Ben limped into Camelot and immediately headed towards the booth he saw Annabel leaning next to. When he got inside and sat down the guards outside of the lounge closed the shutters soundproofing the room.
"You better have a good fucking reason for having me spare that tin can."
"I do and don't worry, I'm upping your pay to fifteen thousand from the original eight." The number startled Ben.
"Fifteen thousand? Was Carol that important? I mean we have new inventors of cyberware every year and surgical techniques kind of fell out of style back in the early 2030s."
"Not Carol, Sam." Annabel said.
Ben gawked for a second. "Hold up, wait a minute, something ain't right! Did you say Sam? As in that giant overweight cyborg?"
Annabel nodded, increasing Ben's confusion. He couldn't understand why Annabel would keep around Sam after the fact that he almost just botched a job and make Annabel lose her payment. "We need Sam Carver. He will be tasked with a job in return for repairing him and upgrading his cyberware, in fact I wanted to ask if you wanted in but-"
Annabel looked Ben up and down. Noticing the tears and dents all over his metal frame that were showing through the holes in the shirt that Ben had tried to cover, Annabel stated. "You'll have to solve that problem of your injuries first before you go on anymore jobs. And your cover will be blown faster than you can say shit."
Ben nodded. "I know, but you can still ask me what kind of job you want done. I'll be fixed up in three days at the latest, tomorrow by the earliest."
Annabel sighed. "Ok, here is what I want you to do. Together with three other mercs, I want you to break into a heavily fortified military base retrofitted by the Minuteman and steal the experimental mech frame they have stored there."
Ben calmly listened as Annabel got to the specifics of the job. "We are going to need a few things before we attempt this and you Sam will be paired with getting a few of these things."
"What about the other three? I mean you're pairing me with the guy that almost killed me, don't even mention the fact that I tore through the whole right side of his body. What makes you think he'll work with me and not just kill me when you aren't looking and run away right after?"
Annabel looked at Ben before sighing. "Sam is falling into cyberware degradation. He doesn't have very long, maybe a few months before he completely kicks the bucket."
Ben cocked his holographic eyebrow. "Degradation? I didn't think anyone had the ability to cure degradation."
Annabel nodded. "We don't, but we can delay it for about two more years. That gives him time to settle some things before he heads off to the afterlife."
"I see...Sam wants to amass money for what? some friends?" Ben stared at the stoic Annabel. "Some family?"
Annabel was still the whole time. "Ben you may not have really talked to Sam, but I can guarantee as a part time fixer and on my honor as a merc that Sam will not hurt you. Sam is a different breed from all the riffraff that populates the market nowadays, he has a code he abides by."
".....Fine. I'll join this job, but first I need to bargain with you about something."
Annabel narrowed her eyes. "About what? Pay?"
Ben shook his head. He has been avoiding it all this while, but there is no stopping the desire he has for the knowledge of the wellbeing of his mother and sister. "No, I need an info broker. A confidential one that won't ask questions and...." Ben deadpanned at Annabel, "one that won't tell anyone what I asked them. So....where can I find this person?"
Ben most definitely knew that Annabel had an information broker somewhere, hiding. With her tracking down the ST-00 chip, to her phrases of 'we', and finally the fact that she always seems to know where is and what he is doing despite not being a net-diver. Not even Ben can hack into camera feed halfway across the city, he has to either directly see it, be connected to a linked camera, or he has to have contact with the computer that manages the whole feed.
Annabel had none of these and still tracked him down. Which meant that she was not just a part of some gang but some large scale organization. Annabel nodded, "You're right on one thing. I'm not alone, but you're wrong on one thing as well."
Ben glanced at her, waiting for the answer. "The Flying Dragons are a gang based in China, headed by the enigma, Heilong. I, on the other hand, am not a part of a gang." She seemed disgusted to even consider the thought of being a part of a gang. Not that Ben cared, he only needed to know if she was going to let him meet her information broker.
This was the whole point of building this connection with this woman. From the start when Ben found out about the job from Jimmy and Bobby's record, he planned on using this woman as a springboard for his plans.
Annabel thought about Ben's proposition for about ten minutes before she nodded to herself. "Ok, I'll tell you where you can find them, but it's gonna cost you more than the extra eight thousand."
Ben nodded and asked the amount needed for the transaction. Only problem was Annabel blew the bill out of the water. "I just gave you fifteen so....ten thousand, take or leave it."
Ben sighed. "I'll take it."
Annabel nodded and sent the junction at which he could meet the broker.
…..
When Ben made it to Doc's place, what greeted him was the screams of cybernetics in the middle of surgery and the bawling of people emptying their wallets for said surgeries.
When Doc saw Ben in the office after he came out from implanting faulty cyberware on a poor schmuck, he paled. "You! What do you want, you bastard!?"
Ben cocked an eyebrow at the drama of the old fool. "I'm here for a few things, empty out your shop first and we'll talk." With that Ben found one shaky chair and waited for people to clear out.
With the place empty, Doc sat in the opposite chair of Ben and got straight to business. "What cyberware are you stealing from me this time?"
"I don't steal cyberware, old man. You know that if an experienced cybernetic walked through those doors and caught the shit you tried selling me, well..."
"Enough! What. Do. You. Want." Doc uttered those words with every fiber of his being. ready to get rung out by this 'scammer'.
"First off I need to know where I can find some decent skin implants."
Doc nodded. "Finally ready to don an actual disguise are you? Well I hav-'' Then he stopped and re-ran those words through his head before saying them. "I know of a guy who has some nice skin implants. They also go for cheap. I'll send you the coordinates."
Ben nodded. "I also need some surgical repairs." Then he lifted his shirt and showed his damaged chassis, he rolled up his right sleeve to show his jammed blade, and finally he opened his chest cavity to show his ruined hydraulics.
"...…You do know this is gonna be crazy expensive this time right? Even if I use cheap parts, those damaged areas vital-"
Ben put his hand up. "I'm not gonna scam you out of your money Doc. I scammed you last time because you tried scamming me. I know it won't be cheap, and I don't want cheap parts."
Doc was silent for a bit before he spoke again. "Last time you came here, you haggled for parts. Now I may have tried scamming you yes, but those parts that were used were at least eight thousand all put together. How do I know you can pay for all of this and you ain't just gonna scam me again?"
"Give me your catalog." Doc handed him the catalog. Upon selecting a few things, Ben returned the electronic pad back to Doc. On it was a price tag of twenty thousand.
Ben may have paid ten thousand for the info broker but he wasn't messing around when he hacked the computer. In the computer was a connection to all of the members in the hideout, and once they died, Ben took upon himself to use that money for a better purpose.
The average amount in each of the goons wallets was about one thousand give or take. Meaning that if he got that fifteen thousand, he would have around thirty seven thousand dollars! That was a big improvement from the measly four grand he had at the start.
"....Ok, do you want to do the surgery now or after you get the skin implants?"
"Let's do it now. It'll make it easier for your associate to do the implantation process." Doc nodded then led Ben to the operating room. When Ben laid down on the table and was clamped down, Ben gave Doc one last glare. "Remember I am still watching so don't get any funny ideas. The second you do my malware will eat you alive."
Doc nodded hurriedly and brought out the selected cyberware and replacement parts that Ben had chosen earlier.
…..
When Ben got off the operating table four hours later his chassis seemed to 'shine'. What he built in over all the repairs was three cameras placed at the back of the head and on both sides of the head where his ears would be. This was for a 360 degree view of his surroundings and when he eventually gets his skin implants he will be able to 'see' out of his ears and have a hole hidden by hair for his behind camera.
He also had his frame layered with extra armor and the outside be coated in reactive plating. So anyone stupid enough to punch him will be in for a explosive surprise.
Other than that he gave Doc the idea of reconfiguring his stinger blade and railgun so that they were of one entity. Essentially his railgun's rails would make up the blade when the blade was in use and then reconfigure when Ben needed the railgun. This prevents jamming and since the coolant is able to affect more surface area of the railgun with the stinger out of the way it will cool down faster, preventing any metal dents from contact when Ben decides to use the stinger.
That's all he could afford for now after his payment for the location and appointment with the broker and the stops he has to make for munitions' and the skin implant, he has around seven thousand dollars.
Ben after stretching out his new parts walked u[ to Doc once they were back in the office. "Doc, in the situation that I have some cyberware laying around, how much would you pay for it in comparison with the market price?"
Doc thought for a second before replying. "Half market price. More if the cyberware is in perfect condition."
Ben nodded. After paying Doc his due he left towards the coordinates that Doc provided. Once he arrived the differences were apparent. Instead of a shack, what appeared before Ben was a concrete building with multiple operating rooms and several people completing transactions at a time.
The man Ben was looking for was Milton Jones. When Ben found him he was passed out drunk leaning on the back of his chair with aged vodka in his hand.
Ben grabbed the glass bottle and smashed it against the counter, shocking the fellow awake immediately.
"What in the net are you doing, you madman?!" With his putrid breath leaking into the room, Milton asked Ben aggressively.
Ben looked on impassively. "You're just sad the bottle is broken right?"
"Sad? More like infuriated! Don't you know an antique vodka bottle when you see one? That was a trillionaire Vodka 1980 edition bottle, the alcohol was filtered with real diamonds! It was exquisitely amazing, the drunk state you get into with it, muah, beautiful." The man droned off about the amazingness of the bottles contents to Ben.
"Listen, Milton, Right? I need a skin implantation surgery. I need you sober during it, understand?" As Ben asked, his breach into Milton's internal systems was long successful, in fact Ben had loaded him with so much malware that if he activated all of them Milton would literally melt before everyone's eyes.
When Ben made the fact about the malware clear to Milton, the drunk implanter sobered immediately and gave the same spiel as Doc. Ben shut him up with a little heat from his malware.
"What's a net-diver like yourself doing here in this run down place anyway? shouldn't you be getting better upgrades?" Milton asked as he was getting ready for the implantation process.
"Don't ask questions that will get you buried six feet under."
Milton nodded and got on with the surgery.