CHAPTER 269

“So…” Hope stopped right in front of me. “Thought we were supposed to be on vacation.”

”So did I.” I rubbed at the back of my neck and stood up from my seat in the BG lobby. “Sorry to call you in like this…” 

Hope laughed it off, rubbing at her eyes- or at least trying to. She smacked her silver helmet, shaking her head roughly. “Ugh- don’t be. The relaxation was really starting to get to me. Besides, we only have a week left anyway.” 

I, as a Squire, could technically put in a request to the runners. It’d be processed quicker if an Inquisitor, such as Hope, did it though. Hence her involvement. “Thank you.” 

I pulled at my Crusade armor uncomfortably. The ballistic vest wasn’t an issue. Sure, the silver ballistic weave was a bit brighter and vibrant than I was used to, but it fit like a glove. The bracer was the issue. It just pressed weirdly into the wrist pad. I’d have to make some adjustments when I got back.

“You thought about what you want to do?” Hope picked up the tower before I could get to it, easily hauling it into the air.

Right… There was that matter. Now that Commander Ligh was, well, the Commander, I was no longer his Squire. I’d talked about it before with Hope, and I really only had two options. Join under her, or get tossed randomly into the pool of Inquisitors. Oh- or Varus the Shark Inquisitor and Zere, of Fox, also offered to take me under their wings.

She shifted, leading the way back into the building. “Same freedom as you had with Ligh. I dunno about you, but we all worked better when he wasn’t breathing over our shoulders and we could go take care of stuff on our own. Of course, if you need help, just say the word and we’ll be there.”

“Chek?” Same freedom I had with Ligh… what freedom? I always had the misfortune of being right where he needed me, so I was always on call. Although… maybe it’d be better under Hope?

”Won’t be an issue. As long as our numbers aren’t bad, no one will say anything.” She shrugged. “Just the way the Crusade works.”

”Fine. Do I need to sign anything?” There was really only one option. Besides, I could just get rid of a gang every month or so, and that’d probably count as doing my part, right?

”Yes. Paperworks somewhere on my desk.” She sighed tiredly. “Oh, we’re here.”

I pushed open the door into the Cyber Security Division, letting Hope in behind me. A clerk at the desk yawned and waves us over. “What can I do for you, Inquisitor?”

”Need this busted open.” She set the tower down with a heavy thunk. “What was it, Squire? Gun-running?”

”Gun-manufacturing and assassination, too.” I slid the data chips onto the counter. “Portside.”

The clerk nodded his head, clicking around on his terminal. ”And how was this… acquired?”

Woah. I didn’t think anyone in the Crusade would actually care enough to ask me. “A- um, a source?”

The clerk shot me a look, though didn’t probe any further. I flashed a bright, Honest smile at him. “Right, we’ll get into it in a couple hours. I’ll send the report to you, Inquisitor.”

“My thanks to the runners.” Inquisitor Hope nodded her head and motioned for us to leave.

I eyed her helmet as we walked side by side down the hall. I’d been wandering this ever since I first saw the masks and helmets of the Crusade. “Is that… hard to breathe in?” 

There were no breathing holes. It was literally just a straight sheet of silver covering her face. And hers wasn’t even the worst of it. From what I’d seen of Crusaders in heavy armor, some of them had super thick helmets that looked absolutely suffocating to wear.

”No.” She brushed a gauntleted hand against the side of the helmet. “Might be tech? Probably just another enchantment, actually. It feels like I’m not even wearing anything.”

“Weird…” 

“Yeah. Oh, and thanks for bringing this to me. It’ll look good on my record to help bring down a dangerous gang even during my vacation.” Hope led the way toward the offices. Unlike Ligh, she didn’t have her own office. She had a desk shoved up against the wall in a massive office space full of dozens.

She kicked a chair, pushing it out for me, and went around the other side. “Take a seat.”

I eyed the handcuff link strapped to the desk on this side. “No problem. A source sent me all of this stuff. The gang probably pissed someone off that they shouldn’t have.”

“Doesn’t really matter where you got it. Win is a win.” She unlocked the drawer of her desk and tossed me a pen and a stack of papers. “Sign every dotted line, Zuku.”

”Chek.” And so began the long—and brutal—process of filling out paperwork. Even for the Crusade, it seemed it was inevitable.

— — —

I sat at a bar, scribbling in a sketchbook. I’d swapped back to my normal ballistic vest, leaving my Crusade armor back at the gym. No way I wanted to take Crusade armor around while doing illegal things. They definitely had a tracker in them.

There were a few things I had on my mind lately. My bike for one. It’d served me well, but it was really about time I got an upgrade. It looked like I pulled it out of a scrapyard, and I hadn’t shown enough love to it as of late.

There were two things in particular I wanted to improve on, outside of overall improvements, of course: durability and mobility. If I made it way more chunky and covered the thing with armor, durability would shoot through the roof. Hmm… and adjust the design so it's really hard to take apart. That’d ward off most street thieves.

As for the mobility part? I had some great ideas. Back when I was setting up to take down Corvin, I brushed up against all sorts of flyers. I had hundreds of different designs stuffed into my head. So… why not make a hoverbike? As far as I knew, there weren’t that many of them out in the world. It sure would be convenient though.

The biggest issue with it would be power supply and the actual hovering bit. Flyers, interestingly enough, worked similarly to my Drop Chutes. Unlike my Drop Chutes, which focused on reducing gravity, the actual flying parts of flyers were meant to manipulate gravity. Reducing gravity wasn’t as effective when it came to supporting larger bulks.

No idea how expensive Gravitic was, but I’d probably be able to get it from Transmutation. That just left-

A tiny hand tapped the bar in front of me. I flinched back, slamming my sketchbook closed. My hand twitched toward my gun- “Sorry, lass. Didn’ mean to scare ye’.”

”Ugh- no… I’ve just been jumpy lately.” I rubbed my eye and slid my sketchbook back into my bag. I kept getting the sense that something was horribly wrong… wish Mira was around. She always managed to calm my nerves.

”I’d offer ye a drink, but she awaits ye upstairs.” The bartender of the Jagged Clover Pub wiped out a glass. “Want me to send anything on up?”

“No. I’m good. Probably be out of here shortly.” I nodded to the man and hopped off the bar stool. 

“If ye say so.” The tiny-handed bartender nodded back to me and went down to serve the next patron. I watched him for a moment before moving up the stairs.

Athena smirked at me when I stepped into her private booth. “You look like you’ve seen better days.”

”Really?” And here I thought I was holding up rather well after my week-long break from anything too serious.

She leaned on her chin, eyes passing over me idly. “That wild look you’ve got- looks even more untamed than usual.”

I slid into the booth across from her and dropped a handful of chips onto the table. “I need these taken care of.”

Athena eyed me for a moment before picking up the three five-thousand Rayn chips. “Not from a trusted source, I take it?”

I shook my head. “No telling what kind of malware is on there.”

She put the three aside and picked one from the other set. There were five of the biometric ID chips. “What about these ones?”

”Want them?” If anyone could use them, it’d be a fixer or a shoemaker. These particular black market items were the baseline to set up false credentials and IDs.

Her eyes flickered, shifting shades slightly. “Yeah. They’re low quality, though. Only worth two thousand.”

”Don’t short me like that.” I narrowed my eyes on the woman. “They’re at least six thousand.”

“Rob me, why don’t you?” Athena flicked the chip back onto the table. ”I’ll have to reprocess them too. Three thousand?”

”They were a pain to get a hold of. Had to break into a heavily fortified location. That much effort was at least worth five thousand.” 

“Effort doesn’t change their worth, Zuku.” Athena tapped on the table with her long fingers. “Three thousand five hundred, and I’ll set aside my usual fees. Even toss you the Rayn right now, so I don’t have to see your scamming face again so soon.”

I put on a facade of struggling with the amount. It was a little lower than I wanted but way better than two thousand. “Fine. You win. Hard to believe fixers are just scamming their hard working employees these days.”

Athena’s nose twitched. “Please. You aren’t my employee.”

”Close enough.” 

She slid a chip out of her pocket and into a phone, tapping around on it. “I’ll have you know, my actual employees have great benefits and pay.”

”Doesn’t matter if you beat up the young and destitute.” I sighed sadly.

“Ha- you, poor?” Her eyes snapped over me. “Judging by your equipment, it all looks freshly made or repaired. Not something a poor person can afford.”

I rubbed at my arms. ”Why do you think I’m poor? Techies are expensive these days.”

“Whatever.” Athena tossed me a chip loaded with Nytes. “This chip alone has more than most people make in a month.”

I checked it before transferring the thirty-two thousand, five hundred Rayn into my account. I now sat at fifty-three thousand. My Crusade pay came in not that long ago, so I actually wasn’t looking that bad. And I had a free BC apartment, at the small price of my soul to my corporate overlords. 

I got out of the booth. “A pleasure, as always.”

”Yeah, yeah.” Athena waved a casual hand toward the door. “I got another appointment soon. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.”

I shook my head and left, heading back down the stairs. I waved goodbye to the bartender and hit the streets once more. The scent of cheap beer and unwashed bodies hit me, though I covered that up by pushing my rebreather onto my face.

While I walked, I twirled an arc of electricity out and around my arm just inside my sleeve. I’d gotten quite good at the exercise, capable of controlling it for much longer then I had in the past. Likewise, the circle shape was no longer hard to maintain.

Should I… should I change up the shape soon? Maybe do a dragon like Carone used to? He was really the only other Kinetic I’d seen using their abilities. Hmm…

Ding!

My phone buzzed in my pocket, followed a moment later by a call. Caller ID revealed it to be Saint. “Shiro?”

”Chek. You good?” I moved into the parking garage.

”Yeah, yeah. I’m good.” His voice sounded a little shaky and breathless. “Just had a run in with our… our friends. I got away- I think.”

”Where are you?” My casual jaunt turned into something much faster and I raced for my bike. “Call me before you wind up in a gutter next time?”

The shakiness seemed to fade a bit. “Heh- I‘ll try. Look- I’m not sure where, exactly. It’s hard to describe. I’m underground beneath a laundromat, though.” 

“Ping me?” I flicked my bike on, feeling the comforting chug of its engine underneath me. Although it was a little worse for wear, ole faithful still ran without issue. A moment later, a ping came. This time, he wasn’t even in Little Yukoto. 

“Is that good?”

“What the hell are you doing so close to the AEZ?” The man was practically on the wall, according to his ping. 

He coughed lightly. “My source was scared to meet up in Little Yukoto. The AEZ is the most guarded spot in the city now. Figured Medtech wouldn’t try anything.”

”Ugh-“ I so did not want to go anywhere near the AEZ this soon. I lightly smacked my head against the handlebars of my bike. Do I just leave him? “Fine. I’ll come pick you up. Just- just sit tight and don’t do anything stupid.”

Saint chuckled. Although I was irritated, his voice was like a Kinetic ability in its own way. My aggravation faded slightly under his warm laughter. “I’ll bunker down. Oh! And I got a massive lead too! Might crack this whole thing open.”

”Chek, chek.” I shifted, plotting my route. “I’m on my way.”

— — —

Just in case you missed it, my other book is live. Give Myth//OS a chek?