040: A Sense of Urgency

(1/3)
When John recovered his breath, the battle was already over.
All the Gaia Cell soldiers had been stripped of their gear, three armored vehicles had been decrypted and salvaged, and all collectible supplies had been tallied up.
The Safe Haven Corporation had made a killing on this gig.
John finished up with the rest of them and sat on a giant boulder to let the wind cool him down. The blood on his face had completely dried, leaving a strange, tight sensation upon the skin.
The black sealed case lay out in the open.
It was placed alongside Jeffrey's corpse, reportedly waiting for their collaborator to come and pick up the cargo.
Not long after.
An ahover flew in from the direction of the urban center, the Plato Corporation's logo visible from afar. It pulled up to the edge of the highway, and two squads of armed mercenaries escorted an executive out.
The man wore a champagne-colored suit and carried a gloomy expression, fitting John's mental image of a cold corporate dog down to the letter.
[Name: Bismarck Ritter]
[Faction: Plato]
[Scan: Bionic Blood Vessels, Neural Amplifier]
[Bounty: None]
[File: Manually Deleted]
John felt a tinge of surprise—even a corporate executive wouldn't scrub themselves clean to this extent unless every single project they worked on was under extreme secrecy.
"What's this guy's deal?"
Tin Foil replied flatly:
"A department head at Plato. The warehouse that got blown up a couple of days ago held the experimental data for his sub-project. He's the one who's been negotiating the bounties and mission details directly with the boss."
She wore a black, loose utility hoodie and a tactical respirator, protecting her body from the blowing dust and industrial exhaust.
John, on the other hand, was wrapped in the scarf Nando had given him.
Eden took the case and conducted the transaction with the suit-wearing man.
The armed Plato soldiers were bustling about—first lifting Jeffrey's corpse into the ahover, then spraying DNA dilutent over the residual blood around the battlefield. Even the getaway sedan was thoroughly reinspected before being set ablaze.
John frowned deeply as he watched.
"Do they have to go this far? Acting like they're dealing with a contagious virus."
"Maybe they are. Which of the deadliest neuroviruses wasn't developed by some mega-corporation? You're new here, so remember to get a blood test and a scan back at the company after every mission."
Tin Foil suddenly patted John on the shoulder.
Her exposed prosthetic eye flickered.
"Here's a gift for you."
John received a piece of software in his internal channel.
[Module: Advanced Language Pack 77-15]

(2/3)
Citizens of the cyber era basically all installed language plugins. Eden City was a melting pot of ethnicities and diverse languages, and everyone communicated through simultaneous interpretation and optical text translation.
The software Tin Foil gave him was much more advanced.
It not only covered sign language and lip-reading, but its lens-scanning and smart-recognition algorithms were far superior—it looked like military-grade corporate tech.
John zoomed in his vision.
Subtitles materialized right by the suit-wearing man's mouth.
[...Clean enough. Did anyone come into contact with the files? What about the deceased? Any anomalies before he kicked the bucket? You can tell me anything you find.]
Eden had his back to John, making it impossible to read his lips.
[Fuck, I knew it. Gaia Cells can't be trusted, hiding behind some slum saint to hold me back...]
[Don't make me fall under the illusion that we're on good terms, otherwise next time you're the one pointing a gun at my head, it's going to look rather ironic.]
[...More people will be held accountable for this... Are you really not considering taking on more gigs? No mercenaries do clean work like your crew; the rest of them are just a bunch of desperate, half-cyberpsycho climbers. If they blow it, even the best fixer won't be able to wipe their asses.]
[Fine, I know, you just want to shoot guys in suits. Let's work together again when the chance arises.]
[And one more thing. Keep your people in check.]
[Too much curiosity will get you killed.]
The suit-wearing man's gaze swept past Eden's shoulder, fixing on the direction where Tin Foil and John stood far away.
John felt as though this wasn't his first time seeing him:
He had a vague feeling he'd encountered Bismarck back at Ironbang Logistics, and could even imagine the exact tone of voice he used when speaking that line.
Curiosity really could kill a cat.
...
The ahover hummed and flew away.
Eden distributed the payment immediately after receiving it. The voice channel was filled with dirty jokes and cheers as everyone discussed where to blow off steam after sorting through the loot.
Safe Haven paid out promptly, allocating rewards based on contribution. Large assets like the three armored vehicles might be treated as company property or stripped for parts to be fenced and factored into monthly bonuses.
Eden was a good boss.
Or so John guessed.
Though he hadn't received cash, it probably wasn't out of a desire to bully the new guy, but rather because of some other arrangement.
Eden rode in the same vehicle as John.
"You've seen how we operate now. If you're willing to come on board full-time, I'll hook you up with some decent prosthetics and get your combat capability up early. What do you think?"
John looked slightly conflicted, then smiled with a sense of relief after a moment of thought.
"I'm definitely drooling over your chips and augmentations, but deep down I'm just a vagabond through and through. Taking on missions is fine—just call me whenever you need work done. Joining up permanently? I'll pass. I really can't stand punch-the-clock desk jobs..."
Eden shrugged. "But I can't play favorites. How about you work for us without taking a cut of the cash, taking only augmentations and chips instead?"
"Won't that cause problems?"

(3/3)
"Prosthetic maintenance and upgrades for official Safe Haven employees are covered under the labor contract. To them, it's a free perk."
"Damn, now I'm genuinely tempted."
"Fighting corporate dogs means putting your life on the line." Eden knew John was just talking; joining the crew was already off the table.
[Claim mission reward. (Unfulfilled)]
Eden brought him back to Safe Haven, leading him through the newly rebuilt main hall corridor and swiping open an elevator featuring alloy reliefs.
The electronic panel displayed: -Comprehensive Training Center.
When John had come previously, he'd only seen the perimeter and the client reception lounge on the top floor. The core area of Safe Haven was actually underground.
A mid-range indoor shooting range, a sealed weapon armory, and recreational areas like a gym...
Eden led John straight to the Prosthetic Calibration Center.
Here, he met the team's medic, who, judging by his scanned profile records, was also a veteran military doctor.
Eden had originally intended to let John pick his own prosthetics, but after looking over John's scan report, he furrowed his brow and decided to make the call for him.
"Let's start with alloy arms to boost upper-body strength, and throw in a Suresh v7.5 CQC chip."
Eden swiped across his terminal tablet, pausing in thought as he caught sight of the molecular katana John carried with him.
"Get him the 'Ronin' from Rafiki Heavy Industries as well."
Everything was stocked in the armory, and the restocking speed was fast.
Eden wanted John to undergo the modifications right here at Safe Haven, followed by combat training to adapt to the chips.
The Prosthetic Calibration Center housed a standalone operating room:
A clean, pristine chamber where saline mixed with the scent of alcohol. Display screens and mechanical arms hung all around the room, with a blinding shadowless lamp suspended directly over the operating recliner.
John hesitated for a moment and refused.
Eden didn't push the matter, but asked instead, "Are you alright? You've looked like you lost your soul ever since we got back from the job."
"I... something feels a bit off. Damn it, that poor bastard who bit the dust was a former colleague of mine—an Ironbang Logistics driver. Out of nowhere, he turns out to be a Plato traitor."
"An undercover agent, corporate warfare, pretty standard stuff. Were you guys close?"
"Not really."
John told Eden about Jeffrey's state right before he died, and listening to it made Eden frown in deep thought.
Recalling Bismarck's face, John said.
"I've got this inexplicable sense of urgency."