1 - Bottled Up

"I mean it's doable, sure. 3D mockups aren't that hard to pull these days either, but unless you know a tourist who's been doing 360's in every room there's still going to be a whole lotta unknowns."

Ryosuke sent the video feed from his AR spectacles to the group comms as he pulled up to the building. "Delivery for Saksiri." Ryosuke held up the plastic bag with its tantalizing scent. Modern soy technology had brought vegan curry to truly stratospheric new heights.

"Uh... I don't have a room number here..." He tapped the side of his glasses, as if he hadn't scrutinized the order. He motioned to one of the dust-caked workers heading back into the building, presumably to some kind of job site. "Do I just follow them?"

"Maybe Ryosuke will get lucky with his delivery guy scam."

"Let's hope we won't need a sudden and violent extraction," Knocout jokes, though a hint of worry do escape in his voice and posture.

The man nods knowingly. "Ah, yes we don't have building numbers. Saksiri is in the glassblowing factory, third building down," he points helpfully to one of the converted warehouses nearby.

Just as you finish talking to the monk, a pair of vehicles pulls into the temple compound. They are a white van and a truck, both with blue and yellow logos on the sides that read "Imperial Saffron, Ltd." Six tough men get out; they all appear to be Indian. They enter the glassblowing building the monk had just pointed out as where Saksiri is.

"Uh-oh. The cavalry arrived. Got heavies, counting six." Aiko uses the comlink, trusting technology for once. Ironic thing for a hacker to do, but still. "Shout if you need to make like a leaf and get the fuck out."

She glances at the logo on the side of the truck. That's something worth looking into, maybe a web page or some details. With luck there'll be more, but for the moment it's better than nothing to do.

He watched the security vehicles pull up, brows perking a bit. But he played it cool. "Right. Thanks!"

Ryosuke followed the armed guards, as if it were just another Tuesday. He looked around, gawping like a tourist, but careful to let the camera in his spectacles get a good look at the layout of the building as he proceeded. The insulated bag, the scent of curry, and the AR tag in his hat advertising the delivery service would hopefully serve him just as well as optical camoflage here...

Imperial Saffron, Ltd. is a small company that deals in spices and cooking ingredients. Their website looks very basic and most of the links are broken, and the copyright is two years out of date.

While Ryosuke is following, after the men have entered the glassblowing building they close the door behind themselves, barring Ryosuke's way.

To everyone else still standing around, the helpful monk says, "Those sure are valued customers. See them here at least once a week. They don't look like your usual employees to my eyes," he says as a hint of a question. Indeed everyone who exited the van and entered the glassblowing building were hard men with hard eyes. Many were tattooed, scarred, or chiseled with muscle.

"Oh yeah? Any idea what they do here? Besides pray, that is."

The man chuckles. "I don't like to judge a book by its cover, but I don't think those men are praying types. Only a few percent come here for the temple, most come for these businesses. If I were to guess the company needs custom glass bottles for its product. Why the company has such...distinguished employees is another question entirely," he finishes with a shrug.

"Any idea what's so special about these bottles?"

The monk shakes his head. "No idea, never seen them myself. Never thought to ask really; bottles are bottles. Are you in the market for some bottles?"

"That depends?" Knockout shrugs. "You may not be the right person to ask, but how big can they make bottles. Can they do real big custom jobs?"

"Oh sure, I don't see why not. As long as you have enough people to support the weight and shape it. Glass gets pretty heavy quickly, you know. But yes, they have several large furnaces.

Ryosuke let a moment pass, but not enough to let the militant men get too far away from the door, before trying the handle. If it didn't open, he gave a firm, confident knock of someone used to getting access to commercial spaces. His Big Eats cap and insulated bag as effective a camouflage as a high vis vest and a ladder, but much less cumbersome.