Chapter Four - Back to Cat


    Chapter Four - Back to Cat


    - This quarters going to be the first where our profits arent increasing.


    - You mean were losing money?


    - No, I meant that our profit margin isnt going to be bigger this quarter than it was in the last one. Were still in the black.


    - Thats unacceptable. How am I going to explain to the shareholders that were making less profit?


    - Were still making billions.


    - Yes, but were making less billions than we were before, and thats not going to fly. Figure something out.


    Private anonymised discussion on the Nimbletainment C-Suite Chat, 2057


    ***


    Is this how it usually goes down? I asked Rac as the two of us followed her... I suppose they were work friends.Finnd new chapters at novelhall.com


    The crew didnt waste much time once Garter had laid out the mission. We all just got up and got going. I wasnt sure where we were going, exactly, but the others seemed to know. We pushed through a door at the back of the Barber Shop and into a service corridor lined with cubicles and stacks of boxes. It was a lot less glamorous than the main section of the bar, but the music still carried in here.


    Yeah, Rac replied. Most of the time the jobs are pretty cut-and-dry. Go somewhere, scare someone. Steal something from a corp. Stand around and look scary. Sometimes we escort stuff. She shrugged. Its alright work. Mostly its good because its fast. Half a day, a few hours.


    That made some sense, I supposed. Rac was often back home, so whatever work she was doing here had to be quick.


    Raccoon hasnt come on any real dangerous jobs, Coco said as she glanced back at me. The woman was a good half-foot taller than I was, and a whole lot broader at the shoulders. But we dont usually take on jobs that are that bad.


    Mostly because no one wants to take the risk, Garter complained. Even if thats where all the good moneys at.


    Jerusalems hand twitched, then he looked my way and tilted his head to the side.


    Jerusalem has sent you a link to a limited party chat. It seems like its what the team uses to communicate. Specifically with Jerusalem himself.


    So hed text into the team chat? Yeah, that made some sense. Gimme a sec, I told him. If this chats safe, Ill join it.


    Nothing will get past me.


    I opened the chat, shifted it to the corner of my vision so that it wouldnt be too annoying, then adjusted its opacity until it was only barely visible. Got it, I said.


    Probably just under the city. I imagined there had to be a pile of lost trash down there tall enough to be a mountain by now.


    Maybe someone tossed something flammable down every so often, to burn some of it down.


    Theres my baby, Coco said as she moved over to an old minivan parked halfway off the edge of the balcony. It looked like it was just barely hanging on there. Cocos eyes flashed and the hovercar rumbled to life, the sliding door on its side screeching open even as she popped the driver side door open and climbed into an extra-wide seat.


    Get in, Garter said as he hopped in himself. The back of the van had a couch along one side, and a couple of fold-out seats near the back. There were also some suspicious looking crates and the back of the passenger side seat had a gun rack welded to it.


    Jerusalem slipped to the front, sitting next to Coco with his knees folded up to his chest, and I found a place on the couch next to Rac while Garter slammed one of the unfolding seats down and then kicked the door closed.


    Right, jobs on sub-two, under Nimbletainment Six, Garter said.


    Is that the corp were hitting? I asked.


    Nah. NBs big, this is some numbers-company. Not that Id look too deeply into it, he said.


    I, however, have looked into it. The job was given to Millenium Animal from a self-proclaimed gangster. The warehouse in question is being rented by a corporation whose name is a series of numbers. Its owned by another numbers corporation, which is in turn owned by a conglomerate. But digging deeper, the line of ownership ends at a Nimbletainment subsidiary. It seems like its mostly a corporation set up to provide deniable resources to undisclosed projects.


    So, what are we going after? I asked.


    We dont want to know, Garter said.


    Experimental smart ammunition.


    Coco lifted us off, and instead of climbing like I expected, we dropped. The van had some lights on the front which flicked on and illuminated the interior of the tunnel as we descended.


    Jobs about as simple as it gets, Garter said. We rock up to the warehouse, Jerusalem disables their security, Coco breaks the door, and then we let our local pals rob the place blind.


    What about corpo security? I asked.


    Barely any out and about right now, Garter said. Most of them were moved to keep corpo assets safe from the aliens. Its the only advantage we have right now in all of this incursion shit.


    Good thing too, Coco said. Cost of ammo tripled. Fuel costs have skyrocketed too. Its getting hard to be an indie merc right now.


    Garter shrugged in an easy what can you do kind of way. At least with so many mercs working for corps right now, its easier than ever to get your rep up. Once everything cools down well be the top of the top, you know?


    Uh-huh, I said.


    This wasnt the experience I was expecting it to be, but it was interesting all the same, and I was already along for the ride.


    ***