Wednesday | 16 JUN 2077 | 11:41
[Night City Status: Homicides DOWN 14%]
After helping Kowalski load the Tyger Claw and his severed arm into a cryopump body bag, they filled it up with cryogenic fluid. Kowalski assured him that it would keep the Claw alive for a week or so, giving them time to perform surgery. Will just shrugged and carried him down to the basement and placed him on the operating table. By the time he made it back upstairs, the joytoy had been treated for a severe infection and was sitting down drinking a can of NiCola through a straw. Corporal Stanley was resting in the ripperdoc chair, awake, but with a calm induced by some chemical cocktail.
“Sorry about that, choom. When I don’t get my meds, I get real jumpy and, well, that guy had it coming.”
Will nodded, “He did. He’s on ice downstairs. Once we reattach the arm, we shouldn’t have any trouble. Just, holy crap, you’re strong. I didn’t realize how out of shape I was until I tried to stop you from killing him.”
Kowalski let out a deep booming laugh, “I not want to say anything to you, but you definitely need more exercise.”
The golden-skinned joytoy lowered the soda and opened her mouth. “You guys were both pretty fast. Faster than Ojisama at least.”
Will smiled, “I didn’t catch your name, miss…”
“Kiku,” she replied before taking another sip from the straw.
“Well, Kiku, Corporal, it was nice meeting you. If everything is in order, I have to go see someone about a job.”
Kowalski nodded, “Everything is puppy dogs and sunshine. Go. Don’t get self killed, I will need help putting Claw back together tomorrow.”
“I wouldn’t miss it for the world, doc.”
[KABUKI – Yaiba Tower]
Wednesday | 16 JUN 2077 | 12:35
[Night City Status: Homicides UP 50%]
Regina Jones wanted to talk in person. So Will took the “company van”, an old 2068 Villefort Columbus, and arrived on Sutter Street just outside Regina’s Den (right next to Lizzie’s Bar). A dozen Moxes eyed him suspiciously as he hopped out and walked down the alley to Yaiba Tower.
When he got to the elevator, Regina’s voice came over the speaker, “Will? I’m unlocking the elevator now. Come up to the 13th floor. We’ll talk when you get here.”
Will stepped inside the dilapidated elevator. Bags of garbage were piled in the corner and it made him think of all the work he and Kowalski had done cleaning out the clinic. Sure, it looked like trash from the outside, but the inside was spotless. He filed the dirty elevator away in his head for later and thumbed the control pad. The elevator began to rise and he stood there somewhat awkwardly as a small security camera watched him. Regina was paranoid, but for good reason. She had pissed off enough corpos and gangers
The doors opened, and Will stepped out into a filthy reception area that looked like it had been abandoned decades ago. Two military-grade security turrets went into passive mode. Green lights were always good with security tech. Well, as far as he knew. He walked into what he assumed was an Operations Center. Regina was standing next to a netrunner jacked into her chair. She turned to Will, “Good, you’re here.”
Will took a mental snapshot of her to peruse at his leisure. Regina wore a cross necklace around her neck and still had severe scars on the right side of her face. She wore an eyepatch from, presumably, the same injury that she sustained to the face. He noted that, even in her own base, she wore an armored vest.
“How can I help?” Will asked simply.
Regina’s expression lightened, “How can I help? You know, Will. There aren’t a lot of people like you anymore. You don’t ask about money, you don’t hound me for work constantly. I ask to meet, and you just drive down here and meet. What is your real story?”
“My real story? I think you covered it. Good cop, got chewed up by the system and puked out into the gutter.”
“Seriously, I want to know what makes you tick. You’re an anomaly around here. What’s your deal?”
“I don’t know yet. Still young. I know that I want to see Night City get better for once, or at least not worse than it already is. I’d be lying to you if I said I understand what goes on in my head.”
“Good answer. What about money? You were living in a storage closet for six months. Yet, you don’t seem desperate.”
Will shifted uneasily. He hadn’t expected this sort of interrogation. “I don’t need much. I either lost or gave up everything I had. What about you?”
Regina didn’t stare, exactly, but her single eye held contact with his. He felt the pressure, it was acute and powerful. After a moment, she eased off, “What about me?” she asked with a steady voice.
“You’re a fixer. A big one here in Watson. You could make a lot more money if you took dirty work. Yet, you’re doing well. Why aren’t you running this operation out of a ritzy condo or an office building? You chose a filthy, abandoned corpo skyscraper as your den. Why?”
Regina laughed, “I think we’re going to get along, Will. Let me answer that though. I suspect the same reason you were fine sleeping in a filthy storage closet in Kabuki is why I’m not somewhere else. I don’t need much, at least not money. Money is just a means to an end.”
Regina turned and faced the windows of her tower, “I like the view from up here. I can see the bridge to Japantown, the Westbrook skyline, but more importantly, I can keep my eye on Watson.” She cleared her throat, “Which brings me to the job. An aerodyne carrying a Biotechnica VP of Technology was shot down over North Watson last week. He had a shard with some extremely sensitive proprietary data. His body was found at the crash site on Fairley in a storage yard, but his pilot and the shard were not.”
“This job from Biotechnica?”
Regina didn’t answer, just reached into a pocket of her body armor, pulled out an Agent, and handed it to Will. Will looked down at the device with a chuckle. Netwatch had made these things illegal because of Self-Adaptive Artificial Intelligence a few years back, but his mom always joked it was because people couldn’t keep their faces away from the little screens. All in all, it wasn’t too different from the internal Agent that was connected to Will’s neuroport.
Regina turned away, “I want you to copy the data on that shard to this device. Find out what happened to the pilot of that AV, and contact me when you find him.”
Will nodded. His brain was already considering the challenges. A week-old missing person case that happened in the middle of a city-wide riot. The pilot could be anywhere, the possibilities were endless. He cleared his throat, “What kind of intel do we have?”
“We have the coordinates of the crash site. A Biotechnica team already cleaned up the crash and searched the area, but the NID is lousy with Maelstrom freaks. I’m thinking they valued their lives more than the company’s data. The pilot’s name is or was Paul Murphy. That’s everything we got. I’ll pay you five hundred eddies just to visit the crash site and give me your opinion. Two thousand if you track down the pilot. Oh, and if you actually get me a copy of the data, I’ll owe you a favor.”
A favor from Regina Jones. Now that was interesting. Will didn’t have to think it over. “I’ll head over immediately. Anything else?”
“Yeah, keep that Agent. You find any interesting corpo shards and I’ll pay you for them. Remember, Will, money is just a means to an end.”
“Thanks, Ms. Jones. I won’t forget.”
[NORTH WATSON INDUSTRIAL DISTRICT – Fairley Street]
Wednesday | 16 JUN 2077 | 14:41
[Night City Status: Cloudy with a chance of acid rain: 34%]
Will parked the Villefort van on the corner Hartwell and Fairley to do a bit of recon. Maelstrom owned the once-booming industrial zone. He could see borgs doing various illicit business beneath the humongous multi-lane Ringroad Highway. There were some semi-legitimate businesses still running in the area. The Biotechnica aerodyne had crashed in a storage yard just beneath the Ringroad. The wreck had been swiftly removed already, so the only evidence of the direction the thing was coming from were skidmarks on the street stopping just at the entrance to the yard. Biotechnica had not supplied Regina with anything useful, however, so Will didn’t know how the aerodyne was neutralized, where it was coming from, or where it was going.
Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.
Will pulled up his contact list. It was mostly people he’d borrowed money from and never paid back. He made a mental note to start making amends to all the people he had burned. After looking at each name and writing them off, he came down to a name that he hadn’t thought about in months. Tommy Malone was Will’s ex-partner for years before being promoted to Detective. The last conversation they had was Will telling him he was leaving the NCPD, and Tommy calling him a coward. His brain pulled up his contact and made the call.
“Will?” came the familiar voice.
“Yeah, it’s me. How are you doing, Tommy?”
Tommy didn’t answer right away. Will could hear him breathing, and imagined that he was debating whether or not to hang up. Then he replied, “I’m doing. What do you need?” Straight to business.
“A week ago, a Biotechnica aerodyne carrying a VIP crashed down in Northside, near Hartwell and Fairley. I need surveillance cam footage from the Ringroad to find out where it was coming from, who shot it down, and where it might have been going.”
“I’ll see what I can do.”
Tommy hung up the call, and Will slumped down into his seat. The call hadn’t gone as expected. He didn’t sound happy or upset to hear from his old partner. It was more or less neutral and Will didn’t know how to take that.
PING.
[NEW TEXT MESSAGE]
Sender: UNKNOWN SENDER
Time: 14:47
[FWD: NCPD Traffic Footage: Biotechnica Crash]
Tommy sent the file through a burner and probably routed delivery through a few proxies just in case. Will opened the vid file and recognized the surrounding buildings immediately. Thank you, Tommy. He thought as he watched. There were several feeds. One outside the abandoned All Foods Plant that Maelstrom was using for a base of operations. Some borg on top of the building with a rocket launcher, another feed was from the Ringroad highway overlooking North Watson. Will got the locations straight in his head and let his brain activate the play mode.
The Biotechnica aerodyne was coming in from the East, and rocket-man on top of All Foods spots the target and launches three heat-seeking missiles. The aerodyne tries to evade, firing off chaff which catches the first two missiles, but doesn’t disuay the third. Next, a bright explosion, and the aerodyne hooks a left mid-air and comes in hot beneath the Ringroad highway and vanishes. Short and sweet. Will ran the video through his agent to determine the initial trajectory before the missile strike.
For a second, he just stared. If the aerodyne didn’t change course, it was coming from east of North Oak out by the unfinished North Oak Casino & Country Club. Possible destinations were Megabuilding H12 all the way out by the Arasaka Waterfront, the Ebunike on the Northside, or even the NCX Spaceport. He filed possibilities away mentally for his report, then turned his eyes back to Fairley Street.
Will activated the autodrive feature and programmed a course that would take him down the road in a loop three times before parking. The Villefort van started moving South down Fairley Street. Will scanned the streets as he travelled past the storage yard on his left and the abandoned parking garage to his right. Biotechnica or Maelstrom had removed all debris from the wreckage, and there were no obvious clues as to where the pilot might have gone after the crash. If there had been a blood trail, the acid rain had washed it away by now. As the van turned onto East street Will had a small list of places to investigate on foot prepared. Two more loops through Fairley Street, and he had decided the best course of action was to investigate the yard first.
As the van rolled to a stop, Will pulled a gray aramid-weave balaclava down over his face, and some beaten down Arasaka brand tactical techgogs he’d found in the clinic’s lost & found. They sort of worked, but Will was just hoping to shield his identity as he snuck around the street. A storm had rolled in, and the rain was coming so hard it looked like night out. Even the borgs were staying off the street now, there wouldn’t be a better time for hours to look. Will reminded himself that all he actually needed to do was look around and report back to Regina with what he thought had happened to the pilot. There was no need for heroics today.
Will moved quietly down the sidewalk and hopped over a fence into cover. He moved silently and kept out of sight of the few borgs and civilians in the area. After several minutes of crawling from cover to cover, Will found himself at the edge of the storage yard. He pulled himself up the fence and hid behind a huge shipping container. From his hiding spot, he could see a security shack and most of the open space in the yard. After crouch-walking the perimeter of the yard, nothing stuck out, so he headed toward the shack and peeked inside. A civilian security guard was sleeping at his desk in front of four monitors. Will pulled out the external Agent and connected it to the computer operating the cameras. A second later, it had cracked the security and downloaded everything, including emails and vid history. Will slipped out of the shack to a less risky hiding spot behind a shipping container and reviewed the footage from cameras facing Fairley Street. He found it. A feed from June 9th, 2077 21:14. The aerodyne had crashed to the ground at an angle, sparks flying as it slid to a halt into the entryway of the storage yard. The pilot crawled out of the vehicle, badly injured, then pulled out the VIP and checked his vitals. He must have figured the guy was dead, because he dropped him, entered back in the aerodyne, exited with a briefcase and a pistol, then started limping away toward the parking garage as the borgs started showing up. The pilot had gotten lucky, less than a minute after his escape, the borgs opened fire on the aerodyne.
Will studied the vid further, figuring the pilot had headed into the parking garage across the street. He scanned through the rest of the recording just in case, before determining that Maelstrom must have missed him completely in all the chaos. The aerodyne takedown was just a target of opportunity, they had no clue what was in it.
The rain was coming down hard now. Will was already exhausted, but he needed to see this through. He scanned the emails for anything more and found something interesting.
Subject: Fairley Yard Security Update
From: Nadia Papayanova
To: Agata Leszcz
Date: Wednesday, 16 JUN 2077 | 14:30
Ciao Agata,
Quick update on Fairley Street Yard. Container flow normal—18 units offloaded yesterday, no issues.
Security’s been twitchy since the riots started on the 8th. The Biotechnica AV crashed on the 9th, but Maelstrom stripped it within hours, and Biotechnica cleaned it up the next day. Other stuff you might want to know about:
- 3 scav fence-cutting attempts (2 night, 1 day shift)
- 1 floodlight shot out on the north side
- Fresh Maelstrom tags on outer containers
No break-ins yet. Might need 1-2 extra guards soon.
Also, still missing two sealed units from 12 JUN batch—check your logs?
Stay sharp.
Nadia
From: Agata Leszcz
To: Nadia Papayanova
RE: Fairley Yard Security Update
Understood.
Checking logs tonight—will ping you on the missing units.
Extra guards are not an option. Figure it out.
Grazie.
Agata
No mention of the pilot. Will thought to himself. He uploaded the data to Regina with a quick note: More soon. Then, made his way in the pouring rain to the side of the parking garage and activated his techgogs in the dark. Nothing on the first level, so he slowly ascended to the next. A few homeless people had set up a barrel fire using the husks of old cars for a shield. Will sneaked past them and scanned the next level before coming out on the roof.
An old rusted minivan sat at the end of the lot, flipped onto its side. He didn’t need the techgogs to know what he would find. The pilot’s corpse was still hugging his arms around the suitcase. He had died protecting this intel against the Maelstrom gonks that had shot down his aerodyne. Now, Will’s job was to steal what he had died saving. It didn’t sit right. Biotechnica was a ruthless corporation, sure, but he had to respect the dedication to the mission. Will crossed himself, then gently took the suitcase from him, “You did your job, choom. Now I gotta do mine.”
Will set down the suitcase on the ground inside the minivan and opened it. The shard was the only thing in the case. He quickly slotted it into the external Agent. It hummed as it broke through the corpo ICE. Powerful little tool. Will looked over the data briefly and made a copy for Regina. After the information was downloaded, he placed the shard back in the suitcase. Then attached the Agent to the pilot’s neuroport. There were nearly a hundred unsent messages to friends and family. His tracker, along with his coms had been damaged in the crash, so no help had come. Will checked his biomonitor and saw the long list of injuries that had led to his death. Paul Murphy had died from an internal hemorrhage and suffered multiple critical wounds, but still managed to escape Maelstrom.
This didn’t feel right. Will hesitated another moment before uploading all the data to Regina. He called, and she picked up instantly, “Preem work, Will. You’re a goddamned pro.”
“I sent you his personal data, there were unsent messages to his family included. How hard would it be to forward those onto his loved ones?”
“Not hard at all. I’ll take care of it. I’m notifying Biotechnica that the job’s done.”
[NORTH WATSON INDUSTRIAL DISTRICT – Fairley Street]
Wednesday | 16 JUN 2077 | 16:29
[Biomonitor: Normal]
Will stayed for the handoff to Biotechnica's team. They swooped down in an armored aerodyne, collected the suitcase and the body, then launched back into the sky before Maelstrom knew what was happening.
PING.
The credits poured in. Regina Jones was a woman of her word.
[NEUROPORT – FINANCIAL OVERLAY]
Account Holder: Will Scrap
Institution: Night Corp Credit Union
Balance as of 16 JUN 2077 16:29
€6,312.73
[DISMISS] [PAY BILLS] [REQUEST LOAN]
Will stared at the number for a moment, then thought of the pilot. Money was just a means to an end, but to what end was he working toward?