Thanks to the blueprint at the back of the black book I pulled from the speakeasy’s safe, I knew exactly where I needed to search. There were about a dozen of the stashes scattered about, so I decided to start from the entrance and work my way in.

The first of the bunch was off to the side of the entry in one of the booths. It had a false floor that the table rested on. Or at least, it had rested on. The table was one of the things I tossed out, leaving easy access to the floor panel.

I opened it up to reveal… nothing. Well, not nothing. There was a large pile of ash filling the secret compartment up. It seemed the fire got in there too…

I checked a dozen other smaller stash points only to find mostly the same result. Sure, there were other luxury items stashed around outside of just money, but most of it was ruined in the fire.

I moved onto the few medium compartments around. They were a bit bigger, so I was hopeful about finding some stuff still intact. The first one I looked in had a bunch of guns and ammo in it. Unfortunately, it looked like the heat from the fire shot off every bullet, mangling the guns.

The second was much better. A bunch of paper money from back in the day, still in decent condition. Some of it had gone up into flames, but the majority of it was still fine. I might be able to get something from a collector with it and the money I found in the boss’s vault.

The third was actually inside the freezer, hidden behind a false panel. I popped it open to find a stash of drugs. Not sure what any of it was, and it was before the designer drug revolution, so it was probably pretty basic stuff. Not worth running it and selling it to someone.

I popped open the last of the medium-sized compartments in one of the private booths. A section of the wall could pop off, revealing a bunch of jewelry and old cigars. At a glance, most of it wasn’t worth anything. A lot of it was fake, though there was a golden pocket watch that looked real. Might be able to fetch something out of it.

I gathered up all the good stuff and filled one of the empty bags I used to carry in my mechanisms. It was already getting late, and I’d rather sleep in my own bed than in this ashy basement. At least, until I got a proper bed down here.

I headed back out, carefully checking to make sure the way was clear. I really needed to get some cameras out in the hall of the basement to watch for people coming and going. It hadn’t been a problem yet, but I could see it easily turning into one.

— — —

I ran all the old bills and the odds and ends I pulled out from the speakeasy by an antiquity collector early in the morning. I got five hundred Rayn for the lot of it, though I decided to keep the watch. It was worth quite a bit more than the other stuff, so I decided to keep it with my gold stuff.

After that, I armored up and headed into Carone’s antique shop. I’d given him more than a couple of days, so he should’ve got the stuff sold by now. I could feel eyes on me as I approached and entered his shop, though most of them were simply residents looking at my voided-out armor weirdly.

“Ah, if it isn’t Mr. White,” Carone said, drawing out the words with his annoying inflections as per usual.

”They sold?” I ignored him. Ignoring seemed to be a good tactic for this identity. Could be taken as intimidation, but could also just be taken as someone eager to get their job done.

Carone sighed and nodded his head. He pulled out a data chip and placed it down on the counter, lightly tapping a finger next to it. “Fifty-seven hundred Rayn, as requested.”

”More than what you offered? Impressive. Maybe dealing with you wasn’t a bad decision.”

”Of course it isn’t… if you have anything else, bring it to me. Especially items from Cwalu. I have a long list of… clients that would be incredibly interested.” Carone toyed with a spark of flame, twirling it into a shape roughly similar to the mask.

He’s played with fire every time I’ve seen him, and I’m starting to notice some things. I had a feeling he was only recently awoken as a Kinetic. His control and the intensity of the fire were a hundred times better than when I first came through his shop.

I took the chip, plugging it into a burner phone I bought on the way over here. In a few seconds, my HUD lit up with the transfer, bringing a much-needed flow of Rayn into my account. My account now sat at 7034 Rayn. It was more than enough to get some plans into motion and help out with some other things. Add that with all the gold I had, and it was around twenty thousand. Add onto that the pocket watch which was worth quite a bit. A respectable amount in the city.

I left Carone’s shop, heading down the block the opposite way I came in. As I walked, I disassembled and crushed the phone, tossing it into the mouth of an alley. I backtracked several times through side streets, my paranoid act was probably completely needed. Then again, I stuck out like a sore thumb out here. I moved down into the sewer through an alley, changing into normal clothes before popping out elsewhere and heading for my bike. I threw my leg over the seat, resting for a moment as I adjusted my bag. Now I just need to head on back to the speakeasy-

Haah… I leaned back, blankly staring at a roving band of ads around the parking garage. I just watched for several minutes, my eyes not seeing anything as I focused internally and looked back over my past couple of days.

I gripped tightly onto the handlebars of my motorcycle, dropping my head down and tapping it against the cold metal. What am I doing? Why was I being so passive about this gig? I’d barely even gotten anything done in the past few days. Rather, I’d been productive on something that didn’t even have a time restriction.

Since when have I ever just sat back after finding what I needed? It’s not even like I need to know about their basement anyway. That wasn’t at all what the job was about. I was supposed to be looking for evidence, damnit! Not scrounging around a lab that ultimately didn’t matter more than knowing it was there.

I tapped my head a couple more times. It was the same reason I didn’t want to take the job in the first place. I was just being a little bitch about going back in and taking what I needed.

Stolen story; please report.

A sigh left me as I calmed down slightly and flicked on Cold-Blooded to clear my head. Anything to distract myself from going back in and seeing the writing on the walls, eh? Why was I letting fear get to me? Where’d Shiro Tsukuyomi, the budding thief extraordinaire go? Pathetic.

I tapped my cheeks lightly with my hands, firming up my resolve. I already had sufficient evidence that Cold Moon Solutions was behind screwing over Athena. I was just lacking a bit of evidence if it was Cold Moon Solutions’ idea or if they were hired out to do such an act by a larger corp. I could see both sides. It would explain where CMS got all its money, at least.

And I knew exactly where I’d be able to find such evidence: the CEO’s computer. No way that egotistical bastard would have it anywhere else. I squeezed my eyes closed for several seconds before coming to a decision. I’d go in as soon as possible. Get what I need. Get that two grand at least. And then decide on how much I want to commit to the rest of the gig. The full fifteen grand would be more than enough to get the metal printer I’d had my eye on.

But before that? I needed to get some stuff ready. I started the bike, and pulled out onto the street as my head reared into high gear. Hundreds of different plans formulated in my mind, most immediately scrapped as I settled on the best few. And those that remained I carefully weeded out through plausibility and easiness.

— — —

I returned to my apartment, almost immediately getting to work. I had a plan, but I needed a few things before I could get into motion. The first thing I did was go ahead and order that poncho I’d been looking at. It was perfect for my purposes.

For its three presets, I made one a desert camo with a wash of yellows and browns, one an extremely simplistic urban color scheme that’d blend into most places within the city, and the last a bright, eye-catching white. It should be able to blend into any environment I found myself in, except maybe one of the few oases in the Outlands. The white wasn’t for blending in as much, though I had a few other plans for it.

After that, although it pained me, I decided to scrap my armor. It was cool, but I’d been thinking about this more and more recently; the armor wasn’t nearly as effective as I had hoped it would be. 'Course, I didn’t scrap it entirely. It was still my Mr. White disguise. I did take everything out of it though, including the Drop Chutes. It still had its uses, especially in the Underground, so I didn't entirely break it down. For now, I'd just keep it down here.

It hurt a bit as I disassembled the armor, but I knew better than anyone how poorly it actually worked. Getting an Optical Camo Module would help in that regard, but even then I was better off just using normal clothes that blended in better. And I could hide more varied equipment under normal clothes and still appear as a civilian for the most part.

The main issue is that it lacked adaptability. Having a blackout suit of armor was fine for corpo enforcers and the like that had millions to waste on equipment that’d only be useful one out of every hundred missions, but for me? Not ideal. I needed something that could work and that I could wear in almost every situation. I’d thrown too many eggs into the armor’s basket, as is. I was only hamstringing myself.

Simple clothes with hidden gear under it was the ideal route for me, not this modulated armor with a dozen different attachments I’d been going for. Unfortunately, the rule of cool wasn’t always the best rule. It sucked, but moving on was for the best in the long term.

And getting around in the armor was a bitch and a half. I know mercenaries aren’t exactly rare in Aythryn City, but wearing full voided-out armor like that tended to draw the eye. And it was a set of heavy armor, which drew the eye even more than the typical vest and pads. Even if I repainted it, it would still be too much. Heavy armor just wasn’t for me.

I reworked the stealth body suit, slimming it down a bit more to be a skintight undersuit to be worn under normal clothes. Its thermal and soundproof fibers were still fine, and it was easy to cover it up with a layer of normal clothes.

Next came the Drop Chutes. They were the most important part I wanted to work with, especially considering Plan A in the back of my head. I had an idea for them, though I didn’t immediately get to work. Instead, I drew everything out in a notebook several times, checking proportions and various measurements to see if my idea was even plausible.

Basically, I wanted to integrate the Drop Chutes into my backpack. It would drop my carrying capacity by quite a bit, but a bag would be entirely inconspicuous and draw a lot less attention than having five thruster-looking things sticking off my back. That, and it would be quite easy to throw on a backpack compared to the full armor approach I’d been using.

It took quite a bit of time to get everything set up right, but by the end of various cuts and careful sewing, I had it all set up. My bag now looked like it had five spikes sticking out of it, which gave it a bit of a punk look that could easily be written off as stylistic. Especially in the city. I did have to go back and add extra straps for my legs so they wouldn't slip off. After testing that a bit though, they felt incredibly uncomfortable to walk around in and stood out quite a bit. It wouldn't be so bad with my poncho covering everything, but otherwise? I was going for easily concealed anyway.

I reworked the added leg straps, trying a dozen different ways and techniques to find one that worked. Eventually, I settled on having the backpack capable of linking down onto a belt, creating pseudo-leg straps from my pants. I had to reinforce it several times, creating a belt with additional links to hold everything together. I'd have to take them all off if I were to take the pack off, but an easy workaround was to just strap in when I thought I might fall but otherwise keep it unstrapped.

It was probably overkill, but it never hurt to be safe. I had noticed in the past though that actually falling with the Drop Chutes created barely any counterforce that might rip the chutes off of me. It was almost like it manipulated gravity or something the closer I got to the ground, so each fall was extremely gentle. Probably had something to do with the Gravitic Chamber. Gravitic sounded like it might have something wonky with gravity.

I went back through, anchoring the chutes carefully into the bag and wiring them all up to the central battery I plucked from the back of my old armor. The bag had a convenient laptop pouch I repurposed into a battery storage. I packed it full of the thermal absorbing padding to help with the heat. I also went ahead and added a bunch of ports to the battery, turning it into a micro charging station for various devices.

After that, I took apart the screen built into my gauntlet, turning it into a standalone pad. It was rather easy since I originally just secured it with bolts. It had been quite effective attached to my wrist, so I reworked it into simply being held on and connected with straps. I adjusted the electrical system to be a quick plug so I could disconnect and connect it to the system quickly.

I’d like to get it set up to be able to connect directly to my data jack so I could control it all mentally, but that kind of programming was far above my head. Maybe in the distant future.

I made about a dozen other adjustments, carefully nitpicking everything and reverting my rebreather back to its mask form. Once I finally got everything set up I looked over my handiwork.

Part of me hated to admit it, but it looked good. The stealth capabilities were far superior to the armor, and it would blend in way better. And best of all, everything was entirely modular. If I didn’t need my Drop Chutes but still needed my rebreather? I didn’t have to worry about it and could just take my mask and leave the bag. Ultimately, I’d be a lot more comfortable, and better off without the armor.

Of course… that just left getting shot. I’d thought the armor was a good idea for a reason, and this was the main one. For now, I’ll go back to wearing my crusade vest under my jacket, but for the future? I should really start looking into an upgrade. Maybe some kind of clothes with ballistic weave wouldn’t be a bad idea? Or Subdermal armor… but I was iffy on that one. Sure it sounded nice, but it had a way of locking up mobility and I’d heard it was extremely uncomfortable.

And it's not like I got into fights all that much. My best role in a fight was lurking on the outskirts and pew-pewing from afar like what I did at the Mortas Motel, not taking shots at the frontlines.

I could think about it later though. It was really about time I started finalizing my plans for the whole Cold Moon Solutions gig though.