"The fuck you mean, we're being bought out?" Since he started working in Arasaka's Human Asset Department twenty-four years ago, Brian Neville had never heard such outrageous bullshit. His parents, their siblings, and a good chunk of the people he knew had been in the employ of the Emperor and his family since the Collapse, and now, they were being cashed out like synthcoke-stained eddies on Jig-Jig Street.
"Ah, yeah, Bry," said Patti, "we are." Despite her steeled demeanor over the holo, Brian could also sense that she was none too pleased.
Brian slammed his fist onto his synthwood desk, causing his varying desk toys and Burrito XXL to jolt. He'd worked over two decades to get eight paid holidays, and now he and everyone else at Arasaka's Night City HQ was getting shafted. His white rage was somewhat alleviated by the fact that V, a good friend of his, was at least not here to witness such treachery; according to the higher ups, she was conspiring with that dickwad Art Jenkins about flatlining that bitch Susan Abernathy, so she was "relieved of her obligations".
"Who's buying us out?" Brian's tongue still hurt from absorbing his teeth.
"No clue," Patti said. "Apparently Yorinobu wants to keep it all on the down low…brat still wants to play CEO without having to do the hard work. Said he doesn't want anyone bothering him right now due to quote-unquote 'important negotiations' going on."
"'Careful what you say on the clock, Pat," Brian responded. "I don't love Yori either, but he'll get Smasher to smoke your ass if he gets suspicious of your loyalty…'member Paul?"
Patti paused for a beat. "...he was a good guy."
"Exactly," Brian responded with a noticeable smugness. He stared out of an office window, and looked 87 stories down to the streets of Corpo Plaza. He knew that some poor schmucks were seriously weighing the option of jumping out, but they didn't have six-eddie salaries, a 800-square-foot apartment, and almost nine paid holidays; Brian knew if he had the piss and gumption, he'd get Kwanzaa off, using his 4.59% Cameroonian ancestry as leverage.
He had to stick to his guns. "Listen, Patti, I'm gonna go talk with some of the Board…bet they could enlighten me."
Patti chortled. "Good luck with that, Bry. Be seeing you." She hung up the holo.
Brian ran his hand down his face, feeling the soft coldness of his golden cheekbone cyberware as he hyped himself up to the board. He only presented himself to them when he absolutely needed something, but this went beyond payroll and tax documents.
He strolled into a nearby elevator, which was as gray and authoritarian as everything else inside Arasaka Tower. He pressed the button to the main board room, and as he climbed each story, he took the same sharp, short breaths that he used to jog as he accurately predicted each word in the Arasaka history lesson vid that played on the elevator's screen.
The elevator made an innocuous DING as Brian arrived. As he strolled out the elevator and into the meeting room, he tried visualizing himself as a tough, no-nonsense Corpo, ready to play hardball with whatever eddie-grubbing gonk that bought out his livelihood.
He entered the boardroom, and was a little taken aback. In place of the execs, Yorinobu was there, wearing a stupid, flashy suit, clearly a means for him to relive his bosozoku days.
But there was another guy with him.
He looked threateningly unassuming. His darkening brown hair was perfectly slicked back, and though his beard was short, it was incredibly dense, revealing not a single follicle underneath. His black pinstripe suit was immaculately laundered, and his Beatle boots were perfectly shiny. His thin, wrinkled, and weary face clearly showed that he'd seen some shit and come out on top. To make matters worse, he had no chrome whatsoever, a rarity even at the highest levels of Corpo society.
The man shot a disarmingly nonchalant stare at Brian, his sunken, apathetic eyes being far more intimidating than any Kiroshis. "Yorinobu, I was assured we would have no interruptions." His English drawl was low and coarse; he sounded like a casually disappointed school principal, with no room for joviality or pleasantries.
Yorinobu glanced at Brian, looking as shocked as he was. "My-my apologies, sir…I did not summon him." Brian was angrily dumbfounded seeing the normally cocky Yorinobu Arasaka so subservient, especially to some bored-looking gonk nobody in his own family's company had hitherto known about. Why was he folding now? What did this random gonk have that Saburo didn't?
Yorinobu's new boss looked dissatisfied as a blueballed BD addict. "I come here to discuss terms with the most powerful man in this city, yet you can't have your employees obey simple orders? Only Smasher rolled over because all he cares about is bloodshed. No wonder you…" his voice trailed off into a low grumble as he reached into his suit pocket.
The man produced a mysterious silver and bronze shaft, and it was very conveniently sized. Brian wondered what the hell this gonk's deal was, thinking that he was either fucked or about to get fucked, literally, and the man's decision to reveal his preferred way to do business only confirmed his suspicions.
"Yori, who the hell is-"
Heat, then nothing. Brian thought nothing. Gone.
"T-that was our head of human resources!" Yorinobu exclaimed. "You disintegrated him!"
"Someone else will fall in line," the man said with breathless apathy. "They always do."