Ghost in the City
Chapter 59

I ended up practicing some songs for another hour or so to see what my new voice could do, before Jun threw a pillow to shut me up.

But while I couldn’t Mimic all voices, I had a pretty large range and so some songs I could even sing in character.

It was fun!

But since Jun was going to sleep I settled in to do more programming through the night.

Like all programmers I ended up going out and getting some coffee and then piling the coffee table full of old cups as I worked on the keyboard.

“Motoko. Did you even sleep?” Jun asked as he shuffles out of his room that morning.

“Not yet. I’ll take a nap in a bit.” I told him, which wasn’t untrue. A good eight hours would soon be on the horizon meaning I would be at 100% for the gig.

“Well… Make sure you sleep. You said you were going out on that gig… I can come wi-”

“Denied. This is a Motoko crew only thing. It’s gonna be a milk run Jun. Just some scavs that need to be exterminated.” I told him throwing a thumbs up towards him without looking away from the screen. “Plus if anything goes wrong, Ichi, Hiromi, and Malcolm will be there as backup.”

“Didn’t Hiromi crash her bi-”

“Juun! You can’t repeat that! I told you that in confidence!” I hissed at him pointing. “Besides, Hiromi is like the fixer for this job. She’s going to be contacting buyers for the loot. So she doesn’t have to fight.”

“I wish you wouldn’t pull this shit… But you do have the skill… Take some extra firepower at least. For your chooms or something.”

“Oh that’s a good idea. I’ll grab some stuff and bring it along!” Too bad my HMG was still in rough shape. I really needed to fix that thing.

“Alright…” he sighed “I can’t stick around. Call or text me when the gig starts, and then when it’s over. If it takes too long. I’ll be coming!”

“Okay okay. I’ll let you know. Now get out of here. You got work?”

“Just some stuff with Sensei today. We are removing all the stuff the TC put in to the dojo.”

I blinked before remembering the underground room full of tech, and the Ripper room. I guess it made sense. The place was basically the C&C for the Kamikaze. Pulling it out now that it wasn’t in use, and clearing up Sensei’s Dojo made sense.

“Alright drive safe!” I called out, only getting a grumble in return.

—--

I was back to working on Ping trying to get my little addition working when it happened.

*Intelligence Leveled up!*

I blinked.

Level 7!

“Yes!” I cheered as the level up came in, I guess all my programming had finally given me an upgrade!

I settled back down and I did actually notice a difference as I worked. I hadn’t been able to really notice a difference between intelligence levels before, but this time? This time since I was programming before and after I could pick out the differences.

It wasn’t that I was just smarter. But I did process information faster! I could look at a cluster of code and process through it that bit faster than I had before. The numbers were able to be calculated just that little bit faster.

It was nice.

But I pushed that aside. It didn’t really change anything. Just made it a little bit easier. So I spent the next hour or so debugging the code.

It would work.

It was messy. It wasn’t clean. But it would make Ping a little bit harder to track if I used it on a network. Stretching out I uploaded the completed program into my Cyberdeck and shut the laptop down.

Time for a nap!

—--

“You all look great!” I told the crew as we met up. We were all meeting up at Hiromi’s apartment complex. Funnily enough the security there meant that it was actually pretty safe to gather together in our armored clothes before the gig. Sure there were cameras, but if you knew anything about Night City, you knew that anyone in a Corp isn’t going to want records of their coming and going.

So the garage was pretty safe.

We all met up around Ichi’s truck, I was the last to show up much to my embarrassment. Thankfully Hiromi distracted me from being late.

“What’s with your mask Motoko?” Hiromi asked and I eye smiled as the bottom of my face was covered in a cloth ninja mask.

I was pulling a Kakashi!

“I’m a ninja Hiromi. Nin-nin.” I told her happily.

“Nin-nin? What the fuck is that?” Malcolm asked just confused, and so was everyone else.

“And three fourths of you call yourself japanese. Disappointed.” I tell them all frankly. “Now enough about my amazing ninja outfit. Let’s go over the plan again.” I said grabbing everyones attention.

I had planned this last night.

I had wanted to mess with my friends to work off some of the anxiety. So I coughed lightly into my fist. Altering my voice to my Sexy Motoko.

“Attention Section 9. Mission brief begins now.”

And then I stood there enjoying the lovely chaos.

Hiromi’s jaw dropped.

Malcolm looked utterly confused. Looking around as if wondering what the hell was going on.

Ichi had a flush crawling up his neck to his ears as she stared at me.

“Oh? Cat got your tongues?” I mocked a little, putting a hand on my hip and cocking it a bit. “I suppose I’ll hav-Hiromi!”

“Mooootokooo! Did you get a voice changer!? Your new voice is so sexy! Amazing!” Hiromi called out after tackling me, nearly knocking me on my ass as I had to spin her a bit to bleed off her momentum.

“It’s certainly… Mature.” Ichi offered. Sᴇaʀᴄh the N0ᴠᴇFɪre.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.

“Is Motoko fucking with us?” Malcolm added.

“I’m not, not fucking with you.” I offered to Malcolm, and I got to enjoy the way his face got a little flushed too as I threw him a wink.

“I’ve never heard that voice before. It’s pretty good. What’s it called?” Ichi asked a little too calmly.

“Well fortunately for me. It’s not a voice changer.” I pulled down my ninja mask showing my unchromed neck. “I just learned how to change my voice a little. It’s mostly in the chest, breathing differently, to make me a bit deeper and huskier.” I offered with a casual shrug. Once you knew the trick it really was pretty easy.

My answer did not in fact calm things.

I ignored the many questions from my chooms as I coughed into my fist. “Let’s all settle down now. We have a gig to do don’t we? Malcolm. Ichi everything settled with the truck?” I prompted cutting through the many questions, and my voice did grab attention.

“A-ah yeah I messed with the license plate. As long as we don’t run past any NCPD we’ll be fine, and any recordings will have the wrong plate.”

“Excellent. Malcolm, you got the equipment loaded?”

“Yeeep.” He said staring a bit but shaking it off. “The trolleys and loading tools are all in there ready for us.”

“Hiromi, ready for boredom?”

“Yeeees.. I mean no?” She asked, looking a little frazzled as she was still hugging me.

I smiled at her, and patted her on the head. “Good job.” I told her and turned towards my car. “I have some extra weapons if anyone wants something with a bit more kick. I doubt we will need them, but I would rather you have them just in case.” I called out as I pulled away from a suddenly limp Hiromi.

“Uh yeah I’ll take something. I only have my normal iron. Wasn’t any reason to pick up something bigger during the war. If I got into a fight I was fucked already.” Ichi called out and Malcolm echoed him as I pulled open the side door on the Quadra showing my collection of shotguns and rifles. The Nekomata was there too, but I was gonna slap anyone upside the head if they went for that.

You have to be trained to use a sniper.

Hiromi didn’t collect anything but the two boys each grabbed a shotgun.

“H-hey Motoko… Are you gonna use that voice from now on?” Hiromi asked quietly but I laughed, which sounded pretty cool in sexy Motoko voice.

“No. This was just a little trick I was playing on all of you to calm you all down for the gig. Unfortunately, Sexy Motoko voice is going away.” I said relaxing my throat and stretching it a bit with a hand. “See? Back to normal.”

“Aww.” Hiromi whined and even Ichi and Malcolm looked disappointed.

Of course! The Major's best voice is definitely an amazing voice! I’m almost sorry to go back to my normal voice too!

“Alright everyone! Section 9! Move out!”

“Section 9?” Malcolm asked and I could see Ichi just shrug out of the corner of my eye. I ignored them of course and climbed into the back of the truck with Malcolm.

Hiromi and Ichi were driving, and Malcolm was the one with experience in the back of these trucks.

And so we set off.

—--

“Seriously though Motoko, that voice is pretty preem, especially since you can just switch like that.”

“Malcolm, it’s been ten minutes. Let it go already.” I told him. I guess my plan to distract my team went a little… Too well.

“Here it is… But seriously, the voice!” He whispered to me as we bounced lightly down the road.

“Just keep focused.” I told him as I kneeled down. My recording of the gig started, and as the truck passed across the spot I rolled out of it landing on my feet and with a quick jog slowed myself down as I ran up a set of stairs into the alley. I reached the back entrance of the Scavs den in moments.

The sun was down. The lights were dim in this area, and no one noticed a lone truck just driving down the street.

Ichi would drive around the building parking near the front entrance until he got the call. Until then I was on my own.

Looking around and being pleased there was no one around. Not even cameras or anything. A little dead spot…

Probably set up like that on purpose I realized.

My eyes flashed as I started scanning. As I slipped inside the door not even taking a second to get through.

It looked like an old chopshop. A busted up car that was half taken apart stood in the little garage area.

Figures scavs would hide in such a place.

No sign of them being scavs… Yet.

But I already knew. I just wanted ‘evidence’ on the BD. In fact. The garage bay was empty, both floors, and I made sure to look up checking for cameras and things just to be sure.

Nothing.

I smiled as I crept up and looked through the windows on the garage, the Scavs had a nice little living space. A few were hanging around watching TV, one had a Wreath on his head…

I would definitely be killing him mid BD, he was practically begging for it! But not yet.

I started counting. Getting my numbers. Unlike previous gigs, I wasn’t going to kill as I go.

I was going to know exactly how many scavs I needed to murder before I started. They wouldn’t know I was here until it was too late.

Instead of heading into their living area I moved to the yellow utility stairs leading to the second floor overlooking the garage area. It also wrapped around leading into a second floor of the living space. No one was here. So it was literally giving me full access to everything they were doing. Following along there was a door I checked.

Small storage. Nothing immediately interesting. I continued. Down a hall to another little room that had the normal interior stairs. Since no one was up here. I checked the door.

Another storage closet.

Was this place all storage closets!?

But then I noticed the security access panel on the wall. I closed the closet door behind me as I jacked in.

It was a rush. The Seacho was a whole other beast compared to the Paraline. The moment I connected I could practically smell the lack of a Netrunner protecting the place, and I broke through the ice in seconds.

It was WET. One of the already solved ICE walls that I had picked up from Yoko! These idiots hadn’t upgraded their security in at least twenty years!

With that I had access to their security net.

I also was able to send a Ping through the system.

Instantly lines of light erupted in my view.

Ten Scavs?

Might as well sleep through this gig.

With them all in my sights I felt extremely comfortable moving around.

I traveled across the weird upper level this place had, letting me look down at the stupid scav gonks and their day to day. I even zoomed in on one of them playing some game on a laptop. Watching for a minute before he failed a jump and died.

“Pathetic.” I couldn’t help but whisper. The radio, TV, and general noise of people on electronics, more than enough to keep my voice hidden.

But as I traveled across I noticed it. There was another set of stairs in the corner behind me.

Heading down. I had scoped out this entire area, and there was no scav shit up here. Just scavs.

Some of which did have bounties…

I could just start killing…

No I instead moved back across the catwalk, finding a space that would work. I jumped down to avoid some of the wandering scavs and reached the basement stairs in a quiet pomf of noise before sneaking in. The stairs led into a broken room, with the plastic strips that were often used in Night City to stop blood splatter.

The fact there was a body broken open and ripped apart on the chair was evidence enough of what happened here.

Okay. I got confirmation.

There was no one down here. Perfect. I slipped over to the body bypassing it until I reached a computer that was stationed nearby. It took a bit longer to break the ICE on this one. It was newer, but off the shelf, without a netrunner protecting it, it only took me a minute before I was in.

While I pushed a shard into the computer setup, and started downloading everything. Emails. Connections. I even hacked in, and started downloading the OS records. There would be nothing on this computer that I wouldn’t have.

I was reading the emails, making sure that Charles was the nasty guy I expected him to be. That this wasn’t something he was being blackmailed to do. I would still kill him if he was being blackmailed, but I would feel slightly bad about it.

But nope.

I had read enough to confirm his participation.

Then I unplugged. Pocketing the shard. Time to roll.

I stalked back upstairs. Thanks to Ping I already knew where everyone was.

Nine Scavs hanging around the living room. And Charles the ripper behind me. Turns out he was hooked into the security net as well. Made sense.

But he would be last.

First gonk died from surprise loss of the ability to breath through all the blood flooding down his neck. I dropped his body, I didn’t need to hide bodies simply leaving him on the floor where he had been walking towards a table to grab some grub.

*500 XP Gained.*

There wouldn’t be anyone left to find them soon. Next guy was BD Wreath guy. As was tradition I took him out just as quickly and moved on.

*500 XP Gained.*

Third and forth died together. They were watching TV like a married couple. I had a spare knife now thanks to a Raffen Shiv member, and my knife and ‘shiv’ sunk in and tore free killing them both in quiet gurgles.

*500 XP Gained.*

*500 XP Gained.*

Fifth guy I didn’t even sneak up on.

He was sitting at a table eating and I walked right across the room to him. He noticed me only in the last moment, eyes widening before my knife swept through his throat.

*500 XP Gained.*

I ignored his fumbled attempts to talk as he fell out of his chair.

The noise must have alerted someone as I saw the golden line shift closer to me. I just flipped my Shiv and tossed it.

The poor number six Scav rounded the corner, not even armed, just looking around wondering what the noise was when the knife took him in the chest. My second throw took him down instantly.

*500 XP Gained.*

Honestly scavs were so pathetic. Barely any chrome on these ones. The first Scav den was more put together than this one. Then again from the emails I had looked through on the computer downstairs, these weren’t the best of the best, just some guys meant to keep an eye on the doc, to do his dirty work.

No, I would be searching for their main base once they were cleaned up.

But I moved on. Seven eight and nine were together as well.

Sitting on a couch watching some TV.

I thought out my assault in an instant and moved.

One knife was thrown as I leaped over the couch, slipping into a poor gonks throat, my other hand slammed a knife into the scav on my right slipping into his trachea, I tore it loose uncaring about the blood that splattered over me and scav gonk number nine.

*500 XP Gained.*

*500 XP Gained.*

The fact I had landed directly in his lap, gave him about a second to start trying to react, instinct meant he tried to push me off.

I rolled with his motion spinning a bit in his lap until we were face to face.

Then he coughed. My knife slipping up and into his chin. His body shook trying to do something as he slowly gagged and choked to death.

*500 XP Gained.*

With that done I sent a text to the crew letting them know to move in. I hurried back through the den downstairs and then up until I reached the door to the Doctors fake ripper clinic.

Then I just walked inside.

Malcolm and Hiromi were already inside, and the Ripper wasn’t looking too happy with both gun toting teens.

“Oh don’t cause a fuss Charles… We already know you’re working with the Scavs.” I said in my sexy voice to the room, the Ripper spun to face me as I opened the door looking horrified that I had come up from the basement.

My words, and the fact I was coming out of his back room quieted the room.

Oh and probably the blood.

I was covered in a lot of blood.

“H-hey that’s not it! They forced me! The-”

“I read your emails Charles.” I assured him. Then before anyone could react, I drew my Lexington and fired. Then I walked over and fired twice more.

Always double tap when possible.

*500 XP Gained.*

*Cold Blood skill level up!*

I closed my eyes and turned off the BD recording.

Huh Cold Blood level 8. It was now maxed out compared to my current Cool stat.

“Okay guys you all ready?” I asked turning to my team.

“W-why are you using the sexy voice again!?” Malcolm couldn’t help but snap at me, even if he was looking more towards the dead body.

“I guess I like it!” I said with a smile under my mask.

“Oh, well I like it too!” Hiromi offered her Katana sheathed with a little flourish. She would look perfectly at ease if not for the slight shake to her hands.

“Alright let’s go through everything. Malcolm start here, find his Cyberware and box it. Hiromi you’re with Malcolm. I’ll go help Ichi at the back.”

“Yes Motoko!” Hiromi jumped to it, seeming a little too quick to listen to me.

What was with that girl?

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