Chapter Ten

“Sir,” he saluted, and I growled, trying to hide that fact that I was back to swinging a solid damn fire extinguisher in my pants.

“Quit that,” I growled. “You served?”

“Yessir.”

“Call me Kabutt, Boss or Sarge,” I ordered, before glancing over at the grin on Reign’s face and shaking my head at her games.

“You ready for some fun?” Reign asked him, and he nodded.

“Always.”

“Glad to hear it. Okay, we’re here on a quick raid, we’ll be hitting an apartment that Sarge was assigned upon leaving the army first…” she said, before going on and explaining the mission from there.

I nodded my thanks to her for not saying anything else, as I moved around them both, gathering my gear and repacking it as I liked, making sure all the straps and magazines were clear.

The next few minutes were filled with small talk as we crossed the plaza outside the arcology, entering by my old entrance, and exchanging a knowing nod with Stinger, as she squatted in one of the corners of the foyer, apparently pissing.

Knowing who and what she actually was, I genuinely wasn’t sure if she was or not, but either way I saw it as it was now, an act that made everyone dismiss her entirely. Even Todds turned away in disgust, while myself and Reign nodded a greeting to her.

The wink she shot us could have meant anything, but the message that arrived a few seconds later was very clear.

Anthos Black still lives…

I nodded again, sending her a message back.

Not for fucking long.

That was it, one of the most feared and respected assassins in the history of Artem was pissing in the corner of my old arcology, and wanted us to kill someone for her, and damn soon.

Weird the way life turned out.

“Someone should do something about people like that,” Todd growled as the doors shut on the lift. “Fuck’s sake, it smells like she’s been in here as well.”

“Yeah, but that’s city living for you.” Reign grinned at him. “Admit it, where else would you get to see such varied characters?”

“The local nuthouse?”

“Sometimes I wonder if that’s what the city is.” I shrugged and looked out of the window at the buildings flowing past as the lift rose higher. “The entire fucking city feels like a damn nuthouse.”

“There’re crazy people and then there’re people that piss in the corners…” Todds said softly shaking his head. “You guys know her or something?”

“Why’d you ask that?” I wondered frowning.

“Neither of you seemed surprised by her, just nodded.” He grinned. “Sorry, it’s the scout in me, I was trained to spot details.”

“Yeah, we had a few interactions with her, she’s a bit…” Reign started and I snorted, cutting her off.

“She’s a bit savage that’s all, best to keep on her good side, unless you want her pissing on you?”

“I’d shoot her,” Todds said, then shrugged. “But if she’s got issues, I guess maybe just nod and smile? Fuck knows, but I’m betting someone that fucked up doesn’t last long unless she’s a pet or something, best not to fuck with her.”

“Smart man,” I said. “Okay, we’ve got another minute or so before we get there, time for a quick breakdown mate. Who are you, what can you do for the team and why should I care?”

“Okay, sorry boss, head was all over there. Right, I’m Severin Todds, father of two, single parent which means that my kids are in day school right now, and when they get out I either need to run to collect them, or arrange for a sitter. Happy to do that, but it costs, so you know, I need to be earning all the time. If possible? If you could factor that into missions, like if we’re going to be gone all day and night, just let me know, ya know?”

“Makes sense, don’t worry, if I can I’ll let you know.”

“Great, well, I’m ex-army, Stealth Recon, and ex scout, they sound like the same thing, but they’re fucking not. Stealth Recon is get in, get out with the info, nobody knows you’re there, scout? That’s get in and out with the info, but getting back with the info is what matters, not the stealthy part. It’s a constant worry when you’re told to scout as opposed to stealth, because they’re basically saying ‘we want the data more than we want you back’.” He shook his head and smiled sadly.

“Lost a lot of friends to those missions. Stealth Recon though? That’s where we hit the target, get what we need and get the fuck out, nobody ever knows we were there.”

“I like that,” I said. “I’d rather have you around after the mission than lose you on the first one. Tell me about your skills.”

“Breaking and entering.” He snorted. “Sorry, that was what got me into the army in the first place. I was a sneak thief and burglar, got caught by some seriously good tech and was given the option of six years in service or six years in jail. I took service.”

“And?” Reign asked, as the doors whisked open, the strangled fart in place of a chime letting us know we’d reached my old floor.

“Interesting noise,” he said diplomatically, shaking his head as we stepped out into the dimly lit nexus of corridors. “So, this is welcoming…”

“We killed the guy that was the local floor gang lord a few days ago, and most of his gang,” I explained. “So if we see gangers, be ready for fun.”

“Joy… you don’t mind if I…?” he asked, lifting the hood of his suit in question.

“Hell yes, go for it,” I said. “In fact, you scout ahead. We’re headed to this apartment first…” I sent him the details for my old apartment.

He nodded, pulling the stealth suit hood up and pinching it closed, and I admired the quality of the suit as it cycled through chromatic swirls before fading from sight.

In five seconds he was literally invisible beyond a slight distortion as he moved and the cameras failed to keep up with the projectors. Either way though, in the darkness it was a hell of a thing to see. Or not, as it was.

“We need a decent tac-net,” I growled for about the hundredth time, and Reign nodded.

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“After we’ve done this, take whatever loot we’ve got, and trade it in for whatever grade of armor and tac-net we can,” she suggested.

“Definitely,” I agreed, as the pair of us, rifles held ready but not to the shoulder, moved quickly along the corridor after Todds.

Five minutes later I was staring into the small, shitty apartment, and I resisted the urge to curse. I’d expected no less, genuinely I had, I mean, why the hell would Lucky have left it alone, but still.

He’d broken in, or had his men do it, the gun safe had been raided as had everything else. My few personal possessions had been broken and thrown around, and I shook my head at the sight of a kid running away wearing that goddamn awful shit that Fergie had talked me into buying oh-so long ago.

They’d broken in and left what they didn’t want strewn about. Then the local kids had been playing in the apartment and had clearly nicked anything they wanted.

My personal possessions were long gone, and I could see that from the door.

“Anyone got an incendiary?” I asked after a few seconds, not really serious, but smiling sadly when Reign pressed one into my hand silently. “Thanks,” I whispered. “That door able to close?”

“I can force it closed,” Todds offered, and I nodded.

“Good enough.”

“Give me a second.”

He went to work, kicking and twisting the door until it clicked back into the runners, then slid almost closed, He stopped it there, and paused as he looked back at me.

“One thing boss, if the fire suppression doesn’t work… that’s a hell of a risk for the rest of this floor. You really think that’s a good idea?”

I hesitated, before cursing and passing it back to Reign.

“Fine, fuck it,” I growled, knowing he was right. I waited as he let the door close, and I turned my back on the last of my old life, beyond Richie and Sync of course.

“Lead the way to here,” I ordered him, shooting him Lucky’s old address, noting the lack of any comment as he led us right back to the lift, then past it three doors on the right.

This time when we reached the door, it was intact and sod’s law, the code Lucky gave us didn’t work. Typical.

“Well, time for me to earn my keep I guess,” Todds whispered, blurring back into visibility, and moving in close to the door, pulling out a few small tools and a scanner.

“So, you were going to tell us about your skills?” I reminded him.

“Might as well show you,” he said, the smile clear in his voice. “So as I say, I was a scout, started out that way, and after I survived long enough? They promoted me, saw I had a gift for it, and make me Stealth Recon. Spent a year in serious training, hacking I was always shit at, the programming side just…” He shrugged.

“It’s not for me, you know?” he admitted. “Mechanisms though?” He gestured to the door frame where he’d already pulled a section that looked like all the others apart. Inside I could see the cogs and magnets that formed the actual mechanism for the door. He made a few little taps here and there and then set off a brief electrical flash in the dimness of the corridor, and suddenly the door was sliding back, smooth and easy.

“So yeah, hacking the lock for that might have taken me all day as a programmer or a hacker, but as a mechanist? Ignore the governing systems and apply a charge to the rollers once the lock is disengaged. The system doesn’t even know the door is open, and if anyone looks at the system logs later on? It’s not been tampered with at all. Anyone comes looking for how this happened? They’ll spend forever looking at that, convinced that a master hacker did it and cleared away any trace. In reality? Machines make sense, computers don’t. People forget that we had mechanisms long before computers, and all the coding in the world doesn’t affect the real world without a mechanism.”

As he spoke, he quickly reassembled the covering to the wall, and Reign and I exchanged a look, before starting into the room.

We moved slowly, rifles up and sweeping, checking the corners, the walls, the floor, anything that might hide a turret or a target, we checked and thoroughly.

Moving through from the entrance, with its nice seats, the desk that was set up with a single chair behind it—presumably for Lucky to try and look important, because I was betting the books on the shelf behind him were fake—and into the next room?

I was stunned.

The greedy fucking bastard had literally smashed through the walls of three, maybe four apartments! They’d all been redone, bracing put in place, and a massive bed was set in the second to last room, with sights out across the fucking city!

I’d been surviving in my shitty fucking apartment, and this gangbanger was fucking living in a the lap of luxury in comparison!

There were stacks of data decks, a handful of scattered bullets, some jewelry, a small stack of credit chips—all fucking useless without Lucky’s goddamn thumb—and a bunch of random shit.

I moved into the bedroom and started tossing the place as Todds worked on the door into the last section, hopefully an armory, but we’d see soon enough.

Reign and I searched the room quickly, finding more random stuff, a collection of plastic dolls from a popular daytime tv show, a couple of glass ornaments, a projector that when Reign tapped it started playing a projection of Lucky fucking two women, and apparently doing a terrible job of it, despite their porn-star cries.

Reign turned it off, then for good measure smashed the chip that held the data, before pausing and looking around.

“Those data decks…” she said, grinning.

“Yeah?” I asked.

“Let’s face it, he was smarter than the average ganger, but not that smart, why would he need more than one?” she asked rhetorically as she moved over, triggering them and grinning to herself. “Jackpot.”

“What?” I asked.

“It’s the controller for the drug labs,” she explained. “He’s set them up to pay into a single account on here, he needs to keep it away from himself after all, if ACE or anyone comes looking, a half-orc living in here? He’s gonna get fucked. Instead he was playing the game, that’s why he was always outside in the corridor, sitting on a shitty couch and acting like an idiot. It was to keep people clear of here.”

“So what do we do with the controller?” I asked slowly.

“Up to you, but it’s got control of the obedience collars as well.”

“The fucking what ?” I hissed.

“The obedience collars, you know what they are right?”

“Pain projectors, used to enforce control over slaves. They can be set to stay near a set point, like a slaver who travels around, or a fixed point, like a central room or whatever. I’ve had experience of them,” I growled.

“Well, looks like as soon as we left the chemists, he had them fitted with obedience collars, and he’s been making them work round the clock in that lab upstairs.”

“Can you deactivate them?”

“We can.” She nodded. “We can also send them a direct message. I suggest doing that first, if they’re waiting for a chance they might just break for it, instead tell them that they’re free and to, I don’t know, find a real job or something after this. Then we deactivate the collars.”

“I’ve got the door,” Todds interrupted, and we both turned to him, rifles lifting… only to drop as we saw the room before us.

“Motherfucker!” I cursed, shaking my head in disbelief.

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