This time the door was opened to me at once, though the guard glared at me, but what did I care? I have business here, not flirting with the guard, who is also a guy, so flirting is definitely out.
"Back already?"
Type Two grinned at me as I entered the club, but I didn't even give him a glance. I just walked past him toward the booth where Bestia was moving toward me.
"Let it pass..."
The voice of the fixer of all Knight City was slightly irritated, however, her gaze remained tenacious and as if looking through.
I went inside the booth and sat down in the seat she indicated with a nod of her head. As soon as I sat down, a chip was placed on the table in front of me.
I raised an eyebrow questioningly.
"Insert the chip, there's an assignment."
"For when?"
"Insert..."
I sighed.
"Bestia, I have a very tight schedule with tasks already scheduled for two weeks in advance. There are weekends and windows, but it's still a tight schedule. So before I stick a chip in my port, tell me when this assignment is due. Because if I have this date and this time busy, I don't see the point of knowing unnecessary information."
Bestia took a slow breath and just as slowly exhaled.
"Two days from now. at noon."
I sighed and picked up the chip. It hit the window, so I'll have to familiarize myself with it. I could lie, of course, but lying in a case like this ... She could contact Regina, and she wouldn't give me up and try to cover it up with generalities, but Bestia would realize that I'd lied to her from circumstantial evidence.
"So?"
"Your target is Vincent Vega. Corporate top dog. It's a trial, so you won't get much for it, just a tenner, but it's not a hard assignment. On the date in question, he'll be in Santo Domingo, Rancho Coronado. The exact building is marked on the map."
I nodded my head a couple times.
"I don't usually do this sort of thing, but sometimes it's good to do charity work, especially since if you don't take these people out, life in Knight City can become unbearable. But if you take out a chain dog like this, who, at the instigation of corporations, kills and intimidates workers who dare to mention a three percent wage increase, life gets better for a couple of months. Wages go up a little bit, the new chain dogs are afraid to stick their necks out..."
Bestia grinned.
"I certainly know that many solos aren't squeamish about eliminations, but I don't do that kind of thing."
"No..."
Bestia shook her head.
"If I had to kill, I'd go to someone else, it's not hard to find such masters here..."
Bestia nodded toward the main room of the club, where solos gathered waiting for orders or celebrating successful cases.
"...the problem is, I need Vega. I need to infiltrate the office he'll be in, stun him, drag him outside and deliver him to my man who will handle his further transportation. I'm hoping you'll prove yourself and there won't be any unnecessary casualties."
I closed my eyes to disengage myself from the outside world and study more precisely the floor plan she'd given me, the plans for the approach and the target itself. I could get a good deal out of him, if he really is working as a corporate lapdog. But something tells me the corporations won't just let the money disappear.
Which means it would be too much of a risk.
Fuck it, I'll fulfill the task strictly in accordance with Bestia's requirements, so, I've made five hundred thousand from her, it will be necessary to transfer two hundred to the girls, and one hundred I'll leave myself as an intermediary in earnings.
"Well, all in all, I don't see anything difficult..."
I opened my eyes and looked at Bestia.
"Seriously?"
"Yeah..."
I nodded my head and after copying the data regarding the task, I took out a chip and placed it on the table.
"Can I go now?"
"Yeah. (chuckles)"
I stood up and quietly left Bestia's booth. As I walked through the bar I was on my way out, and when the door of the club opened I was nose to nose with Mayne. Who was entering the club with his crew.
"David!"
A little girl with ponytails, wearing a jacket a few sizes larger, jumped out from behind the big guy and threw herself into my arms.
"Becca..."
I grinned and caught her and mussed her hair, then taking a step to the side, I nodded to the white-haired girl without releasing her from the embrace.
"Lucy."
"David."
The girl gave me a friendly nod.
"Growing up?"
Mayne looked at me carefully, to which I just shrugged. Not that I'm happy to be here. I'm fine with working with my fixer, and I'm not eager to take a couple more bites out of the pie before I've even begun to chew what I've already taken.
"There's no romance in you, kid."
A guy appeared next to Mayne. tall, muscular, but with a woman's voice. And who he is I have no idea, either a guy who has a fetish for female voices, or a girl who decided to become much stronger and modernized her body a bit. It's none of my business.
I shrugged.
"Let me introduce you to everyone. Mayne is the biggest big guy, next to him is his girlfriend Dorio..."
I didn't show my surprise in any way. A man likes girls like that, so what's it to me?
"What, no surprise?"
"Should I be surprised? As many people as there are tastes..."
"Pfft. you're no fun..."
Becca pouted slightly, but continued to introduce her team.
"This is another runner on our team, Kiwi."
I looked at the girl from head to toe. It brought back memories of the cartoon where she was the traitor. All in all, a pretty lady, but Panam and Judy would taste better, Becca and Lucy too...
"And then there's my last cretinous brother, Pilar."
That's where I couldn't help myself and stepped forward, extending my hand for a handshake.
"Pilar, huh?"
"Uh... yeah."
He got very confused and shook my hand.
"Your extremely wasteful attitude towards money, which leads to you not even having anything to eat sometimes, contributed to my meeting such a wonderful girl like Rebecca. Thank you for being who you are... And after Becca brought Lucy into my company."
I shook my head.
"I vacationed in a flower garden like this not too long ago. paradise. Thank you."
I saw Lucy blush slightly and grin, Becca was indignant, Pilar just flapped his mouth, unable to find anything to say to me.
"I see you've got your sights set on a harem."
Kiwi spoke in an extremely sarcastic tone.
"...and your belly button won't come undone?"
"Harem?"
I tilted my head to the side.
"Maybe, but I haven't decided yet. Now, I have to say goodbye to you because my partners are waiting for me outside."
I mussed Becca's hair once more and with a nod to Lucy walked around Mayne's group...
"So, how are you guys doing?"
As soon as I got into the Tortilla, I asked a question to the girls, who were clearly a little worried.
"Okay, we saw Becca and Lucy with her core group walk into the Afterlife. She waved to us."
Judy answered my question, but Panam was glaring at me, but I pretended not to notice it, and sat down in the Cake and sent them two hundred thousand each.
"I hope you don't mind that I kept the hundred?"
"What's that?"
Judy looks shocked at the translation, then focuses her gaze on me. Panam grinned and shook her head.
"You still got the money out of Bestia?"
"If I hadn't been paid, I wouldn't have gone to see her. So the money was transferred through Regina before I went back to the Afterlife. I just didn't want to take too long to distribute it, so I'm transferring your share now."
"Well, uh. I haven't done anything, I'm fine with it."
Panam grinned.
"Likewise. you do nothing and get 200 grand? I should be thanking you! Thank you."
Judy grinned, too, and reached forward to tap me lightly on the shoulder. Her voice was very sincere, so it was clear that she wasn't playing around and was really very grateful to me. Panam's tone, however, was full of gratitude, and she looked at me with a very telling look, so I was glad they were happy.
"Damn. you're like a rock after you switched your muscles to synthetic. But, uh."
She looked over my not-so-tall figure and licked her lips slightly.
"In some matters it is perhaps even good, any girl dreams that next to her will be a soul mate, for which as if behind a wall can be hidden from any adversity. And there is such a wall..."
"Uh-huh, our wall ...
Panam continued after Judy with a caustic chuckle.
"Yeah. our, uh."
Judy glanced at Panam and raised an eyebrow questioningly, but soon relaxed and leaned back in the back row seat.
"Where are we going?"
I shrugged.
"Work tomorrow, so I guess we can go home..."
Judy bit her lower lip.
"Hey, why don't you move in with me?"
"Hmm?"
"No, well, my apartment is not small, I have a studio for brayne, thanks to the expensive computer you bought me, I managed to shrink there significantly, and now my robotics workshop is located there, although I do it only when I'm in the mood. And there's still some space left, so we can combine my robotics workshop and your armory. It's a big living room, but there's only one bedroom..."
"Well, basically, you have a big living room and I can sleep in it for a while, and then we're going to buy the neighboring apartment and combine the two, so it'll be a little more free..."
I shrugged.
"Yes... you can."
Judy nodded her head.
"And you girls can sleep alone."
"Uh-huh...
Judy cast a quick glance at Panam, who had finally started Torticus.
"So, uh, Judy's?"
"Well..."
I shrugged.
"I guess that makes sense..."
"Yes! (Laughs)"
Judy was obviously very pleased with my words, and with a little blast of the engine, she pulled the Tortilla out of its seat and directed its wheels toward the house where Judy's apartment was located.
"Only the neighbor's apartment is occupied..."
"We'll buy it back..."
I shrugged. I doubt that the owner will ask for more than a hundred grand, provided that the average salary is now about seven or ten thousand, then almost a year's salary for an apartment in an old house, which at any moment can be sent to the scrap ...
I shook my head.
"Well, the man lives there, he can demand up to a hundred and fifty..."
"Well then we'll buy an apartment upstairs or downstairs, just make a little staircase from one to the other."
"Uh-huh...
Judy nodded her head and thought a little. I was thinking, too. Judy's heart was already won, or very close to it, if she offered it and looked at me like that. So we'll just have to wait a little longer and the girl will be all mine...
Damn...
With such thoughts he looks like some villain who decided to kidnap another slave-princess, and set up everything so that she herself agreed to the kidnapping.
Mm...
"So, we're working tomorrow?"
Judy broke the slightly awkward silence.
"Yeah..."
I nodded my head. The next day and the day after tomorrow, the third day if the account starts from tomorrow, a job from Bestia, but you can't count on extra money. The client will have to be kidnapped quietly, and since he works for the corporation, we can't count on left income. So we'll try to get everything tomorrow and the day after tomorrow. Thanks to the bases of garbage collectors may well bring us fifteen grand per brother of additional dosoda ...
"Uh-huh...
The girls nodded their heads and Panam grinned.
"And if you're lucky, even more..."
"Well, that will be seen..."
I shook my head, curbing my girl's thirst for money so that if it didn't work out she wouldn't be too upset about the outcome.