章 218: Charr-ming
"Holy fuck!" Pilar exclaims once the robot departs, just as horrified as the rest of the crew. Christy had run over to a nearby bin and started vomiting, self-preservation to not get burned alive allowing her to stop from staining the Strip.
Lucy grips David's hand and Ori rests a hand on Rebecca's waist, palming his face with the other... What completely astounded them all was the casualness with which the people who'd witnessed it continued their day...
"We need to go, if the fuckin' light show wasn't warnin' enough." Maine scowls, prompting everyone to hurry along to their destination, 'New Caesers Palace'.
------------------
Unsurprisingly, the casino's security was even heavier than the guards on the street. They were searched and let in with their weapons, since they only seemed to be looking for bombs and other larger-scale threats.
Lucy stops at the front desk and the crew's soon led to a private room on the third floor of the huge building. Inside was a large opulent room, a fully stocked bar at one side with a dining section in the centre, and next to that, a beautiful concert grand piano which already had someone sat at it playing.
"About time, I was beginning to think you had gotten eaten by cannibals..." a woman lounging on a luxurious couch remarks as she slowly stands.
Bright blonde hair with thin gold chains braided through it, pale spotless skin, bright blue eyes, and crimson-painted lips. She was garbed in a silk bathrobe, uncaring of her modesty, not that she needed to be given her curves...
Ori wasn't sure if those were her natural looks, but the lack of obvious surgery scars, misplaced skin, or Cyberware made it almost seem as if she was completely organic. One thing was for sure though, the women of the crew didn't like the stares the stranger was receiving.
"Ouch!" Ori, David, and Pilar all quietly yelp as their lady friends hit them.
"Our bad, got caught up by some woman getting burned to a crisp in the street." Maine folds his arms, causing his suit to audible strain. "That shit normal 'round here? 'Cuz I fuckin' hope not."
The woman just sighs sadly, "That is most people's sentiment, for the first couple years living here at least." she shakes her head, letting her silken hair sway, "I'm Aliya Hammond, the Fixer our mutual friend sent your way." she ambles to the dining table and sits, "Well? Have a seat, we have things to discuss, foremost being the sword of Damocles above your heads."
Ori sits on the direct opposite side of the table from her, "Are you gonna be our executioner then?" he queries, wondering what she was hoping to get out of this. There were probably thousands of other mercs she could hire that wouldn't risk bringing the wrath of Arasaka down on her.
She smiles pleasantly, "Maybe? I haven't decided yet."
"That a threat, blondie?" Rebecca grouses with a scowl.
Aliya waves her off, "Take it as you want, just remember you're my house now." she gestures over her shoulder at the large automatic guns that'd silently appeared from the ceiling and walls. "But, I'm not stupid. I know you could probably kill me if you wanted," she smirks, "And that's why I want to hire you. Not many punks have the balls to piss off multiple corporations, those that do don't get away alive."
"And what do we get in this deal?" Maine asks.
She shrugs noncommittally, "Money, connections... Tenuous safety. Everything you'll need for that Night City comeback."
"What makes you think we want to go back to that shit hole?" Pilar throws out there, more to bait for intel than anything else.
"Because if you want to chase thrills, the rush, then you got to Night City. You've seen the state Vegas is in, one toe out of line and you're cut outta the business. I've seen enough of your sort to know anyway, you won't stop until you're at the top of the city, or under it."
"That's great and all, but what's gig you want us for anyway?" Rebecca inquires.
Aliya leans back in her chair and looks over her nails, "Any of you interested in a good 'ole heist? Like the ones back when petrol was used?"
"You sure...? That's a lot of heat, considering we already fled one city." Ori says unsurely.
She nods with a confident smile, "Absolutely. After all, if you do it right they'll only notice when they try to check their money. Did you know, around eighty years ago someone decided to buy up most of the gold reserves in Nevada and New Mexico? Surprising right? Given the collapsing economy, wars, and depreciation of the dollar, you wouldn't expect people to willingly give up their gold-"
"Just get to the point, we don't need a fuckin' history lesson." Maine presses.
...
"Fine, to sum it up, people were coerced into selling their gold at terrible rates by corrupt government officials on the threat of violence. Many people received it, but a good portion had been safely stored in the Venetian Resort."
"Venetian Resort?" David parrots.
Aliya winks at him but doesn't manage to draw the blush she was aiming for. Shaking her head, she continues, "It got knocked down during an earthquake, the gold buried under it. In its place, the Crystal Tower was built, the giant glass skyscraper that is unfortunately shaped in a way that causes vehicles around it to melt in the sun... Most people seem to think the gold is either lost of relocated, but I'm of the mind that it now resides in the Crystal Tower's vault."
"And you want us to crack it?" Lucy starts, "Wasn't it built collaboratively with EuroBank, DSM, and Militech... You want us to hit that!?" she gapes at the sheer difficulty and stupidity of even attempting the task.
Aliya waves her off, "Don't you worry, you may not have heard but recently DSM and EuroBank have been trying to buy out Militech's piece. As you can imagine, their strategies to expedite this have prompted Militech to lower the provided security in an attempt to threaten them. EuroBank has hired Lazarus in lieu of Militech's unfulfilled obligations, but the transfer will have left some holes..." she trails off, glancing at the respective members of the crew with a keen eye.
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章 219: Caving
In the end, the crew had no other choice but to accept Aliya's gig. Not only were they in hostile territory, but they were sat across from someone who could easily have them targeted by the entire city.
Fortunately, the pay outweighed any leftover hostility that might've been there: a hundred thousand Eddies plus a small percentage of what they managed to steal from the vault. Of course, doubts still remained on whether Aliya would have them zeroed as soon as they were finished, so while Maine and his personal crew got to work scouting out potential entry points into the Crystal Tower, Lucy got work checking out Aliya's cred when she wasn't trying to access the Crystal Tower's systems.
They'd been given private luxury rooms in New Caesars Palace which had all expenses paid for, along with a completely specced out Netrunner room for Lucy to work in. That had probably been the richest any of the group had ever felt, being waited on hand and foot with the ability to ask for anything was quite addicting...
Maine and Rebecca kicked Pilar's ass when they discovered he was overusing the BDs and 'private services' some of the staff offered. It didn't matter that he was doing it, merely that it was cutting into actual work time.
While the others were doing that, Ori took the opportunity to explore the underground sections of the city with Rebecca, mostly hoping to find any leftover structures from the Venetian resort that'd allow them access.
To him it was unavoidable that some of the 'mole people' would've tried to break into the various buildings and casinos around the strip, hoping to score something big. But the underground folk, from what he'd seen thus far, lacked any real firepower to allow any overt action. They were little more than homeless peasants living on the scraps the people in the Strip tossed away. The most impoverished even made use of the sewers, siphoning cooking oil, fuel, and other equally off-putting things.
There was a reason the saying "Don't eat underground unless you want to eat shit." existed, the more accurate version would add potential cannibalism to the list too though.
That wasn't to say everyone down there was a disgusting degenerate, the biggest independent group down there called themselves 'Free people of Las Vegas', who supposedly aspired to return the city to its rightful owners, the people.
It was actually this group that might've saved Ori and Rebecca's lives... Well, the latter's at least. After a week of running around, they'd managed to navigate through the tunnels and around the general vicinity of the Crystal Tower's foundations.
Only for them to be stopped by some sort of blockade? The tunnel was only maybe five or six feet wide, but it'd been blocked off with scrap metal and rusted stop signs. Through the holes of the hastily constructed defence, they could see many FPV members milling around, presumably guarding something.
Ori squints at Rebecca who had a pleading look on her face, submachine gun gripped tightly. "No, we're not killing a bunch of homeless people for no reason, besides, they might actually have a reason for being here." he states with finality as he knocks on the metal door.
"Boo... A hundred bucks says they're hiding some fucked up secret that'll force us to kill them anyhow. I'll just get it over with beforehand," she stares at him smugly, "I told you so."
"Feel better?" he snorts.
"Totally. Nothing's better than getting proven right."
"Who goes there!?" one of the FPV members shouts as they approach the door.
"None of your business, we just need to get through here, I'm hoping I won't have to murder you all." Ori states matter-of-factly.
"Y-you fuckin' what?" the dirty man utters in complete bafflement.
Rebecca steps out and pushes her face against one of the peeking holes, "Are you deaf? Let us in or we'll do it the hard way!"
"This area has been locked down! You'll leave unless you wanna die!"
"You threatenin' me!?"
"No!" the man sputters, "I mean literally, you will die if you go past here. Those corpo-cunts dumped a bunch of their bots down here that'll shoot anyone on sight. Don't matter how tough you think you are, you can't dodge bullets in these small ass tunnels!"
"Wait, the area's already protected?" Ori questions, not that surprised the Crystal Tower would take such measures.
"Why'd you think we barred it off!? Twenty people already got zeroed by those fuckin' things!"
...
Ori sighs, "Whatever, just let us through. We can handle ourselves."
...
"Fine, but I ain't cleanin' up what's left of you." the man grouses, unlatching the many locks and opening the metal door. He gestures over at the far end of the small cave where a small hand-dug hole sat. "Walk a couple minutes through there and you'll die, so, I'd recommend not to..."
"Just because all of you are pussies doesn't mean we are!" Rebecca remarks and glances at Ori, "Come on, we got some tech to scrap!"
Ori slows his stride as looks to the guard, "Any chance you know what make the bots are?"
"N-no, no one's gotten close without getting shot the fuck up."
"Hm...."
---------------------
Ori and Rebecca venture forth through the tunnel and quickly reach the end of the shallow passage, finding themselves standing opposite a semi-large cavern which had sewer pipes running through it and unloading their contents into a larger pit. Some pipes were cracked and broken, leaking disgusting fluids into the room, producing an incredibly pungent and rancid smell that almost had Ori running for the hills.
More importantly was the rusty-looking bipedal military-issue robot standing amongst the fill, laser sights flashing over the surroundings to try and peg anyone who dared encroach on their territory.
"Think we can handle them?" Ori asks, focussing on the three heavy-duty units wandering around the place.
Rebecca just smirks, "Do politicians lie? We got this shit!"
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