Ghost in the City

Chapter 230

Waking up the next morning I rolled over away from the sun slipping through the blinds and had to consider everything. There was no doubt that the band was getting attention. Hiromi had even waved me away assuring me everything was being taken care of when I decided to leave last night, and she hadn’t come with me.

Hiromi had stayed long after the gig talking to the talent scout? Producer? I wasn’t sure what his position was.

Either way, I had a feeling Hiromi was going to be pushing for something with regards to the Band. But…

Being up on stage, playing music I could only listen to before? Feeling that response from a crowd as I roared out from my heart? It was a good feeling.

I checked my messages, Dino had sent me a packet about the gig he wanted done last night. But that wasn’t all I had. I’d gotten multiple alerts for Rockerboy XP. The full band experience, really letting it all go, had earned me another step closer to hitting level 10.

I looked at the packet from Dino. Just from the basics I understood the difficulty. There was one dealership that sold new Rayfield vehicles in Night City, and Dino wanted a Shard they’d have in the office switched out.

I didn’t know exactly what the data was, but he had maps of the dealership, timetables, and even information about their security.

Could I do it?

Yeah. The security was top of the line, but it didn’t have Netrunner support. The dealership was secure enough inside a building in Downtown sharing space with a few other high end corporations. The fancy dealership even had a special circular track around the building that people looking to buy high end vehicles could drive around without traffic stopping them.

I slipped out of bed, and got ready. Even as I was in the shower I was going over the data Dino had sent, checking entrances, and information about the people that would be there.

The dossier on the entire place was thorough. Dino wasn’t skimping, this wasn’t just a generic smash and grab, but the data was set up as a professional Op.

As I was drying my hair I noticed something that might work as an entry point.

The pay for the gig was good… Probably? No, it was. It definitely had enough zeroes there.

Hiromi would be proud of me for actually checking, rather than just jumping into something, but to be fair, this was a full stealth gig, I couldn’t be seen, or leave any hints that I had been there, or the gig failed. So I wouldn’t be getting any XP for this, eddies were the only benefit I would draw out of it.

Decision settled, I sent out the confirmation to Dino.

*Motoko: I’ll accept the gig. I can get it done today. Just need the replacement shard.*

*Dino: Alright, cords for a pickup. The delivery boy’s name is Simon, that’ll be the code that he knows it’s you. Look forward to the update on the gig completion.*

Well that was settled then. Now I just needed to sort everything else. Even if this was a stealth mission, I was trying to be better than the gonk that I could be at times.

*Motoko: I got a gig from Dino, it should be quiet, just a sneak and grab. But I was wondering if anyone is free to be super bored and act as my extraction in case something bad happens.*

*Ichi: I’m on the clock right now, but I can come if you need me.*

*Malcolm: Ah, not a great time for me, but I can be there.*

*Rebecca: Nah you two, I got this. Strings, where we meeting up. I’ve been bored all morning. Might as well be bored and doing something.*

*Motoko: Preem Becca. Sure I’ll send you a cords.*

*Hiromi: I can come!*

*Motoko: Hiromi you have class. You can’t come.* I reminded her with a roll of my eyes as I hit the garage.

I was sliding onto my Kusanagi to make it through Night City morning traffic as I got Rebecca’s confirmation, and Hiromi’s cry emoji.

—--

Dino’s delivery boy was a guy sitting in the back of a Villefort Columbus. The van doors were open and he was hawking XBD’s if what I was seeing was right. Scoping him out as I pulled up on my Kusanagi. I didn’t bother getting off, just driving right up to him which had him obviously preparing a weapon behind him, but as I stopped I called out.

“You Simon?”

“That’s me. Got your package right here.” He offered holding out a BD wrapper. I took it and felt the Shard inside.

With that I drove off without a word, and headed down and across a bit to another parking area. This one was a few floors up, and I found the spot I wanted. Right up against the north side of the building, where right there across the street and a floor down was the Rayfield dealership. I leaned against the wall and watched.

A car was racing around the track. Not one of their top of the lines. This was no Caliburn, but it would still be a high end car. I watched as it circled for a while, until a glitzy fashionista parked it near an entrance door, and stepped out. The passenger was a well dressed salesman, and he followed her inside. The moment they were out of sight a man in cheaper clothes stepped out and got in the car to drive it back inside the dealership.

But what I had seen on the information Dino had sent, was that the guy came out of another entrance way, not into the main office, after all, the dealership doesn’t want some mechanic in coveralls being seen by the high priced clientele.

That was my entrance point. The door he came through was a mechanic room, and most importantly, connected to the back office through a much more private door that I could use to slip past almost all the agents in the dealership since they’d all be up front dealing with clients.

It wasn’t long before a rumbling engine came up the parking garage and Rebecca’s monster of a Nomad spec Thorton Mackinaw came rumbling over and parked itself.

I honestly hadn’t seen her drive it around much, so I couldn’t help but lean sideways to get a view of the driver door when it opened, and the comparatively tiny woman came out of her truck.

I couldn’t help but laugh as she had to get out in three movements, sliding off the seat, onto a foot rest on the side of the truck, then hop off again to settle on the ground.

“Eat shit, Strings.”

“I really think that truck is too big for your Becca.”

“Pfft. It’s perfect sized! I get to run people over in it, and they die.”

I couldn’t help but nod and give her that one. That was fair.

“So what’s the deal here?”

“See that dealership down there?” I asked her, and she looked at the boundary around the parking Garage that was a bit above her head.

“No.”

I snorted, and she reached out and punched at me, which I let her. My new leotard was still armored, and it wasn’t as tight anymore. It didn’t hurt.

“Okay so Dealership?” She asked.

“Rayfield. I need to sneak in and swap out a shard without being seen, or leaving behind any bodies.”

Rebecca stepped back. Her previous joviality, gone in a flash. “That sounds tough. Wouldn’t it be easier to wait until tonight?”

“You’d think so, but with how busy it is. It’s actually easier during the day.” I explained to Rebecca as I jerked my head across the way, specifically not pointing. “See the track around the dealership? They keep it real private, only one car at a time, since they only have limited customers, but the customers are treated like royalty. Multiple attendants for each one. I noticed it on some of the pictures that Dino sent me.”

“Okay so… Everyone is distracted by the prima donnas so once that happens you sneak in.”

“Exactly. Which is why your help is really nice. I’m sneaky, but not perfect, if I flub it having some backup for extraction is always nice..” I waved around the non secure parking garage.

“Okay preem. So you need me for overwatch?”

“And escape. But mostly overwatch you’ll relay details I need as I make my infiltration.” I started explaining that part of the gig, and Rebecca ended up climbing up onto the hood of her truck sitting back and crossing her legs like she was just chilling enjoying the view as I explained.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

I couldn’t help but smile at how casual she made it. Rebecca might be the smallest of my chooms, but she was older, and it was times like this that it showed. Plus her experience working gigs. Malcolm would be pointing over the edge while I explained things, and I’d have to smack his hand each time to get him to stop pointing.

Rebecca understood immediately with just one context clue not to bring any attention.

So I finished explaining and in the end since Rebecca had very little to do she just stayed relaxing against the hood of her car, while I headed out.

While the easiest way to get to the dealership would be just leaping across and using some street lights, to get across the way, there would be too much chance of a commotion if I tried that.

So I left the parking garage, and waited the long ass time for the cross walk to let me cross, only needing to cuss out one asshole that blew through the light and nearly hit me. Which was pretty good for Night City.

Crossing over I found an entrance to the building through another parking garage although this one was private. The entrance had a key reader and multiple security devices including a rather large gate that would keep people not welcome out.

I waited for no one to be coming in, and just walked up. This was a Kiroshi security optic keypad. It could be opened through other optics, but Kiroshi of course promised increased viability through their own work.

But that also created a weakness in the system. When I poked my eyes in front of it, it sent a data packet to my eye, which I co-opted, quickly altered the access information and sent it back.

It then sent back a further confirmation, this time with a code, that it thought I was sending to ensure it was correct. Only the code could only send codes that already existed on the database.

So I sent another confirmation and the gate opened with a small text message of ‘Welcome Mr. Luxor!’ Displayed, and I was into the private garage.

Okay easy part done.

The interior garage itself had some dangers, security cameras and the like, but it was also already secured from the outside, so thankfully only the one camera that I had to worry about, along my route.

Poking my head out from around a concrete pillar, I easily hacked it before it spotted me, and did a quick loop on the recording, the last ten seconds repeated again.

That’s all I needed to rush across the garage and into the building's interior hallways.

From there it was smooth sailing. Multiple corps ran in this building, and there were plenty of reasons a teenager might be heading upwards through the stairs, especially since I was already through part of the security.

No issues.

I climbed up the stairs, heading to the floor two levels above the dealership. Unfortunately the floor above was another corpo office, and I couldn’t get through to that, but the next one up, was multiple minor office spaces.

It was child's play to walk out of the stair access and down the interior hall space, separating all the different offices. There was a security door that opened for me without issue, and no one inside even saw me as I entered into some sort of call center office.

I walked right through only ducking a little to be below the cubicles set up, and reaching the exterior door.

The office had a nice little outside space that ran around the building, and now I was out. I walked around. Acting like I was supposed to be out here. Since it ran around the entire building all the offices on this level had access, so none of them would be able to tell I wasn’t supposed to be here.

Humming a bit of something or another I walked around until I found the spot I needed to be at. Right across from me was Rebecca who secretly waved for a moment at me.

And so I settled in to wait.

*Rebecca: Go.*

I moved without hesitation leaping over the side of the edge, my chrome fingers grabbing onto the side of the concrete barrier between a set of windows, slowing me just a little as I slipped down and then there was a drop.

I could just see the car that was being test driven turn out of sight as I fell.

While there were cameras overlooking the track it wasn’t perfect coverage. I fell right in a blind spot, grunting even with all my talent towards taking a fall as I hit the ground spreading the impact as best I could as I rolled forward bleeding the momentum in a different way.

Then I ran. Right towards the side door that the mechanics used to bring the car back in. I had about twenty seconds or less to get in. The door used a security card reader, but honestly this was the third floor, and well away from any easy access points. The track only accessed through the interior elevator unless you jumped or climbed up.

It took three seconds for me to get it to register an access and the door opened. I slipped in quiet as a mouse, and forced the door closed just in time, as there was a mechanic inside just across the room, and the sound of the car driving around could have alerted him.

He was sitting at a computer, his back to me, so I had a few moments. I looked around.

This shop room was obviously a waiting room for the mechanics, nothing interesting, no cameras inside, as there was nothing valuable.

Also no easy ways to walk past the mechanic to the office without being seen, as the computer was facing it.

No real space to hide either, my instincts told me trying to hide anywhere normal would just be seen. So I looked up.

I exhaled silently and jumped. The mechanic room didn’t have any fancy ceilings or anything, Just open access to the fluorescent lightingI leaped up I grabbed the metal struts running across the ceiling. I hesitated for a second as even with the textured pads my hands were still chrome and it made a noise as I gripped.

Thankfully the mechanic didn’t notice, and I pulled myself up, until I was nearly horizontal with just my two hands.

Thankfully my arms couldn’t get tired, but I felt my core shift as I kept myself as flat up to the ceiling as I could.

Now I wait.

Finally there was a beep on the computer, and the Mechanic got up and walked right under me to go check in the car.

Which was perfect. The driver would be heading back inside, and distracting everyone as they discussed sales. The moment the door closed behind the mechanic, I dropped and rushed for the office door.

The back offices were rather plain, no point in fancying them up, but there were security cameras.

There were always security cameras around workers when needed.

Luckily, Dino had given me floorplans that were recent. I slipped inside, and stayed low crouching along the left wall. The only camera that would be seeing where I needed to go, would be facing away from my entrance, and I walked right under it as I started scanning.

A few moments to set up the daemon to repeat the last ten seconds again and I was off, walking forward on quick steps to one of the back offices, and slipping in. The place didn’t even have security besides a lock on the door, but it opened without issue.

I slipped in and looked over the office. The nameplate on the desk read, Mr. White Sales Manager.

The office was nice enough, but it was mostly full of storage and records. While he was the Sales Manager, he wasn’t the owner. Just another worker keeping eddies flowing. I checked each filing cabinet, and they were each filled with cheap folders with information in each of them.

Nope nope nope.

I ran down the names, skipping a few as it was thankfully in alphabetic order.

Finally I found the right file, and opened it, there was a shard case, which I popped open and pulled the Shard out, replacing it with the one that Dino wanted in its place.

With that the file was pushed back into place, and I was ready to get out of here.

*Motoko: Okay Rebecca, let me know next time the mechanic heads out to pick up a vehicle.*

*Rebecca: You got it strings.*

Then I waited, hiding in the room just in case anyone headed back here, but it was quiet, until I finally got a message from Rebecca.

*Rebecca: He’s heading out now.*

I took a second at the door checking to make sure no one was coming and then walked back under the security camera. Removing the Daemon that kept the recording looping, so no one could find it, and then headed back into the mechanic room.

It was empty and I walked to the door. Accessing the security I forced the door to open just a tiny crack so I could listen, and when the car drove around the track, I exited, and slowly moved across the track until I could slip over the edge.

I fell a few feet, hit a ledge and then leapt across to a street light, sliding down it while spinning around to bleed off momentum, ending with me on the street and blending into the crowd.

I took a second to adjust myself, smirking at how easy it all went.

*100 Athletics XP Gained.*

*Athletic skill level up!*

I blinked at the alert, and smiled pleased. I’d been worried I’d have to start going all in on running around and flips and things to get more levels, but considering what I’d just done I guess I earned enough to get an XP alert.

*Motoko: Gig complete. Thanks Rebecca.*

*Rebecca: No problem choom. I mean I’ve just been hanging out. What now?*

*Motoko: Well I message Dino and get confirmation we’re all good. Lunch?*

*Rebecca: That sounds like a plan.*

I laughed as I walked across the sidewalk, hurrying while keeping an eye out to make sure no one was going to run the light.

—--

*Dino: Alright, you say gigs done, gigs done. I’ll transfer funds.*

*Motoko: Thanks Dino. You want the shard I replaced as proof?*

*Dino: Nah, I don’t like evidence handed to me. Just trash it, I’ll trust you’re on the level. Good working with you kid. Clean gig, no deaths, no reports of fires, or explosions. I’m pleased.*

*Motoko: Is that a normal worry?* I couldn’t help but ask, half laughing into my noodles at his response.

*Dino: More often than you’d think. Professionals are hard to come by.*

I was smiling as the Eddies transferred over to my account. It was a good chunk of change. I instantly split it in half and tossed it to Rebecca.

“Huh? Nah choom. You don’t have to do that. That’s way too much.”

“Halfsies.” I told her with a smile.

“Nah, I didn’t do shit.” She waved her hand at me, but I just denied her attempt to transfer it back.

“Keep it you helped a lot actually, and if something had gone down, you were my escape plan. Always make sure your escape plan is paid well.” I told her, earning a snort from her.

“Fine. I’ll take your overpayment. Just don’t let Crush find out.”

“Yeah duh. Hiromi still bugs me about overpaying on gigs.” I rolled my eyes and Rebecca laughed.

“That’s cause you do.”

“Nope. I pay what my chooms are worth, as much as I can anyways. I’m not a billionaire.” I said with an arrogant smirk and it took her a second before she realized I was including her in that.

“Gonk.” She punched me in the shoulder lightly. “Whatever. I’ll keep it then.”

“Good! You need the eddies for your chrome right? How's that coming?”

My question was in fact answered as Rebecca turned a bit on the Ramen stands bar stool and sent me the most tooth filled, arrogant proud grin of anyone I’d ever seen in my life.

“Get the fuck out of here!” I laughed pushing on her face as she shouted and squawked at my actions. “You got them?”

“Ordered, received and cackled like mad about, and I’ve been tinkering with them before chippin in.”

“Tinkering huh?”

“Pfft, yeah. I hate out of the box chrome. It’s scop. You go in, you check over everything, I had Sasha check the programming.”

“I coulda done that.” I pouted a bit. I didn’t know Rebecca was modding her chrome!

“Nah Sasha made me promise her way earlier. Anyway, I’m using Pillars tools to replace some parts. The arms are kinda cheap normally ya know?”

“Yeah, you wanted the big bulky ones for your quick change.”

“Yep! These beauties are monsters! Guehehehe!” She guffawed practically goblin laughing about her chrome.

“Preem.”

“Yeah! So I’m replacing some of the finger joints. They have a bad tendency to break. Once I’m done with that I just need to paint them, and then chip them in.” She stretched out her arms and fingers crossed. “Gonna be nova.”

“Yeah, do you have a Smart Link for them?”

“Ballistic Coprocessor. It’ll increase accuracy since I don’t really use Smart Weapons.”

“That’s cool. You’ll have to show them off, when you’re ready. Oh, what Ripper are you using? Vik is the best in the city.”

“Nah, I got my own. I go to Ryder, it’s where I got my tats too.” She explained showing off her stomach.

“Well… You should go check in with Vik too. He’s amazing.” I argued and Rebecca sent me a look before smirking.

“You got a crush on the older Ripperdoc? Like when he digs all up in there?” She asked, and I squawked this time, shooting a kick at her that she barely dodged.

“Vik is old enough to be my grandpa!”

“Not always a bad thing if that’s what you’re into!”

“Rebecca!”

“Guehehehehe!”