Mistrunner 2 - Chapter 26 - Setting the Hook (Patreon)

On the surface of it, Jeremiah shouldn’t have been that difficult to track. But he flitted around like a shadow, rarely ever staying in one place for long enough to pin him down. With me feeding them real-time information, it became a lot easier. For almost a year, I wrestled with the decision, but in the end, I just did what I always do: put myself first.

Nora Lancaster

I brushed my ring-clad knuckle against the key-reader by the door, and a second later, the it slid open to reveal a well-appointed sitting room. I stepped inside, trying my best not to let the luxury overwhelm my good sense. Even so, as the door slid shut behind me, I couldn’t help but be impressed. Everywhere I looked, opulence assailed my eyes. Everything was tasteful enough, but no amount of style could disguise the sheer amount of resources that had gone into furnishing the room.

And that was just the entryway. I kept my expression placid, but inwardly, I gaped at the décor, finally understanding what my uncle had meant when he’d explained the difference between being rich and being wealthy. The first meant that you had the money to do just about whatever you wanted. Often, that meant buying fancy cybernetics, rare furniture, or ostentatious jewelry.

By comparison, true wealth meant spending fortunes on things that most people wouldn’t even notice, and doing so just because it was slightly better quality. Or a little rarer than the alternative. They had the overt displays, too, but their money went deeper, infecting everything about their lives. Never was that more apparent than when I first stepped foot inside that hotel room, where everything, right down to the floor tiles, screamed luxury and privilege.

I sighed, stepping through the entryway and into the sitting room. As I did, I cast my {Mistrunner}senses out wide, looking for hidden surveillance devices. And I found precisely what I was looking for; there were two cameras in the sitting room, a listening device in the bedroom, and even a camera in the shower. The last made my blood boil. Likely, the voyeuristic camera had been set up by some enterprising employee who’d eventually turn around and sell the results on Nova’s cybernet.

Virtual reality was extremely popular when it came to pornography, but there would always be a place – albeit an incredibly creepy one – for voyeurism. With a few shifts of my concentration, I used Misthack to disable each device, but I also left something special on the bathroom camera. I let a malicious grin creep onto my face when I imagined the unknown voyeur finding that his terminal as well as his other cameras had all been fried by the Ghost I’d uploaded.

Any other time, using any other disguise, I probably would have been more circumspect. But I was wearing the identity of a Banshee, which meant that anyone who tried to spy on me deserved whatever they got. It would have been more suspicious if I hadn’t disabled the surveillance devices in the suite.

Once I’d done a few more sweeps, I studied my surroundings. It was such a far cry from what I’d grown accustomed to that I didn’t even know where to start. The sitting room was home to a set of couches and chairs, all made from natural materials. That was so different from what I usually saw in Nova, where everything was synthetic. Abstract paintings decorated the walls, accenting the room’s clean lines and pulling everything together into a unified whole that radiated privilege.

I passed through the sitting room, quickly finding myself in the common area. It was more of the same, though it also boasted a sizable screen that stretched from one wall to the other. Most people preferred the convenience of accessing various entertainment feeds via their personal interfaces – even the most basic of them, which didn’t require anything like my [Cybernetic Mastery] skill, could handle that much – but the rich weren’t satisfied with that. Instead, many of them watched their movies and live events on giant screens with incredible sound systems.

I remembered seeing quite a few such screens in the homes of various Operators who’d worked for my uncle. They were smaller, cheaper, and far less powerful, but they didn’t seem to care. Yet another example of their futile and ultimately pointless efforts to mimic the wealthy.

But who was I to judge? When buying equipment, I’d spent a fortune that would’ve made most aristocrats green with envy, so I wasn’t any better than anyone else. Not in that respect, at least.

The rest of the suite, which even had two bedrooms, followed a similar pattern, with the largest bedroom opening up into a huge window that gave me a view of the open sea. It was somewhat marred by the stationary ships and the latticework of the kelp farming operation, but it was still a beautiful sight that reminded me of sitting atop the buildings in Mobile and gazing out across the bay. Every now and then, something would brush against the Mist shield, trailing a streak of blue light down its surface, before heading away. The water concealed whatever creature was probing Biloxi’s maritime defenses, but I knew it wasn’t something to take lightly.

After all, my run-in with the giant man o’ war had taught me a lesson that I’d never forget. There were plenty of dangerous creatures roaming the land, but the true monsters made their homes beneath the waves.

I sighed before heading into the luxurious bathroom, where I undressed. I hadn’t spent more than a couple of nights out in the wilderness, but I knew just how dirty I’d become. So, I stepped into the shower – which was a tiled room bigger than my quarters back in the Dewdrop Inn had been. I pressed a few buttons on the control panel, and steaming hot water fell from the ceiling.

I let myself relax for a few minutes as I just enjoyed the feeling of my tense muscles unkinking. I could’ve stood there for hours, but I knew I was on a schedule. Or my target was, at least. And if I wanted to intercept him, I’d need to take my place very soon. So, I bent to the task of shaving; out in the wilderness or during training, it was easy to ignore a little leg or armpit hair. But with what I had planned? I needed to hold myself to different standards, even if I didn’t necessarily endorse them.

After I’d been denuded to my satisfaction, I finished showering. Once that was done, another press of a button activated the dryer function, and after a few seconds of being buffeted by warm air, I was dry.

The next twenty minutes involved me getting dressed and making sure everything looked perfect. From my outfit to my hair and everything in between. Some of it was a little difficult because of the effects of Mimic, but I managed well enough. By the time I went to leave the suite, the sun had set, and I was ready for the mission.

Still, I couldn’t stop myself from taking a good look at my reflection. And I liked what I saw.

I knew it wasn’t me. My skin had never been that clear, and my hair had never been so straight. But I wasn’t so insecure that I didn’t recognize that I could have looked almost as good wearing my own face if I’d ever put in that kind of effort. And besides, the body beneath those expensive clothes was all me.

For my night in Biloxi, I’d chosen a pair of real leather pants that clung to my body like a second skin, leaving little to the imagination. They weren’t comfortable, but they were flexible enough that I could still move in them if I needed to. My top was even less practical. Comprised of a few strips of sparkly cloth and some string, it left my entire back bare. In fact, it left most of my skin bare, covering a lot less than the shirts I was used to wearing. It was stylish, though, glittering silver with blue highlights of infused Mist and suggesting at what little it did cover.

My hair hung loose, and my makeup – created by Mimic– tended toward sultry. Finally, my feet were encased in a pair of four-inch heels. In short, even without the use of Mimic, I would’ve looked so different that few would have connected me with the scrappy girl from the Garden.

Which was precisely the point.

I had considered a lot of different options, but it had come down to a choice between my current attire and something far more business-like. And I’ll admit that I chose the way I had mostly because the idea frightened me. I’d have never worn such an outfit under normal circumstances, but the fact that it was part of a disguise made it far more palatable.

Even so, as I left the suite, my stomach twisted itself into a thousand knots. My anxiety only got worse when I stepped off the elevator and into the hotel lobby. It felt like everyone in the building was staring at and judging me. And I was sure they’d see right through my disguise and recognize me for the fraud I was. Certainly, Mimic was practically foolproof under such conditions. I’d proven that when I’d come into the town and no one had stopped me. But that wasn’t really what worried me. Instead, I was more concerned with people judging the way I was dressed.

Would they see me as a little girl pretending to be an adult?

No. Of course not. Even without Mimic, I didn’t look like a child anymore. But the insecurity fostered by years of social isolation wasn’t concerned with facts or truth. It was too busy cataloguing every glance, every unrelated laugh, and each unconnected whisper. It was a nightmare come to life.

But if I could make it through an entire Rift, if I could will my way through Hell Month, I could endure a little self-doubt.

My heels clicked as I made my way through the lobby, and I couldn’t help but thank my [Balance] skill. Otherwise, even with my enhanced Constitution attribute, which gave me superhuman coordination, I might’ve stumbled.

Either way, I made it through the lobby just fine, and when I stepped outside, I took a moment to enjoy the sea air before I crossed the street and made my way toward one of the ships.

That was one of the reasons I’d chosen the Calgary in the first place; sure, it was a luxurious hotel fitting the identity I’d assumed. However, it also boasted close proximity to my real destination – the Palace.

It wasn’t the largest of the ships, but it was the most luxurious. With its black-and-gold coloring, it even managed to look regal. And that was with me knowing what it represented as well as the debauchery it hosted on a nightly basis.

I kept a straight face as I strode toward the ramp that would lead out to the ship. As I drew closer, I couldn’t help but be impressed by the sheer size of the thing. It was as if someone had taken the concept of a ship and simply blown it out of wild proportion. The result was something more akin to a building than anything used for transportation across the water. Probably a good thing that it had almost assuredly been cemented to the seafloor so it couldn’t move.

When I reached the ramp, which was guarded by a couple of mooks whose black-and-gold suits couldn’t hide their bulging cybernetics, I paid my entry fee, then swept past them. They didn’t even think to stop me, which soothed a little of my anxiety. I must have looked like I belonged.

The ramp was almost a hundred yards long and sloped at a moderate incline which gave me little trouble. Others weren’t so lucky. I passed one corpulent, well-dressed man who hadn’t banked on such a trek, and I almost grinned at how hard he was breathing.

Soon enough, I reached the entrance of the actual ship, and I stepped inside to see a place that lived up to its name. The décor wasn’t any richer than it had been in the Calgary, but the Palace’s wealth was far more overt. The sheer amount of gold and silver pushed well past the point of posturing and into the realm of obscenity. The point of their largess wasn’t lost on me. As a casino, they needed to wear their wealth on their proverbial sleeve, lest people get the impression that they couldn’t cover their losses.

Of course, like any casino, I imagined that they would always come out on top. Rigged or not, they were in the business of making money, after all.

I strode forward, projecting as much confidence as I could. As I moved through the lobby, I could feel dozens of pairs of eyes following my every step. I ignored them, quickly covering the ground and passing between a pair of life-sized golden lion statues to enter the casino proper.

Once inside, I saw dozens of tables intended for various card games, almost as many roulette tables, and even some screens dedicated to sporting events I’d had no idea even existed. Apparently, being an aristocrat meant being far more aware of the wider world. It was yet another way Nova’s elites had kept the lower class population of the city uninformed, isolated, and under control.

I wove through the crowd as I crossed the gambling hall, eventually finding my way to the bar on the other side. Leaning against the polished wooden surface, I got the attention of the barkeep, who was a young, handsome man with a cybernetic eye.

He gave me a smile, saying, “What can I get for you?”

“Whisky,” I said, returning his smile with one of my own. I wanted to look approachable, after all.  I’d already spied my target, and he’d noticed me in turn. But it wouldn’t do for me to make the first move. If I wanted to avoid suspicion, he needed to be the aggressor.

Once I’d been served, I took a moment to savor the drink. Or pretend to. It definitely wasn’t to my taste, and it didn’t even have the added benefit of accomplishing its intended function. Due to a combination of my inflated Constitution attribute and my Regeneration and Resistance, I was functionally immune to the effects of alcohol. Or any other inebriant, if I had to guess. Perhaps somewhere out there in the wider universe, some alien had come up with something that would work, but everything I’d tried back in Mobile had been entirely ineffective.

I turned around as I sipped my drink and watched the gamblers. Most were obviously wealthy and were just using the casino to blow off some steam. Others had the looks of professionals. I didn’t know what, precisely, tipped me off, but I got the impression that they were the predators in this jungle, and I resolved to avoid them at all costs.

Eventually, I let my target catch me glancing in his direction. And when we locked eyes, I knew I had him. He grinned at me. I gave him a coy smile, then turned back to the bar. Now, I only had to wait until he took the bait.

People were so much easier when I was playing a role, when I had a defined target and goal. With someone like Patrick, I had to worry about feelings and the future, but with Calvin Kane, I’d only need to think about accomplishing the mission. There was freedom in how uncomplicated it was, and it allowed me to put my best, most confident foot forward.

After another minute or two, during which I continued to sip at my drink, I heard someone approaching me from behind. Without Observation, I never would have been able to separate his footsteps from the din of the crowded gambling hall, but with it, I had no doubt that Calvin had taken the bait.

I felt rather than saw him sidle up to the bar next to me. At first, he pretended that he hadn’t made the trip specifically to talk to me, instead getting the bartender’s attention. Once he did, he said, “A beer, Monty. And for the lady…”

“Whisky,” I repeated my order. I didn’t look at him. Not yet.

“So, you’re new around here, right?” said Calvin. I saw him out of the corner of my eye, looming beside me. He was a tall man, with an athletic build. And he was incredibly handsome – but that was probably artificial, because I’d seen a photo of his mother, and they looked nothing alike. Even so, I wouldn’t begrudge a man his vanity. Not when I was wearing a top that barely even covered my chest, at least.

“I am.”

“A woman of few words, then? I like it,” Calvin said, almost as if he was having a conversation with himself. The file had called him self-absorbed, and he’d given me no reason to label that description false. “What brings you to my little town?”

His town, huh? It wasn’t exactly false. Biloxi was owned and operated by Blue Epoch, and he was the highest-ranking executive around. Still, it felt a bit presumptuous to claim ownership of his employers’ property.

“Enforcer business,” I said.

Even though I wasn’t looking in his direction, I could almost see his face go white. He really had no idea who I was. Or rather, who I was pretending to be. Enforcers might not be as feared by the elite as they were by the residents of the poorer districts of Nova City, but they weren’t to be trifled with, either. And nobody – aristocrats or street urchins – wanted to deal with a Banshee.

“Oh…ah…s-sorry. I didn’t –”

I let out a fake laugh, then turned toward him. I flashed my widest grin before saying, “Oh, your face right now. Priceless. Absolutely priceless.”

“W-what? You’re not an Enforcer?” he asked.

“No, no – I definitely am,” I said. “A Banshee, actually. But for tonight? Let’s just put that aside, huh? I’ve never been to this quaint little town, and I’d love a local guide. You up for it?”

It took him a moment to process what I was offering. I couldn’t have been clearer without holding up a sign that said, “I’m interested, you mook!”

But Calvin clearly wasn’t the sharpest sword in the arsenal, even if he was very good-looking. I got butterflies just looking at his dazzlingly blue eyes; those couldn’t be real, could they? No. Nothing about him was real.

Besides, I was just doing a job here. Not getting involved.

“Right. Sure,” he said, smiling back at me as he recovered his composure. “I think I could play that role.”

“Good,” I said, setting down my glass and taking his arm. “I want to see everything Biloxi has to offer.”