Thirty minutes later, I pull up in front of a typical Knight City house. It's a high-rise that hasn't seen any major repairs or any cosmetic impact from the utilities in decades.
I grinned and walked a little farther and went into a back alley and put a bandage on my face, then carefully walked through the courtyards and stopped exactly next to the window that should have led to the adjacent, with the apartment I needed.
Easily pry open the old window sash with a knife and two minutes later I'm in the apartment on the first floor. I quietly walk through it noticing that the TV is on in one of the rooms. I looked inside the room and noticed that some two girls were self-satisfying themselves with a vibrator and a porn movie.
Shrugging and closing the door behind me, I made my way to the door that led to the hallway and carefully and quietly opened it and slipped out, closing it behind me.
A couple steps down the hallway and I'm at the right apartment.
Tapping a few times, having a knife ready...
"What do you want?!"
The door swung sharply outward, but I was on the other side of it, so it didn't stop me from sharply thrusting the knife upward through the Trashman's chin and into his brain.
Gently picking him up I lowered him to the floor of the apartment and stepping forward I quietly closed the door behind me.
I quickly searched him, took the weapon, then wiped my knife on his jacket and went down the hallway to the nearest room. It was a bathroom with a light on and one of the Trashmen in it. I didn't care what he was doing there, I just stabbed him in the temple and gave him a little twist, then picked him up and lowered him gently to the floor.
This one didn't have anything on him.
With a sigh I dragged the first stiff to the bathroom and after checking the toilet peeked into the now first full room.
"Fuck... he's taking a long time..."
"Bitch, you want to get up and go check it out. maybe he's jerking off to a dead body by the door!"
"Oh, fuck!"
"That's what I'm talking about!"
"Bitch. but you gotta check it out. Remember the other day when that newbie solo fucked up one of the bases?"
"Tsk... they'd just all be stoned..."
While the two Trashmen were talking, I crept up behind them and, taking a knife in each hand, carefully plunged it right into the temples of the losers. Their heads smacked against each other.
Pulling out the knives I wiped them on the Scavengers' jackets and did a quick search. A couple hundred in cash, a pistol and a machine gun. I immediately threw the weapons into my backpack, which I put on the floor and went to the next room so that I wouldn't be disguised by the sound of the weapons banging against each other.
There was a Reaper clinic set up where he removed implants from bodies, but now he wasn't working, he was sitting in a chair, and stoned watching Brain.
Sneak up quietly and put the knife right through his temple.
I took off the glove, went back to the bag left in the last room and put the glove in it, and then went on my way. The third room, on the other hand, had a surprise waiting for me. A broken floor and a staircase, not very neat, down.
After weighing the pros and cons, I returned to the Reaper's room and searched it to find a couple of implants prepared for sale.
"Sookie..."
Back at the cave I slowly looked around and went down, but luckily it was quiet and this dig went on for about two hundred meters until it ended in some basement where there was just a fuckload of chrome stacked up.
"Regina, I have a question..."
"I'm listening to you, Tycho."
Fixer answered my call right away.
"Switching cameras..."
When she saw what I saw, she whistled in surprise.
"...the apartment had a hole in the floor and an underground passage to a basement. You know, it's not good, but then again, we didn't extract all this stuff. so why don't we get some silent drivers down here? You know, to transfer all this stuff to a normal ripper?"
"Just a second, I'll check to see which driver is available..."
Regina appreciated my idea and quickly checked her data and then her image froze for a couple minutes.
"You know, I've been thinking, I don't want to share you, but no Reaper in town will take parts from under the Trashmen. They need papers. Black market's not an option, but you can sell them to nomads. Anyway, I contacted Dakota, now her man will contact you, tell you where to come..."
"Got it."
I didn't ask any questions. It wasn't my place to ask about payment; Regina had a reputation, and I knew she wouldn't hurt me.
Couple minutes and the call.
"Quiet is listening."
"Pfft... boy, you'd better pick a better nickname..."
"To whom do I have the honor?"
"Panam Palmer. I'm from Dakota, she said you know where to get a lot of chrome..."
"I know. I've been clearing out the Scavenger Point, and it turns out there's a way into their warehouse. There's plenty of chrome around here. I'm dropping off the access point."
"Got you. Quiet."
She grinned at my call sign.
"I'll be there in 20 minutes."
The connection's been severed.
Once again I examined the basement and realized that that underground corridor was the only working entrance to it, as the others, passing through, were welded from the inside. Realizing this, I returned to the apartment and took a position near the front door and waited.
It was about ten minutes later, and I heard a crowd of sentients rushing down the common corridor with a wild stomp.
Lurk...
Bang!
The door to the apartment was kicked in, but that didn't help them, since I wasn't in their line of sight. A couple of people went further into the apartment and another peeked into the bathroom, where I was, but he didn't have time to do anything about it, the sandevastan plus the knife had cut his life short and he didn't even have time to warn the others about where I was.
In a somersault I came out of the bathroom and the next thing I did was to fire my pistol at the eye of the Trashman, after which I turned around and fired two more shots at the back of the head of the still unaware freaks.
Each of them had a machine gun and a few spare ammo horns and it all went into my bag.
"Quiet?"
I accepted the challenge from Panam as soon as it came in.
"Yeah, one second, are you in the yard?"
"Yeah..."
"Well, I hope you're not alone."
"No, I have a couple of chumbas from the clan with me..."
"Okay, I'll open the window and show you where to get the stuff."
"А?"
"I recently fought off a raid by Scavengers who apparently somehow realized that something is not clean in their warehouse, so I'll guard the approach from the building, you sit behind the wheel, and your chumbas haul chrome."
"Roger that."
I opened the window and a couple dozen seconds later a small van backed up to it.
"Hi, my name is Mitchum."
"And I'm a Scorpio."
"Quiet."
They grinned and nodded, and I leaned away from the window and let them inside the apartment.
"So, uh. it's an underground passage. Leads to the basement. The other passageways are blocked off, so there's no danger there. But still, work fast. I'll cover you here in case the other Trashmen decide to show up."
"Roger that."
In general, the chrome transfer went quietly and calmly, and in half an hour I followed the men out the window and sat down in the seat next to the warrior. Then they climbed into the back of their van.
"Hit the gas!"
"Take your time..."
I shook my head putting my hand on the girl's shoulder.
"А?!"
"I'm telling you not to attract attention. If you hit the gas now, we'll be remembered, but if you leave quietly, there's a chance no one's gonna care that this van was here."
"The guy is right, Panam, take your time."
"Got it."
I could hear the disappointment in the girl's voice. She glanced at me and shook her head.
"Why us?"
"М?"
"Chrome... why Aldecaldo?"
I shrugged.
"You're just lucky."
"Lucky?"
"I haven't been solo for that long, I only know Regina from the fixers, and she's apparently on good terms with Dakota, who has already recommended you."
"You mean just luck?"
"Yeah. (chuckles)"
"I see..."
When we left town I got in touch with Regina.
"Boss. We're out of town, I think we'll be safe from here."
"Roger that. My men have already checked, the mission was quiet as always, and the fact that there was a warehouse. that's even better. Less profit for those assholes."
I nodded my head.
"You finish your business with Aldecaldo, you're done for the day."
"Got it. I just have a question."
"Uh-huh?
"I heard about this Reaper guy. they say he's a decent guy. Victor Vector. You got an address for him?"
"I know, of course. Victor's clinic, Urmland Street. And he's a really good ripper, one of the best, if you count the ones that regular people and solo beginners can afford. What's to say, he's very good compared to other rippers, except that the Korp's might be better..."
"Uh-huh, thanks...
"You're welcome."
The connection was cut off and I drove on in silence until we reached Aldecaldo's camp, where I helped the men unload the chrome and take it to their riper, who quickly scanned it and got happier and happier with each package pulled out of the van.
"Fifty?"
He looked at me carefully with an eyebrow arched.
"I'd love to..."
I shrugged.
"but I don't know the first thing about it. So drop the list and the proposed cost to Regina and let her decide."
"You don't trust us?!"
It was evident that Panam had been struck by my words.
"You're new to Knight City, aren't you?"
"What?!"
"Just too naive..."
I shrugged.
"...You're a cool girl, I'd go to a coffee shop with you a couple times, maybe something would work out, but at the moment you're seeing me for the first time, I'm seeing you too..."
I shrugged.
"Scorpio and Mitch don't seem bad either..."
I shake my head.
"...maybe a couple times in a bar with them, though considering I don't drink, it's doubtful they'd enjoy such a sit-down.
I grinned.
"However, this is all my subjective judgment. The task as a result of which I got this all came from the fixer, she knows that I found the chrome and therefore should get a percentage. This gun from the corpses belong to the solo, who picked them up, but such nishtatyaki better sell through the fikser. And repa will be better and less chance of being fucked over."
"I see..."
Panam seems to have calmed down a bit.
A couple minutes later I received the payment transferred through Regina and I nodded to the nomads and with a sigh waddled towards the highway where I could hail a cab.
"Hey, you need a ride?"
Panam quickly caught up with me and lightly clapped me on the shoulder.
"Well, I don't mind..."
I shrugged.
"but are you sure? You're going back to your family in the city."
"Well..."
She grinned sadly.
"I don't really get along with Saul. He'll be happy about the chrome, but I'm sure we'll have a fight if I'm here long enough..."
"Saul?"
"Yes, it's the head of the clan."
She nodded her head.
"He's not a bad guy, but he's boring. He's always dreaming about getting a contract with biotech."
I hummed.
"That's what we think, and that's all he's been dreaming about since we got here..."
Panam shook her head and led me towards her car and proudly pointed at it with her hand.
"Meet my Cakey!"