SEATTLE MISSION 09 – SHANGHAI HEIST – PART 1
|
PREVIOUS: Mission 08 – A Really Bad Idea – Part 4 |
NEXT: Mission 09 – Shanghai Heist – Part 2 |
An Asian man in his early thirties calls us, I recognise him as Hui Cheng Shun. He invites us to a restaurant, the Happy Dragon Shanghai Gardens, with a private room in the back. Wheeler looks the place up; it’s a nice place. The team decides to dress accordingly for a change.
Hui Cheng Shun is a Triad Underboss introduced to the team during a previous run, where they were hired to spy on a Triad and Yakuza meet up. Hui Cheng Shun was the triad representative who showed up at the meet and also the only one to walk away thanks to the team. However, as far as the team is concerned, there is no way for Hui Cheng Shun to know who they are or what they did and this call seems to be completely unrelated.
Wheeler, Cho and I head to the meet. We keep our weapons in the car, along with a reasonable change of clothing. Jade is finishing up with a client and will join us later.
Inside the restaurant, there are no gaudy AI overlays, mostly real objects. A large lotus pond dominates the room. The hostess shows us to the rear of the dining room and through a set of doors. There are a few tables of Triad guards, picking at plates of food, that look as though they have been there a while; I am glad to have my pistol with me.
Mr. Johnson is already seated at the table eating and drinking. He is the only one in the room and our com-links loose connectivity. There are a number of fountains in the room, which produce white noise.
“Good evening, can the hostess get you anything to drink?” She takes our order and Mr. Johnson proceeds to make small talk. I can tell he is not interested in our answers. I order Chow Mein.
“I have asked you here to collect some art artifacts for my client, this sound good?” We agree. “I have been given considerable funds to collect these artifacts. I can give you 5,000¥ each. I have tracked the items to a warehouse in Olympia.” We decline to agree until more details can be obtained. “The items are all in one 4’x2’x2’ crate, weighing 200LBS.” We ask about security. “I would expect a few men on the ground, it’s a standard warehouse. Probably some drone security as well.” Are there any special care instructions? I ask, a reasonable question I thought. “They are quite old and fragile, they are packaged for shipment, but they are worthless to me broken.” Cho asks about the time frame, “Within 24 hours, they will be leaving the facility and I know not where they are going.”
Wheeler says “Sir, we are reluctant to accept this job without knowing who it’s against, often times the wraith incurred costs us more than it’s worth. An increase in pay could alleviate that problem.”
Mr. Johnson ups the ante to 5,500¥, 2,500¥ now, 3,000¥ on delivery. He sends the dossier, the warehouse is owned by Shiawase. Shiawase is one of the “Big 10”, one of the largest global corps. This is also the same warehouse we dropped off equipment at a few months ago. Cho has the most memory of the warehouse layout.
The team visited this warehouse several months prior on an unrelated job, dropping off a shipment they had stolen from Mercury Express for another Mr Johnson. They were allowed to make memory tests to remember certain things about the building layout, security, etc. that they encountered during their last visit.
The dossier also contains a photo of the crate, made of wood with metal bands. It has some ancient sperithiel written on it, the photo is to grainy for me to make out what it says. Mr. Johnson says the artifacts are of Aztec origin.
Cho asks if the artifacts have any magical properties, Mr.Johnson waves his hands dismissively and says that it is nothing that would affect us, there may be some faint auras.
We head home and all discuss the warehouse. A 12’ tall, 1’ thick concrete wall surrounds the building and the parking lot. A guard shack and two guards watch the entrance and barricades force approaching vehicles to slow down and swerve around it. There is also a large steel shipping gate, that has no barricades. The building is two stories tall, with a steep steel roof, there are a few skylights and windows. The bottom story is stone brick. The guards carry heavy pistols and armored vests. There were also a few guards patrolling the area. There were loading docks directly beyond the gate. The Foreman’s office was on the left side of the loading bay, on the far side from the main gate.
Dee does some checking and finds they have either an on or off-site rigger, he can detect some small and large drones. They have a security network, with the majority of the cameras around the entrances to the site.
We pay 10,000¥ for some info and find out that the shipment is going to the Olympia airport at 6am. There are multiple drivers and trucks listed for this delivery, with multiple trucks. The drivers names are:
Jerri Swofford, Derryl Sulser, Marylou Nagler, Kenya Flanery.
He also tells us that the crate location would be on the Forman’s computer in the office. We formulate a plan, and proceed to execute it.
Chekov and Cho are to go over the north wall invisibly, and attempt to take the Foreman’s office. Once taken, they will have the rigger turn his drones on the guards and open the gate. Then we will find the crate. This is based upon the assumption that the rigger is onsite and is in the foreman’s office.
You know what they say about assumptions…
The team spends the next several hours getting ready. Tension is a little lower than normal on the ride to the location, everyone is feeling confident in the plan.
We are waiting on the south side, looking at the main gate, about 6-8 blocks away. I have grenades and grade six plastic explosive to blow through the gate should we need to. Cho and Chekov have been gone about 15 minutes walking around the other side of the building where they will levitate over the wall.
“I’m over,” I hear Cho say over comms. “Some guards are going to be about 15’ away when you land,” she adds.
“I’m down,” Chekov states. “These guys are packing assault rifles, not pistols”
“We are moving toward the Foreman’s office,” Cho tells the rest of us. My heart is beating fast now.
“There is a blacked out van here in the parking lot, this does not look like someones ride to work,” Chekov says. “We are going to check it out.” A few minutes pass. Chekov describes a blacked out GMC Bulldog van, I am drooling thinking about boosting this thing on our way out.
“We are waiting for some guards to clear, then I am going to open this door, if it’s locked Cho is going to shoot it open. Everyone maintain radio silence,” Chekov says.
“Ok, lets go,” Cho says, followed shortly by a panicked, “It’s FULL OF GUARDS!” They sprint for the office. From the van, we hear a single gunshot.
Cho and Chekhov swung open the door and dived inside suspecting, correctly, that the rigger was hiding out in the van. What they had not expected was that the rigger was just one member of a half dozen, quick response force positioned in the van and waiting for trouble. They were also not expecting the people inside the van to resist the invisibility spell, which they did. A first, or at least the first time in awhile, that has happened to them.
PREVIOUS: Mission 08 – A Really Bad Idea – Part 4 |
NEXT: Mission 09 – Shanghai Heist – Part 2 |
Sixth World RPG 
0 Responses to “Seattle Mission 09: Shanghai Heist – Part 1”