Jackie and Rebecca had barely stepped inside when they spotted an operating table placed disturbingly close to the entrance. On it lay a corpse—its eyes and hands removed, its chest split open.
Rebecca's expression hardened, her gaze filled with disgust toward the Scavengers and pity for the victim. She forced her emotions down and scanned the room.
"There's a Scav Doctor in a small room to your left. He's checking a list. You can take him out and snap a photo. Just keep it quiet."
Lucy's voice echoed through the comms. Jackie acknowledged, then signaled to Rebecca, telling her to keep watch in the other direction.
Rebecca nodded, creeping right and raising her gun.
Jackie slipped into what looked like a small bathroom on the left.
Inside, the Scav Doctor was cross-checking an order sheet while rinsing off freshly removed Cyberware. When he noticed a huge figure reflected in the mirror, his expression froze.
Swish—
A powerful arm wrapped around his neck, the other hand crossing over to clamp down tight—then a sharp twist.
Crack.
Terror filled the doctor's eyes as his neck snapped cleanly.
Jackie caught the collapsing body, eased it to the ground, snapped a photo of the list, and slipped back out.
As for showing mercy… impossible. For Scavengers, dying quickly was downright merciful.
"All right, after you're done there, follow the corridor and you'll reach the living room. There are about five people inside."
"Chica, got any tricks up your sleeve?"
"I can probably lure two away. After that, you'll have to get past the others yourselves. One of them is watching Black Braindance—he won't be waking up anytime soon. Ignore him."
"Copy."
...
"How much do you think this batch will sell for?"
"This batch? Please. It's not premium stock. If we get a few tens of thousands of eurodollars, it's because we found an idiot buyer. You know how black-clinic docs are—they're greedier than we are."
"True…"
"If you want big money, wait until the boss gives us a special job. Don't count on it now."
"Speaking of the boss… what's his deal? I'm new. Still don't get it."
"Fine, I'll spell it out. We're different from most crews. We have people… above us."
He pointed upward.
"And sometimes those people need certain folks taken out. After that… well, you get it."
"Oh~ yeah, yeah. Got it."
Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!
"What the hell's that noise?"
The bragging Scav snarled, waved at the newbie, and headed off to check.
Jackie and Rebecca exchanged a glance, then quickly surveyed the remaining three.
The Braindance user was limp in the center. The other two were leaning on the balcony, smoking.
"You think the boss's recent job is gonna bite us in the ass?"
"You mean the ransom thing?"
"Yeah. The boss said to take care of it cleanly. No loose ends."
"Who knows, man. He's the boss. We don't get a say. Just go with it."
The smoker shrugged, flicked his cigarette to the floor, stomped it out, and glanced inside. The buzzing had stopped; everything seemed normal. He turned back, unconcerned.
The moment he looked away, Jackie and Rebecca slipped into the adjoining hallway through a curtain of hanging plastic. Green light flickered inside the next room.
"How long you been doing this job?"
"Almost two years. Too many bills at home… didn't have any other choice."
"I feel that. Who doesn't?"
As they crept inside what appeared to be a Cyberware storage room, they heard voices.
Jackie and Rebecca exchanged a knowing look—then attacked simultaneously.
Jackie drove a punch into the first Scavenger's kidney. Before the man could scream, Jackie grabbed his jaw and twisted—ending it instantly.
Rebecca slid in low, slicing through the second man's Achilles tendons, then drove her knife upward into his throat and pushed.
She even held his head down to keep the blood from spraying everywhere—less to clean later.
"Looks like you're handling this pretty well."
Jackie stretched, then shoved both bodies into a freezer.
"Tch. I'm actually annoyed. My baby's screaming to mow every last one of them down."
Rebecca mimed firing her gun rapidly—biu biu biu.
Jackie ignored the gesture and kept searching the room.
"Chica, see if your target data's in here."
"No… it should be in the innermost room. But there are lists here—take pictures of those."
"Got it. Back to spy work, then."
Jackie clapped her shoulder and moved toward the next room.
Guided by Lucy, he and Rebecca slipped past every Scavenger—taking out seven or eight more—before finally reaching the farthest room.
"Holy shit… how many Scavengers are packed into this place?!"
Jackie couldn't hold back anymore.
"At least thirty or forty…"
"If we get spotted, we'll be torn apart!"
"Not just torn apart."
Rebecca peered through a small hole in the wall.
A massive man lounged on a sofa watching TV, a Militech machine gun beside him.
"You don't wanna fight that guy, right? 'Cause I sure don't."
Jackie said quietly.
"He's got subdermal armor, titanium-alloy bone reinforcement, probably a titanium forehead plate too, combat-scanner cyber eyes, ballistic coordination processor, and Gorilla Arms…"
"I think we really shouldn't engage him. I'll try to reboot his system. When I do, you two rush in and plug in the USB. Or grab the computer's data disk—either works."
"No problem. Leave it to us."
...
(40 Chapters Ahead)
p@treon com / GhostParser