87

I was still hammering through the issue in my head when I got back home. I would call the team together soon to chat about what to do, but we had been running around for a few days now. Best to give everyone some time to decompress.

Unluckily for me. Jun wasn't home which was disappointing. I really wanted to talk to him about what to do.

So instead I flopped onto the couch and pulled up all the data. All the recordings and pictures.

Oh! Hiromi had actually sent me a dossier on the owner of the yacht…

Well it wasn't quite that professional, but it had the information I had asked for.

"Bartolomeo Mordellini." I muttered as I read through the information. Apparently he was a purveyor of certain kinds of entertainment for the rich and famous. Parties. Drugs. BD. He did them all, and was apparently rich and popular enough his parties could even have high entry costs. The sort of thing that the rich and famous could get involved in to make themselves seem even richer and more important than the people that couldn't get in.

His yacht the GEIshhhA was a common party spot.

I'm sure the parties were all very respectful and drugs and other entertainment wasn't allowed.

Sure.

But there was a benefit here. As popular as he was. He wasn't a member of a corp. If he disappeared some people might be annoyed at the lack of parties, but I doubted I would have corpo hit squads after me and my chooms.

Why Scavs? I didn't get the connection though. He obviously wasn't one himself. But why would a guy who hosted parties help out Scavs?

Money?

I doubted it. If he was hosting parties with the rich and famous he was already quite wealthy. So what was going on?

I shook it off. Whatever deal he had didn't matter. Fuck the Scavs, and fuck this asshole who worked with them.

So how do I come away with this gig without getting burned.

To start with. I would need to move the yacht. I would have to make sure it even had fuel, if it didn't it certainly wouldn't be able to move. That would be tricky.

I would need to do this hopefully without having the marina realize until it was too late.

Then I would need to sail the boat down the coast to somewhere I could loot the thing, hopefully NCPD didn't have a coast guard element… or if they did, they would just ignore what I was doing. I gave it a 50/50 either way.

Then I would need to have enough people to unload the ship. To pack it away into trucks and get it the hell out of there to hide it somewhere else. All without having Raffen or other scavengers come to take it from me.

The Nomads not helping made it more difficult.

I sighed.

Did I want to try bringing in the SLS into this?

I winced at the very idea.

Sure they obviously knew how to loot, but bringing a bunch of kids that I barely knew? With crates of chrome each worth tons of eddies?

I would be surprised if even half the crates showed up at the end.

Could I trust them? I don't know. I was leaning towards no though. Maybe I can hire them out to help Hiromi while she is selling or something, but for something this big…

So who else could I trust?

The Mox?

I had to shake my head there too. While I was close to Rita, and I liked Judy and Nox. That wasn't the Mox.

The Mox were more than just three people, especially three people that weren't all that high up in the gang.

Suzie Q. I had met her before, but I was well aware that Suzie was very much a Mox first kind of woman.

Could I trust that I would have any of the crates left over at the end?

Ugh.

The one negative about not being part of a gang I guess. Sure I didn't have to deal with mob boss assholes willing to throw me away at the drop of a hat for a few eddies. But I also didn't have enough people I trusted to get some gigs done.

I was even starting to consider going to Wakako. She would know people, but I was sure if I did that my payday would start dwindling real fast.

I shook it away. I would talk to Jun. He was great at giving me advice, and being a sounding board.

I ended up getting stuck in my head despite my goal to wait for Jun, so when he finally got home a few hours later, I hadn't done anything but consider what I was going to do.

"Jun! I need life counseling!" I demand from the couch sitting and pinning him with a firm look.

"What?"

"I need advice. Come sit when you are ready." I told him firmly with a nod of my head, and Jun must have realized something because he snorted and nodded, first heading to the kitchen and then coming back to settle onto the couch with a drink in hand.

"What's up Motoko?"

"So here is the deal."

—--

"You should totally steal it all. Flatline the gonk too." Jun offered with a sage nod.

Which did nothing to actually help me.

"Your life counseling sucks." I informed him which didn't seem to bother him as he shrugged.

"Motoko. You've been thinking about all these groups that could help you out, but you forgot one of them in your list." He says and I have to turn my head away.

I hadn't forgotten one of them.

It just wasn't even an option.

"Fujimura-Sama would definitely mobilize the Kamikaze for a payday this big."

"I'm not working with the TC on this Jun."

"You are worried about the heat a gig like this will bring right? If the TC helps, suddenly the heat moves away from you and your chooms, and is put squarely on the TC. It solves all of your problems." He argued.

"Except I would have to work with the Tyger Claws! Putting myself even closer to…"

"Becoming one of us?" He said with a smirk.

"I'm not." I argued instantly, but I was definitely not whining! Jun reached over and pulled me into a hug.

"I know. You're a bit too wild. It drives Fujimura-Sama mad."

"Good! He's a jerk anyways!" I grumbled but Jun just stayed there and I sighed. "I don't want to just be some gang banger Jun. I shouldn't need to rely on something like that."

"Well you have choices Motoko, but it sounds like all the choices have good things, and bad." He informed me and then like the big brother he was he picked me up as he stood up and tossed me back on the couch suddenly as I yelped at the sudden motion.

"Figure it out. I'll help if you want help." He said and then just walked into his room.

Oh man I am so cannonballing his ass sometime soon for this.

—--

"I don't get the problem Motoko. Let's just grab Richard and some of the kids. Rent a couple trucks and steal the boat. You said you could." Hiromi said as my chooms and I had met up that night.

"I said I probably could." I mumbled, but it wasn't very strong.

I don't know why, but I was just nervous about this gig. It was one thing to take out some Scavs, or something. Street level crime happens every day.

Stealing a yacht that probably cost more than a million eddies? Stealing an entire shipment of Scav chrome?

All with the chance of it blowing up in my face?

My chooms were happy with taking part, and maybe getting a 'rep' from the gig.

But I wasn't.

"I like being unknown Hiromi. Doing it all ourselves means all the heat goes straight to us."

"I'm not understanding the problem with this Motoko." Hiromi said, continuing to argue with me across the table. We were back at my basement, which had somehow become our defacto hangout point I guess. "You need a better rep. Right now no one knows you. Like… When we went to get the car back. If you had a rep, they wouldn't have dared mess with us." Hiromi argued.

"I don't think a rep would have changed that-"

"It would have. It totally would have. God Motoko You are like a super ninja killer but everyone just treats you like an unknown because you don't… Show off! You are so standard it's infuriating. Sometimes." Hiromi said with a groan of frustration.

"Did… Did you just call me standard? What does that even mean!?" I demanded and Hiromi rolled her eyes.

"I didn't mean anything bad! You just don't try to build a rep or anything. You don't ever hype yourself up. You do the BD thing, but no one even knows it's you! You could be like a famous solo right now!"

"Fame just means more people know about me, and can plan around my skills. It's a terrible idea." I argued but Hiromi rolled her eyes at me, turning to the boys.

"Help me out here." She demanded and the boys perhaps wisely both didn't jump in. Malcolm even raised his hands up nonverbally saying don't bring him into this.

"Don't try to team up on me. That's mean!" I said and Hiromi growled a bit.

"Motoko I think you're amazing, but you are so gonk about this. Rep is important, it tells the gonks on the street not to mess with you. If you weren't hiding yourself so much, you could walk into any TC place and they wouldn't dare mess with you!"

"And it would make every gonk on the street that thinks they can make a rep, come for my hide."

"Hardly! You don't see people gunning for Jun do you? That's because everyone knows Jun will flatline them! You just need to build up a rep too."

"Hiromi. I literally got kidnapped, because people were gunning for Jun." I reminded her waving my silver hands at her.

She winced, looking a little lost as she didn't have a good rebuttal.

But…

It wasn't about winning or losing the discussion.

"Maybe you are somewhat right. I'm feeling nervous about this gig. If the nomads had agreed to help I think I would have been fine, but now we have to rely on hiring another group. Either the SLS, or going through Jun to get TC gonks. It just makes me uncomfortable."

Hiromi didn't jump into the conversation like she normally would have. I guess my words had cut a little deeper than I expected. Instead she seemed to be thinking, so I simply let the quiet settle in.

"Sorry for pushing. I guess I get why you don't want to have anyone notice you." Hiromi offered and I frowned.

"It's not like that… At least I don't think it is… Is it?" I had to ask myself.

Is my hesitation fear of what happened before? Of being the one being attacked, and not doing the attacking?

I was definitely weaker on the defense than offense.

But everyone was really.

Was that why I was so hesitant to let myself be known, to build a rep outside of the few people I trusted or worked with?

Was I just afraid?

This time Hiromi was being considerate as I stared at my hands.

Was I afraid of people knowing? I mean sure Ninjutsu worked best without anyone knowing I existed, but I wasn't just a ninja.

I wasn't just a netrunner.

I was Motoko, and I had a life to live. I leaned back in the chair staring at the ceiling.

The picture of the ships hold pulled up before my eyes. That was a lot of chrome, a lot of eddies.

I wasn't hurting for eddies, but was I the kind of person that would let an opportunity flow past me just because it was a risk?

I hadn't thought I was before. The Nomad gig had told me I wasn't the type to let something go just because it was dangerous.

But had I done anything that really put myself at risk since the kidnapping? Well once I got over my absolute hatred of Maelstrom?

I had been careful on gigs. It didn't always work out like getting short circuited and shot by V3L and Morgan.

But I had been super hesitant to even do that gig at the time too.

No.

No, I wasn't going to live my life afraid. I would just have to get better. Be better.

Improve myself. Improve my chrome.

Improve my rep.

I had to admit. Maybe just a little I was turning into a real Night City Citizen.

Because the idea of just letting this go wasn't in me.

"Fuck it. This is what we are doing."

—--

The BD started with a blink of my eyes.

I had purposefully set myself in a good position. I was crouching over the glass railing on the office building looking over the Marina.

The preparation for this moment took a few days. Checking to make sure I knew how to get the yacht moving. Making sure it could move. Getting all the little pieces in place.

Tonight I was going to leave a real mark on Night City.

I intended it to be a good one.

Looming like a gargoyle as I looked over the marina I made sure to focus my eyes on the men wandering around.

Security, high rollers, everyone. Mentally marking them and making sure they wouldn't be in the way. Dawn was an hour or so out. So it was still dark and it was at the moment where there was the least amount of people left hanging around.

The yacht had even had a party tonight. I would likely have to deal with at least a few passed out people before I got the yacht moving.

But that had all been prepared for.

So I moved. Leaping off the edge of the railing, enjoying the feeling of being in the air, even flipping forward once just to add a bit of flair, as I landed in a crouch on top of the open structure atop one of the bars. The wood under my fingers firm.

There was no one below me.

I had already checked, but I acted like I hadn't. I moved. Running atop the wooden slats and then leaping.

There were cameras all around. But as I flipped again in the air I sent a command, and all of them shut down.

I landed and moved. Sliding along the bar and security room, rushing right for the open window I had leapt through before. This time I didn't wait for the guard inside to get away.

I leapt through the window going full speed. Slamming into the guard and instantly wrapping myself around him, legs and chrome arms strangling him down and shushing his struggles as he did his best to resist before I secured his carotid artery and he went limp.

Go time.

I punched a shard into the security computer. Where it ran the program I had dropped inside. It was probably the single hardest part I had contributed while we prepped over the last few days. A virus.

It was the first act to building a rep. To making myself into something more than just a merc, or an edgerunner.

But a phenomena.

Sure it wouldn't mean much now. Might even just be ignored in the grand scheme of things. But if I was going to be more blatant, I was going to do something cool with it.

I jumped right back out the window and raced down the docks. The path was clear. No guards were around so I had free access to the ship. With a casual move I cut the chords holding the ship secured and leapt on. I raced over the top of the boat, avoiding the inner party area.

If there was anyone still inside, they were going to have an adventure.

I hit the back of the boat and the bridge door opened. My previous escapades having already given me full access.

Thankfully it was empty and so I rushed to the control console.

Now unfortunately driving did not actually tell me how to work a yacht.

No that had taken a trade with Yoko to get a user manual for this fucking thing. Thankfully the yacht were made for rich people that didn't know how to actually sail. I pulled it out and followed the steps to get the engine to boot up and slowly a faint rumble started through the boat.

It was really quiet. Made sense, a pleasure yacht wouldn't want to have a loud engine.

I pulled back on the throttle, and slowly I watched as it began backing out of the dock.

Of course no matter how quiet, the marina was a high end million eddie sort of place. Some alert went through no matter how silent and I already noticed guards all along the Marina start rushing around.

That was when my eyes flashed as I reached out to the security system.

My vision shifted looking out through the camera systems at the Marina.

[Reboot Optics]

I hit them all. Guards, clients, workers.

Suddenly, like a plague, everyone's vision cut out. The fact I was already infiltrated into the guards security system meant even if a particular guard had some ICE it wouldn't matter.

The hack spread among them causing chaos as guests and guards all started screaming as they lost their sight.

I had actually modified the Quick Hack while preparing for this. Reboot Optics when it started back up meant their vision would still be blank. Too dark to see anything, but they would be able to see their agent screen if they had one installed, or their eyes settings overlay.

It had come to me while planning this, a way to make the hack even more effective. A way to gain myself more time.

So when all of their optics rebooted, a virus had infested their system. Covering their vision as it took over the overlay of their optics.

They wouldn't be able to get access to their settings to reset their brightness unless they were truly tech savvy because they would have to do it without actually being able to see their system behind the symbol I had implanted.

Instead their eyes were locked onto a certain symbol.

The only thing they could see.

"I thought what I'd do was I'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes… Or should I?" I muttered to myself. The blue symbol of the laughing man from Ghost in the Shell, the symbol of the Laughing man. A super wizard class hacker, able to completely bypass someones vision.

I wasn't quite at that point yet, but it was a reminder to myself about what I wanted to become.

Then I continued, spinning a wheel to spin the yacht around. It was a slow lumbering thing.

But I had some time…

Probably.

I did have an air canister and mask sealed into the small of my back just in case everything went wrong and I needed to leap overboard if the NCPD attacked.

But I was sure this would work out.

Mostly.

Maneuvering the yacht out of the marina I got it going forward out towards the sea, and slowly slowly out to sea.

I would need to head south, the Biotechnica flats, south of the city would be the meetup point.

Ichi and Malcolm had done a good job finding a place we could unload the ship from.

Once I had the ship moving and a straight line would do for a few moments, I stepped away and headed out of the bridge. Time to see if I had captured some hostag-important people.

I sauntered down the steps into the yacht, and into the room that was more like a club than what I expected on a boat.

And I actually had three sleepers…

Oh no there was a fourth person passed out, half way under a table.

Four.

One of them I recognized.

Too bad for Bartolomeo. The owner of the yacht was someone I had been planning on having a certain kind of meeting with already. The other three I didn't recognize, although the fact the other two were women told me what had been happening. Bart had one woman curled up against him. Both were naked enough I knew what had been happening. The two men were equally undressed but the big guy had rolled off the couch at some point and was basically napping under the shadow of a table.

I nearly whistled as I walked along the room, taking note of everything.

Like the fact Mr. Table had a Burya near him.

Interesting.

I picked it up and checked it. Loaded.

That was an easy fix, and then I put it back to where it was.

There weren't a lot of people that walked around with a Burya. They were clunky, heavy, difficult to conceal, overpowered weapons for most people.

It only made me more suspicious about Mr. Table's identity.

Was he the Scav contact that Bart had?

Was this guy important with the Scavs? Well I might just find out.

First I hacked into all four of the sleeping gonks. It only took a few moments to breach their systems and put in a jammer.

Any attempts to reach out for help would fail couldn't have that after all.

Then I grabbed an unopened bottle of champagne, swished it around, shook it up to make sure it was nice and frothy, and then popped the cork.

The spray of champagne over Barts face was more than enough to leave him sputtering awake with a curse.

"The fuck! Bastard who did that? Is that you Sandra? You bitch!" He cursed, clearing his eyes of the frothing alcohol.

"Not exactly." I told him using my Sexy Motoko Voice. After all, this guy wasn't dealing with a teenager looking at a big score.

No, this time I was a dangerous edgerunner having already taken a millionaire hostage.

He jerked away as he caught sight of me.

I was wearing the section 9 gear with a few additions. The upper part of my face was covered by a set of tech gogs I had picked up.

I mean the Major had a set. So I needed one too.

Especially since this was my first big gig.

"The fuck-" Bart was cut off as I pulled my Lexington out from behind me.

He might be a millionaire but he was also a NC resident. He knew instantly what trouble he was in.

"Hey easy! Listen, I'm sure we can work this out. Whatever bounty is on my head, I'll pay it out! Honest I mean this is my yacht, I have the eddies!" His gibbering had obviously started waking the others, thankfully with the techgogs on no one could see my eyes as I tracked Mr. Table as he sat up from underneath the thing taking in the sight of me pointing a gun at Bart.

"I'm not here because you have a bounty, Bartolomeo Mordellini." I informed him calmly. "I'm here because of the multiple crates of Scav gathered chrome that is currently below our feet." I idly tapped my toes a few times to let the sound echo around.

Then I went silent to let my statement fill the air and I could see the fear on his face.

"Bitch." A russian accented voice said from behind me, but I ignored the big russian man that was now pointing a Burya at me.

The fact he was mostly naked was also a reason I was doing my best not to look. Nice Mr. Studd there champ.

"Let me guess you are the Scav contact Bart here is working with?"

"Hah! As if you will ever find out little whore, I will enjoy seeing your corpse ripped into-"

That was as far as he got as I drew on him. My Burya casually pulled out of my shoulder holster and aimed. I purposefully drew slow.

Giving the fucker plenty of time to pull the trigger himself.

The audible *Click* of his Burya failing to fire was very satisfying, but not as satisfying as seeing his head suddenly vanish.

I let the roar of my Burya echo around the room. The girls both screamed in shock at the sudden noise, both now fully awake and suddenly realizing the danger they were in.

"H-hey!" Bart called out hands up as I hadn't taken my Lexington away from his face, nor had I truly looked away from him.

I loved my Kiroshi.

"Bartolomeo. Perhaps now you are more willing to listen?"

"Yeah! Yeah sure whatever you want! Yeah the hold has the chrome! I swear they threatened me! Kajetan had a gun up to my head! Honest! He nearly kidnapped me once and–"

"I really don't care." I told him simply because I didn't.

I didn't believe for a second he was just being threatened. You don't usually have an orgy with a guy that was threatening your life.

Or maybe you did? Hell if I know how Night City scumbags ran things. Fucking weirdos.

No, I had no doubt that Bart thought he was cool and dangerous for having gangster connections.

"What what are you going to do to us?" The woman sitting besides Bart asked, she had been slowly trying to gather her clothes to cover herself after realizing the situation she was in.

"You and that one aren't any of my interest. You are free to go once we get where we are going." I told the woman.

"Wait. What? Going?" Bart asked, looking around in confusion, before seemingly remembering he was on a yacht.

That his yacht could actually move.

"Take a look for yourself. Feel free to jump into the water if you want to escape early, but I wouldn't recommend it." I told them as I pointed at the front of the boat. "I want all of you out there on the front of the boat. Get dressed and get moving." I ordered and the girls were quick to listen, reaching around to grab clothes and start dressing themselves.

"Bart that means you." I demanded my Lexington still aimed at him and he hurried to find a pair of pants amidst the party mess.

I simply turned away. Taking only a moment to grab the empty Burya. Didn't want to risk someone finding some ammo for it, and headed back out and into the bridge.

We hadn't gone too far. This thing wasn't exactly a speed boat. So I only made a slight adjustment to the course. Of course as I was doing that I was seeing a lack of three gonks standing out on the front of the boat so I could keep track of them.

I walked back down, noticing the three had mostly huddled together. The girls now dressed, if not decent. While Bart looked like he was searching for something, tearing through the cabinets and couches.

Ah he probably had a gun somewhere.

I fired a round into the fancy molding above his head earning screams from all three.

Heh. Bart screamed like a girl.

"I said get to the front of the boat. Perhaps I wasn't clear."

The three hurried out barely dressed and terrified. With that done I went back up to the bridge to navigate to the drop off.

—--

With the three gonks at the front of the boat, I was able to sail it down the coast while keeping an eye on them. The one time they thought to try and sneak back inside, I had come down with a warning shot that had come much closer to hitting than they had liked.

So they stayed where I wanted them.

I was actually surprised at the lack of response. No NCPD patrol boats tracking us. Or AV's flying in to launch a MaxTac team.

It was just a quiet trip through the waters until we left the sights of the city behind and towards our destination.

Then slowly I spotted my stop. A few trucks sitting out near the water with a dozen or so workers ready to haul the loot out of the hold. The only place along the coast that was low enough to get on, but wasn't a beach. It was old concrete, a boat dock at one point years and years ago, but had been abandoned for decades.

Ichi and Malcolm had found it, and so we had our meetup point,.

As I approached nice and slow, cables were thrown over and only once I had the engine off did I head out to grab the cables and lock the boat in place.

Everyone was wearing masks hiding their faces and quickly got to work, setting up a ramp and dragging hand trucks up to start unloading the crates.

Richard gave me a nod as he passed by.

In the end Hiromi had pushed for using the SLS for this gig. I still hated the idea, but we needed the muscle to get this shit out of here at any real speed.

Besides as much as they all listened to me. I wasn't their boss. We all worked together. Even if I did a bit more a lot of the time.

Ichi, Malcolm, Hiromi and I would be keeping an eye on the trucks to make sure nothing disappeared as we transported everything back to a storage yard that Ichi and I had put together for us.

The three gonks were pulled off the boat by a few of the SLS and pushed out of the way.

There was no need to worry about holding onto them.

We were in the middle of the desert miles from Night City. They must have realized it too, as the girls mostly stayed huddled together, while Bart continued to glare and curse under his breath.

Especially when crates of chrome started being pulled off the yacht.

Each one made the man angrier.

But he wasn't a complete fool. He kept himself quiet just glaring.

Just as the first few crates started getting pulled out of the yacht my Quadra pulled up.

Hiromi had dropped me off at the Marina, and had driven my Quadra out to meet me. I walked over and noticed the eager look on her face as she stepped out of the car, but she didn't move away from it, just leaning against the car as she looked on as more and more chrome was put into our hands.

"It's amazing." She whispered and I nodded along as Hiromi looked on at all the hard work she had done.

After all, I might be the one handling all the combat and stuff, but logistics were Hiromi's speciality.

Hiromi and I watched on, after she gave me back the key to my Quadra and we watched on as the trucks were loaded up, each crate representing a ton of eddies for our pockets.

Then when the hold was emptied it was show time.

The BD needed a finale after all.

I walked back onto the boat making sure it was empty. I noticed the lounge area in the lower decks was suddenly far less full of money and drugs.

I rolled my eyes at the SLS but if they wanted to grab a bonus as long as they stayed away from the chrome I wouldn't complain.

The yacht was let free despite Bart yelling asking what was going on.

It took a minute to angle the yacht out to sea. Then I hit the engine and ran.

I leapt off the boat landing in the shallow water as the yacht started its journey out into the pacific.

"That! That's my yacht!" Bart yelled looking at me in anger.

But I ignored him, unfortunately for him, the gig wasn't over yet.

I walked over to my Quadra under the watchful eyes of my crew, the SLS and the three prisoners.

There I pulled out of my trunk a special surprise.

The case was heaved out and then opened, and the moment the kids saw what I was pulling free they all screamed in surprise.

Then cheered.

"Watch the back blast." I told Hiromi as I hefted my Uragan onto my shoulder.

I knew having a Rocket Launcher would come in handy someday.

"Wait… Wait wait wait!" Bart screamed but he was held back by the guns Malcolm and Ichi were covering him with.

Then I fired.

The Rocket launched, giving me a bit of a kick as it soared high into the sky before angling back down.

The Nomad missiles were pretty good. Normal Uragan missiles were just dumbfire, but having some guidance on them was a nice trick.

The missile came down on top of the yacht.

The explosion was shattering.

For all Barts stupid Yacht looked like a sleek stealth ship, it was just a pleasure cruiser.

It ripped apart, then exploded again when its Chooh2 went up. I might have made sure the fuel tanks were topped off before all of this happened.

Just for the extra fireworks.

The entire ship turned into nothing but shrapnel as the kids around us all cheered at the explosion.

"You bitch. You blew up my Yacht!" Bart called out sounding almost defeated as he fell into the sand around the concrete. He was angry.

He was wrathful.

He was going to be a problem.

Which is why this had already been all planned.

I walked over and before he could even realize what I was about to do. I put a bullet in his head.

*250 XP Gained.*

The two girls started shrieking as they realized I had just executed their choom.

"Working with Scavs meant you were a dead man. Did you think I was going to let you walk free?" I asked his corpse before turning to the girls. They both flinched looking horrified.

"Not gonna hurt either of you two. You have two options. Walk now, or hitch a ride back to the City. If you cause any problems though I'll kill you." I informed the two women with simple words and then adjusted the Uragan on my shoulder and looked back to my crew.

"Pack it up! We are moving!" I called out and everyone cheered.

Gig complete. BD ended.

—--

We did just as I said. Driving into the city, we dropped off the two women at the first metro stop we came to. They both hurried away, and that was the last I saw of them.

We drove on. Towards the storage yard Ichi had sorted out for us. Well mostly his work. I had unfortunately realized that if we were going to store this much loot we couldn't just do it on our own terms. It would be picked clean far too easily. There was too much. It was too tempting.

We couldn't trust the SLS to watch it without it going missing, so while they were transport they wouldn't be the ones watching our loot.

No, I had unfortunately been forced to make a deal with the devil.

We pulled into a storage yard, waved in by the Tyger Claws gangsters sitting around the entrance as each truck moved in under their eyes.

Inside I pulled to the side as the trucks moved in to start unloading into a storage lot Ichi was managing. I had put Ichi and I into a room with a man I didn't want to deal with to help set this up. A man that was even now waiting for me.

I unfortunately had a conversation in front of me.

"Fujimura." I greeted as I stepped out of the Quadra. The man was leaning against his own car obviously waiting to see what would happen.

"Kusanagi. I see you were successful." He mentioned looking actually pleased as the trucks opened up and the many many crates of chrome was revealed.

"Yeah. Worked out just like I said. No issues other than the owner of the yacht was onboard when I klepped it." I noticed his look and rolled my eyes. "He's flatlined, as is the Scav fucker he was partying with. Pretty sure it was his contact."

"I see. Then it was a successful gig. If one of my subordinates pulled off a success like this, I would have no choice but to promote them." He mentioned, obviously digging, but I shrugged.

"Too bad I'm not your subordinate. Our deal won't have any surprise complications will it?" I asked not quite looking at the man as we both watched Ichi guide the kids into unloading.

I was really glad that none of the trucks had gone missing enroute.

Then again. Other than me driving my Quadra Malcolm, Ichi, and even Hiromi had been driving the trucks. I had been tempted to ask Nox for help as well, but there was honestly a reason I had revealed my Uragan to the kids before we left.

I made it very plain that if any of them tried to run off with a truck… I would deal with them.

"It will not. These men are mine, and they will treat your belongings as my own. None will go missing. As long as your part of the deal is upheld."

"Course. Everyone wants chrome. Me, my chooms, even you." It told him. That was the price of using TC protection.

Fujimura, or more specifically the Kamikaze would have the right to get some of the chrome we gathered, basically their ripper would come in pick out things they wanted, and they would all be free up to a certain point, basically Hiromi gave them a stipend they could grab some things with, the rest they could buy if they wanted to be clients. It would keep us from having to pay the TC directly as well.

Honestly the deal was pretty heavily on my side. Fujimura had seemed very pleased to try and tie me ever closer to the TC.

As always Fujimura was tying the noose around my neck all the tighter.

Their ripper would be here soon, I would have to reach out to Vik as well. See if he wanted to come down for some cheap chrome.

No, I remembered Hiromi was already on that. I already noticed the way she was still hanging around inside the truck definitely on a call with someone.

Good. The sooner we turned all of this chrome into eddies the safer we would all be.

It was a lot harder to steal bank accounts, than crates of chrome.

I would already be hanging around the lot just to make sure no one managed to get in.

A heavy hand landed on my shoulder and I didn't startle. I had of course already noticed his approach.

"Good job Imouto." Jun said, pulling me into a side hug as he looked at the crates with pride.

"Yeah… Good job me." I muttered frowning. The job wasn't done. Not yet.

Despite succeeding. Despite the potential of making a ridiculous sum of eddies from this chrome.

As long as this chrome was still chrome and in our hands, it would put a target on us all.

I shook myself free from Jun without a word and headed to look around the storage lot. I would be keeping a close eye on the chrome in the lot over the next few days until it all sold. So I was going to get a feel for the grounds.

As Hiromi oversaw the SLS unloading the chrome into the storage unit. As Ichi and Malcolm congratulated each other on their new riches.

As Fujimura looked on with that arrogant look on his face as if he was the one who planned all of this.

I watched on, really wishing I had my Nekomata with me.

Just in case.

—--

It was four long days later.

I was doing some minor programming work on my laptop while looking over the storage lot when I noticed Jun of all people pull into the storage space.

The TC gangsters all greeted him eagerly.

Heh Jun being famous was still funny to me.

Of course I put my laptop away to focus on what Jun was doing. Simply connecting back into the camera systems all over the storage lot that let me listen in.

"-don't know where she is? She's been hanging around the last four days!" Jun argued and the gangster he was talking to just shrugged.

"Haven't seen her."

Jun looked around in confusion. He must be wondering what was going on because every time he had texted me to try and get me to come home had been me saying I was keeping an eye on the loot.

So I squinted my eyes and reached out with a finger just letting the finger touch the top of where his head was and then snapped a picture, which I sent him as a text.

I watched on as a moment later he startled before looking around himself as he tried to figure out where I was.

Then of course he just called me because Jun's Hide and Seek game is pretty weak.

*Motoko Where are you?*

*I literally sent you a picture you gonk. Head across the street into the office building. The lobby is open and you can take the elevator up. I've already added you into the security. Also stop trying to spot me, you are going to give my hide away.*

Then I hung up on him. Wakako might be a bitch for doing it to me, but it was pretty funny to do it to other people.

Then I just waited, keeping an eye on the lot through the scope of my Nekomata as I waited for Jun to get here.

Finally the roof access door opened and Jun stepped out and I waved at him my hand poking through the dark piece of carpet I had… 'acquired' from an empty floor in the office below me.

No one was using it! They could have it back when I was done.

"Motoko, what are you doing?" Jun asked as he stood up over me.

"Gonk, get down! Don't let anyone see you!" I snap back even raising the carpet up a bit showing him the entrance so he could slip in.

The hide had been growing over the last few days. Originally just part of the AC unit chosen because I was able to get access to the plugs so I could charge my laptop. It had grown with the addition of a few chairs found in the offices below, the carpet over top and some cushions stolen from a couch that was in the lobby so I had something soft to sit on.

Thankfully it wasn't too hot this week, and I had some nice sea breezes to double up on that.

"Here take a cushion." I offered sliding it over and Jun gave me a really mean look. There was absolutely no reason to look disappointed! I was working! Also my pillow fort game was insane! Look at this thing! I was in the lap of luxury!

"Motoko what are you doing up here? You haven't come home in days."

"I already told you! I'm keeping an eye on the loot. Hiromi, Ichi and Malcolm came by like an hour ago for another load she found a buyer for. I'm making sure it doesn't disappear before then." I argued instantly.

"Fujimura-Sama gave you his word that wouldn't happen. Just come home."

"I know Fujimura wouldn't steal from me… Probably. But I don't trust those gonks." I said pointing out through the peek hole made with an office chair that my Nekomata was resting on and the carpet overhanging meaning it was only a tiny hole and it would be nearly impossible to see back through.

"Ugh. Motoko you pulled off an awesome gig. The TC are all chattering about what you did, hell lot of people are. The Yacht theft was all over the news. No one is going to steal from you."

"Trusting other people not to steal from me is pretty stupid, when I can just make sure they can't." I said, using both hands to gesture to the Nekomata which was very specifically pointing at the storage lot.

"The TC won't steal from you Motoko."

"Maybe." I agreed without actually agreeing.

"Whatever, fine… Tell me about your gig." He demanded and had the audacity to steal another of my cushions to rest his back against as he leaned against the AC unit.

I narrowed my eyes at the blatant theft but decided to show once again that I was the better person.

Completely ignoring how everything around me was stolen in one form or another because those were the intrusive thoughts you just didn't listen to.

"You'll be able to see it yourself soon once the BD comes out, but it was pretty awesome. I blew up the yacht with my rocket launcher! It exploded!" I couldn't help but gush a little and Jun stilled.

"Wait, when did you get a Rocket Launcher?"

"The Uragan that was under my bed? I've had it for a while now. I traded it to the Nomads. Remember when we hit that Raffen group before the Meat Man thing."

"What do you mean under your bed?" He demanded with a growl. Realizing the danger I made to run.

I wasn't able to escape.