Ghost in the City

Chapter 205

Miguel Hernandez

Everything was falling apart! Just because he had taken the drugs! They should have been his anyway! Who cares that Daniel that Tino fucker thought it was his. Miguel was important, not some street scop fucker!

But now, despite having flatlined the gonk for refusing to do what Miguel wanted, everything was going wrong.

The first attack had almost worked, if not for his bodyguard. And now Father hired an entire horde of Animal Hustle to protect him…

But now Father had gone quiet.

“Well!?” He yelled at the Animal that was the leader of the Squad.

“Told you already. We were hired to protect you. Not to find out what’s up with your pops. Eddies are already paid, so we do our job.”

“And I’m telling you to find him!” He yelled, but the animal didn’t even acknowledge his words, just going back to pumping weights.

Fucker.

Father was an important man! He had ties to the mayor! There was no way some street trash Valentino would touch him! He’s probably just… Busy.

His thoughts were interrupted once again by the sound of a loud engine roaring up the street,

“Someone kill that fucker driving the Caliburn!” He screamed. It had been hours where the same Caliburn would drive up and down the street outside revving the engine and making noise.

Miguel had no idea who it was, probably some rich brat driving his fathers car that he had no right to. But it was infuriating, as the engine was loud enough it was constantly disrupting Miguel's thoughts.

Then it happened, just as he was going to start yelling for the Animals to go do what he said for once, the animal that was with him suddenly rose up. “Runner!” He managed to shout just before he roared and groaned as the spark of electricity ran up the Borg's body and he tumbled onto the floor shaking.

Then the gun fire started.

Adrenaline shot through him, and he reached for the engraved Overture he had left on the table beside him, but it was gone.

Nothing was on the table.

“Wha-” He was cut off as everything ended.

—--

*Target Eliminated.* I confirmed into the group comm, and then turned. Overture raised I dropped two rounds into the Animal that was protecting the target.

*250 XP Gained.*

*750 XP Gained.*

Hmm. That Animal was probably the leader then.

I stepped over the bodies and left the room, entering in the mansion's massive open floor plan to see my team clearing up already. The sound of gunfire as they peppered twitching bodies coming out in short bursts.

Well that was easy.

I walked past my team, and dug under a table to pull out the Tachikoma that was hiding there.

Well that had been pretty easy. Blinding and locking down the Animals with Short Circuit, letting my team move in and kill them easily.

“Clear over here!” I called out having checked my little area and making sure all the animals were dead. My call prompted everyone to join in, calling out that they cleared everyone.

I wasn’t seeing any more lines from Ping either, so we had gotten everyone.

I looked outside and noticed the robots slumped over. I had turned them all off from the security center, meaning all of them could be recovered. THose were expensive, and Hiromi would be very happy we had snagged them intact.

Plus robots were neat!

*Alright Ichi, let’s bring in the truck.* I called over the line and I turned around and just smiled as Rebecca and Malcolm both looked over the mansion and all the stuff that was just laying around.

A few moments later Hiromi pulled in with Malcolms Caliburn, and then the massive Behemoth Ichi was driving came in, and turned for easy loading.

I really did love it when everything came together.

—--

“Cheers!” I called back as I smashed my soda into Rebecca’s drink.

“That’s right! We’re the best!” She shouted out and more people called out their agreement as they raised the alcohol we paid for to celebrate our gig.

It still felt weird to me to do this, but Rebecca ran with Maine and had a better idea on how the normal edgerunner celebrations went.

Once again we were outside Turbo’s and cheering our success to the world. I suppose in this case, considering the Animals were used to working as mercs, and weren’t known for holding grudges against that sort of thing, and the target and family already flatlined, I felt pretty comfortable with talking about our success.

We were now once more flush with eddies, the small amount from actually completing the gig, and then a whole lot more for stealing everything of value in the mansion.

I had even stripped the security system server and packed that away, because that sort of thing was good eddies.

I watched on from the top of the Quadra enjoying the atmosphere, even if it wasn’t really my thing.

It was purely by chance. A headlight turning off the ramp flashing a bit of light into the sky, causing a reflection that had me glancing over.

Rainbow pastel colors.

I stilled as I looked up over the city skyline and there it was.

A familiar hair color that stood out in the colors of Night City. Waving gently against the stars as a familiar women leaned on the wall of her apartments roof, smoke trailing slowly into the sky.

Before I could think I stood up, reaching over and grabbing one of the Brosefs, already planning my path.

I raced up the street towards the familiar apartment complex, and then smiled as I started moving.

A food stand onto a rooftop, then taking a moment and jumping across to a windowsill then across to another and then back and forth until I climbed up onto the roof of the apartment complex.

I sauntered over and let myself go cold as I wasn’t sure how to do this properly. So I figured, fuck it.

Stolen novel; please report.

I walked over making sure to scuff my boots loudly so she wouldn’t startle at my sudden appearance.

That was something fun to do to fuck with my friends, but not her.

“You know. There’s a party going on. You’re welcome to join. It’s open to everyone.” I offered openly as dropped the sweating bottle of Brosef onto the ledge beside her arms. Our eyes met. And I nodded, not wanting to push it. There might be time for that another time. “Well, offers open. Feel free to enjoy the beer.” I offered and then since I wasn’t in the mood to take the long way, I put my hand on the railing, and just leveraged myself over.

“Wait!?” She gasped as I disappeared over the edge, and I flashed her a confident smirk upwards as she suddenly reacted as I fell.

Lucy Kushinada. A little different than I remember. Her outfit was a bit less confident. But it was definitely her. I sent her a cheeky wave as I fell, before I stopped my descent, by bouncing off a ledge, hitting a street light spinning around it a bit and then landing softly on the sidewalk and sauntering back to the party.

—--

I pushed myself hard once again. The weights went up and down as I worked myself as hard as I could. That final level up for training Body was constantly teasing me. I wanted that little bit more!

Sweat poured down my face, across my Kiroshi, but the feeling didn’t matter. There was only one more push after the next. And the one after that.

What was discomfort?

What was tiredness?

Both only lasted moments, while improvement lasted forever. Temporary pain was something I could deal with.

So I pushed once again. The weights held in my hands tightly as my core screamed, and my legs felt numb.

I was back in my little corner of the downstairs gym area. The TC guys once more ignored me as I claimed a back corner, hidden away and just worked out for as long and hard as I could.

I needed just a little more.

Then finally as I pushed myself up from another crunch it happened.

*100 Body XP Gained*

*Body Leveled up!*

I felt it, a shift in my muscles, and strength. I slowly let the weights touch the ground and just sat there for a while breathing in and out, as I felt my body shift under my clothes.

Body 10.

I exhaled, and felt my breath come out cool and strong, without wavering despite how tired I was.

I had finally managed to do it. The final point. My body that was still flesh despite being tired and numb in places, felt strong.

I was now more than I had been just before that point.

And more importantly?

I’d never have to hit the gym again! Gonna go get something sweet and pig out to celebrate! Weee!

—--

“So you had another gig?”

“Yep! Assassination for Padre.” I answered back as I ducked to avoid another fist. Heh. Hayato was so cruel! She’d ask a question and attack just after to try and get an advantage!

Sneaky! I approved!

“Padre? The Valentino Fixer?”

“That’s the one. Interesting gig. We killed this guy and looted his mansion, got a ton of stuff. You interested in richy-rich booze or something? The guy had a major liquor cabinet and we took it with us. Hiromi is trying to sell it off.” I explained as I activated my Sandy and burst into motion and started jabbing over and over pushing Hayato back as she struggled to keep up with my Sandevistan speed.

But I turned it off pretty quickly and backed off giving Hayato a chance to recover.

“Bit-Do you have to do that?”

“Keeping you on your toes!” I said with a happy smile and then we went back at it.

“I’m not really interested in alcohol. No thank you.” She admitted a breathing heavily, answering my question.

“Ah well, I tried. Hiromi will be happy that I did at least.” I said with a smile as I ducked and blocked Hayato’s returning blows. Then she shifted, and I activated my Sandy for a split second to dodge back as her foot swept up and nearly took my face off, but instead I avoided it and swept out my own leg hitting her on the back of her knee and sweeping her right off her feet.

“Fu-Owe!” She cursed as she hit the mat.

“Too aggressive. But good job trying to keep your tells down. I almost didn’t spot that!”

“Ughh.” She groaned for a moment before taking my offered hand and rising up.

“Again.” She demanded and I nodded, backing up and we went back into it.

Hayato was a good partner, Street Brawling alerts kept coming in, as every time I faced her she tried something new.

I was pretty sure she was getting actual training from someone in between our little sparring matches and was being taught things to try and beat me with.

Heh. It was pretty fun though.

We went at it again, and I was delighted in the way my body felt so strong. I was able to block her blows nearly without effort as I simply powered through. Hayato might have more chrome than I did, but I was stronger than she was now and it showed, when I punched and she blocked it knocked her back.

“Stupid!” She hissed at me, and then went aggressive and I laughed as I shifted to duck under more of her jabs.

Hayato had a tendency to go on the offensive whenever she got angry. It was cute, but I needed to work on her for that. Her temper was going to get her in trouble at some point.

When she jabbed I flashed my Sandy, and of course she was pushing a bit too much, so instead of blocking or dodging, I grabbed her wrist, which meant I got to see the way her face shifted in rapid speed into shock and then outrage, and then her mouth opened.

“YouBitchNotThisAgaiiiiiin!” She screamed as I once more hip tossed her until she stopped with an oof as she hit the mat.

“You got a bit too aggressive in your anger.” I told her, and reached down and poked her forehead, letting my cooler fingers feel the warmth of her forehead. “Cool and calm, especially on the attack.”

She looked up at me, her eyes practically glowing under the lights as our eyes met for a while before her face scrunched up in embarrassment and she looked away, flapping a hand at me to push me away.

“Stop that!” She demanded and I just laughed.

—---

“Yo.” I greeted, and looked over at the woman that had requested a meeting with me.

“Ghost. Glad you arrived.” Vortex greeted me. I was back on the net. Vortex had messaged me about the debugging I had done for her, and wanting to talk.

I slipped into the seat, and looked around the club. We were at Yoko’s place and as I sat, she waved a hand, and the area locked down, giving us some privacy.

“So. You fixed my code. Thanks for that.”

“It was part of the deal.” I answered back and she nodded before getting serious.

“I need some more work done on the program. But uh… I’ll need to do some reveals about what it’s for. So before we get started. I want to hire you.”

“Hmm.” I offered in reply the woman was sort of desperate and I wasn’t sure I liked it. Frankly the code was pretty obvious. It was an eddie skimmer. Take some eddies off the top of some sort of transaction system.

I didn’t know, and didn’t want to know, and didn’t want to get involved. That’s the sort of crime that corps send hit squads after. Kill some of their guys? Meh. Take their money? Get ready for an apocalypse.

“Honestly. I don’t know if I want to get involved.”

“Hey, I get it. I’m not asking for a partner though. So as you know I’m trying to make some eddies with it, so I’m not exactly flush, but I do have other things. I’m a programmer too. I have some code.”

I very pointedly didn’t mention that her code was dogshit.

But she got my disinterest.

“Listen. I got data you might find very interesting. I just need some more debugging help.”

I considered it. Honestly I wasn’t in a lot of danger even if I helped on this.

And I could use more XP.

“Do you still want to derez Daemons?” She asked suddenly and at my interest she started smiling. “I know of a server that's infested with old Daemons. It’s safe-ish. As much as any server can be, but I checked it out myself. How about it? I’ll give you the deets, in exchange, for the debugging.”

“Hmm.” I offered again, and she seemed to realize that I wasn’t all that interested. A random server full of Daemons? That could be seriously dangerous, and it might not even be as useful as just going into the netrunner combat zone.

“On the server. Rumor is it has some interesting data. I found it but couldn’t get through the architecture. The place is a bit of a mess. But it could be valuable!”

I sighed. “Okay, fine. Give me the server address, and tell me what you know about it. And then tell me what your program is supposed to be skimming eddies off of.”

“Casino machines. See, it’ll skim an integer off the profits!”

I nodded. Well it wasn’t corp, but Casino? That meant gang, which was bad in a different way.

Whatever. “Don’t tell me any more, and just give me the code. I can figure out what you neeeeed… Are you dumb?” I asked, looking over what she had done.

“What?”

“This integer is waaay too high. Do you want whoever you are trying to steal from to notice instantly? Hell, with this, over just a hundred transactions, You’d be taking like one percent. That’s crazy.”

“I’m trying to make something here!”

I looked at the code and realized that this woman was a moron. I was going to have to explain this like I was talking to a kid.

“You either have a large surge, or you have stealth. Pick one.” I said, and she twitched.

“It’s stealthy!”

“There is no way, the casino you are stealing from isn’t going to notice this much theft. You want to make eddies? Do it over a much longer period, and you’ll be much safer.” She didn’t really answer, but I shrugged and started working.

I poked at her code, pulled up a screen right there, and going to work. Altering numbers, and values until I was satisfied.

“That’s… Nothing!”

“That’s safe. But the input numbers are variable. If you want to be crazy and go higher, that’s on you.” I mumbled, as I continued cleaning up the code errors I was seeing. Talk about a bloated mess.

“Why are you deleting that!?”

“Because it’s pointless and it’s going to cause errors in the machines if I don’t.” I mumbled distractedly.

I noticed she didn’t argue though as I continued cleaning up the code. Minutes flew by as I altered the whole thing. Ripping parts of the code apart that I had already removed the last time she had sent me the program.

I gave her a bit of a glare through the transparent screen as I removed the garbage again.

She looked like she wanted to argue for a moment, but instead as I continued to alter the program she shifted to watching avidly. Unable to tear her eyes away.

Finally I was satisfied and compiled, handing the much neater code back to her.

“There. That’s my side.”

“Who are you?” She asked after a moment and I just gave her a look but that didn’t satisfy her.

“Listen I know how to code-”

“Arguable.”

“-But you… Yeah I know. You’re something else. I’ve never seen anyone go through a program that fast!”

“It’s my special talent.” I offered jokingly, but then held out a hand. “My payment.”

She looked from my hand to me, and then nodded. “Sure, Ghost in the Shell.” She said my name formally. And then passing over some web address and a small file with some data from the server she had found.

I looked it over and shrugged.

“Alright. See you around.” I offered as I slipped out of the booth and jumped out of the server. Back to my Lobby. I’d check it out later if I even cared that much.