200 gems = bonus chapter
20 comments per chapter = bonus chapter
10 reviews = bonus chapter
3 patreon subscriptions = 10 bonus chapters
Fully completed story at:
patreon.com/FanFictionPremium
***
- I'm online, the cameras will be under our control about... now.
Lucy reported back to me about the point at which they wouldn't be able to pick me up on the cameras.
- Ugh... I could have handled that one too, they have no defences at all, it's like they don't care about being hacked.
Judy sounded a little frustrated at the lack of sophistication and grumbled just for the sake of grumbling.
- You're too hard on them, Goodness, in fact we only found out about this place because of Regina, and how much money she poured in for it and how many strings she pulled....
Lucy spoke in a slightly reproachful tone.
- 'Stop talking, you're having fun with your Raner stuff, Cherry was having fun while we were travelling, Tihonya's going to have fun now, and I'm actually jealous.
- I hope there won't be a holiday on your street after all, and we'll pay you off with a very good shooting gallery, which we'll go to at the end of the first week of assignments as a team.
- Pfft!
- Don't snort, I heard during one of the lectures at Arasaki Academy that corporations have a very cool shooting range where they train their employees in near combat situations, a combination of Braine, virtual and regular shooting ranges. If you behave yourself, I'll try to find out more from her, and then through Regina we'll find out where we can find such a thing without contacting the corporations.
- That sounds interesting.
- Well, even Judy's gonna be interested, and I want to shoot! I want to shoot!
- What do you want to do, shoot, or do you want me to make real ramen instead of that fast food crap?
- Can you do that?
- Well, finding a recipe is not a problem for me....
I shrugged.
- I can't expect the excellent results of the best restaurants for the elite, but I think I'll do much better than the third-rate eateries.
- All right, I'll keep my mouth shut, but you owe me pork ramen!
- You got it.
- And I want an extra large portion!
- You got it.
- Okay.
Becky's voice was beaming with pleasure. It wasn't hard to please Maniac a little bit, though.
- And yes, you have a call sign now.
- Hmm?
- Since you're so addicted to food that you'd do anything for it, you're now Gluttony.
- Hey!
- Enough chitchat, we've got the map of the lab building and facilities, I'm handing it over to Tikhona...
- Yeah, you'll have a nickname too... but I can't think of anything but Snowflake. Map received, I'm on my way.
- Pfft! Very original! By the way, Tihonja, I got a call from Kiwi asking if we need another ranger....
I sighed.
- What do you think, Snowflake?
- Well, I realise that might be a bit redundant, but she's my mentor... it's... hard for me to just say no to her like that.
- Okay, well, no specifics in conversations, just general phrases and call signs.
I slowly approached the alley where the only known entrance to the lab was, and after activating the sandi, I quickly walked through it to find myself at an open garage where there were people of gangster appearance pretending to be repairing a car. Naturally the trio of idiots were immediately stunned, after which they were inserted with slivers of programming from Lucy. After which I switched off Sandy.
- Snowflake work.
- I see three signals.
Lucy's voice sounded anxious and somewhat tense.
- As for your question... is there any particular reason you're willing to fit in for her? Well, apart from the fact that she's supposedly your mentor.
- What do you mean?
Lucy's voice has become more strained.
- What he means is that we're professional solos after all, and even though our first job happened rather spontaneously....
Judy decided to take a theatrical pause, but Panam did not support her in this endeavour and finished for her.
- But do you really think that after the first job we didn't buy a dossier on you and your whole team from the fixer?
- Yeah mate....bang on...you're right, she's not exactly a Kiwi student.....
- Gluttony, you don't understand about the call signs, do you? Just because we don't get busted doesn't mean we don't have to be careful.
- Gluttony...
- Tz... Snowflake, Quiet, I didn't agree to that call sign... fuck... they've learnt a lot already anyway and keeping quiet will only turn them against us. Do you want that?
The last question was clearly addressed to Lucy.
- I... no...
- So?
Judy decided to hurry them up. I calmly walked to the only door that led downstairs, opened it carefully and quietly, and then began to slowly make my way downstairs. While listening to the conversation.
- Anyway... Quiet was talking about how he went to a cool academy?
- Yeah.
I didn't make a secret of it.
- ... Snowflake went to the academy too, but instead of studying, it was Spartan laws and trained them to do the dirty work. She was one of the few who survived... managed to escape... but socialisation was nil... Have you read the very old tale of Mowgli?
- No...
This was said by all the girls at the same time, and I even paused and raised my eyebrows in surprise.
- Suppose...
My voice became extremely quiet and cautious, and I even stopped myself from falling down the stairs in surprise. It's not every day you find out that a small ulcer obsessed with weapons... No, it's necessary to clarify.
- You mean you've read it?
There was a sea of scepticism in my voice, which obviously didn't go unnoticed.
- Hey, I'm actually quite fond of reading! Of course, I don't have enough money for paper books in my life, at least I thought so until I learnt that you eat natural food on a regular basis, so if I work at your pace maybe I'll have money for paper books, but I can pay for my own access to the online library!
I shook my head.
- The nickname Glutton is no longer valid, you are now Bookwoman.
- А?
- Come on... you read books... amongst everyone I know, you're the second person to do it. The first was my Mum, who instilled that love in me...
And it was true, I loved reading books in my previous life, and David read books, though not in large quantities, and he clearly preferred entertaining stories about powerful solos who bend the world with their pathos.
Do I judge him for such tastes?
No.
At some point in my previous life I got hooked on Dontsova, though before that I considered it a tabloid read not even suitable for wiping my arse in the toilet, because the pages of these books are too uncomfortable for that. So there are different moments in life, and in these different moments different types of literature can come in. Maybe in time he'll read something serious....
- So now you're a Bookwoman. And that's non-negotiable. Regarding where you started and why you brought up this topic... Are you saying that if it seemed as if she was raised by wolves in the wilderness and was mentored by the person discussed for Snowflake, I suppose she was socialising her?
- Well as far as she could do it herself, but yeah.....
- I'm done... and yes, she was the one who socialised me. I owe her... but she's very distrustful and always told me not to trust anyone. Not even her. Anyway, I just want to show her that it's okay to trust people.
I sighed.
- Let's discuss this a little later... after the mission, I'll contact the fixer and order an extended dossier on your mentor. If she's not covered in shit, at the very least I'll give her a chance to work with us. I can't promise that she'll be on the team, but she'll get a chance to work with us...
- Thank you.
- You're welcome...
I shook my head and continued downstairs.
- There are four bandits in the room. There's no door or anything to stop the sounds from spreading, so be quiet unless you want five more people to come running....
I sighed.
- Yeah...
The door opened quietly and I activated the sandi, only to have it deactivated in two seconds of real time already. All of my opponents were gently placed on the floor, lucky me and they were in the centre of the room playing cards. They used some old boxes as chairs and a bigger box as a table.
- Snowflake...
- Working...
She started hacking again.
- There's a hotspot nearby, can you put a chip in it?
Judy marked the location of the access point on my map, so I calmly walked over to it and waited for her to open the door for me and went inside and inserted the splinter into the socket.
- Yeah we're gonna be rich...
- Hmm?
- We're lucky, this lab just sold out, it's got a lot of quid in its accounts, so put it all offshore and we're rich, I'd even say very rich. Apparently, it was a big shipment.
- Can you find out who did the buying and try to find out about the other labs?
- I'm sure there's nothing here, but I'll get a list of the buyers.
- I'll have to get that list to the fixer, get him to send his sixes to clean up the mess.
- Mm-hmm.
I walked out of the small room and continued on my way through the drug lab's hideout. There were only two things that helped me keep my composure and not kill every bandit I saw. The first was that I could make money from them, which Lucy was doing while Judy led me round the building, and the second was that they were all going to die anyway, because after I'd planted the bomb I'd go back and kill them, just so they wouldn't suffer....
Except that they will die after we get everything we need from them ...
I sighed.
- Two more.
- Got it...
Sandi's active again and I calmly make my way into the room and knock out two more of them by putting splinters in them.
- Man, at this rate we need another Rauner! I just can't keep up with the data coming in! Just slow down a little bit!
Breathe in, breathe out.
That's a dangerous thing to do.
- How sure are you about her?
- А?
- Your mentor.
- Well, enough.
- Can you establish remote contact and delegate some of the tasks to her?
- Yeah.
- Connect it.
- Quiet.
- I'll take responsibility. We just can't stay here too long. We don't have a lot of information under control and at any moment there could be a shift for these thugs or an unscheduled shipment of reagents or some shit...
- I can do that.
- Quiet.
- Good girl, I don't like it myself, but on the other hand, we only hired Snowflake for her first job on Bookwoman's recommendation. So we'll give her a first chance in advance, if I may say so... all done talking, Snowflake connect.
A couple of seconds passed and I heard a slightly disgruntled voice.
- Go ahead.
- So, listen and don't interrupt... you were recommended by Snowflake.....
There was a sarcastic snort from the other side.
- Yes, yes, that's how unoriginal I am... You'll work remotely, communication only by call signs, I'm Tikhonya, the girls you know are Snowflake and Knizhnitsa, my partners are Cherry and Clever. Your job is to hack into the data I give you access to. Download information on 'shiny things' is paramount, labs, customers, anything you can find. If there's time left, hack into personal accounts and offshore withdrawals, Snowflake will give you an account to make the final withdrawal to. If you work well, you and Snowflake will get a large share of these credits, as it was your direct labour that earned them. Are the terms clear?
- Yes.
- Good, while you're working with us, you'll be temporarily responding to the call sign Mentor. Now get to work, cos I've moved on and yes, there's two laptops here, so that's going to feed into the main stream...
And I put two slivers into the laptops, which made Lucy howl and Kiwi quack in surprise. Apparently she had already been given access to the network where her student was working and had seen the amount of work to be done.