Two hours before he was to meet this informant, Mr. Ling touched down on Newport Station. He knew his reservation was later, but Ling was a cautious man, in as much as he could be when striding out to the depths of the Sigmas to meet a codenamed Kusarian who wanted to talk about the Jump Drive leaks. Doing foolishness as wisely as he could. Maybe he was more Inner-Circley than he had thought.
Nonetheless, as he casually strode the halls, he began mapping the interior of the station, planning escape and evasion routes, and, most importantly, breaching the security system. It took about thirty minutes for him to patch into every single camera, motion detector, and keypad in the station. In a way, he was being as non-invasive as possible, simply adding another user with read and write privileges. Normally, he'd also lockout all other users until he was done, but it wouldn't be this rag-tag group of freelancers' fault if Kusari used them to stage a hit, so Ling decided to keep the heartaches for them to a minimum.
Once he had the access he needed, Ling made his way to the standard bar. Normally, a man in a suit and tie wouldn't blend in well with the regular denizens of a neutral station, but Ling had mastered the art of body language and social manipulation decades ago, and with those tools in hand he was able to hide in plain sight fairly regularly, no matter how he dressed. There was no reason to make himself widely available until after it was time to meet this "Tamamo no Mae", which of course would be after he had Wolfe to play bodyguard.
Until it was time to meet, he sat at a table by himself, watching every security feed and motion trigger.
Newport Station, approximately 30 minutes prior to Mr. Ling's arrival.
A middle-aged Libertorian woman just entered the bar, subtly exchanging glimpses with no less than ten of the guests currently seated across the various tables. Days have been spent on the planning of this meeting, with Irelei carefully placing personnel across the station. Newport was effectively hers for the day, every security feed, every movement, somewhere someone she chose as trustworthy was there to oversee the situation prior to the arrival of Mr. Ling's special guest. She went as far as bribing Newport's hangar security to send her real time details about every arriving and departing vessel.
Sitting down at one of the two empty tables, she went through her contingency plans again a couple of times. "Tamamo no Mae" was scheduled to arrive in one and a half hours. She sighed, yearning for a little drink, knowing that she must stay sober for the day. To distract herself, she went through the file she has on Mr. Ling; expectedly it was not much: He was a Deceiver of the Inner Circle, born on Pittsburgh.. and a couple smaller details she aimed to withhold until the moment a little shook might be required. From her past experiences, the Inner Circle highly valued their privacy and every little breach of it proved to be of value in past times.
Newport Station, approximately 25 minutes after to Mr. Ling's arrival.
Mr. Ling's own measures of caution did not go by unnoticed, however Irelei settled on not interfering with a quasi-colleagues desire for security. Should he have what he needs to feel at ease enough for this conversation, she thought to herself. Sensing that their guest was about to enter the hallway leading to the bar, she swapped places and joined a group of three. A rag-tag bunch at the first glance, whilst in reality one of the men was a KOI agent. Despite her best efforts to conceal the plan and to avoid their meddling into "Tamamo no Mae" 's plans, she had to accept his presence begrudgingly. Non-interference by the KOI had been her last offer, effectively condemning this man to nothing but a silent observer who'd stay in the lower bar section, yet his presence guaranteed the whole affair to bite them back afterwards. The KOI will demand a favor for their silence, they always did.
Striking a mundane conversation with him and her own assets at the table was all there was to do, whilst she watched Mr. Ling arrive at the bar. His arrival on his lonesome was suspicious, to say the least, but for now all there was to do was to wait.
At ten minutes to the meeting time, Mr. Ling stood and proceeded towards the private bar. The route he took wasn't exactly direct, he had chosen a set of security cameras to pass through. He had pulled a deck of cards from his sleeve as he proceeded down the hallway, shuffling them. Every single card was a King of Diamonds.
He had seen what he needed to see. If things took a turn for the worse, he was prepared. Now, he was just testing a theory. Using his access, he locked a few of the sliding doors that he passed through open, and watched the data flow from the security system. He counted two users. One was the recording software. The other was a person. Someone was watching.
Well, he reasoned to himself, If they're going to paint you as the villain, the least you can do is pose.
Newport Station, approximately 9 minutes before the scheduled meeting.
Irelei had long since left the standard bar, observing Ling's movements in the most obvious to him fashion possible. Playing a little game before the grand show felt like a fun idea after all. And whilst Ling tested his theory, a perfect time window for "Tamamo no Mae" and her two assistants opened. They took the more direct route, whereas Irelei moved across the hallways in a pattern that would lead to her and Ling arriving in the same hallway leading to the private bar section in roughly three minutes.
Newport Station, Private Bar Section, 7 minutes before the meeting time
"Tamamo no Mae" was accompanied by two other women, a second Libertorian still proudly wearing Core insignia and rank on her uniform and a Kusari woman in her late 20s, wearing just a simple suit dress. The ominous contact stood out, wearing a deep purple Tomesode and a Fox Yokai mask. A table was set for them and Ling, whereas the rest of the bar section was empty - with the notable exception of a selection of booze overshadowing the handful of bottles offered in the standard bar by miles.
Ling watched the proceeding through the security system. Military? Bounty Hunters Guild was never a good sign, Core or not. Fox mask didn't inspire confidence, either. One would have to be incredibly unstable to walk around in one of those, maybe an intelligence agent?
Didn't matter, seemed one of them was going to cut him off at the hallway. He picked up the pace a little to make it there first, dropping a card at the door at the entrance to the hallway, and holding it open with his station security access. He had just barely managed to make it to the end of the hallway before Irelei had reached the entrance. Turning around with a smile befitting his smugness, Ling didn't say a word, instead holding up one of his playing cards before dropping it on the door frame. He tilted his sunglasses down to wink at her before pushing them back up and letting both sets of doors close.
The doors closed on the cards, which sparked with like a match being struck. The flame grew into a short, brilliant white glow as a small amount of thermite burned and welded the doors shut, and to the doorframe, sealing the hallway. Of course, until someone came to cut it open. Ling made sure the ventilation was online, though. Dead people tend to sour conversations.
Five minutes to the appointed meeting time, Mr. Ling opened the door to the private bar to find three women already there. Spinning an ace of spades in his hand, he asked: "Kept you waiting, huh?"
Stepping into the room and gesturing behind him with his thumb, he continued "I like your friend. Don't forget to unseal her, yeah? These talismans don't come off easily."
Irelei had anticipated him to try something, but nothing as foolish as this. She didn't care much to hurry with the doorway, instead she immediately informed about "Tamamo no Mae" about the stunt and sent her a "Not to worry", fearing her to overreact.
"Tamamo no Mae" just sat there when Mr. Ling entered, keeping calm and secretly smiling behind the mask. It appeared the found the right specimen after all. The two women at her side didn't appear nearly as amused though, with the uniformed woman speaking up: "Mr. Ling, please sit down." - Upon closer inspection, she was the armed one of the three yet made no attempts to escalate matters.
"Tamamo no Mae" kept her mask on for the moment and upon Mr. Ling finding his place on the seat opposing the three, she too spoke but in a much calmer demeanor: "Deceiver Ling, under normal circumstances your little stunt would've cost you your head. But nothing is quite normal these days and she seemed eager to test your wit. So let us skip trickery and intimidation tactics, shall we?"
Ling turned the ace of spades over in his hand, then turned it over again to reveal a joker. "You said it yourself. "Deceiver Mr. Ling". I'm no Assassin, let alone being a Drake or a Scorpius. Only thing I have walking into..." Ling gestured to the general station around them. "... hostile territory, filled with people who want me captured if not dead, and limited reinforcements, is tricks and intimidations."
Ling sighed a little, partially mental exhaustion, and partly simply a hit of Cardamine from his inhaler. "So, when all I have is smarts, and someone comes along to outsmart me, you can probably imagine that it doesn't exactly sit well, right?"
Ling's augment hadn't slowed down since he had come into the room. Hidden behind his sunglasses, the high-power console patched security feeds and it's own camera to record into a file to be sent to Mactan through his ship. Databases were being searched, hunting for information on the three in front of him and the one left behind. As was usual for his experiences in the Inner Circle, Ling was both ready and expecting to die in this place. The cards up his sleeves could only get him so far, as useful as they were.
Nonetheless, it didn't show on his face. His confident smile didn't so much as twitch. There were two masked individuals at this table.
Whilst the conversation properly started, Irelei already organized some of Newports staff to cut open the shut door.
"Tamamo no Mae" uttered a chuckle at his words, reaching for a cup of tea besides her and just gently swinging it around. "Newport is indeed unfriendly territory, not just for yourself. She wanted to test you, see if you're capable enough to be actually useful. It appears she was right." She let a few moments pass before continuing, "Unfortunately though, she is the one walking around with the data. Not myself. So we'll have to wait until she fixed the little issue you left behind, hai? Now, seeing as everyone knows your name but you do not know everyone else's - or maybe you do, which actually would speak of your value... regardless, girls, please introduce yourselves to our guest." - The name of the woman in the suit dress would be an immediate match with database references, throwing out the name of Ayame Muteki, a state secretary, rendering the formal introduction of just her firstname nothing more than a farce. Before Ling would be able to pinpoint data on the uniformed woman however, she would've already spoiled the surprise herself: "Rayne Krenton. Former Paladin of the Core, emphasis on former."
However, concerningly neither the codename "Tamamo no Mae" nor the woman met in the corridor wound up with any matches and the masked woman clearly made no attempts at revealing her identity just yet.
The secretary was surprising in that for a government official of any kind to be here, this was certainly more than just some Kishiro with a problem. Rayne Krenton, however, was surprising in even just being here. Ling's augment swept access ports, looking for familiar protocols for the Bounty Hunter's Guild's infamous ocular grenades, but nothing came up. Removed? Disabled? Curious, either way.
"Hmh. Congratulations, or something. Bunterguild usually doesn't let people leave alive."
Once again, he found himself next to moving pieces that he wanted nothing to do with. Whatever happened to the good old days of raiding the Cold Lake Project out in Alberta and bypassing White Box security?
By now, the hallway door was opened and Irelei on her way to the meeting.
Rayne noticed a small very subtle hand gesture by the masked woman as she put down the cup of tea again, "The Core was in quite the chaos following Nodtviet's disappearance. They had little to offer, so me and my ship reached out to some old contacts. Resourcefulness shouldn't be foreign to you, Hacker."
Irelei arrived finally, deciding to remain standing and leaning against the entrance door. "Not all too bad there for a former factory worker on Pittsburgh. Her tone was cold and she made a dismissing gesture towards the masked woman. "Still wearing the mask? You're usually not that secretive. Come on, he's likely to record everything and will analyze your voice anyway when he's back home. Speaking of which, where do you hail from? Leiden?
