30/08/2077
Floor 75, Konpeki Plaza Hotel, Watson District
Night City, California
V
-
The drive from Megabuilding Eight had been anything but comfortable for both V and Jackie. The two friends were too concerned about their ability to do the job to even consider resolving the issue that was still lingering between the two mercenaries from their rough discussion after the meeting at The Afterlife. Payment was always an issue to be discussed with the client or the fixer, but for a job as large as robbing a corporation like Arasaka, thirty per cent was a joke. They were the ones putting their asses in the firing line for the good of Dex and the client.
Neither spoke to each other unless the conversation warranted conversation or the need to be sure of the plan and the multiple steps to complete it. T-Bug, Evelyn and Dex had already assumed it was probably nerves, and V had to assume that Evelyn was less talkative as she pondered on whether V had decided what he was gonna do with the chip when he got his hands on it and if Jackie had come around to getting more money from the job.
The damn automated Delamain taxi had said more in the space of the short drive to the hotel, than V and Jackie had spoken. An exclusive package that provided a bulletproof, automated car with various care packages that managed to somehow include funeral care.
Great, buried by some fuckin' robo-cabbie. Life couldn't get any better than what it is now.
As soon as they arrived at the front of the hotel, the weather had already changed from the typical scorching sun that hovered longingly over the city. That day, rain had thundered away at the Night City skyline, pounding away at the traffic and even spattering against the premium neo-weave materials that made up Jackie and V's business suits. Entering the hotel in silence, V had done half the job by talking to the receptionist who had immediately assumed that they would go straight to do their job, to 'sell some weapons' and then leave the hotel. No chance. V had allowed his inner corpo-agent to rage, scolding the receptionist who was coated in a chrome-skin overlay for even daring to take the chance to assume that he would go by her rules and not his own.
The two street miscreants lingered on the ground floor of the hotel, playing for time as they had a quiet drink at the ground floor bar. A tequila Old-Fashioned and one tumbler of Maker's Mark, and soon the two 'weapon dealers' had entered the nearby elevator and gone up to their room for a quick nap-session before they went about their work and made their way to leave.
Of course, having a nap was only a cover as they entered the room. Jackie slipped the 'do-not-disturb' sign over the door handle, with V unlocking the hard case for the Flathead drone and piloting the bot through the ventilation shafts until he found the net-dweller on a maintenance floor, hooked into the neural network of the hotel. The Flathead drone crawled atop the net-runner chair, clasping it's four legs around the chest of the net-dweller before the drone short-circuited itself and the dweller, allowing T-Bug major access into the network of the entire hotel.
Slinking across the hotel and up to the hotel's eightieth floor, the security on the penthouse floor had been disabled, T-Bug's signature lurking in the net of the hotel as the cameras and automated sensors did not detect V and Jackie entering the penthouse suite. The rain had battered against the plate-glass windows, the penthouse usually allowing its inhabitants to look over the entire city from above. However, the weather had refused this view as the cloud coverage and rain shrouded the city in an eerie mist that swallowed the majority of the city, the only buildings visible being the high-rises and the corporate towers.
The room itself felt cold, frozen in time almost as Jackie and V scanned around the room, soon finding the bed and then the small cooling device where-in the small package was revealed. A small black case with the bio-chip. The two thieves looked at each other in awe, the score they had spent the past week looking for and preparing to take was quite literally in their hands as V took the case and placed it directly in the pocket under his suit jacket.
"We got it, Bug. Confirmed it, we've got the chip from the penthouse." Jackie whispered, as him and V walked their way back to the exit door. "Yo, Bug, you there?"
"Guys, gonna need you to find a spot to hide, and quick. Yorinobu is right outside, got bad electrical signals and three more signals have come out of a dark zone, probably roof access. Hide, now!"
The humdrum and roar of AV engines were loud from outside the windows, small scout vessels and one premium lounge ship rising and hovering as they went to land on the roof amidst the heavy rainfall and blustering winds. V and Jackie sprinted around the apartment, looking for a place to hide before they managed to slip in between the holographic pillar set. The set was accompanied with Crystal Dome settings that hid a maintenance shaft, blocking out any sort of vision from behind the pillars, allowing Jackie and V to hide behind it as soon as the doors to the penthouse slid open.
"Bug, what's the fuckin' problem, this ain't a solution."
"I know! Let me think, fuck, just stay hidden until I can find a way to get them out, fucking shit!"
Yorinobu Arasaka had entered the penthouse, the lanky Asian heir wandering around his private domain as if he owned the entire hotel for himself. The heir himself was dressed in a fine leather jacket, plaid suit pants with a snazzy set of sunglasses to boot. The man was followed by the heavy clangs of layered and plated steel, stomping on the black marble floor loudly before stopping right outside the entrance of the room. A robot with a slab of skin and flesh attached to the head, red eyes glaring as they scanned the room, not moving a single muscle as metal shifted around the arms and spine of the robot. A missile pod with two chainguns equipped and ready to massacre what ever was deemed as hostile.
"Oh shit," Jackie managed to mouth. "That's…"
"Adam Smasher."
"What's the play?" Jackie almost begged.
"Shut the fuck up and pray he doesn't scan us through the CD."
The legendary borged-out Arasaka guard stomped closer and closer to the centre of the entire penthouse, cranking and sputtering footsteps getting louder and louder as the cyborg stood in front of the maintenance shaft. V witnessed first hand how cybernetically and biologically enhanced Smasher was, and how seeing him with his own eyes without a braindance was perhaps even more terrifying. His scans declared that whatever Smasher was, whether he declared himself as robot or a 'human' if he could call it that, the scanner said that the borg was only 'three per cent human'.
The skin on his head proved to be a remainder of his skull and face, no nose, no mouth or ears. Eyes covered and welded shut to make way for constant scanning wherever the robotic monstrosity walked. The red scanning tech almost glowed, and V placed his hands over his mouth to cover his own breath in case the mere action of respiring gave their position away to the horrifying titan. As Jackie let out one desperate, hushed breath, Smasher responded as his head tilted ever so slightly to look at the heir to the Arasaka fortune.
"Room. Clear."
V and Jackie's comm buzzed as T-Bug spoke on the line. "No fucking way, the… Emperor? Oh shit, guy's the signal from the roof it's… Saburo Arasaka."
Two figures approached from the roof access, one man walking down with a confident stride in his step, garbed in a suit not too dissimilar from V's own. The other, was old and walked as if he were decrepit and unable to will himself to continue walking. Dressed in a set of high-waisted trousers, sandals and a ceremonial kimono, the old man made his way down the stairs and directly to his son. The less robotic guard that had arrived with the CEO of Arasaka, was also scanning the room, pistol under his arm with a small sheath on his hip, containing a wakizashi blade under the protective case. His shirt was undone, revealing a mass of red, silver and black soldered materials on his throat and chest, some silver coating reaching over his neck and onto his cheeks, black hair tied neatly away at the top of his skull as he made his way around the penthouse.
The old man, no doubt that it was definitely Saburo, slowly shuffling along the marble before he stood on the wooden floor where a small table and seat was prepared for him. His son could barely look him in the eye, focusing on reading the holo-pad in front of him before he took a drink from the ornate glass near his left hand, the glass itself filled with sake.
"I thought I told you not to meddle in my affairs." The younger Arasaka muttered as he read from his pad.
As V and Jackie were pressed to the crystal dome system, they weren't expecting that as soon as Saburo moved, the guard from before would suddenly jump into view. Eyes with a brown tint turning into a horrifying red light directly caused by the scan order coming from the guard's CPU. The man lingered in front of the maintenance shaft, unaware of the two thieves in front of him behind the crystal display.
"Leave us…" the old man muttered, drawing his guard's attention.
The guard turned, but did not leave the shaft's display. "Arasaka-sama, I have yet to complete a full scan of the room. I do not wish to show disrespect, but please, allow me to…"
The old man's voice was deep, and loud. "This is my son, he can barely look in my eyes, let alone do me harm without causing his own."
"I, understand." The guard replied. "Shall I get what we came for?"
The Emperor shook his head slowly. "No, Goro. I shall take it when I am finished with my son. Go with the robot, stand guard."
"Of course, Arasaka-sama. As you wish."
Smasher's voice boomed aloud. "Get out, Takemura. The man doesn't like desperate puppies like you interrupting his time with his disgusting, flesh and blood."
"Shizukani shite kudasai, anata wa yaban hito o yogoshimasu." The human guard replied, almost a whisper as he left with Adam Smasher behind him.
As soon as the clicking of fine leather shoes and the stomping of Adam Smasher had been muted as they left, two heavy sighs managed to escape from V and Jackie's lungs as they desperately grasped as much oxygen as they could take as they observed the two family members of the largest company in the entire world. The older male remained stoic, not bothering to give his son even sideways glance of the eye, his eyes remaining fixed as he stared at the pillars that V and Jackie were hidden behind.
"Did you think, I wouldn't know what was taken away from me? Did you think, I would not come to take it back?"
The younger Arasaka shrugged his shoulder as he drank some sake. "Truth be told, I rarely think of you at all. Ever. Your problem, has always been that you think the world always revolves around you. You're so, self-obsessed, arrogant even."
"Yorinobu." Saburo growled.
"Why did you come here?! To humiliate me, in front of the fuckin' borged out psycho and our family advisor? Or did you want the pleasure of making sure that your son knows his place in the family? Why are you here?"
Saburo finally looked at his son. "The nail that protrudes most notably from the wall will be hammered down first before all others."
"Couldn't think of anything original to say at all? Not even for me, I am disappointed."
Saburo's arms soon were behind his back, as the old executive stood straight. "Did you think it wise and original to sell our, no, my greatest achievement to the Westerners? Our family's future, Japan's future, to these barbarians who live in the squalor and ruins of their pathetic country?"
"Do not act like you ever cared about our family, or our home. You only ever cared for yourself, to be thanked for all your hard work as you philandered and made more and more sick schemes to mess with our family. My family."
"Your family?" Saburo repeated, his head bobbing up and down slowly, as if he was accepting what his reckless son had said was the truth. "One day, I knew this would come from your own twisted view of the world. Sooner or later, you would not see all I have done for you, and that your impudence would cross a line that could not be walked back upon. You are, foolish."
"Foolish? Me? No no no, the only fool here is you, Father." Yorinobu exclaimed, pacing rapidly around his room before he looked face to face with the patriarch.
Saburo looked straight into his son's eye, the look of a displeased emperor to a fearful servant. "There is much I could forgive you for, but treason, I will not allow it in my house, from my family."
"This is it; this is how you get rid of me? Disown me, is that all?" Yorinobu questioned, his pacing stopping as he began to smirk, laughing in his father's face.
The old man did not flinch. "I am glad your mother isn't alive to see me do this. The heart should only break once in a lifetime. Did you know, there is very old saying. Apparently, the sick have the ability to delude themselves. To make themselves appear brave and strong, dignified before death, before leaving the world in dishonour."
In one moment, the young man who had stood face to face with the old man went pale, his face flushed of colour as he felt his body begin to go cold and to shake violently. What was once a healthy man who lived in the prime of his life began to cough, and sputter, and choke violently as he began to clutch desperately at his throat before he fell to his knees. His hands stopped clutching at his throat and instead grasped at his father's feet, begging in gasps and coughs as his legs went numb. His face had gone from pale, to almost bloody red and a sickly green. His body went into bone-breaking spasms, violently shuddering before with one last desperate breath, Yorinobu Arasaka was no more.
The old man of the family did not say another word, looking down at his former child with a blank expression before he turned away from the body and walked out through the front door of the penthouse. The two thieves had almost forgotten they were hidden away in the maintenance shaft, watching in dead silence as they attempted to make heads or tails of what had just occurred in front of them mere seconds ago.
V rushed to escape the shaft, filtering through the small gap and waiting for Jackie as he opened his feed to Bug. "Yorinobu's dead, Bug."
"What? What the fuck did you do?"
Jackie quickly intercepted T-Bug's accusation. "It wasn't V and it wasn't me, Bug. No bullshit, Saburo just fuckin' offed his own kid!"
"Oh shit."
V had already rushed to the balcony door, hacking it open with Bug's supervision over the net. The heavy rain pelted the two thieves as they elegantly leapt over the railing of the floor's balcony and began to slowly slip across the ledge to the nearby pipeline system which they could have used to slide down a few floors. V was slipping across with success, with Jackie in tow as the ex-gangbanger attempted to follow his friend's path. As the rain and wind fought the two at every step, the one thing they didn't need to stop them also decided to assist the elements in stopping the two mercenaries from escaping.
T-Bug's voice was dry, almost gasping. "Guys?"
"Bug, what's up?" V asked, finally reaching the pipe. "Yo, Bug, you good?"
"It's the net. They've, found me."
Almost immediately, Bug entered extreme spasms. The video-link allowed a grotesque picture the scenario. Wires were ripped from the base of her neck and skull as she was ripped from side to side of the net-runner's chair, eyes bleeding profusely before her sockets and ears blown themselves out as wires and flames burst from every orifice of her head, her entire cortex scorched from the inside as the Arasaka net-runners began their scan of the hotel. The ensuing side-effects threw the two mercs through a loop, a high-pitched static shock ripping them from the gory sight of the link as they faltered for a moment.
V almost lost his balance, falling from the ledge but managing to grab onto the pipe to save himself from slipping off into the fall that would surely have done him in. He struggled to keep his grip in the rain and wind, the cuffs of his shirt and suit jacket ripping as he activated the Gorilla Hands. Synth-skin folded away as metal and cyberware refused to let go of the pipeline. Jackie was not so lucky, reaching desperately to cover his ears from the static, leaning forward and almost flailing his arms as he tried to regain balance. As soon as he did, he managed to catch sight of V clinging to the pipe.
"V, you okay?!" Jackie managed to shout over the blustering of the wind.
"I'm good, Jack! I'm good!" V shouted back, letting one hand go as he faced Jackie, his one gorilla hand keeping him safely latched to the pipe. "Jump!"
"Are you fuckin' crazy, amigo?"
"I CAN CATCH YOU!" V bellowed over the rain. "THE ARMS CAN TAKE THE WEIGHT AS LONG AS YOU GRAB THE PIPE AS SOON AS I LET YOU GO!"
Jackie took a moment to psych himself up for the jump. The job was arguably the most fucked-up and chaotic job they had ever done and they had only just gotten the score they needed. They still needed to escape the hotel, get the taxi and deliver the score to Dex. The large mercenary finally found himself ready to jump, and just as he made the leap, he'd stopped.
V was stuck. His heart had stopped, every augment and cyber in his body felt numb, heavy in his body.
The glass had smashed right behind Jackie, the pane exploding into a million pieces as Jackie hung in the air, arms and hands grasping desperately at his chest in pain as he looked down at V. A large metal blade, one end coated in blood and viscera had impaled Jackie straight the chest, ripping through the suit he wore, tainting the white neo-weave with an explosion of red liquid. The more Jackie grasped at his chest, the sooner he would expire, V knew that. He was expending energy. The blade didn't seem to move, as if it were a random piece of shrapnel that had fallen and Jackie had the mere luck of the draw to be skewered by it.
It wasn't shrapnel though; it wasn't rebar or a random sheet of metal. It was a carbon-filament blade, fixed with a high-frequency vibration upgrade that allowed the blade to cut through anything it was allowed to touch. V looked upwards, his eyes soon transfixed and stuck to the individual that had lanced Jackie through the stomach, the blade slowly cutting up through his chest. V was speechless.
The glowering metal structure of Adam Smasher stood tall, snug within the interior of the penthouse, his head turning directly to look at V as he continued clinging to the pipe. A loud metallic screech, as Smasher raised his leg and with one heavy kick, removed Jackie from being stuck on the blade. Lifeless, pale, V couldn't look his friend in the eye. Jackie fell below, his arms and legs spreading out as he fell on the nearby maintenance stand below them on what seemed to have been the sixtieth floor, his spine breaking as he landed on the metal grating of the hotel without no further movement.
"Weak, putrid flesh." Adam Smasher growled; his voice distorted by his cybernetic vocal device as he glared at V, his missile pod armed. "You're next, cunt."
An explosion rocked the pipeline that V was holding on to, the steel reinforcement bending and folding and breaking away under the weight of V as he grasped desperately for something to grab on to. His synth-skin that covered his hands shifted, his forearms sliding open to reveal his Mantis Blades as he attempted to slow his sudden descent, falling quickly before he managed to stab one blade into the concrete structure of the hotel.
His strength was faltering as the cyborg watched with glee as the mercenary struggled to fight his impending death. Smasher fired another rocket from his pod, ripping apart more of the hotel as saw the mercenary flying away from the defaced and damaged wall of the hotel, concrete falling over him and into a nearby maintenance trench for the lower floors of the hotel. Firing another two rockets for good measure, Smasher would have smiled if he had a mouth to use. Instead, his robotic laugh seemed closer than ever as he walked past Saburo and Takemura.
"Threat eliminated."