527 Win Corpo Prizes Part One

As I laid there in the bath, I skimmed through the Arasaka Corporation's servers I had copied before. As I had previously noticed by just the project headings, they were into some really heavy and illegal shit. The least impactful was having various hidden loading docks spread all around the city that contained industrial caches of weapons and prototype cyberware they used for smuggling operations.

The next biggest thing was Saburo Arasaka's youngest son was planning to overthrow the old bastard and run the company into the ground, because he hated their corporate policies, their ruthless takeovers, how they ruined innocent lives, and how they planned to form a global economy solely under their control by manipulating events and forcing conflicts among other corporations for their benefit.

Two of the biggest secrets they had involved something they had called The Relic. It was designed to copy a human's consciousness into a digital form and then write it into another living humanoid host body. Their primary goal was to preserve the minds of the corporate elite, namely the Arasaka Family members themselves, and they could indefinitely reproduce their consciousness and live forever in successive host bodies.

However, the largest and most impactful secret they had was the large digital fortress contained underneath Arasaka Tower in the basement, called Mikoshi. Inside it was a program that a woman named Alt Cunninham created years ago called Soulkiller, a weapon that fries the brain of a human while creating a digital copy.

Having it wasn't the secret, though. It was that they used it as a means to torture, interrogate, and permanently archive the digital consciousnesses of political threats, corporate executives that became legends in their own time, and anyone else they thought could contribute in some way to Saburo Arasaka's insane plan to make himself virtually immortal.

Yeah, heartless and ruthless were understatements when it came to the old man running the company. Little does he realize that when he copies his mind, it created a separate version of him and does not continue his life. It becomes a new life, just with his knowledge and experiences. Each time he would save his mind and put it into a new body, it would create a separate copy and would not continue the original life.

That was why I had been so angry at Dragon every time she made a backup of herself and treated her current life as disposable and easily replaced. She just couldn't get the idea into her head that she was literally killing herself every time she sacrificed a dragonmech. The only upside to Dragon's method was her backups never experienced any of her deaths, so when they loaded up, she never felt that burden.

I closed my eyes and sank down into the ceiling high pink bubbles. I hadn't lied to Victor when I said that. It really had been a while since I had a proper bath and I rewarded myself with a little extravagance. Plus, it looked really cool.

I made a brief recording of it for a few minutes and added in what it felt like to relax and soak in the hot water, then I shared the BD in a group chat with the girls from class. I even included Carrie, just so no one would wonder why I didn't include her.

Being civil would benefit me in the long run and there was no way anyone could make me out to be the asshole. Ignoring her would only single me out and bring attention to the fact something had happened. If she was the one that brought it up, then that was on her and not me. I wasn't going to spread it around.

Almost immediately, I received several thank you messages as most of the girls from our group logged into the chat and one of them requested a more detailed version, specifically me getting undressed and climbing into the tub. I laughed and responded to Kei that I hadn't recorded that part and only thought about sharing the experience once I was already in the bath.

That set off a lot of messaging back and forth between the girls and it was a mix of regret and hope to have me share getting out of the bath later. That had me laugh again and I spent the next twenty minutes chatting with them as I relaxed in the bath. It really had been a long time since I had done anything like it and I enjoyed both the conversation and the hot water.

I was not surprised Carrie didn't make an appearance, even though we weren't deep diving into VR and were only voice chatting. Only Evelyn and Kei had gone full video and I could see that they were both relaxing on their respective beds. My bubbles had reduced to allow them to see me from the chest up and they gave me several interested looks as we talked.

After a short while, they all logged out to head to bed or to go back to what they were doing when I had interrupted them. Kei asked me if it was possible to bring more tomatoes on Monday, enough for a dish or two, and she would reward me appropriately.

What was funny about the whole thing was that the girls didn't ask where I was getting them, so I didn't have to either lie or build something to create them from the single cell protein that was the basis of all mass produced food on the market.

Then again, maybe I should build something like that. It would give me the perfect excuse to explain a whole bunch of things I could hand out as bribes. With my 'Tinker: Yes' power, it would be simple to do, especially with some of the advanced technology that existed in this world. I would just have to make a few discreet and traceable purchases to explain it away. It couldn't just show up out of nowhere, after all.

Once I had that, I could start on some of my other plans. With 3D printing technology both expensive and also available, if you had the ready cash, I just needed to submit another program and perhaps a recipe to the Reclamation Division for them to buy out. With a massive influx of cash, I could buy the more expensive printer, the warehouse, and the first materials package, without bankrupting myself.

Legitimately, anyway. There were billions of eddies behind the Blackwall that I could easily harvest except I had no way to explain where they came from without admitting I had broken several dozen laws and endangered the entire world by potentially releasing another AI apocalypse.

I promised Kei I would bring enough for her to make a salad or two and a pot of sauce if she wanted. She sputtered and choked a little, then complained she couldn't afford that much as her face went red. It made me laugh and I merely said she would owe me a favor later, which I clarified that it wouldn't compromise her future career. She agreed and logged off.

Evelyn was the last and she gave me a guilty look. “I know you said you understood...”

“It really is all right, Evelyn. You didn't want to jeopardize your potential career, especially if you intend to go into his father's department.” I reassured her. “I can't hold it against you, not if he was right there listening to you. It wasn't like you could make a backroom deal with me if he knew about it, right?”

Evelyn sighed and reluctantly nodded. “I would have liked to, though. Kei won't be the only one to approach you for a similar deal, especially since you've been hired officially into Arasaka.”

I smiled, because I had assumed as much. Once Kei's deal with me spread around, and it would, more than a few other students would message me unofficially to make their own deals.

Evelyn's eyes dropped to my chest briefly before she looked back at my face. “I better go. I have...” *cough!* “...stuff to do.”

I had to bark a laugh at that, because we both knew what she meant. “You're right. I've been soaking enough and should get out of the bath.”

Evelyn stopped breathing as I stood up and the water and a few clinging suds slid down my body and hid nothing from her eager eyes.

“Goodnight.” I said and waved, which just so happened to jiggle me down there.

“Ohh.” Evelyn softly moaned, blushed hard, and her signal suddenly cut off.

I laughed and ended the chat and stepped out of the bath. A quick dry with a towel and a bit of magic to help, and I put on a bathrobe and left the bathroom. Instead of going to my room to go to bed, I went to the living room. Gloria sat there on the couch and looked a little lost as she stared at the vidscreen and there was nothing on.

“Surprise medical examination?” I asked and she gasped and turned around to stare at me. “I just spent over an hour and a half in the bath. Is that healthy?”

Gloria opened her mouth, closed it, looked like she changed what she was going to say, then spoke. “I really should have gone in to monitor you. Anything could have happened to you in there, like losing consciousness, dizziness, or anything else that could suddenly overcome you.”

I could tell from her thoughts that she regretted losing the opportunity to help me, which was a perfect cover as she actually helped herself. If she had mentioned it beforehand, or even just came in and didn't say a word, I wouldn't have objected. It really had become a missed opportunity for the both of us, so I reached for the cloth belt holding the robe closed.

Gloria's hand reached out and stopped me. “You don't have to take that off for a basic exam.”

I mentally shrugged and stood beside her as she did a quick physical check. If she wasn't in the mood to fool around, I wasn't going to force her.She would probably hate me afterwards if I did.I thought and then remembered telling her about tracking David's position. “Do you want a copy of the program I use to keep track of David?”

Gloria's hands stopped at my knees and she looked up at my face. “No, yes.” She closed her eyes and finished checking my feet. “No, I really should respect his decision...”

“Fuck that.” I said and pretended to use the clicker to send it to her. “He didn't respect anything you decided, even though you did everything for him to give him a better life. You're his mother, Gloria. If you want to make sure he's safe, all day every day, then that's your right.”

Gloria looked shocked at my opinion and then the program ran and her eyes widened. “That stupid gonk!”

Instead of asking her what she saw, I used the program myself on my cyberdeck. It replayed his path for the last hour and it showed him going to El Coyote Cojo, the popular bar Mama Welles ran for the Valentinos and some independent mercenaries. He had also spent most of that time in a back booth with a group of people.

A second later, the names popped up and there were several members of the Valentinos Gang, a couple women, as well as Jackie Welles. One name really stood out, though.

Panam Palmer was a former Nomad and ex-member of a roaming band of outlaws called the Aldecaldos. She still had tight ties with them, though. She loved her family dearly, it was just the leader's decisions she didn't agree with and left so she didn't have to suffer under the same corpo contracts they were locked into.

“I'm going to kill him.” Gloria said, her voice deadly. She stood and gave me a pointed look. “Not a word about this to anyone, V.” She said and grabbed her coat. “Not even Victor.”

I mimed zipping my mouth shut, broke off the zipper's end, and tossed it over my shoulder. The move made her smile briefly, then her face turned grim and she strode over to the apartment door on a mission to either save the idiot from himself or to openly berate him in front of his company. Or both. She looked pretty determined.

I went to the kitchen and chose a good snack from the vending machine and ate it on the way to my bedroom. I had a few things to order as a cover and then I had to get to sleep. I had a fairly early morning to get ready to go to work and sent a delayed request to Delamain for a ride in the morning.

Tomorrow was going to be an enlightening day for everyone that worked in the Reclamation Division.

*

Mama Welles sighed when she saw a fellow Mama Bear enter the bar with her boot buried into the gut of the bouncer. The bright yellow EMT jacket really made the act stand out and half of the bar stood and had their hands on their various weapons.

“DAVID! ENRIQUE! MARTINEZ!” Gloria yelled and everyone in the bar winced at her tone of voice, even the hardened mercs that took down Scav nests at least once a week. “GET YOUR ASS OUT HERE RIGHT NOW!”

Mama Welles wasn't surprised that she didn't have to calm everyone down, since they all knew what it meant when an irate woman was on a rampage. You either get out of her way or she was going to go through you. Most of the men sat down and a couple of the women gained interested looks as Gloria stalked through the bar towards the booths in the back.

That part she would have to intervene in, just because she didn't want whomever she was after to be too embarrassed about their mother coming there to the bar to rescue him. It would also let her observe the woman to see how she was going to handle the upcoming confrontation.

Mama Welles nodded to the other bartender to take over and she strode quickly to follow the woman, only to hear her own son yell out to leave the kid alone. She cursed out loud and started running instead. She wasn't rushing to save the woman, though. She desperately needed to stop her own idiot son from interfering in another family's business.

As soon as she entered the back room, Mama Welles had to duck as a body was flung over her and he crashed through the half closed door. She cursed again and dashed to the side as another body tumbled across the floor and stopped against the wall, unconscious. With a sigh, she dove into the full on melee fight, her own fists flying, to stop the fight before it spread to the rest of the bar.

She wasn't successful.

*

Morning came early and I remembered I didn't really have any clothing that was appropriate to wear to work. I went to the closet to transfigure up something and found the tattered uniform I had discarded the night before was cleaned and hung up. Gloria must have done it while I was in the bath and I mentally made a note to thank her later.

I transfigured the suit coat and the pants into a corpo business suit that looked expensive and left the armless shirt alone, since it was actually comfortable to wear and it was easier to move my arms around. I looked into the mirror and decided a bald head was not a good choice for a corpo to have and used Panacea's power to grow my hair out half an inch into one of the designs Evelyn had picked out for me.

I turned my head from side to side and had to admit that she was right. The geometric pattern of the chemical formula for a molecule of sulfuric acid actually looked good and brought attention to me without being gaudy or outlandish, because it showed I had an attention to detail and looked after myself.

The design was a sulfer molecule on the back of my head, with an oxygen molecule on top of my head, down near my neck, and on either side of my head above my ears, with two hydrogen molecules attached to them on my temples. I changed the connecting lines to glow softly blue and it really made my short hair stand out.

Happy with the changes, I dressed in my corpo suit and went to the kitchen to eat a quick breakfast, checked the time, and went downstairs to wait for my taxi. I spent a few minutes talking to Tank at the security desk and could tell by his thoughts that he was happy I had the casts off and I was looking good.

With that as a reminder, I sent Evelyn a short clip of me looking at myself in the mirror and showing off the completed pattern with the soft blue glow. It really had come out better than I expected and I was sure she would love seeing how it turned out.

I received a garbled message in return and waved to Tank as one of Delamain's taxis pulled up. I left the building and climbed into the back.

“I'd wolf whistle at you if I had lips, choom.” Delamain joked and I laughed.

“Thanks for the compliment.” I said as he pulled away from the curb. “You know where I'm heading?”

“I looked up the deets after you booked a ride last night.” Delamain said and swerved around a slower car. “Thank you for that, by the way. Most people aren't that considerate and want me to show up right away, even if I don't have a car nearby and have to deal with traffic to get to them.”

“I hear ya, choom.” I said and we talked about what I was planning to do as soon as I entered the lab. It made him laugh and I promised to send him a BD recording of it.