A tapping at the chamber door - Marvin's Haven

There was a rapping of knuckles across the front door.
Once, then once more.

If there was a camera feed available one would be able to see Oz standing outside, her shoulder leaned against the wall with a bag on her back and a skateboard in her hands as always. She looked her usual bored self, popping a bubble of pink gum as she gazed over the edge of her round pink shades at the world around her with a look that seemed to say: Booooooooring!

Very shortly, Marvin opened the door.

"Good evening Miss Paxton" he said with a wary look on his face. "What can I do for you that couldn't be done say via email? Oh and I suppose you might as well come in since you are here."

He stepped back so she could enter, and gestured towards the couch.

"I'm gonna go bleedin' mental" came the reply as she walked past him, pulling the computer bag off her shoulders and chucking it onto first best couch she came across before flopping down onto it herself. The skateboard unceremoniously dropped on the ground just inside the door.

"Friggin' bitch is giving me a headache" she groaned, leaning her head back and staring up at the ceiling. "I'm tempted to just find a way to nuke her system but it's so..." she waved a hand around in circles. "Crude"
Although she really was considering it.

He sat down.

"Give in. It's much more relaxing that way. Trust me. Sanity is overrated." "

I see you got visited by Wire as well. I tried repaying the visit myself, and got a monitor sprouting vines for my trouble. Tore that program Wire left behind to shreds and I can't find the backdoor."

He sighed.

"My money is on whomever does work for the Sheriff. Only other hacker I know of in town."

"I just need a proper name" Oz groaned again, straightening up and pulling her shades off before rubbing the bridge of her nose with the look of someone who really was nursing the mother of all headaches. "A name and I won't even have to flex any digital muscles to have her punished" because sometimes, the legal way even if it was Camarilla law, was the easier and more gratifying way.
"Most likely you're right, and Wire is working for the Sheriff because he/she/it is apparently convinced I wouldn't be able to tag her/him/it with any violation of Camarilla law. I had my sire set out to burn in the sunrise, I can bring down a bleedin' hacker with friends in high places"
The sunglasses where chucked aside, the Caitiff resting her elbows on her knees so that she was sitting haunched over as she looked at him.

Marvin stood up, retrieved the sunglasses and laid them so that they seemed to be in line with the rest of the furniture in the room.

Sitting down he nodded

"Yeah, I didn't think of breaking into a machine to be a violation of Cam law. Dangerous to go messing with the Sheriff's pals though. She doesn't look like one to mess with. And who knows who she is connected to. In fact given the wording Wire used, they could possibly argue that they was performing security operations to protect the Masquerade, and that will be a tough one to fight I'm thinking. Personally I want nothing to do with a war in high places. "

"I don't like the backdoor they left though. Not at all. The rest is great, it's wonderful code. But someone can get in, and I can't even find the door to lock it."

"Want to pay the Sheriff a visit and flat out ask if this was her person? Straightforward and all? Ahh crap no, because then you give yourself away. On the other hand, if it is her person, then she knows who you are... damn this is messy. How about I ask the sheriff, and if it turns out to be her person, I drop you a line and then we can all get in on some face time eh?"

"I doubt Wire knows how I am. Not as if I keep any incriminating evidence on a portable machine. I'm not an idiot" Oz groaned again before falling back against the soft cushions of the sofa, folding her arms across her chest. "And even if she was to argue her violation of territory as being a security assessment I'd be damned if I can't find a loop hole or two to squeeze her through"
The squeezing part seemed to be empathized as if the Caitiff would love to see some blood flowing.

"If you want to talk to the Sheriff then go ahead, but I doubt he's going to tell you anything. Why would he? He has no reason to give out any information on the matter nor is he obligated to do so"

"She" he corrected "She is a smoking hot blond woman. And I suspect extremely dangerous. No I simply wanted to ask our Sheriff who her hacker was so I could speak to them myself. She doesn't have to know about any of this. Personally I'm not interested in a fight, I'd just as soon find this person, and reach an understanding with them. Three hackers in a town this size... we all need to work together or at least agree to stay neutral. Otherwise things get messy."

"And speaking of messy I've managed to intrigue the Tremere to no great end. For all their powers they know little about modern technology. And the Scourge, I suspect he may know who you truly are already. He professes the ability to see all that happens in this domain."

The look he got suggested she was in no way pleased with the prospects of anyone else knowing about her handle.
"The hacker's cheating by the way" Oz said, trying to focus on one problem at the time as her patience had already been stretched dangerously thin. "No one gets the drop on me like that" she waved a dismissive hand around at some imaginary... thing. "So between the blond Sheriff, a prying Scourge and a hacker with abilities that certainly aren't human, I say we have a bit of a problem whether we try to stay neutral or not. And besides" she brushed her fingers through her hair. "One out of three hackers have already decided that neutrality isn't an option by challenging both of us. Wouldn't you say?"

"I made my peace with this Wire earlier tonight. In fact I'm going to do a bit of financial raiding on the Sabbat I believe in Miami. We talked about it. They claim the infrastructure of this city and Miami, and says anything else is fair game."

Maybe she was being childish, but that damn Wire had managed to provoke her in a way Oz hadn't experienced in a long time. Maybe that was why she felt the basic urge and desire to wreck something, anything.

She looked up at him, sucking on her fangs for a moment as if contemplating whether or not tripping the Sabbath's financial support would suffice.
"What exactly did you have in mind?"

"I'm not sure yet. First I need to know what is out there and what our local authorities might wish to see targeted. "

"Think they'll want to cooperate, taken their previous methods into consideration?" she arched an eyebrow at him, resting a finger against her temple and still feeling the sting of a lurking headache.
"You know what, sod it. You let me know what you're after and I'll gladly lend a hand" because she badly needed the distraction.

"We shall see, first I have to get permission."

"But I also intend to hunt down this Wire and find out just who they are." He frowned at something

"They stripped the firewall program from my machine and external storage. I do not like that, nor do I know how they did it, even devices not connected to anything."

"Because Wire isn't playing nicely. I told you, it, has a few tricks up their sleeve that is anything but normal. Trust me" she ground the piece of gum between her teeth as if punishing it. "Someone's using their mojo to fuck with your machines and unless you know how to do the same, I doubt you'll win this one"

"I would be content to simply learn who Wire is. You wouldn't happen to know who does the computer for for our illustrious Sheriff would you? Because I have money on whomever that is being Wire."

"Dunno" Oz shrugged her shoulders. "But I can find out. It's only a matter of information and information is always available if you know the right places to look"
And well, she was now on a mission! Though not on a mission from God. Because that would've been awkward.

"Probably public information. And if I know a certain dead client of mine... he probably had this person do all his work around here, including electronic security. So if for some reason the identity of the Sheriff's lackey is hidden, there is always finding out who that crazy ass Hensley had doing his work."

Then he shrugged "Or there is the direct method. Hey Sheriff, who does your work if you don't mind me asking? I haven't had the chance to ask her."

"Already had a superficial look at his security system. Haven't figured out who runs it yet as it seems to still be operative and the source is hidden" Oz pouted her lips, creating one of those annoying pink bubbles again before popping it with her fangs. "So chances are it's someone good, very good. And that fits our little Wire now doesn't it?"

"Fits Wire quite nicely, as well as the patterns of a man who thought if he threw enough money, force, or whatever at a problem it would go away. Damn I'm going to miss his money. So all we know is that Wire most likely works for the Sheriff, and most likely does private jobs. So if the direct approach doesn't work, we just find out who does private jobs around here that isn't either of us."

Oz nodded, her slight movement of her head causing a few bangs of hazel hair to fall back down into her face.
"Exactly. I refuse to believe this place is so heavily populated with computer freaks at this level as to it being a problem figuring out who's done what"

"It's the three of us. I'm nearly certain. Otherwise we would have found others by now. "

He paused thinking about something.

"In case you lose your copy of the firewall like I did... give me a few hours I believe I can reconstruct the code on paper. I still can't find the backdoor they have in there, it is driving me nuts. I may create a derivative work of it though. Or try to plant a virus in there, and deploy it again against other targets."

"I got it backed up" on several flash drives actually. "Although.." she arched an eyebrow at him. "You saying you remember it by heart?"

"I backed it up too, but it was still taken from those drives."

He paused "Not so much by heart. I made a large number of notes" he lied "And those notes, along with several sections i studied intently should let me put it back together."

"Riiight" she tilted her head to the side, one eyebrow raised. "Your mind's a scary place isn't it?"