Birds Of A Feather, Chapter 1.i-2 (Patreon)

1.i-2

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Her name was Theresa Valentino, and she was not enjoying the game that she now found herself playing.

She leaned back in the seat of her car, sitting as relaxed as she could make herself, her Cyberware assisting through hormonal regulation. The driver kept his eyes on the road, following the car in front of them as it headed to her destination. The car behind them, in turn, followed her own vehicle, keeping a steady pace.

Two hours ago, she wouldn’t have needed the hormonal regulation. Two hours ago, she’d thought she’d been merely fighting a straightforward battle.

Then the Exotic had dropped a bug on her desk, and Theresa had been unceremoniously reminded that the world of politics was one filled with eager knives.

Now here she was, sitting in her car as her little convoy made their way to the edge of her territory, so that she could sell it off.

Two hours ago, she never would have considered doing such a thing. She had people for that. There were entire agencies dedicated solely to the purpose, as a matter of fact. Some of them weren’t even fronts for others.

But that had been two hours ago, and this was now.

“Ma’am?” The driver spoke, getting her attention. “We’re here.”

Theresa straightened.

She looked out the window as the car drove onto the road next to the building.

It was a worn-down depot, just as the reports said it was. It was on the edge of the Industrial Zone and South Heywood, seemingly the only reason it was part of the latter rather than the former being that it opened to this road rather than the road on the opposite side of the building.

It had been redesignated several times, as the records had indicated. It had also been abandoned shortly after the Night City Holocaust.

The paint was peeled. The bricks were chipped. The concrete was cracked, and outright missing entirely in some places. There were layers of dirt, sand, and ash all over it, deposited by years of storms during the Time Of The Red.

Why the bird wanted this building was a mystery, but it was one that Theresa had little desire to investigate. It was clear that the Exotic had little amusement to spare, and she wasn’t eager to find out where the line of patience faltered.

She breathed in. The car came to a stop. Shortly afterwards, one of the guards she had brought with her opened the door for her.

She stepped out, in the way that she’d practiced in order to make it appear effortless. The chill of the night bit coldly, but she ignored it. The heating elements of her clothes were quick enough to act, leaving her to not feel the chill.

She looked at the far end of the building, stepping away from her car. The guard shut the door after she did.

“You have arrived.” That voice speaks, and it’s all she can do to stop herself from turning suddenly.

Her guards don’t entirely succeed.

There, standing in the middle of the entrance to the side road that they’d just pulled into, was the Exotic.

Except it wasn’t like before. Before, they’d been in a relatively cramped room, and the Exotic had taken up the space from floor to ceiling. Now, the Exotic stood tall, utterly looming in height. Backlit by a streetlight, their front was cast into shadow, leaving only those glowing blue eyes to stand out in the dark.

A menacing sight.

“Come.” The Exotic states, voice strong. “The door is unlocked. Follow the stairs down.”

And, without even so much as a second thought, they turn and walk towards the front office.

It’s not until the Exotic is out of sight entirely that her guards manage to bring their hands away from their guns. Theresa manually triggers her Cyberware, releasing a small amount of muscle relaxants into her system. The tension fades quickly.

“Dower.” She calls out, and one of the others who she’d recruited for the day snaps to attention. “Get your team going. I want the evaluation done as soon as possible. Everyone else, in positions now.”

Her guards step in behind as she walks off, heading towards the office entrance. Joining the three of them is one other person, who she had recruited specifically for today.

As the Exotic had said, the door is unlocked. It is also very loud, its hinges shrieking as one of her guards experimentally tries to close it behind them.

The inside of the office is no cleaner than the outside. The windows are boarded up, tarps stapled to them. Thick layers of dust are set on every surface. Her Optics flick into Night Vision automatically, and then she sees the large footprints on the floor., where they’ve disturbed the dust.

Theresa ignores it, and goes to the door that she can see in the corner. The half-broken sign depicting a set of stairs makes it very obvious where it leads, even though the footprints don’t go anywhere near it. Theresa elects not to think about that.

The stairs were a single, U-shaped piece. Old and dusty, but also solid concrete. Stable. The bottom of them proved exactly the same as the top, but where the upstairs door linked to the office, the downstairs one linked directly to the second and lower floor of the depot itself.

It is not, contrary to what she had been expecting, completely dark. The building’s lights are not on, but several battery-powered lamps have been attached to the support pillars and walls, providing an area of light around a small corner.

It’s obvious that this area has been cleaned up. There’s no scrap metal there like there is all over the rest of the level. More than that, however, there’s not even so much as a single speck of dust to be seen. Just open, empty space.

The Exotic stands right in the center of it, of course. Right behind them is a large pair of what appear to be stylised crates.

Theresa gestured, and the two guards halted as she and her last recruit walked into the light.

“You were not slow in arriving.” The Exotic speaks. “I do hope you have not acted with unnecessary haste.”

“Everyone who I have brought with me today is someone that I trust.” Theresa responds.

For a given value of the word trust, of course. There is no room for blindness. A lesson she had reminded herself of.

“Very well.” The Exotic states, face unchanging. They raise an arm, and gesture behind them.

The two crates shift, a pneumatic hiss sounding through the air for a moment. Then, they unfolded, opening into scores of shelves and trays.

It was shocking how utterly dense they’d been packed. As they unfurled, what was revealed was a wealth of Cyberware. Limbs, both arms and legs, organs, eyes, Audiosuites, artificial muscle bundles, Cyberdecks, Neuralware, and modules and other options for each and every single type.

Just an genuinely absurd amount of Cyberware packed into two crates.

Her recruit sucked in a shocked breath of air. Theresa only managed to suppress her own reaction thanks to her Cyberware.

“You may examine them.” The Exotic says, not looking away from either of them.

“Jones.” She prompts, and her recruit startles forwards a step before straightening and continuing the rest of the way normally. His arm opens up as he gets there, Techscanners and other devices she doesn’t know the name of deploying from his limb.

The Exotic’s eyes don’t follow him. “As I stated, I desire to acquire the deed to this property.” The words are simple and direct. “As well as all valid licenses.”

“A full set of property licenses can be considerably expensive.” She warns. Her Internal Agent activates, a window appearing in her vision, tallying the full set of costs.

“I have taken that into account.” Drich states. “The positioning of this property means that it exists with South Heywood’s administrative ledger. It is classified as a depot, leading to an increased surcharge if the building is to be acquired and put to other uses. I will redevelop it for my own purposes. Altering the classification is 2,500 Eurodollars.”

The Exotic shifts an arm, slightly, and a single, small drone that she doesn’t recognize at all floats out from where the Exotic’s robes were hiding it. It’s much, much smaller than any drone she’s ever seen, and the barely-present hum with which it floats through the air somehow provides even more mystery. Then it projects a hologram of the building they’re in, entire sections of it marked in blue and red.

There was more of the latter than the former. “The building is currently in non-livable and non-usable state, and more than 70% is unable to be used due to its failed infrastructure.” The Exotic continued, heedless. “A redevelopment license will therefore cost 4,500 Eurodollars, reduced from its normal price on account of its state. There is no functional water or electricity to this building, and reacquiring both will cost 1,890 Eurodollars between material requirements and paid work hours at normal rates.”

Everything the towering bird had spoken matched up exactly to what her Agent was displaying. This was, somehow, the most terrifying part of both encounters, because she had privileged information as a City Manager. That this Exotic who nobody had even known existed two days ago was so accurate was extremely concerning.

It spoke of resources she didn’t know about.

“Between all other relevant and necessary factors, the final cost on those matters will be 17,990 Eurodollars.” The Exotic continued. “Which in turn leaves only a single matter that is still open for negotiation. The price of the property itself.”

“I am afraid that such things have always been rather ill-defined.” Theresa stated. “Considering the square-footage alone, however, it will not be cheap.”

“It will not.” The Exotic agrees. The drone turns off, and floats back into the folds of the Exotic’s robes. “Per the absolute minimum allowed by Night Corp and the guidelines they have set down, acquiring the deed would require at least 219,800 Eurodollars. This accounts for size alone. It does not account for location, and it also does not account for unofficial costs, such as the rampant bribery and unstated fees regularly practiced in this city.”

It’s been so long since somebody has come out and explicitly stated it that Theresa has to blink at the acknowledgement of corporate and bureaucratic corruption. “The ultimate price would likely end up closer to twice that.” She says, carefully.

The Exotic doesn’t even twitch. “If that was all, yes. However, the existence of a pre-existing building that will require refurbishment, and how long it has been abandoned would serve to decrease that number to something more reasonable.”

She reads between the lines. “Of course.”

“For the sake of simplicity, let us settle on a simple three hundred and fifty thousand Eurodollars as a price point.” The Exotic stated. “Within the two containers behind me is Cyberware whose total market value stands at 376,895 Eurodollars. However, there are traits that all examples of this stock share that will increase that value on certain markets. Examiner, you have noticed one trait.”

Jones flinched at being addressed, but his head turned around. “Ma’am? All of this Cyberware? It’s completely unmarked.”

The only reason that Theresa didn’t flinch was because of her Cyberware preventing the reaction. Her eyes shifted to the crates.

Unmarked Cyberware. That was rare. Corporations were usually very eager to stamp their logos on everything they created.

Rarity meant value.

“There are other traits.” The Exotic stated. “Though you will not be able to confirm them without taking them into your custody and performing a deeper look. By far the most important is that all performance reduction metrics on them have been disabled. All code has been unlocked, all tracking disabled.”

Her eyes snapped back to the Exotic.

Not even a hint of a reaction. Nothing, absolutely nothing, to imply even slightly that this was a falsehood.

That? That was extremely valuable. That was the work of multiple teams of Cybertechs working around the clock to break corporate security and ICE. That, if it was true, would take the actual value of all this Cyberware to a multiple of its market value... To say nothing of the potential value of being able to use it for her own purposes.

It sounded too good to be true... But it was too ridiculous to be a trap. Too obvious, too insane. Too much resources had been devoted to this, coming out of nowhere, moving this, even just acquiring the Cyberware itself...

This might be enough to turn her fate around.

“And the excess value?” She asks, carefully.

“I will require a sum of 14,956.35 Eurodollars deposited into my account.” The Exotic spoke, and it was such a specific sum that there was obviously something going on there, but she didn’t know. “Aside from that, any excess value is irrelevant to me. What you make of it will be your interests alone.”

‘Stay quiet about me’ went unsaid, but not unheard. Even so, that left quite the possibility of profit, if she played her cards right.

“Well then.” She gives her best smile. The Exotic continues to stare, unimpressed. “Contingent on what is discovered, that sounds truly fair.”

Two hours later, and the Cybertechs she’d called in confirm it for her. The Exotic hadn’t lied at all.

She does not sleep that night. Acutely aware of the value of what she’s received, she endeavours to make sure that the Exotic’s desires are appropriately expedited. She finalizes it the very next morning, and the Exotic collects everything they desired the moment her office opens.

The Exotic doesn’t stay, and just as suddenly as the giant bird person walks into her life, they walk out of it.

So ends the strangest fourteen hours of her life.