Ghost in the City

Chapter 212

I slurped the soba noodles as the Tyger Claw guys around me all joked and chattered about whatever their discussion drifted to.

The Soba was good, I’d had noodles here before, but it had been since Jun and I stayed at the Dojo, so it was a good memory.

The weirdness of all these gangsters joking around me without issue was a bit strange.

“Did you see his face, when she just locked his blade and slapped him in the face with it?”

“Oh, shit I was howling inside. Couldn’t actually laugh in front of sensei, but if I didn’t have some chrome, I think I would have broken a rib.”

The boys all laughed and joked as if they were normal people and not well, murderers and gangsters.

What a weird situation.

I slurped my noodles, and looked over. Men that would happily do terrible things to others were joking and acting normal…

It reminded me of a song.

“What’s that?”

“Hmm?” I asked, looking up before quickly swallowing the mouthful. “Nothing, just a song stuck in my head.”

“Oh that’s right. I heard the Oni mention it, you’re a Rockerboy too right?” I blinked at the tattooed man that was probably ten years my senior who seemed to talk to me like he would his own kid sister.

Fucking weird.

“Yeah something like that. Alright. I’m done. Thanks for the meal boys.”

“Anytime Yurei!” One of them called out and I winced at the name before waving and heading out.

The situation with the Tyger Claws was… Different now.

Was it Fujimura, the fact I was working with Hayato, or just my general actions?

Either way I was too tired to train anymore without a nap so I slid onto the Kusanagi, and enjoyed the way my girl rumbled to life.

Another thing to consider, but not worry about at the moment.

The streets were busy as I slipped into the traffic, and I ended up caught in light after light. The slow stop and go traffic gave me plenty of time to consider what I should do from here.

Probably needed to set up the next Section 9 training day. Maybe some sniper training? I bet I could get an Ashura and train everyone in using it, giving Section 9 some low level sniper support if needed?

I was just about to start moving again when gunshots rang out, and like many of the people in cars around me we ducked down. I took cover on the other side of the Kusanagi, as I was already drawing my Burya ready to fire, but the bullets were coming my way.

A gangoon came stumbling down from a building, his feet practically slipping and failing to catch the steps as he held a Unity up towards the door before just rocketing away with the gun pointed in the general direction of the doorway as ran.

I considered taking a shot.

He was right there. Probably some gangster causing issues. It was free XP.

The Burya was out and pointed and his stumbling run wasn’t enough for me to miss but…

I holstered my gun as two goons stumbled out of the entrance. Some minor gang I had no idea of, shouting and cursing at the running man.

Yeah, not any of my business. I slipped back onto the Kusanagi and hit the gas.

Just another day in Night City.

—--

I was tinkering with some songs at home, I’d had plans for something big, but it turns out that even with my memory getting the whole thing put together was a big mess.

So I was mostly putting off that and playing with the song that had popped into my head at the noodle stand.

“All my friends are heathens, take it slow.” I crooned as I strummed the chords. Heathens was a great song, and it really fit the dangerous gangoon lifestyle. I had no doubt it would be popular if I ever played it.

I hesitated mid chord.

Would I play it? I shook off the thought. That was a problem for future Motoko.

Instead I kept playing the song, recording it into my music box as I suddenly got a call.

I checked the number and frowned.

That wasn’t someone I expected to see again.

*This is Motoko.*

*Kid. It’s Bishop from the Afterlife. Got a situation. You open for work?* Bishop. The Afterlife merc and his Edgerunner team I’d worked with a while back. Bishop the solo that reminded me a lot of someone trying to be Morgan Blackhand too hard. Mira the Sniper Exotic… Stupid exotics. Sam? It was Sam something, their corpo front, and Hakase the Street Samurai.

*I’m kinda just hanging out, what’s the sitch?*

*Sam got klepped trying to have a meeting with a corpo contact. The meeting didn’t go well. We need to bust him out. We’re on a time limit, before Ion Frontier decides he isn’t worth trying to get info out of. I remember you’re good at sneaking around.*

*Pay?* I asked, instead of what I really wanted to say which was hell yes.

Rescuing a gonk from some corpo sounded like fun.

I was already setting my gear aside, and reaching for a maxdoc. My muscles were still sore from earlier, but a maxdoc, would make up for not taking a nap.

*I’ll pay at the Afterlife rate, with hazard pay.* I hummed, because frankly I had no idea what that was like, but I was already in my room grabbing some stuff. Copperhead? It was bulkier, but corpo security tended towards body armor. All the better to take out any street kids causing trouble.

No.

I looked at the two Katana I had resting against the corner of the room. My older Thermal Katana, and the much higher quality, but also more brittle Musashi blade.

Infiltration Ninja?

*So you in?*

*I’m in.* I agreed, grabbing my Thermal Blade, I liked the brutality of it more. Sliding it into my belt.

I turned and headed out to the living room, and slipped on my boots.

*Where are we meeting?*

*I’ll send you the deets. Talk to you when you get here kid.*

*Yeah yeah.* I grumbled as the call cut off, and I hurried out of the apartment.

Time to have some fun!

—--

Normally I would have taken the Quadra but traffic was still pretty rough right now, and with a time limit I couldn’t just amble along.

My Kusanagi roared as I lane split, and then cut into a turn lane as they had a green and then cut over to keep going straight.

The maneuver had me laughing a little.

*100 Driving XP Gained.*

An alert meant it was well done I guess? Either way my unsafe driving cut off at least a few minutes from the drive as I pulled off the street and into an alley that my GPS was guiding me towards.

The small pack of vehicles and familiar faces father inside meant I didn’t hesitate in driving right up.

“I’m here.”

“Good timing.” Bishop offered and Mira, despite how she had acted last time just gave me a single nod before turning her eyes back up to the sky. The joking shark girl was gone, instead a much more worried woman took her place.

We were in an alley that connected a lot of office buildings, and the one she was focused on was probably where the target was.

“Got any data on this Frontier Ion?”

“Ion Frontier. They’re a small corp. They produce some of the EMP equipment for Militech. They’re not big, but we were on a gig to pull some data from their server. Sam got grabbed while he was holding an above board meeting with them. He got an alert off.” Bishop started explaining as I arrived.

“Can you get us in?” Mira asked, and I shrugged, as I looked up at the building.

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

“Do you have blueprints or anything? What floor the corp is on?”

“Seventh.” Hakase offered, while Bishop handed me a shard. I slotted it, and instantly firewalled it and checked it over verifying it was clean before I accessed it.

Hmm. They controlled all of floor seven, and it had security, turrets, and goons. Nothing like Kang Tao, or Arasaka, but big guns, and at least some military surplus.

Of course this data was old. I could practically taste the netrunner who had pulled this data, some little net rat grabbing data from everything and anything they could get their hands on. The way the data was formatted meant for quick infiltrations and grabs.

I unslotted the shard and tossed it back to Bishop.@@novelbin@@

“Okay, I can help with this. Instead of getting you all in. I can get in and get to him, but it’s the exfil that could be sketchy.” I offered as I looked at the group. Hmm. A Sniper, a Solo, and a Samurai. Another Netrunner would make this more comfortable, but I’d deal with what I had.

“Are you sure? We can’t take any risks with Sam.” Mira asked, and I waved her off.

“Infiltrating is my speciality. You want him to get out and fast? Without the corp that captured him just finishing him off when they notice you try to rescue him? Then I go in alone.” I stated the fact as confidently as I could as I met the woman's eyes.

“We’ll hold the lobby. We can lock it down and give you an exit.” Bishop offered already formulating some sort of plan.

“No.” I denied instantly. “If I’m infiltrating the moment anyone in that building gets a whiff something is up, they’ll lock it down or worse. Mira is already looking at our exfiltration point.” I said and everyone looked to Mira who had looked back down, then she looked back up.

“No fucking way.”

“Fucking way.” I denied as I looked up at the large glass windows. The buildings were tightly packed next to each other, and would be more than capable of giving sight lines. There were even old fire escapes on the other building.

I was already off. A single bounce hit a concrete wall and then another had me over the guard wall around the building and I was off, with another jump I hit the bottom of an old fire escape, and with a bit of muscle got the ladder to descend to let the others follow.

“Seventh floor.” I reminded them, not wasting any more time, as I jumped off and headed towards the building’s back door. Time to infiltrate a corpo building!

The rear door was just like every rear door, locked, but that barely slowed me down. My Kiroshi scanned the door and confirmed a security trigger. If the door opened it would let out an alarm, but I didn’t even have to do anything to disable that, I popped open the security pad and licked two fingers, and a moment later the door unlocked, I quickly checked inside the long hallway wasn’t empty unfortunately, and I just huddled down fingers pressed against the pad keeping the lock from activating and watching through the tiny crack as the worker of the place walked down the hall and then into one of the rooms.

Once he was gone, I slipped in, noticing the foil taped over the security system that would sound the alarm in case anyone opened the door.

Workers making sure they had rear access no doubt, likely a smoke break if the cigarette butts littering the alley told the story correctly.

I was in with a whisper, I crept down the hall and checked into the room the worker had just left. Breakroom. Perfect. I went past and right into another door that said employees only. The workers were rent a cops. The cheap kind. Nothing better than greeters at the front desk. So I wasn’t worried about them, but unfortunately, this wasn’t just a motel or something. Corpo rented space meant security was tighter.

I needed a jack in point. Something in the building, so I could slip into their security. Unfortunately the room I was in was nothing but a storage room. There wasn’t even a computer, or security access point.

I flashed my Kiroshi as I started scanning. They had some security obviously, where did they keep their security room?

Not on the ground floor, which is already impressive for building security. Someone knew what they were doing… I turned around and after checking slipped into the hallway and went back the way I came.

Only one way forward.

I opened the breakroom, and sauntered in like everything was normal. The casual movements gave me the few seconds I needed to approach the worker. He looked up from his coffee and then back down, and then jerked up just as I reached him.

One hand around his mouth giving me half a second to muffle his shout as my arm wrapped around and secured his larynx, I leapt a bit to get the right grip so I was practically monkeying on his back, but he choked out his cry for help and as I adjusted my grip I cut off the blood to his brain and he dropped. I made sure he didn’t break his skull on the way down and laid him out.

*250 XP Gained.*

“Sorry buddy.” I whispered as I started undressing him while grabbing his ID shard which would give me access to the elevator.

I ended up tying him up as best I could with the crap in the breakroom and stuffing him in one of the cupboards around the room. That should at least slow him down when he woke up.

I headed out, and pulled the security guard’s cap lower over my face as I walked past a security camera, and towards the elevator.

My finger hovered around the 7 for a moment, but I ended up hitting 2 instead.

The shard Bishop had given me, had shown there was a set of stairs on the seventh floor. There just weren’t any matching stairs on the bottom floor.

Definitely a fire hazard but the exact sort of security concern NC cared more about.

The elevator opened and it hit what I expected. It was a large room that had doors connecting to multiple different businesses. I walked around for a moment as if just doing checks as a security guard, until I found what I was looking for. The black “Security Only” Letters on the door told me I’d found what I was looking for. I tapped my badge against the security panel and the door unlocked.

I stepped in, and instantly I was moving. The small security room wasn’t empty, and the second rent a cop never even got time to yelp as I wrapped my arms around the second guy.

*250 XP Gained.*

I looked around the room and grinned. Here was the security access point. I pulled the Katana out from under my jacket and in my pants and put it to the side as I secured the second guard with his own belt and pants and then stuffed him into a corner.

Now let's find out what kind of security we’re dealing with here.

—--

Mira Carcharodon

“See anything?” Bishop asked, and Mira just snarled at him, showing her teeth. They were stuck up on the stupid fire escape while Sam could be tortured to death and the only thing she could see was a fucking hallway.

“Get a new pair of Kiroshi if you can’t see the same shit I am!” She snapped and Bishop stepped back a bit, but all of them were tense.

“Peace. She will succeed, or she will fail. We will act when the time is right either way.” Hakase offered and Mira rolled her eyes.

He’d heard that from some old mystic and often repeated it in slightly different terms whenever the chance popped up.

“Where is she? What’s taking so long?” Mira whispered, but then stalled out because someone sauntered down the hallway. Someone that didn’t fit. “That’s her.” She whispered and Bishop jerked to look. Watching as our infiltrator walked down the hallway calmly without trying to sneak or anything until she hit a door, she looked it over for a second and then knocked…

“Did she just fucking knock? How is that sneaking around!?” Mira hissed and Bishop had no answers as the door obviously opened, a moment later there was a blur and the girl was no longer unarmed as her Katana was out and having just finished a cut.

“A fine cut.” Hakase muttered the blade obsessed gonk, sounded seriously impressed. Mira could just make out the blood as the girl walked into the room.

“I guess she’s doing okay then.” Bishop whispered and Mira took a breath. Okay. The kid was good enough to be in the Afterlife. Trust in that.

—--

The slump of the body hitting the floor would have alerted the other two guards in this security room that something was up, if I hadn’t already moved through the room.

Thrown knife, into Guard two. He was stupid enough not to have his helmet on, and the knife thunked into the back of his head, as the Katana slipped through the spine of gonk three.

*500 XP Gained.*

*500 XP Gained.*

*500 XP Gained.*

I drew out my blade, and retrieved my knife as I walked over to the security terminal.

The second floor mall cops had some of the building security, but this floor was a black wall to their systems, but between their data, and the shard that Bishop had given me, I’d had everything I needed to get around up here.

Corporate office’s weren’t exactly black sites. It wasn’t hard to slip onto the floor through the stair access and head straight for the security office. With these three gone, and the security terminal, I should be able to disable all the rest of their defenses.

I looked over the gonks for a moment.

Yeah the armor was crap. Old Militech stuff, but I doubted they’d even bothered to change the inserts since they bought them. On top of that, these guys weren’t ex-soldiers. Just hired goons.

I slipped into their network without any trouble. Old Militech firewalls. Nothing that would slow me down, especially not from inside the network.

I blinked my eyes and had access to all the camera systems, as well as the personnel ID’s.

Hmm. The data shard from Bishop had mentioned the corpo that Sam was coming to meet, and… There he was. Alongside two other security guards.

Well now…

I pulled out of the system and walked back out to the hallway. I was clear for now so I checked out the window. I could see Mira, and the others looking at me but I ignored them. I could take the elevator, the stairs, or right here. The window wasn’t bullet proof, we were too high up for that to really be needed.

My Katana heated up as I slowly poked it through the glass, cutting out a weak point I could use.

I could see the three of them watching me, probably thinking I was crazy as I cut through the glass to weaken it for later.

Once I was satisfied I headed back and turned a corner. Slowing a bit to stay silent as I approached an open room.

There were two more inside. I did a quick peek and then I was across the door without anyone noticing and moving on.

As much as I wanted the XP, no point in killing a bunch of civvy workers. Sneaking around this office was kinda odd, but now that I had vision on everyone it was a simple job to just keep moving.

Finally I reached where I needed to go. A hallway that had a locked and secured door. Two security guards outside, and another couple in, along with the man that had last been with Sam, so probably he was inside.

I loosened my Katana in the sheath and then simply activated my Sandy.

Everything slowed as I rushed out down the hall. A blur of motion that the guards' organic, or cybernetic eyes were just starting to catch when I reached them. I skipped the first guy, instead my cut as I pulled my Katana from the sheath went through the second guard just under his helmet and all the way out and through.

The return cut had me bouncing a bit back slicing through the second guards throat before bringing it back around and stabbing through.

The quiet gasps as both men died and slumped to the floor was quiet, but I still waited to see if there was any motion from inside.

Nothing.

*500 XP Gained.*

*500 XP Gained.*

I took a breath, let the Sandy cycle a bit. The warmth on my neck telling me I’d be getting close to my limit soon.

I took the moment I had to check the guards.

Again shit quality equipment. Nothing worth even looting at this rate, although I took a moment to adjust the Ajax the guard had been carrying up against the wall that would come in handy.

Then I rose up and opened the door.

—--

Samuel Perry

This had not gone as planned.

He spat blood, truly Hanson hadn’t changed at all from when he was just an up and comer.

“Now my old friend, you know I don’t like doing this, but I need to know what gonk fuck shitstain thinks they’re going to steal from me? Just give me the name and I promise I won’t just throw you in the trash. As a respect for an old boss.”

Hanson was lying of course. The moment he cracked he would get a bullet and a quick toss into the nearest trash can.

Hanson had always been a piece of scop.

He breathed out, painfully, his ribs were killing him. His Pain Editor was working, but he didn’t want to turn it on fully.

The fact was, letting it hurt meant that Hanson was enjoying playing with him, and if he thought it wasn’t working, worse things than just pain would be in his future.

“Just tell me Sam, that’s all I want.” Hanson lied with a smirk that wasn’t even trying to hide that fact.

C’mon Bishop. I have enough contacts, I’m valuable enough to get out of here. C’mon Mira, I know you like me. Force that cold bastard to come rescue me.

The door opened, and for a moment Sam didn’t really register it. Why would he? It wasn’t the first time the guards had swapped out, or Hanson had left to take a leak.

But then as Sam opened his one good eye, he couldn’t help but blink at what he was seeing.

Who was that?

There was a blur of motion that Sam had to slowly replay in his mind to understand.

She stepped in, and cut with her Katana, drew a knife and tossed it at another guard, before spinning around using the guard she had just cut down as a shield to draw close and cut off the arm of the third.

His scream was silenced before it could even begin. And as Hanson reached to pull his pistol suddenly a Burya of all things was pointed at him, as the girl had simply followed the motion her blade still stuck into the second guard’s chest where she had cut into him from shoulder to chest.

There had been no hesitation. Just a single constant movement that left death in her wake.

“Don’t.” She offered simply as a Burya pointed at Hanson’s head.

“H-Hey we can talk about this!”

“Sam. Nice to see you again. I’m your extraction, are you able to move?” The sound of a confident woman cut off Hanson entirely, and it was a cut off.

Hanson for once in his life had a brain and shut up as Sam blinked weakly.

“Shoot him.” He said instead of answering her question and to his surprise the sound of a Burya echoed out through the room making him flinch and Hanson splattered across the wall.

“Are you able to move?” She asked again as she finally pulled her sword out of the dying guard, and holstered her pistol and sword in a single movement.

“Yes.” He hissed, but he was still tied to the chair. She gathered her thrown knife and quickly cut his bonds, and Sam rose before almost instantly falling forward into a much smaller body that hefted him a bit.

“I’ll take that as a no. I’m afraid that my shot has set off the alarms. This isn’t going to be an easy path for you. Here, put this on.” She plopped him lightly back into the chair and a moment later put something on his head… One of the Guards helmets?

“Alright time to go.” She said and hefted him up into a shoulder carry that knocked the air out of him, but to his surprise she started moving just a moment later.

He really wanted to tell her he could probably walk, but she didn’t seem to care. Grabbing one of the guards Ajax at the door and instantly firing down the hall. Sam couldn’t see anything other than her back as she started jogging which hurt, but he could hear a scream of people not used to being shot at.

She hurried on and then around a corner. And again firing every once in a while and sending people screaming.

“Okay hold on.” She ordered a bit strained as he heard gun shots the rest of the magazine going off, and the sound of shattering glass. “This is going to hurt.” She said and he wondered what she meant, before he managed to just see past her and…

“No no no!” He managed to gasp out, but she didn’t stop as she raced for an open window and leapt.

Her shoulder plowed into his stomach as she leapt and that hurt,. But then they were weightless for a while before suddenly they slammed into something metal and very painful.

“Ow.” She muttered after a few moments when to his surprise they didn’t keep falling despite the fact he was looking down at a long drop. “Hold on.” She grunted, he moved up a bit and then more and then he was thrown over a metal railing landing painfully, but…

“Sam!” Mira was there grabbing at him and Bishop and Hakase too.

Fuck. The woman rolled over the railing and then slammed into the ground next to him. She was breathing heavily and she rose wincing as she grabbed her ribs.

“Not doing that again.” She muttered as she stood.

“Let’s go!” Bishop ordered and he and Hakase grabbed him and then there were a lot of stairs, but he was free.