Chapter 12 - revenge

Pablo is walking back and forth in the room nervously, his arms crossed on his chest.

"Are you sure the Intel is right?" he asks.

"Are you seriously doubting me now?" Hanako answers, sounding irritated by the question.

"No... I know you are the best... Damn... " Pablo answers as he keeps pacing back and forth, unable to settle down.

"I need a team... " he suddenly stops and turns to face Hanako. "Find me some bad gangtoons to take him down!" He pleads to her.

"You sure that's what you want?" Hanako asks, knowing clearly what would be his answer.

"I must see his face when I zero him myself!" he punches the table with his metal fists.

Hanako jumps a bit but she can't condemn his decision, she understands how he feels.

"I will find some mercs but I will tag along, you will need me to infiltrate his network!" she says while remaining calm.

"Of course, I wouldn't have it any other ways, I trust you." he seems to calm down a bit.

Hanako nods while standing up and exits the room. The loud beats are filling the club as Hanako is walking past a small crowd and reaches the bar.

She waves to the barman who gets closer to her.

"Did you see Clarice coming in today?" she asks him.

"Yeah, she is in her vip room." he answers.

Hanako nods and walks past the crowd to reach the vip rooms, she quickly spots the one that Clarice is using.

She is stopped by two armed men guarding the door of the vip room.

"This room is taken!" one of the guard grunts.

"Tell Clarice that Neural has biz for her." she says.

One of the guard's implant blinks, indicating he is on a call. He suddenly nods and opens the door for Hanako. She steps in the room and sees Clarice sitting alone.

Clarice is a successful fixer in New Paris. After the death of her father she became the head of her father's "business".

She dresses like a corpo and is very well connected in both the commons and the corporates.

"Neural, please sit." Clarice invites Hanako moves to take a spot on the sofa of the vip room.

"Thanks" Hanako says while sitting next to her.

"I have few gigs that needs a good netrunner like you, are you looking to make some money?" she asks.

"No, this time I'm here to hire some muscles for Pablo." Hanako says.

"We are already providing security for the club, does he need more?" Clarice asks with a sense of irony in her tone.

"Of course not, it needs to be discreet, it can't be traced back to us. We need real mercs." Hanako replies with a serious voice.

Clarice reclines on the sofa and takes a sip of her drink.

"Hmm, a hit then, how many targets?" she asks.

"Only one, but he is a vip and guarded." Hanako replies.

Clarice seems to think for a moment before she starts speaking again.

"If you have the money, I may have the right mercs for you."

"Make it happen, I'm sending you the detes. Pablo will pay anything on this one, it's personal." Hanako says as she stands up and gets ready to leave the room.

Clarice waves her goodbye and her implant's light starts to blink to indicate a call.

"Just bring your grunt and meet me here, asap." she says.

About half an hour later Pixie and Trent arrive at the club and head straight to Clarice's vip room. She briefs them about Hanako's gig.

"Pablo is paying big on this one, we can't use regular mercs." she says.

"Say it, sis. You need the best of the best of the best." Pixie says trying to be irritating to her sister.

Trent just stays silent with his arms crossed on his chest.

"It's not a regular job, if it's personal for Pablo it means he will tag along. It's not just a simple hit, you guys will have to protect that idiot." Clarice adds.

"We will babysit a famous dj wanna be hitman?" Pixie asks.

"Would that be a problem, Pixie?" Clarice asks.

Pixie doesn't answer but nods her head with confidence.

"Good then, you two will get all the details from Neural, she is a great netrunner who works for Pablo, I'm sending you her contact." she continues as her implant blinks twice, indicating that she is sending some infos to both Trent and Pixie.

They both nod and stand up to exit the vip room. They head straight to Pablo's vip room.

Neural there wave them to take seats. Pablo looks at them back and forth before he starts talking.

"It takes shape, it takes shape" he repeats twice.

Pixie ignores him and speaks straight to Neural.

"Neural, Clarice told me a lot about you, I never thought I would meet you in person." she says to neural.

"So Clarice sends us the sister, at least she takes the job seriously." neural pauses a moment.

"I'm sending you both the detes I gathered. Our target stays at Clindor plazza, it's a regular building at the limit between the commons and the corpo districts." she let the info sink in them.

Pixie and Trent stay silent while they seem to study the details Neural sent them.

"You'll be able to fry the building's network?" Pixie asks Neural.

"Won't be necessary, I can easily take control of it, you will have to take care of the muscles only." Neural answers.

"Trent?" Pixie turns to him.

"Just point me to the direction and I will clean the way for you." Trent answers.

"When does it need to take place?" Pixie asks.

"We have a window tomorrow, we will rendez-vous at 11 pm in the back alley I marked in the detes. From there I already found an old access point that will allow me to get to their network." Neural answers.

Pablo is too nervous or excited to say anything, he just nods at everything they are saying.

Finally Neural takes Pixie and Trent outside of the vip room and sends them away.

When she gets back in, Pablo is drinking a shot of tequila.

"Are you sure you want to zero him yourself ?" Neural asks him.

Pablo doesn't answer and just nods frantically.

"You better not drink too much, don't screw this up!" She says with anger in her voice as she gets up and leave him alone in the vip room.

He doesn't even realize that she left, he grabs the tequila bottle and pours another shot.

He grabs the small glass and his eyes stare at his hand implant, the chrome reflecting his face.

He keeps thinking about taking revenge, it's so close that he almost can smell it.

He downs the shot of tequila and pours another.

After few minutes he lost tracks of how many he downed. He tries to get a grip of himself but it's too late, the tequila is making him dizzy.

He attempts to get up but he falls back on the sofa, it's useless to fight it.

His vision becomes blurry as he tries to grab the bottle.

"Damn... " He says as he feels his body getting heavier and heavier.

He finally gives up and closes his eyes, the darkness seems to spiral endlessly until he looses consciousness.