Chapter 380
“Are you sure about this, Shiro?” Mira sighed into the back of my mind. It was crazy how well the Packheart Rings caught that kind of thing.
”I’m sure.” Our strategy meeting had already gone over the plan—and then was cut short as Mickey got on the move. That was what brought me here, to Pentile Tower south of the Corporate Quarter. It was one of the many properties owned my Mickey Mays. Not to mention the interface finally showed up after a long time of silence.
| Request - Speak Roughly - Received
-Acquire the apartment building(0/1)
-Kill Mickey Mays(0/1)
-Acquire Mickey’s other properties
-Reduce the apartment building’s price
-Complete a scheme flawlessly
-Reward: ??? |
I could feel Panther’s touch with the whole kill mission. I’d never interacted deeper with the eidolon, but he seemed seriously obsessed with killing. The other objectives, aside from getting more of Mickey’s stuff, were pretty reasonable. I should be able to hit all of them without too much of an issue.
“Hi!” I flashed an innocent smile at the guard in front of the elevator. I put on my best cutesy look and sugary voice, which I hadn’t used in way too long.
”You here for the party, miss?” The guard smiled back and eyed me from head to toe. His wariness instantly vanished. “Invite?”
”Luna! Do something!” I looked over my shoulder and whispered. It completely slipped my mind that they’d have a list to get into something like this. My original plan had been to drop in from above, anyway. Why’d I let them talk me out of it?
”I’m w-working on it!” Luna whispered back. I felt the chrome in my neck heat up as she piggybacked off of it to get a connection.
“J-just a second.” I dropped my hand to my purse. I usually didn’t carry purses, but the other three forced me to stop and dress up to better blend in. Saint, in particular, had been horrified when I suggested sneaking into the party in just my usual getup.
Long story short, that was how I ended up here at the base of Pentile Tower in a sparkly silver dress. Thankfully, I managed to talk the stooges out of the low cut options. It was still a little too tight to be comfortable, though.
Combined with an extravagant black jacket over the top, I didn’t feel nearly as exposed as I usually would in this kind of thing. They were a bit pricey since I bought them quickly at a store, but they’d pay for themselves once I got the apartment building cheap.
”What’s the matter, miss?” The guard asked.
”Silly me! I must’ve just misplaced it somewhere.” I shook my head and thumped my temple with my knuckle. Hopefully I’d bought her enough time.
“I’m almost there! J-just buy a little more time.” A progress bar popped up onto my HUD. It was already half-full and rapidly climbing. Or not, apparently.
The guard’s wariness returned, and his hands tightened subtly on his rifle. ”Miss?“
“I’m sure I have it somewhere. Haha!” I let out a dumb laugh and shook my head while I reached into my jacket pockets.
”It was a digital invite.” The guard’s eyes glowed. “You’re going to need to come with me—“
”There you are, shorty!” Saint called out behind me and interrupted the guard. He casually walked up and threw an arm around my shoulder. “What’d I tell you about going ahead of me? Sorry about my sister.”
“Hey!” I stomped on his foot and crossed my arms with a sad pout. “Don’t call me that.”
“Sure, sure, sis.” Saint sighed, and nodded to the guard. He waved his hand around the side of his head. ”The chrome’s been a bit rough on her head recently.”
“I get it. My brother's been going through something similar.” The guard grumbled and shook his head. It was seriously irritating how easily Saint could just get people to drop their guard and tell their whole life’s story. “Your invite?”
Saint discreetly winked at me like he knew exactly what I was thinking. “Check under—“
”Suki Saki!” Luna practically shouted into the back of my head.
”Suki.” Saint grinned and casually slicked back his hair with that usual trademark charm of his.
”Right.” The guard dropped his rifle and lifted up a tablet that’d been hanging by his side. He eyed the two of us for a moment, and his eyes churned into some kind of chrome scanner. He nodded once and refocused on the tablet.
The moment the guard’s attention turned away from us, I slammed my heel into Saint’s foot much harder this time. I had on heels this time around, and the stiletto perfectly landed on his big toe. That’s for calling me shorty! And what happened to the plan?! Though… he did bail me out.
”Yowser!” Saint hid his flinch of pain behind a laugh and backed away from me. He pulled at his button up shirt a couple times as if to fan himself off. “It’s been getting a little hot, hasn’t it?”
“Winter’s almost over.” The guard just shook his head and focused back on the tablet. “There you are. Take the elevator up to the penthouse.”
“Thanks!” I barely kept the relief of my face and stepped into the elevator. Once the doors closed, my expression collapsed. I ducked my head and let my hair cover my face so the camera couldn’t see. “Luna?”
The girl sighed. ”I-I have the elevator cam. I can only take one place at a time, though. They have runners all over this place.”
“What was that?” I turned on Saint. He was supposed to stay with Luna and Mira while I did all the infiltrating. They already fucked my plan up once by telling me to go through the front… though they did have a fair point. Air-dropping into a party wasn’t a good idea. There were far too many variables to account for.
“You were floundering! It’s called a bail-out.” He leaned against the side of the elevator and crossed his arms. “Seriously, though, Shiro. Sending you into a party by yourself is a terrible idea. Do you even know how to dance?”
”A bit.” I practiced a tiny amount back when attending SPS—“What the hell does that have to do with anything, slag?”
“How were you even going to drug him in the first place?” He arched a perfectly manicured brow. The elevator light backlit his face, making him look even more chiseled than usual.
“I—I was going to figure that out when I got in.” I’d been in a bit of a rush to get over here. I was prepared for a nightclub, not a private party in a penthouse suite. Corpo execs—no, rich people couldn’t do anything the easy way, could they? “Why are you here?”
”You put all three of us on Roughriders way out of the building. What if you need help? And this is where I shine!” He flourished dramatically to the elevator. “Just trust me. Please?”
I sighed and rubbed at my temples. The words of my counselor came back to me. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, huh… That was right after I talked about my dislike of plants and the smug bastard recommended gardening. He might have a point, though. “Fine.”
I was probably being a little uptight about all of this. If he was completely wrong, it’d be different. He was right, though. This kind of situation was almost perfectly made for him. Infiltrating social events was way outside my expertise. Being social was all the guy had going for him outside of exceptionally good timing, a handsome face, information gathering skills, connections—you know what? Never mind…
To be fair, though, I had an escape route already set up with my Spectral Flock. It wasn’t like I could just take him with me or abandon him. There was a reason I insisted on going in by myself. I didn’t want them to—no, I didn’t trust them to be capable of getting out of danger on their own. It was stupid, really.
Saint had been doing this kind of thing far longer than I had, Mira was Mira, and Luna was an exceptionally talented Netrunner. No one on my team was weak. I just—I needed to chill out. ‘Sides, it wasn’t like this totally threw a wrench into my plans. If anything, having Saint here might make some things easier.
“What’s up with that name, anyway?” Mira casually shifted the subject. “Suki Saki? Really?”
“I-I panicked, okay?” Luna sighed, and the half moon symbol on my HUD flickered. “I was busy fighting off probes from another runner. You try doing that while remaining undiscovered.”
“Oh yeah? Well, I was busy sitting back not doing anything!” Mira called out self-righteously and then broke into cheerful laughter. “Seriously, though, kinda wish I was down there with you two.”
”Someone needs to stay with Luna.” Saint nodded his head to me. “We got this.”
”Chek…” We got this. I stared at myself in the mirror and resisted the urge to fidget.
The elevator dinged, and throbbing music poured into my ears. The scent of expensive perfume, alcohol, and sweat all merged together into one grimy scent that could usually only be found at a nightclub. It was up here, though, in the penthouse suite of Penile Tower.
Saint casually stepped into the mess of humanity. “Any idea where he’s at?”
”Try the balcony. Looks like he’s doing shots.” Luna called out and blew up an image from a Dragonfly floating around the side of the building.
“Thanks.” I eyed the image and followed after Saint into the press of humanity. The path out to the balcony was a chaotic one, and Insight saved me from more than a couple corpos high off their asses. I dunno how Saint managed to get through without any issue. By the time we reached the balcony doors, I was this close to frying a bunch of slags with electricity.
“Follow my lead,” Saint muttered back to me. After seeing my nod, he casually shouted and threw his arm around the closest slag to him. The man reeked of alcohol, and looked half a drink from falling over. “It’s been so long! How are you?”
The slag’s eyes zoned back in and his expression twisted into confusion. “Do I—do I know you?”
”I’m your third cousin on your sister’s side.” Saint laughed it off and shook the man lightly. “I didn’t know you were going to be here—ah, sorry. How do you pronounce your name again? You know how mom gets with her crazy spellings.”
”Terry.” The man frowned. “Who’d you say you were—hic?”
”Your cousin! Jerry! Surely you remember me, right?” Saint pressed on without giving the man time to think. The sheer confidence he oozed seemed to do the trick. “Ah, and this is my sister! Suki! Say hi, Suki~!”
”H-hi!” I gave a little waved and smiled. The change of expression barely hid my glare at Saint. He was getting way too much amusement out of this. I shuffled up to his side and muttered under my breath, “what are you doing?”
”Watch this.” He tapped me on the shoulder and rammed the still dazed Terry into someone else right next to Mickey. The man lost his balance and fell over.
“Watch where you’re going!” The man shouted.
Saint offered a hand down and helped him to his feet. He put on a much more humble look and brushed off the man’s coat. “Oh my! I’m so sorry, bro. My cousin here’s had a little too much to drink!”
”It’s fine, it’s fine. Who hasn’t?” The expression of rage faded off the corpos face, and he just shook his head.
“S-sorry, Lawrence.” Terry muttered and shook his head sharply.
”Terry?” The man frowned and eyed the drunk guy that was still trying to piece together what was happening. “You never mentioned you had a cousin coming.”
”I didn’t know I had one either.” Terry frowned and scratched at his head.
”Terry! That hurts!” Saint grasped his chest like he’d been shot. “You need to lay off the booze man. How could you forget me and poor little Saki?!”
”T-Terry?” I asked tearfully and rubbed at my eyes. One of the Dragonflies zoomed in on my face, nearly making me gag at the expression I was making. My adorable, innocent crestfallen expression did the trick though and made Lawrence’s face flush red. Saint subtly shot me a thumbs up.
Terry’s wits seemed to come back, and he motioned between us. “Y-you and I look nothing alike—hic. How the heck can we be related?”
“What the hell, cus?” Saint backed away like he was disgusted and made an even bigger commotion. “You know poor little Saki was adopted!”
Lawrence glanced at me and pushed Terry back toward the building. ”You really are a piece of shit, Terry. Go clean yourself up and head back for the night. Seriously. If I see you getting another drink, you’re fired.”
“R-right… sorry, Jerry...” Terry backed away and shook his head like he was still trying to figure out what was going on. Thanks to Background Noise, I could hear him muttering to himself the entire way back into the building. “I dunno what’s up with me tonight—hic. I thought her name was Suki? I only had a couple glasses, too…”
”Sorry about that.” Lawrence sighed and apologized to Mickey, who’d been watching the entire exchange with an amused expression. “I’ll have to give Terry a strong talking to tomorrow.”
“It’s fine.” Mickey waved it off. “As long as he’s enjoying himself, I don’t mind.”
”Ah, where are my manners? Mickey, this is Jerry and Saki. They’re the cousins of one of my subordinates.” Lawrence waved between us and our target. “This is Mickey Mays.”
”You look familiar.” Mickey rubbed at his chin and stared at Saint.
Saint laughed casually and slung his arm around my shoulders. “I used to be a model. Saki’s taken over that side of the business these days. She pulls it off way better than I did.”
“Bro…” I quietly admonished him like a shy little sister and jabbed him in the side. My voice practically dripped with honey. “You’re going to embarrass me again.”
Mickey laughed and leaned back against the balcony railing. He lazily looked me over. “Must be from that. And your sister certainly has the charm for it.”
”Oh!” Saint waved his hand at a woman walking around with shots of something glowing neon purple and fizzy. “Over here! Celebration shots!”
“What are we celebrating?” Lawrence asked.
Saint laughed proudly and upturned his head slightly. ”Suki just landed a massive modeling contract! We’ll be at the Raijin Exhibition showing off some of their stuff!”
”I’ll cheers to that.” Mickey reached for one of the shots as the woman walked over.
Saint moved to ‘trip’ and knock over the platter of shots. I could see what his plan was now, though, and moved a bit quicker than him. Him tripping would be too obvious. A small jolt of electricity arced through the air and jolted the server’s chrome arm. The servos tensed up thanks to the electricity, and she dumped the shots all over herself. I recognized the model from some Raijin tech, so it was all too easy to bypass the EM protections. My electricity was directed, after all.
”Argh!” She jumped back and slipped as her server uniform turned vibrant purple.
”I gotcha.” Saint casually shifted his trip into a save and grabbed her before she could hit the ground.
”Teresa!” Mickey’s face flushed red and he glared down at the servant.
The woman’s face went pale, and she stood up straight. “I-I don’t know what happened, sir! M-my chrome just—“
”Ah, this model has a small defect.” Saint tapped the arm. “Must be the humidity getting to it. Those new hygroelectronics are so sensitive, you know.”
“Don’t I know it.” Mickey sighed and waved a hand. He seemed to buy the explanation—probably since we were already claiming to work with Raijin at their Exhibition. “Go get yourself cleaned up.”
”S-sir!” The woman disappeared into the crowd that gathered.
Our target's expression evened out and he pushed off the railing. “Let’s not let this little blip ruin tonight! We’re celebrating, aren’t we? I’ll go get us some new shots.”
“How can we make the host of this great party fetch his own shots?” Saint waved a dismissive hand and backed up a step. “C’mon, Saki. We’ll bring a couple back for these gentlemen.”
”Don’t keep me waiting too long!” Mickey grinned and slunk back onto the balcony railing. It seemed his ego had been successfully stoked. Every one of his Cues read satisfied.
”Coming, bro.” I followed after him. Soon, we were once more swallowed by the crowd. “Damn impressive, Saint. I dunno how you do it.”
”Right? Sometimes I even scare myself.” Saint grinned back at me and led me through the crowd. “C’mon. I saw a bar this way.”
We crossed the dance floor, and I momentarily lost my new favorite grifter. That wasn’t too big of an issue, though. I put on Fear the Reaper at an extremely subtle level, and a small bubble cleared out for me to reach him once more. It wasn’t strong enough to make people tremble in fear, but their subconscious demanded they move away.
By the time I reached him, he had already ordered shots. The bartender whipped up four more of those sparkling purple ones from before. Saint shifted to the side and casually blocked the view of most people around us. “Cameras, Luna?”
”Y-you’re in the clear. C-careful, though.” Our runner helpfully pulled a schematic up into my HUD. “There’s guards posted everywhere.”
”It’ll be fine.” I activated Hidden Hands and pulled a packet of white powder from my purse. This dress was tight, and there really wasn’t a better spot to store the drug.
“Still…” Luna sighed.
”Um… how much do I put into his drink?” I held the packet of white powder up and eyed the substance. It was one of the many drugs I pulled from the Savants. It was one of the ones they usually used to knock people out to make kidnapping them easier.
“Are you seriously asking that?” Mira snorted. “Wasn’t this part of your master plan?”
”It’s not like I do this kind of thing often!” The less time I had to spend around drugs, the better. Honestly, I probably wouldn’t have even grabbed them if I didn’t have infinite storage. They were just there, so why not?
“Just dump the whole thing in,” Saint shifted to better block the view of what I was doing. “At worst, he’ll just sleep a little longer.”
”Right.” I popped the packet and dumped it into his drink. Then, using micro adjustments of electricity, I stirred the substance in until it looked completely normal. Or, at least, as normal as a glowing purple drink could.
Saint picked up the one for Mickey and I took the other two. “Let’s not keep our Host waiting, eh?”