A Computer B/R (8) Test is required to crack the compiled code of the program johnson gave the team to run in the Dassurn's Liquidations SPU.
Successes Result
1 The program is a sophisticated money-transfer routine.
2 The program has a number of subroutines written into it for countering standard identification verification procedures, including retinal and cellular scans. It also appears to be a sophisticated, oneshot viral construct; use once and it's gone.
3 Once the program gets past the verification software, it "trans- forms" into a Revenue Service confiscation program that systematically seizes the assets of every account connected to the system.
4+ After it cleans out the accounts, the program routes the money to a specific SIN account at LTG # 5206 (19-1165).
Gamemaster's Note: It is beyond the scope and time constraints of this adventure to handle the upshot of this information. Should the characters wish to follow the trail, LTG # 5206 (19-1165) is a Tacoma bank. If a decker can reach the bank's customer account database-a dangerous undertaking he will learn that the SIN account designated in Johnson's program belongs to none other than Ehran the Scribe!
COUNTERSTROKE
The pollution hangs low over Seattle this twilight, the broken cloud cover scattering shards of orange and purple light. He gazes at the clouds, the light, the sky, for a moment, then dismisses the thought. Too many memories of other nights, other skies. He speaks without turning. She listens without moving.
"Again they plague me. Pawns moved by a hand I cannot plainly see. It is not to be borne, Ariel, nor shall I bear it longer. Chal'han is a game of many moves, and the time has come for mine."
Now he turns to her, his eyes harder than they have been in ages. She smiles. Ariel has memories of her own.
"Go to these tools of my enemy, Ariel. Learn what they know. Teach them fear."
INTRODUCTION
The elaborate protocols of chal'han discourage anything so crude as simply gunning down the shadowrunners who' ve been plaguing Ehran. Even pawns must have their chance to escape. But Ehran is fed up with being on the defensive and has decided to send a trusted agent to strike back. Ariel brings more than beauty and brains to the task. Who better to handle this delicate work than an extremely old Free Air Elemental, hmmm?
Ehran instructs Ariel to capture the shadowrunners. She is to cause them pain, learn what they know, and then release them, demonstrating Ehran's contempt for his opponent.
Ariel will do as Ehran has ordered. Indeed, she has no choice, for he knows her true name and has used it to bind her to obedience. Ariel cannot work directly against Ehran or seek to break his control over her. On the other hand, if she can cause the mortals to go after her master, perhaps let them find clues to his identity ... well, that is hardly her fault, is it? Service to a magician is galling to a Spirit that has tasted freedom.
Ariel will stalk the shadowrunners, preparing her trap. She has readied a safe, quiet place to hold them and hired some top street muscle to handle things. Once she's got the shadowrunners, everything will go according to plan. Well, one plan or another.
TELL IT TO THEM STRAIGHT
It's been a little slow lately, and so when Mr. Johnson shows up, waving his credstick around, you lend him an ear.
This is an easy one, he tells you. A simple extraction on a mid-grade manager who has some useful information. She's not even in a secure site. Mr. Johnson just wants some muscle to pick her up safely, possibly to brush off a few corporate followers who may be shadowing the target. He's paying ¥5,000 per runner, plus medical expenses, if needed.
If the shadowrunners take the job, read on:
The target is a Ms. Shirley Marquis, a small cog in Natural Vat Foods. She lives in a medium-security NatVat condo complex in the Auburn District of Seattle. The area contains heavily wooded parkland, perfect for a quiet extraction. Mr. Johnson gives you a map of the pickup zone: Grantleigh Park, where Marquis takes a walk every evening, about sunset. She has been told that someone will approach her with the identifying phrase, "We're from the Easter Bunny." You go, you pick her up, you take her to a drop-off spot. Easy money.
That's about it. He gives you a dossier chip on Shirley Marquis, with recent holos, her personnel profile from NatVat, some personal background, and so on. Mr. Johnson claims not to know the motive for the extraction. He has no "need to know. "
Read to players when they reach the park:
Quiet evening in salary-land. Street lights just coming on as the last rays of the sun fade, turning the trees into shadow shapes. You walk up the hedge-bordered path to the quiet plaza. A few people stroll through the mild evening. There, by the center bridge. Check the picture ... yep, that's Marquis.
She looks at you. Calm. Smiling. You get closer. Still the calm smile. No change of expression. This dame's a little too cool. You say quietly, "We're from the Easter Bunny." (Where do they get this I-spy drek, anyway?) Nothing. The light overhead catches her eyes at just the right angle to let you see her pupils. Huge. Shirley Marquis is drugged to the eyebrows. She's bait. You're hosed.
Read to the players when Ariel shows:
Oh cripes, one of those fraggin' patrol cars is barreling straight at you, with AKs blasting away from both front firing ports. You grab cover and listen to the music of the ricochets. Ziiiing! Piiing! Ka-BOOOOM!
Kaboom? You look up to see the flaming wreckage of the Patrol-1 sailing every whichaway. What the heck did that? The answer appears out of the night in the form of a lean, fast-looking van. Small-arms fire from the NatVat heat bounces off its sleekly armored sides as the van hops the curb and slews around on the grass so its rear is facing you and your team. The back doors pop open and a woman's voice sings out, "So, are you guys going my way or would you rather stick around and wait for your new friends to catch up with us?"
Read to the players when they get In the van:
The dark-haired knockout at the wheel says her name is Ariel Nasir. She could stand a few driving lessons, but since she got your butts out of that little mess, maybe you' ll forgive her a few bumps along the way. She pulls the van onto a side road. You glance out the windows. Nowhere. Boonies cubed.
She turns and lights up the place with a smile you'd like to admire for awhile, if only ... if ... eyelids getting heavy ... hey, where'd she go, she's ah, whassappen'nng. ..GAS!
BEHIND THE SCENES
This is an absolutely legitimate deal. Mr. Johnson does have a minor extraction tó arrange and has chosen the shadowrunners for valid reasons: either they are favorites of his and he wants to send some easy nuyen their way, or else he doesn't know their style yet and wants to see how they handle themselves on this kind of run. If there is a Mr. Johnson that the shadowrunners trust, at least a little, or perhaps a company with which they have had profitable dealings in the past, let the job offer come from one of those sources. Any legwork the team does will bear out what Mr. Johnson has told them.
Ariel has been maintaining tíght surveíllance on the runners from Astral Space, using clairvoyance as well as the best street snoops money can buy. She decides to use this run to trap them.
She establishes contact with NatVat security, using Ehran's extensive network of influence. She produces " evidence" for NatVat of a major raid being setup, one that starts when Marquis turns over the passcodes for the company computer network to a bunch of shadowrunners. The security director buys the story completely and plans a massive stopper on the Marquis extraction. The shadowrunners' "walk in the park" will turn into a deadly trap.
If the runners turn down the job, Ariel will back away. Any time the runners are on the losing end of a fight in the future, she can bail them out as described here. She will bide her time until then.