Chapter 183

“Ugh. This is why I don’t go out of the city. The sand is fucking everywhere.” Rebecca grumbled. We had taken a pit stop a few hours into the drive to let everyone hit the bathroom if they needed, and poor Rebecca got the worst of it.

 

“Well you aren’t supposed to press your ass into the sand.” I joked back, and she glared at me.

 

Rebecca’s squeals as she had lost her balance while out squatting in the desert had gotten me to come running, only to break down into a laughing fit when I found her on her back legs in the air after falling over.

 

“Fuck off! How much longer anyways?” She grumbled at me, arms crossed, but it wasn’t very threatening, more cute.

“Not too far. Dakota gave us the exact info. Seriously, these Raffen should know better.” I offered back. The gig was easy enough. A small band of Raffen had kidnapped the daughter of some rich woman in the city. The stupid girl had come out to party in the badlands, and the Raffen had gone through and took everyone mid party to ransom them back.

 

But this girl’s parents were more interested in sending a message, than sending eddies.

 

Which worked for me.

 

I waved at Hiromi who waved back at me. The whole crew was moving on this gig, just in different cars, but this time Rebecca was with me instead of Hiromi. Ichi once again was stuck driving the truck as we headed out.

 

I wasn’t sure how much loot these Raffen would have, but I was going to find out!

 

“All done?”

“As done as I can be.” Rebecca grumbled, as she climbed back into the car. Then we were off. Our little convoy continued on. As we moved, I went over the information Dakota had given me. Like normal the Raffen had taken over some old buildings in the desert and were using it to hold their hostages.

 

Technically the gig only cared about the one girl, but I planned on cleaning up the entire group, and so I would have to worry about the hostages as well.

 

I had come up with a plan that I think would work, and this time it really would be mostly about me.

 

I would go in first, infiltrate, find the hostages, and then secure them, then once I was done, I would call it in, and the rest of the team would move in, and all together we would take out the rest of the forces with me working as netrunner support to ensure the hostages wouldn’t be harmed.

 

As we turned off the main road, and onto a dirt path I kept an eye out for our contact. Dakota had been keeping an eye on the Raffen for the last three days after the kidnapping, she had been putting together a team to rescue the hostages, but hadn’t taken care of until we had shown up.

 

Seriously, I was going to have to talk to her, she could have let me know about this gig without us reaching out.

 

Or more likely I knew, I needed to talk to Hiromi about setting up a fixer connection. If Hiromi was talking to all of them, or seeing what gigs they needed done, she could poke me about good gigs and Section 9 could take them on.

 

I was lazy when it really came down to it. I had plenty of eddies, and not a lot of things I was planning on buying so I kept putting off taking more and more gigs.

 

Which thinking about it was rather stupid. I did want to get a Full Body Conversion at some point, even with all the politics involved in that level of Cyberware.

 

Stupid full body restrictions. Blah blah had to have someone vouch for you, blah blah.

 

I’d probably just put in the paperwork saying I worked for Hiromi and that would be that. One of the benefits of having a choom so into the Corpo network.

 

I slowed and pulled off, seeing the man sitting at an old bus stop with a dirtbike that was our contact.

 

“Alright we’re here.” I muttered, and Becca perked up. Looking suddenly excited.

 

“Finally! I was waiting for this!” She cried and stepped out as soon as my car stopped. Really I was going to have to talk to her about the seatbelt thing.

 

I stepped out and noticed Malcolm’s car pulled up behind us. The rocket launchers on the top of the thing always distracted me whenever I saw them.

 

Stupid dibs, that was supposed to be my rocket launcher car!

 

Ichi’s truck pulled up behind that, and Hiromi behind him.

 

“You lot… Section 9?” The man asked, and I felt my face brighten into a smile before I calmed it, and went stone faced.

 

“We are. You are Milton, Dakota’s contact.” I greeted him in turn as I approached him. “Where is the compound?”

“It’s an old farm house. Just up the road. I’ve never been in it before, but from what I was able to gather, it has a basement. That’s likely where the hostage is.” He explained, sending over some fairly basic data about the insides, but brand new pictures of what it looked like from the outside and above.

 

The man must have a drone or something.

 

“Alright. We’ll take it from here, unless you have anything else?”

“Nothing that Dakota wanted to pass along.” He offered with a shrug, and then just settled back into the bus stop. Feet up on the bike. Relaxing back as if planning on just waiting to see what would happen.

 

I thought about commenting, but it wasn’t worth it, or important.

 

“Alright, suit up!” I called out as I turned, and I got nods from everyone besides Rebecca, who looked confused, before I smiled at her, and took a moment to pull out the case of her armor from the trunk right alongside my own.

 

“Suit up.” I told her and she looked a little hesitant, as she took it. “Hiromi and the boys can help you get it on.” I told her.

 

“Don’t stress about it, it’s pretty easy once you get the hang of it.” Hiromi added as she walked over to help.

 

“Yeah sure. Can’t be too hard.” Rebecca admitted, sounding more sure of herself.

 

“Alright go ahead and arm up as well I’m going to head in first.” I told them already, pulling on my chest rig, strapping it in, as I started securing my weapons and equipment.

 

Everyone got to it. Hiromi walking Rebecca through suiting up, it thankfully let me focus on preparing.

 

Attaching the silencer onto my Copperhead, I nodded as it was secured. Time to get to work. I made the call connecting everyone together and then headed out into the desert.

 

These guys wouldn’t likely have any sensors in the desert, but I would still be heading in alone on foot, so I could try and find out before we got closer.

 

Stomping through the desert once again I wanted to laugh to myself at how often I found myself sliding through the sands outside Night City. The Raffen just couldn’t help themselves, and I guess they were an easy target considering how rarely they would go into Night City. Low risk, high reward.

 

I controlled my breathing, moved cautiously, and let myself fall into a rhythm, checking everything as I stalked closer and closer. Soon enough I crested a ridge and could see the farmhouse, and the cars surrounding it in the distance. Staying low and hiding in the shadow of a bush I sent up to date information to my team, marking the cars to focus on.

 

More interesting was that I couldn’t see any defenses, this place didn’t even have cameras set up that I could see.

 

Moving over the ridge after making sure no one had eyes on me, I moved closer and closer, lining up with a section of the back side of the farmhouse that didn’t have any windows. I approached closer and closer, until I quietly leapt over the fence that surrounded the property.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

 

*I’m in.* I confirmed to the team. There was no hesitation, this wasn’t my first, infiltration. I followed along the back of the house until I was on the shadowed side, Then slowly peaked in through the armored windows.

 

It was a Kitchen, and it was empty so far that I could see. Taking a moment I gathered as much about the layout of the house as I could before moving on.

 

I didn’t trust the window guards to not squeal if I opened them, so that wasn’t my entrance. Everything was so old and rusted, that I would have to worry about noise, which meant the front was the best access point.

 

Sliding along the wall, I peaked around at the cars. None of them were on, but with their Crystal Dome it was impossible to tell if someone was inside them with their doors closed.

 

This would be so much easier, if I could get eyes on someone and just ping them.

 

Slipping through the shadows, I crouched and made my way to the front door. It was unlocked, and an old style door, instead of one of the electrical doors that were so popular in Night City. I crouched up to it, and slowly opened it, peeking inside.

 

The front hallway was empty, but I could hear sounds of a TV playing. Obviously these guys had gotten some power going. I slipped inside, closing the front door silently behind me.

 

I felt the cold flow through me. Time to move and find the hostages. The assumption was they were downstairs, but this farmhouse did have a second floor as well.

 

I’d check down, but have to be careful about what was above me.

 

Sliding along the wall I came to the first opening. On the right the hallway opened into a living room, where the sound of the TV was coming from, and there was a small door to the left to the kitchen I had seen before. Further down the hall was a few other rooms, and stairs up.

 

Where was the basement entrance?

 

I prepared myself and peeked around the corner into the living room.

 

Instantly I engaged my Sandevistan.

 

The couch was facing the doorway, the TV was up against the wall I was against, and there was a Raffen sitting on the couch drinking a beer.

 

I moved, even as his eyes widened in surprise at seeing me, my knife came out and before his voice could make a sound I chucked it, the knife moved through the air like it was in slow motion.

 

Then it crashed into the man’s throat. I was right behind it, the metal cut off his cry of alarm, as I grabbed the hilt of the blade and jerked it out, tearing his throat out and silencing him permanently.

 

My Sandy turned off and I pushed the man down into the couch so he would bleed out into it, instead of on top of me.

 

*100 Blades XP Gained.*

 

*500 XP Gained.*

 

I waited, listening urgently for any noise. A ruffle, a cough, the sound of a boot on flooring.

 

Nothing.

 

I released the corpse and turned up the TV a bit. Unfortunately I hadn’t pinged him before the murder so I was still going in blind. Idly I noticed my Sandevistan didn’t feel too bad. It was still warm, but that was the actual chrome’s heat, and not my nerves on fire. I shifted my neck a bit as I I checked the room. I felt good.

 

My eyes roved over the room, before I noticed that it had a strange shape. Instead of being square or rectangular, there was a harsh angle in the corner. The same corner that would be across from the stairs up.

 

I think that was where the basement access was.

 

Heading back out of the living room I moved quietly down the hall, Copperhead raised. Knife was quieter, but if things got bad I was ready to fire. There across from the stairs, was a door, and as I gently opened it up, I found the basement stairs.

 

*I found the basement. Heading down now, move in.*

 

Then I slowly went inside, testing each step to make sure none of the construction creaked as I slipped down. It wasn’t dark though. No, the lights were on, and as I headed down I heard it before seeing. The sounds of quiet crying.