"Alright gang, we've got a new plan for the Tanaka job."

David couldn't help his nervousness as Maine spoke to the whole crew, wringing his hands together as he sat on a couch in the warehouse. Looking around, he was actually really impressed to see everyone laser-focused.

Hell, even Pilar had stopped tinkering for a second.

Becca was sitting next to David on the couch, with her feet on the table in front of them, meaning that her butt was hanging in the air. "That's nova! Knew you'd figure it out, bossman. Did you figure out what got Arasaka's panties in a twist?"

Maine grinned, and David saw him glance his way for an instant as if double-checking that he was ok with what was about to happen. But even though he was nervous, he'd agreed to this yesterday.

"We did, yea. Turns out… our boy David here is on 'Saka's wanted list at the moment. That Sandevistan he's got was a hotter target than we thought."

That got everyone's attention on him. He gulped as the whole crew turned to look at him, but he wasn't really able to tell what anyone was thinking. Well, other than Pilar, who looked like he just wanted to tinker with the Sandevistan even more now.

He did notice that even after Maine called everyone's attention back to him again, Kiwi kept looking at him for a moment longer than everyone else, her eyes glowing red. He shivered a little from her intense glare, but she looked away soon enough.

Lucy, who was sitting on top of the backrest of the couch to his left, seemed to have noticed that as well because he felt her hand land on his shoulder in a comforting manner. Taking a deep breath, he tore his focus away from Kiwi and back to Maine.

"-ah a talk with him yesterday, and we checked his message logs from his old school. We know for sure that Tanaka knows about him and the Sandevistan, and David has agreed to be the bait for the motherfucker."

David nodded sharply, mainly to himself as he felt his nervousness kick back up, but Maine shot him a smile anyway, before tapping the map that was on the table. "Kiwi, Lucy, when David lures him out, which will be to this underground car park, Tanaka will most likely have guards with him. I want them to be a non-issue by the time we're set to grab Tanaka."

The two Netrunners shared a look. Kiwi took the cigarette she was smoking out of her face mask for a second. "Should we just fry them? Would be quicker, but bodyguards like that usually set off alerts immediately when they're zero'd, and that'd bring the heat down on us."

Maine stopped to consider it for a second, before humming. "You guys are skilled. Take them out however you want, and cover your tracks as best you can. I've got a getaway driver lined up for this job, so we can delta outta there quick if we need to."

Kiwi nodded at that, putting her cigarette back into her mask. Maine took that as acceptance, and the thumbs up he got from Lucy allowed him to move on, a grin on his face as he leaned on his knees.

"Alright, so here's the plan…'

[New Quest: Baited]

[Successfully bait Tanaka and assist your allies in capturing him]

[Rewards: 800 XP | 1000 $$]

David's hands twitched subtly as they hung at his hips, itching to grab out his new Overture, but he knew he had to be unarmed for this to work. His eyes darted around the parking lot he was sitting in.

His role in the plan was actually a fairly simple one. All he'd had to do was unblock Arasaka Academy's number and send them the most bullshit 'I'm sorry can I please talk to Tanaka about apologising to his son' message he could think up.

Knowing Arasaka, they likely assumed he'd run out of eddies and pride and come crawling back to them. He felt his nerves settle a little at the idea of fucking them over, all while they thought they'd gotten him.

Was it risky? Hell yea. But he'd gone to Arasaka Academy for almost his entire school life, he knew just how arrogant Corpo's were. If he made it look like he was willing to do whatever they wanted just to get back to the 'good life' then they'd believe him.

Part of his bit of the mission was to ask to speak to Tanaka, specifically, in person. From the message he'd gotten back, Tanaka was willing to 'graciously take time out of his schedule to make sure that his apology was up to Arasaka Academy's standards, which was just the biggest load of corpo-speak bullshit David had ever heard.

Like Lucy had pointed out the day before, and just from knowing Arasaka in general, it was near on impossible to imagine that Arasaka would want him for anything but the Sandevistan at this point.

Doubly so if Tanaka was in the know about what it could do, other than its standard Sandevistan functions. David knew that he'd be desperate to get something like it back if it was his head on the chopping block for losing it.

Rumble

As the sound of the car park's door opening echoed through the empty space, David felt his body tense up. The rest of the crew had called in only minutes beforehand saying that they were in position, so he knew that he had his escape route if needed, but the idea of meeting Tanaka here, likely with his armed escort, was nerve-wracking.

Only a moment later, he saw the Arasaka car driving up to where he was sitting. As it parked across from him, David schooled his features the best he could, trying to come to look as if he actually did need Tanaka's help, but hated that he did.

He must have succeeded because when Tanaka stepped out of the car, flanked on either side by what were clearly plainclothes security officers, he laughed. "Mr Martinez, a pleasure to meet you!"

David hopped off the box he'd been sitting on, stuffing his hands into his pockets and putting his best 'moody teenager' face on. "Yeah, you too or whatever. I'm kinda surprised Katsuo isn't here."

The man actually paused for a moment, just an instant, at his son's name, but quickly brushed past it. "Ah, well, you asked for it to just be me so that I could veto your apology. I'm sorry that I couldn't come by my true lonesome, but you know how these things are. I'm just glad to see you taking your redemption to me son so seriously!"

A smile appeared on the man's face that sent a shiver down his spine. "Especially after the previous message we received from you! Why I've been around for a while and some of the things you said rankled even me, haha!"

David couldn't help but feel like his skin was crawling as the man spoke. There was something to the cheery canter of his voice that sounded… wrong. An undertone of something disturbing that the man was doing his best to hide.

As he spoke, the man had taken a few steps forward, playing with the cuff of his dress shirt. Glancing down at them, he could he had some sort of Cyberware in, at the very least, his hands, if not his entire forearm.

Even Arasaka desk workers, if they were highly ranked enough, needed to be able to defend themselves after all.

Luckily, the man seemed to be buying David's act so far, as he wasn't making any moves to use said cyberware against him. David kicked his foot along the ground, looking down. "Well, yea. I've been out here a few days, I just wanna go back to school, y'know? Shit sucks out here."

'Hook.'

The man paused, and when David looked up, he was grinning, with the absolute smuggest look on his face. It almost made him want to barf at how satisfied the man looked. "Well, I'm sure that once we've had a nice long chat with the school, and you've apologised to my son, we can get you right back into your coursework."

The only thing that helped him keep his act up was the text message he got from Lucy at that moment. It was just a thumbs up, but it meant that she and Kiwi had cracked the guard's defences and could take them out.

'Line'

He just barely kept a smile off his face at the message. But even without it, Tanaka suddenly straightened, his eyes glowing blue. David glanced up at him, and he could feel his chest start to beat.

"Is everything alright, sir?"

The man's head whipped to him, his eyes still bright blue as his Kiroshi's seemingly scanned for something. Even while they were going, he motioned one hand towards his guards, waving at David. "Everything this fine, my boy. But we must go now. Get him into the car, please."

'Sinker...? Shit.'

The guards that Tanaka motioned for darted forward, grabbing at one of his arms each, most likely attempting to get him physically off the ground. Unfortunately for them, David's Sandevistan didn't require anything but a thought to activate it.

The world went green, Tanaka slowing to almost nothing. The guards were still moving quicker than he would have thought, but they were slow enough that David could avoid them.

As he quickly ducked out of reach from their outstretched hands and ran off the side, he sent a message back to the crew, knowing that it would send through pretty much as soon as he dropped his Sandevistan speed up.

'Go now!'