Ghost in the City

I was still hammering through the issue in my head when I got back home. I would call the team together soon to chat about what to do, but we had been running around for a few days now. Best to give everyone some time to decompress.

Unluckily for me. Jun wasn’t home which was disappointing. I really wanted to talk to him about what to do.

So instead I flopped onto the couch and pulled up all the data. All the recordings and pictures.

Oh! Hiromi had actually sent me a dossier on the owner of the yacht…

Well it wasn’t quite that professional, but it had the information I had asked for.

“Bartolomeo Mordellini.” I muttered as I read through the information. Apparently he was a purveyor of certain kinds of entertainment for the rich and famous. Parties. Drugs. BD. He did them all, and was apparently rich and popular enough his parties could even have high entry costs. The sort of thing that the rich and famous could get involved in to make themselves seem even richer and more important than the people that couldn’t get in.

His yacht the GEIshhhA was a common party spot.

I’m sure the parties were all very respectful and drugs and other entertainment wasn’t allowed.

Sure.

But there was a benefit here. As popular as he was. He wasn’t a member of a corp. If he disappeared some people might be annoyed at the lack of parties, but I doubted I would have corpo hit squads after me and my chooms.

Why Scavs? I didn’t get the connection though. He obviously wasn’t one himself. But why would a guy who hosted parties help out Scavs?

Money?

I doubted it. If he was hosting parties with the rich and famous he was already quite wealthy. So what was going on?

I shook it off. Whatever deal he had didn’t matter. Fuck the Scavs, and fuck this asshole who worked with them.

So how do I come away with this gig without getting burned.

To start with. I would need to move the yacht. I would have to make sure it even had fuel, if it didn’t it certainly wouldn’t be able to move. That would be tricky.

I would need to do this hopefully without having the marina realize until it was too late.

Then I would need to sail the boat down the coast to somewhere I could loot the thing, hopefully NCPD didn’t have a coast guard element… or if they did, they would just ignore what I was doing. I gave it a 50/50 either way.

Then I would need to have enough people to unload the ship. To pack it away into trucks and get it the hell out of there to hide it somewhere else. All without having Raffen or other scavengers come to take it from me.

The Nomads not helping made it more difficult.

I sighed.

Did I want to try bringing in the SLS into this?

I winced at the very idea.

Sure they obviously knew how to loot, but bringing a bunch of kids that I barely knew? With crates of chrome each worth tons of eddies?

I would be surprised if even half the crates showed up at the end.

Could I trust them? I don’t know. I was leaning towards no though. Maybe I can hire them out to help Hiromi while she is selling or something, but for something this big… ṙâNȯᛒÊʂ

So who else could I trust?

The Mox?

I had to shake my head there too. While I was close to Rita, and I liked Judy and Nox. That wasn’t the Mox.

The Mox were more than just three people, especially three people that weren’t all that high up in the gang.

Suzie Q. I had met her before, but I was well aware that Suzie was very much a Mox first kind of woman.

Could I trust that I would have any of the crates left over at the end?

Ugh.

The one negative about not being part of a gang I guess. Sure I didn’t have to deal with mob boss assholes willing to throw me away at the drop of a hat for a few eddies. But I also didn’t have enough people I trusted to get some gigs done.

I was even starting to consider going to Wakako. She would know people, but I was sure if I did that my payday would start dwindling real fast.

I shook it away. I would talk to Jun. He was great at giving me advice, and being a sounding board.

I ended up getting stuck in my head despite my goal to wait for Jun, so when he finally got home a few hours later, I hadn’t done anything but consider what I was going to do.

“Jun! I need life counseling!” I demand from the couch sitting and pinning him with a firm look.

“What?”

“I need advice. Come sit when you are ready.” I told him firmly with a nod of my head, and Jun must have realized something because he snorted and nodded, first heading to the kitchen and then coming back to settle onto the couch with a drink in hand.

“What’s up Motoko?”

“So here is the deal.”

—--

“You should totally steal it all. Flatline the gonk too.” Jun offered with a sage nod.

Which did nothing to actually help me.

“Your life counseling sucks.” I informed him which didn’t seem to bother him as he shrugged.

“Motoko. You’ve been thinking about all these groups that could help you out, but you forgot one of them in your list.” He says and I have to turn my head away.

I hadn’t forgotten one of them.

It just wasn’t even an option.

“Fujimura-Sama would definitely mobilize the Kamikaze for a payday this big.”

“I’m not working with the TC on this Jun.”

“You are worried about the heat a gig like this will bring right? If the TC helps, suddenly the heat moves away from you and your chooms, and is put squarely on the TC. It solves all of your problems.” He argued.

“Except I would have to work with the Tyger Claws! Putting myself even closer to…”

“Becoming one of us?” He said with a smirk.

“I’m not.” I argued instantly, but I was definitely not whining! Jun reached over and pulled me into a hug.

“I know. You’re a bit too wild. It drives Fujimura-Sama mad.”

“Good! He’s a jerk anyways!” I grumbled but Jun just stayed there and I sighed. “I don’t want to just be some gang banger Jun. I shouldn’t need to rely on something like that.”

“Well you have choices Motoko, but it sounds like all the choices have good things, and bad.” He informed me and then like the big brother he was he picked me up as he stood up and tossed me back on the couch suddenly as I yelped at the sudden motion.

“Figure it out. I’ll help if you want help.” He said and then just walked into his room.

Oh man I am so cannonballing his ass sometime soon for this.

—--

“I don’t get the problem Motoko. Let’s just grab Richard and some of the kids. Rent a couple trucks and steal the boat. You said you could.” Hiromi said as my chooms and I had met up that night.

“I said I probably could.” I mumbled, but it wasn’t very strong.

I don’t know why, but I was just nervous about this gig. It was one thing to take out some Scavs, or something. Street level crime happens every day.

Stealing a yacht that probably cost more than a million eddies? Stealing an entire shipment of Scav chrome?

All with the chance of it blowing up in my face?

My chooms were happy with taking part, and maybe getting a ‘rep’ from the gig.

But I wasn’t.

“I like being unknown Hiromi. Doing it all ourselves means all the heat goes straight to us.”

“I’m not understanding the problem with this Motoko.” Hiromi said, continuing to argue with me across the table. We were back at my basement, which had somehow become our defacto hangout point I guess. “You need a better rep. Right now no one knows you. Like… When we went to get the car back. If you had a rep, they wouldn’t have dared mess with us.” Hiromi argued.

“I don’t think a rep would have changed that-”

“It would have. It totally would have. God Motoko You are like a super ninja killer but everyone just treats you like an unknown because you don’t… Show off! You are so standard it’s infuriating. Sometimes.” Hiromi said with a groan of frustration.

“Did… Did you just call me standard? What does that even mean!?” I demanded and Hiromi rolled her eyes.

“I didn’t mean anything bad! You just don’t try to build a rep or anything. You don’t ever hype yourself up. You do the BD thing, but no one even knows it’s you! You could be like a famous solo right now!”

“Fame just means more people know about me, and can plan around my skills. It’s a terrible idea.” I argued but Hiromi rolled her eyes at me, turning to the boys.

“Help me out here.” She demanded and the boys perhaps wisely both didn’t jump in. Malcolm even raised his hands up nonverbally saying don’t bring him into this.

“Don’t try to team up on me. That’s mean!” I said and Hiromi growled a bit.

“Motoko I think you’re amazing, but you are so gonk about this. Rep is important, it tells the gonks on the street not to mess with you. If you weren’t hiding yourself so much, you could walk into any TC place and they wouldn’t dare mess with you!”

“And it would make every gonk on the street that thinks they can make a rep, come for my hide.”

“Hardly! You don’t see people gunning for Jun do you? That’s because everyone knows Jun will flatline them! You just need to build up a rep too.”

“Hiromi. I literally got kidnapped, because people were gunning for Jun.” I reminded her waving my silver hands at her.

She winced, looking a little lost as she didn’t have a good rebuttal.

But…

It wasn’t about winning or losing the discussion.

“Maybe you are somewhat right. I’m feeling nervous about this gig. If the nomads had agreed to help I think I would have been fine, but now we have to rely on hiring another group. Either the SLS, or going through Jun to get TC gonks. It just makes me uncomfortable.”

Hiromi didn’t jump into the conversation like she normally would have. I guess my words had cut a little deeper than I expected. Instead she seemed to be thinking, so I simply let the quiet settle in.

“Sorry for pushing. I guess I get why you don’t want to have anyone notice you.” Hiromi offered and I frowned.

“It’s not like that… At least I don’t think it is… Is it?” I had to ask myself.

Is my hesitation fear of what happened before? Of being the one being attacked, and not doing the attacking?

I was definitely weaker on the defense than offense.

But everyone was really.

Was that why I was so hesitant to let myself be known, to build a rep outside of the few people I trusted or worked with?

Was I just afraid?

This time Hiromi was being considerate as I stared at my hands.

Was I afraid of people knowing? I mean sure Ninjutsu worked best without anyone knowing I existed, but I wasn’t just a ninja.

I wasn’t just a netrunner.

I was Motoko, and I had a life to live. I leaned back in the chair staring at the ceiling.

The picture of the ships hold pulled up before my eyes. That was a lot of chrome, a lot of eddies.

I wasn’t hurting for eddies, but was I the kind of person that would let an opportunity flow past me just because it was a risk?

I hadn’t thought I was before. The Nomad gig had told me I wasn’t the type to let something go just because it was dangerous.

But had I done anything that really put myself at risk since the kidnapping? Well once I got over my absolute hatred of Maelstrom?

I had been careful on gigs. It didn’t always work out like getting short circuited and shot by V3L and Morgan.

But I had been super hesitant to even do that gig at the time too.

No.

No, I wasn't going to live my life afraid. I would just have to get better. Be better.

Improve myself. Improve my chrome.

Improve my rep.

I had to admit. Maybe just a little I was turning into a real Night City Citizen.

Because the idea of just letting this go wasn’t in me.

“Fuck it. This is what we are doing.”

—--

The BD started with a blink of my eyes.

I had purposefully set myself in a good position. I was crouching over the glass railing on the office building looking over the Marina.

The preparation for this moment took a few days. Checking to make sure I knew how to get the yacht moving. Making sure it could move. Getting all the little pieces in place.

Tonight I was going to leave a real mark on Night City.

I intended it to be a good one.

Looming like a gargoyle as I looked over the marina I made sure to focus my eyes on the men wandering around.

Security, high rollers, everyone. Mentally marking them and making sure they wouldn’t be in the way. Dawn was an hour or so out. So it was still dark and it was at the moment where there was the least amount of people left hanging around.

The yacht had even had a party tonight. I would likely have to deal with at least a few passed out people before I got the yacht moving.

But that had all been prepared for.

So I moved. Leaping off the edge of the railing, enjoying the feeling of being in the air, even flipping forward once just to add a bit of flair, as I landed in a crouch on top of the open structure atop one of the bars. The wood under my fingers firm.

There was no one below me.

I had already checked, but I acted like I hadn’t. I moved. Running atop the wooden slats and then leaping.

There were cameras all around. But as I flipped again in the air I sent a command, and all of them shut down.

I landed and moved. Sliding along the bar and security room, rushing right for the open window I had leapt through before. This time I didn’t wait for the guard inside to get away.

I leapt through the window going full speed. Slamming into the guard and instantly wrapping myself around him, legs and chrome arms strangling him down and shushing his struggles as he did his best to resist before I secured his carotid artery and he went limp.

Go time.

I punched a shard into the security computer. Where it ran the program I had dropped inside. It was probably the single hardest part I had contributed while we prepped over the last few days. A virus.

It was the first act to building a rep. To making myself into something more than just a merc, or an edgerunner.

But a phenomena.

Sure it wouldn’t mean much now. Might even just be ignored in the grand scheme of things. But if I was going to be more blatant, I was going to do something cool with it.

I jumped right back out the window and raced down the docks. The path was clear. No guards were around so I had free access to the ship. With a casual move I cut the chords holding the ship secured and leapt on. I raced over the top of the boat, avoiding the inner party area.

If there was anyone still inside, they were going to have an adventure.

I hit the back of the boat and the bridge door opened. My previous escapades having already given me full access.

Thankfully it was empty and so I rushed to the control console.

Now unfortunately driving did not actually tell me how to work a yacht.

No that had taken a trade with Yoko to get a user manual for this fucking thing. Thankfully the yacht were made for rich people that didn’t know how to actually sail. I pulled it out and followed the steps to get the engine to boot up and slowly a faint rumble started through the boat.

It was really quiet. Made sense, a pleasure yacht wouldn’t want to have a loud engine.

I pulled back on the throttle, and slowly I watched as it began backing out of the dock.

Of course no matter how quiet, the marina was a high end million eddie sort of place. Some alert went through no matter how silent and I already noticed guards all along the Marina start rushing around.

That was when my eyes flashed as I reached out to the security system.

My vision shifted looking out through the camera systems at the Marina.

[Reboot Optics]

I hit them all. Guards, clients, workers.

Suddenly, like a plague, everyone's vision cut out. The fact I was already infiltrated into the guards security system meant even if a particular guard had some ICE it wouldn’t matter.

The hack spread among them causing chaos as guests and guards all started screaming as they lost their sight.

I had actually modified the Quick Hack while preparing for this. Reboot Optics when it started back up meant their vision would still be blank. Too dark to see anything, but they would be able to see their agent screen if they had one installed, or their eyes settings overlay.

It had come to me while planning this, a way to make the hack even more effective. A way to gain myself more time.

So when all of their optics rebooted, a virus had infested their system. Covering their vision as it took over the overlay of their optics.

They wouldn’t be able to get access to their settings to reset their brightness unless they were truly tech savvy because they would have to do it without actually being able to see their system behind the symbol I had implanted.

Instead their eyes were locked onto a certain symbol.

The only thing they could see.

“I thought what I’d do was I’d pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes… Or should I?” I muttered to myself. The blue symbol of the laughing man from Ghost in the Shell, the symbol of the Laughing man. A super wizard class hacker, able to completely bypass someones vision.

I wasn’t quite at that point yet, but it was a reminder to myself about what I wanted to become.

Then I continued, spinning a wheel to spin the yacht around. It was a slow lumbering thing.

But I had some time…

Probably.

I did have an air canister and mask sealed into the small of my back just in case everything went wrong and I needed to leap overboard if the NCPD attacked.

But I was sure this would work out.

Mostly.

Maneuvering the yacht out of the marina I got it going forward out towards the sea, and slowly slowly out to sea.

I would need to head south, the the Biotechnica flats, south of the city would be the meetup point.

Ichi and Malcolm had done a good job finding a place we could unload the ship from.

Once I had the ship moving and a straight line would do for a few moments, I stepped away and headed out of the bridge. Time to see if I had captured some hostag-important people.

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