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***
- Good morning, Regina.
- Hello workaholics.
The girl grinned openly, however, she wasn't seeking to offend me with such a statement, rather she was stating a fact. Panam and I did work a lot harder than the other solos, though. Even the way Becca reacted to our schedules spoke to that.
What can you do if the solos in this world usually drink all their free time and work only when the money runs out. But I, and Panam when we first started working with her, had a slightly different perspective. I didn't want to live from booze to booze, I don't like to drink, and Panam was used to being more responsible in the clan, so she gave the surplus profits to Scorpion or Mitch. And I, wanting to impress the girl, began to offer to buy back my trophies to her clan armourer.
- What are we doing today?
- We have a mission. I got a call from a good friend of mine, he's a former film director. He used to be quite popular, but after his last film, he stopped making even short films and lives on what he wins at cards. Only he was unlucky and in one of the games he even had to lay down an optic... luckily the tiger claws were not interested in ordinary optics, but the claws liked the eye with a built-in professional camera....
- What's our mission?
- I'll send you the address of the place where my friend was playing, we have to go there and get his eye.
- Roger that, but what if the eye's already been moved somewhere else?
- Then find out where.
Regina's image shrugged.
- Roger that, come on, give me the details.
After a few seconds, I nodded my head.
- The message has arrived, let's proceed.
Opening the message from Regina, I gave Panam the coordinates of the destination, and with a roar of the engine, we set off. We had to drive around the city for a while to get to one of the flats where the card games took place.
My hand rested on Panam's knee, and she grinned.
- Don't stop me from driving...
- Am I?
She cast a leering glance at me.
- Not now. Except if you start to....
- I won't. I'm horny, but I'm not horny enough to get into the trousers of a girl who's driving. But after your permission to hit on you...
I chuckled.
- ...I just can't deny myself a little thing like that.
- Pfft!
Except her snort wasn't disgruntled, but more than satisfied with what was going on.
- So, um. Becca, huh?
I cast a mocking glance at Panam.
- Well, you've seen her. And you've seen me interact with her.
- Yeah...
She sighed and shook her head.
- She's a sticky one, but you really don't want to send her away, she's positive.
- That's for sure...
Panam jerked the steering wheel sideways away from the car that was going to ram us.
- We're not alone!
- Fucking claws!
I drew my gun and activated the sandi and looked out of the car to fire exactly two shots. The first at the front wheel and the second at the driver.
The claw car wiggled, but it was kept on track, even managed to start slowing down.
- That wasn't all...
I glanced at the monitor in the middle of the torpedo, which was now showing what was happening behind me, and a second later shots from some kind of machine gun came at the car.
- Go, go, as soon as we're in a reasonably deserted area I'll deal with them.
- That's right, if we respond now, civilians could get hurt.....
Panam pressed the accelerator pedal to the floor and the Tortik, roaring with the engine, began to pick up speed quickly. Not knowing the technical characteristics of the bikes on which the claws usually ride, it would seem that this way and get away from them.
But we both knew what kind of equipment the claws ride on and realised that it was only an appearance. An appearance that would disappear in exactly a few seconds, which is exactly what happened.
One of the Claws decided to outrun us--
- Well, you're wrong.
I activate sandy and leaning out of the window I shoot exactly in the front wheel, or rather not exactly in it, but in the place of hitting which will cause its blocking and as a consequence....
- It's low, it must be raining...
- Yeah, good thing there were no other drivers on this side of us...
With a wild squeal Tortik activated his brakes, and the claw that was following us crashed exactly into the rear bumper, hitting the closed boot of the pickup with his body. And immediately, the Panam spun off.
- I think that's it.
I looked at the screen and looked around, then I took out a clip and reloaded it from the cartridges that were in the glove compartment.
- Yep...bloody claws....
- They don't know we're gonna be robbing one of the bases.
- Yeah...
Panam grinned and when I holstered my gun she gave me a stern look.
- Put your hand back where it belongs.
Grinning I put my hand on my girlfriend's leg and lightly stroked it with my fingers.
- No-no-no!
- All-all-all...
I grinned and stopped pestering the driver, however, I didn't remove my hand from my girlfriend's thigh. And that suited us both.
- We approached the place.
Panam drove past the house that housed the Claws' underground casino, where the customer lost so much that he had to get a good implant to keep his life together. It's actually a pretty common story for this town. The scenery varies, but the essence of what's going on remains the same.
The car slowly turned into one of the courtyards and then parked.
- Am I waiting here?
- Yeah...
I nodded my head and put a small shield on my face, which completely hid my face from cameras and optics, as well as from normal vision, if someone with real eyes would meet me in this crazy city, and left the car.
Then I pulled a harpoon pistol from my belt, and taking aim I fired it at the edge of one of the nearest rooftops. The thin rope that could hold ten guys like me uncoiled from a small spool with a low whistle, and the harpoon smashed through the wall, sending a fine stone-like crumbling into the street.
- I went.
Panam didn't answer me, but I calmly walked along the wall of the house, keeping myself perpendicular to the wall. Due to the small retractable spikes on my boots, I had no problem at all with climbing that way.
A couple of minutes and I was on the roof.
One click on the harpoon and it folded up, allowing me to safely remove it and insert it back into the gun, and then the gun went on my belt. I walked around the roof, looking at the future area of action.
Having noticed a place where it would be possible to move from roof to roof, I looked carefully and having taken a good run-up sharply pushed off the edge of the roof with my feet. I took a couple more steps in the air and landed on another roof. Again I spent some time looking around, but this time I wasn't looking for a way to get to the other roof, but for a place to get down to the fire escape from which I could get to the flat where the Claws were playing card games.
There was no ladder, but I was lucky in that Regina had texted me the exact coordinates of the flat. So I pulled out my harpoon pistol, and after shooting the edge of the roof, I decided to go directly down the wall of the building.
Knight City, the city that never sleeps and where no one ever looks up. In other cities, too, no one ever looked up, so I walked down to the seventh of the ten floors and activated my optics, switching them to a mode that allowed me to look through walls.
There was no one on the sixth floor but three claws, and the room I was about to visit was empty, so I went down a little lower and used the opening demon to open the metal shutters that covered the window, but there was still glass, but quietly cutting out a small section near the handle and slipping my hand in to open the window was the least of my problems.
Before climbing into the flat I looked around again. Two of the Claws are sitting on a chair with their heads thrown back, probably watching some kind of Brain, or recently blown and high. The third is sitting in a small room, most likely a jolt and this is the one that could be causing the big trouble.
Sighing I climbed into the room and looked around.
I saw the safe right away, it was in a prominent place, and I was able to open it quickly, the same opening demon made the simple electronic lock, designed for a beginner who has not yet bought himself quality demons from the ranners, open and I nodded my head.
No, the eye I'd been sent for wasn't there, but there were tightly rolled wads of money and documents.
With a grin I scanned all the bundles of money, as it turned out not in vain, as two of them were wrapped with technical devices transmitting some kind of signal. Well, I took everything but those two bundles, as well as all the documents, then carefully closed the safe door again activating the demon, but this time summoned to close the door.
Claw was still sitting in the bathroom, but I went to the desk, and with a scanner I opened the drawers, checking their contents.
I got a couple of nice pistols from Militech, and a couple of bundles of money, which was even better than the guns. Still, you didn't usually roll less than five hundred quid into these kinds of twists.
Activating the computer I froze as I had time to look round the flat and Kogot sticking out in the toilet was already wiping himself. Switching off the monitor of the computer I moved away from it and stood near the wall where the door was located, there was just a convenient niche behind the wardrobe, which did not allow to see me.
However, my precaution was not really necessary, because the claw went to the other room and after a dozen seconds sat on the sofa, just like his mates, with his head thrown back.
Quickly returning to the computer I switched on the monitor and checked the data that was on it and now grinned.
There is an address...
Running a programme on the computer to delete all the data, I went to the window. There, I took the gun, which I left hanging outside, and then carefully got out of the flat, closing the window and the blinds behind me. Only then did I start to climb quickly upstairs.
Once on the roof, I pulled out the harpoon and quickly climbed back to the other roof, then used the fire escape to climb down. It didn't go all the way down to the ground floor, but even so, I just jumped down, and I had the skill to do it properly.
So I got to the car in no time.
- You got the optics?
- No, but I got a bunch of documents that the Claws had in the safe. So when we're near the post office, stop to send them to Regina. I also collected a bunch of cash, they had, like, ten times what they said they'd pay us.
- Cash?
- Yeah.
- And you took it all, of course?
- Not all of it, I scanned the cash, saw a couple of twists with trackers in them. So I left those in place, and the rest.
I dumped the cash into the glove compartment of the car and Panam whistled in surprise.
- Not a small amount...
- Exactly.
I nodded my head.
- But the mission is not over yet, I found in the computer data about the bar 'Kasu hanten' in Little China, apparently the optics were sent there. So let's get going.
- Yeah...
Panam nodded her head and started the car. She didn't have to start it because she didn't switch it off, and that was part of our strategy. I may work quietly, but the situation in which I have to retreat with a fight is not zero, and in this case even a couple of seconds to start the car could be critical.
I was about to take care of the cash, but Panam leaned over and slammed the glove compartment, which was already filled with the pistols I'd stolen from the Claws.
- Panam?
She sighed and took my hand and put it on her thigh, blushing a little.
- Understood, not a fool, a fool wouldn't have realised.....
Panam nodded her head, and I lightly stroked her thigh with my fingers, giving her a satisfied grin. I didn't go any further than that, she was driving, and the task was far from over.
- How far are we going?
- Well, according to the navigator about twenty minutes...
- Good.
I nodded my head.
- David?
- М?
- Are you all right with this?
- Hmm? What do you mean?
- You know, in life? What you're doing? In Knight City?