Ghost in the City: Early Chapter 168 (Patreon)

Hiromi didn’t say anything, but her constant pacing was evidence of her irritation.

“It’s not that big a deal.” I whispered to her quietly, avoiding the glare of the door guard.

“I know. It’s just frustrating to be treated like a child! We have more rep than half of the people in that club I’d bet.”

“It’s the problem with still being a teenager. We’ll grow. Besides, it also means people underestimate us.” I added, with a smile. I really wish I had my Cyberdeck right now. I’d have been able to blind the guard, or distract him or something. Giving us a path inside.

I suppose I could go check around for a rear entrance as well, but I wasn’t here to kill someone, so I didn’t want to treat it like that.

The door to the club opened and a man stepped out, suit and dark glasses, he looked like every guard I had ever seen. He was even carrying a pistol in the small of his back. I watched him carefully as the music flowed out behind him as he looked around. A few moments later he frowned which I caught out of the corner of my eye, before I suddenly got a text.

*Elis: I’m at the entrance where are you?*

I blinked looking at the man, before shrugging and pulling Hiromi out of her pacing.

“Right here.” I called out looking at the man.

The obvious guard looked at us, and I could see the confusion in his eyes.

“I’m assuming it’s your boss that has the item? Shall we?” I asked, and he stared for a while longer before nodding slowly.

Hiromi shot me a smile and a nod, obviously proud at how I had handled it.

This time the Barghest guard didn’t say anything as we were led inside. And I tugged Hiromi fast before she could do more than glare at him.

The club was large, a dance floor, a bar, and lots of seating. This was definitely the largest of all the clubs I had gone into, not even touching on the higher floors.

This place was massive.

We followed the guard as he led us to a door on the left side of the building, and then up a set of stairs.

We were led into a private room just off the stairs. It opened and he stepped inside, holding the door open behind him.

“Well I think we found our contact.” I told Hiromi as I stepped inside.

The man inside wasn’t someone I recognized. He certainly wasn’t Hands, who I had thought I might be meeting, but no. It was just a rich kid.

Well, he was in his twenties, but he wore enough high end chrome, and clothes that it felt like he was trying to shove his wealth into my face.

“The fuck?” He asked, and I instantly felt myself die inside. This wasn’t going to be fun. “Who are the kids?”

“The ones that responded to the message boss.” The Guard offered simply and he kept staring at us.

I was pretty sure I could take him if I had to.

“Yoko put us in contact. You have something we are interested in purchasing, and we have the eddies you want.” Hiromi cut in, smoothly stepping forward towards the little club couches the kid was sitting on. I decided to put myself into position as well. Across the door from the guard I took position, casually standing there, with everyone in the room in my sights.

Hiromi settled down casually throwing her jacket over the back of the couch she settled on as she crossed her legs and settled herself comfortably. She looked every inch the corporate woman she was.

While Hiromi settled in, I did the same, and caught the way the guard in glasses was side eyeing me. The man was suddenly much more tense with the awareness of what I was doing.

I wasn’t just some kid, but Hiromi’s guard. I didn’t bother to hide that my hands were close to my weapons.

The guard shifted similarly, and we both continued to side eye each other.

“Fucking hell. Yoko said she had a buyer for this shit… You got any eddies kid?”

“Yoko wouldn’t have put us in touch if there was an issue with that. Now, do you have the item?” Hiromi said instead. I could practically see the way her mind was working, following a script in her head about how to handle business deals. She was acting overly casual, despite the tenseness of her shoulder I could see. As she struggled to make her movements sleek and confident.

“Pfft. Course I do. One Arasaka Mk.4 Cyberdeck. The Arasaka Shadow! Heh, can’t even tell you how I got the thing, you understand.” He offered smugly, as he reached into his jacket, and pulled out a Cyberdeck canister.

At least he was carrying it safely.

“I’ll need to check it.”

“I’ll need to make sure you have eddies.” The man cut off. Seemingly going stubborn.

“Let’s talk potential price then.” Hiromi agreed, and I watched as the two started haggling out a price, depending on quality, and if the Cyberdeck had any damage.

It was fascinating to watch.

I tensed, as I heard it, the door opening to my side. My hand was instantly on my Burya, and the other guard had shifted as well, whether because he noticed it, or because he had noticed me.

The door opened.

“The bottle that was requested.” A chipper voice called out as a woman in a uniform stepped in and then stopped as she noticed me and the guard.

I scanned her, checking everything over, but before I could finish the kid called out.

“Finally! Gimme that, been waiting ten minutes!” He grumbled and the guard and I both stared at each other.

I let go of my gun first and relaxed back, and a moment later the guard did the same.

We watched on as the bottle of champagne was dropped off, and then the deal continued while the man got his glass filled up.

“Alright, alright, fine. Scan the damn thing.” He grumbled, as Hiromi finally locked him into a price as long as the quality of the cyberware was good.

I watched as she popped open the container pulling out the black and red Cyberdeck giving it a thorough look over before closing it back down.

“It looks good. A little wear and tear, but nothing that can’t be cleaned up. I’ll accept the price.” Hiromi said and the man looked her over before scoffing out and shaking his head.

“Brats with too many eddies to their name. Alright, pass it over and the deck is yours. How’d some corpo brat get in with Yoko anyways?” He asked, suddenly and Hiromi took a moment to consider before speaking.

“My choom is a very skilled netrunner.” Hiromi added simply glancing at me, and I just nodded in turn.

“Huh. So the deck is for you then? Guess that fits. Can’t say I’m not happy to see that thing go. Can’t tell you how I got it, but it’s good that it’s out of my hands. Seriously Yoko, sending a couple brats at me like this? Whatever, You’re eddies are good, and that means I can go party. Get out of here.” He demanded waving us off, and Hiromi nodded, carrying the Cyberdeck and walking out.

I let her out first and then made sure to keep an eye on the guard, but nothing happened, and we were out.

“Let’s get out of here.” I said and Hiromi nodded, as we walked back out to the car, and then out of Dogtown.

—--

“Whew, kid. This is a good find.” Vik offered an hour later as I drove straight to his clinic. Hiromi had been super proud the whole way. Nose up in the air and constantly remarking about how good the deal was.

I just nodded, paid the number she had told me to, and got my deck. Eddies were just eddies, and I could make a bunch of eddies just by taking a job to flatline someone, so it wasn’t really a big deal.

But a new Cyberdeck? That was a big deal.

So of course I knew what Hiromi wanted.

“Hiromi did a great job on haggling for it. Got it for a steal.” I told Vik who looked up from the Cyberdeck to me, before smiling.

“Did she? Well excellent job kid.” Vik offered, looking to Hiromi who sat up straight at the attention.

“It was nothing!” She assured us but the way she was practically preening told us both a different story. I smirked at Vik and he winked back.

“Well let me go over this thing. I’ll want to clean it up, and give it a scan, you never know what malware someone might have gotten stuck on used chrome.”

“The Arasaka ‘Shadow’ Mk.4 Cyberdeck system has top of the line anti-virus programming. You won’t find anything on it.” Hiromi said confidently.

“Well, this one’s probably been cracked, so you never know what the guy who used it last was up to.”

“Oh… I didn’t consider that.” She said, sounding a little embarrassed but I sent her a smile even so.

“It’s fine. Vik’s a pro, that's why I go to him.” I looked to the older man and smiled and he actually looked pleased with my confidence in him.

“Well I’ll do alright, but I’m not the best in the city.” He demurred, but I ignored him, because that was a lie. Vik being humble. There was no one better, and anyone who tried to convince me otherwise was lying. “Still… This is a high end deck kid. Hell of a find. You better be careful, something like this is still fresh enough, whoever owned it before might still be registered to it.”

“If you mean the previous Arasaka user? Then I wouldn’t worry too much. I plan on sending in a notification saying I came across it while making a deal and pulled it off the free market.” Hiromi said and I looked to her, as Vik did the same thing.

“You sure that’s a good idea kid?”

“I don’t know if that’s a good idea Hiromi.” Vik and I both spoke but she just waved me off.

“Relax, I’m not going to tell them who has it now, because it’ll just be registered to me, and I can just say I sold it off after. Nothing weird. It happens all the time. I’ll talk to my Dad about it just to make sure it’s all done correctly. I’ll put in a statement about how I came across it, but Dogtown dealer is a standard dropdown on the form.”

“Just don’t put anything that can lead back to the dealer. I don’t want to piss off Yoko…”

“I won’t, don’t worry. I know to keep contacts safe.” She assured me and eventually I nodded.

“Can’t say I’m used to having someone with so many Arasaka connections around. Bit of a weird feeling.” Vik offered and I nodded to him as well. It was weird.

“Alright let me look into this, should take me a bit kid I’m going to want to do a deep dive on it.”

“That’s fine I’m not in a rush. Thanks Vik.”

“Sure kid.” He smiled at me, as he continued to go over the Cyberdeck with his scanner.

I would have happily sat there for a while, but Hiromi was getting anxious just sitting around. Her knee was tapping so I rose up.

“I think I’ll go for a bit of a walk, maybe get some food. Let me know when you’re ready Vik?”

“Sure kid. Say hi to Misty for me.” He said with a smile telling me he knew exactly what I was up to.

“Huh?” Hiromi asked as I walked past her and waved for her to join me.

“Come on.” I called out and soon Hiromi led me up into Misty’s shop.

“Oh hello! It’s.. Hiromi! I remembered.” Misty greeted as she saw us step in from her back door.

“Nice to meet you again.” Hiromi offered back a little stiffly.

“Misty! You hungry? Vik is going over my new deck with a fine toothed comb, so I figured we could eat and hang out, if you aren’t busy?”

“Nope. Food sounds nice, it’ll be a nice distraction!” Misty said as she flipped closed the magazine she was looking at.

“Preem! I’ll go grab some stuff. Oh Misty! You should do Hiromi’s fortune! Your tarot is awesome. I’ll be back okay!” I said not leaving Hiromi any choice as I hurried away.

Misty was great at relieving tension, and making everyone relax. Hiromi was a little tense, so some spirit time would do her good.

—--

When I got back, bags of food in my hands I stopped.

Hiromi and Misty both looked at me, and started giggling.

“What?” I asked looking around behind me, not seeing anything then looking over my body. I didn’t have anything weird on me! My clothes weren’t ripped. I looked up and both of them just refused to say anything, just shaking their head.

“Mean.” I grumbled, but wandered over, Misty’s tarot cards were out but put away and I almost asked, but decided Hiromi would share if she felt the need.

“I’m glad you brought Hiromi, Motoko. It was nice to have someone to chat with.” Misty offered as her only explanation for the giggling.

“Hiromi doesn’t look as tense either… Although she is a little red? Did you have some weird medical thing… Not that what you do is weird Misty!”

Misty just giggled and Hiromi groaned.

Not sure what that was all about. Either way we settled in to eat, and I slurped up my tasty noodles, as we all started chatting. Misty sharing tidbits about strang clients coming in. Although she did run out of those quickly enough.

We settled in for a good veg session, and it was pretty nice. Misty had awesome big sister energy, and Hiromi to my surprise was responding to it really well. I guess she was an only child. It would make Misty’s gentle teasing pretty new.

Eventually though it was time. Vik sent a text, and I rose up instantly. “Gotta go! I’ll be back!” I called out as I hurried out the back of Misty’s shop.

Cyberdeck! New Cyberdeck!

I skipped down the stairs bouncing to a stop.

“It’s ready?”

“It’s ready.” Vik confirmed. “I cleaned up some connections, and checked the OS. It was definitely cracked. Someone used it after they took it from its original owner. I cleared up the scum and put in my own program. Mine isn’t full of Malware but I suggest you check things over.”

“You are the best Vik.” I said as I took a deep breath and then moved forward. It was time to get a limb back.

I settled in, and Vik got to work. I didn’t need to sleep for the install, and my port was already empty. Vik popped open my Cyberdeck port in my head, and then slipped the chip inside. It felt like nothing except strange pressure moving my head around until it locked in place, and connected to the chip.

My agent flashed with the confirmed connection, and a blast of data scrolled across my eyes as it connected and installed, and then the chip activated.

I sighed in relief, because it really did feel like a lost limb restored. I looked around and the radio was mine. Instantly. Far far faster than I could have before.

“Looks good.” I muttered and Vik just chuckled.

“You should really wait for me to do a few checks before starting it up.” He said half jokingly, as he continued to press scanners to my head connecting to my neural link and checking everything.

“Looks good. Install complete.”

I nodded, checking my status.

The old status had been replaced.

Seacho Electronics Mk.2 *Adaptation Seacho Mk.2 0/0*  (WARNING DAMAGED)

I wouldn’t be seeing that anymore.

Now it looked like this.

Arasaka Corporation Cyberdeck ‘Shadow’ Mk.4 *Adaptation ‘Shadow’ Mk.4 0/0*

There it was. Everything was… Good.

“It’s great Vik.”

“I only installed it kid, you’re the one who found it.” He waved off. Not realizing how big having Vik there to fix me up meant to me. I threw him a smile and then because fuck it. I jumped off the chair and through my arms around the old ripper.

“Thank you.” I told him, hugging him tightly not letting him get away.

“H-Hey, c’mon kid.” Vik stuttered, sounding a little strangled, so I let go, and got to see Vik’s face blushing at my affection.

“You’re awesome Vik. I owe you one.”

“You pay me kid, don’t make it that big a deal.” He tried to downplay but I just smiled and he looked defeated. “Alright get out of here, someone sees you turning me into a big softy, gonna ruin my rep.” He said with a wink at the end. I just cackled and ran off, so much more room in my cyberdeck! I would have to install some new hacks first thing, but the whole world was my oyster!