Job 1: Into the Black (IC)

As the group moves into the garage, Roz notes a few drops of fresh blood on the pavement leading to behind a support column. The acrid smell of the smog here gives way to a new scent, that of gunsmoke.

As Roz noticed the drops of fresh blood on the concrete, she paused momentarily, eyebrows raised and thinking rapidly. The smell of gun smoke here at his girlfriends place could be no coincidence. The only question was whether this was a victim or Yuri himself. And regardless, was this person liable to just shoot if they were surprised? Might try and be as forward facing as possible. Reaching out she tapped Ian on the shoulder and indicated the blood and then the pillar. She then pointed at herself and at the pillar again, and then at him and slightly to the right. Hopefully he would get the message to give her some cover. She wasn't quite sure how good he'd be at this, it was all of their first assignments together after all. Just as long as she didn't get caught up in the Big Bang.

Looking back at the rest of the group, she caught Zhen's eyes and nodded her head towards the pillar. That was backup sorted anyway. Now it was time for her to actually act. She took a breath. It seemed impossible that no-one else could hear her heart right now. Her ears felt stuffed with the sound of it. Every part of her body seemed to be quivering. Technically she knew this was just an effect of the adrenaline currently being pumped through her, the organism preparing for fight or flight. She was going to look like such an idiot if there was just a puppy behind that pillar. Bad-ass puppy packing heat. Buried God below, at least no one could hear her thoughts.

Stepping forward both slowly and with obvious noise towards the pillar, she spoke up making her voice sound as friendly as she could.
"Hi, is everything all right back there? It looks like you've been bleeding. I'm a part time medic, not on the books here but I could patch you up in the meantime?"

Ian's PMC instincts kick in and he holds his pistol in his jacket while his arm is out of his sleeve and down his side. His breathing gets heavier and his perception of the world seems to slow for a moment as Roz steps forward to try and calm the stranger.

"steady, Ian.", he thinks to himself silently "No blasting today."

As the taxi pulls to a stop, Zhen speaks up: "Driver, wait for us. We shouldn't be long, and we will need your services again soon.".

Zhen steps out of the taxi, scanning the empty street and vacant desk inside the apartment building. "I don't like this...".

Hearing Roz's suggestion that they check for the gravcar, he nods in agreement. "I'm going to keep an eye on the apartments, but I'll be close behind." As he approaches the garage, Zhen catches a whiff of gunsmoke. Stiffening, he draws his pistol and sweeps his eyes across the buildings, engaging the power cell in the grip. Noticing that the others have also caught the smell, he locks eyes with Roz.

She nods towards the pillar ahead of her. Zhen now notices a faint trail of blood leading behind it. By the time he shakes his head sharply and raises a clenched fist, she's already looked away. Pistol at the ready, he moves forward, intending to tap her shoulder and whisper to her. However, before he can catch up Roz steps forward loudly and calls out.

Wincing, Zhen quickly moves to flank the pillar and prepares to drop Yuri before he can kill Roz.

Kolya suddenly snaps out of his concentration. Did he just hear footsteps?

"Hi, is everything all right back there? It looks like you've been bleeding. I'm a part time medic, not on the books here but I could patch you up in the meantime?", a voice of a girl or young woman appears behind him. Kolya instinctively reaches for his gun, the recent shoot out has left him jumpy. He pulls out the gun and puts his hand with the gun on his right side on the floor. Hes does not want to appear threatening, but needs to be ready to react.

Rozz slowly and carefully walks around the pillar. Behind it, sitting on the cold concrete, resting against the wall sits a middle-aged man, maybe in his late thirties with black disheveled hair. He's wearing an old leather jacket, a formerly white, collared shirt, with tie and  dark jeans.
The shirt is half pulled out of the pants, the tie hangs loosely from his neck. He obviously was in a fight very recently. With a jolt of alarm Rozz realizes the man is holding a gun, but it is gently resting in his hand on the floor, he does not appear to want to use it.

A young red haired woman slowly comes around the pillar. Kolya instinctively grabs the gun tigher and his muscles flex. But the girl has no weapons and does not act aggressively. On the contrary. When she sees the beelding wound on his shoulder she seems to forget her caution and quickly comes closer, with a worried face, asking "What happened to you? That doesn't look good!".

"I was asked to pick up someone here. He and his associates had a disagreement and he needed ... an incentive, to participate in a mediation meeting. Unfortunately he did not agree with my proposal and there was an exchange of ... more than words, let's say. What brings you here?"

Hearing nothing from her earlier entreaty, Roz had a decision to make. Either turn the corner of the pillar herself or let someone else do it. The fact that she'd received no answer meant that whoever, (or whatever, an idle train of thought in her mind insisted. Hounds with guns.) was behind it was either incapable of speech, or was waiting for her. She was just going to have to take the chance, she was more willing to gamble herself than the others. They of course could have left it totally alone, but her curiosity was too great.

Making sure her gun was hidden from view at the small of her back, she stepped around the pillar arms low at her sides and palms showing. It took a second for her to let loose the breath she hadn't realised that she was holding. This wasn't Yuri. He did have a gun, and it was in hand, but resting on the ground. With her left hand she touched her forefinger against her thumb, making a circle and raised this up. Hopefully they'd understand this as an ok symbol.

Her mind was quickly diverted though from the others and was fully on this new figure. Blood was escaping from his shoulder, and fairly vigoursely too. That was a wound, a bullet? Instinctively she stepped forward, concern showing on her face, as her eyes flicked between the wound and his face. He was looking a little pale.
"What happened to you? That doesn't look good?"
"I was asked to pick up someone here. He and his associates had a disagreement and he needed ... an incentive, to participate in a mediation meeting. Unfortunately he did not agree with my proposal and there was an exchange of ... more than words, let's say. What brings you here?"

By this point she'd already slid the backpack to the ground and was kneeling in front of it, rooting inside until she was able to withdraw a medkit. Taking this up in one hand, she scooted over, until she was kneeling, her face a couple of inches from his.
"Could you sit up a moment?"
Sliding her hand between his jacket and shirt, her fingers felt the back of her shoulder. Her blue eyes were focused on the wound, and she was absently chewing on her lower lip.
"No exit wound.... Must be still in there."
The eyes turned to look into his. While for the most part her expression was concentrated, there was flicker of something amused in her slightly raised eyebrow.

"Right Mr Mediator, as you probably know you've got something in there that I'm going to have to remove before I attempt to patch you up. Luckily though this isn't the first bullet I've ever removed."
She flashed him a sudden grin at this before continuing.
"Now, just to make things clearer I've not come here alone. I've some friends around the corner. Friends who are armed like yourself. Considering that and that you 'n me are slate I understand you might want to keep your gun in hand. That's sparkle and all, but I'm going to ask you keep it on the ground. You make no moves, my friends make no moves, and I'll be able to finish up quick as. Sound like a quality claim?"

Taking his lack of resistance as acceptance, she reached up and carefully slid his arm from the jacket, before taking a scalpel from her kit and cutting around the wound so she could remove the sleeve of his shirt and leave the wound free.
"Gun fights eh? Wreck havoc with your tailoring."

Taking out a bottle of rubbing alcohol, she removed her finger-less gloves and proceeded to disinfect her hands and the tools she meant to use, looking up again at him with interest. Returning to his earlier question, she gave him another grin. The first risk had paid off, it was worth taking another. It could not be a coincidence to have another shooting so soon at Yuri's girlfriends place. Watching his face, she asked,
"This someone you were meant to 'pick up' -he wouldn't have been called Yuri Delacroix would he? Slippery fellow, fairly muscular with dark hair and a girl in tow? We kinda wanted to speak to him apparently awful with returning books to the library on time."

Giving him a wink, she leaned in towards the wound.
"This is going to sting a bit Mr Mediator, and then probably hurt a lot more."
She poured some of the alcohol over the wound and then lifted her scalpel and a hemostat.

By now Ian's head was throbbing from both the withdraw of adrenaline and his body wanting more nicotine, it had been nearly a month since he last had a cigarette and it was killing him. As he re-holstered his gun and put his right arm back in its sleeve he reached into the inside breast pocket of his jacket and pulled out the crumpled pack of cigarettes he kept with him. He pulled out the mangled cigarette from earlier and finally brought his lighter to it. After he took his first drag in weeks the thought of offering one to the injured man Roz was working on crossed his mind and he rounded the pillar, hands in the air.

"You want one?"

He gestured to the crumpled pack in his right hand with his head and put his arms down.

"I figured that a smoke after getting swissed would be a good thing to help you relax, at least that's what I've learned in my time back home working for a PMC."

Ian waited for a response, partially hoping to get an answer in the negative so he could keep one of his last 5 in the pack before he had to drop more credits on his addiction.

Zhen is relieved to note the unfamiliar features. He is not the target. But that doesn't mean the danger is past. Maintaining his distance, having apparently not yet been noticed (the man seems somewhat dazed by the gunshot and subsequent blood loss), he keeps his gun trained and holds his peace.

Roz and the stranger have a bit of discussion about how he came by his wounds. Seeing her intention to treat the man, Zhen speaks up: "Roz, wait; we still have no idea who this is. We need some answers before you go stitching him up."

To the man, he says, "I'm going to need you to holster the pistol. That will only get you killed. Besides, if I wanted you dead, I'd have shot you already.

Now tell us who you are, who shot you, and why you got into a shootout. I need specifics, or you can stitch yourself up."

Ian looks over at Zhen with a somewhat playfully "disapproving" expression.

"The guy's shot up, and this is Yuri's place, and Yuri's car is gone as far as I can tell, I think we all know about what has happened here."

Ian snickers to himself a bit and looks back at the man leaning against the wall being tended to by his colleague.

"My guess is this guy's after our boy, too."

Seeing what's happening, Gomez does an about face and stands by the car. "Too much blood for me," he mutters. "I'll keep an eye out for trouble," he says over his shoulder.

Henrietta follows and watches Roz work from a respectable distance, she would help in any way she needed to but didn't want to crowd the part time medic.

"What about your friend dearie? Is he ok or should we look for another guy bleeding somewhere?"

She was serious, but listening to an older lady speak softly about a bleeding corpse was kinda funny.

Kolya clenches his teeth and gives a faint grunt when Rozz starts extracting the bullet. Through his teeth he starts: "Not proud to say, it's also my first bullet being..." . He stops the sentence with a small wince.

Turning his head towards the man with the gun pointed at him he says, "Ok, big guy, I can see, that we can all talk friendly here. I'll leave my gun here on the floor and move my hand from it. If you don't mind I'll holster it, once your friend stops digging around in my shoulder".

Turning his head the other way, he continues "Nah, thanks for the offer. But if you happen to have a glass of single malt, I would definitely not turn that down."

Not addressing anyone specifically he then continues, I'm Kolya Letov and I am not the mediator, mind you, but I find people that don't want to be found. Bounty hunter is such a negative word, I prefer 'retrieval expert, specialising in scumbags'.

Right now, I'm indeed after Yuri, almost had him, too. But his girlfriend and he got away in a red grav-car, just moments ago. I got two shots at him, the last one made quite a mess in the car. Not sure whether he is up and running, or just the perfect listener to his girlfriends panic attack ramblings.

She was driving and she shot away that direction, not exactly in a controlled manner.

If you guys are also after him, I think it might make sense to concentrate on the target together, rather than also having to worry about the rivaling party.
Bounty seems enough for everybody to go around. And I'm always for good company.

Where does your investigation stand? Im currently at a bit of a loss. Looking at the car windows and the nice red tinting it had, I'd say it's best to check any kind of first aid place, or the morgue. Alternatively I could try to find associates of Priya, that's the girlfriend, she might seek help.
Although I dunno what it is, but I feel she might still play a more important role then just 'the girlfriend'. "

As Roz patches Kolya's injuries, an alert appears on Kolya's compad. His program was unable to gain access to his targets' social media. Perhaps if he had more time and a proper computer he'd be able to. His search for clinics resulted in several options though. Filtering out the respectable hospitals and doc-in-a-box clinics, it seems there's only a couple trauma rooms in the area capable of treating gunshot wounds while not asking difficult questions. The closest of these is roughly in the direction you last saw the gravcar heading, and is located on the outskirts of the Votta Market Complex, a sprawling enclosed marketplace that Gomez is at least partially familiar with as a local.

Ian shrugs and smirks

"Suit yourself. Though, if it's alcohol you want I found this gem in the El Rey on my way over here."

Ian pulls a bottle of multi colored liquor out of his jacket with "A sip of paradise" on the label and pops the cap off to take a sip.

"It's a bit fruity but I think it's something like 80% pure if I read the label correctly."

He holds out the bottle toward the man, making a "want some?" expression?

"Oh, we'll be good friends, thanks", Kolya answers, reaches for the bottle and takes a deep sip. "It's no whisky, but gets the spirit up, thanks, my man!" He returns the bottle.

In that moment his compad chimes. Kolya picks it up and throws a glance at it. "Look at that. Before you guys came, I put in a search for first aid places around. The one of the few that treats conditions like the one Yuri is currently suffering from is exactly in that direction, in the outskirts of the Votta Market Complex. Could be worth a try. I doubt Priya ran into a group like you guys and if Priya really is just an innocent girlfriend, I doubt she would know where to find places that don't ask questions. " Kolya points in the same direction that he previously pointed when showing in which direction Priya drove off.

Ian tucks the bottle back in his jacket and grins.

"Good thing, I was starting to think I wouldn't find anybody on this planet that was worth even looking at other than the two our contact had."

Ian looks back at the entrance to the parking garage and grins.

"Well, if it's that direction our boy went, it's that direction we'll follow."

"Hey new guy, what's the clinic called? I've done some work around Votta, might be I know somebody who can get us inside. Hell, I might have been inside myself. Also, with this many people we're going to need a bigger cab. Or maybe two. Or like, some kind of theme and maybe some costumes so we don't look so suspicious piling out of a car and all going to the same place." Gomez kicks a pebble by his foot. "Just sayin' is all."

While the others spoke around her. Roz continued working at the wound at Kolya's shoulder. Kneeling in the dirty gravel of a garage wasn't the optimum conditions for open wound surgery but she'd had to make do in worse before. Her last position before this had involved frantically stitching her former captain's guts back inside her, crouched in a rat infested service tunnel. Damn things certainly had a taste for her flesh before they were able to crawl out.

Eventually though she managed to take hold of the shard of metal deep inside him and pull it out. Looking up at him, she gave a smile of satisfaction and held the bullet up in the centre of her palm.
"Care to keep this little growler Mr Mediator? Seeing as its your first and all? Some people say they never forget it."
Giving him a wink, she left her hand out for a couple of seconds but if he made no move, she slid it into a bag by her waist, and started the process of patching up the wound.

"You are pretty lucky Mr Mediator. The bullet didn't shatter any bone or sever anything particularly vital. You won't be able to forget it for a while, but you should be back to full motion soon enough."

Soon she was able to apply the gauze pads and strap them across his shoulder, before adding a final plaster with the image of a yawning cat. Leaning back she packed the contents back into the medical kit, and this back into the bag and then looked back at the others.

"I'm game for 'old one arm' to join us if Henrietta is too. At this point, it's not really going to change the split of the bounty between all of us too much. More importantly though Zhen and Gomez both have a point, we need to move that direction at first crack. Once we get there though it's worth splitting up. As Gomez says we are quite a size now. Say a scouting party head to the clinic and find out what the sitch is. Second group keep this information gathering going. If Yuri's not at the clinic, then where? Is there more to the girlfriend? Who might she turn to?"

Pulling both gloves back on she stood up, knee's noticeably marked with the grime of the garage and pulled the back up to her shoulders. Extending a hand down to Kolya, she continued, shrugging her shoulders.
"Ideally he's in this clinic and all the info gathering was that much rubble but it would be nice to be able to move quickly if no."

Ian gave a wide, toothy grin that somehow felt threatening to a degree.

"I'll be on the hospital team."

Ian extinguished what was left of his cigarette and checked his pistol. It was full alright, and each one of them had Yuri's name on them; at this very moment the only thing between Ian and his way back to Jade Reach was Yuri and Ian was going home. As he waited for the group to mobilize he used his compad and a pair of earpieces to begin playing music so that he could hype himself up for walking straight into danger's path.

Henrietta had more reservations than Roz about letting this guy on.

Her age made her wary to betrayal at the point of a gun when all is said and done, Ian, Wu and Zhen were more trustworthy because they were essentially mercs, recommended by a trusted associate of Roz.
Koyla was a bounty hunter, and more liable to turn traitor on them at the point of a gun for a bigger payout.

But another body between her and the action was always a good thing. She wasnt as spry as she used to be.

"I suppose we could always use another gun dearie."

"Who took away your coffee this morning, grumpy?" Kolya says towards Wu. "Yea, I can stand, I can walk, I can dance the freakin' Waltz with you, if you're up for it."

Reaching for Rozz' extended hand, Kolya gets up, brushes the dust of his pants and says: "The hospital is called 'Innocenti House of Care', maybe it rings a bell."

"I agree it might make sense to split up, to maximize the results, just in case he is not in the hospital. If I get to a terminal or a computer with network access, I might be able to hack into Priyas account and tap into her location history. I tried on my compad, but that thing only gets me so far. " Nodding towards Rozz, he continues "Probably would be best, if you joined me, I might need your pretty voice for a call or too, my Priya impression leaves much to wish for and those social networks are often hard to get into, we might need to improvise and get some help from a support agent." He winks and starts making his way towards the exit of the garage. "So, jolly bunch, what are your names and who taught you how to make new friends?".

Roz cast a brief look over at Henrietta. The older woman was quite hard to read, very self contained. Her last words for instance. She didn't sound especially keen, more resigned if anything to Kolya joining their group. Was this due to a matter of splitting the funds, or some other reason? So far she hadn't shown herself especially open to sharing herself so chances were she might never know. More importantly though, Roz didn't know what the other specialised in. The men had all announced theirs on arrival but Henrietta was holding her cards a little closer. She looked the kind of person who would have a focus.

As Kolya gripped her hand and hoisted himself up, she turned her attention back to him. Grinning she gave him a shake of her head.
"You could cut quartz with that tongue Mr Mediator, I can see why Yuri wanted to put a bullet into you. I'm up for helping you with information gathering, though I might need to hide this sandscriber accent if I'm going to pretend to be Priya. If him and I do that, who wants to join us, and who wants to join Ian into this House of Care?"

As they moved down towards the waiting taxi at the entrance of the garage, she continued
"I'm Roz and generally I fix broken things. If not then I'm breaking them. No fixed abode or destination."
Climbing into the taxi, she took a seat in the back, next to the door, holding the backpack across her chest again.

Zhen smirks and starts moving toward the street. "Kolya, hunting a bounty is not my first choice for a time to make new friends. So forgive me for not giving you a big fat hug (/s). I'm sure we can be friends if you're trustworthy. Trust just isn't my default setting, especially not for people with guns, unexplained gunshot wounds, and a vested interest in the same payout I'm working toward. Roz seems not to be as worried as I am about who you are; fair enough. But if you expect me to trust you, I'm going to need some straight answers."

Belatedly taking note of Ian's comments, Zhen replies sternly, "Assumptions can kill you in this line of work, Ian. I've learned that the hard way. You can save yourself a world of pain by asking the right questions at the right time."

"I'll go with Ian to the clinic. We should take Gomez with us since he knows the area. Gomez, sound good to you?"

Ian shoots Zhen a less than happy look.

"My apologies." He didn't sound entirely genuine.

"Who's this guy to tell me how to do simple retrieval of some intelligence attached to some brute who knows how to bash a few skulls? It's not like I didn't do this stuff on Jade Reach hundreds of times." As he stumbled across the thought of Jade reach again he took a sip from the colorful tonic in the bottle he smuggled from the El Rey and placed it back in his jacket, he was definitely going to have to get some more of it before they took off again.

Ian realized that he was being needlessly bitter over some genuine advice and he changed his mindset and attitude immediately in order to be more positive.

"Well, Innocenti House of Care it is."

Ian winced as he realized his newfound friend didn't even know his name.

"Name's Ian, by the way, Ian Collins, known to a few as 'Big Bang' and it ain't for no reason, if I say run assume the upcoming blast is at least a Kiloton."

"Alright, I get it, really I do. And once Yuri is packed up and delivered, we can sit down, over a drink I will give the answers you want. But right now we don't have time for this and frankly I would prefer that I don't also have to watch my back when hunting this guy. So maybe you can take the fact, that I am still my usual chipper self, after I told you all my findings and you told me nothing as a token of trust and move on. Shall we?

So, Rozz, nice to meet you Rozz and thanks, Ian, thanks to you too, Gomez, is it? And Grumpy. You, young lady will surely tell me your name when you are ready, you seem more the silent type, I respect that. Shall we then?

There should be a terminal or a computer at the hospital. So I suggest we all go together, have the driver(s) drop us off half a block before we reach the hospital and then split up.

Like this we can reunite faster, plus we can help each other out if one party comes into peril. That reminds me, we should probably exchange handles, so we can reach each other. " With this Kolya taps something on his compad and then holds it out in front of himself, the compad showing the scannable code of his handle.

You pile back into the even more crowded cab that transports you to your destination.

You step out in front of the shabby entrance to the House of Care. Looming up behind it is the conglomeration of structures that makes up the Votta Market Complex. Even at this late hour, crowds come and go from the historic marketplace. In the parking lot in front of the House of Care, you spot a familiar red gravcar, riddled with bullet holes. The doors are open and the inside is soaked with blood, a trail leading to the clinic's entrance. You can see Priya left most of their bags in the car, and a revolver lies on the floor of the passenger side.

Anyone who enters finds themselves in a beige waiting room filled with a handful of patients, and a small glass-enclosed reception desk staffed by a pair of secretaries engrossed in some work on computers. A set of double doors leads into the hospital, outside of which a janitor is mopping up the remains of spilled blood.

On the ride to the clinic, Zhen spends some time on his Compad. After a couple minutes, he speaks up: "If we find the device intact, don't destroy it yet. I have a contact who might give us far more than 5k if it's good enough tech for someone to want it wrecked."

Upon arriving, he notices the open car. Our lucky day! "I think we should take the car, and try to bring him with us. He's probably in no shape to resist. If he won't come, we finish the job and then get out."

Roz was one of the first to decant herself from the taxi, heaving her bag back over her shoulders again, and quickly spotted the red gravcar. Despite never having seen it before, it was clear that this was Yuri's girlfriends car. It would have been a pretty remarkable coincidence if someone else had just been shot up and driven here so quickly.

Looking over at the rest of the team, she nodded at the gravcar.
"I'm going to check it over and see if I can find this interesting bit of tech. Could someone run interference for a minute or two while I check it over? It doesn't look like we have anyone's attention at the moment but that might change fast.""
Her eyes were flashing, with excitement and what looked a little like hunger.
"I can't wait to see what this particular little diamond is. We can maybe decide what happens to it once we know a little more about what it is. I'd like to give it a good look over anyway.

Quickly moving over to the car she started to check it over quickly to see if she could find anything of interest.

Roz easily recognizes the vehicle as a Peregrine gravcar, she's seen quite a few of these before at amateur racetracks, perhaps she's even worked on them before. They're one of the cheapest gravcars around and for that reason are frequently are used by street racers who install their own custom engine mods. This one appears unmodified, with only superficial damage to one of the propulser arrays in addition to the obvious cosmetic damage.

Checking the contents over quickly she finds a sturdy snub nose revolver with two spent rounds in the passenger seat. Most of the bags appear to contain clothes, rations, and personal items, but one sturdy plastic case contains a survey scanner in good condition.

"I propose Grumpy, you watch for Rozz's back, especially that janitor over there. He probably saw them coming in and realizes we're not them... But easy, try to distract and not destroy.
Ian and I will go inside, I'll pretend to be Yuris brother. The story is, that we both were mugged, my sister in law drove him, because he was badly hurt, I reported to law enforcement and got treated by first responders and wanted to see him now.

Any objections? " Kolya throws a glance into the calm waiting room, "Thank God we're not dealing with some kinda pandemic right now" , he thinks and then shoots an expecting look to the group.

Gomez scans Kolya's phone and adds him to the contacts list. He skims through his own compad during the ride, looking for any local news, social media posts, or police chatter about the Yuri situation. "This item Yuri has stolen sounds pretty interesting. Who'd he steal it from anyway? I'm not really a shooty guy but maybe I can glean some more info on that."

As the taxi pulls up to the clinic, he says "I'll keep an eye out for trouble and see what I can dig up about the package." Gomez assumes a position near the entrance, his back to the wall, and proceeds to loiter there while fiddling with his compad.

Damn, he thinks, I should be the one driving the taxi, much less suspicious that way.

"Sounds like a fair plan to me. Just be careful in there; I'd hate for Roz's hard work to go to waste."

I don't hate the guy, I just don't trust him yet. I mean, would it have killed him to give me a straight answer about how he got shot? Just seemed fishy... besides, the timing was too convenient. And he offered to join with us a little too quickly...

Zhen follows Roz to the gravcar, keeping an eye out for police or security guards. "Make sure you check for the keys. If we're lucky, she left them in; otherwise, do you know how to hotwire one of these?"

Watching her rifle through the bags, Zhen spots the scanner but notes the conspicuous lack of any more valuable tech. "Surely that can't be it, right? There's got to be something else, unless it's got some important data on it. You know how to read one of these?"

Earlier in the taxi to Gomez
"I'm really curious about it myself too. All we know is that it is not a bio weapon but can do as much damage as one? Might be something that attacks tech? We don't know which company he got it from either, but that they have Bloodhound Inc on the payroll. Yuri was acting as a strike breaker for them, so perhaps you could check what tech companies have had trouble with strikes recently."
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Roz looked up from where she was examining the car over to Kolya and Ian.
"That's not a bad idea Mr Mediator. I'd go with Zhen's idea as well, best to avoid a shoot out in the hospital. If you can get him out here that would be ideal. You could tell the staff here that you've arranged top of the line private treatment elsewhere, maybe play up safety concerns, anything to stop them causing an avalanche. Also though make sure to check him and the girlfriend for this item. It doesn't seem to be here."

She lifted the plastic case containing the survey scanner and gave it a brief examination before glancing over at Zhen.
"This won't be it, definitely not. But perhaps its connected? Maybe whatever this does might affect the atmosphere or gravity?"
Her face was screwed up in thought for a couple of moments before she shrugged and packed it into her backpack..
"Yeah I've used one before. They were pretty common back on my home plane... Well yeah I've used them before."
Face growing a trifle red and looking a little uncomfortable, she moved up to the drivers side to check if the keys were still there, moving noticeably quicker than she normally did.
"I can definitely hot wire something as simple as this. What about the gun? Should we lift it now, or just once we know we are going to be able to drag him out of there?"

Ian nods at Roz's proposal

"It probably would be wise to get him out in the open and keep all of the collateral to a minimum."

Ian looks around the parking lot for a brief moment.

"What could we pose as our vehicle, though? If we were some big wigs from a medical firm they'd at least give us a ride here."

"You might be right. If I show up in there, they will likely not give me a warm hug", Kolya says, scratching his chin. "Maybe we should just wait here. They will not want to stay in the hospital, with this 'crazy man' on their heels. And they will likely not walk away. So they are bound to come out here to continue, either with their car, or a cab. So how about we just scatter here, keep the entrance in sight and wait for them.

Rozz, it's likely not something you are used to, but can you make the car not work anymore? Just to make sure they don't rush away again. "

Roz's eyes flicked between Zhen and Kolya and her earlier discomfort was suddenly replaced by a wide grin.
"Two very different plans there. But yeah it wouldn't be too difficult for me to grow moss all over it. Really it just depends how permanent you want to be. I could just disconnect a wire or two and the starter won't fire. Or I could go to town on the manifest and short of Yuri carrying half a garage's worth of spare tools it won't be leaving here."

Lifting the goggles out of her hair, she gave her forehead a scratch before looking up at the others. She was still grinning, a mischievous expression on her face.
"Probably not a good idea for you to go in after your last mediation that's true. But I think we should still send some inside. Otherwise we are sitting on a seam relying on the earth to split open for us. At the very least the team can find out some basic information, at best, we might be able to get into his room. Perhaps with one of us pretending to be a nurse..."

She waggled her eyebrows at this, her excitement barely hidden.
"Plus he or she is unlikely to be threatened by me. As long as I get past the main desk, me and someone else can try and purloin some uniforms. If you'd prefer me out here with the car, maybe Ian or Gomez can try and smooth talk their way in. One of them could pretend to be colleague/brother and the other that they are visiting someone else and then hunt about. And while that's all going on, we can continue to look into this lab and any other facts we can get about Yuri.

Any of this sound shiney with you all?"

Ian scratches his chin a moment and then smirks.

"Well, I do suppose I could find a way in."

after a moment's hesitation Ian motions toward the door, looking at Gomez.

Gomez shrugs back at Ian. "What're you thinking boss?"

"We need an excuse to get in?" Henrietta says with a smile on her face.

She graps her clothes, right over her heart, "You know us old ladies are always having anxiety attacks and random pains that have no identifiable cause. It could get us in. The second they leave to do something we can sneak around...."

Ian grins

"That's the ticket, 'grandma'."

Ian winks and taps the side of his nose then starts to hyperventilate to sound distressed and worked.

You all split up to encircle your mark.

Roz stays out front with the gravcar. It's trivially easy for an engineer of her talent to unplug a few important wires in a way that won't permanently damage the car but will rule out any quick getaways. Now its just a matter of waiting...

Gomez and Kolya look for back entrances. It appears the rear of the clinic is directly connected to the Votta Market Complex, and you enter the hustle and bustle of the enclosed marketplace to hopefully head off any escape. Although most of the stores are closed at this hour, the vaulted halls inside house many restaurants and clubs, allowing you to blend in with the nightlife fairly well. As a local, Gomez knows the Complex grew haphazardly over many years out by absorbing existing buildings and constructing expansions, leading to a thoroughly unintuitive architecture. You scan the closed up shops and lively eateries for a possible entrance.

OOC:

Ian and Zhen both take one of Henrietta's arms as she gives her best frail old lady impression. The trio of you burst in the front door, and are quickly greeted by the receptionists who both rush to help, one calling for more assistance while the other asks you. "Whats the problem?" Her tone is professional, but with the appropriate amount of alarm. As you begin your explanation, a nurse emerges from the double doors to take you into the triage area with a wheelchair for Henrietta.

"I don't know exactly what happened, she was fine when I left the room back at our apartment and when I re entered she was having trouble breathing and grasping her chest."

Ian's voice was crackly and he seemed distressed, the hyperventilation exercise worked for sure. As Ian followed his head started getting light, perhaps his exercise worked a little too well, he probably wasn't going to pass out but his head was sort of foggy and his thoughts were slightly impaired.

"Please tell me she's gonna be alright, I've been staying with her for a few months now to make sure she'd be doing well, I'm not ready to lose her, y'know?"

Ian made sure to stop after that last bit, he was trailing and any mistake he made may be fatal to the act, he just kept breathing heavily with a slight wheeze to keep the exasperated impression up.

Roz's face had fallen a little when her suggestion to enter the clinic but after a moment she had shrugged off the emotion and was back to the import at hand.
"That's an idea Henrietta."
Giving the other a broad grin and a wink she continued.
"More than a sliver of diamond among the carbon there. Try and keep the boys from blowing anything up in there."

As the others turned away towards their various destinations, she had laid her pack next to the car and quickly slid underneath the vehicle. Her eyes quickly flicked over the grimy fittings and she considered her options. The easiest way would be to disconnect the battery, without it, it wouldn't matter if they had the keys or tried to jump start it.  Keeping Zhen's idea in mind, she refrained from simply slicing any of the wires and instead unscrewed the vital part. Given thirty seconds of warning, she could get it all started again, but otherwise this wasn't going anywhere.

Grinning to herself, she wiped her hand across her forehead and then rolled out from under the bonnet, lifted her bag and got back to her feet. And now she was alone. Just her and the car she was to look after. Even given an as of yet unknown amount of time, there were still some modifications she could make. Her fingers were practically waggling in the gloves at the thought. For a second or two she let the fantasy's play out before she stopped them abruptly. As much as it might seem to be the most boring of the potential jobs, she was still able to recognise its importance. Zhen wouldn't be only one who would be annoyed if they all rushed out to find the gravcar in pieces.

Absently kicking at an invisible stone, she strolled absently around the car, her energetic mind flipping from thought to thought, before she stopped suddenly and looked at the car again. Those bullet holes, and the blood. It wouldn't be long before this car started attracting attention. Especially that of other bounty hunters who might also have found out about Yuri's girlfriend. Bounty hunters who might decide that they could get useful information from her. Experience had taught her the importance of being away from the front line.

Moving a couple of meters away from the car, she found a wall with as much shadow as she could, that would still allow her to keep the vehicle in sight. Well one eye anyway. There was little point pretending that she was going to stare at it without getting bored quickly. Leaning against the wall, she slid the data pad from her hip, and started to absently search through the news for the last couple of weeks for any stories about strikes, or strike breakers used in connection with local labs.

"So, you guys are an unlikely bunch, what put you together on this hunt? I'm used to do these jobs alone, but I must say, I'm starting to appreciate the whole cooperation and spreading work on multiple shoulders and all." Kolya strolls around, deliberately nonchalant, checking the back of the clinic for possible exit points.

Suddenly he twitches, having an idea he graps his compad and sends a message to Rozz: "Hey, maybe you can try to connect the scanner to your pad and check whether there are any recordings, audio or video, on it." He hits send and packs away the pad, focusing again on his surroundings and his companion.

While she was flicking through stories on her data pad, a notification of a new message came through to Roz. Nodding her head and looking a little bemused she replied back.
"Sharp thinking Mr Mediator. They didn't dig you out of any old pit. I'll give it a check and see if it has anything.

Also if you don't mind me asking, and don't have anything better to do while we wait.... What's your story? You been mediating on this planet for long? Settled roots?"

Sliding the pad back into her hip pocket and quickly retrieved the plastic case from her bag, and after settling it on the ground, with drew the scanner and attached it to her data pad. It might be that the device only held atmospheric data, but it was worth investigating.

Trying to look the part of concerned but calming presence for Ian, Zhen keeps an eye out for the blood trail from Yuri's arrival. He had noticed it leading from the car to the lobby, and now he hopes to find traces that show where they've taken Yuri. Maybe I can slip away 'looking for a restroom' and try to find them.

In a quiet voice, as they're being led to a room, Zhen says to Ian and Henrietta, "I'm trying to figure out where they've put Yuri. I may slip away for a minute, but I should be back for you before I confront him."

OOC:

"Well, I can't speak for Ian or the ladies, but Zhen and I both share an employer, and she turned us on to the group. I don't actually know Zhen all that well, we're in... different departments as it were. I'm actually in on a different task, but they decided to go after this guy first. It's not really in my wheelhouse, but I am interested in this device he has, and I don't mind putting the boot to a strikebreaker now and then." Gomez glances as Kolya as he pats the concealed pistol in his shoulder holster. "Hopefully it doesn't come to more violence, or at least not around me. I prefer my work to be more on the thinking and talking side of things, with maybe some light B&E."

A little bit away from the crowds in the Market Complex, Gomez and Kolya find themselves down a small service corridor outside of a set of dented double doors, with a sign above reading "Innocenti House of Care. An occasional pedestrian passes the service corridor from time to time, but there don't seem to be any cameras watching the door, only a keypad lock.

Henrietta is rushed to a hospital bed, where she is quickly hooked up to all manner of diagnostic devices. Nurses and technicians keep close watch on her before reassuring results from their tests cause them to relax for a bit and leave you alone after several minutes. Zhen easily slips away in the initial rush, no one pays much attention to him. He's in a small emergency department that is essentially a single room separated into individual rooms by simple divider curtains. As you navigate the cloth corridors, you see a sign on the far wall that reads "Trauma Room", next to which there is an elevator with only one button and no directory of any sort.

Outside, Roz trawls the datafeeds for anything related to the recent labor strike. There's surprisingly little information on the lab itself. Tough to determine what it makes really, and it seems to be owned by a long chain of shell companies that quickly makes your head spin. Roz would need either a lot of time or an expert bureaucrat to figure it out. Giving up on the lab itself she turns her focus to the events of the strike itself. She quickly looks up Bloodhound Incorporated, Yuri's former employer. Its a large agency, offering a variety of strikebreaking and counterintelligence services. They're a subsidiary of megacorp Johar-Spiros Incorporated, with a reputation for professionalism. The magnitude of their response was unprecedented, and has even sparked a bit of pro-union sentiment in the media. Kira Gurov, CEO of the Gorgon Group even lashed out at Johar-Spiros Incorporated for "abusing their mandate."

Henrietta keeps up her labored breathing routine until the staff filter out.

Out of the corner of her eye, she see's Zhen duck out of the commotion. Then she looks towards Ian.
"Well dearie, whats the plan now?"

She asks before breathing heavily again.