The chrome and matte red arm whirred as O'Della flicked his hand back, producing a flame from the base of his palm. He lifted it to the cigarette in his mouth, taking a long, slow puff. Sammy scowled across from him, looking like he was going to explode. O'Della's hand snapped back, extinguishing the flame as he blew a circle of smoke. "So, let me get this straight. You want us to blow this poor bastard's head off," He paused, taking another puff, "...on Tempest Networks' doorstep?"
"Correct. This is not an issue, I hope?" The woman leaned over her clasped hands, the metallic fingers reflecting light onto her mask.
O'Della rubbed the bridge of his nose, tapping the cigarette ash onto the ground. He shook his head, remembering fighting Tempest Security forces during the Civil War in 2105. Back when they had only enough power to start a civil war. Now? They controlled the Free States. He leaned back in the chair, putting his feet up on the table. "No, not a problem at all. If you want us to get killed. Tempest isn't the corp to fuck around with."
Sammy finally blew a gasket as he slammed his fist on the table. "I told you this was shit! Fuck this, there's no chance-" O'Della held up his left hand, silencing Sammy quickly as he motioned to the gangsters staring at them.
"Time and place Sammy. We're in this, don't lose your cool now." O'Della said calmly. Sammy sat back down his scowl growing darker. O'Della took another long puff on the cigarette before putting it out on his boot. After a short pause, he continued, "Ok, what are the deets on the target?"
"All you need to know is what he looks like, which was provided by my employer. We will make sure he is in front of the Tempest HQ." The mask-clad woman said, tapping her fingers together.
"And how're you gonna do that?" Sammy's normally chipper voice was filled with venom.
O'Della already knew the answer. "Not our concern. Isn't that right?"
"Correct, the mark will be in front of Tempest HQ at exactly seven-thirty A.M. Your vehicle is waiting out back, it's a black muscle car." With that final statement, the woman stood, bowed to both of them, and then walked out the front door.
O'Della sighed heavily and took his feet off the table. Noki finally re-emerged from his basement. He walked over putting a bottle of tequila on the table and two shot glasses. "On the house boys, you're gonna need it." Noki cackled showing off his toothless mouth, as he walked back to the bar.
O'Della put his hands together resting his chin on them, contemplating things. Sammy started pouring drinks. "What time is it?"
Sammy lifted his arm, checking his watch. "Eight twenty-two." He tossed back his shot and poured another. Then another. His tension lightens up with each shot.
'Always so quick to drown sorrows in his drink.' O'Della sat back in his chair, relaxing a little bit.
"Shit," O'Della lifted the shot glass to his mouth, "I got us into a clusterfuck, thought this would be a cakewalk." He tossed his head back and then slammed the glass back on the table. Sammy poured him another shot as he drank two more.
"Madison, you pulled us outta that shitstorm in Colorado. This ain't no different," He shook his head drunkenly, "Remember that dipshit, Thompson, got his legs blown off? You carried him twenty fuckin' miles to the medivac." O'Della knew Sammy was trying to lighten the mood, in his own way.
He winced at the memory. He was a heavy fucker. Nicest guy you knew, but bigger than a bodybuilder, and dumber than a sack of rocks. "Yeah, I remember," He kicked the shot back, "Still got his tags. All that, and he bled out during the chopper ride back." They both stared off into the distance, silent for a long while.
Sammy tried to pour another for O'Della, but he just shook his head. Sammy broke the silence, "Remember Tuck? Nosiest asshole in the whole unit."
O'Della chuckled at the thoughts coming to mind. "Fuck. I remember, during training, when he found your porno stash. You were so pissed that you nearly knocked his head clean off his shoulders! Then, Sargent Caliburn came in to see what was going on."
Sammy laughed heartily at the memory. "Yeah, we were both scrubbin' toilets with our toothbrushes for the next two weeks. Didn't think brushing your teeth could make them smell worse, but damn it did."
O'Della slapped the table nearly crying as he laughed harder, "God damn, that's right! He would hold your fuckin' hands while you brushed too, to 'make sure you did a good job'!" They both continued laughing so hard that Sammy nearly fell out of his chair. O'Della caught him and pushed him upright, leaning shoulder to shoulder with him. Sammy slammed a few more shots, the bottle was almost empty now.
"Shit, man, Sarge was a ragin' prick, had you tuck us in each night as a 'training exercise'. You almost got better than my mama at it!" Sammy mocked, his words slurring as they both laughed. "Those were the good ol' days. Shit used to be a lot simpler back then."
O'Della's laughing died out and he nodded. "Yeah, I guess, just taking orders and kicking Corpo ass. I miss that shit." He paused thoughtfully as Sammy took a final shot. "Guess we should find somewhere to crash, let's go check out these wheels." He fully expected a shitbox.
As they exited the bar through the back Noki waved them goodbye, almost like he would never see them again. Out back was a large parking lot with several garages. O'Della scanned the lot for their car. Eventually, he spotted one with the keys stuck in the window. It was a black 2111 Shelby Cruizer. A sleek beautiful car, it had a fastback style and resembled Mustangs from the 2010 era. They walked over to it, O'Della's eyes admiring the beautiful machine.
"Shit, no way, I've always wanted one of these," O'Della ran his fingers across the angular hood, "These cars were powerhouses, nothing could touch them at the time. Too bad only a corpo could afford one." He took the keys from the cracked open window and unlocked it. The gullwing doors swung up on their own, inviting him to sit in the luxurious red and black interior.
They both stepped into the car and got buckled in. O'Della looked down at the three pedals and almost lost his shit. "It's a goddamn manual too, jackpot!" The clutch slammed down as he pressed the start button and the muscle car roared to life. He tossed it into first gear, revved it to five thousand RPM, dumped the clutch, and ripped it out of the parking lot at an alarming speed. Switching to second gear he hit the e-brake and drifted out onto the street, a plume of smoke trailing behind them.
Sammy, used to O'Della's shit driving from the Marines, just held on for dear life. He looked out the window at the passing city lights as the engine screamed, forcing them up the road toward the highway. "Where we headed?"
"I wanna head straight to Tempest HQ and case the joint. Then we'll find a place to settle in nearby." O'Della said while he ripped through the gears. As they got on the highway the car seemed to be flying. Sammy glanced at the speedometer and saw they were going nearly two hundred fifty miles an hour. He almost shat a brick and did puke in his mouth a little.
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# One hour later #
O'Della looked out the window of the car. A cigarette hung lazily in his mouth as smoke drifted from it. The smoke seemed to change color, the multi-colored lights and holograms around them reflecting their light against it, as it faded into the night sky through the open sunroof. He took a drag and felt the nicotine wake him up a little. They were currently in the city center sitting in front of the City Hall, a large courthouse-looking building.
Across the street from them was a massive tower with 'Tempest' written down its beveled corners in red. The tower was made entirely of black marble and was at least a hundred stories tall. Out front was a large multi-level pavilion made from the same material. He pondered how much all that marble cost. Probably enough to get every homeless person in this city a small mansion.
Large sets of stairs flanked both sides of the lower level leading to the second level of the pavilion. On the second level, where the main entrance loomed, there were two large rectangular ponds. Both ponds ran the distance of the level and had waterjets spraying multicolored water in the air. The light bounced off the water spray making it glow eerily. The upper level was wrapped in a golden railing with glass pane inserts.
In the middle of the marble, between the ponds, was a large etching of the Tempest logo. Thirty feet above it floated a red hologram of the logo being circled by two koi fish, one black and one white. The logo had a red circular border and a golden triangle inside it with a lotus flower in each corner. The lower level adorned the same logo, but it was etched on a large square pillar in the middle that supported the upper level. That pillar was the only part of the building made of a different material. Instead of black marble, it was made of red marble with gold inlay.
The lower level held the garage entrance and exit with a road leading between the staircases and around the pillar. Both levels looked pretty empty, aside from a few guards patrolling. A group of four guards stood at the entrance at all times. O'Della took another puff, slowly exhaling as he watched their movements from behind the tinted glass. His attention shifted to the highrise apartment complex to the left of the City Hall.
It was a large building, but not nearly as grand as Tempest HQ. It was constructed from the modular nano-constructing steel that Free Mason Co. had made a few years back. Interesting stuff, set parameters and the material builds itself. As long as there's enough. It was designed to speed up the construction of Mega Cities like Rapford and Illang. Turned out it was expensive as hell though, so it was only used for highrises and Corporate headquarters. He looked up at the roof of the building a plan forming.
Sammy rolled in his seat, muttering in his sleep. O'Della looked over at him wondering how he even fell asleep during that ride. He shook his head slightly, regaining his focus. The angle from the rooftop looked good and it would provide a clear view of the upper level. Those buildings also had an emergency ladder on the backside leading up to the roof. It would be locked, of course, he flexed his mechanical hand slightly, but that was no issue.
After another long pull on the cigarette, he put it out in the ashtray in the center console. They just needed a rifle and it should be smooth sailing. He doubted that the security forces would give two rats asses about some punk getting his head blown off. Even if they did Sammy and him would be long gone by then. He nodded to himself as he fired up the engine again. There was a twenty-four-seven gun shop near here he knew about.
He carefully pulled off trying not to wake Sammy. The radio was set to City Dreams ninety-one point one FM. Japanese-themed LoFi played quietly over the speakers as he drove through the city. He tapped the wheel in rhythm with the beat while the skyscrapers passed them by. There was an odd sense of calmness in this part of the city at night. As he drove he sent a message using his ND overlay. 'Hey, Denny, I need you to send me six g's on the ND. Take it outta the case.'
Denny's Message popped up quickly. 'You got it, kid! Taking interest for the transfer fee though.' A few moments later his ND chimed and a pop-up on his cornea displayed the deposit.
Neon shone off the pavement and blurred together along the skyline as they cruised towards the gunshop. Eventually, he pulled the car into a parking area on the side of the road. He got out and went around to the passenger side. After opening the door and kicking Sammy's leg, he ducked back quickly. Sammy jerked awake, pulling his gun and pointing it out the door in confusion.
"Every fuckin' time you asshole!" Putting his gun away, he stepped out of the car and stretched a little as O'Della leaned back onto the rear fender, chuckling at his partner's anger. "Where are we?" He looked around and then saw the sign. "Twenty-four-seven Guns Guns Guns?"
"Yeah, it's a good joint, got the hardware we need, hopefully." O'Della started walking into the shop, Sammy following closely behind rubbing the sleep from his eyes. As they entered they were greeted by a female hologram floating above a counter.
"Welcome to Guns Guns Guns! Looking to buy an RPG, no questions asked? We have a sale on them right now!" The hologram said, flickering between different poses.
The shop was a small, twenty-foot by twenty-foot room, with a counter along the far wall and a hatch in the center of the floor. The walls and floor were all white and there were two octagonal hatches in the roof flanking the counter. Presumably sentry guns in case of ne're-do-wells. O'Della leaned onto the counter as Sammy rested against the wall next to the entrance.
"Nah, not looking for that. Needed something more precise. A rifle, looking for something midrange, semi-auto, clip-fed with enough power to blow holes in steel plate." He said flipping through the digital catalogue on the counter.
"Ah! You'll want The Peacemaker." The Hologram changed to a visage of the rifle. It was a medium-sized carbine with a large barrel and what looked like two scopes. One was regularly positioned, but the other was on a swivel near the back of the rifle opposite to the breach. "This all-American beauty is effective at mid to long-range and shoots thirty-aught-six rounds. More than enough power to stop a large animal or human!"
He inspected the gun closely. "How much for that, twenty rounds and a magazine?"
After a moment, and an unnecessary coin-clattering sound, the hologram changed to a numeric figure. "Five thousand seven hundred thirty-six dollars and ninety-nine cents! We also throw in a magazine, free of charge!"
O'Della nodded placing his mechanical right hand on the ND pad embedded in the counter. It scanned his digital signature and an authorization prompt popped up, he swiped it right and the hologram dinged. "Thank you for your patronage!" The hatch in the center of the room popped open and a table with the gun, ammunition, and magazine rose from the floor.
Sammy walked over and shouldered the gun, he then opened the door and waited. O'Della grabbed the box of bullets and magazine loading it up as he walked out. "So, I guess you already have a plan. Care to fill me in?"
O'Della nodded walking back to the car. Once they both got in and the doors closed, the car once again roared to life and they peeled off into the night, headed back to the highrise. He went over the plan on the way.
Pulling back into the City Center, he whipped the car behind the highrise and parked. "Sound simple enough? Should go smoothly, no complications."
Sammy didn't respond as they stepped out of the car and looked around for the emergency ladder. Once they found the old rickety yellow ladder, O'Della cracked his knuckles. It had a cage around it and was secured by a flimsy padlock. He grabbed the padlock and swiftly ripped it off with his mechanical arm, a loud crack echoing down the alleyway as he did.
They ascended the ladder, it took about ten minutes to climb. 'Should be quicker going down since we can just slide down' O'Della's mind wandered once they reached the top. He looked around, it was barren aside from the large air conditioning unit in the middle of the tower. They crossed to the side facing the street and he went over the layout of the tower pavilion with Sammy.
"You're better with the rifle so once he hits that logo, you're gonna blast him. I'll be waiting in the car, bottom side, ready to go." He said pointing to the logo on the second level, handing Sammy the loaded magazine.
Sammy took the rifle off his shoulder and put the magazine into the slot. He pulled the slide back, chambering a round. He fiddled with the scope a bit, O'Della watching his every move. He then checked his watch. "It's two AM. You get some sleep, I'm gonna zero this thing and take the first watch."
O'Della nodded leaning back against the concrete ledge, closing his eyes. He drifted off to sleep faster than he thought he would.