Chapter 58

Funnily enough we were all at the Ho-oh club that night.

 

Even Hiromi made it!

 

Of course the place was wildly different right out the gate. There were still a bunch of TC guys but the atmosphere had changed. It was more relaxed, and there were signs up, talking about opening of the upstairs areas.

 

Apparently the private TC second floor was opening up soon to bring more attention to the bar.

 

I honestly didn’t want to meet up here, but it was kinda the closest club to everyone’s home.

 

And despite my knowledge about Jotaro most of the others had no idea. I guess since he was dead it was fine now.

 

“So here is the gig.” I whispered, sending everyone a text message with the details I had put together including the address and pictures of the building.

 

Both back and front. Ichi and I had driven around, enough that I had confirmed the scav base below as well. I let them read the little snippet I had put together and everyone was nodding along as they read through.

 

“So what’s the cut for everyone?” Malcolm asked before even finishing the brief.

 

“Fair split between everyone, excluding any Chrome that someone wants to chip. Just like last time, but this time we’ll be looting more thoroughly. There should be Ripper equipment we can klep for example.”

 

“Who are we selling to?” Hiromi asked, breaking in as Malcolm was practically bursting at the seams at the idea of all the eddies.

 

“I haven’t got that far yet?”

 

“Gonk. Nope. We aren’t doing that again. Fine. I’ll make some calls, and find buyers. Motoko. Send me your Fixers number as well. You know Wakako right? She might have some buyers as well.” Hiromi demanded as her eyes went gold and she sat back as she started calling…

 

Someone?

 

Wow Hiromi was pretty cool. I sent her a text with Wakako’s number and refocused on the boys.

 

“How much loot are we looking at Motoko?”

 

“Honestly? No idea. But that’s the thing. We clear this place, and if I do it fast enough, maybe I can pull some information on another den. I would like to be able to just keep hitting them.”

 

“That’ll piss off the scavs. Like seriously piss them off, they come after you. After us.”

 

“Not if we do it without anyone knowing.” I told him firmly. “I go in clear them as quietly as I can, if I do my job right, no one fires a bullet, no one finds out until the place is empty and we are long gone. I’ll trash any recordings of what happened. I got an upgrade.” I told him tapping the back of my head where my Cyberdeck is installed.

 

“Okay but what if you do get seen, and word gets out?”

 

I opened my mouth to assure him that wouldn’t happen before closing it.

 

“Okay. I don’t wear my normal gear. I’ll suit up in something new. We all will. Masks and everything. Your Villefort Columbus Truck isn’t exactly unique either.”

“It’s the most common moving truck in Night City.” He said, rolling his eyes. “And that was done on purpose… It was Jotaro-samas’ idea, drive around in a vehicle no one would look twice at.” He said, sounding a little sad.

 

Ugh. Ichi don’t feel bad about that bastard!

 

“Well it works for us! So we go buy some gear first, and then we’ll be good to go.”

 

“I don’t have the eddies for that.” Malcolm said outright. “I’ve been out of work for a few weeks since… Well since the war and stuff.”

 

“Not exactly doing great either.” Ichi agreed, and I nodded.

 

“Not to worry chooms. This is a business expense, and will come out of the company expense account… I’ll pay for it, you can pay me back later, or not. I don’t really care.”

 

“Motoko. I’m not gonna just take-”

“I’m not gonna steal from a choo-” They both started arguing but I waved a hand at both of them to shush them.

 

“We’ll make ten times whatever I pay for the gear we need on the loot, and I can’t make much just by myself. You guys bring the truck, and the looting experience. So I’ll pay for this. You pay with your truck, and Hiromi I guess is paying by taking care of the least important stuff.” I add right at the end teasingly, as I noticed Hiromi’s eyes turn back to normal as her call ended.

 

The fact she kicked me hard in the shin a moment later was totally worth the look of outrage on her face.

 

“Motoko!” She snapped at me making me giggle up a storm as even Ichi and Malcolm started chuckling along.

 

“Sorry sorry! You finding buyers is super important. Find anything?”

“Not yet. I was talking to… I was calling my dad for advice. I hope that doesn’t bother you Motoko, I did tell him what we are doing?”

 

“I winced a little but in the end shrugged. “I highly doubt a small ripper doc and some scavs will interest your dad at all. So I think we’re good. What did he say?”

 

“He’s gonna give me a shard on marketing that I apparently need to study now.” She grumbled glaring at nothing. “But he did give me some advice on who to contact from Arasaka intel that he has access to. So yeah we have some options. He suggested I know what I’m selling before I start calling around though.”

 

“Great! So we go, clear it out, and then Hiromi can find us buyers! This is gonna be so much fun!” I cheered getting looks from everyone at the table.

 

They just didn’t understand why raiding scavs was fun because they were boring and afraid of ‘bullets’ and stuff. It’s fine. More fun for me!

 

—–

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

 

Obviously I wasn’t going to rush into this. So even as the sun was going down. We were all heading away from Ho-oh club towards a certain little shop I know.

 

We entered in through the front. The guard was still around. The LMG in his hands deadly but after we entered he went on to ignore us as I walked up to the little old asian lady that I had bought my Leotards from.

 

“Oh? Back again, and with friends?”

 

“I need some work done. Or at least supplies. I’m wondering if you can help me out?”

 

She looked over the little oval glasses she was wearing at the four of us before beckoned us into the back of her shop.

 

“Let’s talk what you need.”

 

—–

 

Three hours later we were actually getting close to being done. I had paid for a rush job since we were all here and had the time at the moment.

 

Between machines, the old ladies’ incredibly fast stitching and machine work, and me quickly starting to help out which surprised her, I got my crew all specced out.

 

Hiromi had even headed out to grab some new boots and supplies for everyone to go along with it.

 

They weren’t netrunner suits exactly. More just heavily armored clothing.

 

But they were tight, dark colored, and looked pretty cool. All of us would even match!

 

I mean sure I had considered going for the three piece suit look. Can’t beat a classic look! But considering only corpos wore anything close to that we would stand out, and the goal was to try and stand out as little as possible while staying protected.

 

Even if we were in matching clothes.

 

“Done.” The lady mentioned pulling out a final jacket piece out of the machine looking it over and throwing it at Hiromi.

 

With that we were all done. Boots, armored pants and armored shirt and jacket.

 

It looked pretty generic, but it was armored clothing, and would give us some anonymity.

 

“Thanks Oba-san.”

 

“Bah. Pay me first then thank me.” She barked at me with a chuckle as I nodded quickly and did just that.

 

The payment was… Hefty. I was really lucky I had gotten Reginas eddies otherwise that would have broken my bank.

 

“Now I don’t know what you are planning. Nor do I want to. I never helped you. Get out.” She ordered, waving at the door and we all gathered up our leftover clothes and rushed out towards the cars.

 

Hiromi jumped in to ride with me in the Quadra as we all split off.

 

Preparation almost complete. Soon we strike!

 

—–

 

“What are you wearing?” Jun asked as I was standing in the bathroom looking at the mirror making some adjustments to my new outfit.

 

“It’s my new secret killer outfit… I found a scav den attached to a Ripper doc. We are going to clear the place out and loot it to the bedrock, but we don’t want anyone knowing it’s us.” I told Jun as I kept working on my stitching.

 

I needed to make sure it fit right. It would be really annoying if not.

 

“Okay Ninja girl.” he said and I quickly spun around throwing my hands into a ninja handsign as I did.

 

“Nin-Nin!” I told him seriously. What I had been working on was a face mask, a ninja mask specifically. I had spent a little extra at the old ladies shop and bought some really breathable cloth so I could make it.