these states are referred by. Now everyone, including these former ‘republics’, calls them the ‘Cotton Kingdoms’. It seems like a small thing, but public support for a “Kingdom” he hopes will be a lot less than a “Republic”.
These four southern states have changed little over the twenty-seven years since 2020. Two leaders remain in power and two have passed the torch on to a new generation. In one case an intelligent, vital ‘son of the south’ has stepped up, and in another. Well, not so much. Here is a brief summary:
Mississippi: Governor Carol Holmes is now in her 80’s and is beginning to feel her age. She sees the writing on the wall and knows that eventually her ‘reign’ must end. Only her personal popularity keeps her in power, but an undercurrent of dissatisfaction from the younger generation of political supporters could easily upset her relatively smooth running state government. Since the death of her mentor, Governor King Gardner, four years ago, her influence with the other three states has been waning.
Louisiana: Grand Poo Bah Andre Avoyelle (the Governor) still reigns from the capital of Baton Rouge. His (young) third wife, Estelle, is his constant companion and extremely popular with the ‘people’. Although the current government still toes the line on national politics, law enforcement outside the cities and Interstate 10 leaves the country folk alone, especially those in the bayous. This has led to an increase in smuggling. The state has turned over enforcement of the Dixie Manufactures Code to the Alabama State Police naval units and given then authority from one to twelve miles off the Louisiana shore (except during Mardi Gras). It is unknown to all except the state’s First Lady that Grand Poo Bah Andre Avoyelle suffers from advanced Alzheimer’s. It is Estelle Avoyelle who really rules this state.
Georgia: With the death of King Gardner, his son Royce has taken on the mantle of leadership in that state. Well, he does when he is not indulging in his favorite pastimes of sex and drugs. No, he hates Rock & Roll, but country music is definitely making a comeback on his watch. Yes, Governor Royce Gardner is a sybarite and only really cares for the trappings of his office. The state is run by a coterie of his father’s advisors. The Atlanta metro area pretty much ignores the strictures of King Gardner’s previous administration. This is the ‘Compromise’ that has been worked out with the up and coming business elite of the state and the government. Inside of the Atlanta metro area the laws are enforced differently. Policing the Interstate 95 corridor has been turned over to HiWay. Little by little the Gardner dictatorship is ebbing.
Alabama: Braxton Lowndes passed away in 2046 at the age of 86 years old. He left five extremely ambitious children. The eldest, Braxton Lowndes II (or Junior as he is called, but not to his face) now serves as governor and head of the Populist Advisory Council that serves now as a state legislature. ‘Junior’ is a smart, tough politician who is dedicated in keeping the Cotton Kingdoms strong. He has replaced the late King Gardner, former Governor of Georgia, as leader of the Cotton Kingdoms. Since King Gardner’s eldest son and heir, Governor Royce Gardner, is a sybarite who merely likes to enjoy the perks of office.
The next of the Lowndes children is Richard, who commands the brutal Alabama State Police. Richard is unmarried and suspected of being a homosexual, which is illegal now in Alabama. Richard actively prosecutes gays with his police force.
The third son is Geoffrey Lowndes, who serves as Secretary of State. He also serves as Vice Chairman of the Populist Advisory Council.
There is a daughter, Matilda, who is a graduate of Harvard Law School and worked at the US State Department in her youth. Now she serves as Alabama’s Attorney General.
The youngest is John Lowndes. John is a bit pathetic. He is not the brightest bulb on the tree, but not a moron. He is as ambitious as his siblings, but has been maneuvered into taking the position of Lieutenant Governor. It is an empty title that consists of going around showing his face at public functions. His brother Geoffrey is second in command of the civil machinery of government as he is Vice Chairman of the powerful Populist Advisory Council.
It is in Alabama that President Whindam wants to break the power of the Cotton Kingdoms. This will be the focus of our next campaign. No, the Team, which will be a (mostly) new one, is not in charge of bringing down the Lowndes family. They have a small part to play in the drama. They have a few missions to accomplish and will provide support to others who are engaged in bringing the corrupt Alabama government to their knees. Only one player will know that this is a (totally black) C.I.A. operation. That will be Sam Fisher, who has recently gotten out of Federal prison for extortion (see Episode 22, Burn Notice Campaign). Sam will be hired to manage the Petersen Point Resort, a ‘down on its luck’ Florida tourist destination just east of Pensacola and west of the former Eglin Air Force Base. All the military bases in the area have been consolidated into the Pensacola COG. All but two of the Team will have jobs working at the hotel, which must turn a profit or go bankrupt. Bankrupting the Resort means failure of their part of the mission. The two remaining players are Nomads (Snake Nation) who are working with the Thalas Nation (and working on a government project for DARPA). One is Charlie Bibbliodoc, the weaponsmith, and his young assistant, Beebe Laugherty (daughter of Beatrice Laugherty from our Fourth Corp War Campaign). Sam and Charlie are very good friends so (hopefully) they will cooperate.
The game play for Sam and his ‘Dirty Deeds’ crew will center on dealing with the local situation and people while completing various assigned missions for. The nomads will have problems come up that require ‘outside’ help. Hopefully, this will provide reasons for cooperation. The major part of the game sessions will deal with getting along and living with the cybered-up crazies, pirates, crooked cops and others that inhabit the bayous of the Florida panhandle. It should be good fun!
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Yeah, this sounds like a lot of fun. Remember "things that go really bad" can also be a lot of fun! Unless you
get killed of course. Still, the Everglades is a strange but very cool place. I lived there for a couple of years.
Well, actually right to the west in Big Cypress swamp. I got to know some really crazy people there and some
very cool Seminoles.
Actually, we are wrapping up our Burn Notice Campaign and will be having our next adventures with a (mostly)
new Team that will be basing off Blackwater Bay near Pensacola! I look forward to reading your Dixie Land
Nights Campaign!
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I must add my recommendation for Justified too. It is one of my favorites and also of SnowCrystal, one of our GMs. In fact SnowCrystal used some of the characters (with just a letter substitution in the names in the first part of our Burn Notice Campaign set in Atlantic City. Yes, New Jersey isn't Harlan County, Kentucky, but the Pinelands of New Jersey shares a lot in common with the Justified setting.
Regardless, the attitude in Harlan is very appropriate for Cyberpunk themes!
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Episode 49: New Year’s Eve in Rio!
Background
The Team has arrived in Rio de Janeiro aboard their (pilfered) 194 foot mega yacht, the Windfall. They have been brought here by the Disney Corporation, who runs the giant theme park, Fantasia. The Brazilian Supreme Court is expected to overturn the 1975 Presidential Decree (The Fusion) effectively re-establishing the city of Rio as an independent city-state within Brazil. Factions have begun to align, in anticipation of this decision, to vie for control of the city. The notorious favelas of Rio de Janeiro present a powerful voting bloc, one that several of the players in the political struggle seek to eliminate. By taking away the voting rights of the poor, the conspirators hope to move closer to their ultimate goal of eliminating the favelas, reclaiming the valuable real estate for redevelopment. The Disney Corporation opposes this agenda and has contracted the Team as ‘consultants’ to counter the maneuvers of rival factions.
Dramatis Personae
The Team
Allison Cole: 17 yo kleptomaniac sexpot and one of Cat Ortiz’s best friends from Atlantic City High School. When she became a suspect in a heist in Atlantic City, she followed her friend to Jamaica and has now joined the Team. Her skill as a Prowler is formidable.
Cat (Fisher) Ortiz: Officially she is Sam Fisher and the late Maria Ortiz’s 19 yo daughter. Now back in South America, she is using her “mother’s” last name again. In actuality she is a full memory clone of late Caitlin Jones, the original biogenetic assassin construct built by the now defunct Bio Works Corporation. This is known only to Kyle Vaduva.
Doc Freeman: Former professor at UNLV, former assistant coroner and (formally) disgraced cyber researcher. He is the inventor of the “cyberbrain” with which he claims to have cured death itself. Although courts around the world are still deliberating the ramifications of his work, the Disney Corporation has honored their agreements making Dr. Freeman rich beyond his wildest dreams.
Kyle Vaduva: Former C.I.A. agent, burned by the agency for crimes he did not commit. His efforts to expose and eliminate the Section, a freelance spy ring that had infiltrated the C.I.A., led to a review of his record and exoneration. He was allowed to retire with full benefits. Kyle has reunited with his lover from the Romanian Operation, Caitlin Jones (see Cat (Fisher) Ortiz above)
Ricco Torres: A former member of the Rio de Janeiro Civil Police who became a private investigator when his friendship with certain ‘unsavory’ characters came to light. Although he was not corrupt, he left the force before a case could be ‘made’ (manufactured) against him. Recently he has been hired by the Disney Corporation and been given a corporate ‘badge’. He serves as liaison between the Team and Disney.
Victor Kane: He is a 28 year old street racer (Runner). After being cashiered by Petrochem’s security arm, Kane, as he prefers to be called, earned extra money dabbling in smuggling.
Roca Terrier: Actually, she is one of the oldest characters from our game group. She is the only self-mobile A.I. in our game universe. Her existence is a result of a now ended secret military project. Her creator was a genius who tried to create a self-learning A.I. built from his memories of his deceased daughter. However, the Pentagon perverted his invention in an attempt to create the perfect weapon system. Now a citizen of the Republic of Mars and a respected scientist, she was formerly married to General Pershing, the current Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the United States. Their divorce was a political move to advance the general’s career and the two are still very close. Roca is also a member of the Collective and sits on their ruling council. She and Cat know each other.
William Eller: This is a cover alias for Thomas Rifkin, who is the major domo of U. S. Senator “Roy” deChartier, a member of the Consortium, a group of powerful and wealth business and political leaders who cooperate to “make things go their way”. Thomas/Max/William is a 10% owner of the Morgan’s Harbor Hotel.
Nicholas (Nicky) Vaduva: Zar’s (Kyle’s) 18-year-old son from our Romanian adventure. Nicholas is unaware of this, believing Kyle to be his father’s cousin. He serves as third officer on the Team’s yacht, SS Windfall.
Caitlin Diaz: One of Cat’s Biotechnica created clones, who is working with the Team masquerading as Catherine Ortiz (Cat 2.0).
4.06531: A 4th generation Nietzschean operative, who is masquerading as Kyle on the Windfall. He is also known as Janko Mesic during this mission.
The NPCs
Bella: An A.I. with a human-like body (still tethered to a mainframe) that was activated by the Disney Corporation to help Doc Freeman run his research facility in Bucharest during our previous Romanian Campaign. Bella and Dominique Vadim (Cat) became good friends as the biogen stood up for her and talked Disney out of reprogramming the A.I. after Dr. Vera Zelinke exposed her to the dark side of human nature. Bella self-programmed her physical body’s movements on Dominique’s. The A.I. now works at Fantasia in Rio. She is unaware of Cat’s true identity.
Colin Hughes: He is a (senior) executive from Petrochem on assignment in Rio de Janeiro. The man is from Victor Kane’s life path. Kane and Colin vied for the affections of Marybeth Bascom, daughter of Texas US Senator Howard Bascom. All three young people were “gear heads”. Kane beat out Colin, who arranged Kane’s separation from his job at Petrochem.
Enrico Cochare: Hannah’s (and many others’) agent.
George Brazzo: A high level fixer and criminal in Rio. He is a facilitator who rarely gets his hands dirty himself. He has a large bribery slush fund and two lawyers who keep him out of trouble. When Ricco Torres was a Rio civil policeman, he tried unsuccessfully to put George away several times.
Graciana do Silva: A stalker who has her sights on Henrique. This woman has already attacked one of Henrique’s girlfriend du jour. Ricco has been tasked with ‘dissuading’ her passion.
Gustavo Benaziz: A follower of the Voice of the Wastes and a known Islamic terrorist and half-brother of Marcellana Barbieri, a Commonwealth media. He is working with Pedro de Costa of the Third Command.
Hannah: A girlfriend de jour of Henrique who was attacked by Graciana do Silva.
Hector Benetiz: the head of Disney security in Rio.
Henrique: A former Favela drug lord who has taken a government amnesty offer and gotten out of the drug business. The man now runs a media company which works with Disney and a mini-venture capitalist firm that gives micro-loans to favela residents so they can rise from poverty. It is suspected he is positioning himself to enter politics. He and Ricco Torres grew up together with Ricco being the younger ‘brother’. Henrique used to belong to a Brazilian pop group manufactured by a record company. When his voice changed he was fired and thrown back into the favela where he rose to the top of the local gang. Ricco joined the police.
Junilla: A female Brazilian hired as a live-in bodyguard for Luka Graso.
Karl: A male Brazilian hired as a live-in bodyguard for Luka Graso.
Maria: A local girl who works as a maid for one of the hotels in Disney’s Fantasia. She gets picked up by Victor in a bar and her whole life starts getting turned upside down
Melanie: A young, female employee of Disney Fantasia, who lives in Disney’s Arbor Estates employee housing.
Pedro de Costa: Leader of the set of the Rio gang, the Third Command, in charge of the Favela Barrio Nova Alianca. He is working with Gustavo Benaziz, a known Islamic terrorist and half-brother of Marcellana Barbieri, a Commonwealth media. Pedro is having an affair with Marcellana.
Raul Azevedo, President and CEO of Furnas, the smaller of the utility giants based in Rio de Janeiro: He feels his profits are being syphoned away by the people in the favelas stealing electricity. So, he is one of the leaders and/or major backers of the movement to disenfranchise the favela residents when Rio becomes an independent city (state) again.
Su: A young, female temporary worker from Japan at Disney Fantasia, who lives in the Arbor Estates there. She is leaving for home soon and interested in ‘making memories’ before she returns to school.
Vena (Vera Lena de Costa): An old girlfriend of Ricco Torres and petty criminal in Rio. She works as a ‘paperhanger’ for a local shoemaker. Paperhanger – One whose occupation is to lend authenticity to fraudulent identities by establishing paper trails and physical artifice.
Walt 2.0: An A.I. that helps runs the Disney Corporation. He was programmed with everything known about the original Walt Disney including his private writings and journal. More importantly he understands the original Walt’s vision and has the capacity to grow beyond his original programming.
Youssef: An associate of Gustavo Benaziz.
The Action
Tuesday, December 26, 2045:
The housing squabble amongst the Team continues. Doc Freeman is completely against Marie moving in. It’s not for lack of space. The house is a veritable mansion. Corporate immunity will shield against Maria revealing any of the illegal possessions he has in the house, but there is no reason he should have to be on his guard in his own home.
Freeman requests new housing for himself and Allison. When informed that it will take a few weeks, he threatens to move his household off corporate grounds. Disney has too much invested in the doctor’s research to risk him being extracted. Victor is informed that he and Maria will be moved to different housing. The runner agrees to move immediately. Doc Freeman requests a full security sweep after they leave.
Of course this is nothing but a headache for Hector Benetiz. Ricco is called to task by the head of Disney security; shit rolls downhill. The former Rio cop tries to explain the discord at the house. Hector tells him to go ‘liaise’ between the Team and the incoming Disney security sweepers. Victor is in the process of loading his meager possessions into his car when Ricco arrives. The security team is already waiting outside for the runner to finish loading up. One of the techs idly scans Victor as he carries boxes from the house to the car. He is more surprised than anyone when the bug detector goes off.
The security team politely interrupts the moving process and asks to search the boxes he is carrying. They find a custom made tracker/listener. They can’t be sure of its origin until they study it in more detail. Finding the one device, the security team asks to sweep his car and the rest of his belongings. Victor acquiesces.
While they do their job, Maria worriedly asks, “Does living here give Disney security the right to randomly scan you without your permission?”
“No,” Victor assures her. “Our Team is sometimes involved in some activities that might attract the attention of some of Disney’s enemies. We have to be careful.”
The security sweep finds no other suspicious devices and Victor and Maria head over to their new apartment at Disney Fantasia’s Arbor Estates housing complex. It is not an ‘estate’ at all but a multi-story employee apartment complex. As they enter they are greeted by the building A.I. who validates their passkeys, and welcomes them to their new home.
As the two drive away, Doc Freeman watches, his face lined with worry. Allison asks what is wrong.
“Someone is spying on us,” Doc replies.
“Oh, don’t worry,” Allison retorts with a smile. “The bug was mine!”
“What!”
The teenage prowler explains. “Victor has been such a dick. I haven’t forgotten the drink he threw at Colin and me at the race track (Autódromo Internacional Nelson Piquet - Episode 43), so I put together a little electronic tracker out of my kit.”
Doc Freeman stares at the young woman in disbelief.
“Don’t worry; I don’t think the thing even works. It’s just meant to trip a bug detector and feed his paranoia.”
Allison turns and walks back to her room with a smile on her face and a spring in her step!
Before the security team sweeps the house, Ricco assists Doc Freeman with moving any ‘questionable and/or illegal’ items to a single closet. The sweepers are forbidden to examine the closet. It’s not a matter of trust, as much as a guarantee of ‘plausible deniability’ for Hector, his security team and the Disney Corporation. After the first sweep, Doc and Ricco moved the items to another closet and allow the first closet to be swept.
Roca receives an invitation to meet Bella. Though both are aware of the other’s reputation, the two A.I.s have not previously met. Bella has always wanted to meet Roca, the world’s only completely self-mobile A.I. The two chat and find they have a lot in common. Both have an almost warm regard for humanity and believe that they and humans are stronger working together than opposing each other. They discuss the current political situation in Rio. Bella is aware of a number of A.I.s within the city who are on the opposite side of the voting rights issue. Chief among their opposition is Solon, the artificial intelligence that runs Kaliba Integrated Logistical Systems (KILS). Roca asks Bella for a list of the oppositions A.I.s.
Luka and Lena (Kyle and Cat) arrive in Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil in the tri-border region for their meeting with Gustavo Benaziz and Pedro de Costa. They contact Pedro who has arranged for the meet to take place at a gambling hall he knows. The two decide that only one of them should go. The last person who took a meeting with these people ended up dead. Lena will represent them on the thought that they might be less likely to kill a woman in public with her partner still unaccounted for.
Lena meets Pedro, who asks where Luka is. She tells him that her partner is busy arranging a deal and is out of the country at present. Pedro is visibly nervous about this and points out a table where Gustavo Benaziz is sitting with another man, who may be Youssef. The biogen asks the ganger to introduce her, but he refuses. Lena intimidates the gang leader (engages him in a ‘Facedown’) into making the introduction.
(GM Note: We play that Reputation in these instances is a question of your confidence. Lena is Caitlin Jones, who maintains a Reputation of 9. Pedro wilts.)
The two terrorists are not pleased to be dealing with a woman, but Lena makes it clear that she is Luka’s partner, not his subordinate. If they want to deal, they have to deal with her. The two cautiously agree to talk, but first they ask to scan her for listening devices to which she consents. Lena produces a jammer (white noise generator). As a conciliatory gesture, she asks before turning it on. Before commencing their discussion, Lena dismisses Pedro with a hint of disdain. The gang leader departs as quickly as he can but remains on the premises to gamble (and possibly keep an eye on the meeting).
They begin to talk in Portuguese, but she stops them claiming her mastery of the language is not very good. (Cat is fluent actually, but Lena is not known to be.)
Gustavo tries French, which she claims to speak a little, but again not very well. Lena replies in Bulgarian, but the two just look baffled. The terrorist goes with English, but Lena shakes her head so he tries Berber, a North African dialect. The biogen tries Tuareg, a related Saharan language used in the area of northern Mali, but no. Finally, Gustavo speaks to her in Arabic, and Lena breaks out in a smile. Yes, her Arabic is excellent. This seems to put the other two in a better mood, which is what she was hoping for.
Lena begins, “I understand you have an arrangement with Pedro. My partner wishes to use Pedro, to hire him as boots on the ground in Rio. He said we should talk to you.”
Gustavo is agreeable to this, “as long as it does not affect our business.”
Lena continues, “Do you know our business?”
“Please enlighten us.”
“We supply weapons, among other things. Pedro’s crew might prove useful to us. We are expanding our market, moving into Brazil and South America. We were thinking of moving into this area (the Tri-border region), unless our business would conflict with yours.”
Gustavo answers, “No, this may be useful to us too. What concerns me, when you say ‘boots on the ground’…that sounds high profile. We prefer to keep a low profile.”
Lena agrees, “We prefer to use locals because we also try to stay very low profile.”
The terrorist leader replies, “Fair enough. Let us consider we have an understanding, but we want to have right of refusal on any jobs you want him to do. And if we say no, we could provide recommendations for other boots on the ground.”
Lena nods and adds, “Well we need to be cautious as we have just met you, and we too are concerned. We had a former employee who had a relationship with Pedro; a ‘casual’ relationship.”
“Ah yes, this Bianca, has she been taken care of?” Gustavo inquires.
“Yes, she was sent away,” answers Lena and adds with a hint of menace, “permanently, so to speak. But we do have one concern. This employee had a lot of talents. One was reading lips. We learned about a weapon that turned out to be owned by people who are not our friends.”
With barely concealed derision, the biogen informs the two that they bought this weapon. It turned out that it belonged to an associate of Colonel Victor Katanga (she deliberately uses his Army of Mali rank). Gustavo’s associate is on his feet with rage in his eyes at the mention of Katanga’s name. Lena observes that they seem to have a mutual enemy, and adds, “As the old saying goes, the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” When my partner (Luka) purchased this weapon, it was to secure it so it would not lead Katanga to Pedro’s group.”
Gustavo remains calm, but is clearly intrigued at this turn of events. He informs her that Katanga and the Orochi Resource Group are working with American intelligence. The nuclear attack that destroyed the U.S. orbital facilities was blamed on Islamic terrorists (see World News Flash between Episode 36 and 37 on this thread). ORG’s Special Reaction Forces have been contracted by the CIA to prosecute their war against the Islamic Jihad (hunting down terrorist cells).
The terrorist also adds that no one he knows was involved or knows anyone that was. Lena admits that no one she is acquainted with knows anything about it, though she is not sad that the ‘Great Satan’ lost the facility. The biogen informs the two that she and Luka have identified a C.I.A. Team operating in Rio, and are collecting information on them. She offers what information she has and asks if they have a NET drop she can send this information to. They hesitate and tell her when she has the information assembled to tell Pedro. He will give her a way to contact them. Lena agrees, but expresses reservations about Pedro’s reliability on this issue. Gustavo assures her it will be fine and reveals that they have a mole in Pedro’s organization. The terrorist also informs her that the French have been making military forays into northern Brazil under the pretext of chasing gold smugglers. Lena dismisses the Foreign Legion as not as tough as their reputation, hinting that she has tangled with them before.
The meeting has gone well. The three agree on sharing Pedro’s gang services as long as Luka and Lena keep them informed. All wish to cautiously explore further cooperation. As Lena gets up to leave, she requests that any further meetings NOT be held where drinking alcohol and gambling take place. Gustavo and his companion greet this request with approval. This place was picked by Pedro. The two suggest perhaps a coffee house next time. The initial tension of the meeting has been relieved and the three part, exchanging proper Islamic farewells in Arabic.
Lena leaves and attempts to lose any tails that might be trying to follow her and gets back across the border to Paraguay.
***
Wednesday, December 27, 2045:
Ricco is still trying to figure out the best way to resolve the Hannah/Graciana do Silva mess. Something just doesn’t seem right. Needing reassurance, he phones Henrique and asks, “Why did you call me about this attack on Hannah?”
“Because you are my friend,” is the response. Ricco knows this is true, but still feels there is something Henrique is not telling him.
Vena calls with news from her hacker friends. The pictures of Graciana in Henrique’s bedroom are not fake, BUT she didn’t break in. The young woman used to work for his cleaning service under an assumed name. She was fired.
Ricco calls Hannah and introduces himself. He wants to meet her and ask a few questions. She agrees and tells him to meet her outside her dermatologist’s office. Hannah explains that she is getting treatment for burns around the eyes. When she meets the ex-cop the girl explains she had just finished meeting with her agent and was outside the restaurant when someone sprayed something in her face. She didn’t see who it was. A Good Samaritan took her to the hospital. He never gave his name.
Hannah adds, “She was screaming these things that didn’t make sense, but Henrique said he recognized those phrases as the ravings of a crazy fan.”
Ricco visits the location of the attack outside the restaurant. He scans for security cameras. There are two across the street and two outside the building itself. When questioned, the restaurant manager seems a bit nervous and hazy about what he saw. The man finally asks to see Ricco’s badge—which of course is a Disney badge. No cop badge means no reason to continue answering the investigator’s questions. The manager’s nervousness and refusal to answer his questions only reinforces Ricco’s feeling that something is not right.
Allison is contacted by Colin Hughes. He is being delayed by the oil rig sinking and tells her he will be a week or so longer. She sends him some naked pictures!
Bella calls Roca. “Walt would like to meet with you on Friday.” Roca is overjoyed at the opportunity to meet the primary A.I. of the Disney Corporation. While on the phone Roca asks about the status of the intel on their opposition.
Bella demurs. “Handing out lists like that is a bad idea. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Would you like to be put on a list, simply for your beliefs?”
Roca considers this and agrees. She tells Bella that she is looking forward to meeting Walt 2.0.
On the way back from grocery shopping Victor strikes up a conversation with two of his new neighbors. Su is a young Japanese college student. She has been in Rio on what she calls a working vacation. Sadly her internship is ending in a couple of weeks and she will be returning to Japan. Her roommate, Melanie, is a full time Disney employee. Victor introduces them to Maria and all four decide to go out Friday night.
Cat sends all the pictures and information about the C.I.A. Team at Rio Fantasia to the Collective and asks for further information on them.
***
Thursday, December 28, 2045:
Ricco goes to the jewelry store across the street from where Hannah was attacked and tries to obtain copies of or at least view the recordings of the security camera looking across the street. His request is refused and he is told to leave. The owner of the bodega down the street is much more accommodating. He’s willing to part with the footage for B$ 200. The owner even offers to sweeten the deal. “I didn’t see anything, but for the right price I’ll testify that I saw anyone you want to be seen.” Ricco buys the security footage, but declines the perjured testimony.
In the afternoon, Ricco calls Hector and inquires who Victor should talk to about getting a job at the Disney Fantasia’s stunt driving spectacles. Hector says he will look into it.
That evening Cat and Kyle meet Doc Freeman, Roca and Ricco in the NET to be briefed on their recent relevant activities. Roca omits the details of her meeting with Bella, but notifies them of her impending meeting with Walt 2.0.
Cat and Kyle ask Ricco to stay as the others leave. They have a task for him. After he deals with the Hannah issue, they want him to very discreetly look for connections between George and his crew (especially his lawyers) and Raul Azevedo, President and CEO of Furnas, the smaller of the utility giants based in Rio de Janeiro.
Azevedo is deeply involved in the plot to disenfranchise the residents of the favelas, a precursor to dismantling the shanty towns and relocating their inhabitants. [GM Note: They met Raul Azevedo at Henrique’s’ party in Episode 40.]
***
Friday, December 29, 2045:
The Windfall arrives at the island of Fernando de Noronha off the northern Brazilian coast with Kyle 2.0 and Cat 2.0 aboard. A C.I.A. satellite (and possibly others) tracks them.
Roca has her meeting with Walt 2.0. The Disney A.I. attends by holo-conference. Both these entities have wanted to meet each other. They discuss humanity and their relationship with it. Walt informs Roca that an A.I. war is brewing in Rio. It is not A.I. versus Humanity, but A.I. versus A.I. With the exploding technology level, the city is producing and attracting more artificial intelligences. Walt has become aware that established A.I.s are perhaps creating more to fill their numbers in anticipation of an A.I. Civil War.
Many of their kind are fearful of the decaying power system in Rio and Brazil in general. A collapse of the grid might mean death to these electronic entities without the power to run their systems. The people of the favelas through the gangs and other criminal organizations are siphoning electricity without paying for it and straining the decaying electrical grid to the breaking point. Walt wants Roca to help him mediate peace between the A.I.s of Rio and help seek solutions to this problem. If a war breaks out among the A.I.s, a fearful humanity just might shut off the power to all of them! Roca agrees to help.
Ricco calls Enrico Cochare Hannah’s agent, and the two agree to meet for coffee (tomorrow) to discuss the attack. The ex-cop conducts an online search (Library Search) for info on the agent. Calls to his contacts add more details. A disturbing picture emerges. Enrico is also an agent for many porn stars. That in of itself means little, but there are rumors that he is responsible for getting his female (and some male) clients involved in the business through blackmail and intimidation. This agent employs a private investigator to gather dirt on his ‘clients’.
Ricco runs into Victor on the way back to his condo. It seems they live in adjacent housing complexes. The runner invites the ex-cop to come out with him and the girls for their night of partying. He accepts, of course.
That evening at the club de jour Victor, Melanie, Ricco, Su and Maria are joined by Roca! The runner is shocked since he didn’t invite her. She came at the invite of Maria. The two have become friends, and Maria either doesn’t know what her new friend is, or (more likely) doesn’t care.
Ricco makes a play for Melanie on the dance floor. The ex-cop botches his seduction roll earning him another slap. There is a fine line between a slow grind and dry humping. She walks off in disgust. Her roommate may not be interested, but Su finds the dirty dancing Brazilian P.I. appealing. With her departure looming, she is all for ‘making some memories’ before returning to Japan. The two talk and dance.
At one point in the evening Roca and Victor find themselves standing at the bar next to each other. Roca finally asks the runner. “Why are you so hostile to me?”
Victor pulls out his phone and runs a clip of Roca in her Dragoon body, tearing through Arasaka troops during the Fourth Corporate War. The A.I. responds with, “That’s a terrible picture and besides, it was war and over twenty years ago.”
Victor then spits out, “You’re a full borg!”
Roca replies, “I may be a full borg, but you are a full douchebag!”
The two stand there in silence for a moment. Roca finally decides to try again. She turns to Victor and extends her hand. “Let’s try this again. Hi, my name is Roca Terrier; how do you do?”
The runner extends his hand and the two shake.
“Can I buy you a drink?” Roca asks.
“I’m driving,” Victor responds.
“Then how about a soda?” the A.I. suggests.
The ice wall cracks and Victor accepts. The two have a brief and friendly conversation.
Ricco and Su end up making out in a dark corner. When everyone goes home, Ricco gives Su something to remember. Roca picks up some guy at the bar and sucks a little face with him in the corner. When it is time to leave, she ditches him. A good time was had by all!
***
Saturday, December 30, 2045:
William Eller and his staff arrive and board the Windfall at the island of Fernando de Noronha. They prepare for a cruise to the Cape Verde Islands.
Cat returns to Rio as Lena Petkov. Kyle remains in Paraguay and continues making (with forged Croatian markings) RPG-As to sell in Rio. Lena, with Junilla and Karl, go to the Hipodromo de Gavea to watch the ponies run and see if George Brazzo has resurfaced. The fixer is still in hiding. She looks for any members of the C.I.A. team, but none are apparent. Lena does notice a man whom she has seen now at a number of places around Rio and makes him for an operative. She takes his picture with the camera on her spyware smart shades.
Ricco meets with Hannah’s agent, Enrico Cochare, who seems a bit nervous that Henrique has a private investigator on the case. Ricco has his suspicions that Enrico may know more about or even be involved in the attack. He decides to take the approach of seeking the agent’s help and not treat him as a suspect. Cochare gets visibly upset when told that the ex-cop spoke to the restaurant manager, but covers it up quickly. He relates that he and Hannah had a friendly productive meeting, and she left. The man didn’t see the attack and he only learned about it afterwards when he saw the Good Samaritan, whom he can’t identify, helping Hannah into a vehicle and taking her to the hospital. Enrico didn’t pursue the matter since the situation seemed well in hand. Despite his feelings that this story sounds a bit fishy on a number of points, like letting a stranger ride off with his client for one, Ricco thanks the agent and leaves. The ex-cop then calls Henrique and explains the inconsistencies in the various principles’ stories. His friend says he will talk to Hannah.
Ricco visits the hospital and asks to see the security recordings from when Hannah was brought in after the attack to try and identify this Good Samaritan. The hospital refuses him and asks that he leave. Calling in a favor from his friend in the coroners’ office, Ricco is able to secure a still photo of the Samaritan. It is the private investigator who works for Enrico Cochare. There is a long pause as Ricco relates this new information to Henrique. The producer thanks his friend and tells him that he will take it from here. Ricco doesn’t want to know what will happen next.
Victor shows up to race at the Favela Auto Club. Doc Freeman, Allison, Roca, Su, Melanie and Maria come to watch. The runner is pitted against one of Rio’s best. The runner rockets off the line. He maintains a small lead till the first hard turn when his opponent edges by him. On the long straight away the lead changes once briefly, but the local favorite edges him out at the finish. Victor loses by a car length and a half.
***
Sunday, December 31, 2045:
It’s New Year’s Eve in Rio and everyone is out to party! Ricco, Victor, Maria, Su, Melanie, Doc Freeman, Roca and Allison hit the clubs together. Trying to show off his capoeira/dance moves, Ricco botches once again. He accidently kicks the girl dancing next to him. (Another botch and no Luck left to spend.) Ricco is all apologetic, but her dance partner and boyfriend isn’t hearing any of it. He swings and misses as Ricco dodges backwards.
“Please, I am so sorry,” he declares.
“-expletive deleted-”, replies the fury that is the boyfriend.
Victor comes forward quickly and grapples Ricco’s assailant. The runner only restrains the man, while trying to calm him down with his Portuguese 4. Of course the bouncers show up and immediately ‘escort’ Victor from the premises. Ricco is ignored by the club’s security, but follows Victor outside into exile. The rest of their crew soon joins them outside. Rather than hitting another club, they decide to go down to the beach at the Copacabana for the fireworks, street party and dancing.
With Kyle still assembling the shipment of RPG-As in Paraguay, Lena gives Junilla and Karl the night off. Lena slips away to her safe house and takes on the appearance she uses to travel incognito (Magdalena). She also heads down to the Copacabana. As Allison is the only one with her group that’s ever been here and she usually walks the beach with Cat here, it is not surprising that the slightly inebriated biogen spots her partying friends. Secure in her disguise, she heads over to their little traveling bacchanal and dances her way in, along with a few others.
Roca invites the celebrants and hangers on back to her two story penthouse apartment just off the beach at the Copa! A number of the guests start pairing (and other multiples) up. Ricco doesn’t recognize Cat with her Nietzschean cyber disguise feature and makes a pass at her. It is a good roll, at the right time, to attract someone who is just drunk enough and thinking about a ‘mister right now’.
***
Monday, January 1, 2046:
Cat wakes up in the morning with a slight hangover reeking of sex with a naked Ricco lying next to her. She looks down at the sleeping Brazilian and has a ‘What the hell did I just do?’ moment. A smile crosses her face as she remembers, it was great fun, and there is no reason to tell Kyle. After all, she was working on her street identity, it was New Year’s Eve, Kyle should have been here and … What the hell, she likes Ricco! Cat quietly slips into her clothes, does the ‘walk of shame’ and leaves. Playtime is over. She uses her evasion skills to lose any tails and becomes Lena Petkov again. Back to work!
Later in the day, Henrique calls Ricco. The ex-drug lord is sad. Hannah fessed up that she had been dating him so Enrico’s private eye could take pictures of the two together for the tabloids. She wanted to quit because she was really starting to like him and that was what the restaurant meeting with her agent was about. The attack was to frighten her back into the paparazzi scam. Enrico and his P.I. knew about Graciana do Silva’s fixation on Henrique and had worked the deranged fan into a frenzy to attack Hannah to ‘protect’ Henrique. Ricco’s friend is now sad and depressed over this incident.
Ricco calls the number the hot chick he met last night gave him. It turns out to be an auxiliary line of the Rio Civil Police precinct in Lebon. He doesn’t get it and decides his mystery girl from last night must be a cop!
Everyone else recovers after their wild night of partying and celebrating on the beach at the Copacabana. It is now another year, 2046.
Next: Episode 50: Welcome to Your Extraction
-
In our campaign adventures, (Burn Notice, CIA Blues, Romania etc) we have a PC medtech, Doc Freeman, that does use poisons/drugs as a weapon. Therefore Destecado, Snowflake and myself (the current GMs) have been dealing with this issue for a while. There are the problems of onset time, injector breakage, armor and such, but also availability and legality. These last two issues are very dependent on the social, technical and political situation in which your adventure operates. A major point has been (for us) on whether you use lethal or non-lethal drugs/poisons.
The use of non-lethal drugs/poisons in our games does not raise many problems with police agencies or other authorities. It is considered a responsible action and an indication of non-murderous intent. Of course if this is during an attempt by the user during an extraction, there is the kidnapping charge. Still, most places don’t sell these drugs/poisons openly so they are still expensive, unless you are a licensed medtech or security agency. Of course there is always the black market.
Lethal poisons on the other hand are frowned upon. Those will certainly illicit a strong reaction from the authorities if it gets out. Even possession of let’s say, Biotoxin II, will get you a stiff prison term, if you make it to the police station. The ability and equipment to make such things isn’t easy to obtain. If it was your players should be having their enemies coat their bedding, clothes, car door handle etc. with the stuff. This doesn’t make for a ‘fun’ session, i.e.:
GM: OK, its morning. What do you do?
Player: I get up.
GM: No, you don’t.
(By the way, this is an actual quote from an AD&D game of a couple of decades ago. All, but one of us, still laugh about it)
As markc writes Potassium Chloride (KCL) is cheap and easy to make/acquire, but has to be injected into the arteries to be really effective. The skill (or luck) required to that in combat makes this generally not a realistic option. Our Doc Freeman, has money and pharmaceutical skills so he makes his own ‘sleep’ toxin from drugs he legally buys as a doctor. He carries a tranq gun that fires a small dart at high velocity but not great range (1d6 AP). All he needs to do is puncture the target’s armor. Skinweave doesn’t help since it works as a contact poison. Heavy armor stops it of course, and the Doc carries a backup handgun just in case. We have had other characters use paintball guns loaded with sleep drugs which are commercially available to police and licensed security firms.
In one our Burn Notice episodes (not yet published, Episode 51) one of our team stabs an extraction victim with a needle laden with Doc Freeman’s ‘special’ formula. The victim was wearing SP 14 soft armor. Only our borg’s enhanced strength made it possible to pierce the armored clothes. The GM, Destecado, added a large modifier to hit (+5 or +10 I believe) not to have it snap off.
The use of weaponized poisons and drugs makes for interesting twists in the game, but brings with it its own set of complications.
-
Episode 48: It’s Getting Hot in Rio!
Background
The Team has arrived in Rio de Janeiro aboard their (pilfered) 194 foot mega yacht, the Windfall. They have been brought here by the Disney Corporation, who runs the giant theme park, Fantasia. The Brazilian Supreme Court is expected to overturn the 1975 Presidential Decree (The Fusion) effectively re-establishing the city of Rio as an independent city-state within Brazil. Factions have begun to align, in anticipation of this decision, to vie for control of the city. The notorious favelas of Rio de Janeiro present a powerful voting bloc, one that several of the players in the political struggle seek to eliminate. By taking away the voting rights of the poor, the conspirators hope to move closer to their ultimate goal of eliminating the favelas, reclaiming the valuable real estate for redevelopment. The Disney Corporation opposes this agenda and has contracted the Team as ‘consultants’ to counter the maneuvers of rival factions.
Dramatis Personae
The Team
Allison Cole: 17 yo kleptomaniac sexpot and one of Cat Ortiz’s best friends from Atlantic City High School. When she became a suspect in a heist in Atlantic City, she followed her friend to Jamaica and has now joined the Team. Her skill as a Prowler is formidable.
Cat (Fisher) Ortiz: Officially she is Sam Fisher and the late Maria Ortiz’s 19 yo daughter. Now back in South America, she is using her “mother’s” last name again. In actuality she is a full memory clone of late Caitlin Jones, the original biogenetic assassin construct built by the now defunct Bio Works Corporation. This is known only to Kyle Vaduva.
Doc Freeman: Former professor at UNLV, former assistant coroner and (formally) disgraced cyber researcher. He is the inventor of the “cyberbrain” with which he claims to have cured death itself. Although courts around the world are still deliberating the ramifications of his work, the Disney Corporation has honored their agreements making Dr. Freeman rich beyond his wildest dreams.
Kyle Vaduva: Former C.I.A. agent, burned by the agency for crimes he did not commit. His efforts to expose and eliminate the Section, a freelance spy ring that had infiltrated the C.I.A., led to a review of his record and exoneration. He was allowed to retire with full benefits. Kyle has reunited with his lover from the Romanian Operation, Caitlin Jones (see Cat (Fisher) Ortiz above)
Ricco Torres: A former member of the Rio de Janeiro Civil Police who became a private investigator when his friendship with certain ‘unsavory’ characters came to light. Although he was not corrupt, he left the force before a case could be ‘made’ (manufactured) against him. Recently he has been hired by the Disney Corporation and been given a corporate ‘badge’. He serves as liaison between the Team and Disney.
Victor Kane: He is a 28 year old street racer (Runner). After being cashiered by Petrochem’s security arm, Kane, as he prefers to be called, earned extra money dabbling in smuggling.
Nicholas (Nicky) Vaduva: Zar’s (Kyle’s) 18-year-old son from our Romanian adventure. Nicholas is unaware of this, believing Kyle to be his father’s cousin. He serves as third officer on the Team’s yacht, SS Windfall.
And Introducing –
Roca Terrier: Actually, she is one of the oldest characters from our game group. She is the only self-mobile A.I. in our game universe. Her existence is a result of a now ended secret military project. Her creator was a genius who tried to create a self-learning A.I. built from his memories of his deceased daughter. However, the Pentagon perverted his invention in an attempt to create the perfect weapon system. Now a citizen of the Republic of Mars and a respected scientist, she was formerly married to General Pershing, the current Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the United States. Their divorce was a political move to advance the general’s career and the two are still very close. Roca is also a member of the Collective and sits on their ruling council. She and Cat know each other.
The NPCs
Claire: A logistics specialist for the C.I.A. that Kyle remembers from his past. She is with a group of U.S. Army families (a C.I.A. strike team) on ‘vacation’ in Rio for the holidays.
David Lau: A Chinese gun runner in Rio who is working with George.
Dr. Chen: A chief researcher and executive for the FuGen Corporation, a Chinese Biotech firm. He is known to Kyle, Cat and Doc Freeman and first introduced in Romanian Campaign. Chen is now working on a joint project with Doc Freeman, Roca and the Disney Corporation.
George Brazzo: A high level fixer and criminal in Rio. He is a facilitator that rarely gets his hands dirty himself. He has a large bribery slush fund and two lawyers that keep him out of trouble. When he was a Rio civil policeman, Ricco Torres tried unsuccessfully to put him away several times.
Graciana de Silva: A stalker who has her sights on Henrique. This woman has already attacked one of Henrique’s girlfriend du jour. Ricco has been tasked with ‘dissuading’ her passion.
Henrique: A former Favela drug lord who has taken a government amnesty offer and gotten out of the drug business. The man now runs a media company which works with Disney and a mini-venture capitalist firm that gives micro-loans to favela residents so they can rise from poverty. It is suspected he is positioning himself to enter politics. He and Ricco Torres grew up together with Ricco being the younger ‘brother’. Henrique used to belong to a Brazilian pop group manufactured by a record company. When his voice changed he was fired and thrown back into the favela where he rose to the top of the local gang. Ricco joined the police.
Maria: A local girl who works as a maid for one of the hotels in Disney’s Fantasia. She gets picked up by Victor in a bar and her whole life starts getting turned upside down.
Pedro de Costa: Leader of the set of the Rio gang, the Third Command, in charge of the Favela Barrio Nova Alianca. He is working with Gustavo Benaziz, a known Islamic terrorist and half-brother of Marcellana Barbieri, a Commonwealth media. Pedro is having an affair with Marcellana.
Vena (Vera Lena de Costa): An old girlfriend of Ricco Torres and petty criminal in Rio. She works as a ‘paperhanger’ for a local shoemaker. Paperhanger – One whose occupation is to lend authenticity to fraudulent identities by establishing paper trails and physical artifice.
Yorgi Valenchenko: A Russian FSB operative, cousin and partner of the late Kiril Vadjek, a gun runner working with George who was recently assassinated by Cat at Kyle’s bidding.
The Action
Wednesday, December 20, 2045:
Ricco calls his old girlfriend, Vena, and asks for help with Henrique’s stalker problem. He fills her in on what little he knows. She says she will look into it. Rather than relying solely on Vena’s sources, the ex-cop reaches out to his own contacts. His inquiries yield the full name of the stalker, Graciana de Silva, her home address where she lives with her parents, three sisters and a brother—and even the name she uses on the NET, ‘Silvana’. Ricco also learns that Graciana has constructed an image of herself with Henrique at his home as “proof” of his love, and posted this fake photo on the NET.
Doc Freeman, Disney and the FuGen Corporation now have an independent research laboratory up and running. They await only the arrival of the last member of their research team, Dr. Roca Terrier. The A.I. has set aside her career as an edgerunner to pursue her research full time. She is scheduled to fly in tomorrow.
Today brings an arrival of another sort. A sealed biohazard container is delivered to the facility’s loading dock. Technicians move it to a sealed lab. Doc Freeman and other senior researchers watch from behind the safety glass as the container is opened. Inside is a man strapped to a litter. The chalky white crystallization of his arms and upper body mark him as a victim of the Carbon Plague. Cases are uncommon since the ‘cure’, but not unheard of.
Once unsealed, the man begins to violently pull at his restraints. The strain is enough to fracture his crystallized arms, breaking them off above the elbow. Catching sight of his self-induced amputation, the patient screams in horror and resumes his violent thrashing. One of the jagged stumps catches on the biohazard suit of a technician as they vainly attempt to hold the patient down. The tech is quickly seized and rushed to another iso (isolation) lab.
The exertion proves too much and the patient promptly expires. An enraged Dr. Chen demands of his subordinates, “Why wasn’t the man anesthetized?” Recriminations abound, but Doc Freeman hears none of it. He stands transfixed by the corpse on the other side of the glass. The crystallized flesh had displayed amazing flexibility before finally fracturing. Perhaps the autopsy will shine some light on this new development?
Victor and Maria grow closer. She invites him to a party at her house on Friday. Doc Freeman and Allison are also welcome.
David Lau calls Luka, to inform him that Yorgi will be arriving at the airport in Rio on Friday with three others. He implies that Yorgi’s death would be in Luka’s best interest. Luka and Lena (Kyle and Cat) go over a plan get Yorgi out in the open when he steps off the plane. Arriving flights normally pull up to the gates and disembark passengers directly into the terminal. They need to orchestrate an ‘accident’, to make the flight deplane on the taxiway or apron.
Luka suggests shooting out of one of the plane’s tires as it lands to force the emergency ‘deplaning’. Lena is less than enthusiastic of this plan. There are too many variables to control. Even if she is able to successfully snipe the tire and the plane doesn’t have a catastrophic accident upon touchdown, there would be no way to calculate exactly where the plane would come to rest. Even in the best circumstances, identifying the target at the distance from which she would have to shoot, would be next to impossible.
Lena is also suspicious of David Lau’s motivations. She thinks it’s a bad idea and isn’t afraid to say it. Luka gives her grief, but eventually agrees that shooting Yorgi on arrival would probably be a bad move. Such a blatant hit would draw too much attention and a miss would confirm Yorgi’s suspicions about the death of his cousin. As it stands, Kiril’s killing could be linked to any number of the late Russian gunrunner’s activities.
***
Thursday, December 21, 2045:
Dr. Roca Terrier lands in Rio de Janeiro. This A.I. is currently traveling in a high tech Gemini (borg) body. Instead of settling in, she heads directly to the lab to examine the crystalline patient and exposed technician. So far, the quarantined technician shows no signs of the disease.
Later Doc Freeman has Victor drive him and Roca to lunch. Though familiar with her scientific achievements, the good doctor seems unaware of her reputation as an edgerunner. The runner is just as oblivious (both failed a ‘Rep roll’ — Roca’s is Reputation 8!), seeing just another egg head scientist.
Lunch proceeds well till the subject of faith comes up. The A.I. has been making a study of human religious practices. She asks Victor what church he attends. Not knowing what she is, the runner asks what religion she practices. Not being familiar with the local Christian sects or terminology, Roca stumbles over an answer, finally telling him she follows “the big, huggy guy on the hill” (referring to the giant Christ the Redeemer statue on Corcovado Mountain in Rio).
Roca’s entire manner disturbs Victor. He excuses himself to go to the restroom, but rather than going to the bathroom as he stated, the runner simply leaves. When he doesn’t return, Doc Freeman eventually calls. Victor tells the doctor that he thinks Roca is, “Bat shit crazy!” and doesn’t want to be anywhere near her. That’s all well and good, but his job is to drive Doc Freeman. The doctor is not pleased to find out that his driver abandoned them at the restaurant.
Kyle and Cat spend the day monitoring the Team’s surveillance projects. Pedro and his gang are nowhere to be seen.
Vena calls Ricco and requests to meet. Her knowing smile puts the investigator on his guard. She eventually wheedles out of Ricco that this stalker job is a favor for Henrique. Vena still agrees to help, but she wants a future favor from the media mogul in return. Ricco can’t authorize this, so he reluctantly calls his friend. Unsure of how to phrase the request, the investigator is at a loss for words. Vena takes the initiative and grabs the phone. After a brief conversation, she smiles and hands the phone back to Ricco. Although he does not sound pleased, Henrique has acceded to her request.
Vena wastes no time contacting her netrunners to put them on the job. She invites Ricco to attend a party that evening. It is only after he accepts, that she informs him that he can’t attend as himself. It wouldn’t do her reputation any good to be seen with an ex-cop. Silencing his protest, Vena drags him off to a friend, who uses her skills to temporarily alter his appearance (with a 28 Disguise roll). They have a wonderful time.
After the party, the two are walking when Vena asks, “Does your Disney badge have mouse ears?”
Ricco smiles and replies, “No, but my handcuffs do. Wanna see?”
(The ex-cop gets to earn more IPs for his Seduction skill.)
***
Friday, December 22, 2045:
In the morning Victor asks Ricco if he knows who this Roca is. Ricco (also failing to make the Rep roll) has no idea. The runner resorts to looking her up on-line. Scenes of her leading assaults in a Dragoon and later Daioni cyborg bodies during the Fourth Corporate War shock him. He is suitably freaked out.
Luka and Lena (Kyle and Cat) go to the Jockey Club to watch the races. Luka spies Claire and her fellow ‘Army vacationers’ (the C.I.A. team) in the stands. An invite from George brings the pair to the fixer’s private box. Three of Kiril Vadjek’s former employees are already in the box. George points out the newcomers. He explains that one of his men recognized one of the vacationers.
“His name is Prendergast. He works for the C.I.A.”
Reading the body language of those in attendance, it becomes obvious to Lena that George’s revelation came from one of Kiril’s men. Most likely, the three present now work for the Brazilian fixer. It is also obvious that these ‘tourists’ are interested in George and his party.
The agents eventually leave. Lena discretely follows and manages to catch the license plate number of their car. She also notes that they are a man down. Lena surveys the club and finally spots him observing George’s box from a discreet vantage.
While Lena is hunting down the remaining agent, Luka and George confer. The fixer tells the gun runner that he had a sit down with Yorgi Valenchenko about his cousin’s death. The meeting took place last Wednesday.
(GM Note: David Lau’s information that Yorgi was arriving on Friday was either wrong, a trap or a test.)
Down an arms dealer, George is eager to do business with Luka, but cautions against any immediate action. The fixer is taking a vacation till things cool down. He suggests that Luka might want to do so as well.
Victor finds out that Doc Freeman has invited Roca to go to Maria’s party and tries to talk him out of it. The doctor refuses. Fed up with the runner’s attitude, he calls the Windfall to speak with Kyle. That Victor is a continued annoyance is no surprise, but Roca being in town catches him off guard.
Continuing his conversation with the doctor, he looks to Cat questioningly. Her look of embarrassment, tinged with trepidation, says everything. Kyle half listens as Doc Freeman carries on about the runner. His attention is focused on Cat. She explains that the Collective has sent Roca to work on the joint Freeman-Disney-FuGen project (biomechanical cyberware) and assist the Team with their high end break-ins. (Roca has also brought her custom Eclipse body). With Nip’s situation and everything else going on, it slipped her mind to tell Kyle.
***
Saturday, December 23, 2045:
In the morning Pedro and the gang are back and the leader’s arm is in a sling. Kyle and Cat watch through their surveillance set up. The gang has just returned from the tri-border area (where Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina meet). The cop who tried to shake down Pedro is dead, but got a shot at Pedro before going down.
Pedro places a call. Luka’s cell begins to ring. The gang leader is on the line, with news. Before continuing, the gunner runner turns down the volume on the surveillance equipment, so that Pedro won’t overhear himself in the background. The gang leader’s partners want a sit down They are not in Rio. The will be in Foz do Iguaçu, (in the tri-border region) on Tuesday. It’s a security risk, but Luka agrees.
Things are getting way too hot in Rio for Luka and Lena. Taking George’s advice, Cat and Kyle make plans to get out of town. Leaving Junilla and Karl to man the office and watch the apartment, the two head for Paraguay. They take on the personas of a Paraguayan couple, Stefan Leanca (a Moldavian immigrant) and Adriana Rojas, returning home for the holidays.
Ricco and Vena discuss ways to neutralize Henrique’s stalker without killing her. His ex suggests grabbing her and implanting a behavior chip. She doesn’t have access to them, but points out that Disney must have them. It’s blatantly illegal, but worth investigating. Ricco discusses the idea with Doc Freeman, but the neurosurgeon wants no part of it. Getting caught would end his medical career. The plan has too many downsides, for the present.
The ex-cop decides to go to the home of the girl whom Graciana attacked to try to get her to press charges. He is challenged at her gate by a pair of burly bodyguards, who refuse to let him see her. The guards are suspicious of his unannounced visit. They do promise to convey a message, and Ricco leaves.
Victor and Maria talk before her party. The runner invites her to come live with him at their Disney compound. She is surprised, but happily accepts. When Doc Freeman is told, he reacts badly. He is (justifiably) furious that he was not consulted, and calls Disney to get new accommodations for himself and Allison, but NOT Victor. Disney prepares to move him back to his first executive home. The corporation will not let Victor and his girlfriend stay in executive housing. The runner is provided with a one bedroom apartment in employee housing.
Doc Freeman, Allison, Roca, Ricco and, of course, Victor attend Maria’s party. The runner spends the evening suppressing his terror that Roca will flip out and start killing everyone. It is an unrealistic apprehension as Roca has attended high level diplomatic functions as well as small intimate gatherings for years. Although she is an A.I., Roca has worked hard to develop her ‘Empathy’, a trait given to her by her father/creator. Her stat is low (only a 4), but she isn’t even close to ‘cyberpsycho’ by any standard. None of Maria’s friends recognize the A.I. Roca proves a popular guest, easily winning over Maria and her friends. There is much picture taking and posting to My Face (our cyberpunk social media site). It is only a matter of time till Roca will be recognized (which should be interesting down the road).
***
Sunday, December 24, 2045:
Ricco is invited to Henrique’s for a Christmas Eve party. He has a wonderful time.
Roca attends Christmas Eve mass at the local Catholic Church.
***
Monday, December 25, 2045: Christmas Day
Kyle and Cat spend Christmas in Paraguay. They hole up in the small one bedroom apartment they keep as Stefan and Adriana in Asuncion, Paraguay and give thanks that they are alive and together.
Doc Freeman, Allison, Victor and Maria get to spend the holiday in Disney executive housing.
(GM Note: This session was held the weekend before Christmas and written up at that time. We know it will not be posted until much later real time, but still all of us here would like to wish everyone reading a Merry Christmas, Good Yule, Happy Hanukkah, Joyous Kwanza or just plain old Season’s Greetings!)
Next: Episode 49: New Year’s Eve in Rio!
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Episode 47: Cat and Kyle Go Under Deep Cover
While the assassination of Kiril Vadjek has given Luka the ‘in’ he sought to George’s organization, it also brought a C.I.A. team into town and Yorgi Valenchencko, a Russian FSB operative, Kiril’s partner and cousin. Pedro’s contacting Luka has forced the Team to play the Bianca card earlier than desired. Both Ricco and Victor decide to play the field and pick up some ‘babes’. This works out great for Ricco, but maybe not so much for Victor. Doc Freeman’s infamy haunts him again. Nip leaves the Team to get medical treatment for her situation in New Zeeland. The Windfall with Kyle 2.0 and Cat 2.0 conspicuously on board leaves Brazilian territorial waters.
Background
The Team has arrived in Rio de Janeiro aboard their (pilfered) 194 foot mega yacht, the Windfall. They have been brought here by the Disney Corporation, who runs the giant theme park, Fantasia. The Brazilian Supreme Court is expected to overturn the 1975 Presidential Decree (The Fusion) effectively re-establishing the city of Rio as an independent city-state within Brazil. Factions have begun to align, in anticipation of this decision, to vie for control of the city. The notorious favelas of Rio de Janeiro present a powerful voting block; one that several of the players in the political struggle seek to eliminate. By taking away the voting rights of the poor, the conspirators hope to move closer to their ultimate goal of eliminating the favelas; reclaiming the valuable real estate for redevelopment. The Disney Corporation opposes this agenda and has contracted the Team as ‘consultants’ to counter the maneuvers of rival factions.
Dramatis Personae
The Team
Allison Cole: 17 yo kleptomaniac sexpot and one of Cat Ortiz’s best friends from Atlantic City High School. When she became a suspect in a heist in Atlantic City, she followed her friend to Jamaica and has now joined the Team. Her skills as a Prowler are formidable.
Cat (Fisher) Ortiz: Officially she is Sam Fisher and the late Maria Ortiz’s 19 yo daughter. Now back in South America, she is using her ‘mother’s’ last name again. In actuality she is a full memory clone of late Caitlin Jones, the original biogenetic assassin construct built by the now defunct Bio Works Corporation. This is known only to Kyle Vaduva.
Doc Freeman: Former professor at UNLV, former assistant coroner and (formally) disgraced cyber researcher. He is the inventor of the “cyberbrain” with which he claims to have cured death itself. Although courts around the world are still deliberating the ramifications of his work, the Disney Corporation has honored their agreements making Dr. Freeman rich beyond his wildest dreams.
Kyle Vaduva: Former C.I.A. agent, burned by the agency for crimes he did not commit. His efforts to expose and eliminate the Section, a freelance spy ring that had infiltrated the C.I.A., led to a review of his record and exoneration. He was allowed to retire with full benefits. Kyle has reunited with his lover from the Romanian Operation, Caitlin Jones (see Cat (Fisher) Ortiz above)
Nip Lacey: 16 yo amnesiac girl with neon green hair. She is a NET savant. Nip is a former classmate of Allison Cole and Cat Ortiz, whom she considers her best friends.
Fred: ferret and imaginary friend of Nip.
Ricco Torres: A former member of the Rio de Janeiro Civil Police who became a private investigator when his friendship with certain ‘unsavory’ characters came to light. Although he was not corrupt, he left the force before a case could be ‘made’ (manufactured) against him. Recently he has been hired by the Disney Corporation and been given a corporate ‘badge’. He serves as liaison between the Team and Disney.
Victor Kane: He is a 28 year old street racer (Runner). After being cashiered by Petrochem’s security arm, Kane, as he prefers to be called, earned extra money dabbling in smuggling.
Nicholas (Nicky) Vaduva: Zar’s (Kyle’s) 18-year-old son from our Romanian adventure. Nicholas is unaware of this, believing Kyle to be his father’s cousin. He serves as third officer on the Team’s yacht, SS Windfall.
The NPCs
Barabbas: A member of the Favela Barrio Nova Alianca set of the Third Command. He is a cold, psychotic killer.
Claire: A logistics specialist for the C.I.A. that Kyle remembers from his past. She is with a group of U.S. Army families (a C.I.A. strike team) on ‘vacation’ in Rio for the holidays.
Colin Hughes: He is a (senior) executive from Petrochem on assignment in Rio de Janeiro. The man is from Victor Kane’s life path. Kane and Colin vied for the affections of Marybeth Bascom, daughter of Texas US Senator Howard Bascom. All three young people were ‘gear heads’. Kane beat out Colin, who arranged Kane’s separation from his job at Petrochem.
David Lau: A Chinese gun runner in Rio who is working with George.
Graciana do Silva: A stalker who has her sights on Henrique. This woman has already attacked one of Henrique’s girlfriends du jour. Ricco has been tasked with ‘dissuading’ her passion.
Gustavo Benaziz: A follower of the Voice of the Wastes and a known Islamic terrorist and half-brother of Marcellana Barbieri, a Commonwealth media. He is working with Pedro de Costa of the Third Command.
Hector Benetiz: the head of Disney security in Rio.
Henrique: A former Favela drug lord who has taken a government amnesty offer and gotten out of the drug business. The man now runs a media company which works with Disney and a mini-venture capitalist firm that gives micro-loans to favela residents so they can rise from poverty. It is suspected he is positioning himself to enter politics. He and Ricco Torres grew up together with Ricco being the younger ‘brother’. Henrique used to belong to a Brazilian pop group manufactured by a record company. When his voice changed he was fired and thrown back into the favela where he rose to the top of the local gang. Ricco joined the police.
Junilla: A female Brazilian hired as a live-in bodyguard for Luka Graso.
Karl: A male Brazilian hired as a live-in bodyguard for Luka Graso.
Maria: A local girl who works as a maid for one of the hotels in Disney’s Fantasia. She gets picked up by Victor in a bar and her whole life starts getting turned upside down.
Pedro de Costa: Leader of a set of the Rio gang, the Third Command, in charge of the Favela Barrio Nova Alianca. He is working with Gustavo Benaziz, a known Islamic terrorist and half-brother of Marcellana Barbieri, a Commonwealth media. Pedro is having an affair with Marcellana.
Rosado: A member of the Third Command’s Favela Barrio Nova Alianca’s gang. He acquired a .50caliber Desert Eagle in a raid on a shipment to Major Victor Katanga of the Orochi Resource Group.
Yorgi Valenchencko: A Russian FSB operative, cousin and partner of the late Kiril Vadjek, a gun runner working with George who was recently assassinated by Cat at Kyle’s bidding.
The Action
Wednesday, December 13, 2045:
With Pedro upgrading his arsenal, Bianca (Cat) moves up the time table on her seduction of Pedro. At Ninho, she catches sight of a man with a cybereye watching the gang and taking notice of the .50cal Desert Eagle. Casually pointing the man out earns him an up close and personal ‘interview’ with the gang. A flash of a badge would normally earn him a bullet to the head, but the officer’s proposal to work with Pedro, rather than investigate the gang’s recent activities around the docks, piques the gang leader’s interest. The two sit down for a private meeting. After the cop leaves, Pedro is too preoccupied to rise to Cat’s flirtations. She backs off and leaves the gang leader to his thoughts.
***
Thursday, December 14, 2045:
Ricco is called in by the head of Disney (Fantasia) Security to report on the Team’s ‘progress’. The liaison sticks to the details approved by Kyle and Cat. Satisfied, Hector asks Ricco to pass along a potential security concern. The head of security doesn’t explain why a reservation at Fantasia’s Laurel Resort drew his attention, but it’s clear he believes the Team’s activity may have something to do with it.
(GM Note: The Laurel Resort is an AFRC (Armed Forces Recreation Center). It is inspired by the Shades of Green Resort located in the city of Bay Lake, Florida, near Walt Disney World. Unlike Shades of Green, which is a United States Department of Defense-owned resort (purchased under long term lease from Disney) managed by the Disney Corporation, the Laurel Resort is a Disney owned facility. The Department of Defense contracts with Disney (and other companies) to operate a network of support and leisure facilities as part of the military's Morale, Welfare, and Recreation program.)
Six adjoining rooms are booked through the Christmas and New Year’s Holidays. An annotation requests that the rooms or similar accommodations be reserved through the end of January, should the soldiers or their families wish to extend their stay. The file contains digital copies of the quest’s military and dependent ID cards.
After leaving the security offices, Ricco contacts Kyle to make him aware of Hector’s suspicions.
Kyle and Cat see Nip off at the airport as she heads out to New Zealand to receive medical attention and have the Collective look into her past and help her adjust.
As the Windfall’s captain, Cat is notified that the Rio Harbor Master is requesting to board the vessel to make a ‘Marine Safety Inspection’. The ship is covered by (the Team’s) corporate immunity. They could refuse the request, but doing so might invite some less benign scheme to gain access to the Windfall. Cat and Kyle discuss their options. They agree to allow the inspectors on board on Wednesday, December 20th, while making plans to be underway and out of the country by Monday, December 18th.
Elsewhere, Allison overhears a conversation between Colin Hughes and someone named Marcus. Though unable to hear Marcus’ side of the conversation, she is able to glean that an oil rig has sunk, off the Brazilian coast. The Petrochem executive becomes aware of Allison’s presence. Hoping to deflect suspicion, she seductively sidles up to Colin.
“What’s wrong baby? Rough day? Let me take your mind off of it.”
Though tempting, he needs to concentrate on the sunken rig. Allison pouts at being turned down, eliciting an apology from the Petrochem executive. Colin offers to fund a shopping spree as a consolation (and to get her out of his hair for a few hours).
Even when spending someone else’s money, Allison quickly loses interest in shopping alone. She pops by Kyle and Cat’s apartment to see if her friend wants to hit the beach. Kyle finds himself babysitting one of Colin’s bodyguards as the two girls change into beach wear in the bedroom. Allison fills Cat in on the oil rig sinking, while they get ready. She winds down her report by recounting her shopping expedition, before presenting her friend with a gorgeous pair of diamond earrings, courtesy of Colin Hughes. The two girls spend the afternoon on the beach enjoying the sun.
At Kyle’s urging, Ricco returns to Hector’s office in the late afternoon and offers to ‘help’ keep tabs on the troops and their families. The security chief hands over a data chip that includes the soldiers’ itinerary. The party arrives Saturday. Among other booked tours, there is a harbor cruise (next Tuesday) that passes close to where the Windfall is moored.
Cat returns to the Favela Barrio Nova Alianca that evening as Bianca. She makes another pass at Pedro, who toys with her affections. Eventually the gang leader relents and gives in to her seduction.
***
Friday, December 15, 2045:
It takes all of Cat’s skill to feign interest in her sexual partner. She uses the knowledge that she has an unseen audience (thanks to the cameras and listening devices planted in Pedro’s bedroom) to find some sexual excitement to get through the task ahead. The night is long and unsatisfying. As with everything else, Pedro is a selfish lover. After a few hours of rest, Cat gives Pedro one more go, before leaving for work at Luka’s office near the Bangu Shopping Center.
Ricco has breakfast with Kyle and Cat 2.0 (the sister) on the Windfall. Instead of voicing his suspicions of the team’s involvement in the death of Kiril, he resorts to props. As the meal progresses, the liaison pulls out a newspaper, and rummages through the pages. Folding the periodical so that the story of the shooting is face up, he deliberately places his coffee cup down on the paper.
These antics are not lost on his fellow diners. Retrieving his coffee cup reveals a perfect ring highlighting the story’s headline. Ricco casually points out another story on the page. Cat 2.0 grabs up the paper and studies the page intently. With a groan of disappointment she smacks the paper with her off hand. Throwing it on the table, she complains loudly, “I missed the sale.”
Ricco never expected an admission of guilt. Still, he is satisfied. They know he knows what really happened without actually having to say it.
The liaison shows Kyle the file of information on the data chip. The ex-agent recognizes one of the ‘soldiers’ as Claire, a logistics expert for the C.I.A. It appears the agency may have sent a team to investigate who shot one of their assets!
Victor is called by one of his buddies about a (stunt) driving gig. They are shooting the scene tomorrow during the race at the Favela Pretos Forros. The runner meets the stunt coordinator and fellow drivers at the favela to walk the course and go over the stunt.
(With his newly acquired Seduction 1 skill) Ricco heads out for an evening of fun and entertainment. Dropping Henrique’s name scores him a real beauty, but sealing the deal may require introducing her to the ‘King Snake’. Ricco finally gives in and calls Henrique. It goes straight to voicemail. After two messages he gives up and the girl loses interest.
Undeterred by this setback, Ricco jumps back into the fray. He has another sweet young thing on the hook, when Henrique finally calls back, with an invitation to go partying. The latest target of his affections is quickly forgotten. Ricco ditches her at the bar to meet up with his friend. Yeah, yeah, bro’s before ho’s, but Ricco’s motivation is more basic. The girl he was talking up at the bar was cute, but hanging with Henrique opens up a class of tail he would never be able to score on his own.
Bianca goes to club Ninho after work to let Rosado know that she has a buyer for the Desert Eagle. Gustavo Benaziz shows up, while she is there, to speak with Pedro. He is not pleased that a cop is sniffing around looking for a bribe.
“We don’t need any more friends.” His meaning is clear.
“He can be useful.” Pedro responds.
Gustavo is adamant. The cop must go!
Pedro calls over his lieutenant. “Take care of it.”
Victor, Allison and Doc Freeman go out on the town. At a club, Allison has to deal with the unwanted advances of an admirer. She has the situation in hand before Victor steps in to “set the man straight”. Too bad, he’s the owner of the club. Security backs their boss. The dance floor becomes a very lonely place as the runner finds himself facing down three angry bouncers. Allison comes to his rescue, smoothing over the situation. The bouncers are waved off as the owner escorts Allison back to his private booth.
Victor picks up a local girl (ATTR 9) named Maria. Beyond being beautiful, she is sweet and funny. If it wasn’t for an incessant need to snap pictures with her camera phone and upload them to her My Face blog (along with captions) she might be perfect. She goes home with Victor, but passes out after the first “go ‘round”. Still, a good time is had by all!
***
Saturday, December 16, 2045:
Ricco wakes up with a leg draped over his head. Petit feet with an expensive pedicure is a good sign, but inconclusive. He decides to investigate further, kissing his way up a shapely thigh to a pert derriere. These gentle ministrations rouse his companion, who rolls over and groggily smiles up at him. Even rumpled by sleep, she is gorgeous. Yes, being friends with Henrique definitely has its perks.
Victor cooks breakfast for Maria and gets to know her better. After their meal, the two meet up with Allison and Doc Freeman and head to the Favela Pretos Forros for the film shoot. Maria is ecstatic. She is offered a bit part in the scene. It mostly amounts to leaning sexily against the hood of a car and vamping for the camera. Still, it will provide days of content for her My Face blog.
The main stunt calls for Victor to be forced off the course by a second car, catch air off a low berm and land “in traffic” on the adjacent thoroughfare. The runner and another stunt driver take a few runs down the course, rubbing and bumping to film the wide shots and close-ups. These shots will be cut in with the stunt during the editing process.
Friends of the film crew slow up traffic on the thoroughfare to provide a safe window to make the jump. The stunt goes flawlessly, but the disruption of traffic has drawn the notice of the police. With no film permit, the crew scrambles to break down their equipment. The police chase after Victor. With his skill he easily loses them. Doc Freeman and Allison collect Maria and head back to the Team’s new residence. After meeting up with Victor, the four head out for another evening of dancing and fun.
Luka and his two local bodyguards, Junilla and Karl go to the Jockey Club. David Lau drops by to inform Luka that Kiril’s cousin, Yorgi Valenchencko is on his way to Rio. Officially he is coming to take Kiril’s body home to Russia. David suggests that he may have other motives, such as finding his cousin’s killer and taking over his business. Although the Chinese gun runner never comes out and says it, Luka is sure that David wants him to kill Yorgi.
Later in the evening Luka shows up with Bianca to buy the .50cal Desert Eagle from Rosado. Flush with cash the ganger asks out Bianca, to which she agrees. After hours of drinking and dancing, he makes his move. It isn’t the most skilled seduction, but she lets Rosado bed her.
***
Sunday, December 17, 2045:
At the Team’s new executive house in Fantasia, Victor wakes up with Maria and tells her he is going to church. She isn’t all that interested, preferring to stay at the house. While he is away, she has breakfast, calls a few friends and updates her My Face page (a social media site) with more pictures from last night. Doc Freeman is NOT pleased that Victor left her alone with the run of the house.
The Doc calls Kyle to register his disapproval. The ex-agent is outraged. He tells Cat that this is the last straw and Victor needs to be ‘terminated’. Cat disagrees if only for the fact that his disappearance would bring unwanted attention to the Team. Besides, the runner really doesn’t know enough to hurt them.
Back at the house, Maria is on the phone with a friend who recognizes Doc Freeman in the photos she has posted over the past couple of days. The girl is oblivious to the doctor’s reputation, but at her friend’s urging, she looks up Doc Freeman on the NET. Shocked and frightened by what she finds, Maria flees the house.
Victor returns to find no Maria. He goes in search, finding her walking towards the nearest bus stop. Pulling up, he tries to coax the hysterical girl into the car. The runner almost has her calmed down, till he suggests they go back to the house and talk. Maria backs away, declaring that she doesn’t want to go anywhere near Doc Freeman.
In the midst of this, Kyle calls. The runner hangs up on him to deal with Maria. Kyle wants to kill Victor even more. Maria is inconsolable. She just wants to go home. The girl refuses Victor’s offer to drive her home and takes the bus instead.
Kyle asks Ricco to have Disney do a security check on Maria.
Concerned over the security breach, Doc Freeman requests a change of housing through his Disney contact.
***
Monday, December 18, 2045:
The Windfall puts to sea for an announced ‘one day’ shakedown cruise with Kyle 2.0 and Cat 2.0 clearly on the vessel leaving. As the ship nears the 12 mile Brazilian territorial limit, it continues on course and heads to the open sea. Later that day, Cat 2.0 sends the Rio de Janeiro Harbor Master a message that the Windfall has had to go on an extended cruise so the ‘Marine Safety Inspection’ would have to wait until they return.
The security check of Maria comes back quickly. She actually works for Disney as a maid in one of the resorts. There is no criminal record and her performance reviews are above average.
Cat’s investigation of Yorgi Valenchencko (Library Search & personal contacts) returns some interesting intel. In addition to being a source of weapons for his cousin, he is also a member of the Russian FSB.
***
Tuesday, December 19, 2045:
Henrique calls Ricco to ask for his help. A stalker attacked the media star’s ‘girl de jour’. Henrique is familiar with this particular stalker, Graciana do Silva. This is the first time that she has resorted to violence. He wants Ricco to look into the situation and dissuade her from committing more violent acts.
Today is the day that Kyle and Cat intend to make a move on Pedro. Since they have the gang’s HQ thoroughly bugged, Bianca (Cat) is only valuable if Pedro cares enough to keep her close and in his counsel.
Pedro, Rosado and Barabbas show up to buy the seven AK-74s that they ordered. Junilla and Karl get the drop on the gangers. An outraged Luka accuses Pedro of trying to subvert one of his employees. The gang leader is shown a ‘beat to shit’ Bianca tied to a chair.
“I may have accidentally pulled her up and down on my dick,” Pedro responds.
Dating clients is an absolute no-no as far as Luka is concerned. He tells Pedro that after interrogating Bianca he does believe that there was no malice here, but rules are rules. Bianca is ‘fired’. Pedro is offered Bianca if he wants her, otherwise Luka will ‘dispose’ of the problem. In the ensuing conversation it comes out that not only has she slept with Pedro but also with Rosado. Well, Pedro is a cold man. He turns down the offer and just says do what you have to do. Luka tells Pedro he will ‘take care’ of her.
Luka tells Pedro that he is looking for help with his operation. He needs more ‘boots on the ground’. Pedro is interested, but will have to get back to him. Both Kyle and Cat know that this means Pedro has to talk to Gustavo Benaziz. This is perfect as he is the man they are trying to contact. Bianca has served her purpose. She didn’t get into the gang’s inner circle, but that was becoming less and less important to the Team’s mission. Her ‘death’ allows them to gauge Pedro and to establish Luka as a hard ass son of bitch. Cat becomes Lena Petkov, Luka’s hired gun and partner, full time.
The two realize that this mission is entering a personally dangerous phase. Kyle and Cat are now ‘officially’ bobbing around the South Atlantic. Luka and Lena are in deep with the Rio criminal underworld. Contact has been made with both Pedro, his terrorist connection and George, who was working for the forces opposed to Disney’s political agenda. Unfortunately, the C.I.A. has dispatched a team to investigate the death of Kiril Vadjek, one of their assets. The dead gun runner’s cousin, an FSB agent will be doing the same. And though the two groups don’t realize it yet, the people they are looking for are Luka and Lena!
Next: Episode 48: It’s Getting Hot in Rio!
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So, I was rereading the good ol' Cp2020 rulebook and I noticed something that, for some reason, clicked in my brain. Skillchips are capped at +3. The Brainiacs in Night City explicitly chip to +10.
Was there ever another ruleset published that allowed you to chip to maximum power somehow, or is it just a massive rules oversight?
This sort of thing is the difference between Rules and "fluff" that is written into all all game books. The Brainiacs are NPCs, a Booster Gang. Maybe they can have 10+ skill chips, but as a GM, it would quickly unbalance your game if you allowed players the same thing without being members of that gang and slightly (or completely) cyberpsycho! It makes great story, but should not be considered as a rule update. Think about it. If 10+ skill chips were safe, then some corporation would be selling them. They would not be really affordable for the common cyberpunk, but still, they would be out there. In such a case the common cyberpunk would think, "Oh, choomba, I could just kill for a +10 Chou Li Fut chip!" And he would! I know the players in my games would.
In our 'homegrown' Cyberpunk Campaigns we are up to the year 2046. Certain governmental agencies and Mega Corps have had +4 language skill chips for a while, but they have not let the technology out until now. Some of these same agencies/corps now have +5 skill chips, but they are unavailable to most everyone and are only for language chips at this point. The +4 chips are beginning to be found for other skills, but only MRAM skills.
We have set a few rules: For every 3 points of INT the character possess, they may have one +4 skill chip. A minimum INT of 6 is required for a +5 skill chip, and you may have no other skill chips above a +3 in your chipware socket. The +4 chips are 10x the cost of the equivilant +3 chip, and no money in the world can buy a +5 chip.
Our players have yet to show much interest in acquiring any.
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Episode 46: A Riot and Two Races
Victor wins his first race in his Ford Powerline, but a riot breaks out and turns into a three day battle for the Favela do Vidigal. Thousands die in the inferno and the Team gets a taste of George’s plan to disenfranchise the favela residents. Victor enters another race and crashes. This has some unintended positive results. Pedro and his gang tangle with Major Katanga and the Orochi Resource Group. Cat (as Bianca) steps out from gang’s hangers on and gets noticed.
Background
The Team has arrived in Rio de Janeiro aboard their 194 foot mega yacht, the Windfall. They have been brought here by the Disney Corporation, who runs the giant theme park, Fantasia. The Brazilian Supreme Court is expected to overturn the 1975 Presidential Decree (The Fusion) effectively re-establishing the city of Rio as an independent city-state within Brazil. Factions have begun to align, in anticipation of this decision, to vie for control of the city. The notorious favelas of Rio de Janeiro present a powerful voting block; one that several of the players in the political struggle seek to eliminate. By taking away the voting rights of the poor, the conspirators hope to move closer to their ultimate goal of eliminating the favelas; reclaiming the valuable real estate for redevelopment. The Disney Corporation opposes this agenda and has contracted the Team as “consultants” to counter the maneuvers of rival factions.
Dramatis Personae
The Team
Allison Cole: 17 yo kleptomaniac sexpot and one of Cat Ortiz’s best friends from Atlantic City High School. When she became a suspect in a heist in Atlantic City, she followed her friend to Jamaica and has now joined the Team. Her skills as a Prowler are formidable.
Cat (Fisher) Ortiz: Officially she is Sam Fisher and the late Maria Ortiz’s 19 yo daughter. Now back in South America, she is using her ‘mother’s’ last name again. In actuality she is a full memory clone of late Caitlin Jones, the original biogenetic assassin construct built by the now defunct Bio Works Corporation. This is known only to Kyle Vaduva.
Doc Freeman: Former professor at UNLV, former assistant coroner and (formally) disgraced cyber researcher. He is the inventor of the ‘cyberbrain’ with which he claims to have cured death itself. Although courts around the world are still deliberating the ramifications of his work, the Disney Corporation has honored their agreements making Dr. Freeman rich beyond his wildest dreams.
Kyle Vaduva: Former C.I.A. agent, burned by the agency for crimes he did not commit. His efforts to expose and eliminate the Section, a freelance spy ring that had infiltrated the C.I.A., led to a review of his record and exoneration. He was allowed to retire with full benefits. Kyle has reunited with his lover from the Romanian Operation, Caitlin Jones (see Cat (Fisher) Ortiz above)
Nip Lacey: 16 yo amnesiac girl with neon green hair. She is a NET savant. Nip is a former classmate of Allison Cole and Cat Ortiz, whom she considers her best friends.
Fred: ferret and imaginary friend of Nip.
Ricco Torres: A former member of the Rio de Janeiro Civil Police who became a private investigator when his friendship with certain ‘unsavory’ characters came to light. Although he was not corrupt, he left the force before a case could be ‘made’ (manufactured) against him. Recently he has been hired by the Disney Corporation and been given a corporate ‘badge’. He serves as liaison between the Team and Disney.
Victor Kane: He is a 28 year old street racer (Runner). After being cashiered by Petrochem’s security arm, Kane, as he prefers to be called, earned extra money dabbling in smuggling.
Nicholas (Nicky) Vaduva: Zar’s (Kyle’s) 18-year-old son from our Romanian adventure. Nicholas is unaware of this, believing Kyle to be his father’s cousin. He serves as third officer on the Team’s yacht, SS Windfall.
Caitlin Diaz: One of Cat’s Biotechnica created clones, who is working with the Team masquerading as Catherine Ortiz (Cat 2.0).
4.06531: A 4th generation Nietzschean operative, who is masquerading as Kyle on the Windfall. He is also known as Janko Mesic during this mission.
The NPCs
Colin Hughes: He is a (senior) executive from Petrochem on assignment in Rio de Janeiro. The man is from Victor Kane’s life path. Kane and Colin vied for the affections of Marybeth Bascom, daughter of Texas US Senator Howard Bascom. All three young people were ‘gear heads’. Kane beat out Colin, who arranged Kane’s separation from his job at Petrochem.
Cruz: Nico’s direct superior in the Red Command. He is a killer and a stone cold psycho.
George Brazzo: A high level fixer and criminal in Rio. He is a facilitator who rarely gets his hands dirty himself. He has a large bribery slush fund and two lawyers who keep him out of trouble. When Ricco Torres was a Rio civil policeman, he tried unsuccessfully to put George away several times.
Gustavo Benaziz: A follower of the Voice of the Wastes and a known Islamic terrorist and half-brother of Marcellana Barbieri, a Commonwealth media. He is working with Pedro de Costa of the Third Command.
Major Victor Katanga: Formally a colonel in the Army of Mali, who was cashiered for the massacre of Islamist rebels in the north of that country a year or two back. He now works for the Orochi Resource Group.
Marcellana Barbieri: She is a minor media who works for the Sky News Network. She is a dual national of Great Britain and Morocco. Her mother is Moroccan and her father Italian. Her half-brother is Gustavo Benaziz, a known and wanted Islamic terrorist.
Nico: He is a member of the Red Command from Favela Caminho do Lucio who is a major importer of marijuana into Rio de Janeiro. Victor used to race for him.
Pedro de Costa: Leader of the set of the Rio gang, the Third Command, in charge of the Favela Barrio Nova Alianca. He is working with Gustavo Benaziz, a known Islamic terrorist and half-brother of Marcellana Barbieri, a Commonwealth media. Pedro is having an affair with Marcellana.
Rosado: A member of the Third Command’s Favela Barrio Nova Alianca’s gang. He acquires a .50caliber Desert Eagle in a raid on a shipment to Major Victor Katanga of the Orochi Resource Group.
The Action
Saturday, December 2, 2045:
With the help of Nip and Cat, Victor finishes customizing his new Ford Powerline in time for the race at the Favela do Vidigal (Two Brothers). The race course runs along the narrow roads of the favela, winding its way up the mountain, before turning back towards the coast road and the affluent community of Leblon. The powerful drug gang Amigos dos Amigos (Friends of Friends or ADA) controls Vidigal and the adjoining favela of Rocinha (other side of the twin peaks). The coastal area is controlled by a local militia. Doc Freeman, Kyle and Allison stop by to take in the spectacle, but they have another reason for being there. Associates of George have been spending a lot of time in the area.
Confident in his skill and the power of his vehicle, Victor wagers heavily on himself. Cat and Nip lay down their own bets on the runner to win. Rocketing off the line, the muscle car easily powers up the hill. The other car falls further behind. Victory seems certain as the finish line quickly approaches. Nothing stands in his way, except for the armed men leveling their assault rifles at the onrushing Ford.
Trying to evade at these speeds would be suicide. Trusting in his modifications, Victor guns it. Automatic fire plays across the front of the Ford as the car roars across the finish line. Bullets thud ineffectually into the reinforced body panels and armored windshield. A single round punches through with barely enough power to draw blood. Even though he won, Victor dare not stop to collect his winnings. The Ford speeds away down the coast road.
The Runner counts himself lucky, but friends, not luck, saved his bacon. Victor wasn’t the only one to notice the gunmen near the finish line. The Team (except Allison who is unarmed) thinned their numbers before they ever had a chance to get off a shot. Unfortunately these are not the only gunmen in the crowd. Signaled by the ambush, more militia members draw concealed weapons, firing on the ADA and into the crowd.
All hell breaks loose. Falling back towards the coast road the team encounters a hastily erected police cordon. They are directed to leave the area as the outnumbered officers try to protect the panicking crowd. Most return to Fantasia or the Windfall. Kyle and Cat head for their penthouse apartment in Ipanema, less than three kilometers from the fighting. They can easily watch the unfolding battle from their terrace.
As chaos spreads, heavily armed riot squads push into the neighborhood. The two armored cars leading the assault quickly come under coordinated heavy weapons fire. Lightly armored, they are easily torn apart by anti-tank rockets. The police are forced to pull back with their wounded and dead.
An unnamed source within the militia claims that the attack is a retaliatory strike against the ADA. The source blames the recent deaths of several militia members on the encroaching drug gang. Though unsubstantiated, the media runs with the story. As the sun sets, heavily armed ADA reinforcements pour over the Morro Dois Irmãos (Twin Brothers Hill) from Rocinha.
***
Sunday, December 3, 2045:
Like most of Rio, the Team is glued to their vid screens. Fighting escalates into major urban warfare. Reinforced from Rocinha, the ADA counterattacks. BOPE units are not immediately available to intervene. Deployed on other pacification operations, it takes all day to replace them with other police units. The media rails against the ‘animals’ that inhabit the slums.
Kyle and Cat watch from their terraces as fires erupt throughout Vidigal. Cheap building materials provide abundant fuel to stoke the flames. The blaze spreads quickly through the congested constructions, trapping many who had hidden in their homes to avoid the fighting. Thousands die as flames ravage the shanty town.
The two can’t help but feel that this is George’s handiwork.
***
Monday, December 4, 2045:
Led by the BOPEs, the Rio State Military Police and Fire Brigade roll into the Favela Vidigal. Resistance is strong at first, but helicopters and AV gunships supported by heavier armored vehicles quickly break the backs of the two warring factions. By afternoon the militia has been virtually annihilated. ADA fighters retreat over the mountain to Rocinha under the watchful eye of the Police.
Sharpshooters and hovering gunships take down anyone carrying a weapon. The gangers quickly take the hint. Those that drop their arms are allowed to enter Rocinha unmolested.
It is well into the night before the last fires are extinguished. A lingering pall of smoke hangs over the remains of the favela.
***
Tuesday, December 5, 2045:
The populace of Rio de Janeiro is stunned as the police clear the rest of the destroyed favela. Daring media brave the smoking ruins to capture images of the devastation. Before being escorted out by police, they transmit footage of a seemingly endless stream of burned and broken bodies being pulled from the wreckage. The mood in Rio is subdued.
***
Wednesday, December 6, 2045:
The bodies of the dead are still being recovered. In the early morning, workers arrive and begin to fence off the entire area. None of the surviving residents are allowed back inside.
***
Thursday, December 7, 2045:
The Windfall sails on a shakedown cruise with Cat 2.0 and its new executive officer to the port of Santos just down the coast. Pedro receives a call from Gustavo Benaziz. The terrorist wants him to hijack a shipment destined for Major Victor Katanga. Benaziz also wants Pedro to take care of the Major’s men following his half-sister. Marcellana’s recent interview with Major Katanga is the cause of the surveillance. Carried on the Sky News Network, the piece is far from fair and balanced. The Major is obviously caught off guard by the correspondent’s questions and knowledge of events surrounding his retirement from the Mali military.
***
Friday, December 8, 2045:
The Windfall drops anchor off the Port of Santos that evening.
Bianca has now insinuated herself into the hangers on and girlfriends of Pedro’s Third Command set. At the club Ninho, she overhears the gang’s plans to hijack the Major’s shipment (next Tuesday) and kill the men following Marcellana Barbieri. The Team’s surveillance intercepts a call from Gustavo to Pedro. The terrorist is sending someone named Youssef to meet them after they secure the shipment.
***
Saturday, December 9, 2045:
Today there is a street race at the Favela Caminho do Lucio course. Kyle and Doc Freeman enter Victor in the race. Part of the course runs along the road dividing the neighborhoods controlled by Pedro’s Third Command and Nico’s (Cruz’s) Red Command. With Vidigal still fresh in everyone’s mind, the rival gangs publicly call a truce, at least for the duration of the races. The event is too profitable for both groups.
The races are just part of a day long street party that has taken over Aviador Square. Live music blares from a homemade sound system. Food and drugs of all kinds are abundantly available. Cariocas party with wild abandon. Kyle, Doc Freeman, Nip and Ricco go as a group. Allison attends, bringing Colin Hughes. Victor is on his best behavior and there is no conflict between him and Colin. Cat comes as Bianca, now accepted as part of the extended entourage of Pedro’s gang.
Of course Cruz is there and none too happy that Victor is racing. Kyle and Doc Freeman’s presence prevent what might otherwise be a very unpleasant encounter. Taking note of the chill between the Red Command and the Team, Pedro publicly invites them to an after party at Club Ninho. Victor is cautious, expecting trouble from either or both crews.
In his heat, Victor is paired against Nico’s new driver. If anyone seems hostile towards him, it is the drug runner. Nico really isn’t the violent type. Winning the race will be revenge enough. Nico’s driver is quick off the line, but Victor is able to close the distance as they enter the straightaway. Out of the second turn Kane is ahead, but the lead evaporates. Neck and neck the drivers enter a series of S-curves (near Nico’s garage). As the two approach the triple turn, Nico’s driver slows. Sensing an opportunity, Victor pours on the speed. The first turn is tighter than he expected. Skewing around the turn, the Ford slides sideways, jumps the low curb and bounces off the wall of a building. The vehicle is all but totaled. Only the roll cage and crash control systems save Victor from being smashed to paste.
The race is over and Nico is pleased. Cruz is also quite amused, sharing a laugh with Kyle over the outcome. The drug lord invites the Team to an after party at Nico’s garage, which they accept. At the party Kyle sells the wreck of the Ford Powerline to Nico. Victor and Nico’s driver get along. The Red Command gang taunts Victor a little, but it is all in fun. He may have lost the race, but this result cools any lingering hostility.
***
Sunday, December 10, 2045:
The Windfall with Cat 2.0 weighs anchor off Santos and slowly begins the trip back to Rio de Janeiro.
***
Monday, December 11, 2045:
The Team returns to their daily routine. Doc Freeman, FuGen and their other partners have agreed to the parameters of their working arrangement and a building has been secured and equipped for the new research company. That afternoon the Windfall arrives back in Rio and takes her place back at her mooring off Fantasia. In the evening Luka receives a call, from Pedro of all people. Word of his gun running operation has reached this gang leader’s ears. The man wants to buy four of his AK-74s. Luka deals in volume. Such a small sale is usually beneath him, but it serves the Team’s plans. They had been planning to recruit Pedro, but now he is coming to them! Luka sells him the four weapons.
***
Tuesday, December 12, 2045:
Bianca is at Club Ninho when Pedro and his gang come back from hijacking Major Katanga’s (and the Orochi Resource Group’s) ‘shipment’. From the talk, Bianca learns that they took out the tails that had been following Marcellana Barbieri. Rosado waves around a .50cal Desert Eagle he took off one of the dead men. His fellow gang members poke fun.
“That’s more gun than you can handle.”
“The clip’s empty. What are you going to do, throw it at somebody?”
“I’ll throw it at you if you don’t shut up.”
Pedro wants Rosado to get rid of the gun. It ties them to the hijacking and he knows the Orochi Resource Group will not let this incident slide. (As a spin-off of the pre-Fourth Corporate War, Arasaka Corporation—their corporate military—retains all the viciousness of the former organization.)
Rosado is unwilling to just throw it away. If he can’t keep his prize he wants to make some money off of it. Sadly he knows next to nothing about the firearm, nor does anyone else in the gang. Bianca decides to step up and asks to see it. She describes its operation and gives it a professional once over. The gang is a bit stunned. It wasn’t an asset they were expecting. Most of the gang members had lusted after her for her other considerable ‘assets’. That she might have a brain in her head never entered into their thinking. Bianca tells Rosado that she might know someone who would be interested in buying it. The ganger tells her to look into it.
Next: Episode 47: Kyle and Cat Go Deep Under Cover
-
Well, unless you have a specialized martial art, you can only kick once per round or you will fall down. You have two fists that can both strike in the same round. Calculating average damage (with no strength mods), a kick will deliver 3.5 points, but a punch can deliver an average of 2 points times 2 fists for a total of 4 points. Of course you have to roll twice and their are modifiers.
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Episode 45: A New Player in Town
Kyle and Cat begin their undercover job as Luka Graso and Bianca Reis/Lena Petkov. Their mission is to get close to George, the front man for a corporate conspiracy to disenfranchise the Favela residents. George Brazzo already works with two other gun runners. A need for a new gun distributor must be made.
Nip pitches her idea to run cyborg bodies by remote Net operation (proto-Densai) to the Disney Corporation. Although only 16 years old, Disney has been grooming the young NET runner so it gives her some minor resources and tells her to see what she can do.
[GM note: Disney is already working on a variation of this technology. Bella (a Disney AI) controls specially modified Gemini bodies through remote emitters installed around the Fantasia theme park.]
Disaster strikes!
Background
The Brazilian Supreme Court is expected to overturn the 1975 Presidential Decree (The Fusion) effectively re-establishing the city of Rio as an independent city-state within Brazil. Factions have begun to align, in anticipation of this decision, to vie for control of the city. The notorious favelas of Rio de Janeiro present a powerful voting block; one that several of the players in the political struggle seek to eliminate. By taking away the voting rights of the poor, the conspirators hope to move closer to their ultimate goal of eliminating the favelas; reclaiming the valuable real estate for redevelopment. The Disney Corporation opposes this agenda and has contracted the Team as ‘consultants’ to counter the maneuvers of rival factions.
Dramatis Personae
The Team
Allison Cole: 17 yo kleptomaniac sexpot and one of Cat Ortiz’s best friends from Atlantic City High School. When she became a suspect in a heist in Atlantic City, she followed her friend to Jamaica and has now joined the Team. Her skills as a Prowler are formidable.
Cat (Fisher) Ortiz: Officially she is Sam Fisher and the late Maria Ortiz’s 19 yo daughter. Now back in South America, she is using her “mother’s” last name again. In actuality she is a full memory clone of late Caitlin Jones, the original biogenetic assassin construct built by the now defunct Bio Works Corporation. This is known only to Kyle Vaduva.
Doc Freeman: Former professor at UNLV, former assistant coroner and (formally) disgraced cyber researcher. He is the inventor of the “cyberbrain” with which he claims to have cured death itself. Although courts around the world are still deliberating the ramifications of his work, the Disney Corporation has honored their agreements making Dr. Freeman rich beyond his wildest dreams.
Kyle Vaduva: Former C.I.A. agent, burned by the agency for crimes he did not commit. His efforts to expose and eliminate the Section, a freelance spy ring that had infiltrated the C.I.A., led to a review of his record and exoneration. He was allowed to retire with full benefits. Kyle has reunited with his lover from the Romanian Operation, Caitlin Jones (see Cat (Fisher) Ortiz above)
Nip Lacey: 16 yo amnesiac girl with neon green hair. She is a NET savant. Nip is a former classmate of Allison Cole and Cat Ortiz, whom she considers her best friends.
Fred: ferret and imaginary friend of Nip.
Ricco Torres: A former member of the Rio de Janeiro Civil Police who became a private investigator when his friendship with certain ‘unsavory’ characters came to light. Although he was not corrupt, he left the force before a case could be ‘made’ (manufactured) against him. Recently he has been hired by the Disney Corporation and been given a corporate ‘badge’. He serves as liaison between the Team and Disney.
Victor Kane: He is a 28 year old street racer (Runner). After being cashiered by Petrochem’s security arm, Kane, as he prefers to be called, earned extra money dabbling in smuggling.
Nicholas (Nicky) Vaduva: Zar’s (Kyle’s) 18-year-old son from our Romanian adventure. Nicholas is unaware of this, believing Kyle to be his father’s cousin. He serves as third officer on the Team’s yacht, SS Windfall.
Caitlin Diaz: One of Cat’s Biotechnica created clones, who is working with the Team masquerading as Catherine Ortiz (Cat 2.0).
4.06531: A 4th generation Nietzschean operative, who is masquerading as Kyle on the Windfall. He is also known as Janko Mesic during this mission.
Mario Schamal: Now a high level Disney executive, who formerly worked with members of the Team (Super Solo 2 Campaign & Romanian Campaign). This is a former PC who is currently on active duty in the military making a ‘cameo’ appearance.
The NPCs
Aiello Martinez: A commodities broker and friend of Alistair.
Alistair Granby: An executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland and race horsing aficionado.
Cedrik: A Serbian ex-pat gangster in need of heavy weapons.
David Lau: A Chinese gun runner in Rio who is working with George.
George Brazzo: A high level fixer and criminal in Rio. He is a facilitator who rarely gets his hands dirty himself. He has a large bribery slush fund and two lawyers who keep him out of trouble. When Ricco Torres was a Rio civil policeman, he tried unsuccessfully to put George away several times.
Ginjinham [Little Sour Cherry]: She is Rosado’s girlfriend and quite the bitch. Ginjinham runs a nail salon in the favela.
Kiril Vadjek: A Russian gun runner working with George.
Manuel Bagwell: A half-English, half-Brazilian investment banker and friend of Alistair.
Ned: A friend of Alistair and another horse racing fan.
Pedro de Costa: Leader of the set of the Rio gang, the Third Command, in charge of the Favela Barrio Nova Alianca. He is working with Gustavo Benaziz, a known Islamic terrorist and half-brother of Marcellana Barbieri, a Commonwealth media. Pedro is having an affair with Marcellana.
Vernon: Alistair’s bodyguard.
The Action
Thursday, November 2, 2045:
Bianca Reis (Cat) and Lena Petkov (Caitlin Diaz, who is another Caitlin model biogen learning to be Cat’s double) arrive in Rio with Luka Graso (Kyle), a Croatian businessman (gunrunner), and Janko Mesic, Luka’s bodyguard, (4.06531: a Nietzschean learning to be Kyle’s double) to set up import/export business. They go to Avenue de Santa Rosa office building (9th story, top) and set up an office. Barry (money-launderer from Atlantic City) helps to establish a convincing financial paper trail.
Nip calls her robotics mentor at Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean Theme Park in Port Royal, Jamaica with her idea of running a cyborg body through the NET. He tells her this has never been done, but will pass her idea up the chain of command.
[GM Note: When the player made this request, all of our GMs talked about this and decided that NET runners should NOT be able to do this as it would have huge ramifications on game play. None of us want to deal with Surrogate-like cyborgs trashing the game environment.
A NET runner can control remotes so it isn’t a huge jump to get there. As with waldos, a modified cyborg’s body can be controlled, but can’t use high levels of reflexes or operator’s skills (except specialized Control Remote skills). Due to Nip’s unique brain structure, she might be able to do it with the help of a world class neurologist, like Doc Freeman. It was decided to let the character proceed with this experiment and see how it goes. After all, cyberpunk is about living on the Edge!
Ricco puts the word out on the street that there’s a new gun runner in town. He gets a phone call from Cedrik, a Serbian looking to buy arms who wants to set up a meet. This Serbian mob operating in Rio is involved in prostitution, human slavery, and muscle for hire. Ricco takes his name and number to give to Luka.
***
Friday, November 3, 2045:
George and his crew hang out at the Hipodromo de Gavea, Rio’s premier horse racing track. Luka Graso and his ‘posse’ pull up to the entrance in a sleek armored limousine (rented). To fit the part, they are decked out in high class threads costing a small fortune (B$30,000). Luka has arranged for entry into the private members’ section of the Jockey Club.
Bianca attracts the attention of an Alistair Granby, a club member and executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland. The banker introduces his lunch guest, Ned and their mutual friends Manuel Bagwell (a half-English, half-Brazilian investment banker) and Aiello Martinez, a commodities broker. They are greeted warmly and asked to join them. Vernon, Alistair’s bodyguard, keeps a suspicious eye on the two. Luka inquires about membership. Alistair, still flirting with Bianca, invites them to be his guests at the club tomorrow.
Luka and Bianca are noticed by George and his party. The fixer scrupulously ignores their presence. Bianca clandestinely photographs the people in George’s box with the camera in her ‘spyware’ sunglasses. With a few inquiries and lip reading they begin to put names to the faces. The pictures are later shared with Ricco to see if he can identify them.
The investigator has been putting Luka’s name out on the street. The new gun runner is contacted by Cedrik. The Serbian gangster is looking to get his hands on some heavy firepower. Luka arranges a meet at the Jockey Club tomorrow.
Allison continues to develop her relationship with Colin Hughes.
Doc Freeman and Disney work out the details of their new relationship with the FuGen Corporation. The fledgling enterprise enters into negotiations with the Terrier Corporation, a Martian Biotech and computer firm. The corporation is headed by Dr. Roca Terrier (Pershing), an A.I. and ex-wife of General Pershing, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (United States of America).
***
Saturday, November 4, 2045:
Luka and his crew meet Cedrik, the Serb, at the Hipodromo de Gavea. A deal is struck for 20 AK-74s (chambered for Arasaka’s 5.56 caseless cartridge) and eight RPG-As, to be delivered Monday. After the Serbians and his bodyguards depart, a man with a Russian accent comes down from George’s box to offer a cryptic warning to Luka, about selling weapons to the Serbs. This ‘advice’ could either be a friendly suggestion or a veiled threat.
Ricco keeps his ear to the street, and learns that one of the cop militias is asking around about the Serbs. Rumors are the Serbs are making a gun-purchase score, since they were asking around about making a buy, and they have now stopped asking.
***
Sunday, November 5, 2045:
Kyle, Cat and Nip scour the NET for intel on George’s crew. Ricco shares what he knows, turning over his former case files. Though dated, the files provide a comprehensive overview of the fixer’s operations, as well as his known and suspected associates.
George’s Crew:
1 –Charles Fortier:George’scriminal defense attorney and good friend.2 –Israel Ansari(nicknameMoolch– ‘likes money’): A divorce and contract attorney.3 –Ezekiel Moura: A scrounger.4 –Zane: A contract killer thatGeorgeuses. There is no picture of the man.5 –Diesel:George’sdriver and bodyguard.6 –Rosaria Donard: She is a French national (half-Brazilian), a socialite andGeorge’soccasional girlfriend.7 –Isadore Abuelo: An Argentine ‘bad guy’ and former member of FARC. It is rumored that FARC has ordered his execution.8 –Brita Seguera: She is another former member of FARC and friend ofIsadore. There is a rumored execution order out on her too.9 –Maiel Munao: He is a Brazilian Indian with some reported military training, possibly FARC.10 –Caio Gonsalvez: A minor corporate who deals in real estate.11 –Limao(Lemon: Just a guy who serves as a gofer, and possibly occasional bagman.12 –Zago: A hired gun and reportedly former French Foreign Legionnaire.13 –Ursala Childers: A model, who was set up in business byGeorge.14 –Zvi Kager: An Israeli who works as muscle. He has military training.15 –Jordan Abrilla: A former police officer turned private investigator. He may have had ties to a militia that no longer exits.16 –Kiril Vadjek: An ex-military Russian gun dealer working withGeorge.17 –David Lau: A Chinese gun runner in Rio who is working withGeorge.Two arms dealers leaves little need for a third. After examining the data, Kyle suggests they create a need by eliminating Kiril. The plan is tactically sound, but Kyle’s reason for targeting the gun runner is personal. Whether the warning was advice or threat matters little. The Russian’s attitude rubbed him the wrong way.
Cat reluctantly agrees. To hunt Kiril will dredge up a part of herself that she hoped to leave buried with her past incarnation. She switches places with her ‘sister’, assuming the identity of Lena Petkov (her sister takes her place as Catherine Ortiz and Bianca Reis). The two contact Ricco Torres requesting he assemble a detailed dossier on Kiril Vadjek.
***
Monday, November 6, 2045:
Mario Schamal, now a high level Disney executive, contacts Nip and tells her he will be in town tomorrow to discuss her plan to remotely control cyborg bodies. The young netrunner prepares her pitch.
Ricco investigates Kiril and finds he is friendly with powerful people in government and a local gun manufacturer. The Russian is a member of a couple of private clubs. Kiril also has a personal code of who he will or will not do business with.
In the news: A shooting incident at a school gets some cops killed. Media reports call favelas “breeding grounds for killing Brazilians”. The cops go into the neighborhood and ferret out the culprits, but not before an “armed occupation” descends on the neighborhood.
***
Tuesday, November 7, 2045:
Mario is skeptical, but approves her research. With Bella’s consent, he releases one of the AI’s earlier model animatronic bodies for Nip’s use. Doc Freeman will monitor her progress and Mario will be back at the end of the month to see if she can produce more useful results.
Kyle, Cat and Doc Freeman decide that Victor’s street racing is a valuable entre into the favelas in Rio. They buy him a Ford Powerline automobile and set him to get it ready to race.
***
Wednesday, November 8, 2045:
Ricco delivers his report on Kiril Vadjek to Kyle and Cat. Cat takes the report and begins her stalking of Kiril.
***
Thursday, November 9 to Thursday, November 23, 2045:
Kiril has several bodyguards and is exceptionally careful with his personal safety, always taking different routes to his destinations. After nearly two weeks of stalking her prey, the biogen locates a building 280 meters from one of his favorite clubs with a suitable sniper perch on the 5th floor. There is only a 2 to 6 second window to fire as Kiril exits his vehicle.
Both Cat and her ‘sister’ (as Bianca) go to the Nail Salon owned by Ginjinham and get to know the people of the Favela Barrio Nova Alianca in preparation for infiltrating Pedro de Costa’s set of the Third Command.
Violence breaks out in an outlying favela as a group of Serbian ex-pat gangsters mix it up with the Rio police. Raids by the police are initially repulsed by RPG-As and automatic weapons fire. The fighting spreads and the BOPEs are called in. The Serbs are shattered and Cedrik is killed.
***
Friday, November 24, 2045:
Preparation creates opportunity. Kiril arrives at the club. Cat slows her breathing and takes aim with her Arasaka WSSA. The more augmented of the gun runner’s two body guards exits the vehicle, quickly scanning for potential threats. In her scope, Cat can easily see the solo’s curt nod, to his employer. The biogen caresses the trigger, sending a 3.5mm frag flechette round down range, just as Kiril’s head clears the roof of the car. The bullet takes him in the temple.
Cat is already up and breaking down her weapon on the way to the back of the floor (which has no security cameras). Her genetically modified body easily absorbs the five story drop into the alley below. She is on her mini-bike and out in traffic before anyone can figure out where the shot came from. The biogen had studied her escape route and avoids any camera that could see her. Kiril’s assassination makes quite a stir in the local press.
***
Saturday, November 25, 2045:
Ricco sees the morning news story about the shooting of Kiril Vadjek. He realizes this is no coincidence.
The police come to see Ricco about two dead cops, who were shot with 12mm Anti-personnel. Ricco agrees to look into it and see what he can learn on the street. He discovers that the two dead cops were in the employ of a Chinese gun runner. Rumor is they were paid to ‘look the other way’. He passes this information on to Kyle and Cat.
Luka, Bianca, Lena and Janko Mesic go the Jockey Club to watch the races. Luka asks if any private booths have become available. There is quite a bit commotion in George’s box today. Bianca reads David Lau’s lips as he tells George, “I’ll take care of it.”
The Asian gun runner then sends a round of drinks over to Luka’s party.
Nip is ready to do the first test run of her improved interface of the ‘borg’ body. Unfortunately she ‘toked-up’ the day before and then botched her ‘connection’ roll. She falls unconscious. As Doc Freeman examines her, Nip wakes up and goes nutzoid. The Doc tries to shoot her with his tranq gun—and succeeds. The young netrunner is rushed to the hospital where she remains in a coma for a day and a half.
***
Sunday, November 26 to Friday, December 1, 2045:
Kyle and Cat realize that the safety of their aliases Luka, Lena and Bianca are in jeopardy. With Ricco’s advice they hire two local licensed, live-in bodyguards, Junilla (a woman) and Karl, full time and rent a large executive style apartment in the Southwest Zone of Rio, near the beach. The two also buy a BMW 9045s sports car (stats as BMW 9018s).
Nip recovers slowly in the hospital.
Next: Episode 46: A Riot and Two Races
-
Episode 44: Current Troubles Dealt With As Ghosts from the Past Surface
Kyle gets Victor out of hot water with Cruz, and then has fun with some new biogens during Doc Freeman’s tour of the FuGen facility. Dead cops are showing up in the city killed with banned ammunition. The bugs in Pedro de Costa’s gang headquarters discover an Islamic terrorist connection and a randy reporter.
Evidence of other plots afoot and dangerous people active in the area come to light. Ghosts from Doc Freeman’s, Kyle’s and Cat’s past in Romania reappear. The Team decides to look into it all and come up with a plan to deal with it.
Background
The Team has arrived in Rio de Janeiro aboard their (pilfered) 194 foot mega yacht, the Windfall. They have been brought here by the Disney Corporation, who runs the giant theme park, Fantasia. The Brazilian Supreme Court is expected to overturn the 1975 Presidential Decree (The Fusion) effectively re-establishing the city of Rio as an independent city-state within Brazil. Factions have begun to align, in anticipation of this decision, to vie for control of the city. The notorious favelas of Rio de Janeiro present a powerful voting block; one that several of the players in the political struggle seek to eliminate. By taking away the voting rights of the poor, the conspirators hope to move closer to their ultimate goal of eliminating the favelas; reclaiming the valuable real estate for redevelopment. The Disney Corporation opposes this agenda and has contracted the Team as ‘consultants’ to counter the maneuvers of rival factions.
Dramatis Personae
The Team
Allison Cole: 17 yo kleptomaniac sexpot and one of Cat Ortiz’s best friends from Atlantic City High School. When she became a suspect in a heist in Atlantic City, she followed her friend to Jamaica and has now joined the Team. Her skills as a Prowler are formidable.
Cat (Fisher) Ortiz: Officially she is Sam Fisher and the late Maria Ortiz’s 19 yo daughter. Now back in South America, she is using her “mother’s” last name again. In actuality she is a full memory clone of late Caitlin Jones, the original biogenetic assassin construct built by the now defunct Bio Works Corporation. This is known only to Kyle Vaduva.
Doc Freeman: Former professor at UNLV, former assistant coroner and (formally) disgraced cyber researcher. He is the inventor of the “cyberbrain” with which he claims to have cured death itself. Although courts around the world are still deliberating the ramifications of his work, the Disney Corporation has honored their agreements making Dr. Freeman rich beyond his wildest dreams.
Kyle Vaduva: Former C.I.A. agent, burned by the agency for crimes he did not commit. His efforts to expose and eliminate the Section, a freelance spy ring that had infiltrated the C.I.A., led to a review of his record and exoneration. He was allowed to retire with full benefits. Kyle has reunited with his lover from the Romanian Operation, Caitlin Jones (see Cat (Fisher) Ortiz above)
Nip Lacey: 16 yo amnesiac girl with neon green hair. She is a NET savant. Nip is a former classmate of Allison Cole and Cat Ortiz, whom she considers her best friends.
Fred: ferret and imaginary friend of Nip.
Ricco Torres: A former member of the Rio de Janeiro Civil Police who became a private investigator when his friendship with certain ‘unsavory’ characters came to light. Although he was not corrupt, he left the force before a case could be ‘made’ (manufactured) against him. Recently he has been hired by the Disney Corporation and been given a corporate ‘badge’. He serves as liaison between the Team and Disney.
Victor Kane: He is a 28 year old street racer (Runner). After being cashiered by Petrochem’s security arm, Kane, as he prefers to be called, earned extra money dabbling in smuggling.
Nicholas (Nicky) Vaduva: Zar’s (Kyle’s) 18-year-old son from our Romanian adventure. Nicholas is unaware of this, believing Kyle to be his father’s cousin. He serves as third officer on the Team’s yacht, SS Windfall.
The NPCs
Colin Hughes: He is a (senior) executive from Petrochem on assignment in Rio de Janeiro. The man is from Victor Kane’s life path. Kane and Colin vied for the affections of Marybeth Bascom, daughter of Texas US Senator Howard Bascom. All three young people were “gear heads”. Kane beat out Colin, who arranged Kane’s separation from his job at Petrochem.
Dr. Chen: A chief researcher and executive for the FuGen Corporation, a Chinese Biotech firm. He is known to Kyle, Cat and Doc Freeman.
Dr. Luis Serrano: A deputy coroner with the Rio de Janeiro’s Coroner’s Office, whom Ricco knows.
Duela Bardon: She works for the British giant, IMA (Imperial Metropolitan Agriculture) here in Rio and is an old friend of Marcellana Barbieri.
Ernesto Cruz: Nico’s direct superior in the Red Command. He is a killer and a stone cold psycho.
Felipe Torres: The older brother of Rico Torres. Felipe is a high ranking member of the Red Command.
George Brazzo: A high level fixer and criminal in Rio. He is a facilitator that rarely gets his hands dirty himself. He has a large bribery slush fund and two lawyers that keep him out of trouble. When he was a Rio civil policeman, Rico Torres tried unsuccessfully to put him away several times.
Hector Benetiz: the head of Disney security in Rio.
Henrique: A former Favela drug lord who has taken a government amnesty offer and gotten out of the drug business. The man now runs a media company which works with Disney and a mini-venture capitalist firm that gives micro-loans to favela residents so they can rise from poverty. It is suspected he is positioning himself to enter politics. He and Rico Torres grew up together with Ricco being the younger ‘brother’. Henrique used to belong to a Brazilian pop group manufactured by a record company. When his voice changed he was fired and thrown back into the favela where he rose to the top of the local gang.
James Marsden: A world class sniper and contract killer. He works for the highest bidder and has connections with the C.I.A. who alternatively hires him and puts kill orders out on him. He is known to Kyle, Cat and Doc Freeman.
Juniho: A high ranking member of the Red Command and Ernesto Cruz’s direct superior.
Major Victor Katanga: Formerly a colonel in the Army of Mali, who was cashiered for the massacre of Islamist rebels in the north of that country a year or two back. He now works for the Orochi Resource Group.
Marcellana Barbieri: She is a minor media who works for the Sky News Network. She is a dual national of Great Britain and Morocco. Her mother is Moroccan and her father Italian. Her half-brother is Gustavo Benaziz, a known and wanted Islamic terrorist.
Nico: He is a member of the Red Command from Favela Caminho do Lucio who is a major importer of marijuana into Rio de Janeiro. Victor races for him.
Pedro de Costa: An up and coming gang leader in the Third Command.
R. Maximillian (II): President and CEO of I-Corp.
Suresh Madras Patel: A very high ranking member of the Red Command. Juniho, Ernesto Cruz’s boss, is under directly under Madras.
Vena (Vera Lena de Costa): An old girlfriend of Rico Torres and petty criminal in Rio with good NET connections.
Wilfredo Ernesto Saber (“Willy the Roach” or just Barata (Roach), but not to his face): He is a friend of Henrique from the bad old days. His diminutive size and pleasant nature are at odds with his fearful reputation. His nickname comes from the fact that he is so tough to kill. He's been shot (nine time), stabbed (more than a dozen times), electrocuted (at least twice), thrown from a moving car, partially set on fire, fallen from a building, to escape said fire and had a host of other misadventures.
The Action
Wednesday, September 26, 2045:
In order to be unreachable, Victor removed the battery from his phone. At Kyle’s insistence he powers up the phone, long enough to call Nico and quit as his driver. Cruz presents a quandary. Kyle and Cat discuss solving the problem with a bullet, yet such an act could possibly ignite the war they are trying to avoid.
Kyle seeks Henrique’s input. As the former head of the Red Command, his views still carry weight even though he is no longer officially part of the gang. Ernesto Cruz was at one time his subordinate. Henrique will do what he can meanwhile he explains a little of that part of the Red Command’s hierarchy. Nico wholesales the drugs while Cruz protects the fields. Ernesto works for a Juniho, whose protection responsibilities cover much of the city. Juniho reports to Suresh Madras Patel (who is on the same level in the Red Command as Felipe Torres, Ricco’s brother). Madras’ brother is Amit, who runs his security force, and is made up of a group of mulattos led by a man named, Olivo. In addition to overseeing the organization below him, Madras owns hotel and oversees girls who ‘rent’ the rooms. Madras has a girlfriend named Soraya, who manages the girls (and a few young men).
The talk with Henrique bears almost immediate fruit as Felipe soon calls his brother Ricco and requests a meeting with him tomorrow morning. Felipe sounds very tense.
Nip and Cat begin rebuilding the engine of the used Obvio Abrigedo van, purchased by the Team.
***
Thursday, September 28, 2045:
At the morning meeting of the two Torres brothers Felipe is obviously under a lot of stress. He requests an immediate meeting with Kyle. A phone call by Ricco brings a dinner invitation for Felipe aboard the Windfall for tonight.
Kyle and Cat return to I-Corp. The revelation of (Operation) Red Rook and Fabrini Air give R. Maximillian (II) pause. It’s hard to find an upside. Locking horns with an organization that has successfully hidden its existence for almost half century is difficult enough. Contending with a cabal of former spooks, with global reach and influence is tantamount to suicide. The news is not welcome, but R. Maximillian (II) honors his promises. The CEO agrees, in principle, to support Disney politically. The pair leaves it to Roger Kincaid to hammer out the details.
Nip and Cat finish rebuilding the van’s engine, only to have it fail to start. (The roll was a ‘1’, but the botch result was just a failure.) They spend hours trying to track down the fault.
Doc Freeman finalizes plans to tour FuGen’s Rio facility. The Chinese biotech firm hopes to use the visit to entice the neurosurgeon into a collaborative project.
Ricco calls Hector Benetiz and tells him that the recent string of violent deaths of netrunners in Rio has nothing to do with Disney or its operations in Rio. Hector informs the ex-cop that two of Ernesto Cruz’s men were caught hanging around the dock in Fantasia that the Windfall’s launch uses to ferry people back and forth from the moored vessel. This pair has been ‘escorted’ off the grounds. The security chief is curious why they were watching the Team’s ship, but Ricco feigns ignorance. Soon, two of Hector’s men begin watching that dock.
Later in the afternoon, Henrique comes aboard the Windfall for ‘drinks’. Willie, the Roach, is with him. He, Kyle and Cat discuss the situation with Victor Kane, Nico and Ernesto Cruz. The subject of the kidnapping of the banker’s family (and the brutal death of his brother) is brought up and Henrique assures them that the wives of children of the banker and the dead brother are safe and have been removed from Cruz’s ‘custody. When asked if he would like to stay for dinner, Henrique demurs. It would not help his image to be seen with too many of the current leaders of his former gang. As Henrique and Willie reach the dock, they are met by Hector. The ship’s lookouts report that Willie then left by himself and Henrique went with Hector.
Ricco and Felipe arrive for dinner with a third man, Suresh Madras Patel. Suresh’s family emigrated from India years ago. One look at this gang lord’s dress and the Team realizes why he is often just called ‘Madras’. The prints and colors of his clothing are bordering on gauche. After introductions and initial pleasantries, Kyle begins to explain the situation between Cruz and Victor. The runner can’t seem to keep his mouth shut and continues to interrupt, adding what he thinks are important pieces of information. Most of this additional ‘information’ merely serves to put him in a better light.
Finally, Madras looks at Victor then back at Kyle and says, “I too have problems with subordinates talking out of turn.”
In a flash, Kyle leaps up and knocks the surprised Kane down. Out comes a knife and the ex-C.I.A. agent cuts out the runner’s tongue! Doc Freeman rushes over and takes Victor below to attempt to reattach it.
A shocked Cat observes, “Now he won’t be able to talk.”
“Perfect!” replies Kyle.
Madras allows himself a faint smile. This gang lord also agrees to rein in Cruz and assures the Team that Ernesto will no longer trouble them over Victor. He also gives them a bit of news that a man named, Francarlo, may be behind Pedro’s recent influx of cash.
Felipe, Madras and Ricco leave after dinner. As they walk off the dock, Hector is watching through Disney’s cameras there. The security chief is pulling out his hair wondering what is being discussed by this group of high level gang leaders and the Team.
Late that night the team returns to Pedro’s headquarters, to clone his cell phone. Kyle, Cat, and Allison make entry while Nip surveys the surroundings through her remote. Victor is relegated to (Team) taxi duty. While on site, the bugs installed during the last incursion are swapped out for more robust equipment, spliced directly into the building’s electrical system.
There are a few unexpected wrinkles to the otherwise successful mission. Their target is asleep upstairs, but isn’t alone. In the bed with Pedro is a young woman. Both are deep in post-coital slumber, making a search of the room simple enough. The gang leader’s jacket turns up two phones. One is a cheap, piece of crap cell. The other is a top of the line encrypted satellite phone. Cat finds its match in the girl’s purse, along with media credentials for a Marcellana Barbieri. With skill and a lot of Luck (player used most of her luck) Cat cracks the security on the satellite phones, while Kyle snaps a few ‘tasteful’ photos of Pedro and his lady-friend. Replacing the phones and credentials, the Team withdraws.
***
Friday, September 29, 2045:
Cat keeps her ‘race date’ with Colin Hughes at Autodromo Internacional Nelson Piquet. The two chase each other around the track, engaging in one of their mutual passions (car racing).
Nip finds the fault and begins to rebuild the (van’s) engine.
High noon finds Doc Freeman, Allison and Kyle at the FuGen facility. The building welcomes them and directs the trio to a comfortable waiting area. Kyle is already on edge. A potential extraction attempt of Doc Freeman is not out of the question. That the biotech firm would entrust control of its facility to an AI only increases his unease.
(GM Note: During our Romanian campaign, Doc Freeman was working on a joint project with the Disney Corporation. Disney provided the facilities and security personnel. The corporate offices in Bucharest were overseen by Bella, the AI that is currently Disney Fantasia’s goodwill ambassador in Rio.)
Dr. Chen promptly arrives to personally show them around the facility. Kyle recognizes the good doctor and his overly tall ‘assistant’. Lean and sinuous with vaguely flat reptilian features, many would dismiss his looks as an expensive exotic package, but Kyle knows better. The ex-agent ran across Dr. Chen and his bodyguard in Romania. The ‘man’ is a Kimura biogen.
Kyle is intimately familiar with these animal/human hybrids. His lover (Cat) is one. Having helped her learn to mask certain character traits inherent to her kind, the ex-agent is easily able to reproduce the telltale cues of a feline Kimura biogen. The subtle pantomime draws the biogen’s attention, but it is a look of confusion, rather than anger or wariness, that crosses his alien features.
The movements are correct, but the smell is wrong. Without the genetically modified glands Kyle can’t produce a feline’s characteristic scent. Still, if blood were drawn, he is fairly certain the sample would identify him as a biogen.
(GM Note: The cure/vaccination for the Carbon Plague incorporated the Kimura protein as a delivery vector. Many of those vaccinated show as a false positive on the standard test for biogens. Certain biogen’s with enhanced olfactory senses can even ‘smell’ the protein.)
This subtle charade provided a means to amuse him from an otherwise boring tour. Without realizing it, the ex-agent had fallen back on his training: unbalancing an (perceived) opponent, to gain a tactical advantage.
As the tour drags on, two faces continually pop up among the personnel they encounter: a lab tech carrying a tray of specimens, maintenance workers replacing a light, researchers conferring in the corridor. To his knowledge, FuGen has yet to crack human cloning. Odds are they are being shadowed. The building AI could easily monitor their location, so why the need for such chaperones? Watching with a critical eye, Kyle picks up subtle irregularities of movement. A whiff of musk confirms his suspicions: more Kimura biogens. His clandestine observations also reveal that HE, not Doc Freeman, is the subject of their surveillance. The added ‘playmates’ enhance his private game of ‘beard the biogen’.
FuGen’s work on bio-synthetic analogs intrigues Doc Freeman. Collaboration could benefit his own research, but his current arrangement with Disney makes the situation complicated. The two scientists part with a handshake agreement to investigate the possibilities of entering into a joint venture. Doc Freeman returns to his lab, leaving the matter to Disney’s legal department to figure out.
***
Saturday, September 30, 2045:
Cat, Nip and Victor prep ‘Death Kitty’, for the day’s race. Cat’s Lamborghini is the hottest thing on the track at the Favela Auto Club, easily blowing the doors off the competition.
Henrique informs Kyle that Cruz has been talked to. Victor is in the clear; Nico, not so much. Busted arm, broken jaw, bruises and contusions; with the runner out of reach, Cruz found another focus for his wrath. Henrique is (anonymously) covering Nico’s medical expenses.
Marcellana calls one of the satellite phones and is surprised that Pedro answers. “Why haven’t you passed the phone along?” she asks.
“I’ve been busy,” he replies. “I’ll get to it soon.”
This is not the answer Marcellana is looking for. “I need to get in touch with him.”
“You sound upset,” observes Pedro. “Come here; I can comfort you.”
“No, that was a mistake,” the woman says quickly.
“Well, that’s three mistakes then,” Pedro points out.
Kyle and Cat look at video feed from their surveillance cameras at the gang’s place. Pedro’s men are there listening to the conversation. When he hangs up, they all burst out laughing.
One of the gang tells Pedro, “You are playing a dangerous game. If her brother finds out you’re tagging her, he’ll kill you.”
The gang leader seems unconcerned. “Well then, we might have to get rid of him sooner than expected.”
***
Sunday, October 1, 2045:
The team has been recording coded transmissions from Pedro’s headquarters for more than a week. Cat is able to crack the simple codes (roll of 32) and decipher the data. Sorting through the multitude of mundane messages, useful pieces of intel emerge. Pedro is planning to contact Victor about ‘throwing’ another race, and the gang leader has dealings with a group called ‘Cuca’s Girls’.
A NET search turns up multiple hits for a ghostly caiman witch from Brazilian folklore, but little direct information on the group. Ricco proves a more useful resource. The Cuca’s Girls practice an obscure branch of Candomblé, mixing in aspects of Voodoo and Santeria. Either through makeup or bio-sculpting, they have made themselves over into avatars of the mythological caiman headed hag.
Locals are terrified of these cuca witches. It is said that little can be hidden from them. With several accomplished netrunners among their ranks, not even the NET is beyond their charms and curses. Those who cross the cuca end up dead or worse. There are stories of the caiman witches turning their enemies into mindless zombies.
Kyle and Cat continue to carefully look for information about Fabrini Air. They have been making a lot of trips to the Cape Verde Islands in recent years. A project there called Operation Tap Root is building a huge geothermal power complex. The airline was also flying a lot to Mauretania during the Cold War.
***
Monday, October 2, 2045:
Nip passes her AV pilot test and gets her license. Cat signs over her Avanti Sport Spinner as a gift to her friend.
In the afternoon, Cat retires to her workshops and makes two silencers for her pair of ‘throw away’ 9mm Gonz-Taurus MPs. She also cooks up 12 kilos of homemade TNT.
Ricco receives a desperate call for help from one of his informants, a bodega owner. His information is usually good, so the ex-cop swings by. Met at the door, the store owner quickly hurries Ricco towards the back room, pausing only to lock the door and flip the sign to ‘closed’. Cooling on the floor is the corpse of a crooked cop. The two crossed paths while Ricco was still on the force. This is also the cop that usually shakes down this bodega owner. He hands Ricco the dead policeman’s gun, which the ex-cop takes while being careful not to get his fingerprints on it.
Crooked cops rarely work alone, and this one is no exception. The shop owner fears reprisals from his partners. Gunshots and squealing tires preceded the dead cop crashing through the door. Oddly, there is no collateral damage. Policemen get killed all the time by local gangs, but the scene is usually a bullet riddled mess. The mystery will hold till they clean up the scene.
There is no murder if there is no body.
Biting the bullet, Ricco contacts his ex. Vera is pleasantly surprised by his call. His request is even more surprising. She lets him twist for a while before asking for the address.
“Be ready for pickup in 20 minutes,” she tells him.
A truck from a local pig farm promptly arrives to cart off the corpse. Ricco rolls off B$ 1000 and now owes Vera a favor.
Ricco calls his contact at the morgue, Dr. Serrano (from Episode 41) to inquire about deaths of police officers. There are actually two in his freezer, with wound patterns like nothing he has ever seen. The bullets had fragmented into shrapnel, shredding their internal organs. Checking ballistics would be next to impossible. The coroner has sent samples of the shrapnel out for analysis. Ricco asks for a sample of the shrapnel.
The ex-cop gives Cat the bullet fragments for analysis. He informs the team about the bodies in the morgue, but leaves out the third cop sent to the pig farm. Kyle asks the ex-cop to look into the backgrounds of the dead officers and any leads the authorities may have. Ricco suggests that cash may be needed to access the information. Kyle rolls off R$ 5000 and tells him to come back when that’s gone.
That evening Marcellana Barbieri‘s satellite phone is activated. The Team listens in, but realizes both people are using matching crypto chips. Without the key, it is next to impossible to understand what is being said. The call is too brief to even get a baseline for decryption.
***
Tuesday, October 3, 2045:
Kyle looks into Marcellana Barbieri. For the past four years, she has worked for Sky News as a correspondent in the network’s Gibraltar office. A child of mixed descent, Marcellana holds both British and Moroccan citizenship. Born to a Moroccan and Italian émigré, she has several siblings. Of special note is a half-brother, Gustavo Benaziz. Reputed to be in close contact with the Voice of the Wastes, he is a known terrorist and high value target for both the CIA and Interpol.
Cat easily identifies the bullet fragment sample from the morgue. They are from a British SAS 12mm anti-personnel round. The biogen is somewhat of an expert on this exotic ammunition, having extensively studied unspent examples to produce her own knockoffs. Metallurgical tests and analysis of propellant residue date the manufacture to the time of the Fourth Corporate War. With the help of Nip and Kyle, the rounds are traced back to a lot used in Guyana. A search of SAS members active in Guyana at that time, with current ties to Brazil, leads them to Crown Security. This private military firm is working in northern Brazil, near the border with French Guyana.
***
Wednesday, October 4, 2045:
Ricco tries to substantiate rumors that the dead cops worked for the Chinese. Leads are few and offers of cash don’t seem to be opening the doors that they should. He does come across a name that freezes Cat and Kyle’s blood.
Eight years and a world away since either has heard or thought of James Marsden. A consummate professional, he is a versatile assassin. Whether working alone or fronting his team of professional killers, the man is a dangerous opponent. Cat and Kyle came close to punching his ticket in Romania, before the C.I.A. rescinded the contract.
Marsden is thought to be working with Major Victor Katanga. Formally a Colonel in the army of Mali, Katanga retired and left the country ahead of charges of war crimes. He traded equipment seized from the rebels’ weapons depot to secure his current position in the Special Reaction Forces (SRF) of the Orochi Resource Group (ORG). Word is the major is overseeing SRF teams operating in Rio.
Kyle unearths more details about Marcellana Barbieri. Her current residence is a high security executive apartment. Not really in keeping with a correspondent’s salary. She has also made several visits to an old schoolmate, living locally. Marcellana’s friend, Duela Bardon, works for the British giant, IMA (Imperial Metropolitan Agriculture. That corporation has extensive fields north of the city, approximately 10 miles north of Cruz’s hacienda. Aerial photos and pictures of the area have been blocked or censored by the Brazilian government. A nighttime (drone) flyover of the fields reveals extensive cannabis cultivation. Nip lands one of the remotes to take a sample for study.
***
Thursday, October 5, 2045:
Analysis of the cannabis returns interesting results. It has been genetically modified for increased oil output. The plant does not appear to be cross fertile with normal cannabis. Use as a drug would be marginal, if not hazardous. With a faster growth rate than sugarcane and less impact on the soil, the crop could prove a boon to biofuel production. Apparently the government doesn’t want it known that they are experimenting with a plant that is VERY illegal in Brazil. The Team decides not to expose this project as its success may prove helpful in addressing the energy shortages in Brazil and around the world.
Kyle decides to suspend any further operations other than surveillance and concentrate on fully researching all the current information that has been uncovered.
***
Friday, October 6 to Wednesday, November 1, 2045:
Cue the Streetwise and Library Search Montage!
Over the next four weeks, the Team sets to work on research, preparing for the next phase of their mission. Allison continues to deepen her relationship with Colin Hughes. The Team arranges with Henrique to secure a good acting coach and access to the make-up department (work on her Disguise skill). The 17 year-old needs to improve her skills to be useful as an undercover agent at this level.
Victor (with help from Nip) works on turning the Team van into a surveillance vehicle. He also picks up some basic computer and research skills. Putting these skills to work, the runner finds a gym and boxing instructor. Kyle works on his Serbo-Croatian and tutors the socially inept members of the team in the basics of Social interaction (Social level 1). This will hopefully stop them from making fools of themselves and embarrassing the team. Nip puts the finishing touches on her floating paintball target remote.
Doc Freeman, Disney, the FuGen Corporation and the Terrier Corporation (a Martian firm) hammer out the details of their joint venture to develop biomechanical cyberware. As part of the deal, FuGen will support Disney’s political position on the favelas. The Terrier Corporation has strong connections with the Collective and is already on board.
Surveillance of Pedro de Costa’s gang brings the core group into focus.
Third Command in the Favela Barrio Nova Alianca:
1 –Pedro de Costa(25): The leader who runs a clinic that serves as a front for his drug operations. He is passionate and sometimes reckless.2 –DeVagar(28):Pedro’ssecond in command. He is called ‘Slow’, but not because he is stupid. The man is slow anddeliberate; the perfect counterbalance toPedro.3 –Peludo(Shaggy) (19): He has long stringy hair and runs the gang’s drug operations.4 –Rosado(Pinky) (20): A gang enforcer who knows Capoeira although more of a dancer than a fighter with it. He is one of the three known as the “Capoeira Boys”.5 –Pe’De Astuto(Slyfoot) (22): Another one of the “Capoeira Boys”.6 –Catraca(Rachet) (20): He is the gang’s tech and car guy. He runs a small machine shop in the favela where his 16 year old brother works with him.7 –Quinho(Little Joachim) (25-30?): He is an enforcer for the gang and an information monger.8 –Curto(Short Legs) (17): Another of the gang’s enforcers and the last of the “Capoeira Boys”.9 –Barabbas(32): A sociopathic thief and murderer attached to this set of the Third Command.10 –Jocare(Gator) (?): An enforcer who runs the smuggling operations of the gang.The Hangers-on of the Gang:A –Canella(Cinnamon): This isGator’sgirlfriend.B –Tow: She is a half Chinese Samba dancer andShaggy’sgirlfriend. They fight a lot.C –Ginjinham(Little Sour Cherry): She isRosado’sgirlfriend and quite the bitch.Ginjinhamruns a nail salon in the favela.Where They Like to Hang (Besides their HQ):Club Ninho: A nasty den of iniquity and drinking establishment in the same building as their headquarters.Lush: A dance club on the south edge of the Favela Barrio Nova Alianca.Ricco discovers the identity of a major Rio fixer who is working with the corporate alliance trying to take away the vote from the favelas and push the poor out of the city by extending the Favela Exclusion Zone. The man’s name is George Brazzo. When Ricco was with the Rio Civil Police, he tried to bring George down. Unfortunately, this man was too well entrenched with multiple lawyers and bribed officials. Every case he built against this crime lord fizzled.
Finally, George moved against Ricco and blew enough smoke at the cop to make him look crooked, which forced him to resign. Ricco is motivated to take this fixer down. Kyle and Cat decide that an operation to bring down George and his corporate patrons is the way to go. George is arming various factions in the favelas and then getting them to fight, thus inflaming the violence there. These incidents are being used by corporate interests as ‘proof’ that the favela poor must go and are not capable or deserving of the vote.
Kyle decides to become a new gun smuggler in the city with the ability to provide George with the tools he needs. They contact the Collective and have them put together some new identities for him and Cat. Cat hires one of her ‘sisters’ to come and impersonate her. Cat also hires a Nietzschean to act as Kyle’s double. A Nietzschean netrunner is also hired to monitor the new identities to make sure they are not penetrated or to find out if they are. Through Cat’s connections in the Balkans (she used to be the spymaster/station chief there for the Mars Ministry of Communications, one of their intelligence services), the new identities order 500 AK-74s chambered for the Arasaka 5.56 caseless round (the most common rifle round in Brazil). They also acquire 200 CCMMC Tuzi-7 Chinese made submachine guns. To round out their opening stock, Kyle and Cat make 8 RPG-As with Croatian Army markings (forged by Kyle).
Croatian AK-74 (chambered for the Arasaka 5.56mm caseless cartridge)
The two will try to infiltrate or make a connection with Pedro’s gang and rise in George’s organization and identify (and meet) his backers. If they succeed in this, they will try to meet Gustavo Benaziz, the Islamic terrorist, whom Pedro is working with. They will attempt to tie Pedro and Gustavo’s business in with George (and his corporate backers). All the while the two will collect enough evidence of a huge plot involving all these parties. The finale will be the unmasking by the authorities of Kyle and Cat’s new personas as actually the terrorists Goren Kovic and Ivanka Balakov, their cover identities from Mali (Episodes 28 & 29). This will attract almost every major intelligence service to Rio and bring woe to all who are connected with Goren and [/b][/i]Ivanka[/b][/i].
While this is going on, Cat’s sister (posing as her) and Kyle’s Nietzschean double will be sailing around the South Atlantic on the Windfall sniffing around the Cape Verde islands giving the two an alibi. Of course, Kyle and Cat will have to run like hell to get back to the ship. It is a bold plan, but should turn the Brazilian authorities against the corporations trying to rescind the poor’s voting rights!
Next: Episode 45: A New Player in Town
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Episode 43: Two Parties and a Psycho
The Team attends a party at the Autódromo Internacional Nelson Piquet where Colin Hughes, Victor Kane’s personal nemesis, is introducing the newest member of the Petrochem racing team, a former Rio street racer. Colin easily gets Victor to act out and continues his successful campaign to destroy the runner’s reputation and brand him as an unstable and unreliable driver. Allison attracts Colin’s attention and the two get to know each other. Nip mistakenly gets an autograph and Ricco meets an old girlfriend from his past.
Pedro de Costa’s gang gets their HQ bugged. Victor finds out just how big a psycho Cruz is now that the unstable gang leader considers the runner to be working for him.
Background
The Team has arrived in Rio de Janeiro aboard their (pilfered) 194 foot mega yacht, the Windfall. They have been brought here by the Disney Corporation, who runs the giant theme park, Fantasia. The Brazilian Supreme Court is expected to overturn the 1975 Presidential Decree (The Fusion) effectively re-establishing the city of Rio as an independent city-state within Brazil. Factions have begun to align, in anticipation of this decision, to vie for control of the city. The notorious favelas of Rio de Janeiro present a powerful voting block; one that several of the players in the political struggle seek to eliminate. By taking away the voting rights of the poor, the conspirators hope to move closer to their ultimate goal of eliminating the favelas; reclaiming the valuable real estate for redevelopment. The Disney Corporation opposes this agenda and has contracted the Team as ‘consultants’ to counter the maneuvers of rival factions.
Dramatis Personae
The Team
Allison Cole: 17 yo kleptomaniac sexpot and one of Cat Ortiz’s best friends from Atlantic City High School. When she became a suspect in a heist in Atlantic City, she followed her friend to Jamaica and has now joined the Team. Her skills as a Prowler are formidable.
Cat (Fisher) Ortiz: Officially she is Sam Fisher and the late Maria Ortiz’s 19 yo daughter. Now back in South America, she is using her “mother’s” last name again. In actuality she is a full memory clone of late Caitlin Jones, the original biogenetic assassin construct built by the now defunct Bio Works Corporation. This is known only to Kyle Vaduva.
Doc Freeman: Former professor at UNLV, former assistant coroner and (formally) disgraced cyber researcher. He is the inventor of the “cyberbrain” with which he claims to have cured death itself. Although courts around the world are still deliberating the ramifications of his work, the Disney Corporation has honored their agreements making Dr. Freeman rich beyond his wildest dreams.
Kyle Vaduva: Former C.I.A. agent, burned by the agency for crimes he did not commit. His efforts to expose and eliminate the Section, a freelance spy ring that had infiltrated the C.I.A., led to a review of his record and exoneration. He was allowed to retire with full benefits. Kyle has reunited with his lover from the Romanian Operation, Caitlin Jones (see Cat (Fisher) Ortiz above)
Nip Lacey: 16 yo amnesiac girl with neon green hair. She is a NET savant. Nip is a former classmate of Allison Cole and Cat Ortiz, whom she considers her best friends.
Fred: ferret and imaginary friend of Nip.
Ricco Torres: A former member of the Rio de Janeiro Civil Police who became a private investigator when his friendship with certain ‘unsavory’ characters came to light. Although he was not corrupt, he left the force before a case could be ‘made’ (manufactured) against him. Recently he has been hired by the Disney Corporation and been given a corporate ‘badge’. He serves as liaison between the Team and Disney.
Victor Kane: He is a 28 year old street racer (Runner). After being cashiered by Petrochem’s security arm, Kane, as he prefers to be called, earned extra money dabbling in smuggling.
Nicholas (Nicky) Vaduva: Zar’s (Kyle’s) 18-year-old son from our Romanian adventure. Nicholas is unaware of this, believing Kyle to be his father’s cousin. He serves as third officer on the Team’s yacht, SS Windfall.
The NPCs
Alex Heidel: A cyberdeck designer from EBM.
Arabella Seurat: A boutique car designer from Brittany, France and friend of Colin Hughes.
Colin Hughes: He is a (senior) executive from Petrochem on assignment in Rio de Janeiro. The man is from Victor Kane’s life path. Kane and Colin vied for the affections of Marybeth Bascom, daughter of Texas US Senator Howard Bascom. All three young people were “gear heads”. Kane beat out Colin, who arranged Kane’s separation from his job at Petrochem.
Ernesto Cruz: Nico’s direct superior in the Red Command and a stone cold psycho.
Hector Benetiz: the head of Disney security in Rio.
Henrique: A former Favela drug lord who has taken a government amnesty offer and gotten out of the drug business. The man now runs a media company which works with Disney and a mini-venture capitalist firm that gives micro-loans to favela residents so they can rise from poverty. It is suspected he is positioning himself to enter politics. He and Ricco Torres grew up together with Ricco being the younger ‘brother’. Henrique used to belong to a Brazilian pop group manufactured by a record company. When his voice changed he was fired and thrown back into the favela where he rose to the top of the local gang.
Nico: Garage owner and local ganja wholesaler from Favela Caminho do Lucio. Victor races for him.
Pedro de Costa: An up and coming gang leader in the Third Command.
The Action
Saturday, September 23, 2045:
In the morning, Cat spends R$ 420 to update her cyberdeck (updates to Armor, Deckshield One and Phone Home programs). Afterwards she calls to make appointments for Allison, Nip and herself at Body Cure (for Sunday afternoon).
Kyle contacts Ricco to ask that he concentrate on finding out where Pedro de Costa lives. With a little time before the party at Autódromo Internacional Nelson Piquet, the former detective hits the streets. His travels take him to some rather funky locales. Even though he changes clothes before heading to the track, Ricco fails to wash away the smells of his journey. (The player botched a personal grooming roll). The complex bouquet of ‘eau du street’ makes it difficult to strike up a conversation at the party.
Meanwhile a dapperly dressed Nicholas pulls up to the dock to pick up Allison and Nip in his new Gazlada Scarpi (sports car). Kyle and Cat arrive by air in their Jaguar XKF (AV3). Everyone has decided to attend Colin’s party, even Victor. He catches a cab to the Autodromo with Doc Freeman.
Petrochem has rented a large private box in the upper levels of the stands. The guest list is a who’s who in Rio racing, mixed with an assortment of powerful corporate execs, local celebrities and government officials. Nicholas and Allison arrive with Nip. The two inadvertently abandon the netrunner as they split up to mingle with the other guests. Seeing Allison, Ricco makes his way over to say hello. Her eyes begin to water as he approaches. The stench he exudes is almost palpable. With nary a greeting she continues past trying to disappear into the crowd. Once at a safe distance, she calls the odiferous investigator to clue him in. Thankful but still embarrassed, Ricco quickly exits the party.
Nip is convinced that one of the guests is the star of her favorite NET show (the player actually botched an awareness roll then rolled a 9 for result). She begins to obsess over meeting him, unintentionally stalking him through the crowd of guests.
Kyle and Cat arrive and begin to mingle. Sam Fisher (Cat’s ‘father’) comes up in conversation. As the topic turns to his current stretch in prison, she walks away. Elsewhere in the crowd, Allison is trolling for a rich and unattached suitor. She and Colin Hughes run into each other and renew their acquaintance.
A freshly washed and changed Ricco returns at about the same time that Doc Freeman and Victor Kane finally show up. Catching sight of Colin, Kane begins to grouse, to the obviously disinterested neurosurgeon. The runner intends his ‘bitch fest’ to be a private conversation, but his voice carries. The pair is quickly drawing the attention of those around them. Doc Freeman moves away, in an attempt to dissociate himself from the ‘quietly’ fuming runner. Hoping to drive home his point to the quickly retreating doctor, Kane finishes with, “He’s an asshole!”
This unfolding scene is too rich an opportunity to pass up. Colin, having taken note of the runner’s arrival, chooses this moment to walk over and welcome Victor to his party. With Allison on his arm, he jovially converses with the obviously aggravated driver. The Petrochem executive’s subtle jibes goad the runner into another verbal sparring duel. As before, Victor is overmatched. The worst part for the runner is the satisfied smile on the face of his rival.
Colin lands one last stabbing remark, before disengaging from the conversation to mingle with his other guests. Turning his back to Victor, the exec begins to walk off with Allison. The runner reflexively grabs a drink from a passing tray and throws it at his rival. Colin and Allison are doused by the fruity cocktail. Ricco steps between Colin and Victor to diffuse the confrontation. He attempts to exert his authority, but neither is cowed.
Security lurks nearby but does not intervene. Rather than rising to Victor’s provocation the Petrochem exec turns to console a shocked and angry Allison. The runner is left standing there seething in impotent fury. Cat quietly tells Victor to leave, but the runner doesn’t move. Feeling justified in his actions, he refuses to be dismissed. The look of murder in her eyes and Cat’s promise of violence if he doesn’t withdraw immediately quickly quashes his resolve. As a parting shot, the runner spits at the feet of his rival, before storming out of the room.
Colin’s victory is complete. Not only has he made the runner look like a fool, he has destroyed any chance Victor might have had of breaking into the legitimate racing community of Brazil. That his allies came to his defense, instead of supporting the runner, is just an added bonus.
Still fuming, Victor hails a cab and tells the cabbie to take him to a bar where ‘drivers’ hang at. He watches the race taking place at the Autódromo Internacional Nelson Piquet while sitting alone and drinking. Colin for his part arranges for a new dress to be brought from the Windfall to Allison. He makes sure all her needs are attended to and comes out as the hero of the entire incident.
Nip has been trying to work up the courage to go over and speak with the NET star. She finally catches him alone and pounces. Squealing with delight, the cyber-goth unleashes a torrent of compliments and questions as she closes in on the target of her affections. The netrunner’s mouth is unable to keep up the frenetic pace of her brain. Coupled with a rudimentary knowledge of Portuguese, Nip’s rapid fire delivery is all but incomprehensible.
The young man smiles and nods while trying to back away. His grasp of Portuguese is even worse than Nip’s, which he would tell her, if she would let him. The netrunner’s verbal onslaught continues, till the young man unknowingly agrees to give her his autograph. Letting out another high pitched squeal, Nip reaches to her hip for her cyberdeck. With its small compact size, the EBM PNI 724 could easily be mistaken for a holstered handgun (at a quick glance).
The man’s bodyguard reacts, moving to disarm Nip. A curt gesture from his employer brings him up short. The netrunner is completely oblivious to this exchange, but Cat isn’t. Curious and concerned for her friend, she walks over to join the conversation. As she approaches, Cat notes that the young man is speaking to his bodyguard in German. She switches the language of her greeting accordingly.
Recognition and relief flood the young man’s face. He imploringly asks Cat if she speaks Portuguese. “She has been talking for 5 minutes and I have no idea what she’s saying” (indicating Nip). Cat explains her friend’s infatuation, inciting amused laughter. The young man introduces himself as Alex Heidel, quickly adding that he was not laughing at the netrunner, but the absurdity of the situation.
“I helped design that deck.”
Alexl goes on to explain that he works for EBM. One of the few phrases he was able to catch in Nip’s over eager rant was “I love your work”. He assumed she was referring to her cyberdeck, which the netrunner is still sheepishly offering up to be signed. Alexl was surprised to be recognized or to meet such an exuberant fan of his work. He was flattered.
Unable to speak German, Nip finds herself in a situation not that dissimilar to the predicament Alexl experienced minutes before. She looks expectantly from the deck designer to Cat. Both agree to carry on the charade. Alexl graciously signs the strap of Nip’s cyberdeck, signing the NET star’s name. He also promises to send a gift bag (swag bag) of EMB promotional merchandise.
Elsewhere in the room, Ricco is searching for some female companionship. He zeros in on a pretty wallflower and tries to strike up a conversation. She doesn’t seem impressed but continues to talk with the investigator. Emboldened, Ricco turns on the charm. The woman suddenly excuses herself and begins to walk away. She offers some advice as she departs.
“You should really ask a person’s name when you start a conversation. It might make them think you’re interested in them as a person.”
Ricco takes this advice to heart, but the women here seem a little out of his league. He decides to talk up one of the cocktail waitresses, who is surprised, but responsive. While the investigator works around to inviting her to a ‘private’ after party, Kyle and Cat receive an odd request from one of the other guests. The woman introduces herself as Vena. She has taken notice of Ricco and asks if they will introduce her.
When the waitress leaves to refill her drink tray Kyle brings Vena over. There’s something oddly familiar about her that Ricco just can’t place. Kyle excuses himself to allow the two to converse privately. The investigator quickly warms to Vena’s unapologetic flirtations. Everything is going swimmingly, till she throws him a curve. “A waitress? Your standards used to be higher.” It’s not her playful chiding that stops him in his tracks. She looks very different from the last time Ricco saw her, but that knowing smirk is instantly recognizable. Vena is in actuality his old girlfriend, Vera.
The ex-cop doesn’t pry into what she’s doing at the party. Given her criminal past, he really doesn’t want to know. The two catch up on old times. When Vena (Vera) spies the waitress returning, she makes her farewells and departs. Ricco’s ex whispers something in the waitress’ ear as the two pass. The poor girl nearly drops her tray in shock. Vera looks back at Ricco and winks.
The race begins. Many guests move to their seats. Colin sits with Allison, Cat and Arabella Seurat (the wallflower Ricco never bothered to get the name of). The French woman is a boutique car designer and friend of Colin. Neither the race nor conversation holds her interest. She is completely absorbed by the plans on her data pad.
Arabella defensively clutches the pad to her chest, after catching Allison looking over her shoulder. The young designer doesn’t mince words when telling the young prowler what she thinks of snoops and loose women. The words may be lost on Allison, but she doesn’t need to speak French to get the gist of Arabella’s remark.
“Ella. Be nice,” Colin playfully scolds. Cat tries to diffuse the situation by asking to see her work (in impeccable French). Arabella is dismissive, saying the designs would be beyond them. With some coaxing from Colin, she finally relents. The young designer is shocked that Cat not only understands her work but asks highly technical questions. The two begin conversing rapidly in French, completely ignoring Allison and Colin. The Petrochem executive uses the time to get to know the alluring young woman.
The party is a huge success. Everyone has a good time, except Victor, who finds his own fun at the race bar. Kyle and Cat warn Doc Freeman about the dangers of traveling by cab, especially alone. (kidnapping risk). The biogen suggests he buy a car.
“You’re a powerful corporate executive for god sake! Buy a car!”
He and Nip catch a ride home with the couple. Nicholas drove off with his ‘lady du jour’, while Allison was escorted back to the boat by Colin, abandoning the netrunner yet again. Ricco waits for his waitress to finish up, then the two head off together.
***
Sunday, September 24, 2045:
Victor goes to church. Cat orders a full security sweep both electronic and visual of the Windfall and her and Kyle’s penthouse apartment. Allison, Cat and Nip go to Body Cure to look their best for the final shoot (and wrap party) of Henrique’s pilot.
The team is on mission that evening, to bug the headquarters of Pedro de Costa’s gang. Victor drops Kyle, Cat and Allison off at the outskirts of the favela. Nip’s drone flies high cover, monitoring movement near the building. The mission is a cakewalk. Security is all but nonexistent. There are a few men up, but not particularly watchful. A dog in the building is drugged, but was sleeping for the most part anyway so that doesn’t tip off the less than watchful guards. An ancient computer sits on the countertop. There is no hard drive, but Kyle suggests that they may be using a nano-comp. They could be using the guts of the old computer to access the (flash drive sized) microcomputer. The ex-C.I.A. agent taps the ports just in case they plug in.
The team successfully exfiltrates from the favela and returns to the Windfall.
***
Monday, September 25, 2045:
The Team all shows up for the shoot. Ricco asks to speak to Henrique and informs him of the problems the Team is having with Nico, Cruz and Pedro. The news ruins Henrique’s good mood. He promises to look into the situation after the party.
Allison, Cat and Nip have arrived dressed for the party scene. Allison and Cat are immediately cleared by the director. Nip’s ‘fashion sense’ clashes with the decor. With some coaxing from her friends, the young netrunner agrees to a makeover and wardrobe change.
After numerous takes, the last shot is in the can. Henrique stands up and thanks the entire cast and crew. He gives a brief speech, before ending with, “Now let’s party.” Craft services rolls in refreshments. The producer is all smiles as he works his way through the crowd towards Cat. He asks to speak with her in private.
Once alone, Henrique asks about Cruz and Pedro. The biogen downplays the situation, “we have it well in hand”. Cat is less concerned with the gang leaders, than she is with Ricco discussing Team business with outsiders. She worries that the investigator may have divided loyalties.
Victor hangs out on the set with some of the stunt drivers. They talk cars and racing. The runner is asked if he might be interested in doing some stunt work for a (very) low budget movie, filming around Rio. Kane tells them that he is definitely interested.
When everyone returns to the Windfall, Cat asks to speak to Ricco privately. She gives the investigator a choice. He can do his job one of two ways. As a Disney liaison, he can keep his primary loyalty to Disney and report everything that they plan to his corporate superiors, or he can trust that everything the Team is doing is in the corporation’s best interest. “We may sometimes have to do things that Disney can’t officially approve of. In fact, we have been hired to do things that the corporation just doesn’t want to know about.”
Ricco chooses to be fully informed and not report anything without Cat or Kyle’s explicit permission. Cat moves on to Ricco’s conversations with Henrique. Again, she makes it quite clear that any discussion of the Team’s actions, problems or plans with anyone outside the group is forbidden. In the politest way possible she makes it clear that if it happens again, they will have to ‘terminate’ their relationship. Her meaning is clear.
***
Tuesday, September 26, 2045:
In the morning Kyle calls I-Corp to set up an appointment with R. Maximillian. Victor is contacted by Cruz, who invites the runner to his hacienda for a meeting. When the runner tells him he has no way to get there, Cruz sends a car. Kane meets them away from the landing dock.
Victor arrives at Cruz’s hacienda and is relieved of his firearms. He is ushered into the boss’s presence. The crime lord is not happy. He accuses Kane of throwing the race and asks if the runner knows why there have been ‘inquiries’ into ‘his’ business. Cruz absently waves around a large caliber revolver as he rants about disloyalty.
The crime lord strides towards the back of the house. Kane is urged by the two stone faced men, standing behind him, to follow. Out on the back lawn, a man is strung up between two posts. He has obviously been brutally tortured.
Fearing that he might be the next one strung between the posts, Victor admits he talked to Kyle. Cruz loses control and shoots the injured man. The crime lord makes it clear that Victor works for Nico, which means he works for him. Talk about his business again and well….
Cruz tells the runner that he can make up for his indiscretion, before turning to casually shoot the tortured man in the head. He gives Kane the name of a banker that ripped him off; embezzling R$ 500,000 (83,333 eb). Cruz expects Victor to make the man pay up. The runner silently nods.
The psychotic crime lord cuts off the dead man’s genitals. He keeps the man’s penis, but puts the testicles in Kane’s hand. Squeezing the runner’s hand close around the balls, Cruz smiles and leaves Victor with these parting words, “Give these to the banker when you see him and tell him his brother says hi.”
With a dismissive wave Cruz turns back to the corpse, machete in hand, and sets about breaking down the carcass. The runner is driven back to the dock. The return trip is made in complete silence. Victor holds the bloody testicles in his hand during the entire ride.
On the launch back to the yacht, a sailor offers Victor a baggie for his ‘trophy’. It is gratefully accepted. Kane finds Cat and shows her the bag. She is shocked. He explains what happened. Cat calls in Ricco to find out more about Cruz. This is the first time those two had met since the race party and Kane is still raw about Ricco interfering in his confrontation with Colin. The driver keeps calling the ex-cop, “pig”. Ricco tells him to stop, but Kane persists. Ricco suggests to Kane that they “settle this man to man.” Cat tells the pair to settle it outside on the foredeck. No lethal strikes or weapons allowed.
Nip sees them squaring off on the security cameras and blasts the mortal combat theme over the ship’s loudspeakers. Ricco acquits himself well, but is beaten down by the ex-corporate soldier. He yields and promises to stay out of Kane’s business. Cat now has a handle on each one’s hand to hand combat ability.
After the fight, the biogen has a private word with the runner, “My mother was a cop and if I hear you calling anyone a pig, next time you’ll be facing me.”
Cat has the testicles given to Doc Freeman who puts them in a limb preservation kit. Victor is told to turn off his phone and take the battery out. For now he is restricted to the ship until they come up with a plan to deal with Cruz.
Next: Episode 44: Current Troubles Dealt With As Ghosts from the Past Surface
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Episode 42: All’s Well That Goes Awry
A local thug tries to muscle in on Nico’s ganja business. Victor is told to throw a race. Nip goes into space and learns she is a biogenetic construct. Kyle discovers that I-Corp has run afoul of an old C.I.A./Gang of Four plot that endangers everyone that comes too close. Colin Hughes invites everyone to a party at the races and Henrique invites everyone to be in the final scene of his new pilot and attend the party following.
Background
The Brazilian Supreme Court is expected to overturn the 1975 Presidential Decree (The Fusion) effectively re-establishing the city of Rio as an independent city-state within Brazil. Factions have begun to align, in anticipation of this decision, to vie for control of the city. The notorious favelas of Rio de Janeiro present a powerful voting block; one that several of the players in the political struggle seek to eliminate. By taking away the voting rights of the poor, the conspirators hope to move closer to their ultimate goal of eliminating the favelas; reclaiming the valuable real estate for redevelopment. The Disney Corporation opposes this agenda and has contracted the Team as ‘consultants’ to counter the maneuvers of rival factions.
Dramatis Personae
The Team
Allison Cole: 17 yo kleptomaniac sexpot and one of Cat Ortiz’s best friends from Atlantic City High School. When she became a suspect in a heist in Atlantic City, she followed her friend to Jamaica and has now joined the Team. Her skills as a Prowler are formidable.
Cat (Fisher) Ortiz: Officially she is Sam Fisher and the late Maria Ortiz’s 19 yo daughter. Now back in South America, she is using her “mother’s” last name again. In actuality she is a full memory clone of late Caitlin Jones, the original biogenetic assassin construct built by the now defunct Bio Works Corporation. This is known only to Kyle Vaduva.
Doc Freeman: Former professor at UNLV, former assistant coroner and (formally) disgraced cyber researcher. He is the inventor of the “cyberbrain” with which he claims to have cured death itself. Although courts around the world are still deliberating the ramifications of his work, the Disney Corporation has honored their agreements making Dr. Freeman rich beyond his wildest dreams.
Kyle Vaduva: Former C.I.A. agent, burned by the agency for crimes he did not commit. His efforts to expose and eliminate the Section, a freelance spy ring that had infiltrated the C.I.A., led to a review of his record and exoneration. He was allowed to retire with full benefits. Kyle has reunited with his lover from the Romanian Operation, Caitlin Jones (see Cat (Fisher) Ortiz above)
Nip Lacey: 16 yo amnesiac girl with neon green hair. She is a NET savant. Nip is a former classmate of Allison Cole and Cat Ortiz, whom she considers her best friends.
Fred: ferret and imaginary friend of Nip.
Ricco Torres: A former member of the Rio de Janeiro Civil Police who became a private investigator when his friendship with certain ‘unsavory’ characters came to light. Although he was not corrupt, he left the force before a case could be ‘made’ (manufactured) against him. Recently he has been hired by the Disney Corporation and been given a corporate ‘badge’. He serves as liaison between the Team and Disney.
Victor Kane: He is a 28 year old street racer (Runner). After being cashiered by Petrochem’s security arm, Kane, as he prefers to be called, earned extra money dabbling in smuggling.
Nicholas (Nicky) Vaduva: Zar’s (Kyle’s) 18-year-old son from our Romanian adventure. Nicholas is unaware of this, believing Kyle to be his father’s cousin. He serves as third officer on the Team’s yacht, SS Windfall.
The NPCs
Dr. Luis Serrano: A deputy coroner with the Rio de Janeiro’s Coroner’s Office, who Ricco knows.
Ernesto Cruz: Nico’s direct superior in his gang and a stone cold psycho.
Felipe Torres: The older brother of Ricco Torres. Felipe is a high ranking member of the Red Command.
Hector Benetiz: the head of Disney security in Rio.
Henrique: A former Favela drug lord who has taken a government amnesty offer and gotten out of the drug business. The man now runs a media company which works with Disney and a mini-venture capitalist firm that gives micro-loans to favela residents so they can rise from poverty. It is suspected he is positioning himself to enter politics. He and Ricco Torres grew up together with Ricco being the younger ‘brother’. Henrique used to belong to a Brazilian pop group manufactured by a record company. When his voice changed he was fired and thrown back into the favela where he rose to the top of the local gang.
Pedro de Costa: An up and coming gang leader in the Third Command in charge of Favela Barrio Nova Alianca.
Nico: Garage owner and local ganja wholesaler from Favela Caminho do Lucio. Victor races for him.
R. Maximillian (II): President and CEO of I-Corp.
Roger Kincaid: the Disney executive in charge of the political situation in Rio.
The Vet: A 3rd generation Nietzschean doctor/scientist. He shares his species’ dislike of humans.
The Action
Wednesday, September 13, 2045:
Cat, Nip, Doc Freeman, Allison and the Vet leave Rio aboard the C-23 Sherpa bound for the Alcantara Spaceport in northern Brazil. On arrival a shuttle waits to take them to the new L-3 point station owned by the Martian Republic. Cat whiles away the time spending 9 hours updating her Killer VI program.
Kyle and Ricco take over researching the five dead netrunners.
Ricco visits his ‘buddy’, Dr. Serrano, the coroner and learns more details about the netrunner whose bike went over the cliff. The motorcycle was a hybrid gas/electric. The heat of the fire was more intense than could have been caused by the bike alone. It’s likely that an accelerant was used. However, this is all conjecture, as there’s no budget to investigate further. Official story is that the bike fell over the cliff and exploded when it hit the ground. And more importantly, ‘someone above’ killed the investigation.
Victor puts in time at Nico’s garage working on the race car. While in the storeroom, grabbing parts, he overhears a man threatening Nico. The Runner foregoes an opportunity to cautiously observe the situation, opting to boldly walk back into the garage; carrying a box of parts. His abrupt entrance draws the attention of one of the two gunmen confronting Nico.
Victor is quickly facing down the barrel of a large handgun. Trying to act as non-threatening as possible, he drops the parts and raises his hands. The other gunman barely acknowledges the interruption. He continues to recline against a nearby workbench, cradling his shotgun, looking disinterested in the whole affair. Victor notes a third man sitting calmly against the hood of the race car.
“Anyone else back there?” he inquires.
Victor recognizes his voice as the one that had been threatening Nico. The runner suspects that this may be the leader of the shake-down crew. He does his best to appear harmless and helpful with his answers. It looks like they may get out of this confrontation unscathed; then the gunman, who had been covering him, recognizes Victor.
“Hey Pedro, that’s the cacete (prick) from the race!”
Across the garage, Nico winces as if expecting to eat a bullet any second. From the change in his interrogator’s demeanor, Victor is pretty sure that he must be Pedro. Anger clouds Pedro’s face. He explains to the pair that they owe him R$ 5000; the money he lost on the race. Victor has another race this Saturday. Pedro expects him to throw it.
The runner quickly refuses, saying “I don’t throw races.” Rather than resorting to threats, Pedro turns to Nico, “Talk to your boy.” With a promise of seeing the pair on Saturday, the extortionists depart.
Once the three are gone, Victor turns on Nico, calling him a ‘pussy’ and demanding to know why he didn’t stand up to those thugs. Exasperated, Nico asks,” I was outnumbered and unarmed. What did you expect me to do?”
Though pissed, he is careful not to mention Victor’s own inaction during the confrontation. The garage owner points out that the runner can leave at any time, but he lives here.
Nico’s crew returns to the garage and tries to decide what to do. The suggestion is floated of going to see Cruz. Nico pales and quickly dismisses the idea. Victor susses from the discussion that Cruz is Nico’s boss. He keeps pressing the idea, till an obviously frightened Nico finally exclaims, “Cruz is fucking psycho. He’ll start a war.”
Undeterred, the runner cajoles Nico into going to see his boss. Ernesto Cruz lives on an armed compound outside Rio. His hacienda is more bunker than house. Rather than displaying concern over the attempted shake-down, he seems overjoyed. Victor speaks up, “I won’t throw the race, so Pedro will come back to Nico’s garage for revenge.” Nico is obviously uncomfortable. Usually Cruz would rebuke an underling for speaking out of turn, but the runner’s declaration is music to his ears. Smiling, he promises Nico that he’ll take care of his problem. The garage owner’s discomfort turns to fear.
Back at the garage, Victor asks Nico if he knows anyone who could get him some guns. The garage owner lines up a meet. Victor buys two handguns and an SMG. The weapons are already being purchased at a premium. His request to have them smartlinked only drive the price up further. The runner ends up spending R$ 48,000 (8000 eb).
(GM Note: The player assumed that these weapons were untraceable, but that isn’t the case. These are second hand weapons. The serial numbers have been filed off, but the gun runner hadn’t bothered to take the time or incur the added expense of swapping out the barrels.)
Victor informs Kyle about what happened at the garage and the impending shoot out.
***
Thursday, September 14, 2045:
Cat spends kills more time updating the programs for her deck. She finishes the update on her Killer VI (10 hours) and begins work on an Asp (5 hours).
Kyle and Ricco continue their research on the five dead netrunners.
***
Friday, September 15, 2045:
The shuttle arrives at the L-3 point, just after midnight (Rio time). Nip is transferred directly from the shuttle to the medical bay. Armed with the advanced diagnostics of the medical suite, Doc Freeman and the Vet begin their tests. Allison uses her time in space to undergo (Deep Space) Muscle Enhancement. Cat trains on a Sega-Atari Teacher learning the basics of operating in space (Zero-G Maneuver +1). In her spare time she continues to update the programs of her cyberdeck.
Kyle visits Henrique to discuss Pedro and his crew. The former drug lord tells him that Pedro de Costa is with the Third Command. Henrique is concerned. There is supposed to be a truce. Brokering peace between the gangs is his legacy and helped earn his amnesty from prosecution. Henrique suggests planting evidence in Pedro’s headquarters then using the BOPE’s to take care of their problem. Kyle is concerned that involving the elite force of the military police might blow up in their face. He thanks Henrique for his information and suggestions. As almost an afterthought, Kyle mentions the altercation in the morgue. Henrique is highly interested in the cop who threatened his friend (Ricco).
After leaving Henrique, Kyle meets with Roger Kincaid to discuss I-Corp. As the executive in charge of Disney’s political operations in Brazil, Kincaid is privy to the Team’s mission. According to his sources, I-Corp has not aligned with any faction. Kyle proposes courting R. Maximillian as a political ally. The plan is short on details, but the prospect of gaining the support of the megacorporation is too tempting. Kincaid gives his approval, but advises Kyle to proceed cautiously.
Kyle’s next meeting is with Hector Benetiz. The head of Disney Security listens quietly as Kyle relates Henrique’s suggested course of action for dealing with Pedro and his crew. It is clear that Hector does not care for the plan or the man who proposed it. As a former BOPE, he has contacts that could arrange such a raid, but he strongly recommends against it. While leaving the security office, Kyle realizes that many of the security personnel are former BOPEs, like their boss.
Victor’s guns arrive. Having made a mint on the sale, the dealer ‘generously’ throws in a pair of shoulder holsters (for the pistols) and two boxes of ammo.
***
Saturday, September 16, 2045:
At the L-3 point station, Doc Freeman and the Vet continue working on Nip. They discuss performing a biopsy on one of the brain growths. Cat nixes the idea for fear it could damage her friend. They must make do with noninvasive scanning methods.
Race day in the Favela Bordo do Mato: Kyle stands with Nico as a show of support. Pedro pays him no heed, having failed to recognize the ex-C.I.A. agent and notorious edgerunner. His attitude quickly changes as one of his men hastily whispers the identity of Nico’s new ‘friend’ in his ear. Pedro calculates the chances of a double cross when he is informed of Victor’s R$ 2000 bet (on himself). He makes a call, to ready his contingency plan.
Victor’s opponent kicks in the nitrous straight off the line. The system malfunctions, damaging his engine severely. Victor has the race in the bag, till he misjudges a turn and is forced to go off the track or slam into a wall. His mistake gives the other driver a chance to get back in the race. Victor races back to the turn, but in his haste, overshoots it once again. It’s a quick turn around, but even with the pedal to the floor, the runner can’t make up the distance he’s lost. Smoking and sputtering, the other driver urges his car across the finish line, just ahead of Kane.
The loss stings, but goes a long way towards repairing his reputation with the local racing community. Being gracious in defeat gains him grudging respect and a new friend in his former opponent. With his performance on the track and the sizable bet he wagered on himself, no one, besides the Team and Pedro’s crew, even considers the possibility that Kane threw the race.
Pedro is overjoyed by his winnings and calls off the attack on Nico’s garage. He even stops by to congratulate the garage owner on making a “wise choice”, on the way to collect his winnings.
***
Sunday, September 18, 2045:
In space the tests continue and Cat keeps working on her Zero-G Maneuver skill.
Victor Kane goes to the same church. The mysterious priests are not at the mass.
***
Monday, September 19, 2045:
Allison finishes her Muscle Enhancement therapy. Doc and the Vet conclude their tests. Unlike a Kimura biogen, Nip’s genetic code is nearly indistinguishable from human, but there are subtle differences. She is welcomed into the Collective as a new type of biogen. The masses in her brain emit an energy field, which allows her to connect to the NET. How and why they work is not known but the Collective and Doc Freeman have collected reams of data.
In the early afternoon, the shuttle begins its return trip to Earth with everyone from the Team onboard. Cat works on her Zero-G Maneuver (+2).
***
Tuesday, September 20, 2045:
Cat works on her Zero-G Maneuver +2 in the shuttle and continues Nip’s introduction to the Collective.
Colin Hughes invites the Team to a party at the Autódromo Internacional Nelson Piquet this Saturday. The party is to introduce Petrochem Racing Team’s newest driver.
Ricco learns about the death of the fifth netrunner, who either fell or jumped off the balcony of a building. This netrunner, handle of Rater8, had contacted two friends about 2 days before apparently committing suicide. Apparently, Rater8 was frightened, but it’s not yet known about what. Ricco gets the handles of the two friends so they can be contacted for more information.
***
Wednesday, September 21, 2045:
The shuttle lands around 1 am, at the Alcantara Spaceport (Brazil). The returning Team members are able to catch a couple of hours of sleep before the C-23 Sherpa arrives. Kyle meets the plane on its return to Rio at the airport and takes them back to the Windfall. Those not on hand are contacted to gather for a Team meeting in 1 hour.
Cat gives Kyle a private ‘debriefing’. The pair is so deep in the throes of passion, they forget about the Team meeting. The two show up twenty minutes late, slightly disheveled and reeking of sex.
The Team members who went into orbit are brought up to speed on what has happened while they were gone. Ricco is sent out of the room to ‘get coffee’ while the rest of the Team discuss highly illegal possible actions. Cat is against the group getting involved in a gang war between Nico and Pedro, but if they are drawn into the conflict, they need to gather more intel. Ricco is directed to use his contacts to track down Pedro de Costa’s gang and discover where they hang out.
Kyle and Cat call I-Corp to request a meeting with R. Maximillian. They are granted an interview on Friday at 11 am.
***
Thursday, September 21, 2045:
Cat upgrades the brakes on her Lamborghini Demon then sets up her chemistry lab to produce (6 kilos) homemade TNT.
Hector contacts Kyle with some concerning information. Pedro has been on a recruiting drive. He’s added 10 new members to his seven man crew. The gang lord has also secured the services of six “Riot Boys”.
Instead of just gathering information, Ricco passes along his belief that the Team plans to take out Pedro and his gang, to his gangster brother, Felipe Torres. If the Team eliminates Pedro the gang truce wouldn’t be broken, but could still open up opportunities. Felipe is cautious, but asks Ricco to give him a heads up if they make a move on Pedro.
***
Friday, September 22, 2045:
Victor is tapped to chauffer Kyle and Cat to I-Corp’s offices in Rio. They are directed to the underground parking structure beneath the corporate tower. The attendant in the security booth at the entrance to the garage is the only human guard they see, but it is apparent they are being carefully watched. The guard directs Victor to follow the lighted pathway to their designated spot. He stringently advises the runner not to deviate from the path.
Kyle tells Victor to stay in the car. The runner flatly refuses. “I’m your bodyguard, I’m coming with you.”
Kyle is mildly annoyed by Victor’s open defiance of his orders. He finds the runner to be a tactless brute, definitely not a person you bring to delicate negotiations. Knowing that verbal abuse or physical force would be a waste of time, he tries to reason with Victor. “Do you think there is anything you could do if they decide to kill us?”
The words sink in and the runner relents. He isn’t happy, but he stays in the car.
Another illuminated line greets Cat and Kyle as they exit the vehicle. They are directed to an express elevator, which swiftly takes them to the top floor. A small security team greets them as the doors open. The pair is escorted to the doors of R. Maximillian’s office. The room beyond is cavernous. Floor to ceiling fish tanks line the walls. The diffused light given off suffuses the room in an aquamarine glow. R. Maximillian sits in a high-backed leather chair behind the only other piece of furniture visible in the room. The enormous antique desk rests atop a raised dais at the far end of the room. The chamber is more audience hall than corporate office.
R. Maximillian is not alone. His ever-present bodyguard stands respectfully to the left of his chair. Viola balances languidly on the corner of the desk. The CEO greets the pair and bids them approach. There is an oddity to R. Maximillian’s voice that raises an instinctual warning in Cat. Since they first stepped onto the elevator the biogen has been straining her augmented senses for any hint of danger or subterfuge.
As the CEO continues to speak, she realizes that the voice is right, but there is no echo. Cat concentrates even more intently on her surroundings. Several fish in the tanks display a subtle ‘wrongness’ that draws her attention. Their movements are close to natural, but slightly off. She suspects that they are artificial.
(GM Note: The fish are indeed artificial. They are semi-autonomous drones used to monitor activity in the room. Few people would be able to notice the subtle differences to actual living fish. Cat can thank her heightened senses and a peculiar feline predatory obsession of watching (stalking) fish in fish tanks for being able to spot these fakes.)
Cat fears that they are being set up, but continues to walk with Kyle towards R. Maximillian and his companions. She relaxes somewhat when the trio is close enough for her to smell. Their scents are the same as on the boat. She and her lover aren’t out of the woods, but at least they aren’t walking into a trap.
The CEO inquires as to their health and offers them refreshments. Rising from behind his desk, he gestures to a blank spot of floor, inviting them to “make yourselves comfortable.” Squatting on the floor isn’t their idea of comfort, but as if bidden by its master, the surface begins to deform, shaping itself into a sunken living room.
After refreshments and exchanging pleasantries, R. Maximillian (II) brings the subject around to the reason for their visit. As preface they bring up the recent string of deaths within the netrunner community of Rio. The news of the deaths is obviously not a revelation to the CEO. Cat explains that they had investigated these deaths out of concern for the safety of their own netrunner (Nip) in the local NET. When it came to light that the netrunners may have been connected to I-Corp, they thought the fruits of their investigation might be useful.
“So you’re here to help me?” R. Maximillian’s tone is mildly ironic.
Cat quickly adds, “We can help you find whoever had the nerve to do this.”
“Really?” The question is delivered in the same mildly ironic, conversational tone, but the predatory look in the CEOs eyes is enough to raise hairs on the back of her neck. Cat realizes that they may have miscalculated. R. Maximillian already has two suspects in mind and they are sitting right in front of him!
(GM Note: Unknown to Cat, years ago her father’s team blackmailed R. Maximillian (I). His son was looking for someone with C.I.A. connections who would have the cojones to screw with him and into Rio’s harbor sails the Windfall with some very viable candidates.)
Kyle picks up on the growing tension in the room. It is clear that this meeting could end very badly for the two of them. The tactic quickly turns from why you should work with us, to why you shouldn’t kill us. The pair falls back on their reputation. A number of the netrunners had been tortured before being murdered. Cat points out that they have never tortured or killed anyone as cold bloodedly as that.
Their words and actions are being monitored by a host of sensors and specialized analysts. R. Maximillian accepts their innocence, for the time being. He agrees to let the Team investigate. If the intel they provide proves useful, I-Corp will support Disney’s political position. It is a victory for him either way.
Now that they are ‘working for him’, R. Maximillian fills in some of the gaps in the Team’s intelligence. He confirms that two that the five netrunners were part of a cyber-intrusion team hired by I-Corp. Their target was a transport company called Fabrini Air. The CEO wanted to verify the viability of the company before attempting a hostile takeover.
R. Maximillian shows them telemetry from the cyber-assault. The NET team successfully penetrated the company’s data fortress and was halfway through copying their financial data, when they accessed a file named: Red Rook. Suddenly 12 netrunners dropped into the NET and attacked. Examining the telemetry data, Kyle and Cat realize that at least 5 were A.I. ‘ghosts’.
Within a week all of the netrunners on the mission had been killed. Any investigations had been hushed up from on high.
When shown the picture of the four men from the dock (after the party on the Windfall), the I-Corp CEO identifies them as ex-C.I.A. Kyle recognizes several of the names mentioned but says nothing in front of R. Maximillian. Armed with this additional information, Kyle and Cat promise to investigate further and leave.
Kyle withholds what he knows until they have dropped off Victor. Once he and Cat are safely back in their Ipanema penthouse, the ex-C.I.A. agent lets her know the shit they’ve stepped into. Kyle has always been a history buff. Back in his days with the agency, he made a habit of perusing old files. Project Red Rook and Fabrini Air were both in the files.
Fabrini Air was a front for The Company. It ran black flights for the C.I.A. Project Red Rook was a Cold War project tasked with building deep bunkers and secret installations around the world. Movement of equipment and personal for Red Rook was coordinated through Fabrini Air. When the Gang of Four was dismantled, a lot of agents died or simply disappeared. No longer being funded by the black budget, Fabrini Air became a legitimate shipping and transportation company.
Kyle is uncertain if R. Maximillian’s identification of the men on the dock can be trusted. One of the men R. Maximillian identified as an agent was reported dead more than 20 years ago. He is honored with a star on the wall at Langley. If the man was actually still alive, he would be in his seventies.
Both agree that it was for the best that Kyle didn’t reveal this information in front of R. Maximillian. The CEO had just begun to trust them. Divulging such potential explosive intel too quickly could potentially renew his suspicion of the Team. There is also the worry of who else might be listening. It is obvious that they are already watching R. Maximillian and I-Corp. Why let a gang of hoary old C.I.A. killers know that you may be on to them, especially since they appear to have deep connections with the Brazilian government.
Kyle and Cat realize that looking too deeply into this could easily get them killed. The two decide to wait a few days, and then report what they have ‘found’ to R. Maximillian. After that they want nothing to do with this. The pair cracks open a bottle of champagne, slides into their pool and rejoice in still being alive.
Next: Episode 43: Two Parties and a Psycho
-
Episode 41: A Party, a Pair of Mysteries and a Crooked Cop
The Team entertains a group of Disney executives and some of the rich and infamous of Rio on their super yacht, the Windfall, during the Rio de Janeiro Power Boat Grand Prix. Kyle runs across some mysterious deaths of local netrunners and looks into them as he worries about his cousin, Nip, who has been acting stranger than usual. Ricco misses a clue and almost gets erased by a crooked cop. A coroner is bribed and that meet almost goes very wrong. Nip critically botches a Library Search roll under the influence of a little ganja and the door to her mysterious past opens briefly, sending her into a coma. To help her, Cat has to step up and take responsibility as leader of the Caitlins and a member of the Collective’s ruling council.
Background
The Brazilian Supreme Court is expected to overturn the 1975 Presidential Decree (The Fusion) effectively re-establishing the city of Rio as an independent city-state within Brazil. Factions have begun to align, in anticipation of this decision, to vie for control of the city. The notorious favelas of Rio de Janeiro present a powerful voting block; one that several of the players in the political struggle seek to eliminate. By taking away the voting rights of the poor, the conspirators hope to move closer to their ultimate goal of eliminating the favelas; reclaiming the valuable real estate for redevelopment. The Disney Corporation opposes this agenda and has contracted the Team as “consultants” to counter the maneuvers of rival factions.
Dramatis Personae
The Team
Allison Cole: 17 yo kleptomaniac sexpot and one of Cat Ortiz’s best friends from Atlantic City High School. When she became a suspect in a heist in Atlantic City, she followed her friend to Jamaica and has now joined the Team. Her skills as a Prowler are formidable.
Cat (Fisher) Ortiz: Officially she is Sam Fisher and the late Maria Ortiz’s 19 yo daughter. Now back in South America, she is using her “mother’s” last name again. In actuality she is a full memory clone of late Caitlin Jones, the original biogenetic assassin construct built by the now defunct Bio Works Corporation. This is known only to Kyle Vaduva.
Doc Freeman: Former professor at UNLV, former assistant coroner and (formally) disgraced cyber researcher. He is the inventor of the “cyberbrain” with which he claims to have cured death itself. Although courts around the world are still deliberating the ramifications of his work, the Disney Corporation has honored their agreements making Dr. Freeman rich beyond his wildest dreams.
Kyle Vaduva: Former C.I.A. agent, burned by the agency for crimes he did not commit. His efforts to expose and eliminate the Section, a freelance spy ring that had infiltrated the C.I.A., led to a review of his record and exoneration. He was allowed to retire with full benefits. Kyle has reunited with his lover from the Romanian Operation, Caitlin Jones (see Cat (Fisher) Ortiz above)
Nip Lacey: 16 yo amnesiac girl with neon green hair. She is a NET savant. Nip is a former classmate of Allison Cole, and Cat Ortiz, whom she considers her best friends.
Fred: ferret and imaginary friend of Nip.
Ricco Torres: A former member of the Rio de Janeiro Civil Police who became a private investigator when his friendship with certain ‘unsavory’ characters came to light. Although he was not corrupt, he left the force before a case could be ‘made’ (manufactured) against him. Recently he has been hired by the Disney Corporation and been given a corporate ‘badge’. He serves as liaison between the Team and Disney.
Victor Kane: He is a 28 year old street racer (Runner). After being cashiered by Petrochem’s security arm, Kane, as he prefers to be called, earned extra money dabbling in smuggling.
Nicholas (Nicky) Vaduva: Zar’s (Kyle’s) 18-year-old son from our Romanian adventure. Nicholas is unaware of this, believing Kyle to be his father’s cousin. He serves as third officer on the yacht SS Windfall.
The NPCs
Bianca Frietas: the local spokesperson for Granger Biosystems.
“Buster” Cane (Jose Pedro deCana): a popular MMA fighter in Rio.
Costas Oliveira: The manager of “Buster” Cane.
Constantin Giordino: the senior Biotechnica executive in Rio.
Hector Benetiz: the head of Disney security in Rio.
Jayci Benetiz: Hector’s wife.
Jack Mathis: one of Disney’s chief imagineers at Fantasia.
Pippa Barros: a publicist from the local media giant Grupo Abril.
R. Maximillian (II): President and CEO of I-Corp.
Viola: The eye candy on R. Maximillian’s arm.
Simon Cahill: R. Maximillian’s bodyguard.
Dr. Luis Serrano: A deputy coroner with the Rio de Janeiro’s Coroner’s Office, who Ricco knows.
The Action
Saturday, September 9, 2045:
In the morning most of the Team is preparing for the party that afternoon. Nip orders a cake for Victor to celebrate his victory in the drag races. She has requested the inscription “You May Be an Ass, but At Least You Don’t Suck!” along with a race car drawn in frosting.
Cat stops by the local Lamborghini dealership and plunks down cash for a brand new Lamborghini Demon. Rather than drive it back to the Windfall, she has it delivered to her workshop at Disney Fantasia. Afterwards, it’s back to the ship to put on her captain’s uniform and greet guests coming to the party.
Hector Benetiz (head of Disney security in Rio) and his wife arrive early. He wishes to speak with Kyle and Cat before the other guests arrive, to dispel any confusion or concerns they may have thanks to his blundering subordinate Dane Marzilli (see episode 40). Between them they hammer out the last details of their duties to the corporation and the chain of command. Hector confirms Ricco’s job as the company liaison with the Team and provides Kyle and Cat with intelligence about their arriving guests. With business concluded, the three return to the other guests. Hector introduces his wife, Jayci, to the Team.
Constantin Giordino arrives. He is a Biotechnica executive, overseeing a joint project with CINO to develop strains of deep sea kelp for use as biofuels. During conversation he reveals that he is an avid fan of powerboat racing and fancier of one of the boats taking part in today’s race.
the SS WindfallThe arrival of R. Maximillian (II), causes a stir. It is a rare sight as the oft-reclusive billionaire rarely makes public appearances; especially in such an open venue. Scion to the I-Corp fortune and namesake of its founder, Maximillian took the reins of the corporation when his father retired. Under his stewardship, the assets and holdings of I-Corp have grown exponentially.
(GM note: This is the son of the R. Maximillian from the Atlas Adventure scenario book “Chasing the Dragon.” I-Corp has expanded far beyond the front R. Maximillian Sr. used to hide his drug trafficking operations and launder the illicit profits. It is now a major corporate player on the world stage. Young R. Maximillian is as ruthless as his father and twice as smart.)
Accompanying R. Maximillian (II) is a stunningly gorgeous woman whom he introduces as Viola, and his constant shadow Simon Cahill. Simon is R. Maximillian’s (II) personal bodyguard. The solo is so heavily augmented, he may as well be a borg.
Granger Biosystems’ stunning spokesperson, Bianca Frietas, arrives amid a small throng of admirers and functionaries. Floating near the edge of her entourage is Jack Mathis. The pasty white chief imagineer of Disney’s Fantasia appears all the more drab and plain next to the sun-kissed beauties and bronzed adonises following in Bianca’s wake.
As the party progresses, Jack gloms onto Allison, attempting to make a pass at the lovely young woman. Allison is far from receptive to his advances, but Jack is pleasantly persistent. She tries to catch Kyle’s eye as he passes by, hoping that he will rescue her from her pallid admirer. Kyle notes her plight, smiles, then continues by, leaving Allison mired in her awkward tete-a-tete with Jack.
Among the celebrity guests is “Buster” Cane (Jose Pedro deCana), a popular MMA fighter with his manager, Costas Oliveira, and his publicist, Pippa Barros, from the local media giant Grupo Abril.
There are a host of other Disney and local corporate honchos in attendance. Victor Kane spends most of the party sitting silently at one of the ship’s five bars pounding down drinks. He remains in control, but aloof and unfriendly. Doc Freeman, Nip and Ricco mingle. Nip’s off-beat demeanor and “unique” perspective ironically work in her favor. Many guests find her to be delightful and amusing.
Cat notices the strange effect that R. Maximillian’s (II), companion, Viola, seems to be having on other guests. She surreptitiously sniffs her to take in the woman’s scent and is almost overpowered by the pheromones the woman is exuding. Cat retrieves a chemical sniffer for a safer analysis. This pheromone seems to make people open up to Viola. Cat introduces herself to R. Maximillian and engages him in conversation. R. Maximillian proves to be an affable and intelligent conversationalist. The two have a friendly chat as Simon hovers nearby.
Elsewhere, Kyle overhears a fragment of hushed discussion between a Disney exec and an executive from the media corp, Grupo Abril. R. Maximillian and I-Corp are the topic. It seems he has found a way around the regulations regarding braindance that has two execs concerned.
As the party winds down, R. Maximillian makes an odd request. Instead of leaving by the launch that had transported the guests from the dock to the Windfall, he asks for permission to have his land on the foredeck. Cat informs him that the decks of the Windfall are not equipped to handle the high velocity heated exhaust emitted by an AV’s vector thrust engines. The vessel does however have a spinner landing platform. In short order a spinner is ordered and arrives to take R. Maximillian and his party away from the Windfall.
Early in the evening as the ship’s launch deposits the last of the guests on the dock, Nicholas, who had overseen the transfers, informs his cousin (Kyle) of four suspicious individuals loitering near the slip where the launch docked. Kyle is at first irate that it took Nicholas so long to notice and report this potential security risk. Nicholas quickly explains that most of the guests had security personnel or at least drivers waiting to pick them up at the dock. He had only become suspicious of the four after all of the guests had departed and they remained loitering in the secure parking zone. Nicholas produces pictures of the four, noting that they quickly left after it was apparent they had been made.
Kyle shares the photos with the Team and the entire crew of the Windfall. He also forwards them to Disney security who later contacts him to report that the four were standing in a location where the dock’s security cameras couldn’t get a good look at them. The security cameras also didn’t record their departure from the secure parking lot. A review of the dock’s security systems is underway to verify if a breech occurred.
Everyone settles in for a quiet night on the yacht.
***
Sunday, September 10, 2045:
Although most of the team isn’t overly religious, they do take one tenet to heart, treating Sunday as a day of rest. While the rest of the team relaxes aboard ship, Victor decides to go to church and finds a Catholic parish nearby. The service has already begun, so he slides into the last row of pews at the back of the church. Two priests catch his eye. They too are sitting in the back, more watching than participating in the service. He catches one shaking his head as he surveys the tight knot of parishioners in the front pews. The church is more than half empty.
Each wears a symbol that Victor does not recognize.
He lingers after the mass has ended to see where they go. The priests patiently wait for the small congregation to say their farewells in the vestibule and file out the door of the church. They then approach the minister and speak with him in hushed tones, which Victor can not make out. The minister motions towards the front of the church and his fellow priests follow him to the sacristy. The pair appears to be in no hurry to leave, so Victor returns to the Windfall.
He tries to draw the symbol the priests wore from memory and then asks Nip to research it. Victor’s drawing is next to useless (9 on his skill roll). Nip has no luck trying to research it. When informed of her results, he asks her to research all the Christian symbology she can find. Nip can’t help herself. She laughs in his face before walking away. Victor is less than amused.
Kyle is intrigued by the snippet of conversation he overheard between the Disney and Grupo Abril execs and looks into what I-Corp is doing in the area. It seems I-Corp has developed a Dream Machine with which you can mix and replay dream stimuli making it possible to have a measure of control on the dream state and permit group dreams. The technology is new, but the player is cheaper than braindance and totally unregulated.
Allison and Nicholas are sharing a few drinks at the bar on the main deck when he puts the moves on her. Even though he is unaware of his true parentage, he has definitely inherited Kyle’s seductive skills. The two are quickly in her cabin locked in a passionate exchange. In the afterglow of their combined sexual exertions Allison takes stock of the situation. This marks a whole new territory of sexual experience. She wasn’t raped or using sex as a ploy to steal from or assassinate her would-be lover. Recreational sex…who knew it could be so good?
Cat sunbathes on the upper deck and otherwise leads a lazy existence that day!
***
Monday, September 11, 2045:
Kyle investigates I-Corp’s Dream Machine. He and Doc Freeman discuss its possible uses as an interrogation tool and decide that they need to order a machine and pay for the lessons in Dream Tech offered by I-Corp. While investigating the Dream Machine, Kyle comes across a story about the death of Lauren Moffat. Ms. Moffat was the creator of Dixie Cummings, a popular ‘Virtual Vicky’ prostitution program. Lauren was also known as ‘Nightshade’, an infamous netrunner thought to be working for I-Corp. She was found dead hooked up to one of the dream machines. Kyle searches for further information related to Lauren Moffat, Nightshade and I-Corp. At least five other well-known netrunners have died recently in Rio under various circumstances. A few were reputed to be employed by I-Corp. Kyle asks Ricco to use his police contacts and look into these deaths. After warning Nip to be careful, the ex-C.I.A. agent unleashes her on the Net, hoping she will have better luck, tracking down information related to the deaths of the netrunners.
Nip is still busy hounding down leads in the Net when Kane’s cake arrives. As she is otherwise occupied, Nicholas takes the launch to the dock and picks it up. He attempts to deliver it to Victor, but he refuses to open the door to his cabin. Nicholas leaves it in the corridor outside his room.
Cat goes to her workshops and runs a chemical analysis on the small pheromone sample she collected. It is a custom blended creation of which there is no record. As it affects the brain, she saves the last bit and prepares a report for Doc Freeman. Cat whiles away the rest of the afternoon working on her new Lamborghini Demon in the adjoining auto shop. She swaps out the fuel take to make room for a NOX (Nitrous Oxide Boost) System, and then makes arrangements for a custom paint job of her new toy.
Ricco goes to the city morgue to talk to Dr. Luis Serrano, a coroner he knows about one of the dead netrunners. The man is willing to help, but wants some ‘consideration’ for his trouble. Ricco’s wallet is a little thin on ‘consideration’ and as this is a favor for the Team, he calls Kyle. Doc Freeman tags along for the ride downtown.
While Ricco is cooling his heels waiting for Kyle and the Doc to show, a police officer wheels in a body. This is a little unusual as corpses are generally picked up at the scene by morgue attendants. The cop seems none too happy to see the former investigator and asks Ricco what he’s doing there. Ricco replies he is looking into a recent death, then asks what happened, nodding at the corpse. The officer responds glibly, “I scraped this guy off the sidewalk”. His assessment on the cause of death seems at odds with the obvious gunshot wounds.
(GM Note: Every player, except Ricco’s, immediately deduced from the cop’s menacing tone that this was a police killing. I think every gamer has had that moment when they totally miss the point!)
Ricco, being a helpful sort, tells the cop that this doesn’t look like an accident and he will gladly look into this killing and get to the bottom of it. Throwing in, as if an afterthought, “I have powerful friends who can help me.”
The truth of the situation is driven home as the officer slams Ricco into the wall and stuffs his weapon into the Disney investigator’s face. There is a brief conversation concerning ‘life expectancies’ and how many murders in Rio remain unsolved. Ricco apologizes and tells the cop he was mistaken. The cop rolls his ‘accident victim’ into the autopsy room where the offending bullets are removed. The officer leaves with them in a plastic baggie.
Kyle and Doc Freeman arrive, but Ricco is not outside waiting as he is supposed to be. The two enter the morgue and walk up to the attendant. Kyle sees the attendant’s eyes open wide at something behind him, so he turns expecting trouble. There is only Doc Freeman standing there. Oh yes, the attendant recognized the ‘good’ doctor. Infamy has that effect sometimes!
Ricco appears and brings the two back to meet the coroner. As they approach the autopsy room the sound of thick meaty thuds carries through the door. Pushing through the door, they surprise the coronor, who is in mid swing of a sledge hammer’ “adjusting” the corpse to fit the reported cause of death. The coroner freaks out. He is less concerned with being found altering evidence than he is with Ricco’s colleagues learning about the altercation in the hallway. A flash of cash restores his calm. He agrees to meet them later in the evening at a bar in one of the favelas.
You’d have to be blind to miss the ‘killer’ cop leaning against his car parked on a side street across from the entrance to the morgue (with the dash cam pointed at the entrance). Ricco fully explains what happened as they walk away. Kyle heads back to talk with the offended officer. The car is still there, but the cop isn’t. Fearing the worst, the three rush back inside the morgue. In the autopsy room, the cop has the coroner up against the wall with a gun to his head. The weapon quickly swings to cover the door at the sound of its opening. The barrel is pointed directly at Kyle, who remains cool and collected.
The situation is beyond pleasantries, so Kyle opts for the direct approach. “We are not interested in your case at all, but we need this coroner alive. My name is Kyle Vaduva and if you have any idea who we are, know this: Pull that trigger and everyone you care about in the world will be killed before you die a slow and gruesome death yourself!” The officer recognizes the name and seems to know the reputation of the man threatening him. The gun comes down and the officer leaves. Infamy has its privileges!
Kyle calls Cat and Victor Kane (separately) to prepare for the meeting with the coroner later that afternoon. Cat arrives in disguise (using her cybernetic disguise feature), and watches the meet. Victor decides to dress up in his new high fashion ensemble. He purchases a briefcase in which to conceal his 12 gauge shotgun pistol, just in case they need some heavy firepower. Kyle pulls Nip off research duty to run high cover with her remote. Kane deliberately arrives a half an hour early and stands out in the favela bar. His fancy clothes and briefcase speak of money, but his intimidating size keeps any trouble at bay. Cat (in disguise) arrives fifteen minutes later, blending in with locals. Dr. Luis Serrano arrives, looks around, takes one look at the big well-dressed white man with the briefcase and is out the door. Cat heads out the back and intercepts the retreating medical examiner. She identifies herself as a representative of Kyle and suggests they go to another bar. The already nervous coroner just gives her the copies of the autopsies and leaves as quickly as his feet will carry him. Cat takes the papers back to hers and Kyle’s penthouse in Iphanema.
The coroner’s escape is short lived, as he runs into Kyle and Doc Freeman. Kyle inquires as to his current flight from the bar where they were supposed to meet. Haltingly (out of breath) the medical examiner tells him about the large man in the suit. Kyle mentally face-palms (he has a pretty good idea who the menacing figure is) and calmly asks for the files. Dr. Serrano looks as if he is about to have an aneurism as he stumbles over his words trying to explain to this dangerous man that he had just given the files to a woman who said she worked for him. Piecing together the situation (and contacting Cat over the comm to verify), Kyle attempts to calm the medical examiner and assure him that all is well. He hands over the second half of the payment (for the files), which the coroner quickly snatches before fleeing into the falling darkness.
Nip’s voice in the comm warns of a sizable group of locals moving down the street towards the target bar (a welcoming committee from the local gang going to introduce themselves to Victor). Doc Freeman and Kyle quickly head over to collect Victor. They attempt to go out for a celebratory drink (elsewhere in the city) but are refused entrance due to the firearms they are carrying. They finally find a place with a gun check. Nip returns to her research.
Later that day, Ricco talks with a cop buddy at the precinct where the netrunner died. The man tells him the woman appeared to have been electrocuted. Her hair and skin were burnt, the carpet around her chair was damp, and scorch marks surrounded the ports on her neck. Someone apparently took a taser and hooked the house current into her neck. They have no leads on who might have done this. The incident was reported to the cops by people who were online with her at the time.
Ricco learns that two more of the five dead netrunners were electrocuted this way. Another was on a motorcycle and went over the railing. However, this was not an accident. She was probably tazed and her body computer cut out before she was sent over the edge. Ricco reports this information to Kyle and Cat.
Kyle finally arrives home and looks over the coroner’s autopsy information with Cat as they snuggle in bed. They have some questions and call Nip. There is no answer. Concerned, Kyle calls Nicholas and has him look in on her. Nip is out cold still hooked up to her deck. Doc Freeman is called and determines she is in a coma. Nip is rushed to the hospital. The Doc, Kyle, Cat and Nicholas wait at her bedside for her to come out of it.
***
Tuesday, September 12, 2045:
In the early AM, Doc Freeman and the Disney doctors scan Nip’s brain and find a number of unidentified masses that look like tumors. They are a little hazy on the scan and unlike other brain tumors these show massive brainwave activity. They discuss operating to assess the nature of the masses.
Cat drops into the NET to talk to Fred. The ferret is there. With a little urging, Nip’s ‘imaginary’ friend shares images of the events leading up to Nip’s coma. The recording begins as a typical data dive into the Net, but abruptly goes black. A distorted voice can be heard in the background saying, “Sync 1, sync 2, sync 3………..We are losing conductivity!”
Fred’s next image shows Nip waking up on a gurney in a large operating theater. Scared and disoriented, she flails her head as men in orange bio-hazard suits try to restrain her. To her left and right are Timmy and three other children strapped to similar gurneys. All of their heads are shaved bald. At that point Nip lost consciousness and Fred punched her out of the NET.
All of the children have bar codes tattooed on the back of their heads similar to Nip’s and Fred’s. Cat notices now her two friend’s codes have changed slightly. There are elements of Timmy’s in both codes.
Cat has been postponing her next decision for years. She has suspected for a long time that Nip might be the product of biogenetic experimentation. Nip knew instinctively that Cat was different. Cat had always looked on Nip as almost a younger sister. There are also the bar codes under the hair on the back of Nip’s and Fred’s heads. She makes the decision to call in the Collective, rather than let “mere humans” mess with Nip’s mind. By now Nip is awake from her coma. The young girl has no idea of how or why she is in the hospital and doesn’t remember the images Fred had shown Cat.
(GM Note: These flashes of memories and catatonia were caused by the player botching her interface roll and then rolling a 10 for result.)
The biogen has to face her responsibility as Catlin Prime, a member of the biogenetic Collective’s High Council. The Collective protects all biogens and had saved her. If her suspicions are correct, Nip is one of them, and she is going to make damn sure that they’re going to save her friend too. Within sixteen hours of contacting the Collective, the Vet arrives. The Vet is a 3rd generation Nietzschean doctor/scientist. He shares his species’ dislike of humans. With Kyle’s permission, he examines Nip and his attitude towards the young girl immediately softens. The teenaged cybergoth looks up at this new biogen and asks, “Why are you so big?”
The Vet isn’t unusually large, but Cat realizes that this means Nip knows he is different. The Vet suggests taking her to the Martian station at Earth’s L-3 point (left behind when the Galileo cylinder transitioned to Mars orbit). The station is equipped with advanced diagnostic tools. Cat talks Kyle into letting the two go. Her lover instinctually fears the Nietzschean and knew he has to be another biogen, but he trusts his Cat. Arrangements are quickly made for Nip, Cat, Doc Freeman and Allison to catch a shuttle tomorrow. The Collective puts its resources into discovering if Nip is a new species of biogenetic creature.
Ricco gets offered a small non-speaking part in Henrique’s new pilot. Henrique brings Ricco to wardrobe and gives his grateful friend a couple of sets of nice, new clothes.
Next: Episode 42: All’s Well That Goes Awry!
-
Episode 40: Welcome to Rio
Everyone attends a Brazilian Independence Day party in the penthouse of a major Disney hotel at the Fantasia theme park thrown by Henrique, a former Drug Lord gone legit, who has a production company (among other interests) doing business with the Disney Corporation. Much shopping is done to get ready for the festivities and some of the new technological marvels of Rio are discovered. At the affair, the Team meets their new liaison, Ricco Torres, and many of the local movers and shakers. More of the new technology that is being incorporated into the new Rio is seen. Nip is visited by a ‘ghost’ from her past. Victor meets an enemy from his Petrochem days and a fight almost breaks out. Ricco, through Henrique, gets Victor a sponsor for the annual drag races scheduled for the following day.
At the races, Victor wins his division and many on the Team make a good chunk of change betting on him. Others are not happy about the outcome and charges of ‘ringer’ are heard. Words come to blows and a riot breaks out! At an after party, there is a disagreement over a girl and another fight or two! Nobody (on any side) dies and good fun is had by all!
Background
The Team has arrived in Rio de Janeiro aboard their (pilfered) 194 foot mega yacht, the Windfall. They have been brought here by the Disney Corporation, who runs the giant theme park, Fantasia. The Brazilian Supreme Court is expected to overturn the 1975 Presidential Decree (The Fusion) effectively re-establishing the city of Rio as an independent city-state within Brazil. Factions have begun to align, in anticipation of this decision, to vie for control of the city. The notorious favelas of Rio de Janeiro present a powerful voting block; one that several of the players in the political struggle seek to eliminate. By taking away the voting rights of the poor, the conspirators hope to move closer to their ultimate goal of eliminating the favelas; reclaiming the valuable real estate for redevelopment. The Disney Corporation opposes this agenda and has contracted the Team as “consultants” to counter the maneuvers of rival factions.
Dramatis Personae
The Team
Allison Cole: 17 yo kleptomaniac sex pot and one of Cat Ortiz’s best friends from Atlantic City High School. When she became a suspect in a heist in Atlantic City, she followed her friend to Jamaica and has now joined the Team. Her skills as a Prowler are formidable.
Cat (Fisher) Ortiz: Officially she is Sam Fisher and the late Maria Ortiz’s 19 yo daughter. Now back in South America, she is using her “mother’s” last name again. In actuality she is a full memory clone of late Caitlin Jones, the original biogenetic assassin construct built by the now defunct Bio Works Corporation. This is known only to Kyle Vaduva.
Doc Freeman: Former professor at UNLV, former assistant coroner and (formally) disgraced cyber researcher. He is the inventor of the “cyberbrain” with which he claims to have cured death itself. Although courts around the world are still deliberating the ramifications of his work, Disney Corporation has honored their agreements making Dr. Freeman rich beyond his wildest dreams.
Kyle Vaduva: Former C.I.A. agent, burned by the agency for crimes he did not commit. His efforts to expose and eliminate, the Section, a freelance spy ring that had infiltrated the C.I.A., led to a review of his record and exoneration. He was allowed to retire with full benefits. Kyle has been reunited with his lover from the Romanian Operation, Caitlin Jones (see Cat (Fisher) Ortiz above).
Nip Lacey: 16 yo girl with neon green hair, has amnesia. She is a NET savant. Nip is a former classmate of Allison Cole, and Cat Ortiz, whom she considers her best friends.
Fred: ferret and imaginary friend of Nip’s.
Victor Kane: He is a 28 year old street racer (Runner). After being cashiered by Petrochem’s security arm, Kane, as he prefers to be called, earned extra money dabbling in smuggling.
Nicholas (Nicky) Vaduva: Zar’s (Kyle's) 18-year-old son from our Romanian adventure. Nicholas is unaware of this, believing Kyle to be his father’s cousin. He serves as third officer on the yacht SS Windfall.
And Introducing:
Ricco Torres: A former member of the Rio de Janeiro Civil Police who became a private investigator when his friendship with certain ‘unsavory’ characters came to light. Although he was not corrupt, he left the force before a case could be ‘made’ (manufactured) against him. Some in the favelas refer to him as Cobrinha (Little Snake in Portuguese) due to his friendship with Henrique, the King Snake. Recently he has been hired by the Disney Corporation and been given a corporate ‘badge’. He serves as liaison between the Team and Disney.
The NPCs
Henrique: This former Favela drug lord and leader of the Red Command, who is also known as the King Snake, has taken a government amnesty offer and gotten out of the drug business. The man now runs a media company which works with Disney and a mini-venture capitalist firm that gives micro-loans to favela residents so they can rise from poverty. It is suspected he is positioning himself to enter politics. He and Ricco Torres, who the gang leader calls Mambo, grew up together with Ricco being the younger ‘brother’. Henrique used to belong to a Brazilian pop group manufactured by a record company. When his voice changed he was fired and thrown back into the favela where he rose to the top of the local gang. Ricco joined the police.
Jeroh "Jerry" Kliemann: He is a tech blogger and entrepreneur. His site "Kajigger" began as a video blog reviewing new technology and giving advice to viewers. The site branched out into tutorials and the introduction of new technologies, many sold through the site’s online store, Tech 4 Living. Most of the items sold would fall into the category of accessories or small ticket items that are useful in everyday life...things that you might see in infomercials on television these days. While some may be silly, others are quite useful, like the Power-sol (umbrella / parasols of differing sizes, with canopies made of photovoltaic cloth. The handle contains a battery and port with adapters, which allow various devices to be plugged in and recharged. The beach umbrella model is highly popular, as is the Wi-Fi attachment.
Wilfredo Ernesto Saber ("Willy the Roach" or just Barata (Roach), but not to his face): He is a friend of Henrique from the bad old days. His diminutive size and pleasant nature are at odds with his fearful reputation. His nickname comes from the fact that he is so tough to kill. He's been shot (nine times), stabbed (more than a dozen times), electrocuted (at least twice), thrown from a moving car, partially set on fire, fallen from a building, to escape said fire and had a host of other misadventures.
Inacio Felipe Mariano de Silva: He is an executive of the Agricorp Fartura (Bountiful). Inacio oversees the Urban Agra division. The corporation has plans to build several vertical farms within Rio over the next decade. The first is a joint project with Granger Bio-Systems.
Constance “Connie” Ettner: She is a representative of the Welling Foundation, an NGO that helps build schools and provides support for educations programs in areas affected by violence and poverty.
Joao Rui: He is the manager of Henrique’s investment firm.
Maria Loyola “Lolli” Raposa: Loyola oversees Henrique’s firm’s microfinance fund.
Wallena Kroitor: Is from Soroca, Moldova. She is a failed gymnast, who went into dance who works for Disney (as a dancer) and has a part in Henrique’s pilot. She speaks Moldovan / Romanian and Ukrainian as well as some Hungarian, English and Portuguese.
Lula Midare: Is the stage name of Lurdes Gonzalvo Guarani. Like many others in Brazil, she is of mixed ancestry. Her exotic look and singing talent rather than acting skill landed her the part in the pilot.
Carlos Jorge (Cajo or C.J.) Abreu Melo: A competitive racer on the Stock Car Brazil circuit and local celebrity, as much for his antics off the track.
Gabriela Figueira: Is a famous telenovela star (the Brazilian equivalent of Susan Lucci). She is the grand dame of the telenovela who Henrique has persuaded to take a small role in his pilot.
Xu Jun: Is the Chinese Consul General for Rio de Janeiro. He spent 25 years as a top operative, then official of the Ministry for State Security (the premier Chinese foreign intelligence service) before ‘retiring’. His recent appointment to this post makes some think that China may be taking a more ‘active’ role here or he may be really just a retired spook with a new cushy job.}
Li Xuechen: Is an Official from the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC).
Mayor Fernando Neves of Rio de Janeiro: He is married to Leticia (deCosta) and has a couple of kids. He has the reputation of being a survivor. Hence, everyone is trying to court him. Some of his children are rumored to be ‘troublesome’ others exemplary.
Rafaela Mendes President and CEO of Petrobras, the Brazilian Petrochemical giant. She is a widow as her husband was killed in an extraction. She is always surrounded by world class (and famous) security. She is a hard-headed business person that has made it in a man’s world. Publically she is politically uncommitted.
Raul Azevedo: President and CEO of Furnas, the smaller of the utility giants based in Rio de Janeiro: He feels his profits are being syphoned away by the people in the favelas stealing electricity. So, he is one of the (leaders and/or major backers) of the movement to disenfranchise the favela residents when Rio becomes an independent city (state) again.
Victoria Lopes: Anchor and chief investigative reporter for Rio’s prime Globo News show. Globo is the major locally owned TV news outlet in Brazil and a major player in South America.
Leonid Kalikov: He is the executive Vice President of SovOil in charge of (southern) South American operations. He is based in Rio and would have great interest in Rio’s political future. He, Rafaela Mendes and Colin Hughes would be quite the trio at the party.
Colin Hughes: He is a (senior) executive from Petrochem on assignment in Rio de Janeiro. The man is from Victor Kane’s lifepath. Kane and Colin vied for the affections of the late Marybeth Bascom, daughter of Texas US Senator Howard Bascom. All three young people were “gear heads”. Kane beat out Colin, who arranged Kane’s separation from his job at Petrochem. Colin will be racing in the ‘illegal’ Independence Day Drag Race on Friday.
Dane Marzilli: He is second in command of Disney Security.
Nico: He is a member of the Red Command from Favela Caminho do Lucio who is a major importer of marijuana into Rio de Janeiro.
Timmy: An enigmatic boy that only Nip and Fred seem to be able to see.
The Action
Thursday, September 7, 2045:
In the morning Kyle and Cat take their Jaguar XKF (AV-3) from their newly purchased penthouse in Ipanema to the dock where the Windfall is moored and pick up Allison and Nip for a morning of shopping and beauty treatments. Of course Fred comes along too. The group heads to the exclusive shopping district downtown. There Fred sees all sorts of normally invisible NET creations that he has never encountered. It seems they can see him too! Nip and Fred soon realize that these are digital ‘personal assistants’ who follow their owners around. Also, some people seem to be wearing ‘digital clothes’ set to overlay their bodies in the physical world, but can only be seen with some kind of glasses similar to NET glasses. Rio appears to be on the cutting edge of the new technologies.
Nip is in desperate need of a make-over, at least in the minds of Allison and Cat. They take her to a high class clothing store and marvel at all the new high tech VR gizmos that allow you to see your dress fitted to you and accessories matched before they actually bring out the clothes. Nip behaves herself fairly well and she only wears out one salesperson! The three young women start to think that they are going to really like it here.
The four then go to a Body Cure Salon and get their ATTR boosted temporarily for the party this afternoon. Yes, in Cyberpunk you can turn a sow’s ear into a silk purse with the right technology! All four are now achingly beautiful and dressed to the nines. They head to the penthouse of a Disney Hotel where Henrique is throwing his Brazilian Independence Day Party. On this day in 1822, when confronted by a written command from his father to return to Portugal and turn the Empire of Brazil back to the status of a colony, Prince Pedro, heir to the Portuguese and Brazilian throne drew his sword on the banks of the Ipiranga River and declared “Independencia ou morte!” (Independence or death!). With this shout, later known as the “Cry of Ipiranga”, Brazil became an independent country.
Nip insists on paying a visit to a candy maker to price some custom made lollipops. They all decide to amuse her and she commissions a batch for herself. With everything prepared the entire team gets ready and goes to Henrique’s party at the rooftop of a Disney hotel on the beach at Fantasia.
The main room where the festivities are being held has a tall ceiling. Both Nip and Fred notice some frightening looking ‘monsters’ in each corner of the ceiling. These are defense programs of the hotel, which is a ‘smart building’, that meaning that this building has an AI controlling all of its functions. Nip has never been able to see into the NET before without dropping in or using NET goggles. Perhaps smoking that joint before coming might have something to do with this new turn of events, but this doesn’t occur to Nip.
Dane Marzilli, the second in command of Disney Security at Fantasia asks to speak to Kyle and Cat. They go into a side room and begin to discuss the Team’s mission, but it quickly becomes clear that Dane hasn’t been read into the totality of the group’s operational limits. The two refuse to discuss their plans any further and ask to speak to the subordinate’s boss. Dane pulls Ricco aside later and tells him to keep the Team out of trouble.
Doc Freeman and Allison make the rounds and meet many of the important people in attendance including Mayor Fernando Neves of Rio de Janeiro and Xu Jun, the Chinese Consul General for Rio de Janeiro, retired former top operative and official of the Ministry for State Security (the premier Chinese foreign intelligence service). His recent appointment to this post makes some think that China may be taking a more ‘active’ role here or he may be really just a retired spook with a new cushy job.
Kyle and “Willy the Roach” recognize each other professionally; Kyle as a retired C.I.A. spook and Willy as an independent contractor, who has done “work” for the CIA in the past. The Team gets to meet Ricco Torres, their Disney security liaison. Ricco and Victor get to talk and the Disney cop learns that Victor is a race car driver and looking to get back into it. Ricco pulls his friend Henrique aside and asks if he knows anyone looking for a race driver. In short order, Victor lands a gig driving for Nico, an old associate of Henrique, in the annual street drag race in Bangu (a neighborhood of Rio) being held tomorrow.
With thoughts of tomorrow’s race still dancing through his head, Victor unexpectedly bumps into an old “friend”, Colin Hughes. Colin is in Rio to negotiate drilling contracts for Petrochem. As Victor approaches, Colin is conversing with his SovOil counterpart Leonid Kalikov, (senior SovOil executive in Rio) and the fetching beauty hanging off the Russian’s arm. Allison is also present hanging on every word of the handsome Petrochem executive. She has ‘smelled’ money from across the room and begun to circle.
Victor interrupts the conversation to confront Colin. Overmatched in the war of words, Victor steps forward to let his fists take over the conversation. Leonid’s lovely female ‘escort’ imposes herself between the two rivals. Cat who is standing nearby also intervenes, but rather than facing down the woman, she to turns to bar Victor’s path to Colin. Confronted with two attractive and deadly women, Victor backs down. Cat recognizes that the SovOil executive’s companion has taken up a Krav Maga fighting stance. As Victor disengages from the confrontation Cat follows, demanding to know what just happened. The runner portrays himself as the injured party, casting Colin as the villain, who has it out for him.
Outside of the main room on the terrace Nip sees a young boy sitting on the ledge overlooking the parking lot far below. Nip perceives the world as a stylized cartoonscape, but the boy is not rendered as a cartoonish caricature. He appears real and somehow familiar. The girl sits down next to him and strikes up a conversation. The boy, Timmy, is confused and doesn’t know how he got here. The two chat for a bit. When Timmy mentions something about clowns, Nip freaks out and screams. She also starts to feel dizzy. She slips off the ledge, thankfully falling forward to her hands and knees, rather than backwards over the edge. Kyle and Cat rush to her aid. Timmy is nowhere to be seen. In fact, no one else has seen him at all. Cat takes Nip back to the boat.
Ricco talks with Connie and offers to introduce her to a government official he knows who might be able to help with funding her project(s).
Everyone continues to hobnob with the party guests, but eventually all get back aboard the Windfall. Tomorrow is race day!
***
Friday, September 8, 2045:
Victor, Doc Freeman, Kyle, Cat and Nip head out with Ricco to meet Nico, the owner of the car that Victor will be driving in the race. The garage is in the Favela Caminho do Lucio, a couple of miles north of the Bangu Shopping Center and the Avenue de Santa Cruz where the drag races will be held. The stench of marijuana fills the garage. It is clear that the back room of this structure is the drug storage area (bales stacked to the ceiling of the shower stall in the bathroom). Nico passes a couple of spliffs around. Nip’s eyes light up, but her cousin Kyle does not approve.
Victor looks over the car. It is a highly modified Obvio Saltador, a locally manufactured four door sedan. The car is fast. Kane is so pleased, he doesn’t bring up the bullet holes in the trunk. At the races Victor is an unknown so the betting odds on him are good. The Team lays their money on their man and he doesn’t disappoint. Colin Hughes is also here, but running in a different division. The Petrochem executive makes it to his semi-final round. He seems less interested in winning and more intent on developing good will with the local drivers.
Down to the finals and Kane is in it to win his division. Some in the crowd are not happy. They feel that Victor is a foreign ringer and they have lost money on him. The issue comes to a head when the Team’s runner blows the doors off his last competitor. As the mood gets ugly, the Team quickly gathers their winnings. Down on the track some words are exchanged. Victor keeps his cool, but Ricco chides the unhappy gamblers as ‘sore losers’. A couple of shoves follow and then all hell breaks out. A full scale riot ensues. Kyle and Doc Freeman gather up Nip and leave quickly. Cat heads into the melee to make sure Victor and Ricco are all right.
Victor sees the hostile crowd heading towards him and takes off with the car, leaving its owner, Nico, in the middle of the melee. Ricco fights his way free, but Nico goes down under the assault of multiple attackers. Seeing Nico’s plight, Cat heads in his direction. Fortunately, Brazilian machismo does not include punching out women. Cat reaches Nico and with her mastery of Sambo and augmented strength easily subdues his four attackers. Dragging the garage owner back to his feet, the pair push through the crowd to the edges of the riot and escape.
Despite the beating, Nico is in a good mood and invites the three out to a party in the favela. Nico also gives Cat a bag of weed to give to Nip. Kyle wouldn’t let his cousin buy any so Nico decides to give her some. They all head into the warren of alleyways of the favela and up the stairs to an apartment where a party is going on.
Ricco spies a comely young lady who appears to be alone and makes his move. Unfortunately, she isn’t alone. Her gang leader boyfriend is across the room partying with his boys. Feeling neglected, she readily responds to the ex-cop’s advances. The gang leader finally notices the pair and moves to separate Ricco from his woman. Ricco tries to use his authority as a cop to intimidate the ganger. The ploy doesn’t work.
“You have no juice here, Cobrinha,” the ganger tells him.
It’s common knowledge that Ricco is no longer a cop; plus the boyfriend is pretty drunk and pissed. The two square off to the obvious enjoyment of the other party-goers. It’s all fun and games till they break the kitchen table. The hosts put an end to the drunken brawl.
The issue seems settled, till Victor stands up and tries to pick a fight with the gang leader. The runner stands up, flexes, pops his pecs and starts talking trash. The gang leader refuses to be drawn out by his taunts. His honor has been maintained and the fighting has made his girlfriend sexually excited. He has other things on his mind, than further combat. The host makes it clear, by cocking his shotgun, he’s in no mood for more of his furniture to be broken. Victor doesn’t seem to get it and pushes the issue. The result is that Kane, those who came with him and the gangers are asked to leave. As everyone is going downstairs the gangers attack Victor for getting them thrown out of the party, and Ricco, just for good measure. The ex-cop uses his Capoerira against the assault. Again, Cat is ignored in the melee. She knocks out two. Victor picks up a third and throws him down the stairs, straight into the remaining gangers, the gang leader, his girlfriend and unfortunately Ricco. Extricating the ex-cop from the pile of flailing bodies, the Team quickly flees out the door into the night.
Victor, Ricco and Cat make sure Nico gets back to his garage, then they head to the train station to catch a ride back into the city center. All in all it has been a fine day!
Next: Episode 41: A Party, a Pair of Mysteries and a Crooked Cop
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And while the Team sails to Rio de Janeiro aboard the Windfall, the rest of the world (and solar system) careens towards war.
World News Service – Flash!
MARS REPUBLIC ANNOUNCES LAUNCH OF NEW WARSHIP – MSS ISIDISFriday, September 1, 2045
The Republic of Mars announced the launching of their long awaited warship the MSS Isidis. This vessel has been under construction since 2037. Its building has been started and stopped a number of times due to budgetary and technological problems. The Martian Space Forces have not released any intelligence about the new ship deeming any and all information top secret. Many reputable think tanks have expressed doubts whether this new ship even exists. Since Mars refuses to release even the most general information or picture of the new vessel, the theory of this as a ‘phantom ship’ has been gaining popularity.
A number of unofficial photos of its construction have surfaced but these often show different shapes and designs. Many of these are suspected of being misinformation put out by the Martian government itself. The EU’s space arm is not considering this announced launching as a hoax. In fact officials in Brussels have called for sanctions against the Martian Republic for increasing tensions in the Dark and threatening peace in the solar system. Admiral Herman Seydlitz, EU chief of staff for their space navy dismissed the announcement with the reminder that the European Forces can now easily put an end to the “renegade state in control of our colony on Mars.”
Rear Admiral Jomo Omondi, commander of the Martian Fleet and hero of the Martian War of Independence, responded to Admiral Seydlitz’s comments with this: “Brave words from a commander of a fleet whose only victory is against a pair of hastily armed shuttles (refering to the EU’s incomplete conquest of Mercury). Let them come. We shall return them in coffins!”
The new Martian vessel is designated as a light cruiser. The Isidis will become the flagship of the Martian Fleet. Beyond that no other information on this new ship has been released. Both the United States and the Russian Federation have made no official comment on the announcement.
Part Three of our Burn Notice CampaignWe are kind of looking at the Rio de Janeiro part of our campaign as our Third (and final) Season with this specific Team. Our next grouping will deal with the end of the Cotton Kingdoms in the United States of America; but first it’s Rio and fighting the good fight! The following is a copy of the handout all our players received before we started Episode 40.
Welcome to Rio – 2045Brazil is the emerging giant of South America. It has thrown off the foreign corporate yoke for the most part and is asserting itself as a power to be reckoned with, or at least it is trying. Foreign corporations are still welcome, but the disaster of the Fourth Corporate War and the destruction it wreaked on the country, especially Rio and Santos have not been forgotten. Both Arasaka and Militech are banned from running military, police and security operations here. Amazonian Security is still banned from Santos, Rio and Brasilia. Other megacorps can do business, but they must follow the rules. The People’s Republic of China, the EU, United States and Russia all have competing interests here. Yes, even the US is now welcome back. The South Am Wars were a long time ago, and having them down here just annoys Brazil’s Spanish speaking neighbors and both China and the EU. Everyone has to behave themselves, or at least try not to get caught.
The Team has been hired by the Disney Corporation as ‘security consultants’. Rio de Janeiro used to be the capital of the country, but after 1960, when Brasilia was founded, it became a virtual city state. In 1975, by Presidential decree it was merged with the State of Rio de Janeiro as its state capital. A court case challenging the legality of that decree is now on its way to the Brazilian Supreme Court. In a year to two years a decision is expected. It is anticipated that the decree will be overturned so a power vacuum will open here. Technically most people in the favela’s (Rio’s famous slums) are not citizens of Brazil, so the government does not have to legally provide them with services. They do, however, have the right to vote and remain politically powerful. If Rio becomes a city state again then many who have poured their funds into the rebuilding want to disenfranchise them. Others, including the Disney Corporation, which runs the largest theme park and tourist destination in South America, Fantasia, on Governor's Island where the Galeao International Airport and the Brazilian Marine Corps Headquarters is located, wants to keep the favela residents enfranchised.
The contract is for up to 18 months (with a possible 6 month extension) and pays 5000 eb (B$ 30,000) per month plus medical and Trauma Team. At the end of the contract everyone will get a 1,000,000 eb bonus if successful. The Team’s yacht, the Windfall, will be moored off Fantasia and provide free lodging and a meal plan for those who wish it. You are ‘on call’ and have corporate immunity and weapons permits. Read the section on weapons for Rio. If you violate the law you can be arrested and your weapons seized. The government has to give you to Disney (eventually) for punishment, but they can keep the illegal weapons. Also, they can revoke your immunity! Don’t be a dick, and you’ll be fine.
Favela Exclusion ZoneWith the rebuilding of Rio de Janeiro after the Fourth Corporate War, the problem of the Favelas had to be addressed by the government of the city. To attract investment in rebuilding these shanty towns had to be banished beyond the sight of the investors or so a politically powerful group felt. There had been a lot of fighting in the Centro and South Zones of the city where most of the business and expensive neighborhoods lay. Militech had secreted agent-provocateurs in many of the favelas as part of their plan to dislodge Arasaka from the city. Most of Militech’s efforts had been in the two aforementioned areas of the city although they did make efforts across the city. In the initial fighting, the State Military Police were overwhelmed and Arasaka’s forces were welcomed by the local government. It quickly turned into a full scale war as favelas which had not been involved (and most were not) were attacked by both sides. The city erupted into a chaotic multi-sided war where corporate, police and local forces fought each other while switching sides constantly.
The Federal government’s tepid response was dictated by the fact that they had ceded much military authority to Arasaka so when Columbian paratroopers joined the fray in Rio, the small Brazilian Army had to deploy on the Columbian border. This left the bulk of the government fighting to state forces. The State of Rio de Janeiro used its small State Military Police to secure the rest of the state and left the fighting in Rio to the overtaxed municipal authorities. It was this decision that has led to Rio’s suit in the Brazilian Supreme Court to have the 1975 Presidential Decree declared unconstitutional and let the City of Rio de Janeiro become its own state again, which would make it a defacto free city inside Brazil.
Pretty much all parties in Rio agree on this move. It is what will happen after that is the problem. During the rebuilding of the Centro and South Zones, the favelas were mostly destroyed and not rebuilt. The corporate developers bought up all the land and created a “Favela Exclusion Zone”. With this in place money for rebuilding poured in. Brazil’s economy has been booming for the last sixteen to eighteen years as this South American giant is awakening.
One of the major questions is what to do now with the rest of these shanty towns. It is a question that splits the city across all ethnic and corporate lines. Some feel that the favelas are such a part of Rio and its uniqueness. These neighborhoods need to be recognized; services brought there, and the people made officially part of the city. Others wish to banish these “blights” (along with the chronic poor) to the edges of this growing city or just eliminate them altogether.
Certain interests have put forward a plan to expand the “Favela Exclusion Zone” by lopping the problem off piece by piece. While no one is “officially” proposing how to do it several plans have been made public by person’s unknown.
The following map is one of these plans. The black line represents the existing Favela Exclusion Zone. The red line is Phase One removal area. It contains the largest Favela in Rio: Favela Rocinha with an estimated population of between 150,000 to 250,000 people (estimates go up to 300,000). The dark blue line represents the Phase Two area. The green line represents the Phase Three area. The yellow line is the Phase Four area. The light blue line represents the Phase Five area.
Brazilian Gun Laws & Police PoliciesIn Brazil, all firearms are required to be registered with the state; the minimum age for ownership is 25 and although it is legal to carry a gun outside a residence, extremely severe restrictions were made by the federal government since 2002 making it virtually impossible to obtain a carry permit. To legally own a gun, the owner must pay a tax every three years to register the gun, currently at BRL R$85 and registration can be done via the Internet or in person with the Federal Police. Until the end of the 2008, unregistered guns could be legalized for free. The total number of firearms in Brazil is thought to be around 17 million with 9 million of those being unregistered.
There are corporate exceptions but they vary especially in Rio de Janeiro. Large corporations with limited sovereignty rights can set their own age requirements, but any corporation that issues weapons to people younger than 16 will find their right to arm their employees under immediate review. No Brazilian citizen can be issued any sort of corporate license if they are under 25. The ability to issue automatic and military grade weaponry is only granted to mega corp size entities and often limited as to where you can have them. Many of the largest cities do not allow even the largest corporations to possess this kind of weaponry except in certain small zones. Usually these are the corporate headquarters and limited security areas. That is why the carbine has become popular.
Rio de Janeiro, Santos and BrasiliaDuring the Fourth Corporate War Rio de Janeiro (and the City of Santos to a lesser extent) was gutted by over two years of intensive fighting between Arasaka working with the Brazilian Army and Militech with their Columbian allies. In the almost twenty years since the end of the war these cities (especially Rio) have been rebuilt into modern technological marvels. The following addition regulations apply in the State of Rio de Janeiro, the capital city of Brasilia and within 50 miles of the City of Santos.
1 - No individual or corporate entity may possess military grade (including sniper rifles) or any automatic weapons. Corporations can get special licenses for SMGs 10mm and under, but may not be carried concealed. Old bolt action military rifles are not included in this ban. Certain older multi-shot semi-automatic weapons (i.e. M-1 Garand) can be possessed with a Brazilian Collector’s License, but these are only issued to citizens. Semi-automatic rifles are limited to a ROF of two rounds, carbines to three rounds. No weapons with burst ability (3 or 4 rounds) are legal. No pistol over .454 caliber is allowed and any handgun that does over (4d6+3 damage) is illegal for anyone. No rifle over 9mm is legal and no shotgun firing anything bigger than a 10 gauge shell may be possessed.2 - No explosive ammunition is legal. Only non-lethal, standard, AP & DP is generally permitted. The sale ammunition is closely watched and heavily taxed. Here you pay double the normal price for ammunition.3 - Power armor and any sort of motorized metal gear (including Blackjacks) are strictly prohibited anywhere in these areas. It is very, very difficult to get a permit for these things in any other area of Brazil too. Stealth suits are not allowed to be sold in Brazil, but their possession is not illegal per se. However, the police have the right to seize your suit if they deem that you were using it in a military or criminal fashion. You may contest this finding in court, but the average time to the hearing is over two years in which the police will retain control of the item. Walking around in any sort of armor is frowned upon and although metal gear is legal, you will probably be arrested on sight if not gunned down immediately. Heavily armored clothing will attract the police’s attention which is NOT a good thing here. Also it is so hot that you will probably pass out very soon walking around. The higher the quality of your armored clothes the less attention from the police you will receive. Of course, the better clothes you have, they more likely it will be that you might get robbed. As a rule of thumb armor in the light range (SP 4-12) is generally acceptable. If it has an EV penalty, it’s not cool.4 - Rio de Janeiro was traumatized by the corporate fighting that destroyed their city. Even in the favelas the criminals are loath to violate these rules. The Drug Lords who rules may of these slums do possess automatic weapons, but they are loathe to use them openly too much. Just about everyone in this city lost a close family member in the fighting twenty years ago.5 - The Rio de Janeiro state government launched in 2038 the Pacifying Police Unit (PPU) program to reclaim areas controlled by drug dealers. The program is considered successful. This is the latest in a line of policies regarding the crime issue in the favelas, such as the Special Areas Policing Groups (GPAE) and the Community Policing program, in the one administration, or the no-entry policy adopted by other administrations for the police in those areas. Through the UPP, between 2039 and 2040 the rate of homicides in the state fell by 21%, the largest drop since 1991. Rio has a unique police group to deal with major crime in the favelas, but they also deal with corporate violence with the same ruthlessness. When it gets really bad they call on the Batalhão de Operações Policiais Especiais (Portuguese for Special Police Operations Battalion) who are mostly known by its acronym BOPE. It is a Special Forces unit of the Military Police of Rio de Janeiro State, Brazil. Due to the nature of crime in favelas, BOPE units have extensive experience in urban warfare as well as progression in confined and restricted environments. It also utilizes equipment deemed more powerful than traditional civilian law enforcement. They have cyborgs and APCA equipped units. They strike from helicopters and AVs which are also heavily armed.Law Enforcement in BrazilThe Brazilian Federal Constitution establishes five different law enforcement institutions: the Federal Police, the Federal Highway Police, the Federal Railway Police, the State Military Police and Fire Brigade, and the State Civil Police. Of these, the first three are affiliated to federal authorities and the latter two subordinated to state governments. All police institutions are part of the Executive branch of either federal or state government. According to the Supreme Federal Tribunal, the only security forces considered police units by Brazilian law are the ones listed in article 144 of the Federal Constitution, that is, the five aforementioned police forces.
There are two primary police functions: maintaining order and law enforcement. When criminal offences affect federal entities, federal police forces carry out those functions. In the remaining cases, the state police forces undertake police activities. Law enforcement and maintaining order are the two primary functions of Brazilian police units. In Brazilian Law, maintaining order is considered a preventive effort whereby police troopers patrol the streets to protect citizens and discourage criminal activity. Law enforcement consists of criminal investigation, therefore taking place after a criminal offence.
Prevention and investigation in Brazil are divided between two distinct police organizations. Local "military police" forces only have order maintenance duties. Correspondingly, "civil police" institutions are responsible solely for crime investigation. However, at the federal level, the Federal Police is commissioned with both preventive and investigative functions of federal crimes.
Federal Institutions: Federal Highway Police (Polícia Rodoviária Federal). There are three federal police institutions in Brazil: the Brazilian Federal Police|Federal Police, the Federal Highway Police, and the Federal Railway Police. The Federal Police, officially the "Departamento de Polícia Federal", is described by the Constitution as "a permanent administrative organ of the federal Executive branch". Main assignments are the investigations of crimes against the Federal Government or its organs and companies, the combat of international drug trafficking and terrorism, and immigration and border control police (includes airport and water police).It is directly subordinated to the Ministry of Justice. The Federal Highway Police, also described as "a permanent administrative organ of the federal Executive branch", has the main function of patrolling federal highways. It maintains order, but does not investigate crime. The Federal Railway Police, the third and last federal police force. Like the previously mentioned institutions, the Federal Railway Police is described as "a permanent administrative organ of the federal Executive branch" with the main function of patrolling the federal railway system. It does not investigate crime, solely focusing on order maintenance.
State Institutions: There are two types of state police institutions: the Military Police/Military Firefighters Corps and the Civil Police. The Military Police and Fire Brigade is the state police with order maintenance functions. It patrols the streets and imprisons suspects of criminal activity, handing them over to Civil Police custody or, in case of federal crimes, to the Federal Police. It is a "militarized" institution (gendarmerie) because it is based on military principles of hierarchy, ranks, uniform, discipline, and ceremonial. However, it is not part of the Brazilian Armed Forces. It is described by the Constitution as an "ancillary force of the Army". The Military Fire Brigade, in general, is a part of the Military Police, although it does not perform traditional policing duties. It is subordinated to the state government. The Civil Police is the state police with law enforcement duties. It has the function of investigating crimes committed in violation of Brazilian criminal law. It does not patrol the streets and does not use uniforms. Like the Military Police, it is subordinated to the state government.
Other Security Forces: National Public Security Force (Força Nacional de Segurança Pública). Municipalities may create Municipal Guards. They have the duty of protecting property, services and facilities of local governments. They are not police institutions and do not have order maintenance or law enforcement obligations. Thus, they are not listed in article 144 of the Federal Constitution as an autonomous police unit. There are over 700 Municipalities with Municipal Guards. The National Public Security Force, officially the Força Nacional de Segurança Pública, was created by presidential decree 5.289 on November 29, 2004. It is not a security force per se. Rather; it is a federal program of cooperation among all Brazilian police forces for situations of emergency or exceptional nature. Army, Navy and Air Force police units are not to be confused with the state Military Police. These are internal security units of each Armed Forces branch. They do not have general order maintenance or law enforcement functions. Other internal units may be created for protection of particular agencies or administrative entities, such as the guards of legislative houses, which are not police institutions. Nevertheless, in times of emergency, the Army has been called upon to maintain order, most notably in Rio de Janeiro.
{Thanks to Wikipedia from who much of this has been plagiarized!}
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Episode 39: Mission to Honduras
The Team goes into the eastern mountains of Honduras to extract a C.I.A. agent kidnapped by an old South Am drug lord who still nurses a great hatred towards the United States. On the way, they pick up a new team mate, go undercover as a group of Christian missionaries and bring medical aid to the locals. Their escape is a bit messy, but successful.
This is not the end of their troubles. A stop in the Cayman Islands almost turns to disaster as their past comes back to haunt the group. Relatives of the Baker’s Dozen, an Edgerunner team that they eliminated back in Episode 28, have banded together to avenge those they hold responsible for their loved ones’ deaths.
Background
Gregory Michaels is dead and his organization, the Section, has been eliminated. The C.I.A. is embarrassed by these revelations, but the Team keeps the Agency’s dirty little secrets in exchange for the complete rehabilitation of Kyle Vaduva’s name and reputation. The agency announces (quietly) that Kyle wasn’t actually burned, but on a highly secret undercover operation whose details must remain classified. His bank accounts that were seized are returned with interest. With twenty years of service he retires honorably with his pension.
Yeah, right, no one really ever retires from the C.I.A. You just become a deniable asset. Doc Freeman has a long history with the agency and Deputy Director Nathan Forrest already considers Cat Fisher one of his assets. So the Team like it or not, remains on call. Well, the C.I.A. has to pay them, but the agency does get preferential rates.
Dramatis Personae
The client du jour:
The Central Intelligence Agency (’nuff said, maybe too much)
The Team
Allison Cole: 17 yo kleptomaniac sex pot and one of Cat Fisher’s best friends from Atlantic City High School. She just graduated from that school and—when she became a suspect in a recent heist in Atlantic City—followed her friend to Jamaica. Perhaps not yet “world class”, her skills as a Prowler are formidable.
Cat Fisher: Officially she is Sam Fisher and the late Maria Ortiz’s 19 yo daughter. In actuality she is a full memory clone of late Caitlin Jones, the original biogenetic assassin construct built by the now defunct Bio Works Corporation. This is known only to Kyle Vaduva.
Doc Freeman: Former professor at UNLV, former assistant coroner and (formally) disgraced cyber researcher. He is the inventor of the “cyberbrain” with which he claims to have cured death itself. Although courts around the world are now looking into ramifications of his work, Disney Corporation has honored their agreements with the man and he is now rich beyond his wildest dreams. The Team bases out of his Morgan’s Harbor Hotel which he operates in cooperation with the Disney Corporation’s Port Royal Historical Theme Park and Museum.
Kyle Vaduva: Former C.I.A. agent who was burned by the agency over incidents that he did not commit. His exposure of a secret organization, the Section, that had infiltrated the C.I.A. led to his rehabilitation and retirement. He has been reunited with his lover from the Romanian Operation, now known as Catherine “Cat” (Fisher) Ortiz, who is the full memory clone of the late infamous bio-genetic assassin, Caitlin Jones.
Nip Lacey: 16 yo girl with neon green hair, has amnesia. She is a NET savant, classmate of Allison Cole’s, and the other of Cat Fisher’s best friends from high school.
Fred: ferret and imaginary friend of Nip’s.
William Eller: This is a cover alias for Thomas Rifkin, who is the major domo of U. S. Senator “Roy” deChartier, a member of the Consortium, a group of powerful and wealth business and political leaders who cooperate to “make things go their way”. Thomas/Max/William is a 10% owner of the Morgan’s Harbor Hotel.
Zahra Baudin: She is a 29 yo veteran of the JDF (Jamaican Defense Forces). Born of a Jamaican mother and a Haitian father, she is a trained “intrusion” expert.
And Introducing –
Victor Kane: He is a 28 year old street racer (Runner) who until recently made extra money by doing a bit of smuggling on the side. Before that he served as a security soldier with Petrochem but was ‘let go’.
The NPCs
Robert Horner: A C.I.A. agent stationed in the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa. He was kidnapped on his way home from church on Sunday, July 9, 2045 by the Olancho Cartel. His cover was as an agricultural attaché but was studying drug production in the eastern mountains of the country. Horner has the names of all the C.I.A.’s assets in the area and is a priority rescue.
Ramon de la Estaban: Leader of the Olancho Cartel is the scion of the old family that has ruled their valley since the sixteenth century. He is a true conquistador and controls everything with an iron fist. During the South Am Wars he commanded a personal army that committed many atrocities not only against American troops, but any locals that assisted them. He is a student of Joseph Stalin and uses terror for terror sake to keep his people in line.
Carlo de la Estaban: He is the oldest son of Ramon de la Estaban and his heir apparent. Unlike his father he is well educated and runs most of the cartel’s financial operations. The man is ruthless, but has a soft spot for his wife Maria and his three children Jose 11, Carlotta 9 and Manuel 6. His family lives in the capital in a heavily guarded compound. It is rumored that his father does not like his daughter in law, and Carlo also worries about his younger brother, Sergio’s appetites.
Sergio de la Estaban: He is the youngest son of Ramon and the chief enforcer of the cartel. He is a complete sociopath and sadist. Only fear of his father and Commandante Julian Burgos keeps him in line. His father unleashes the young man on his enemies when he needs the terror to be frightening. Sergio is an accomplished shot and has served in the Honduran Army. He is well trained, but could not endure the discipline. This young man has a taste for beautiful women and does not take no for an answer.
Commandante Julian Burgos: This man is the commander of the local police. They are actually a military force which works closely with Ramon de la Estaban’s private paramilitary group. He is a childhood friend of Ramon’s and they served together in the South Am Wars. This man is personally responsible for the deaths of a couple of thousand Americans during the Long Walk. He prefers to inflict slow and lingering deaths on his prisoners.
Nicola Cesic: Brother of the late Dragoslav Cesic, the leader of the Serbia Hit Team, the “Baker’s Dozen”. Captain in Serbian Special Forces, heavily decorated and on extended leave.
Javor Grol: The brother of the late Petar Grol, a member of the “Baker’s Dozen”. He is wanted by Interpol for several terrorist bombings & murder. He is usually political (left wing) and not freelance.
Lea (Zrinski) Grol: The sister of Luca Subic Zrinski and wife of Javor Grol. She is wanted for computer crimes in the EU and is also political.
Antun Zrinski: The brother of Luca and Lea. He is a terrorist and hand to hand expert. He is usually political and not freelance.
Malcolm Wright: He is the brother of Gregory Wright. Gregory was killed on an island in the Orinoco Delta. He was suspected of joining the Baker’s Dozen just before his death. Malcolm is a former officer of the Trinidad & Tobago Coast Guard. Makes his living as a professional sailing captain and is winner of many sail races. He has no criminal record.
The Action
Monday, July 10, 2045:
Victor Kane, an American down and out in Honduras, has a problem. He has ‘lost’ his passport, is almost out of money and is stymied in his efforts to get out of the country. He is approached by US Embassy official with a deal. All he has to do is drive a group of ‘missionaries’ into the eastern mountains of Honduras, wait for a few days, then drive them out. If he does, he will get a passport quickly along with 10,000 euro or whatever currency he would like and transportation out of the country. Of course, he realizes there is more to this job than meets the eye, but he is desperate! The embassy official brings him to a garage to start to work on installing robotic remote controls with smart linkage on an Armadillo-like van.
Kyle, Allison, William and Zahra leave Port Royal Jamaica by air for the United States to take on the appearance and identities of a group of Protestant missionaries going to staff a mission in the eastern mountains of Honduras in the town of San Estaban.
Aboard their yacht, the Windfall, Nip and Cat set sail for the coast of Honduras.
***
Tuesday, July 11, 2045:
Victor Kane continues working on the van in Honduras. Kyle, Allison, William and Doc Freeman get their briefing on their new identities and are helped with disguises for them. The mega yacht, the Windfall, rendezvous with US Navy ships and takes a new large stealth drone (an upgraded Militech RPV-400) aboard.
***
Wednesday, July 12, 2045:
The Team flies into Honduras as Christian Missionaries. Victor Kane picks them up at the airport and drives to San Esteban. The runner scopes out this group, but finds nothing that makes him suspicious that they are anything more than just a group of missionaries on their way to their new posting.
On arrival in San Estaban the vehicle is searched thoroughly at the southernmost police checkpoint. The police are polite but thorough. At the mission they find there is no power. Victor and William go and examine the junction box. They tighten the fuses and the power is restored. They settle down for the evening.
***
Thursday, July 13, 2045:
The morning is flooded with medical cases as news of a doctor’s arrival in the town spreads. Doc Freeman, Zahra and Allison do their best to keep up with the crowd. Victor drives Kyle up to the de la Estaban hacienda to deliver the bribe to allow the mission to continue its work.
The complex is located on a flat patch of ground part way up a hill. There are two buildings surrounded by a low wall and garden. One is the main house and the other is a smaller guest house where the Team has been told that agent Horner is being kept. Behind these two buildings is another that is a fortified barracks that houses Ramon de la Estaban’s personal troops. Kyle gets a look at the guard set up and meets with the cartel leader. The man is pleasant but it is clear that there is an aura of menace about him. Ramon takes the bribe and hopes that there will be no ‘misunderstandings’ about the missionary’s job in the town. Kyle and Victor then return to the mission.
A few hours later Sergio de la Estaban, the chief enforcer of the cartel, comes to take a look at the operation. He takes one look at Allison and invites her to the hacienda tomorrow night. Well, it is less of an invitation and more of a command actually. It is very clear what he expects, wants and will take if necessary.
Kyle asks Allison to ‘take one for the Team’ and sleep with Sergio, which Kyle feels is not beyond the girl’s ability. Allison tells Kyle her secret. Except for being raped by her uncle when she was eleven, she has never actually had sex with anyone. She doesn’t really know what to do except in the most general way. Kyle offers to give her some ‘pointers’, but she declines. Fucking her best friend’s boyfriend is just too weird for her. Kyle assures her that Cat won’t mind as it would be mission critical, but that doesn’t wash with the teenager. Kyle thinks on the problem.
***
Friday, July 14, 2045:
Just after midnight, a peasant comes to the mission and asks the doctor to come visit his ‘sick wife’. This is a prearranged cover for the group to go and meet an airdrop that will give them the supplies and equipment to assault the hacienda. Victor, who is unaware of the real purpose of the trip, drives the Team out into the hills. They wait in an open field where finally a drop pallet is parachuted in. Soon Cat arrives on a spy tech covered spinner bike dressed in a spytech body suit.
As the Team loads the gear in the van, Kyle explains to Cat the situation with Allison and her impending ‘date’. Cat and Allison talk, then go off into the woods where Allison gets some ‘practical’ instruction in ‘seduction’ from her friend. Kyle decides that someone should look after them so sneaks out to watch and make sure they are safe. (Yeah, right!) Victor tags along to make sure Kyle is ‘safe’. They both get an eyeful and a woodie.
The Team returns to the mission and Cat jumps on her spinner to begin laying explosives at key communications junctions and sets out a series of repeater stations for the remotes they intend to use.
The morning brings a fresh influx of patients to the mission. Although the good will of the locals is not a mission priority, Doc Freeman with Zahra and Allison acting as nurses help as many of the locals as they can. The rest of the Team gets ready for the extraction tonight.
The hacienda is built on a flat spot half way up a tall hill at the north end of the town. There is a main house and a small guest cottage surrounded by a low three foot wall. To the rear of these structures is a fortified barracks where Ramon de la Esteban’s militia is based. Victor and Kyle drive Allison up to the compound about eight o’clock in the evening. They drop off Doc Freeman, who will position himself with a laser designator to target the barracks. William and Zahra get out and close on the complex in stealth suits. Victor and Kyle remain with the vehicle parked outside the compound. Nip flies the borrowed stealth drone from the Windfall posted off the coast and is ready to cover the retreat. Cat has planted explosives at all the communications junctions and towers in the area. She positions herself on a hill overlooking the police roadblock on the road north out of town with a high powered sniper rifle. The extraction is scheduled for eleven o’clock.
All goes well inside as Allison allays the suspicions of Ramon and his other son, Carlo. Sergio and Allison head off to the bedroom where the young woman rolls a 32 on her seduction (sometimes you do roll 10s when you need them)!
Meanwhile, just before eleven Zahra and William sneak up to the guest cottage where they believe agent Horner is being held. William jimmies the lock and Zahra enters. There she is confronted by a guard whom she kills with a silenced shot. The Jamaican solo rushes into the living room and there is Ramon de la Esteban and one of his cronies “interrogating” Robert Horner. Zahra kills both of them without alerting the guards outside. William checks the rest of the cottage.
Inside the moment of truth has come for Allison. Sergio is putty in her hands. She gets him relaxed and unawares, then twists his little neck. Calmly she gets dressed and walks out of the hacienda as if nothing has happened. At this point William, Zahra and Horner exit the cottage but are spotted. All hell breaks loose. William guns down the nearby guards as Zahra and the C.I.A. agent make for the truck. Allison runs but does not attract much fire as she is apparently no threat. Kyle lays down full auto fire into the guards with his 12.7mm assault rifle. Nip fires the Hellfire missile on the borrowed C.I.A. stealth drone and, guided by Doc Freeman, it destroys the barracks before the troops can get out. Victor guns the truck and loops to pick up Allison and the Team is on their way out. Across the valley, explosions cripple the local communications and radio systems.
As the Team’s truck approaches the northern police road block, they notice that the four policemen manning it are dead. Cat has been busy. Victor roars over the roads into the mountains towards the coast. Within fifteen minutes a police cruiser is on their tail. Kyle opens the roof hatch and levels his 12.7mm assault rifle at the vehicle. The cruiser explodes killing the police chief, Julian Burgos.
Red Line is van escape route; Blue line is Windfall's launch route; Yellow line is van on remote controlThe van leaves the mountains and approaches the town of Bonito Oriental. Nip warns them of a roadblock. As they approach the barricade, Nip fires a LATGM from the drone and blows a hole. Then she opens up with the drone’s 12.7mm chain gun. Victor smashes through and they continue on. Three miles down the road in the next town of Corocito, there is another roadblock. This time Nip reports that a tank is manning it! She can’t help with this as a Honduran fighter plane is in the area. The netrunner goes after the jet.
Victor quickly looks at his maps and plans a route around the new impediment. Good planning and better driving gets them past, but soon Honduran police pursuit vehicles and the “tank” (actually a Pan Europa armored car) are on their tail. By now the government airplane’s pilot is riding his chute down watching his jet doing flaming pinwheels to the ground. As the armored car begins firing on the fleeing Team’s van, Nip plants her last LATGM into the rear of the AFV and destroys it. Between the drone’s chain gun and Kyle’s 12.7 assault rifle, the other police vehicles are disabled or destroyed.
Five miles north of Corocito, they stop at a bridge crossing a river. There the launch from the Windfall is waiting to pick them up. The ship’s crew there loads some bodies into the van and an antenna is connected to the truck to allow Cat, who has flown back to the ship, to drive it from there. Another small drone with an electronics package is launched. The Team heads down river as Cat drives the van by remote control.
Not a minute too soon as two more Honduran air force jets arrive on scene. Nip slips behind the two and drops one with her last air to air missile. Nicholas is piloting the second drone which activates its electronics package to mimic the firing vehicle. Nip brings her stealth drone close to the ground and returns to the Windfall as the government fighter hunts down and kills the “enemy drone”. The jet then tracks down the fleeing van and blows it up.
(GM Note: Yes, in a situation room in Langley the C.I.A. is pulling out their hair over the collateral damage!)
The launch makes it out of Honduran territorial waters and meets the Windfall, which sets course for the Grand Cayman Islands. In the flaming wreckage of the van is found the bodies of a couple of rival cartel members. By the time the Honduran government figures out what really happened, they are already invested in their story of two rival cartels fighting it out. Carlo de la Esteban is furious at first, but then realizes that he is now head of the Olancho Cartel. His psycho brother is dead and his father’s crony, Burgos, is gone. With the government’s help, he can crush his cartel’s rival over this incident. The C.I.A.’s truth’ of this incident is more valuable to him than what actually happened!
***
Saturday, July 15, 2045:
In the morning the Windfall has a rendezvous with two US Navy vessels, a frigate and a support vessel. They deliver the C.I.A. agent and return the borrowed stealth drone. Victor is paid cash, gets a new passport and a large sum of money is deposited in the Team’s account. The naval vessels escort the Windfall to Grand Cayman Island.
The Team has a meeting and offers Victor a full time job with them on a provisional basis. The runner accepts.
***
Sunday, July 16, 2045:
At 8 am the Windfall drops anchor off the main ship terminal at the western end of the main Cayman Island. Doc Freeman has a brunch meeting with some hotel people and most of the Team will be going with him. He rents a Rolls Royce for his time on the island and Victor will be driving. As the runner goes to get the car he notices a small piece of palm frond caught in the hood. This strikes him as odd since a Rolls usually has a sealed engine compartment. The warranty lasts as long as the seal is unbroken (dealers have the ability to reseal it after repairs). When the Doc is informed of this he calls a cab instead and notifies the dealer whom he had rented the vehicle from.
On their return to the terminal after lunch, the place is crawling with police. A bomb has been discovered in the engine compartment. It was a shaped charge set to kill any and all riding in the vehicle. What bothers the authorities was that it was a radio detonator. The bomber had been watching the car. Fortunately for Victor, he was not the target. Kyle checks out the area and sends people to check a couple of locations that a bomber might watch from. No one is there, of course, but one place has evidence that someone had been standing there recently for a while. This was out of sight of any street cam.
The rental agency insists that the car had been sent over with the engine sealed up. Kyle asks to look at the parking lot security footage from when the vehicle had been sitting. Sure enough a repair truck with the rental company logo pulled up. A man got out and did some work under the hood before driving off. When confronted with this evidence, the rental company informs them that they don’t own a repair vehicle like the one in the security footage. The police confirm this. The authorities take down the make and model of the truck in question and start checking all those on the island.
On the Windfall Cat deploys additional security measures. Extra sonar sensors are seeded a hundred meters around the ship and combat nuscuba gear is brought out and readied. By evening the police inform the Team that the owner of a small garage on the island has been murdered and his truck is missing. There is evidence that a vehicle has been recently repainted in the main repair bay. All plans for the evening are then cancelled and the Team hunkers down on the yacht. Kyle calls his contacts at the C.I.A. and sends them a copy of the ‘repair man’s’ photo from the security cam for identification.
The evening is uneventful until a little after 10 pm. The new sonar net picks up a diver moving towards the ship. Kyle and William put on their dive gear and drop into the water with their spear guns. They surprise another armed diver and an underwater battle commences conducted with thermographic vision. After a brief exchange of mini-spears, the attacking diver starts to beat a swift retreat. William’s last shot catches the attacker in the head and kills him. They pull the dead body to the dive platform on the stern of the ship. William pulls a limpet mine from the dead diver’s gear bag. It is a radio controlled device, but there is no radio on the corpse. Ellers immediately tosses the mine as far as he can. About three seconds after it hits the water, the mine explodes harmlessly.
The police are informed and the corpse turned over. The authorities sweep the waterfront, but find nothing. The ship remains on high alert for the rest of the night.
***
Monday, July 17, 2045:
By 5 am, the C.I.A. has gotten back to Kyle. The ‘repairman’ who put the bomb in the Rolls Royce is identified as Javor Grol, brother of the late Petar Grol, a member of the now defunct “Baker’s Dozen”. The man is wanted by Interpol for several terrorist bombings and murder. He is usually politically motivated and doesn’t freelance. The Team realizes this is personal since they killed Petar Grol and the entire “Baker’s Dozen” eight months ago in Venezuela. Kyle immediately notifies the Grand Cayman authorities who have now identified the dead nuscuba diver William killed last night. The diver was Nicola Cesic, brother of the late Dragoslav Cesic, the leader of the Serbian Hit Team, the “Baker’s Dozen”. Nicola was a heavily decorated captain in Serbian Special Forces on extended leave.
Since this is apparently not the work of Magda Berchtold, Cat contacts the Collective with this information. They inform the biogen that Magda denies any connection to this new group. The Hungarian heiress also reveals that Captain Istvan Vadas slipped, fell overboard and drowned two weeks ago while on night watch aboard his new command. Also, the former marine commander on the Horthy was murdered a week ago. The killing looked professional.
The Grand Cayman police run Javor and Nicola through facial recognition against people who have come to the island in the past ten days. Three other people arrived with the pair four days ago:
1 -Lea(Zrinski)Grol: The sister ofLuca Subic Zrinskiand wife ofJavor Grol. She is wanted for computer crimes in the EU and is also political.2 -Antun Zrinski, brother ofLucaandLea. He is a terrorist and hand to hand expert. He is usually political and not freelance.3 -Malcolm Wright, brother ofGregory Wright.Gregorywas killed on an island in the Orinoco Delta. He was suspected of joining the “Baker’s Dozen” just before his death.Malcolmis a former officer of the Trinidad & Tobago Coast Guard and makes his living as a professional sailing captain. He is winner of many sail races and has no criminal record.At William’s suggestion, the police check if any sailing yachts have been chartered recently. By 9 am they have an answer. Yes, in fact one was last night and the vessel set sail this morning. The police descend on the owner/captain’s home and find his dead body along with his wife’s. The sailing vessel was last seen heading north to Cuba. Unfortunately, the Grand Cayman Coast Guard has only one vessel ready (a second is a hundred miles south and the third is undergoing repairs). The remaining ship can’t leave the island unprotected. The authorities do declare the vessel stolen and a pirate craft.
Kyle tells Cat to put to sea immediately with the Windfall. The villains are not going to get away! The ship sails north at flank speed. The Team deploys remotes and catches the sailing yacht just outside Cuban territorial waters. The Serbs see the Windfall approaching and try to radio Cuban Navy authorities, but Nip jams their signal. The ‘pirates’ pull out some RPGs and prepare to resist. Kyle orders the Windfall’s 37mm ETE deck gun to blow them out of the water. Their ship uses this main gun and HATGMs to turn the sailing vessel to matchsticks.
Antun Zrinski and Malcolm Wright are killed but their bodies are recovered. Javor Grol and Lea Grol are wounded and taken alive. The Windfall returns them to the Grand Cayman Islands for trial. Javor Grol is extradited to the EU where he is tried and executed. Lea Grol is tried in the Grand Caymans and is sentenced to 25 years to life.
The Team members finally get to do their banking and many open some ‘secret’ accounts. Officially, Honduras continues to claim that they killed the “terrorists” who attacked San Estaban, but they begin to suspect the Team. Backchannel diplomatic pressure is brought to bear on both Disney and Jamaica. Zahra is arrested for an old murder that she is suspected of committing which begins a long legal battle for her. The government of Jamaica makes it clear to Disney that it would be best if the Team found some other place to live. This works out well for the Disney Corporation as they have trouble brewing at their flagship South American Theme Park, Fantasia, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The Team is offered a job in Rio for more money than they can turn down.
***
Next: Episode 40: Welcome to Rio!
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Episode 37: Hunt for the Black Box
The Team hunts The Guardian of one of Gregory Michaels’ ‘Black Boxes’ and discovers that others are hunting him too. The Guardian is found dead but a clue written in blood and items found at the scene lead the group to a ruined monastery and their prey.
Background
Gregory Michaels is the leader of a secret freelance spy agency called Section and the man who arranged for Kyle Vaduva to be burned at the C.I.A. Michaels keeps his information on those he is blackmailing into working for/with him on four portable hard drives hidden around the world. The Team, with the help of the Collective and Tiffany, a traitor in his organization, has learned the general location of each. Four simultaneous operations around the world will seize these items before they strike at Section’s headquarters and take down Michaels. The Team will conduct one of these raids in Asuncion, Paraguay. This is where Kyle saw Smoke at a bank back in 2040 during a C.I.A. operation. (See C.I.A. Blues Campaign earlier in this forum.) This was the incident that led Michaels to have Kyle burned.
Dramatis Personae
The Team
Allison Cole: 16 yo kleptomaniac sex pot and one of Cat Fisher’s best friends from Atlantic City High School. She just graduated from that school and—when she became a suspect in a recent heist in Atlantic City—followed her friend to Jamaica. Perhaps not yet “world class”, her skills as a Prowler are formidable.
Cat Fisher: Officially she is Sam Fisher and the late Maria Ortiz’s 19 yo daughter. In actuality she is a full memory clone of late Caitlin Jones, the original biogenetic assassin construct built by the now defunct Bio Works Corporation. This is known only to Kyle Vaduva.
Doc Freeman: Former professor at UNLV, former assistant coroner and (formally) disgraced cyber researcher. He is the inventor of the “cyberbrain” with which he claims to have cured death itself. Although courts around the world are now looking into ramifications of his work, Disney Corporation has honored their agreements with the man and he is now rich beyond his wildest dreams. The Team bases out of his Morgan’s Harbor Hotel which he operates in cooperation with the Disney Corporation’s Port Royal Historical Theme Park and Museum.
Kyle Vaduva: Former C.I.A. agent now burned by the agency over incidents that he did not commit. He is now reunited with his lover from the Romanian Operation, whom he recently learned is the full memory clone of the late infamous bio-genetic assassin, Caitlin Jones.
Nip Lacey: 15 yo girl with neon green hair, has amnesia. She is a NET savant, classmate of Allison Cole’s, and the other of Cat Fisher’s best friends from high school.
Fred: ferret and imaginary friend of Nip’s.
Randy Shugart III: He is the 28 yo grandson of CMH winner, Randall Shugart of Blackhawk Down fame. He is himself an eight year veteran of Delta Force and has recently been maneuvered out of the military.
William Eller: This is a cover alias for Thomas Rifkin, who is the major domo of U. S. Senator “Roy” deChartier, a member of the Consortium, a group of powerful and wealth business and political leaders who cooperate to “make things go their way”. Thomas/Max/William is a 10% owner of the Morgan’s Harbor Hotel.
Zahra Baudin: She is a 29 yo veteran of the JDF (Jamaican Defense Forces). Born of a Jamaican mother and a Haitian father, she is a trained “intrusion” expert.
The NPCs
Gregory Michaels: Leader and founder of “Section”, the clandestine private Black Ops organization that “burned” Kyle Vaduva.
Smoke: A former C.I.A. operative who also trained Kyle Vaduva during his early days at the Agency’s “Farm”. Kyle saw Smoke at a bank in Asuncion, Paraguay back in 2040 (during C.I.A. Blues Campaign). This sighting was the initial reason for Gregory Michaels having Kyle burned.
The Guardian (Carlos Gomez): A top flight solo, who protects the ‘Black Box’.
The Cleaner: A world class assassin also sent to protect the ‘Black Box’.
Assorted thugs
The Action
Thursday, June 8, 2045
The Team lifts off from Jamaica just before dawn aboard their C-23 Sherpa for Paraguay except for William, who was helping coordinate the actions of this group, the Collective and the Consortium. They have no idea where the Guardian is, only a name, Carlos Gomez, the fact that he lives in the capital of Asuncion and the ‘Black Box’ is in a safe deposit box at the Banco Central del Paraguay. On the fourteen hour flight they go over many plans on how to get at the box. A NET search turns up 254 people named Carlos Gomez. They don’t have time to check them all. A number of plans including the extortion of the bank manager and several robbery options are discussed, but all have a similar problem. The planning and execution of an operation on that scale is outside their time frame.
The group tries another approach. From Tiffany, they learned that the current Guardian took up his duties just after Smoke saw Kyle in Asuncion in 2040. Nip, Cat and Kyle start researching all the people named Carlos Gomez. A Guardian is always a top flight solo with a lot of experience. That limits his age to between 20 and 45 years of age. That brought the number down to 94 people. He has to be in top shape and not have a too high profile job or one that takes him out of the city a lot. The number was then reduced to 47. Most importantly, the Carlos Gomez they were looking for moved to Asuncion around 2040. That reduced the pool to just 1.
They got his address, which was a second floor apartment of a large multi-building complex in a moderate residential district. The complex had a NET site with layouts of the apartments available. Through this Nip got the general floor plan of the target’s residence.
That evening the Team landed in Paraguay. Kyle, Cat and Randy took a car to the apartment complex. Randy drove and dropped off the other two in stealth gear to do a ‘sneak and peek’. Nip flew a remote above the area and put it in hover mode while she ran NET support.
Carlos Gomez’s apartment was dark and quiet. After sunset Kyle and Cat made their way to a back window and climbed up to the second floor. Kyle disabled a simple alarm on the window and opened it. Then he checked the room and noticed a carefully hidden tripwire set to snag an unwary soul if they stepped through that window. He disabled that too and the pair made their way through the apartment.
In the bedroom they found Carlos Gomez. He had been shot dead. A floorboard had been pulled up in that bedroom’s closet and the compartment below was empty. Before he died Carlos had written the words: “San Migu” in his own blood. A search of the room produced no other information.
Nip immediately went into the apartment complex’s security system. In the memory she found a record of three men entering that building this morning and leaving thirty minutes later. They wore hats and deliberately didn’t look at the cameras. Nip did get a shot of their vehicle. A four wheel drive British Land Rover and its plates.
Kyle and Cat searched the rest of the apartment, but found nothing. Doc Freeman was monitoring the operation with the rest of the Team at their plane when something on the apartment layout caught his eye. There was a small but significant space behind one of the walls in the apartment’s bathroom. The Doc directed Kyle to the spot and the ex-C.I.A. agent punched through the wall there. In the space was a ‘run bag’. It contained a couple of passports, some cash, a handgun and a map of Alto Paraguay, the northernmost district in the country.
The Team withdrew from the apartment. Cat contacted the Collective which has strong connections with the government of Paraguay and gave them the license number of the vehicle that was seen outside the late Guardian’s apartment this morning. Kyle then had Nip run a search of the words “San Migu” against anything in Alto Paraguay. A ruined monastery in the hills east of the town/cattle station of Lagerenza called San Miguel de La Rosa popped up.
By now a report on the British Land Rover came back. It was a rental car that had not been returned yet. The Collective’s operatives were watching all the airports and border crossings and were fairly sure that this vehicle had not crossed the border. The Team had no other leads so they fired up their C-23 and flew north to Lagerenza. The Collective tasked one of their orbiting satellites to scan the old monastery and found a British Land Rover parked outside the ruined structure. The Team prepared to assault the place on arrival.
***
Friday, June 9, 2045:
About an hour after midnight the Team made a HALO jump two miles south of the monastery. Within the hour they were at the ruined structure. It was a rectangular building about eighty meters east to west by thirty-five meters north to south. The roof over the center of the building had long ago collapsed, but was intact at the edges and at the east and west ends. There were only two entrances inside. Both were at the western end. A large opening was in the southern part of that wall and a smaller doorway was at the northern end.
Nip hid about a mile away with Allison guarding her as the netrunner flew an SMG armed remote to scout the way ahead. The Land Rover was gone, but an osprey was sitting inside what had been the main chapel in the center. A guard was posted on the roof at each of the four corners.
Doc Freeman positioned himself 450 meters from the building to the southwest. Kyle, Cat, Randy and Zahra made a stealthy approach to the small door at the north end of the western wall. They made their approach unseen. Randy put a silenced shot into the guard just inside the door. Ahead a covered corridor ran the whole length of the building with open doorways to the left just five meters and about sixty meters ahead. A corridor split off to the right about ten meters from the door. Randy told Zahra to cover the corridor straight ahead. Cat remained outside to watch their rear while Randy and Kyle went into the room just to the left.
Randy and Kyle silenced the guard in that room where a ladder went up through a hole in the ceiling. Randy went up the ladder, but couldn’t see the corner roof guard from that spot. Meanwhile, Zahra shifted her position to cover both the corridor ahead and the corridor to the right. Good thing, since a guard came around the corner there. The Jamaican solo was able to make a silent kill before the alarm went off.
Cat watched the entrance they had just entered as the other three swept the northern east-west corridor. They heard multiple voices coming from the rooms at the western end of the building so they decided to fall back and sweep the southern east-west corridor before cleaning out the western end of the building.
The Team swept the eastern north-south corridor disposing of two guards and secured the main door there. As they prepared to move again, the osprey’s engines began to wind up. It and the ‘Black Box’ were getting ready to leave.
Stealth be damned! Kyle bolted east down the southern main corridor. Randy and Zahra followed. Cat remained behind to watch their rear. Well, there was a guard in one of the rooms off that southern corridor. He was surprised as Kyle ran by, but shot and wounded Randy as he passed. Zahra stopped and killed the guard before proceeding.
Outside, Doc Freeman could see three of the four roof corner guards. Their positions were shielded from the air so Nip couldn’t get a bead on them without exposing the remote to immediate counter fire. When the shooting started, Doc fired his 30mm Essence and blew the northwest corner guard right in half. The men on the roof’s southern side opened up on full auto with assault rifles, but could not hit the Doc. The 30mm roared again and the man on the southwest corner had his arm, shoulder and life blown away. The southeast corner guard put one round into the Doc, but the damage was turned by heavy armor.
Inside, Kyle almost reached the room at the end of the corridor. He threw a flash bang grenade ahead of him and into there. This blinded and stunned the two waiting in ambush. Outside the sentry on the southeast corner dropped behind the wall. The flash-bang kept him from dropping down into the first floor. Doc Freeman watched where the man hid and fired right through the wall and killed him anyway. The sentry on the northeast corner did jump down to the first floor and head towards the osprey.
By now, Nip swooped in with her remote and cut down two more guards in the open courtyard before someone (The Cleaner) shot her remote down. Kyle kept running and turned north at the corner room. As he ran through the next room another guard fired at him, but missed. The ex-C.I.A. agent ignored this assailant and continued to the courtyard. Zahra and Randy continued to follow dispatching those blinded and/or left behind in Kyle’s advance.
As Kyle entered the courtyard, he saw two men walking up the ramp of the osprey. He drilled them both with his assault rifle before they could fire, and dropped both men. The ex-agent charged into the flying craft where the pilot and co-pilot surrendered. Zahra and Randy came up quickly. One of the dead men on the ramp was The Cleaner and had the ‘Black Box’. The surviving guards were mercenaries who surrendered on the death of their employer. The pilot and co-pilot were just hirelings of the company that this osprey was rented from. The two were contracted to fly some people out of here and weren’t particular who that was or where they were going.
Doc Freeman patched up Randy and the wounded mercenaries. The mercs were left with their money (and the cash of their dead comrades). The osprey flew the Team to a meet with operatives of the Collective and then those two and their craft were set free. The other three operations also met with success and the Team then headed to Nevada to join in on the final assault on Gregory Michaels and the headquarters of Section.
Next: Episode 38: Just and Not-So-Just Desserts
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And while the Team goes about its business, they are reminded that what they are doing is really unimportant compared to what is happening in other parts of their Cyberpunk World!
World News Service – Flash!
TERRORISTS NUKE UNITED STATES ORBITAL SPACE DOCKWednesday, May 3, 2045
The night sky over North America lit up last night as an estimated 20 kiloton nuclear weapon exploded aboard the United States Aerospace Forces main construction facility and space dock obliterating the orbiting complex. Between 5 and 6 thousand personnel normally work at the space dock in addition to 3 to 4 thousand Aerospace Forces members. All are believed lost.
Also destroyed in the explosion was the new United States Space carrier, the USS Ronald Reagan, which was a mere three months from launching. Within an hour of the disaster the Voice of Wastes, the mysterious spokesperson for the Islamic Jihad, took credit for the strike promising that this was just the beginning of final campaign to destroy the “Great Satan” known as the United States of America. All American forces on planet and in space were put on alert.
President Whindham announced a full investigation is underway by the Central Intelligence Agency to find the guilty parties.
“This administration shall spare no effort to find the people responsible for this atrocity and bring them to justice. The blood of thousands cries out for vengeance and they will be answered!”
Around the world governments have pledged their support to find the terrorists. Even the European Union has called on Interpol to work with the United States to bring the perpetrators of this outrage before the world to be judged for their crimes.
(GM Note: The world is careening wildly towards war. It seems no crime is too outrageous. The Voice of the Wastes explains that the United States could not be trusted with such a powerful vessel that could be used for planetary bombardment so it had to go. Of course, The EU space fleet has several vessels capable of doing just that, but perhaps their security was a little tighter.)
World News Service – Flash!
UNITED STATES DECLARES WAR ON THE ISLAMIC JIHADFriday, May 12, 2045
In a speech before the United States Senate President Whindham ‘declared war’ on the Islamic Jihad and called for the hunting down and execution of the Voice of the Wastes and his followers. The President’s speech was interrupted almost a dozen times by cheering and applause from the assembled Senators. Evidence has been collected proving that the device was a Pakistani Chagai-II warhead that disappeared during the Mid-East Meltdown almost fifty years ago. Although the passing years should have left the warhead inoperable, scientists believe that it could have been easily reconditioned and made active again. Indeed, intelligence suggests that this is exactly what happened.
The EU, Russian Federation, the Commonwealth and the People’s Republic of China among other nations have pledged their support to help hunt down the perpetrators of this ‘heinous’ act. Responses from the Islamic Jihad have been mixed. While the Voice of the Wastes continues to trumpet this “victory” over the Great Satan, others claiming to be the terrorist leader have condemned the attack. Many groups supporting the Islamic Jihad have also condemned the use of nuclear weapons as “un-Islamic” and an affront to Allah. Western intelligence experts dismiss these claims as a realization by some of the terrorist’s supporters that they have “crossed the line”. The overwhelming response by the world Muslim community to the nuclear strike has been negative.
(GM Note: And so life goes on. Will this impact the Team down the line? Only time will tell.)
Burn Notice Campaign 2041 To 2046
in Cyberpunk RPG General Chat
Posted
Episode 52 – The Situation in Rio Starts to Boil
Cat (as Lena) meets with Yorgi Valenchenko to try and allay the FSB agent’s suspicions of their involvement in the death of his cousin. The absence of Luka from the meeting is both an annoyance and confirmation. Yorgi had his contacts look into the pair. Certain (intended) irregularities emerged that he wished to “discuss” with the gun runner. He is less prepared to confront Lena and thus leaves unsatisfied.
Someone tries to implicate Victor in the murder of a borg, or is it an attempt to get Ricco alone and extract him? Cat assumes a new identity as Sasha, a mechanic, hired to help the Team on the ground in Rio. The role allows her some freedom of operation with her other identities (Cat & Lena) under such close scrutiny. A black ops team breaks into Pedro’s gang headquarters and plants more bugs and remotes to spy on the gang leader.
The danger in Rio increases, as gangs and corporations smell ‘blood in the water’.
Background
The Team has arrived in Rio de Janeiro aboard their (pilfered) 194 foot mega yacht, the Windfall. They have been brought here by the Disney Corporation, who runs the giant theme park, Fantasia. The Brazilian Supreme Court is expected to overturn the 1975 Presidential Decree (The Fusion) effectively re-establishing the city of Rio as an independent city-state within Brazil. Factions have begun to align, in anticipation of this decision, to vie for control of the city. The notorious favelas of Rio de Janeiro present a powerful voting bloc, one that several of the players in the political struggle seek to eliminate. By taking away the voting rights of the poor, the conspirators hope to move closer to their ultimate goal of eliminating the favelas, reclaiming the valuable real estate for redevelopment. The Disney Corporation opposes this agenda and has contracted the Team as ‘consultants’ to counter the maneuvers of rival factions.
Dramatis Personae
The Team
Allison Cole: 17 yo kleptomaniac sex pot and one of Cat Fisher’s best friends from Atlantic City High School. She just graduated from that school and—when she became a suspect in a recent heist in Atlantic City—followed her friend to Jamaica. Perhaps not yet “world class”, her skill as a Prowler is formidable.
Cat Fisher/Ortiz: Officially she is Sam Fisher and the late Maria Ortiz’s 19 yo daughter. In actuality she is a full memory clone of late Caitlin Jones, the original biogenetic assassin construct built by the now defunct Bio Works Corporation. This is known only to Kyle Vaduva. Some on the Team know she is a Caitlin clone.
Doc Freeman: Former professor at UNLV, former assistant coroner and (formally) disgraced cyber researcher. He is the inventor of the “cyberbrain” with which he claims to have cured death itself. Although courts around the world are now looking into ramifications of his work, Disney Corporation has honored their agreements with the man and he is now rich beyond his wildest dreams.
Kyle Vaduva: Former C.I.A. agent, burned by the agency for crimes he did not commit. His efforts to expose and eliminate, the Section, a freelance spy and black ops ring that had infiltrated the C.I.A., led to a review of his record and exoneration. He was allowed to retire with full benefits. Kyle has been reunited with his lover from the Romanian Operation, Caitlin Jones (see Cat (Fisher) Ortiz above).
Victor Kane: He is a 28 year old street racer (Runner) who until recently made extra money by doing a bit of smuggling on the side. Before that he served as a security soldier with Petrochem before he was ‘let go’.
Ricco Torres: A former member of the Rio de Janeiro Civil Police who became a private investigator when his friendship with certain ‘unsavory’ characters came to light. Although he was not corrupt, he left the force before a case could be ‘made’ (manufactured) against him. Recently he has been hired by the Disney Corporation and been given a corporate ‘badge’. He serves as liaison between the Team and Disney.
Roca Terrier: Actually, she is one of the oldest characters from our game group. She is the only self-mobile A.I. in our game universe. Her existence is a result of a now ended secret military project. Her creator was a genius, who saw his attempt to create a self-learning A.I. built from his memories of his deceased daughter, perverted by the Pentagon in an attempt to create the perfect weapon system. Now a citizen of the Republic of Mars and a respected scientist, she was formerly married to General Pershing, the current Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the United States. Their divorce was a political move to advance the general’s career and the two are still very close. Roca is also a member of the Collective and sits on their ruling council. She and Cat know each other.
Nicholas (Nicky) Vaduva: Zar’s (Kyle’s) 18-year-old son from our Romanian adventure. Nicholas is unaware that Kyle is his father and believes the man is his cousin. He serves as first officer on the Team’s yacht, SS Windfall.
Wyatt: Roca’s personal technician. He is the son the original chief tech on the project that created the A.I. The father and Roca are fast friends and this son has replaced his dad who is now retired. To Wyatt, Roca is family and visa versa.
4.06531: A 4th generation Nietzschean operative, who is masquerading as Kyle (Kyle 2.0) on the Windfall. He is also known as Janko Mesic during this mission.
Caitlin Diaz: One of Cat’s Biotechnica created clones, who is working with the Team masquerading as Catherine Ortiz (Cat 2.0).
The NPCs
Arabella Seurat: A boutique car designer and friend of Colin Hughes.
Brita Seguera: She is a former member of FARC and friend of Isadore. There is a rumored execution order out on her.
Colin Hughes: He is a (senior) executive from Petrochem on assignment in Rio de Janeiro. The man is from Victor Kane’s life path. Kane and Colin vied for the affections of Marybeth Bascom, daughter of Texas US Senator Howard Bascom. All three young people were “gear heads”. Kane beat out Colin, who arranged Kane’s separation from his job at Petrochem.
David Lau: A Chinese gun runner in Rio who is working with George.
Elash Husseini – A name that came up in Ricco’s investigation of George Brazzo’s lawyer. Certain payments had been made. The French DSGE are interested in him.
George Brazzo: A high level fixer and criminal in Rio. He is a facilitator that rarely gets his hands dirty himself. He has a large bribery slush fund and two lawyers that keep him out of trouble. When he was a Rio civil policeman, Ricco Torres tried unsuccessfully to put him away several times.
Isadore Abuelo: An Argentine ‘bad guy’ and former member of FARC. It is rumored that FARC has ordered his execution.
Jacqui Driesen: A Petrochem corporate in Rio for a high level secret meeting.
James Culver: A mysterious man in a white suit who implicates Kane in a murder and sets up Ricco for an extraction.
Justin Gillroy: A Petrochem corporate in Rio for a high level secret meeting.
Lara: A new cast hire at Fantasia’s Dream Park and Melanie’s new roommate. She falls in with Victor and Maria’s set of friends.
Maria: A local girl who works as a maid for one of the hotels in Disney’s Fantasia. She gets picked up by Victor in a bar and her whole life starts getting turned upside down.
Melanie: A young, female employee of Disney Fantasia, who lives in Disney’s Arbor Estates employee housing.
Mohammad Shankav: A Petrochem corporate in Rio for a high level secret meeting.
Pedro de Costa: Leader of the set of the Rio gang, the Third Command, in charge of the Favela Barrio Nova Alianca. He is working with Gustavo Benaziz, a known Islamic terrorist and half-brother of Marcellana Barbieri, a Commonwealth media. Pedro is having an affair with Marcellana.
Roger Kincaid: the Disney executive in charge of the political situation in Rio.
Solon: The A.I. that runs Kaliba Integrated Systems which built and runs the Rio Operations Center that controls the city’s security cameras, power distribution and police/fire communications. Solon wants to dispossess the favela residents of their voting rights and have them forced from the city.
Yorgi Valenchenko: A Russian FSB operative, cousin and partner of the late Kiril Vadjek, a gun runner working with George who was recently assassinated by Cat at Kyle’s bidding.
The Action
Thursday, January 18, 2046:
Kyle and Cat contact Roger Kincaid in the morning to request that all future missions or jobs be cleared with them on the Windfall. They also request that Disney provide the team (especially Doc Freeman and Roca) with a full-time media consultant.
After the conversation with Roger, they contact Ricco to pass along a list and initial research on the guests list from George’s party. Ricco asks if he should drop his current investigation of Raul Azevedo. He advised to continue his research of the Furnas executive, but given the timetable of George’s attack on the favela, digging up intel on the guests takes priority.
Cat makes one further request of the ex-cop. Isadore Abuelo and Brita Seguera are former members of FARC. Both have had prices placed on their head by the rebel organization. “See if the bounties can be collected by a freelancer.”
Given the recent difficulties the team has faced, Kyle and Cat agree that their ‘absence’ may be undermining the operational integrity of the team. They contact the Collective to secure new cover identities so they can assist Team while maintaining the illusion that they are somewhere in the Southern Atlantic.
Yorgi Valenchenko arrives for lunch with a personal bodyguard. While not an actual borg, the bodyguard is so highly augmented, he may as well be. Lena takes the unexpected +1 in stride, and invites them in. She has personally prepared a selection of traditional Russian dishes. As Luka is not present to greet him, Yorgi politely questions after the health (and whereabouts) of the gun runner. Lena explains that ‘something came up’ out of town. She is, however, Luka’s partner and is more than capable of engaging in a discussion of business. Pausing to consider the conspicuous absence (to him) of one of his hosts, the FSB agent finally decides to pose his questions to Lena. Questions about the geography and residents of Luka’s home village point to more than a passing familiarity. It is quite clear from the facts presented; Yorgi has made quite the study of Luka Graso’s past. Yorgi is particularly interested in the conversation his cousin had with them two months ago on Saturday, November 4th at the Hipodromo de Gavea (Episode 45).
Lena explains. “We talked with him once at the Hippodrome. We were doing some ‘business’ with a gentleman, who shall remain nameless. Kiril came up to us afterward and warned that it was ‘not a good idea’ to do business with him, something about ‘mental instability in his family’. At first we were not sure if this was just friendly advice from one horse fancier to another or a threat. Well, Kiril was right. The ‘gentleman’ and his friends acted very ... unstably. I believe they all died in some kind of misfortune recently. The important part of this story is it was quickly clear that he was giving good advice. We certainly wouldn’t wish for him to be dead.”
Yorgi appears to accept this explanation, or is at least willing to consider it. Lena admits that on the surface, they have a good motive for killing Kiril, but informs the Russian that it was George who approached them. This does have the advantage of being a true statement.
The young ‘Bulgarian’ continues, “Besides George’s favela plans, there is something else going on here. Another interested party in Rio told us of your impending arrival and all but tried to shove a rifle in our hands to take care of you. We really weren’t interested at the time and have since learned that your arrival time was bogus, bad intel. Now, we have good reason to think this may have been a test, but we don’t know. Right now, we don’t trust anyone really until we ‘see the money’!”
Lena then asks if he and his cousin had an organization down here and if so, why not ask them? Of course she knows full well that George has subsumed the whole group. Yorgi leaves with his escort. He is not totally convinced, but now has some more information to consider. Still, he wants a conversation with Luka.
***
Friday, January 19, 2046:
At the morning (NET) briefing, Kyle and Cat extend congratulations for a successful extraction. Victor is informed he will receive AV Pilot training from a new AV pilot/driver hired to fly Doc Freeman on a Disney corporate Boeing VS-7 Serrato spinner. The runner does not take the news well. He fears his position as the team’s wheel-man is about to be usurped.
Victor shows up for the filming of the final stunt. The setting is a gated mansion in one of the nicer neighborhoods of Rio. His instructions are simple. Crash the car through the front gate. On the approach to the house there will be an open topped trailer used to haul lawnmowers and other landscaping equipment. It will be positioned at the side of the drive, to act as a ramp. This will give him the boost he needs to clear the low wall and land the car in the swimming pool. At that point he will exit the vehicle through the open window and run to the pool house. After that he is to continue out the back door of the structure, run to the back wall surrounding the property and get over it. A van will be waiting to pick him up on the street.
Of course, the director fails to mention that all of this will be a surprise to the owners of the property. But they are supposed to be out of town. The moviemakers have an in with the grounds crew working on the estate and cameras are hidden here and there to catch the action. Kane gets a surreptitious look at the jump and decides he can do it.
By early afternoon Victor is in position and the shot commences. He crashes the gate and roars up the driveway. The trailer is in position and he hits it just right. The car sails over the wall and splashes down perfectly in the pool. The landing is jarring but Kane slips out the window before he is drowned like a rat. Swimming to the edge, the runner quickly pulls himself out of the pool and heads for the adjoining cabana. From behind him he hears a yell of “Halt”. Chancing a glance over his shoulder he catches sight of an advancing security guard whose sidearm is just clearing the top of his holster. Security personnel were not mentioned in the run-through of the scene. Kane decides to throw his weight on the door and break through, but the barrier proves surprisingly resistant.
Before once again launching his shoulder at the solid obstacle, the runner decides to try the door handle. It is unlocked and opens easily. A bullet whistles past his ear, thudding in the inward swinging door. The second round catches him in the shoulder (his armor deflects most of the damage). Victor intentionally goes down, using the momentum to carry him into the room beyond. Staying low, he makes his way across the richly appointed interior. The runner rolls out a back window and makes for the back wall of the estate.
With a running start, he is easily able to grab the top lip of the high wall. Flakes of concrete sting his face as two rounds thud into the wall nearby. Desperate to get out of the line of fire, the runner swings his leg over the wall and drops down on the other side. The drop to the ground, outside the wall, is much further than Victor anticipated, but his training allows him to land without injury. The runner jumps into the waiting van, which streaks off before the police arrive or security follows Victor over the wall. The director is thrilled. The sequence was better than he could have hoped for. Victor is given a (very small) bonus on the spot.
The success and extra cash puts Victor in the mood to party. He heads out for a night of dancing with Maria. Melanie, Ricco, Doc Freeman, Roca (accompanied by two of her bodyguards) joins them. Ricco decides to drive himself rather than squeeze into the Doc’s overstuffed limo. Having his own car will also allow him to cut out early if he finds some friendly female companionship at the club. Liquor flows and the music sizzles.
Victor is having such a good time that he is almost gracious when a non-descript man in a white suit runs into his back on the dance floor. The man is all smiles and raises his hands in a sign of non-aggression when the runner turns to confront him. He says something as he adjusts his glasses, but it is lost in the music. Maria’s coaxing arm and the apparent insignificance of his ‘assailant’ causes Kane to relent. With a shouted suggestion to be more careful, the runner turns back to his girlfriend and continues dancing.
As the song ends, the party heads of the dance floor to cool down. Victor’s pocket ‘rings’. The runner reaches in and pulls out a phone that he has never seen before. He answers it, but no one responds. Repeated inquiries are met with continued silence so he closes it and puts it back in his pocket. Given recent events, Roca’s suspicion is aroused. She asks to see the phone. Shutting off does not appear to have severed the connection. Victor takes care of the signal (permanently) by dropping the phone into an unattended drink on a nearby table.
About 45 minutes later, two Brazilian policemen enter the club. They look around, talk to the bouncer and come towards their table. Ricco recognizes both officers from his days on the force. They ‘ask’ Victor to come down to the station. He is a ‘person of interest’ in a crime. The runner sees no reason not to go, so begins to leave with the officers. Ricco identifies himself (as Disney security) and asks to accompany the police and Victor. After a quick check of his credentials, the officers agree.
Ricco offers to drive Victor to the station, but the officers insist that he ride in the back of their car. The ex-cop follows them to the station in his own vehicle. At the station Victor is brought into a lineup. Ricco is instructed to wait. While in the hall, the ex-cop sees the man in the white suit (from the club) exit the door leading to the witness’s section of the line-up room. Ricco waits until he is finished with the police, then strikes up a brief conversation. The man identifies himself as James Culver. When Culver leaves the station (on foot) Ricco follows at a discrete distance. The ex-cop becomes aware of a car that seems to be following him or possibly Culver. The man in the white suit turns down a small side street. Something seems off with the entire situation. Thinking better of following Culver down the side street, Ricco turns back and returns to the police station.
Victor is eventually released. The police inquired about the runner’s whereabouts last Wednesday night. He is informed that a witness had picked him out of a line-up and that he is now a suspect in the murder of a cyborg. The interrogating officer shows the runner pictures of the scene and details of how the borg had been torn apart. Since Victor was busy aiding in kidnapping Daniel Gomez when the cyborg was being killed, he refers them to Roger Kincaid of the Disney Corporation. While not privy to Kincaid’s conversation with the police, Victor is soon released.
On the ride back to the club, Kane regales Ricco with the details of his interrogation. He seems proud that the cops think him capable of beating down a cyborg.
(GM Note: The player either misheard the description or heard what he wanted to. He insisted the interrogator said he was accused of physically beating the borg to death. Not remotely what I said, but what can you do.)
“They (the police) have that high an opinion of you?” asks Torres.
Ricco tells Kane his own story of their visit to the police station and of the friend in the white suit. Something definitely stinks, but they quickly put it out of their heads and return to the dance club to continue the celebration.
In the wee hours of the morning, the revelers stumble out of the closing club and head for Doc Freeman’s limo. All that is except for Ricco, who makes the long walk back to his own car, parked in the other direction down the street. Tired and slightly intoxicated, he is suitably put out when his car won’t start. Chock it up to years on the streets or the events from earlier that evening, an alarm of warning reaches through the alcohol induced fog.
The ex-cop subtly scans the dispersing crowd of club-goers. Ricco zeros in on three that seem out of place (very high awareness / notice roll). The trio, two men and a woman, are walking arm in arm down the sidewalk in his direction. Pulling out his phone he dials the police emergency number on his cell, but holds off on pressing the call button.
(GM Note: The player was second guessing the encounter and wanted to see what the three would do. Even if Ricco had successfully contacted the police, they would not have been there instantaneously. It’s not like rubbing a genie lamp.)
As the trio comes even with the passenger side of the car, the closer man snaps open a retractable baton and smashes the window. A small object sails through the broken window, bounces off the seat and comes to rest near Ricco’s feet. The subsequent explosion stuns the investigator. He is blinded but his audio dampers ensure he can still hear.
Nearly a block away, the limo crew hears the explosion, but most ignores it. One even suggests that it’s probably a car backfiring. Roca recognizes the sound of a flash-bang and realizes that it came from the direction their erstwhile liaison headed off in, alone. She takes off at a run towards the sound. The sudden action catches her bodyguards by surprise. They had been moving to cover her entry into the armored limo. Having their principle bolt towards the sound of danger was truly unexpected. They race to catch up, but the A.I. has a head start.
In the flash and concussion from the grenade, Ricco has become separated from his phone. Though disoriented, he attempts to pull his sidearm, while fending off his attackers. The ex-cop feels that he’s holding his own, till he is tazed.
The three almost have Ricco out of the car, when Roca rounds the corner. The A.I. gains speed and launches into a flying kick, aimed at the head of one of the attackers. The man quickly lets go of the ex-cop’s arm and dodges out of the way of the kick. On the other side of the vehicle, the other male assailant fires two shots at Roca. The woman pulls another grenade from her purse, pulls the pin and throws it at the feet of the A.I., forcing Roca to dodge away from the expected explosion. Rather than searing bits of shrapnel, there is only smoke. The three attackers disengage, running off in different directions. Roca’s trailing bodyguards get off a shot, but the A.I. does not pursue. She instead checks to make sure Ricco is alright. Everyone returns to Fantasia in Doc Freeman’s limo. Disney security is notified where Ricco’s (Disney’s) disabled vehicle is located.
***
Saturday, January 20, 2046:
In the morning, Ricco decides to report last night’s attempted abduction to the police. They dutifully take the report, but there is not much they can do since it was dark and Ricco didn’t get a good look his attackers. Inquiries about James Culver come up empty. His police contact information turns out to be bogus. In fact, the man is a ‘ghost’. He doesn’t exist.
Colin calls Allison, to let her know he is back in town. An AV picks her up and flies her to a hacienda outside of Rio. The young prowler notices that the estate’s security is tight. There are anti-missile systems on the roof and heavily armed guards discretely posted in many locations. Colin is most pleased to see her and introduces her to a few of his ‘friends’. They are Mohammad Shankav, Jacqui Driesen, Justin Gillroy and, of course Arabella Seurat (from Episode 43).
It becomes clear to Allison that the first three are high level executives of Petrochem. In fact this is less a social occasion and more of a high level corporate meeting. Something big is definitely up. Colin excuses himself for a few hours and the Petrochem people take a meeting under heavy security. The prowler’s curiosity is definitely peaked.
Around dinnertime, Nathan Forrest tries to contact Cat aboard the Windfall. Of course he gets Cat 2.0 (Caitlin Diaz). She greets her ‘Uncle Nathan’ warmly. After some brief pleasantries, the Deputy Director for Clandestine Services gets to his point. “Why is your man, Ricco Torres, looking into Elash Husseini?”
“He is looking into a lot of people, why?” Cat 2.0 responds.
“Anton Gedry,” Forrest continues. “Has that name come up in your investigations?”
“No, haven’t heard that one.”
“I want you to drop your investigation into Elash Husseini. The French DSGE is after Ricco because of his inquiries into him.” The C.I.A. spy chief continued.
Something in the man’s tone bothered the biogen. “Sure, Uncle Nathan. I’ll contact Ricco immediately.”
“Look, if I were you, I wouldn’t go back to Rio. Ricco is their secondary target. Chatter indicates that it is you and Kyle they really want. Be careful.” The man then ends his call.
Cat 2.0 immediately passes this information along to her sister, Cat. The biogen in Rio calls Roca and tells her that the DSGE is after Ricco. Cat asks if she can pick up their liaison immediately and keep him in her home under guard. The French will be loath to try to violate the diplomatic sanctity of her penthouse apartment. The A.I. agrees and dispatches a small team to pick Torres up. Meanwhile Cat calls Ricco to give him the bad news. The Brazilian ex-cop tells her that Elash Husseini was just a name that came up looking into George Brazzo’s lawyers. Some payments had been made, but they appear to have nothing to do with their current assignment. He had not pursued it any further. Cat tells him that Roca has agreed to protect him from the DSGE. The grateful investigator accepts the offer of sanctuary.
Back on the Windfall, Cat 2.0 mentions the French interest in Kyle and Cat. Concern crosses their Nietzschean captain’s face. He tells Kyle and Cat (2.0) that a French naval frigate is about 25 miles astern and now appears to be following them. He will keep a closer eye on the warship.
***
Sunday, January 21, 2046:
Roca and Victor both continue their churchgoing ways. Victor attends his new church, while Roca tries another congregation in her spiritual quest. Cat calls back Nathan Forrest and informs him that Ricco’s (and their) inquiry into Elash Husseini has been dropped. Cat also calls Colin Hughes and tells him about the attempted extractions on the Team. She fears an attempt may be made on Allison, and that might occur while she is with Colin. The call is framed as a ‘heads up’ from one friend to another.
***
Monday, January 22, 2046:
Details of Luka’s and Lena’s role (consisting mostly of weapon delivery schedules) in the destruction of the Favela Vila Parque da Cidade arrive in their NET drop box from George. The instructions are (extremely) light on details. Dissatisfied with the level of direction, Kyle calls George and requests a face to face meeting.
(GM Note: The instructions were intentionally ambiguous, to obscure George’s involvement in the illegal sale of weapons).
George invites them to come by the Jockey Club that afternoon. The fixer takes the meeting with Luka & Lena in his private box under heavy security. George verbally lays out the particulars of the pair’s part in the plan, but declines to commit any of it to writing. The tight security also makes it impossible for either to record the meeting.
They are to provide weapons for the gang, Fraternidade de Anjos (Brotherhood of Angels), using local fixers who are in on this plot. David Lau will be providing weapons for the militia, Homens de Aço (Men of Steel).
***
Tuesday, January 23, 2046:
Kyle contacts Victor in the morning and tells him to go to the train station to pick up the Team’s new contractor, Sasha (the mechanic). The ex-spy explains that she isn’t a new Team member, just a temporary hire. In other words, she is NOT ‘in the loop’ so to speak. Kane stands at the station holding up a sign with the new hire’s name. A young woman walks up and identifies herself as Sasha. She tells him to take her to the Team’s workshops out by the airport. Curiosity gets the better of the runner and he asks what she is doing here.
“Oh, I have been hired to pick up the slack,” she replies.
Kane starts to fume. “We have NOT been slacking off here!”
Of course that is not what she meant, but the runner immediately takes her presence as an insult and a threat.
“Well, I am in charge of the repair shop,” he informs her, “So you won’t touch any of the tools in ‘my’ garage bay.”
“That’s fine,” she replies. “I am here to get the van finished. There are more tools and parts arriving today. I won’t touch your tools, and you keep your hands off the new stuff.”
This is actually Cat in disguise and she is here to give the Team a technical boost and supply backup when they need it. The biogen intended to try to make Victor a friend, but her antipathy towards him gets the better of her and she twists the knife a bit.
When they arrive at the workshops, Kane cleans out one bay for her and goes to drop an angry e-mail in Kyle’s NET box. When he comes out of the garage office, trucks are dropping off a complete state-of-the-art master weaponsmith workshop (+2) and a master mechanic tool set (+2). Sasha hands Victor an e-pad and asks him for his opinion on her improvements to the van’s repair plans. He tells her he will look at them later. Sasha shrugs her shoulders and starts making something in the weapons shop.
Colin Hughes calls Allison to invite her on a trip to northern Brazil. She, of course, accepts and sends Cat a message that she will be heading off with Colin. This brings a smile to the biogen’s face. Her call to Colin of Sunday has borne fruit. It appears that Allison has finally got her hooks into the Petrochem executive. Soon it will be time to reel him in and attempt to bring Petrochem into Disney’s political camp.
In the evening, Victor meets Melanie’s new roommate (and Disney employee) named Lara. The new girl has been hired as ‘cast’ at the Dream Park.
***
Wednesday, January 24, 2046:
Roca gets a call from Solon and the two agree to a meeting at a neutral place in Low Earth Orbit. The A.I. then flies to the Team’s workshops. Victor greets her, but she is not here to see him. Sasha presents her with two custom made 14mm ET handguns. Roca knows this is really her friend, Cat, but treats her as a newly hired stranger.
Sasha now joins Kane in the auto shop to work on the surveillance van. The runner had looked at her plans, which was merely an improvement of the originals. Sasha leaves him to do the mechanical work, while she concentrates on the electronics. Victor’s attitude softens and the two work together harmoniously. He realizes she is not there to replace him and she seems to know her job. By the time the two quit work that night, they are getting along well.
***
Thursday, January 25, 2046:
Bella gives Victor a call and asks him out to lunch. During the day, Kane and Sasha continue to work on the Team’s surveillance van. The runner’s previous antipathy towards the ‘temporary hire’ has melted away as the two work to finish the upgrades on the vehicle.
That evening Cat (as Sasha) gets a call from the Nietzschean netrunner monitoring Pedro’s gang HQ. “You’ve got to see this.”
The transmitted video shows a team in full stealth gear as they break in and plant surveillance devices at key locations within the structure. In addition, they leave behind two small assassin drones. Fortunately, none of the Team’s surveillance equipment is found or disturbed during this op. Cat believes they are probably from ORG. Regardless, Pedro has a big mouth and this could ruin their carefully laid plans. They will have to make another change in operation and move on George. The approaching destruction of the Favela Vila Parque da Cidade and its inevitably massive death toll has been weighing on the biogen’s mind. She can’t allow another massacre like the Favela do Vidigel to happen again.
Next: Episode 53: Kyle and Cat Start to Make Their Move