Welcome to Kookie’s. This seamstress bar in New York has seen its fair share of shady deals and covert meetings. Even on a weekday afternoon you could find at least one group of people huddled around a table drawing out plans for some illicit activity. Today, the bar finds itself host to yet another group of Shadowrunners looking for work from a Johnson.

“So, the job is to infiltrate Pew Pew Labs and acquire their prototype laser weapon,” Gauss, the Johnson, said. “You are not to be discovered, nor can the lab know that the prototype has gone missing. Once you’ve found the device,” she placed a small case on the table, “you’re to put it in here and report back to me. Understood?”

“Is there anything else we should be aware of?” Sam asked, taking the case. He was an elf with a knack for talking his way into, but more importantly out of, any situation. He wore a shirt and slacks that you could find on a typical businessman if you caught him on casual Friday.

“I have some intel that another group will be scoping Pew Pew Labs at the same time. However, their interest does not lie in the prototype. They should be no problem to you.” Gauss replied.

“Alright, I’m in,” said Sam.

“Sounds good to me!” said Elena. She was an energetic human girl with a natural talent for manipulating the Matrix. She had fiery red hair, a cybernetic arm, and a birthmark in the shape of a comet on her left cheek.

“Let’s do this,” said Ilya. He was a quiet human who could most aptly be summed up in a single word: guns. If it launched things at high velocities, you could bet he knew how to handle it.

After a small bout of disagreement over how to proceed, the trio decided to case Pew Pew Labs. Elena hacked into the government records and was able to find blueprints of the building that included the location of all the security cameras. Sam attempted a more personal approach. He entered the lobby of the building, planning to wait for an employee that he could snag an ID swipe from.

“Hello, sir. Is there anything I can help you with?” asked the receptionist as Sam went to take a seat on one of the benches.

“Actually, I’m just waiting for a friend of mine. I was wondering if you could let me through to see him?” Sam said.

“What’s your friend’s name?” asked the receptionist. Sam thought quickly, trying to come up with a name that may sound like someone who worked there.

“Don’t worry, I got ya!” said Elena. She had heard the question through Sam’s commlink and brought up a database of employees at the lab. “Looks like the lead lab technician is called George Fiveman.”

“I’m here to see George Fiveman,” Sam said confidently.

“One moment please,” said the receptionist. She tacked away at her keyboard and a few

moments later a man came into the lobby.

“Hello? What can I do for you?” asked George.

“Hello! Your president sent me in to check out what you’ve been working on. I’ve been thinking of investing here and I would love to see some of what you’ve been doing before I decide to put my money in,” said Sam.

“Excellent!” said George, “we’ve been needing funding pretty badly lately. Let me show you to the lab!” He led Sam down the hallway and into the lab. Inside, Sam saw a couple of other lab technicians and rows of computers and desks. There were all kinds of parts and pieces for new laser technologies. But nothing that suggested a complete, functioning laser pistol.

“This all looks very promising,” said Sam, “except, if I’m going to invest I’m going to need to see something a little further along the lines of production.”

“Well,” George hesitated for a moment, “I probably shouldn’t show you this, but we do have this prototype.” He walked to desk and slid out a drawer. From inside, he pulled out what appeared to be a normal handgun covered in glowing red lights.

“Now that is something I can get behind!” said Sam, “I believe I’m ready to begin investing in your lab!”

“Really!? The president is in his office right now! Would you like for me to bring you in and you can set up a deal with him?”

“I don’t think that would be appropriate just yet,” said Sam, “I’ve still got to speak with my lawyers and draft up a contract.” And with that, George walked Sam out to the lobby and Sam rejoined his fellow runners.

“Alright, I know where the gun is,” said Sam.

“And I found a way to temporarily disable the security,” said Ilya. As Sam was getting an inside look, Ilya was inspecting the outside. He was looking for any other way in or any other weakness he could exploit. He found nothing but a power box. A quick look inside and he found that it would be a simple task to overload the buildings power and trip the breakers for a moment.

“Their security didn’t happen to be a wireless system, did it?” asked Elena.

“Nope. Pretty standard, non networked security,” said Sam.

“Damn. Looks like I’ll have to actually use one of their terminals to have control.”

The three runners waited until the office was about to close. Sam, with his casual business attire blending in to the office blocks surrounding them, waited in the open. Ilya had crafted a masterful disguise out of litter and sat across the street from the lab. Elena, standing out with her bright clothes, stayed out of sight in an alleyway. Ilya watched three guards enter the building and the three lab techs and the receptionist leave. George Fiveman headed off on his own, while the other two techs walked in the opposite direction. Sam took this chance to knock into one of the techs and palm a security card. One of the guards took a seat behind the receptionist’s desk.

“Looks like we’re going to have to lure that guard away for Elena to set up at the desk,” said Ilya. “Any ideas?”

“We could get him outside and knock him out!” said Elena.

“And then he would check over everything when he woke up and discover the gun is missing,” said Sam.

“We could trigger the fire alarm?” Elena suggested.

“Or we could light an actual fire,” said Ilya.

During their planning, Sam noticed two men in suits in the building across from the lab who had been watching the doors for the past 20 minutes. One had facial markings typical of a shaman, and the other wore a visor.

“I’m seeing two guys here,” said Sam into his commlink, “one of them definitely has a magical aura, but I can’t tell much more than that.”

“Let’s see if they’ve got any tech,” said Elena. She switched on her AR overlay and saw that the man with the visor had a custom icon. “Well, they’ve got something,” she said as she hacked open the icon. “Looks like this guy has a hover drone...with a taser!”

“Maybe they’re the other team Gauss told us about?” said Ilya.

“I think so,” said Sam, “I’m going to go talk to them and see if I can find out what they’re doing. They may be able to help us get in.” He walked up to the front doors and found them locked. He knocked.

“What?” said the rigger as he opened the door.

“Hi!” said Sam. “I couldn’t help but notice you guys have been standing there for a while. How are your feet?”

“How are your feet?!?” said Elena over the comms, “That’s what you come up with? I thought you were supposed to be good at this! I mean, what are you getting paid for? Jeeze!” She hacked a mark onto the rigger’s drone in the suddenly likely event that things went south.

“What are you doing here?” the rigger asked again.

“Did they not tell you about me?” said Sam, “I’m your third teammate! Your Johnson sent me over as backup.” The two men grabbed Sam and dragged him inside.

“So you come over here and accuse us of doing something illegal, while admitting that you’re up to something illegal yourself?” the man said. “Look, we know you’re a runner. So we know you can’t go to the cops. And we know weren’t sent by our Johnson because we don’t HAVE a Johnson. Now why don’t you get the rest of your team in here so we can all talk without all the bullshit.” Elena came in, followed by Ilya who was still in his homeless disguise.

“Spare some change?” asked Ilya, attempting to retain some discretion in the situation. The two men simply laughed.

“So what is it you guys are doing here?” asked the rigger.

“We’re after something from Pew Pew Labs,” said Sam.

“Really? We were planning on hitting the place ourselves. I’ve got a drone here that can knock out their power long enough to take out the guard. My friend here was then going to modify the guard’s memory so he wouldn’t remember we were ever there. Then I was going to hack in to their system.”

“Hack into their system?” said Elena, “You can’t hack for shit.”

“What my colleague is trying to say,” said Sam shooting a warning glance at Elena, “is that we have skills that can help you. Perhaps we can work together.”

“Yeah,” said Elena, “Your friend cleans the people and we clean the tech. Everyone gets what they went in for and gets out without a trace.”

“Hmmm…” the rigger considered for a moment, “Sure. Sounds good to me. I’ll send my drone around to the power box and get ready to knock out their system.”

“No need,” said Sam, “I swiped a security badge off of one of the lab techs.” The group came up with a plan and headed across the street.

Sam swiped his badge and he and Elena went into the lobby. They went up to guard. He asked to see their badge and when he reached out to take it, Elena grabbed him with her cyberarm and was able to knock him unconscious with a quick shock. She took control of the security system while the shaman worked on the guard’s memory.

“Okay! The cameras are looping, the alarms are off, and the doors are unlocked!” said Elena, “Let’s get what we came for!” Sam and Ilya headed down the hall to the lab while the rigger stopped off in one of the offices. “I’m seeing two guards in the lab,” said Elena, “One is sleeping in a corner.” Sam led the way into the lab.

“You need to go check on the guy at the front counter,” Sam said, “He’s fallen asleep on the job.” As the guard passed them to go check, Ilya hit him in the back with a shot from his taser. They propped the unconscious guard up on a table and the shaman again went to work. Sam went over to the desk with the gun and opened the drawer. “Well crap,” he said, “It’s not here anymore.”

“Hang on!” said Elena, “Let me check the footage.” She rewound the tapes back and found that the gun had been taken out of the lab at the end of the work day. The president had locked it in a safe in his wall. “Got it! President’s office, in a wall safe.” Elena said. Sam and Ilya headed to the office. They knocked on the door. The president didn’t have much time to be confused since Ilya shocked him as soon as he opened the door. The president crumpled to the floor and the shaman, with an exasperated look at the other two, began to modify the president’s memory.

“Found the safe,” said Ilya, “but it’s an electric lock. My autopicker won’t work.”

“Yeah, and the man with the combination is out cold,” said Sam, “Elena, think you can give us a hand?”

“One sec,” said Elena. She had been busy keeping an eye on what the rigger was up to. It looked like he was transferring finances out of the company. Elena took a moment, hacked a mark onto the safe and clicked the lock open. “Ta da!” Sam managed to get the gun into the case without the shaman finding out what they were after. They put the president at his desk and headed back down the hallway.

Once everyone was back in the lobby, Ilya suggested they edit the camera footage so the guards and president didn’t suddenly appear unconscious on the tapes. Elena made the edit and reverted control of the system back. The two groups headed out, exchanged some contact info, and went their separate ways. Ilya, ever the practical one, suggested the three of them head out in separate directions to avoid attracting suspicion on their way back to Kookie’s.

Back at the bar, the three runners met back up with Gauss.