Neon Cowboys

Chapter 4: The Economics of Killing

"Excuse me? MedTact? I thought you said easy gigs.” Bliss’s voice cracked into Elika’s HUD comms. “Fuck me.”
“This is easy. You’re my sniper babe. Add to that, us two MODA? Easy.” Elika winked at Pli, she rolled her eyes with a smile. “We solve Lucy’s discovery later. First, the big pay day.”
“You sold out to those gangbangers, El?” Bliss sighed. “You and Pli are going to be real fun at parties now.”
“Can we focus, eh?” Pli interjected. “Elevator’s here.”
Pli and Elika hopped on, it shot up. Elika interlaced her fingers between Pli’s.
“Okay, sync is complete. I can see you guys from where I’m at. Fuck, this better be worth it.”
“Quarter a mil.” Elika clicked her tongue. “We need this. Hell, we have an excuse to kill as many of his compatriots as we can.”
“MedTact surgeon, though?” Bliss watched the elevator arrive on the 78th floor. “You ever stop and think who we are killing?”
“Not what we’re paid for.” Elika shrugged, Pli and Elika slowly made their way down the hall. “Tsar? Please tell me my netrunner hasn’t died.”
The Tsar. Elika’s netrunner. He hopped in and out of her life, but he could always find a thread of systems to connect them when need be. He was a member of Luna after all. There was a brief pause before the Tsar began speaking over the HUD. “Yeah. The ICE on the building security is weak. One of MedTact’s platinum members lives here.”
Elika sighed. “Dr. Mal. Did you find out more about him?”
“Damn. Daniel Mal, ECM. Former Frontier Scout. Gen 4 like Bliss. Shit, locked information involving AeroDome Robotics and AI division. Shit, didn’t that AeroDome shit hire you for this gig? Fuck…Scorcher or something?”
“Military background, MedTact field surgeon, mysterious corpo past…Elika are you sure this gig is within our depth?” Bliss was chewing on gum, her scope found their target. “Shit there she is, and she’s got a friend.”
Niko’s voice was growing faint as he spoke again, “SciLense spotted me. Fucking anti-hacker groups. El, I can redirect the counter hackers but you’ll be on your own once–”
The line cut out. “Fuck. Bliss, eyes on the prize. This is a limited window.”
“Think he’s dead?” Pli smiled.
“Not the Tsar. SciLense hasn’t got him in a decade.”
They rounded the last corner to their target’s apartment. Elika watched Pli, her beautiful love. They link shared their vision when in full sync. She cycled to Bliss. She was nested in a balcony of Megabuilding 0229. Her iconic sniper rifle, Michael’s Sword, sat ready on a tripod. Her much simpler G6 marksman in her hands. The G6 scope watched a faint outline of Pli and Elika walk down the long hall.
“Approaching the door.” Pli reported.
Elika took a deep even breath in and plugged into the security console. She melted the ICE and the door beeped and clicked. All personal security was turned off. “Good luck, babe.”
Elika gave Pli a kiss. Elika leaned up against the wall and waited. “Gah, you just like watching me work.”
“Too true. Begin gig.”
Pli kicked the apartment door open. Their bait was Judith Serene. Psy had called Elika weeping about the AI. Elika had an AI friend. But business was business. Elika simply targeted a major AeroDome upper manager. They had used them to retire an AI. Well, AeroDome had to pay the piper. The price of Scorch trying to manipulate them.
Pli’s smart shot gun was up, clearing the living room she found herself in. She turned a corner and quickly ducked back in cover as bullets slammed into the wall. “Found her.”
Pli tossed a personnel scanner, the glint, down the hall with one hand. Bullets bounced off the matte black, military grade arms. The outline of a woman and a man lit up in the back of the hall. Elika withdrew her pistol and leaned on the frame of the front door.
“Ready Bliss? Don’t fuck up. 3, 2,” Pli shrunk farther from the corner as more bullets hit. “1.”
Bliss fired. The shattering of glass hitting Judith’s “friend.” Pli jump out from cover and shoot the shocked woman in the stomach. The slug tore through the mixture of real and implant organs. She slammed into the wall behind her. Pli skipped down the hall giggling. Elika smiled following her in finally. Elika shot the man in the head as he tried to stand. His head exploded into a spray of shell and brain matter.
“Te’zah, babe.” Bliss came through the HUD. “El, really? I’d expect that from Pli.”
The woman tried to raise her weapon, but Pli punched her in the head hard. Out cold, bleeding out. This AeroDome corpo might make it through the night, if her implants were good enough. Pli pried open her eyes and studied the mortally wounded woman. Pli then picked up Judith. Her military grade arms, shoulders and legs made it easy work. Pli brought the woman into the hall.
“Damn, babe. You almost killed her.” Elika tapped Pli’s ass as she passed.
Pli shrugged. “Eh, MedTact has to show up either way. Maybe she’ll live. Friend was unexpected…actually, she’s wearing lingerie. Lover?”
“Unfortunate collateral.” Bliss reported. “There they are. MedTact going to come through the window.”
Pli and Elika left the apartment and stopped at a door ten rooms away from the Judith’s. “Bliss. Is this room still empty?”
“They’re breaching the window now…” Bliss watched them shoot the dead boyfriend again. “Yes, empty. Her company didn’t have MedTact insurance.”
“Focus, Bliss. Michael’s Sword for the target.” Elika instructed as she threw a communications disrupter, the n-chat, down. Bliss kneeled next to her weapon and took a slow breath out as she reacquainted with Michael’s Sword. Pli tossed the woman down in the n-chat’s small, bubbled field. She couldn’t call out and MedTact would have a harder time finding her. Elika and Pli both left the apartment and walked to the elevator. It brought them up quickly.
“Entering hallway.” Bliss reported. Elika and Pli sprinted out of the elevator. Elika kicked the door into the room above where Judith was. “They have a vague idea where she’s at. Five members.”
Pli continued down the hall and entered the room above Judith’s apartment. She slapped a man who tried to stop her at the door. Pli shot the window, it shattered into pieces and out. A large gust came in. Pli looked down, the MedTact flying transport was right below her. She threw a plastic explosive on it. A mere trigger pull from death.
MedTact entered the room. Two came in first. They looked around, clearing the apartment. Weapons hot and trying to save a woman’s life. Bliss watched for the white and blue striped helmet. There he was. He was the first to look down at the woman. Bliss evened her breath, watching her target through the scope.
“Minimal damage if you could Bliss. AeroDome wants as much of him and his shell intact.”
Elika looked beneath her. The sync share view showed the five members below her. Elika tossed a small trinket, the reverb, at the glass. It shook a high frequency before bursting. She threw a smart rope’s anchor onto the ceiling and wrapped the rest around her waist.
“On your shot, Bliss.” Elika turned away from the window opening, heels very near the edge.
Bliss took a deep breath in, an even breath out, and squeezed the trigger slowly. Even this far away Elika could hear the loud explosion from Bliss’ weapon. She heard the whoosh and then the shatter of glass. Pli blew up the MedTact ambulance, well almost. It turned away from the building and descended. It slammed into the side of megabuilding and stuck there, taking out some balconies. Elika jumped out the window and swung down to the floor below. She pulled the smart rope from her waist. It fell harmlessly away from her.
The MedTact team was now trying to help their leader. Elika shot the one on the right, five shots through the chest. She heard a few more zips as Bliss’ G6 shots took out another on the left. One of the last ones tried to rush her. Elika shot this one in the leg and then in the head as they fell forward. She shot him two more times as she stepped over the body. MedTact was supposedly an ambulance with special forces grade paramedics. Three were dead, one lay dying in front of her.
“Last one is running.” Bliss reported. “Shall I?”
“MedTact law.” Elika said, Dr. Mal was wheezing on the floor. “They won’t return. Pli baby, earn us that final bonus.”
Pli could also see the last woman. She was running down the hall, link share gave her what she needed. Pli aimed her WS Shy shotgun down and charged the weapon. As the last MedTact member ran underneath her. Pli fired. Through the new hole in the floor, Pli could see the last of MedTact’s head flowered out in a bloody mess.
Elika stood over the MedTact doctor. All she could hear was wheezing and gurgles. Michael’s Sword had found its target. The hole in his chest was about the size of Elika’s fist. Yet, he was still alive somehow. Special breed those Frontier Scouts. She found the button beneath the left ear. She pressed it and the helmet disappeared. Elika’s optics studied the face. It was their target. Elika brought her Joon-19 up to the man’s forehead.
“Wait…” The man said. “Who…who sent you?”
“Mmm. Not how this game works.”
“I…I almost made it. Tomorrow makes it two years… I guess…tell Psy it wasn’t her fault. She seemed like a nice gal…”
Dr. Mal was looking out at the city skyline. Elika sat down next to him and watched the sun sink behind the megabuildings across Neon Dallas. She scoffed. “You’re an AI on the verge of Neon Dallas citizenship.”
“This shell…it’s rare.” Dr. Mal coughed up blood. Elika wondered if that artificial blood scared it. “I avoided the repomen for this long. Only to be…bested by a merc.”
“Freelancer.”
“What’s the diff-zzz-erence?” The shell dying.
“Mercs fight for war in war. We fight hidden wars for money and ourselves.”
It was surreal, Elika thought, talking to a dead man. A soon to be dead AI consciousness.
“I see…merc.” The doctor chuckled. “Tears in rain.”
“Long way from the Common Era…” Elika mused. “See anything worth washing away?”
Dr. Mal looked to Elika, a tear broke through the blood on his face. “I almost saw…Neon Dallas let a good man live…”
“Not in this lifetime…” Elika grimaced as she pulled the trigger. The doctor’s head snapped back. His reinforced skull bounced the bullet around. Elika didn’t really like the rattling noise it created. She turned her head and spoke to the corpse. “It wasn’t personal.”
The sound of Pli’s metal arms on the metal doorframe surprised Elika. Elika turned, Pli smirked at Elika. “Getting a little slow on the draw, babe. Have a hard time killing vacants, eh?”
“Repomen couldn’t get the job done. That’s why they pay us.”
“Didn’t answer my question.”
Elika chuckled. She looked down at the woman named Judith. She wasn’t breathing anymore. “Fuck, looks like our bait died. Oh well, Neon Dallas is down one repoman. Fuck it, remind Scorch not to play with fire. We need to make this up to Psy…”
“Eh.” Pli shrugged, she withdrew Elika’s inhaler. “How ‘bout a bit of fun first?”
Elika grabbed the drug from Pli’s hand. She took a hit from the inhaler. The high slapped her the way she liked. Her leg shook as the orgasmic high both hyper focused her and sent waves of pleasure through her.
“MedTact has sent more two teams in.” Bliss reported. “Time to leave.”
Elika and Pli entered the elevator and took it to the roof. Bliss packed up and went to grab their ship, the Menace. Bliss found them on the roof and grabbed them while MedTact gathered their dead members and one dead platinum member.