Kaleb pulled up next to the small air hangar. It was more wide than long and was an unexotic beige color. The roof appeared to be in a good condition from what Kaleb could see too. As he exited his car and walked closer, he realized just how big the hangar was. Standing next to it, he would be little more than a tiny green line against the beige wall.
“Well, it houses aircraft.” Kaleb muttered to himself.
He moved to the two large sliding doors on that opened the hangar to the outside. Looking at them, he tried to figure out how he could even move them. Kaleb tried pushing on one of the sliding doors not budging it in the slightest. Okay, that’s not something a person can move. Kaleb thought as he gave up and walked around the hangar.
Soon enough he found a side-door leading into the hangar and made his way too it. He expected someone to have locked it, however when he tried the door handle it swung inward easily. A burst of warm air smacked into his face as he stepped into the dark hangar. There was a short open hallway leading into the hangar and there were two doors on either wall of the hallway.
Kaleb moved forward and checked both doors. The left door lead to a locker room and the right door lead to an office with a large window facing the hangar. Kaleb moved into the office because he saw interesting things in the room. Other than looking like a normal office there was a control panel just under the window facing the hangar. The other item of interest was a large multiple monitor computer on the opposite wall.
Kaleb first moved to the control panel near the window and chuckled when he looked at it. Someone had idiot-proofed the console. There were labels under each button and toggle. Kaleb hit the switches for the lights and watched through the window. The hangar bloomed with light as the empty hangar’s white floor reflected the light back into the room. A few of the lights sputtered and died, but Kaleb figured he should have expected that.
Second thing Kaleb touched was the door controls. There was a loud whining of gears as the doors moved. Sunlight poured in highlighting the dust in the air disturbed by the moving doors. Kaleb stared down at the console as he waited for the doors to open fully. There were two switches that he wanted to try but he wasn’t sure about.
Two red switches had the labels ‘housed’ and ‘deployed’ and underneath them both was the label ‘Turrets.’ Kaleb scratched his cheek and tapped his finger against one switch. What could it hurt? Kaleb thought as he slowly twisted the switch to the ‘deployed’ position.
*BEEP!*
There was a large harsh noise from the computer behind him and the turret switch clicked back to its original position. Kaleb sighed and was about to fiddle with the computer when he remembered Daivor. The little Gnome was sleeping in a hot car under the sun. Deciding to deal with the computer later Kaleb quickly ran into the hangar and out the large doors.
Kaleb ran to his car and after checking on Daivor moved into the hangar parking close to the office. He glanced at Daivor who still snored contentedly before he unloaded what he could from his car. But with Daivor asleep most of his lab would remain packed. After placing his few bins and tools against the wall, Kaleb opened Daivor’s door to let some air in and returned to the office.
He immediately moved to the massive computer and put his hand on it. As he did, he got a rather large announcement window.
*Congratulations!*
You have unlocked a Lair/Headquarters/Hide-out/Base.
All changes to the HQ must be made from the terminal. Upgrades for remote access are available.
HQ Tab has been unlocked and can be accessed from the Status Screen or the Terminal.
Your HQ has four months of in-game immunity.
“Hell Yeah!” Kaleb clapped his hands and gave a shout as the computer in front of him came to life. As he read through the information though, he became less enthused.
*HQ (Unnamed)*
Floors 2 and 3 are inaccessible. (Obstruction detected.)
Two power generators are off-line, power is at 25%. (Repairs needed.)
Obstruction detected in track for Turret 1
Turret ammo is empty.
Water reservoirs are at 30%.
HQ cost:
Property Tax: 39,460 credits (3,300 credits a month) + Employees: 0 credits (1 Guard) + Utilities: 0 credits (Self-Sustained)
= 3,300 credits a month
Kaleb swallowed hard after reading through everything. The place was obviously a fixer-upper, But he hadn’t expected the property tax. Although he wondered why Bob wasn’t being paid. Did he have some kind of deal with Obadiah? Kaleb shook off his questions and tapped through the screens on his HQ’s terminal.
After the general information screen was the Floor Plan. All that was on it was the first floor with the second and third floors being grayed out. On the Floor Plan of the first floor was just a simple overview of the large space of the hangar. It was overall just an empty blueprint except for one little heading down near where he had placed his stuff. There was one line of text that piqued Kaleb’s interest.
3% (Mechanic’s room)
Kaleb clicked on the text and was brought to another page with a helpful tool-tip. It informed him that he was 97% away from having enough equipment in the hangar to establish a Mechanics Room. Looking through the menus he figured out a Mechanics Room was basically his lab, a room where someone worked on various pieces of tech. He could expand and upgrade the room as needed or separated out from the other rooms.
There were long lists of rooms he could place with the hangar. As long as he had the stuff to make the room in the hangar he could pay a small fee and have the room placed with the Floor Plan. There were many kinds of rooms, too. Training rooms, Bedrooms, Labs, Motor Pools, the list went on and on. Kaleb scrolled over to the Mechanics Room tab and looked at the price, 2,000 credits.
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It wasn’t too bad all things considered. Then Kaleb remembered that all of his financial transactions had been through his HLO account. Those fuckers better not have control over my money. Kaleb growled in his head as he tabbed over to a new screen and logged in to his HLO account. Sure enough, they locked his account with them, and he had no way to access it.
“Fuck!” Kaleb swore as he slammed his right hand against the terminal.
Okay, they can’t keep me from my money. It has to be in a bank somewhere. Kaleb wondered. I just never dealt with a bank, the HLO did that. Kaleb logged into several bank websites of notably banks around Austin. Eventually after much trial in error he found one where his HLO account worked. Apparently, Austin United had his money.
Logging in Kaleb was brought to a page that informed him that they had linked the account with the HLO. Kaleb barely gave it a second thought as he clicked on the ‘unlink’ button. As soon as he did, he got a message from someone in the bank asking for a video chat. Curious, Kaleb accepted the chat and looked for the terminal’s camera.
“Hello there, sir. We were just notified that you have unlinked your account from the HLO. Was this perhaps by accident?” Asked a perky blond woman who was a surprising shade of purple.
Kaleb found the camera and shook his head. “Sorry to say that no it wasn’t.” said Kaleb trying to look forlorn. “But, myself and the HLO have… gone our separate ways for the time being.”
“Well, I am sorry to hear that. Will you be moving your account to another bank?” asked the lady sounding worried.
“Oh, not at all. I plan on continuing my business with you, I just had to move away from the HLO.” Kaleb explained.
“All right then. That is all we wanted to know. Did you have questions for me?”
Kaleb shook his head before a thought occurred to him. “Yes, actually. I have a couple of credit sticks found on my last... mission for the HLO. Can I upload the money straight to my account?”
The lady looked worried before she explained. “Normally, no. Most credit sticks have identity data stating who they belonged to and must be turned over to the next-of-kin. However, any credits sticks found while operating for the HLO are automatically property of the agent who found them. One bonus of working with the HLO.”
“I understand that…” Kaleb said pausing for the young woman’s name.
“Carol.”
“I understand that, Carol. I got these while I was an associate of the HLO though. And they will be the last credit sticks received this way, can I just upload them?”
Carol seemed to wrestle with herself for a few seconds before she finally smiled. “Oh, what the hell. Let’s get those things uploaded for you. It shouldn’t be that big of a problem.”
Kaleb had to stop himself from cheering out loud as he dug in his pockets for the Phreak’s and Faceless’ credit sticks. He smiled awkwardly at Carol as he placed several blueprints and credit sticks on the terminal. Eventually he had all twelve of his credit sticks on the desk, most were plain silver except for the lion-man’s gold one. Kaleb swore he saw Carol’s eyes grow wide when he placed that on the desk.
“Just…” Carol swallowed loudly. “Insert the sticks into an available port and I’ll get those sticks scrubbed and transferred to your account.”
Kaleb smiled as he placed the first credit stick into the side-port of the terminal. “Thank you, Carol.”
Carol nodded as she typed away. “200 credits, not bad. Next please.”
Kaleb hurriedly placed the next credit stick. Then the next and the next. Each wasn’t more than a couple of hundred credits each. Carol would rattle off the numbers as she transferred the credits into his account. However, when they got to the gold credit stick, she stopped and Kaleb was sure he heard her gasp in surprise. Looking up, he saw her frozen face staring at something just below her camera.
“Is there a problem?” Kaleb asked worried.
“Huh?” Carol asked surprised. “Oh! No, sir. Not at all. It’s just that this was a rather large sum.”
“Is that a problem?”
Carol shook her head but then she stopped. “Well… actually, sir, we normally charge a small surcharge on large deposits such as this.” Carol almost whispered into the camera.
Her behavior confused Kaleb for a few seconds until his brain finally caught up. “And how much would this surcharge be normally and what benefits does the bank offer for such a fee?”
Carol grinned. “Well, I’d say normally it would be around 5%. As for benefits, I think the bank would be okay with handling any other large transactions.”
Kaleb smirked and nodded his head. “What if I gave 10%, can they can assure me that they will make no other parties aware of my transactions?”
Carol nodded excitedly. “Oh, yes, sir. Absolutely.” She rapidly typed away at her keyboard. “There you are sir, 27,000 credits have just been deposited into your account. Along with the others brings the amount deposited to 28,800. Will that be all today?”
Kaleb nodded his head as he smiled at Carol. “Yes, for today at least.” Kaleb said before adding. “But, Carol…”
“Yes, Sir?”
“Don’t spend it all in one place.” Kaleb grinned
Carol’s purple cheeks deepened in color as she seemed to blush. “No, sir. Have a good day.”
Kaleb almost laughed as Carol quickly severed the connection. It looked like he now had a decent way of getting money through credit sticks. Which was, apparently, illegal without the HLO. Kaleb sighed and tossed the useless credit sticks away into a nearby trash can. He now had access to his account through the terminal and could buy rooms for his Lair. As he finished, he noticed that he had gotten a pop-up while he was talking with Carol. He clicked on it bringing up the window.
*Congratulations*
You have unlocked your first Contact.
Contacts - Contacts are a players way of getting shit done without going through any of those pesky legal means. Need a gun? You got a guy. Need credit sticks scrubbed? You got a guy. Need some extra muscle? You got a guy. Contacts grow and evolve as you help or ignore them. Helped that low level muscle become the boss of his own crew? He owes you. Ignored the sting operation that took down your gun guy? No more guns for you. There are different types of Contacts and they all provide different things.
Contact unlocked: Carol.
Position: Teller at Austin United Bank.
Service: Credit stick scrubbing.
Kaleb smiled again as he read through the information on contacts. So this is how Villain’s got their stuff done without going through the HLO. He wondered about his interaction with Carol that had been pretty much what a villain would do. But he needed the money, what was he supposed to do? Crawl back to the HLO with all its bullshit? No. he would make a go of things by himself. Once he got his feet under him, he would do things legitimately, but for now this is how things had to be.
Kaleb finished putting the blueprints back into his lab coat pockets and was about to check on Daivor when the phone on the desk rung. Kaleb stared at the phone for a couple of seconds until he remembered that it was a direct line to Bob. Hurriedly Kaleb answered the phone.
“Bob?” Kaleb asked.
“Yeah, Boss. We got a speedster who jumped the fence. I will pursue, just wanted to give you a heads up. Hope you got those turrets online.” Bob said before quickly hanging up.
Kaleb barely had time to register what Bob had said before the phone went silent. Cursing under his breath Kaleb turned to the control panel. Then he remembered that not only was a turret blocked, neither of them had any ammo. Kaleb drew both of his pistols and ran for the large open hangar doors.
As he got closer, he saw a sandstorm of dirt being kicked up in the distance as a blue streak of lightning charged down the runway. Kaleb gulped as he just made out the image of a figure in black growing closer. He was not ready for this. He raised both pistols as the figure in black surrounded by lightning skidded to a stop in front of him.