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 .: Runners
Cronos
Grind
Jin
Joy
Preach
Proteus
.: Thursday, December 20th, 2057
After months of unemployement for most of the runners, in hiding and recuperating from their runs working for Nicholas van Zant word is out on the street that there is trouble brewing in the criminal underbelly of Seattle. The two largest criminal syndicates - the Yakuza and the Mafia, respectively - have been quiet for too long, and a critical mass is slowly being reached. People expect violence.
Frogtongue, the ever polite and intimidating bouncer at The Wastelands informs some of the runners that he knows of a simple job for them to do. A simple run for two days of work with an okay pay. He asks some of them to show up at the Wastelands that night in order for them to meet their employer and hear his offer. He decides to get an acquaintance of his in on the deal, a young and upcoming Ork from Seattle's Ork Underground, by the name of Preach. He also contacts Proteus and Maximilian, who politely declines the offer for work but does inform Jin and tells her she should go in his place.
At the time of the meeting, Grind and Cronos are meeting up at the Wastelands and spot an opportunity to make some money. They are invited to sit in on the deal so that their employer has more people to pick and choose from. With quite a bit of surprise they find out that their meeting is with a man named Flannagan, a Catholic priest and head of the Saint Mary's church in downtown Seattle. A little wary and confused the runners sit down together with Flannagan and Frontongue to discuss the work.
Jin, who was standing at the bar when the priest walked in, noticed a handsome man who had been standing leisurely at the door before the priest came in suddenly violently react in shock and anguish by hissing at the priest while bearing fangs, right before sinking back into one of the club's many shadowy corners and vanishing from sight. Attributing the behavior to the eccentricities and the posing and posturing that the street often brings on, she decided to join Frogtongue, the priest, and the other runners at the table at the back of the club.
Drinks were ordered for everyone while Frogtongue did a round of introductions and explained that the good Father was a personal acquaintance of his in need of assistance. At that moment Father Flannagan told of his predicament; Apparently, some time ago, the Father and his church had been in need of assistance from people from the shadow-community. The church he runs was looking at foreclosure because they were unable to pay back a debt that they had slowly been building up over the span of a few years. The person they had owed the money to had been a rich patron to the church and his donations were never meant to be regarded as a loan, but he had written it up as such in his accounting books for legal and tax reasons, the good Father said. The patron died and the control of all his assets, including the debt the church had, fell into the hands of Betrand Foucault, senior vice president of Mitsuhama's consumer electronics division, who incorporated the assets under the Mitsuhama corporate umbrella.
Soon after Father Flannagan began receiving summons to pay the debt, which was impossible. A Mitsuhama executive by the name of Walter McAllister was threatening with foreclosure if the church wasn't able to pay up, saying that the ground on which the church was built was valuable enough to pay back the debt. Father Flannagan, unsure of what to do came into contact with several Shadowrunners who were willing to see if they could influence the situation through subversive tactics. These Shadowrunners, Adam, Hunter, Nina and Snakepit, found a solution in a mid-level executive by the name of Bill Dougan, who hated his boss McAllister and had plenty of dirt on him. McAllister was a man who had married into power, his wife being the one with the real power in the company, but he also knew that McAllister was often seen in the company of other women at the Hellfire Club, an ultra-exclusive club for high society members with the penchant for the dark, the gothic and the macabre. The head of that club was Bertrand Foucault. Bill Dougan's reason for offering up that info; he didn't like McAllister and was jonesing for his job, and his grandmother still attended the masses at the church regularly. This was all the runners need to apply enough pressure to get the job done.
Through the help of Bill Dougan the church was saved, McAllister fired after his divorce, and Betrand Foucault suffered a blow to his reputation when his intentions of foreclosure came into the media. Bill Dougan was promoted and was asked to regulate the debt with the church in a manner befitting of a "friendly and community-aware megacorporation."
Now, Bill Dougan was in need of shadowrunners, and the only person he knew with contacts in that community, who could put him in the pipeline of this secret pool of resources was Flannagan. And so, Flannagan was there as a middle man with an offer from Bill Dougan, high-level executive at Mitsuhama.
.: The Offer
Bill Dougan was to be picked up at the Mitsuhama corporate headquarters at Martin Luther King Jr. Way and Union Street in Seattle's downtown district, and brought to Underworld 93 at 4819 East 96th Avenue in the Puyallup. There he was to attend a meeting, starting at midnight, taking no more than two hours, after which he'd be ready to be returned to the Mitsuhama Towers. During this time he wanted the runners to make sure he was protected and kept from any physical or mental harm. For this work he was ready to pay ¥25,000 nuyen, dividable amongst the runners as they saw fit, paid upon successful completion of the assignment.
A decision was made there and then to minimise the risk by choosing to use Grind's helicopter as the mode of transport, but in order to minimise expenses, it would be a transport from Renton to the Puyallup and back to Renton, considering how expensive it would be to have a bogus flight plan submitted for flying over the Seattle downtown area. The short distance from the Mitsuhama Towers to the pick up point in Renton - a little league baseball field in an middle-class neighbourhood - they would transport Bill Dougan by way of a vehicle. It was decided that Grind would arrange for the hiring of a stretched, armoured limousine for the purpose of this short trip. Another driver would have to be arranged, and Cronos immediately suggested Joy, since he'd been impressed by the quality of the driving softs she had slotted on previous runs. Also, this would allow him to keep an eye on her, as per his agreement with Nina.
On the way back to his doss in the Underground, Preach found once again that certain motherfucker are always trying to iceskate uphill. Two thugs tried to mug him, armed with chains and baseball bats. He fought them off without too much trouble, but decided that it had taken long enough after long seconds of struggling had past. He pulled a pistol and shot at one of the two muggers, taking the better part of his face and head clean off with one shot, leaving the bloody corps to lie in a wretched heap on the floor of the dark and dusty corridor. The mugger's partner decided it was time to buzz turbo and ran up the corridor, from whence Preach came. He decided not to persue but did feel the need to atone the following day since he didn't mean to kill the mugger, just hurt him enough so they'd back off.
.: Friday, December 21st, 2057
The day of the job was spent aquiring the proper attire for the meeting. It was Bill Dougan's wish that the runners would look like professionals, with lots of trendy looking body-armour. It was decided that Proteus would go into the club alone to scope the place out prior to the arrival of Bill Dougan, and the rest would land with the helicopter in front of the club. That would make a grand enough entrance and satisfy Dougan's thirst for professionalism. Grind would fly his bird to a secluded place where he'd sit tight until it was time for everyone to leave.
A limousine was arranged by Grind, who let Joy drive around in it for a while in order for her to get aquainted with the car. Others spent their time trying to find out more about the club they'd attend, and Jin got in contact with the Cloisters, the group of zealous vampire hunters that Flannagan had gotten her in contact with.
She met with Foucas, the older, moody leader of the Cloisters. He told her about the work the Cloisters did while she was up in their headquarters in the northern part of Seattle. He also told her about Bertrand Foucault and Hunter, and how he came to be what he was. He was familiar with Flannagan and what happened to his church, too, all those months ago. He gave some advice on what to do with vampires, when confronted with them, but was too stand-offish to engaged in a deep discussion about the nature and the dangers of vampires.
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