"A spot of luck that this nightclub-hotel thing was very close to the train station. In case of trouble we'll be able to flee easier" I've said to others. Standing in front of the Des Kesselhaus was already unhealthy for my ears. Stepping inside and receiving overwhelming thump of bass into my ears and stink of syntohol mixed with urine made me nauseous a bit.
Typical club in America had the same things only not in that volume. Inlcuding dancers of all races and genders where these in Kesselhaus seemed to saw better days...
Approaching the bouncer few steps ahead, I hoped our clothes concealed guns enough, especially Eiger's sniper rifle and shotgun folded under her jacket. As for Glory...Let's just hope that this short orc won't recognize vintage combat prostethics.
"Welcome to Das Kesselhaus. No entry fee, just get in and get your fix...Kroner over by the bar will take care of you. Just no funny business or you'll meet Herr Zapp" Bouncer finishes patting a taser gun.
Would love to see his expression if I'd put a shotgun against his forehead...
Nodding and keeping act of entertainment-hungry man I trott with the rest furthter into the club, trying to see anything through lights blinking like stroboscopes. Passing towards the bar in hope of getting any info from possibly chatty barman I've stumbled into interesting commotion.
The barman, Kroner, was a drug dealer supplying to the patrons. Young orc girl named Silke really tried to strike a bargain with the guy but she was out of money. Few things made my ears perk up. First, her money was in her hotel room but hotel was off limits lately. Gonna have to find a way in. Second, Silke was tiniest and most innocent-looking orc I've ever seen. It broke my heart that a girl like that was apparently addicted to 'cram' drug. Three, Kroner tried to get under her dress in return for drugs but Silke had enough dignity to brush him off. Not many addicts would do that.
Alright Rai, time to play saviour of the helpless...
"Leave me alone, alright? I'm not in the mood to stand another jerk trying to get handsy on me." Silke snaps once I approach her out of the Kroner's earshot.
"You know, addiction is drek of a thing. I know a place where they can help you shake it off. No fee, no 'services'." I try bluntly, ignoring her lashing out.
"Who said I want to 'shake' anything off?" Girl grits her teeth "Life on cram is better. I can manage it when I don't have to see all the drek around me. Now, unless you have spare cram, blow off."
"You wanna end up 'working' for Kroner or someone like him? Because that's what gonna happen sometime soon." I've locked my stare on Silke's eyes and begun my usual process of breaking peope's codes "You're near a rock bottom. You can still go up but once you'll hit it...You're done. Look I get it you don't know me but that's exactly why you have better chance somewhere else than whining to a drug dealer for freebie. We both know how it'll end up. I've seen it before and so did you..."
"Stop it, kay? I don't need to listen to-"
"Cram is an amphetamine, right? Your withdrawal matches." I play one last card out "I'll tell you what's gonna happen if you keep this up: Your teeth will rot and begin falling out, your skin will look like you're fifty years older. But you probably won't notice this being too manic to care about anything than another dose...Of course if your heart won't cave in. Risk gets higher with every dose of meth but with cram? Every hit may be your last."
After a long minute of biting lip, Silke shudders "That offer of yours...You're serious?"
"Dead serious. I've lost someone close to drugs, now I help when I can." My painstaken expression wasn't an act and she knew it. "Take the tube to Krezubasar and find orc named Samuel Beckenbauer. He runs a charity that helps people. Tell them Rai sent you."
"Thanks...I will." She speaks so silently I can't hear it in the ruccous, merely read her lips. "I've tried to clean up before but it never worked out..."
"It will this time because you won't be doing it alone. You're not the only one with problems, others made it and they'll tell you what to do there." I assured her and saw her twitch like she was going to tear away from the table and hug me.
"I'll get there as soon as I...Drek!"
"What?"
"My things. I've had a room up in the hotel but now it's sealed off and I can't get my things back. It's everything I have in there..." Her eyes went teary but softened immediately once I offered to get her stuff back. Why not, I was going there anyway.
"Room 304...Take the key." She hands me a battered keycard. Nodding I leave young Silke sitting more upright and no longer so ashen on her face.
"Rai, salvation of miserable crackheads. You done?" Eiger comments once I came back to the rest waiting in the dark corner.
"She has a chance to not end up as toothless whore that woud eventually die in some back alley. Keep that in mind, Eiger." I shoot back, not continuing this exchange. "Heard anything interesting? I've found that the hotel is off limits and we need a way in."
"That guy in a white suit..." Glory speaks not looking at me. "He got three different dancers, did not paid anything. He has no guards so he's not some client of neither bar nor the gang. He's a local."
I move my sight to the upper parts and notice younger, scrawny man looking and acting like a total douche. Glory's observations were right and I've decided to have a word with him.
Seeing the guy practically drooling over elven dancer and reaching out to grope her I've decided to cut his fun short.
"Hey man, I've heard you're the go-to man around here." I say loud enough to make him stop in half-motion.
"You got it wrong, pretty boy. Kroner-"
"I'm not talking about cram or other drek...Frank." I finish reading name on ID hanging from his neck. "Let's talk...Business, not trouble." I press on to make sure that idiot won't start making a hassle.
"Who the hell are you?" Frank leaves dancer be and looks on me then at the rest.
"Look at us, Frank. Do we look like your average chummers? We're on a business. Corporate business."
Franks face loses all the color immediately and he shoos dancer away for privacy. "We-We don't have any corporate 'trouble' around here."
"Neither do we...And to keeps it that way we need to get to the hotel. Why don't you do that for us sunshine and everything will be fine just as it was, right?"
"Y-yeah. Sure...Here's the key." Frank hands me the card. "You're not here to-"
"We're not here. Period. And nobody will ever know we were here. Especially your boss." I offer him a grin and motion to move out.
"Can't believe he bought it." Dietrich mumbles smiling.
"It won't last forever, we need to be quick about it." I remind others and stride towards the elevator at the far end of the club.
Stepping out on the first floor, I've decided to ransack the whole place top to bottom. Standard job when missing exact location and intel about the target.
"If I'd have to see another crackhead working under the table I'd puke and shoot them all to hell." Eiger speaks with disgust once we begun walking through the hallway with guns drawn.
"Barf on your own but I'd help you with shooting." I agree. Call me anachronic but dignity is one those things you shouldn't be selling at all, not to mention for a shot of drugs.
Motioning rest to stop, I slowly creep into one of the rooms that my scanner picked up as unlocked. Bodies of a couple laying on the bed, naked and with spit dripping from their opened mouths, injectors still crammed in their arms. Avoiding high as kite owners I've quickly bypassed the locks on the small safe. Huh, a smartlink pistol. That would fetch a nice price.
Retreating back into corridor, I lock the doors and change the codes to prevent these two from getting out too soon.
"Couple of junkies, nothing big." I whisper to the team. "Glory." Handing her the gun, she accepts it carefully. Same model as hers, big bore gun suited her, only linked with cyberware to moderate recoil and improve accuracy. She seems content, reloading the gift and storing it behind the belt.
Scanning the adjent rooms, I've either picked up signatures of very 'busy' couples or additional locks, preventing me from trying to break in as we were on the clock. That until I've stumbled upon wakened structure.
"Won't budge and explosives would cause enough mess..." I sigh at the cracked wall. Then I heard a mocking chuckle.
"Step aside, human." Eiger stores her guns away then makes one bash with her shoulder, successfully breaking the weakened concrete into dust.
Have I mentioned that Eiger was intimidating sometimes?
"Thanks Eiger." I withdraw any banter, knowing we weren't close enough for that. Her silence wasn't so hostile as before so I've called that a progress. Snagging few nuyen, I've also stumbled upon incoherent ramblings of someone but between weird confessions I've found something interesting about hidden console up on the third floor AND even some kind of access code. Good enough.
I've decided to skip second floor that had 'Employees only' label and ride to the third. Seeing right off the bat doors with handwritten sign 'do not open' I felt sting of fear at the sime time as excitement flooded me.
"Care to see what's behind door number one, guys?" I ask theatrically, making them stack up. Opening the doors I immediately regret being so nosy.
There was a giant scorpion in there. That's right, a scorpion bigger than a shepherd dog! Before I could even curse my stupidity, the monster clanked it's claws and waved it's tail, shooting a jolt of venom right at me!
Ducking onto dusty floor I leveled with eight eyes staring at me with unsupressed fury. Then a shadow moved past me and Glory just rammed into the arachnid and slashed it's tail off in one fluid motion. Creautre shuddered, emmiting high-pitched screech as rancing stench of it's guts begun filling the room.
I've got up and raised my weapon but hesitated since gunfire will draw everyone's attention. Fortunately, Glory was in full swing, another set of claws sprawled from her other hand. Criss-crossing hits, she torn the scorpyrine in half. Two parts twitched few times, then rested still.
It took me a second to force my shaky legs to move towards Glory who kept standing in the middle of the carnage.
"Jesus Christ, Glory! You alright?" I've gasped and tried to check over if she wasn't wounded. That thing surely was venonymous.
"I'm fine." She responded as usual, shaking the bile off her claws and retracting them back into normal hands.
"That was hell of a reckless thing you did...Thanks for saving me Glory." I try to thank her and force myself to not put hand on her shoulder. She isn't the touchy type. Turning around I notice Eiger standing still but not angry as before. Mortified, with face white as sheets she kept staring at the torn carapace laying on the floor.
"Eiger-"
"I hate spiders." She whispers "Scorpions even more." without any ribbing me, she huffs out of the room. Can't argue with her on that.
We reach room 304. Silke's room. I've tried to not snicker as I was picking up extremely weathered teddy bear and autographed cookbook. Code-locked credstick was a high-end item, possible from before Silke began taking drugs.
"That's kinda adorable you know Rai?" Dietrich comments from behind.
"What? That I'm getting her things back? I've promised her that."
"That's too but mostly that an orc girl addicted to cram and residing in worst club in Berlin was sentimental over a teddy bear and a cookbook."
"We all have something that's invaluable to us." I reply absent-mindedly, feeling weight of the lighter in my pocket. "Without mementos like these we're not anchored anyway and we just go with the flow. Only thrash go with the flow."
"Hah! That's a bottom line I can respect." Dietrich smiles "Oddly familiar though."
"It's a quote from a song, more or less." I reply evasively. "Come on D, let's go."
Recalling the diary about third floor, I've found hidden console allowing me to enter into bathroom there. Whew, now that's what I've had in mind when hearing Drogenkippe was filthiest kiez in Berlin. Drug lab set up between uncleaned shitters and destilling hallucinogenic substances from moths flying around and dissolved in toilet water.
Feeling no regrets about it, I hide a grenade under the apparatus in a way that you'll actuallly have to start poking around the vials to set it off. Even a junkie won't be in danger, only the one operating this stuff.
Walking out I meet inquisitve stare of Eiger. "I know, we're on the clock."
"Why you've put a grenade in there?" She asks calmly.
"To kill fucker who makes that shit. Is it so hard to imagine I hate drugs?" I didn't liked one bit that Eiger was prodding into one of very few topics dangerous to converse with me.
"And why would you? Did they sold you bad fix once?" She mocks, surprising me with her lack of stone-cold attitude she was shoving in my face all the time.
"Leave it Eiger."
"No."
I stop moving down the hallway and approach her, boring into her eyes. "They've drugged my little sister, disected her for organs, then left on the street missing kindneys, lungs, and left eyeball..." I've uttered one of the worst confessions in the middle of the run, to a person who did not deserved to know that much about me. "The only reason I've found her was because I've taken a wrong turn into back alley. There wasn't much to recognize her beside a tattoo on her arm."
She didn't blinked. That damned, egocentric troll wouldn't even bat an eyelash even though she knew I wasn't lying.
"Rai-"
"Go to hell Eiger. You can even pack your shit and go back to Krezubasar or to another planet for all I care!" I've snapped at her without rising my voice, too supressed with the flash memory of Sarah... "But don't you dare acting like you know anything about me ever again."
Walking behind the corner into main hallway I motion for Glory and Dietrich to move out. Detecting another weak structure, I barge into room 305 and notice barely covered hole in the floor, leading somwehe into security floor 2. Not giving a one glance to the rest I kick the boards away and jump down, knowing I'd better work that anger out of my system on some gangers.
Instead, I've found myself in a kitchen with a totally terrified guy hiding in a corner that stank like piss. Shaking him a bit, I've made clear I was not one of the gangers so he gave out some info that previous owners were slaughtered by rival gang that tried to break in here too by this cook locked himself in from the inside.
Entering cafeteria we were welcomed with handful of gangsters, surprised that doors suddenly opened and instead of a cook, four armed people came out.
Just what I needed to vent anyway...
Shouldering my rifle, I've fired burst into nearest goon, shredding his chest. Dodging behind the nearest box, I've seen Dietrich throwing two knives at once, taking down a gunslinging elf. Peering right above the ground for another target, human lost his face to a bullet from Glory's pistol. Huh, knew it that this Smartlink gun was a good thing.
Bullet chipping off the paint and sending a splinter of wood into my cheek made me retreat back, making see how Eiger fires two shells from pump-action shotgun right into guy who nicked me.
"Clear." She states reloading the Bennelli. I get up and see that there was a huge orc only few steps away from me. Was as now half of his chest was spread good five feet behind him. Heavy buckshot ammo was a killer. Pun intended.
Still not peaced out, I leave the looting to the team while looking around and noticing that this cafeteria was adjent to hotel administration room. Hacking into console I quickly disable all alarms, surveillance (which was nearly absent) and then search for our target. Green Winters, residing at the Penthouse level 4, room 405...Got you.
Not in the mood, I input commands and break into admin panel. Nothing much, except for a note about access code to Winter's doors. Paranoiac wanted it changed every 24 hours...
He knows we're on his trail. Good.
"Green Winters' on fourth floor. Let's go get our bird and make him sing, shall we?" I ask rethorically, leading them into elevator.
"About fucking time I'll get to put screws on this schweine." Dietrich forms a bloodthristy grin in his face and puts knife in each hand. I can't not agree with the old man. Monika's death hit more than hard but suddenly every skeleton from my past started screaming at me.
Monika, why have you left me alone with this shit to deal with on my own...
I twitch, feeling cold but gentle grip on my bare forearm. Looking up I saw Glory who, despite impassion on her face' gave me a reassuring squeeze.
And just like that, this chrome beauty put me at ease. I gave her a small nod of thank you and shouldered rifle just in time for the doors to open.
We barge into the hallway and hear supressed scream from the room next to us. Without even thinking I barge inside to a sight of makeshift lab set up in there. Human in bloodied apron raised a surgical cleaver only to receive devastating bash in the face with buttstock of my rifle.
Bullet whizzed past my head, making me turn to another 'doctor' but two, followed by third knife, embedded in his chest. I nearly taken a breath when a blood-stained troll emerges from another room toting a sawn-off shotgun.
Glory wanted to repeat the stunt she did with that mutatnt scorpion but not on my watch! I've caught her mid-run and pulled to the side, hoping to pull both of us away from the line of fire when my ears caught click of striking hammers and my side exploded in burning pain. Falling onto the ground with Glory under me, I get shellshocked by thundering bass of high caliber bullet.
I'm numb. My whole left side pulses with burning sensation when I'm trying to roll over off Glory. Concussion from the noise is a funny thing, you feel so safe when voice and even pain seem far away. Something tickles my face. Blinking I focus one eye and see Glory hovering above me. I tried to smile, she looked kinda cute like that...
"Rai, come one boss!" A not-so-gentle slap to the face plunges me back into world of clarity and unobsucred pain. Groan escapes my lips as only now I'm starting to feel the wound. "Fuck ja!"
Dietrich. Nobody else says it like that...
Feeling I was being hoisted up and then forcefully turned to the side I try to oppose but somebody holds my arms tight.
"Don't move Rai. I need to get the pellets out." Flat, melodic voice of Glory calms me down. The pressure of pincers digging into my side however nulifiy that.
"Hold still." Eiger commands. Yeah, she must've a time of her life seeing me bleeding like a pig.
"H-How bad is it?" I ask fainter than I wanted.
"Birdshot. Fabric absorbed most of the impact so all you got is a lot of beads stuck in your epidermis." Glory replies.
"Did you got that orc?"
"Eiger did, boss. She blew organpeddler's head off with that sniper rifle. Point blank." Dietrich clarifies.
Sniper rifle. Explains the shellshock.
"Just wrap it up Glory, we need to get Winters and we're out of time." I've tried to get off the table I was laying on but she pushed me back down again.
"Sit."
Excrutiating forty seconds later she stabbed me with a needle and I've felt plasant cool washing away my pain.
"Painkillers will last for half an hour tops. Unless you get shot again then we back to square one." Brunette informs me then quickly packs medkit into large pouch on her belt. So this was what she kept carrying in there.
Never caught she was the medic since Dietrich done all the healing with his magic. Speaking of which...
"Hey D, got some of that healing spell left?"
"Naturlisch, but it won't take the pain, only the wound." Shaman shrugs and prepares mana in his hands.
"Good. It'll remind me I'm still alive." I grumble and watch how my pockmarked side becomes clean and devoid of any injuries. Still stung a bit though.
Finally taking a glance at what party I've crashed, I feel no regret for what I've done. Freezers stuffed with people cut down to pieces. Eyeballs, hearts, lungs...I don't even want to guess what else these bastards were extracting. I don't loot this place, there's too much blood on any money to find in here. Legs transported me across the hallway and around the corner.
"405. This is it. Get ready and remember we need him alive." I snarl to the rest when we were stacking up on bothside of the doors. "Alive doesn't mean unharmed, D." I finish to Dietrich who slides knives against each other like a butcher readying to partial the meat.
I hit the console with the password and we barge in. Empty. Running across and bashing through another doors I'm stopped with recently familiar stench of burned skin and melted wires.
Green Winters was right before me, laying on the ground and with smoke coming out from his burnt face.
"Fucking hell..." I mutter at scene nearly identical to the one in Harfeld. The blood, the stench, the melted datajack...
"He must've convulsed so hard he broken his spine." Glory comments, motioning with finger over unnaturally bent body.
Eiger bends on one knee and tears the virtual googles off Winter's face along with pieces of his skin. Holding her breath she examines the twisted grimace.
"Green Winters, description fits." She speaks but in hushed, silent voice. Standing up, she looked me in the eyes but without usual expression. If I didn't knew better, I'd say she was close to crying. "Is this...Is this how Monika died?"
"I think she would if Rai wouldn't have unplugged her." Glory answers for me.
"Still think you could've prevent her death, Eiger?" I look at the troll soldier no longer feeling anything "Think you would've come up with some better idea?"
"I-Maybe...Maybe not." She tried to shrug but even former KSK operative can't hold that act any longer. Shoulders slumped, she falls silent.
"Our only lead is dead. Someone got to him first..." Dietrich grumbles slowly but then snaps and violently kicks mauled corpse of Winters "Du verfluchten verrater!"
"Dietrich!" I stop him harshly "Fan out and search around for any console, datapad or even a bloody notebook! Go!"
They all begin to search around while I inspect the console. 'Civilian' deck that had no custom work beyond bootleg encryption module. Everything melted like after an energy spike but to cause something like that you'd need to reroute a lot of power from main grid. Which means someone either had access of that level or was able to manipulate the console itself to up the draw to the point of self-meltdown.
Latter's more possible, software virus could do it but it would require hell of a virus. A hydra like that could come from one of the corporations...
"Rai!" Dietrich called after me and pointed at the wall. Oh you gotta be kidding...
"Seriously? Safe behind a painting?" I shake my head and scan it. Not good. Guy was paranoid and installed explosives inside the safe. Even my scan armed the bomb and any meddling with deck would set it off.
"We need a password huh?" Dietrich guesses.
"Yup...And hope it wasn't stored only in his head." I've replied and begun checking over the body. After forceful kick from Dietrich's riveted boot, Winters was even more twisted than before. Turning over the heavy corpse to the other side, something catches my eye.
"Huh...Crafty son of a bitch." Dietrich comments seeing numbers painted with bloodied finger on the floor under the corpse. "He knew someone would find him..."
Preying to no one in particular I input the code and flash of green LEDs welcomes me. Blinking rapidly did not changed the sight of the contents. Instead of files, documents or just memory drives there are media discs. Discs! Where the hell I'd find a CD player these days?!
Packing all of these as safe as I can, I check the bottom of the safe. Huh, Green Winter's pocket money. Three thousand nuyen should cover up the tab we'll make trying to drink ourselves into forgetting tonight.
Right on cue I heard phone ringing. I look knowingly at the crew but they all point at the device on the desk nearby. Having the worst feelings bubbling up, I open the comm.
"Heya there chief." A laid back voice welcomes me. "Don't hang up, I have a proposition for ya."
"Pitch the sale hotshot. I'm all ears." I reply while motioning to the rest to guard the doors for surprises.
"You've noticed new management here, yeah? I'm not on the best terms with them and judging from the fresh corpses around I take it you do not feel too warm about them either. So here's the deal - You'll help me get out from Kesselhaus in one piece and in return I'll help you get into the vault at the Penthouse level. Vault belonged to previous boss and I know he stored a lot of fancy things there. So whaddya say?"
"I say you're barking up the right tree if you're to back up the offer."
"If I wasn't, I wouldn't be risking the contact, man! I've seen the bodies, not intending to be one of them!"
"Then where do we meet?"
"Room 505, Penthouse level. I'll take you to the vault from there."
"Then...toodles." I cut the link. "Let's go and see what this is about."
"We're going for looting now?" Dietrich asked.
"Winter's in gone but we have some of his discs. We're done here, yeah. But don't you want to know what is going on around here, D? Because I do. I want to kick down nutjobs that allowed these organ peddlers and kept addicts high on toxic drugs."
"Let's get them." Glory interjected suddenly. She seemed agreeable to such things...Who knew we were alike on that?
Entering Penhouses I've felt like stepping into another world. Clean walls, carpets on the floor. No rats or cockroaches...
Room 505 opened and nervous young man waved at me hastily. We all cluttered in small room and was graced by broad grin from the guy.
"i knew you'd come, always been a good a judging characters." he chirps, shaking bright red mohawk. "I'm Blitz, decker extraordinare and designer of vault's countermeasures."
"Rai." I reply coldly. This guy witheld information on me and I felt it. Could be a set up..."You said you designed the vault. Can you get us in?"
"Pfft sure I can get you through the doors but the thing is..." Blitz trailed off in embarrassement "That I'm not in control of these countermeasures. Automatic drones. And some goons with itchy trigger-fingers."
"We'll get through that. All you worry about is getting us through the vaults doors..." Dietrich stepped in "Because if you're setting us up, I'll make sure you'll gonna play with that deck using your toes...Fehrschtehen?"
"Sure! Sure guys...I wouldn't try to cross shadowrunners!" Blitz nearly squeaked.
"Good man." I pat his back and motion moving out.
I was just about to move around the corner when hand in combat glove pulled me back by the collar. I was about to get really mad at Eiger but long burst flew right past me.
Ambush of these goons that Blitz was talking about.
Throwing a flashbang and two seconds later a frag, I've waited. Just as expected, disoriented taken the most of the shrapnels while those who thought it was safe to come out got some too. Looking through sights of my rifle I've made a mental note to look around for a thermal scope. That would make things much easier...
"Eiger, left side and sweep, I'll take right. Rest follow!" I command and step by step we move towards the thick, steel doors. Double shot puts down an orc that survived the grenade and tried to crawl behind cover.
"I'll get it...it's already open?" Blitz speaks up and pushes the console for opening. Hail of gunfire tosses him against the wall while we hug the sides of the door.
"Auto-turret! It'll shred us!" Eiger screamed for the first time ever, I think.
"You can't kill what you can't hit!" Dietrich cackles and his eyes turns into back of his skull. Uh-oh...We hear a gust of wind like small tornado coming to life inside the vault and then a roar unlike anything I've heard before. Shaman makes a compliacted symbol out of his fingers and after three seconds we hear a moan of bending steel followed by crash of muffled explosion.
"Let's go!" I move in first and receive a broad haymaker that tossed me against the wall. Moving back on all fours I saw an enraged troll, dressed in combat armor, waving a machete around while Dietrich's Spirit kept attacking it. Finally, troll landed a blow on the Spirit and ghost disappeared. Just in time to be toppled by Eiger who matched the size with the guard. I've understood why she worn heavier gauntlet on her left hand as that makeshift knuckleduster got buried in troll's face. Capitalizing on him being dazed, Eiger brought up her shotgun and fired point blank, smearing herself with blood and brain matter.
It taken less than four seconds but for me it was like four minute show. Front row, nosebleed section.
Once Eiger pulled me up on my feet I've let out a long cough. "Bastard must've cracked my rib...Thanks Eiger." I whizz out to her. She only nodded and then got outside where Glory was checking over Blitz. "You're still alive?" I ask seeing grin blooming on decker's face.
"I'm really lucky chief, that's all." He chuckles.
"And you carry a tempered plate under your shirt" Glory broken the moment, knocking her knuckles loudly on solid piece covering Blitz's torso.
"Like I've said, I'm really lucky. Could be aiming at my face."
I shake my head and let it be. Some optimism could do us some good. Speaking of optimism, I don't know what I was expecting but after a fight like that, I wasn't really satisfied with thousand nuyen and handful of drugs (which I crushed under my boot while looking straight into horrified eyes of Blitz).
Still, I say we've punched local gangsters pretty hard and for what they've been doing around here, I'd say they deserve it.
"Let's get outta here guys, we're done." I waved at my team, seeing all of them eager to go back and rest finally.
It hit me that we've had to hide our weapons and at least wipe some of the blood from our clothes before we could step back into the club part. To my delight, it was so dark and patrons were so high, they didn't even noticed us. I've motioned guys to go outside while I've strided towards the table where Silke seated before. She was still there, visibly nervous. Seeing me she got up and quickly approached me half way. Seeing in what state I was she put hand to her mouth.
"Shhh. I've got your stuff. Let's go outside." I've nudged her.
Before stepping into Des Kesselhaus, the air of Drogenkippe was stale and rotten but now it tasted better than finest wine.
Silke's olive skin was covered in blush when I given her back her belongings. Somehow I knew she was more pleased to see teddy bear than her credstick.
"Thank you...I think everyone else would just walk off with these or try to get something out from me for this..." She tries to talk, shaking and this time not from the withdrawal.
"Oh I do want something. " I chuckle lightly "You've promised to go to rehab in Krezubasar. I'll be seeing you there."
She gasps and gives me a brief hug. "I will! I'll go there right now...Thanks." She nods and hurries away. Damn if that wasn't heartwarming. Hope it wasn't in vain and she'll pull through.
Approaching the team I notice Blitz still standing around, shifting his weight from one leg to another.
"Hey uh...I just wanted to say thanks for helping me getting out from there." He states little shaky.
"No problem."
"See, wouldn't you need a nova-hot decker in your team? Because I've found myself unemployed and...you now. Stuff."
I look at the rest and all of them carry 'I don't give a shit about him' type of expression. Except for Glory of course who already zoned out. Nothing to stop me from taking a stray puppy with big mouth then...
"I am a decker. But we could always use another one. Especially if you can do something more than that." I give him half answer.
"Oh you bet I can! You won't regret it, I swear." Blitz nodded eagerly.
"Good...That's Dietrich, Glory and Eiger. Your new home lays in Krezubasar then."
"Yes!"
Ride back is silent, but different from the ride in. Tension persists and pressure added weight on my shoulders but still I've felt a bit better than before. Images of Silke smiling, and the knowledge I've chipped Drogenkippe drug underworld just a little bit, that helped.
The image of Green Winters however, intertwined with silhouette of Monika, I knew they'll be a frequent guests of my nightmares.
Giving the found discs to Amsel and informing him to keep an eye on Blitz while doing some background check on him, I've fell onto matress of my bunk and right before I've drifted off I've heard at least one more thud like that.