It wasn't long before Sombra had read the pertinent emails in Katya's account to learn that the weapon inspection she was speaking of would take place at the Volskaya Industries Svyatogor plant near St. Petersburg. She played the recording for Reaper and Widowmaker. It was the perfect hack, what they had wanted all along: Sombra had phished it without ever stepping foot in Russia. They were completely in her pocket.
Now with nothing to do until the mission, Sombra watched Katya's webcam obsessively. She watched her at work, on the airplane-when she was supposed to have turned it off, she watched Katya give presentations to board members, she watched her pen opeds for Pravda, tuck her daughter in and kiss her good night, she had seen her change-Katya was fairly fit, she had seen her sleep-Katya slept soundly, not like Sombra who always awoke exhausted and frantic. The whole rhythm of Katya's life was exposed to Sombra.
She was particularly fascinated with Katya's daughter. It must be nice having a mother. Seeing Katya hold her daughter in a knowing, loving, protective way... It caused strange feelings in her. Families are bullshit, she thought. Would I be a hacker if I had a family? I would be a lame nothing. Every mother she knew just told her what to do. She watched Katya gently tap her daughter on the nose, the image of maternal composure and power.
"If only you knew what your mother was up to..."
She broke away from the strangely hypnotic images of Katya's domestic life and her mind turned to Talon. She was dissatisfied. This was working all too well. The hack was too easy. Blackness closed in on Sombra and she felt depression chasing her.
She had come along way building the trust of her constituents but could feel something nagging her, the dark maladjusted part of her, the part that wanted to screw things up while for no reason.
They are broken people, it said, they will never trust or respect you, they are too caught up in their own morbid dramas. They are half dead anyways, do you think they deserve your trust?
"Shut up, I finally have a good thing going here," she said aloud.
You think you have it pretty good here? You are trash to them, they have no idea what you are capable of, that's why they are afraid.
"They are afraid..."
You are on the verge of real power, no more living in trash, you will be manipulating the world's most dangerous organization and they won't even know, you won't need anyone, you will be free, you won't be running from the cops anymore or broke. Aren't you tired of starving? Aren't you tired of ingratiating yourself to idiots?If you do this you'll have accomplished more than Los Muertos did in years, you will have blackmailed a politician for life and there is nothing they can do about it. You can take Talon and Katya for a ride in the same day.
That seemed pretty good.
Sombra thought of all the money she had acquired during her exploits sitting variously in anonymous bank accounts and buried safes around Mexico. She thought of the pain in the ass it was to trickle it into her accounts, how it was a combination of dumb luck, bribes, threats and seduction that kept her whole operation going. How nice it would be to start a trust? A Russian oligarch could make it happen.
So what? she thought, I just sneak out, threaten her family and then let her have the slip the day Talon goes to kill her?
No, that's non-sense, they won't let you out anyways.
"So I do it at the same time"
This was the mischief she had been missing. This would be in perfect Los Muertos style: they would deliver the target to Sombra and Sombra would give them nothing and take everything for herself.
Yes, I get her alone, show her the material and make her an offer she can't refuse. And if she says no, I'll kill her.
It was perfect. This was too good. Too bad no one else could appreciate it.