The line snaked around the corner, buzzing with conversations that mixed with the somewhat subdued sound of traffic that bounced around the walls surrounding the large paved courtyard. Intermittently, groups of them laughed above the buzz of conversations and raised drinks with each other while they chatted away.
“Dammit, gemmers, the line is always so long here,” Dan grumbled, his face contorted as he checked the time on his HUD yet again, noting how much had passed, which deepened his frown. He looked at the number of people in front of their group in the line and threw up his hands in frustration.
Two guys with him just laughed at his complaint; one of them had a dark alloy plate that covered his left face almost wholly; his ‘eye’ embedded within the plate seemed to show off a targeting reticle instead of an iris.
He tapped Dan’s shoulder “Chiiil, have you seen the bluds here? Like damn, it’s going to be a good night!” his hand rose and swept around the two of them, motioning to the girls in the line.
“Yea, gems, Plate-Face is right; chill, here, have a hit.” The other guy, Lens, leaned against Dan’s other shoulder and passed him an inhaler. Dan smiled, grabbed it, and took a deep inhale, tilting his head back as he growled out loud,
“DV8ion is always so dazz.” He cheered for all to hear as he passed the inhaler back to his friend, just as the throaty engine sounds of two motorcycles rode up to the curb by the club's entrance.
“Check that out,” plate-face nodded as his eyes trained on the source of the sound. His companions turned to where he was motioning. Two dark figures sat on sleek, dark two-wheelers; the low light obscuring their helmeted heads made it hard to determine if they were men or women.
Plate-face would have thought they were normal civilians if it weren't for the dark bodysuits adorning their frames, nor the exorbitant beasts they rode that no lowbie could ever dream of owning. They surely had to be swimming in YeeBees.
Dan let out a soft whistle as he tilted his head “damn, those mounts look sweeet.”
Lens chuckled, “Forget those, yoh, them bluds are effin vogue!” nudging Dan as he focused his attention on the pair that had just off their rides. Others around them started whispering about the new arrivals and their bikes, darting looks; some envious, some in wonder, while yet others eyed the new attractions with lust.
The lithe riders gracefully deposited their full-face helmets into their respective top boxes before stepping back momentarily. Two large men, their arms seeming to have crisscrossed steel, nodded at them as they turned to head to the entrance, passing the line in a confident gait.
Everyone eyed their forms. How the bodysuits they had on hugged their tall, vigorous curves and the sway of their hips. Their luscious hair - one silver, the other a dark auburn, with a cacophony of colored highlights, seemed to dance on their shoulders as they made their way forward.
Plate-face dipped his chin and chuckled softly, yet he didn’t focus on the bikes nor how the dark bodysuits of the two women seemed painted on; as his thoughts focused on the dark-haired one, the sight of the cartoony sunflower on her bomber jacket brought back a conversation he had had just a day ago.
Immediately, he squinted his right eye as a thought hit him. His head tilted slightly to his side while his right arm cradled the left as he subconsciously pulled at his chin.
“Hmmm.” His left eye turned from a reticle to a deep dark circle, its center oscillating from a small to a more extensive dark circle. Images of the woman and her motorcycle loaded onto his eye-HUD, while his ID scans of the pair came up with no response at all.
Dan and Lens enthusiastically talked about the females they had just set their eyes on, intermittently gravitating to the vehicles as they watched them approach the bouncer at the door. And struck up what seemed like a familiar and friendly conversation.
After a brief moment, the bouncer smiled and nodded at the two women and stepped aside. The light barrier blocking the other side of the big double-door front entrance disappeared as they exchanged high-fives and proceeded to disappear into the entrance.
Images Sent.
A message scrolled up on his eye-HUD while he pretended to involve himself in the conversation, interjecting with a remark to back up what his friends were talking enthusiastically about. Shortly after, his communicator icon lit up on his HUD,
“Hey, you guys, go on ahead. I need to take this call.” He immediately turned away and walked off, his demeanor turning serious.
—-------------------------------------------------------------------------
The two made their way down the short stairs to a landing area, where three branches led down the left, right, and center.
The bouncer in front of the center branch nodded at them as they stepped closer to him. The curved metallic visor that covered his eyes emitted a red, then green light from the slit embedded in the center of it. He grunted a smile, then stepped aside; his right hand waved them through while the doors that blocked that branch opened up to a large interior.
Lights strobed intermittently, and deep bass sounds bounced off the dark walls. Lines and curves in various shades of neon lit up the otherwise dark room. Eyes and stares followed their swaying hips as they made their way to a room at the far end; the poise in their stride seemed out of place as they made their way through patrons at the bar.
Another large man blocked their way to a room behind him, his arms crossed. He tilted his head downward, then to either of them, his demeanor unmoving, regarding the shape of their bodies, their hair, their faces.
The silver-haired one stepped forward with a cool smile and raised her hand, two fingers rising in a V sign, then pointed at something behind him. The bouncer tilted his head and raised a hand while his other hand seemed to press at the side of his neck; something was coming through his communications device. There was a brief pause before he nodded at her and stepped aside, allowing the two of them to enter the room.
“Ah, you are here, on time too,” the man in the subtle dark suit smiled as he motioned for them to join him on the couch, which ran along and curved following the walls at the far end of the room. Bottles stood unopened and partly drunk on the 2 tables in the room, with a mixture of glasses, both used and unused, around them.
If he were one, Anlidar would look like any corporate big-wig employee in his middle age. He had a polished look, expensive clothes, and always had an air of authority about him as he leaned forward to rearrange the unused glasses and fresh bottles so that they were more conveniently reached.
“This is not conventional, meeting this way and in this place,” the silver-haired woman commented as she sat down, crossed her thighs, and leaned an elbow on her upper thigh.
“I agree with her. Why meet like this before it's done?” the darker-haired woman joined in as she opened one of the fresh bottles and poured it into two of the unused glasses.
Anlidar nodded, his facial expression indicating his comprehension of their concerns, as he raised his right hand and made a gesture, the doors to the room closing. Suddenly, the loud music from the main hall was muffled, and only the low bass thuds barely came through.
“I’ve used this room before. No recordings nor vids, what we say…” he paused and smirked, “or do, here stays here.” He looked at each of the other two facing him and continued, “I wanted to share with you some items not on the scrip, as I didn’t want that part of the job to be floating around anywhere.”
“Oh? And what would that be?” Noa tilted her head to one side. Her face gave away nothing that came with the curiosity in her tone.
Anlidar slid a hand toward her, palm open and up, a single flat stick on it,
“Better for you to see it first, then I can add in whatever questions you and Anya might have?” he smiled.
Noa gingerly picked up the stick and darted a look at Anya, who shrugged back at her as she slotted it into one of the slots at the base of her nape. Her right eye flashed as information loaded onto her eye-HUD.
“Hmm.” Her brows frowned slightly as her right hand rose from her thigh in front of her, fingers moved up and down as she scrolled through the information on her HUD,
“This… this is for real?” her face didn’t turn to face him as the sides of his lips curved upwards, knowing he had piqued her interest.
He nodded, “Yes, it's experimental and, for the moment, yet unreleased tech. Prototypes if you prefer… but so far, tests and simulations have actually shown it works well… especially with the kind of training and experience not unlike what you ladies have had.” His head inclined toward his audience of two.
Noa looked at Anya, then waved a hand toward her; the information on her HUD flickered and froze momentarily before it turned normal again. She smiled and scoffed as she shook her head with a slight grin.
“of course, it’s transfer locked, duh me.” her hand reached back as she ejected the data stick before she passed it to Anya.
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” she smiled as Anya eagerly picked it up and slid it into her input slot at her nape.
Noa smiled at her before she turned to him, an arm resting on her thigh,
“So, whoever contracted you can’t crack something like this to reproduce it? Or just plainly not able to come close? Makes sense though, I suppose…” she smirked, almost as if she was teasing him with her tone,
He laughed and shook his head slowly. “Well, I would hazard a guess that that is a yes. It’s foreign competitor tech, and the owners were testing it in this area using their local operations. We have social factors that present to them a more…shall we say… unique testing ground for what it can potentially do… Word is that it goes beyond just normal tech and borders on the arcane. Honestly? I’m curious to see if whatever it claims it can do can actually be done.”
She nodded slowly. Her lips slightly scrunching to the side as one eye squinted. “Mhmm, okay. How foreign is foreign? It doesn't say who owns the tech in the stick.”
“That’s the thing, they can’t claim it's theirs while it's still experimental due to, um.. Some dubious legal lines that the tech does, but rest assured that that side is covered.”
“Okay, fine. You’ve always done us solids, so we’ll pin that for later.” she paused, her hand rolling from side to side.
“Maybe,” she smirked before she continued.” So, okay, they didn’t want to use CTs as that requires them to declare the cargo and have it inspected and verified. Since you said it's not very legal, they prefer not to have the headache. But the details of the job show that the sec-team guarding the tech is pretty standard. If it’s THAT experimental and allegedly important, why such a light detail on the ground transpo?”
He smiled and nodded as his finger waved back and forth. “Yes, it is. They actually have four transpos carrying it, but the three others are fake, and well, we have very reliable information that the particular one on the job scrip is the one carrying it.”
Noa reached for a glass and took half of the contents down before she rested the glass on her knee. She nodded slowly as she pooled the drink in her mouth, her lips pursed tightly, and her eyes seemed to look into nothing before she gulped down the contents. Her face revealed none, if any, of her thoughts and reaction to the information,
Stolen story; please report.
“That’s a pretty heft transpo investment for that.” She leaned back and looked at Anya,
“What are your thoughts?”
Anya handed her the stick back and emptied the glass in her hand, pouring another,
“What the fuck babe? It's like reading something from a story or something! I mean, ya, we use simDs as well, but this... This is fuckin’ different, not just that, it's… really, like, what the fuck?” She emptied her glass and refilled it immediately.
“Right?” Noa didn't need anything else to understand what Anya was trying to convey. She then turned to Anlidar and passed him the stick, to which he raised his hand and shook his head.
“Keep that. I have my copy.”
“Okay,” she raised it slightly and waved it at him. “Thanks”
“So, what do you ladies think?” he leaned back as he nursed a half-drunk glass in his hands
“Well, to be honest, I’d wanna test this myself; what the info sheets say about it is very… intriguing, to say the least.” The right side of Noa’s lip curved up as she leaned back on the couch.
He laughed softly, then leaned forward to refill his glass. He smiled and looked at Noa as he sipped his refilled glass.
“Well, as you know, scrip says retrieval of 3. Whatever is over that is either a bonus payment for delivery, or you can keep it, which is a bonus on its own, I would think,” he paused and shrugged. “Whichever you choose, I got orders for 3, and that’s what I need.”
The flashing lights outside masked the excitement in Noa’s eyes as she smirked again, her face otherwise emotionless as she nodded.
“Well, if there are more than the 3, I think we shall… right Anya?” she poked Anya’s shoulder, whose attention was taken by something outside the room,
“Hmm? Yes, definitely, I’ve never worn light-colored com-suits, but hey, why not? I trust you, babe, so your call is always good with me.” She winked at Noa before she turned her gaze outward of the room again,
Noa turned to Anlidar, her hands splayed out in a show of acceptance. “Well, there you have it. Oh, and another thing: Why us? I am sure you have a whole pool of mercs on your list. Why us?”
Noa’s tone was flat and devoid of emotion as she looked intently at Anlidar, letting the question’s weight sink into him.
Anlidar smiled; his demeanor showed his expectation of the question.
“Well. Honestly? I trust you, girls. You seem… different from the other mercs I’ve worked with. They always seem to have an angle, whereas you girls are… let’s say, very conscientious and actually honest about the work you do. No one I have worked with has fulfilled each job within its parameters, AND, including bonus parameters too, every, single time.”
He paused between each of the last three words for effect,
“So, I wanted the best, and to me, you girls are just that.” He smiled at Noa, whose right eyebrow arched at what seemed to her a practiced reply.
She nodded sagely at his response and turned to Anya. Her shut lips pursed slightly before she turned to look at Anlidar and nodded.
“Fair then, we’ll get those suits for you.” She smiled warmly at him.
He smiled back, leaned forward, opened another as-yet-unopened bottle, and poured it into three glasses.
“I knew you ladies had a good sense about you the moment I gave you that job so long ago.” he slid the two filled glasses to Noa and Anya.
“Shall we drink to it then?” he raised his glass,
“I don’t usually count features until the soft is live, Anlidar, but…” Noa leaned forward to pick up her glass. “I’ll do this one for you.” As she raised her glass, Anya followed suit.
—------------------------------------------------------------------------
“So you’ve seen the pics? Is it her?” Plate-face looked around. It had been at least an hour since he left the line, and it was still a healthy size.
“Sec, verification about done,” the voice on the other side replied curtly; barely a few seconds passed before it came back again.
“Definitely, no one wears a jacket like that; checked with databases and cam-feeds all over, and not many others have something similar, and almost all of them belong in High-Rise, but they don't have the sunflower, and not riding that red bike and not with her hair.”
“So what are we gonna do about it?” Plate-face’s one eye dilated. When he heard the confirmation, he suddenly felt warmer, and his breathing grew more rapid. He lit a cigarette as he leaned back against a wall, taking a deep drag before pushing the smoke out with a heavy sigh.
“I’m gonna write something, post it so it can talk on the regular with the street cams, then we can get that blud back for killing Racs, Mils, and Blitz. Plus, I have a feeling Big Rock would like a nice gift; you don’t usually see someone wearing it on the outside like that, but that’s a Ritt-Arms combat suit she’s wearing, if you can get your eyes off of that ass she has”
Plate-face laughed. “yoh, I don't think Big would fit in that suit… And what about the girl?”
“It's not the suit, it's the tech IN the suit, dumbass; the damn thing has its own ICE, SimDs slots, and even more, top-end shit… the girl, well, we can find out more. I’m gonna bet she has a whole slew of INCILS on her body; those usually go hand-in-hand with that type of com-suits.”
“INCILS?” Plate-face frowned at the unfamiliar term
“Infixed Neural-Circuitry Liquid, that’s how those com-suits interact with the wearer; it's mucho expensive.”
“Wh... what, what the fuck is that?”
The voice sighed wearily over the communicator, then grumbled back, “What the fuck, Plate… nano-ink. She would have a lot of nano-ink on her.”
“Ah, nano-ink, aight. Oh, Dazze, those things get loads of YeeBees… well… wait, wouldn't it hurt if we took it out of her? What’s the point of having fun with a girl if she is already half-dead from forced extraction?”
The tone on the other end turned darker. “That’s the whole point, dumbass, I wanna make her pay, whatever yoh, I’ll bring it up with Big Rock, we’ll have something planned for sure, thanks for the heads-up.”
—--------------------------------------------------------
Leaning back into the couch, her feet planted on the edge of the table opposite her, her low-heeled boots tapped back and forth to the beat of the bass that bounced off the glass wall and closed door. Her hands coddled a half-filled glass when her communicator icon lit up; it was Bug Bunny.
“Hey, Bunbuns, did you get the whole convo?” Noa piped up as she answered the call,
“Yep, I was also checking on the locations that are ideal for intercepting the transpo. Are you ready? Or do you ladies want to drink the night instead?”
Noa looked at Anya, who had just downed yet another glass; her body swayed and moved almost in tune with the beat. Noa smirked as she tapped a few options on her communicator options.
“Sure, I’ll patch Anya into the call.”
Anya raised her hands as her communicator came to life; her dancing slowed down momentarily.
“Hey Anya”
“Hey Bunny, what do we have?” Anya's hips swayed at the new pace to the music as she refilled a glass and drank from it.
“Okay, I’ve gone through the route of the transpo, and from what I can gleam, there are about a few locations where you guys can intercept it with minimal disturbance from the local law. I have picked out one in particular; it’s in between Hyena and Apostates turf.”
A map of the city appeared on their HUDs, and four circles slowly spun around, depicting the locations she mentioned.
The map zoomed in on one of the circles, and the details popped up even more with each individual street and alley, and building even clearer. “This location is pretty good; aside from that, it has too many access points for a transpo with a sec-team escorting it to get away with, even if everything worked dazzily”
The map moved to another location, “Now this one is super dazz, buuuut, it's on Apostates turf; I doubt you gals would wanna stop for praying to their machine god, so I figured nah.”
“Wait, you didn't ask Noa; maybe Noa wants to make an offering to their machine god so she can make her Angel 6 fly?” Anya chuckled softly and winked at Noa.
“Ha haa, very funny, Anya.”
Bunny chuckled softly at the remark; the map proceeded to move on to the third location.
“Too close to the med center,” Noa interjected before Bunny could say anything,
“Yes, too close means priority zone for a response, so that was a quick no.”
The map finally moved over to the final slow-spinning circle,” And now we have the ideal location.”
“Two secs.” Noa sat up, her right hand moved, fingers spreading out as she zoomed in even more from the default zoom range; her eyes seemed to light up as she started formulating a plan.
“Oh, you are such a jewel, Buns. This is absolutely dazz.” She paused as her mind churned. " Let’s see. Good distance and LoS for Anya to set up… there.” Her index finger tapped the air as a red dot appeared on the map.
“River, hmm, access roads…” Noa can’t help but smile as she took a sip from her glass, then looked at Anya
“What do you think?”
Anya sat on the table, holding the neck of a bottle in her hand. “I like it. Foot access is fine with only two transpo exfil options. Between Hyena and Apostates turf, you say?”
Bug Bunny continued, “Yep, so if we can nullify transpo viks when we want to, everything else should be dazz.”
Noa nodded and leaned back into the couch. “I like it, thanks Bunbuns.”
“Yea, thank you! You wanna come and join us?” Anya suggested teasingly.
“Don’t mention it, ladies, always love working with the two of you. And nah, Anya, you gals know I don’t really like mixing with meat bags in the real.”
Noa smirked. “Ya, of course, well, see you on the day then?”
“You got it, ladies.” The call ended, and Anya slumped onto the couch next to Noa.
“Home? Or more drinks?” she smiled while holding a half-filled bottle. Then, she leaned her chin onto Noa’s shoulder and smiled warmly. Her lips changing into a well-practiced pout,
“Would be such a crime to let something nice like that go just halfway, drinks til we finish it?”
“I have to agree with this assessment, yes, yes,” Anya smiled, mimicking Noa’s habit as she poured each of them a full glass.
Noa took a quick swig of her glass and then turned to Anya.
“You think Anlidar’s story checks out?”
Anya gulped the drink she had just taken and shook her head. Her brows frowned as she looked at Noa. “What do you mean?”
“Well… his answer seemed rehearsed. I mean, thank you for thinking we are the best…” She paused and winked at Anya. “...Which, we are… Anyway. I don’t quite like that the story is all, feels… off.”
Anya frowned and shrugged. “So, why’d you say yes?”
Noa bit her lower lip. “Well, honestly? I want to get my hands on that tech.”
Anya poured herself another glass before she leaned back again. “OK, so what’s the issue?”
Noa’s lips scrunched to the side, and she shook her head slowly before shrugging. “I dunno, babe. I just feel that something about it is off. Is all”
Anya sat up, resting her arms on her thigh. She cradled her chin and turned to look at Noa’s deepening frown.
“You mean, like the time you thought that something was off when Alana didn’t bring you the light roasted beans and brought you medium roast beans when the medium roast ones were the ones you bought?”
Noa shot her a look, her frown deepening even more as she stared at Anya.
“Or, the time when Mother was hiding things behind our backs when it was just her planning a surprise party for Father?”
Noa squinted her eyes at Anya,” What are you trying to say?”
“That you, Noa Hellena, can be so damn paranoid sometimes.”
Noa sat up straight, her hand moved to her chest as she playfully gasped in shock.
“Why, Miss Anastasiya, are you saying that I am just being a paranoid Augaow?”
Anya gulped down the contents of her glass and shook her head, “Nah, maybe one of those ancient... Hmm, cows that they used to have.”
“Bitch!” Noa squealed out laughing and swatted Anya.
They both calmed down after what seemed forever. Noa slumped back on the couch as she looked at Anya.
“So, you really think I’m overthinking this?” Noa turned to Anya, her breathing heavy from the laughing as her chest heaved.
Anya nodded, “Mhmm, I definitely think you are.”
Noa chewed on her lip as she nodded slowly and shrugged.”Maybe you might be right.”
Anya inclined her head. ”Mhmm, No maybes; I am right, as always.” She winked at Noa “… We settled then?”
Noa dipped her head in reply and smiled.
“Good, coz I ordered us another bottle,” Anya giggled.