Chapter 52

I went to a very cheap motel and after paying for a room for a couple hours, I took a shower and immediately dialed Regina, so she wouldn't know I was calling her from the shower.

"Quiet..."

"I'm gonna send you a picture of my optics. I just want you to know that you have to be careful on Night Road..."

"А?"

But I immediately forwarded her a photo from the optic, which is constantly recording during assignments.

"How's that? She should have been dead a long time ago..."

"I understand she's Borg now. Do you want me to text you the techs who were discussing her?"

"Come on..."

I discounted her conversation and she nodded.

"Thank you... this information. is very important. how are you doing with Peter Pan?"

"Well, the cops were probably bribed to stay out of the way, so we broke down Knight Road to track the car this asshole was driving. The girls are working the data now, it's gonna take about three hours."

"I see...how's River doing?"

"Fuck knows..."

I shrugged, while remembering to rub myself with a washcloth and pour another load of shower gel on myself.

"...before we went to the Knight Road building we sent him to the kidnapped nephew's mom, she needs support right now."

"I see...what are the next plans?"

"Well, uh. we were kind of lucky. the girls said that the data from the right cameras was just on this server, but to say for sure about the plans..."

I shook my head.

"...but tentatively... we can do that. If the data is still on the server and we can trace the route without breaking anything, then we'll go to his hideout and rescue the kids. If the data isn't all there, then we'll have to break into another branch of Knight Road... and so on until we locate his base of operations. Because Peter Pan's brain."

I shook my head again.

"...Smart Girl said there was too little chance of doing anything... so we had to take a detour."

"Okay, uh. Look, you keep me in the loop. cause personalities like Misty, they don't just show up. like Smasher, she's been in a league for so long that mere mortals can't do business with them. Only the top of a corporation like Arasaka or Militech. or comparable corporations."

I sighed and poured another dose of shower gel on myself.

"I'll hold..."

My conversation with Regina was interrupted, and I scrubbed myself for another twenty minutes before leaving the bathroom. In the meantime, new clothes had been delivered, and the old ones I'd sent with a courier to a specialty cleaner who promised to remove any odors or stains. I also doused myself with cologne, and only then I left the motel and took a cab home.

I walked into the apartment and the first thing I saw was Becky's scowling face.

"Well, hello there."

"Hey, hey, hey..."

She nodded her head scrutinizing me from head to toe and even sniffing me a little.

"you spared no cologne."

"Well, even though I washed up, I still decided to get a little over-insured and doused myself with it from head to toe.

"I see...and the clothes?"

"In the purge..."

"You always save money on stuff like this... You could have thrown it away, you bought this one anyway..."

Becky's tone was... disapproving, but what she didn't like...

"Becca, did I offend you?"

"No, uh. it's just, uh. you're on the move, and you met Mystique, and I--

"And you're more important, because you have to protect the Raner. I'll stand up for myself, but our runners, they are helpless against a serious enemy."

I sighed.

"How are they doing, by the way?"

"Working..."

"Okay, well, I'm gonna go out for a bit. mess around with the guns."

"Uh-huh. can you check out my babies?

I grinned.

"Come on. guns like care, and I'm obviously better at it than you are."

Becca snorted and handed me her pistols, the benefit of having an assault rifle in her lap.

"Should I go to bed now?"

"No, until our rangers say the splinters are destroyed, it's best if you stay on guard. Yeah, and I'll keep one eye on the surroundings, too."

"Uh-huh. you better clean my weapons, and I'll keep an eye on them. If anything, you'll all know we've got intruders.

I spent my time in the workshop until morning...

And luckily all was calm until morning.

"We're done..."

Lucy walked into the workshop and leaned tiredly with her back against the wall.

"Any results?"

I turned to her and seeing how tired she was, I got up from my chair and walked over to her and gently put my arm around her shoulders.

"Are you okay?"

"Tired..."

She smiled sadly, settling into my arms.

"...it's a good thing we did the upgrade, because with the previous decks and without extensions we would have just been shoveling ice for a week. If we didn't have baths, but with the systems that Vic installed. even the body doesn't suffer so much, because heat dissipation is very efficient and the body is not subjected to unnecessary thermal stress."

I stroked her back.

"Judy and Kiwi?"

"Sleeping... I had the most stamina, so I thought I'd tell you the results."

"Thank you... and how's the news?"

I lifted her up and returned to the chair and put her on my lap. I lifted her up and returned to the chair, placing her on my lap.

"We tracked him down. somewhere around Edgewood Lane, Rocky Ridge, East Badlands. We need to find out exactly where he is."

"We'll figure it out, I'll do the work, you go to sleep."

"I can..."

"You and the girls have done a pretty good job already... now just let me do the work."

I kissed the top of her head.

"Uh-huh...

She rubbed her nose against my neck and visibly passed out, and I covered my eyes and called Regina over.

"Is something wrong?"

Regina's voice was sleepy.

"If you still want to help your friend, now I need your help because my ranners are so exhausted they just passed out."

"Need a runner?"

"Not really..."

So I sent her a message saying that Peter Pan's real name was Anthony Harris, and I also sent her the search area, namely, that the beginning of his route should be found somewhere in Edgewood Lane, Rocky Ridge, which is in the Eastern Badlands.

"This is..."

"You'd probably have to run his childhood and cross-reference the data. Either there's a place from his childhood or a similar place. And we need the data fast.

"Half an hour, half an hour. I'll get the connections up."

"Yeah, go ahead, I'll make breakfast to feed the Ranters. After they get some sleep. Oh, and, uh, don't call your friend."

"I know...he's gonna get too emotional... so you can finish the job. or I can use someone else."

"Since I started it, I'll finish it..."

"Okay, I'll call you as soon as I get my facts straight."

I nodded and disconnected then ran my fingers over Lucy's cheek and she opened her eyes slightly.

"Uh-huh?

"Slivers? Have you started the data destruction procedure?"

"Yeah, I followed up..."

Lucy yawned sweetly.

"...the link to the Knight Road servers was just gone when the data on the last chip was destroyed."

I nodded my head.

"Okay, now go back to sleep."

I stood up, lifting her in my arms like a princess, and walked quietly out of the workshop. I glanced at Becca as I did so.

"Go get some sleep."

She looked up at me sleepily and nodded and went to the second floor to sleep on a much more comfortable sofa. I took Lucy there, and put her on the bed beside Kiwi, covering both girls with a thin blanket; I also checked on Judy and Panam, but Panam had already taken care of her friend, and cradled her in her arms, and gave her sweet dreams.

It was only after that that I went down to the kitchen, where I began to quietly prepare breakfast...

Did I want to sleep?

Definitely...

And realizing that soon I would be yawning more often than breathing, I took out some stimulants from the medicine cabinet, which would allow me to survive another day adequately. And after taking them, I was back in the resource in a couple of minutes.

While making breakfast I didn't forget that the girls had also spent the night without sleep, and I realized that an hour of sleep they would have would help but not solve anything, so I added some of the same stimulant to the drinks. Just so they'd have the same resource.

Regina called me about forty minutes later and told me that Edgewood Farm was in the area and that it was most likely Peter Pan's base. She also gave me the exact coordinates, and when she disconnected, I quietly went upstairs. Becca was the first one I came across.

"Wake up..."

I leaned over her and kissed her softly on the nose. She opened her eyes sleepily and looked at me, then wiggled her nose from side to side and sighed sadly.

"You could have kissed me on the lips..."

"Breakfast is downstairs, as well as stimulant coffee."

She nodded and stood up and walked toward the stairs. Then I went into Panam and Judy's room.

"Girls wake up."

Panam was the first to open her eyes and I gave her a tender kiss, and afterward I gave the same kiss to Judy, who looked at me rather sleepy and tired.

"М?"

"Regina got the location from your tip. There's breakfast and stimulant coffee downstairs."

"Uh-huh...

Judy wiped her eyes very sweetly, while I, not to stay here any longer, turned away abruptly and left the room to go into the next one.

"Good morning..."

I mussed Kiwi's hair and kissed the top of Lucy's head, both girls woke up from my actions.

"Is it time to get up already?"

Lucy climbed out of her friend's embrace with great regret and looked at me with a slightly confused look.

"Yeah, uh. the location's figured out, so let's eat breakfast and get moving."

"Stimulants?"

"It's already in the coffee. Yeah, and he's doped himself up, otherwise it'd be dangerous to go on the mission. I don't know what the hell he did on his farm."

"The farm?"

"Yeah..."

And just when I said that, my memories of the game flashed before my eyes... I didn't want to believe them, but something told me it was gonna be just like the game. Namely, a bunch of guys who are strapped to beds and just being fed chemo.

I sighed.

"Let's go. so we can waltz to breakfast."

And when we got downstairs and started breakfast I got a call.

"Quiet is listening."

"It's River Ward. I was wondering if there's any new information."

"Not yet, the data from the server was incomplete, so now we're off to hack the next one."

"Roger that. keep me posted, okay?"

"Naturally..."

The connection's been severed.

"Who?"

"Yeah, that cop. so we need to work faster or he's gonna be calling and it's gonna be a distraction."

"All right, well, give me the address, I'll give you the route..."

I gave Panam the coordinates and she nodded her head, after which we fell into a short silence, working with our spoons as we devoured our breakfast. It was only after we were sitting and drinking coffee, and the girls were getting livelier and livelier with each sip.

"So, is everyone in the resource?"

"Yeah..."

"Then let's move out, and on the way, you can tell me what else you pulled yesterday, hacking cops and Knight Road."

"Well...you can tell..."

We loaded into the Tortilla and the car moved off, while Judy proceeded to recount the cases of corrupt cops, of bribe-takers, of serious criminals who got away with it. And it was all pulled out of Police Headquarters. Knight Road, on the other hand, was relatively quiet... no crime or anything. At least on this server and the hacked computer there was nothing like that. Unless, of course, you take what they're responsible for. As I suspected it was cheaper to bribe the cops than the corporation, so in many cases the cops just didn't go to them.

"Okay, well, we'll have to process the data later and see if we can sell it to Regina-- it's not our business to deal with crime. We're solo... although if Regina finds it profitable and decides to do something by hiring us...

"Okay..."

"Pull over!"