Ghost in the City: Early Chapter 191 (Patreon)

(A/N) So I once again regret to say I'm going to need a small hiatus. Unfortunately my family situation is just... A mess at the moment. And it's really impacting my time. I can't keep up the normal schedule, when half of my days are being taken up dealing with other things. Of course I'll keep writing, and hopefully get some foothold on my backlog a bit, but I'm going to need a bit of time to catch up. Say... A week? Two updates? So next update will be on the 7th? Let's aim for that.

Sorry. Thank you. Trully to all of you that support me here on Patreon, it's amazing, and you make me want to cry like a baby sometimes that so many of you enjoy my stories.

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I breathed in and out, utterly silent. As I watched what happened out of the corner of my eye keeping my body blended with the shadows. 

The man that opened the door had a Militech Crusher Shotgun, and was sweeping the room. Obviously concerned. Had I set off an alarm, or been seen?

After a minute of following a similar path I had taken clearing the bathroom, he lowered his gun and just cursed.

“Fucking assholes not locking the door.” He said aloud as he finally relaxed. Ah, just bad luck then. I would have laughed if I wasn’t in complete control of every muscle in my body keeping myself perfectly still. Even the best infiltrator could be beaten by bad timing.

 He took a moment to place his gun beside the couch and then headed back to the entrance. A moment later he came in carrying a bag full of food, and he flopped onto the couch.

Hmm.

I wasn’t really in any hurry, but I didn’t want to be stuck here either, especially since this guy wasn’t Yuto.

Intel had probably been wrong. Dammit.

Maybe another of the buildings or something had been where he is staying?

I prepared myself as the man turned on his entertainment system to watch TV. The noise would easily hide me while I escaped, but then I heard him curse a name that suddenly had all my attention.

“Fucking Yuto. Prick! I told  him not to log me out!” He grumbled as I looked down a bit and saw what the problem was.

Television channels in NC used a subscription service. The ads that played around the system was one of the ways poor people paid for the service, basically making it free if you allowed the ads.

Right now the TV was covered in ads, and I saw that the user logged in was listed as [YUTO] which meant I was in the right place after all. I felt my smile tug up into a grin that only grew wilder and wilder as I realized that this wasn’t a complete failure.

I watched the man work on the system for a bit, but he seemingly couldn’t find the remote, or access to the account. So he cursed a ton and started searching for a show without it.

But more importantly, it meant Yuto had been here, and this guy knew him.

Since he was just sitting there, I started breaching.

As the man turned on a recording of Watson Whore Season 1 episode 6. Which jumped straight into a sex scene…

Lovely.

I breached into his agent, and quietly stalled out any ability to make calls.

Once I was sure, I dropped from the ceiling, and the loud moans from the screen hid the small noise I made as I touched down and spread out to dampen the noise.

Then I crept right up.

One of the reasons that Fujimura had handed this whole gig to me and Section 9 was because the TC didn’t want a gang war with 6th St. So they wanted this completely detached from them. 

That was why I had hoped to go through this entire gig without being seen…

Well there were ways around that. I snuck around and disappeared his Crusher, and then approached from behind.

I waited for it to get loud again and reached out.

Chrome arms wrapped around his head and pressed my knife against his throat. 

“Quiet.” I demanded not in my own voice, and while he surged upwards in surprise I was more than strong enough to ride it out until he had a moment to realize what was happening.

He opened his mouth to shout, but ‘sharp’ was a sensation that tended to quiet screaming.

I gave him a few seconds long enough to realize what situation he was in, to realize his gun that was on the other side of the couch was gone, I noticed by the way he slightly twisted his head.

And then he relaxed. 

“Good. I’m not here for you. Or for your chooms.” I told him confidently. Sexy Motoko Voice whispered in his ear. “So you should know what I am after. Yuto. Where is he?”

Slowly I eased off enough the blade could still be felt, but that he could swallow a bit. 

“Don’t know. Honest. I was letting him crash here for Roger! They met in the slammer. I know the kid met with Captain Sherman, made it all good. So I just said yes. You uh… Tyger?”

“No.” I told him truthfully. “I’m just a merc. Just doing a job to catch an asshole. Which is why I need to know where he went.”

“I don’t know! Roger’s the only one that’d know. He and Yuto left yesterday! Haven’t seen either of ‘em since.”

“Roger huh?” I spoke as I breached back into the man's Agent. Finding a listing under Roger. 

“Roger Almeda?”

“Y-yeah!”

“And you don’t know where they went?” I prodded poking a little tighter for a second so he couldn’t just instantly respond. “Because there are a few ways this encounter ends. One of them ends with me appreciative of your candor. The other doesn’t.” Then I gave a little so he could speak again.

“W-What’s candor mean?”

I blinked. That was not the answer I was expecting, and I think dipshit realized that too as he went real quiet.

“Answer my question first.” I demanded cutting to the point with a gentle nudge of the blade.

“I don’t! I swear! Roger’s thing with Yuto was approved, but it was his Op. They figured hey, TC knocking off TC’s not really a concern ya know?”

“Yeah well shit has a tendency to spread.” I grumbled a bit as I considered what to do. I had a phone number, which I could track if I went into the net, but that would require the guy to even pick up.

Which meant killing this guy was the best bet…

But that sort of went against the idea of trying not to cause a gangwar.

I was about to decide when I noticed it. Pushing my hostage's vision down so he couldn’t see I took note of something interesting.

The account on the TV just got kicked off, because someone else had logged into it.

I stared at it for a bit long enough my hostage started getting visibly nervous, but a plan was coming together. I breached the TV and confirmed the account details, saved it to a shard, and smirked once more full of teeth.

Well that just made my life easier. 

“Alright pal. Here is what’s going to happen. We are going to make a call to your choom. Stay quiet okay? I’d hate to make this friendly phone call a homicide.”

“S-sure.”

I hacked once more into his agent and routed my call through him.

A few moments later the call picked up.

Grant what’d ya want?

Hello Mr. Almeda.” I answered using my Sexy Motoko Voice. You are currently harboring someone that I would very much like to find.*

Shit. What’d ya do to Grant? Huh, you asian cunt! I’ll fuckin’ kill you!

Currently nothing. Nor do I really have much desire to harm him. I’m a professional. I don’t leave a trail of corpses. How much for you to walk away and let Yuto meet his fate? I asked, because as funny as it was to remember from time to time. I was doing pretty well for myself. And eddies could save me a lot of time.

Fuck you. I’m not accepting shit from some corpo bitch.

I’m a freelance merc Mr. Almeda. Hardly a corp. C’mon what’s the point. You know Yuto is going to get what’s coming to him. Just walk away you can make some eddies, and go back home to your real chooms, and not the gonk Wannabe Tyger Claw.

Fuck. You.

Well it was worth a try. Just so you know, while I don’t kill anyone outside my target, if you are protecting him, that does put you under the scope.

Heh! I’m a Lieutenant. You want to try and off me? Come and get it bitch. I have an army at my back!

I doubt 6th Street will do much more than a meager amount to protect Yuto. We both know that.

Then come and try bitch!

Tell me where you are, and I’ll happily do so! I mocked, knowing the coming answer.

Fucking find me! And the line went dead.

“Alright… Grant was it?” 

“T-that’s me.”

“Alright. I’ve gotten everything I can here, which is disappointing, so it’s time for me to leave. Luckily for you, I have nothing against you, so we can make this easy. I have two ways to keep you out of the way for a bit. One is painless, but lasts longer, the other hurts, but you’ll be good to go in about ten minutes. Your choice.”

“Uh… Painless?” He asked, and before he even finished his optics went out, and I rose up, he jerked away and swept his hands around as he realized what had happened, but I was already heading out. 

It didn’t take me long to slip through the security door, and lock it behind me.

Maybe a bit mean, since with his optics out, there was little chance he would be able to get out without assistance.

But I’m pretty sure he had lied to me, so fuck him.

With that I slipped back out of the building. Grants muffled yells for help well hidden by the building's thick floors and walls. Without eyes, and without any ability to call someone, he’d be stuck in there for at least a while.

—---

“So we don’t have anything?” Ichi asked, and I shook my head. 

“Actually, I think I know exactly how to track Yuto right to his safehouse, but it’ll take some netrunning, and maybe some favors. The NCTV service could be protected pretty well.”

“NCTV?” Hiromi asked. I nodded looking around the gas station across the Arroyo. We had stopped here to discuss what I had found. Turbo’s bright light hung down on us, but thankfully the place was quiet.

“Yuto the dumbass is still logging into his NCTV sub wherever he is. I literally saw him do it in real time, because Grant the guy in the basement logged in, and it kicked him out. That means he’s actively using it wherever he goes… Even if he bolts I’d put eddies that Yuto is a complete dumbfuck and so we’ll always be able to track him given enough time… If I can get into the NCTV system and track the address.”

“Fuck yeah!” Malcolm shouted, startling all of us. “That’s what I’m talking about!” Malcolm whooped as he jumped and cheered.

I blinked at him, before laughing, I couldn’t help it. All of this shit going on, but Malcolm was just excited to do our job.

“Alright. I need to go into the net, so I’d like at least one of you with me. Malcolm, still needs to put his car away.” I said, eyeing the rocket launchers set up on top of Malcolm's car.

That was the secret to my exfil if shit had gotten bad. 6th Street would have faced heavy artillery if I ever needed a real escape.

“Aww. Alright. I’ll probably catch up with you after though.”

“I’ll go with you Motoko! Besides, I’ll be the one to inform Fujimura about when we complete the gig so it’s best if I stay close.” Hiromi added with a smile.

“I’ll come with.” Ichi offered with a shrug, and with that everything was decided. 

We drove off not long after, and I sent a text to Jun to let him know we were on the trail.

I’m glad you’re safe. Was all I got back and I knew from the lacking response that Jun was still feeling conflicted about this.

Yuto was his choom. What if someone told me I had to hunt down Malcolm or something?

I’d refuse and start shooting, but…

I wasn’t Jun, I had no attachment to this guy, and this all could have been avoided if the dumbass had just not decided to get revenge against an important guy in a powerful gang with no backing.

Hell, I could have assassinated this guy without any real problem. Yuto just didn’t have the skills to back up his actions.

I felt a momentary conflict myself.

I didn’t like the TC. I didn’t like killing someone for them, after what they had done. And this was Jun’s old friend.

There was a bit of history there with old Motoko as well… What would she have felt? Would she be calling for Yuto’s head, or would she be trying to protect him?

I shook it off.

That was that, and this was this. 

I was me. 

Shaking off the moral concerns, I focused on what I was going to do. Which was the job I had agreed to do, and the Tyger Claws would uphold their side of it. Wakako had my back, and Fujimura… Well he obviously wanted Jun as an underling. So Yuto would die, and things would go back to normal.

And maybe in the future I would assassinate someone once Wakako stopped paying me to not do so.

I could wait.

Tomorrow. A year, ten? What does it really matter? That was the thing about revenge, people were always in a rush to get it, but I felt my blood pump through my heart cold.

I could be patient when it came to revenge. When I wasn’t being paid, and it really didn’t matter if they lived or died. A little wait to get them later when they weren’t expecting it? That was no problem to me.

As long as they didn’t cause any more problems I was content to wait. 

I wondered… When they saw me ten years from now, what would the person I killed face look like? Would they even remember? Would they realize that I had patiently counted down the time?

“Heh… Hehehe!” I laughed to myself as I drove through the Neon of Night City.

“Huh? Motoko?”

“Urk, Nothing!” I assured Hiromi as I waved off her concerns at my sudden evil laughter. 

—--

I slipped into the web with a blink and let myself adapt for a moment before jumping out into the web and heading towards my first stop.

The NCTV Services Site, just needed to check it’s security and if I could slip in I would, if I couldn’t I could always go talk to Yoko.

The site was huge, which was well within my expectation. Practically everyone in Night City needed a sub to watch TV. So of course the server would need the capacity to handle all of that traffic. 

I slipped into the main entrance along with normal traffic. Just accessing the website. Yep, just going to check my bill. Nothing to see here. 

The server was pretty bare bones visually. It certainly wasn’t a site meant to cater to Netrunners. So the front page looked like an empty room with a few options to access symbolized by a terminal, and then doors.

Locked doors. I took a moment in the lobby just to feel around. I had no doubt there would be a runner on this server. The question was how active they were, what kind of security they had, and if they’d notice my increased load. 

Probably not considering how large the server is, but you never know. Some people kept an eye on the smallest of things.

Walking around since the lobby was netrunner-less, I pressed a hand against the locked door. This was a login terminal. But instead of even trying to enter credentials. I just started breaching in. It was hard, really hard. Instantly the security didn’t so much fight back, as just act as a nearly impenetrable wall.

The login system was the biggest entry point for normal people after all. It had to handle a crazy amount of traffic.

Slowly I seeped in tendrils. Bit’s of data accessing through the Login systems, UI. The redirect to access the password reset system was where I made my entry point, and a moment later I was in the door and into the main server. 

Already my facehuggers were dashing into the server to try and hide me, and I did everything I could to limit my impact on the server. Slowly I let my sense of the server around me grow, and I realized that I wasn’t alone.

There were definitely netrunners here. 

I didn’t have long then. I quickly started breaching into the admin section of the server. 

I needed to access Yuto’s account data. They’d definitely have the address where the service was going to on the backend. I just needed to find it. 

I moved, going through a few hallways full of daemons that thankfully didn’t notice me as I crept through their guard and into another section of the server, I found it. The admin access point.

It looked like a cube, with a bunch of chains around it securing a big lock. A bit on the nose, but I started hacking, doing my best to keep it subtle.

The security was good, but wasn’t the best. I realized pretty quickly it was an old security program. One of those corporate programs with catchy slogans like ‘Ultra-secure’ or something like that.

I cracked it in forty seconds taking a look around and not seeing anything paying any attention to this section of the data fortress I poked my hand in.

Finding his account was easy since I had his information from seeing him log in. A few moments later I gathered the address data including the most recent activation.

Saved and stored I pulled free and took two steps before I threw up an ICE Barrier. 

The splash of code that sizzled off it was a fairly nasty worm that would happily chew your data into junk.

“Got you.” A netrunner said and even as I watched another showed up, and I could practically feel the attention of more coming.

“Not bad.” I commented in turn as I poked my head out from behind my shield. “Let me guess, some sort of additional code required when accessing the admin server?” I questioned realizing the truth of it instantly. 

“That’s right. Now you are going to tell me exactly what account you gave infinite access to, otherwise I’m going to trap you here until you squeal.”

I blinked.

“What?”

“What do you mean what? What account did you just give an upgrade to? If you make me search through the server myself I swear to god!” The Netrunner growled practically sending death code at me with just his eyes. 

“Okay hold up. I didn’t alter any account data.”

“Bullshit!”

“No, seriously. That’s now why I’m here. Let’s talk, yeah? I’m already done, so we can be cool.” I stepped out from around my data and held my hands up. Not quite the same thing as it was in the real world, but netrunners were human. We all understood what it meant.

“Talk then. And tell me what you did.” The netrunner that caught me glared, the guy had a visor over his eyes, so I couldn’t see that. But his mouth was caught in a snarl.

“Right. I’m a merc. Hunting down a guy that kept trying to assassinate some guy he shouldn’t have. I managed to find where the guy had been before, but he was already gone… But he’s a moron. He had logged into his NCTV account at his safehouse. Guess what I saw while looking for clues? He logged in at his new safe house.” I laughed, because it was still hilarious. “So I just grabbed the address from his account. That’s it.”

The Runner looked to his chooms that still looked ready to attack before he waved them back a bit.

“Prove it.”

I rolled my eyes, and pulled up a file of what I had grabbed. It appeared in my hands as a shard and I tossed it over.

He didn’t touch it at first. Letting it sort of hover in front of him as he scanned it down before eventually he risked it and seemed to nod. 

“It checks out?”

“See, not a scammer, just a headhunter.” I offered. “Listen, I want to go and catch this guy, but I know you guys catching me here is a bunch of work. How about I give you the log of my access points, you can do some cleaning up and you can tell your bosses you ripped the data out of me or something?”

The three men and one woman all looked at each other before sort of shrugging.

“Gonna cost you more than that.” The lead runner said after a moment. 

“Alright. How about a code debugging for each of you. I’ll give you an RSS, you send me the code, I’ll clean it up for you, and in exchange we’re square.”

“Seriously?”

“It’s something I’m pretty good at. Yoko, from the Roundabout uses my services.” I enticed them and that seemed to get them all looking around in surprise. I guess Yoko was known to them.

“Deal, and I’ll be contacting Yoko if you flake on us! She’ll enforce the deal!” The main runner demanded and I shrugged. 

“That’s fine. Here. Use this, send the code over whenever. One program each.” I offered flicking some deets, and then I threw my access log over as well. “There. We good?”

It took a moment, but he nodded. “Yeah. We’re square as long as you leave and don’t cause any-.” 

“Perfect.” Then in a blur I vanished, Breach jumping four times straight through them and through their security pretending it didn’t even exist, until I was back at the lobby and then out. 

They probably got a huge surge from that move, but I had things to do. I jumped back home.

Time to hunt down Yuto.

—-

NCTV Corporate Security Netrunner Andrew Markone

“The fuck?”

“Dammit! That was a huge surge in traffic. I’m going to need to check the servers!”

“No seriously, what the fuck, did she just vanish?”

“I think that was… Holy fuck, that was multiple Breach Jumps through the server and security instantly. She’s gone. Long gone.” He muttered to himself staring at the server data and just…

“Glad she didn’t fucking flatline us.”

“Yeah. I don’t get paid enough for that.”