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"Let's get to it..."
I slowly crept up to the underground fighting club in my armor. Yeah, it was an underground club, though I'd call it "conditionally" underground, since everyone knew about it, but the authorities, just like in many other cases involving the wealthy, simply ignored its existence.
However, it had its own access point, located inside the building, so hacking it wouldn't be easy, and the building blueprints were old, so we couldn't count on them being accurate under the circumstances.
After I got close to the entrance, I activated my optical camo. I tried not to be in the line of sight of the guards, and using my Sandevistan for speed, I slipped past the weapon detector. But that wasn't all. The doors only opened from the inside, so I had to freeze right behind one of the guards and wait...
For now, the girls were able to monitor everything through the city's cameras, but soon, the only available source of information would be my optics...
"A large group is moving toward you... The golden youth, to be exact."
"Thanks, Kiwi..."
A couple of minutes passed in waiting, until a group of rich kids, among whom, to my surprise, was an old acquaintance whom I had saved from a very bad situation, approached the entrance.
"Your invitation..."
The guard was silent and only said this phrase, treating the guy like he was nothing. And judging by the look on my old acquaintance's face—though it's more accurate to say he was David's acquaintance, not mine—he wasn't happy about this kind of treatment. But there was nothing he could do. Yeah, he had great chrome for a kid, but only for a kid. And he wasn't a kid anymore, and the chrome, from what I could see, hadn't been upgraded.
In his parents' bad graces?
No... knowing the canon, he probably just believed in his own exceptionalism, considered the situation with the scavengers a fluke, and spent all his money on who knows what.
When the guy and his friends were checked, the doors behind the guards opened, and I activated my Sandevistan again and moved. This time, I went inside through the open doors and, after passing two more guards, I calmly walked down a long, straight corridor.
By the time I was out of sight, the group hadn't even taken a step. And it was a fucking amazing feeling, because while I used to feel a lot of strain when I used this kind of acceleration, now I didn't feel any unpleasant sensations.
After I went around the corner, I turned off the acceleration and, checking my optical camo, I continued to move, stopping only next to the first door. There were no cameras in the corridor, which made sense; it was an underground club, and no one wanted their presence in a place like this to be recorded. And since there were no cameras, I easily pushed the door open and slipped into the room.
Hmm...
There was nothing interesting in there, just a regular lounge for the guards, where five people were currently hanging out in their braindances. But that laptop...
The laptop on the table was more interesting.
I went up to the laptop and slotted a shard into its port.
"Girls, get to work..."
"Got it..."
I stood against the wall and got ready to wait. I didn't have to wait long, though.
"It's done..."
This time, Lucy was the one who spoke.
"That was fast..."
"It's a personal computer. Of course, it's connected to the club's network, but there's no serious ICE here."
There was a slight hint of mockery in her voice at such an obvious vulnerability, created by the very people who were supposed to be getting rid of them.
"Is that good or bad?"
"It's good, because this laptop shouldn't be here in the first place. It's just human carelessness. Like, 'what's gonna happen? It's impossible to get in here, the only entrance is well-guarded!' The laptop's in the guard room; there's always someone here..."
Kiwi couldn't help but jump in, saying everything she thought about the guards' behavior.
"And? What are the results?"
"Well, we have a map of the club... and we've also connected to the camera system. They are here after all, though not many of them."
"Are you sending the map?"
Of course, I could have listened to them a bit more, but the job, even if it wasn't given by a fixer, had to be done. Although in our case, I don't even want to talk about fixers. They still hadn't found a client for us, though I wasn't going to blame Rogue or Regina for it. It's not easy to find a person who is willing to tell even trusted fixers that they want to zero out Faraday.
I think both of them were even expecting me to act without a contract.
"Of course..."
The girls sent me an interactive map of the club, with all the rooms marked.
"You should probably go to the server room first..."
"Got it. Should I take the shard?"
"Yeah, we've carved a small opening in the ICE for ourselves, so we don't need the laptop as a relay anymore."
I nodded a couple of times, then took the shard and just as quietly left the room. After that, I activated my Sandevistan and quickly walked down the corridor. I was passing doors that led to utility rooms.
It took me about five minutes of my own time to get into the club itself...
But I didn't stop and continued to move. The people all seemed to be standing still, and I calmly walked around the frozen statues, making my way to the server room.
Getting into the server room was just as easy as getting into the guard room. I just increased the Sandevistan's output a bit to be sure that the guards standing right next to the door wouldn't spot me, even if they had more advanced optics.
"Ladies, I'm in the server room..."
With these words, I slotted a couple of shards into the ports, giving the girls more complete access to the systems. And it paid off immediately; in a matter of ten seconds, a mark appeared on my map, showing Faraday's location.
"What about the money?"
I sighed.
"Is this Faraday's main base?"
"Yeah..."
"Then empty the accounts. Just make sure we don't cross any more major corporations. We're already putting their little lapdog to sleep. And if we touch their accounts, too, they'll definitely want to get even with us. They probably won't do anything for the dog itself... they'll just put a new one on a leash..."
"We'll be careful... we have to pay off your debts, you know..."
From her tone, Lucy sounded like she was smiling good-naturedly.
"Just be careful... It's better if you take longer to pay off the debts, and we don't attract any unnecessary attention..."
"We get it, we won't take too many risks..."
Kiwi cut me off in a slightly annoyed voice.
"My mentor, my love, I know my warnings have been annoying you for a long time now, but I'd rather hear your annoyed voices a thousand times than find out just once that we're in deep shit because I stayed quiet."
"Yeah, yeah..."
"My mentor, do you remember what happened recently? And it was all because I got full of myself... and overestimated my own abilities..."
"Well..."
Kiwi seemed a little embarrassed.
"And I really want the lesson I got to be enough for our entire team."
"Alright... we get it... we'll be ESPECIALLY careful."
"That's right... I'm going for the target now, or should I stand here for a bit?"
"Better to go for him now. You've already installed the shards, the ones that can be wiped remotely... so you can work freely."
"Got it."
And I left the server room, heading straight for the VIP lounge where Faraday was. A fixer who wasn't used to hearing "no" and was very offended by it. Well, it's nothing. Soon he won't be able to do his job, and maybe someone more reasonable and sensible will take his place.
Or someone who at least knows who he can mess with.
Getting into the VIP lounge wasn't hard. Faraday was alone inside, not counting his goons who were standing nearby. But what were those goons to me? No one even noticed my arrival...
After quickly taking down all the guards, I slotted shards into them that simulated normal activity and allowed the girls to hack them. Faraday also got a blow to the head and a shard in his port.
"Ladies, I present to you the lot named Faraday. The main task is to 'forgive' all the debts that various people owe him. The rest is up to you."
"Got it..."
While the girls were working, I positioned the goons and Faraday in such a way that no one who accidentally walked into the VIP lounge—though "accidentally" is a joke—could immediately tell that something was wrong, and I'd have time to take them down. And not just someone who might walk in, but also anyone who looked into the VIP lounge wouldn't realize that something was wrong.
I hid to the side of the entrance and finally allowed myself to relax a little. It took the girls about ten minutes to hack everything, and during all that time, I just stood quietly by the wall and watched. Thankfully, my camo system meant I didn't have to worry about being detected.
"We're done..."
"I can zero him out?"
"Yeah."
"Good."
I nodded, took out a specially prepared long spike, and after walking over, I drove it right into Faraday's ear. The spike had a handle with a special button I pressed, and the spike was supposed to open up right away...
Which it did, opening up like an umbrella. And that caused severe damage to Faraday's brain, making his body twitch a couple of times. But that wasn't the end. Now I deactivated one of the locks, and the tightly coiled spring in the handle uncoiled the spike. With a few smooth back-and-forth movements, I turned that choom's brain into a minced substance.
After I was done, I pressed the button again, folding the spike, then pulled it out and, wiping it on Faraday's clothes, I put it back in a special holster on my belt. After that, I pulled out all the shards and quietly left the VIP zone.
"How are we doing?"
"Quiet as always..."
"Do I have time to get the shards from the server room?"
"In general... yeah..."
"Good. No need to throw away useful things."
I took my time getting to the server room and took the shards out of it. After that, still without attracting any attention and using my camo and Sandevistan, I left the club with a group of some rich whores.
After I got into one of the nearest alleys, I turned off my Sandevistan and camo, then let out a sigh of relief.
"Alright..."
"David... thank you..."
Kiwi's voice was shaking with emotion.
"It's nothing..."
"No, you don't understand... he would have tried to break me, no matter what. He would have kept trying to force me to betray you. And you... you solved not only the crew's problems but my personal ones, too."
"Kiwi, from a certain point on, you don't have any PERSONAL problems."
"That's coming from a person who doesn't want to use our financial help?"
Panam's snarky voice answered.
"Panam, I'm not refusing..."
"Yeah, right..."
Judy joined the conversation, sending me a marker for the spot where Panam would pick me up.
"I don't get it. Are you doubting my ability to judge my own strength?"
"Well..."
"Judy, believe me, if I really need your financial support, I won't hesitate to ask you. And let's drop the subject. You're not going to change my mind."
"Yeah, yeah, you're very stubborn..."
"I'll just go and spend money on car upgrades and not ask you about it..."
"And am I against that?"
I shrugged, walking toward the meetup spot.
"It's your money, your car... just like I won't say anything if Judy starts upgrading her braindance gear..."
"Alright, let's really drop it..."
I agreed with Lucy, as did the others. After that, I got to the meetup spot in silence, where I got into the car. We drove to our apartment. On the way, the girls sent me all the data they had found, and it made me frown.
"Goddammit..."
"You see it already?"
"Yeah, so much shit on other fixers... I think it'd be right to send the data to Rogue and Regina. Let them clean up their tails so they have less leverage on them... Maybe I should also send the data to Wakako, and Padre... But that's for our fixers to decide for themselves, which of their colleagues they want to put in extra debt for such a significant help."
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