FIRST REPLY Loss Assessment

[Elias Yang]

10:03 PM
Kabuki, Watson​

---

Legally speaking, he had a warrant – deep in the fine print of every contract was a clause allowing Allworld adjusters to enter the insured's premises without their explicit permission if they had "reasonable suspicion" that relevant evidence to a claim was within. Charity Borden, the subject of today's escapade, wasn't a policyholder, but she'd gotten a quote once before, and buried in the privacy policy statement that everyone agrees to and nobody reads was a similar clause.

Elias didn't like using that power. He justified it to corporate once as avoiding further damage that might be claimed, and excitedly told he was "innovative" and "forward-thinking", preceding no change in company policy. Not that that excuse worked here; Borden had no insurance for her apartment. Regardless, he knocked.

By the third time, he allowed himself a tactical reevaluation. Borden was supposed to be here – she was always home this time of evening. From the data they'd collected, she should be sitting on her couch four seasons deep on Watson Whore, tired out from her day cleaning up apartments in a building two blocks from Arasaka Tower. One of their mutual clients had had something important stolen. Allworld, like the client, wanted it back – paying Elias for his work cost less than replacing something that valuable.

He glanced left, right: no neighbours in sight. Step back, unholster, check mag, safety, load. One, two, crunch, door's down and gun's up. Elias started checking rooms, but didn't seem like Borden was there.

"Toughie," he murmured. Her crap was all over the floor; a little unexpected for someone who worked in housekeeping. The only lights on was a neon sign lifted from Lizzie's. The rest of the apartment was lit only by the ads spinning on the massive screens above the roundabout down the street. NC doesn't sleep; tonight neither would he. He got to work, poking around the apartment.

 

[Xasha Callisto]

Active Location: Some apartment block
Physical Location: Down the hallway from Elias
Objective: Observe, perhaps intervene
Tags: @Elias Yang

Outfit

Callisto: You dumb shit Kore, how did they manage that?
Kore: Didn't have my head in the right game did I?
Callisto: Yeah, but ten G? Damn Ko
Gandymede: You need to stick to slicing, less blackjack
Callisto: this
Kore: Wanna win the game you gotta be in the game
Callisto: Hold up, somethings up here, brb.

The netrunner disconnected her link and leaned over a little, the door of the apartment was off its hinges and she was sure she could hear someone moving around in there. She was suddenly glad she had her pistol on her, even if the client she had been meeting up with in this block had told her it was unnecessary. If a dude ever specifically tells you you don't need a gun, you bring a fucking gun, that was her thinking. But it had all gone smoothly, the guy had access to all the accounts his cheating wife had locked him out of and she was 2G richer for her troubles.

She slipped past the door quietly and looked up its occupants on record, seemed fairly innocuous, named Borden, a housekeeper, a few quite filthy comments on the socials of some Watson Whore actor called Devon, but nothing particularly weird.

At this point, she should have moved on and forgotten about this, but her sense of curiosity was getting the better of her now and she stopped to lean up against a nearby wall in the shadows with an eyeline to the door so she wouldn't be surprised if someone ran out. She tried finding access routes attached to the apartment, flipping through various wireless signals for an in. "Ha, dumbass." The fridge wasn't encrypted and was on the same network as all her other devices. On her desk was a small camera and screen that linked to the doorbell and from there she could see the guy walking around the room, he wasn't roughing the place up, nor was he trying to steal. Curious. Depending on how accurate his hearing was he might hear the whirring of the camera motor following him before the doorbell speaker crackled with the soft playful accent of a young Thai woman.

"Whatcha upto?"

 

[Elias Yang]

Kabuki, Watson
@Xasha Callisto​

​

---

Elias stopped his searching and turned, looking first at the doorbell speaker, then up at the internal security camera. He kept his iron in hand, tapping it against his leg. "Looking for Charity," he said.

He was pretty sure Borden had zero chops as a runner -- she worked for a small cleaning service, but like most working with corpo clients, they had a reasonable vetting process for cybernetics. She couldn't afford a solid cyberdeck and wouldn't have a use for it. The girl's tone instead said nosy neighbour. If Borden or someone she knew had actually stolen the thing, they'd be trying to get out, not engaging with the guy tracking her down.

"You know her? Know where she is?" He was at a disadvantage, so he played close to the chest.

 

[Xasha Callisto]

Active Location: Some apartment block
Physical Location: Down the hallway from Elias
Objective: Observe, perhaps intervene
Tags: @Elias Yang

Outfit

"Might do, depends who's asking?" came the speaker with a little laugh and a quite obvious suggestion as further down the hallway Xasha started looking up accounts on the home network to try and give herself something to barter for a bit of free cash if things went that way. Whoever lived there wasn't tech-savvy so the network was sloppy and fairly simple for an experienced netrunner to get about if she bought a little time.

"So why you after her? Oh.. actually, let me guess.

You and Charity met in high school, she was a little younger and came from a good family, her parents weren't keen, but you made her happy, for a while.

Problems started after college, you got her pregnant, it wasn't planned, of course, it never is, but you're a good guy, you made it work, settled down, took care of her. But then there was that barmaid, maybe a dancer, I don't know, but she was pretty and reminded you of Charity before the baby, it was a slip, you felt bad but she wasn't the last.

The runner continued to work.

Then the rows started, you tried to make it work but you had the addiction, worked hard at it but those girls, if anything she was the asshole for not helping you through. Finally she'd had enough though, what was the final straw? She found some cheap whore's pants in your bed? Maybe you'd hit the bottle too and she had had enough. Her parents weren't taking her in, you'd helped burn that bridge long ago, but they couldn't see her homeless, so there is this little place, her and the kid trying to set up a new life, but you aren't done with them."

Bingo! Xasha smiled to herself as she finally had what she wanted.

"Sound about right handsome?"

A small personal device began to whirr as it became part of Xasha's network and divulged all of its secrets, she was careful to make sure it was now properly encrypted, just in case the man wasn't in a cooperative mood and fancied his chances picking up and trying to read the device himself.