[Check Out My P4treon For +30 Extra Chapters On All My Fanfics!! And get chapters before publishing them here for free on my p4treon][p4treon.com/echotales]
===
I checked into a seriously cheap motel, paid for a couple of hours, and headed straight for the shower. I dialed Regina's number; she'd never know I was calling her from the shower.
"Ghost..."
"I'm sending you a shot from my optics right now... I just want you to know you gotta be careful with Night-Road..."
"Huh?"
But I'd already sent her the photo from my optics, which were constantly recording during the gig.
"How? She should've been dead a long time ago..."
"From what I gathered, she's a full-on borg now. You want me to send you the conversation the techs were having about her?"
"Send it..."
I sent her the conversation, and she nodded.
"Thanks... this information... is really important... So, how's it going with Peter Pan?"
"Hell if I know..."
I shrugged, not forgetting to scrub myself with a loofah and dump another load of shower gel on me.
"...before we went to the Night-Road building, we sent him to the kidnapped nephew's mom. She needs support right now."
"Got it... what's the plan from here?"
"Well... looks like we got lucky... the girls said the data from the right cameras was on that server, but to make a concrete plan..."
I shook my head.
"...a rough idea, though... that's doable. If the data really is on the server and we can track the route without hacking anything else, we'll head to his hideout and save the kids. If the data's incomplete, we'll have to bust into another Night-Road branch... and we'll keep doing that until we pin down his base. Because when it comes to Peter Pan's brain..."
I shook my head again.
"...Moxie said the chance of doing anything was too low... so we had to take the long way."
"Got it... listen, keep me in the loop... personalities like Mystic, they don't just pop up out of nowhere... she and Smasher are in a league where regular people can't mess with them. Only the top brass from corps like Arasaka, or Militech... or others on their level."
I sighed and poured another dollop of shower gel over me.
"I'll keep you posted..."
The call with Regina ended. I spent another twenty minutes scrubbing myself and only then left the bathroom. In the meantime, new clothes had been delivered, and I sent the old ones back with the courier to a special cleaner that promised to get rid of any smells or stains. I drenched myself in cologne, and only then did I leave the motel, grab a taxi, and head home.
I walked into the apartment, and the first thing I saw was Becca's scowling face.
"Well, hey there."
"Hey, hey..."
She bobbed her head, eyeing me up and down and even taking a little sniff.
"...you didn't hold back on the cologne..."
"Well, even after I washed up, I figured it'd be safer to douse myself head to toe."
"Right... what about your old clothes?"
"At the cleaners..."
Her tone was... disapproving, but I couldn't tell what she was mad about...
"Becca, did I piss you off?"
"No... it's just... you're always on the move, and now you've met Mystic, and I'm just..."
"And you're way more important because the runners need to be protected. I can stand up for myself if I have to, but our runners, they're helpless against a serious opponent."
I sighed.
"By the way, how are they doing?"
"They're working..."
"Okay, then I'm gonna go blow off some steam... mess around with some guns."
"Yeah... you gonna look at my babies?"
I chuckled.
"Yeah, bring 'em. Guns love care, and I'll show 'em more love than you do."
Becca scoffed and handed me her pistols. She had her assault rifle on her lap.
"Maybe I should just go to sleep?"
"Nah, not until our runners say the shards are wiped. It's better if you stay on guard. I will, too, keeping one eye on the surroundings."
"Mm-hmm... you just clean my gun, and I'll keep watch. If anything happens, you'll all know outsiders showed up."
I spent the time in the workshop until morning...
And thankfully, everything was quiet until then.
"We're done..."
Lucy walked into the workshop and leaned wearily against the wall.
"Any results?"
I turned to her. Seeing how tired she was, I got out of my chair, went over to her, and gently put my arm around her shoulders.
"You okay?"
"Tired..."
She smiled sadly, nestling into my embrace.
"...it's a good thing we got the upgrade, because with the old decks and no extensions, we'd have been chipping at that ice for a week. Without the baths, I mean. But with the systems Vik installed... even my body doesn't take such a hit, because the heat dissipation is really effective, and my body isn't exposed to unnecessary temperature stress."
I patted her back.
"Judy and Kiwi?"
"Sleeping... I guess I'm the toughest, so I decided to come and tell you the results."
"Thanks... so what's the news?"
I lifted her and, returning to my chair, sat her on my lap. Lucy snuggled her nose into my neck with obvious pleasure.
"We tracked him... he's somewhere in the Edgewood Lane, Rocky Ridge area, in the Eastern Badlands. We just have to pinpoint exactly where he is..."
"We'll pinpoint it. I'll get to work, and you get some rest."
"I can..."
"You and the girls have already done great work... now just let me do mine."
I kissed the top of her head.
"Mm-hmm..."
She rubbed her nose against my neck and clearly passed out. I, meanwhile, closed my eyes and called Regina.
"Something happen?"
Regina's voice was sleepy.
"If you still want to help your friend, now I need your help, because my runners are so wiped out they just passed out."
"You need runners?"
"Not exactly..."
And I sent her a message saying that Peter Pan's real name was Anthony Harris, and I also sent her the search area, specifically that the start of his route should be somewhere in Edgewood Lane, Rocky Ridge, in the Eastern Badlands.
"This is..."
"You probably need to check out his childhood and cross-reference the data. Either there's a place from his childhood there, or a similar place. And I need the data fast..."
"Half an hour, an hour... I'll pull some strings."
"Yeah, go for it. I'll make breakfast in the meantime to feed the runners when they get a little sleep. And yeah, don't call your friend..."
"I know, I know... he'll be too emotional... so you'll finish the job... or I can get someone else involved..."
"Since I started it, I'll finish it..."
"Alright, I'll call you as soon as I cross-reference the facts."
I nodded and hung up. Then, I ran my fingers across Lucy's cheek, and she scrunched up her face a little and opened her eyes.
"Yeah?"
"The shards? Did you start the data destruction process?"
"Yeah, I checked... "
Lucy gave a sweet yawn.
"...the connection to the Night-Road servers disappeared the moment the data on the last shard was wiped."
I nodded.
"Good. Now sleep..."
I stood, lifting her into my arms like a princess, and quietly left the workshop. I glanced at Becca on the way out.
"Go get some sleep."
She lifted a sleepy gaze at me, nodded, and went to the second floor to sleep on a much more comfortable couch. I took Lucy there, too, laying her down on the bed next to Kiwi. I covered both girls with a light blanket and checked on Judy and Panam, but Panam had already taken care of her friend, hugging her close to give her sweet dreams.
Only then did I go down to the kitchen, where I quietly started to make breakfast...
Did I want to sleep?
Definitely...
And knowing I'd be yawning more than I was breathing soon, I took some stimulants from the first-aid kit, the kind that would get me through another day. A couple minutes after taking them, I was back to full strength.
While making breakfast, I didn't forget that the girls had also been up all night, and I knew the hour of sleep they'd get would help, but wouldn't solve everything. So, I added a little bit of the same stimulant to their drinks. Just to get them back to full strength, too.
About forty minutes later, Regina called and said that the "Edgewood Farm" was in the general area I mentioned and that it was most likely Peter Pan's base. She also sent me the exact coordinates. After she hung up, I quietly went upstairs. Becca was the first person I ran into.
"Wake up..."
I leaned over her and gave her a little kiss on the nose. She opened her eyes, looked at me sleepily, then wiggled her nose a little from side to side and sighed sadly.
"You could've kissed me on the lips..."
"Breakfast is downstairs, and coffee with a stimulant."
She nodded and got up, heading for the stairs. Next, I went into the room with Panam and Judy.
"Girls, time to wake up..."
Panam was the first to open her eyes, and I gave her a gentle kiss, then a kiss to Judy, who looked at me with a very sleepy and tired expression.
"Hmm?"
"Regina found the location based on your lead. Breakfast and coffee with a stimulant are downstairs."
"Mm-hmm..."
Judy rubbed her eyes adorably. I quickly turned away and left the room to go to the next one, so I wouldn't get stuck there.
"Morning..."
I ruffled Kiwi's hair and kissed the top of Lucy's head, and both girls woke up from my actions.
"Is it time to go already?"
Lucy regretfully climbed out of her friend's embrace and looked at me with a slightly embarrassed expression.
"Yeah... we found the place, so let's eat and roll out."
"Stimulants?"
"Already added to the coffee. I took some myself; otherwise, it would be too dangerous to go on the mission. Who knows what he's been doing on that farm."
"A farm?"
"Yeah..."
And just as I said that, memories from the game flashed before my eyes... I didn't want to believe them, of course, but something told me that things would turn out pretty much the same as in the game. A bunch of boys strapped to cots and being pumped full of chemicals.
I sighed.
"Let's go... I'll send you all the data, so we're having a quick breakfast."
And as we went down and started eating, I got a call.
"Ghost listening."
"It's River Ward... I wanted to know if there's any new data?"
"Not yet, the data from the server was incomplete, so we're going to hack the next one now."
"Got it... keep me updated, okay?"
"Naturally..."
The call ended.
"Who was that?"
"That cop... so we gotta work faster, or he'll start bugging us with calls, and that'll be a distraction."
"Alright, then give me the address, I'll map out the route..."
I sent Panam the coordinates, and she nodded. After that, we fell into a brief silence as we ate our breakfast. Only after we were sitting and drinking coffee, and the girls were getting livelier with every sip.
"Alright, is everyone at full strength?"
"Yeah..."
"Then let's roll out. On the way, you can tell me what else you pulled last night, hacking the cops and Night-Road."
"Well... we can tell you about it..."
We loaded into the Thorton, and the car started moving. Judy began listing the dirty deeds of corrupt cops, the bribed officials, and the serious criminals who got away with it. This was all pulled from the Police Department's HQ. But in Night-Road, everything was relatively quiet... no crimes or anything like that. At least on that server and in the hacked computer, there was nothing like it. That is, if you only count what they were responsible for. As I suspected, it's cheaper to bribe the cops than a corporation, so in many cases, the cops just didn't bother with them.
"Okay, fine. We'll have to process the data later and try to sell it to Regina... it's not our business to deal with crimes. We're solos... though, if Regina finds a way to profit from it and decides to do something, hiring us for it..."
"Got it..."
"Hit the brakes!"
===
Note: So far this story is published up to chapter 75 on my p4treon, go check it out
Unlock exclusive content on my P4treon with a special 25% discount on your first month!
This offer is valid for all 5 tiers: Celestial Sentinel, Diamond Elite, Transcendent Tier, The Omnipotent Patron, and Gold Sovereign.
Gain access to exclusive 18+ character images, early chapters, and so much more. This is your chance to get a ton of exclusive content while supporting my work.
Hurry, the discount expires on August 15th!
p4treon.com/echotales
if you want more updates == supports with power stones
Every 50 Power Stones == Bonus Chapter