Chapter 18: Legal Problems Require Illegal Solutions (5)
"Alright everyone, this job's simple. All we need to do is gather information that might implicate the Megabuilding Hospital 04 to the Scavs." Maine says to the gathered crew. "There's no reason to start a shot out or risk our lives over dumb shit. Let's revise the plan one last time. Dorio, you start."
The woman looks at her input with a smirk before addressing the rest of the crew. "I will bring the big guy over here to the front door of the hospital to provide with a distraction, and possibly cause a scene on the hospital lobby if the situation calls for it." Dorio looks down at her cyber legs, testing them out. "Might as well have a proper checkup if it's a slow day, too. I haven't gone to a legitimate doctor in years."
"Great. Pillar, go."
"Yours truly made those babies here," the tall Techie of the crew shows a couple of small sensors on his hands, "that will aid the infiltration team with gathering intel while I wait outside the hospital to help with extraction."
"Fantastic. 'Becca, your turn."
The small woman replies with a sickeningly sweet voice, entering in character for her role. "I will use my cute, innocent looks to infiltrate the hospital and maybe listen to some juicy information."
Pillar snorts at his little sister's antics. "You will be caught in five minutes or less. I bet at three point fourteen seconds."
"Shut up brother! What the fuck do you know about stealth, huh? You can't even keep your porn stash hidden!"
Maine pinches the bridge of his nose at the siblings' antics. "I speak for everyone that we have no interest in Pillar's porn stash. He's not wrong though, Rebecca. Sasha, what you're going to do?"
The group Netrunner gives them a soft grin before outlining her plan. "I will enter through the covert point beta, find the Hospital server, and wait for Rebbeca's signal. Once given the go-ahead, I copy the data, create some harmless distraction, and then delta to our fallback point."
Maine nods in appreciation, "Good, you all know your roles. We're finishing this operation cleanly, alright? Remember that this is a heavily populated area. In-out, just a simple gig."
Upon hearing her leader's words, Rebbeca gives Maine an incredulous look. "You just had to jink us, didn't you, choom?" Even her brother nodded alongside his little sister.
"Don't talk nonsense and let's go."
…
Dorio enters the hospital, complaining about one issue or another while accompanied by Maine. Pillar successfully sneaks his gadgets through the ventilation system of the hospital, positioning them so that Sasha can take control of them later.
"Ah~ I'm scared. Can someone tell me where the exit is?"
Four minutes after Rebecca infiltrates the corridors of the hospital, she sends a signal to the crew Netrunner with directions toward the local offices. Through the combined efforts of Rebecca's distraction, Pillar's gadgets, and Sasha's stealth expertise, the Netrunner manages to find the correct terminal with the incriminating evidence.
'We have evidence that the Scavs and the MH04 are competing over territory, but why? I thought healthcare in this city was already bad enough, why antagonize the Scavs directly?' Sasha continues typing her queries while she copies everything on the database until she finds a more damning passage.
'The MH04 is secretly being funded by Biotechnica, and has ties to the… Voodoo Boys? What?' Sasha performs a few queries, but she pauses and double-checks her ICE to make sure she didn't get a virus along the way. Afterward, she runs a diagnosis on her other cyberware to make sure she isn't seeing things.
"Zombies, really?"
To be more precise, Biotechnica is using MH04 as a medicine testing ground, using the patients as guinea pigs for their medicine. To Sasha's disgust, that's both open and legal, though the average patient isn't aware of it since they likely didn't read the full terms of service. From there, things branch to illegality, as some of the doctors extract the relatively healthy organs and intact cyberware from the recently diseased patients to resell on the black market, which infuriated the nearby Scav cells. The connection between Biotechnica and the Voodoo Boys is more tenuous and would require further investigation directly at the source.
"Who's there?"
Sasha quickly hides, turning off the monitor of the terminal. Using her Agent, she uses some of the gadgets that Pillar provided to provide a distraction. The small robots skitter around, making noise with their legs and mimicking mice sounds.
"Ugh, more rats? Well, at least we can fortify the patients' meals." Satisfied with the answer to the source of the noise, the hospital staff left the room before they properly searched it. After a few seconds, Sasha leaves the room, and with confidence, she leaves the restricted area, with nobody stopping her until she leaves the hospital.
…
"You did great Sasha!" Maine praises his Netrunner, "Good work girl!"
"Yeah, the whole thing went super Preem! I mean, I was itching to shoot some gonks but I'm glad everything went fine."
"Should we hit Afterlife?" Dorio asks, being the ever-practical. "Or do we call the Engineer for him to pick up the shard?"
"I will call him now." The agent rings three times before the call connects, and Maine is blasted by the sound of a rave going on in the background.
"… blasted… how…" the sound cuts off and a text message appears on the screen. "Sorry, got too close to the party, had to break up a minor fight. What can I do for you guys?"
"We got your data, and we found some Preem stuff. Where do you want us to drop it?"
"Is anybody hurt?" The Engineer asks first, "Did everything go well?"
"Operation went smooth like fresh off the factory chrome, no worries about that."
"Great, meet me at Afterlife. Drinks are on me. Over." The Engineer cuts the call, and Maine gives the crew the good news.
"Nova, that guy knows how to treat people well!" Pillar cackles at the side, "Oh, I already know what I'm going to do with my share." The tall man makes some suggestive motions with his hand, earning a bullet on his artificial hand from his little sister.
As the pair of siblings bicker between themselves Maine and Dorio are bringing their vehicle. Meanwhile, Sasha's mind is back to the information she gathered. Due to the hospital's connection with Biotechnica, there were several reports sent to the company, among them the effects of several experimental drugs.
Along those drugs, there was a name that Sasha knew by heart.
Securicine.