0x00: Help
Akiko Takahashi was wondering exactly what she had gotten herself into.
The laws in Horizon City are such that guns and other forms of firearms are illegal to possess, but blades are legal. This statute applies anywhere in the city, with an important provision: corporate territories can write whatever exceptions to those laws they want into their corporate charter, and so long as it is ratified by the board of directors, it is officially law in Horizon City. The board of directors themselves have to be approved by the Horizon Appointment Council, a group of people so rich the light bends around their bank accounts from sheer mass. Their appointment is by genetic generation, with generational wealth effectively resulting in a capitalistic monarchy, also known as a plutocracy. As a result, the laws of Horizon City carve exceptions for literally any limitation that might prevent a specific corporation's success. This includes the gun limitation for certain corporate employees, which every corporation takes liberal advantage of. Of course, this only actually applies to well less than 20% of Horizon City citizens who themselves are corporate employees, as the overwhelming majority of the population on the lower Red sector are not gainfully employed. The result of this complex structure is that certain individuals are effectively immune to the more mundane crimes and offered a great deal of protection from the more serious ones, especially when on corporate-owned territory.
Allsafe Securities Incorporated is just such a corporation, with a small office on the Red level of Horizon City. They are known for their private security options, ranging from the benign event crowd security to the more serious personal bodyguard services, which include extraction from an unfriendly territory with their top-tier, most expensive package. They also employ contractors for their bounty services, where the public can post paid contracts and independent contractors can compete in the open market for the jobs. Finally, and they don't advertise this, they organize the occasional special contract for a well-paying client who requires a certain set of special services. The existence of these contracts is not strictly acknowledged by Allsafe, so their pay is commensurate with the risk involved, assuming you close the contract. The particular service being offered by Allsafe is plausible deniability, acting as the blind between the person paying for the job, and the person doing it.
Akiko is a street sam: a samurai of the alleyways. Her tall, slender frame gives her the natural grace of a ballet dancer, and with reflexes boosted beyond human capacity, she is what is colloquially referred to as deadly fast. To her, killing is simply a way of life in Horizon City, a way to survive. It is her, or the person who stands between her and her goal, and it is going to be her every time. The person who bests her is worthy of the honor, and she has yet to meet the one who is. Her blade, an antique katana handed down to her by her father, is an extension of her person, and her preferred method of combat, but she employs the right tool for the job where required, and is proficient in innumerable ways to end a life. This isn't to say she is without restrictions, but the right amount of money has a way of making any line blurry.
This particular Allsafe Securities Incorporated job had certainly been the right amount of money, and coming through old Rex at Allsafe means it is going to be a trick to pull off. "I don't think you want this one," Rex opines, his frail voice quivering slightly. Tall with mocha skin and impeccably dressed in a white shirt and tan pants, old Rex looks like any 120-year-old commuter on the maglev with his drab lack of fashion and baggy, wrinkled pasty white skin. "This one is going to require more than just a graceful blade."
Akiko looks at Rex's white shock of hair and breathes slowly and deliberately.
Rex leans back in his chair, crosses his arms, and says, "This differs from the rest, scan? There's a reason these things are sorted the way they are." His ancient black eyes look her up and down.
Akiko stares at Rex without speaking.
"A forward is not magic pixie dust, Ki," Rex shakes his head and laments. "You don't just take a forward, sprinkle it on a situation, and expect miracles to occur. Scan me on this. I've seen the dossier on this one and it's white hot. Just glowing with failure cases. I've got cat herding jobs coming out my ass here. Hey, I'll tell you what, I got this total apogee called Mayhem, needs some live-in at his palace on green and at his gigs. Easy cash, Ki, easy as it gets. You like SamJam, don't you? Of course, you do. Imagine being backstage at all the hot venues. Trust me on this one, whiz?"
Akiko does like SamJam, but it's not evident on her unchanging face.
"Ki, think this through," Rex continues. "You take the forward, spend it getting airborne, then crash and burn. You don't think they're going to want their hundred mil back? Come on now. You know the game here. Forward contracts are fly or die. I can't protect you like normal if you go tits to the steel. I'm not just thinking of your rep here. This one's much bigger and you know it from the pricing, so let an established team take it. I'm probably just going to farm it out to Trip Six, anyway."
Akiko doesn't move a muscle, a human statue devoid of emotional communication.
Rex waits for her to react, and when she doesn't, holds up both wrinkled hands and says, "Alright Ki. Message received, loud and clear like you always are. Just don't cut my head off when the magic smoke escapes. You scan me? Alright, let's get you set up."
Old Rex stands up from his desk, an ancient crumbling piece of cardcycle and metal fasteners, and walks over to the painting on the wall. He takes it off the wall and sets it on the ground, revealing a safe, which he puts his eye to, and pulls open. Inside are several small trays with various chips of assorted configurations, which he chooses two of before closing the safe and replacing the painting. He hands one chip to Akiko, who accepts it, then sits down at his desk and begins fiddling with the other chip. After a bit of futzing, he holds the chip out across the desk. Akiko produces her own credchip and tries to swipe it near Rex's, but he pulls his arm back as she does so, causing her to pause in mid-swipe, and says, "Event horizon, right? No return from this."
Akiko's hand doesn't move. The chip in both their hands beeps softly, signifying a near-chip transaction has occurred, despite them being a good foot and a half from one another. As Akiko puts her chip away, Rex looks down confusedly at his chip, which informs him of the completed transaction for one hundred million yen, then back up to Akiko, who is already turning to leave. He exhales, "Wow. You really are that fast."
As Akiko reaches the door, Rex says, "Hey Ki, the password is 'koi pond'." Akiko pauses at the door, then turns around slowly to stare at Rex. Rex stares back at her for a few seconds, then crumbles under the pressure of her silent gaze and admits, "Yeah, I wrote the chip for you. I was serious when I said I was going to farm it out to Trip Six. I was just going to have to re-encrypt it for them."
Akiko continues to stare at Rex, her breathing remaining evenly metered. Rex puts all his effort into remaining silent. He summons his innermost strength of will and vows to be more devoted to silence than monks of the circuit who cut their tongues out to remain pious to their solid state god. Rex is silence.
"Kenji told me!" Rex blurts out, then cuffs both his hands over his mouth.
Akiko finally turns to go, and as she passes through the door, old Rex calls after her, "He did it because he cares!" She pulls the door shut behind her, suddenly no longer able to keep her breathing under control.
0x01: Meeting
"Tell me, Mr. Johnson, have you considered relocating to Japan?" Getting Johnson into play is a minor miracle, but now it seems like this might just work. Akiko continues in an even meter, "My employer is prepared to offer you an executive position at GS." Grafting Solutions is the most successful vat food producer in Japan and a direct competitor to Vatgrown International. "It would triple your current pay, and it comes with a full relocation and identity package. They think you could be an important asset to the team."
The job offer is a bluff, but one carefully tailored to his specific lust for money and power. She doesn't actually have a job for him at all, she simply needs his buying power and ability. It has taken a week for her hired jockey to locate someone who has the economic firepower to buy what she needs to close her contract, who has the contacts to find it, and who can be compromised. It is a tall order, and it costs her more than half her contract forward to get the dirt against him and get him here, but he is here now. The trap has been sprung. Time to reel him in.
Johnson stares at Akiko, trying hard to work her out and make sense of her as a person. "So let me get this straight. This is a recruitment spiel, and you want me to come work for GS as Chief Executive Officer..."
"Chief Operations Officer, Mr. Johnson," Akiko interrupts quietly.
"As COO," Johnson continues, "and triple my pay?"
Akiko just gazes silently at Johnson.
"And if I don't..." Johnson looks down at the paydata chip on the round standing table between them.
Akiko maintains her stare, unblinking.
Johnson gulps, pulling at his collar. "I'm going to need some guarantees here."
Akiko says quietly, "My employer guarantees that is not the only copy of that data."
Johnson takes a deep breath in, then breathes out slowly, "My wife comes with me, and that never sees the light of day."
Akiko nods. "Very good, Mr. Johnson. I think we can all agree that is best for everyone."
Johnson sighs and says, "When do we leave?"
Akiko holds up one finger. "There is just one more minor detail."
Johnson frowns and says, "Fragging drek. What now?"
Akiko lowers her hand and says, "There was a piece of technology stolen from my employer that we understand is now on the black market for a very specific price. Unfortunately, my employer could not coax the seller out into the open."
Johnson shrugs and says, "What's that got to do with me?"
Akiko says quietly, "It is their hope you can retrieve it for us as a show of goodwill. There will also be a signing bonus of 1 trillion if you succeed."
Johnson says, "Go on."
Akiko does, "The buyer is asking for the Constant Cloning technology."
Johnson raises an eyebrow. "Really? Just that, huh?"
Akiko nods slightly and says, "Indeed."
Johnson shakes his head and says, "I can't just give that away. It's one thing to leave. If they know that's been accessed by me, they're going to wipe me before I even leave the building."
Akiko nods, maintaining her outward composure despite her heart racing. "My employer has anticipated this need as well, Mr. Johnson."
0x02: View
Timing is everything. Johnson has allegedly found a way into his part and needs the paydata without his name on it. Akiko's deck jockey needs to get the paydata out of the Genetek Revival datasilo and deliver it to Johnson, a near impossible feat made possible with the help of Johnson's borrowed credentials. Then Johnson needs to exchange the paydata for the target, and do the handoff. All the while, Akiko needs to cover tracks and make it all look good. In so many ways, appearances are more important than the data itself.
There is one person Johnson has insisted on taking her out to make it look like a coordinated attack, and that is the creator of the Constant Cloning project, Emi Tanaka. She will have a clone anyway, but the timing will take the Judges to the wrong location, away from where Akiko is, and they will follow that lead, trying to piece it back together, instead of keeping their eyes on the actual prize. It just needs to work long enough for Akiko to upload the complete package and get paid. Zeroing Emi is just part of the show.
Johnson has come through with his part fairly quickly, and her wire man has slipped the data out undetected. Johnson now has the paydata and is on his way to the meet. Now it is time to make sure this doesn't all fall apart at the seams prematurely.
Emi has a usual schedule, going to work in the mornings and returning home in the evenings on the weekdays. Today being a workday, she would usually be at work, but Akiko has gotten lucky, and Emi is at home after her meeting with Johnson. This means Plan B, but she is prepared. She has spent what remains of her contract forward to gain the needed tools. Just a few fun toys she has been wanting, anyway. The VidWeave Kimono is strictly a gift to herself, having eyed it for way too long.
Akiko has rented a penthouse on the top floor at the very expensive Chez Bon Bon about a mile away, with a clear view of Emi's western wall under an assumed alias. The windows on Emi's house are tinted and reflective from the outside, but completely transparent to the millimeter wave radar on Akiko's scope. The rifle is an antique and lovingly used Kill'em XLR Mark 2 chambered in .50 caliber with gyro stabilization on its floating barrel, a Nightmode silencer, and a Smartlink aftermarket trigger mod to make the scope work. The scope is a military-grade ZMI Target Acquisition Module designed to see through solid non-metal objects like thin walls and windows using a multi-mode sensor package. The scope loses some detail with the walls, but is perfectly clear through the mirrored windows; if Emi has a flea on her shoulder, Akiko could make it out. Akiko has been using it to watch Emi for the past 3 hours from a lying prone position through the slats of her deck railing because that provided adequate coverage from casually passing by aerial vehicles. She is getting incredibly impatient.
Just when Akiko is thinking something has gone wrong, her phone rings from the ground in front of her. She snatches it off the ground next to her and puts it to her ear anxiously. "Go."
It is Johnson's unmistakable voice on the other end. "It's time. I'll be home in fifteen. Did you take care of your part?"
Akiko's heart leaps into her throat! It worked! "Taking care of it now. Stay frosty and don't move. I'll be there ASAP." Without waiting for an answer, she hangs up. She looks through the scope again. Emi is in the bathroom or some other part of the house that she can't see. A tense 20 minutes tick by before she reappears, this time in the kitchen. She has visibility there, but the walls are too thick to make the shot work. Johnson would be home by now. She is losing precious time. Another anxiety-inducing ten minutes pass. Finally, Emi finishes whatever she is doing in the kitchen, and is sitting down on the couch. Akiko can see the deck in Emi's lap and the cord going to the back of her neck.
Akiko delicately opens the tiny medical cooler usually used to hold cyberware, grabs a pair of tongs reserved for this very use, and reaches into the vapor of the cooler to pull out a frozen cylinder with a pointed tip on one end. She carefully uses the tongs to load the bullet into the rifle, then drops the tongs, and works the bolt action. No time for hesitation here. Breathe. Acquire the target. Breathe. Select the head. Breathe. Lock on dead center. Breathe. Squeeze the trigger. Deep breath. Hold it. Slowly line up the floating red crosshair with the blue one tracking Emi's head and... THUNK the gun bucks against her shoulder with a muffled noise as the scope releases the trigger hold. A mile away, Emi's head becomes wallpaper for her walls.
Akiko watches the shot, then disassembles the rifle. Once in its custom case which is shaped like a guitar, she adds the tiny cryogenic cooler, then grabs an aerosol can in one hand with the words "No Trace" on it, and her guitar case in the other, and begins spraying the entire deck area while slowly backing towards the door. She repeats the process for the rest of the penthouse, spraying everywhere liberally with the fogging spray, and backs her way out into the hallway. She gives the door and doorknob a good spray, then sprays herself briefly, getting her shoe bottoms, and tosses the near-empty can in the maid's trash cart. If anyone comes here looking for fingerprints, gunshot residue, or DNA, they would not find it here.
Pulling up to Johnson's house, she can see his car is in the driveway. Akiko can taste her payday, it is so close.
She parks her Koi a few houses away, gets out, and power walks to the front door. She goes to knock, but the door pushes open on her first light tap, so she lets herself in, and closes and locks the door quietly behind her. The indoor lights are off, and the curtains are drawn, so she reaches over and touches the house control panel on the wall, but it remains dim. She taps it a few more times, but it remains unlit. She stops and listens quietly, but dead silence is all she hears.
Akiko's heart is suddenly beating a million miles an hour. She pulls aside the flap of her kimono and pulls her katana from its sheath. Holding it at a 45-degree angle in front of her, she starts silently shuffling across the foyer and into the hallway.
A quick left at the branch, and down another dark hall, she stops and listens for any signs of life. Still nothing. Before entering the kitchen, she stops to listen one more time, but hearing only silence, peeks one eye around the corner. Lying on the expensive Spanish tile is Johnson's body in his black pinstripe suit. Next to him is presumably his wife. Both of them are developing pools of rich red blood beneath them. Johnson's face is practically missing from the multiple rounds to his head, and his wife is peppered with red oozing wounds.
Just then, Akiko's phone vibrates distinctively in her pocket. She leans back, stunned into shock, fishes her phone out of her pocket, and looks at the message on the screen. It's from Kenji: "We've been made. Check the screamfeeds."
0x03: Loan
"That's it, sugartits! Let's see your asshole now! Bend over! Spread those cheeks for Big Pappa! Yeah!"
Red Sampson, or Big Pappa to everyone, is a loan shark. He owns a small strip club on Red called The Orifice and makes no secret of the den of debauchery that it is. Near the north Horizon City ground entrance, it is conveniently next to a room-by-the-minute hotel called the Canary, with "minimum amenity" furnishings where further arrangements can be made with the dancers. The joke around town is that the resulting sexually transmitted diseases you would get there would make you sing like one.
Akiko pushes her way past the Sinners with big crosses tattooed on their hands and face, and into the moving lights and lasers of the thumping club. She makes her way around the stage, past the bar, and over to where Big Pappa is shouting at the stage. "That's it! Stick more in!"
Two Sinners with crosses of various sizes covering their bald heads stand up to intercept her, a male and female, but upon seeing who it is, sit back down. Akiko nods to the Sinners and clears her throat politely.
Big Pappa glances over, then looks back up to the stage and says, "Ah, good! We need more dancers tonight! Get up there!"
Akiko just stands there, not moving.
Big Pappa stares at the girl on stage a few seconds longer, then looks over at Akiko and says, "Go on. You owe! For this week and last!"
Akiko shakes her head and says, "I'm not here to work."
Big Pappa grins and says, "Funny joke, girl. Everyone on the juice works, and you are on the juice. Only a fool would come in here to tell me they're not working. Ya didn't develop a death wish, did ya, Ki?"
Akiko shakes her head again and says, "I'm going to pay it off."
Big Pappa raises an eyebrow and says, "Really now. All five hundred mil?"
Akiko frowns and says, "Three hundred."
Big Pappa shakes his head and says, "No, no, chica! You forgot about the juice! You thought it was just the original amount? Sweetheart, get real, would ya? I know you just ran for Lenny. Either you put down some scratch or you start picking up full shifts."
Akiko says, "I'll pay. Just give me a week."
Big Pappa grunts, "You'll pay now, or you'll work now, whore!"
Akiko says very quietly, "I'm no whore," and reaches for her waist where her katana hangs. Twelve Sinners around the room all stand up at once.
Big Pappa raises his hand as she pauses, and he bellows at her, "Ya sure look like one to me! I mean, you are in a strip club. You took my money, didn't you? Now shut the fuck up and put out, whore!"
Akiko slowly continues to reach inside her jeans pocket next to her katana and pulls out a small bundle of plastic bills. The gangers all sit down. She tosses the bundle onto the table and glares at Big Pappa with a pissed-off look on her face, her emotions finally too much to suppress.
Big Pappa says, "That's a good little whore," as he grabs the money and begins counting it. "Ten mil, huh? That what Lenny pays whores? Sure, that'll buy you a week." He pockets the bills.
Akiko nods and says, "Four ninety, one week, and I'm out."
Big Pappa yells, "Fuck no, bitch! Five hundred! You just bought a week, that's all. After that, I OWN your ass, you scan me, whore? I OWN YOU!"
Akiko's eyes burn tiny holes in Big Pappa's skull with the intensity of their gaze.
Big Pappa stares back at her and says, "Everyone knows you are wound tighter than an ignition coil, Ki. Maybe you could take me and three others before they overwhelmed you. I got less chrome to lose than you do, and my clone is up to date. You really want it to go down this way?"
Akiko seriously considers it for a second but decides discretion is the better part of valor and shakes her head slightly.
Big Pappa laughs loudly and says, "That's a good little whore. Now get out of here before I decide to make it six hundred!"
Akiko silently vows to be rid of this piece of human trash as she turns to leave.
As soon as Akiko is gone, Big Pappa turns to the two Sinners sitting with him. "You meatheads want a job?"
Akiko steps through the door to her apartment and unleashes a string of curses in Japanese. Kenji looks up from his guitar chords as she enters and takes the strap off his neck when he hears her tone. "Babe, what is it?" he says, suddenly worried. His fair skin and typical Asian features betray his nationality, and his accent is thick and awkward sounding. Short black hair covers his head in small spikes, and his Mayhem T-shirt and black jeans are unwashed.
"It's Big Pappa! He says I owe him five hundred mil, Kenji!" she cries. "He says I have a week and after that, he's gonna..." she trails off.
Kenji bolts up and runs over to wrap his arms around Akiko. "It's ok, babe, we will figure this out together."
0x04: Blade
Akiko usually obeys all Horizon City traffic laws, but right now, she's testing the limits of her Koi's engine.
"How?!?" she screamed into her phone.
"What do you mean, another hacker?"
"Fuck, Kenji! Who the fuck is Plague?"
"He was dead when I got there! They both were!"
"I don't know. He mentioned his wife. Who else would it be?"
"Yes! Shot in the head!"
"No! All I found was his phone."
"Yes, I took it, but you know it's useless without him to unlock it."
"Shit Kenji! Do you think Rex would have done that to me?"
"No Kenji! He wouldn't... oh fuck Kenji. You don't think that Big Pappa has anything to do with this, do you?"
"Yes, of course I told him I would pay him after... one... week... Kenji. What if he's been shadowing me all week?"
"No, I don't mean him personally. I mean his goons!"
"Kenji... I'll call you back."
Akiko hangs up the phone, tosses it into the passenger seat, and grips the steering wheel with both hands, her foot grinding the accelerator into the floor.
Upon arriving at the Orifice, Akiko parks her car down the street on Knife, a building down from the Canary. The Orifice is on Knife where Sin Street ends and the Sinners would not stray too far down on Knife, for fear of encountering Razorboys. Razorboys are genetic modification extremists, and separatists: those who are not modified so hard they are suffering from extreme cyberpsychosis are lesser in their eyes. While usually in seclusion, they maintain well-defined territory past the Canary all the way to the end of Knife at Fuller street, and the eastern wall of the dome. Their cyberware loadouts are the stuff of black market and ripper doc legends, and they refuse to have clones, considering their bodies to be temples that once destroyed cannot be rebuilt.
Akiko has been watching the usual crowd of potato brains, gangers, and knob polishers shuffling in and out of the Orifice all afternoon and into the night. She has enough nanostims to keep her awake for a week, but the addiction would need surgery and replacement organs grown to cure it if she actually did that. It took them a day to feel like they had gotten away with it and return to the Orifice, but they did. Akiko has filled most of her pee bottles and is nearly out of vat pills, having spent the night and morning in her car, when the two Sinners with the crosses tattooed on their heads climb out of the cab and walk in.
She immediately recognizes the couple as the ones from earlier in the week. The ones who had been sitting with Big Pappa. The ones she had seen at the Midnight Market a few days ago. The ones she had seen on Gold at the bank. How many other times had they been on her tail? The realization crushes her with the weight of a sun collapsing on itself. She had been so focused on the details of the run that she failed to see the most obvious threat: Big Pappa had never intended to let her out. The Sinners must have seen her with Johnson at the Hard Wipe and been waiting at his house with the wife. Big Pappa was yanking the floor out from beneath her, and she had let him. This was a failure of galactic proportions.
Akiko's vision narrows with the searing heat of her anger as she steps out of her car, quietly closing the door. She has set the VidWeave on her kimono to a dull gunmetal gray so as not to call attention to herself, and it flows around her gracefully with each step as she advances, masking the nuclear reactor meltdown of hate beneath the surface. She puts her head down, eyes up, slumps her shoulders, hunches her back slightly, and starts walking along the sidewalk towards the club just behind two girls in matching jeans and ribbed white tank tops holding hands. As she walks, she fishes a tiny capsule marked "Hyper" out of her pocket, pops it in her mouth, and holds it in her cheek.
At the door, she turns and pulls it open, stepping inside. Across the stage is Big Pappa, handing a large wad of cash to the Sinner couple. "Misty! Bring the good stuff!" he bellows at the waitress who disappears behind the door in the back wall marked "DON'T GO IN HERE!" Akiko walks slowly around the right-hand side of the stage lifting a concealed hood in her kimono over her head, and stands unmoving in the darkened corner for a few seconds, then vanishes, the kimono subtly shifting to take on the same dark colors of the poorly lit corner of the room. She peeks out from her hood at the room, memorizing the location of all the gangers she can see, and guessing at the ones she can't. Big Pappa seems to yell something loudly at the ganger couple, but she can't make it out over the thudding bass line and loud commotion around her. "Remember," she thinks to herself, "to get some ears installed if I make it out of this alive." It was at this moment she realized she wouldn't.
Misty pushes back through the door holding a tray with a bottle of Cimeńe Champagne and some flutes. As Akiko moves, her kimono detects the motion and shifts back to gunmetal gray automatically. She weaves quickly behind the crowded tall tables and intercepts Misty with a body check, grabbing the tray skillfully as she says, "I'll take that to him."
Misty's "Hey!" is lost in the din of noise as Akiko steadies the glasses on the tray and hurries towards the booths in the back, glancing quickly around to see if anyone noticed. She sets the tray down on the table where Big Pappa is still yelling at the two gangers, and takes a half step back, lowering the hood of her kimono, which retracts itself automatically into its hidden pouch.
Akiko says loudly in a carefully metered tone, "You have something of mine."
Big Pappa glances up for the first time and looks Akiko up and down. "What's with the stupid dress? And what are you wearing underneath it?" he intones, as if genuinely curious.
Akiko ignores him, and continues in the same metered tone, "You are going to give it back to me." She glances over at the couple, who are leering at her defiantly.
Big Pappa says, "Whore, I ain't giving you fuck all. I own you, remember? Unless you are here to pay your 600 mil." Both the Sinners chuckle at her, obviously knowing she can't. Something inside of Akiko snaps, like a brittle twig being crushed under the weight of a city.
Akiko says, "I'm going to kill every ganger in here, and then I'm going to kill you if you don't give me what is mine," her breath a rag flapping on a strong breeze. She fishes the capsule out of her cheek, and holds it between her back teeth, then bites down on it with a tiny crunch.
Big Pappa sits up in the booth as the two Sinners suddenly stop laughing and draw ZMI Vipers, leveling them at Akiko. Around the room, gangers realize what is happening and follow suit. Someone has the presence of mind to stop the music, and for a moment, there's only the sound of weapons cocking and being brought to bear, and people running for the exits. Big Pappa bellows loudly, "Who the fuck do you think you are? Do you think you can come in here and demand things of mine from me? No! I own you now, and this?" He pulls a black cube out of his leisure suit jacket and holds it between his ham-shaped fingers as Akiko's world turns into slow motion. "This is mine, and so are you. I'll show you what happens to people who threaten Big Pappa! Carlos? Waste this worthless whore."
The male of the couple at the booth stands up and says, "With pleasure, boss!" He levels his 9mm Viper at where Akiko's head was, but she is already spinning her back to him, stepping to his left, and cleaving his torso as she comes around, the inertia of her body carrying the blade effortlessly through his ribs and nicking his spine. Carlos drops his gun, and tries to put his hand on the gash across his chest, but finds his legs suddenly unable to support his weight, and he slumps to the ground and tries to scream.
His girlfriend pulls the trigger from inside the booth. Akiko watches in hyper slow motion as flames erupt from the gun. She turns her head and lunges backward, and the bullet tracks right past her nose. More shots ring off as Akiko ducks and grabs the gun Carlos dropped, then lunges out towards the stage in a single graceful move, slicing the arm of the nearest ganger from elbow to shoulder, flaying open the muscle. She tucks into a roll with the momentum of her movement, her kimono flowing behind her, and bolts upright, bringing the Viper up to bear.
She lets off three shots in half a second, and three Sinners drop to the ground as their heads snap back. She spins on one heel, and a bullet hits her squarely in the chest, knocking her back. Her kimono flashes white for an instant with the impact, then goes dark, its VidWeave matrix irreparably corrupted by the bullet hole. She stumbles back a step, then anticipating the trajectory of the next shot, turns sideways at the hip as a round whizzes by her. She charges the girlfriend in the booth next to Big Pappa, closing the distance in a heartbeat with a series of leaps, steps onto the end of the table, and launches into the air as the ganger unloads three more rounds in Akiko's direction.
Akiko's blade whips through the air as she descends on the ganger, and a bouquet of red erupts from her collarbone. Akiko lands standing on the back of the booth seat, with the ganger trying to work out why one of her arms isn't working and she can't catch her breath beneath her, spins around and starts running across the tabletops of the booths while the confused gangers all try desperately to follow the action with their guns.
Akiko clears a table in a single leap as shots erupt all around her and tucks into another roll as she lands near the door in the back wall. A bullet rips into her side, erupting a grunt from her lips. As she exhales forcefully, she tucks into a crouch and launches herself at the Sinner, trying to line up another shot at her, blade poised in both hands.
The ganger dodges out of the way and swings his gun around, pulling the trigger three times at Akiko as she flies by, but she turns sharply once past him, ruining the ganger's aim. A dancer near the door cowering in fear goes down with a piercing cry. The ganger tries to reorient, but as he goes to take a half step, he loses his balance and falls over backward, his inner left thigh muscle suddenly gushing blood.
Akiko whirls around, her red stained blade flashing in the lighting, and slices the neck of another shooter as more bullets go whizzing past her. Two rounds find their mark, glancing off her arm and back as she twirls like a top, ducking and dancing around the tables, her blade meeting flesh and slinging blood in her wake. She charges the door guard as he unloads round after round in her direction and smacks the near-empty gun out of his hand with a roundhouse kick. She turns her back on him and lets the tip of the blade swing down and behind her and plunges the blade into his stomach. The blade reaches upward into his lungs with a smooth, practiced motion as she brings her hands and the hilt of the katana to her waist. She twists the blade, then yanks it free with a gush of blood. Behind her, the door guard falls to his knees, then forward as Akiko steps out of the way.
A bullet sings into the tip of Akiko's ear as it flies past her head, but she doesn't feel it; her world is in a frame-by-frame clarity as her cyberware metabolizes the nanostims from the Hyper in her bloodstream. She sees Big Pappa's trigger finger move from across the room and ducks behind the stage as the next round zings over her head. Staying low behind her cover, she shuffles behind the bar against the right wall as more rounds rip into the bottles above her, spilling alcohol all over the floor. For a second she pauses, then launches herself over the bar using the ice bucket edge as a step stool, propels herself with the next foot off the bar, and lands eight feet from Big Pappa.
Big Pappa takes aim at Akiko's head with one hand as he cowers in the booth and squeezes off a round, but Akiko steps to the side just as he pulls the trigger, and the bullet smashes some more bottles behind the bar. Akiko takes a step closer. Big Pappa tries again, this time aiming at her head, but she quickly sidesteps the other way, and he misses clean. Another step closer. Big Pappa screams at the top of his lungs, "God damnit! Fuck you!" and lets off two more rounds, both of which Akiko dances around before he can adjust his aim, each step a foot closer.
Big Pappa bellows, "Why won't you die, whore?!?" and shoots Akiko nearly point blank in the chest.
Akiko braces herself for the impact and grunts loudly, wincing in pain, but does not budge. She growls, "I'm NOT a whore!" and takes another step towards him, dancing into a spin, her blade a blur as it whips through the air. Big Pappa's pistol falls to the ground, his hand still gripping it. He shrieks and tries to scoot back into the booth more, his stump of an arm gushing blood all over him and the table. He tries to yell, but his voice won't come. Akiko takes a handheld-sized canister from her belt with the words ZMI PE-3, and twists and depresses the cap on its top. "Go fuck yourself, Big Joke." She climbs into the booth, reaches over, and pulls the tiny black cube from his jacket pocket, then replaces it with the canister. She pats the bulge on his chest where the canister is, and says, "Your payment, in full. With juice."
Big Pappa scrambles at his pocket with his one good hand as Akiko turns and bolts over the stage, covering the length of the room in five powerful lunges.
Outside, the Sinners have amassed as the word gets down the street, when Akiko bursts through the heavy outer door covered in blood and the remaining tatters of her kimono. For a half second, everyone seems to stand still as they figure out their next move. One ganger who already had his gun drawn starts shooting from across the street, and Akiko bolts down the sidewalk. She takes three steps, and the Orifice door explodes off its hinges with a sonic boom and goes sailing thirty feet down Sin street to slam into the front of an oncoming Bimbo Box minivan. Bright orange flames lick out of the Orifice as Akiko sprints past the Canary and into the crowd of people who are stopping to see what the hell is going on.
0x05: Call
Akiko nods her droopy hat to the ancient woman at the Midnight Market with the Progia Vibe phone and holds a ten note from her trench coat pocket out. The decrepit woman shakes her head and holds up two fingers. Akiko produces another plastic note grudgingly and hands them to the woman, who exchanges it for the phone. As Akiko turns away and starts weaving through the stalls and blankets packed with odds and ends for sale, she dials a number on the phone. The number is the one on the billboard in front of her.
The phone rings twice before an old quivering voice answers, "Allsafe."
Akiko says quietly, "You've been dodging me, Rex. I need to get paid."
The voice on the other side says, "And you are?"
Akiko says, "Don't play games, Rex. I closed the contract. Time to pay."
Rex says, "Don't know what you're talking about."
Akiko says angrily, "Rex, it's Ki, and I'm in a universe of hurt here."
Rex says, "Never heard of you."
Akiko says, "Don't fuck me now, Rex! It's Akiko."
Rex says, "Who? You wouldn't be talking about the one they just banished for destroying Horizon City property? The one they claim is responsible for the death of over three thousand innocent people? The one half of Red and every Judge is looking for? The one they are calling the butcher of Horizon City? Do you know what would happen if I were to do business with her? I got enough problems of my own!"
Akiko pleads, "You know that's all made up. Please, Rex, I need this. You will never see me again after this."
Rex continues, "For starters, they would yank my business license. The Sinners would burn my place to the ground. I'm not even sure what the client would do to her. I had to cover the forward myself, you know. Do you know what bounties are on her head right now? No way you are talking about her. Got a lot more than some payout on the line here. No, that one's a goner. It's not like her clone would activate, given her banished status."
Akiko growls, "Rex, don't fucking do this!"
Rex says, "The best thing I might tell someone in her position to do is to buy a day's pass from Spyder and head south. San Daño is about three days' walk from here. Bring food and water, blankets, that type of thing. The desert can be very unforgiving."
Akiko snaps, "Fuck you, Rex. I hope you rot." And bends the phone angrily, making a series of snapping and crinkling sounds before tossing it aside. It was the third one she had done that to today.
Spyder has been good for the day pass for triple the normal price, and a few canteens, blister packs of vat pills, a thick blanket, and a backpack to carry it all are easy enough to locate at the Midnight. Akiko has tried to find Kenji, but he seems to have hidden well enough. The apartment has been ransacked by Sinners, and they are presently employing it for their drug distribution efforts. Kenji hasn't answered his phone, and she assumes he is smart enough to hear what had happened before they had shown up the next day and went to ground. Her name and face are literally all the media can seem to talk about.
The large multi-level parking structure on the south side of Red has been set up to support the parking needs of the apartments and businesses in the area but is completely occupied by tents, cardboard boxes, and sleeping bodies. A car hasn't been able to drive inside in many years. The old elevator has stopped working long ago, forcing her to pick her way over the mass of people occupying the stairs in various states of consciousness, down into the 5th basement floor. The occasional barrel fire lights the path through the displaced and destitute to the far corner. No one seems to notice her presence, just another person in the crowd with no visible features under their trench and hat in the gloomy darkness. Excuse me, sorry, I'll go around.
In the far corner is a small alcove occupied by what she can only assume is a very drunk man in dirty, tattered clothes. Behind him is a large metal door with the words "HCS ACCESS ONLY" barely legible beneath the grime and filth. She gingerly tries to nudge the man with her boot, but he doesn't move, so she drags him out of the way, and in doing so, realizes he isn't breathing. Given how stiff the body is, he hasn't been for a while.
Akiko steps over the body and types the eight-digit code she had purchased into the keypad mounted on the wall. It didn't make any sound as she pressed each number, but on the last one, the door gives a quiet but noticeable thunk. She pulls it open, then quickly steps through it and pulls it shut behind her with the same soft thunk. Spyder had made it clear the code wouldn't work a second time.
As has been described to her, the tunnel is a long corridor illuminated sporadically by metal caged overhead lighting that leads to the disused sewage pumps that once pumped the city's sewer system. At the end of the corridor, it opens up to a room with a few industrial-sized pumps and generators sitting silently in their concrete moorings, save the sound of water idly running through them. She looks around and finds the ladder Spyder had described leading to a small crawlway, then down another ladder to a cramped access space behind the massive pumps. Locating the small metal access plate on the floor marked "Cleanout," she pulls the handle up and peers inside its flowing darkness. Taking a series of deep breaths, she slowly lowers herself through the hatch feet first, and into the rapidly moving wastewater of the massive pipe below.
On the south side of the towering dome covering Horizon City, a sewage pipe jutting out the side of the vertical wall of the city burps and gurgles noisily under a scorching sun as the flow from it slows slightly. Akiko comes tumbling out of it and falls ten feet to land in a shallow swamp of sand and shit.