[Zakera]Zakera by Night

10PM, Citadel time. Michelle had spent a very tiring day helping Alonso's adoption, meeting with officials, and all she wanted was a good night's sleep.
Unfortunately for her Bintar had called her with a job. A bigger one. She had did many side jobs for Slaves4Us since she arrived at the Citadel, meet someone, deliver something, ease some funds transferts or packages.
This would be bigger. This would include hiring people, and planning to break into somebody's place.
In her bathroom she put her thumb on a certain tile, and put her eye in front of another. She exhaled three times, and a block of tiles opened, containing a large box.
She first extracted her disguise kit and got to work. The first part was of course to get rid of her beloved hipster glasses. Then put on some lenses to give herself blue eyes, dye her hair almost blonde, and put on elaborate makeup. The dye and the makeup were high-end products, and would go away only with a special lotion applied.
She put on flesh-colored constricting undergarment that wouldn't be seen inside her clothes. It wasn't exactly comfortable but it masked her slightly-too-ample forms. She then put on a professional and expensive dress, inspired by Japanese and Asari designs. Her shoes were subtly making her a few centimeters taller. She tied her hair in a strict pony tail and was done.

The last two things she extracted from the box were a small clip-on shield generator and a small gun. She hated those, and assuming a new role didn't magically made her proficient in firearms. Thinking of what she had done with a pepper spray, she shivered at the idea of what would happen if she would need this. Hopefully she wouldn't, or just for show. She made sure the safety was on and slipped it inside her dress.

25 minutes after Michelle had entered the bathroom, Agnes came out, and the two women had little in common. Agnes was more assured, cold and professional. She, after all, was a plant for a slaving company. Assuming another persona helped with the disgusting feeling she got everytime she did a job for Bintar. She used the lobby cameras Snow had installed to make sure nobody would see her come out from the Leaving The Duct offices, put them on loop for 5 minutes thanks to a piece of software Bintar had provided her, and got out.

"Agnes" arrived an hour early to the meeting point Bintar had fixed, a mafia-controlled bar on Zakera. She had to put the appearance of belonging to an important shadow company or maybe an intelligence outfit. She identified herself quietly to the bouncer, who led her to the VIP chamber one of Slaves4Us' fronts had loaned.
She spent the hour preparing the room to make it into a planning center, and scanned for bugs as much she could.
Satisfied, she ordered fine drinks dextro and levo, and waited for her two hires.

Lear looked at the bar, still unable to believe he was actually doing this. Sure, his old friend Vik'Sajee had once helped Titan Corporations, but this wasn't Titan. This was literally a company he'd been told, by slavers, to help. Was he really so desperate to get this information that he was helping people at the behest of slavers?!

As if to answer his own question, Lear found himself at the door to the bar, staring up at possibly the largest bouncer he'd ever seen. Just some Quarian wearing a metallic grey exosuit adorned with the standard Quarian robes, albeit being a jet black color with bright white trimmings, staring up at a fairly large man. No biggie. In his robes many pockets and folds, Lear had managed to hide several varieties grenades (he'd even managed to get an Asari to help him get some Lift Grenades), spare thermal clips, stimpacks, and 2 power cells (because you never know when you might need those). In his left boot was, of course, a knife (which seemed to be normal for Quarian's to stash in their boots). Hidden under the back of his robe was, of course, Lear's highly cherished M-97 Viper, already modded out with a piercing mod and a thermal scope.

So yeah, a large bouncer that could probably use him as a toothpick...

Lovely image there, Brain. Remind me to thank you for it later.

Before Lear could register what was going on, he had been scanned, releived of his weapons, which were stored stored into a safe deposit box (along with his cherished rifle), figurativly dragged to what seemed like some sort of VIP lounge, and lightly pushed inside. The only onther occupant in the room was a woman. Lear had come prepared for combat, not socializing. He was terrible at socializing.

"Uhm... yeah. Hi. Are you the person I was told to help? Because if you are, then I'm Lear'Kaus... Otherwise I've made a terrible mistake, met the largest bouncer I've ever seen, been dragged across a bar, dropped into a VIP lounge, embarrased myself in front of you, and I should really shut up now, shouldn't eye?" Lear wrung his hands nervously, terrified of the fact that he might be in the wrong place entirley.

Agnes smiled coldly to the newcomer.

"Welcome Mr Kaus. Is that the correct way to say it? Please help yourself to what should be a fine selection of dextro drinks and appetizers. We're expecting one more person and we'll get on with that reunion. We have quite a lot to do.
Before she gets here, any question you'd like to ask in private?"

Unlike the quarian, the second person 'Agnes' had hired, was far more lightly armed. She was rather unremarkable except for the jovial cockiness in her steps, a somewhat modified omnitool and the knife hidden on her person. When Tanya stepped into the bar (charmingly corrupt place)she was quickly accosted by a very large bouncer who was practically half her size.

After a quick scan he held a hand impatiently.

"Alright, alright," She muttered, pulling out the knife with a flourish and putting into his large hand, "Don't break it." No one in the bar batted an eyelash-most no one was under the impression this bar was anything other than it was. A front. A mask.

She was casually marched across the bar, muttering, "Alright, okay. That's cool. hands to yourself please. I can walk-" before she was unceremoniously pushed into what appeared to be a VIP.

Tanya smiled broadly at the cold-eyed woman and the quarian, "Hi. Hope I'm not late." She promptly threw herself onto a seat, lounging there and still smiling that somehow disconcerting expression that hid calculation. The other human woman held the balance of power in the room, not the quarian-he was most likely her collegue in this venture and was possibly disarmed similarly to herself. Which meant the human was the larger threat-probably armed and Tanya's knife was in the other room.

She noted this all to herself but made no movements. She was here for a job, but it never hurt to look out for yourself.

Note for later : The bouncer throwing people into the room might be a tad much...

Agnes offered to Tish the same cold and professional smile.

"Ms Tish, very glad to see you, please call me Agnes. As you can see our comrade Mr Kaus is already here, so our team is assembled. I would like to thank you at first for being so punctual and to have accepted to meet. Please help yourself to appetizers and drinks while we start."

Agnes talked with a distinct quebecois accent, almost rural. While everyone took their seat she activated her omnitool's projector function and aimed it at the wall. Taleeze and Daia's exotic number.

DAMN IT

"Right, sorry, I was watching the APU cup, I just paused at half time. Hem. Moving on."

Agnes blushed immediately and frantically closed the video to display the picture of a mansion. It was located in Zakera ward and the decoration and shape were distinctly asari.

"This is Manela R'Tago's mansion. She's a citadel official, pretty well connected, she handles a great deal of traffic on the Zakera docks. According to our information broker, she also has access to some information my employer desperately need. Our job is to extract that information.

Obviously it's not just a simple hacking job, the mainframe where the information is stored is not connected to any network, you can access it only via custom made omni-tools that feed the machine information, and request information. It's all pretty tight, and we haven't managed to find away to duplicate those omni-tools. The access to the mainframe is already secured by someone on our payroll, now we need Ms R'Tago's omni-tool.

Either we steal it or manage to copy it, which would be even better, but probably tricky. They are highly secured. I'll leave that choice to you.

Obviously access will be a problem. Ms R'Tago doesn't always carry that particular omni-tool because it's not her own, but that means it's in a safe. And her mansion is well protected. The reason we're rushing the job is that there is a social event at her mansion, the birthday of her daughter actually, three days from now. Very high class event, but we can get invites and covers.
If you prefer a more low-key approach, a regular burglary is also a possibility. I'm opened to suggestion. I'd advise against violent approaches however, unless they're really our only option."

Lear took in all the details they'd been given, constantly reviewing them and turning them over in his head. If one were to look at the quarian, they might have quessed he was attempting to stop himself from pacing around the room as he always did while he was thinking.

Okay. So we need to get to the mainframe to get the information. Information is locked down from all networks except for custom omni-tools. Custom omni-tool not carried by Manela R'Tago, but is instead in a safe. Mansion, big house. Could have many safes inside. Of course, the party would be a welcome distraction, as it means that there might not be as many guards around some areas of the mansion...

"Well I don't know how easily humans can fit into a party, but I think a Quarian would attract attention. Not the good kind of attention either..." Besides, it wasn't like Lear was a terrible burglar... It just conflicted with his morals was all. Then again, everything he was doing right now conflicted with his morals. Hell, he'd wanted to go home to Rannoch, but even that conflicted with his morals!

"I can honestly say we could attempt to copy the omni-tool so that you can access the mainframe whenever you need to, but in the event things go wrong stealing it would probably easier..."

Tanya tilted her head, contemplating the information she'd been given (after smirking at her employer's little slip up there).

Why am I doing this again?

Money. Money buys nice things.

If this thing goes sideways, shove the quarian at 'em. They always blame the quarian.

Her thoughts didn't show up when she spoke or on her face, "She said she could get invites and covers," She drawled at the quarian, "So I'm certain she can get you in. Unless you're playing us," A razor-sharp smile at Agnes before her cocky sureness sunk back in, "Afterall, there's a few people sucking up to the quarians now you're one of the few functioning industrial complexes."

She broke off to contemplate the burglary itself.

"Stealing it is simpler," She said matter-of-factly, "Copying it is cleaner but that doesn't seem like an option if we don't have the appropriate fabricator. Do you have any info on what the security is like? I can get us through most electronic systems, but if we have to take care of physical security guards, we're going to have to move fast and it won't be pretty." There was a subtle ugliness to the way she said 'take care of', so callously.

"The party seems like a better distraction," She decided, "Security will have a lot of ground to cover, a lot of people to check. Even so I suggest only rudimentary weaponry if any at all, because we don't want to be caught going in with guns." She said the last a little disdainfully.

At Lear's last remark she smirked again, "Well you be the distraction, I'll grab the data." It was a part-joke. he was more noticeable than her, but not job-ending noticeable.

Hopefully. Guy looked inexperienced with jobs like this.

Well that's not a team player, but she sounds confident at least.

"Agreed, guns are bad. However if we want to smuggle equipment inside, I had an idea in mind. The mansion gets dozens of various packages every day, for various uses. We can add a package of ours the day before, something that won't show up in scan but can be assembled later by omni-tool. Maybe something non-lethal to neutralize the guards to sleep if need be. What do you think?

About the type of security used..."

Agnes made some technical specification appear.

"This is the Omnikey Sirta-Lyirium-3588. Its specs are public enough, the security isn't in the making, but in the way each omniKey is forged by Sirta specialists.
Now with the thing in hand, knowing how it is done and with a bit of research, can you emulate its input/output on an omni-tool?

"If you're implying that I'm new to infiltration, you've got another thing coming. I'm not going to be a distraction just so you can save your own hide if things go wrong." Lear didn't trust this woman.Hell, he didn't trust either of these women. He had that gut feeling that told him this was a bad idea. That, given the first oppurtunity, one would probably stab him in the back, and the other would probably do the same.

"Whether we copy it or steal it, we need to think of a plan and a backup plan in case everything falls apart around us." Lear finished and turned his attention to Agnes and the Omnikey's specifications, taking in every detail.

"Given the proper amount of time, I could probably make a copy of the key, but the chance is fairly slim without something to base it off of, meaning we'd still need the original."

"No shit," Tanya muttered at the whole 'we still need to steal it'. She eyed the quarian, amused by his little declaration. He was right not to trust her, just as she didn't trust either of the others in the room. Distrust and pragmatism were the best way to stay alive with all your vital bits when it came to the shadier part of the Citadel.

Though the influx of refugees had made it less likely that you'd be dragged off by CSec.

"So we get inside using the party," She ticked off on her fingers, "We locate the key, I knock out the security systems with my OT, we steal the key. You then copy it while I keep watch. If we run into guards non-lethal force would be better-some of those private security types are ex-CSec and they don't like it when their own end up dead. Talking our way out would be better yet. After we finish, we skedaddle with the information. Anything I've missed?"

"As for alternative plans, all we can do really is run for it. Private security we can handle some of, but once CSec shows, we're fucked. In which case the only option is to run."

"Yes, we don't want to make too much of a bang anyway. If they guess what we came for, they can always lock the terminal afterward, making our efforts moot. Do you have any preference in non lethal weapons? So I know what I'll smuggle."

Non-lethal weapon?

Lear thought as the two woman spoke. If need be, he could probably incapacitate a guard if he needed to, but a non lethal weapon?

"I'm good with whatever, as long as its easily concealable and is effective." Lear thought of the OmniKey specifications once again. Getting into an omnitool was simple, but an OmniKey?

Those usually take longer due to the massive amounts of encryption, and time was not a luxury they would be receiving.

Tanya tilted her head, considering, "I still want my knife." Don't leave home without it and all that, "A contingency of course," She smiled, "Ever heard of Bloom? Street name for a a fast-moving sedative. Jab, and they're down quick. It's suitable for our purposes." She looked at the other two, "Anything else we need to consider? If quarian here can copy the key and I can get us in, we seem set."

Agnes wrote done the reference of the tranquilizer Tish had advised.

"Amazing. Ms Tish basically if you can get that knife through an airport you can bring it to the party on yourself. But I'm skeptical. Modern scanners detect not only composition of a weapon but only their shape. If you can't take it to an airport I'll smuggle it in the crates. Does it sound agreeable?"

Tanya lounged in her seat and examined her nails, "Yeah. Smuggling would be best."

She wasn't going to walk into a party with a knife on here. Any security worth two cents would be able to detect that. "We set?"

"Unless there's a detail we missed, or haven't been told about, I'd say we are... I just hope your employer keeps his side of the deal..." Lear didn't trust either of these people. He knew very little about either of them, and knew he probably wouldn't be able to rely on his "partner" if they got caught.

Agnes smiled professionally.

"Then our business for tonight is concluded. Please take with you the plans of the house and any information you might find useful. The party will be in two days, and will start at 8pm. Let's meet here, in this bar, two hours before to get our game plan straight. We'll all take a skycar there. Until then if you want to do some recon or prepare a more detailed game plan, be my guestHave a nice evening."

The band disbanded for the night. Agnes was relieve to come home, clean up the makeup, change, become Michelle again. She fell in her bed like a log. The tension of handling the charity by day, with the papers and the kids and the gangs, was already barely manageable as it was. That she had at night to play the double agent was taking a toll on her.

The next two days Michelle organized the party when she had time. Bintar's contacts got the invites, she coordinated with the bar. She always worked on that when Snow was outside working on something. First because he was pretty intuitive and she considered it an unacceptable risk, and second because she felt pretty guilty to work for a slaver under his nose.

The day of the party she went through the same ritual as before to become Agnes, and went to the bar to set everything up. She had a knot in her stomach. What if she got caught? She could imagine Snow, Laykar, Sarah, Xuumo and the duct rats discovering she had been working for Slaves4Us. It would be very bad. She worked hard to catch her breath, got her game face on, and waited for her nocturnal allies.

As with the meeting two nights ago, Lear was once more dragged (although not as roughly, this time) to where Agnes was, and was gently placed on his feet, unlike the last time where he was just dropped. He quickly stood up. The quarian was dressed the same as two days ago, but there had been additions made to the robe, allowing it to look "formal". Interesting what one could do with time and cloth.

"Nice to know the staff is at least nicer this time..."

Tanya handed over her weapons before they were taken off her this time and walked into the room. She wasn't as...chirpy this time, a certain hard glint in her eyes as she slumped into her seat. She waved at the guard as he left anyway but there was a certain jitteriness in the way her eyes flicked around the room. Hopefully just adrenaline.

"Everythig ready to go?"