Chapter 62

The girls and I sat in the Postmortem.

Another order, still technical, but this time related to the Postmortem itself, was finished. This time we were upgrading the iron of the Postmortem, or rather the iron was upgraded by me and Becca and Panam, while the rest of the girls were working on the ice. It was the ultimate non-combat type task. Well, to put it more accurately, it was the last mission before I start taking combat-type missions again. After all, Vic gave me the go-ahead yesterday to use 100% of the Sandies. Only we decided to take it easy for a week and start working in the field again...

"Oh, David, you're gonna show your face to me?"

DeShawn stopped next to our table and a dark-skinned girl in a rahner costume stood next to him.

"Go where you're going..."

I waved my hand like I was warding off a pesky fly.

"Come on, all I have to do is say I don't work with you and you'll get kicked out of here, because you'll probably..."

"David, do you want me to repeat that?"

We were approached by the ever-present barmaid of the Postmortem, who had recently had a tragedy. More specifically, her husband died during a race. And now she was literally drowning herself in work.

"Yes, Claire, thank you..."

I nodded to her, as did the other girls.

"Claire, this guy's obviously here by mistake and, uh."

"DeShawn, he worked here and this job has nothing to do with you..."

A questioning look was thrown at me, and I realized that Claire was asking for permission and nodded, letting her know it was okay with me.

"...David is a regular in the Afterlife. He and his team are quite productive workers with a reputation. So it's not all about you."

"And who does he work with?"

A wry smirk appeared on DeShawn's lips.

"Only and only with Bestia."

DeShawn flinched and glared angrily at his companion, and the dark-skinned Rauner clearly looked dumbfounded. So she was the one who was probably gathering information on me, and for some reason she didn't find it...

"How long ago?"

"A long time ago..."

"Oh, come on, I'm a regular member of the Postmortem Club too... I might know. because maybe we'll work together someday."

"You can if David wants you to."

Claire turned around and walked toward the bar.

"I don't want to."

"Tsk. you don't know how to pick your friends, do you?"

"DeShawn, go where you're going. don't stop me and my team from enjoying the evening..."

Strangely enough, he listened to my words and went on towards the meeting booths. By the way, one of those booths was being renovated today. It would have been funny if he'd taken it. And no, we didn't leave any spyware there, we're not idiots to spoil our reputation like that. After we turn in a job, it's checked by ranners and Postmortem techs.

We sat with the girls for about twenty minutes, and we were about to leave when I noticed Vee and Jackie entering the club. And if Vee was being restrained, Jackie was literally bursting with energy. And the first place they went was the bar.

Jackie, a guy with his soul out in the open, was quickly able to get Claire to like him, at least that's the only way I can explain her smiling a little more sincerely than she had been lately.

"Uh, and Misty's boyfriend, his tail's all fluffed up..."

Judy said in a disapproving tone.

"Well. so far he hasn't done anything criminal, but to talk to a girl, well, you don't forbid it, so he feels more than free."

"Oh, looks like they've finally been called away on business... I wonder if they'll be in that stall we were upgrading or..."

"I'll tell you what. it would be kind of funny, but it's none of our business."

"Yeah..."

Lucy joined in the conversation and nodded in agreement.

After sitting for a bit longer we did go to the exit of the Postmortem.

"Wait..."

A security guard stopped me on the way out.

"Uh-huh?

"There's an unhealthy flickering... watch out."

"Thank you."

He nodded and lost all interest in me, I turned on the sandi to its lowest setting and the girls and I went on our way out.

"It's him!"

"Get him!"

I had a few sentient beings rushing towards me with their sandi on, and if I didn't have it on at least minimum, I might have been too late to activate it. As it was...

I had time. Moreover, I managed to take a couple steps forward and remove the still ordinary tonfa from my belt, which took the blow of the bat and katana. And that was just the beginning. Slowly the sounds of gunshots came and I pushed away the weapons of my opponents and grabbed one of them by the arm and pulled him to the side, so that his body blocked the sector of shooting at my girls.

One more step and two more blows fall on the second opponent. And only now I realize that even though I'm operating on the same minimal acceleration, I'm still better due to my more perfect skeleton and muscles. Although...

No...

It's not just my skeleton and muscles, it's the synchronization of my chrome. With one more step I hide behind the enemy and having already picked him up I quickly headed towards the shooters...

It wasn't hard to beat them unconscious.

All in less than a minute of real time... and I had already inserted the chips and was waiting for my girls to get all the information out of these frames when a familiar voice came from the stairs.

"And what happened here?"

"It's nothing."

I shook my head as I looked at Bestia, who stood a couple steps short of the end of the stairs. Her bodyguard stood just ahead of her, his eyes glowing dangerously. Will I be able to make it?

I looked at him appraisingly.

"You don't need a pair of Sandys, by the way?"

I nodded at the bodies of the attackers at the very beginning of the solo.

"So we're attacked?"

"Uh-huh...

"And you're suggesting I take it apart?"

"Well..."

I shrugged.

"They're already dead anyway. I'll finish the rest of them, too. So what's the point of wasting it?"

"Hmmm... she nodded to her bodyguard and he quickly stepped forward and grabbed the first corpse by the leg and threw it down the stairs in one go. Then quickly walked over to the second one and did the same to it, before returning to his seat and his eyes lit up."

"Girls?"

"Let's wrap it up. But it's pretty much the same as last time."

Judy answered me.

"Uh-huh... Faraday, solos from the not-so-best, yet highly opinionated, are dialed in all sorts of places.

"I see..."

When the girls signaled me that they were done, I pulled out all the splinters and finished the opponents, and then we went to the new car, in which our group was comfortably accommodated, not like in Tortika. And with this comfort we set off towards the clan's parking lot.

Why go there?

"So with Faraday in trouble, going to an apartment where we can get surrounded would be foolish. But at the Klan, we'll be relatively safe there. Unfortunately, neither Bestia nor Regina have found anyone willing to give Faraday an interesting but short life. To be more precise, there were those who wanted to, but there were not those who could say it out loud."

And perhaps I should think about solving this problem without getting an additional reward from an interested reasonable person.

"Faraday's calling me..."

Kiwi's eyes lit up, indicating that she had answered the call. Almost immediately, her face twisted into a contemptuous grimace.

"David, how would you feel about running out of Faraday?"

"Is something wrong?"

"He's offering to write off my debt..."

"What do you have to do?"

"Well, guess the first time..."

"There's no guesswork involved..."

Panam entered the conversation.

"...wants her to betray us."

"Exactly..."

I covered my eyes.

"You know, I'd love to, but, uh."

"But?"

Kiwi's voice was extremely tense.

"But you're sure he won't consider keeping you on our side?"

"Well. you wouldn't leave me in the lurch, would you?"

"Kiwi, we're not going to leave you either way, but think about it, do you want it or not? I think in another week or two, if Regina and Bestia can't find a contract and the attack happens again, I'll do it anyway..."

I swallowed the swear word not wanting to express myself in front of the girls.

"Tell it like it is..."

With these words of Kiwi, all the girls agreed.

"I'm telling it like it is. don't get involved. Stay out of it and don't give him too much of a reason."

"So he's going to start setting things up anyway... that he's going to do something nasty if I stay on your side and tell him that if I refuse to help..."

I sighed.

"Well, "agree" then...let's see what he comes up with and how to twist it in our favor."

"Uh-huh...

Kiwi's eyes continued to glisten, but I was sure of her. Sure, in the cartoon she kind of betrayed the GH, but here... I care about her as much as I care about the other girls. Even my favorites Panam and Judy can only boast that I sleep with them. The rest of the benefits are shared equally by all the girls.

After about five minutes, Kiwi's eyes faded.

"So?"

"Well, he mostly bought information from me, about you and the girls. I sold a lot of stuff, true of course, but not all of it. For instance, I told him you were about 90 percent of your Sandy's speed. So you could be sure he'd be prepared for what you showed at least sixty percent... and about the same for the rest of them. Then he said he'd call me later and tell me what to do."

"So he's setting a trap?"

"Yeah..."

I covered my eyes.

"Most likely will try to act on an order from another fixer. He will call you and ask you to tell him where and when."

"And I'll tell him."

"Naturally, but we have to find where exactly Faraday is hiding. Because instead of the mission, we'll go to him. By the way, you will have to call him and tell him with panic that I was given an urgent order and the one you reported I postponed for two days."

"Hmm... it might work."

"Lucy, Judy, you and you, Kiwi, find me out where the bastard is."

"Okay..."

The girls nodded.

"...By the way, we're a little bit away from cracking the chips."

"Leave it alone for now... Faraday's priority. although."

I covered my eyes again.

"...no, he's still a priority. I don't want to take any unnecessary risks, but in this matter it's delaying the resolution of this issue that will be a bigger risk than dragging it out in the hope that we have time to crack the chips and educate ourselves before he sends someone to zero us out."

"Well, I agree here..."

Kiwi sighed sadly.

"...waiting for Faraday to make his move is dangerous. We need to act now, preferably before he's even assembled a team and set a trap."

"Well, once you get his location, we'll get to work..."

"We'll find him. We'll go to the clan, lie in the bathtubs, and deep-dive the network to find him.

"You figure it out. and I'll provide you with goodies to keep your brains working better."

"What are you gonna cook us?"

Becca jumped into the conversation.

"You? I'll make you a douche."

I grinned.

"...but I'm gonna make the girls some custard eclairs."

"Eclairs?"

Lucy, and the rest of the Ranershas looked at me with great interest.

"Yeah. and if you find him and don't show up, after he's gone, I'll make you three cakes each."

"Three cakes each?"

"Yeah. (chuckles)"

"Girls..."

Judy looked at her fellow ranchers with eyes burning with anticipation.

"It's a challenge and we accept it..."

Kiwi nodded her head.