Part 50
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- River Ward?
- And you, I presume, are Quiet?
- I am.
- All right, where are you?
- Well, we just pulled up to the Knight City PD lab. Where am I supposed to go with Smarty?
- I'm sitting in the car.
He gave the make of the car and said it was on the opposite side of the main entrance. So Judy and I went over there, and soon we were in the car.
- So? I take it Peter Pan is here?
- Yes... and we need to get in, get the data and disappear.....
I nodded my head and quickly contacted the girls, but I was a bit out of the loop. However, it wasn't that important 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 took my mind off the conversation and looked at Rivera.
- What's this character's real name?
- Anthony Harris... why?
- Wait...
And I went back to talking to the girls.
- ...in real life his 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 get his medical scans from the lab. We need Judy to look at them before we do anything.
- Got it.
- Now.
I've disconnected from the conversation and turned to River.
- waiting.
- Waiting?!
- Yeah, I've got two good rangers hacking into the lab's network and getting all the information on this Anthony Harris without breaking in. Including the data on his brain state, which Smarty--
I nodded towards Judy.
- ...will tell us if it makes sense to go after him or if it's easier to dig elsewhere.
- Tsk... never thought I'd be sitting still while the Ranters break the police network....
- Don't be so dramatic. Not the police, just a police lab. We don't get any access to active investigations that way. 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.
- Tsk.
It took about ten minutes for the girls to carefully break into the network of the Knight City police lab, and then another ten minutes to find the necessary data, which they immediately forwarded to Judy.
- Rubbish...
That was the first thing she said after studying the data.
- А?
- I'm telling you the brain's fucked up, he's only staying alive because the chromium has taken over some of his life processes. Otherwise, there's practically nothing left of a brain. Sure, we could use the technology Regina was talking about... but the odds 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 retrace his route.....
- You think I haven't tried?!
- I think you're an honest cop, at least based on Regina's profile... I don't know and I don't 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 us what server this Peter Pan file is on. We need to get access to it.
- Eh... Knight City Police 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 telling you that we can handle this and you can go home is useless?
- Yeah...
I got a frown and nodded as if to make my words more meaningful.
- Good, then you follow us....
I got out of the car and made my way to the Cake, Judy followed and soon Panam was on the accelerator, we needed to drive a couple of blocks to our new destination. Rivera's car was lost somewhere in the traffic, he just couldn't keep up with Panam, she'd been a top-notch driver before, but now, with the chrome racers installed, she'd reached some unattainable level.
- Here we are.
- Ladies, do you need my help?
- No...there's the access point.....
Judy nodded at an unremarkable panel on the wall of the building we were stopped next to.
- ...that appears to be the access point for the Knight City Police Department. So we're gonna hack in carefully now. Anything else we can look for?
- Well, if you can find data on the Scavenger points that are being left untouched for some reason, that's fine, but the first priority is still Peter Pan.
- Right, right, well, we're on it.
River arrived about seven minutes later when Judy, Lucy and Kiwi were already hard at work.
- How's it going?
- We're working.
- Right.
It took them a little longer this time, it wasn't the Intercontinental Corporation like Arasaki or Militeha, not even the local Knight Corporation or its 'felyal' Max-Tak. But the Knight City Police Headquarters also had a pretty good ice. So it took about half an hour to break into it.
Then some more time was spent on information search, though I got some messages from girls with copied points of Scavengers, which the corrupt cops don't pay attention to because the gangsters pay for the roof. There were even reports on who was taking how much and who the bosses were sharing it with!
We could sell that information 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....
- All right.
- Did you find something?
All the while the girls were hacking into the main control room and searching for data, he was pacing back and forth next to Tortie. And he was looking at me with a slightly worried look and as soon as I showed any reaction, he was right next to the car window.
- Well... we've established exactly where he was picked up, the make and number of the car, and the direction he was travelling.
I frowned.
- But for some reason there is no information about checking the cameras on the motorway... and there are a lot of cameras there and they don't check them only in one case....
- Somebody doesn't need that...
- Exactly.
I nodded my head. After all, I myself took advantage of this kind of selective blindness of cops, through Regina, when we were attacked by stilettos on the motorway. So I know exactly how it works.
- Right, 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.
- So what are we waiting for?
- We wait for the girls to make sure they haven't missed anything and clean up their tracks. After all, this is not just a laboratory, but the General Directorate of Police...
I shook my head.
- The ice here should be good enough, so we'll have to be careful and reinsure ourselves. I don't want any trouble with the Cops....
- Right?
River grinned.
- Yeah. I don't even work against corporations, for your information. 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... though there are many corrupt among you, but even so, to work against you....
I shook my head.
- I shook my head. ...could get you in a lot of trouble...
- I see, so you make sure you don't cross the big uncles and aunts?
River grinned.
- Yeah...
I shrugged nonchalantly.
- ...Still, I not only have my life and freedom on my shoulders, but the lives and freedom of these girls as well. So I have to be very serious about picking the orders we're going to fill, and picking the fixers we're going to work with.
- We're done...
Judy opened her eyes and told me they were done working, so I nodded to River.
- I'll meet you at the next point, well, or you can still go to your nephew's mum and try to calm her down, and we'll call you when we know something about his whereabouts.
- Я...
- Would you go to the kid's mum...
Becca took a serious look at Rivera.
- She could use some support right now. And you're out here... just hanging around... no, if it were anyone else, we'd probably need your guidance... but we can handle it, if anything, we'll contact Regina to confirm the data....
- Okay... I get it...
River nodded and turned slightly jerkily, heading towards his car.
- So, where do we go from here?
- Our rangers will tell us where to look for the footage from the cameras we're interested in....
And they did tell us, but they weren't sure of the exact location, so they named three places at once. They said that Peter Pan's route passed through the disputed territory, the exact belonging of which is unrealistic to establish on the basis of publicly available data.
I nodded to Panam and she chose the nearest point to us, then pressed the accelerator pedal and with a little slippage Tortik took off from the place.
- Do you think we'll find him?
I glanced at Becca, who had asked the question.
- I think so... the only question is if he's alive now and if so, will he be alive when we go through the whole chain that will allow us to find him.
- Yeah... working for the cops....
She shook her head.
- ...I didn't think that 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 break.
- Yeah, you should be resting. We heard you and Judy and Panam were planning a threesome. When are you gonna pay attention to Lucy and me?
- Hey.
Lucy gave Becca a slightly exasperated look.
- Hey what? It's Kiwi who's got the hots for Pilar... and you and I are free virgins, David's a good-looking bloke... so we can at least afford to get laid....
- Don't you want our opinion?
Panam has spoken.
- Come on mate, we can definitely agree amongst ourselves, it's the decision of our big boss that counts. Otherwise, we'll agree and he won't agree....
- Well.
I took a look at Becca.
- You and Lucy are quite my type, and Kiwi... if at first, when we just started co-operating, I treated her with suspicion and some... partiality, now everything has changed....
- Especially since she finally got that bioprosthetic under her mask, huh?
Judy decided to be a little snide.
- I can't deny it's influenced my opinion. Although it's not so much the bioprosthesis, it's the fact that she's 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 have my eye on our beauty.
- Ahem...
Kiwi lowered her face into the high collar of her jacket, clearly embarrassed by my words.
- ...The other thing is that like you said, you haven't made an agreement with my girls yet. And without that agreement, I something more than just curiosity and admiration from the outside, I will not allow myself.
- Tsk. That's the right one.
- That's why he was chosen...
Panam glanced at Becca.
- ...Alright, we'll talk to you later, for now we're approaching our destination....