Chapter Fifty-Three – Intimidation

Chapter Fifty-Three – Intimidation

“Intimidating people is hard.

It’s not just about having the biggest guns or the biggest kill-count around, it’s more than that. You need to look scary, talk the right way, walk the right way. It’s not as easy as people think, especially if you have… certain disadvantages.”

–Deus Ex, 2049

***

Meredith Jones had the penthouse rooms with the biggest living room space, so I decided to hold our impromptu meeting in her apartments.

First, though, I had to grab the other two guests of honour.

Stanley had the room next to Meredith’s, so after letting Myalis poke at the card-reader next to the door, I slipped into his suite and tossed a sleeping gas grenade into the bedroom. Stanley was sleeping all on his lonesome in a surprisingly non-fancy set of pyjamas.

The gas silently filled the room, and his snoring continued unbothered.

“Fuck,” I said as I stood next to his bed. I felt a little skeevy now that I’d made it this far. Sneaking past the guards and all felt fine, but standing over a sleeping guy in the dark felt… a bit weird.

Plus now I had to carry him, and Stanley–while he wasn’t fat–still had a bit of a gut and he was a full-grown man.

I tried to princess carry him, but that didn’t work. He was too floppy and I almost smacked myself in the face when his foot kicked up as I tried to grab him under his knees. Myalis didn’t help, and instead played a laugh-track in the background as I tried to pick the man up.

I eventually settled on a fireman’s carry, pulling Stanley’s arms up and then shoving my shoulder against his middle before standing up. Thank fuck for power armour, otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to carry him anywhere.

Stanley might wake up with a few bruises from the way I carried him around. At least I only banged his shins against the doorframe, not his head.

I brought him over to Meredith’s living room and dropped him on the couch. Then I realized that bringing people in here might wake her up, so I cracked the door to her room open and rolled another sleep grenade in, just in case.

Next was Will.

His room was way down on the far end of the corridor, and I wasn’t looking forward to having to drag him all the way across.

On reaching his door, I could make out sounds on the other side. People talking. Two women, in fact. I crouched by the door and after Myalis unlocked it for me, opened it just enough to slip a grenade in.

“What’s that?” One girl asked.

Then there was a trio of soft thumps.

Poking my head in, I found that Will’s suite was a lavishly decorated playboy’s wet dream.

It had a bar that ran the length of the room, a jacuzzi off to one side, and an entire wall was taken up by windows that would let him look over the serfs below. The master bedroom was just at the back, a large space with a massive bed taking up most of it.

Three young women were now laying on the floor next to the wrap-around bar. For a moment I had a flash of worry as I saw a spreading liquid under one of them, but it turned out to just be some sort of drink.

Judging by the way they were dressed, these three were here to party. Or… after-party? It didn’t seem terribly lively at the moment.

Probably because it was approaching seven in the morning.

I made sure all three were still breathing before I snuck into the master bedroom, then I sighed. Will was there. As were four more women and a sex bot. They had enough clothes between them to properly outfit maybe one person.

Of course, I took a pic and sent it to Lucy. She’d enjoy my predicament.

Will was slumped over in the middle of the bed with a complication attached to his face. One of those clear masks people with apnea wore. It was tied to some hoses that rose up to the ceiling where a little machine was mounted. “Will that fuck with the sleeping gas?” I asked.

It shouldn’t.