Residential District 0700 hrs
Sam had gotten some advice a few nights ago after he had just violently put down a notorious thug named ZeoJack
'Let a man walk alone, let him commit no sin, with few wishes...like an elephant in the forest.'
When he had asked Kaena for an interpretation ,she had told him it was best to figure out one that would apply to him by himself.
On the way here Sam had made a little time to ruminate on Mr Chan's cryptic advice and as best as he could tell Mr Chan was telling him to walk away from a life of violence and be hunky dory with the rest of the world.
Sam could only smile at the thought of that, if only such an option was possible for a guy like him. However as Sam stood in the apartment of the man identified by the Jade Dragon boss Kenjiro as the one who hired them to recieve the stolen Arasaka Corp Data from Hiro Nagayama and eliminate him afterwards he tried to make sense of a new puzzle.
There were two bodies on the floor, the woman was riddled with bullets from small arms fire and the man had a knife buried in his chest.
Around the two corpses was signs of a chaotic struggle, the penthouse apartment was soundproof so no one outside would have heard any commotion . Sam had immediately called in the situation to Mr Smith and asked for intel on the recently deceased man.
"His name is Danzo Himura, a mid level exec at Arasaka Corp HQ NightCity. He was on the fast track for upper level promotion but he had a bad habit of partying,gambling and a soft spot for girls from the red light district.
His habits put him at odds with head honchos and one of the promising junior officers was selected to cover for him while he served a temporary suspension".
"Let me guess.." Sam cut in " it was Hiro Nagayama."
"Correct, Mr Nagayama took up the slack for Danzo and made a good impression with the bosses, his work ethic coupled with his dedication to Arasaka Corp and his his family honor convinced them to make his new position permanent."
"I'm guessing Danzo didn't take kindly to that."
"No Sam, he didn't. He came back from suspension and threw a hissy fit. The bosses told him that if he didn't like the new arrangement then he could resign and jump on the next shuttle back to Japan.
Danzo had to eat the humble pie and work with Nagayama but as time went by ,Nagayama's skill with software and coding came to the fore and he was promoted again in rank as well as given the post of Senior Data Manager."
"A post that would have gone to Danzo eventually, if he had his act together." Sam said " it's all starting to fit together, having a junior staff do your job for you after you had your ass handed to you by the Boss was bad enough but then having the junior staff man basicly taking over your job and eventually promoted above you in rank and position must have been a kick to the balls for Danzo."
"Indeed.." Mr Smith agreed " especially when you consider that after Mr Nagayama was made the new SDM another junior man was promoted to his old position rather than Danzo being reinstated. Even an asshat like him would have seen the handwriting on the wall, he was done and dusted as far as a career with Arasaka Corp was concerned."
"He would never agree to 'go queitly into the cold dark night' , he would want revenge..." Sam said " Hey Smith, when i talked to Kenjiro about what Nagayama wanted in exchange for the stolen Data he mentioned a chemical compound, i've done a Net search but i need you to put your resources on it."
Sam told Mr Smith the name of the compound and had to hold while Mr Smith conducted his own search using his own unique resources.
"Sam ,the compound in question is used in the medical drug called ZoeStim-TX13...it's a reproductive stimulant but get this, the active ingredient for the drug is extremely rare...so rare in fact that it's only available on the black market."
"A fertility drug...of course." Sam said
"Sam, what...?"
"Put two and two together Smith, Hiro Nagayama apart from being a poster boy for the perfect Arasaka Corp employee is the Son of Takero Nagayama...the ONLY son. Takero Nagayama himself was the only son of his father before him."
"Ahhh...i see" Mr Smith said begining to follow Sam's logic.
"The Nagayama family name has been balancing on a knife edge for several generations now ,Takero Nagayama's wish before dying would be to see his only son marry and produce a child...a male child to carry on the family name.
As a dutiful son Hiro would have done just that even thou his dad died soon after his marriage."
"Hiro Nagayama recieved his transfer to Arasaka Corp NightCity not long after his marriage..." Mr Smith continued "but with every year that passed without a child ,much less a male child , it would have been a cause for increased scrutiny and pressure from the family Matriarchs. Hiro could never adopt a child, blood heritage is taken very seriously in Japan."
"Yeah...if a medical report that Hiro's wife could not have children ever came to light, they would demand that he divorce her immediately and take a new bride."
Sam voice took a softer tone
"But Hiro loved his wife, in as much as he loved his family as well he wasn't willing to abandon her for lack of a child."
"So he made a deal with the devil.." Mr Smith intoned "to get the ZoeStim-TX13 for his wife's sake."
"Smith, do a search for where Danzo did most of his partying and gambling in particular around NightCity."
Sam again held on while Mr Smith carried out a search.
"Jinhao District, Japan Town."
Sam looked over at Danzo's corpse and frowned "Jade Dragon territory, he probably worked up a gambling tab once or twice, thats how he got on thier radar.
When Danzo realised that his career with Arasaka Corp was screwed ,he wanted to get even with Nagayama. He would have searched for something he could use. Either by his own methods or by reason of his affiliation with the Dragons he found out that Hiro's wife couldn't have children and he took advantage of that to bait Hiro using the Jade Dragons as a proxy with the promise of the ZoeStim-TX13 into breaking his moral code to betray Arasaka Corp.
It would have been a classic one , two punch. Danzo gets bloody revenge on Hiro and he gives Arasaka Corp the finger by putting sensitive Data on the black market."
Sam turned his attention from Danzo to the second corpse on the floor.
"what about the girl?"
"I ran a search from the picture you sent, her name is Maggie 'lotsa' Trixx..."
'Lots-a-trixx, ha...funny' Sam thought, considering her line of work the 'tricks' in question were obviously of a sexual nature.
"she has a rap sheet with NightCity PD, offences with drugs,petty theft, illegal possesion of dangerous weapons and trafficking of stolen goods."
Sam looked around the apartment and noticed a workstation displaying an idle screen.
When Sam tapped the screen , the display lit up with colourful schematics and technical specifications. Sam also took note of the digital watermark on the Data displayed.
'Arasaka Corp patents.'
More peices were falling into place.
"Seems to me that Ms Trixx was looking to score on the stolen Data that Danzo had apparently stashed away and she ended up with a chest full of bullets for it but not before she stuck her knife through his heart."
"Honor among thieves...indeed." Mr Smith said with a sarcastic voice.
In the background on Mr Smith's end of the comm link was a familiar pinging tone of a message recieved on a workstation.
There was a short pause as Mr Smith asked Sam to hold but when he spoke again it was in a brisk tone of voice.
"Sam, new orders from Arasaka HQ. You are to retrieve any and all sensitive data belonging to Arasaka Corp from the late Mr Danzo's apartment, leave no trace of your presence there and exfiltrate ASAP...your mission is over."
"Understood...Sam out."
Sam moved quickly, picking up the workstation and conducting a sweep of the apartment for any other items of intrest. When he was satisfied that the apartment was clean ,Sam left the same way he had arrived...silently and unseen.
Some distance from the apartment building ,a call came through on the Comm unit just as Sam had revved up the Mitsubishi.
"Hey Kaena ,What's up?"
"Sam ,the video has gone Viral and the major networks have picked up on it. The social chat sites are buzzing with chatter as well, i'm streaming the feed to you now."
Sam plugged the USB cord from the Comm unit to his E-brain port and when his E-brain HUD snapped into view he was bombarded with video stream from multiple news channels as well as chat traffic from social sites.
NightCity News Network LIVE
...breaking news story that we are following at this hour. Shock and awe as an anonymous video surfaces on the Net showing the infamous boss of the Jade Dragons ,Lord Kenjiro ,being physically manhandled and humiliated by an unknown asailant. Our experts have verified the video to be authentic...
Network News 54
...the most feared man in Japan Towns underworld was the subject of a video released into the Net today, the contents of which have put paid to the aura of invincibility that the Jade Dragons have claimed for many a year. We would like to warn our viewers that the following footage is not suitable for young children...
.net
Yakuza Boss Smackdown Thread
372,948 comments..Recent Comments
Kelly_B
Holy shit!...that dude got bitch slapped for real..LOL Andrew.K
This isn't a joke people! Could be the start of a gang war :-( Anarky99
Hell Yeah! Burn mothaf**** Burn! LOL The_Joker
Andrew.K, Why so serious? Lets put a smile on that face.
Kenny_G
Andrew.K is right, this is not a joke. This expose' video is a major blow against Lord Kenjiro and his leadership of the Dragons. If war breaks out there's sure to be casualties.
Sam disconnected from the Data stream and spoke into the Comm unit
"I'm heading over to The Office for my debrief, talk to you soon."
Sam guided the Mitsubishi out of the residential district towards a major highway back into the heart of the city and as the morning sunlight peeked over the city skyline Sam had a ghost of a smile on his face.
It had been a very intresting night indeed and if that was any indicator, it was going to be a very intresting day.