Ghost in the City

Chapter 13

Megabuilding H2. Floor 24. Just to make sure there weren't any traps or eyes on the elevator. I went up to the floor above.

Funnily enough it wasnt hard to see what section of the building below that was claimed by the Scavs. As I circled around. Looking down into the massive open drop that made up the center of the megabuildings. I could see the section that they had taken.

The lights were broken, the walls looked like they had been attacked with a sledgehammer. Then there was the smell.

Blood.

As I walked above the area I scoped it out. Marking the holes in my mind as potential entrances. Or killing fields the scavs had set up. I took note of elevator that was stopped right there next to the claimed section. I would bet 50 eddies that they had hacked into that elevator to keep anyone else from using it. A way to transport their Goods. Up to their hacksaw clinic.

The elevator would likely be watched. An instinctive thought entered my mind. If they had the tech ability to hack an elevator to keep it locked down, then they definitely had cameras for security.

I found the place I was going to slip in. My knowledge of parkour told me this was an easy jump. I climbed over the barrier. What little it was, and simply dropped. Ten feet and I was grabbing onto the concrete barrier of the floor below with barely a sound.

It was a little tough to hold myself from falling, but Body 5 turned it into a simple trick. I hadnt felt a lick of fear at potentially messing it up and falling.

I peeked over the railing still hanging over a few hundred feet drop as I glanced onto the floor. The fact a lot of the apartments had their doors busted open told me a lot.

I guess they had made sure no one else lived on this floor. At least in this section. My eyes narrowed looking for any sign of a camera or alert system.

Nothing. I slipped over as quietly as I could and hurried to the first apartment. The door was already open. Broken in fact and I had to force it a bit just to be able to slip through.

The smell of old blood told me everything that happened here. Broken doors and blood stains tell a frightening story. Unfortunately this apartment wasnt connected to the Scavs clinic so I would have to keep going. I slipped back out and started stalking along the apartments fronts. The hallways splitting off leading to deeper sections were checked with a few quick peeks before I slipped past them. Closer and closer to the section that was obviously their main setup. It was closest to the elevator.

It was also barricaded a bit. Made to look like trash build up, but it was obviously done on purpose. A pile of garbage and old equipment blocking off the walkway that went around the interior of the building.

As I approached I heard voices. Ducking down to hide behind the trash barricade.

Russian voices.

I rolled my eyes. I didn't have a translator chip. So I had no idea what they were saying, but they were walking over to the Elevator from down a hall, and in a few moments the elevator rocked to life and started heading down.

The noise was perfect.

I moved. A bit of Parkour allowed me to swing out over the massive drop to get around the trash barricade without a sound. Now on the other side of the barricade I hurriedly slipped up to the interior wall and peeked down the hallway the scavs had just come from.

A camera was looking down the hall.

Damn.

Looks like I had been right. They kept an eye on the elevator. I considered hacking the camera, but I had no angle to start scanning to get its information much less to start the hack. I would have to go around instead.

As I looked around I noticed my entrance. I could see a hole busted into the wall that looked like they might be using it to shoot out at anyone coming up in the elevator that they didnt welcome.

Like a crew coming to clear them out.

Or the NCPD actually doing something for once.

I needed to get over there.

I looked around before sighing. My Parkour instincts kicking in showing me a path.

A very annoying path.

I walked back along the trash barricade, hit the concrete barrier that would barely keep anyone from falling into the abyss that was the center of the megabuilding and slipped over it. Then I shimmied sideways, until I hit the elevator shaft. The metal had plenty of places to grab, so I climbed on. Down below the barrier the camera couldnt see me as I shimmied my way around the entire elevator shaft until I was on the other side.

Then just a bit more climbing and I was clear of the hallways vision and I climbed back over.

I took a moment hiding behind some garbage to catch my breath and work out the tension in my arms. Couldnt have my arms be tired for what came next.

I moved to the hole.

Peeking in I noticed I was right. An HMG was resting against a table looking outwards.

The room was empty, looked like a bathroom they had smashed apart to make space for their little bunker. I had to be quiet. Slipping in since I was more than small enough to slip through the hole. I did my best not to make a sound as the concrete under my belly shifted and crumbled but I made it through.

I looked to the HMG.

Looked to the door.

Looked to the HMG again.

Tempting. But no. Those things are heavy as hell.

Next time. I promised it as I shifted up to the doorway. The stupid bead blinds that were popular at least let me see out into the next room.

A Scav was set up on the couch in the next room, a BD wreath around his head.

I slipped through the beads silent as a ghost. Stalking through the apartment, eyes roving every corner just to make sure there wasnt anyone else here.

There wasnt.

My knife slipped out of my sheath without a sound.

The man didnt hear a thing. Didnt feel a thing. Not until my hand was over his mouth to muffle and my knife slipped into his neck.

His quiet gasp muffled and weak death throes were ignored.

I slipped my knife back into my sheath and settled a pillow against the mans neck. Hiding the blood splatter.

*500 XP Gained.*

I moved on. My hunt had only just begun.

Besides, right now? I was feeling pretty... Cool.

The apartment wall had been broken out. Connecting the apartments. Into one massive hive of rooms. I slipped over to the hole and started making my way through a dark hole that looked like it had once been a storage area for the apartment.

The next apartment was brighter lit, and the smell of blood hit me.

It also wasnt empty. Bodies stacked up and Ripper doc chair with a corpse. Her chest ripped open like she was in an aliens movie.

And a man walking around the body with some weird device in his hands that looks like an ancient torture device.

The lights were out in the storage room I was slipping through giving me the perfect opportunity to move closer. As the man couldnt see his death.

He looked into the hole in her chest and reached in. Obviously trying to pull something loose.

My hand gripped my knife again.

He was tall. I would have trouble reaching his neck for a strike. I glanced around. My Ninjutsu instinct told me to check every corner. Every angle before striking.

Even as my eyes kept him in sight.

I stalked closer.

He was bent over. Looking into the girls chest. I stalked right up beside him. I could tell the exact moment he would see me.

Ninjutsu had taught me a lot about assasination.

He glanced over at the exact moment my knife slipped into his neck. I had walked right up beside him. So I could deliver my blow. I kept with the blow helping him drop to the floor dragging him away from everything a bit so his death flailing wouldnt knock anything over. After a few moments his movements stilled.

*500 XP Gained.*

I looked around. This was definitely part of their main shop. I couldnt leave his body on the floor.

I blinked when I saw it.

Well if it worked for video game protagonists everywhere I dragged him over to a cold storage fridge. I had a feeling what I would find inside and I was right.

Bodies. I grimaced as I hefted him up. Definitely struggling with his weight.

I really needed more Body. But after a bit of back and forth I dumped him inside. Shutting the fridge.

I took a moment to back off. Back into the dark storage room to rest up against the wall and regain control of my breathing.

A minute.

Thats all I needed. Then I was good to go. I moved on. The Ripper room led to a much larger area. It had once been a living room, but everything had been torn out. It looked like It was a storage room. Full of crates that I bet if I checked inside would be full of Cyberware. I guess I found their stock.

Three people were hanging around the room. One was putting stuff into one of the crates. One was just looking out the window smoking

The third? He was the most dangerous. He looked borged out. I grimaced at the realization they did have some serious muscle to back up their operation.

I looked around. There was no way I could take out all three of them without noise, but as I looked around I realized I could get around them. I smiled as I stalked into the room using the crates as cover to walk to my right towards where the entrance to the apartment would have been.

These apartments had been absolutely broken apart. Obviously the scavs wanted their own path through things, and the large crates wouldnt even fit through the old apartment doors. So, walls, doors, and huge sections of each apartment had been ripped apart.

Which also meant lights were down. I slipped into a dark section near the old entrance where the wall had been ripped apart. Noticing that I could continue on through a hole they had battered through the concrete. I slipped through moving right past the massive room without a sound.

The room connected was another bunker room. No HMG though, shame.

This one was occupied instead. A BD wreath clad Scav again.

These scavs were making it easy.

He died just as quickly as the last one.

*500 XP Gained.*

With that I slipped out the exit to the bathroom bunker and looked around. The next room was full of computers and other equipment. Probably the place they set up their sales and buys. I glanced around no one was in the room, but I could hear cutting from next door. As I walked through something caught my eye and I snatched it up. A Max Doc.

Didnt have any of those. Healing item get.

The computer system was nice. A multi monitor setup attached to a wall with a desk and chair under it. I could try to breach in, but I shook my head. Focus on the job of killing scavs. I could do that later if I really wanted.

I moved past. Following the noise of people sawing at something. As I poked my head into the next room I grimaced.

This time the ripper wasnt alone.

A man and a woman working together to rip off the legs off a dead man.

I really fucking hated these people. My brain was still cool. So my mind swiftly found a path through them.

I drew my knife. And as I stalked into the room. I grabbed an object from a table. A bigger cutting tool, more like a pair of industrial shears than scissors, but it would do.

I attacked. The knife in my right hand sliding right into the mans throat before I left it and swiped at the woman.

*500 XP Gained.*

I was off. No. I realized she had dodged too fast to be natural. She had jerked her head back moving almost blurring fast for half a second before she realized what had just happened.

She cursed loudly. Yelling something in russian.

I threw my knife. She wasnt fast anymore. It whistled for half a moment before appearing in her chest with a dull thunk.

She gasped, her legs failing her suddenly.

*100 Reflex XP Gained.*

*500 XP Gained.*

Okay. Ninja mode disengaged.

I moved. To the next room. A guy was already grabbing a rifle off a desk when I slipped in.

He was scrambling for a rifle on a table across from him when I raised my pistol.

The retort echoed through the apartments as I fired again and again, until the man fell to the floor.

*500 XP Gained.*

*Level up achieved!*

*One Stat Point Gained.*

*One Skill Point Gained.*

I dropped the magazine, and reloaded quickly. Well since this Scav was kind enough to pull out something a bit heavier than my pistol. I rushed across the room grabbing the rifle.

Instantly my head knew what it was. Nokota D5 Copperhead.

It was the AK of the future.

I spun. I could hear footsteps approaching.

Heavy footsteps.

I looked around. The room I was in was the last unit in the row. There wasnt a second exit.

So this is where I would have to make a stand.

I raced back across the room. Using the doorway to the Ripper room set up. Rifle raised up and pointed, but I could hear the borg moving. Basically doing the same thing on the opposite doorway.

Intermittent Russian called out as the three scavs talked to each other.

Well if he wanted to post up near the doorway.

I grabbed a Frag grenade from my chest rig. Ripping the pin out with my teeth which actually hurt a bit and wasnt nearly as easy as the movies made it seem, I popped the grenade holding it for half a second to cook before chucking it across the room.

My Reflex and Ninjutsu helped make the grenade land generally where I wanted it to as it hit the doorway and fell into the computer room.

But before it went off, it was suddenly spiraling into the ripper room.

Did Did the borg seriously kick it? Asshole!

I jerked back and the massive thump of the grenade going off in the room rolled past me. A few moments later something in Russian was called out mockingly.

I dont speak Russian. I answered back completely flat.

Then a surge went up my spine. Danger Sense. I was spotted? I jerked back landing flat on my back just in time for a massive chunk of the wall I had been standing against disappeared.

I held back a curse. Letting the cool feeling surging through my nerves keep my calm.

Tech Shotgun? Tech Shotgun. I popped a Grenade off my rig quietly pulling the pin.

Do you understand Russian now? The voice called back mockingly. A rough older man. Obviously laughing.

He thought he got me. I smiled. I heard his foot thunk. I popped the trigger on the grenade. Letting it cook.

I felt completely calm. My heartbeat didnt even stutter as I held the cooking grenade long past where I should have.

Then as if I had done this a million times I chucked it through the hole he had just blown through the wall.

Half a second was all the time he had. A moment to start cursing in Russian before the Grenade made it through the hole and exploded. I rolled away. Plaster and concrete shattered over me as the wall came down.

My ears were ringing, but I brought up the rifle I had stolen, and as soon as I managed to roll to my knees I started firing into the smoke and dust.

I could see the bullets make divots through the dust but I realized after half a magazine I wasnt able to tell if I was hitting anything. So I leapt to the side rolling until I was behind a desk just in case.

Which was smart because the sound of a double barrel shotgun ripping through the room smashing concrete as it went right through where I had been a moment before told me I hadnt gotten him.

Again more russian was called out, although it wasnt the borg, but I got the gist.

Kill her this time?

No. Nyet was some of the only russian I knew after all.

He thunked into the room like the fucking terminator. Already reloading his shotgun.

I tossed my last grenade.

I didnt pull the pin though.

As he moved to kick it back towards me I rose up.

Burya staring straight at him, his shotgun out of position as he kicked the grenade back.

We had a moment. A simple frozen moment in time as his eyes locked with mine. I could see it. The frozen moment he realized he had fucked up.

The moment my Burya kicked, breaking my arm but sending a bullet with more than enough force to crack his chrome.

He was actually smiling a little as the bullet struck.

*1000 XP Gained.*

Then everything was moving again.

I was moving again. Dropped the Burya because my right arm wasnt strong enough to holster the damn thing I raced over to the dropped grenade. Popped the pin with my teeth again.

Ow.

I tossed the grenade with every inch of the accuracy I had ground. The grenade arced through the ripper room, and into the computer room.

The room that I hoped the two other Scavs were hanging around in waiting for their Borg to take me out.

I breathed for a few moments wincing at the feeling of my arm even as the pain was fading into prickly ice.

And then the thump of the grenade echoed through the building.

I moved. Not waiting for a moment, I dashed through the ripper room power sliding into the room with the computer terminal.

The two scavs were shocked from the grenade, having jumped out of the way to survive it, but they werent stupid.

Even as my pistol rose up and started shooting.

They shot back.

I winced when I felt a bullet strike me, and then two.

Yet my bullets were hitting them as well. One scav went down.

*500 XP Gained.*

Yet the second Scav and I were facing each other, both of us low to the ground. Both of our guns raised.

We started firing. Bullets whizzed past me as I tried to roll to avoid more rounds, my Unity barking over and over until finally it clicked down.

We both were on the ground. I was gasping. As I struggled to move.

That was a lot of blood.

I dropped my Unity even as I felt myself wavering.

I was dying. I coughed, blood rolling out of my throat.

I fumbled with my pocket, finally pulled out the Max Doc with shaking hands.

I inhaled it and instantly the hazy feeling disappeared. I could feel the bullet holes not close, but stop bleeding. Although I could see that they were scabbing over. Healing.

I rose up looking over to the Scav who looked just like I had been a moment before. Leaning up against a desk bleeding out from multiple gunshot wounds.

His eyes though.

He had seen.

He looked at me in horror as I reached behind my back and pulled out a magazine.

I picked up my Unity and reloaded it as I took a few steps closer.

Then I put a bullet in his eye.

*500 XP Gained.*

I stood there after just catching my breath. I felt cool, but I also felt tired.

Took a few tired steps out into the large room. The large room full of crates probably loaded with Cyberware.

I flopped onto the couch the Borg had been resting on before and just breathed for a few minutes.

How am I still alive? I asked as I zoned out. What the fuck had I just done? I wasnt some elite special operative or something! Okay I could shoot a gun with an okay level of skill, but I had just How did I know to throw the grenade without pulling the pin?

I hadnt even thought. I just did. Cold Blood had left me without any hesitation. Pain and fear, even anger, hadn't played any part. Just a cold clinical calculus.

I had put in a few points into Ninjutsu before going into this den, but I was actually wondering if I should have put it into Cold Blood.

I raised my hands up to wipe my face only to wince.

While the Max Doc had seemed to give me a gamer style heal. At least enough to put me back to alive status. My arm was still broken. And I still had some bullet holes.

It had stopped me from bleeding out, and healed parts of my holes, but not all the way. I looked down at my chest. At the holes punched through my Netrunner suit.

Dammit. That was going to be expensive to fix. So much for the armor as well.

I rose up and started searching around. They had to have a place with medical supplies somewhere.

And I was right. In a corner I found a med kit and popped it open. Instantly inhaling the Max Doc and sighing as my bullet holes healed up more, although it would be obvious I had been shot still. There were still wounds where I had been shot

Wait, did that mean I had bullets in me still? Dammit. I would have to get to a ripper to check. How was I supposed to ask that? Hey Ripper can you tell if I still have bullets in me from these holes that just happened? I mocked myself before sighing.

Well actually I probably need to stop at a ripper anyways huh. I couldnt help but admit as I looked over the crates all over the room. I walked over to one and popped it open, only to wince.

Legs.

I moved on to the next crate. Arms.

Synth Muscle.

The next one had little boxes that when I opened up I instantly closed back down.

Eyes. I muttered with a shiver. I looked over the crates.

Fuck. That was a lot of product. A lot of Cyberware.

Okay Motoko you idiot. You cleared out the Scavs. Now how do you get this stuff out of here?

I realized I hadnt actually thought that far.

Motoko kill scavs and numbers go up!

Fuck. That was about as far as my stupid brain had thought this through. I was going to have to call in help help that was going to ask questions.

Fuck it. I had nearly died, but no one needed to know that. I could just Fake it. Yeah.

I would just lie. Alot.

I made a call.

*Toko! Save me from boredom! Club?*

*Hey Hiromi Can you get Ichi and the gang together and find a bigger vehicle than your bikes. I need I need a couple trucks or something.*

*Okay I am suddenly very interested in what my cute Motoko is talking about. What is going on?*

*Its hard to explain and I dont really want to talk about over the line. Can you do it? I promise there will be eddies in it.*

*Well I would come no matter what, but that will get the boys moving. Alright where to?*

*Just get to Megabuilding H2, and try to keep it quiet. That would be Preem.*

*Ill get the boys moving we have Omaedas van. That enough?*

*No. Rent or hell steal a cargo truck if you have to. We got a lot of shit to move.*

The line was quiet for a moment as I looked out the windows watching the city far below.

*I am so interested right now. You have no idea. Okay whatever craziness you got going on Im in.*

*Thanks Hiromi. Really. I appreciate it.*

The line ended and I took a moment to look around. Finding all kinds of stuff that had my looter's instincts going crazy. I started bringing it back to the central room until I stumbled upon a shower that still worked. I quickly washed up. Trying to get most of the blood off me, but wincing when I realized that I still had bullet holes all over me.

That was going to be difficult to explain. I quickly zipped up my jacket hoping that it would hide most of the holes. I looked around and found some bandages of all things in a med kit. With a bit of arranging the bullet holes were hidden, and you couldnt see that I had been shot now. It just looked like I was wearing a white shirt under my leotard.

Hopefully no one would wonder why my new Netrunner Leotard had holes in it. Figuring that was good enough I decided to start looting.

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