Part 16

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***

- David, I have a favour to ask of you.

- Regina speaking.

- We need to help bring justice. There's an underground fight club in Kabuki. It's run by a man named Houdini. Not many people have seen him, but the fact is, he's a slave trader and drug dealer, among other things.

I frowned.

Not because I'd have to get to some underground club, but because I didn't like this kind of assignment. Elimination missions. It's one thing when you have to eliminate bandits in the course of a mission, but it's quite another to do it like this....

Hypocritical?

Yes.

But it's my hypocrisy, and it suits me just fine. Just like I'm fine with my girls not getting blood on their hands. We've done over 40 missions in the last month. And the flow of missions hasn't slowed down. Regina is not the queen of Postmortem, but she is the main fixer of the district, and only because she is not able to process all the orders, something goes to the smaller ones. Well, it's also because she doesn't do everything.

For example, she'd never take an order to smash a street-food vendor's shop for 500 quid. And neither would I.

Anyway, she's got a lot of orders, I heard she's even started throwing jobs at V, but she doesn't work very often. She and her buddy Jackie work three times a week, but they're asking a lot of money. They want to be Knight City legends!

How do I know that?

Well, I get physicals at Vic's every week, check up on Sandy as my main reader, which is why I haven't failed a single mission since the beginning of my career. And I chat with Misty, although it's mostly girls who chat with her. Misty is Jackie's girlfriend.

Honestly, I only take the girls with me on my checkups for two reasons. Firstly, they've really become friends with Misty and are happy to just sit and chat with her. And Misty herself doesn't mind. Not many people come to her shop for shopping, she mostly makes a profit on her rent, so she's happy to sit and chat.

Secondly, which for me is much more important, there girls get the opportunity to compare me, such a serious tyrant, who makes me work every day except weekends, and not one order to fulfil, and the same Jackie, who even on a motorbike for a year saved up! There's no talk of any romantic encounters with Misty. If it's a date, she's the one who asks him out and arranges it. At least he's smart enough to pay for the cafes.

But as they say, love is evil, love Jackie Wells. So I can only sympathise a little with Misty and myself to create on the background of her stories a much more attractive image of a young solo.

And it's working!

Even Judy, already looking at me with approval, though she's been on edge lately. And I still can't figure out what's going on in her life. But there is hope that she will tell me everything and I just wait and support her.

That thought didn't stop me from talking to Regina.

- Regina, just for the sake of our co-operation with you... but I hope that such assignments will still avoid me in the future....

- Thank you. Wait, what?

- Well, you know I don't like being an assassin and--

- No, no, no, no! You misunderstood me.

The image of Regina shook her head and grinned.

- ...I know you, and if anything, I can send V on an assassination mission. That girl doesn't have any codes in that regard. So she'll have no problem eliminating the person who's in my way. But in this case, you don't need to eliminate. I need to knock him out and drag him out of the club and put him in the boot of a car.

I blinked.

- Um... I need to steal a person?

- Yeah... hopefully there's no problem with that?

- Nah...

I shook my head thoughtfully looking up at the ceiling of my own flat. Today was a day off, Regina knew that, she didn't usually bother me on days like this, but since she wouldn't wait until Monday.....

- ...it's not a problem. Especially since you've given him a character reference. If it were a Faraday order to kidnap a little girl, I'd tell him who he was and what he could use it for.

I grinned.

- So I accept the order. I understand it's urgent?

- Yes... I know it's your day off, but it's the only day in the last three months when I know where to find him. And the next time that opportunity comes up, I don't know.

- Details as always?

- Yeah, I'll send them right away.

The connection went dead and then a letter arrived. A letter with all the details of the task I had to do this evening.

Sighing, I got up from the sofa where I'd been sleeping. I had slept on it because Judy had slept over last night and I had given her my place in the bed. Although Panam had threatened to bite her if she molested her.

However, it seemed to me that the decisive factor in Judy's not molesting Panam was not the threat of biting her, which rather aroused her interest, but the fact that Panam was preoccupied with me. Could I play on that? I don't mind my girls kissing or doing vulgar things in front of me, but I don't mind them inviting me into their games.

I shook my head, pushing the thoughts aside, not now....

Judy and I were closer than we'd been before she joined our team, but it would be another month before I could break the barrier that separated us.

Glancing over at the girls, I realised that they were still sleeping, and they were cuddled together.

How cute it looked from the outside....

I shook my head once more and went to make breakfast....

Literally twenty minutes later breakfast was ready, Judy and Panam had woken up about ten minutes ago and had already had a shower. And now they were waiting for breakfast.

- Girls, I have news for you.....

- Are you giving me Panam?

Judy asked this question with a smirk.

- Hey! I'm only going with my boyfriend!

Panam decided to hit Judy's sore spot, after all she wasn't much into men in terms of building relationships with them. Or rather, she didn't understand why she should be in a relationship with a man. But she didn't get the reaction she was expecting.

- You know, I've been wondering for the last week if it's as bad as I thought it was when there's a man around. And why I wasn't attracted to guys before.

- Before?

Panam looked suspiciously at Judy.

- Well, I can't say that I'm in love with David, but the thought of sleeping with him doesn't make me feel negative, I can tell you that.

- Tz...

Panam shook her head and looked at me questioningly.

- So what's your news?

- The weekend is cancelled.

- No...

They looked at me in shock.

- Well, it's moved to Monday. Regina has an urgent assignment that won't be possible until later. She's managed to track down a bloke called Houdini, our job is to steal him and send him to the clients....

- Right.

The girls did not say anything else to me and began to eat breakfast, which, however, managed to lift their spirits at that very moment there was a knock on the door of the flat.

- Eh...

Sighing I stood up and walked to the door and opened it.

- Why am I not surprised?

Becca looked away.

- 'Did your brother spend everything on chroma again?

- Mm-hmm...

- Becca?

Judy pulled herself up from the table and looked surprised at her acquaintance, who she probably didn't expect to see on my doorstep.

- Judy? You got Judy into bed?!

And if the first question was addressed to the attractive creator of the Brains and my team's runner, Becca addressed the second one to me. And she was very surprised and didn't hide her astonishment.

- Come on in, we'll feed you....

- Thank you.

Becca was suddenly embarrassed, but she went into the flat, and quickly sat down at the table, where I put her a rather large portion. I'd made it in stock, so there was enough for her and more for Judy and Panam.

- Judy, Panam, while you study the data--

I sent them a copy of Regina's letter. Of course, I already had my own ideas about what to do, but I wanted them to think for themselves. Maybe they'll come up with something I didn't realise.

- Um, isn't today your day off?

- Normally, yes... but there's an urgent assignment.....

I shrugged without going into details and Becca nodded understandingly. OWLs rarely talk about orders that haven't even started yet, and they don't even talk about closed ones. So any talk about a completed mission is probably a lie from the first word to the last. But about the usual gunfights can be chatted about, although there is usually a lot of lies, all trying to make themselves look like invincible heroes.

- I heard about you, by the way.

Becca was munching away, and when she said that phrase, crumbs flew in all directions.

- Chew first and then speak, or I'll make you clean my flat.

Becca froze in place, made a couple of reflexive chewing movements and then swallowed the food she had in her mouth with effort.

- And don't forget to chew. Well-chewed food is much healthier.

Becca nodded her head.

- ...Yeah...haven't failed any assignments yet, turned down five job offers out of five from Faraday...why by the way?

- Don't you know?

- М?

- He's got a lousy reputation, at least among the solos who work for other fixers. Not only does he work for Arasaka and Militech at the same time, but he also likes to take money.

- Hey, hey... that's not true!

- Yeah? When was the last time he paid you a bonus? And more importantly, when did he tell you exactly how to do the job to get that bonus?

- Well.

Becca looked away.

- That's just it. Usually fixers explain what they want from the solos they hire, and those who do the job bring them money and make a decent amount of money themselves. And here...

- All right.

- It won't be quiet.

Panam was the first to consider all the options for the upcoming work and shook her head sadly.

- I realised it myself, but let's wait for Judy, she as a raner can advise something useful...?

- Hmm? You've been given an assignment outside your field of expertise?

Becca grinned wryly.

- You were just berating Faraday, and now....

- Now I've been given an assignment that spells out everything I need to know and there's no mention of quietly doing it. Just the objective.

- So there's no mention of doing it quietly?

- Yeah...

I nodded my head.

- Will you take me with you as a stormtrooper?

I looked at Becca questioningly.

- Hey!

She obviously saw that look and understood it.

- I'm strong!

- I'm not doubting your strength, I'm just considering my options. And I doubt your boss would let you go to another team, even temporarily.

- Mayne's not my boss. He's just a good leader and we're all around him, but he didn't forbid us from taking outside orders.

- I see...

- I have one option...

I looked at Judy questioningly.

- We're gonna need two more solos, though. And I'd really like one of them to be a good runner.

- I know a good runner!

I raised my hand to stop Becca.

- Can we afford it?

- We can, of course we'll lose a little profit, but if we do it all, we won't be out of pocket....

I glanced at Becca.

- Okay.

Judy emailed me her plan, and I quickly ran through it.

- Great... we need to contact Regina and warn her that it's not going to be quiet....