Freezing Shadows, Chapter 23

Chapter 23: Bad Feeling

“Icy! You done with your interview?”

The sound of concern in Sexkitten’s voice as I picked up the call just after leaving the therapist building where I gave both my interviews did not inspire warm and fuzzy feelings in me. That wasn’t someone who was just eager to talk. Something was up.

“Yeah. What happened?”

“A new contact I’ve been working called me. He’s a manager at Mixsanto, works in their arcology here in the sprawl, but has a taste for girls that aren’t entirely vanilla, you know? Which is how he found me, in that new brothel I switched to. A bit of pillow talk, and we traded work commcodes.”

That’s right, Sexkitten had switched to a different brothel. Sorry, massage parlor. Not just because she wanted to actually remember what she was doing, rather than missing it all at the bunraku parlor, but also because Babydoll worked at that parlor, too, and having two of our team working at the same place wasn’t a great situation, from a security standpoint. People might start asking questions.

“I get the idea,” I said, swinging one leg over my bike and hitting the ignition. And I did. Corportate middle manager ‘slumming it’ by going to a massage parlor that wasn’t corporate approved was a wageslave’s version of living it up and walking on the wild side. Such people could make for good contacts. If they were legit.

Which was the problem. Manager going to a massage parlor and chatting up one of the girls as they were oiling up and getting everything ready to go? Normal. Expected, even. Getting deep enough that they were then calling that girl for a job? That started to smell a bit fishy. Worse, Mixsanto had a bit of a reputation in the shadows. They liked tying up loose ends with body bags.

As I started driving to our base, I summed things up, “So, this guy you met at the parlor decided he trusted you enough to call you in and do crimes. Big crimes, not the slap on the wrist or give the cop a freebie stuff. Things that pay well, and have lots of guns involved. No offense, Sexkitten, I know you’re a good time, but you’re not that good. How well do you know this contact?”

“Barely. Like, just started developing him. And you think it is a little suspicious, too, right? I’m not just being crazy?”

“No, it is definitely suspicious, but it could also be real. Where and when does he want to meet?”

“Tonight, and the weird thing is he wants to meet on a boat. Like our boat meets his boat, and we talk out in the middle of the water.”

“That’s controlling variables. Meeting like that eliminates most chances of being recorded, since there’s way too much ambient noise to make something that’ll stick, and it seriously limits any potential ambush or backup. That’s good and bad for us. Means the meet is almost certainly a legit meet. But the job could be a setup.”

“I figured as much. Where you at?”

“On my way in. Call everyone in, if you haven’t already. And get Babydoll and Twilight on sourcing a ride for us. Probably a rental, or something disposable.”

“Actually, Babydoll is here now, and has been looking at boats. Unrelated to this. She already has a possible rental for the evening, but wants to discuss maybe getting something we can keep down at the marina nearby. Problem is, with all the upgrades, she’s run through her portion of our funds pretty fast. Not running on empty, mind you, but…”

“I get it. Tell her to go ahead and get the rental, since she’s on top of that. As for a permanent addition to our motor pool, I can probably help out with that, but that’s probably a ‘between runs’ thing, so everything can get kitted out before we take something we own into a problematic situation.”

“Got it. And yeah, I can see wanting to set up any boat we have with all the tricks before we take it out. All right, Babydoll is telling me everyone’s coming in, and she’s got the boat set up.”

“Good. Spread the word, everyone make sure you have your ‘work clothes’, and all the accessories. And if you have a way to breathe underwater, bring that, too.”

“Like that OXSYS Artificial Gill thing, right? Lets you breathe underwater to a depth of 7 meters?”

“Yep. I doubt they’ll actually attack in this initial meet, but better to be prepared. I’ll talk more once everyone’s in.”

“See ya then, boss.”

I was coming from the furthest out, so I wasn’t surprised to see that I was the last one in. As I’d asked, everyone was dressed in clothes suitable for work, meaning they had as much armor as they could handle without eating penalties, and everyone had their normal suite of weapons on hand. The only difference was that the women were all trying on and adjusting a black, wrap-around mask that covered the nose and mouth, securing at the back of the head.

There were a few basic pieces of kit that I made sure everyone had, once we decided to be a team, full-time. A subvocal microphone so we could speak into a private channel without breaking stealth. An autopicker, which would allow even an untrained person to get through a mechanical lock. Gecko Tape Gloves, which would allow you to climb walls, and even hang from ceilings, if you wanted. A medkit, because someone who had taken enough damage wasn’t likely to be able to patch themselves up without screwing up. A respirator, because tear gas and other nastiness was a real threat at times. And the OXSYS Artificial Gill, because being able to breathe underwater without scuba tanks was huge.

Not that the thing was foolproof, of course. The mask didn’t filter out toxins in the water, or anything like that. It just separated the oxygen, so you could breathe it. And it only worked to a maximum depth of 7 meters. Issue was, Puget Sound was 140 meters deep, on average, and got up to 280 in places. However, so long as someone wasn’t shooting straight down at you, you only needed to be 2 meters deep to be safe from a lot of bullets. So, mandatory equipment when we were expecting to be on the water.

“Ladies,” I said, walking up to the central table, where everyone was gathered, “I assume that Sexkitten has filled you all in?” A round of nods answered me.

“All right, then. So, just so everyone’s on the same page, a contact Sexkitten was working on developing suddenly came to her, asking for a meet about a job. Sexkitten, how would you say the contact was acting?”

“Nervous,” she said. “Not scared, like ‘guy on the run’ kind of attitude, but he definitely didn’t seem like his normal self. Itztli is normally a pretty relaxed guy. Well, anyone’s relaxed when they’re getting my massage, but he didn’t seem uptight or anything.”

I nodded at the name. “First off, I’ll point out that Itztli is a typical name for the Neo-Nahuatl culture. However, that culture is pretty much limited to the country of Mixsate, and the megacorp that runs it in all but name, Mixsanto. If he has a name like that, even if he had it changed from whatever it was at birth, that means he’s a Mixsanto company man, through and through. Do you know what his job is?”

“Manager. Don’t know the exact level, but not terribly high. As for the division, I do know that. He’s in the accounting department. Liked to talk about how seeing me really helped relax him, and let him focus on his numbers.”

“So, not someone who is typically the type to go hiring hitmen, smugglers, or engaging in corporate chicanery. Maybe some light embezzlement, at most, though, if he did, he probably makes sure to keep it to ‘rounding errors’ that won’t be easily noticed.”

I took a breath, and said, “So, combine that with his attitude. Nervous, but not scared. That’s someone who is a little out of their depth, and doesn’t have the skills to cope with it, but they aren’t thinking they’re about to get the ‘early retirement plan’. Which most likely means either he’s seen too many trid shows, and is about to make a play against a rival in his company, or someone is leaning on him, making him a cutout. Either way, this means trouble.”

“Because an amateur trying to play corporate politics with the big boys is going to ask for something impossible?” Twilight asked.

Berzerker added, “And if he’s a middleman, then whoever is actually pulling the strings wants there to be separation between us and them, but doesn’t want to use a Mr. Johnson, or their corporate equivalent. Meaning it is either completely off the books, or the budget has been allocated to bullets, instead of paying us.”

“Right on both counts,” I nodded. “And this is where we come to the subject of reputation. The two main currencies in the shadows are nucred and reputation. We’ve done a couple gigs, but we don’t have enough of a reputation to really stick out, except when compared to other players. Which means we haven’t gotten a reputation of being either too valuable or too dangerous to screw over.

“This is important because some corporations have reputations, too. Mixsanto has a bloody reputation. They’re big fans of not paying for a team of runners when bullets are much cheaper. Naturally, not every run done by or for Mixsanto ends up in a screw job, otherwise they’d never have any shadowmen actually take jobs for them. But they’re much more willing to do it than some of the other corps, especially when they aren’t going through a Mr. Johnson or a fixer.”

Twilight nodded, and said, “So, I guess the question is, how do we keep from ending up in a box after the job is done. If we even take the job.”

All eyes were on me. I had more experience with the game, after all, so they were looking to me for guidance, here. “If we go to the meet, we have to take the job. If they’re planning to remove whichever team takes the job, then they’ll try to kill us anyways, just to keep us quiet. And if we don’t take the meet, all our reps will probably take a hit. Getting marked as ‘unreliable’ is a great way to get nothing but shit jobs. However, if we take the job, do the job, and get out the other side? Our rep goes up.”

Twilight nodded. “But how do we get paid, if we are dodging bullets afterwards?”

“We get as much in advance as we can. And we keep our eyes out for opportunities. For instance, the people sent to kill us will probably have stuff worth selling, if we can fight our way through.”

Babydoll grinned. “Then, I guess I should go over the boat I managed to rent for us tonight. It is a MarineTech Barracuda, called a Rigid Hull Inflatable Boat, or RHIB. They’re not exactly high-tech, but they’re simple, reliable, and fast. Problem is, I’m definitely a rookie when it comes to driving boats. I’ve got the skill for it, but that’s about it.”

“Skills can be improved over time,” I said. “How much did the rental cost, and what can you tell us about the boat itself?”

“Two hundred nucred, plus I’m going to swing by his place tomorrow and tune up the engines on a couple of his other boats.”

“Smart,” I nodded. “Sometimes a trade of services, or even a ‘favor for a favor’, can be the best way to get things done. Especially if those other boats he’s going to get you working on are his real moneymakers for charters. Oh, and make sure you take someone with you when you go, just in case.”

“Really? You think the guy’ll try something?”

“Maybe, maybe not. But when we’re not even on the job yet and are already looking at a potential double-cross? Pays to be prepared. This whole setup is giving me bad vibes, and it should be for the rest of you, too.”

“So, what’s the play, Boss?” Berzerker asked.

“Like I said, we prep for trouble, and no one goes off on their own during this job. Not saying you need to be glued at the hip, but you should have backup close by, and regular check-ins. Remember, it isn’t paranoia if there are actually people out to get you. Then, it is just prudent preparation. Hopefully, this is just a wageslave trying to act above their station or out of their comfort zone. But, if it isn’t, I’d rather be prepared, than have any of you getting sent to reroll. Got it?”