“Forgive me father, for I have sinned”
“For the nth time Kei, the password i- Wait, that is the password. What’s wrong?”
I sigh and flick a strand of pink hair out of my face. “Nothin’. Where’s the countersign Jack?”
The big man rolls his eyes in annoyance. “I absolve you of all sin, my child. Now spill, omae. Strike out with the corpo’s joytoy?”
I punch him in response. My fist makes a dull thump on his dermal plating. I hiss at him while I rub my sore knuckles. “Some cowboy just beat me to a new deck. I’ll schmooze my way into it later and brick it to make him regret it.”
Jack chuckles in a low rumble. “Well the rest of the crew is all here and we’ve got the report from Mister Johnson. It’s-”
I cut him off with a wave of my hand. “Read it. Pulled it from his PersoComm.”
He frowns and flicks my ear. “No hacking the Johnson’s stuff Kei. We talked about this after the last time you got caught.”
I bat his hand away ineffectually. “He only had three layers of black ice. That’s practically an-”
Jack flicks my ear again. I hiss in annoyance this time and bite at his finger. “Kei, ANY amount of black ice is a sign you SHOULDN’T be diving into the device!”
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I wave him off and slink my way towards the back room where the others are waiting. Jack “Blackjack” Ortega, our cybered up human samurai follows me still prattling on about what’s acceptable and what’s not. He means well, but what does a musclehead like him know?
As I push open the door the other three members of the crew look up. Leah “Shadow” Veilfire, our elven social expert and gunslinger, lounges on the couch looking sad and beautiful. I can tell by the way her left eye is flickering that she’s playing some AR game while she waits. Goddess I’d love to climb that mountain, but she’s turned me down every time. Something about professionalism.
Hank “Broomstick” Fang Thrasher, our orc wagemage, is cleaning his catalysts but gives me a nod when I walk in. Guess he’s mostly forgiven me for the incident with his girl. He's about two meters tall, green, made of muscles, and looks like he could snap you in half with a look but he's a real softy at heart.
Arash “Widow” Soleimani is our newest member and a SURGE afflictee like me, except he grew bat ears and didn't get a hair color change or a tail. I don’t quite know what to make of him, all I know is that he’s quiet, good with a rifle, and a whiz at making machines do things they’re not supposed to.
Leah stands up and stretches like a cat (which is my thing but I forgive her) before approaching and putting a hand on my cheek. “Dear Kei, I realize you’ve probably already skimmed the briefing. But we ARE going over it together because there are things you need to be aware of if we want to get paid.” I nod mutely. Ahh, I just can’t say no to her, even if this is going to be a long briefing. Jack just sighs and shakes his head behind me.
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Two hours later and it looks like I was right. This job is a pain in the ass. It should be an easy in and out where we bust in and grab some intel before hightailing it out to lie low for a day or two. But no, the Johnson is on a tight schedule and needs it before the end of the night. And on top of that, the corporat wants us to “avoid damaging corporate property as much as possible” so no high explosives, no shooting the guards, and no permanently disabling any intrusion countermeasures. The only thing salvaging this is the high price tag Leah managed to slap on the job, and the bonus we get for doing it with complete stealth.
Which is why Blackjack is in the van with me outside of this Kawasaki-Mitsubishi depot, poor guy has all the stealth of a main battle tank and is about as non-lethal as one. And the only reason I’m in the van is I need to be in a safe place when I hot dive. Cats are very stealthy and I have a perfect record with stealth (no matter what Fang might say).
Blackjack is cleaning his mono-katana when I tap his shoulder. He glances backward, and I give him the nod. He nods back, and goes back to cleaning but keeps an eye on the cargo door now. I settle onto a couch secure in the knowledge someone has my six and dive into VR.