Why did he take this job? Simple revenge would have been better than this quagmire. Here he was with a team of weaklings to shake up a nest of troubles.
He thought back over the files of the people who had been forced upon him. He looked at his group an ex-Militec member, a match-fixing thug, a 50-year-old ex-cop and his favorite, an air-conditioning installer.
Pat was still reluctant, thinking to back down.
He didn't even want to think about the others. A rookie doctor, 2 women with non-existent careers in the business and two ex-members of one of Night City's most dangerous gangs. No doubt mixed into the mix by a third party to stab them in the back or gather information. Or to confirm that the contract had been carried out. Did his boss trust him that little?
At least he'd worked with S4nd0t before. Malik had been an asset in the search for intelligence. As for the others... Clash needed money, so he wouldn't ask questions, and his experience with Militec was a plus...
His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of brakes.
Groups done, they headed for the first target of the day. The building was a garage as big as their hideout for this contract. Pat could already smell trouble. Already preparing for casualties and a firefight. D0t spoke to him via holo. Pat approved the start of the mission.
-Can you all hear me? Rock'n roll.
No sooner had he said these words than someone emerged from the building. Pat's voice echoed through the holo.
-Stop.
A man of small stature with a visual modifier lit on his face walked away from the building towards the other team's van. The streets were deserted due to the clouds of sand thrown up by the winds, in addition to their location in the city. Tubio's voice echoed through the conversation. Weird guy, shady, but from Maelstrom. Could be useful.
-Pat, should we take care of him?
Pat looked at the guy and then at their van. Malik was in the driver's seat next to him, both with a perfect if orangey view of the situation.
-Alive, if you can…
-Okay, I'll grab the iron.
What?
Pat looked like Malik at the other moving van. The guy, noticing nothing, moved closer and then passed by the van. At the same time Tubio discreetly exited the opposite sliding door, went around to the front and passed behind the guy's back. Janissa came out of the rear doors, bringing the man to a halt.
Taking advantage of the distraction. Tubio came up behind him with the tire iron, swung and hit the guy in the knee, knocking him to the ground. Janissa, pistol in hand, came out from behind the van and aimed at the guy's head. Gun between the eyes. Making him understand that if he moved he was dead. The sliding door where the guy was opened and Tubio lifted the guy to throw him into the van with the help of the others pulling him inside. Janissa climbed aboard, gun still at the ready, while Tubio climbed into the driver's seat as if nothing had happened.
The van became motionless and totally enclosed again.
Maelstrom goons may be mad, but at least they're efficient. Pat was moderately impressed by the fluidity with which the kidnapping had taken place. Janissa had caught his eye, a Maelstrom woman with two other affiliates. the best deal he could pick from the mediocre members to recruit in the poll given. Even Malik next to him couldn't help but nod and let out a.
-Neat.
Pat remained professional, they had an inside man. By holo he asked.
-I want the number of people, a safe entrance and his name. Explain to him that if he doesn't he'll die and if we get ambushed he'll die slowly.
The van in front of them shook only a moment before stopping. Janissa's voice rang out.
-5. The door he came out of and our new friend's name is Dave.
Pat looked at Malik, who had just lit himself a cigar. He wasn't going to get involved. Turning to the back, Pat gave the signal and the group quickly exited. Each of them had a way of hiding their identity, from a traditional demon mask for Wang to a face boiler for the rest of the team. The plan was simple, and was all about fishing for information. Leading the charge, he and Clash prepared to enter. Once they were all around the door, they entered as quickly as possible. Only to find a semblance of an empty waiting room. Music could be heard further into the garage as Clash and his heavy machine gun took up position to fire at anyone who came their way. They had entered the office part of the building.
image [https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/1178789115622326365/1184511691376050207/Clash.jpg?ex=660d707a&is=65fafb7a&hm=40e3ee92f9fd8bfa6f309765e2eb3dc6e3ad33016df26a59ccf08c865787b456&=&format=webp&width=365&height=597]
The building was clearly squatted by the group, broken glass, leftover food, papers on the floor, tags on the walls, broken screens and dangling cable, while cracks and bullet holes marred the walls. Whether it was this group or another, the place had been taken over by something other than a car company.
Wang, armed with a submachine gun and katana, followed Pat's orders to go upstairs and check for other enemies. Pat had seen one of his matches. The augmentations in his body were almost on a par with his own. The fact that Wang hadn't joined the Tiger Claws despite his parents' affiliation was odd. But not uncommon to worry about.
Samir, on the other hand, immediately set off for his own goal. Pat had hesitated for a very long time about hiring Samir. A black-market Tinkerer turned legal. Never good if moral issues came up. Hoping he wouldn't decide to do something stupid, it had been a calculated risk.
Going back to the mission, Pat counted in his head 5. The objective now was to secure the information Malik and Dot had gathered since the start of their investigations and eliminate any branches that might have links.
In the lobby was a window revealing the garage, where several cars were being dismantled. Clash, motionless and poised with his heavy weapon, was ready to shoot anyone who showed up.
Through the holo Wang called Pat upstairs. Pat was pleased with the team's silence over communications. Maybe they were going to carry out this mission to success.
Going upstairs, Pat listened as Wang described an office with 3 people, obviously deep in discussion. No weapons except a small caliber.
Joining Wang, he and Pat waited only a moment to go through the door once Pat had seen the room.
-Strong and fast.
Getting inside, Wang immediately pointed at the guy sitting on the sofa closest to the gun, who froze in place at gunpoint. Pat had entered quietly behind him, his rifle on the richly dressed man. The message had to be clear on both sides. They were in charge. A woman beside them was counting bills on a table, while the man Dot had spotted as the boss kept his hands behind his back. Pat suspected he had a gun ready, so he raised his rifle at him.
-Banon? I presume?
-Who's asking?
-Nobody. Just his future partner. You see, we were engaged in regard to a certain traffic in human beings...
The man called Banon had a shaved head, several tattoos mixed with chrome plates. He'd kept his cool at the accusation, but the girl next to him was more expressive. Clearly, she was panicked.
-What's that got to do with me?
-We've been ordered to "take care" of the situation... But... We may have some holes in our infos. So I'm willing to do some bargaining. You give us information and we will let you and your guys live. But I'm not ungrateful, and we'll pay you a lot of money.
-You come in here on your high horse and you think we're going to let you get away with it?
-That's up to you. Whether it's your two friends in the workshop, or poor Dave...
Pat knew he'd hit the nail on the head, and the silence was heavy as Wang retrieved the revolver from the table before stepping back. No one moved.
-Is he alive?
-Dave? Of course, we'll torture him if that's the best we can do.
The threat was implicit. If you don't give us something... Banon pulled his hands from behind his back in a gesture of appeasement.
-Me and my boys have nothing to do with their traffic, we've decided to get the hell out.
Aka. Now that we've been burned, we're going to minimize our involvement BEFORE setting sail.
-I want all the details. Before my boys downstairs kill the two guys in your shop.
-Only if my guys are alive. That includes Dave.
-Ah! I'll make sure he's still alive...
-Janissa?
-He was kicking up a fuss, but Donovan gave him a tranquilizer.
-He's out.
-He's knocked out, but we can work something out.
-He's got to be alive.
-And I just said he was. Now, the next time you try to stall me, I'll kill your secretary. Do you understand me?
-Cristal.
******
The face-to-face meeting was intense. Cross-referencing data with what they had already gathered, and eliminating certain leads and locations. They had almost everything they could hope for in this kind of situation. Anyway, anything more than that would be strange.
Meanwhile Tubio had moved the vehicle on Pat's orders. Approaching the entrance, Aria and Janissa grabbed Dave's body, which was asleep. Pulling him out of the van, they passed Samir, who had finished on his side and opened the door for them. The girls dragged him towards the stairs when Clash stopped them. Indicating that he would take care of it. Clash lifted the man from the floor.
Clash came in with Dave on his shoulder, placing him gently on the sofa. Banon, with his two allies, looked at each other in silence, then nodded. Then he asked Pat what was wrong.
-Nothing, he's just knocked out. But are you sure you haven't forgotten to tell me? If we have to come back, we won't argue.
Stolen novel; please report.
Silence is golden and Banon shook his head silently as Wang and Pat left. In a coordinated fashion, the two teams climbed back into the car. Before heading for the hideout.
Samir, on the other hand, was in the back of the first vehicle with various screens. Malik did his best not to make any big movements on the road, while Samir connected to the internal cameras in Banon's office and displayed them on a screen in the wall of the van. This is what he was doing while Pat and the others dealt with the hostage situation.
*****
Samir, Pat and Clash watched attentively as the images arrived quickly followed by the sound. They saw that two other people had just joined Banon and his secretary, while the bodyguard who had been taken hostage was back in the room.
-No trace, they're really gone.
-Wake up Dave.
The two new arrivals could only stare at the scene, full of questions.
-What's going on?
-We just got robbed is what's going on. We're gonna be out of Night City for a long time. Unless you've got a death wish...
-No, boss.
The bodyguard began slapping Dave on the sofa to wake him up, while the secretary retrieved papers and other documents from a screen downloading one shard after another.
-And Dave?
-They caught him outside and used him.
Dave finally seemed to emerge after a can of Nicola emptied into his face, and even then, he was groggy.
-Wake up!
-Boss?
-Bravo, you remember what's important. Now you're going to tell me what you told them.
-Nothing boss, nothing at all.
-Are you sure?
-They ambushed me, told me they knew who we were. But I said nothing.
The boss seemed to think. He reached behind his back... picked up his revolver and...
Bang!
Dave's corpse slumped on the sofa, shot through the head to general indifference.
-We can't trust him. I'll call Huggy for the girls. If they've found us, it's only a matter of time before they come down on them.
*****
-D0t you get his holo?
-No, I'm not Bartmoss.
-Okay.
Nodding to Clash, the latter squeezed his hand, in it a detonator. On the screen behind Dave's corpse, under his clothes, a beep sounded through the speakers. In an instant, the cameras on the first floor were deactivated, while the others shook, dust and other debris falling into the images on the ground floor.
Pat continued his discussion with D0t.
-Huggy?
-I've got it, we've spotted it and we've got it on our intel, but not the intel Banon gave us.
-Okay, a 90% chance then. We go to the safe house, rearm and prepare for the next assault... Also. Check with the images from the last cameras... If, we have to go back to see Banon.
*****
The vehicles returned to the hideout, and once everyone was back. Pat called out to those present.
-Get some rest, we'll be leaving soon. I think we've found our final destination. With a bit of luck, it'll all be over tonight.
Separating into small groups, Donovan had Clem on his arm. Facing Tubio and Janissa, she pointed at them both in turn before addressing Janissa.
-Okay, how did you do that? And don't tell me it's fate, your soul mate or some crap like that.
-Tubio? We go waaaaaaay back. He's not much of a talker, gentlemen, but a real showman at a party. With him, you'd think you were at Totentanz at night. He and I are friends.
-Friends?
Tubio could feel the adrenalin going down, it wasn't the first time he'd done this, but he needed his dose to give him courage. Calming himself and keeping silent, he looked at the scene and could clearly see that Janissa loved to tease Clem. Clem was a girl with purple-tinted black hair and a serious look in her eyes. She had a sort of raincoat that opened like Janissa and Aria, was obviously too serious for Janissa and seemed to love Clem's frustration.
image [https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/1178789115622326365/1184511692047142922/Clem_Clemantine.jpg?ex=660d707a&is=65fafb7a&hm=2c1aea55783367719456125feddc620a92ac6fdef2cb2a4386b9c685bd534598&=&format=webp&width=365&height=597]
Clem looked confused, while Aria shrugged. Donovan, not letting himself be taken aback, turned to Tubio.
-How did you two meet?
-A shootout when we were in the Maelstrom.
To which Donovan paled slightly. Well, Tubio should have known. Monsieur probably isn't used to dealing with gangs. And then Tubio realized that he wasn't in a position to open his mouth on the subject, since he had to dope to get into the action. So he held out his hand to Donovan.
-Tubio, nice to meet you.
-Donovan Tuki...
-No name... we're going to work together, but don't give your name to strangers, you never know who you might run into.
Donovan was about to say something, but Janissa and Clem nodded in agreement.
Aria, who had witnessed the scene, turned to Tubio.
-Tell me Tubio, what do you do as a mercenary? Transport, theft, scouting... Murder?
Donovan's eyes widened at the question. Tubio was perfectly calm, which surprised himself.
-A bit of everything, but nothing extreme if I can avoid it.
-... Cool. What did you take this job for?
-The money.
-Mm, do you have backup or are you Solo?
-Solo...
-Okay. I wanted to wait, but after what I just saw, I'd like to propose an association. You see, my friends and I have decided to form a small group. You know... with the Bozos back in town and all, there's going to be a new demand for protection. New groups to guarantee security. We'd like a piece of the action.
-A new gang?
-No, it's just a few people with us to make sure we're safe in our neighborhood.
Tubio pondered, this was clearly a new gang in the making. But... too late, he wasn't interested. He wouldn't consider joining a new gang.
-Sorry, but this kind of thing takes some thinking. Let's finish this mission and talk over a meal.
Aria looked at him for a moment with a smile on her face before nodding.
-Okay. A dinner then... Ok I'm joking. But yeah, I caught you cold, I should have expected that response. Take your time for the answer.
Aria was interesting. Smiling with a humor very similar to Ruby's. But... Tubio could sense something. He didn't know what, but he knew it was best to keep his distance. In a way, she gave off the same aura as Janissa had when they'd met at the Maelstrom.
Changing the subject, the group sat down on the sofas around the table. Pat had gone upstairs to a room where D0t was connected to the net.
Clash was servicing his weapon, Wang had taken some food out of his bag to eat in his corner. Samir was calling someone via holo and Malik was smoking. The only ones chatting were Janissa and Aria. Trying to make conversation with Donovan and liven things up.
Tubio went over to the table with the information. He had overheard Pat and S4nd0t's holo chat and started looking for Huggy. There.
Pimp working in the neighborhoods of Tiger Claws, affiliation, Scavenger, Tiger Claws, Wraiths... Wanted for murder, theft, destruction of public property, etc... not a happy guy there. But more than that, everything seemed to be going too well on this mission, it was almost too easy. Why not infiltrate Huggy directly?
Malik had moved closer to him as he watched the feed.
-Tubio, right? Is something wrong?
-No... It's just... It seems a bit too simple.
-A bit too simple?
-We come across these guys and he just happens to give us the name of the person we're looking for? Who just happens to be in our intels.
-Are you spitting on my work?
-No, that not...
-Do you think you could have done a better job?
-Stop. I just want to see what you had found.
Tubio answered Malik firmly, cutting off all argument, and the old man looked at him with frowning eyebrows.
image [https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/1178789115622326365/1184511693036998766/Malik.jpg?ex=660d707a&is=65fafb7a&hm=4f012a554d79a58c5269692fe68f039994b882e5182ceb924a78fbfa0fe6ae7f&=&format=webp&width=365&height=597]
Malik had raised his voice slightly. But Tubio had cut off any further conversation. He now stood very close to Malik, staring at him with his cigar between his fingers Malik blew his smoke in his face. Both were calm, Tubio not even realizing that all eyes were on them. Impassive behind his mask, Tubio had a distinct advantage over the old man. Although the latter didn't flinch, he stepped back before moving to one of the exits to smoke outside.
Tubio heard Janissa giggling in Aria's arms, and the tension in the room began to ease. Janissa began to tell an anecdote about Tubio as he looked at the exit Malik had just taken. He wondered why he'd done it. He clearly didn't seem the sort of person to take remarks from a kid like him to heart. Or maybe he did, maybe he was expecting a reaction from him...
Tubio shook his head. He had other things to do. The building where Huggy was operating was massive, so he might as well find out more about it.
******
Time passed and one hour turned into two, then three. Night had fallen on Night City and they still hadn't left. The group had chatted a bit and Samir seemed more and more interested in the idea of leaving. After Donovan, he seemed a little out of place too. Despite his apparent calm and the seriousness he'd shown with their first outing, some people just weren't cut out for this kind of work, and Tubio could see his leg moving intensely with impatience, stress or fear.
image [https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/1178789115622326365/1184511690277142628/Samir.jpg?ex=660d707a&is=65fafb7a&hm=0abf1edf5785a8a15d30deeadd42f809f79938b7ef4bbc17f9a68904ec49ee41&=&format=webp&width=365&height=597]
He was also very suspicious. Not that Tubio couldn't understand him. Everyone present was dangerous. It all depended on how you dealt with it afterwards, before and during the act. Tubio had seen a lot of people...
Some, like Janissa, took everything lightly, otherwise the reality of her actions would undoubtedly catch up with her. In the past, she would drink and take drugs and had sex until she fell into the deepest sleep possible.
Others felt nothing. Cold machines feeling only the recoil of their weapon before moving on to the next target.
Another interesting type was... Clash and similarly Wang.
Once his weapons had been cleaned, Clash lay down and began to sleep. Clearly, he didn't seem the least bit bothered by being surrounded by potentially dangerous strangers who could rob him. After all, he could be just pretending...
Wang had ordered food again. Tubio didn't know what he was made of, but he ate like three. He had a strange suit of armor on, seemingly made of a reflective material where the light reflected off it, distorting the colors even if some, like purple and blue, seemed already present in the outfit, which even had matching gloves. For discretion we will come back but it had a certain style.
image [https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/1178789115622326365/1184511690704965744/Wang.jpg?ex=660d707a&is=65fafb7a&hm=92feadeeed5bbb91d65d3f0d3ecf03008bc96c223e2b7f6b1cd09a96ab03b548&=&format=webp&width=365&height=597]
In a way, it was a way of managing his stress.
The evening was starting and questions like what are we doing began to popping up. Seeing Wang Tubio was getting hungry too. No decision had been taken by Pat on what to do.
Malik had calmed down and joined Pat after a very long absence outside. The three girls chatted amongst themselves after Donovan had escaped their clutches. Tubio eventually joined them, having nothing more to do than wait once he'd read about Huggy.
Finally, he learned more about Aria's group project. It was a simple association, a militia. To which he replied that it was a gang. To which she argued that it was an association of Solos. Tubio wasn't feeling it at all, but the discussion was light. Tubio didn't want to rush them. Pat came out of the cave where he, Malik and D0t were, and told them to order food for themselves.
Faced with the situation, everyone had something to say. No one knew how Wang had managed to convince a delivery man to come this far into Waston. So the group of girls, Samir, Donovan, Tubio and Malik climbed into Malik's van to head off in the direction of Kabuki and find some food. Pat and D0t had to stay and work, Wang had already eaten and Clash... Tubio thought he was more borg than he showed. He'd known people like that, with so much chrome that they don't even have red blood any more, but a product in the body that replaces the blood. Tubio would have liked to know how he managed to sleep with his helmet on but no one wanted to bother him so the group left.
*****
The journey was quick and quiet, again with the exception of Janissa continuing to talk with Aria. With Malik at the wheel and acting as chaperone, they stopped at the first restaurant and ordered everything they could to get back on the road in a hurry. Alas, multiple orders take time. Tubio also wanted to give Ruby a holo. So he went out the back door. He didn't saw Malik following him. Once out, the alley was dark, illuminated only by the lights at the end of the alley leading to one of the main roads. He was about to call out when he heard a noise behind him. Turning, he saw Malik in front of him.
-Tubio, I wanted to ask you a question...
-If I can answer it.
-Who are you working for?
Tubio was taken aback Malik drew his gun and pointed at Tubio.