(Delta the fuck out)
Yorinobu continues choking out his father. At first I can only feel panic. Adrenaline coursing through my veins. Then comes clarity. The clarity that comes right before you die. The emperor is being murdered right in front of us. When he flatlines, Trauma Team and Arasaka security will swarm the place. The hotel will be locked down. The elevator is a no go. They will find the flathead on the dweller and we will lose control of security. "Bug, deactivate all the security you can, now. Locks, turrets, cams. Anything. Then disconnect. Got it." I whisper into comms.
"What's going on?" Bug questions, hearing the concern in my voice.
"Now Bug." I tell her with all the cold authoritative energy of my Maxtac days.
Yorinobu, content that he has snuffed out his father, steps back for a moment to cool down and calculate his next move.
"I wish to put the hotel on lockdown." Yorinobu announces to the hotel AI. There it is. The beginning of the end.
"For what reason?" The AI asks.
"Saburo Arasaka has been murdered." Yorinobu adjusts his tie, stepping away.
"Understood." The AI says as the lights in the hotel turn red, the alarms active.
The elevator opens into the suite. Saburo's bodyguard Takemura rushes into the room. Following slowly behind is Smasher.
"What happened?" He asks Yorinobu.
"My father was poisoned." He tells the bodyguard.
"Yorinobu-sama, I do not think…"
"What are your duties?"
Takemura takes a pause. "To protect the head of the Arasaka family." His guilt at leaving his master visible on his face.
"I should hope you'll do a better job in your duties from now on." He's already taking the position of his father. It hasn't even been five minutes.
"Yes, Arasaka-Sama."
Yorinobu takes one last look at his father's body before leading his guards into the elevator.
"Would someone please tell me what the fuck is going on?!"
"Yorinobu just killed the FUCKING EMPEROR!" Jackie shouts as he finally processes the events we saw play out in front of us.
"Holy shit." T-Bug says on comms.
"Come on Jack. Balcony. Now." I order Jackie.
"Fuck man. His own pops." Jackie says.
"Hurry Jack. Come on!" I urge Jackie. T-Bug already deactivated the door locks before Yorinobu called the lockdown.
"Where do we go?" Jackie asks.
"Ventilation shaft, saw it though a window."
"Guys they're onto me! Gotta jack out." T-Bug says as the comms go dark. We're flying blind now.
Jackie and I move over to the ledge and begin sliding along.
"Oh fuck. Trauma." Jackie says as the trauma AV flies up the landing pad of the hotel. "Hope they didn't see us."
An Arasaka drone suddenly comes around the corner looking straight at us.
"You are in violation of or-" "FUCK, Jump Jack!"
Jackie and I jump off the ledge before the drone opens fire, sliding down the buildings sloped glass with gunfire ringing out behind us. We fall off the end of the slope into a window above a maintenance shaft, hitting some pretty hard surfaces on our way down.
"Oh fuuuccckkl!" Jackie yells as we fall and I collide with the floor.
I come too moments later. "Jackie, you okay?!"
"Oh shit! The biochip!" Jackie yells as he realizes we damaged the now blood stained case.
"Jack is that your blood?"
"It's my arm, I'll be fine. Forget about me what about the relic?"
I take the case as it fell closer to me. "Relic integrity at 92% and dropping fast!"
"Fuck! Call Parker, she'll know what to do!"
"And tell her we damaged the case?!"
"You got any better ideas?!" Jackie asks me.
"Fuck!" I say as I call Evelyn.
"V, what the fuck is going on? Konpeki's all over the feeds?"
"Biochips case is damaged, relic integrity's at… 85% and dropping fast!"
"Damn…. One of you will have to slot the chip into your neural port."
"Alright!" I say, opening the case and putting the chip into my head.
"You alright V?" Jackie asks me as my vision jolts for a second before returning to normal.
"Yup, nothing seems wrong. Remember the plan Evelyn? Hide at Lizzie's alright?"
Evelyn hangs up the call without responding.
"We gotta go. Can't get spotted." I say to Jackie as we stand up.
"Here, wrap this around the wound." I say to Jackie, taking off my suit jacket and ripping off a sleeve before handing it to Jackie.
"Thanks Mano."
Jackie and I move through the maintenance shaft into the top part of one of the upper suites.
"We gotta find an elevator." I whisper to Jackie.
We can hear a conversation between Konpeki security below us. They're talking about the special forces Arasaka has searching the building. Fuck, we don't have our iron. Stealth is necessary here. Waiting for the guards to turn their backs to us, Jackie and I choke the two out.
"V, catch." Jackie says as he tosses me a silencer. I attach the silencer to Yorinobu's gun whereas Jackie takes a gun from a guard.
"We've got to get to the parking garage."
"There's an elevator in the lobby." Jackie tells me.
"Then that's where we'll go."
Working our way slowly through the pairs of guards, Jackie and I reach an elevator.
"It's shut down."
"Well we'll try the other one."
Taking down another security guard in our way, we reach the other elevators but there is a problem. 3 guards, one fixed looking straight down the hallway, and two talking to each other right in front of the elevator.
"Status report."
"Searching floor by floor. Still nothing."
"Same here. Shut the elevator down just in case. Keep looking."
"Got the elevator locked down. Gotta take him out." Jackie says.
One of the guards, the one posted in the hallway, spots an unconscious guard through a barred gate and alerts his fellow guards.
The guard that spotted the body moves into the hallway to go over and check on him while the Arasaka officer moves into a small office. An opportunity. Sneaking behind the patrolling guard into the office, I choke out the guard and search his pockets. Taking the keycard inside, Jackie and I make our way towards the elevator, knocking out the guard watching it before heading inside and pushing the button to got to the lobby.
"Haha." Jackie laughs.
"What is it Jack?"
"Saburo Arasaka. 150 years old and today, of all fucking days… that's some divine comedy shit right there." He says, tightening the makeshift bandage around his arm.
"Only thing I could imagine that'd make this worse is if Militech decided now would be a great time to launch another corporate war." I say, trying to minimize the shitstorm around us.
"Yeah. We're making it out of here alive V. I know it." Jackie says.
Exiting the elevator once it arrives in the lobby, I choke out the security guard at the desk in front of us.
We hug the left wall to move towards the reception desk. When the guard watching the main hall turns and moves away, we quickly make our way down the small steps and incapacitate the officer guarding the elevator and make our way in.