Chapter 5: Everybody Talks, Part 2
Konpeki Plaza, Watson
"She's late."
"Today's meeting doesn't start for another two hours."
"That just means she is going to have less time to prepare for the meeting."
"Oh come now Michi-"
"Don't you 'oh come now Michi' me, Isaac. We both know today is a big day for not only this venture, but for Sari as well, and we need to make sure she is accurately prepared to face the vultures that make up the executives of my grandfather's company."
"... let me call Bumblebee and find out where they are."
Michiko Arasaka sighed as she watched via video chat one Isaac Sumdac, lauded roboticist, the man who all but launched the Motor City's Robotic Renaissance, struggle to find his still very physical landline phone under one of the numerous piles of paper, loose copper wire, and scrap metal that covered his desk. One would think that a man who had devoted nearly his entire life to the advancement of technology would have the latest mediaware installed, but then one would be proven very wrong. Indeed, barring a biomonitor, synth lungs, and an outdated pair of Kiroshi Optics that had all been forced upon him once he nearly blinded himself while working on a prototype solar-powered car, the man was surprisingly organic, to the point of joking during interviews that he didn't want to end up needing to go to a mechanic instead of a doctor if something broke down within him. After a few minutes of watching the older man scramble around his room Michiko sighed and spoke up "It's alright Isaac, I'll just call and add Sari to this conference instead." She left out the part where it was only end her secondhand embarrassment for him and speed up the search for his not-so-rebellious daughter (no one could compare to the stories she had heard from her Aunt Hanako and her Grandfather about Uncle Yorinobu's Nomad days) and her best friend/bodyguard (she had her concerns about how close they were too, but she was willing to admit that was more because she had dated Adam Smasher of all people then anything the young man had done).
The left corner of both her own optics and Isaac's screen flashed with the face-sticker Sari had chosen for her icon when she was ten and was immediately replaced with the young woman in question.
"Hey dad! Hi Aunt Michi-"
"-Where are you?/Good morning Sari." Both of the "responsible" adults on the call spoke at the exact same time, then silently debated on who should talk to the young woman first.
Michiko won, " Sari, it's 9:25 AM, we agreed to meet in person at 9:15 in order to go over the files for today's meeting."
"Sorry Aunt Michi, but traffic was an absolute nightmare this morning," Sari muttered as she looked around what appeared to be an elevator, "Bee? You want to back me up on this?"
There was a blurt of static across the line as Sari's ever present accomplice sought out and played the audio clip he needed. "Traffic has come to a complete standstill in Watson as police engaged in an intense standoff with members of the infamous Maelstrom-"
"Traffic wouldn't be an issue if you stayed in Konpeki Plaza like I had suggested." Michiko was not in the mood to be dealing with the murderous mundanities of life in Night City without a bottle of Suntory, "And you might as well add your bodyguard into our conversation, seeing as how I have questions for him as well." Not even three seconds later a fourth screen was added to their collection of calls, and with a blurt of radio static one Dylan Watson AKA "Bumblebee" appeared in Michiko's optic field.
"Hey hey hey!" the young man was waving his hand with an eye smile "It's-"
"Please switch to TTS , I don't have time for your games today." Michiko decided to shut down the man's love of audio-splicing and pop cultural references before the headache she already had worsened.
"... Understood ma'am," Emboldened text filled the screen as the playful mask slipped off the bodyguard's face with ease, revealing the soldier Isaac had trusted with his only daughter's protection for the last ten years, "You said you had questions?"
Michiko nodded her assent, "Indeed, and my first one is this: How are your team's operations in Night City going?"
"We've secured the factory ground, the railyard, and the Drive-In theatre roughly two weeks ahead of schedule." The bodyguard sent her coded emails with the layout of the security grid for each sight as well as a list of potential threats within a mile radius of each alongside options to "pacify" or "eliminate" if the need arose. "We've also established our own little Data-Fiefdom in the mess that is Night City's Net. Though Bulkhead, Wheeljack, and Sari have mentioned that NetWatch is stopping them from linking the three sites together, but we'll get around their nonsense eventually."
Having been born in what could arguably be considered the tail-end of the "Golden Age" of the world wide web, Michiko could only sigh at yet another instance of technology meant to unify humanity being used to divide them even further. "I suppose there's no way around that issue for now, have you had any problems with Night City's Underworld?"
Bumblebee shook his head, "Nothing beyond some Maelstrom gangoons scoping out the construction site for copper wiring and the NCPD coming around and insinuating that we're gonna need to bribe them if we want them to actually do their jobs"
At that the elder Sumdaac sighed in resignation "Is it too much to hope for another Captain Fanzone?"
"You mean we should hope that Night City has a predominantly organic technophobe dedicated to his job in a city-state known for its loose cyberware laws and corruption?" Sari looked at her father with a mixture of exasperation, warmth, and sympathy in equal measure. "Sorry dad, it looks like there truly are some things you can only have in Detroit."
"That's a first," The professor good-naturedly mumbled under his breath, then directed his gaze towards his employee, "Bumblebee my good friend, have there been any issues securing the railroad itself?"
Glowing blue eyes shifted between screens for a brief moment, before the bodyguard answered in a code that Michiko's Kiroshi's couldn't translate.
This was how Sumdac Systems had largely managed to circumnavigate the web of corporate-espionage that plagued the modern era's current state of Cold War: its files and secrets were locked behind a language unknown to anyone outside of the corporation. Sure, corporate spies had been able to poach data and blueprints from Sumdac's databases, but something in the file's coding scrambled the stolen information once it loaded onto a foreign system. Michiko knew her grandfather and the board had sent scores of netrunners and espionage enhanced joy-toys to an early grave trying to find a workaround, with even her aunt Hanako having been stumped trying to break the code. Normally, Sari, Isaac and his employees had the decency to speak in a language everyone in the room could understand, but apparently some things were too important to mention in front of outsiders. Her understanding of her old friend's paranoia didn't mean that she wasn't annoyed with
"I see, well as long as we can keep the Wraiths and other miscreants away from that section of the track, then I'm sure our neighbors won't mind us poking around in their backyard." The robotics expert gave a good natured shrug that turned into a yawn, apparently deciding to not to expand upon the exact nature of the mysterious "neighbors" he was referring to. "Is there anything else worth mentioning? Or are we done letting Sari go over her notes for the meeting she didn't go over in between last night's movie marathon?"
"Bee has a lunch date with a girl who threatened to shoot him!" Sari chimed in as the elevator door opened and the pair made their way towards the suite Michiko had reserved for her visit.
"Skrrrt-Snitch!" Bee looped in as he followed his charge out of the elevator and into the hallway, both of them coincidentally hanging up and leaving the two adults on the call to process that bit of information.
Turbo's Diner
Lucy was grateful when Maine called her early in the morning with news of an assignment.
A new job meant that she had something to focus her mind on, to turn the chrome and skills that had been upon her from a young age towards something that benefitted her and the people she worked with, not the people she "worked for." a new job meant the promise of eurodollars that could be saved to purchase new lines of code, update her cyberware, and push herself ever closer to the dream of escaping the neverending feuds of the profit obsessed mega-corporations and their puppet governments for a life of relative freedom amongst the stars.
A new job usually meant she could focus her mind on the present instead of allowing it to dwell on the past.
Of course, when she learned that the "job" Maine had called her about was really more of a favor for him and that there weren't any eddies to be made, she was admittedly a little bit disappointed until he had mentioned Becca's "mystery driver."
Lucy had learned a lot from the various people she had interacted with since her escape from the clutches of Arasaka and her trek to The City of Dreams. The kind former Nomad Falco had taught her how to drive a car and ride a motorcycle, Dorio showed her how to properly eat and exercise, while Becca and Pilar taught her the value of making sure you didn't bite off more than you could chew. But the two lessons that stood out the most in her mind came from their crew's leader and her fellow Netrunner respectively: Always have your friend's back, but make sure your own back wasn't exposed in the process.
It was this juxtaposition that led the young netrunner to agree to scan and try to hack into the now recognized corpo-solo that had offered Becca a ride through Night City.
Corpos, Lucy knew from a well of experience far more personal and horrifying than any of the crew would ever get the chance to know, were by and large the closest thing on the organic side of the Blackwall to the ancient archdemons and devils that priests and various religions have warned their flocks against since mankind looked towards the sky and realized that their existence was essentially a glitch in the grand coding of the universe. True, Maine didn't need to offer to cover the expenses of her next Quickhack purchase in order to "make up for the fact that this job is a personal matter, and not business," but she wasn't going to turn down the offer if it made the old man feel better. Besides, Quickhacks were becoming ludicrously expensive nowadays.
'Speaking of which,' the young netrunner mused as she eyed the booth where the Street-Borg and Becca were waiting for their target, and discreetly tapped into their audioware to figure out what they were discussing.
"-I still can't believe you and Gloria knew each other back in the day," There was Rebecca, running her mouth off a mile a second "I mean sure I figured there was some connection between you two, but I didn't think you and her were a stereotypical guy meets gal story."
"First off, I'm pretty sure nothing about any of our pasts can be considered typical," Maine responded in between bites of his synth-double cheeseburger, "You're also overestimating the extent of Me and Gloria's past."
"You seemed pretty comfortable with having her patch up your chrome last night," and wasn't that a shock to Lucy, as far as she knew not even Dorio had ever actually seen their leader install new cyberware, to say nothing of maintaining his current kit.
"That's cause when I came to Night City the first time around, Gloria worked out a deal with a friend of her folks that I'd get a cheaper deal on rent in exchange for free manual labor and letting her use me as a living game of Operation." Maine grumbled as he cracked his reinforced skeleton.
The younger netrunner could feel the smug smirk coming off of Rebecca after that statement "Kinda proving my point there boss."
"Yeah, well, however close we used to be, we haven't been since I went back to my old unit before The Reunification War." The street borg sullenly grumbled, and a part of Lucy she tried to keep under wraps felt for the older man who tried to awkwardly offer her advice about life from time to time. "Hell, the fact that I just found out that not only does she have a kid, but he's about to graduate High School at the damn near top of his class should tell you how little I know about her now." Gloria had a what now?
"I know I dropped out after freshman year, but how is Dimples about to finish high school if he's only seventeen? Don't you have to be at least eighteen going on nineteen years old for that to be the case" Rebecca already gave him a nickname?!
"It runs on the Japanese School System…. Now stow it! Looks like your boy just walked in. Lucy?" Maine's number flashed across her kiroshis as he actually called her, unaware that she had been listening in on their conversation "Run a scan on the choom in the varsity jacket, I wanna know what he has under the hood."
Once she disengaged the hidden link between herself and her friends and locating the man in question, she ran a quick scan of their target to get the bare basics so that she knew what to look for when she dove into the Net later that evening.
What she saw was horrifying.
The information surrounding the suspected corpo-runner was corrupted in a haze of code-language she had increasingly seen in the Net-Architecture of Night City and DogTown that frightened and enticed her in equal measure. The code was evershifting around the man, and it hid his name and cyberware from her sight in a way that spoke of a level of SELF-ICE she had only seen on her deepest and most perilous dives. The only thing that wasn't hidden from Lucyna Kushinada's sight was the man's Wanted Poster, which gave him a full Five Star warning for a litany of crimes. A chime notified the edgerunner of a message from a number she did not recognize, and it soon forced itself to the forefront of her vision.
Bumblebee: You know it's impolite to stare?
She quickly shut down her Kiroshis and sent a quick apology to Maine telling him that she had been spotted, and pretended to be more focused on her synthetic Strawberry Milkshake and the news then her friends.
She didn't look back at the table until she felt a familiar hand upon her shoulder roughly fifteen minutes later, and looked up at the tired but accomplished eyes of the large street borg who had welcomed her into his gang with open arms.
"Take it our new friend there spooked you?" Maine asked in a tone that implied he knew the answer already.
The white haired runaway wished she had a cigarette, but she settled for playing with her unused straw. "Is he our friend now?"
The older man let loose a sigh that sounded more like the exhaust of a truck than a sound a human being could make. "For now, but knowing my luck that won't be the case for long."
As the instigators of the impromptu meeting/interrogation began to make their way out of the diner, not one of them noticed the red Colby that had been watching them the entire time. +B? It's Cliffjumper, I got eyes on our three "friends" and their on their way outta dodge.+
+Thanks for having my back Cliff, I owe you one.+ came the response from the Quadra making its way back to Kopek Plaza.
+I'll put it on your tab.+ came the reply as the other autobot made his way to the same location, neither aware of the third Cybertronian who had watched the interaction that occurred with vested interest.