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Triss, both as a sorceress and as someone successfully learning how to use a pistol, stayed near Kiwi, Lucy, Judy, and Panam. Panam could certainly protect the netrunners, but I still gave the girls the additional reinforcement of Triss. Becca and I, meanwhile, walked slowly toward the port.
"What do you think? Should we keep working with Rogue, considering she's gotten so tight with Arasaka for whatever reason?"
Becca asked me over our internal channel.
"What's there to think about... it's already decided... The clan is moving to Triss's world soon. We'll probably move there too. We'll pop up here to take jobs from Rogue and Regina. By the way, once we secure the clan and have a base that the corpos themselves can't reach, then we can start taking jobs against corporations on the regular. Sure, we take them now... we're about to zero Smasher, and we've tangled with Biotechnica before... but those are one-offs. With a reliable rear base, we can start taking them permanently."
"Em... you didn't answer my question…"
Becca shook her head in disapproval.
"Actually, I did. If we have a base behind us, we can keep working with Rogue. If we don't, we need to cut that contact. Even though we've built a decent relationship with her, risking my neck and the clan…"
I shook my head.
"Got it…"
"Alright, the path ahead is clear. The workers have gone home. Only the skeleton crew is left at the port, and no ships are scheduled to arrive tonight. So, you can move out."
"Thanks, Mentor…"
Becca and I moved forward. Only, she decided to use the invisibility spell, while I activated the optical camouflage system I'd managed to integrate into my hump. Ugh, it's moments like this when I start regretting that my Sandy is experimental. No, I know in my head that without it I would have flatlined on the first gig from Regina, but when I have to put a bulky tech hump that ruins the entire look over a stylish black suit...
Yeah, it's pointless to regret it, especially considering what ninety percent of Night City's residents wear these days, but I don't give a shit about others; it's my own look... my sense of aesthetics is simply dying in convulsions.
On the mini-map in the corner of my vision, I saw a green dot marking Becca's position; she saw a similar dot marking mine. Thanks to this, we could avoid bumping into each other even though we couldn't see each other in reality.
"We're in…"
Two words, but we were really inside the port, and even though the girls could see it all on the map, nobody canceled subordination. Becca and I continued moving through the port after my report, specifically through the section that was cluttered with containers.
Only, many of these containers weren't freight containers at all; well, they were that, but they hadn't been used for cargo transport in a long time. They were "mobile" command centers or rest areas that housed either observers or guards. This was more convenient than fixed static positions because the cranes could shift these containers around. Thus, knowing the location of these containers a week, or even a day ago, was pointless.
We passed the first section of the route...
I reported to the netrunners that we had passed the container zone and were now at the pier. There wasn't just one ship here, though, so we had to move along the pier and carefully look for the ship we needed, as its docking location wasn't marked in the port documents the girls had hacked before Becca and I snuck in.
It took us about thirty minutes to walk the entire length of the pier and confirm that the ship we needed wasn't there...
"What the hell?"
"Quiet, I've got bad news…"
"I'm listening, Snowflake…"
"Smart-Girl dug up some data. The ship we're interested in left port three hours ago and is anchored away from the harbor."
"Hold on... are you saying that dot on the horizon is the ship we're looking for?"
"Most likely, yes."
Snowflake said this with a sigh, and I couldn't answer her, as only swear words came to mind. But she wasn't at fault, so getting mad at her or the other girls was pointless.
"Should we turn back?"
Smart-Girl's voice sounded somewhat guilty.
"No, hold that thought... Smart-Girl, Mentor, I'm going to run through the port now and stick shards everywhere. Your job is to hack everything in the shortest possible time. Am I clear?"
"Yes!"
"Snowflake, your job is to try to find a comm channel with the Ebony. If there is one, hack it discreetly."
"And what should we do? So what if we hack the port through the shards?"
"Then find all their ties to Maelstrom—all the contacts, all the account numbers they use for payment. In short, EVERYTHING. I want Maelstrom to stop getting involved in shady deals, so they need a serious lesson."
"Understood... although it probably won't help."
"I know... well, at least their ability to replace chrome will be significantly reduced, meaning either their non-recoverable losses will increase, or they'll become a little more cautious, at least for a while, and won't take such stinking jobs."
"You're a dreamer, choom…"
Becca's voice burst into our dialogue.
"…You know I had family in that gang once. So I state authoritatively, they'll just start taking even greater risks."
"Well, then the number of Maelstromers will be drastically reduced. Sure, they'll ramp up their activity again later, but maybe they'll just be wiped out while they're weakened. If we weaken them enough, that is."
"Whatever you say, Quiet."
"You're the Boss."
Kiwi answered a little later than Lucy, but I could hear in their tone that they really didn't care what happened to Maelstrom, especially in light of the plans I'd told them about earlier.
I, myself, walked up to the edge of the pier and looked intently at the dot on the horizon.
There was no way to get to it quickly, and something told me the ship wouldn't return to port until Smasher was back on his feet. Was that good or bad?
It didn't matter... it just meant the execution of this specific job would be delayed for a while, which I needed to report to Regina...
After running through the port and, as promised, plugging shards into the computers, I left the port, leaving Becca to monitor the situation. I finally sat down on one of the benches in the port and contacted Regina.
"Quiet?"
Her voice sounded like she'd been dozing, or maybe sleeping...
"Hey, there's a slight snag…"
"A snag?"
"The ship left port. So, there's no way to reach it discreetly."
"What about underwater?"
"Are you serious right now? Do you really think the Ebony doesn't have good sonar that could spot an approaching swimmer?"
"Well…"
"If you're hinting at my stealth system, it'll be useless down there. I didn't exactly design it, when I put it together, for approaching a target by swimming underwater, you know."
"So what are you proposing?"
"Wait…"
"Hmm?"
"Well, I'm going to run to one location for some gear, and we'll set a trap for Smasher. It's the only place in this city he can return to relatively safely, anyway."
"Fine... do what you need to do…"
"Oh... and one more thing…"
"Yeah?"
"The Maelstrom gang is going to have some financial problems soon. If you want to get rid of them in your territory, I think you can start acting in about twenty-four hours."
"Hmm... I'll keep that in mind. Is this info classified, or can I pass it on to certain fixers?"
"Just don't sell yourself short…"
"You don't have to worry about that."
Regina smirked, and the connection broke off.
"Alright, Sorceress is in charge. Cherry, to the car…"
"Hey! I didn't consent to that callsign!"
Triss was clearly very indignant.
"It's pointless. As the one whose original callsign was Glutton, I can give you some advice…"
"Go on…"
There was apprehension mixed with interest in Triss's voice.
"Show him that side of you that will let him give you a different nickname. Preferably a side that will shock him. I, for example, love reading paper books…"
"And what's so special about that?"
"That's normal for you, but in Night City…"
Speaking of Night City, Becca emphasized it in a tone that immediately made it clear she meant not just the city, but our entire world.
"…it's a rarity, and considering my appearance and explosive temper…"
"Well, yeah... that really doesn't fit your image and this City... So I need to shock him with something?"
"Yup…"
"And the others?"
"Well... only Mentor complained about the nickname, but it was vague, and she accepted it pretty quickly. The others were just lucky with their nicknames."
"I see…"
"And yeah... just to clarify for our Bookworm, sex probably won't help here, because otherwise, we would have all already changed our nicknames…"
Kiwi decided to jump into the conversation.
"Hey! What do you take me for?!"
"The one who agreed to the harem after getting permission to join from all the participants in the whole shebang…"
Judy chimed in.
"Hmm…"
I pretended to ponder.
"Hey! Forget it! I said forget it!"
Triss was genuinely scared.
"Well, actually, I was thinking of giving all the girls the callsigns 'Concubine One,' 'Concubine Two,' and so on…"
"Forget it!"
The chorus of all the girls' voices made me laugh. And it was at that moment that I reached the car.
"Where to?"
Panam was already behind the wheel and looked at me intently, frowning slightly, showing that she hadn't forgiven my joke yet.
"To the clan. I need to grab some gear."
"Got it…"
I barely had time to buckle up before Tank-Girl 2 roared away, pressing me back into the passenger seat. And even though riding at those speeds was somewhat uncomfortable, I kept quiet because I trusted Panam, and we really did need to get to the clan as fast as possible, and then return just as quickly.
Overall, I was tossed from side to side the entire way, and Panam shot me sour glances, occasionally taking corners that were excessively sharp—unnecessarily so, even a driving amateur like me understood that. But we reached the clan parking lot in the shortest time possible.
"Alright, wait here, I'll be quick…"
And I immediately disappeared into our Behemoth of a base, where I went to the armory and pulled out all the sniper rifles I had bought from Regina, along with comfortable mats, and headed back to the car.
"Those are…"
"Yeah, we're going to set up an ambush for that Borg."
"Fine, but what about Ciri?"
"What about Ciri?"
"Well... if you haven't noticed, the intensity of portal openings in the city has significantly decreased. That could mean either the Wild Hunt doesn't have the strength to open them as frequently anymore, or they've somehow struck a deal with the powers that be... And considering Yorinobu's words during your meeting…"
"Yeah, you're right, the second option is much more likely. But what are you suggesting?"
"We could at least take her with us…"
I looked at Panam and pondered. On the one hand, she had no reason to be there; even taking Triss wasn't strictly necessary, but she was already becoming part of the family, so I was starting to involve her in the family business. And judging by what I saw, she wasn't against it...
On the other hand, this would somewhat remove her from the line of fire of the clan and let us figure out if her movements are being tracked somehow? Though it was already clear that their search efforts were somewhat limited within this world. Otherwise, the clan parking lot would have already been attacked by various corporate forces, and Yorinobu wouldn't have tried to negotiate with us...
Although... maybe his words about attacking the clan to pressure me were a lie, and they actually tracked Ciri somehow?
Blya! So many questions!
"Ciri."
I contacted the girl, who answered my call quite quickly.
"Yes?"
"Get to the parking lot. You're coming with us."
"Need help?"
"No... I need to try and figure out the real reason why Arasaka attacked the clan. Was it purely to pressure me, or did they track you somehow?"
"Understood... I'll be there in five minutes."
"Ugh, and one more thing: when you connect to the general channel, your callsign will be Princess."
"Pff!!!"
Ciri gave an expressive snort, showing her opinion of such a callsign, but that was the extent of her resistance. All that was left was to wait a little for her and head back to the port, where my girls were already waiting for me...
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