Legal Problems Require Illegal Solutions (10)

The Mayor's office clerk tried not to fidget at the sight in front of her. A man wearing incredibly expensive-looking Power Armor was calmly writing the forms for opening a new business inside Night City. Most small businesses, in the clerk's humble opinion, are 'frauds that only survive on their better's charity,' because they didn't go through the bureaucratic process, and thus didn't pay them the necessary "fees" to keep the business running legally.

The man sitting in front of the clerk, however, made sure to read each passage on every contract and license that required his signature, slowing down the line massively behind him. As petty revenge, the clerk tells the armored man that he isn't filling the forms correctly, or that he isn't filling the proper forms promptly. Yet, the armored man did everything without issues, and soon the excuses to delay him became more malicious.

For the people in the office, the sight cut a comical silhouette due to the rarity of people well armored as Mark doing something so mundane in Night City. They would say, 'Edgerunners don't stand in lines, they blast their way to the front!' or 'corpos don't send their attack dogs on an office errand, they have interns for that!'

Eventually, Mark is called further inside the Mayor's office to talk with people of enough importance. Mark follows the attendant and walks through the corridors of Night City's Mayor's Office. Mark is almost surprised by how mundane the inner architecture of the office looks, with a clear departure from the needlessly flashy and retro-futuristic aesthetic that Night City favors, or the clean and sterile corporation architecture that Arasaka and other corpos employ.

'This city must be getting to me, here I am being nostalgic for seeing a building full of extremely busy government clerks.' Mark shakes his head and finally enters the meeting room. "Good evening."

There were three people seated at the table, with three more standing acting as bodyguards. One of them is a representative of the government, while the other two are from Arasaka and Militech. Mark narrowed his eyes behind the visor, recognizing the Arasaka man.

"Yorinobu-san," Mark gives the older man a respectful bow, thanking his time in college and hardcore weeb phase. He then extended his hand to the Militech representative. "Mr. representative." Finally, he addressed the government representative, who is the mayor himself. "Mr. Mayor."

"Hajimemashite," Yorinobu replies with a polite nod, holding a hand to stop his cyborg ninja bodyguard.

The Militech representative didn't return the greeting, while the Mayor returned a tired smile. "Welcome to this meeting, Mr. Mark. As you already know, I am Lucius Rhyne, the Mayor of Night City. I hope you weren't inconvenienced by the waiting."

"It's fine," Mark answers the overweight man, "now, how can I help the city and the two major corporations of Night City?"

"We want you to stop what you're doing and leave Pacifica, after paying us for compensation, and then be persecuted to the full extent of the law." The Militech representative answers promptly.

Yorinobu takes his time to answer, and the other two representatives wait for him to continue. The Mayor is visibly stressed by the wait, while the Militech representative doesn't bother masking his impatience. Eventually, the heir to the Arasaka Empire speaks.

"Arasaka wishes for you to cease your operations in Pacifica, as it fears you will glean corporate secrets that were improperly disposed of. Additionally, it has an interest in developing the Pacifica region for future real estate projects and cannot stand by someone taking it first."

Finally, the Mayor speaks. "The Night City council simply can't abide by your irregular acquisition of Night City property. At least, a proper bidding process must take place before operating in such a manner. Fines must also be paid for the irregular activity."

Mark nods and addresses the Mayor directly. "I understand your concern. After all, the entirety of Night City trash could be considered a unique treasure for those who can exploit it. I believe I am uniquely suited to make use of all that trash. If you don't mind, I have a demonstration video for you to see."

Mark sends a video file to the three sitting across from him, and after some time checking the files the group opens the video. In the movie, Mark shows his equipment working to transform the trash into finished goods, starting with mining. A large mining drill digs into the ground, compacting the scrap into massive blocks of trash, which is then moved through conveyor belts towards the recycler machines. From there, the trash is disassembled, and certain materials are spilled out, with a tiny fraction of scrap leaving the conveyor belt for storage. The disassembled material is then sorted and sent to storage, with some of the material being further broken down along the line before going into stock.

The image changes to an area that was previously full of trash, and slowly the trash pile diminishes until only clean ground is left.

"As you can see, I can automate the cleaning process of the land, taking out the trash and leaving pristine ground behind. Pacifica is relatively clean compared with the City Landfill, so the process of cleaning the area of filth should happen swiftly. As for the reclaimed components, here is a sample of what my Assemblers™ can do." Taking out a small box, Mark produces three items, a "green chip," a "red chip," and a "blue chip."

"Those are special computer chips that can be used for a wide range of applications, customizable for the needs of the client. They might look bulky now, however," Mark takes one green chip, the Electronic Chip, and breaks it with his finger, creating a smaller piece, "each chip can be broken down with simple tools, even manually as you just saw, to fit the requirements of the use case, yet they don't change their performance. The green chip you see is the basic Electronic Chip, good for simple applications in the civilian sector, or if you need reliable items to supply the military. The red chip is the Advanced Electronic Chip, with a higher performance than its basic counterpart and is suitable for most high-tech applications. The blue chip is the Processing Unit, with the highest performance and fit for cutting-edge technology. Allow me to demonstrate a simple application of this technology."

Once more Marks takes three items from his box and they are three cyberdecks painted in green, red, and blue colors for identification purposes. Mark takes one piece of each chip type slots it into an adequate area of the cyberdecks and shows the representatives, who now look mildly interested in the demonstration.

After a brief inspection, the Militech representative eyebrows shot up in surprise at the change in performance. The equipment with a green chip operates to usual parameters, but the ones with red and blue chips have a much better performance when it comes to speed, and after a brief struggle by one of the bodyguards to hack and fry the cyberdecks, the destroyed chips are recovered by Mark and changed to new chips in different configurations, restoring the inoperable equipment.

Mark gives three cards to the men present, a black card with a single orange rust gear in the middle, with the name Wube Inc. at the back and Mark's current contact info.

Urban Development, Infrastructure, Mining, Logistics, Security

Wube Inc.

Mark Henderson: Chief Engineer of Night City Operations

"Here's my proposal, Mr. Mayor. The city won't need to pay Wube Inc. for the trash reclamation and disposal service, in return it will sell the chips and other materials for the Night City and the two corporations in attendance at a discount." Mark turns towards Yorinobu. "I don't trust any information that comes out of the trash, nor do I have the time to personally sift through the refuse to find the small golden nuggets of info, when I can make more money selling Iron and Steel. Of course, I can also offer services to properly dispose of databanks and other sensitive material, if you're interested."

Both the Militech representative and the Mayor look surprised at Mark's courage in offering Arasaka to deal with their trash in such a bold manner. Yorinobu remains mostly stoic though his expression tightens. "I see."

"What about your actions? Are you going to talk about the murders and other illegal activities you're up to? Do you," before the Militech representative could continue, Mark interrupted the man.

"No."

"What? 'No?' What do you mean by 'No?'"

"No. We're not going to talk about past issues. I could give some very compelling arguments as to why, but that requires me to acknowledge that there is any issue, and hence talk about it. So, no. We're not going to talk about it."

Suddenly Yorinobu stands up. "Arasaka will study your proposal with care, Mark-san. For now, we will drop the claim on the Pacifica district until it is cleaned and fit for human habitation. Both Arasaka and I will be in contact with Wube Inc. Until then, Mark-san." The Heir to the Arasaka Empire leaves the room calmly but swiftly, with both Militech and the Mayor staring at the retreating men with surprise.

The Militech representative glares at Mark's armored mask but doesn't further antagonize him. Eventually, he also stands up. "I will talk with the R&D department regarding interest in the items. Militech Procurement Department will contact your sales department for further negotiations."

Only the Mayor and his bodyguard remain from the original men waiting for Mark. "You said Wube Inc. would work for free to the betterment of Night City?"

Mark shakes his head. "Nice try. Wube Inc. won't charge for the trash reclamation projects, but I am willing to give a very generous deal for urban development and infrastructure projects, so long as the city approves some of Wube Inc.'s proposals for opening new installations."

The Mayor's eyes, once dull and tired, regain some spark of life from the once idealistic man. "Tell me more, Chief Engineer."

Mark grins behind the mask.

…

Back at the limousine, the Bodyguard questions Yorinobu's decision to have the Night City branch of Arasaka make a deal with the newly established Wube Inc.

"The products shown by Mark-san have the potential to be useful to Arasaka's efforts, and I felt prudent to cultivate a good relationship with the Chief Engineer, who appears both capable and dangerous. Close the windows, I wish for some privacy."

The bodyguard nods, clicking a button and raising the privacy screen for his current boss.

When Yorinobu is certain he's alone in his seat and nobody is listening, he loosens control of his emotions and starts laughing hard.

"Ha ha, to have the audacity to come at Arasaka to take their trash and dismiss Militech in the same breath. I like the balls of that man. I wonder how he will respond to this."

Yorinobu sends a quick message to Mark. "Are you willing to discuss business after work hours over a drink?" Yorinobu's father, Saburo, would never lower himself to drink with someone he considers his 'lesser' unless he's completely in control of the situation, disdaining certain confraternization practices when he was young.

The reply came promptly. "Sure. High class, low class, or my place? I know how to cook washoku, genuine ramen if you give me twelve hours of preparation time, or we can have some genuine burgers made of real meat and real American cheese."

Once more Yorinobu laughs at the reply. "I would kill for a burger."

…

"Sir, is it wise to leave the Engineer free without at least pressing charges?"

"It's fine. I doubt he would care about the law of Night City beyond paying it lip service, and he's clearly deranged enough to wage war on Militech if he felt like it. We can't have access to his technology through legal means, but I admit that was a long shot to begin with."

"What do you propose, then?"

"We will talk with the R&D department once more and see if they managed to crack the stolen samples first, if they didn't I will talk with the Finance department to approve a new budget for Procurement." The Militech representative stalls the bodyguard complains, "there's always time for litigation, my friend. Besides, that's not how corporations really fight, is it?"

The bodyguard remains silent for a few moments. "I thought you didn't like the current system, Mr. CEO."

"I don't, but I'm not blind to the reality of the world either, and Mark and Wube Inc. aren't blind to it either. Maybe a little naïve, but he's not stupid. Regardless we already got enough data on how to breach his defenses, and next time we want to finish the job we will send the professionals."

…

Unaware of the many plots and developments happening around him, Dex DeShawn celebrates another well-paying job that was successfully finished. He earned a lot of money from the information sold to the gangs, got some extra eddies from working with the larger corporations while doing little to no work himself, and got out smelling like roses.

"I love it when a plan comes together. This is going to be my decade, Choombatta!" Dex DeShawn cheers with his closest confidants and team, raising a glass of pre-DataKrash whiskey. "Cheers!"

"Cheers!"

Dex takes another drag of his cigar before sighing in contentment. "Nothing can sully my mood now, nothing."

Dex DeShawn, self-styled "Mr. Cool," would later regret getting himself involved with the corporations and the Engineer. For now, he parties away the money earned from his biggest hit to date.