Ghost in the City: Cyberpunk Gamer SI

“I guess it’s okay.” I mumbled, Ichi had led me outside, into his little backyard. It had actually been a surprise that Ichi lived out in Arroyo, because I had always thought he had rented near the rest of us, but apparently this was his Grandmother's home.

It even had a little garage outback, with dirt cutting through the grass leading through a side gate.

He quickly opened it up, and showed his van.

His van that still had my Minotaur in it.

“Umm… So do you need it for something?”

“Not the Minotaur itself. I’m going to grab the control program, and see what it’s made of.” I explained as I hefted myself up into the van, noticing the control crown and plopping it on my head.

“Oh, great. So is that new chrome?” He asked suddenly and I threw him a smile as I showed off my neck.

“Sure is! New Neural Link, and Sandy.”

“Whoa. Sandevistan? What’d you get?”

“Just a Dynalar. I was going to wait on chipping one until I had the perfect one, but… Jun reminded me I should be looking at the short term as much as the long term.”

“That’s preem Motoko. What’s it like?”

“I don’t know!” I laughed at the reveal. “I’m not allowed to turn it on yet, docs orders. Install is still fresh.”

“Oh, tell me about it once you use it.”

“Why? Thinking about one yourself?”

“Speedware is useful for drivers.” He answered in turn before humming. “Do you need me? I got work.”

“Just give me one minute, and I’ll get out of here.” I looked at Ichi who looked relieved. “The SCSM job?” I asked for clarification as I worked.

“Yeah, I kinda like it, I guess. It’s simple enough, lets me drive around and I don’t get shot at. At least not yet.”

“That sounds nice. Make sure you bring your gun though. You never know when you’ll need to shoot back.”

“Obviously.” He agreed and seemed to relax. Ichi had been kinda high strung this morning. I wonder if he just didn’t process well in the mornings? Needed a cup of coffee or something first?

While I was talking to him, I was plugged into the control crown for the Minotaur, pulling the data, downloading all of it, into a set of shards I had plugged into my new chip slots.

I was downloading into multiple shards at once a barrage of data flowing into me much faster than my old system could have done. The new neural link was definitely an upgrade even at a base level from what I used to own. It was very very cool.

“Okay all done. Before I leave, what security do you have for the garage?”

“Uh… A lock?” He answered and I nodded, reaching into my back pouches and pulling out a TachiCama.

“Here, let’s set it up somewhere it can see your garage, just remember to charge the battery once a week. Set a reminder or something okay?” I offered as I started examining the back porch on his home to find a place to hook it in.

“Uh. Sure. I can do that… Thanks Motoko.”

“No problem.” I muttered as I found a good hidden place in the rafters where it could see the garage while being mostly hidden. Once its cute little feet were clamped on I turned to Ichi who was still sort of nervously moving from foot to foot.

Okay fine.

I reached out and flicked his forehead suddenly.

“Ow! Motoko!”

“That’s for totally stealing my cool Minotaur, that I totally wanted to use myself. Also-” I interrupted myself, walked over and slapped him on the back. “Good job finding something you can do to be extra useful.” There. That should solve the problem with his nervousness. Seriously it was like he expected me to attack him for stealing my Minotaur or something.

“Alright I’m out! Have fun at work!” I called out, waving an arm over my head as I headed out.

“Uhh.”

—--

I was back home looking over the program for juicy bits when I got a message from Hiromi. Checking it I nodded.

Payday. Enough of the equipment from the gig had been sold off, Hiromi sent out the first quarter… Wait no, there were six of us. The first sixth of the payday.

It was pretty juicy and I nodded pleased before refocusing on my program. I was still using my chrome as little as possible so I was just looking over the programming as I displayed it on my laptop.

But suddenly I had a call come in.

*Ringing.*

Rebecca? Preem! I quickly accepted before the second ring.

*Hey choom.*

*What the fuck?*

*Uh… I don’t know?* I asked in turn and had a moment of quiet before Rebecca responded again.

*I just got the pay from your choom for the gig. What the fuck?* She repeated almost breathlessly.

*Oh! Now I get it! Relax,that’s not the full payment! Hiromi hasn’t sold off everything yet, but she sold enough of the loot to give us part of it.*

*Yeah I know! I read her message, but what the fuck! That’s more eddies than I’ve ever earned before from a gig! By a lot! So what the fuck!?*

*That’s just a sixth of what we earned from selling the loot. Why? I don-*

*A sixth… This is a sixth!?*

*Uh yeah? We split the eddies evenly between everyone I told you that remember?*

*I thought you meant it was a split of the percentage!*

The line went quiet for a while and I was almost wondering if she had hung up when a quiet voice that I was pretty sure I wasn’t supposed to catch spoke.

*These kids are fucking nuts.* Then she spoke up clearly again. *Okay seriously, is this like a first time bonus or something? How do you do anything?*

*No? We always just split the eddies evenly. I thought it was a good idea. That way everyone knows the more we make the more they make. I mean the gigs we do, everyone has some danger, so it’s hazard pay.*

*Hazard pay… That’s hilarious choom.* She said and then actually broke into cackles. *Okay okay, seriously though. How do you pay for anything!? Ripper costs? Tech prep. Ammo?*

*Well Ammo we just buy for ourselves? Ripper costs haven’t really come up, but we have a great ripper in Vik and he takes care of us… Tech I just buy that myself. It’s one of the things I take care of in the team.*

*Bribes for information? I mean, I want to ask about a bunch of other stuff too, but hell you guys seriously just split the fucking loot… That’s fucking crazy.*

*Um… I usually do the information myself, so it’s free other than time.*

*Netrunner… That’s right. Fuck.. Wait. Sasha never does that for us! That bitch!* Rebecca cursed a bit and I actually laughed at her foul language. *Fuck you’re weird. Fucking hell. Alright fine. When is the next gig? Eddies like this are pretty nova.*

*No idea. One of the downsides to the way we operate, we have to hunt our targets ourselves. I mean, sure I could probably talk to Wakako… Maybe Rogue too? I’m not sure what the Rogue situation is yet, she said she might offer me gigs, but we haven’t talked since… Anyway! We find our targets and clear them out. So it can be a little bit. One of the reasons the pay is so good.*

* No Fixer pay? Well fuck… But a good fuck. Even if it’s not all the time, a payday like that ain’t something I regret. Damn choom. Just damn.*

*We still need to get your armor sorted out as well.* I reminded her, and she went quiet again.

*You really are a good kid huh? Heart of gold and all that.*

*No I’m not! I’m a badass merc that kills people for money!*

*And worries about her allies acting like a mother hen! It’s cute as shit. You’re a funny one Motoko… Hey listen, change of topic a bit. You doing anything right now?*

*No! What’s up? Want to hang out choom?*

*Something like that. I got a call from my brother. I’ve been kept away from their safehouse until now, but things are cooling off, and my bro wants me to bring some shit. So you want to come see Sasha? I know you were worried about her.*

*Yeah! Yeah I really do! Is that… Is that okay? Will Maine even allow that?*

*I’ll message him, it’ll be fine. I vouch for you. Not like you are going to tell Biotechnica where she’s hiding out. Meet up at my place? A ride would save some time.*

I paused for a second before cracking into a smile.

*Is the main reason you are asking me to come with, because you don’t want to haul whatever your brother asked you to bring on the N-Cart?*

*I don’t know what you are talking about.* She said airly.

Yep, that was 100% it.

I laughed at her making sure it went over the agent. *Sure choom, send me the address?*

*Already done.*

I nodded, it was indeed. And I rose up and stretched. Time to check on Sasha.

—--

“Whoa choom. New chrome?”

“Yeah I picked up a Sandy, but I needed an upgrade to my Neural link.” I confirmed as Rebecca flopped into my passenger seat a large duffel bag full of stuff plopped onto her lap.

“Head towards Arroyo, I’ll guide you there. They don’t want any digital info on where it is.” She said suddenly and I nodded as I set off. “That’s preem. You doing okay?”

“Yeah, Vik is amazing, and I’m not allowed to use the Sandy or anything yet. It’s still settling in.”

“Heh, you’re so funny. You got this bad ass killer vibe one second, and the next you’re all rule abiding the next. I can’t quite pin you down.”

“A lot of rules are there to keep everyone safe.” I said pointedly looking at her complete lack of seatbelt.

“Pfft. Who needs a seatbelt? Those things just-Whoa!” I of course was speeding up unnoticed, and when she refused I just slammed the brakes.

“That’s not funny.” She told me, looking up from the passenger footwell glaring up at me.

I just smiled.

“I beg to differ.”

“I’m not putting on the seatbelt.”

“I’m not promising you won’t go flying a few more times through the ride.” I retorted back instantly, and she glared, and to my pleasure regained her seat and put on her seatbelt.

I didn’t tease her any further as she was sending me glares, instead I threw on the radio and just settled in to drive all the way from Watson down to Arroyo.

“Get off at MLK… We’re going into Rancho Coronado.” She added as we hit Arroyo and I nodded. I knew the place. The pink flamingos were something that was hard for me to forget. Delemains offshoot that hated them as it drove around the suburbs had made me laugh while playing the game.

Maybe I’d run one over in memory of that fragment.

I pulled off at MLK Blvd and down into the suburbs. Going around a bit, following Rebecca’s ‘directions’ that got us lost twice, as we tried to figure out where the address was, before finally finding it.

A house that looked like any of the houses in the area. There was a whole bunch of trash built up around the edges of the fence, hiding what was inside, and as we pulled in, I noticed that despite being a run down sort of place, it did have a few much newer looking security cameras hidden in places.

“This is it?” Rebecca whispered, looking a little confused, but I think I understood.

“This is the address right?” I said as I turned off the engine and stepped out, but before I got far A familiar face poked out through the front door and then relaxed, opening the door the rest of the way, showing Dorio was holding an Overture.

“There you are Becca, and I see you brought a choom.” Dorio greeted, as Rebecca walked up with her arms behind her head.

“Yep, I needed a ride, plus I figured Sasha wouldn’t mind a distraction.” She offered and Dorio just sighed before letting us in. Shutting and then locking the door behind us.

“Hey, listen kid. This isn’t some place we want shared around. So-”

“It’s a safehouse, where Sasha is lying low after the Biotechnica gig. Don’t worry. I won’t tell anyone.” I assured the larger woman who blinked at me in concern before looking to Rebecca.

“Don’t look at me, I didn’t tell her!” Rebecca denied, but I just ignored that because stepping up out of the basement was the girl in question.

Sasha had looked better.

Instantly I could tell what had happened. One of her arms, the left one from the middle of her bicep down was all chrome now. New chrome.

New enough she hadn’t even gotten Real Skinn, with red irritated skin surrounding where the chrome met flesh.

“Hey Sasha.” I greeted gently, and I watched as the woman actually jumped a little in surprise. She obviously hadn’t noticed there were visitors.

She looked at me with wide surprised eyes for a moment before noticing Rebecca, and then she blinked and she smirked.

“Hey Kitten. How’s my little Kohai doing?” She called out, faking a much happier attitude than she had a moment before.

“Good.” I said instead of what I wanted to say which was ‘Better than you.’

“Becca.” Maine rumbled echoing through the house from the living room. Maine was sitting on a couch making it look more like a single person reclined. “Why did you bring the kid?”

“What was I supposed to walk here?” Rebecca asked and then scoffed. “Besides, Motoko is Sasha’s choom. She was even worried sick when I told her that Sasha was hiding out.”

“This isn’t a place where I rolled out the fucking welcome mat.” Maine rumbled and sensing some issue I decided to step in.

“Hey, I know me showing up wasn’t on the books. Sorry about that. Honest, this is your safe house so the more people that know about it the less safe it actually is. I totally get the frustration. But I mean… Isn’t it less conspicuous if I drive Becca here, instead of making her walk?”

Maine looked to me, and the man who was easily four of me in size didn’t look like he agreed.

“Easy Mainey! We needed to bring in Rebecca to get some stuff, and Motoko only makes that easier yeah?” Sasha intervened, and the big man held his glare for a few moments before sighing.

“Just don’t tell anyone.” He demanded finger pointing at me.

“I won’t. Promise.” I added which didn’t seem to add much to Maine's confidence.

“There you are! Did you bring it?” Pilar demanded coming down from the upstairs practically leaping down the stairs as he charged at Rebecca.

“Ugh get off me you fucking gonk.” She snapped, but did reach over to the duffel bag and slide open the zipper, letting Pilar laugh insanely as he reached in and came out holding a toolkit.

“My babies!” He cried out and then disappeared back up the stairs, and Rebecca just rolled her eyes at his actions.

I kept my mouth shut despite my desire to yell at Pilar for being so rude. If Jun treated me like that I would have kicked his ass.

Pilar hadn’t said anything to Rebecca after getting his tools.

But I shook it off and instead looked to Sasha. “How’re you holding up?”

“What? I’m fine!” She denied, but I mean that was obviously a lie. But then she perked up and sent me a smile. “But I’ve been super duper bored! So hey! Distraction!” She called out as she grabbed my arm and started tugging me along, her new arm was weaker than her old one only gently pulling as I let her lead me away.

“Ah, Sasha! Hey Rebecca-”

“Don’t worry choom. I knew Whiskers would do this. I’ll catch up, wanna talk to Maine.” Rebecca responded, throwing the duffel bag onto the kitchen table clearing off tons of empty food boxes.

“Yeah! C’mon!” Sasha demanded and I followed letting her pull me downstairs into a small barely there netrunner setup.

“You’ve been out on the net?”

“Only a little!” She said and I frowned, because if I had Biotechnica after me, I wouldn’t be going anywhere near the net.

“Oh don’t worry.” She answered as if reading my mind. “I’ve already reached out to an old contact at Biotechnica. The company barely cares about what I did. They sent out a kill team, and if they find me, they’ll kill me, but they aren’t looking real hard. Give it a month, and that order will be removed from their system after a small ‘update’ goes through.” She said with a shrug, and I was reminded that despite Sasha’s personality this was a woman that was an elite netrunner.

“Will they really just let it go?”

“They will.” She said her voice going from sugary sweet to dark and angry. “They barely even noticed… Biotechnica stock didn’t even dip.” She said and I frowned at that. I did remember that the Securicine reveal hadn’t done much damage to the company, but nothing?

“Nothing?”

“Barely anything. They made a public apology, and fired one of the managers in charge, for damage control but… It’s Biotechnica. They are untouchable as long as they’re producing food, medicine, and Chooh2.” She said as she flopped into a chair in front of a laptop and taped fingers to an almost manic anxious beat.

Food, Medicine, and Fuel. Biotechnica were the creators of Chooh2, as long as the world relied on it for fuel…

Yeah I guess I can figure out what happened. Everyone in the know, just ignored the securicine update, no government wanted to make waves. It was like the middle east and oil. The money just kept flowing in, and no matter what nonsense they got up to, as long as it kept going, they were untouchable.

“That stinks.”

“It’s bullshit.” She agreed darkly and then she turned and her face turned into a smirk. “So little Kohai! Want to keep your Senpai Sasha-chan company?”

“Um… Sure?”