The next day, during the evening, we boarded a regular shuttle that went to the spaceport. We got new fake identities from the gangsters. We weren’t going in a corpo shuttle, but still, better safe than sorry.
Since we were going as civilians, we couldn’t bring our armor. We did, however, smuggle our weapons with us. We could only bring one weapon each. I had my Cyclone, Revy and Batou had a Thor each, while Alex and Jun opted for an assault rifle. Alex also had a tiny spotter drone she would use to have eyes in the sky.
We most likely won’t need to use the weapons much, our role was to secure an escape route for the other, more experienced, and geared-out gangsters that will be doing the kidnapping. I’m also assuming Jun’s parents don’t want to put him in a position that is too dangerous. We just had to get rid of two guards guarding the rear exit of a building and two more that are in a surveillance room that is in the way of the gangster’s escape path.
Aside from our team, we were working with Vera and another man called Kenzo. He was in his forties, with rough features and two cyber arms. He claimed to be a legendary sharpshooter that got stuck with us because the other gangsters didn’t need a sniper for their part of the plan.
Since this time we were going in a bigger civilian shuttle we didn’t land in a military hangar, but instead in a bigger space that could be pressurized. In other words, it was a giant airlock. The ship had to first go through an opening in the external armor of the spaceport, then it had to cross the 0g empty space between the port’s outer armor and the internal section. While moving through the gap I spotted some armored guards on the narrow walkways that were present on both sides, they were watching the ship slowly drift towards the interior wall.
Once we landed, the metal doors of the opening we came through slid closed. The space was then pressurized, and we disembarked together with the other passengers.
We made our way toward the central section of the spaceport. This area was shared between the American corpos and the government. It’s where our safe houses and our target were located.
We haven’t been there before. I heard It was by far the biggest section in the spaceport. When we crossed the threshold of the massive doors leading into it, I paused out of a stupor.
Alex grinned when she noticed. “Told you it’s cool.”
Revy was just as stunned as me. “Like, I knew what to expect, but seeing it is just…”
Even Jun felt like commenting. “It is rather large."
Vera was beaming. “We have to go sightseeing! The others are taking care of scouting today, so we might as well.”
What had us worked up was the city that stood in front of us. The high ceilings were held up by enormous columns of glass and steel. Those archologies alone probably held hundreds of thousands of people, if not millions. The city had a circular symmetrical layout with a giant round plaza at its center. Skyscrapers were everywhere you looked, wide streets cutting between them. The magnetic railings in the air snaked between the skyscrapers, the upside-down carriages carrying people to their next stop. Numerous neon lights from the signs and holo screens painted the whole scene in a multitude of colors.
“What’s it called?” I asked.
Alex looked surprised. “You don’t know? You’re looking at Nox City.”
Before we could go sightseeing in Nox City, we went to the safe house assigned to our team. It was a large apartment located on the fifth floor of a smaller skyscraper located on the edge of the city. We left our weapons there. Being caught with them while playing tourists would be less than ideal. Kenzo decided to stay behind, saying he had already seen the place before.
We decided to visit the plaza first, to reach it in a reasonable time we could either take a taxi or take the magnetic train. We obviously took the train, the one in LA only passed through a couple of stops in downtown, so we never rode it.
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To get the train we had to go up one of the public skyscrapers, these skyscrapers were pretty much giant shopping malls. Looking at the prices made me realize just how expensive it was to live here. Everyone in Nox City had to be filthy rich. Even the food was outrageously expensive. Before we could reach the glass elevator that would take us up, I noticed that Alex was missing.
I stopped to look around and froze.
My eyes saw what made her disappear.
“Oh, no.” The words left me unbidden.
The others noticed my reaction and turned.
“What’s wrong?” asked Batou.
I pointed at it.
“Oh, no.” Everyone but Vera echoed my previous sentiment.
“What’s wrong with that shop?” asked Vera.
I was pointing at a multi-floor VR shop.
And Alex was missing.
The situation was very serious.
I decided to act while we still had time. “Everybody split up, get on comms, double time! We have to find her before she ends up with a massive debt or worse, ends up stealing and getting arrested.”
Three serious “Roger that.” And one confused but amused “Ok.” Responded to my call to arms.
We entered the shop and fanned out in search of our quarry.
After a few minutes of radio silence, the first report came in from Batou. “Target spotted, she is escaping towards the second floor, over.”
I responded, “Keep eyes on her, I’m coming down from the third floor to cut her path, over and out.”
I launched myself towards the stairs, sliding down the railings to hurry up. I jumped just before the end and rolled to break my fall. I landed right in front of our target.
She tried to turn and run, but the sealed boxes she was carrying in her arms made her clumsy. I grabbed the nape of her jacket before she could get out of reach. She struggled for a bit, her jacket loosening.
Realizing that further resistance was useless her shoulders slumped in surrender.
She turned towards me. “I’m an adult, I can buy whatever I want.”
I looked at the boxes she was carrying. “Can you even afford any of them?”
She looked down to the side, her voice small. “I’ll figure something out.”
By now, the others had arrived and surrounded us, I let go of the nape of her jacket now that she had nowhere to run.
She looked back up with determination in her eyes. “If we all pitched in-“
“No.” Jun destroyed her hopes without mercy.
She didn’t give up. “If you lend me just a small amount of money, I’ll be able to buy the least expensive VR set. I’ll pay you back as soon as I have the money.”
Revy took pity on her. “I’ll lend you the money.”
She put both hands on Alex’s shoulder and looked at her while smiling. “Just promise you’ll put the other boxes away and that you won’t disappear on us again.”
Alex dropped the boxes to hug Revy. “I promise! I promise! Thank you so much Revy!”
Vera was giggling from the side, I couldn’t help but chuckle a bit myself.
We left the shop with a very happy Alex.
As we were going up in the lift she calmed down and very purposefully didn’t look anyone in the eyes for a while.
Walking out of the lift we entered one of the higher floors, it was a big empty space, on the ceiling and to the side there were track railings that passed through the floor. The flanking walls had two openings to allow the train entrance and exit.
We took the next train.
The aerial view of the city was bewitching. I played some music in my ears system while watching the lights slide away beneath us.
Arriving at a skyscraper much closer to the plaza we disembarked the train and took the lift to the ground floor.
The plaza was flooded with a moving sea of people, being so central, it was the shortest path for many people walking around.
At the very center, I could glimpse a shifting structure with what looked like holo images on it. We pierced through the crowd and approached it.
It was a slowly rotating dome that looked like glass, on top of its surface holo images of all kinds of people posing for a picture appeared and disappeared at a leisurely pace.
Revy piped up “We have to take a picture!”
Two of the gangsters didn’t look so happy at the notion, but when Vera started trying to convince them I saw a look of resignation appear in their eyes.
We asked a stranger to take a picture of us, and the man agreed. He took a picture with his eyes and sent it to us.
While it was not a great picture by any means, we all managed to smile to a certain extent. Jun somehow looked grumpy regardless.
By touching the structure Revy uploaded the picture to it, adding it to the millions that were already stored.
Leaving, I wondered if anyone would ever recognize us from that picture in the future.
We went for one drink later. Only one, partially because we had a job to do tomorrow, and partially because of how much they cost we would go broke in no time.
When we returned to the safehouse Alex rushed to a room giddy with excitement, VR set in hand.
I shook my head with amusement and went to sleep.