(11) CONTACTING RETIARIUS "I will say *one* thing for grand-dad's day. When he was young, if you called someone up and they didn't like it, they couldn't shoot you back a virus down the lines that would defrost the fridge or make your television explode. All they could do back then was pretend not to be home". - Lludd Whenever the P.C.s call Retiarius *, they will get an answering machine. The voice is male and slightly reedy. It says "This is Retiarius' answering machine. The master is not at home. In fact, he will be gone for a time lasting anything from an hour to a year or more. However, if you leave a message at the tone, I will replay it to him if and when he gets back". At this point, there is a brief fanfare of trumpets, after which the P.C.s may leave a message. If the P.C.s identify themselves in the message, Retiarius will call them back immediately after they disconnect. "Hello, this is Retiarius. You left a message on my answering machine. Do you have my photographs?" he will ask. If the P.C.s say that they have not, then he will impatiently tell them to get them. If the P.C.s say that they have, he will wish to meet them. Go to (13) Meeting Retiarius. If the P.C.s mention that Waters was brought to Drake in a state of unconsciousness by two people, Retiarius will tell them that this suddenly all makes sense. The tall blonde man was Waters and that the patient was, in fact, a man by the name of Quin. Quin was a Sarracen Entertainments operative tailing Waters. Quin's homing device was removed so that Quin could be interrogated at Water's leisure without Sarracen Entertainments being able to track them down. A successful roll against Detect Lies will reveal that Retiarius is lying through his teeth. If the P.C.s mention Quin and Ling K'o by name, Retiarius' story will be different. He will tell them that Quin and Ling K'o are two of Sarracen's operatives who were sent to bring back Waters. They found out too late that Waters had a homing device planted in him, with which Waters' own people were tracking them. They rushed him to Dr. Drake's clinic for a rush removal and almost got away, but Waters' samurai caught up with them and there was a ferocious shoot-out. Quin got blown to hell with a round of SLAP. He's dead. Ling K'o got away, but not with Waters, who is free once again. Ling K'o can't be contacted. She's on a run in the Philippines. Once again, Retiarius is lying about everything (except that Quin is dead). If the players report to Retiarius that Smith looks just like Sarracen, he will pause and then say "Excellent. You have done extremely well. But if you are to be paid, you must bring photographic proof". If they ask to know what the hell is going on, he will reply "I don't know for sure, and I will not speculate at this point. I want those photographs. Get them for me". (12) CAGEY AND CASE, Ltd. "If I lend you $100 and then send some associates around for your toe- nails if you don't pay me back, that's loan-sharking. If I lend you $100,000 and then send some associates around for your toe-nails if you don't pay be back, that's finance" - Red Square. Cagey and Case Ltd. are a finance company some five years old. They have their own building near the outskirts of the central business district. With staggering originality, the ten story structure is known as the "Cagey and Case Building". It is a large silver and white block, with ugly steel girders running up the sides to give the impression of dependability. There is a car park behind it and gardens on three sides. The whole affair is surrounded by a 10 foot chain fence, which is not electrified and contains no barbed wire. The front gate has a guard house with a single cheerful, friendly security guard and a security camera. He asks to see your I.D. but if you come up with an excuse as to why you don't have it with you, he'll let you through anyway. He asks you to call him "Bob". During the day, there will be three guards on the bottom floor in reception, and one further security guard on each even numbered floor - so that there will be nine in all (with one extra on the sixth floor who just stays watching camera displays and coordinating the others). At night, the gate-house will be operated by remote control - identify yourself to the camera and the gate will click open. There will be a security guard on the tenth, seventh, and fourth floor. There will also be two security guards on the first floor and two security guards patrolling the grounds, each with two trained attack dobermans on leashes (ST 12, DX 12, Move 10, 1d-1 biting damage). That makes seven, plus the commander in the sixth floor control room. Consider each security guard to be ST 11, DX 11, IQ 9, HT 11, Spd 5.5, thrust 1d-1, swing 1d+1, with a Guns (pistol) skill of 13, a Guns (rifle) skill of 12, and a Throwing (grenade) skill of 11. They will have whatever arms and armour they may legally carry in the cyberpunk world in which the game is set. In GURPS Cyberworld, this will mean that they are armed with Colt Classic 10mm autopistols. In Littmann's Cyberworld, they have O.N.I. Militia .44 Magnum auto-pistols. In both GURPS Cyberworld and Littmann's Cyberworld, they will have 3 tear-gas grenades, and light monocrys suits with heavy kevlar vests over the top. If they both need to and are able to, they can obtain CY= M1 Garand rifle .30-06 / HT= M1 .30 carbines / CW= Sauvage 7mm "Boucanier" rifle / LC= Petersen Chaka 6mm carbines from weapons lockers in the basement and in the 6th floor control room. They will only be five such weapons in each of the two lockers. In any case, if they are fighting within the close confines of the building and are not up against serious armour, they are probably better off with the lower snap-shot number of the handguns. John Smith * works on the 7th floor from 8:00 A.M. in the morning until 7:00 P.M. at night six days a week. If a fire-fight breaks out in the Cagey and Case Building while he is there, then he will hide cowering under his desk like all the other suits. As far as he is concerned, he is a perfectly normal low-middle rank executive who has never had a brush with anything unusual, criminal or even "streety" in his life. He is the spitting image of Christopher Sarracen. One of the other suits might also cause the party concern. John's co- worker and friend Susan Chuan is, in fact, the dangerous street-samurai Ling K'o * - dramatic music. She may well be more trouble than the rest of security put together. At 7:00 P.M., the employees who are coming off shift (which includes John Smith, Susan Chuan and ten others), will get onto a Cagey and Case corporate bus which will drive them to their own Cagey and Case corporate apartment building. Cagey and Case cozy, huh? When the employees are transferring to the bus is when John Smith is most easily sniped at, whether with a camera or something else. The bus will pull up at the gate-house, so the gate guard will be in proximity, but won't be paying much attention. There is also a security guard aboard the bus, but she isn't expecting trouble either, so she too won't be paying much attention. Ling K'o, as Susan Chuan, will be paying a great deal of attention, even if she is pretending not to. If she spots a sniper, she will try to alert the guards and get John to safety without blowing her own cover. If she has to blow her cover to save him, though, then she will. By the way, the bus driver owns a shotgun and keeps it with him on the bus. Its a CY= Remington M870 12g / HT= Winchester '97 12g / CW= Remington Model 60 12g / LC= Ironstate Plainsman 12g "hunting" shotgun. If a battle starts, the bus driver will think that he's Rambo. He isn't - he's ST 10, DX 10, IQ 9, HT 10, Spd 5, thrust 1d-2, swing 1d and has a guns (Shotgun) skill of 11. The bus travels just five miles to the Cagey and Case apartment building, imaginatively named The Cagey and Case Apartment Building. Its the same size as the office tower, but less flashy. It consists of a ground floor from which rise two eight-story towers connected by a series of perspex walkway-tubes that allow one to move from A Tower to B Tower. Security in the apartment building is a lot less tight than at the offices. There are two corporate security guards on duty at any one time. They are armed as are the guards at the Cagey and Case building, but have no access to carbines. There is one lock and a security camera at the front door. The guards will be just inside the lobby. Also in the lobby are two elevators, each requiring a key-card to operate and each containing a security camera. The guards are supposed to be watching the camera's, but the only one watching is Ling K'o through an illegal tap. John Smith's apartment is on the fifth floor, apartment B12 - which you arrive at by using the B elevator (or using A and crossing a tube). Susan Chuan (Ling K'o) has apartment B11. She keeps a careful and diligent eye on her neighbor, despite the fact that she is going insane with boredom. She has his room bugged, and also has spy holes through her wall to his. It takes a real effort of will to have his families banal conversations playing all day, but she keeps them on just the same. Ling K'o will be real glad when this job is over! John Smith shares his apartment with his wife, Mary Smith, his son, Robert Smith, and his daughter, Alice Smith. They all have attractive appearance. Mary is ST 10, DX 12, IQ 9, HT 12. Robert, 12, is ST 8, DX 11, IQ 9, HT 9. Alice, 11, is ST 7, DX 9, IQ 8, HT 8. Mary has Computer Operation -13, First Aid -14, and apparently no other skills or interests outside of looking after the family and watching television. Neither Robert nor Alice seem to have any skills beyond what is required to get straight C's at school. The whole Smith family is wholesome and well behaved and very boring. They also seem to be somewhat two dimensional - which, since they have all had their personalities rewired, is hardly surprising. There are no weapons in the Smith household. If the characters break in, John Smith will plead with them not to hurt Mary or the kids, Mary will plead with them not to hurt John or the kids, and the kids will just plead with them not to hurt anybody. Nobody, with the likely exception of Ling K'o, will fight. On the other hand, the Smith family are very likely to call the city police and Cagey and Case security. The police won't come - they are too busy - but corp security will. If the Smith family (or Ling K'o) manage to send out a distress call, both of the ground floor security guards will arrive in 45 seconds. In six minutes, two more guards will arrive from the office tower. Meanwhile, the office tower itself will go on alert, fearing that the trouble at the apartment tower is a diversion to draw away security. If it is daytime, there will be two alert guards in the sentry box, there will be two guards on the roof with CY= M1 Garand rifle .30-06 / HT= M1 .30 carbines / CW= Sauvage 7mm "Boucanier" rifle / LC= Petersen Chaka 6mm carbines. There will be three guards in the lobby playing cards. That's seven in all, plus, of course, the commander in his control room on the sixth floor paying extreme attention to the security cameras. If it is night-time, then there will only be five guards (plus the commander). No-one will be in the sentry box. Two will be on the roof with CY= M1 Garand rifle .30-06 / HT= M1 .30 carbines / CW= Sauvage 7mm "Boucanier" rifle / LC= Petersen Chaka 6mm carbines. One guard with a CY= M1 Garand rifle .30-06 / HT= M1 .30 carbines / CW= Sauvage 7mm "Boucanier" rifle / LC= Petersen Chaka 6mm carbine and four unleashed dobermans will be patrolling the grounds. Two normally armed guards will be in the lobby. Unless there is reason to believe that the building really will be under attack, the two in the lobby will be watching re-runs of Cheers. As before, the commander in the security center will be paying great attention to the cameras. Having played around with Cagey and Case Ltd., here are a few options. If the players contact Retiarius to tell him either that Smith looks just like Sarracen or that they have photographs of Smith (or for any other reason), go to (11) Contacting Retiarius. If the players have abducted Smith and they were told to by Sarracen, go to (18) I've Got a New Addition to my Executive Collection, Mr Sarracen! If the players have abducted Smith and they were told to by Retiarius, go to (20) I've Got a New Addition to my Executive Collection, Mr Retiarius! If the players have killed Smith and were not told to, then Sarracen (or Retiarius if appropriate) will take the news calmly but refuse to pay them a cent. The adventure is over. Go to (2) Doing Nothing for the follow-up. [In Cyberpunk 2.0.2.0., the guards are INT 5, REF 7, CL 7, MA 7, BODY 7. They have Brawling +3, Pistol +6, Rifle +4. They are armed with Sternmeyer Type 35 heavy autopistols and 3 stun grenades. They wear medium armour jackets. The weapons in the weapons lockers will be Militech Ronin Light Assault rifles. The bus-driver (Rambo) is INT 5, REF 6, CL 6, MA 6, BODY 6. He has Brawling +2 and Rifle +2. He's armed with a Sternmeyer Stakeout 10 shotgun. Mary Smith is INT 5, REF 8, CL 5, MA 8, BODY 7. She has Computer Operation +4 and First Aid +6. Robert Smith is INT 5, REF 7, CL 4, MA 6, BODY 5. Alice Smith is INT 4, REF 5, CL 3, MA 5, BODY 4.] [In Shadowrun, the guards are Body 4, Quickness 4, Strength 4, Charisma 3, Intelligence 2, Willpower 2, Essence 6, Reaction 3. They have Firearms 4, Throwing Weapons 2, Unarmed Combat 2. They are armed with Browning Max-Power heavy pistols and 3 concussion grenades. They wear armour jackets. The weapons in the weapons lockers will be Sandler TMP submachine guns. The bus-driver (Rambo) is Body 3, Quickness 3, Strength 3, Charisma 3, Intelligence 2, Willpower 2, Essence 6, Reaction 2. He has Firearms 2 and is armed with a Remington Roomsweeper shotgun. Mary Smith is Body 4, Quickness 4, Strength 3, Charisma 3, Intelligence 2, Willpower 2, Essence 6, Reaction 3. She has Computer Operation 3 and Biology (Medicine) 5. Robert Smith is Body 3, Quickness 4, Strength 1, Charisma 3, Intelligence 3, Willpower 3, Essence 6, Reaction 3. Alice Smith is Body 2, Quickness 3, Strength 1, Charisma 3, Intelligence 2, Willpower 2, Essence 6, Reaction 2.]