Chapter 50

"River Ward?"

"And you, I presume, are Tycho?"

"Yeah. (chuckles)"

"Okay, where are you?"

"Well, we just pulled up to the Knight City P.D. lab. Where am I supposed to go with Smarty-pants?

"I'm sitting in the car..."

He told me the make of the car and that it was on the opposite side of the main entrance. So Judy and I went to him and soon we were in the car.

"So? I take it Peter Pan is here?"

"Yeah. and we need to get in, get the data and disappear..."

I nodded my head and quickly got in touch with the girls, but I was a little out of the conversation. But it didn't matter much at the moment.

"Snowflake, Mentor, find an access point, I need a map of the lab in case I have to infiltrate it, as well as all the data on Peter Pan..."

I looked away from the conversation and looked at Rivera.

"What is this character's real name?"

"Anthony Harris. Why?"

"Wait..."

So I went back to talking to the girls.

"his real name is Anthony Harris. Find everything, everything you can and can't, where he was born, where he grew up, where he went to school, and in the lab itself, get his medical scans. We need Judy to look at them before we do anything--

"Got it..."

"Now."

I disconnected from the conversation and turned to Reaver.

"...Waiting."

"Waiting?!"

"Yeah, now two good rangers are hacking into the lab's network and getting all the information on this Anthony Harris without breaking in. Including his brain state, which Smartypants--

I nodded toward Judy.

"...will tell you if it makes sense to get into it, or if it's easier to dig elsewhere."

"Tz... I never thought I'd be sitting quietly while the Ranchers break the police network..."

"Don't be so dramatic. Not the police, just the police lab. We don't have access to any active investigations. We don't even know what you're investigating and what you're not. so we're only interested in Anthony Harris' medical records. Then we'll break down the other agencies and find out everything we can and can't about him."

"Tz..."

It took about ten minutes for the girls to carefully tap into the Knight City Police Lab's network, followed by another ten minutes to find the data they needed, which they immediately forwarded to Judy.

"Fucked up..."

That was the first thing she said after reviewing the data.

"А?"

"I'm saying the brains are fucked, he didn't fall off only because the chromium partially took over the control of life processes. Otherwise, there's practically nothing left of brains. Sure, we could use the technology Regina was talking about. but the chances of us getting anything are so slim that it's pointless."

"What do we do?! Give up?!"

I shook my head.

"Who said anything about us giving up?"

I sighed.

"We're not giving up, let's try to trace his route..."

"You think I haven't tried it?!"

"I think you're an honest cop, at least based on Regina's characterization... I don't know or want to know how or where you met her, but she asked for you, so we'll do our best to help... and for starters, tell me what server this Peter Pan file is on. We need to get access to it."

"Eh... Knight City Police Department headquarters..."

I nodded my head at the name of the place and the address River had given, then looked at him carefully.

"I take it there's no use in telling you that we'll be fine and you can go home?"

"Yeah..."

A frown was thrown at me and a nod as if to make their words more valid.

"Okay, then you're coming with us..."

I got out of the car and walked to the Torticas, Judy followed me, and soon Panam was on the gas pedal, we had a couple of blocks to go to our new destination. Rivera's car was lost somewhere in the traffic, he just couldn't keep up with Panam, she had been a first-rate driver before, but now, with the racers' chrome installed, she had reached an unattainable level.

"We're here."

"Ladies, do you need my help?"

"No... there's the access point."

Judy nodded at the unremarkable panel on the wall of the building we'd stopped next to.

"...it appears to be the one that belongs to the Knight City Police Department. So we're going to break in carefully now...anything else we should be looking for?"

"Well, if you can find data on the Scavengers' points, which for some reason are not touched, it will be good, but the first priority is still this Peter Pan."

"Okay-okay, well, we're plugging in...

River didn't arrive until about seven minutes later, when Judy, Lucy and Kiwi were already hard at work.

"How's that?"

"Working..."

"I see..."

This time they needed a little more time, of course not the Intercontinental Corporation like Arasaki or Militeha, not even the local Knight Corporation or its "branch" Max-Tak. But the Knight City Police Headquarters also had a pretty good ice. So it took about half an hour to break in.

Then it took some more time to find information, but I got several messages from girls with copied points of Trashmen, which the corrupt cops do not pay attention to because the gangsters pay for the roof. There were even reports on who took how much and who the bosses shared it with!

That information could be sold to Regina, I think she'd appreciate that kind of dirt. And the chrome will have to be sold through someone. Because well, another point or two can be sold to Saul, and even then not in full, and the rest where to go? And here, through Regina, a lot of cheap chrome will get to all the proven rippers of Knight City...

"So..."

"Did you find something?"

All the while, while the girls were hacking into the main control and searching for data, he was pacing back and forth next to Tortik. He was looking at me with a slightly worried look, and as soon as I showed any reaction, he was next to the car window.

"Well, uh. we got his exact location, make and license plate number, and direction of travel."

I frowned.

"But for some reason there is no data about checking the cameras on the freeway... and there are a lot of cameras there and they are not checked only in one case..."

"Some people don't need it..."

"Exactly..."

I nodded my head. I'd used that kind of selective blindness myself, through Regina, when we'd been attacked by stilettos on the freeway. So I know how it works.

"All right, uh. we're on our way to one of the servers at Knight Road, a subsidiary of Knight Corporation. That's where the camera footage should be stored. And let's hope they haven't cleaned up the data yet, just stopped at paying the cops not to check it. It's a lot cheaper than bribing a small, but still a corporation to clean its servers of data."

"What are we waiting for?"

"Waiting for the girls to make sure they haven't missed anything and to clean up their tracks. This isn't just a lab, it's the Police Headquarters..."

I shook my head.

"The ice should be pretty good here, so we need to be careful and reassure ourselves. I don't want any trouble with the Cops..."

"Uh-huh?

River grinned.

"Yes. I prefer not to work against corporations, I mostly target the Gangs, or rather those cells of the Gangs that have lost their shores. Rarely individual employees of corporations, but I've never worked against Araska or Militech. And the cops. even though there's a lot of corrupt among you, but even so, working against you..."

I shook my head.

"...fraught with big problems..."

"Okay, so you make sure you don't cross the big aunts and uncles?"

River grinned.

"Uh-huh...

I shrugged nonchalantly.

"...yet I not only have my life and liberty on my shoulders, but also the life and liberty of these girls. So I have to be very serious about picking the orders we're going to do and the fixers we're going to work with."

"We're done..."

Judy opened her eyes and alerted me that they were done working, so I nodded to Reaver.

"I'll meet you at the next location, well, or you can still go to your nephew's mom and try to calm her down, and we'll call you when we know something about his whereabouts."

"I..."

"You should go to the kid's mom..."

Becca looked at Rivera seriously.

"I'm sure she could use some support right now. And you're out here. just hanging around. No, if it were anyone else, we could probably use your guidance. but we'll be fine on our own, if we need to contact Regina to get the details..."

"Okay, uh. I got it."

River nodded and turned slightly twitchy and headed for his car.

"So, where do we go from here?"

"Now, our ranners are going to tell us where to find the footage from the cameras we're interested in..."

And they did say, but they were not sure of the exact place, so they named three places at once. They said that Peter Pan's route passed through the so-called disputed territory, the exact belonging of which is unrealistic to establish on the basis of publicly available data.

I nodded to Panam and she picked the closest point to us, then pressed the gas pedal and with a bit of slippage, Tortik took off.

"You think we'll find him?"

I cast a glance at Becca, who had asked the question.

"I think so. the only question is whether he's alive now and if so, whether he'll be alive when we go through the chain of custody that will allow us to find him."

"Yeah. working for the cops."

She shook her head.

"...I didn't think this would happen."

"Come on, if it's an honest cop, why not? Especially since we're not working for a cop, we're working for Regina. She's the reason we're on this case now, instead of just taking a vacation--

"Yeah, you should be resting up. We heard you and Judy and Panam were planning a threesome. and when are you gonna pay attention to me and Lucy?!"

"Hey..."

Lucy looked at Becca slightly indignantly.

"Hey, what? Kiwi's the one who's got the hots for Pilar... and you and I are free virgins, David's a good-looking guy... so we can at least afford to have sex with him.

"Don't you want our opinion?"

Panam raised her voice.

"Oh, come on, man, we can definitely agree amongst ourselves, it's our big boss's decision that counts. Or we'll make a deal and he won't agree."

"Well..."

I cast a glance at Becca.

"You and Lucy are quite my type, and Kiwi. if at first, when we first started working together, I was suspicious of her and a little... partiality, that's all changed now."

"Especially after she finally put a bioprosthetic under her mask, right?"

Judy decided to get a little snide.

"I can't deny that it influenced my opinion. Although it's not so much about the bioprosthesis, it's about the fact that she made what's under the mask look aesthetically pleasing. And even if she'd done it with regular chrome instead of a bio-implant, I'd still stare at our beauty.

"Ahem..."

Kiwi lowered her face into the high collar of her jacket, clearly embarrassed by my words.

"...The other thing is, like you said, you haven't made an agreement with my girls yet. And without that agreement, I won't allow myself anything more than curiosity and admiration from the outside."

"Tz... that's right."

"That's why he was elected..."

Panam cast a glance at Becca.

"...okay, we'll talk to you later, but for now we're pulling up to our destination..."