Chapter 230

Waking up the next morning I rolled over away from the sun slipping through the blinds and had to consider everything. There was no doubt that the band was getting attention. Hiromi had even waved me away assuring me everything was being taken care of when I decided to leave last night, and she hadn’t come with me.

 

Hiromi had stayed long after the gig talking to the talent scout? Producer? I wasn’t sure what his position was.

 

Either way, I had a feeling Hiromi was going to be pushing for something with regards to the Band. But…

 

Being up on stage, playing music I could only listen to before? Feeling that response from a crowd as I roared out from my heart? It was a good feeling.

 

I checked my messages, Dino had sent me a packet about the gig he wanted done last night. But that wasn’t all I had. I’d gotten multiple alerts for Rockerboy XP. The full band experience, really letting it all go, had earned me another step closer to hitting level 10.

 

I looked at the packet from Dino. Just from the basics I understood the difficulty. There was one dealership that sold new Rayfield vehicles in Night City, and Dino wanted a Shard they’d have in the office switched out.

 

I didn’t know exactly what the data was, but he had maps of the dealership, timetables, and even information about their security.

 

Could I do it?

 

Yeah. The security was top of the line, but it didn’t have Netrunner support. The dealership was secure enough inside a building in Downtown sharing space with a few other high end corporations. The fancy dealership even had a special circular track around the building that people looking to buy high end vehicles could drive around without traffic stopping them.

 

Of course I wasn’t after the vehicles, but just to replace a Shard with another inside the dealership office.

 

I slipped out of bed, and got ready. Even as I was in the shower I was going over the data Dino had sent, checking entrances, and information about the people that would be there.

 

The dossier on the entire place was thorough. Dino wasn’t skimping, this wasn’t just a generic smash and grab, but the data was set up as a professional Op.

 

As I was drying my hair I noticed something that might work as an entry point.

 

The pay for the gig was good… Probably? No, it was. It definitely had enough zeroes there.

 

Hiromi would be proud of me for actually checking, rather than just jumping into something, but to be fair, this was a full stealth gig, I couldn’t be seen, or leave any hints that I had been there, or the gig failed. So I wouldn’t be getting any XP for this, eddies were the only benefit I would draw out of it.

 

Decision settled, I sent out the confirmation to Dino.

 

*Motoko: I’ll accept the gig. I can get it done today. Just need the replacement shard.*

 

*Dino: Alright, cords for a pickup. The delivery boy’s name is Simon, that’ll be the code that he knows it’s you. Look forward to the update on the gig completion.*

 

Well that was settled then. Now I just needed to sort everything else. Even if this was a stealth mission, I was trying to be better than the gonk that I could be at times.

 

*Motoko: I got a gig from Dino, it should be quiet, just a sneak and grab. But I was wondering if anyone is free to be super bored and act as my extraction in case something bad happens.*

 

*Ichi: I’m on the clock right now, but I can come if you need me.*

*Malcolm: Ah, not a great time for me, but I can be there.*

*Rebecca: Nah you two, I got this. Strings, where we meeting up. I’ve been bored all morning. Might as well be bored and doing something.*

 

*Motoko: Preem Becca. Sure I’ll send you a cords.*

 

*Hiromi: I can come!*

 

*Motoko: Hiromi you have class. You can’t come.* I reminded her with a roll of my eyes as I hit the garage.

 

I was sliding onto my Kusanagi to make it through Night City morning traffic as I got Rebecca’s confirmation, and Hiromi’s cry emoji.

 

—–

 

Dino’s delivery boy was a guy sitting in the back of a Villefort Columbus. The van doors were open and he was hawking XBD’s if what I was seeing was right. Scoping him out as I pulled up on my Kusanagi. I didn’t bother getting off, just driving right up to him which had him obviously preparing a weapon behind him, but as I stopped I called out.

 

“You Simon?”

“That’s me. Got your package right here.” He offered holding out a BD wrapper. I took it and felt the Shard inside.

 

With that I drove off without a word, and headed down and across a bit to another parking area. This one was a few floors up, and I found the spot I wanted. Right up against the north side of the building, where right there across the street and a floor down was the Rayfield dealership. I leaned against the wall and watched.

 

A car was racing around the track. Not one of their top of the lines. This was no Caliburn, but it would still be a high end car. I watched as it circled for a while, until a glitzy fashionista parked it near an entrance door, and stepped out. The passenger was a well dressed salesman, and he followed her inside. The moment they were out of sight a man in cheaper clothes stepped out and got in the car to drive it back inside the dealership.

 

But what I had seen on the information Dino had sent, was that the guy came out of another entrance way, not into the main office, after all, the dealership doesn’t want some mechanic in coveralls being seen by the high priced clientele.

 

That was my entrance point. The door he came through was a mechanic room, and most importantly, connected to the back office through a much more private door that I could use to slip past almost all the agents in the dealership since they’d all be up front dealing with clients.

 

It wasn’t long before a rumbling engine came up the parking garage and Rebecca’s monster of a Nomad spec Thorton Mackinaw came rumbling over and parked itself.

 

I honestly hadn’t seen her drive it around much, so I couldn’t help but lean sideways to get a view of the driver door when it opened, and the comparatively tiny woman came out of her truck.

 

I couldn’t help but laugh as she had to get out in three movements, sliding off the seat, onto a foot rest on the side of the truck, then hop off again to settle on the ground.

 

“Eat shit, Strings.”

“I really think that truck is too big for your Becca.”

“Pfft. It’s perfect sized! I get to run people over in it, and they die.”

I couldn’t help but nod and give her that one. That was fair.

 

“So what’s the deal here?”

“See that dealership down there?” I asked her, and she looked at the boundary around the parking Garage that was a bit above her head.

“No.”

 

I snorted, and she reached out and punched at me, which I let her. My new leotard was still armored, and it wasn’t as tight anymore. It didn’t hurt.

 

“Okay so Dealership?” She asked.

“Rayfield. I need to sneak in and swap out a shard without being seen, or leaving behind any bodies.”

Rebecca stepped back. Her previous joviality, gone in a flash. “That sounds tough. Wouldn’t it be easier to wait until tonight?”

“You’d think so, but with how busy it is. It’s actually easier during the day.” I explained to Rebecca as I jerked my head across the way, specifically not pointing. “See the track around the dealership? They keep it real private, only one car at a time, since they only have limited customers, but the customers are treated like royalty. Multiple attendants for each one. I noticed it on some of the pictures that Dino sent me.”

“Okay so… Everyone is distracted by the prima donnas so once that happens you sneak in.”

“Exactly. Which is why your help is really nice. I’m sneaky, but not perfect, if I flub it having some backup for extraction is always nice..” I waved around the non secure parking garage.

 

“Okay preem. So you need me for overwatch?”

“And escape. But mostly overwatch you’ll relay details I need as I make my infiltration.” I started explaining that part of the gig, and Rebecca ended up climbing up onto the hood of her truck sitting back and crossing her legs like she was just chilling enjoying the view as I explained.

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I couldn’t help but smile at how casual she made it. Rebecca might be the smallest of my chooms, but she was older, and it was times like this that it showed. Plus her experience working gigs. Malcolm would be pointing over the edge while I explained things, and I’d have to smack his hand each time to get him to stop pointing.

 

Rebecca understood immediately with just one context clue not to bring any attention.

 

So I finished explaining and in the end since Rebecca had very little to do she just stayed relaxing against the hood of her car, while I headed out.

 

While the easiest way to get to the dealership would be just leaping across and using some street lights, to get across the way, there would be too much chance of a commotion if I tried that.

So I left the parking garage, and waited the long ass time for the cross walk to let me cross, only needing to cuss out one asshole that blew through the light and nearly hit me. Which was pretty good for Night City.

 

Crossing over I found an entrance to the building through another parking garage although this one was private. The entrance had a key reader and multiple security devices including a rather large gate that would keep people not welcome out.

 

I waited for no one to be coming in, and just walked up. This was a Kiroshi security optic keypad. It could be opened through other optics, but Kiroshi of course promised increased viability through their own work.

 

But that also created a weakness in the system. When I poked my eyes in front of it, it sent a data packet to my eye, which I co-opted, quickly altered the access information and sent it back.

 

It then sent back a further confirmation, this time with a code, that it thought I was sending to ensure it was correct. Only the code could only send codes that already existed on the database.

 

So I sent another confirmation and the gate opened with a small text message of ‘Welcome Mr. Luxor!’ Displayed, and I was into the private garage.

 

Okay easy part done.

 

The interior garage itself had some dangers, security cameras and the like, but it was also already secured from the outside, so thankfully only the one camera that I had to worry about, along my route.

 

Poking my head out from around a concrete pillar, I easily hacked it before it spotted me, and did a quick loop on the recording, the last ten seconds repeated again.

 

That’s all I needed to rush across the garage and into the building’s interior hallways.

From there it was smooth sailing. Multiple corps ran in this building, and there were plenty of reasons a teenager might be heading upwards through the stairs, especially since I was already through part of the security.

 

No issues.

 

I climbed up the stairs, heading to the floor two levels above the dealership. Unfortunately the floor above was another corpo office, and I couldn’t get through to that, but the next one up, was multiple minor office spaces.

 

It was child’s play to walk out of the stair access and down the interior hall space, separating all the different offices. There was a security door that opened for me without issue, and no one inside even saw me as I entered into some sort of call center office.

 

I walked right through only ducking a little to be below the cubicles set up, and reaching the exterior door.

 

The office had a nice little outside space that ran around the building, and now I was out. I walked around. Acting like I was supposed to be out here. Since it ran around the entire building all the offices on this level had access, so none of them would be able to tell I wasn’t supposed to be here.

 

Humming a bit of something or another I walked around until I found the spot I needed to be at. Right across from me was Rebecca who secretly waved for a moment at me.