Approaching the door I was careful to step over the cable so as not to knock it and maybe alert people on the other side. The door didn’t have any visible lock on it and just had a smooth handle so I grabbed it and pulled slowly while trying to keep myself out of the light spilling from the opening door frame.
I could hear a woman speaking as soon as the door opened, door must be sound proofed.
“-ing in circles with this whole interview. We just need to know if you had any moving devices in your home the night of the attack, we found some of the largest deposits of the material we were transporting in your home. Did you have anything that could move by itself and could have taken some of the material out of the property? Maybe a drone, or a droid or some other robotic device. Anything ambulatory..” said a clearly irritated woman. They were in an adjacent room to the one I had entered.
The room I was in right then was just a cleaning supply storage with some lockers along the wall. There wasn’t any sign of corp presence apart from much less dust in this room, with a cleaner route between the four doors in this long room.
The wire went through the edge of the room and through another wall seemingly into the room with the talking woman. So there was some sort of electrical thing in there, likely a camera or a computer given its on the corpo’s field grid.
Then I heard my mother’s voice.
“I’ve told you we don’t have that kind of stuff, we don’t have that kind of money to our name. The most fancy thing we have in the house is my incarnation player and that can’t move around on its own.” She said sounding stressed and had likely been questioned by different people for the last few hours to get that kind of tremor in her voice.
“Then why do we have readings that suggest some of the material isn’t accounted for? We’ve scanned the entire incident site and gathered nearly all the material that was involved and scatter patterns and other data suggest your home is missing a small amount. That small amount is a hazard to nearby residents and it didn’t walk out the door itself.” The impatient woman carried on.
I quietly approached the door to their room, I had basically no tools with me for a fight if it came to it. I’d have to get in there and try to talk them into letting my mother go, maybe taking her place being questioned until they found someone else to blame and wash their hands of the issue. If they decided we needed to be zeroed then I’d just have to fight barehanded, not a great option at the best of times and even worse when you’re my size.
I’d had to fight barehanded countless times by now, but it had never once gone well. Every time I’d been either put down hard or had walked away so injured nothing about what caused the fight was worth the pain after. I’d got used to using my teeth, my head, my nails. I’m not the smallest kid around but I’m not big either, I had to fight with all I had or I wasn’t going home.
Sanctum, can you do me a favor and give everyone in there some outlines for me to track? Something subtle I can use to keep track of them better. Maybe give them red and mom green. You had that map indicator thing so I figure you’ve got my display pretty in control, right?
[Sanctum will indicate potential hostiles with a red border and you’re mother and yourself with a green border. In addition items in the room will be indicated as dangerous with a similar red border.]
Thanks, Sanctum. Look, if it get’s rough in there and I get swinging or stabbing or whatever and some skill pops up just ram it into my brain as quick as you can. The skill filling in my gaps might be the only thing that saves me and mom.
[Setting all Skill acquisition to auto-integration]
[Sanctum suggests that User attempts all diplomatic options before resorting to violence in the current scenario. Different verbal probes, responses and approaches may quickly integrate several different social classification Skills which may allow the User to talk their way out of danger if the synergy of the gained Skills and User proficiency produces favorable results.]
[Projections for a violent encounter in this location with an unknown foe with the only known exit leading through a then enemy blockade into a then enemy controlled area are not favorable. Sanctum will attempt to aid the User in any way it is able within it’s parameters regardless of chosen methods.]
Okay, here we go Sanctum. Let’s try to not get a bullet through the head.
Pushing the door open carefully I stepped into the room quickly adjusting my face just enough to look wary and scared but also worried. Just enough of each to paint an unaware and unprepared slum rat. I mean I kind of was, but even the small difference between the portrayal of a dumb target and an actual potential, though small, threat was all the edge I could make from what I had right now.
Hopefully that edge would be enough to get control over this situation and get mom and me out of here.
Entering the light of the room the corpo woman took a step away from mom. She had been standing just a little too close, obviously this was an important issue for her. Mom looked frazzled but seemed to be alright. The corpo was wearing a gray suit with her blonde hair tied up and a very harsh look on her face and a cig hanging from her mouth with thick blue smoke trailing from it.
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
The most worrying thing was the golden hands and wrists. Flashy cybernetics were a staple of corpo fashion statement but with her wrists and hands replaced they could very easily be concealed weapon implants. If it was just a finger or two I could write it off but the both of them chromed it just shouted “Weapon” from my instincts.
Her expression shifted from angry surprise to angry confusion to angry anger quite quickly. Plucking her cig from her mouth she started talking to me, her eyes narrowing.
“Who the hell are you? What is this?” She asked, blowing out a breath of smoke.
“I’m… I’m looking for my mom. I was asking around for her and a lady said she saw her go into the alley by the blockade. So I just headed down there and here I am. Sorry, if this is a… Like a closed off place or something. The guards didn’t stop me and the doors just opened, no locks.” I tried to play up a little trying to make the mask a little thicker, it was risky with most corpos but I was hoping that I was right in my guess that her impatience would override her skepticism. She seemed pretty highly strung at the moment, either it would work or she’d slam shut on my like a bear trap after recognizing my act for the act it was.
[Integrating micro-pattern based on Skill compatibility…]
[User profile updated.]
[Acquired Skill: Subterfuge. User Rating: Novice.]
I tried not to show a reaction as the skill settled in but I couldn’t totally stop a small shiver running through me. I managed to suppress it enough to be mistaken for a simple shiver of fear but that would only make the bear trap heavier…
Novice then. Guess I’m not as good as I thought I’d be, not like I’m doing this stuff all the time though working by myself.
“Your walked right past trained corporate security officers at a barricade, then past more security and find yourself exactly at your mothers location? Assuming this lady is your mother?” the corp woman said with tight eyes locked on me, afterwards taking another hit from her cig.
“Yes, he is my son. I’m sorry for the disturbance Ms. Webb, if you’d like I can take him back to the resident tent and return to answer more of your questions?” Mom answer quickly before I could open my mouth. She was trying to get me away from the corpos or just the situation in general.
“No, if he’s here now he can answer a few questions himself and then you can both go.” The corp woman answered.
She’d taken a step back again but she was still a threat out of arms reach. I shifted slightly to get closer to mom while raising myself up looking surprised but eager to answer. A change to the mask but I hoped it would soften he focus on me and shift it to the questions and the matter at hand, I had a feeling it would work.
“Do you know how a small amount of highly hazardous material could have made it outside of your home after the incident? Do you have some sort of automated device that might have been coated in the material that then left the premises? Do you have any information that might lead to the discovery of this material outside of these two questions?” She asked, her voice shifting to a script reading lilt. Her eyes didn’t leave mine though and I wondered how much pressure she was under, could I leverage anything? Should I leverage anything, or just cut ties entirely?
I looked like I was thinking back for a moment, nothing dramatic, just a shift of face and brow. Then I changed my thinking face to a realization one and I saw something shift behind the womans eyes, she was quite hopeful and couldn’t entirely hide it.
“Well, I know something but I want something first. I’ve grown up knowing the corporations have millions of credits, but me and my mom barely get by and we have to work so hard for it. If you pay me for the information then I’ll give it to you no problem.” I tried to mix in some stupid kid acting into it a bit but I might have went a bit heavy with it.
“Kid, are you serious. You look like someone glued your skin back on and that was probably our doctors. Is that not enough payment for answering a couple of questions? Just give me the information now.” She chuffed the smoke out of her mouth before she answered.
But she was still giving off little signs of willing to bend here, she used too many words in her response for someone with all the power here. Also her body language was open, she wasn’t totally shut down to me despite asking for cash.
Also, what the hell I don’t look that bad! Just a bit raw all over and few rough patches. She makes it sound like I’m a damn zombie! It’ll heal fine! Mostly. Probably. I’ll get new skin when I’m older…
“Hey, your doctor said that the treatment was for causing the whole mess in the first place, I’m just trying to keep me and my mom safe and sheltered here lady.” I dropped the dumb kid routine. It wasn’t working anyway and I got the feeling she saw through it right away anyway.
“I very much doubt any of our doctors said that we were the cause of this incident, that would be very unprofessional and open us up for litigation. That’s practically day two of most training, don’t open the corporation up to litigation, ever.” She smiled a bit as she said this, taking another hit of her cig.
“Okay, well maybe not in so many words but you know what I mean. It’s your hazard gas stuff that melted me and now your wondering where it’s dripped off to. I have an idea where it could be and I want a bit of compensation, not an unusual ask.” I answered through the regrowing haze of smoke filling the room.
“Okay kid, do it your way. Whatever gets us all out of here quicker. I’ll send you a hundred aura right now if you give up the info.” She said shifting towards me as she turned her head to blow smoke off to the side.
“Two hundred aura and the information is yours right now, I’ll even tell you where it might have ended up after it got out.” I added. I knew I was pushing pretty far past the edge here considering the power dynamic, but I knew for sure that she needed this information. She probably needed it yesterday. I hoped I hadn’t pushed too far…
“Kid, I’m not paying you two hundred damn aura credits for a theory! You give me everything you know right now and then I want you out of my face before I decide to see how much of that skin is securely reattached! Hundred and twenty aura. Information, now.” She almost shouted for a moment before clamping her jaw and saying the rest with a voice that seemed calm but dripped with snapped patience.
[Integrating micro-pattern based on Skill compatibility…]
[User profile updated.]
[Acquired Skill: Negotiation. User Rating: Beginner.]
A quick tense of the muscles in my back without moving and the sensation of the skill settling was gone, I managed to make it go unnoticed despite close scrutiny.
“Works for me.” I said, noticing a connection attempt from her implant. I couldn’t see it on her so it must be entirely subdermal, maybe one of the fancy ones with the IR emitter in the lens of the eye.
I connected to her and saw a notice for her offering a hundred and twenty aura credits to my bank app. Very nice. That’d almost pay off the rent this month in one sweep, buy me a lot of time. I accepted and closed the interface from my display.