Chapter 6
Couple Days Later
Walking into the crew's hideout, David saw that he was the last to arrive. The members of the crew he'd met the other night and 2 others. Pilar was the first to speak.
"Finally the kid's here. Maine, can you brief us now so I can get some shuteye before this job?"
"Take it seriously Pilar, this is a big opportunity for us. Some serious eddies are on the line here."
Pilar just wagged his hand, "Yeah Yeah sure thing boss."
David took a seat in the empty reclining chair ready to get this started.
"David the two you haven't met are Falco our driver and Kiwi a net-runner like Lucy." Falco had the gentlemanly cowboy vibe going on and Kiwi wore a face plate and large trench coat.
"Howdy Partner"
"…"
"Nice to meet ya" Falco seemed friendly. Kiwi not so much.
"Alright let's get down to business." Maine spent the next half hour or so going over everyone's roles. Davids was simple: catch the data shard with the limo key on it, hand it off to Dorio and then put it back without the limo driver noticing. It was supposed to be a discrete job so there was a low chance of violence.
Still he was glad he brought his ballistic vest and overture. They were the only pieces of gear I was able to finish on short notice. The overture he had strapped in a thigh holster and was wearing the vest underneath his hoodie. A casual look that wouldn't draw attention. He'd thought about wearing mom's EMT jacket but couldn't stand the thought of ruining it anymore after it took such a beating during the crash. Instead it sits on a little shrine he made for her, safe and sound.
With nothing to do for a few hours and no one in a talkative mood, David popped the recliner back to try and catch some z's for a bit. He must have dozed off cause the next thing he knew, someone was shaking his foot.
"Wake up fella it's time to start this rodeo."
"Sweet, let's delta."
Jumping into Falco's ride which looked like the unholy child of an SUV and a tank. They were on their way to get this job started. Falco dropped him and Dorio off in front of the bar their mark was in. They entered together and sat down at the bar. David didn't have much to talk about but it'd look weird if they just sat here waiting for the target to pass out drunk.
"So… how'd you get so buff?"
"Hahaha, steroids. I ran with the animals for a while before I met Maine."
"What was that like, being in a gang? I almost joined the Valentinos by accident as a kid."
"It was nice in someways, stifling in others. You got to be a part of a group and had plenty of friends, but it's almost like a cult. You conform to the group and kinda lose pieces of yourself. I don't regret leaving. How the hell did you almost join the Valentinos by accident?"
"Easy really, started doing some errands to earn some extra eddies. The more errands I did the more difficult they got. Soon I was slipping watches off of suits and running packages across the city for them. As a 10 year old I thought they were more like fun real-life games. My mom eventually caught on and put a stop to it though. Probably for the best really, I may have hated Arasaka Academy but don't regret going. I learned a lot of shit there and now have access to information most people couldn't even imagine."
"Oww anything juicy?"
"Depends, you wanna know what causes cyberpsychosis?"
The drink she had been previously enjoying came out her nose.
"What, no one is sure what causes psychosis. Quit bullshitting me."
"You really think a multi trillion dollar corporation like Arasaka wouldn't figure out the cause of a debilitating disease that seems to affect people at random?"
"Well when you put it like that… so what is it?"
"The short explanation is Brand Loyalty. The long explanation is incompatible coding being integrated into the same neural network. Too much incompatible coding will eventually lead to schizophrenic-like symptoms. Each corporation builds their cyberware with their own unique brand of coding. You buy only Arasaka cyberware, no biggie go ape shit. Each Arasaka product is compatible with each other. You start to mix in some Militech, some Kiroshi, a little Zeta-Tech, that's where the problems start. A good ripper can re-code a lot of the incompatibility issues, but how many good rippers do you know?"
"Huh that makes a lot more sense than it should."
"It becomes almost obvious with the amount of data and information I have access to."
"Well color me impressed kid. Guess those expensive suit educations aren't entirely useless."
Before he could continue the conversation was interrupted through the team link.
Kiwi -Look alive you two. Target is about to go down it's time to make your move-
Kiwi was right, the limo driver's head was bobbing he'd be going down soon. Getting up David headed for the jukebox on the other side of the bar past the mark. Flipping through some songs he kept an eye on the driver. It wasn't long till his head collapsed onto the bar.
With the guy down David clicked on a random song and started walking back to his seat. Just as David was passing the driver's chip slot activated and ejected the data shard. David swiped it out of the air in the blink of an eye, his pace never faltering.
Slipping it to Dorio, she started the process of making a copy. Now all they had to do was wait. Sadly nothing in this world can go right.
Kiwi -Guys the limo driver has got an incoming call from his boss-
Maine -I thought you jammed the signals going in and out of the bar?-
Kiwi -Must be a secured line, shit he's getting called in-
Maine -What the fuck it's his day off-
Lucy -He works for Arasaka, there ain't no rest for the wicked-
Maine -How long till the copy is done?-
Dorio -Another minute at least-
Maine -We don't have time take the original and…-
Honestly they were freaking out too much. Just need to distract him a little longer is all. Besides he still had to let himself sober up a little, bounce backs can only do so much. Getting up David walked over to the driver.
"Hey choom, how bout a game of pool."
"I ain't your choom you little shit, piss off."
"Wow someone woke up in the wrong joytoy this morning. What's the matter, afraid of losing some eddies?"
And just like that David had him. The limo driver was a gambling addict and he couldn't help it. Even though he lost big today already, because of the fight, he was still prepared to lose more.
"Alright you little gutter rat, but I ain't playing for less than a thousand eddies. Think you can afford that?"
"Well I don't plan on losing so yeah I think I'll be fine."
"You better watch it punk, if I win and you don't pay up you're dead meat."
"Yeah yeah, whatever you say. Cause I'm such a nice guy I'll even let you break."
Even with dragging the game out as long as he could. David's win was a foregone conclusion. The driver was tipsy and David wasn't. The driver had good cyberware, Davids was better. The driver probably only played a few times in his life. David used to hustle the older kids at the arcade all the time. By the time David sunk the 8 ball the Driver was fuming.
"Good game, you almost had me there. What do you say about double or nothing?"
Maine -You're good kid, just slip him back the data shard and we're in the clear-
"You're on punk, you better pay up when I win though. I'm gonna be late to work because of you."
"Whatever choomba, you rack this time I'm gonna grab a drink."
Walking back to Dorio and waving down the bartender David grabbed the original data shard and activated his Sandevistan. In a flash he was behind the limo driver who was racking the pool balls. Everything was in slow motion. With the steady hand of a neurosurgeon, David slipped the data shard back in with nary a touch. With that done David was crossing the bar and retaking his position next to Dorio. Coming back to real time David kept an eye on the driver to see if he'd react, the only thing he did was scratch his neck near his shard slots.
David -Shards back in his slot, I'm gonna finish this game and we're good to delta.-
The bartender brought him his drink, she seemed kinda short and a little too teal to be manning a bar. That's Night City for ya, people come in all kinda shades and sizes. Grabbing his drink he made his way back over to the pool table.
Maine -Just delta rookie we got what we came for.-
David -Nah, it'd look suspicious and I gotta earn money one way or another.-
It looked like the balls were racked and ready, so David grabbed his pool stick and the cue ball, setting it in position.
"Make it a good break street urchin, don't want to waste my turn fixing your fuck up."
"No problem choom." With a sharp clack the rack of balls dispersed. Only one ball made it into a hole, lucky for David that ball was black and had the number 8 on it.
"Wow fun game choom and sense you're going to be late for work I'll let you go. Don't want you getting fired."
If looks could kill, David was sure he'd be dead. The driver was not a happy camper. Still David got the notification 2,000 eddies were transferred to him. While muttering about killing street kids, the limo driver left the bar. David made his way back to Dorio.
"Ready to roll?"
"Shit kid, good work. I thought we were screwed there for a second."
"Eh, dude was an easy hussle. Especially with that whole psychological profile you all had on him. I knew he wouldn't miss a chance to gamble at a game of pool."
"Still, cheers to you kid." Clinking his bottle with hers he downed his drink and vacated the bar.
Falco was rolling up to the front of the bar and they hopped in.
"Where to now?" As far as David knew the job was done and he didn't know if these guys were going to just off him, now that the job was over.
"Headed to Aldos to meet back up then we're headed to Turbos. Nothing like a little celebration after a job well done." Falco sounded genuine, so David assumed he wouldn't need to worry about ending up on a scav chopping block.
Aldo's ended up being a warehouse out in Rancho Coronado, not too far from his place. Once they got there the other members of Maine's crew started showing up in other vehicles. Everyone seemed to be in a good mood.