\+/ Tales From Night City \+/ Chapter 25 - Postmortem
The heavy taps of black high-heels rapidly stomp one after the other across a linoleum floor. Various corpos throughout the halls doing various tasks and carrying on various conversations quickly realize who she is and move out of her way. Some bow their heads in respect while others offer a nervous smile with wavering eye contact. The woman makes her way through the long, wide PetroChem megabuilding halls to an elevator that scans her before opening. As the elevator rises with a gradual hum the woman takes the moment of privacy to hyperventilate; Catching her fall by posting her hand on a wall in the elevator while struggling to catch her breath. She quickly gathers herself before taking a final deep breath and stablizing the shaking in her hands by clenching them together tightly. You see the emotionless gaze in her eyes take over as the elevator dings open.
She enters an executive suite with a birds eye view overlooking the bustling Night City. The lavish opulence of the office suite glimmered in the eye of the sun's rays. A beautiful black and gold theme was present through marbled pillars and floors with high-polish reflections. Spotless jet black carpets sported golden PetroChem branding with various gold patterns throughout them. Another executive leaned up against his black wooden desk smoking a cigarette stares out into the City with his arms crossed. He speaks in a deep tone... clearly on edge.
"The postmortem. Is it complete."
"Yes sir." The woman promptly responds. "They're still digging through the details. The clean up is gonna be a real bitch... collateral damage reached most of the block and across the street. Families of the employees are being paid for their silence and cooperation. N54 and all other media outlets sniffing around are being fed damage control."
The woman then steps across the black and gold marbled floor as you hear her high heels tap one after the other causing a hollow echo to flutter through the air. The fabric of her jet black corpo skirt rubs against her thighs as she makes her way beside the man... joining him looking out into the cityscape with her hands rested behind her back. She continues.
"Product is completely irretrievable. No security footage recovered now that the buildings been leveled. Several eye-witnesses are being probed as we speak. Instructions were clear to focus on intel gathering over cleaning on the building site. Not much you can do with a fucking explosion though. Its everywhere by now."
The man listens while still gazing out into Night City, taking long drags of his smoke. You see a gold ring with the PetroChem logo on his middle finger catch the sunlight and reflect off. He speaks.
"Rectifying the product shortage is priority number one." He takes a deep breath letting out a sigh. "The new formula won't be easy to replicate. Why the fuck was security not-"
"Board made the call sir... they decided on discretion for the product over security." The woman responds.
"Fuck discretion. They're shooting themselves in the foot. The product was integral to finally obtaining leverage over Sovoil. For it to go up in smoke just like that... Cleaning this up is gonna be a real bitch."
"What are next steps sir."
The exec pauses briefly thinking deeply and taking drags of his smoke.
"Touch bases with the research team. See what can be done about the setback. Have the auditors on high alert. If any traces of the formula make their way to the streets I want to know about it. Can't let this get out."
A long pause takes place between the two as they each continue to look out into the silent cascading Night Cityscape while in each other's presence.
"And the goons who did it?" She asks before another pause.
"Get local PD to sniff around. Start with the vehicle witnesses saw." The corpo exec continues speaking as you quietly see Brian and Zaunya driving through the pitch black badlands with the city off in the distance from the night prior.
"Fact is... Whoever did this... knew exactly what they were doing... We just gotta find out why to find the who."
Zaunya is seen smoking in the passenger seat with a fixed gaze out of the window while Brian smoking has his gaze fixed on the bright neon lights of Night City off in the distance. As the rumbling engine of the Butte settles in and the warmth of the cab takes over the pair share a quiet and somber silence after an intense and personal interaction.
The bonds and connections made in Night City can be just as intense as they are fleeting... Whom you choose to trust or open up to could lead to outcomes you may not even want to wish on your worst enemies. The collective experiences you have may drive you down a path you'd sooner rather set ablaze than take a single step down.
Completely exhausted, the desire for the two of them to interact at this point is far gone... With so much on each of their minds and so much they'd like to say... for one reason or another... they've both found it best to keep those thoughts and words to themselves. The quiet ambience of the baron badlands far away from that of Night City's booming, relenteless ambience is a welcome change of pace... luckily allowing for some quiet time to organize thoughts. The pair slowly approach a parking lot with neon pink lights gradually filling up the cab the closer and closer they get.