Chapter 379
Saint waved at me just outside of the Blue Crusade HQ. He sat at a ramen stand, and already had two steaming bowls ready to go. “Heyo!”
”You’re here early.” I glanced up and down the street. As per usual, no one cared. Pedestrians just kept walking in their own little worlds even with the reporter shouting. Granted, most of the pedestrians were Crusade members or affiliates that were undoubtedly very busy.
”You wanted a meetup.” He tapped the stool next to him with his foot. The Packheart Ring on his finger glinted slightly in the neon. I didn’t keep my position hidden, so it was all too easy for any of the three to find me. “I just got done, too.”
“I didn’t think we’d be meeting here.” I eyed our surroundings and ensured Master of Disguise was still running. I’d rather not have anything link the two of us together.
“It’s darkest under the lamp.” He shrugged and set a pair of chopsticks in front of the other bowl of ramen. “Noodles?”
”Thanks.” I slid in and eyed the chef. It was a robot, surprisingly. One of Raijin’s androids by the looks of things. The ancient model was rigged together with a bunch of scrap components, though, like a scavenger put it back together after finding the bot in the dump.
I’d seen this kind of stand all around the city, though I usually avoided them. I dunno—it just made the food feel even more synthetic then it really was if a bot made them instead of human hands. Granted, I also didn’t eat out all that often.
”Gree-tings.” The metal android’s eyes lit up as it spoke. Its voice was digitized like an ancient text to speech model. “Enjoy your meal.”
“Ah, don’t mind She-3yu.” Saint tapped the top of the ramen stand lightly. “We’re old mates. She won’t go tattling on us.”
“If you say so.” I pulled out my scrambler and flicked it on just in case. The android eyed it for a moment with its mis-matched sensors and then backed just out of its range. “Nifty.”
“What brings you here?” He nodded to the Blue Crusade Inc. HQ. “Doesn’t seem like your usual haunt.”
“Gathering intel.” Specifically, I was getting up to date with Mickey Mays drug preferences. It wasn’t hard to access his file on the net, but I didn’t want anything to link back to me. Instead, I came in and pulled up his record the old fashioned way.
“So… a drug deal, eh?” Saint stirred his noodles with a fork. He took a bite and then dumped soy sauce all over the dish. “What brought that on?”
I bit my tongue instead of calling him out on the heretical act. There was something he didn’t do well after all. “I need to get close to someone.”
“Mickey, right?” He shrugged in response to my inquisitive look. “Luna sent me a packet. Figured you might come to me.”
Mickey Mays… he was indeed the target. Getting him isolated where we could easily access his chrome was the real issue. I put my odds the highest at two points—one when he was with an escort, and the other was when he partied and got cranked. The latter was my focus.
”That girl…” I shook my head. Luna was a step ahead of me recently. It was kinda nice, though. I didn’t have to worry about the small details with her around. “Oh, you know where I can get a full runner setup?”
”Not one for cheap.” The handsome reporter tilted his head to the side. His face perfectly caught a rogue beam of sunlight, and gave his features a much more defined look. “You’re talking about for Luna, right?”
“Who else?” How does he do that so easily? And why does it irritate me so much? When I acted all cutesy and pretty, it was always so difficult. Yet here he was with even nature helping him. So annoying.
“Right… Well, the runner chair itself won’t be cheap.” He rubbed his chin and his eyes narrowed. “I assume you want a good setup, right? Not just ice in a bathtub?”
“‘Course.” Who did he think I was? Luna already sent me basic specifications for the room. The equipment itself was quite a bit more difficult and expensive, though. I'd like to make it all myself, but I’d never actively interacted with the stuff before.
I had almost no prints in my Eidetic Schematic library outside of extremely old models from the net and a couple I ran across. There was some stuff from Sentinel’s experimental prints, but they were mostly chrome or just parts to larger tech. I needed access to a full runner setup to get started. Past Shiro really fucked up not scanning the stuff when she had the chance.
His eyes unfocused and flicked around in a tell-tale sign of looking at a HUD. “Constellation will probably have stuff. I’d have to ask around otherwise. You’re looking at a minimum of a hundred thousand.”
”Not to buy. I just need a look. Preferably something high end.” That way I could tap it a couple times, and then figure out how to build my own. I could probably build something better—or, at least, smaller given my current capabilities. Buying it outright was also an option, but I’d rather I know where the parts came from and who had access to the stuff. I’m sure Luna would feel the same.
“You tried the Crusade runners?” He asked.
”Chek. They’ve all got private booths.” I did attempt to get in and sleuth around the place, but breaking into one of the Crusade’s runner booths wasn’t a great idea. Not only would I get caught given the tight security of the place, but I’d also likely piss off a runner by digging into their stuff. The last thing I needed was a digital ghost haunting me.
”Raijin’s doing their annual show of power in a couple weeks. You could try the equipment exhibition.” He stuck fingers and framed me with them. “I could get you in as a journalist, probably. I was planning on going anyway.”
”Thanks.” Raijin’s annual exhibition, huh? That wasn’t half bad. It wouldn’t be the best of the best, ‘course. They’d keep that kind of tech close to the chest and out of the public eye. It’d be a good place to start working on my own designs, though.
The way I understood it, Netrunners had to be physically in a location to have the most effect. Ping, interference, connection issues, access ports—all of it could be taken care of by being there in the flesh. Even using Quick Hacks to mess with enemies would be far more effective in person then through the network or deck somewhere else. Not to mention if there was a runner running protection, that opened up a whole other issue.
Dive setups, where the Netrunner fully dove into the net, were a workaround for all of that stuff. Most of the requirements were directly bypassed by diving into the net. They were like digital ghosts that could easily work remotely. Proper dive setups weren’t cheap, and definitely weren’t easy to come across though.
Both sides, physical body and digital ghost, had their pros and cons, probably. No idea what they were, but I also wasn’t that deeply invested in netrunning. Either way, I would either have to get her a setup, or drag Luna along to places I needed a Netrunner. Given her admittedly feeble constitution, the latter wasn’t a great option most of the time.
“So…” Saint took a bite of his heretical noodles and twirled his fork around. “Drugs?”
”Chek.” I glanced superstitiously around. The scrambler kept our conversation safe from prying ears, but just in case I dropped my voice to a lower pitch. “I’m thinking we set up a drug deal, and mix in knockout drugs. Luna gets in, we get out, and it's like nothing ever happened.”
I had a ton of various drugs in my bunker from when I hit gangs and Scav dens while hunting for Mira. There were probably a bunch of knock out drugs in there, especially from the latter group. It wasn’t uncommon for Scav scouts to drug, kidnap, and rip apart someone from a bar or club.
“Not a bad idea…” Saint frowned and shook his head. “Seems a little extra, though. Why not just dose him while he’s at a club or with an escort?”
“Uh…” It was my turn to frown. “That’s a good point.”
This was the very first part of my plan, and the actual schemes were for the latter parts. Getting him drugged out hadn’t been something I thought about much compared to the other stuff. I mean, I was planning a whole art heist and stuff, so it hadn’t been much of my focus.
Really, if I was going to be honest? I was just excited about the art heist. It’d been a really long time since I ran one, and my heart thrummed with yearning. The feeling of getting away with precious art—it was just unmatched. Getting to that point was a little bit looser than the rest of my plans.
”Luna?” I asked through the Packheart link. “You know where Mickey is now?”
”O-one sec.” Our runner easily joined the conversation from wherever she was at—Medtech, from the feeling of her connection. “He’s at a sauna.”
Who just casually went to a sauna? Rich people, I swear. “Can you track him? Let me know when he’s headed to a club or something.”
“No problem.” Luna sent a ping to my HUD. I focused on it, and a map popped up with his location on it. “It’ll last as long as he has cell reception.”
“Nice.” That took care of that… Okay, change of plans. I didn’t need Saint afterall. I could just go do it myself, and have Luna close on standby. Err—actually, Saint could still be useful. It was best if I left someone with Luna just in case.
I made a dozen rapid adjustments to my plans while eating the ramen. By the time I was done, a whole new plan formed in the back of my head. I quickly filled Saint in and called everyone in to meet me at the speakeasy.
——
“Pleeeease! You won’t even have to pay me.” Mira latched onto my arm and held me back from going down the stairs to my speakeasy. “You can’t just leave me out like this!”
”It wasn’t intentional!” I ripped my arm out of her grasp—or tried to, anyway. She stayed latched onto me like a parasite. “I don’t even know what I’d have you do.”
Not to mention I had no idea how she found out what we were doing. I hadn’t said anything to her about this. Maybe Saint tagging along behind me gave me away? Or, actually, it might’ve been Luna. Her and Mira had been working together recently for Mira’s Troubleshooting.
”I—I can play overwatch! Or a bruiser! What if something goes horribly wrong, and you desperately need me to sweep in and save you?” As she said that, she got a dopey grin on her face like she was already imagining such a situation.
I ripped my arm away while she was distracted, and nearly tripped down the stairs. Saint, thankfully, caught me just before such a thing could happen. “Can we talk about this later?”
”Later?!” She reared back like I’d just cursed at her. It seemed our arguments left her with a particular dislike of that word.
I winced and motioned down the stairs. “I just meant somewhere private. “
”Ugh—fine.” She stopped complaining and obediently followed behind Saint and I. The way she stomped her feet let me know what she really thought though. With the Shift ExoCore, she had quite a bit of power in her stomps.
I always do things on time. Who does she think I am? Stalling’s for chumps. I shook my head and checked the basement. We were clear. About this time of day, no one came down here. Most of the residents were busy at work or sleeping.
We slipped into the cleaning closet, and I typed in the secret code to get into my super secret speakeasy. The back wall split open, and revealed my hidden bar. I hadn’t quite gotten around to adding in Luna’s suggestions, but the speakeasy looked fabulous by all means. Even just being here made me feel happier thanks to Squeaky Clean. I’d even added in TVs at the suggestion of Mira across the space.
”Woah.” Saint paused at the door, and it nearly clipped him when it closed automatically. I might need to adjust that. “This place is yours?”
”Chek chek.” I waved a hand around the bar. “What do you think?”
He looked lost in thought for a moment, and flashed that charming smile of his. ”Totally nova. How’d you even find something like this?”
“With a lot of effort. It used to be a burned out husk.” I looked around the space proudly. I spent way too much time making everything nice and ready to open. I was just on my final hurdles to make the speakeasy a reality. Outside finding a bartender, ‘course.
”We’re somewhere private now.” Mira ambushed me before I could slip behind the bar to water the plants. I still didn’t like them, but they were growing on me. I should take one of the lavender ones down to my workshop. “You’re letting me in, right?”
”Fine! Just stop bugging me.” Not like anything could go wrong with my master plan in the first place. I thought through almost absolutely everything. My plans had plans, and my backups had backups. Nothing could go wrong. And, on the off chance it did, it’d be nice to have her around.
“Yay!” She hopped around like a cheerful dog. At complete odds with her expression, the halo calmly pulsed from where it floated on top of her head. “What’s the plan, oh great leader?”
”To wait for Luna.” I checked the Packheart Ring and turned on one of the TVs. I’d have to voice things carefully to avoid letting Mira know what the point of all this was, but it should be fine. “Once she gets here, I’ll break down my genius.”
“Cool cool.” Saint slid into a seat across the bar from me. “So… got any drinks in this place?”