Part 62

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The girls and I sat in the Postmortem.

Another order, still technical, but this time related to the Postmortem itself, was finished. This time we were upgrading the iron of the Postmortem, well, to be more precise, the iron was being upgraded by me and Becca and Panam, while the rest of the girls were working on the ice. It was the ultimate non-combat type task. Well, to put it more accurately, it was the last mission before I start taking combat missions again. After all, Vic gave me the go-ahead yesterday to use the Sandi 100 per cent. Only we decided to take it easy for a week and start in the field again....

- Oh, David, you want to show your face?

DeShawn stopped next to our table and a dark-skinned girl in a rahner costume stood next to him.

- Go where you're going...

I waved my hand like I was warding off a pesky fly.

- Come on, all I have to do is say I don't work with you and you'll be kicked out of here, cos you'll probably....

- David, you want me to say that again?

We were approached by the ever-present barmaid of the Afterlife, who had recently had a tragedy. Specifically, her husband died during a race. And now she was literally drowning herself in work.

- Yes, Claire, thank you....

I nodded to her like the rest of the girls.

- Claire, this guy's obviously here by mistake and...

- DeShawn, he worked here and this job has nothing to do with you....

I got a questioning look and realised Claire was asking for permission and nodded, letting her know I was okay with it.

- ...David's a regular in the Afterlife. He and his team are pretty efficient workers with a reputation. So it's not all about you.

- So who's he working with?

DeShawn had a sarcastic smirk on his lips.

- Only and exclusively with Bestia.

DeShawn shuddered and glared angrily at his companion, and the dark-skinned Rauner clearly looked dumbfounded. She was the one who was most likely gathering information on me, and for some reason she didn't find it....

- How long ago?

- A long time.

- Come on, I'm a regular member of the Postmortem Club too... I might know... after all, we might be working together someday.

- You can if David wants you to.

Claire turned round and walked towards the bar.

- And I won't.

- Tsk... you don't know how to pick your mates, do you?

- DeShawn, go where you're going...don't stop me and my crew from enjoying the evening....

Oddly enough, he heeded my words and moved on towards the conference booths. By the way, one of those booths was being renovated today. It would have been funny if he had taken it. And no, we didn't leave any spyware there, we're not idiots to spoil our reputation like that. After all, after we turn in a job, it's checked by ranners and Postmortem techs.

We sat with the girls for about twenty minutes and were about to leave when I noticed Vee and Jackie entering the club. And if Vee was being restrained, then Jackie, he was literally bursting with energy. And the first place they went was the bar.

Jackie, a guy with his soul out in the open, quickly managed to get Claire on board, at least that's the only way I can explain the fact that she was smiling a little more genuinely than she had been lately.

- Hmm, and Misty's boyfriend, he's got his tail between his legs.

Judy said it in a disapproving tone.

- Well... he hasn't done anything criminal so far, but to chat with a girl, well, you don't forbid me to do that, so he's feeling more than free.

- Oh, it seems they've finally been called away on business... I wonder if they'll be in that stall we've been renovating or....

- I'll tell you what... that would be kind of fun, but it's none of our business.

- Yeah, well.

Lucy joined in the conversation and nodded in agreement.

After sitting for a while we went to the exit from the Afterlife.

- Wait...

A guard stopped me on the way out.

- Yeah?

- There's some unhealthy flickering going on... be careful.....

- Thank you.

He nodded and lost interest in me, I switched the sandi on to the lowest setting and the girls and I went on our way out.

- That's him!

- Get him!

I've had a few intelligent people rush towards me with their Sandi on, and if I hadn't had it on the minimum, I might have been too late to activate it. But...

I made it. Moreover, I managed to take a couple of steps forward and remove from my belt the still ordinary tonfa, which took the blow of the bat and katana. And that was just the beginning. Slowly the sounds of gunshots were heard and I, pushing away the weapons of my opponents, grabbed one of them by the arm and yanked to the side, so that his body blocked the sector of shooting at my girls.

Another step and two blows fall on the second opponent. And only now I realise that even though I'm operating on the same minimal acceleration, I'm still better due to a more perfect skeleton and muscles. Although...

No...

It's not just my skeleton and muscles, it's the synchronisation of my chrome. With one more step I hide behind my opponent and having already picked him up I quickly headed towards the shooters...

It wasn't hard to beat them unconscious.

For everything less than a minute of real time... and I already inserted the chips and waited for my girls to get all the information from these frames, when from the side of the stairs heard a familiar voice.

- What happened here?

- Nothing...

I shook my head and looked at Bestia, who froze a couple of steps before the end of the stairs. Her bodyguard stood just ahead of her, his eyes glowing dangerously. Would I be able to make it?

I looked at him appraisingly.

- You don't need a pair of sandies by the way?

I nodded at the bodies of the attackers at the beginning of the solo.

- So you were attacked?

- Yeah...

- And you're suggesting I take them apart?

- Well...

I shrugged.

- These are already dead anyway. I'll finish the rest of them, too. So what's the point of wasting it?

- Hmm...

She nodded to her bodyguard and he quickly stepped forward and grabbed the first corpse by the leg and threw it down the stairs in a single tug. Then quickly walked over to the second one and did the same to it and then returned to his seat and his eyes lit up.

- Girls?

- Finishing up... But pretty much the same as last time.

Judy answered me.

- Yep... Faraday, solos from the not-so-best, but also quite opinionated, are recruited from different places.

- Right...

When the girls signalled me that they were finished I took out all the splinters and finished the opponents, and then we went to the new car, in which our group was comfortably accommodated, not like in Tortika. And with this comfort we set off towards the clan's car park.

Why there?

Well, with Faraday in trouble, going to a flat where we could get surrounded would be stupid. But in the Klan, we'd be relatively safe there. Unfortunately, neither Bestia nor Regina have found anyone willing to give Faraday an interesting but short life. I mean, there were people willing, but no one who could say it out loud.

And perhaps I should think about solving this problem without getting an extra reward from an interested mind.

- Faraday's calling me.

Kiwi's eyes lit up, indicating that she had answered the call. And almost immediately her face twisted into a contemptuous grimace.

- David, how do you feel about running out of Faraday?

- Is something wrong?

- He's offering to write off my debt.....

- What do you have to do?

- Take a wild guess.

- There's nothing to guess...

Panam has entered the conversation.

- ...wants her to betray us.

- Exactly.

I closed my eyes.

- You know, I'd love to, but...

- But?

Kiwi's voice was extremely tense.

- But are you sure he wouldn't consider keeping you on our side?

- Well... you wouldn't leave me in the lurch, would you?

- Kiwi, we're not going to leave you either way, but think about it, do you want it or not? I figure another week or two, and if Regina and Bestia can't find a contract and the attack happens again, I'm on it....

I swallowed a swear word I didn't want to use in front of the girls.

- Yeah, tell it like it is...

All the girls agreed with Kiwi's words.

- I'm telling it like it is... don't get involved. It's better to 'stay out of it' and don't give him too much of a reason.

- That way he'll start setting up trouble anyway... that he'll plan for trouble if I stay on your side and tell him that if I refuse to help him....

I sighed.

- Well then, 'agree'... let's see what he comes up with and how to twist it in our favour.

- Yeah...

Kiwi's eyes continued to sparkle, but I was sure of her. Sure in the cartoon she kind of betrayed GG, but here... we're all too connected, and I care about her as much as I care about the other girls. Even my favourites Panam and Judy can only boast that I sleep with them. The rest of the benefits are shared equally by all the girls.

After about five minutes, Kiwi's eyes went blank.

- So?

- Well, he mostly bought information from me, about you and the girls... I sold a lot of stuff, the truth of course, but not all of it. For instance, I told him you were about ninety per cent of your Sandi's speed. So you could be sure he'd be prepared for the fact that you showed at least sixty per cent... well, and about the others about the same. Then he said he'd call me later and tell me what to do.

- So he wants to set a trap?

- Yeah.

I closed my eyes.

- He'll probably try to act on another fixer's order. He'll call you and demand to know where and when.

- And I'll tell him.

- Of course, we just need to find out where Faraday's hiding by then. Because instead of the mission, we'll go to him. You'll have to call him and tell him in a panic that I've been given an urgent order and the one you told me about I've postponed for two days.

- Hmm, that might work.

- Lucy, Judy, you and you, Kiwi, find out where the bastard is.

- Okay.

The girls nodded.

- ...by the way, we've got a little while before we crack the chips.

- Leave it for now... Faraday's priority... though.....

I closed my eyes again.

- ...no, he's still a priority. I don't want to take any unnecessary risks, but in this matter it's delaying the resolution of this issue that will be a bigger risk than dragging it out in the hope that we'll have time to hack the slivers and train before he sends someone to zero us out.

- Well, that's where I agree...

Kiwi sighed sadly.

- ...waiting for Faraday to make his move is dangerous. We need to act now, preferably before he's even assembled a team and set a trap.

- Once we have his location, we'll get to work.

- We'll find him... we'll come to the clan, we'll lie down in the baths and through deep diving we'll find him.

- And I'll provide you with tasty treats to make your brains work better....

- What are you gonna make us?

Becca jumped in.

- You? I'm gonna make you a dope.

I grinned.

- but I'm gonna make the girls custard eclairs.

- Eclairs?

Lucy and the rest of the Raner girls looked at me with great interest.

- Yes...and if you find him and don't turn up, after he's gone, I'll make you three cakes each.

- Three cakes each?

- Yes.

- Girls.

Judy looked at her colleagues with eyes ablaze with anticipation.

- 'This is a challenge and we accept it...'

Kiwi nodded her head.