Kapitel 18: Real Evil & Mosaics
I left that apartment before her kid woke up with a new contact in my phone and a new complex to talk about with a therapist before I invent robotesticals that fire semen capable of overcoming birth control. It's already bad enough that my SPECIAL stats make my loads stronger, faster, and longer lasting. Tricky too. The egg will close the show for the month, and those little spec ops soldiers will talk to the door guy and be like, 'Yo the egg is still here, but she's not seeing anybody now? I just got this delivery here she needs to sign for. Ha door's open! GO!GO!GOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAL!'
The woman who entered her info into my phone under Gloria Martinez was in terrible danger of sudden onset pregnancy unless some dope shit distracts me.
I delivered a spine snapping roundhouse kick to the asswipe trying to get the tires of my truck that sent him flying across the parking lot and started up my precious vehicle. As I went down the early morning Santo Domingo streets I really admired how much of a shithole this district is. The place is an R & D hotbed for various industrial ventures, constantly being torn down and rebuilt using the cheapest possible means every time a new factory layout doesn't pan out.
I can respect the grind for a more perfect method, but the toll on the residents is rough, making it currently the shittiest district in the city due to the massive corporate investment in Pacifica right now as they try to turn the combat zone into a tourist destination. That'll dry up soon, leaving the recently restructured Voodoo Boys and the Animals to go back to their constant fighting, just with the shells of bigger buildings to occupy.
Lowering my window, I stuck my tech revolver out and put a slug down the pipe of a gonk aiming a rocket launcher at my truck, taking out him and the roof he was on. As a mid level character, hits like that were becoming more frequent as I move through the other districts of Night City outside of Valentino territory. Personally, I find it flattering that gonks are out to kill me to make a name for themselves. It shows that I'm moving in the right direction.
I stopped by a 24/7 burrito stand and knocked back three breakfast specials with eggs adjacent, ham adjacent, bacon adjacent, sausage adjacent, and cheese adjacent. Throw in some hot sauce and it was decent adjacent. While fueling up for another day as a street warrior I checked my messages for various accounts I ran. The one I used to contact members of the Northern California government was paying off big time.
I started by contacting various clerks and assistants and developing a rapport by solving some easily handled problems with paperwork for a business I wanted to start up. It was effortless for me to establish myself as a brilliant young engineer and netrunner reaching out to make sure all my licenses and permits are airtight for my operations, and soon enough those clerks and assistants had me introduced to their superiors, and in a government that tenuously governs half of a single state state the management levels weren't exactly deep and everyone knows everyone. Basic spycraft and manipulation let me know that the Free States really had no idea that the White House was declaring war at the start of the new year.
It was almost comical, but this was California so the joke was real life and millions of people suffer for it daily. On the plus side, just following the steps in the Chinese Army Special Ops Manuals got me up to the staffers at the top levels of our government fast. With that much access it had been fairly simple to start floating rumors of NUSA building up for a major offensive.
And what is this, in the eleventh hour a lobbyist arrives with testing footage and specifications for a new line of smart weapons being produced in Night City by a superstar young engineer? Wango Bango, the magic of insider trading saw an emergency appropriations bill already pass the House of Representatives with assurances that both the Senate and the Governor were on board to update the State Infantry with cutting edge equipment.
And just like that Boss Campo's belief that I would take the Valentinos to new heights as a criminal organization were not just realized, but blown away entirely as I didn't close the gap between us and the Tyger Claws, I left them in the dust. Let them have their drugs and joytoys, we were going where the real money grows, to the highest stratum of villainy the country ever saw.
That's right boys, the Valentinos became a part of the military industrial complex.
Imagine being so evil that you drag your country into nonstop wars leaving it constantly on the brink of financial collapse and social ruin while slaying thousands of people a year just to make an easy buck. Absolutely wild.
Did it matter to me that the Metal Wars will primarily be fought with Armored Vehicles and the State was looking to place an 1.6 billion eddie order with my small arms company. No. If I showed up with designs for the Scorpitron I'd be laughed out of Sacramento, charm and acumen be damned. But once the other Free States start folding like tacos and NorCal is facing the biggest battles in the war, I show up with a new product line tested and ready for action using the profits from this big deal.
Rotary Anti-Material Cannon in the tail capable of anti-air and anti-ground function. Anti Armor Railgun up front, Anti-Personnel and Anti-Building chain guns in the arms on a multi leg system capable of rough terrain traversal and a top speed similar to a Basilisk panzer and shocking acceleration protected by enough armor to get it through carpet bombing. Oh yeah, my babies will sell.
I could already make thirty of them with all the stock purchases made by the spouses, children, relatives, and friends of the members of the State Legislature. Twenty with the purchases of the required industrial space, equipment. and materials needed to fill the order and the needed renovations for the facility. Fortunately the Valentinos have thousands of associate level members who's businesses operate with our support. The many construction companies affiliated with us were already making quick work on that front, but that is where we hit this snag in the line heading quickly towards harsh overcorrection.
The factory for Welles Arms is in Santo Domingo and a certain gang of hypocrites backed by Militech claim the district as their own. The 6th Street Gang already started harassing my crews. Nothing lethal yet, but it's coming. It's coming for them.
My Soulkiller program isn't nearly as powerful as Mikoshi, but I don't give a damn about the vast majority of a person's life for my engraming. Just the last ninety days is enough, and without the context of the whole life the AI's formed by the program are easy to parse for the needed data and terminate. Since becoming a sicario I made sure to enact this on as many 6th Street and Tyger Claw assholes as I could, creating a pair of data mosaics of their organizations.
While the Claws are insulated in money, location, and legitimate businesses, the 6th Street's roots are so shallow the organization is practically transparent. In just a month of digital waterboarding sessions my 6th Street mosaic looked a lot more like an interactive map with each little blip a name, face, address, and schedule. In many cases I had psych profiles, known cyberware, and weapon preferences.
If a man needs more information than that to get the job done, then he isn't a man at all.
Besides, Guy Fawkes Day is coming up and it's high time to give the world a new reason to remember remember the fifth of November. It's going to be biblical.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A part of me wants to hold the next chapter back until the 5th, but that needless sentimentality disgusts me so I will release it when it finishes just like all the others.
I've read a couple of longer fics that got bagged down by the idea of running a business, typically in DxD, recently. This is how you do business, people. Fast and loose, the deals either go through or they don't and you don't know for sure if its good or bad no matter which happens. Don't waste my time with multiple chapters thinking bout expanding to new markets for your wonder product. That's not business and that's not compelling.
Compelling business fiction involves competitors, rivals, deadlines, ethics violations, mounting stress, salacious stress release, the cardinal sins baby. You don't get those writing a story about a guy selling health potions in a world that doesn't have those. At best you can do some espionage, but that's it's own genre.
Rant over for now.
You can support me and my family at
ko - fi . com / jmanm
Wöchentlicher Energiestatus
-- Power-
Rangliste 
-- Power-
Stein