Maldor's head swivels around to look at Amaryst when she speaks directly to his mind, eyes wide in wonder. {You can talk to my mind like Emily? She taught me how to talk back, but I can't start a mind-talk. I've tried, but that is not my gift. And yes, my God is the God of wonders, beyond all majesty! He spoke to me personally in the Institute and showed me his awesome power, which I can now channel. I heard there is a book describing him, and if I find one I shall acquire it...}
He has to consciously keep his lips from moving as he mentally talks with Amaryst - something he learned to do with Em in order to keep their few conversations a secret from the watchers.
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"My bodyguard and two friends here are the ones that need them in our merry gang, though I can't speak for Smyrna's two cohorts" Jin says, waving a hand to indicate Rollo, Emily, and Maldor in turn "My friend's lack of existing ID is the crux of the issue, you see they stowed away on a cargo ship to get here and that makes things difficult now that we are trying to reach my personal ship in the spaceport to leave." Jin continues, weaving a small and believable lie into his explanation as to why they lack existing identification.
The woman scrutinizes Jin carefully, weighing his words.
She shrugs at what he says, rotating her chair to change her comfort. "I charge 10,000 credits per completely fabricated ID and 5,000 credits per identification change. It is neither easy nor safe to make fake identification in this day and age, after all."
"I prefer not to do wire transfers, so pre-paid credsticks in amounts smaller than 1,000 will do. Huge cred-sticks tend to attract attention. Trade goods are also acceptable currency with me. It generally takes two or three days to complete the job, and I can contact you through a burner phone I lend you. If you use the burner, the job is off. If you give me a credstick worth more than 5,000, the job is off. If I see anything that makes me thing you might be police, the job is off."
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Jin shoots a nervous look to Smyrna as he mentally runs through the logistics of making up that much money in a mere three days.
Assuming that Smyrna and her friends would be willing to help, and that the young one has enough identification for a change, that would still leave us with a bill totalling over 30000 credits, to make up that much cash in 3 days we would need to be producing over 1100 credits daily each, that's... damn near impossible..
”The kid will need a full fab job, Smyrna and I probably only need changes,” Cross said with a grimace at the price. A terrible, risky idea occurring to him. ”What do our finances look like?”
Emily did her absolute best to remain quiet and not show any signs of excitement on the lengthy trip. Her eyes darted everywhere however, particularly on the bus, where there were so many new people inside and so many sights to see out the windows!
At their destination, Emily stayed quiet while meeting the others. She took her time to get a sense of the three of them, before they moved inside to get their ID's.
The price seemed staggering. Emily didn't know how much it really was, but the guy who didn't take his helmet off seemed pretty casual about it. She remained quiet and let the others handle the talking -- but reached out to try and learn what she could about the lady.
Korvan does his best to refrain from making a skeptical look.
And just where in the Hell are we supposed to come up with that type of cash? he thinks to himself.
Naomi waits patiently, nails tapping on the desk.
Emily's shoulders slumped, and she tried very hard not to look frustrated.
Amaryst, Korvan, Jin, hiya. I don't think I've ever been lucky enough to work with all y'all at once before. Nice to meet you. This is Cross, best driver I've ever met. The super tough 10 year-old is my Cousin K. Say hi Twerp."
Going into the backroom, Smyrna relaxes a bit as she breathes in. Shady secret rooms have the same dank, lightless smell as old office buildings and dusty libraries. Hey Naomi, I love what you've done with the place, super jealous of your new hair color by the way.
Smyrna cringes when she hears the cost. She knew that Naomi would try to gut them, but she couldn't help but feel like Naomi was in an especially bad mood today.
Jesus Naomi, don't be too generous. Look, I love your business model. The supply to demand ratio is fantastic. You're a professional, and the best I know, which I don't have to tell you because you're a confidant boss-ass entrepreneur. Upstart queen to upstart queen, can you give us the not terrifying, post-prostrated haggling rate? Me leaving is great for your business! Think of all the scumbags who'll need hacking surveillance from you after I'm gone.
Naomi raises a perfectly maintained and arched eyebrow. "The special, post-prostration rate? Smyrna, you always did have the most peculiar way of talking."
"If you can't afford it, we can certainly discuss other options. I have a certain... lucrative errand that I need done this week," she says coyly. "And I would prefer not to use my own men if I didn't have to."
Satisfied the area is secure, Amaryst doffs her helmet and leans against the outer jam of the refrigerator door where she can listen with one ear.
Mention of a special errand catches Korvan's interest. "Special errand you say? I had some thoughts of my own of how to acquire that amount of cash, but if we can cut out a middle man..."
"What's this job entail? Like I said, I've got other thoughts too."
Maldor listens intently, watching Naomi's body language and intonation more than listening to her actual words...
There we go! Thank you Naomi. What do you have for us?
"Well," she says, "It's a theft. I assume that since you're coming to me that you're comfortable with criminal work?"
"A local bank - the Heritage National Bank - has recently come into some gold. I like gold. It's not particularly traceable, and it keeps its value even when computer crashes hit. If you take the job, I take some collateral to ensure that you don't rat me out, I provide you with a drop point and some basic intel on the target. You take it from there."
She shrugs. "I suppose I could also provide you with material supplies if you needed them for the job, and could justify exactly what you needed them for. For example, 'we all need pulsecasters so that we don't kill the guards.'
"We all need pulsecasters so that we don't kill the guards," Cross promptly said in a fair and flat imitation of her voice. Resuming his normal cadence, he added, "Proper arc gear would be better but you don't strike me as that generous. Either way, we're not killing a bunch of rent-a-cops. Bad for business and personal health."
The reflective surface of his helmet turned to Smyrna and then to Jin. "I'm going to step outside and see if Rex or the Fergus Brothers can put together a worthwhile race. I'd frankly rather risk smashing myself into bits in a crash than pull a Bonnie & Clyde act. No offense Naomi."
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Jin looks conflicted, not quite looking her in the eye as he mulls it over "If we were to do this, we would also need some decent holoskins or another effective way to hide our identities. While we may be getting new documentation it still would not do at all for the crime to be traceable to us, one way or another." he explains in a hesitant manner.
"Well, if you do this," she says with a small smile, "You can have the pulsecasters. And... is there any reason that a black mask won't do? Show me the cameras and your plan for them, and you can have some disguise material."
She waves her hand. "You can have a moment alone if you wish to discuss whether you'd like to be involved, if you need it."
When the group is off on their own to discuss Naomi's 'offer,' Maldor offers up the following observation. "She obviously doesn't care about us one way or the other, but she is honest about this job and its conditions. While I'm not happy conducting criminal acts, I guess this is better than being executed or tortured by the government. And at least we're not killing anyone! So I'm in if it helps Emily and me escape."
Maldor's eyes go wide as he realizes - two seconds too late - that the group had some newcomers who weren't quite aware of Emily's and his unique...situation. He starts to open his mouth to try and explain away what he said, but shuts it again quickly before he digs this hole any deeper!
Smyrna notes what Maldor says, but doesn't show any obvious signs, she knows someone in the group is trying to escape after all. "Thanks Naomi, we'll come up with a gameplan and get back to ya ASAP"
"Well, I don't mind a heist if it gets us out of here, and with our crew, I feel like we could get it done pretty cleanly. Cross, I don't want to whine, but you are the best getaway driver in this city, that's not hyperbole. What can the rest of you do? My specialty tends to be getting information via hacking, as well as any form of analog tech. I've been through firearm training too though.
"Our backgrounds, professionally, are pretty similar." Korvan says, "But as Jin can attest to, I've been in a scrape or two as well."
Amaryst joins the others for the discussion, and immediately begins to frown.
"I have lived my share of trouble, but never anything like this. Are we seriously considering robbing a bank? Have we got any other options?"
"I'm not sure we have much choice, Amaryst, unless you can think of another way to come up with thirty-large in a hurry." Kovan concedes.
"Still I'd rather make this an electronic transaction, but that doesn't seem to be in the cards."
Emily didn't like the idea of stealing to get what they needed, and liked this Naomi even less... Anyone she couldn't read was suspicious. Or a robot.
Emily frowned at Smyrna's question, not sure how to answer. "Umm... I can...try to stay out of everyone's way, I guess." She looked from Maldor to Jin, hoping one of them would come up with a more sane option. "But, I mean, how important are these things, anyway? ID's?"
"Without one, we'd probably have to steal an orbital shuttle with up-to-date orbital clearance without being noticed," adds Rollo. "So that we could get up to the station where Amaryst's ship is. Drift-capable ships are illegal on Earth's surface."
Rollo shrugs, "Or smuggle everyone who has no ID onto an existing shuttle, but that's about as likely as us gaining the ability to fly," he says with a chuckle.
"Or those of us with ID go and get my ship. We drop to the surface to pick up those without ID and all leave from there."
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"My talents are mostly scientific in nature, however i have a solid grasp on engineering and with the help of Cassius I can do a decent job codebreaking as well." Jin explains "He can also give me a boost to combat targeting if need be, but doing that takes processing power away from general-purpose situation analysis. To be blunt, i sort of get tunnel vision."
"Huh, ya know, you might be on to something there, if we disable the drift engine's transponder we might be able to land her with no one the wiser. Of course we would need somewhere open because there's no way we could pull off getting into a commercial starport without getting noticed." Jin says "And it would allow us to avoid all of this unsightly business with the bank as well."
"I don't like the power dynamic. We come to her hat in hand and she promptly decides to get as much out of us as possible. I wouldn't be surprised if the value of the gold in that vault exceeds what we would need for her services. It stinks. How much cash do we have at the moment?" Cross said, silent on whether or not he was hypothetically willing to rob a bank. "I've got five-fifty in easily moveable creds."
When it's Maldor's turn, he looks at Emily, then back at Smyrna and says, "I have some basic combat training, but am more of a healer. I guess you can think of me as a military corpsman. As far as options, we could always try to get to another city - or maybe another country? I picked up some Chinese and Russian in the institute...but those countries probably have their own versions of that place. I hear Bermuda is nice..."
"I've a little over 100 units. And circling back to Smyrna's question, my main talent is standing between clients and trouble."
Cross, you're right, I can get tunnel vision too sometimes. We should explore as many options as possible. Sorry guys, I don't have much to me right now, only 120 credits.
"Same as Amaryst." Korvan says in relation to his current financial state. "Give me a couple of days and it could be significantly more, but I'm loathe to try really large transactions like that...draws too much attention."
"Looks like we've insufficient monetary resources. Does anybody have another plan? Speak up no matter how crazy it is."
"Give me a minute," Cross said, stepping away from the group. He put together a message quickly and sent it off to his various contacts.
Hey, I'm back on the scene for a last race before leaving town for a while. Got any promising openings? Looking to go out on a blast.
Rollo chuckles. "We could charge the spaceport and try to fight our way to a ship and then just fly away as fast as possible."
K-Van blanches at all of the talk of fighting and stealing. "I'm sorry, I don't think I can be of much help..." he mutters.
"Cross, this is dangerous, unorthodox, and highly unlikely to work. I'm so into it. I can already see us techies running PR to artificially boost our betting numbers." Smyrna grabs Jin and Korvan around the shoulder buddy-buddy style. "Cross, terminally ill android forced to leave racing after long stay in hospital. After emergency brain surgery, he's merely a shell of what he once was, but before he dies, he needs One. More. Race.
"We could charge the spaceport and try to fight our way to a ship and then just fly away as fast as possible."
Amaryst glances at Rollo and looks away quickly, shaking her head.
K-Van blanches at all of the talk of fighting and stealing. "I'm sorry, I don't think I can be of much help..." he mutters.
"Don't worry about it, kid. Smyrna and Cross have you covered ...." Her voice trails off as she registers Smyrna's words.
"Cross?! The Cross? I saw you race at the Meadowlands and in the Lower 40s. You were terrific. "
Cross put a hand on the kid's shoulder again, he was trying to find a way through this that did not involve risking strangers' lives. He would have winced at Smyrna's words, had he not turned off the expressions on his face and had a helmet on regardless. He did not like cashing in on his status for anything and her words were a little too close to why he had actually dropped out of the racing scene. Keeping his hardware up to date was not cheap.
"Don't get too excited, I ain't got a race lined up and my ride is still in hock. With a pool of about thirteen hundred credits between us, I'll need seven hundred to get my ride back. So that puts us back down to five hundred credits," there was no question of needing some modern hardware if he wanted to seriously compete. Smyrna's antique Harley was fine for dodging the filth but he would need something more to have a chance.
"The race would have to be big, bigger than anything I've been in so far for a pay out that would stand a chance of covering our expenses. With your needs and covering Kev here, we're looking at thirty five grand. Meadowlands was the biggest I've ever gone and the payouts there were still not enough to turn five hundred into thirty five large without getting very, very lucky. Even then, that sort of race doesn't come around often and I'll probably need to cash in all my favors and make some promises to even be considered for a spot."
Cross receives a reply fairly promptly - Some of his contacts are totally ready to get together and put together a race, but they need a few days - maybe three - to get everything ready.
Amaryst shakes her head. "Three days is getting close to my deadline for reporting for my alibi interview. If I don't, then I'll need new papers also."
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"Well if we are gonna laze around for 3 days, then maybe we should look into sending that message of mine, whatever help my parents could send would probably get here by then." Jin says, before gaining a look of worry on his face "Though there is some inherent risk, if we do that and buy back the bike then we would be sitting with less than a hundred credits as a group."
Emily watched and listened as the others talked, going from plan to plan, with a lot of things she didn't fully understand. There wasn't a whole lot she could add, but a useful thought did strike her. "We should get to that safehouse," she said, and glanced between Jin, Amaryst, and Rollo. She was careful with her words, trying not to say too much. "I mean, they had to have a plan, right? For what to do with us after, you know?"
Maldor nods in agreement with Emily. "Yeah - they probably had something arranged, like a covert transport out of here, or the equipment to make ID's , or their own contacts to do that. And they may have planned to move a lot of people - we're not that big of a group, considering...Let's get to the safehouse and see what options open up."
"I doubt we can leave Naomi without an answer for long. We should ask her for all the information she has on the bank and tell her that we will -- crate the joint -- before answering. That should give us some time."
Kovan smiles. "Case the joint...not crate, but yeah that sounds like a good plan."