Judy climbed into the car and nodded to Panam and me.
"We didn't break up for long, did we?"
"Uh-huh, Regina gave us a mission to steal something, preferably quietly and without casualties from our targets.
"All right, let's go."
"How did the Helms let you off easy?"
"Where are they going to go?"
"I see..."
I nodded my head.
"Panam, take us!"
"Got it."
Tortic's engine roared to life and the car drove to its destination.
"By the way, Judy needs a nickname, right?"
Panam looked at me with interest when I said that. She nodded thoughtfully.
"Yeah, she needs a nickname..."
"Okay, we'll see from her work, maybe we'll call her Cybergirl."
"You think so?"
"Judy..."
I decided to ignore Panam and turned to our new girl.
"...have you studied the mission statement?"
"I looked it up."
She nodded her head.
"Great, now set up a connection for all of us."
"Uh-huh...
She covered her eyes, and a couple of seconds later I answered the call. And two images of Panam and Judy appeared in the corner of my screen.
"Come in. can you hear me?"
"Uh-huh...
Panam and I answered at the same time and looked over with a smile.
"It's good to have a Rauner on the team."
"Were you guys working without communications?"
"Uh-huh, a secure channel none of us could provide, so we preferred to work without communication.
"Okay, I'll take care of that now..."
Cake jerked to the side.
"Watch where you're going!"
Panam stuck her fist out of the car and shook it threatening the driver who cut us off.
"Panam, take it easy..."
"If it wasn't for the assignment, I'd show him how to drive."
"Yes, yes, Cherry should always be on Cakey, and Cakey should shine by showing that Cherry is the best. And if some asshole shows that she's not, he deserves to be punished!"
"Phee..."
Judy laughed, and Panam and I smiled, too. It took us about fifteen minutes to get to one of the neighborhoods where the small machine shop, now the Malstrom base, was located. And as usual Panam drove a little farther.
"Hey, isn't that where our goal is..."
Judy with a nod of her head pointed to the house the building we had passed.
"There, but getting out of the car right in front of it is a bit unwise. So we always either go a little further or drive past it."
"I see..."
Judy covered her eyes.
"Okay, David, I'm coming with you."
"Hmm?"
I looked at Judy in surprise.
"Well, I don't have any specialized amplifiers to penetrate their ice from a distance. Still, I wasn't prepared for you to call me in on a mission so soon. So the only way I'm gonna be able to work this time is through a direct connection."
"And through me?"
"Uh, uh. are you sure? It's just that this kind of work requires a deep channel of communication, I'll actually be observing the surroundings through your eyes..."
I frowned slightly and Judy saw it, interpreting it in her own way.
"See, so."
"Will Sandi affect you?"
"А?"
"I asked if it would affect you in any way that I have a sandi and am not shy about using it, if I need it of course."
"Uh, uh. No, nothing's gonna happen to me. If I put protection, just the picture will not enter the channel faster, it will be a kind of stop frame and change the angle of observation."
"Are you sure about this?"
"Yeah..."
"Then make a deep connection. I've never taken a girl on a dangerous mission before."
"Hey!"
It sounded synchronized from Panam and Judy. They looked at me again.
"I can take care of myself!"
Again in sync, clearly cut me off from the connection and managed with their feminine winks to agree.
"I didn't doubt your abilities, but I still don't want to risk you... The channel?"
"Five minutes, it's not as fast to set up a channel as it is to activate a secure link. And I have to integrate it into a common communication channel..."
I covered my eyes and leaned back in the passenger seat.
After a couple minutes, I had the sensation of being inside my head. Of course it wasn't like that; that kind of deep connection only binds, but doesn't let you in. But it still felt unusual.
"Are you done?"
"Yeah..."
"All right, then I'm outta here."
I got out of the car and ran across the street very quickly and then fled into the yards.
"To the right..."
I listened to Judy and turned right, then listened to her again and turned left, and so on a few more times. After that, I ended up near the back of the Trashmen's building.
"So what are you gonna do next?"
"Wait a minute..."
I took out my harpoon and aimed it at the side of the roof, then bypassed all the windows and went upstairs.
"I've got a hotspot."
Nodding my head, I walked over to it and connected through the port.
"Stay like that for a couple minutes..."
Judy was silent, but I could literally feel my chrome warming, unaccustomed to this kind of work. It was about ten minutes before I felt Judy finish, and she immediately confirmed it with words.
"I'm done. The video cameras are out of enemy control, now I can ring them as you walk through the rooms and corridors and bring up the normal data stream again when needed."
"Good job..."
I went back to the harpoon and disconnected it, then walked over to the entrance of the building, or rather the roof exit, which for me is the way in.
"It's clear inside."
I opened the hatch and went down into one of the rooms, taking a quick look around to make sure Judy hadn't missed anything. A few steps and I was near the only door in the small room.
"It's clear, you got fifteen seconds, then the Trashman shows up."
I scramble out of my seat and pull the door shut behind me, running forward quickly but quietly.
"Second door on the left, it's empty."
I flew into the room and shut the door behind me and immediately went off to the side, hiding in the closet that was here.
"Wait for it..."
I spent about five minutes in the closet until I finally heard Judy's voice.
"Clear."
I climbed out of the closet and back into the common hallway. Slowly and carefully I made my way down it twice more, hiding from the Malström gang.
"The server room is behind that door there's three..."
Fuck, I can't knock out three people...
"Judy, can you knock them out?"
"No..."
"We'll have to kill..."
"Wait..."
"What?"
"I can distract them, say they go to another room, we'll have a couple minutes to establish a wireless connection to the server, and then I'll pump everything out of it."
"Act..."
You go in the next room, it's empty and you can hide.
"Got it."
I disappeared into said room, except it wasn't empty, it had a garbage man lying in some kind of drug-induced delirium. And that was a little disturbing.
"Judy, this is the kind of thing you should be warned about..."
"I got it. I'm sorry, I didn't realize a drug addict in a blackout could be a problem."
"In general, I certainly agree, it can't, but neither you nor I know how long he's been in that state, so we can't predict his coming to his senses."
"Hmm... I didn't realize."
"It happens."
I went over to the junkie and picked up the injector he was using and put it to his mouth. I activated it five times. The drug immediately entered his system, and a dozen seconds later he went into a seizure.
"Did it have to be?"
"Yeah. (chuckles)"
I wiped the injector, after which I carefully left a couple dozen prints of Malstremovitz himself on it.
"We don't need witnesses, even accidental ones. So it is better to be careful and eliminate a possible problem before it occurs."
It was about ten minutes before Judy gave me permission to go to the server room where I tapped into Malstrom's systems allowing Judy to penetrate their network through me.
"Hmm. you're making a lot of noise."
And that's where she fell silent...
Minute...
Two...
Five...
It wasn't until after seven that she spoke again.
"Okay, go away, I've set up the wireless, we can do it remotely."
"From the premises or the building?"
"Just out of the room for now, hide somewhere in the next room while I work, I'll guide you, and afterwards don't distract me."
And she led me to one of the rooms on the floor, where I hid myself and began to wait for the
I spent the next three hours in nervous tension, waiting for someone to come in, for me to have to eliminate opponents, for the alarm to go off. But all went quietly enough.
"Quiet, I have a question..."
"Am I listening?"
"I have the opportunity to not only find the data I need, but to generally make a little extra money and zero out the server afterward."
I bit my lip.
"No, not this time. Regina asked that no one find out about us, if possible, and emptied accounts are a sign that someone got to the servers. And a cleaned-out server is a clear indication that someone's been here and gotten something.
"Okay, well, let's get you out of the building."
"All right. Uh-huh.
Seven minutes and I was out of the building, and in another three I was already in Tortica.
"I'm forwarding the data."
I nodded to Judy and immediately contacted Regina.
"Hey. I have the data, I'm sending it over."
"Uh-huh. worked quietly?
"They didn't even notice us. had to eliminate one junkie, but I used his injector, so it's an overdose. We didn't touch the money, left no trace of our presence at all."
"Well, you have a certain reputation, so I won't check your word, but if it turns out that your being there caused a ruckus... you'll have to return the extra bounty and pay restitution. You understand that, don't you?"
"I understand and that's why I don't ask you to transfer additional bonuses now. Check the data and then decide."
"Are you sure?"
"Regina, money loves an account and doesn't like to be taken lightly, so yes, I'm sure. The bonus can wait..."
"Okay, I'll transfer the reward, the bonus will come later... Somehow I have no doubt that you did it as quietly as possible..."
The connection was broken, and I immediately had several thousand in my account, which I divided among all of us and transferred the girls their shares.
"Whoa!"
"Why so little?"
"What?!"
Judy looked surprised at Panam, who realized that the amount was not impressive at all.
"Regina offered to transfer the bonus now, but I insisted on checking. Let her make sure that everything is really compliant first. So within a week she will transfer the bonus, and there will be a really nice amount."
"Why the fuck didn't I go solo sooner?"
"Well now you're with us...how's that first assignment working out for you?"
"Not bad..."
Judy nodded her head.
"...especially the earnings. If it goes on like this, at the end of the month I'll double the amount I send to my grandparents..."