Outrun – Cyberpunk LitRPG Chapter 273

“It’s ready.” Saint’s voice called from my phone.

I wiped sweat from my face, leaning away from a klept motorcycle in the speakeasy. I’d gotten it all stripped down to its basic fra. Now it was just like putting a super complicated puzzle together, one that was three dinsional… progress was coming though.

”Chek. I’ll get ready… you have the deck?” I asked. The deck was the lynchpin in this whole set up. I’d spent nearly fifteen thousand Rayn on a fairly high end one

”Courier is bringing it to the gym.” Saint went silent for a few monts. The sounds of a mouse clicking ca from his end. “You sure you can get the Crusade to move?”

I tossed the grease rag onto my work table and rubbed my hands on my pants. “You aren’t the only one with connections. I’ll get us moving. Sides—I might not even need to plant evidence.”

”Fair, fair…” Saint sighed. “Well, good look then. Let know how it all goes once its over?”

“Course… assuming you tell how the article is going. This will all be pointless if no one even sees it.”

He chuckled. It sounded genuinely warm, though that could be said for his voice in general. “Trust . It’ll be seen. I managed to get a manager in the Inverse Corporation to promote it. City of Sorrow’s newest article is guaranteed to get traction.”

Inverse Corporation… that was a major dia corp, if I wasn’t mistaken. The major dia corp across all of the Arkhanikas, at least. A bit like ASCorp in that it was just too specialized and small to be one of the Big 7, but it was a near thing. “That's your site?”

”City of Sorrows? Yeah… What do you think? Nova na, right?”

”Chek.” He ntioned it twice now, so I figured. Nad after his old band, eh? Why did he quit to beco a reporter? I guess it was still part of the whole dia business, but it was a bit of an odd change in direction.

Man, I really should’ve looked into Saint a bit more than I had. I’d just been so focused on getting this all sorted out that it slipped my mind. After the raid I’ll check him out. See if his band really was as famous as he says.

“After this- Big Mike’s? Be easier in person.” He asked.

“Fine with . Assuming it all goes well.” That was a big concern. We were basically socially engineering one of the Big 7. There was a not so small chance this went a different way than we planned and blew up in our faces.

“Trust the process. We didn’t go through all of this trouble for no reason.” Saint was a still an ever-present shining beacon of positivity.

”If you say so.” I shuffled over to a different work table and snagged the black book I grabbed from the tie-dye gang. The ink should be dry by now.

“I do. Good luck, kid.”

”Thanks.” I hung up and pulled out my Crusade phone to dial up Hope’s number. “Hey.”

”What’s up?” The sounds of gunfire ca from her side.

Was she in a fight? “You- you good?”

“Firing range.” She went silent for several monts. The sounds of the shots abruptly cut off. “So?”

“I got a lead on that gunrunner group. My source managed to get their black book to .” I flipped open said black book, looking through it. The cipher was easy to figure out. Then, with that done, it was even easier to forge everything I needed to make it look like Lance was way more involved than just a one ti client.

“And?”

I stepped out of the speakeasy, heading for my bike. I also sent her the deets about one Lance Brittlesmith. ”And I need so help. It links back to a doctor from dtech. One of their execs.”

“That- that complicates things.” Hope sighed. I could envision her rubbing a hand across her face. “I’ll talk to the commander.”

The commander? ”Ligh? Do we need him for this?”

“Crusade Policy. Anything that involves one of the Big 7 has to go through the commander… I’m sure it won’t be an issue though.” She spoke to soone else briefly before talking to again. ”et at the HQ in a couple hours?”

“Chek.” I needed to go get my Crusade gear anyway. And the deck. Couldn’t forget that one. If the blackbook was what made the crusade move, then the deck would make dtech move. It was literally the smoking gun that’d make it seem like Lance was a traitor.

Saint set the article and deck up in such a way that he ‘accidentally’ leaked the ‘source’ for his information on dtech’s internal operations. The source linked to the deck, which had been doctored to fit the doctor. If we were too obvious with it, they’d be suspicious. It was all very subtle, and working off the assumption that dtech would be very interested in a deck soone under investigation had.

Like I said though, if this worked out how we wanted? Bye bye Mr. Lance Brittlesmith.

— — —

It wasn’t just Hope as I walked into the briefing room. Joshua and Dev were here, standing against the back wall. It wasn’t just our group either. Four Knights stood around the briefing table with Hope at the head of it. They had a blueprint pulled up on the holographic table. Looked like Lance’s house?

”Squire Zuku, you’re here. The book?” Hope asked , stretching out her hand.

I pulled it out of my bag and tossed it over. “Big group?”

”Yeah.” Hope tossed the book to a technician off to the side of the room and clapped her hands. Everyone’s attention snapped to her. “Here’s the deal- the commander got us a no-knock warrant. We’re blitzing the perp before he can destroy any evidence…though there’s a chance he already knows we’re coming. Non-lethal, though force is authorized.”

One of the Knights stuck out their hand. “You said the perp was with dtech?”

”Affirmative. Expect light guards. Our Netrunners already got into his house’s systems though, so we just have to worry about the human elent.” Hope replied.

Honestly, the human elent wouldn’t be too much of a problem either. From what I saw of his guards when checking him out, they were all chrod. Should be easy enough for the Netrunners to take care of them too. Not to ntion there wasn’t much that could be an actual threat to a group of Crusaders.

“Target is in Elysium. We’re going in with a Waymaker to completely bypass their security.” Hope motioned up. “Pilot awaits us up top. Any more questions?”

”What about the perp himself? Is he going to be ho?” Another Knight asked.

”No. Another Squad is going to invite him in for questioning. No family either. Should just be guards and maids.” She motioned toward the map again. “Try not to break anything? Please? The house is still dtech property.”

The other Knights voiced their concerns, but it was a pretty short eting all things considered. I had a feeling it was super rushed. Probably concerned about a dtech spy being in the Crusade.

We were up the elevator and on the Waymaker within thirty minutes of my arrival to the Blue Crusade. Shortly after that we were on our way to the target just as Saint and I planned.

— — —

The Waymaker dropped, falling onto the mansion’s lawn. Plants and shrubs were absolutely totaled as the heavy bulk of the flyer fell on them. The hatch of the Waymaker slamd down, letting out the pack of Knights.

They charged out, Squires following closely behind. In re monts, the Waymaker cleared out of everyone but Hope, Dev, Joshua, and I. The strike squad was out and in full force.

I followed out behind them and adjusted the headset I’d been given. Periter guards were out, staring at us uncertainly. One of the Knights stepped forward. “Official Blue Crusade business! Surrender! On your knees! Hands behind your back!”

Hesitation was evident in the posture of the guards. As soon as one gave in though, the rest would follow. I flickered Fear the Reaper from behind the Knights. The bulky guard I targeted shuddered, turning into a trembling leaf. Fear the Reaper was fully charged up by the death’s of the cult mbers. It was a serious force to reckon with.

The guard hit the ground hard, knees digging into the synthetic grass of the lawn. His eyes were fully dilated, staring at us in absolute horror. With the fall of one, the rest followed. The periter security fell apart in re monts of us showing up.

The Knight’s stord the rest of the mansion, spreading out to clear it room by room. Hope called out from behind . “Dev, go with Zuku to the second floor. Joshua, stay with on the first. We’re looking for any kind of evidence linking Brittlesmith's misdeeds.”

Dev nodded and stepped up to . “Anywhere in particular?”

”Uh- office? Might be a hidden safe sowhere.” It was stereotypical at least. To be fair, it was one of the best places to hide a safe.

We entered the mansion. All around the entryway, people were sat down and cuffed with zip ties. Most of the guards had chro, so they could probably break out of them without much effort. Still, it was the symbol that mattered

One of the Knights nodded at us as he stood up a group of them. “Move it out to the lawn. With any luck, you’ll be released within a few hours!”

A couple of groans ca from around the entry hall. The maids in particular looked more annoyed than anything. Surprisingly, there was very little resistance. It seed Lance didn’t inspire much loyalty in his employees.

We moved up the stairs to the office. It was locked, but that was easy enough to bypass with a quick pulse of Technical Expertise.

The office itself was an impressive space. Everything was ornate and gold inlaid. There was more wealth in this one room than most people in Aythryn City would ever have in their life. I was so, so very tempted to pull out my Transporter and shove everything in. If I wasn’t with the Crusade…

Dev moved to check the bookcases while I slid over to the desk’s chair. I looked through it briefly, finding a bunch of docunts that I couldn’t care less about. Employee contracts and such. I activated Hidden Hands, pulling out the fake deck from my bag. “Found sothing.”

Dev stopped pulling out random books from the shelf. “Yeah?”

I tossed it onto the desk. ”Deck. Maybe the runners can get into it?”

“Probably… think there’s anything on it?” He asked.

“It was in a locked drawer, so maybe?” I lied. ”You find anything?”

Dev motioned to the shelf. I thought he was just bored and ssing around, but it seed he really did notice sothing. “This shelf is weird… The dinsions for this room are off from the blueprint?”

I thought through the space. He was right. There was sothing off up here. “Did you see a door to the left on the way in?”

”No? Hmm… hidden room, maybe?” I stood up from the desk and checked out the bookshelf. I casually tapped around it. For the most part- ah, wait. A pulse moved through the shelf, highlighting several components that stood out. There were slight grooves below the shelf too. Definitely a hidden door.

I followed a wire down the wall through the floor. It led back to the desk. Did I miss sothing? I opened a few drawers, finding a hidden panel in the locked drawer I ‘found’ the incriminating deck in. I pulled it up to reveal a number and fingerprint combo. High end too. Would be a pain to get through by myself. Good thing I wasn’t by myself.

”Overwatch?” I called out into the headset. “I got a number pad. Suspected hidden room.”

”Roger.” One of the Netrunner replied. After a few monts, they got back to . “One of the Knights is coming up to jack in.”

A few minutes later, a Knight entered the room. “Where?”

”Here.”

The Knight moved over to the desk and fiddled around with the lock. Within monts, the hidden door behind the bookshelves activated. The bookshelf slid up out of the way, revealing a vault door.

The vault door looked similarly high end, with facial, retina, finger print, and what looked like fingerprint scanners blocking the way. Looked like Lance went all in to keep whatever was in there safe.

The Knight moved over to the vault and jacked into the pad. This ti, it took way longer for the Netrunners to get in. Nearly thirty minutes. The thing must’ve had so serious ICE to keep them out for so long. By the ti the vault opened, Hope and Joshua had already finished sweeping the rest of the mansion and were back with us.

The Knight pulled out his jack just as the vault door shuddered harshly. It popped open, revealing the contents-

“Shit.” Hope muttered under her breath.

”No kidding.” I stared at the micro drug lab. Boxes and boxes of drugs sat along the walls, all clearly labeled.

Here I thought I’d need to plant Dark Ether to justify bringing this guy in. Heh- little did I know. He had it all covered by himself.