Chapter 116

I entered the Afterlife, and Lucy walked beside me. Becca was hidden by the spell again, and she accompanied me and Lucy invisibly. Except this time the bar was full of customers, and I could tell that there was a ninety percent chance that those customers weren't sitting ducks. At least Judy and Kiwi had done a spot check on the visitors and their itineraries while I was still on the Delamayne.

"Claire..."

I nodded to the girl and she grinned and returned the same nod to me.

"Bestia is already waiting for you, as is her guest."

"Uh-huh...

I nodded, but I grimaced as if I'd eaten a lemon. It's understandable to meet an Arasaki representative when I've recently taken down Yerinoba and Smasher...

This is bullshit!

"Come on, get going. you know the Queen doesn't like to wait."

"I know."

I sighed and headed for the separate high-security booth that housed Bestia and her guest.

"Ah, Tihonja."

As soon as I entered the booth, Bestia turned her attention to me as well as my companion, though a little later.

"...Snowflake, let me introduce you to my guest who has expressed a HUGE ..."

Bestia's voice was full of sarcasm, which made the Japanese man in the white suit frown and try to burn a hole in her with his gaze, but she didn't care.

"...A desire to meet you, Hanako Arasaka and her silent companion."

"Yeah... I know this Japanese guy, Goro's name is Goro, and I've had the honor of communicating with Hanako, albeit through a Proxy. But honestly, I don't know why we should meet."

"You might want to listen this time..."

"Takemura..."

Hanako interrupted the Japanese man's fiery speech with just one word.

"I apologize, ma'am."

He bowed his head lowering his gaze to the floor.

"However, even though Takemura was too emotional, he wanted to convey the right message. Perhaps this time, you will still decide to listen to me, especially since you have not solved the problem, but only postponed it."

I shrugged.

"If you're talking about the board of directors..."

"These overplayed old men have nothing to do with this at all, this is about Yerinobu and Smasher."

And that's where I frowned.

"My brother, it's almost nobody knows, he after becoming the new director of Arasaki went to Japan, to the head office, and from there came Proxy, Proxy who had several surgeries to make him look exactly like my brother."

"Fuck..."

"Watch your words..."

"Takemura..."

"I apologize..."

And a new bow from the Japanese.

"So, you killed Proxy, yes my brother suffered from it, but in a month he will recover and a new Proxy will appear, through which he will start to run the corporation and try to get revenge on you. And his six-man Smasher will be only too happy... Though he may try to get revenge faster, he still only has his mind uploaded to the new platform.

I sighed.

"I guessed that, but what do you want from me?"

"Kill my brother and Smasher ..."

"Yeah. this is not what I was expecting."

Bestia shook her head in surprise, looking at Hanako with a completely different look. I wasn't the least bit surprised; she'd already wanted that from me, and the answer hadn't changed since then.

"Uh, no."

"May I ask why?"

"Because there's no point in me getting into all the, uh."

"But my brother..."

"He'll have to find me. Or do you really think I'm gonna sit in Knight City all this time?"

"You're gonna hide your whole life?"

I sighed and shook my head.

"Why, not much is known about my identity, although I admit that Arasaki's specialists do not eat their bread in vain and there is data about me in your databases, but a small operation and new documents solve this problem. So why should I go along with you and kill Yerinoba now?"

It's not that I'm against it, but I don't want to go along with Hanako, who probably deliberately leaked information about me to her brother. So it's easier for me to pretend to be a coward who's hiding from the righteous revenge.

"And you're okay with that?"

Hanako decided to change the direction of her agitation and looked at Lucy.

"What do you mean?"

But after saying it out loud, Lucy switched to our internal link, to which all the girls were connected. They were watching what was happening, but they kept silent so as not to interfere...

"Is she really expecting me to respond with something like, no I'm not happy with that, I'm taking the order?"

"The spoiled daughter of a corporate CEO. She's just not used to being told no. Ciri was the same way back in the day. until she spent a couple months with the witches. At least according to Vesemir, since I met her a little later and she knew by then that the world didn't revolve around her."

Triss spoke in a slightly wistful voice making it clear that she had drifted off a bit into memories, except that reality hadn't gone anywhere...

"I mean, what's it really like to be around someone like that?"

Hanako did her best to push Lucy a little.

"Which one?"

Lucy was still pretending she didn't know what this was even about.

"With a coward."

Well, Goro is still Goro. He said it like he was cutting it off, but this time, Hanako gave him a disapproving look, but didn't verbally condemn him.

"Uh-huh? Do I have to work for you? A corporation that performs inhumane experiments on children?

"Arasaka doesn't do that!"

Hanako even rose from her seat.

"Really? You're saying that to me?"

Hanako blinked in surprise.

"Shall I remind you, though you're a squirrel, you've probably never heard of it, how your corporation selected children with signs of genius? They were ten to twelve years old, and after a short training and the installation of experimental chrome, they were sent on a deep dive into the pre-Network.

"What?"

Hanako slowly lowered herself into her seat.

"And do you know how scary it is when, out of a huge group of kids, fewer and fewer of your comrades return each day from the pre-Network, and the "adults"...

Lucy emphasized this word in an extremely sarcastic tone, so that it was immediately clear how she felt about these adults.

"...uncles and aunts don't even say a word to you, only take readings? When your only friend is a robot vacuum cleaner that you hack and reprogram to try to make it look like a dog?"

"This can't be..."

"He can't?"

Lucy grinned wryly

"So my childhood in the custody of your corporation is fiction?"

Hanako couldn't stand Lucy's hateful stare and looked away.

"You! How dare you blame Lady Hanako for everything!"

"Shut up."

One word from me, as well as the brush pass I was making under the table, and Goro bumps into the wall. I love Axius, he's very handy, and now Goro doesn't understand why he's silent, but he won't be able to say anything for a few seconds.

"You're nothing here. A piece of furniture that should stand aside and be silent. I'm not happy enough that Bestia used our good relationship to convince me of the need for this meeting. And then someone like you comes along and tries to make a point."

I shook my head.

"Hanako is part of the Arasaka clan, they had a priori power in the corporation."

I looked at the girl.

"I had no power and was in the corporation in more of a mascot position..."

"Then it's your own fault. Your brother had power and after your father's death he was able to take power, not completely, but he was able to do it, and what can you do? You said you had nothing until a little while ago, and now it's changed? You're suddenly in a position of power in the corporation? Or do you hope that when you come to the shareholders' meeting you will blink and smile embarrassedly, for which they will give you all the power they had and which they will take from your brother's corpse?"

"I have support..."

"Oh, so you've decided to become a puppet?"

"How dare you!"

"Takemura..."

"I've put up with it too long! He doesn't show you any respect!"

"Goro, respect has to be earned, and in front of me sits a girl who has spent her whole life in a golden cage and never even tried to get out of it. She'd be happy to sit in it now and pretend that her father was an angel in the flesh and her brother had lost his way. But the knowledge that it was Yerinobu who had killed Soburo prevented that, and she had to poke her nose out of the cage."

Hanako lowered her head and stared at the floor.

"Moreover, even with such a good reason as revenge for her father, this girl doesn't even think of trying to take over, she has already put her life in other hands and is ready to climb back into the cage."

I grinned caustically.

"What's more, I wouldn't be surprised if now she has to spread her legs too..."

"You!"

Goro tore toward me, but I activated the sandi and easily twisted him and secured him to the floor.

"Quiet, you're overreacting..."

Bestia was not pleased. She was obviously counting on a different outcome to this conversation. But what was she counting on, that I would agree to work for this puppet with a stupid smile?

"Not at all, Bestia, I'm just showing that she couldn't do anything, she didn't want to, she was happy with her life, but it was built on the benefits her father collected from the corporation. So it's also her fault that Arasaka is experimenting on children. And that even when given the slightest chance to make a difference, she gave it up. So why should I cooperate with a puppet who can't do anything?"

"Thy..."

Goro in my arms twitched harder, but he still couldn't move.

"I see your point. You're canceling the order?"

"Uh-huh...

I nodded nonchalantly.

"Then you're free to go."

I grinned and looked at Lucy whose eyes lit up, and after a second the Japanese in my hands twitched a couple times and fell silent.

"How much?"

"Five minutes..."

After that, I shifted my gaze to Hanako.

"Your dog will wake up in five minutes and yes, if it's your dog, he needs better training. If he wasn't so emotional, then maybe I would have at least tried to smooth things over by saying all the things I said more..."

I snapped my fingers a couple times.

"...diplomatically."

Lucy and I left, followed by Becca, whose services we didn't need, but the fact that we were immediately broadcasting what was happening in the booth after we left pleased me, and I watched the outside world with only one eye.

"Things didn't go a bit according to plan..."

Bestia thoughtfully took out a pack of cigarettes and lit one, then leaned back on the sofa where she was sitting. She slowly took a deep puff and exhaled the cigarette smoke into the ceiling.

"Yeah... I didn't expect that even after the aggression from my brother and Smasher, Quiet would refuse an order from me."

Hanako sighed quietly.

"Well... even though he was too harsh, I have to admit that if you look at the situation from his point of view, it really doesn't look very... appetizing..."

Bestia tried to choose her words.

"Yeah. your bodyguard made a mess of things by provoking him when there was still a chance of changing his mind."

"Were there any chances at all? I got the impression that he didn't come here to take the job in the first place, and he only came here because of you."

Bestia shrugged at those words from Hanako.

"And yet we need him..."

"Yeah, you're right. If you want to go back to your quiet life and I don't have to fear for mine, we need Tycho. But how do we convince him to take the job? Now he'll refuse to take orders like that from me, because he'll know they're coming from you."

"Why don't we do something simpler first?"

"Hmm?"

"Let him get rid of the obvious threat, the Smasher... his base is now in Knight City, or rather the docks, the USS Ebunike, that's where his base is, where the Borg will be rebuilt. The new body will be delivered there in about a week, a couple more days to fill in the identity and then the creep will be looking for how he died. Luckily as far as I know he doesn't keep in constant contact with the servers where the stored copy of his identity is kept..."

"How often does he make copies?"

"As far as I know he should do it every day, but according to the same reports he has long neglected such measures and makes copies only before major cases, well, or once a month. But if you're hoping he'll forget something... You can forget it."

"He made a copy, didn't he?"

Bestia grinned sadly.

"No, but he keeps an electronic diary from which he definitely learns about Yerinobu's plans to get to you and Tihoni and by matching dates..."

"Where's the information from?"

"His assistant. he's leaking us information. Or rather, he's leaking it to the man who offered me his patronage."

"Okay... so the next plan is to deal with Smasher..."

Bestia frowned.

"Are you willing to overpay?"

"Hmm?"

"Well, I wouldn't have taken a commission and would have even invested in paying for the order myself, if I hadn't managed to convince Tikhonya to work for the idea of security... However, to work on a voluntary basis did not work out, and with me in this direction, he will not work now, but with another fixer..."

"Do you have someone in mind?"

Hanako looked interested.

"Yeah..."

"And how much would she charge for an assignment like this?"

"A lot..."

Bestia sighed and immediately her eyes lit up and five minutes later she sighed heavily again.

"Fuck..."

"What?"

"She refused to just take an assignment for a certain solo. So she got the details from me and said..."

At this point, I got a call.

"Lucy..."

We were already standing outside waiting for Delamain, so I spoke to her on the intercom.

"...keep watching while I talk to Reggie."

"Okay..."

And after that, I answered the phone.

"Regina..."

"Hey, Tycho."

"Hmm. so you're on the case."

I sighed dramatically.

"Yeah, I'm on a case."

"Want me to guess which one?"

"Surprise me!"

"Well, you were ordered Smasher and Erninoba and asked to give the order to me. Most likely either Hanako Arasaka or Bestia..."

"Hmm... last option. It was Bestia, but the order only came in for Smasher... Wait, are you saying she already offered you that?"

"She arranged a meeting with a girl from Arasaki where they tried to get me to do it, and from the way they tried to do it, they wanted me to do it for free."

"Okay, uh. so you're saying no?"

"Hey, uh. do you think it's worth it?"

"Hmm?"

"Well basically, I need some advice..."

And I told Regina the layout, after which she thought for about ten minutes, and when I thought she wouldn't give me advice she answered.

"You know, you should get rid of Smasher, but you shouldn't touch Yerinoba... so I'd take the Borg order if I were you..."

"Well, if you say so."

I nodded my head a couple times and followed the avi down to the ground and climbed inside right behind the girls.

"Just get more money out of these schemers."

"Okay. you don't have to worry about that..."

Regina grinned and the connection dropped...