The streets of the surface were still crowded as hell which was just gonk to me, they had way more space to spread out so why are they all over my sidewalk? Stuff off already. I managed to get through the crowds without getting palmed or knocked down though which was good.
Arriving at the station and taking the stairs down I realized I was starting to fade out. Whatever energy I’d been digging up was running out and my body was going to sleep with or without me.
I got down to the subway by leaning on the railing and staggered over to the IR cluster nearby and slumped into a red painted steel chair. I considered leaving my mom a message on the grid to say
I’m fine and I’ll be back tomorrow but the junction cost would be almost eighty aura from this part of the city and melt that. Junction fees can go to hell.
Slumped in the chair I watched people go by as the crowds moved around, most going down into the subway. I couldn’t sleep out here in the public area, I’d either get arrested and fined by a cop or I’d just wake up in an ice bath with half my organs on a nearby shelf. I needed to get over to the subway pods, little bookable sleeping areas for travelers and sometimes homeless lucky enough to afford a treat or unlucky enough to need some time in an armored pod.
Getting up and mixing into the crowd again I headed away from the platforms and towards the subway lounge hall thing, whatever it was called. As usual the vending machines were omnipresent but there was also little stalls for fresh actually drinkable coffee instead of vending machine chemical weapon or whatever the hell was in them.
I moved past those and the big seating area and pushed through the mass of people slowing down to consider their huge array of choices between three options and got to the wall of pods. I looked for one with a recent cleaning timer and found one that had been cleaned half an hour ago, perfect. Tired as I was I didn’t want to sleep in someone else’s trash and filth.
Paying the pod scanner the eight aura credits for the night as soon as it detected me in front of it I rolled myself into the pod and shut the door, hearing a pneumatic hiss and then an electronic buzz that then faded. Then a jingle and the screen on the ceiling of the little pod turned on to show a suitably distant woman welcoming me to my wonderful pod experience. The screen was very close, and the noise was annoying so I just turned it off before it get into it’s spiel.
I then got a warning that not watching the required advertising would incur a nominal fee on top of the booking cost. I ignored that and just turned over and tried to sleep. As soon as the text box telling me I was charged an additional two aura credit the yellow lighting dimmed and I quickly fell asleep
-
When I woke up I was a bit scared I’d been kidnapped until the lights of the pod came on and the screen flickered to life and wished my a good morning. It then started talking about rating it and other stuff about attractions nearby and I just turned it off again. I hit the open button on the pod and waited for the door to release.
A few seconds of whirs and clicks and then a big hiss the door released and swung up a little, I pushed it the rest of the way and swung myself out of the pod.
My body didn’t like that swinging motion one bit, I wasn’t tired anymore but my body still hurt in a lot of small places that seemed to be everywhere I wanted to move.
On my feet again I looked around to find the morning crowd of the subway and a different set of coffee stalls in the seating area. I checked the big screens above for the news channels and spotted a KAN news screen, looked like normal city news. That was good, my mysterious package hadn’t led to the final collapse of society after all. My worries about the job were for nothing.
Didn’t mean I wouldn’t catch heat for it eventually though, I’d have to get some information out of Marchand on what she thought it was about and who to avoid, maybe pester the information broker moles around the city to find out what might be going on and if any of it is going to fall on me.
Putting all that aside for future me to deal with I head off downstairs to my platform. The south line was practically empty, no idea why. It was nice to have a bit of quiet though, apart from the vending machines shouting their commercials and beeping away wildly anyway.
I sat on the platform bench and checked none of my gear had come loose or fallen out. It all seemed although some of the smaller bands in the storage rig would need to be swapped out. Sleeping in the rig had stretched out a few and the one wound around the shotgun was threadbare from tension, it’d hold for now though.
Now that I was more alert I took note of the fact that all that running around and craziness down there and I didn’t get a skill or whatever else a single time. Sanctum what is going on? Are the skills that hard to bump up in proficiency? Am I going to be an old man by the time I’ve mastered one?
[Sanctum has muted all non-essential profile update reports for the duration of your mission from the moment you set out for safety reasons. Is this setting incorrect? Does the User wish to see their updated profile?]
No, Sanctum. I suppose that setting is fine for most of the time. I’ll let you know if I change my mind though. As for my profile go for it, lets see the changes.
Name: Malcolm Beckett
Age: 10
Health:
Widespread negligible dermal damage
Widespread negligible muscular damage
Micro-tears across multiple ligaments
Micro-fractures throughout skeletal structure
Cyberload: Trace
Endurance: 0
Reflexes: 0
Perception: 0
Insight: 0
Presence: -1
Skills:
Combat, Blades: Level 2
Combat, Pistols: Level 1
Engineering, Electrical: Level 3
Engineering, Mechanical: Level 2
Language, English: Level 4
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
Language, French: Level 1
Language, Russian: Level 1
Negotiation: Level 1
Stealth: Level 5
Subterfuge: Level 2
Tracking: Level 1
Tracing: Level 0
Abilities:
Kinetic Dispersion (KD)
Amygdala Adrenal Bypass (AAB)
Oh hey, look at those attributes! Zero! I’m finally baseline. A lot of new medical issues though. Some new fighting skills and I think stealth went up. Got the new abilities and I see you’ve got some acronyms now. All looking good.
The subway train quickly pulled into the platform while I was distracted, doors opening and a little beep chime to let people know it was safe to get on. Closing my interface I got up and walked over to the train and the empty carriage.
It didn’t take long for the train to make it to my stop and I got off without issue, my home platform being more busy and filled with a mixture of types but all poor looking. It wasn’t like you had to be literally dirty to be poor looking, but you could tell at a glance usually.
The materials of the clothes, accessories or cyberware were always a good tell. Another was what they were smoking, how good their cig was and what the smoke looked like or smelt like. Little things gave that kind of stuff away. A rich person meant a good target for pickpocketing, or palming as they say.
Or if we were talking about the gangs, a rich person was either a potential hostage or a mark. They’d either sell them drugs at a huge mark up while they were high, or they’d kidnap them and force them to disarm their cyberware so it could be removed without damage, or they’d just hold them for ransom. Either way that last one was the rich person winding up dead in the end. Gangs were usually like that.
Walking over to a vending machine and checking the selection I ordered a pack of staries and opened them right there, salty and delicious. Taking them with me I headed down out of the subway to make my way to my new home.
-
Arriving at Marchand’s street was weird for me, it was my home now but it was also still Marchand’s place as far as my brain was concerned. I was still thinking about keeping up my usual operator confident front against all the possible operator residents and their cohorts and families and Marchand possibly watching from some camera or another.
Walking down the street though I ended up flinching against forcing myself to stand up straight, my back was killing me. In that moment I just accepted this was my home and I was limping in to lick my wounds. Marchand’s cameras and operators thinking the kid is weak is fine for now, I don’t care much right now.
I didn’t even know where the apartment I was living in was so I just headed to Marchand to report in. Heading up the lifter to Marchand’s floor and across the balcony I nearly bumped into someone walking angrily out of Marchand’s hallway.
The guy was borged out with all his visible skin being a patchwork of dark blue and brown synthskin and hands and forearms being obviously fitted with some sort of weapon inside due to the distinctive metallic borders along where they unfolded. No idea on his ethnic whatever really, the chrome was throwing me off. The brown skin was too light for African, so maybe Indian? Whatever.
I stepped aside for the big guy as he stomped out and he gave me a glance and frowned before grunting and blustering away. Guy was pissed over something, maybe Marchand? I’ll ask if it comes up.
Stepping in and going up to Marchand’s door I touched the buzzer and stood there holding my arm. The door released without a verbal response. I walked through Marchand’s place and knocked at her parlor door.
“Come in Mal.” She called out from in there.
Stepping into the room I saw Marchand in her usual spot in her chair with a little coffee table set up but there was a butler type dressed guy picking up broken porcelain shards from the floor of the room and another identically dressed woman standing in the corner of the room with a tea pot, a cup and a load of broken shards. There was a splash of, I guessed, tea all over the wall to the right.
I’d never seen Marchand move off her chair and just sort of assumed she had magical powers to refill her cig or tea cups, like telekinesis or some kind of witch pact. No, apparently she had helpers around a lot of the time but they were out of sight usually. I guess I stepped behind the curtain here.
At least Marchand was doing her old lady shtick with her puffing away at her long cig while ignoring the goings on around her, just staring into space. She must be at least a little at ease to act normal.
As I walked in and sat down the guy butler finished collecting shards of cup and put them into the little pile the lady butler was holding and then they both left silently. Very fancy.
Sitting opposite Marchand I just settled into the chair and rubbed my arm.
“You’ve returned so quickly, I’d expected another visit from you tomorrow morning.” Marchand said nonchalantly.
“Well, I got the preparation done quickly and didn’t see the need to take longer than I needed. The package was collected from the first location with a bit of resistance, and I did draw some attention after me but I quickly put it down, I was clear long before arriving at the second location. Which I did a sweep of to make sure it was actually clear and then made the drop as instructed. No issues on returning.” I said, just rattling off the mission as mechanically as I could. This was to prove my objectives were complete properly, I could complain about the mission itself afterwards.
“Good work Mal, I knew you were the one for this particular job. You’re not one to lose your head under pressure, or get lost in your emotions in combat. Both are similar but you’d be surprised how many only have one or the other. You did this well and you’ll get your payment in full.” Marchand said with a smile, once she finished talking she took a long pull from her cig and then put it down on it’s little stand.
“I got messed up a fair bit on this job, so I’ll need to take a little time before I take my next one.” I said, patting my arm. It wasn’t just my arm but Marchand could probably tell.
“No issue there, I wouldn’t want to make my grandchildren suffer for my whims after all. I do try to make sure they are well rested between errands.” She said leaning back into her ancient looking chair. “Do tell me some of the details though, how did you get injured on a stealth delivery mission with a bit of breaking and entering?”
“The stealth delivery went fine, it was the breaking and entering that got me. The gangers were more clustered than I’d have liked and one saw me lining up on his friend in the junction rooms. I had to go loud, which went fine until later. One of the gangers running around in the dark got lucky on finding me before I’d got too far away.” I said, wincing as I readjusted my posture to lean less on my left leg.
“And this one ganger managed to make you like this?” She asked with her eyebrow raised.
“It was a scratched borg while knife fighting in the total darkness. I’m lucky I came out of it at all, one bad call and I’d have been smeared across a load of pipes.” I said. One ganger can take out anyone in the right conditions.
“Oh, much more exiting than I thought then. I was worried you’d been ambushed, you’ve always seemed so careful that such a tactic wouldn’t work well on you.” She said with a slightly tilted head. Still looking at nothing though.
“I put down five by the end, no one lived to know who it was so it should be a dead end for them. I still have some loose ends about the job to chase you for but I need rest more than that right now, so I’ll just come back soon. Do you happen to know where my mother is?” I asked as I steadily got to my feet, sitting had felt so nice.
“Your mother is currently in room two out in the hall, I did say that I’d have you next door you know?” she said with a smile. There were hints in the smile that were still a bit predatory though, she had my mother close for good and for bad.