Chapter Nineteen – Security Theatre

Chapter Nineteen – Security Theatre

“As the rich get richer and the poor envy them more, the need for security to protect the world’s elites only grows. There is safety in anonymity, but some of the elites do have public-facing personas, and that is where the modern security apparatus comes in.”

–How Not to Get Mobbed, a six part guide, second edition, 2051

***

“Found him,” Shy muttered.

“What was that?” I asked as I felt the ears on my head twitch. I wasn’t sure if I had to ask for clarification or not, but it was better to ask and not appear too weird than let people know that I had cyberware that let me spy on people really well. That might creep someone out. Not that I minded for normies, but the samurai with me were ostensibly friends.

I wasn’t one for politeness… because fuck that; but even I could understand that there were lines that you didn’t cross. If my cybernetic ears let me hear the weird noises someone made in the washroom then I sure wasn’t going to mention it. It was common courtesy or whatever.

“Ah, he’s in a place called the Rockfort building? It’s more or less to the north-east of the city.”

“I know that one,” Crisis Mode said. “It’s a large hexagonal building. Dark grey, not too far from the middle of the river. It’s not old. I think I remember seeing it go up.”

“Cool,” I said as I stretched up and flicked some switches. “Alright, so do we have a plan for this one?”

“I don’t think so?” Crisis Mode said. “Are we going to ask Libre about it?”

“Nah,” I said. “If he wasn’t a whole entire asshole, then maybe I’d poke him and see what he thinks, but I don’t know if he deserves the head’s up. And you’re a samurai, Crisis, you don’t need to ask for permission to go do anything.”

“Right, of course,” Crisis Mode said.

“It took me some time too,” Shy said quietly. “When I became a samurai I… spent a lot of time taking care of my own things, and I didn’t leave very often. Just to make some points, then I’d go back home. But, ah, Stray Cat’s way of doing things is sometimes good? Saving people is good. Sometimes saving them in a loud way saves more people later.”

“Aww, thanks,” I replied as we finally started to lift off the ground. “But I wouldn’t say that doing things the loud way is always the best. Eventually, if too many of us start tossing important people off of rooftops, the important people will stop standing so close to the edges.”

Once in the air, I angled us in the direction that Shy had indicated and started to fly forwards. I kept the thrust low and made sure to turn on the ship’s collision detection systems.

“Myalis, can we connect to the local air traffic net?” I asked. “Don’t want some soccer mom with a van full of kids ramming into us if we can avoid it.”

I felt Crisis Mode giving me a stare at that, but like, it wasn’t wrong, was it?

“Okay, so,we still haven’t decided how we’re doing this. I see three options. One, we drop Shy off nearby and let her sneak in. Maybe I can do the same? We find our guy and then escort him out, or ask him some questions in there. Second option, we go in loud. I still have… eh, some ammo left over, and I can always reload the rockets. We find out where he is and dig him out, possibly from the side of the building if needs be.”

“That’s insane,” Crisis Mode said.

“It’ll send a message,” I said.

“That we’re insane?” she asked.

“Yes? That’s a valuable message to send, I think. People have respect for insanity. You might not put a lot of respect on the average stray, but when it comes at you hissing and spitting you learn to back the fuck off.”

She shook her head. “What’s the third option?”

“Three, and this is the boring one, we park the Bastion and ask politely.”

“That might be the nicest solution,” Shy said.

Fine, whatever. We came upon the building, and Crisis Mode was right, from above it was a giant hexagon, with a pattern of hexagonal windows around the sides next to hexagonal wall panels. Someone had a thing for the shape, I guessed.

I looped us around, then came down for a landing near the topmost floor. I gave it good odds that the Commander wasn’t in the basement or lower floors.

Assholes always seemed to want to occupy the top of whatever building they were in.

I shut the Bastion down, then stood up. “Okay. We probably won’t encounter any trouble, but just in case, arm up?”

“Can I have a minute or two?” Crisis Mode asked. “I think I need to switch out some of my armour?”

“That’s fine,” I said. “We’ll be in the back. There’s a washroom just there if you want privacy, but it’s a little cramped.”

“I lived in an apartment that wasn’t much bigger, it’s fine,” she said.

Fair enough. Shy and I wandered to the back of the ship, and I took the spare time I had to reload the Bastion’s guns. Those rockets had been a half-dozen points each, it turned out. Worth it, obviously, since they’d made a lot more than that, but it still hurt to spend a bunch of points to reload.

A few minutes later, Crisis Mode exited the front of the ship and then settled a bag down onto the ground. By the way it clunked, I assumed it was her old gear.

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Her new stuff was a step up. It was more white armour, on a teal-ish bodysuit, only the suit looked a little thicker, more padded down with some under armour that looked like it could take a hit.

The overarmour was all white panels shaped around her body. It was very… well, I didn’t have the words for the exact style of it, but it was very modern military. A few pouches, some faulds and a breastplate and overall look that suggested some curvature to it without being all sexed up.

“Nice,” I said.

She nodded, then slid a helmet on. It had one of those cool T-shaped visors at the front, and I could tell that there was some sort of HUD inside as well, plus it made a cool hissing noise as the helmet sealed itself.

“It’s comfortable so far. A bit heavy, though.”

“Worth it,” I said. “Just wait until you explode, you’ll appreciate it.”