Back to the main page

Mailing List Logs for ShadowRN

Message no. 1
From: Jaimie Nicholson chicken@********.net.nz
Subject: Pulling a swifty
Date: Fri, 24 Mar 2000 06:08:28 +1200
*****PRIVATE: Faerie, Johnny4n4106
>>>>>[Okay, here’s what we do next. Faerie, you’ve got Simon Dallow, I’ll
take the Hammersmith internal security head Ray Vassilly, and Johnny, you get Vincent
Long. We’re going to lie to them all, play them off against each other, and see what we
can pull out of them.

I’m meeting Vassilly tomorrow, I’ll tell him that a former employee of
mine (played by Johnny) bought the info from Long, that he’s still got
it, and that he’s looking for a buyer. This will probably result in Long
being suspended, and even if he’s not, an internal investigation will
point at him too, thanks to Dallow’s efforts.

Johnny, once Long has been fingered, you go find him, tell him that you
know how he was framed, but not who did it, and offer to help him for a
price. Even if he isn’t scared rigid by his probable suspension, or if
it doesn’t go down that way, he should be fairly desperate once
Hammersmith’s internal investigation points the finger at him.

Faerie, you can then tell Dallow that Long is working on finding out who
did it, and that you’ll try to stop him. You should be able to extort
some money from Dallow to help him cover his tracks (he’ll probably kick
up a fuss at that, and claim that you got him into this, which is true,
but you can counter that with the comment that he wasn’t supposed to
leaves traces – and if he gives you too much trouble, you can always
threaten to pull a fade and leave him to face the music by himself).

It doesn’t seem likely that Dallow’s trickery will hold up against the
internal investigation forever, so at some point I’ll have to tell
Vassilly that it wasn’t Long after all. I’ll let him think I caught up
with Johnny, and that I’ve got the info back, but I’ll have to come up
with some reason why it couldn’t have been Long, and a reason why I
thought it was him in the first place. I’ll sleep on that one… and in
any case, it doesn’t pay to plan too far ahead, because things could
change quite easily.

We need to set some rules on how and when we contact our victims – rule
one, only one of us is meeting any of them at any given time. Rule two,
after each meet we send each other full details of what was told to
whom, so we can keep our stories consistent.

I’m off to see Vassilly now, so I’ll let you know how it goes.

What did Dallow get for us, anyway?]<<<<<
-- Ronin <09:17:53/03-23-61>
Message no. 2
From: Jaimie Nicholson chicken@********.net.nz
Subject: pulling a swifty
Date: Sat, 25 Mar 2000 10:46:23 +1200
*****PRIVATE: Ronin, Johnny4n4106
>>>>>[Regarding rule two – footage might be more useful. I can have one of
my drones follow whoever’s going in, so we can listen in and possibly offer suggestions.
Johnny, do you have a cyber-radio or similar? If not, I’ve got an earpiece radio you can
use (as long as you don’t worry too much about who’s ear it’s been in).

What Dallow got for us… I don’t follow all the ins and outs of it, but
it looks like some sort of complex tax fraud.

+++++include file dalldata.txt
[Being the data stolen by Dallow – records of a complex set of
transactions, the purpose of which is unclear.]

You might need an accountant to make sense of that, but make sure it’s
one you can trust.]<<<<<
-- Faerie <>
Message no. 3
From: Jaimie Nicholson chicken@********.net.nz
Subject: pulling a swifty
Date: Sat, 25 Mar 2000 10:47:04 +1200
+++++INTERNAL: Hammersmith Seattle Gold Channel
>>>>>[Rosie, take a look a this.

+++++Begin footage

The camera seems to be located in the upper corner of a mid-sized
corporate office. Its windows overlook a dismal vista of Renton as
viewed from the south end of town. The downward facing angle of the
camera prevents any glimpse of the horizon, but given the light level,
it’s obviously raining again anyway. The desk is plain grey macroplast,
no attempt at a false wood finish, and the man behind it is similarly
free of pretentious symbols of rank. From his receding hairline to his
rumpled suit, he looks like a pay clerk. But this is not the office of a
pay clerk.

He looks up a couple of seconds before a door opens, and a tall man in a
charcoal suit enters the room.

"Mr Penrhyn," he says, getting up and offering a hand, "I’m head of
Internal Security, Ray Vassilly. Please, have a seat."

Penrhyn takes the hand, shakes it for a moment, and then sits. Vassilly
also sits, types briefly at a desktop keypad, then looks up.

"So, what can I do for you?" he asks.

"I believe I can help you with a small security problem," Penrhyn tells
him, "One of my former employees has used one of yours to gain access to
some information you do not want spread around, and he’s trying to sell
it even as we speak."

"And you tell us this because…" Vassilly asks.

"The former employee has annoyed me… but that’s my business. I’ll deal
with him, and get the information in question. What I do with it
thereafter depends on how much you offer me. I can also tell you who
sold him the information, but that will also require compensation."

"How kind of you," says Vassilly, paying more attention now, "And how
exactly do I know you’re not scamming me?"

"I’ll go capture the former employee, and the information. I will then
prove that I have it. You buy the info, and I’ll tell you who your guy
is. You can pay me when your own internal investigation confirms it."

"And if it doesn’t confirm it?" Vassilly asks, "Will you then claim we
covered up to get out of this arrangement?"

"No, but I may be forced to badmouth you all over town."

"Go get your proof then. I won’t be holding my breath."

"But you will be praying that your little mole doesn’t sell any more
info while I’m tracking down my target," says Penrhyn, then pauses
briefly "Could take a while, too."

"I see your point. How much for his or her name?"

+++++End footage

I need the following:
- Background on this Penrhyn character.
- Suspend Vincent Long (ref L 014)
- A copy of the KE contract.]<<<<<
-- Internal Security Office Com <09:39:51/03-16-61>
Message no. 4
From: Jaimie Nicholson chicken@********.net.nz
Subject: pulling a swifty
Date: Sat, 25 Mar 2000 10:47:51 +1200
*****PRIVATE: Faerie, Johnny4n4106
>>>>>[Dallow’s haul… looks to me like that’s a record of how they managed
to hide a large chunk of their profits and plough it back into a slush fund of some kind,
thus avoiding paying their shareholders any dividends for the last two years. I’d have to
get transcripts of their AGMs to know how much the shareholders have been lied to – could
be they knew and approved. I’m looking into the outgoings from the slush fund – if any of
it went to Hammersmith management, then we’re looking at serious fraud. If any of it went
on black ops, then we could be looking at an assortment of much juicier crimes.

Sitrep… I’ve met Vassilly, told him that Long’s the culprit. He was
reluctant to pay without proof, but I talked him into an advance. I
think he bought it all – the fact that he paid the advance is good
enough for now, in any case.

Johnny, I need you to follow Long until such time as he knows he’s been
framed, and then offer to help. If Hammersmith move too fast and he’s
arrested straight away, then you’ll have to wait until he makes bail –
corporate espionage SOP is to allow bail but suspend him while the
investigation is carried out. Hammersmith might not follow the same SOP
though, so we’ll have to play it by ear. Worst case is he gets denied
bail, in which case you’ll have to pretend to be a lawyer or civil
rights worker, or some damn thing. Let me know how it goes, and I’ll be
able to help you out with a cover ID that should get you in to see him.
Whenever you get a chance to get close to him, take it, and if possible,
get him out of sight ASAP.

Come to think of it, if he’s stuck in a cell, that could work in our
favour – he won’t be in any position to confront Dallow directly. If at
any time he does decide to see Dallow, try to talk him out of it, but if
you can’t, then you and Faerie may have to fake a fight to get him
convinced that Dallow’s too dangerous to go near. A couple of seconds of
you and Faerie bouncing feeble but showy spells off each other’s spell
defence should convince him to run like hell.

Faerie, once Long’s been told what’s going on, it’s your move with
Dallow. You’ll have to stay close in case Long comes after him, tell him
it’s for his own protection. If you and Johnny do have to fake a fight,
that should go a fair way towards convincing Long that it’s not just
Dallow working alone, and that should get him even more scared.]<<<<<
-- Ronin <16:19:41/03-24-61>
Message no. 5
From: Jaimie Nicholson chicken@********.net.nz
Subject: Pulling a swifty
Date: Mon, 27 Mar 2000 18:48:00 +1200
*****PRIVATE: Howdja
>>>>>[Remember me? Stay the hell away from Penrhyn.]<<<<<
-- Faerie <18:15:18/03-26-61>

*****PRIVATE: Faerie
>>>>>[Yeah, I remember you. Hell of a looker, but not too smart… why the
frag’d I care if you’re after little helpless me? Like you’re ever gonna find me, slut.
And so what if you do, whore, you’ll find my crew 'swell, an’ we’ll fuck you over a slow
fire, bitch… by the time we kill your &*^**(%

+++++Transmission interrupted at source.]<<<<<
-- Howdja <23:42:14/03-26-61>

Further Reading

If you enjoyed reading about pulling a swifty, you may also be interested in:

Disclaimer

These messages were posted a long time ago on a mailing list far, far away. The copyright to their contents probably lies with the original authors of the individual messages, but since they were published in an electronic forum that anyone could subscribe to, and the logs were available to subscribers and most likely non-subscribers as well, it's felt that re-publishing them here is a kind of public service.