Outrun - Chapter 462 (Patreon)

I sat down in my chair, and tried to ignore the bickering voices of Levi and Lavender. One of them was too stupid to care much about the argument, and the other was too stupid to realize he was arguing with himself. It made for a nasty combination that felt like it was draining my sanity.

Thankfully, Lavender stopped mid tirade about the superiority of fire once the Hound’s assistant returned to the main room. “I take it you’re in… final chance to back out of this without a bullet.”

”We’re in, right?” Luna double checked with me. Vox looked back toward me with gleaming blue eyes. I just dipped my chin subtly. 

Nobody moved for the door. Talia looked between all of us before slowly nodding her head. “Very well. Then let us begin. The information I’m about to share was painstakingly acquired.”

Heavy shutters dropped over the doors and windows. Luna had already snuck backdoors into all of the security here, so I wasn’t too surprised to see it. The same couldn’t be said for everyone else. 

Lavender violently flinched toward the shutters. The gauntlets around his hands warmed with a volatile purple light. “Oi, what’s the idea with trapping us in here?”

”Merely a security precaution, you understand.” Talia waved off his concern, and tossed a new puck into the middle of the room. A moment later, a massive yacht appeared mid air. “This is our target.”

“Levi not like water,” the giant mumbled from where he sat on the ground. Honestly, aside from his body being a literal weapon, he reminded me a bit of a toddler. I didn’t know how I felt about that.

”Then it’s a good thing you’ll be on land.” The Hound’s assistant flicked her finger, and the yacht abruptly shifted to an unassuming building. “Mystech has all of their flyers in an external facility. You and Lavender will be responsible for hitting it once the party starts.”

“Fuck. You expect me to work with this slag?” Lavender practically deflated in his seat. The glowing fluid running under his suit seemed to dim.

“If you can’t put aside your differences, I’ll have you replaced.” The polite smile never left her face. I had a feeling we all understood what she meant. It was too late to back out now. “You two have the simplest job. Cause as much havoc at the designated location as possible.”

”Levi go boom?” The giant perked up, and his spine straightened.

”Indeed.” Talia paused, and looked at the man weirdly. “The rest of you will be aboard the yacht. A high-up Mystech executive, Anthony Sancho, is throwing a massive party to hide a transaction with KairoTech.”

Great, we were wading deep into corporate waters with this one… literally with it being on a yacht. Ronin’s heavily accented voice spoke up, “they will not just let us walk on.”

”Naturally. My associates have set up false identities to get on board. Ronin will be hired on as security for the party.” She swapped the hologram to a blueprint of the yacht. I instantly memorized the entire layout thanks to Eidetic Schematic. “You’ll be responsible for smuggling whatever you three need onto the boat. Assuming you don’t want to burn your reputation, you’ll stay undercover throughout the job.”

”I will see it through.” Ronin bowed his head slightly. His glowing eyes were hidden by the brim of his samurai helmet.

“Tex will be a commissioner from the Golden Hive Consortium. An associate will take care of facial recognition.” Talia moved onto the next person. “Anything else will fall on Moonfall to keep low.”

“That won’t fly, partner. No chance I can get through without being tagged by every internal database across the yacht.” Tex pulled his hat off, and ran a hand back through his hair. “This mug of mine is too well known. Getting into the Mystech database won’t be enough.”

”I am well aware.” The woman in charge just kept up her smile, and patiently explained the plan. “My associate is going to temporarily tattoo microscopic adversarial patterns onto your face. To any person, they’ll see chrome circuitry. To terminals and Daemons, they won’t see you at all.”

”I thought adversarial patterns were dead tech,” I said. ‘Course I knew about them. It was old tech to bypass artificial intelligence and optic systems back in the day. They were what holomasks were originally before corporations pushed recognition technologies so hard that they stopped working entirely.

Most of the plan had been pretty basic, but this part made me lean forward in my seat. If someone managed to actually get adversarial patterns working once more… That kind of tech would be enough for anyone to kill for. My Blinder worked in a lot of situations, but it wasn’t exactly subtle. Just getting an unassuming tattoo on my face definitely would be.

”They were.” The Hound’s assistant inclined her head. “Nightshade will be going in as an attendant. It should get you close and personal to swipe ward access. Once you have that, hand it to Ronin and he’ll take care of it.” 

“You expect me to be an attendant?” My interest immediately soured. I just built my armor, and now I wouldn’t be able to use it. Not to mention I’d just be going to a party to work. Ugh, so not fun. “I’d rather keep my face hidden.”

”Then my associate can also give you an adversarial pattern.” She didn’t seem to see any issue. “Unless that’s still an issue?”

”… no.” Fucking hell…. So much for all that work on my armor. No, wait, it wasn’t a total loss. “I’ll need the attire beforehand.”

”Naturally.” Talia waved her hand, and an android walked out of the back of the shop with a package. “There’s a chip in there with the yacht’s security. Anything you can’t get by them, give to Ronin.”

”Chek.” I accepted the package from the robot, and sat back in my chair. I could definitely sneak in most of my gear. As for my face… Master of Disguise would totally hide me as one of the waitresses without too much of an issue. I also wouldn’t have to worry about this associate recognizing me. 

I had some other tech I could try to use to help, too. If I played my cards right, no one—even this group—would even know I was there. It could make the legend of Nightshade all the more powerful… or totally blow up in my face. I’d have to think about this later. Not to mention this didn’t seem like I’d actually be klepping all that much during this. 

“The biocomputer is likely to be held in the yacht’s vault.” The hologram once more shifted to an extremely well defended section of the ship. “It’s a Schweigon Security Type-47 Analog. Only twenty exist in the world, and even the best safe crackers in the world would struggle to get into it in less than an hour. It’s purely mechanical outside of sensors, so it’s also unhackable."

Schweigon Security was probably a subdivision of Schweigon International, the number one civilian vehicle maker in the world. They were a megacorp, but just shy of being one of the Big 7 thanks to not having enough diversity in product.

I might be able to crack it? Technical Expertise gave me an immense advantage when it came to getting into vaults. Being unable to see the locking mechanism was half the problem. Even if I could, though, the security layout was no joke. 

Even blowing in would be difficult. I eyed the vents scattered across the vault room on the holographic blueprint. If I was reading it right, even a misstep would replace all the oxygen in the room with some kind of chemical. Probably as a defense against thermite and other explosives. That wasn’t even mentioning the magic stuff.

Tex let out a low whistle, and leaned back in his chair. “So this guy stabbing Mystech in the back is one of the super high-ups? How’d you hear of it? Do they know?”

”I have my sources. And if they knew, we would likely never see Mr. Sancho again.” Our boss manipulated the hologram to show the yacht once more. “The only chance we have is to hit them during the trade-off. Security will be lowered in the area since Mr. Sancho will want to keep affairs quiet.”

“What about afterwards?” I asked. Hitting them during the party had all sorts of issues. The main one was all the people that’d be gathered there. A party for execs would have quite a bit of security. “When the KairoTech Operator gets off the yacht.”

“I have it on good authority that KairoTech is heavily investing into this maneuver. There’s likely to be a small army ready to jump in at the slightest hint something is wrong.” Her corpo smile seemed to stretch even wider. “Only on the yacht, where both parties are restricted, is the best opportunity."

“I’d rather not fight an army… just saying.” Tex pulled out a cigarette, and chewed on the end of it without lighting it. “I didn’t pack enough bullets.”

“Indeed. Bide your time until the hand off starts. The biocomputer needs to be kept on ice to prevent organ failure until it is hooked up.” The hologram once more shifted. This time, an organ transplant box from Medtech popped up. “I was unable to get the exact details, but expect something similar to Medtech’s PerfusionMAX.”

Right, we weren’t just stealing any other piece of tech. The biocomputer, assuming it was made from humans cells, was literally a lab-grown brain hooked into a motherboard. The Hound likely wouldn’t be to pleased if we fucked this up and destroyed the biocomputer.

Talia flicked the hologram back to the Mystech facility. “Lavender and Levi will ensure no support comes to the yacht and will distract Mystech. In the worst case scenarios, do as you see fit.”

“You mean we could hold the whole boat hostage?” The cigarette in his mouth stilled. “That’s mighty ballsy. If the plan’s gone that far south, KairoTech might just outright make a move.”

“Unlikely. Mystech’s watchful eye will keep them on guard.” She finally moved onto the last of our group. “Moonfall will provide overwatch, and fix things that go wrong. Worst case scenario, hijack the ship’s controls and move it far along the shore to the north. I will be waiting to extract you there regardless of what happens.”

“I’ll need to be on the boat in person to do that without being detected. The exec won’t have pushovers for his runners.” Vox’s ears twitched. “Set up one more identity for me.”

”I’ll see what I can do. The party is in three days, so we’ll move then.” She clapped her hands together, and the hologram shut off. “Any questions?”

There were so, so many questions. I thought I had a lot, but Ronin surprised me with how much he asked. The Hound’s assistant went through them one by one, either answering or adjusting the plan. By the end of it, all of us had a pretty good idea of what our roles would be.

“Any more questions will have to wait.” The boss checked her watch. “I’m running late enough as is. I’ll keep in contact through the coming days to work out the rest of the details.” 

Talia gathered her holo pucks, and moved to the back of the gas station where her flyer was waiting. The androids around the room moved after him. She looked back one last time toward us, and then stepped out the door. The shutters slid up to let the rest of us leave.

”Well… that’s that.” Lavender stood up and shuffled out the door. “I’ll see you the night of, I guess.”

The moment he left, the rest of us slowly worked our way out the door. Levi was the last to leave. Soon, it was just me and Vox left sitting in the gas station. I pulled a Dragonfly out of a pouch on my belt, and tossed it into the air to keep a watch on the place just in case. Vox jumped up onto my shoulder. “I’ve got your feather.”

 “Then let’s get out of here.” A moment later, I pulled on the connection to my Spectral Flock and disappeared.