Chapter 170

Susan Shinama. She was a contact for Wakako. The type that would slip into gangs and send her information. Quite literally a spy.

 

And right now she was in deep shit.

 

Someone had caught her, or at least she had sent a message saying someone had blown her cover, and then she had gone radio silent.

 

That meant Wakako needed her recovered, and the best part? I didn’t even need to go do netrunning crap to find her! Wakako had her location.

 

I had almost gone straight there, the urge to potentially get some xp incredibly tempting, but I had taken a breath, and actually remembered what Jun would say if he found out I ran off by myself without even gearing up.

 

So I drove home, raced up to the apartment, got armored up, and then switched to the Quadra as I drove to where Susan had gone missing.

 

It was… A night club.

It felt almost cliche, but she had picked up a gig at a night club run by the Valentinos.

 

El Jefa. It wasn’t like the usual tino bars. The quiet sort of dive bar, Like the Coyote.

 

No, this was more of a strip club, or a BD bar. The entrance was a set of stairs set into the ground floor of a building that was crowded by other businesses, a Strip Mall. The information Wakako gave me was pretty complete, but it wasn’t like I was going to walk into the entrance in broad daylight.

 

I pulled up to a parking space, and was doubly glad that my Quadra had armored everything, So I was able to see out, but no one could see in.

 

With Wakako’s information I was already in the perfect spot. Right across from me, just over a bunch of plants and junk in the middle of the strip mall’s main path was the entrance. Disappearing down into the darkness, but the reason I had parked here? My eyes locked onto a camera just above the entrance, and after a careful moment to breach as quietly as I could, I was in.

 

The camera didn’t pan. Just locked in place above the entrance to the club, but of course it shared the system with all the other cameras in the network. I made to swap over, but mentally stilled.

 

The server I was in? I wasn’t alone.

 

Very slowly I did everything I could to diminish my presence on the network. The quality of the camera image dropped in quality, sending me far less data so I wouldn’t show as large as a blip.

 

Then I switched to the next camera, and waited. I couldn’t swap rapidly through the network without creating additional drain.

 

So I was staring at the next camera, the bottom of the stairs, an entrance way into the club. A few people walking in. Stopping to pay, and then going in.

 

I waited for a while just letting the load of the camera be normalized before finally switching.

 

Next camera was in the club proper. There wasn’t the massive dance floor I would see in most TC clubs. Instead it was smaller booths, some set up like BD booths, with a fully closing door. It reminded me of the Heavy Hearts. Private rooms to spend private time in.

 

The club was a strange shape. A sort of curved hallway that led in a big circle. In the middle there was an elevator. Which was interesting. I wonder where that led. But as I swapped camera’s I noticed another room that was sort of like the VIP section.

 

Ah, I found someone on my info sheet. Julio Hernandez. The man that was in charge of the club. If nothing else, he would know where Susan is.

 

But then I stilled as I switched to the next camera and I found my current difficulty.

 

There was a security room that had a netrunner jacked in.

 

I watched him for a few minutes. I couldn’t poke any further into his current actions without alerting him, but at least I knew where he was. First floor, through a security door.

 

Now how was I going to get to him?

 

This club had two entrances. The main club entrance with the stairs, and the elevator, which I wasn’t sure where it connected to.

 

I tapped a finger on my knee as I pulled out of the camera system as quietly as I had entered it. How did I want to handle this? Susan was inside somewhere, and I couldn’t find her without getting rid of that Netrunner somehow.

 

I was staring at the entrance to the club when I saw it.

 

One of the workers there walked up the stairs, pink heels clicking. Pink plastic miniskirt, her top nearly see through. She looked exhausted as she headed out and towards the parking lot…

 

“Well that’s certainly an option.” I muttered considering it.

 

On one hand infiltration. On the other stripper clothes…

 

Ah who was I kidding. Doing a stealth infiltration was always hilarious. I hurriedly pulled my gear off.

 

Time to stealth run this bitch.

 

—–

 

“Stupid lady stilts.” I mumbled as I walked back onto the strip mall.

 

Melody would wake up eventually with a bit of a shock, being almost naked and all, but I had stuffed her into her own car, and left her with a grand in eddies as an apology.

 

Wearing this stripper outfit was a bit awkward, the worst part was Melody had a much bigger chest than I did, so I had to stuff the damn top.

 

It was super embarrassing, especially since my muscles made the rest of the outfit stretch.

 

I really felt like I was going to tear my way out of it.

 

This was a stupid plan. I decided as I reached the steps down.

 

I took a second, adjusted my stance, to add a sexy sway, shifting into Sexy Motoko voice so I wouldn’t get called out stupidly, and sauntered down anyways.

 

The Stealth Daemon I had uploaded on breaching the camera system should help keep the netrunner from noticing me until it was too late.

 

The steps led into the entrance lobby, and I walked right through it. The worker only looked up to notice me as I was already through the door on the way into the long halls that made up the club.

 

I took a left and continued on my way. There weren’t a lot of guards around or anything, this was a club after all. I walked past guests sending a flirty smile as I was called out to, by a guy way too drunk for me to want to deal with.

 

“Sorry darling!” I called back, walking right past him then around the corner.

 

Security door spotted.

 

Realizing I was going to have to figure out a way through I walked past before smiling and stepping into one of the side rooms. This one was empty, and I stepped inside using the lack of line of sight to turn around and start slowly hacking through the security door across the hall.

 

I was slowly hacking my way when someone walked into the room I was in.

 

“Ah. Someone already got this room… Wait, I don’t know you.” She asked, looking me up and down.

 

“I’m new, covering for Melody.” I said with a warm drawl thanks to my Sexy Motoko voice on full blast! I just needed to get this woman to go away and keep hacking the door at the same time.

“Hmm, well don’t slack off. C’mon start cleaning up already we need this room ready for the next customers.” She said haughtily and I smiled despite wanting to do anything but, as I turned and started gathering up the leftover garbage, mostly empty bottles, as the older woman threw her long pastel pink hair over a shoulder and started helping.

 

“I’m surprised they hired a new person, I mean, I guess it makes sense, we lost Susan.” She sighed, shaking her head, and I twitched at that.

 

“Oh? Someone decided to find better work?” I asked teasingly.

 

“Pfft. Please. No, Susan did something, not sure. They dragged her downstairs last night.” She whispered, giving me a serious look. “So make sure you don’t fuck around. The boys treat us alright, we aren’t joytoys after all, but they find you fucking around they’ll replace you too.” She said enunciating ‘replace’ heavily.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

 

I nodded along seriously, playing into my roll as I continued to help clean up. Grabbing bottles and trash and even using some wipes hidden in the seating that ‘Mariana’ showed me.

 

Then it happened. I reached out, and she did the same for a bottle, and our hands bumped into each other.

 

I didn’t notice it right away, but as I pulled up the bottle I looked at her, and I knew.

 

My arms, I had covered them in the plastic jacket thing, but my hands were still visible. A girl working at this sort of place would have Synthskin, or chrome that looked pleasing.

 

My Condors were military issue completely out of place.

 

She looked at me. I looked at her. I considered what to do. She must have realized it as well.

 

“You aren’t covering for Melody.”

“No. Melody is sleeping in her car right now. She’ll be fine.” I answered simply, still holding the bottle…

 

The door to the room was closed. I could knock her out, and these rooms were soundproof for a reason.

 

She realized what danger she was in. She swallowed and I could see her mind running through choices.

“Relax. I’m not here for you.” I offered, but it didn’t help.

 

She made a break for it trying to scream for help.

 

I was on her a moment later, long before she reached the door. Her hands reached out at empty air, scrambling to open the door as I locked my arm around her throat. She gasped and then twitched as I pressed just the right way.

Huh. It’s been a while since I did a lot of takedowns, but my Condor actually made it a lot easier.

 

I brought her to the ground as I considered what to do..

 

I dropped a Optica reboot on her and then just stuffed her into the corner.

 

That should keep her out of trouble for a while. Especially since these booths were sound proofed.

Now that I had some time to actually work, I refocused on the door across the way.

 

Forty uninterrupted seconds later I was through. Taking a moment I casually walked out of the room, no one was looking down the hall, and I walked across. The security door opened as I approached and closed behind me.

 

“Hello.” I whispered to the netrunner. Poor guy had no idea what was about to happen to him.

 

Luckily for him, I had learned something important a while back from Blazed. Netrunners tended to have a code around each other. This guy didn’t look like he was Valentino, probably just a rando. Hired on to watch their stuff in exchange, for security to surf the net without worrying about his body.

 

His poor defenseless body. I almost giggled as I walked over. I wasn’t going to kill him, but he definitely wasn’t going to appreciate what was about to happen.

 

I found the system his net chair was hooked into, and with a few presses began emergency booting him.

 

Being forced out like that would be disorienting, as his mind was pulled right back into his body uncontrollably.

 

Then just before he would have woken up, I reached over and yanked his connection.

 

He spazzed out. If I had done that without forcing the boot he would’ve had a stroke. But I was being nice.

 

Then while he was absolutely defenseless I sent a gentle and non-lethal Short Circuit.

 

He spazzed out worse as electricity started frying him, jerked out moans escaping him randomly as he was rather completely rendered helpless.

 

I was just about to get into the system to find Susan when I noticed it.

 

An xp alert.