Ghost in the City

The day had come and gone. Then the night. Jun hadn’t come home, and the sun was rising. I had taken a break after an hour of playing music, and gone out. Spending a couple grand on some additional security for the apartment. Then Installing it all. Of course it was just off the shelf junk.

It wouldn’t really stop anyone.

But I was currently programming out a bit of a trick. The thing with door locks is that they are never really going to stop someone. Instead I was going to keep the entire thing looking off the shelf, while inside the programming would have a bit of a trick.

Sure you can break into the apartment if you really want.

But I would know.

And knowing is half the way to avoid a trap, or a surprise raid.

I was still working on the code. Making the security system send an alarm if it was hacked wasn’t hard. But letting it work without alerting the netrunner breaking in was.

So I was fiddling with a few design options to sneak the alert through.

It was progressing pretty well with Inspired Programmer keeping me full of inspiration.

*Malcolm! What’s up?*

*Motoko I need help! Fuck! Cocksuckers shot me!* Malcolm gasped into the line as soon as I chirped my greeting.

Instantly I was moving, rushing for my room to grab my guns.

*Where are you? Tell me everything.*

*Fuck. Shit I’m bleeding bad. Okay okay. I’ll send you my ping. I'm on a train right now.. II lost them, they stopped chasing me when I got on the rail. Fuck. Oh god. I was buying a car! They were trying to jump me. Steal the money and those fucks! It was supposed to be my car! They fucking killed me over this shit!* His voice broke down into a quiet moan.

*Okay I’m on my way. I’m pinging everyone as well, in case someone is closer. We’re on our way Malcolm, just don’t pass out okay. Stay awake.* I demanded as I scooped up my boots as I ran into the hall and raced to the elevator. I hit the button requesting it and then again and again.

Too slow.

I turned and rushed for the stairs. I slammed into the door and fought my boots onto my feet. Then as I slipped into the stairwell I leapt.

I landed on the railing two stories down, then I leapt down again.

Again and again. I leapt past some people hanging out in the stairwell. Kids adults. Whatever. It wasn’t a concern.

*I’m still with you Malcolm, talk to me buddy.*

*Fuck it hurts. Never been shot before! Those assholes!* He whined and cried into the line, but I would rather him do that, then have it go silent. The last jump I dropped three stories to land in a crouch on the garage level. Startling some of the Tyger Claw kids that were smoking and hanging out under the stairs. ṚΑɴọᛒΕS̩

I slammed into the door and rushed for my Quadra. The door opened at a glance as I leapt inside from the passenger side.

Sliding into the driver seat, I gunned it backwards. My eyes instantly connected to the cameras on the Quadra to roar out of my space.

I didn’t bother to spin around. Tires screeching through the garage I slipped my Quadra into a reverse drift to make the entrance ramp and continued roaring backwards until I hit the top of the ramp absolutely maxing out the engine as it leapt into the air. I hit the ground and Spun, finally facing forward already in the street and ignoring the honks of people that I had nearly crashed into.

My Quadra roared. All 1000 horsepower roared as my foot hit the pedal all the way down.

*I’m on my way!* I said again into the phone as for the first time I really truly ignored traffic laws.

I raced the streets. Swerved through traffic, and ignored lights. The sidewalk was perfectly good for getting around traffic as well to my current estimation.

I had no care about anything because one of my chooms was in trouble.

Malcolm was my friend.

I wasn’t ready to lose a friend to this city.

*Talk to me Malcolm. Tell me about these assholes.*

*... Fuck. They… They were selling a Rayfield Motoko. It was a second gen Caliburn. Yellow silver. The best… The best paintjob. It was so beautiful. And cheap… It was only 70k. I wanted it so bad. I decided… I thought fuck it. It’s my dream car, you know? I… I have a poster of it above my bed. Dreamed about that car since… Forever. If I had it… that means I made it you know?*

*Yeah Malcolm, and you will. Believe me. Just keep breathing choom. I’m almost there.* And I was. Malcolm was still in Westbrook. Just farther south. Near Charter Hill. He had sent me an active GPS ping, and it wasn’t moving. *Did you get off the rail?*

*Yeah… Yeah they kicked me off. Bleeding too much I guess… Fuckers.* He mumbled.

Fuck.

*Hey Malcolm, listen to me. You keep your damn eyes open, and keep breathing! You hear me?*

*Yeah… I gotta listen to you right? Boss? Heh. Who would have thought I’d be working for your gonk ass. Fuck. It’s been great though…* He trailed off.

*Yeah it’s awesome, and your brain is amazing at noticing things! Couldn’t have done the yacht heist without you yeah? You were the one to figure out the Scavs. So stay alive Malcolm, that’s an order from your boss!* I gasped out desperately as I made a stupidly dangerous turn.

*Yeah…*

I skidded to a halt as Traffic was blocking me again and the sidewalk was full. I honked and revved into the sidewalk anyways. People scurried out of the way as I drove as slow as I could bear around the cars stopped at a light until I hit the road and revved to skid onto the cross street into the active traffic. Swiftly forcing a position and then accelerating.

Just gotta hope NCPD were busy right now…

At least I was getting responses from everyone. Vik had responded to my frantic text message and he was on his way with med supplies to keep someone alive. I just had to get Malcolm to him.

I was there. The sidewalk was a perfectly good parking spot as I nearly drove onto the escalators running up to the platform.

Driver side door opened, and I was off like a shot, Racing up the escalator until there were people in the way and then I jumped onto the railings and just raced up that.

Then I was on the platform, and it wasn’t hard to see Malcolm.. A pool of blood with bloody footprints leading to him slumped up against a sign and a small space in the crowd, but no one was trying to help.

Assholes.

I leapt. Landing beside him in a single movement.

“Hey Malcolm. Calvary is here. C’mon. Take this.” I offered him a MaxDoc, while I grabbed an Airhypo and jammed it into his chest.

“FuuuuUUK!.” He cursed his breath suddenly much fuller as the Airhypo oxygenated his blood.

Well as much as it could anyways.

“Take the MaxDoc Malcolm.” I demanded and grabbed some bandages out of a hip pouch.

Fuck the bullet hole was bad.

Through and through his chest, just below his armpit and out almost between his ribs on the front.

That was… Not good.

I wrapped a bandage around him as best I could and then hefted him up.

Malcolm was bigger than me, true.

But I was so freaked out, I didn’t even care that he was a bit heavier than me. I pulled him into a princess carry ignoring his cry of pain as I started rushing to the escalator.

*Vik! I got him. Sending you pics. I’ll be rushing to meet you!* I sent Vik as I finally didn’t need to be on call with Malcolm.

*Alright Kid. Just breathe, steady now. Let’s save your choom.* He whispered into my ear, and it was calming as I rushed down the escalator doing my best not to jostle Malcolm, or bump him into anything.

“GET THE FUCK OUT OF THE WAY!” I roared at some fucking morons not idling in front of me, and it was only when I started to try and grab my Burya that they hurried out of the way.

My Quadra was still there idling, Although I wasn’t surprised to note some gonk kid was running off with an arm full of…

Okay stealing my homemade grenades was pretty ballsy. That’s a scary kid for the next few days.

I slipped Malcolm into the passenger seat, and strapped him in.

This was going to get wild.

“H-hey. You’re gonna have to not drive like a… Granny.” Malcolm joked at me weakly as I slipped into the driver seat.

“Yeah.” I agreed bluntly and then floored it again. Vik was heading this way, but it was still far. And Malcolm was bleeding.

I couldn’t tell exactly what I babbled at Malcolm to keep him focused as I raced through the streets, it was all a blur, and I was sure that without Cool Nerves I definitely would have gotten into an accident as I was sure my entire body would be shaking if not for that.

Thank you system. Thank you Gamer powers. Thank you whatever thing gave me the ability to actually act through my panic and try to save my choom.

I almost ran into Vik. Who was driving an old Villefort Columbus van. I slid into a screeching powerslide right beside him nearly startling him off the road as he jerked the wheel a bit, but braked after and then he was there. My passenger door opened and Vik instantly slipped some device with a big canister attached against Malcolms chest.

I heard the pneumatic sound as it activated.

“Fuck!” Malcolm hissed, but Vik was just chuckling, talking calmly, and a moment later. Instead of a reedy wet breathing coming out in a rush from Malcolm, it seemed to even out a bit. And some color very quickly came back to his face.

“C’mon lets get you in the van, and I’ll plug those holes yeah?” Vik said as calm as ever seemingly completely unconcerned about what he was helping with, and I could see how that calm soothed Malcolm who obviously was freaking out at what had happened.

Fuck Vik. You are truly an angel.

—---

Ignoring the traffic build up behind us, we got Malcolm into the van. The van off the middle of the road, and my Quadra out of the way, and Vik went to work.

I couldn’t even start to explain to you the Ripper doc magic that Vik did there on the side of the road in a beat up old Van, but within ten minutes Malcolm was breathing easy, resting in a stretcher and even cracking a joke with the old ripper.

Ichi showed up first. His own Van roared down the road and parked up onto the sidewalk alongside us as he jumped out, nearly leaping onto Malcolm to make sure he was okay.

“Hey, easy Ichi, easy.” Malcolm said, sounding tired, but amused at Ichi’s reaction.

“You alright? Dr. Vik? He’ll be okay?”

“Right as rain, kid. Not the first time I’ve patched up a bullet hole.” Vik joked back but he was doing something with the hole in Malcolms side, his face buried in a screen looking at Malcolms chest.

It took a second but Ichi breathed out and nearly slumped to the floor. “Hey I’m alright now Ichi. It’s okay. Motoko got to me in time.”

“I can’t believe you were gonk enough to trust Granny driver Motoko to come rescue you. Should have called me first.” Ichi said with an almost sob in his voice as he told the joke.

Which is the only reason I didn’t punch him for it.

I didn’t drive like a granny!

“Heh. Knew… Knew you were across town remember? Figured ‘Toko would be free.”

“Well you were right!” I told him firmly from the floor of the van. I wasn’t napping or anything just trying to calm myself. The relief at Malcolm not dying was just…

Too much.

“And I was right.” Malcolm said, waving a hand off his cot in my direction.

“I’m glad you’re alright Malcolm. Fuck. Can’t believe you got shot.”

“Me neither.” He offered and both boys went quiet even if I could only see Ichi looking down at Malcolm with an array of angry emotions across his face.

“Who did it?”

“Some assholes down near Santo. Supposed to be legit, car trade through a site. I checked it out with some guys on the site. Everything looked legit. They sell cars, boosted, damaged whatever. Got a hit for the car I was looking for… Fuck it’s my fault. They didn’t have a fucking Caliburn, probably heard about me looking for one. Thought I was probably some rich kid or something. Fuck.”

“Don’t worry Malcolm. We’ll find them.” Ichi said which surprised me because I was about to say that too.

Ichi looked to me and I just nodded. Both of us understood what was going to happen next.

“Malcolm!” A breathless cry pulled us towards the door, where Hiromi had just pulled up on her Kusanagi. She rushed in, and it was luck that Ichi grabbed her before she almost flopped onto Malcolm.

“I was in class! I’m sorry I didn’t even get the ping until now! Are you-”

“He’ll live kid, Don’t worry I’m patching him up just fine.” Vik said with a smile and Hiromi almost sagged.

—--

We filled in Hiromi on everything, and in the end an hour later Malcolm was at Viks clinic resting.

But I was going to go find some fuckers that shot my choom. I was almost up the stairs when Ichi grabbed my arm stopping me.

“I’m going with.” He said no hesitation in his voice.

He was pissed. Which is why I didn’t want him to come. Even at my angriest, I still had Cold Blood keeping my mind clear. Keeping myself clear to make decisions like shooting gonks rather than talking to them.

“Ichi-”

“Don’t Motoko. I’m coming. Or I’ll go alone. They shot my choom over a fucking car sale. Malcolm wasn’t even fucking with them, but they just- Fuck that.”

“I’m coming too.” Hiromi said as she walked up the stairs behind Ichi, patting him on the shoulder once as she walked right past us both. “What do you both need an invitation?” She asked as she turned and gave one of her superior looks at the two of us.

If it wasn’t such a serious moment between us, I would have leapt on her, pinned her to the ground and… Mess with her hair or something. I don’t know.

“Alright, fine. We all go! But, I call the shots.” I demand looking at the two of my chooms with firm looks.

“I’m fine with that.” Hiromi said and a moment later Ichi nodded.

“Good. First thing first. Go get suited up. These fucks have guns and obviously aren’t afraid to use it. So go get ready.” I ordered much to both of their irritations, but in the end they listened. Hiromi jumped onto her Kusanagi, and Ichi in his van.

I went home myself to grab my own Section 9 equipment.

I was going to make a point against these assholes.

—--

Suited up and ready we all met up near the location Malcolm had given us. “Stay close together guys, and keep your eyes open..” I demanded making sure they both understood before we walked down the block towards where Malcolms little meetup was supposed to happen.

I had my techgogs down blocking my eyes and face, as I wandered through the crowds of Night city people.

We were in Charter hill, just on the other side of the canal cutting off Charter Hill and Arroyo.

I followed the location GPS through a back alley, Through a small alley filled with old homeless tents, and then into a small inner court area for the apartments around me. The place had old shop spaces all closed down and shuttered along the edges. Each of the shutters now covered in years of gang tags.

Hiromi and Ichi both stayed close together, weapons ready and waiting.

But while there were some people here, it didn’t look like our people.

Not that we were sure what they looked like.

Dammit Malcolm. You walked into a deal with no backup, no information on whose these fuckers were!

I let it go as I searched around, trying to find a clue, or just someone I thought could answer some questions when I noticed it.

A puddle of blood. With a trail leading through to the street beyond.

I stepped low and touched it with a chrome finger.

This was where Malcolm got shot. I could actually see the rail line he must have run to from here. Straight through the gap he had escaped through. And the trail of blood.

“This is the right place alright.” I muttered as I looked around scanning the area, eyes flashing checking everything I could.

“Hiromi.” I called out and pointed.

A homeless man was in the courtyard. A little shack of cardboard and old benches in a corner.

She nodded and Ichi followed. She would ask questions, and maybe get some answers. She was better at that. While I was better at this.

The Courtyard didn’t have cameras. Any that might have originally been set up were long gone, ripped out of their mounts for whatever purpose their thief wanted. But that didn’t mean shit to me.

This was still Night City. There were only so many places one could move unnoticed to avoid all cameras.

I circled the building. Marking a map with every camera pointed in the direction I needed. If the people who had shot Malcolm had come, or gone into this set of apartments I would find them.

I met back up with Hiromi and Ichi Hiromi looking a little irritated, but her face shifted as she saw me return.

“Some moderate good news.” She offered with a shrug. “The old man saw the shooting. I had to pay him a chunk of eddies to get the information, but he blabbed quickly enough. Apparently he hadn’t seen the guys before. They aren’t from these apartments, probably came here to make sure they couldn’t be tracked after stealing Malcolms eddies… Wait, did they actually get the eddies from Malcolm?”

I blinked.

Ichi blinked.

“I’ll call him and ask. Keep filling Motoko in.” Ichi said and we all nodded.

“Right. So, they aren’t from around here, but I was able to get what direction they left in. No idea what vehicle they might have, but at least we have a location for where they went.”

“Which way?” I asked and Hiromi pointed me towards another alleyway on the opposite side from where we had walked in from.

“So they are going north… That alley. There’s some cameras at a few restaurants across the street. We’ll be able to ID them.” I assured my chooms and despite Ichi’s eyes glowing yellow he nodded along having been listening in even as he made the call.

“Alright. Let’s go take a look as well before we head out. I want to get some eyes on the area.” I told them and Hiromi and Ichi followed as we walked through the alley. This one didn’t have a tent city in it, but it was filled with doors and ways into the buildings around them.

Not good. Hopefully the homeless man was right, and they weren’t native to the area. I would really hate to have to try and track some gonks through this rat warren of hallways and back entrances.

I leapt to the side as a pipe rumbled and something foul smelling and just as disgusting looking poured out of it into the alley.

“Grooooss!” Hiromi whined, and all I could do was nod along.

“Yeah. Watch your feet.”I mumbled already knowing I would be washing my boots off before ever stepping into the apartment.

We wandered down the alley until finally reaching the street. It was bright and active. No signs of the rundown practically abandoned courtyard we just passed through.

“So what are we looking for?” Ichi asked and I shrugged my eyes scanning the street. I had already walked past this exact spot before, but now I was double checking. Sending out pings to any electronic devices I could see to find what they were connected to.

And slowly I got an idea of how everything was put together.

Of course I was still wearing my techgogs I realized which explained why Hiromi and Ichi were both wondering what the hell I was doing.

“Sorry. I’m scanning everything. I want to see what open systems there are in the area, as well maybe something more hidden.”

“Gotcha! How can we help?” Hiromi asked and I just reached out to pull her into a side hug to quiet her for a moment. I was tracking down a stray connection connected to the net from the cafe across the street but I ended up sighing.

Just some punk piggybacking on the cafe's TV connection.

“Nothing stands out. Unless we want to try and ask all the people on the street if they remember seeing our perps. I think it’s time to head to the net.”

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