Chapter 238

“Hmm.”

“Don’t hum at me.” I grumbled at Wakako. “I got the gun out of the place while the police were actively raiding it.”

“You were supposed to not be seen.”

“I wasn’t.”

“They know someone broke in.”

“Yeah and the guys hidden safe beeped when it was open. Tell your client if he wants to install a safe make sure it’s a quiet model.”

“Hmm.”

I sent Wakako a glare and she puffed on her cigarette before nodding. “It was the best that could be done. I wasn’t expecting the police response so quickly.”

“Yeah no kidding. They were inside the apartment. I thought you said I’d have some time.”

“I did. There was information that was not given to me, that changed the protocol.”

“Yeah?”

“The woman that was killed had police connections. Likely an undercover agent. Hence the fast response.”

“Shit. So your guy married a cop?”

“Probably.” Wakako replied, exhaling some smoke which I leaned away from. Ew. “Baby.”

“Hey! I plan on replacing my lungs eventually, but that doesn’t mean I want that shit near me. It smells.”

“Humph!”

“Humph!” I responded right back as I got up and made a face at Wakako as I walked out.

She sent me a flat look, as I backed out through her beaded door.

Jeeze. What a mess, but at the same time.

I felt myself grinning a bit. It had been really fun.

Infiltration really was my favorite type of gig. As I walked through Jig-Jig street back out to the main road. Slipping into the Quadra that I had left parked, I pulled out into Night City traffic.

I had another stupid band meeting tonight. Considering MSM wanted to start publishing Stand Alone Complex as soon as possible every night was taken up by time in the recording studio, or some sort of band thing. Modeling pictures, and whatever. There was even a conversation that had drifted past me that if our first single did well on the MSM production then we’d have a talk show segment.

Me.

On TV.

I was fairly confident I’d end up shooting someone at this rate. Probably on live TV. Considering I would need to blow off some steam, I turned back into Japantown towards the gun range I liked.

I sent a message out to my chooms if they wanted to join me for shooting, but only got negatives in response, which wasn’t a surprise.

Parking, I took out the Tactician Shotgun from the trunk and walked inside. I got some side eyes from the owner behind his bulletproof glass, but when I flashed him the eddies he waved me through and even sent some shells over for me.

It’s like the guy knew me or something!

Laughing as I set up and looked over the range. I needed this. Just some good old fashioned grinding of a stat. No chooms to get distracted by, just me, and repeating an action a thousand times to try and make myself just that little bit better.

Time to Grind Annihilation. It was only level 5 after all! Flicking a set of shells into my fingers I quickly loaded the shotgun working on the habit as frankly quick loading a shotgun was a bit different from other weapons, and I should practice it to make sure I wasn’t fumbling anything.

Then I brought the shotgun to my shoulder and activated the range.

I breathed in.

And pulled the trigger, I rocked with the bang, pumped the shotgun recentered fired again. Then again. Eight rounds were shot, and eight targets blinked as they registered shots.

I pulled the shotgun away, swiped more shells in my other hand’s fingers and slid round after round into the chamber.

A quick pump and I started firing again. Again and again. I let myself fall into the rhythm. Just burning time and stress by following the motions. Each trigger pull sending buckshot into holographic targets. Each little number giving me just a little endorphin rush.

Or at least something like that. It was fun to just hit the targets and see the numbers go up.

But not nearly as much when I got a little alert noise. 100 Annihilation XP, just one more step towards level 6.

I smiled and continued firing, still had half a box left after all!

Fire, pump, reload. Fire pump reload.

Barrel flash after barrel flash.

—–

*Flash*

“Thank you for the picture!” The photographer said bowing politely as she moved on. I actually smiled for that one, she had been much nicer than some of the others that just ran around snapping pictures without a word.

It was lucky my Kiroshi didn’t get glare because I’d be blind at this point if not for them.

“Come on Motoko, smile wider and wave. This is our party!” Klein called out, waving at the men and women that walked by.

MSM had decided to throw a party for us, although I had a feeling the party would have happened regardless, we were just an excuse.

Up at the top of one of the skyscrapers in Night City where many of the rich and famous gathered to party.

I’m pretty sure that was the woman that played the titular Watson Whore. Seriously, that show kept coming up with the new season out. It’s like it was everywhere… It probably was. I know Jun said it was popular.

I ignored Klein’s words and just fell back into the table.

Today was a launch party. MSM had decided which of the singles we’d drop first, and Pretender had been it.

We were technically here just to party, but it was always more than that. We’d be up on stage before the night ended to play the song, and show off, to draw some hype among the rich. Investment strategy is what Alex had described it as.

I just called it lame, but whatever.

“You should just get something to drink and loosen up.” Alice offered, and I scoffed.

“I don’t drink.”

“You can get some food then.” She offered, annoyed at me, and I blinked.

Food actually did sound kinda good.

Was there a menu?

No. There was not a menu. But waiters were everywhere, and I waved at one of them that hurried over.

“What food do you guys serve?”

“I’ll send you the Menu, but the house special tonight is a Beef Wellington. Real cloned beef!”

I blinked because… That actually sounded fucking amazing. I’d never really had fancy Beef Wellington before, but just real meat sounded good.

I got the blip of the menu offering, and after checking it out, and removing some adware from the program I pulled it open.

Oh… It all looked good. Then I remembered that the tab was on MSM tonight.

“I’ll take that, and this sushi platter, and let me get the real baked Potato as well.”

“Of course!” The waiter agreed and disappeared.

Real food! Hey there was a benefit to all this after all!

With that distraction over I focused once more on what was going on around the club. People sitting in different booths, most of them seemingly enjoying more than just drinks. It was a den of debauchery and while we were a bit of a showpiece today, it was a nearly lusterless one. Barely anyone outside of the media people going around with cameras even seemed to care.

We were just a minor spectacle among the debauchery. Not that Klein, Alice, and Jared seemed to understand that. The three of them were partying like this was the big time.

We hadn’t even technically had our big time debut.

I was about to fall into another pit of bitter irritation at this still being rather un fun all things told when something was placed in front of me, and the scent hit me.

“Oh.” I whispered looking over the steaming pile of pasty, real pasty, and beef that was already cut and steaming.

This narrative has been purloined without the author’s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

A real potato was put next to it.

Real. Food.

My hand instantly grabbed the knife and fork, twirling the knife around for a moment before bringing it down and cutting a piece free, and that went right into my face.

Heaven!

Aaaaah! So good! Yummy yummy meat! None of the preservative taste of Scop. This was real food that could actually go bad.

As I was chewing, Alex walked over and slid into the booth, his slicked back hair and manufactured smile put me off guard.

“It’s almost time, the release of the single on the radio stations is in five minutes. We’re going to have you play a surprise run at the same time. This is it, while it might not seem like it if you can impress the people in this room, you are guaranteed stardom.

I chewed my beef.

I didn’t want to walk away from the beef.

Oh! Oh! The Sushi platter! It was dropped off in front of Alex, and he reached out to take one when suddenly my knife was embedded into the table in front of him.

I chewed slowly, staring at him with absolute murder.

My sushi.

He seemed to actually have two brain cells and he slowly withdrew his hand. “My Apologies, I thought that was for the table.”

“Mine.” I mumbled around the beef I was chewing and then went back to eating.

“Well all of you are needed backstage, to get this show on the road.

I frowned as I stared at hot real food.