Chapter Twenty-Six - No Plotting or Planning

Ideally, we would have had a few solid hours to plot and plan, then a day or two to purchase all of the equipment I wanted to have access to.

Ideally rarely happened, in my experience. More often than not, the best you could hope for was to have enough time to prepare as best you could. That was often still not enough to guarantee success.

If we wanted to save Alyssa tonight (and I was still very much on the fence about that) then we had to act quickly.

"This is such a waste of time," Jenny cursed as she drove us through Fenway at a speed that bordered on the reckless. Sharp was hugging me close to her chest, so I could only barely see the traffic ahead of us as Jenny swerved in and out of lanes and punched her horn to get people to shove out of her way.

The console in the middle of the old van's dashboard chimed for the thirtieth time that evening. "You have violated... one traffic law. A fresh penalty has been added to your record. A sum of... one hundred and... forty two dollars had been deducted from your Safe Driver account. The B2PD thanks you for your contri--" Jenny turned us up and onto the sidewalk, cutting ahead of traffic. "You have violated... one traffic--"

I tuned the car's warnings out. Traffic violations were all fine-based in most major cities. Driving over the limit was an automatic fine, unless someone bought a fine-pass permit or had a special subscription. It basically meant that driving was best done by someone on the richer side of things.

I suspected that Jenny wasn't that. She just didn't give a crap at the moment.

"Alright, here we are," she said as she slammed on the breaks and brought us to a stop. Right next to a fire hydrant.

"You have violated--" The girl punched the dash, shutting the car up with a squeal.

"Get what you need, then get back here," Jenny said. "Here." she leaned all the way to the side and tugged out her wallet. The next thing I knew, Sharp was fumbling a credit card out of the air. "Don't spend more than you have to. I'll be checking."

"T-thanks!" Sharp said before we exited the van in a hurry.

We were next to one of the busier commercial mega buildings in Fenway. It was an enclosed mall, with several hundred small shops within. Fortunately, the place had a large interactive map right at the entrance that Sharp ran up to.

"What are we looking for?" Sharp asked.

"A pet clothing store, and a netrunner's electronics store," I said.

Sharp glanced down at me, then nodded. A few taps later, and she took off running into the building. It was late, of course, but this kind of place was open 24/7 and most of the shops had self-checkout and automated defences to take care of anyone that tried to shoplift.

These kinds of places were some of the safest in the city. No store wanted to get robbed, so the security was tight. As long as people behaved and spent cash, they were more than welcome to linger around. Which was why Sharp had to move around a group of homeless people by the entrance before making it to one of the elevators.

A $2 ride up later and we were at a petshop. "We're looking for cat clothes?" Sharp asked.

"Anything that'll fit. Preferably closer to my fur colour than not. It'll make me stand out, but hopefully not too much."

There was a whole wall of stuff to pick from. Sharp glanced over everything, then held me up next to a blue jacket-like thing. It had a zipper down the front, and longer sleeves. I knew from experience that trying to get a cat into that would result in claw marks and bites. "Like this?" she asked.

"It'll do," I said. Why was a coat that small fifty bucks? It wasn't even doubled!

I noticed a display screen advertising pet-based augs by the entrance. The sort of thing used to keep track of a pet, or to have the pet imagine they were seeing things, like training videos and projected toys. Some came in the form of wearable glasses-like devices...

Later. Definitely something to look at later.

Next up was a netrunner's place. Seven more floors up, then a quick dash to a store that was nothing more than an ATM-like machine with several cameras pointing at the user. Sharp ran through the selections on the machine until we found what we were looking for.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

A subtle, long-ranged bluetooth-enabled camera, microphone and speaker system. The kind of thing that might be installed next to someone's door, or in a spy plushie, or in a small drone. It was over the counter, so I didn't expect it to be in any way secure, but it would do for now. "Buy a charger for it too. They never sell these things fully charged. Oh, and a palm computer. Yes, I can see how expensive they are. We'll need it to interact with the cameras. Ah, maybe an antenna wire as well?"

We left a thousand dollars poorer... well, Jenny did. Passing us her card wasn't a wise move.

Jenny was clearly at her wit's end by the time we made it to her van. "Fucking finally," she said.

"Sorry," Sharp replied. She was panting a little, having run the last bit over. "It was bigger than I thought in there. We have everything, though. Don't move, Queenie."

I allowed her to man... cathandle me into position while she put that coat on. It was rather... floaty on me. If we kept it around I was sure I'd grow into it, but for now it was clearly a size too large. It had been the smallest size available, but I supposed that it was for adult cats, not kittens.

"How do I look?"

"You look kind of silly," Sharp said with a soft smile. "Now, let's get you mic'd up!"

The camera sat at my neck along with the microphone and speaker. We turned the latter way down, until I could just barely make out what Sharp said from it. That ought to be low enough not to be overhead. Then the camera's antenna was wrapped around my waist. It caught in my fur uncomfortably, but I'd live with it.

Sharp connected the palm computer up with some difficulty, though I tried to help, and in the end she did get it connected to the spy gear I was wearing. A fur-covered image appeared on the tiny screen of the palm-deck, then a lower-rez visual of what was before me.

"Huh, that'll do," Jenny said as she looked away from the road and at us. She juked around a stopped car, then pressed on the gas some more. "You sure you'll be able to get that cat anywhere?"

"Yup!" Sharp said. She booped my nose, then escaped a vindictive swipe. "Tech up by one!"

Oh... well, that was good. And not too surprising. This was a novel experience for her.

Jenny continued to drive with the same enthusiasm across the city, weaving in and out of traffic and at one memorable moment, scraping the side of her van along the rear panel of a little roadster. The driver of that one screamed himself hoarse while we shot ahead.

Finally, we made it to South Boston. It hadn't taken all that long, really. Disregarding every traffic and safety law made for quick traversal in the city.

Jenny pulled us into a parking garage, and already I could feel something making my fur stand on end. "We're right next door to the fuckers," she said. "It's the building that way." She pointed through the garage.

We'd come in from the far side, it seemed but I could still make out the mega building the cult occupied across the street.

"Better let your cat out here now. Then we can find a place to set up," Jenny grumbled.

"Right, okay," Sharp said. She turned me towards her, and met my eyes. "Please, please don't get hurt, okay?"

"My job is to hurt others, not myself. You have nothing to worry about," I lied.

Sharp gave my head a smooch that I only allowed out of sympathy, then she opened the door and set me down. "Alright! Find Alyssa, then... we'll see what we can do from there, alright?"

I nodded, then took off with a bounce across the garage.

This was a stupid plan. At best I'd find the girl alive and be able to give her the gear I was carrying, but that would hardly free her.

I was never so optimistic as to expect to find things so easy.

Ideal situations were for optimistic morons to hope for and for pessimists to expect. This was going to be a rough one, and I could feel it in my bones.

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