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Freezing Shadows, Chapter 5
🕑 Added 2024-11-16 04:51:49 +0000 UTC
Chapter 5: An Offer
“So, Berzerker, what you think these goons were after?”
I wasn’t standing idle while I asked the question, and neither was she. Weapons and ammo are weapons and ammo, after all. All three had some spare clips to go with their weapons, so that was a bonus. No commlinks or credsticks, so they were definitely coming to cause trouble.
“Hit of some kind, I think. Car blew up just before they stormed in. Think the lady with the baby was the one who got out of it.”
I nodded slowly as I helped her strip off the men’s armor. “Makes sense. So, pick what we want, fence the rest, and split the difference?”
“Yeah. Share contact data? Might be good having a wizboy on my side, if trouble’s going down.”
I chuckled, and sent my commcode her way with a thought. Neural link made shit like that easy. Hers came back as well. Didn’t mean either of us trusted the other further than we could throw them, but things had to start somewhere in the shadows. “Another gun in the party is always welcome. Lot less likely to get people trying to bug you when you have a plus one, rather than flying solo.”
“That’s chip truth,” she laughed.
“Um, excuse me?”
Turning around, we saw the elf woman there, and her kid was apparently getting over the shock of the attack. I looked over at Berzerker, and raised an eyebrow. She shrugged slightly. Turning back to the woman, I asked, “Yes?”
She took a breath, and said, “You’re shadowmen, right? I think these people were here for me, me and my kid. Would you be interested in a job?”
Glance over to Berzerker, and she nodded slightly. “Probably should move before we talk. Knights may be slow, but they’ll get here eventually. Parking garage not too far from here, but far enough they won’t look there right away. You got wheels?”
“Bike. You?”
“Bulldog. Made it a poor woman’s APC.”
“Wiz. Meet there?”
“Yeah. Here’s map data.”
I nodded as I authorized the map file Berzerker tossed me, before looking back to the woman. “All right, miss. We’ll hear you out, but we should move before speaking. My chummer here has a van that can get you someplace where we can talk without cars blowing up.”
“Thank you! Thank you so much!”
We moved quick after that. Woman and child got into Berzerker’s van, along with the loot (and the sizeable arsenal I saw she was carrying), and I got to my ride, which the game had spawned in the parking lot nearby. With a thought, I triggered the color-changing tech in both my coat and the bike as I started it up. Before, the coat had looked a muddy brown, to not draw as much attention, and the bike was a cherry red. Now, both were black, like I normally had them when I was on business, back in the beta.
We drove the speed limit. Yeah, the big, up-armored GMC Bulldog Berzerker was driving was about as subtle as a Troll in a mankini at the bachelorette party, especially with the all-black paint job, but the vehicle ID was saying that it was from Rider Armored Couriers. Armored couriers were definitely a thing when you were transporting documents, or other items, between businesses, or even between different departments of the same company, so as long she didn’t do anything suspicious, it should be fine.
So yeah, driving the speed limit and obeying all the traffic laws. Another thing which told me Berzerker wasn’t some newbie. Noobs would run the engine hard and loud, getting out of there as fast as they could, all the way home. That was, frankly, stupid. Sure, getting out quick was important, but the cops or corpsec would be looking for people running away. Once you were around a corner or two, slowing down and acting normal was the smart play, making you damn near invisible, without any magic or fancy tech.
As I drove, I was surprised when a text message came in from Berzerker. It was a text chat, clearly thought-to-text, using the fun that a commlink could do. But what interested me was the contents.
Berzerker: So, Ice, figure you gotta be a player, right?
Iceblade: Yeah, which means you are, too? Preorder, guessing, given all your gear?
Berzerker: Yeah. What about you? And are you actually a guy, or just running one, despite the warning MetaTech gave us?
Iceblade: Beta, and Preorder. And yes, I’m a guy IRL, too.
Berzerker: Ho-lee SHIT! I heard there were only 2000 spots in the beta! But wait, only like a total of four guys were part of that. It caused a big scene because three of them were identified because the Beta started everyone with their real face, and they had stalkers looking for them out of game once someone figured out what town they lived in! Crazy bitches thought that they could snag a husband that way.
Berzerker: But they were in Tokyo and New York. No one ever found out who the Seatle guy was.
Iceblade: I may have had a bit of help staying off people’s radar, IRL. Don’t need to go hiding my face in game when I wasn’t showing it in public outside.
Berzerker: Shy type?
Iceblade: Long story. Buy me a drink when this is over, maybe I’ll tell you.
Berzerker: Fine. But, listen, just for some transparency, one of my qualities gave me an automatic moderate Addiction, and it chose randomly when I took it.
Iceblade: Not any of the hard drugs, right?
Berzerker: No, that would have been bad. But, uh, well, I got saddled with a Sex addiction. So, I’m gonna be needing regular relief. Normally, I’d find some lucky guy at the club, since there’s a bunch of male NPCs, but if this ends up being a job…
Iceblade: Then that introduces an unnecessary risk. Well, if this becomes a job, then I suppose I could bend you over and see what a good girl you can be.
Berzerker: Ugh, I don’t need to be thinking about this while I’m driving! Just, fair warning if you got any addictions, the System isn’t going to let you just ignore them.
Iceblade: Mine is just a Mild one, to Alcohol.
Berzerker: Lucky.
I laughed, and signed off the chat, to focus more on driving, until we made it to the parking garage. Once we’d settled in a quiet corner, with no visible cameras, I joined the others in Berzerker’s van. As I noticed earlier, when we were piling the loot in, she was well-stocked for action. Shotgun, grenade launcher, a battle rifle, and a freaking light machine gun, all strapped to the walls for transport. And a couple bandoleers with grenades, too, of different types. Woman was armed up and ready for pretty much any situation short of a dragon.
“All right,” I said, smiling, as I sat next to Berzerker, who was sorting through the captured weapons, and trading out the partial clip on her SMG for a full one. “So, who are you, miss, and why do you think those guys were after you?”
The woman rocked her kid, trying to get them to be quiet, at least for a bit. Not terribly successfully, but at least it lowered the volume. “My name is Brandeen Mettlinger, and this is Cody. And I think they were after us because Cody’s dad, Mel Cozi, is a senior VP at Allegiant Designs. It isn’t even a single-A, much less one of the big corps, but that still means Mel has nucred to spare. That’s why I was dating him, anyway. Certainly wasn’t for his shining personality, or because I thought we had a future together. Man was already stepping out on his wife with me, and maybe others, too. Even if he ditched her for me, it isn’t like he'd suddenly get loyal, you know?”
I nodded sympathetically. Keeping her talking was cheap, at this stage, and it might give us more info we could use. “So, I take it things soured about the time Cody came into the picture?”
“Heh. You could say that. Found out the hard way that ninety-three to ninety-eight percent effective isn’t one hundred percent. Mel, charmer that he was, cut me off once I told him, and let him know I was keeping Cody. Didn’t want to be attached to a ‘whale’, his words, which is why he made sure not to get his wife knocked up.”
“Yeah, this bastard sounds like quite the charmer,” Berzerker practically spat.
Brandeen sighed, and said, “Well, I wasn’t going to just lie back and take that, right? Only reason I took anything from that jerk was because he was loose with his money. So, six months ago, when Cody was born, I got a paternity test done, with a SIN registry. Once it got shown that Cody was Mel’s biological son, I sent a copy to Mel, and told him to start the money flowing again, or the next one goes to his wife.”
I nodded. “I’m guessing he paid. But you were looking for a subscription service, not a one and done, right? What happened next?”
“I didn’t get stupid greedy or anything. Kept the cost low. Enough for me to live my current life, plus a little left over to save up, for emergencies or when Cody got older, maybe making sure he could get some good schooling. 4000 nucred a month. Chump change to him, and not even enough for me to afford the normal wage-slave life on my own.”
She took a breath, and said, “But I guess you don’t get to be VP without being a shit person. He kept trying to talk his way out of paying, and I had to threaten to go to his wife. Last week, when payment was due, it went through without me even needing to rag him. Guess I know why, now.”
I nodded sympathetically. “Yeah, no sense kicking up a stink when he’s already putting out feelers on where he can get a hit squad. Of course, it looks like the cheapskate skimped out on that, too. If he’d had hired actual pros, they wouldn’t have waited until you getting into the store before blowing the car. And they wouldn’t have dressed or acted like they did. Hell, the dwarf didn’t even have the good sense to wear armor, and if he was a slinger and had a spell to sort things, he damn sure didn’t have it up and ready, which means they weren’t expecting trouble.”
“Yeah,” Berzerker nodded. “Though, if we hadn’t been there, she’d probably have still been toast, since none of those civvies was going to risk their necks.”
“True,” I nodded in return, before looking at Brandeen. “All right, so, now we’ve got the who and the why, but now comes what. As in, what kind of job do you want us to do, and what kind of payday are we getting? We’ve done a lot, so far, just because we’re good people, but being good people doesn’t keep the lights on and food on the table, yeah? So, what kind of gig are you wanting, and what are you offering?”
“Good thing about playing the bubbling blonde bimbo is that people think you’re as stupid as your hair color makes you look. Mel didn’t think I paid attention all those times when he was dealing with work while we were on a ‘date’. Left his commlink locked with only a fingerprint scanner, too. Put his finger on the reader, and boom, I could look through all his stuff. Didn’t copy or take anything, of course. That’d tip him off. But I found stuff out, stuff he doesn’t know I know.”
“Slush fund, embezzlement, or selling out to the competition?” Those were the three biggest possibilities, after all. If she had something to blackmail him with, she would have done so before getting knocked up. But all three of those options left potentially juicy stockpiles of nucred just taking up space in a digital account somewhere, crying out to be used. It would be a crime to just leave them there.
“Embezzlement,” she nodded, clearly glad she didn’t have to spell things out. “Second account that his wife doesn’t know about. Year ago, it was worth over two million.”
She took a breath, and said, “As for what the job is? I want the money. New SIN, flight to New Angeles, and start a new life there. And if his wife inherits all his legit fortune, then that’s just bonus points. As for your payment? Ten grand, each. Plus, Mel was just starting on a vintage gun collection. Pre-Magic stuff. Prize of his collection is something he called a ‘Chicago Typewriter’. Some kind of early SMG, according to what I found on the Matrix. Also found that a vintage piece in working order can be worth over a hundred grand, on its own.”
Iceblade’s Negotiation (Sense Motive): 11d6 = 2 Hits, 2 Miss (Success)
Iceblade’s Negotiation (Bargaining): 9d6 = 3 Hits, 3 Miss
Brandeen’s Negotiation (Bargaining): 6d6 = 2 Hits, 0 Miss
Didn’t seem like she was lying, which meant that there was potential, there. Still, taking the first offer was a sucker play. “Vintage guns are good, but they take time to sell. And if you want that money, then we’re going to need to go in differently than those punks your former sugar daddy paid. We’ll need to bring in a couple more, and properly case the joint so we find out what security is like at his place. While we keep you out of sight, so he doesn’t make another play at you and your boy.”
She bit her lip, and I could see I’d scored a point there. “So, here’s my counter. Fifteen percent, for the team, plus we take the vintage guns. Even if there’s only a million in the account, that still sets you up in high class digs for life, with plenty of nucred left over. Hell, you invest right, and don’t squander things, when Cody turns sixteen, you’ll be able to give him the latest model sports car from the biggest makers, and not even sweat.”
“Ten percent, for the team, and the guns. And I’ll tell you where he keeps the good booze, the fifty-year old Scotch kind of good, mind you.”
Looked over at Berzerker, and she gave a small nod. Turned back to Brandeen, and grinned. “Sounds like you got a deal, Brandeen. Now, let’s start working.”
Comments
Gustavo Campanelli
Notice that if they did not act, and the guys killed the girl and little boy, there was no job at all. And also, there was no guarantee of jobs, just self preservation after a bomb and guys firing into the store, The job is a plus, and it's even better because there's no fixer to get a cut. In my group the fixers called themselves Jonson to avoid using their real name.
Michael Masters
another good story , thank you
Colin Dearing
Interesting how real addictions are, makes this a very real living world. Also dropped right into a plot line to explore
Robert Gardner
TFTC
Iron Akela
A nice job to cut their teeth on. Looking forward to seeing who they hire and how this goes down
Chris M.
💗 nice chapter. thank you. 💗
