Chapter 191

I breathed in and out, utterly silent. As I watched what happened out of the corner of my eye keeping my body blended with the shadows.

 

The man that opened the door had a Militech Crusher Shotgun, and was sweeping the room. Obviously concerned. Had I set off an alarm, or been seen?

 

After a minute of following a similar path I had taken clearing the bathroom, he lowered his gun and just cursed.

 

“Fucking assholes not locking the door.” He said aloud as he finally relaxed. Ah, just bad luck then. I would have laughed if I wasn’t in complete control of every muscle in my body keeping myself perfectly still. Even the best infiltrator could be beaten by bad timing.

 

He took a moment to place his gun beside the couch and then headed back to the entrance. A moment later he came in carrying a bag full of food, and he flopped onto the couch.

 

Hmm.

 

I wasn’t really in any hurry, but I didn’t want to be stuck here either, especially since this guy wasn’t Yuto.

 

Intel had probably been wrong. Dammit.

 

Maybe another of the buildings or something had been where he is staying?

 

I prepared myself as the man turned on his entertainment system to watch TV. The noise would easily hide me while I escaped, but then I heard him curse a name that suddenly had all my attention.

“Fucking Yuto. Prick! I told him not to log me out!” He grumbled as I looked down a bit and saw what the problem was.

 

Television channels in NC used a subscription service. The ads that played around the system was one of the ways poor people paid for the service, basically making it free if you allowed the ads.

 

Right now the TV was covered in ads, and I saw that the user logged in was listed as [YUTO] which meant I was in the right place after all. I felt my smile tug up into a grin that only grew wilder and wilder as I realized that this wasn’t a complete failure.

 

I watched the man work on the system for a bit, but he seemingly couldn’t find the remote, or access to the account. So he cursed a ton and started searching for a show without it.

 

But more importantly, it meant Yuto had been here, and this guy knew him.

 

Since he was just sitting there, I started breaching.

 

As the man turned on a recording of Watson Whore Season 1 episode 6. Which jumped straight into a sex scene…

 

Lovely.

 

I breached into his agent, and quietly stalled out any ability to make calls.

 

Once I was sure, I dropped from the ceiling, and the loud moans from the screen hid the small noise I made as I touched down and spread out to dampen the noise.

 

Then I crept right up.

 

One of the reasons that Fujimura had handed this whole gig to me and Section 9 was because the TC didn’t want a gang war with 6th St. So they wanted this completely detached from them.

 

That was why I had hoped to go through this entire gig without being seen…

Well there were ways around that. I snuck around and disappeared his Crusher, and then approached from behind.

 

I waited for it to get loud again and reached out.

 

Chrome arms wrapped around his head and pressed my knife against his throat.

 

“Quiet.” I demanded not in my own voice, and while he surged upwards in surprise I was more than strong enough to ride it out until he had a moment to realize what was happening.

 

He opened his mouth to shout, but ‘sharp’ was a sensation that tended to quiet screaming.

 

I gave him a few seconds long enough to realize what situation he was in, to realize his gun that was on the other side of the couch was gone, I noticed by the way he slightly twisted his head.

And then he relaxed.

 

“Good. I’m not here for you. Or for your chooms.” I told him confidently. Sexy Motoko Voice whispered in his ear. “So you should know what I am after. Yuto. Where is he?”

 

Slowly I eased off enough the blade could still be felt, but that he could swallow a bit.

“Don’t know. Honest. I was letting him crash here for Roger! They met in the slammer. I know the kid met with Captain Sherman, made it all good. So I just said yes. You uh… Tyger?”

“No.” I told him truthfully. “I’m just a merc. Just doing a job to catch an asshole. Which is why I need to know where he went.”

 

“I don’t know! Roger’s the only one that’d know. He and Yuto left yesterday! Haven’t seen either of ‘em since.”

“Roger huh?” I spoke as I breached back into the man’s Agent. Finding a listing under Roger.

 

“Roger Almeda?”

“Y-yeah!”

 

“And you don’t know where they went?” I prodded poking a little tighter for a second so he couldn’t just instantly respond. “Because there are a few ways this encounter ends. One of them ends with me appreciative of your candor. The other doesn’t.” Then I gave a little so he could speak again.

 

“W-What’s candor mean?”

 

I blinked. That was not the answer I was expecting, and I think dipshit realized that too as he went real quiet.

 

“Answer my question first.” I demanded cutting to the point with a gentle nudge of the blade.

“I don’t! I swear! Roger’s thing with Yuto was approved, but it was his Op. They figured hey, TC knocking off TC’s not really a concern ya know?”

“Yeah well shit has a tendency to spread.” I grumbled a bit as I considered what to do. I had a phone number, which I could track if I went into the net, but that would require the guy to even pick up.

 

Which meant killing this guy was the best bet…

 

But that sort of went against the idea of trying not to cause a gangwar.

 

I was about to decide when I noticed it. Pushing my hostage’s vision down so he couldn’t see I took note of something interesting.

 

The account on the TV just got kicked off, because someone else had logged into it.

 

I stared at it for a bit long enough my hostage started getting visibly nervous, but a plan was coming together. I breached the TV and confirmed the account details, saved it to a shard, and smirked once more full of teeth.

 

Well that just made my life easier.

 

“Alright pal. Here is what’s going to happen. We are going to make a call to your choom. Stay quiet okay? I’d hate to make this friendly phone call a homicide.”

 

“S-sure.”

 

I hacked once more into his agent and routed my call through him.

 

A few moments later the call picked up.

 

*Grant what’d ya want?*

*Hello Mr. Almeda.” I answered using my Sexy Motoko Voice. *You are currently harboring someone that I would very much like to find.*

 

*Shit. What’d ya do to Grant? Huh, you asian cunt! I’ll fuckin’ kill you!*

 

*Currently nothing. Nor do I really have much desire to harm him. I’m a professional. I don’t leave a trail of corpses. How much for you to walk away and let Yuto meet his fate?* I asked, because as funny as it was to remember from time to time. I was doing pretty well for myself. And eddies could save me a lot of time.

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*Fuck you. I’m not accepting shit from some corpo bitch.*

*I’m a freelance merc Mr. Almeda. Hardly a corp. C’mon what’s the point. You know Yuto is going to get what’s coming to him. Just walk away you can make some eddies, and go back home to your real chooms, and not the gonk Wannabe Tyger Claw.*

*Fuck. You.*

*Well it was worth a try. Just so you know, while I don’t kill anyone outside my target, if you are protecting him, that does put you under the scope.*

*Heh! I’m a Lieutenant. You want to try and off me? Come and get it bitch. I have an army at my back!*

 

*I doubt 6th Street will do much more than a meager amount to protect Yuto. We both know that.*

 

*Then come and try bitch!*

 

*Tell me where you are, and I’ll happily do so!* I mocked, knowing the coming answer.

 

*Fucking find me!* And the line went dead.

 

“Alright… Grant was it?”

 

“T-that’s me.”

“Alright. I’ve gotten everything I can here, which is disappointing, so it’s time for me to leave. Luckily for you, I have nothing against you, so we can make this easy. I have two ways to keep you out of the way for a bit. One is painless, but lasts longer, the other hurts, but you’ll be good to go in about ten minutes. Your choice.”

“Uh… Painless?” He asked, and before he even finished his optics went out, and I rose up, he jerked away and swept his hands around as he realized what had happened, but I was already heading out.

 

It didn’t take me long to slip through the security door, and lock it behind me.

 

Maybe a bit mean, since with his optics out, there was little chance he would be able to get out without assistance.

 

But I’m pretty sure he had lied to me, so fuck him.

 

With that I slipped back out of the building. Grants muffled yells for help well hidden by the building’s thick floors and walls. Without eyes, and without any ability to call someone, he’d be stuck in there for at least a while.

 

——

 

“So we don’t have anything?” Ichi asked, and I shook my head.

 

“Actually, I think I know exactly how to track Yuto right to his safehouse, but it’ll take some netrunning, and maybe some favors. The NCTV service could be protected pretty well.”

“NCTV?” Hiromi asked. I nodded looking around the gas station across the Arroyo. We had stopped here to discuss what I had found. Turbo’s bright light hung down on us, but thankfully the place was quiet.

 

“Yuto the dumbass is still logging into his NCTV sub wherever he is. I literally saw him do it in real time, because Grant the guy in the basement logged in, and it kicked him out. That means he’s actively using it wherever he goes… Even if he bolts I’d put eddies that Yuto is a complete dumbfuck and so we’ll always be able to track him given enough time… If I can get into the NCTV system and track the address.”

“Fuck yeah!” Malcolm shouted, startling all of us. “That’s what I’m talking about!” Malcolm whooped as he jumped and cheered.

 

I blinked at him, before laughing, I couldn’t help it. All of this shit going on, but Malcolm was just excited to do our job.

 

“Alright. I need to go into the net, so I’d like at least one of you with me. Malcolm, still needs to put his car away.” I said, eyeing the rocket launchers set up on top of Malcolm’s car.