บท 277: Anarchism Inbound
"Fuck outta the way 'Emmerick'" Ori grouses and pushes past the Afterlife bouncer with a hood over his head.
"Hey-" he tries to grab him but only gets a glare in response, now recognising Ori's face. "Y-you can't be here!" he quickly says in a low tone, glancing around to see if anyone else had the realisation.
"I got biz, now I'm gonna see Rogue if you like it or not. Think you can take me? 'Cuz I've been itching to beat some gonks face in for a bit now."
...
"Go, she's in her lounge... But cause any more trouble for us and you'll be leavin' either way."
Ori strides through the club, noting the sparser population of mercs than usual, likely due to Arasaka's increased efforts to ferret out 'opponents'. He doesn't even need to say anything to the next bouncer, both from Emmerick's warning and the look on his face when he spots him.
He pushes into the lounge and pauses at the other occupants aside from Rogue... Nix, the Afterlife's main Netrunner, and V, who was looking a lot worse than the last he saw her, with pale clammy skin, bags under her eyes, and a tired look etched into her form.
"Zombie. You better have a damn good reason for barging in here," Rogue scowls, "I'm barely getting by keeping her," she gestures at V, "Now you've given Arasaka another reason to screw with me."
"I've got the best reason. Those fucks kidnapped my crew, and I want your help to get them back." he glances at V, "Maybe Johnny get some giggles from kicking their shit in too..."
Rogue sits up at that, folding her arms in feigned empathy, "...How? Thought you fell off the map. Even with all their resources they can't look under every rock and crevice in the desert."
Ori shrugs, "Don't matter, though... If I had to guess though, probably a leak from the Aldecaldos." he states, not mentioning his suspicions of Leo, from the recordings the guy had vanished not long before the raid, which meant he was either taken out first or knew it was coming. "Now, you gonna help or not? I got Eds, if that wasn't obvious."
Rogue taps her arm, "What specifically do you want done?"
"Whatever you can do. Give me as many mercs as you got, give me the location of Hanako Arasaka, tell me where they're holding my crew, everything and anything."
...
"Mercs? I'll ask around, see if anyone wants to opt-in on a suicide mission. Intel? I ain't got much, aside from Arasaka movements, fifty-thousand for that."
"Fifty-K...?" he growls and V leans to the side to give her better access to her gun. Everyone knew that Rogue was ripping him off, taking advantage of his situation to gouge him. Fifty thousand wasn't much to him, but that didn't mean he'd let himself get fucked in the ass.
"Fifty. Unless you got another Fixer you can run off to?" Rogue drawls and picks at her nails in her familiar uncaring act.
...
"Fine, fifty for everything you got on Arasaka." he says, eyes flashing as he pays her.
"Pleasure doing business," she glances over at Nix, "Tell 'em."
--------------------
"Christy." Ori greets with a sigh in the dingy hotel room. The spy was sitting in a chair beside the bed which was covered in laptops, shards, paper, and other things she'd stolen or found.
She wasn't able to abandon the city with the rest of the crew due to her role. Socially infiltrating important people meant leaving was as difficult as entering. Thankfully, while everyone was in the desert, she'd managed to keep a toe in Arasaka biz.
"Ori, long time no see... Y'know, this kind of reminds me how things were before." she gestures at him, his weathered outfit that was covered in dust, sand, and grime. In comparison she was practically glowing, sparkling corpo dress and a face caked with carefully applied makeup and chrome.
"Some things change, some don't. You'll always be backstabbing cunt-"
"And you'll always be the horny mutt who'd cling to my leg." she cuts him off, "Wanna keep flinging insults or check what I've gathered?"
Ori sighs, "Yeah, whatever." he takes the shard she holds out to him, names, people, places, subnets, shell companies, etc. Lots of things that mattered and didn't all on the single chip, thankfully, it didn't take too long to get to the meat of it.
"So, this just confirms what Rogue had. Arasaka pulling agents back to their tower, presumably to protect Hanako against whatever hair-brained scheme we come up with... She knows I'm pissed." he mutters. Some of the intel actually contradicted Rogue's, which instantly put him on edge. There were many reasons that could be, but the main one was... Sabotage.
"Probably wants to avoid another Holocaust. I'd do the same." she remarks, not noticing the twitch in his eye at the mention of it.
He turns and begins pacing, thoughts clouding with doubt. Christy, wasn't the most loyal person, he was aware. She'd basically been forced into the crew, and only moved to help them in Vegas because it was that or dying anyway. Aliya Hammond would have had her killed to tie off a loose end regardless.
Here and now? When she'd been out of contact for a while, and with the ability to ask for amnesty, to return to Night City in full, with the possibility to rebuild her career and reputation?
Ori glances over his shoulder at her as she looks through a laptop, "Say, what're your plans after this? Whatever happens, it's not like any of us can stay in this city afterwards." he vaguely says.
"Seattle, I hear it's on its way to becoming America's next mecca." she idly says.
"Yeah? Sounds good, that's where Judy said she was going wasn't it?... Christy." he asks, stepping closer and locking eyes with her, "What do you think about folks 'selling their souls'?"
"Selling their souls?"
"Yeah."
...
She firms her lips and jaw, "I think it's a loser's game. You do it once you'll do it again, eventually people'll know your sich and you'll land in a pit sooner or later."
"That so?" his tone shifts as he places a hand on her shoulder, "'Cuz I seem to remember you betraying me before... Tell me, Christy, why should I trust you now?
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บท 278: B-Team...
"Tell me, Christy, why should I trust you now?"
...
She scowls, glancing at the hand on her shoulder that was steadily squeezing with more force. "Because I've proven I'm not like that. Did you actually think I liked working as a glorified prostitute?" she spits, "I made myself. Arasaka doesn't know about me. I have money, I have goals. I don't need to fuck you over to get what I want."
...
He keeps his glare for almost ten seconds before relaxing, "Alright. I believe you... But-"
"You'll kill me if I betray you, yeah, I know." she grouchily retorts.
"Good that you understand. Leave the city, far as I'm concerned, we're done. Your account has enough money to live comfortably in Seattle for your next three lifetimes. Don't make me regret trusting you, Christy." he says, taking one of the laptops on the bed and leaving.
When the door closes Christy lets out a cold breath, holding a hand to her chest as her heart beats furiously, "Ass hole."
------------------------
"Are we going ahead with the plan or what?" Johnny asks, legs up on the table as he addresses V.
V gives a tired sigh, "Die a legend? Who wouldn't want that..."
...
"I see you're havin' second thoughts. S'much as I wanna see them crash and burn, it ain't just about what I want anymore. If you want, you can spend what time you got left with friends, family. I won't blame you for not wantin' to go out that way, but if you want it to mean somethin'..." he trails off.
"It'll mean everything. I'm doing it, if I can't live then I'll pull the guys who did this down to hell with me."
"Strong words. But can you keep it up? I've seen too many people lose their nerve at the last second. If you're gonna do it, be certain about it. Never wanna change your mind when it's too late to turn back."
V nods, "I've made my peace... Should we get Zombie involved in this? He'd be going to war without us anyway."
Silverhand shrugs, "Him bein' there would take the wind outta your sails, people still think Blackhand did most of the work." he snorts, "It'd be nice to have that guy back us up though, like a big talking meat shield that shoots back." he chuckles.
"Didn't answer my question."
...
"V, I'm having enough trouble accepting that you're turning into me. This is for you to decide, doesn't matter what I'd do, it's your life."
...
"Alright."
--------------------
"No." Ori bluntly states after he enters the meeting place.
This was where Rogue had gathered the mercs who were willing to work with him, well, not with him. Any mention of his name would be like kicking the Arasaka hornet nest. No, she did exactly what she said she'd do, ask around for people willing to do a suicide run.
The lineup was never going to be the best, but he hadn't expected... This.
Around ten people were present, and aside from V who was standing in the corner, they looked like miserable wretches. Half of them were drug-addled losers with nothing to lose, itching, scratching open wounds, sores, and injection marks.
The other half were chromed-up half-Cyberpsychos who'd lost any sense of self-preservation and the ability to evaluate risk. They'd be good thrown at a target, but anything complicated would fry what's left of their brains.
Thankfully, there was one person who looked like they had their shit together, standing not far from V. He was wearing a grey ballistic jacket, black padded trousers, short-cut blond hair, a short build, and a specced-up burya on his hip.
"Whaddya mean 'no'?" one of the druggies asks, scratching a puss-coated rash on his face.
"I mean, you, you, you, you," he points at all the junkies, "Can piss off outta here. I'd rather go alone than have you fuckin' retards near me."
One of the chrome-jocks gives a low chuckle at that, causing the junkie to face him, "You wanna go big guy? All that chrome, I bet I could still take you-"
*Thunk!*
The junkie can't even finish his threat when the borg punches him, knocking him clean out and causing his head to bounce off of the concrete floor, a pool of blood steadily growing beneath him.
Ori turns to the other junkies, "Any of you wanna join him? Cuz' if you stick around that's what's gonna happen."
With that, they took off in a sprint. Honestly, where did Rogue find these guys?
"What's your name?" Ori questions, looking to the only 'not incompetent' merc aside from V present.
"Call me Jason."
"Like the slasher?"
"Sure."
Ori nods, "Before I do or tell you anything, I'll let you know the deets. thirty thousand eds each, and a crack at Arasaka. Even if you don't live through it," he glances at V, "You'll go down a legend."
"Like Silverhand?" the borg from earlier asks.
Ori quirks a grin, "Yeah."
"Just thirty? Barely enough to get another mod..." a guy with all cybernetic limbs remarks.
"If you don't want it, leave. This shit's time-sensitive, so decide now."
Only two men end up leaving, deciding that twenty thousand wasn't worth dying over. The rest followed Ori to a rented warehouse he'd bought off the books in Sekaiheiwa's heyday. Course, all the good stuff's buried under the concrete ground.
Ori turns to them and lifts his hood, taking some satisfaction in the way they pause at his appearance, "I'm 'Zombie', and we're going to fuck Arasaka. Since you've already accepted, there's no backing out now. You want the plan? There isn't one. We're gonna scale that fuckin' tower and rip Hanako a new asshole. Any problems?"
V looks like she wants to speak up, but decides otherwise, presumably at the behest of Johnny.
"Good. Now, those of you with gorilla fists, start pounding at that section of the ground, those of you who do the work, get the best pick of the armoury under it." he says, causing the mercs' eyes to light up.
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