"Good girl, what do you got?"
"I'm in the system..."
Judy was focused. And I could tell that since we'd had sex, our relationship had clearly grown closer, and she was even more attentive at work. She wasn't exactly attentive, because she wasn't letting herself slack off before, she was more meticulous, I'd say even more thorough. And now she didn't give a hint of action.
"You said that already. about fifteen minutes ago."
"Well, I'm sorry I thought I'd overreact. After all, it's a job from Bestia, who you screwed over for a pretty penny. So I prefer to be safe. Besides, my skills are a far cry from Lucy's."
I sighed.
"I'm not rushing you, just clarifying."
"Yeah, yeah. there's just something that's been bugging me."
"And what's that?"
"I don't know...everything seems fine, but here's something..."
"So it's a gut feeling, huh?"
"You're not gonna laugh?"
"Why should I? We're solo and if we have a bad feeling, we better listen to it, we'll live longer."
Judy spent another twenty minutes reconnoitering, but still hadn't found what it was that made her so nervous about the job.
"I'm starting to..."
"Okay, but be careful..."
I nodded my head and moved toward the back entrance of the building. I decided not to use the demon, especially since Judy was already on the building's network, and she opened the door after just a couple minutes of waiting.
"Thank you."
I made my way into the building and slowly made my way down the hallway.
"Careful, there's a guard post just beyond."
"Roger that..."
I activated my sandi and walked quickly down the corridor past the guard station Judy had warned me about. It was only when I got to the next place I couldn't see that I deactivated it.
"What's next?"
"You need to go through the main room of the first floor. There you will get to a staircase, go upstairs and another open room."
"I see..."
I activated the sandi and walked down the hallway to the common room with the desks. And that's when I realized what was bugging Judy. Maybe she just didn't have a good eye, but I noticed that all the employees had concealed weapons.
Fucking...
I even went around to some of the "workers" to check what exactly they were doing. And it turned out that none of them were working, they were just pretending, but in fact I began to realize what was going on here.
I think they're trying to test me, or set me up...
I found myself on the stairs and turned off the sandi, keeping a close eye on what was going on around me.
"Okay, when you come out of the stairwell, take a right and go to the end of the hall. There's an office with transparent walls."
I sighed.
And the walls are transparent. Fuck.
"How many are on the second floor?"
"I see ten."
I nodded my head and activated the sandi, and walked calmly to the second floor. Leaving someone unconscious. It's too dangerous to leave someone unconscious. I'd have to drag the main guy out of the building.
Walked up to the first man and carefully struck him in a way that knocked him out but didn't kill him, thanks to the Arasaka Academy that trained David's past.
Then there was a second, a third. I carefully knocked them all out and only then turned off the sandi, hiding behind one of the tables.
"Already?"
"Yeah..."
"Why did you knock them all out. knock them all out? You think they might have gotten in the way?"
"Everybody's got concealed weapons. I suspect a setup by Bestia."
"Hmmm..."
Julie didn't say anything to me, but after a little rest I reactivated the sandi and went into the office, from which I was attacked by a man with a knife who was moving slower than I was, but still moving. Another one with a sandi...
And it wasn't in Bestia's data, was it?
Punch the hand with the knife that was moving toward my throat, duck slightly, then with an under step stamp my fist into the sun. Take a step to the side, step around him, and bring the blow down on the back of his head. Except I can see he's not knocked out.
Just dropped to the floor, struggling to breathe, before bringing the blow down on the back of his head again.
That's it. knocked it out.
Sandi passed out and breathed a sigh of relief.
"What's on the first floor?"
"They became agitated, over the noise, leave..."
I nodded my head and picked up the body, before making sure that the face of the type matched Sandy's and making sure that he was my target I went with him to the window, which I kicked out with my foot, and then, putting the carcass on my shoulders, jumped out of the window.
The landing was a little hard because of the extra weight, and I even felt my bones cracking, but that didn't stop me from continuing my movement and moving away from the window. Although there were still windows in the office, but at least I wouldn't be immediately spotted...
I was moving away very fast, even had the sandi on, and only turned it off when I hid behind one of the buildings.
"Girls, can you pick me up?"
"Three minutes..."
The girls drove up on Tortica, I just injected the type with sleeping pills, after which I loaded him into the trunk and got into the car myself.
"What is it?"
"They're yelling, looking for you, they don't believe that you jumped out of the window with him, I didn't believe it myself, he's a heavy lad..."
"Well, it's obviously not for daily repetition."
And having said that, I dialed Bestia's number.
"Quiet?"
"Mission accomplished. We have the target. Which way?"
"I'll drop a point... was there a problem?"
"Except for the fact that all the employees had personal concealed weapons, and also none of them worked, but only pretended to work, then no, there were no problems."
"Ahem. I get it."
"I'm waiting for the address."
I interrupted the connection and after a minute I received the address where the unconscious body should be delivered and I called it Panam, who had to turn sharply to another street because the address was at the other end of the city.
"So..."
I covered my eyes.
"...working with Bestia is going to be difficult."
"You think it was a setup?"
Judy looked at me carefully, and Panam threw a couple of questioning glances.
"I don't know, but it's all too suspicious. Of course, I won't make any charges, but in the conversation I mentioned this suspicious fact. I think she'll realize that I'm considering the possibility that she leaked the information."
"You think she's gonna make excuses?"
"No..."
I shook my head.
"She's not going to make excuses. Not her style, but she will try to find out who exactly leaked the information or who provided incomplete information. Unless, of course, she did it."
"And how do we know that?"
"I'll ask Regina to hear what's going on in their circles. It's kind of creepy working with a fixer you don't trust at all."
"Well, uh. that's right. are you gonna do it now?"
"Well... how much farther do we have to go?"
"For about twenty-five minutes...
Panam glanced at her watch and nodded her head.
"Then yes..."
And having said that, I dialed Regina.
"Quiet. I wasn't expecting to hear from you today. You're supposed to be working with Bestia today."
"Mission accomplished. almost, I'm on my way to the rendezvous point now. But I actually have a favor to ask of you. Can you listen to what's going on in your circles?"
"Hmm? Why, is something wrong?"
"Let's just say I didn't like what happened on the mission, and I don't know if it's Bestia's retaliation for the money I shook off from her, or if someone took her for a ride with the information..."
"And you want to figure out what's what?"
"Yeah. I need to figure out if I can work with her properly or if I should wait for a stab in the back."
"You do realize that the info won't be free..."
"Naturally."
"Okay, I'll listen, but I can tell you for me, Bestia's not the kind of person who's gonna blow a solo out of spite. Besides, I went through my channels to see what happened with you guys. she was really wrong. So I wouldn't worry too much."
I nodded my head.
"All right, well, when you get an update, will you get in touch?"
"Sure..."
"I'll see you then."
The connection broke and I was ready to dialog with my girls again.
"Well, Regina will check it out through her channels, but on behalf of herself, she advised her not to think on Bestia. She doesn't think it's her style."
"Well, uh. I believe Regina."
Panam nodded her head.
"...she's been in the business a long time, knows her coworkers very well. So I suggest you don't worry about it."
I shrugged.
"I don't mind. But it's something to keep in mind. The fixers are not omniscient, and I somehow relaxed and thought that it would never happen again. If I hadn't replaced my muscles, I might have died. And it wouldn't have been possible to use Sandy so many times, and even with such a long duration."
"Yeah. I'm also thinking of replacing the deck, and adding more chrome, which will help to work with raner, and in work with braindance will not be superfluous."
"And you're the same way?"
Panam sighed at Judy's words.
"Come on, you could use some chromium in your system, too. At the very least, replace the optics and put in a reflex regulator. Do you have any idea how you're gonna drive after that?"
"It's the same..."
I shrugged at Judy's words, and she gave me an angry look. I pretended not to notice.
"...but if we upgrade your car, that's when you'll be happy."
"Is that how you want me to install Chrome?"
I shrugged.
"Honestly? I'm fine with it, I just thought I'd add to what Judy said."
"I'm fine with it, too. I'm just looking at all the possibilities."
"What are you talking about?"
"Well, David has created an opportunity for us to comfortably join your clan by buying Hippo. It's still a work in progress, but at least he's laid the foundation for that future. What I'm suggesting now is that we think about a future where we stay in Knight City or go to another city for whatever reason."
"And?"
Panam threw a frown at Judy.
"And I'm not sure we're 100% sure we won't meet an opponent who's a better driver than you. No, the fact that we haven't had any wheel-to-wheel shootings yet is definitely a good thing...
"Well, uh. there was this one time."
Panam shrugged her shoulders.
"...even before you joined us and we had no problems."
"That's when..."
I joined the conversation. But haven't you noticed that this is the second time we've met a Sandi opponent?
"Do you think that's gonna keep happening?"
"Most likely..."
Judy nodded her head.
"Our level is growing, our reputation is growing, the tasks will become more and more difficult..."
"Yeah... I'll think about it."
Panam sighed and we drove on in silence. When we reached the point, I put the unconscious body in the trunk of another car and we drove home.
"And what are our plans?"
"Plans?"
I shrugged.
"Since we're free so quickly, I plan to make a passageway between the apartments and maybe even put together a wooden ladder. It's rudimentary for now, but it's reliable."
"Hmm... I'll take the Brains, then. I've got a couple orders from Helms."
"Well, I'm gonna go dig around in the car."
It wasn't hard for the guys to think of something to do. And so it was settled...