Session Start: Sat Jun 24 13:01:24 2006 (H-1) [Monday, April 4, 2039 - 0800 local time] [H-1 offices, in the H-2 building] Lord Fate handed the info for access to the zombied Harvest Wind PDA to the H-2 net investigations group before everyone headed home last night. You won't get much take from it until it walks back into the company network, but this morning should be very profitable. The DDS and an ancient-looking woman walk (and totter, respectively) into the main room, which is still unfurnished but does have a goodly amount of boxed-up computers and displays stacked on one wall now, at the top of the hour. [session start] * LadySnow is busily decorating the place with things she brought from home. On a table in the middle is a tray of freshly baked muffins for everyone. She showed up extra early to make sure she had plenty of time to get all this done. * PrincessRoyal bustles around, moving stuff from office to office. On her next pass through the main room, she stops and raises an eyebrow. "Why, hello." * Shihei-san is looking more or less chipper this morning. She has several folders tucked under one arm, all of them marked with multiple classification notice stickers. Royal-sama, how much of a budget do we have for decorations? I can pick some stuff up after work. Good morning, General. * LadyKiss is smiling, on the table next to the muffins is breakfast sweets apparently those two think the same. She's right now working on her index cards with the facts and the connections she sees between them. * OldWoman nods to Minami as well. She leans heavily on her cane. Shihei-san! Hello! *salutes* * PrincessRoyal eyes said folders with barely-disguised interest. She answers Snow over her shoulder. "I’ll look that up later." * PrincessRoyal gives a courteous nod/half-bow to the old woman. * LadyTwister looks relatively happy about things, even as she chews on a muffin and takes to the top of the main entranceway with a hammer and a smallish nail. "Morning, Shihei-san!" She then eyes the old woman as she works- --apparently she's putting up a good-luck horseshoe. I'll... uh. I'll make sure that Neko gets you some chairs today. Oh, good, I was about to put in an order. * Shihei-san sidles over to the long conference table and begins to spread out her folders. * PrincessRoyal parallels her. The weapons should be coming from the old team's HQ today as well. Hm. That would be nice. could I perhaps get a nice quality whip as well? * PrincessRoyal nods at Shihei...then turns to Kiss. "A what?" * LadySnow is busily plastering a wall in her older MG posters. The ones she had taken down in her own place to make room for the new ones. She's dressed in a light blue sweater with snowflakes on it and a knee length blue skirt with blue and white striped leggings underneath and her white sneakers. * OldWoman cackles. "I think the team can afford that." You can use a whip? Neat! * LadyTwister raises an eyebrow at the whip request, but shrugs it off and admires her work. "There. That's all the decorating I'm doing. Looks like Chi'll take my share." She looks over, then rolls her eyes. A nice quality whip. I need one for one of my abilities. I'm sorry, I should have introduced you first thing. Oh...kay. * LadySnow makes her way over to the old lady. "Hello, I'm Lady Snow! What's your name?" This is Kuniko Inoguchi - she's director of H-3. * PrincessRoyal shakes her head and looks back at Shihei and the old lady. How nice to meet you Ma'am. Ooh H-3! Would you like a muffin? Ah! * Lord_Fate walks in, almost metallic-white hair giving away that he's transformed. He's not in uniform, though; just wearing some black slacks with matching loafers and a button-down shirt that's open at the collar. He is, perhaps most notably, alone, as well as late. * LadySnow offers a muffin. It's blueberry! * PrincessRoyal nods and makes a lazy motion that might or might not be a salute. "A pleasure." * OldWoman bows. You think you can hear her spine popping, even though she barely leans forward. "Always good to scout out the competition, no?" Good morning, all. Sorry I'm late; I overslept. A pleasure to meet you Ms. Inoguchi - if I heard correctly as I was walking in. * LadyTwister moves over and offers her a deep bow. "Nice to meet you, ma'am!" She then swings by and snags another muffin. "Competition, ma'am?" My h--I've heard about you. You would have, General. I never get out in the field, but your office is just next door, and there was some interesting information... so. Nice digs. Thank you. We're still settling in, as you can see. And we are competitors, after a fashion. I have teams that do much the same thing as you, though there are only a few Ladies on them, and they mostly operate outside the city. * LadySnow continues offering a muffin and smiling brightly. * Inoguchi-san takes the muffin, breaks it in half, and nibbles on the smaller part. I do so hope we can change that relationship into a much friendlier and helpful one Ma'am. * Lord_Fate eyes the offered muffin, even if it's not being offered to him. By the way. Excellent muffins. What are we competing over? * PrincessRoyal grins more tightly. "I prefer to think of it as equals, working separately towards a common goal." Thank you Mari! * LadyTwister pats Ichigo on the head and ruffles her hair. "Now... do you *really* have to slap all your old posters everywhere?" * LadySnow offers a smile to the other girl before turning back to their visitors. There isn't too much stepping on each others' feet in Security. And let's make sure it stays that way, hmm? I'm just trying to make the place look nice. We'll go shopping after work is over. Well, just don't overdo it, 'kay? * PrincessRoyal 's grin becomes more natural. "Of course. No reason for it not to...right?" * Lord_Fate laughs, and takes the muffin. "Thanks, Chi. I skipped breakfast today," he says just before taking a bite. * Inoguchi-san grins too, though there's a certain edge behind it. "Right." So what can we do for you today? * LadyTwister notes the grin, and chuckles. "Well, a little healthy competition doesn't hurt, no? Keeps all sides sharp." * PrincessRoyal grins wider, a slight gleam in her eyes, and waits for either of the two to continue. * Inoguchi-san looks back at her boss. "You go first, I want to enjoy this muffin." * PrincessRoyal tones down the grin and raises an eyebrow, turning to Shihei. "So, what've we got? " We've got the final forensic reports on the scene at the garage, basically. ... excellent. Indeed. * LadyTwister gravitates to Shihei, looking most interested. ...unfortunately, there wasn't much that was not obvious to the naked eye. * Lord_Fate taps his monocle; it beeps on. * PrincessRoyal wrinkles her nose. That is quite a shame. However, even a little bit is better then nothing. What did you learn though? * LadyTwister pauses, then makes a face. "Then was wasn't obvious? There's got to be some kind of an angle here we didn't see with our own two eyes." * Shihei-san pulls out a 40-page report in a binder. "Of note is the lab report on the cannonball thingies. The uranium in them was not just U235, it was so pure, the radioactive decay products so thinly spread, that they had to have been literally created at the time of the attack." * PrincessRoyal nods neutrally. * Lord_Fate nods. "Is there an electronic version of that report?" ...not of this one. This is so incredibly provocative, so potentially disruptive on the world stage, that you didn't even hear me say it. So we have someone who can create pure uranium. Man, there's a problem in and of itself. So then it had to be a lady or something... Hear you say what, now, Ms. Shihei? * Lord_Fate winks. I saw you were looking into Lady Spear... there are some issues with that possibility, but we may, uh, arrange for her to be out of public circulation for a while. Move her reserves commitment for the year up or something. But it sounded like she was innocent... Given that it must have been created on-scene, and not reformed from a bar shape, we can largely rule her out. * LadyTwister hrms, wolfing down a mouthful of muffin. "Was there anything else of note, or just the uranium?" Did you manage to check that camera feed, Fate? But removing her from the stage can minimize certain other potential problems. Unless she's lying about what shapes she can make, that is. Definitely, she could not possibly have cut it fast enough for the pellets to be. Wouldn't her abilities have been evaluated from the start? Unless you think this goes back further. Sometimes you Ladies surprise us. She's still young enough that she might still have power growth, too. I did, Princess. It confirms she was in the club that evening, but it was more ambiguous than I would like. Since she claims to have been in line at the time in question, and there are no security cameras outside... ...mmm. I see. Do you know when she got inside? * Lord_Fate pulls up the recording of when she entered and puts it on the wall screen. "Note the timestamp. My bet is that she doesn't have the speed necessary to make it from one point to the other in the time required, but you can never be certain." Well, it shouldn't do too much harm to move her reserve up. Besides, everyone benefits from the reserve time. How much time would she have had? Some of us can move very fast. * Inoguchi-san wipes at her lips daintily with a napkin. "Someone will need to watch her bank accounts, too." Of course. Heh, money does indeed talk. If Wyrd is given adequate clearance, I can put it on that job. The Belgians are who we thought they were. The three locals... *opens three more folders* ...were all three from HWGC. Which we should be getting more details on very shortly. Did they have families? * LadyTwister finishes up, and snags a third. "Excellent---families, Chi? Thinking about doing some questioning?" They were, in no particular order, Masanori Dokite, Hiroyuki Ito, and Katsuyoshi Yatabe. Maybe. All three were field administrators with the security services arm of HWGC - It looks like Dokite was senior, though not in charge of their office. Interesting. Do we know who was in charge? Hm. Protection? Or the buyers. * PrincessRoyal watches, half-leaning half-sitting on the table, her weight not on it. They were "young guns" - twenty-somethings that hadn't started families yet. They would probably be out of the city a lot - we're reviewing the SDF's contracts and records to see if we've got any detail on them. But if you're going to tackle Harvest Wind today, start with the security side. * PrincessRoyal nods absently. Where were they from? Maybe they share a common background besides the company... Well, that leaves relatives if investigation's needed... Dokite and Ito were from here, Yatabe is from somewhere around Kyoto. * LadySnow nods. They'll have parents, but... who tells their parents about stuff like this? Nobody in their right mind. Sometimes parents see things. * Inoguchi-san chuckles. "It happens, sometimes..." Not too many people, but there's the chance. * LadyTwister nods. "Sometimes you need someone to confide in, and parents are great shoulders to cry on, if they like you." What about the PDAs that were taken? Were we able to trace them with the GPS thingy? Not a trace of them. Hmm... Why would they take them if they didn't want to access them at some point? It's easy enough to shield them. All they need is a special box to toss them in. What would be on them that they'd be interested in? And we... I should say, in our business, we have tools for fast disposal of small computer gear. They might have simply fed them into a crusher. If nothing else, they may have feared the PDAs would retain some record of what had happened. The PDA's might have captured images of who attacked them. Nothing like good old toy-breaking to hide evidence. There does another lead. * LadyTwister mutters something about 'dumpin' the varmint in the Rio Grande' in English, then snickers and shakes her head. * Lord_Fate snickers. * LadySnow smiles. Anyway... that's the gist of what - oh! Oh? * PrincessRoyal raises an eyebrow. The stupid naming committee finally coughed up your official cover designation. ...uh-oh. Do tell. *grin* Yay! What is it? So, what's our stupid name? You are officially H-2 Supportive Investigative Services. Call it H-2 SIS to save a few syllables. * PrincessRoyal snorts. "Well, it'll do." Neat! Do we get a logo? "Sis?" Well, we -are- their sister organization, I suppose. That's another committee... Ooh and badges. We can discuss that later, Snow. Ah well, it could've been worse. ...How many committees have nothing better to do than design names and logos? Okay. Eventually someone will leave a few hundred reams of letterhead in your garage. That'll probably be how you find out what your logo is. Maybe I can submit a logo for us... * PrincessRoyal snickers. Wyrd, start mapping hierarchy bureaucracy. This could be useful later. That's government for you. Someone's got to do the boring jobs. You sure you want it to waste that much processing power? I have a table I've been working on at home if you want to look at it. Anyway, Inoguchi-san has something for you, too. Yes, yes! Do tell. Yay! * Lord_Fate grins at Royal. "I've got a couple of slave computers that handle the grunt work; Wyrd just oversees them." A British team knocked over the lab that was the source of the biologicals. And thanks, Chi, that'd be helpful. Oh, did they? * PrincessRoyal straightens up. "Now that is interesting. What'd they find?" * LadyKiss looks over at the twins. Ooooh, really now! Let's hear what they dug up. Neat! * Lord_Fate pops open a can of - wait, is that caffeine-free? - coke, and starts sipping. It was a hole in the wall, just a couple of coders with some mid-tier recombining setups. The two guys are dead in the raid, but their notes were that this was a targeted virus. Targeted at who? * Lord_Fate sips again, watching Inoguchi unblinkingly as he waits for her to go on. * PrincessRoyal frowns. "At a guess, MGs." * LadyKiss sounds frightened and disgusted. "Against magical girls?" They didn't know, they just had a cell sample, which has since been disposed. The virus itself was merely the current influenza, modded for specificity and increased virulence. Probably not enough to kill a healthy adult, but... Ah. Hmm. * Lord_Fate shakes his head. "Cell samples wouldn't work for magical girls." I doubt we're genetically identifiable as our untransformed counterparts. I thought viruses didn't work on us... Perhaps strong enough to make that certain group stand out? And... yeah, we'd shove off the flu in... what, hours? If even that? Here's the cute bit - they were told to tell the delivery boys that it was a sample of bacteria used in fermentation. Hah. ... oh, poor guys. * LadySnow blinks. "What does that mean?" So our Belgians thought it was a new beer formula? * PrincessRoyal snorts. "Cute, indeed." Something like that. Flu beer? * LadyKiss thins her lips out into a slight frown. "So we know nothing about it then." * Lord_Fate starts pacing. "So. What else could it target? There is some correlation of magic through bloodlines, given the children of MGs' tendencies. But that still seems risky; it might spread to normal human children. Your idea that it is just being used as a marker might have some merit, but most mothers are known already as MGs by the time they have kids." What if it was geared to target the Ningyo? Now, I haven't been doing this intel thing my entire life - once upon a time I was a Japanese cabinet minister of something definitely non- sneaky. And even then, I could have told you that this was some sort of sneaky play to fuck someone over real good. ... but why? We're done with that little scuffle, unless someone else isn't. If they could pin it on you, that might start the scuffle anew. So they wanted to put the flu in beer? I can't tell you who, or how, or why it went so bad. But someone's messing around in our city, and I don't like it. That may just have been a cover. But why would they tell them it was that if they didn't want them to do that? * PrincessRoyal nods at Inoguchi-san. "Something definitely stinks to high hell about all of this." They were just couriers, Snow. Maybe they were going to spike Lady Beer beer! It's certainly interesting to be approaching this from the other side, for once. And the delivery boys may have just needed a cover story. Who knows what their targets thought they knew. They had no idea... but this raises a question. Yes? This doesn't make any sense at all. * LadyTwister pauses, raising a finger. "If the Belgians didn't know what they were handing over... then why were they attacked by someone that wasn't us?" If they had a cover story then why smuggle it? Exactly. More over, what did they think they were getting for it. We had an idea, but we would've just tried to arrest and maybe smack them around a bit, not kill them outright. There are export controls on beer technology in Belgium. ... huh, really? So then the Belgiums didn't know but the HWGC guys did? It's possible, Chi. How are they connected to this lab in England? ...yes, that sounds weird, but it's the only thing they do well. Also, we don't like experimental biologicals coming into the city, for obvious reasons. And now we've no idea where they've gone. * Inoguchi-san snerks. "Did I say the lab was in England?" You said that the English guys did it... Where was it? It was a British raid, Snow, not necessarily a raid in Britain. * Lord_Fate nods. It was in Belgium. But the Brits play nice with us, while the EU is... merely non-hostile. Mm. So do we know anything else about this? Like maybe what team did it? ... I have this really nagging thought, though. What if whoever did the hit was just trying to eliminate the virus, and the MGs just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time? And if that's the case.... mn. * Lord_Fate mutters, in English, "^The EU being non-hostile is like the French running and pissing themselves. But I repeat myself.^" * LadySnow nods at Mari. "That's what I said." If that's the case, why slay the MGs? They were clearly a superiorly prepared force; they could have smashed and been gone. Maybe they just picked a bad time to drop in. Or it was to get us looking in the wrong directions. H-1 could've been close to finding them without even realizing it. * LadySnow shrugs. Sometimes you just don't want any evidence left behind. All possibilities. That -is- true. Eliminating witnesses is a good way to be certain of that. * LadyTwister sighs heavily, flicking at the brim of her hat. "But we just need more viewpoints on this, and that's going to take some doing." I think you're on the right track. See if you can follow the transaction chain. * LadySnow nods. Mmm. Who were the HWGC guys going to pass it along to? Who asked them to do it? That's as much as you can do. Is there anything you guys can tell us about Princess Flare? I've been working at it. We're waiting for our window into HWGC to fully open, then we might get even more of a paper trail. Princess who? Princess Flare. She's dead, isn't she? I made that search already, Snow. She was the only other Lady besides Spear that came up as a power match for the attack. * LadyKiss frowns more. "This...is disturbing." She's getting her arcology, I think. Well you know, is it possible that she's not dead? No dice on the details of her death. I put in a request to see Her Majesty, but it seems she's out of town. * Inoguchi-san looks at her watch. "She should be addressing the UN... uh. Should have addressed the general council three hours ago." There's always someone you think is dead but then it turns out they were not dead and were behind it the whole time. * LadyTwister purses her lips. "Regarding, Inoguchi-san?" * Lord_Fate snickers at Snow's statement. She's been quietly nominated to fill the Secretary-General slot. She's still figuring out if she wants to accept, but this was sort of a trial balloon. She's talking about expanding T-E's peacekeeping activities further. .... oh, wow. But then who is supposed to run T-E? That is a great honor. Oh, my. That's the issue, isn't it? * LadyTwister blinks at that. "Just.... just wow. That says a lot right there. Gee, I wonder what they think back home." Can't they have a duchess do it instead? I don't want her to leave us... It's problematic on both symbolic and practical levels. And Her Majesty is the one with the international prestige. Indeed. How'd she come by that, anyway? All the terraforming and peacekeeping projects. And because she's awesome. It seems to be the African nations' idea. We've saved their asses often enough, and the greens all LOVE her, so... Well, it sounds like she'd do better to respectfully refuse, but that's still quite an honor. She does do many good will things. I believe it would be the first time a sitting ruler was nominated for the post. * PrincessRoyal leans back. "Mm." But that is not our concern. Not the first. There was this thing with Putin back in 2009, and the rules got changed. Hm. True, I'd forgotten that one. ... meh, Putin. For a kinder, gentler Mother Russia. * LadyTwister rolls her eyes. My modern history prof. would kill me. *smirks* Who? * PrincessRoyal snorts and mutters something in Russian under her breath. Better not to remember him. President of Russia in the early part of the century. Little better than a dictator by the end of his reign, but also had trouble running his own nation. * Lord_Fate quotes in a highly pedantic and expert fashion, his British accent becoming more pronounced. And he was supposed to run the UN? Every Russian leader since Stalin's had trouble running the nation. It's a characteristic of the people. He had his merits. But while China was melting down and we has our own problems and no one wanted US or EU leadership, he made a run at the position. * LadyKiss just nods following this discussion, going quiet as she takes notes. Did he win? It didn't work out, and we got some guy from Ecuador instead. Thank goodness. Thank goodness for small favors, hm? Definitely. * LadySnow nods. Well at least the weather is nice in Russia. Still there's something disturbing about someone who calls herself the "Queen of the Earth" running the UN. I predict it won't happen. Again. * PrincessRoyal blinks, then nods. "Yes, you'd like it there." Indeed. ... I need some coffee. We do have a coffee machine here, yes? I don't know as it's been hooked up yet, but we can look. Things played out as they had to. We're still seeing the repercussions reverberate off of parts of the fabric of history that nobody would have predicted. If we don't, we can make a coffee run. There is NO! coffee machine in the office. There was one in a box in the break room I think. Anyway, we need to get going. * PrincessRoyal nods. I have some soda, if that will work, Mari. A coffee run sounds lovely. And it's so nice to meet you Ma'am. I can go get coffee for everyone. There's a place around the corner that has a nice iced coffee. Take care Shihei-san, Inoguchi-san. Won't that burn you, Chi? I'm not going to touch it! See ya, Ms. Shihei and Ms. Inoguchi. Good to meet all of you, too. You all remind me of my granddaughter. But then I say that to all young Ladies, don't I? Thank you for the information. We look forward to hearing from you again. You sure you don't want to stay for some coffee, Shihei-san, ma'am? Chi, dear... drink coffee normally for once... or at least warm. * Inoguchi-san cackles as she walks out into the garage. * PrincessRoyal nods to both of them, a glint in her eye at the nod to Inoguchi-san. Iced coffee is still coffee! * LadySnow stands and grabs a pad of paper. "So who wants coffee?" I'd love one. If you can get a mocha for me? * PrincessRoyal waves a hand. "I had mine at home this morning, thanks all the same." Coffee. You want something else, your highness, ma'am? I could pick you up whatever... * PrincessRoyal shakes her head. "I'm fine." Maybe a biscotti? No, thank you. Alright... There's plenty of food here already. * PrincessRoyal nods at the muffins and breakfast sweets from Snow and Kiss. None for me, either, thanks. I don't like coffee. Did you like the muffins? I thought about making a full breakfast for everyone but that'd be hard to carry plus I didn't know if you'd have already eaten or not... I guess I could've called you and asked. Chi, never change. * PrincessRoyal unhitches from the table and walks over to where Shihei was. She picks up the folders and flips through them. "That's fine, Snow, don't worry about it," she replies absently. I don't plan to! * LadyKiss smiles. "It was very thoughtful what you did Chi." * LadyTwister does pause, though. "... maybe a tiny little kitchenette." Thank you. I'll be back in a bit then with coffees. * LadySnow heads out to the corner coffee shop! Yay! * PrincessRoyal hmms and ahhs at interesting points. One thing she notices is that the three HWGC guys' boss is one Kouichi Mashima, whose main office is at the company headquarters in Tokyo. I appreciated the muffins, thanks. * LadyKiss shakes her head. "This is worrying news." Worrying news seems to have been a part of the job no one told us much about. * LadySnow makes sure to find Neko on the way out and request a coffee maker for the office. You'll get used to it. *eyes the muffin tray to see if one magically got spared* * PrincessRoyal marks that. "...Mashima, eh?" Hm? Are you noticing something Ma'am? The boss of our three unfortunate acquaintances at HWGC is Kouichi Mashima. He works at their HQ here. The three men have business degrees, but their jobs seem to be more about assembling effective security and combat teams anywhere in the world. Shouldn't he have put in a report then if three of his men went missing? * Lord_Fate smiles. "Yes." ...huh. Now why would...shipping company, right, but still... What is it? * PrincessRoyal looks up. "Apparently those three seem to have been very much security people--to the point where their job seemed to be putting together security and combat teams worldwide. " * PrincessRoyal glances at Fate and Destiny. "You wouldn't know anything of them from your...contact circles, would you?" Transporting things that you don't want people stealing? People with money and weapons and lacking morals? Possibly, possibly. * PrincessRoyal reads on. I have not run into these men, personally, no. There's not a lot more - they paid their taxes on time (they all were making at least 5M EYen a year), they had the usual spattering of traffic violations, Yatabe was once arrested for threatening a former girlfriend, but it didn't go to trial. I'll check my files, but these three didn't ring any bells, no. I can put out a few feelers, too. But it looks like they did the sort of thing we were hired to do, or to penetrate. * PrincessRoyal mms, still reading. "They may have gone under other names, though I doubt it for normal use--definitely, depending on how mixed up they were in all this, though." Thus, some one to investigate. Indeed, which is why I ask. * LadyTwister isn't too far from Royal, glancing at the files now and then. "I imagine they may have known more than the Belgians, at least." Mm. This looks like mostly a "company operation", as some of my coworkers have dubbed them. They hire for long-term operations, and Destiny and I specialized in more...immediate activities. * PrincessRoyal looks up at Fate. "We have their licenses here--can you scan them into your system and do some sort of photo/description search?" I see. They do supposedly pay well and on time. --sure. * Lord_Fate holds out his hand for the licenses - or copies thereof. * PrincessRoyal hands them to him. * LadySnow wander back in after a time, sipping an iced coffee and carrying a tray coffees and a bag with various goodies from the coffee shop. Hi guys! Fate's PDA pings loudly, its phone-call ring startling everyone. * Lord_Fate utters a nonsense command the astute might recognize as something he says whenever he wants a scan made as he looks over the three licenses. * LadyTwister does indeed startle, and looks Fate's way. "Gyeh." Here's your coffees and I got some snacks if anyone is still hungry or maybe gets hungry later before we have time to get some lunch. * LadyKiss jumps. "Sir Fate, that is very loud." * LadySnow sets stuff down and passes out coffees to those that requested one. * Lord_Fate winces, and snaps, "Answer, voice mode only. Who is it?" * LadyTwister shakes her head and coffees up. Five sugars, no cream. "Thanks, Chi." It's not supposed to be, sorry. *aside to Kiss* Lord Fate, this is H-2 technical investigations. You wanted to be notified when that PDA walked into its home network? Ah, excellent, thank you. Have you triggered it yet, or do I get the pleasure? * PrincessRoyal starts looking interested. If you'd like to come down and direct things a little, we might be able to focus in on what you want faster. * Lord_Fate looks to Royal for permission, having switched the audio to speaker mode when he realized who it was. Ooh did the thingy do the stuff? * PrincessRoyal taps her chin and nods. I think the 'thingy' did the 'stuff', yes. I'll be right down. Keen! See you in a bit. *taps a button to hang up* * PrincessRoyal waits for Fate to shut it off. "Bring someone with you and, ah..." she digs out her own PDA, "if you could get a feed into this for me? I can give you further requests once you get down there." ...Kari must have upped the volume on the ringer to make sure it woke me. Don't have too much fun, Fate. Sure thing, ma'am. *looks around at the assembled girls* It certainly woke every one up. I didn't mind it... Kasumi, if you wouldn't mind? *opens the door and gestures for her to accompany him* You didn't have it in your ear when it happened, Chi. *winks, probably joking* Yeah I suppose not. *smiles* * PrincessRoyal looks around. "Twister, would you mind going as well? You've got a forensic mind." Hm. Sure, I'm good. * Lord_Fate pauses in the doorway, steps the rest of the way out, and holds it open with his foot. "Come on, Mary." * LadyTwister scoots on along, half-finished coffee in hand. "Don't scare the boss too much, Chi!" I'm not scary! * LadySnow looks up at Royal. "Am I?" * PrincessRoyal smiles. "Of course not." * LadySnow looks back. "See?" * Lord_Fate says a bit of gibberish. "Okay. The hookup working, ma'am?" he asks as he walks. * LadyKiss smiles a bit and starts to look over her notes again. Yes, I hear you. * Ozawa sticks his head out from the support office door, the unattached barrel of a rifle dangling from one hand. "Why don't you go brace the company guys now? Shake the tree a little, get boots through their doors." Good. Wyrd'll wire it to any other connections you want, just ask it. Ha! I like the way he thinks! A little shake-up never hurt anything much, after all. I would be happy to put my delicate high heals through their doors. Ooh I can go talk to them if you like. I'm good with adults. * PrincessRoyal looks around and counts heads. It's not hard. "...true. Although..." * PrincessRoyal looks up the directions on her PDA. "It's not too far if using the line." If this is the guys I'm remembering from my SDF days, Your Highness would be the perfect person to walk in there under disguised pretenses. Or undisguised pretenses, if you prefer. But that's just my two yen. You want Weaver to go with you? He can smuggle something small out, if needs be. * PrincessRoyal turns to Ozawa. "Oh? Why's that/" * Ozawa calls over his shoulder as he ambles back into the armory, "But hell, I'm just an old soldier. This police-y stuff is new to me." Prolly cause the Hierarchy is their main source of income. We can be all like tell us what we want or you don't get anymore money you bad people. * Ozawa turns around and blinks. "You're, what, the number three or so person in their biggest contractor? You think they wouldn't talk to you?" * LadySnow shakes her fist mockingly. That's true, of course. It depends on just how flashy we want to be about these things. * LadySnow nods at Ozawa. A good point, nevertheless. Thank you. We can say we believe that these three may have been connected to a crime we're investigating. * PrincessRoyal inclines her head. We don't have to tell them why just ask what they know about what they were doing. * PrincessRoyal turns back. "First, we need to figure out which questions we want to ask." Chi and Kiss would make excellent assistants. They both look ripe for grooming to take up administrative tasks in your area, ma'am. I think a more diplomatic approach might get more information. Then we can see whether it'd be better to be subtle about this...or not." Snow? Military? Is that when we start seeing the pink-tinted pixelcamo? * LadyTwister grins a little. Yes Ma'am They have pink camo?! She's young and eager. A good counterpoint to Kiss's smooth professionalism. Focus, please. Sorry. Well we want to know whether or not they were there on company business I think. And, if nothing else, they're both attractive young women who can distract the man if he is at all the type to be distracted. * PrincessRoyal rolls her eyes a bit. "Thank you for your input, Fate, but right now we need to figure out exactly what we're going to ask. We don't want to get our wires crossed on this one." * LadySnow blushes a bit. Well it'd probably be better if you did all the talking, ma'am. * LadyKiss smiles a bit. "I would love to distract them." Use what works, huh? I know, but I want to hear what you want to know from them. Besides, you might think of something I might miss. So let's hear it. Of course, I think investigating what those three were working on lately might be a good idea. Um... we should ask how long they've been working with the company. As for questions... how direct do you want to be? Even, if what we get is a lie it would be a useful lie to have. Maybe if they all came in together. Next, look into projects they are currently doing in the city and the details as they say them. * PrincessRoyal nods encouragingly. "And how would we justify this interest in those three?" What their boss guy... what was his name? What he was doing while they were getting killed. Like I said we're conducting an investigation. Because we're the H-2 SIS people. They -are- dead, and their bodies identified. * LadyKiss smiles a bit. "That all depends on how soon the information that they are dead goes out." We shouldn't tell them they're dead. We should see if they know they're dead first. Justification... hm. Saying that we're 'conducting an investigation' might make people nervous, but it might also be our best cover for this so I suppose should go with it. They're not going to question our motive. We're Ladies! You're precious, Chi. *his smile is almost audible* If we want to keep it secret, they impressed Snow and I so much that we as your trusted assistants wanted you to get more involved with the company in a financial manner. Of course, you would have to personally go talk to them. If they act like they have something to hide then obviously they've done something they don't want the Hierarchy knowing about. And perhaps, get a phone number or three we forgot to get. Those three were in charge of setting up security operations out- of-country, right? * PrincessRoyal smiles. "Now, all of this is stuff we would have to, as Snow said, do under the cover of another motive. Which might make things a little more difficult as far as getting the answers goes." We don't have to tell them what we're investigating. Worldwide, so the files say. Perhaps the military needs some corporate security tactical advice for an upcoming peacekeeping project, and you just happen to need some people with exactly these three's specialties. That would like break the H-2 code or something. Don't mention them at all; see if he looks into them after you outline a task he should naturally assign to them. Well, the trick there... is to let them give you the answers without knowing. So be kinda roundabout and sneaky in asking. If he doesn't, bring them up as who you heard were the go-to men of his organization. Snow, my point was that in my position with the SDF, I'd have no need to come along on an investigation, and they may be slightly more inclined to give the runaround to the police. I'm sure he has more than one group of people who do what they do. An interesting idea, Fate. Well you have a new position now. I don't see why we need to tell them a bunch of lies. Which wouldn't entitle me to receiving as much enthusiasm on their part. Don't reveal how much you know, but pave the way for him to lie himself into a corner as you reveal you know more and more. Innocently, of course. You suspect nothing, but are becoming suspicious as he changes his story. But then you're assuming he's guilty and if he's not then you're just forcing him into a corner that doesn't exist and then we don't prove anything. * PrincessRoyal sighs. "Snow, as you continue on in this business, you will grow to appreciate the value of a good..." she grins almost wolfishly "Bluff." These men were under his command and, unlike Spear, we have *definitive* evidence that they were at the scene. We should just go there and ask for the information we want because it's important to us to know. If they don't have anything to hide they won't try and hide anything. Either they were acting independently, or they weren't. If he -is- innocent, it will likely become relatively clear. Experienced...bluffers...often try to maintain their story long after an innocent man would have thrown up his hands and admitted utter bafflement. Indeed. Chi? What if he -does- have something to hide? Which is most likely the case. Then we'll know he's hiding something and we can get the Palace on him for keeping stuff from us. By then he may have destroyed all the evidence. * PrincessRoyal shakes her head. "The direct approach isn't always the best approach." Though it -is- my favorite. If they were going to destroy it then they already would have. Pity Kari's busy on some other business; she'd love to be going with you to this, ma'am. Sadly, that isn't how it usually works. * PrincessRoyal shakes her head again. "Twister? Sorry to switch you around like this, but can you come back up with us?" ... uh, okay. Again, my apologies. However, if we're really going in, I'd like to have more than just two of you around. * LadyTwister pats Fate on the shoulder, then turns back around and proceeds to rejoin. "Right." Heh. You don't actually expect this to turn violent, do you? So then how do you want to do it, your highness, ma'am? * LadyKiss nods. "I just hope that such a large number doesn't frighten them." Not at all. But I want more eyes. And ears. * PrincessRoyal scratches her chin. "Somewhat more directly, I feel." Just a second. In that case... Weaver, go with Twister. * PrincessRoyal ducks into her office and comes back out with something in her hand. * LadySnow looks to see what she got. What's that? * LadyTwister is promptly back with Royal and company, having broken into a jog to hurry up. "You know... after this, there's---eh? Sending me your pet, Fate?" * Weaver vanishes from Fate's wrist and appears on Twister's shoulder. "Sorry for the rude approach, miss." My insignia. * LadyKiss looks up at Princess Royal. Ooh can I see? * LadySnow moves to get a closer look. * PrincessRoyal gives Snow a weird look. "I'm pinning them on at the moment." * PrincessRoyal is, indeed, pinning them on. She's not in uniform, but it gives an appropriately military air to her outfit, which is already rather businesslike. If you need to vanish in a French minute, Weaver can 'port you one at a time. Only a short distance, though. I doubt that'll be necessary, but thanks for the tip-off. Ooh neat. It's alright, really... It reminds me, once we have more time, I need to set up some sort of show and tell session for you all. So we can all see what everyone else can do. I'm sure we will be ok. * LadyTwister eyes the insignia, while idly petting Weaver at the same time. "That would be nice, yeah... oooh." That sounds super fun! That would be nice, Ma'am. Well. Let's go, then. Yes, ma'am! Yes Ma'am. I shall follow your lead. * LadySnow grabs her purse and her iced coffee and deposits the leftover food in their fridge. * Ozawa puts on a nondescript jacket over his gun-oil-spattered bench clothes and goes out to start the bus. * LadyKiss gets up grabbing her small purse and following. "Well and we are doing direct so I shall cut the nice act?" You guys need to tell me if there are any special weapons you want. We have the H-2 issue 11mm's, of course, and some subguns, but it's all stock agency stuff. For this one, I don't think we need much. Though Kiss was saying something about a whip. Did my armor ever come back from the cleaners? I wore it to the radiated site in case there were any unforeseen hostilities. Ready to roll. And... just a good rifle for me. I wouldn't mind one but that's only if you want intimidation. Also, I wouldn't mind a good submachine gun and a rifle. But obviously no rush. I'm good with using whatever. You don't need to get anything special for me. A good hand gun would be just fine right now, unless we really are going in hard. We're not gonna shoot anyone there are we? Not yet. We have pistols in the locker in the back. Kari wants me to tell you she charges double for unscheduled assassinations. *he sounds like he's joking* Your Palace ID's should open it. * LadySnow giggles at the obvious joke. Thank you. * LadyKiss bows a bit and heads that way to get one. * PrincessRoyal nods. "Good." The garage door opens, and the bus rumbles out into the streets. I don't think we should walk in there with guns... Well... seriously. One day... probably when we have the show-and- tell, we need to sit down, have a big dinner, and just make nice with one another. Do H-2 people usually carry guns? * PrincessRoyal gives Snow an incredulous look. Ooh I could make us a nice dinner. * LadyTwister leans back in her seat. "Need to go from allies to friends, and food's the great divide-crosser. Even if it's in such small portions here." Meanwhile, the H-2 computer guys are finished setting up. There are a half-dozen of them on two tiers in a small theater office, with large screens on the front and side walls. My place isn't too big. But we could probably fit everyone in there though... Good morning, gents. I'm Lord Fate, and this is my associate, Lady Bob-Omb. *walks in like he owns the place, grinning and waving jovially* Sir, ma'am, we've got ten workstations controlled now - it doesn't look like anyone suspects yet, though the harder we push the sooner they will notice. Don't push too hard. The smoother and more quietly we infiltrate, the better. We're not under a pressing rush at this time. Is there something in particular we're looking for? There's so much data here that we can't just copy the whole network out. Pity, but understandable. We're looking for projects and transactions about biologicals. If you find anything about fermenting bacteria, that may be what we're looking for. See if you can get any information about what these three were working on for the last couple of months, too. *sends the images of the licenses belonging to the dead trio to the H-2 techies' consoles* Mentions of "Belgians" would be wise, too. Right. Anything within the timeframe of the incident near Ningyo City would be helpful, too. * LadyBobOmb skims through the old H-1 case files, looking for their estimated timeframes that the whole Belgian thing started. * Tech calls up a balance sheet on the main screen. "Ningyo? This is their internal project balance sheet. They have two projects listed here under Ningyo. ...and some things for the EU, but not Belgium specifically. Also scan for anything related to Lady Spear or Princess Flare. * Lord_Fate raises an eyebrow to that but says nothing. What have they got on the Ningyo projects? Several techs are typing madly, now, working on each thing suggested. Do those three have any connection to them? I would be worried if there's anything that specific relating to those magical girls. Though it might be an idea to check into anything worrisome regarding magical girls in general. Both Ningyo projects are in the security services division. One seems to be bodyguard cadre for the Ningyo embassies in London, Johannesburg, Sao Paulo, and Sydney. The other is... not described in the general ledger, and has a negative balance to date. The project manager is a Kouichi Mashima. Can you find anything more informative regarding that one? That's probably the one we want. See if you can find more details on it. Names of contacts, purchases made, and especially out-of-company subcontracting. Hm. Did you get that, Ma'am? Kouichi Mashima? * LadySnow makes a note of it in her PDA. Yeah. You guys are doing good. It's all the techs down here. *in an electronic voice, so probably a translation of non-Japanese:* We should send them a gift basket when we're done. That's not in the general systems. We'll have to go into the security services computers... * LadyBobOmb checks something, then says, "The project manager is the same as the boss of those three." As I thought. That's not surprising. Can you do that with the zombie? If not, we can attempt to get a stronger worms in, in just a few minutes. Ma'am, would you be up for uploading something if needs be? We can try! Yeah. * LadyBobOmb looks back up to the techs. "Any information you can gather on Kouichi Mashima would be helpful, as well." We're already in multiple systems there. It's just a matter of finding an application they're all using on the server... Just give us a second. Take all the time you need. Just be careful. Usually we don't do things this way - this is more like what the guys next door do. But on occasion we've had a warrant worded to allow covert electronic search. How high up in the company is this Mashima guy anyway? * LadySnow idly checks to see what she can pull up on him on her PDA. He's... well, he's the effective boss of SecServ. There's a veep above him, but the VP positions seem to be headquarters interface roles at this company. Mashima has about eight hundred employees under him, and a much larger number of contractors. * LadySnow nods. "So he could have all sorts of secret projects going if he wanted..." A woman in the front row makes a satisfied grunt, and the front screen changes. * Lord_Fate looks. Ah, we're in the SecServ file server... and there's his home directory. Impressive. * LadyBobOmb looks! Good work! While you're in there, see if you can put in a secondary back door, in case we need access again and the zombie route we're using now is closed. ...of course, you've probably already done that. * Tech works on his keyboard, and comes up with the division record of the second Ningyo project. "Looks like this was more of a prospective project - rent-a-cops for the tourist sections of Ningyo City. The NC chamber of commerce contacted them, and they spent some money to try to sell a long term contract... but it's still pending." Hm. * LadyBobOmb glances at Fate for a moment. "Interesting." Well at least there's a strong connection. Something smells off about this to me. I told you, we've got a dozen systems already. We do need to get one in SecServ, though... How much do they usually spend on contracts, and does it match up with the ledger? Right, sorry for telling you how to do your jobs. I'm used to working with just an EI. At a glance, it matches up with sales expenses on other projects. What's the timeframe on it? Initial contact was two months ago, a quote was presented three weeks ago. No meaningful follow-up in the last week. * LadyBobOmb nods. "Put a bookmark on that, to forward any updates to SIS's PDAs." A back-row guy puts something on the side wall. * LadyBobOmb resumes looking through the contents of the SecServ server up on the screen. Oh, yuck. Mashima has a couple of folders encrypted by the file system. We can crack it, but it may take an hour or twelve if we have to brute-force the password. Any other problems besides time? It would be nice to know if possible. Can you copy them off to take apart later? No, it's a sure thing. It's not big, we can copy it out and work on it offline. * LadyBobOmb nods. "Put that in the queue. Focus on those after all the immediate questions are taken care of, if it's going to take a significant amount of time." You know, if I was a paranoid under the table type person I would put encrypted lock viruses on my computer... We've got it crunching on a server. It'll notify us when it's ready. I'm sure they're prepared for that sort of thing. Okay, was there anything else we need to dig up? It will take a little while to complete all these searches. that was just me thinking out loud, Ma'am. Look for any mentions of pure uranium. * LadyBobOmb nods. "I'm not sure if this is important, but also look for any mention of specific MGs, or dealings or contracts with. Go by title, and real name." * LadyBobOmb nods. "And exotic metals." Ugh. MG's will generate a lot of hits. Data triage will take some time. * LadyBobOmb nods. "No hurry." * Tech bends over his keyboard and starts pounding away. We're almost there, Ladies. Yay. * LadySnow looks down. Should we be wearing suits? * PrincessRoyal eyes Snow. "*Do* you have anything m ore official-looking?" * PrincessRoyal looks at Twister and Kiss. At my apartment... Not on me Ma'am. I'll make sure to bring in a change with me. Right, right... hm. ...do we need to detour? * PrincessRoyal sighs. "Probably...not." If nothing else, Twister looks fine, albeit the hat may be too much. * PrincessRoyal just shakes her head at Snow. * LadyTwister actually looks somewhat uneasy about the idea of wearing something other than jeans and button-up shirt. "Well, we didn't quite expect this... hey. I like my hat." What? I got this sweater on sale. * LadyKiss smiles looking at least fashionable if nothing else. * PrincessRoyal shrugs. You can get winter clothes for really cheap once spring starts. I usually hit all the sales. In the future, I need to remind you all to keep some clothes at the a--our offices. Nothing too special, just a casual set and a business- y set. Just in case, you know. * LadySnow nods. "Yes, ma'am." Yes Ma'am. If possible I'll keep a closet of clothes. And sneaking clothes too! * LadyKiss smoothes her hands down her little red dress. No, not a closet. Nothing quite so dramatic. Well we do have that locker room. There is a sizable locker room, ma'am. Way more lockers than you need. I just don't want you all getting fussed up about something stupid like clothing. Well it's always so hard to pick out what to wear. Clothing isn't stupid! Indeed. So if you have fewer choices, you won't have to think so hard. I usually plan out my outfits before I go to bed. * Ozawa pulls up to the curb in front of HWGC's headquarters. Ah. I shall bow to your reasoning. * Ozawa is trying hard not to smirk. * Lord_Fate chuckles over the datalink. Bah, I wake up knowing what I want to wear. Pre-sleep prep is for... people like Chi. * PrincessRoyal sighs and shakes her head. Well mornings I need time to prepare breakfast and do my hair and make up too... That's why I get up extra early. And make sure the makeup matches the outfit and the outfit didn't change color over night... And here I just sort of threw this on this morning after I-- showered. * PrincessRoyal looks out the window and says, half to herself, "Why do they seem so much younger this time around?" [end session] Session Close: Sat Jun 24 16:58:47 2006