Chapter 6: Part 6
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***
Thirty minutes and I pull up to the most usual for Knight City house. A multi-storey building that hadn't seen any major repairs in decades, or any kind of cosmetic impact from the utilities.
I grinned and walked a little further into the back alley and put a bandage on my face, then carefully walked through the courtyards and stopped exactly next to the window that would lead to the adjacent flat.
I easily pry open the old sash of the window with my knife and two minutes later I was in the ground floor flat. Walking quietly through it I noticed that the television was on in one of the rooms. Looking inside the room, I noticed some girl self-satisfying herself with a vibrator and a porn film.
Shrugging my shoulders and closing the door behind me I walked to the door that led to the corridor and carefully and quietly opened it and slipped out, closing it behind me.
A couple of steps down the corridor and there I was at the right flat.
Knock a few times, preparing a knife...
- What do you want?!
The door opened sharply outwards, but I was standing on the other side of it, so it didn't prevent me from sharply putting the knife in from bottom to top, penetrating the Trashman's chin and reaching his brain.
Gently picking him up I lowered him to the floor of the flat and stepping forward I quietly closed the door behind me.
Quickly searching him I took the weapon, then wiped my knife on his jacket and walked down the corridor of the flat to the nearest room. It was a bathroom with a light on and one of the Scavengers in it. I didn't care what he was doing there, I just stuck the knife in his temple and gave him a little twist, then picked him up and put him down gently on the floor.
This one didn't have anything on him.
With a sigh I dragged the first stiff to the bathroom and after checking the toilet I looked into the now first full room.
- Fuck... he's taking a long time....
- Bitch, you wanna get up and go check it out... maybe he's jerking off on the corpse by the door!
- Fuck!
- That's what I'm saying!
- OWLs... but you gotta check it out... remember when that new guy fucked up one of the bases the other day?
- They were just all stoned out of their minds.
While the two Trashmen were chatting I snuck up behind them and took a knife in each hand and put it neatly into the temples of the losers. Which caused their heads to bang against each other.
Pulling out the knives I wiped them on the Scavengers' jackets and did a quick search. A couple of hundred in cash, a pistol and a machine gun. I immediately threw the weapons into my rucksack, which I put on the floor and went to the next room so that I wouldn't be further de-masked by the sound of the weapons banging against each other.
There was a reaper's clinic where he was removing implants from bodies, but now he wasn't working, he was sitting on a stool, and stoned, watching Brain.
Sneak up quietly and put the knife right through his temple.
Take off the glove, go back to the bag left in the last room and put the glove in it, and then go on. The third room, on the other hand, had a surprise waiting for me. A broken floor and a staircase, not very neat, down.
I went back to the ripper's room and searched it and found a couple of implants for sale.
- Sookie...
Back at the hole I slowly looked around and went down, but luckily it was quiet and the dig went on for about two hundred metres until it ended in some basement where there was a fuckload of chrome stacked up.
- Regina, I have a question.
- I'm listening to you, Quiet.
Fixer took my call right away.
- Switching cameras.
When she saw what I saw, she whistled in surprise.
- ...the flat had a hole in the floor and an underground passage to a basement. You know, that's not very nice, but then again, we weren't the ones who extracted all this stuff... so why don't we get some silent driver down here? You know, to transfer this stuff to a normal ripper?
- One second, let me check to see which driver's available.
Regina appreciated my idea and quickly checked her data, then her image froze for a couple of minutes.
- You know, I've been thinking, I don't want to share with you, but no ripper in town will take parts from under the Trashmen. They need papers. Black market's not an option, but you can sell them to nomads. So I got in touch with Dakota. Her guy's gonna contact you, tell you where to come.
- Got it.
I didn't ask any questions. It's not my business to ask about payment, Regina has her reputation and I understood that she wouldn't offend me.
Couple of minutes and the bell rings.
- Quiet's here.
- Pfft... mate, you might want to choose a better nickname....
- To whom do I have the honour?
- Panam Palmer. I'm from Dakota. She said you know where to get a lot of chrome.
- I do. I was clearing out the Scavenger Point, and it turns out there's a way into their warehouse. There's plenty of chrome here. I'm texting you the access point.
- Roger that. Quiet.
She grinned when she said my call sign.
- I'll be there in 20 minutes.
We're out.
Having once again examined the basement I was convinced that that underground corridor was the only working entrance to it, as the others, passing through, were welded from the inside. Realising this I returned to the flat and took up a position near the front door and waited.
About ten minutes passed and I heard a crowd of intelligent people stomping wildly down the common corridor.
Lurk...
Bang!
The door to the flat was kicked in, but that didn't help them as I wasn't in their line of sight. A couple of people went further into the flat and another peeked into the bathroom where I was, except he didn't have time to do anything, the sandevistan plus the knife had cut his life short and he didn't even have time to warn the others about where I was.
In a somersault I came out of the bathroom and the next thing I did was to fire my drawn pistol at the Trashman's eye, after which I turned around and fired two more shots at the back of the heads of the still unaware freaks.
Each of them had a machine gun and several spare ammunition horns, and all of it went into my bag.
- Quiet?
I took Panam's call as soon as it came in.
- Yes, just a second, are you in the courtyard?
- Yeah...
- Good, I hope you're not alone?
- No, I have a couple of chumbas from the clan with me...
- Okay, I'll open the window and show you where to get the stuff from.
- А?
- I recently fought off a raid by the Scavengers who must have somehow realised there was something wrong with their warehouse, so I'll guard the approach from the building, you drive, and your Chumbas carry the chrome.
- Roger that...
I opened the window and a couple of dozen seconds later, a small van backed up to it.
- Hi, my name's Mitchum.
- I'm Scorpio.
- The quiet one.
They grinned and nodded, and I leaned away from the window and let them inside the flat.
- So, this is an underground passage. Leads to the basement. The other passages are blocked off, so there's no danger there. But still, work fast. I'll cover you here in case the other Scavengers decide to show up.
- Copy that.
In general, the chrome transfer went quietly and calmly, and in half an hour I climbed out of the window after the men and sat down on the seat next to the driver. While they climbed into the back of their van.
- Step on it!
- Take your time...
I shook my head and put my hand on the girl's shoulder.
- А?!
- I'm telling you not to attract attention. If you accelerate now, we might be remembered, and if you drive out quietly, there's a chance that no one will pay attention to the fact that this van was here.
- The guy's right, Panam, take your time.
- Understood...
I could hear the disappointment in the girl's voice. She threw a glance at me and shook her head.
- Why exactly us?
- М?
- Chrome... why Aldecaldo specifically?
I shrugged my shoulders.
- You were just lucky.
- Lucky?
- I haven't been working solo long, I only know Regina from the fixers, and she's apparently on good terms with Dakota, who already recommended you.
- So it's just luck?
- Yeah.
- Right.
When we left town, I got in touch with Regina.
- Boss. We're out of town, I think we're good to go.
- Roger that. My men have already checked, the mission was quiet as always, and the fact that there's a warehouse... that's even better. Less profit for those bastards.
I nodded my head.
- You finish your business with Aldecaldo, you're done for the day.
- Got it. I just have a question.
- Yeah?
- I heard about this Reaper. He's supposed to be a decent guy. Victor Vector. Do you know his address?
- Sure I do. Victor's clinic, Urmland Street. And he's a really good ripper, one of the best, if you count the ones ordinary people and aspiring solos can afford. What's to say, he's really good compared to other rippers too, except that the corp ones might be better....
- Yeah, thanks...
- You're welcome.
The connection was cut and I drove in silence until we reached Aldecaldo's camp, where I helped the men unload the chrome and take it to their ripper, who quickly scanned it and got happier and happier with each package he took out of the van.
- Fifty?
He looked at me carefully with an arched eyebrow.
- I'd love to...
I shrugged.
- ...but I don't know much about all that stuff. So drop the list and the proposed price to Regina and let her decide.
- You don't trust us?!
I could tell Panam was hurt by what I said.
- You're new to Knight City, aren't you?
- What?!
- You're just too naive...
I shrugged.
- ...You're a cool girl, I'd go out with you a couple of times, maybe we'd get along, but at the moment you're seeing me for the first time, I'm seeing you too....
I shrugged.
- Scorpius and Mitch don't seem to be bad either....
I shake my head.
- ...Maybe a couple of times in a bar with them, though considering I don't drink, it's doubtful they'd like that sort of thing.
I chuckled.
- That's my subjective judgement, though. The assignment that got me this all came from the fixer, she knows I found the chrome and should get her percentage. These guns from the corpses belong to the solo, who picked them up, but such nishtyaki better sell through the fikser. You'll get better rep and less chance of getting fucked over.
- I see.
Panam seems to have calmed down a bit.
A couple of minutes later I received the payment transferred through Regina, I nodded to the nomads and with a sigh I walked towards the motorway where I could call a taxi.
- Hey, do you need a lift?
Panam quickly caught up with me and clapped me lightly on the shoulder.
- Well, I don't mind...
I shrugged my shoulders.
- ...But, are you sure? You have to go back to your family later from the city.....
- Well.
She grinned sadly.
- I don't really get along with Saul. He'll be happy to have a limp, but I'm sure we'll have a fight if I stay here too long.
- OWLs?
- Yeah, that's the head of the clan.
She nodded her head.
- He's not a bad guy, but he's boring... He's always wanting to sign a contract with Biotech.
I chuckled.
- We're of the same opinion, and he's been dreaming about it since we came here....
Panam shook her head and led me to her car, pointing at it proudly.
- Meet my Tortie!
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