A.N - 3 out of 5.
House always wins
It was quite a scandal. There was no such wild massacre for a long time.It became even interesting when the journalists found out who exactly died during the attack of mercenaries. At first it seemed to everyone that Darra will send a punitive raid against us and as result the price of our shares has dropped by a couple of points.
And all thanks to the leaked video of how my team evacuated Lachanan. It showed a Darra representative's bodyguard heading towards us and trying to rescue his client, but we refused to help him. And when the guard tried to force his way through, he was neutralized and left to die with his client.
A day went by, and then two more, but there was no reaction from the gun-runners. Our PR department issued a press release in which they explained certain details of the incident. It came as a surprise to everyone that Lachanan provided security assurances to the guests, but did not provide them the coverage of TT insurance.
Simply a horrible example of incompetence. So in fact TT had nothing to do with it, there was a call from a customer, they arrived and saved client. And the fact that they could, but did not save the representative of Darra is because so we are not a charity,
we're a corporation that makes money. Client? We'll save him and take him to the hospital.
No? Then get out of our way or we'll shoot you. The only one to blame is Carrie Lachanan, whom TT made the scapegoat.
That's what we've been emphasizing when negotiating with the angry family members of the deceased heir/representative. Even so, we managed to reach some rather ambitious family members who helped us pin the blame on Lachanan. Although in the end they began to threaten us and demand compensation, and in case we refused, they would make it impossible for the TT to enter the Indian market.
Except that they made a slip-up with this one. The main lobbyist for this project was Lachanan, not Jeremiah, and the project was not a priority for him. So as not to give them any wrong ideas, Jeremiah told them that he would team up with other arms companies and do everything to squeeze Darra out of the market or at least reduce their market share. Militech and Arasaka would be happy to do that.
Recognizing such possibility, Darra decided to sign a truce and not to raise any demands. Thanks to ambitious kin that were able to explain that it was even a good thing that the corporation did not make any treaties with Lachanann since she had made such a terrible mistake, imagine what could have happened in the long run.
It was close, but we were able to win. And then a new wave of purges began, so to speak. By calling an emergency shareholder meeting, Jeremiah and co. were able to force the dismissal of Lachanan and some of her allies. Angry shareholders who really "liked" the scandal, or rather the drop in share prices, and Lahanan's gross "blunders," approved this decision. So within 24 hours, she was fired, as well as her allies. Loyal or at least neutral people were promoted to fill the vacant seats. And Lachanan's remaining allies in the TT began to be investigated by internal security, and for the rest of the staff, they became pariahs. Everything went quickly and fairly bloodless. Although there was one unpleasant moment that could have brought us a lot of trouble if I hadn't solved it. Radically.
Daru somehow accidentally managed to get into the radio channel on which the snipers were talking and was able to make a recording of it. With this information he came to me. When I asked him how he got on this channel, he said he was just running a communications check and accidentally got on a channel he had used when he was involved in one of TT's Black Ops. Goddamn, such a little thing got screwed over. Professionals my ass Now there's one more person who knows about the fact that this scandal involves people connected with TT. I told him to keep quiet about this, and I hinted that it's beyond our level. We're just ordinary grunts, our job is to shoot enemies and rescue clients.
But apparently Daru decided not to listen to my advice and wanted to find out a little more. One of the netrunners who watched him on my request informed me that Daru was looking for the contact details of one of Lachanan's allies. Alarm bells started ringing. Apparently Daru decided to play his own game. So I had to call Ron and tell him that we have a rat. We decided that we would interrogate him first and then get rid of him by imitating suicide.
The only option that wouldn't draw too much attention was a night raid. I had to sneak into his house at night with one of reliable EMTs under Ron's command. After knocking him out with a shot of sleeping pills, we loaded him into a car waiting for us downstairs. Now the specialists will take care of him and get everything we need to know.
After an express interrogation and netrunner checks, we got our answers. It turned out to be simple enough. Daru sensed an opportunity, if not to move up the career ladder, then at least an opportunity to make some easy money through blackmail. Except that he worked too bluntly and left too many traces by which he was identified. Once we had everything we needed, we began to prepare for a fake suicide.
Drugs, alcohol and other substances were out of use, Daru didn't use those. A simple suicide with a gunshot to the head, too. That leaves us the option of strangulation during Autoerotic Asphyxiation. After hanging him by the neck with a thin but strong rope, we left him in the room with his pants down and an adult movie on the TV screen.
Why complicate things so much when we could just send him out for a swim with concrete shoes? Well, because that kind of disappearance or other way of suicide would draw unnecessary attention. And journalists might find out that he was part of the Darra scandal. And there are new questions and new journalistic
investigations and new problems. So he died trying to have some fun. Things happen. Why in a such strange way? Well, he was a pervert, and a hidden one. So nothing new. Just another digit in the daily count of the number of people who died in Night City.
Now let's talk about the benefits we got from the successful completion of the setup. TT's stock jumped in value and not only returned to its pre-scandal numbers, it was even up a couple of points. That's because Jeremiah was able to make peace with Darra and the leaked video footage.
It turned out to be even a little ridiculous with the video. On it you could clearly hear my line about insurance, and then see a quick execution of the pissed-off Borg. On one hand, it shows us as quite ruthless corps, which would not even move a finger without payment. But on the other hand, it showed that we were even willing to fight with the borg if it was necessary to ensure the safety of the client. And how quickly and efficiently I dealt with him added a couple of points towards image of TT as a corporation with highly skilled troops.
People on the net scolded us for being heartless and lacking any sort of humanism. But usually it was done by those who could not afford to become our customers. But those who could afford it became more interested in purchasing our services and insurance. Current clients now saw buying insurance as a good investment and even considered getting a higher level of insurance.
All of this has helped get new customers and increase profits, which has been good for the stock price. Jeremiah used the momentum and solidified his position as CEO of Trauma Team. For me, it resulted in the fact that I was finally being allowed to proceed with my project...and having Ron and others I know joking and saying that they have insurance and I can't shoot them and so on.
Whatever. Now I need to find people who will be part of my team. And I already know a couple of morons who would definitely be good candidates. So should I start by searching the corp database or male strip bars?