Chapter 42

"Here comes Tihonja..."

A large-sized black man with a gold chrome arm and dark glasses grinned good-naturedly as his driver opened the door and I got inside his car.

"I have to say, you took your time..."

Although he showed me that my "tardiness" did not hurt him in any way, he still tried to reproach me with it.

"You should have told me where to go beforehand..."

I shrugged.

"...or was I supposed to run all over the parking lot looking for your car? You could at least tell V the floor of the parking lot where you'll be waiting for me..."

"Come on, I'm not being mean..."

The man tried to backpedal, but I didn't care about his attempts. I didn't give a damn about his attempts, either.

"...just time is money."

I nodded my head.

"And that's why I'm wondering why I was invited to this meeting, wouldn't it have been easier to get my number by arrangement with Bestia or Regina and just call?"

"I do not like to talk about important matters through a call, I prefer a personal meeting, it is always clear what your interlocutor is ..."

There was a brief silence, which I decided to break.

"So?"

"I'd like to offer you a job. Serious business."

He didn't continue the sentence, but I could hear the continuation: "...not what you usually do.". He spoke in a slightly patronizing tone... It was irritating and completely discouraged any desire to continue the conversation.

"What if I'm not interested?"

The question was asked for a reason, I really didn't want to get into the crap barrel of the cyberpunk canon.

"Well, I guess in that case, the full burden of fame will happily be borne by Vee and her friend Jackie..."

And again, his reticence had a sense of what he wanted to say, but didn't. But this time it was more difficult to read the exact phrase between the words, and I didn't bother with it, because there was nothing pleasant there anyway.

The mood immediately sank another couple points downward.

"I don't mind this kind of development..."

I shrugged, which the man didn't expect me to do. And it was because he was overconfident, so he didn't even have time to react when I grabbed the doorknob and started to open the car door.

"Wait, wait, wait..."

DeShawn could easily read the incomprehension in his voice. He honestly couldn't understand how anyone could refuse his offer so easily. He's the fucking DeShawn! The Black King of Knight City!

"You're just willing to give up the Major Leagues?!"

"A quiet and peaceful life, that's all I'm interested in..."

"One assignment and you could be an obscenely rich man!"

"Uh-huh...

I nodded my head.

"...as well as make obscenely influential, obscenely vindictive, obscenely vengeful, and obscenely rich enemies."

"That's the beauty of it! The task must be accomplished extremely quietly! In and out! And you're rich!"

I nodded my head, showing how skeptical I was of that statement.

"Uh-huh, very quiet... You don't take force majeure into account?

"We'll plan everything. no force majeure, no corpses, no alarms, nothing that could hinder us during the mission or add problems after it's over..."

In DeShawn's voice you could hear the superiority and arrogant self-assurance.

"Well, good luck to you and V and Jackie, they'll be glad to make it to the big leagues..."

And if Dexter intoned the phrase "Major League" in a way that made it immediately clear that it was something beyond my reach at the moment. Something unimaginable. Something alluring. Well, it's all in his mind, and I guess he didn't care enough to gather information, or he would have known that I worked with Bestia from time to time. Or did she mislead him?

Never mind...

I said "major league" like it was no big deal. It's just something I deal with every day. And I'm not lying, I deal with this kind of assignment a lot.

"You mean no?"

"You got me right..."

I nodded my head.

"...I say no."

"And your team?"

A grin appeared on DeShawn's lips. Apparently he thought it was a good move, to remind me that I wasn't alone, that I had a team and they might disagree with my decision. Hint that he could contact them and offer them a job and then...

"What about the team?"

I shrugged, as if not understanding his hints.

"I can go to them, too..."

"Well. try it."

I wanted to say the word, send him to the ass, give him a drum in his ass and sticks in his urethra, but I restrained myself.

"А?"

This Afronutsite was shocked at my calm reaction.

"I say try it, but I doubt you'll get anywhere..."

"And yet..."

Decter spoke as if he hadn't just tried to pressure me in some way.

"...maybe there's something that might convince you to be brave enough to agree to a contract?"

I shook my head.

"Honestly, I expected a lot more from you. More ingenuity in trying to convince me to take the job. And it's disappointing."

Hmm, I think my words hurt him. you can tell, though he didn't seem to show it. I talk to Bestia and Regina a lot, and they're much more reserved.

"I won't keep you any longer..."

There was a chill in DeShawn's voice.

"...just make sure you don't regret the decision you made."

"I won't regret it..."

It wasn't that I didn't notice the threat in DeShawn's voice, but I preferred not to emphasize it. Though I should remember it and be more attentive. But to react to a threat that wasn't even verbalized, but was only indicated by tone...

Anyway, I thought it was unnecessary, although I was tempted to get the unit and help DeShawn with the opening of the third eye.

I got out of the car and slammed the door back into the living quarters of the megatower, where I made my way to the same diner where Panam was sitting.

"And how's that?"

"Well, uh. not so much."

"Threatened?"

Panam understood me very well and by my appearance, tone and everything she could see and analyze she understood that everything was not so good. So this question was more than reasonable, but I could only shrug my shoulders at it.

"So yeah..."

"More like a hint. A hint of a threat. I should have warned the girls."

Having said that I quickly set up a conference call with the entire team. And when they all, including Panam, who was standing next to me, answered my call I continued.

"Hey everyone..."

"Uh-huh...

The girls greeted me almost in sync. Their images were smiling. Of course, I usually minimize their images, because during work an extra millimeter of view can be very critical, and the icons of all the girls can cover half of the view, but now I decided not to minimize the images.

"I have information. I was set up with Dexter DeShawn and he offered me a job..."

"By you, you mean all of us?"

"I don't know, didn't specify..."

I shrugged at Lucy's question.

"I hope you didn't agree?"

"Kiwi reacted to my words right after Lucy."

"What?! Kiwi, are you crazy?! That's--

"Becca, DeShawn leaks solos working for him too often..."

"А?"

Becca was very much surprised by her friend's words, even the flow of words she had been trying to continue when Kiwi first started talking was interrupted.

"Working for him is like playing Russian roulette. Only not with one cartridge in a six-shot revolver, but with at least three cartridges, or even four...

"I agree with you Kiwi, and you can rest easy, I turned down the job for DeShawn."

"Let me guess. he didn't like it."

Lucy very subtly realized exactly what I was going to say next and beat me to it by only a couple of seconds, thus drawing the attention of all of us.

"Uh-huh. tried to push... Not directly of course, he's well aware that he's just a fixer, albeit a good one, and I'm a solo who was in close proximity to him at the time. Talked about the big leagues, hinted at cowardice, and then mentioned you afterward... So keep in mind that he may try to come out to you and offer you a job...

"I'm with you."

Judy was the first to react. Almost immediately after her, Panam reacted and said the same thing, albeit in slightly different words.

"I'm definitely not gonna work with DeShawn. I have enough Faraday in my life. Good thing I'm not in debt to him after you invited me, I even made a few down payments..."

Kiwi spoke quietly and calmly, but was very firm in her words. Well, it's understandable, she's a bit of an understatement after all, because she managed not just to make a few early payments, she lowered her monthly payment quite a bit by making a significant amount as a partial early payment.

"Becca? Lucy?"

I focused my gaze on their images, and if Lucy was calm as always, Becca, she was... The emotions on her face were flickering with great speed. If I hadn't had some experience with her, I would have been a little confused by the kaleidoscope of emotions.

For a while, the girls continued to remain silent, with the situation somewhat escalating.

"I can't tell you what you should do, but let me give you some advice... Before you make a decision, buy DeShawn's info from the fixers, study it, correlate his cases and everything else... And only after reviewing all that information..."

"I'm in."

Lucy interrupted me and I nodded, accepting her decision. It was damn nice to have almost all of my partners on my side. Of course, her interrupting me was a little unnecessary; she could have let me finish, but even so...

"To hell with you! I'm not working with him!"

"Becca, I'm not insisting, I just want the decision to be made by you, not on emotion, but when you've fully..."

"Shut up already! I'm not stupid! You're obviously more informed in this situation, I've never been interested in unnecessary information... And Kiwi's heard of DeShawn, which means there's two of you here who know about him... And I have no reason not to believe you."

"Thank you..."

I'm sure by now the girls could hear in my voice not only gratitude, but also warmth and pleasure that they all accepted my decision as the right one. They did not challenge it and refused to work with someone who did not suit me as our employer.

"Wait a minute..."

Judy's image froze, indicating that she'd cut our conversation short, switching to another call. Had it already started to take effect?

Quickly he...

I expected it to kick in at least forty minutes minimum. If not the next day, and he...

"What a bitch!"

"Is something wrong? DeShawn?"

"Huh? What does that have to do with this fixer? Although. part of it has to do with him, too."

My curiosity switched Judy around a bit and she stopped pushing so much negativity on everyone. Of course, there was a slight risk that I would get caught, but as they say, the sacrifice was worth it.

"So what happened?"

"Becca was just as curious."

"I've been fucked over..."

"What do you mean?"

Panam joined in the dialog.

"Parker called me and demanded that I process the recording made by her optics, saying that David had accepted the order from DeShawn and now I, as part of his group, was obliged to process the brein so that the information from it could help in planning the operation."

I covered my eyes...

Was she in a hurry? Or was she just an inconsiderate fool who decided to do some of the work herself?

"Fuck, that bitch is calling again..."

"So add her to the blacklist..."

Lucy said this and Judy's face smoothed with enlightenment, and a couple of seconds later it sounded

"Added..."