Stock in Trade

Stock in Trade
Date 2087-08-25 GM Sample Text Location Seattle Status Threat Level: High
Factions Involved
ShadowHaven
Second Thought Exodus Invictus Backseat	Irene Dixon Character2

Summary

A financial services firm loses a wealthy client, and the catches wind of his unexpected stock market success. They hire shadowrunners to look into the matter, who end up uncovering a network of insider traders and tip-sellers.

Background

Miles Carruthers is a Stuffer Shack franchise owner, hustle culture guru, and Tacoma A-zone resident. He formerly entrusted a financial services firm, Michaels & Michaels, with managing his investment portfolios - that is, until recently. Recently, he stopped using their services, and almost immediately began making a number of highly profitable trades on the stock market. He's publicly very proud of this, posting all over P2.1 about it and advertising his own services as a financial advisor, adding himself to the long and proud (?) legacy of hustle culture grifters that populate the 21st century.

Michaels & Michaels is suspicious, and decide to do a bit of investigation of their own. With some cursory calls, they manage to get their hands on some interesting Matrix footage: a mysterious woman dropping an equally mysterious suitcase in a Downtown alleyway, and then, about a half hour later, Miles himself going into that alleyway and coming out with the briefcase.

They contract a Johnson to hire a team of infiltrators, faces, and matrix specialists to investigate this further.

Unknown to Michaels & Michaels, the disguised woman is one Clover Osborne, an ex-Evo limited SINner and biotech researcher. Eveline Powers is more in the know - and has seen the footage too. She pulls some strings to get Exodus on the job, hoping to recover an asset or eliminate a leak.

The Meet

The team meets the Johnson at a Tacoma restaurant, Margarita's. There, he intimates to them the parameters of the job, as well as the basic information the runners have available - including the recordings of the aforementioned dropoff happening. The team questions the Johnson, and finds out that they don't actually know who the woman who made the dropoff was; her face didn't show up in any public records, so it's probably a disguise.

Eventually the conversation comes around to payment. The Johnson offers a graduated scale: Find out where the packages are coming from for 8k nuyen, find out who exactly is responsible for their sending and earn an extra 6k, and if there are insider trading tips involved, find out who is supplying them - expose the whole thing - for an additional 6k.

Some tag-team negotiation from Invictus and Backseat net the runners an extra 4k spread across the three tiers. That settled, they get to work.

After the meet, Exo contacts Eveline Powers again, who fills her in with additional context. The woman who made the drop is Clover Osborne, and she needs to either come back to Evo or die. The methods, of course, are left to the runner, but an extra 8k nuyen payment will sweeten the pot.

The Plan

Thorough research on Mr. Carruthers reveals both his personal residence and his daily routine, which often takes him downtown. Invictus summons a spirit to search for Carruthers more precisely, while Exodus takes her car down to his house to do a little bit of breaking and entering.

With the assistance of Second Thought, who breaks into the house's cameras to make a blind spot. Exodus picks the lock on a window and gets inside. After a thorough search of the house itself, she manages to find a hidden compartment in his bedroom with a nice secure commlink. Inside are a few recent communications indicating the location of the next package dropoff. Information secure, Exodus covers her tracks and heads out.

Invictus' spirit finds Carruthers at a bland corporate cafe downtown. The two faces head up to do some tag-team negotiation, and slick social maneuvers combined with mind magic result in Carruthers giving up a commcode that's apparently related to his stock success - though he also sends them an ad for one of his seminars. The faces also palm his commlink, which uncovers an address.

That address turns out to be a converted Renton storage facility turned highly secured office. After making their way to Renton - with an unfortunate burned SIN for Invictus along the way - the team finds the building being patrolled by assault rifle-carrying guards and a security drone, and guarded by a manaward and Matrix host. Some longer-term surveillance reveals the woman who made the dropoff exiting the building as well.

After consideration, the team elects not to crack the base for now - instead, they'll nab the woman making the dropoff at the next date, and interrogate her for everything they can get.

The Run

The kidnapping itself goes pretty smoothly. Beforehand, Backseat plants a couple of microcams near the alleyway that the drop's going to be made at, and Invictus sets up across the way to prepare for mind magic. Second Thought is on Matrix overwatch. Backseat also contracts a secure cab service for transporting their temporary "friend", and happens to Know A Guy that can provide a nearby safehouse for the upcoming interrogation.

When Osborne arrives, she spots out one of the cameras and makes ready to abort the dropoff, but she's already come within sight of Invictus's mind magic. She fails to resist, and her plan quickly becomes "actually, let's get in this nice car parked on the side of the street."

While in the car, she manages to shake off the mind magic, but quickly realizes the situation she's in. With some calm negotiation from Invictus and Backseat, she slowly comes around to being cooperative, though she remains visibly tense.

Within the safehouse, Osborne trades her intel for contact with a SIN forger and means of disappearing. Exodus holds an impressively straight face considering that she doesn't intend to allow that to happen, and feeds information to Eveline Powers that will allow her to nab Osborne on the way to her escape.

After Invictus points out that she's definitely burned, Osborne reveals that the insider trading network is the brainchild of an ex-corpo named Irene Dixon, also known as "M. Enfield" - a name that was present on Carruthers' commlinnk. She facilitates clandestine exits for corporate employees in exchange for insider financial information, that she then sells to other clients. Osborne is paying back a favor for Irene before planning to disappear herself. Exodus tries to question Osborne about the why of the matter, but Osborne seems unwilling to explain her life story to the people that have kidnapped her.

Osborne also indicates that actual information on the network's contents itself is likely in the Renton office, and that she doesn't know herself.

After discussion, the team elects to take the current payday and avoid having to break into the highly-secured facility.

Aftermath

Most of the team gets paid and goes on their merry way.

Meanwhile, on her way back to Redmond, Clover Osborne gets picked up by armed Evo reps. She puts up a fight, but is ultimately totally outnumbered. Afterwards, Exodus asks Eveline what Clover's deal was - and it is revealed that she was simply underperforming as an employee. The slow descent of her employee graphs was all but certain to result in her termination, and, unwilling to simply sit around and lose her employment, Osborne decided to take a risky way out.

What happens to her now is up to the bosses.

Rewards

16 RVP * 1.16 overtime = 18 RVP

• 14,000 Nuyen (7 RVP for main objective + 1 bonus objective).
• +3,000 Nuyen (Negotiation bonus)
• 6 Karma (6 RVP) for Backseat, Invictus, and Second Thought
• 12,000 Nuyen (6 RVP) for Exodus, for turning her target in to Eveline Powers
• 10 CDP (5 RVP) + 2 CDP Base

Optional Rewards: Triad contact from IKAG, C2L1 (4 CDP)

Game Quotes

Amusing quote from game.

Player After Action Reports (AARs)

Invictus - Shit... that... that could've been me. That sorta WAS me. Burnt and on the down and out. But they'll see. Some day, I'll make them see. And won't that just be a day.

Backseat - Always love to meet a fellow corpo washout. I'm sure she'll be fine, Kevin's fake SINs are the best in market. He'll get her set up with a whole new life, smooth sailing from here. And they say I only lookout for myself....