Chapter 25

"Is this building one of the archives of the fire station that the fire truck belonged to before it ended up in the dumpster?"

"Yeah..."

I looked around at the unremarkable building... and then I took another look at the layout and snorted. It wasn't a difficult job, but we were still serious about it, so Judy was now slowly connecting to the access point that would give her control over the building's cameras. And they were there, after all...

"Okay, I'm hooked up..."

Judy's image nodded at me and I grinned, quickly pulling out a harpoon, it seemed to be my favorite means of penetration... The harpoon went off and sank its hook into the roof rim, and then I slowly climbed up the wall.

"You need the third floor..."

"Roger that..."

When I got to the third floor I used the demon on the window and the lock immediately opened, then, continuing to hold on to the harpoon with one hand, I used the suction cup to open the window, which opened upwards. I slipped my foot in and made sure the window wouldn't collapse, then I unhooked the suction cup and finally opened the window, using its latch to leave it in that position.

"Coming in..."

Already on the floor I pressed the button on the gun, and as usual the harpoon stayed up, and the cable disconnected from it and rolled into the device, and after a couple of seconds there was a quiet pop, it was in the modified harpoon triggered a charge that simply broke the hook into many pieces.

"What's the situation?"

I didn't close the window.

"Everything's quiet, the only guard is sleeping at his post. As a rule, no one is interested in this place, so no one will hire a full-fledged security company to protect it.

I nodded my head.

"Second door on the right..."

I obediently open the door and see a rather large room with a huge number of storage racks. Servers...

Mm...

"Which one do you want?"

"Search by year..."

Judy gave me the year and I quickly walked along the racks, which to my surprise were signed. And I found the year I was looking for. but it was one of the last ones.

"And we're just in time..."

However, Judy was connected to me and could see everything I could see, so she was well aware that the retention period was almost up. Which meant that if she stayed a couple more years, she'd have no chance of proving her innocence.

"Yep... Connect..."

I obediently connected to the server, and now I felt nothing. Not in the sense that my body sensations were gone, but that with the more powerful deck, those flows of information that I used to feel due to its heat and other external factors were now simply not there. So I was quite glad that I had decided to replace it.

"Found, uh. evidence that some schmuck at the fire station falsified the car's paperwork. A previously decommissioned car is back on the books, retroactively... which is good, so I don't have to go to any other places. Downloading the data."

"Uh-huh...

I was still focused, but nothing happened until I simply jumped out of the building and landed softly on the ground, hearing the quiet click of the window closing behind me from above. I reached the Tortic, where Panam and Judy were waiting for me, and then we went to the Aldecaldo parking lot.

"So?"

The cake was on its way down the road when I turned to Judy.

"Did you get all the data you needed?"

"Yeah..."

She smiled.

"It remains to correct them a little bit by removing the excess, after which you can send them to the lawyer and he will already deal with the legal process."

I nodded my head contentedly.

"That's good..."

"Uh-huh...

"And tomorrow we have the first job from Regina."

I cast a glance at Panam.

"Warn Mitch and Scorpio that you may need their help."

"А?"

"We've got two scavenger bases in mind, both of which Regina says probably have warehouses of chrome. So taking it out for someone who's going to be a lot more useful than the thugs who are dismantling regular people for it seems like the right idea to me."

"We pay for the chrome through Regina, as always?"

I shrugged.

"You know the rules. if we had found those dots, it would have been ours, and since Regina found them, she gets a percentage of the chrome sales. However, I can agree to a discount for Aldecaldo, which is purely my share. But the percentage for Regina must be whatever she decides."

"Got it, I'll warn Mitch and Scorpio and Saul, he's the one who's gonna be paying out of the general treasury... Huh, and last time we installed a new chrome for almost everyone, so most of this will go outside of Knight City and its territories to those parts of our clan that are in other parts of the country."

I shrugged.

"It's not that important..."

"You just don't get it."

Panam grinned.

"This is another nail in the coffin of the idea of lying under biotech."

"Hmm?"

Judy looked at Panam with interest, and I was interested in what she said. Judy looked at Panam with interest, and I was interested in what she said.

"What's the point of lying down under someone if we can provide for our own existence? And with the new chrome, jobs will be a lot easier to accomplish! That means more profit. and yes, I don't recommend the discount..."

"А?"

I looked at Panam in surprise.

"It's better to give them an installment plan. Let them pay, but in installments, so they don't forget who gave the clan a new chrome. It'll hurt Saul's reputation a little more. Knowing him, I can say that he will try to say that it was his efforts you gave the clan an installment on very favorable terms, but everyone in the clan already knows that you and I are a couple, so this attempt will look pathetic."

"What if he doesn't try to take credit for the success?"

"Then he would have to admit that someone who wasn't the head of the clan could achieve a much better result than he could. And in such a short period of time. That would also be a blow to his position..."

"There's something you're not telling me..."

I looked at Panam carefully.

"Yes... I want you to take over as clan leader, but, uh."

She bit down on her lower lip for a few seconds.

"I talked to Mitch, and he says it's just not possible. And he suggested that I take over the clan myself. He said you're still my man and you're there for me."

"Well..."

I nodded my head.

"...he's basically right. I'm certainly not ready to snap for Aldecaldo yet if they decide to move to another part of the country right tomorrow, but I think that's where it's headed..."

I nodded my head again.

"I... look, can I come with you if you're going somewhere?"

"Hmm?"

I cast a glance at Judy and Panam similarly looked at her through the rearview mirror.

"Well. I just tried leaving Knight City once before, but I was alone and it didn't work out, the city sucked me back in, but I guess if I have good company around..."

Judy licked her lips dry with embarrassment.

"...then the city can't suck me back into its depths..."

"I don't mind..."

I shrugged and cast a glance at Panam.

"If I do decide to join Panam and her clan, I don't mind having you with us, eh ta?"

I cast a glance at Panam, and she nodded her head.

"Where would I be without you, friend?"

"I... thank you."

In the meantime, we reached Aldecaldo's territory, and just as I was about to get out of the car, a call from an unknown number rang out.

"Listening..."

I raised my hand stopping the girls and asking for a couple minutes of silence.

"Tihnia? It's Bestia..."

"I'm listening to you..."

"I have an assignment for you..."

I made a Herculean effort to keep my face from grimacing. This lady may not be famous for leaking her solos left and right, but her reputation isn't the cleanest either. However, you can't find fixers with clean reputations, even Regina has dark spots...

"When?"

"Eleven o'clock tonight... Postmortem. You'll be escorted out."

I sighed. The connection broke, and I looked at Panam and Judy confused.

"You won't believe this..."

"Hmm?"

"I was just contacted by Bestia..."

"I thought you didn't want to work with her..."

I nodded my head.

"Yes, it's an unnecessary risk, but it's also an unnecessary risk to send her..."

I sighed and dialed Regina.

"She called you already, didn't she?"

Regina's voice was slightly sad.

"Exactly. I take it you gave her my contact?"

"I was asked in a very convincing way..."

Regina's image wrinkled slightly.

"I see..."

"Okay, working for Bestia is honorable, but I care more about my fixer..."

"Phew..."

Regina choked slightly, however, a smile appearing on her face and the slight irritation missing from her eyes.

"...so let's see, is there any way you can text me dates in advance for sample assignments that you've probably already planned for me?"

"Hmm?"

"Just leave one day as a window so Bestia doesn't suspect anything... and, yes, I'm still taking the weekends, not even Bestia can get me out of my seat."

"Roger that... it's not a bad idea. But it could start to put a strain on prestige..."

"When have I ever cared enough about him to put my head in the tiger's mouth?"

"Well. you're right, you're almost unique."

Regina forwarded me emails with a rough schedule and I quickly looked it over.

"I figured I'd let you know I'm busy after I talk to Bestia."

"Okay. and thank you for not abandoning me. employees like you. are very valuable."

"Thank you for such high praise."

I smirked and cut the connection.

"And?"

"Regina's been pressured... Considering there aren't many reasonable people in Knight City who can do that..."

I shook my head.

"...I was right not to send Bestia. I'll have to fill her orders once in a while, but I'll make sure they take her a long time to pick up... and they don't come cheap."

"Hmm?"

"Well, I have a very busy schedule..."

I grinned.

"Orders are literally scheduled by the day and hour, which means that for her sake some orders will have to be canceled, which will result in having to pay a penalty. I think Regina wouldn't mind moving some orders to other solos or just to another time, if she gets decent money for it. And she'll leave room for Bestia in my schedule. So it's not like Bestia can say for sure that we're doing this on purpose..."

Panam raised her hand and now I was worried. But she ended the conversation quite quickly.

"Who?"

"Also Bestia... like she said, she recognized my potential..."

Panam snorted.

"and he's offering me a much better-paying job than me. I'll be in charge, but I'll have a guy named Nash riding with me--

She wrinkled her nose.

"What is it?"

"I just heard about Nash. that asshole from the Steelers. And if it wasn't for working with you, I probably wouldn't even know about it. Can you believe she wanted me to work with Stelet?"

"Did you turn her down?"

"Yeah..."

"I hope I wasn't rude."

"I held back, so I didn't say a word to her, but I gave a characterization of the Stilettos in general and Nash, who was still unknown to me."

I nodded, and Panam and I glanced at Judy. It wasn't that she was such a good runner that Bestia would be interested in her, but what if she was?

But no, she didn't get a call two minutes later, or by the evening when we were about to leave for Postmortem...