Vestigial Memories, Session 12: Dante's Lair

Scene setup

Countdown event timer check:
(D8): (5) => No event

Scene check
(D8): (7) => Routine. Probably does not require a skill roll => The witness is cooperative; there are obvious clues at the crime scene; the data you seek is easily retrieved

Scene category
[D12] Must be [3] => Consult. Seek expert insight or outside perspective => CONNEC TIONS to leverage an informant or LAPD asset, MANIPULATION to gain cooperation, TECH or MEDICAL AID to verify or interpret findings

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Dante is holed up in a ratty basement apartment in Hawker’s Circle. It’s a damp, low-ceilinged tomb that smells of ozone and mildew—hardly the ideal environment for high-end hardware, but beggars can’t be choosers when they’re hiding from shadows.

Riggs: “Nate. You’re late. What do you have for me?”
Locke: “Work. If you’re up to it.”
Riggs: “I am… if the pay covers the hardware I lost thanks to you.”

He’s still sore about the hardware in his “lair,” and I can’t blame him. [Disadvantage on possible related skill checks]

Locke: “I have a data drive. Technical specs for an industrial manufacturing process. I need the code altered—subtly. It needs to look pristine to any diagnostic tool they run.”

His eyes narrow, reflecting the pale blue light of a jury-rigged monitor.

Riggs: “There’s a lot you’re not telling me, Nate.”
Locke: “Of course there is. That’s the only way you stay alive.”
Riggs: “Fine. What are we making? Toasters? Spinners?”
Locke: “Replicants.”

The silence that follows is heavy. Dante actually stops typing.

Riggs: “You’re shitting me.”
Locke: “I wish.”
Riggs: “Who the fuck do you think I am? Nobody outside of Wallace knows a damn thing about their bio-sequencing. I’m a decker, not a god.”
Locke: “I’ll handle the genetic logic, just send me every genetic sequence you can find on that drive. I’ve got contacts at the University and a woman who’s spent thirty years sabotaging this exact process. I just need you to fix the data hash signatures. I need the ‘sabotage’ to look like a natural corruption in the sequence. Can you do that?”

Connections Roll
(D12 + D12 + Disadvantage because NPC indisposed towards me)
Result: (12 + (9 + 5)) => 2 successes => critical success

Riggs: “Of course I can. I’ve dealt with ‘difficult customers’ before. I’ll ghost the hash signatures. They won’t see the poison until the bodies start hitting the floor.”

I feel a grim sense of relief. With the University contacts and Zhao’s expertise, we can turn this drive into a Trojan horse faster than I expected [critical success effect]. But there’s one more thing.

Locke: “One more thing, Dante. No personal copies. None.”

The silence returns, longer this time.

Locke: “This isn’t a payday, Dante. It’s a death sentence. The moment you try to fence even a fragment of this, Wallace’s internal security will have you in a black site before you can blink. It isn’t worth the risk.”

Opposed roll: Manipulation vs Insight
NPC skill level roll: (D8): (6) => experienced [D10 + D10]
Advantage because my position is very convincing (because it’s true)
Locke (D12 + D10 + advantage) vs Riggs (D10 + D10)
Result (8 + (5 + 4)) vs (6 + 7) => 1 success vs 2 successes => Riggs wins

Riggs: [With a dismissive wave] “Sure, sure. I’m not stupid, Nate. No copies. I just want this out of my sight as soon as it’s cooked.”

[Note: Riggs WILL make a copy of the data, unknown to Locke]

I can’t tell if he’s lying. I can see the gears turning behind his eyes, but I’m too tired and too desperate to push him. I hand him the drive.