“Motoko?”“It’s nothing.” I grumbled, I could feel myself all puffed up and irritated.
Then my agent picked up a call…
I considered just blocking it, but instead I picked it up.
“I’m sooooowwwy!”“Sasha.” I said flatly, and she just kept going.
“I’m so happy Kitten is calling! Please don’t hang up!”I sighed, through the agent, and then refocused.
“I have a gig. A big one, and I could use another netrunner. Or more even. Does Maine have you on any gigs in the next few days?”“Nope! Everything is quiet here! We’re waiting-Ah nevermind. I can’t say that!”“Sure. I have a gig, it could be dangerous. Pay is going to be-” I looked over at Hiromi and she rolled her eyes at me, but threw up some fingers.
I felt my eyes widen seriously?
Seriously. She seemed to say with her face and I sighed.
“Above average Elite Netrunner pay.”“Oooh! Kitten thinks Sasha is amazing to offer so much!!”
“It’s a serious job. No fuck ups allowed. And you’re one of the best… Do you think Kiwi, and Lucy would be-”“Nooo! You don’t need them! Sasha-Senpai can do it!”“Sasha. I’m serious. Do you think one or both might be interested… We’re hitting a big corp.”“Ah. So Kitten is really afraid huh? Okay serious mode activate!”“Do you have to scream that?” I whispered, wanting to run a hand across my face.
“I’ll talk to the others, do you want me to bring Maine in?”“I already have muscle, I just need some good Netrunner support.”“He might not like that… I’ll run it by him and make sure he doesn’t get upset, okay?”“That’s fine. I know he won’t say anything…” Probably.“He won’t! Okay I’ll talk to everyone over here, but I’m in Kitten. We should meet up to get the full details. It’ll help me talk to the others.”“Okay, we’ll set up-”“Like now! I’m not doing anything!”“Now is fine.” I agreed even if I didn’t have the mental time to prepare myself for dealing with Sasha.
—--
We pulled up to the same little safe house Maine and company had fled to, which was a bit weird, but then again. I guess if you weren’t using it for a safe house again, it was still a perfectly good house?
Although when we arrived the place had changed, Maine's car was no longer parked out front, and there was a lot of… color. Added to the place.
Hiromi didn’t seem to notice, or mind, but I picked up on it… This is Sasha’s house now isn’t it?Before I could even reach the front door she stepped out, smiling brightly as she rushed forward, and… I decided to allow it, since I was hiring her for a gig. She slammed into me.
“Kitten! Welcome to the Cat House!”“I’m never calling it that.” I decided, and she laughed as she tugged me forward.
Then she stopped and noticed Hiromi. Both of them stared at the other, seemingly picking up on a few things.
Sasha’s cat-like demeanor, and Hiromi’s own kitten-like EMP threading…
“Kitten has another Kitten!? Call me Sasha-Senpai Nya!” She offered to Hiromi waving a hand like a cat paw as she did.
“A pleasure to meet you, I’m Hiromi.” She replied back a bit flatly, eyes narrowing as she took in Sasha’s looks, running her up and down. Then she glanced at me, and started pouting a bit, arms crossing over her chest.
“Cyute! Nya! Come in!” Sasha reached out like a viper more than a cat, and tugged us both, dragging us into the house which was vastly different, walls painted in different colors almost at random it seemed.
“You did a lot of work on the place.” I muttered even as Hiromi grumbled at being tugged along.“Of course! Have to make it welcoming!” She said sauntering around, and I noticed one of the walls had a sort of kaleidoscope effect with different colors and stuff… It looked surprisingly well done for how most of the house was.
“Right. Well-” I began wanting to get to the point quickly, but was interrupted.“At-atta!” She interrupted, hands pointed at me. “Come sit first!” She demanded and I just followed along as she settled me on a couch, one I remember Maine had camped out on last time I was here, but now?
It was covered in colored blankets, some of them with cats printed on them…
“So about the-”“Not yet! Jeeze! Kitten, I’ll have to teach you as a senpai you don’t just get right into business!” She said half laughing as she disappeared and then came back with a couple cans of Ni-Cola, and then settled them out.
“Now!” She offered as Hiromi took a can, and then shot me a look.
What?
She gave me a glance at the can.
I sighed and took the can and popped it open to drink.
“Sasha-Senpai is so happy-happy to meet a fellow Kitten! Are you a Netrunner too? Want me to show you around the net? Sasha-Senpai is super duper amazing you know?”“Ah, no, I’m not a netrunner. Motoko handles that.” Hiromi said shooting me a look like she wasn’t sure what the fuck was going on.
Fair.
“Aww. That’s okay! Sasha can help you with the way of the Cat as well! Do you want some ki-”“Sasha.” I interrupted and she pouted at me. I looked at Hiromi. “While she’s eccentric. Sasha is an Elite Netrunner. Better than me in a lot of ways. Even if her programming needs a lot of work.”
“That’s just-”“And she has no sense of control, always blasting with the biggest hacks she has.”“They’re effective and-”“And of course her attitude is pretty bad, and she’s difficult to work with. She’s also-”“Nyaaaa! Kitten is bullying me!”“She’s also still one of the best.” I said finally and her fake tears disappeared as she smiled brightly. “As far as netrunner infiltrators go, she’s good.”
“Waaa Teehee! My Kohai is complimenting me!” She gushed. Yeah one compliment after a dozen issues… But sure as long as she’s happy.
“I see. Well I’m Hiromi, Motoko’s… Manager. I make sure all of her ideas and needs are fulfilled.”
“Hiromi is the best. Don’t mistake her age, she’s made huge deals on the street, and in corpo headquarters.”“Kyaa! So cute! Two kittens in a pod! So you’re Motoko’s Choomy choom. Hang on, I need a picture for my Kitten scrapbook.”“That doesn’t exist, or it better not, or I’ll burn it.” I told her firmly, and she just sent me a grin. But then she went serious.
“Okay, we’ve played and have a better understanding of each other now. So how can Sasha-Senpai help?” Her sudden serious turn threw me for a moment and I had to switch from being annoyed to serious as well.
“I’m going to hit the Militech showroom, and steal a million or so eddies worth of high end CPU, and Drive systems.” I told her bluntly, and she looked at me, and then looked at the drink in her hand…
It was just Ni-Cola?
“Say that again?” She asked, and I frowned at her. Cause she was playing around. “Okay okay! Don’t scowl at Sasha-Senpai, she's fragile!”“If you aren’t interested I can go.”“I didn’t say that! But really… Going after Militech, and the showroom? That’s kinda crazy Kitten. There’s a reason Militech keeps the show rooms open. Cause trying to steal from them isn’t easy.”“I can do it. I’m sure of it.”“Okay… Okay well you’ll need data.”“I have it.” I pulled out a shard that I flash saved data too, and passed it over. She inserted it, and I could see her checking it for viruses before it flashed over her eyes…
“Ack!” “What?”“Tsk… This is that Foxes work.” She grumbled, and I rolled my eyes.
“Yeah, the original data was from Yoko.”“It’s not reliable then, you’ll need to scope the place out at least. This data is-” She stopped as I held up a hand.
“I know. I was in the showroom today.”“Whoa, Kitten! That’s not good, if they see you looking around on camera, you’ll be the first suspect!”“They invited me there, Sasha.” I said smugly and she blinked in surprise.
“What?”“Militech invited Motoko as part of her band.” Hiromi explained taking a sip of her soda. “They won’t suspect she’s part of any heist, as they brought her in, and she did an ad for them as well.”
“Huh?”“I have a band where I play music.” I explained slowly. “Militech brought me into the showroom and showed me around the whole place… Got a new pair of boots out of it.” I brought up my right foot to show it off.
“Oh those are cute… Why didn’t you tell senpai you were in a band! Sasha wants to listen!”“Later, focus. I got a BD of the interior. So I’m going to go through and find out every system they use, the access codes, and create a system of cracked ICE for each of them.”
“Oh that… That would work.” She muttered, acting serious again for once, as she brought a hand up to her lips and nibbled on her thumbnail.
As she did that, I continued, because I wasn’t even done.
“With that data, and some netrunner support. We should be able to get into the storage area without setting anything off. I still need to scope out the storage entrance.”
“No.” Sasha said, shaking her head. “If you have the data on the information inside the showroom, enter through a normal entrance. If you try to get in through the backdoors, you’ll regret it.”“We still need to get the stuff out.”“You’re thinking too small.” She said and I stared at her annoyed. “Or rather you’re thinking of a big fancy heist. If you get in, you can alter the purchase and shipping orders.”It was a solid idea, but I shook my head. “I’m stealing something too expensive for that. I doubt they haven’t dealt with netrunners trying that exact thing in the past.”“Hmm. You may be right. That makes it really hard, Kitten. Stealing something that big has a lot of trouble with it. It takes time, you can’t just trust it’s all ready to go. Do you know how big the package would be, how heavy? Is it even together? Do you need to prep it for transport?”“Is it even there still?” Hiromi added and I pouted at that.
“You don’t know?”“Yoko’s data says it is.”“Which can’t be trusted. Never trust data, even if you make it yourself things change.”“I know. We already need to break into the server on the site, accessing their shipping information before we even make entry is part of the plan.”
“Hmm. It’ll slow us down, and you never know if the shipping manifests don’t have more security or not.”“Hence why I want to bring in Lucy, and Kiwi, at least one of them.”“Three elite netrunners is kinda crazy Kitten.”“Good. That means it’ll definitely work.” I said simply, and she couldn’t help but laugh and shrug.
“It’s your eddies.”“It is… Technically?” I looked at Hiromi and she threw me a thumbs up.
“You have enough. Stand Alone Complex is making plenty.”“Oh good.”“Stand Alone Complex?”“My Band.” I reminded her and then moved on before her excited look could turn into some rant. “Okay so after we scope out a bit of the storage access, we can see if it’s worth entering there or through the main entrance, we will go grab some gang tagged vehicles. I’m thinking of some Raffen stuff to get away with. If we all dress up as Raffen, even if something tags us, it won’t be as serious. Then we leave,head into the desert, swap vehicles, and equipment, swap the stolen items while checking for trackers, and head back into the city.”“Hmm… You’re kind of a scaredy kitten.” Sasha finally said, taking a sip of her own drink as if she hadn’t just insulted me.
“I’m not scared! What the hell?”“You put in way more worry about what happens after then you need to? Even Militech isn’t going to go that hard against a theft, even if it is a big one.”I remember they did in fact go fairly hard. Even if they couldn’t perfectly track us, that wasn’t the point.
“Putting in a little extra effort to be cautious means everyone comes home safe.”“I agree with Motoko. There’s nothing wrong with taking precautions.” Hiromi said, sniffing arrogantly offended on my behalf.“Hehe! It’s not very Preem Nova Edgerunner of you.” She said, and I considered idly chucking my can at her. She must have noticed as she raised her hands. “Sorry sorry just teasing! Teehee!”
“I’m not an edgerunner. I don’t care about glory or fame. I’m going to live to a hundred at least and die of old age.” I told her, and Sasha looked at me for a moment before smiling.
“That’s cute. I like that Kitten is so cautious. Scaredy Kitten is worth protecting.”“Not scared.” I repeated, but she ignored me.
“Okay! So Sasha Senpai will talk to Maine about the gig. Ah, not a lot or anything. There won’t be any eddies outside of payment from you so he won’t be interested anyways, and I’ll talk to The old hag, and Lucy-Chan! I’ll run them through the op as well, they might have some data they can chip in.”“Only tell Kiwi when she’s confirmed to be part of it.” I said, reminded suddenly that Faraday was a Militech Fixer around this time.
“Oh?”“The fixer you lot work with, Faraday. He’s Militech sponsored isn’t he?”“Oh hooo! Kitten has been snooping! Maybe maybe! You think The old Hag will tattle?”“Maybe.”
Sasha looked at me seriously for a while before nodding.
“I’ll run it by both of them, and maybe pick a fight with Kiwi before trying to get Lucy. I have seen that the old hag is a bit too close to Faraday for my liking. It comes in handy, but if she’s more loyal to him then the gig.” She trailed off, seemingly noticing something she didn’t like the more she thought of it.“Right, having me get snatched by Militech from a warning he gave? That would be a nice little boost on his record.”“If she has any connection to him like that, you shouldn’t bring her in at all.” Hiromi said cutting in. “It’s an added complication.”“Kiwi is also an elite Netrunner, literally one of the best in the city, and she’s Lucy’s mentor. They work together in a way that makes them both even better.” I explained to Hiromi and she frowned, but nodded.
“I’ll talk to Kiwi.” Sasha said suddenly as serious as I’d ever seen her. “I don’t think she’d leak the info, and if she did well… We’d know who it was. But I’ll talk to her, don’t worry, Kitten. Trust me.”“Okay.” I said simply. “Above average wages for an Elite Netrunner for both of them if they are in.”“Heh. Both will be on that the kid especially is always eddie hungry.” I nodded and exhaled.
“Okay I need to get this BD checked out, gather all the data, find some Raffen to clear out, and check out the Showcase rear exits. So I’ll be busy over the next day or so.”“If you need Senpai’s help, then just call okay?”“Sure Sasha.” I said, but I don’t think that would be needed.
“Okay! So tell Senpai all about your band! I need Kittens swag to show my lovey lovey support!”
“I’m leaving.”“Nooo!”
—--
“I got a BD I need to scroll. To get the data out of, for a gig.” I explained to Judy, Hiromi hanging back just looking around as we talked.
“That’s not really what I do.”“I know, I’ll pay for the assistance?”She looked at me for a while and I tried to give her a pleading look.
“This better not be some sketchy shit.”“It’s perfectly normal! I’m just walking around. I just need to recheck the scans, gather data on the security.”She stared at me for a while before slowly nodding. “Heh. You know you’re probably the second person I’ve ever talked with that had the idea of using a BD like that. I was always wanting to try it out.”“So you’re in?”“Yeah why not. You said you’re paying for my time, cause I do have shit to do?”“We will pay very well for your time, Miss Alvarez.” Hiromi said and Judy scrunched up her face.
“Just call me Judy, that's creepy coming from a kid.” She said, pointing a crooked finger at Hiromi.
“Great! So I got the virtu, and I need to go through it to check every bit of security. It might take a while.”“Alright well let’s get you set up. I can walk you through it.” She muttered as she took the shard and started hooking everything up. I settled into the chair and took the wreath she scooted back around at me holding.
“Okay, let’s get started.” I whispered, slipping the wreath on, and then jolting a bit as the whole thing started up.
—--
“You hear me?”“Yeah.” I whispered, even if it felt like my body was trapped solid, but there was no anxiety to it, just… Quiet.
“Alright I’m setting up the controls now, I’ll start the replay as I get everything set up.”“Sure thanks Judy.”
Suddenly my body jolted, and we were back in the armored car on the way to the Showcase.
I could feel my own emotions, mostly excitement at finally getting started, and a bit of boredom…
But, I started scanning, my Kiroshi picked up things my brain couldn’t quite register in the moment, and I remembered exactly how this worked… Even if it was more like Judy was setting it up for testing?
I knew, Evelyn had the BD created for the Konpeki Plaza Heist, and so had probably gone through it, but I guess… This was before Judy started offering the whole BD examination thing?
Either way. I got to work.
As we pulled in I paused the scroll and started scanning.
“Militech Tela-Scoop V232-2221 Camera.” I spoke aloud, making a note of it.
“Is that important?”“Yeah, If I know what I need to hack into before hand, I can set up programs to do so specifically. I’m going to examine every inch of the security system, and before the gig even starts, every piece of it is going to be completely broken.” I felt my actual body grin at the thought.
Now, time to get to work. What sensor net were they using on the exterior of the building leading up to the parking garage? What scan system were they using to let cars come through?
I started examining it all, and making a list.