While the drive to NC didn't settle my emotions, it did allow me to calm down sufficiently to examine my plans.

Just stealing a car to get back to base, seemed like spinning my wheels.

No, we were going to found a base. We were going to do it right under these fuckers' noses.

But where and how.

Something Megan said before things went to shit clicked. Hidden bases utilizing abandoned buildings or involving digging underground or even combining both.

Yes, I liked that idea. I liked it so much, I was still picking it apart by the time I hit Westbrook's Japantown.

I parked in a random lot not paying attention to the area, I wouldn't be coming back to this vehicle again.

In fact, I dropped the fob on the ground so it couldn't be traced to me.

The Probes detached and began to keep their diligent sensors on the surroundings.

It hurt to look at them. I guess I had a long way to go before I could match their creators.

Some people wouldn't be able to tell them apart, but each had their own little quirks. It was only a matter of time before I named these guys.

Perhaps I could tell them apart because of the Psifield, or it could have just been familiarity.

I wandered around, weaving through the midday crowds. Slowly making my way towards Jig-Jig Street.

Sinnamin hadn't been exaggerating when she had list this area as one of the busiest in the city. She also said to watch out for picksockets, but I didn't know how to do that.

I didn't even understand what a picksocket was. She explained it was a person who went after your credit chip without zeroing you. A quickhack slipped through your ICE, and out flies your chip often with you none the wiser.

Fortunately, I really didn't need to pay that much attention with the Probes above blending into the drone traffic zooming along. It was startling that the drones seemed to outnumber the people, but not surprising with a moment to consider. They did a lot of the small labor jobs where people can afford them, almost all the home delivery work be it food or or a new tv. Best part no one paid any attention to them, unless they had to.

I stopped briefly at a noddle stand. The noodles were made out of real buckwheat, and had a good texture. The bits of supposed chili peppers and slivers of "beef" were tolerable only because of those noodles. The sauce was I think an attempt at teriyaki but might have been going for something else. Either way, not that good.

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First order of business, find a small space to buy or rent. Probably closer to the eastern edge of the city. The space itself wasn't important.

Next, how deep to dig?

I suspected Arasaka found us due to the energy signatures of the khaydarin or psi crystals. I doubt they could easily utilize them, but detect them, sure.

The questions remained to what extent, and why did we find out so late? The Observer was tapping into most if not the data traffic of the major Corporations headquarters. Unless...

Arasaka was based in Japan. Sure, they had a foothold here, but in some ways NC was not their focus right now.

Aha!

They had been monitoring us from Japan, with a satellite. They would explain why we didn't know when they spotted us. Okay that tracked.

Why attack at all? What they could see was special, absolutely, but worth dozens of lives and vehicles lost taking the place?

Corporations here were all about cost vs benefit, even more so then back home. It was a real puzzler.

I only saw two likely answers.

One, the energy of the Pylons appeared somehow threatening to them.

Or two, They had something going on in that area that our presence disturbed. Something vital to their plans.

I was inclined towards option two, but I didn't have anywhere near enough information to be confident in that guess.

It wasn't worth taking the risk that it was one over the other, I'd have to work under the assumption it was both and probably other factors besides.

Back to my original thought, how many layers into the Earth did we need to go?

I had some thoughts on that too, but let's get a place to cover up our activities first.

"Hey Input looking for a good time?"

Huh?

I hadn't been paying much attention to my surroundings. Too busy plotting.

Red-Light District would be the more polite way to describe the market.

Everything was sexual, even the food vendors and bodega style shops.

I turned to look at the woman talking to me. She was of East Asian descent and looked good for the circumstances. Probably a fair amount of chrome there, but something about her didn't jive.

"Sorry, no."

Paying more attention to my surroundings I sped up a bit.

Something about the air here made me nervous. Too much despair perhaps.

Dashing through a group of stalls, I then turned a bit. Using a alley where I could see the street on the other side, I paused to fiddle with my clothes.

'Guys, anyone following me?' I sent to the Probes.

'Woman. Talked to you.'

Shit. Corpo agent or something else?

I couldn't waste time on this. I was about to order them to zap her.

She entered the alley.

"Hey are you Ryan?" A Corpo agent shouldn't have my name.

I decided to hold off for a moment, "Yes."

"The Mox would like a word. Head to Lizzie's when you get a chance."

"You know what it's about?"

"Nah, just passing the message." She went back to where she came from.

Why would the Mox want to talk to me specifically? Sinnamin should be able to message me.

Unless something happened to Sinn.

Sigh.

When it rains, it pours.

After I get established I'll go find out what's going on. It couldn't be anything too drastic or they would have had Rita track me down.

I did find a nice little two story shop and apartment building. $3000 a month to rent.

It took less than fifteen minutes to message the owner, wire the funds and get the key fob from a drone.

Some things are much easier here.