Cyberpunk: Shiny And Chrome Chapter 91 91: Direction

Rejoice fools! For another joins the dreaded ranks of the middle managent through naught but effort and dedication (and not bribes I pinky promise!) Offer thine supplication to BobTheDragon and praise the machine spirits!

Now back to work.

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The Ripper

"Damn, kid." Viktor Vektor whistled as he was led through a large concrete factory "You sure don't aim small, I'll tell you that."

"You can say that again." Jackie Welles chuckled from his right "Hearing you talk about your plans was one thing but this... it actually feels real."

The two of them had been doing so boxing practice when the call ca, and the ex Valentino rc would have probably sold his favorite guns before even thinking about missing sothing of this magnitude.

Michael, his real face hidden behind high grade RealSkinn, and dressed in a sharp corporate suit instead of his usual kit, smiled widely "I told you both that if I'm going to be doing this, I'm going to do it right."

He waved for them to follow him deeper in "But as Jackie said, seeing is believing."

They avoided the construction workers as they were shown multiple large halls, most of them empty but so still having rusted bits of vehicle machinery left over, before he led them into a large warehouse that would only need so safety work done before being fully usable.

Jackie kept poking fun and making quips along the way while failing to hide his amazent from Vik's practiced eye, while Vik himself contented himself with listening to Mike's explanations about the intended purpose of each room.

Assembly lines, laboratories, forges, the kid had definitely planned the whole operation out down to the tiniest minute detail.

It was impressive, was the long and short of Vik's opinion.

Before long they found themselves walking onto the warehouse roof, right next to an AV landing pad positioned next to an industrial scale elevator.

"So." Viktor spoke up as they all faced the far more precarious office/residential building "You've got the layout pretty much nailed down, but the real question is how many folks do you plan on employing in the long run? And where do you plan on finding them?"

The infrastructure was usually the easy part of running a biz, even if it was by far the more expensive one.

Michael didn't seem all that concerned about the latter question and shrugged "The less skilled labor will still be the majority even with the fine work we will be doing, and most of those I can easily find all over the city and train up as necessary."

"As for the skilled workers." He frowned slightly "I'll try to recruit as many of them as I can the usual way, but sothing tells most of those will have to co through contacts and the like."

"I could always ask around Heywood." Jackie sad honestly "Never know if there is soone looking for a fresh chance."

"I'd appreciate that, Jack." Mike smiled "Even if I'll have to vet them myself."

Jackie waved it off with a small chuckle "Obviously. I may be able to charm my way into the hearts of anyone, but snooping around their closets I'll leave to you."

Both Vik and Mike gave him looks of deep skepticism but he simply let their doubt flow over him like so much air.

"Moving on." Mike shook his head with amusent "The biggest problem is going to be finding the right people for a security force."

"Trying to get your corpo soldiers already, eh?" Jackie only half teased.

"Unfortunate as the necessity is." Mike shrugged "It is very much a necessity. Not having a protection detail will make look weak, and just invite the other corporate goons to shoot my place up at the first opportunity."

Jackie's jovial expression twisted into a frown "Fucking rats, man."

Vik spoke up "I've got a good number of veterans down on their luck on my patient list. I could point them your way if you don't mind replacing their civilian cyberware with sothing a bit heavier." Even as he said it he already knew the answer.

"Not a problem." Mike took less than a mont to answer "Experienced people are always welco. And it helps they'll feel at least a bit motivated to protect their new chance."

Vik rely nodded at that, having expected it, but Jackie shook his head "Cold, choom. True but cold."

"A bit cynical, I agree." Mike's expression beca wry "But it isn't like I'm going to offer them a bad deal, so I'm not all that hung up about it." He looked at Jackie "Sure you don't feel like a change in career?"

The rc chuckled and shook his head "Nah, choom. I'm good where I am."

"Expected as much but I thought I should still ask." Mike shrugged before turning to the other ripper present "As for the other part of your question, Vik. I plan on hiring a nice round one and a half thousand to begin with. Should cover both the factory and warehouse for three full shifts. Will have to outsource the accountants for a while at first, but that should solve itself in ti as well."

"That is a lot of people, Mike." Vik said after an astonished blink "You sure you can support those kinds of numbers when you are just starting out?"

"I've got enough savings to keep myself afloat for a few months, not counting any further earnings." The kid assured "And even if that fails I am owed enough favors by my contacts to tide over in the worst case."

Viktor felt relieved but still felt like he had to say it "You feel confident, and that is good."

"But?" Mike raised an eyebrow.

"But." Vik nodded "How can you be sure you aren't going to fail? You are risking a lot here, Mike. Maybe too much."

The cyborg didn't answer imdiately, eyes trailing off to the damaged residential tower for a long while before he spoke "Skepticism is good, healthy. Keeps us from rushing into foolish decisions without due consideration."

He turned back to the duo "Its true I may fail. I might miscalculate and fail to turn a profit, or maybe so rival has enough pull to ruin my rep and my business. Hell, I may even piss the competition off enough and get hit with one death squad too many."

His face turned hard, and his eyes flashed with determination "But I refuse to let fear and hesitation stop from reaching for greatness when I know what I'm capable of, what I can create." He paused "I'm no altruist, not really. But even then, to continue wallowing in obscurity would an leaving thousands of others to do the sa. Thousands whom I could help in my own way."

He looked away, his expression turning wistful "And is that not sothing worth risking almost everything for?"

Jackie had turned deathly still, staring at Mike's back with a complicated look in his eyes.

But Vik rely walked over, and patted the much taller cyborg's shoulder with pride "And that's all I needed to hear."

"Always the straight man, huh Vik?" Mike chuckled.

The older ripper rely smiled.

"But there is one question that still needs answering." The cyborg looked down at him and pointed a thumb at the bottom of the residential tower "There is a clinic with your na on it waiting down there. You plan on keeping your end of the deal, Vik?"

Viktor felt a flash of hesitation, but it only lasted for a split second after what he'd heard earlier. He snorted and shook his head "Like you even need to ask."

---

The Noodle Seller

"Here you go boys." Old Chu smiled crookedly as he laid the order out on the counter "Four house specials with a discount for our brave peacekeepers."

Estaban rolled his eyes "If you are going to make listen to your 'quips' every single ti just take the full price you old fart."

"Don't listen to him Chu." Another one of 'The Watchn' quickly interjected "You can talk as much shit as you want."

Estaban glared at him but the man just shrugged "Hey, free eddies is free eddies."

"Ah, Dragan. You are a man after my own heart." Chu chuckled.

A third neighborhood watchman leaned in, voice low "Hey, you lot heard the rumor?"

"What rumor?" Estaban raised an eyebrow.

"Word is The Doc is scaling up." The man stage whispered "My grandmama overheard him talking to his assistant. Seems to be he is going to start looking to employ a lot of folk soon."

The fourth watchman, or woman as was the case, whistled "You sure you aren't talking out of your ass Jake?"

The man shrugged cluelessly "Could be bullshit. That's just what she told ."

The noodlemaker's chuckle, one that was just a touch louder than it strictly needed to be, made the four startle and look back at him with different levels if irritation, but he simply ignored that as he pulled out a small pamphlet "Co closer children, and let old Chu enlighten you."

"What is it?" Estaban asked with a frown.

Only for Chu to unceremoniously slap the pamphlet in front of him.

The watchman went to voice his irritation but sothing on the paper stopped him, and in seconds he had grabbed it and was scanning each and every word he saw. Finally, after re reading the thing five tis, he looked up at the cook with narrowed eyes "Where did you get this?"

"'The Doc'." The cook enunciated with playful mockery "Ca by yesterday. I was happy to serve him my best as usual of course, but then he went and started asking around the most interesting questions."

"Oh just spit it out." Jake groaned.

"Patience." Chu tutted "My old heart can only take so much youthful exuberance."

"Do you even know what that word ans, you old fart?" Mira, the sole woman among them muttered, but went heard by everyone.

Chu rely grinned at her, making her sigh "Right, please enlighten us, oh driest of raisins."

Chu snorted and leaned back in "Anyway, Doc started asking about how much people earned, how much they paid for insurance, that kind of thing."

"Couldn't he just find that kind of thing out from the net?" Dragan asked, confused.

"Wanted to find out directly." Chu shrugged "Probably smart of him but that isn't the most interesting bit."

"No." Estaban agreed and pushed the pamphlet to the rest of them "This is."

The other three very nearly got into a tugging match to see who could read first but under Estaban's glare all silently agreed to share like actual adults.

Jake whistled, and Mira's eyes turned unfocused.

Dragan shot Chu a suspicious look "You aren't bullshitting us, are you?"

"While I do enjoy screwing with you youngsters." Chu began to much silent outrage "That's way too much effort for a joke."

"Seriously?" Dragan still seed skeptical, eyes trailing back to the pamphlet "5k a month with in house healthcare, and that's just for warehouse work... Sounds too good to be true."

"Oh but it gets better." Chu chuckled "He's also looking for security."

The four of them imdiately perked up.

But Estaban turned skeptical "Wait, if all of this is true then that ans Doc will probably be moving sowhere else sooner rather than later." You couldn't stay on a lower gabuilding floor at that level of wealth, that was just asking for problems "But you seem too calm about it."

Chu smirked "But of course, the good Doc just couldn't get enough of Old Chu's traditional Chinese cuisine-" All four of them groaned with disturbing synchronicity "So he offered a spot to set up shop in his new place."

"We are going to need details." Estaban said after a mont.

"Copious." Dragan added "Details."

And being a gracious host, Chu was happy to provide.

---

Michael 'Magos' Sobronov

"-Experts from Netwatch have confird traces of AI activity in the Zurich terrorist attack, but have so far been unable to track those responsible down. The Assistant Executive Officer of Netwatch assures the public that those responsible will be tracked down, and the danger will be removed."

"In other news, following the Zurich crisis the Swiss Federal Assembly has proposed a new and comprehensive cybersecurity bill to counter any potential future rogue attacks, signs indicate that the rest of the EEC is going to follow in their example, so that an atrocity like this one would never happen again."

The reporter went to do the usual outro but I just shut the TV.

"Well." I muttered "At least they aren't claiming it was 'maintenance malfunction' anymore."

[Yes, the excuse was... poorly chosen.]

"Sorry buddy but you are probably going to need to change your ICON up, and as much of your signature as you can."

[It is tedium but necessary. I am unbothered.]

"Good." I exhaled "We got too close to being discovered this ti."

[We improve daily. They will fail.]

"Indeed." I chuckled.

A mont later, I heard Becca calling from the other end of the room "Hey, Mike!"

"What?"

"You gonna keep staring at thing for hours or sothing?" She asked teasingly "Co on, Mary is on too."

Because of course the two would hit it off instantly.

Chuckling darkly, I stood up and moved to join their online ga.

This should be amusing.

-

[Oh you've got to be shitting !] Mary's enraged screech was like a delectable al for the soul [You are cheating, admit it!]

[Cope.] I generously proclaid, and then headshotted her across the map... through a wall... for the third ti.

An incoherent bellow of rage ca from the other end of the call, followed imdiately by the telltale sound of a controller hitting the wall.

I opened my mouth to keep fucking with her but a flash on the screen stopped as I saw my character explode.

My withering glare was completely ineffectual against my co player, as Rebecca rely stuck her tongue out at before exploding again.

"Hm." I humd "Yes, this ga sucks."

Rebecca laughed her ass off.

[Serves you right, asshole.] Mary grumbled from the other end.

"Well at least I'm not as bad as you are." I said.

But before we could get back into it, I heard a familiar ringtone and stood up.

"Sorry, I've got to take this."

Mary imdiately redirected her complaining at 'Becca.

"So." I spoke aloud as I stepped out onto my balcony "How can I help Arasaka NC's newest Counterintelligence director?"

There was a long pause before the answer ca.

[M. You know I can't just ignore shit like that.]

"Ah, I see. Your new position's already gotten to your head." I nodded 'sagely'.

[It's been a day!] She hisses.

"Exactly."

[...Yeah you know what, fuck you. I don't even care anymore.]

"And thus you are freed."

A snort escaped her at that [Right. Stop distracting you gonk. Its ti.]

'Which is exactly why I'd been distracting you' I sighed internally and voiced a simple, concerned "Ah."

She gave a sympathetic look over the holo but then turned serious [Arasaka-sama invites you to his personal penthouse in Konpeki Plaza tomorrow at 7PM. You may co ard but please dress appropriately for the occasion.]

"Right." I exhaled "Thanks for that, V."

[I'll be there too.] She looked away [I don't think you need to worry too much, but stay on your guard anyway.]

I couldn't help but snort.

Like I had any other option.

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