Ghost in the City

So my night was a bit off from there. I ended up camping out on the couch with Jun, as he watched TV. We didn’t talk much more about the Scavs. I just tried to relax, but that was only that night.

After a good night's rest, I headed out. First things first, I needed verification. Driving over to Arroyo on my Kusanagi I parked far down the street, and instead of walking down the street which would leave me far too open. I leapt into the industrial parks and used my ankles and Parkour to leap through the abandoned factories until I was on the roof overlooking the Electric Corp power plant.

There I leaned down, hiding in the shadows of old brickwork to watch.

The factory as I expected was active. Tires tracks ran through an old gate in the destroyed asphalt and dirt loading area.

I waited for a while, simply looking down into it. For now the rolling door was closed, and no sound escaped from within.

The camera to the side of the door told me this wasn’t as abandoned as it appeared. I began breaching, carefully, utterly slow and quiet.

Slipping in, I accessed the camera, seeing the loading area through its eye, I then moved to the other cameras in the system.

Smiling as just inside the plant there was a very familiar looking van. I couldn’t be 100% sure it was the same one, but hell. I was willing to bet.

I took pictures of everything. Going through every camera and gathering everything they could see. Then since I was fairly confident I was right. I pulled free of the cameras.

There were men and women inside, and it hadn’t taken but a single NCPD database check to verify they were wanted for Scav related activities.

This was it.

I had found the assholes that hadn’t liked Hiromi moving in on the XBD market.

I slipped away without a sound. As I jumped through old rusted metal landing on the concrete far down the street, I brushed myself clean. Taking a moment. I sent a single picture to my chooms. The van parked in the dark plant, and a message.

*Found them.*

—---

“Motoko! You did it!” Hiromi cheered as she slammed into me laughing in delight.

“I did. Jun gave me a reminder of some other info I had and I put it together, and then I went and checked it out.” I said as I spun Hiromi around. We were all meeting up at my place, and Hiromi was last as she had school today so she had to finish that up first.

“This place is nova. An old power plant? Kinda pissed the Scavs claimed it.” Malcolm added from the couch. “Motoko says it goes down pretty deep.”

“Yeah definitely some sublevels. I’m going to need backup just to secure the whole place. Which is where you guys come in.” I then looked to Jun who I had invited to join us, since I had offered him a friendly sibling murder session. “And Jun agreed to help out too.”

“Perfect! Jun! Thank you for helping!” Hiromi added throwing him a smile but he just waved her off.

“Don’t worry about Hiromi. I’m just glad to keep Motoko out of trouble.”

“Which is an absolute lie! I’m never in trouble!” I lied confidently as I jumped back onto the couch. “Now we have some external images and we’ll need to figure out how we are going to hit this.”

“Go in kill everyone?” Jun asked, and everyone looked at him like he was crazy but I was nodding along.

“The most straightforward method.” I confirmed.

“I mean do we really need to do anything more than that?” Ichi asked, looking between Jun and I. “Motoko clears out places like this before breakfast, and Jun is the Oni.” ᚱΑꞐổᛒÊş

“Of course not!” Jun answered while I cut him off.

“Of course we do!” I roared louder than Jun and even slammed my fist into the table lightly the metal on metal sound echoing.

“Wha?” Jun asked but I ignored him pointing at my chooms.

“We can’t ever get complacent! It’s one of my own weaknesses! So I need my chooms to keep reminding me! We plan, we prepare, it’s an advantage we might not need, but it’s not something we should throw away through overconfidence!”

Thankfully Malcolm responded. “She’s right. Just because we don’t need it every time doesn’t mean we shouldn’t prepare as much as we can, we are still talking about a gun fight. What if they have a bomb or something and it blows up. If we just sit back and expect Motoko to handle it, how can we move in to help if she gets hurt or something.”

“Exactly! We prepare and gather every advantage we can before we move in!” I called out. “And also it’s totally your guy’s job to remind me to do that when I get too excited.” I added offhandedly.

“Oh so it’s our job is it?” Ichi asked sarcastically and I just threw him a thumbs up.

“Yep!”

“That’s fine! We can all remind Motoko to be careful and prepare before rushing in. We all want Section 9 to keep going for years and years after all.” Hiromi added and I nodded along with Malcolms eager nod.

“Right. That’s true. Okay so what can we do to prepare?” Ichi asked.

“Well I do have more gadgets now, but none of them are directly going to help this time. Not yet at least. The Tachikoma are still in alpha testing.”

“The what?” Hiromi asked, looking confused, and I smiled brightly because it was the perfect excuse!

I leapt off the couch jumping over Hiromi’s head as I did so and ran over to my room and then came out holding my little walky bot.

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“The Tachikoma Drone system!” I called out and placed it on the table in front of everyone.

Where it immediately started walking much smoother than it had before.

Until it hit the edge of the table and just fell right off.

“Umm…”

“It’s an alpha product! I haven’t done edges yet!” I said happily as I picked it back up and placed it on the table again. Where it walked off.

“Motoko?”

“Hold on. It’s got this.” Then I placed it on the table again, and this time, as it walked forward it stopped at the edge, one of its legs reaching out to check the edge.

Then it walked off again.

“Right.” Hiromi said flatly.

“It’s learning! Give it some time.”

“Motoko… Is that an AI?” Jun asked, utterly serious and I started laughing at such a foolish question.

“Jun the Tachikoma is running a small CPU, and the extra processing power of my laptop in my room. Your XXL Burrito SCSM has more processing power.”

“That didn’t really answer the question.”

“It’s a learning system, but not an AI. I would need like… Four of the servers I have down in my netrunner cave to even process a small AI.” I answered truthfully. Well… Not exactly that much. I could do it with a lot less, if I used some different processing choices.

But this? Tachikoma wasn’t an AI. No Ghost. Not yet anyways.

“Anyway! The Tachikoma are cute, but aren’t ready for the battlefield yet, but give me a bit and we’ll have our own battlefield reconnaissance drones!” I cheered, just as my agent lit up with a call.

A call with a very familiar name, but not one I expected.

“Hold on chooms. I’m getting a call.” I turned away from everyone to answer.

*Hello?*

*Yo Kitten.*

*Becca I told you I wasn’t accepting that as my nickname.*

*Too late.* She said but she wasn’t the rambunctious girl she normally was. Something was wrong. *I’m not calling for fun though. Since you’re chooms with Sasha I think… Well I figure you should know.*

Rebecca started quietly, there was honest dread in her voice.

No. Please don’t be… Please don’t be that. I took a breath and then asked the question I had to know, but wasn’t sure I was ready for.

*Please don’t tell me she’s dead.* Had the Biotechnica job happened!? I hurried over to the TV and turned it on to the N54 news channel, only for a segment on the weather to be playing.

Right this wasn’t a movie where the big topic of conversation is the most important thing in the world.

*Not dead. But she did get worked over pretty bad on a gig. She’s in and out at the moment, so I figured I’d call to let you know. Cause you guys were close right?*

I took a moment to just process, staring at the news report before shutting it off as my brain turned back on.

*She’s alive?* I asked in shock exhaling loudly as I almost fell back onto my butt from where I had been pacing the moment the topic came up. Was it the gig? Or just something else? I still didn’t know! I rushed to my room to grab my laptop flipping open to the N54 news site. Nothing on the front page, but a moment later I typed it in.

Securicine. The medicine that started it all. That had killed Sasha’s mother. The fact Biotechnica had hidden the side effect, and when Sasha discovered it while infiltrating Biotechnica’s system she hadn’t just let it go. Sacrificing her life to send it to the news.

There. A brand new news article.

Securicine, and its hidden side effects.

Posted this morning.

It had happened.

*Motoko?*

*Sorry. I’m just a little out of it. Sasha’s okay?*

*She’s hurt, but alive. Getting taken care of. Maine is making sure she’s being treated real nice.*

*Can I see her?* I asked before I could think about it.

*I… Listen. Sasha was on a big gig, like massive, and she pissed off a big corp. We aren’t sure what they are going to do, so Maine and them have gone to ground. I don’t even know where she is just in case. My bro told me what’s up, and I remember you two were close. So… Yeah.*

*Rebecca… Thank you. Really, I really… I’m really glad you told me she’s okay. I would have absolutely freaked otherwise.* Not true. I would have continued to worry about what would happen to her. Whether she would live, but… I had done.

What little I had done had enough knock on effects. That night. Let Me Down, wouldn’t happen. I had changed it.

*Hey, yeah sure choom.* The line kind of went silent for a moment as we both awkwardly didn’t talk about anything.

I was about to thank her again and say goodbye, when I realized what Rebecca had actually said.

Maine and the group were in hiding. Rebecca wasn’t.

*Hey Becca? You ever thought about that offer I made last time? To do a gig?*

*Uh.. Yeah, I’ve thought about it.*

*Well me and my chooms were literally prepping for a raid… You want to come over? Take a look. No pressure if you don’t want to take part, but I mean… I wouldn’t mind an extra shooter.*

The line went quiet and I looked to my chooms who had thankfully stopped focusing on me, and were instead being led by Malcolm into prepping a plan of attack.

Good job Malcolm.

*What’s the pay?*

*We split everything equally.*

*What? Seriously? No 10% share and all that shit?*

*I don’t even know what that is… No, everything gets split, we only make so much on our gigs because we all work together, and then try to get everything out. If someone isn’t going to get more for working harder… Why would they?*

*Fuck it. I’m in choom.*

*Alright I’ll send you the address!* I cheered, we hung up just after and I turned to my chooms.

“I got us another solo! Rebecca is going to join us and see if she likes working with Section 9! I’m trying to recruit her, so please be nice.” I begged my friends.

“Sure.” Malcolm offered shrugging, and Ichi just nodded, but Hiromi was giving me a puffy cheeked glare.

“Whose Rebecca?” Hiromi demanded, eyes narrowed.

“She’s a member of this Edgerunner crew I met at the Afterlife. She’s very small, but pretty fierce, and she’s cool.” I looked over at the pictures that Malcolm had been pointing to. “So what did you come up with?”

“Well first we all realized we were being stupid. So we are going to bring the Minotaur.”

“Absolutely not. We don’t even know how to use that thing!” I interrupted instantly, besides the Minotaur was mine! My cute little stompy bot!

“Well that isn’t exactly the truth.” Ichi answered back a little awkwardly.

I stilled and then I felt myself glaring at the boy.

“What did you do?” I demanded my own eyes narrowed as I glared into the increasingly nervous boy.

“I might have been practicing with it… Malcolm too!” He said throwing his friend under the rampaging bus without hesitation or shame.

I glared at Malcolm who just coughed fakely. “We might have pulled it out of storage and been learning how to use it… For Section 9 of course. It’s an important skill to have. Hiromi knew!” Malcolm continued the process throwing Hiromi under the bus now.

“What!? Don’t tell her that!” Hiromi snapped and then looked shy as I turned my glare on her. “Th-they asked me for fuel money! To be on Section 9’s eddie since it was practice for the future. I accepted! You were too busy to learn how to use it, and having a Minotaur isn’t something we could just ignore!”

“Huh. Can I get a turn with it?” I immediately whipped over to glare at Jun who had just said something absolutely ridiculous! If anyone else got a turn it was going to be me!

“Of course Jun!” Hiromi chirped and that was when I could take no more.

“This isn’t fair! It’s supposed to be mine!”

—---

We were mostly prepped with a new idea for our tactical assault when the doorbell rang.

“That must be Becca!” I whooped happily leaping over the couch, for a second I was tempted to open the door with the barrel of my Burya in her face, but while it had been funny she had done that to David, it had also been a bit mean.

I did check the camera before opening the door. Seeing her outside I quickly pulled it open.

“Becca!”

“Uh. Hey. Sup choom.” She greeted, and I smiled at her awkwardness as I reached out and tugged on her hand pulling her in.

“Everyone! This is Rebecca, she’s going to join us on our raid today!” I called out, and I noticed all of my chooms heads looking over the back of the couch to see.

Rebecca was very small so everyone had to sort of tilt their head downward.

Jun especially.

“Rebecca, this is my team, Malcolm, Ichi, Hiromi, and my brother Jun.” I introduced all of them as I pointed out all of them, each of them greeting her back with a wave or something until Jun who smiled at her from how he was looking over the back of the couch.

“Any choom of my sister is welcome. Feel free to come and take a seat.” He offered and I looked down towards Rebecca only to see her disappearing as she sauntered over to the couch and took a seat rather close to Jun.

“Hey Tats. Call me Becca okayyy?” She trailed off with a teasing trill to her voice.

Oh no.

“U-uh. Sure?”

“Nova.” She offered back with a smirk on her face that I recognized.

I screamed internally. No! Jun! Not another one! Not Becca! This couldn’t be happening!

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