Cyberpunk: I'm Not Cheating Chapter 59: Prelude

Jotaro Shoji had no idea death was closing in on him. His top sales rep, Lenny Nero, had just sent him a ssage flagging two rcs asking around about black BDs.

"rcs asking about BDs — there's nothing strange about that. What I need right now is to work on sothing new. You know, I feel like I've hit a creative wall. I've beco too fixated on Cube Head.

I believe he can take my art three full levels higher. I'm tired of filming blood and a few dolls going through the motions. I want sothing genuine.

You understand this feeling, Nero? I want to try sothing new. What do you think — connect two people's cybereyes to each other so they can see from each other's perspective. What do you think of that?"

Shoji sent his reply to Lenny Nero.

"Whatever you make, you know I can move it. That's what I do."

"Good. I'll get you more material as fast as I can. I've got five pieces unedited. I'm going to the club today to cut them. Co by my club soti. It's where my career begins again."

"I'll be there. The company people aren't giving you trouble?"

"They don't know I set up the Phoenix Club. Those bastards took over my old place, saying Cube Head could show up any ti. Then those corporate dogs threw out my Little Ling too, saying she could be hacked. What hacker is going to break into a 1950s chanical cat?"

"Never mind them. Corporate people are like that. Stay away from them going forward."

After sending the reply, Shoji went back to work. His material from this stretch was all used up. He'd fild with real enthusiasm.

The Mox girls had been considerably better than ordinary people. They fought back hard. What an audience wanted to see was the process of hope being worn down piece by piece — not soone already trembling from the start.

Today was the grand opening day of the Phoenix Club. His Cube Head's Execution Suite had sold extrely well, which gave him the cash to invest in new operations. Phoenix. It represented the rebirth of Jotaro Shoji.

The Tyger Claws had been turbulent lately. The higher-ups, using Arasaka's hunt for Cube Head as a pretext, had taken over Shoji's Flasher processing business. The material pipeline he'd been working with was shut down too. So he'd had his people start grabbing from the street for BD source material.

An unexpected turn: Kawaguchi and Koizumi — two simple-minded fools with nothing going on upstairs — had managed to bring him material of real quality. His creative drive was back.

He edited the BD with his eyes narrowed slightly, humming sothing tuneless.

...

Lenny Nero was a sales genius. He was also a cautious street kid. In his read, those two rcs today had been wrong from the start.

Clearly a first-ti transaction, but they'd co in with a specific target in mind. They hadn't asked about any of the well-known titles. They'd gone straight for the newest releases.

He'd flagged it to Shoji as a precaution. Shoji clearly hadn't taken it seriously.

Lenny figured a warning was enough. The man was sitting comfortably in his club with more than ten gang mbers keeping watch inside. anwhile Lenny had been standing on Jig-Jig Street all day with nobody to drive him ho.

"Every eddy I make cos the hard way. When is soone going to notice my talent."

Lenny worked out the stiffness in his legs. Better to head ho early today.

Then a shadow fell over him.

The topknot.

Jackie's fist connected once.

Lenny went down. Jackie hauled him out of the underground passage and into the car.

"Done, Vito."

"Good. Bring him to Lizzie's. Have Susanna's people do a proper sit-down with him."

Vito had made his way to the noodle cart from the BD scan — located in a Kabuki slum area, with Tyger Claws mbers drifting around nearby.

He bought sothing from a vending machine and settled against the wall like an idle local, scanning passersby with the Kiroshi while he ate.

"Mom. I want an Ah Yo tofu strip."

A child passing the vending machine called back to his mother.

The mother hesitated, then bought him one.

"Thank you, Mom!"

The child tore the packaging open and took a big bite.

"Ow!"

The tofu strip had pulled out one of his teeth.

"How did this happen!"

The mother fussed but couldn't stop the bleeding.

Vito looked at his own Ah Yo tofu strip, still sealed, and tossed it in the trash.

He walked over to the child and sprayed ergency hemostatic spray into his mouth.

"That should stop it. Get him to a doctor — make sure there are no fragnts left in the gum."

The mother thanked him over and over.

"Really, thank you. I almost never buy these for him. Today I let him have a treat, and now this."

Vito kept it easy.

"It's fine. Take him a few blocks over to Misty's Esoterica. When you go in, have the owner take you to the clinic in the back alley and get the tooth looked at. Tell them Vito sent you. Have the clinic put it on the tab."

The mother bowed several tis and left with her son. They'd t soone decent today.

Vito waved them off and went back to his position.

Boop boop boop.

Stints.

"Hey, Vito. Got sothing on your two."

"Where?"

"They took girls to the Phoenix Club, by the Kabuki waterway."

"Can you confirm that?"

"My people checked it more than once. It's confird."

"Good. Once I've found them, I'll transfer the money."

"Given you still have so sense of justice left in you, I'll give you a discount."

"Stints. Now even your sense of justice has a price on it?"

"What can I do. You can't afford to be a simple, honest, broke fool in this city and work for NCPD."

Call ended.

Vito moved toward the location.

"Phoenix Club. That bastard thinks he deserves that na."

When he got close, he scouted the nearby alleys, the back entrance of the club, the adjacent buildings, carefully.

Vito found three viable infiltration points. He located a power grid interface nearby, connected to it, and sent a Puppet through the line.

Boop boop boop.

"Hey, T-Bug. Did you get the grid data I sent?"

"Got it."

"Run an analysis on abnormal power usage and private wiring at the Phoenix Club."

"OK. Give thirty seconds. Done. Sending you the data."

Vito saw it imdiately: a high-power processor on the third floor pulling anomalous current.

So they'd moved the black BD operation here.

"Bug. Get into every cara in the Phoenix Club. All of them. Don't worry about exposure. These people aren't making it through the night."

Two minutes later, T-Bug replied.

"Third-floor caras have been manually shut off. I also found active shielding on the third floor. There's sothing important up there."

"Understood. Stand by. We wait on Jackie's end."