Thorne and I stepped into the interior of the cargo ship and went straight for the bridge. Our old QG, Fitel, had the courtesy of including the schematics of the ship. It wasn’t anything hard to find, being simply a typical cargo hauler.
Knowing exactly where we needed to go, we got there within minutes. I released several Nyes to scout out the room on the other side and a moment later, the outlines of several people appeared in my view.
I glanced over at Thorne and exchanged nods. He took action immediately and whipped out his wrist blade. He didn’t hesitate to stab it right at the hinges of the door before slashing down with it to cut off the hinges. In one swift motion, he shoulder bashed the door, sending it flying into the room while I threw a concussive grenade inside.
Once the grenade went off, I dashed inside and began unloading bullets from my Suri at all the highlighted targets.
+10 EXP
+10 EXP
+10 EXP
+10 EXP
+10 EXP
+10 EXP
The power armor I had cobbled together didn’t exactly have a large repertoire of silent weapons or many integrated weapons at all, so I had to make do with my old weapon. I simply needed to modify the trigger to fit the power armor.
Though, in my future iterations of power armor, I would definitely develop specialized weapons that could do the job more effectively.
“What the fuck!”
After confirming my last kill, I turned my attention to one of the crew members who had crouched down to take cover behind the control panels.
He was too frightened to move from his cover, which made it easy for me to maneuver around him. I kicked him over and pinned him to the ground with a firm leg on his back.
“Where are the original crew members?”
He gasped for air and mumbled to himself. I adjusted my auditory implants in an attempt to make out what he was saying.
“---dear lord, forgive me for my sins as I am about to join you. May you for…”
I leaned down and spoke into his ear.
“Listen to me… I said, listen to me!” His mumblings ceased, and he tried to turn around, but the weight of my power armor didn’t let him. “Tell me where the original crew members are, and maybe I’ll spare you. How does that sound?”
“They’re…they’re gone. We shot them and threw them overboard. Oh, Lord—”
+10 EXP
After letting out a sigh, I plugged myself into the control terminals to force the engines to a halt and the anchors to be deployed.
Once that was done, we didn’t dally around and rushed to secure the rest of the ship. Using the results from our Argus and the camera feeds at the bridge, we swiftly moved to eliminate every member of the gang of thieves.
It was a client request, and one that aligned with my purpose of gaining experience points.
It took us less than an hour to do so, and we then went down to the cargo bay and opened up one of the crates. Inside were cases and cases filled with chips and other delicate electronic parts.
Confirming the entire cargo bay was filled with the electronics of our client, we called the motorboat we had borrowed to come over to our location. We carried as much as we could fit on the small boat before exiting the area.
The patrols around Elevate City should notice the stationary ship before long and they would deal with the aftermath. For us, we simply have to take some recordings as proof to our client.
We parked the boat exactly where we found it and transferred all our loot to our car. While Thorne drove, I placed a call to our QG.
“I’m glad to be hearing from you so soon. I take it you have been successful yet again, Mr. Cloak.”
“That’s right, I’m sending you the proof now.”
“Excellent…I take it you completed the job with ease?”
I glanced around our surroundings while withholding my answer. Fitel wasn’t one for small talk. He would normally only discuss things pertaining to the jobs and nothing more, so it was strange he was asking questions.
“...Yes.”
“Perfect. Then I’ll see you soon at the usual booth in Haven.”
He ended the call without allowing me to retort, as always, but it didn’t make his bizarre behavior any less alarming.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
Meeting at Haven as usual? We’ve never even met in person before…
While I wanted to go investigate immediately, I didn’t forget to confide with Thorne while we continued heading back into the city.
“I think we should go hear him out as well.”
“Not what I expected to hear from you. Normally you would be going on about how it could be a trap and that we should return to the safety of our company.”
“If Fitel had malicious intentions against us, we would already be in the thick of it by now. If he’s asking for a meeting in such a roundabout way, it must be important when he is being so careful of any potential eavesdroppers.”
I nodded at his reasoning.
Thorne didn’t need me to tell him and began changing our destination to Haven. We sat in silence while I pondered on all the possibilities of what this meeting could be about.
As he said, if Fitel wanted to harm us, he had way better opportunities. He could’ve easily done so on any gigs he sent us out on. That was why Thorne was constantly on guard going into every gig, no matter how simple it may sound, but so far, his fears hadn’t come true.
What could he possibly have to say that requires us to talk in person?
My deliberating went nowhere, even up until we arrived. We parked in a discreet corner of the lot and waited. We only had to wait for a few minutes before a familiar convoy of Wraiths pulled up next to us and several of our guards came to greet us.
Both Thorne and I quickly got out of our power armor and left it with our guards before making our way into Haven.
Crowds of mercenaries gathered both inside and outside of the establishment, but only a few of them had noticed how we walked out from a crowd of corpos. They mostly ignored us and frolicked around with their friends like they were having the time of their lives.
“Shouldn’t you message Fitel to ask which booth he is at?” Thorne asked as we made our way into the open area on the first floor, where the bar was.
“Probably not yet. If he’s expecting us, he should be on the lookout for us.”
“He said booth, so let’s go up to the second floor, then.”
Walking past the crowd of mercs, Thorne took the lead up the stairs. The noise of all the merrymaking immediately dulled as we stepped onto the new floor. It was much quieter up here, with almost empty hallways. Most of the rooms had their glass walls in privacy mode, where it was blurred, and only a few booths still had clear windows.
We slowly walked down the empty corridor, trying to peer into each room as we went by. Right as we turned the corner to find another quiet hallway, the door beside us suddenly opened. We glanced over and found no one coming out.
“Come in…Cloak. You can bring your friend.”
I couldn’t see what was in the room, but I recognized the voice, and seeing how secretive he was being; I played along and walked inside.
The door automatically closed behind us, and I carefully examined the lone man sitting on the sofa.
Fitel, my first QG who had always spoken at a calm and measured pace, was now before me. He was a middle-aged man with short salt and peppered hair, and his optics were the only apparent cybernetic that could be seen. He was dressed in a light grey suit, with his legs crossed, and inspecting me just as closely as I was to him.
I had a hunch with the way he spoke, but the way he carried himself also screamed out corpo.
“Cloak…It is a pleasure to see you.” He stood up and held out his hand.
“I am glad to see you are well, Fitel.”
We shook hands, and he gestured for us all to take a seat.
He relaxed and leaned back on the sofa while taking a sip of his drink. We blankly stared at each other in silence.
I don’t have all day…I want to rest early and resume working on the AI already.
“So, was there something you wanted to discuss, Fitel?”
“Oh, not really. I thought you may have wanted to join me after another job well done. I count myself as off the clock right now, so please feel free to treat me like a friend.”
“I see…so how have you been doing recently?”
“I’m glad you asked! I would say very well business-wise, but that also means it has been tiring. It really reminds me of the crunch days I had to endure back in my youth.”
“Well, too much business is better than the opposite.”
“Yes, I have no right to be complaining. Especially when I have just gotten a few lucrative deals. In fact, I should try to market myself for some less intensive jobs by offering discounts to relax my mind. Could you help me put the word out that I’ll be discounting any intelligence-gathering-related work?”
I blinked blankly at his words as I tapped into all the corporate experience I had to decipher his words.
“Mr. Cloak?”
“Oh, sorry. Of course, I can. Anything to help out a friend.”
“Why, thank you! I consider you a valuable friend, as well. Let us drink on our friendship!”
After we toasted our friendship, we ordered some food and our conversation devolved into sharing our experiences in our respective fields.
Once we finished eating, Fitel quickly excused himself, prompting us to return as well.
“What was that about?” Thorne asked immediately upon closing the door to the car.
“I’m not exactly sure, but I think he’s giving us some sort of warning…”
“Warning of someone out to get you?”
“Hmm, maybe. He didn’t exactly give a lot of details as you saw. Still, we should be on the alert.”
“...Feels like we have to be on alert 24/7 nowadays.”
Ah, the cost of being a corpo. It was better left unsaid, though.
The next day, we resumed business as usual, with me clearing out all my work in the morning so I could spend my afternoon in my workshop uninterrupted. Claire caught me just as I was about to leave to make a report.
“Here, go over the subscription plans we wanted to roll out in a few days for the EchoHalls app.”
I read over the details on the terminal she handed me. They planned to limit the amount of messages the free users could send and locked various functions behind a paywall. If they wanted to send files, photos, or videos as they had been doing, they would need to subscribe to our paid plan.
If this was still in my old world, I wouldn’t be surprised if people called for boycotting our product when this gets announced. Thankfully, they had few alternatives in our price range, and human nature likely meant they would be too lazy to make a drastic change as long as what we asked for, to keep the status quo, wasn’t too outrageous.
When reading the part about how our intel department has been making use of the app, memories from last night flashed through my mind.
“Direct all the projected profits derived from EchoHalls to expand the intel department. In fact, get them to start expanding right away.”
“Is something the matter, Rollo?”
“...We’ve received a warning yesterday. It’s vague, which is why we need to stay informed.”
“I’ll go tell security right aw—”
“Thorne already knows. He should have it handled. Instead, can you help me place a job with Fitel to start gathering info?”
“Okay, I’ll take care of it.”
As I watched Claire leave, I couldn’t shake the feeling in my gut that whatever was going to come at us this time wouldn’t be as straightforward as we imagined.
We will just have to prepare the best we can and adjust as things happen.