Chapter 342
The city glowed brightly beneath the snow. It looked like a smear of neon and smoke that bled into the pure white of the sky. From so far above the city, it looked almost peaceful. That was deceptive as always, of course. Even from here, I could see the Scath Heights still burning. Refugees that lost their homes had stormed every other part of the city, creating chaos on the streets.
I was in a flyer lane partially to dodge all of that. The noise of the crowd didn’t reach this high, leaving me in relative peace. I pulled my poncho tighter around myself. The warmth pushed against winter’s chill.
I wasn’t sure if I was ready for this, to be honest. It was now or never though. Before he could stabilize the Cold Moon and while he was on the back foot. If I didn’t strike now, my leverage would fade away until I couldn’t force him to sign it unless I put a gun to his head. I didn’t want that. It would look bad if he tried to escalate saying he was forced into the contract.
I was prepared, regardless. I hadn’t been lazy since I hit Cold Moon. It’d taken a long, long time, but I managed to go through each and every document I borrowed from the server banks. There were all sorts of interesting things there. Things that wouldn’t look good tied to my good uncle's name. Not to mention there were several important documents that put me in the right position to make my move.
“Ready, Luna?”
Her voice came through my Packheart Ring and gently buzzed against the back of my mind. It was always such a peculiar feeling. “R-ready when you are.”
”How are we looking?” I pulled into a hover next to a skyscraper. There was probably some city ordinance about hovering close like this, but I really just didn’t care.
I smiled at the window, letting the ambient light reflect my face onto the glass streaked with melted snow. The scar along my cheekbone caught the light, shining almost silver and sharp against the window. My eyes, a mismatched set with amber cores, reflected back at me with an almost feral glare.
”H-he’s still home. H-hasn’t left since you asked the last time.” Luna’s voice dimmed with exhaustion. “W-who is this guy, anyway?”
“My uncle.” I totally forgot to explain stuff to her, didn’t I? Whatever. She was a smart girl—she’d figure it out quickly.
I didn’t necessarily need her help for this, but I was planning on officially hiring her into Cold Moon Solutions anyway. That, and this was a good distraction for her. I know for a fact she hadn’t left Iris’s side except only to clean up and eat.
”Oh, s-sorry… are you s-sure I should be listening in on this? I-if its family—“
”I’d hardly call him that.” I ran a finger down my scarred cheek and shook my head. “Tonight is just business.”
“R-right…” The line went silent for several moments. “W-well, I have the entire building’s security, now.”
”Aren’t there Netrunners protecting this place?” I shifted my gaze away and looked at my target. Contrary to the company in total disrepair after the fiasco in BrickTown where it, ahem, unfortunately blew up, uncle Kuzo had been living the life of luxury.
Kade Tower was a high-security, mid-city residential building. It wasn’t quite inside of the Corporate Quarter, but close enough to blend into the skyline without punching out too far. The penthouse suite at the top of the place glowed like a crown, merging into every other penthouse suite this side of the city. He always was a showman.
”Not any good ones.” Luna snorted dismissively and the stutter faded from her voice. “I’m not doing anything invasive, so it’s fine. Once s-hit hits the fan, I should easily be able to hold for ten minutes before they lock me out.
”How’d you hold the towers in the heights for so long?” I was having a seriously hard time getting a read on her. One moment, she seemed the best I could ask for. The next, she was still good but not corporate defying.
“The p-prisms…”
“Ah.” Right, those weird bits of tech that weren’t quite tech. I got the sense she didn’t want to talk more about it, so I shifted the subject. “What am I looking at?”
”Incredibly high security. You’d think he had thousands of assassins after him. Layered biometrics, drones, sentries, guards, a ghost grid, and sensor meshes for everything from chemical to electromagnetic.” Her voice held a note of being impressed. “And that’s just all I can see without digging deeper. H-how are you getting in?”
”I thought I’d go through the front door.” I smirked and flew down to a parking garage. I parked in a very visible location, where the tower’s cameras could definitely see me, and slowly made my way to the front door. “Watch my bike. Don’t let a slag get it.”
“Course.”
I walked leisurely to the lobby. The clean, purified air burned my lungs, and the curated calm of the place felt oddly out of sync with the rest of the city. Warmth flowed a beat later, displacing the chill of winter that clung to the city like a shroud.
A security desk sat dead center made of polished black stone. An attendant stood behind it, perfectly manicured and dressed in the way most high-end places had their servants. Two guards flanked either side of the desk, and four more blocked the way to private elevators. Their black visors reflected the lobby’s neon art installations.
The attendees looked up as the doors slid closed behind me. His eyes flicked over me, though quickly lost interest once he took in my attire. Elites had a scary ability to sniff out those who didn’t belong.
“Good evening.” His voice was soft and smooth in an auto tune sort of way like he had a sound system built into his jaw. “Residents only beyond this point.”
I walked forward anyway, slow and unbothered by their stairs. My footsteps, usually dead silent, echoed against the calm hall a little. I didn’t rush or act like I belonged. There was no point. I even had Master of Disguise fully disabled for the first time in a long time, showing Shiro Tsukuyomi at her finest.
”I’m here to see Kuzo Tsukuyomi. Should be the penthouse.” Surprisingly, I didn’t feel stressed by this much at all. Once upon a time ago, I would’ve passed out with anxiety from just entering a place like this.
“Do you have an appointment?” The attendant's smile held steady, but the guards around the place shifted stance. It wasn’t aggressive, but they were ready. “I’m sorry, Mr. Tsukuyomi hasn’t been receiving visitors—“
“Tell him his dear niece is downstairs.” I cut in.
The attendant paused and a flash of surprise cut across his face. He glanced at a terminal off the side, and hesitation practically bled off of him. “Just a moment, miss.”
“H-he’s running facial recognition.” Luna’s voice whispered into the back of my head.
After a few moments, the attendant's smile finally changed. “I’ll call and let him know you’re here, Miss Tsukuyomi.”
I nodded and moved away from the desk. The lobby for the tower was frankly massive, with a built-in aquarium along the far wall. I moved to it, watching the fish dance around while I rehearsed and rehashed all my plans and schemes for tonight.
Eventually, the attendant called out to me. “Miss, take elevator seven.”
“Chek.” I kept in a snicker at how his face pulled with that simple word, miss, and then moved over to the designated elevator. It immediately closed and rose through the tower so smoothly it barely felt like motion. I was a bit worried the elevator might malfunction, but it was smooth all the way to the top.
The doors slid open into a private foyer that looked like a gallery. Or, at least, it had been at some point. The walls, though they showed signs of holding pictures and paintings, were barren now. Times had been tough for the man, it seemed. A single door stood at the end of the hall, far taller than it needed to be with biometric scanners embedded into the frame. A camera blinked above it, staring down at me.
I walked forward and stopped right under the lens. “Hello, uncle.”
Nothing happened for a few beats. Then the door clicked and unlocked. It swung inward, allowing warmth tinged with the scent of aged liquor and polished wood to spill out. Beyond the threshold was a penthouse living space so wide it felt like the entire floor had been hollowed out for uncle’s ego. Floor to ceiling windows wrapped three sides, showing the city off like glowing circuits down below.
Kuzo sat at the center of it all, leaning against a private bar stocked with alcohol. He had on a robe that looked like it cost more than my first apartment did. His hair was slicked back almost perfectly, and he had the same showman shine I remembered. He always did care about his appearance. Now that he was out of his casts and bandages, he looked every bit the middle-aged CEO with streaks of silver in his hair.
I activated Hidden Hands and pulled out three Dragonflies, letting them zip through the air. My voice dropped to a low whisper. “Luna, make sure you record all of this.”
“My little niece.” He swirled a cup full of whiskey and watched me calmly. “I thought you were dead.”
I stepped into the penthouse. Kuzo’s chrome eyes flashed and the door slid shut behind me, sealing with another heavy click. “Are you dissapointed?”
His gaze swept over me. His eyes lingered on my cheek like the scar there was an insult I directed at him. “Undecided. You’ve certainly changed a lot.”
“Did the eyes give it away?” I moved to the bar and sat next to him. Not right next to him, of course, but with a bar seat separating us. Behind the bar, a screen projected a peaceful sea of fish.
”Somethig like that.” He took a steady drawl of his whiskey. “You know, your father asked that I take care of you before he died.”
I watched him for a moment, just as he watched me. Based on his Cues, his words were to get a reaction out of me more than anything. I didn’t give him the pleasure and kept up my cool, calm facade. “You did a right job of that, didn’t you, dear uncle?”
We waved an easy hand and shook his head. “Those were different times, you understand. Kicking you out—not a day hasn’t gone by since I regretted it.”
His words were as hollow as ever, though he did genuinely try to put on a sad expression. I just laughed lightly and shook my head. “You’re still the same as always… I have something for you to sign.”
Kuzo set down the glass and stared at the dozens of beverages behind his private bar. “You know, I collected a bottle from the private estates of every single corporation I defeated back when my father was still alive… quite the collection, don’t you think?”
I pulled out the documents and set them on the bar, sliding them to him. “I don’t know much about alcohol."
“You should learn. They’re really quite interesting. So much history—just to be swallowed and turned to piss.” He picked up the document, read through it for a brief moment, and then set it back down. “What’s your game, Shiro?”
”Cold Moon Solutions, of course. Grandfather would be so very disappointed to see where it is now.” My voice fell to a mocking tone. Behind the bar, the screen switched to a news article of Cold Moon on fire. The little moon symbol at the bottom told me it was Luna.
”He always was.” Kuzo’s eyes flicked to the screen and then he picked up his glass again. The ice cube within clinked lightly against the glass. “Is this supposed to be a joke?”
”It's a loaded gun.”
“Ah, there it is. The threat.” He laughed lightly and took another sip of his drink. “I’d expect nothing more from a street rat who can’t even play the game… the little girl finally learned teeth matter, huh?”
“Learned from the best.” I bared my teeth at him and tossed a pen onto the table. “It’s a transfer. Controlling stakes, executive authority—the works. And you’re going to sign it.”