Ronin Corporation Nevereign branch

[HarleyQuip]

Monika
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@Mr_DC 
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She followed him without hesitation into the elevator she wasn't analyzing anything right now, she was simply listening to the hum of the elevator and it's soft chimes with each passing level. When Jack spoke her attention was drawn to him. She returned his smile and nodded not speaking for a moment.

"We can go over the plan together, I'd like to get a good look at the plans and memorize the details. Debrief work is always boring, but necessary."

She put her expensive looking handbag onto the floor of the elevator and slid the jacket she was holding, back on before picking the bag up and walking out with Jack.

"Yeah I guess you could say I'm a local, I've been around a lot of places in Nevereign."

She almost mirrored Jack's movements stepping over corpse after corpse. She would normally be taking in all of the details but felt it was unnecessary for the time being, with how many variables and details there were it would be chaos to try to make sense of it all. She had noticed that the uniforms of some of the bodies weren't Ronin though. She thought about what could've transpired but didn't dwell on it.

"Where are we getting a drink?"

 

[Mr_DC]

@HarleyQuip


"Small place in the bad-but-not-so-bad part of town." She smiled at her. He found that calling his district like that was a good joke. A good way to get a smile out of someone. After all, someone either lived in a bad part of town and would appreciate the knowledge that Jack was one of them or they lived in the nice districts and enjoyed knowing that Jack wasn't a slum dweller but still comfortably below them. A lot of people in the city wanted to feel better than others and Jack always took advantage of that. Most of all with his boss. He knew full well what kind of a person Chloe was. He was on his knees, bowing his head, kissing her hand, whatever it took for her to remember him. And now that she considered him one of the most valuable assets of the corporation, there was no need for that kind of submission.


"So, what's your position? I can't say I saw you before. Though, I haven't been in Nevereign for a while. Spent most of my time in Headquarters in Japan. A few months in Istanbul before coming to Nevereign. Though, I'm proud to say I know the city like the back of my hand." He grinned proudly, pushing his chest out. He had to know all the places. He couldn't afford in his line of work to hear someone mention a street and not know where it was. Or to be asked by a mark for a good bar to visit only to end up silent. Knowing was Jack's job. Killing... That was what his partner did.


"I figured you were from Japan when I first saw you but since you're a local..." He shrugged, walking through the courtyard, subconsciously avoiding any blood puddles. There was plenty of those. "You a mercenary? It feels like the corporate world would stop without mercenaries." He shook his head with a smile. A strategic way of saying it. If she was a mercenary, he just gave her a compliment. If she wasn't, he left himself enough room to speak against them. He might have been tired but his mind was on auto-pilot when it came to conversations. He didn't even feel a particular need to connect with this girl but was doing it automatically.


And there it was. A black sedan without a driver, waiting in front of the main gate of the headquarters. "Got to love these AI." Jack nodded at the car. It was a wonder what technology could do. He couldn't imagine what was next.

 

[HarleyQuip]

Monika
​

@Mr_DC
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​

Monika leaned this way and that while avoiding the bodies carefully avoiding getting any of their blood on her pristine cream colored clothes. She listened as Jack talked watching the ground beneath her moving the occasional patch of bullet shells or blood littering the marble flooring, then the grass. She looked up when he had asked her what her position was.

"My position..."

She gave thought to the question leaning her head side to side weighing the gravity of each title in her mind before speaking.

"I guess you could say I'm a detail engineer."

She liked the sound of that it described the tedious process of the inner and outermost workings of life's details.

"I've worked in a few companies mostly local business' trying to become the next big marketing industry. Nothing very important until I started working in shareholder accounting firms. I was responsible for calculating statistical trajectories for several different shareholder accounts including ones in both Lazarus and Ronin; planning strategic buying/selling points for our clients. At the time I hadn't thought I'd be considered for a position at Ronin but here we are. I'm here on an internship/apprenticeship although not through schooling. The employment registry I found the position through... said this would be a "probational period" before I became integrated fully into the company. Although it seems Chloe considered and agreed for my position without a second thought."

She stopped rambling for a moment to allow Jack to speak

"Am I mercenary?"

She laughed

"No are most locals mercenaries? I mean... I guess you could consider me an informational Mercenary. If I wanted too I suppose it would be within my realm of capabilities to take a large corporation to its knees through cold hard journalistic tactics. Information farming of course."

As they continued to walk Monika had brought her gaze up to a black sedan with it's lights on and it's engine going. There was no driver so Monika assumed it was auto-piloted. She nodded passively to Jack's statement.

"It seems as though they are everywhere..."

She had an amused smile on her face as they approached the sedan the doors of the vehicle opening automatically for them to step inside. Once she was settled into the comfy interior she watched as Jack closed her door and walked around to the other side. She sniffed but was met with disappointment. The interior of the sedan had been recently cleaned. Nothing to giveaway previous stories there. She instead casted her gaze on the crevasses between each seat there was signs of wear the threading in the leather had been cut loose. She looked up at the roof of the sedan and smiled when she saw tiny pockmarks no doubt from smoking. As Jack entered and settled himself she looked at him.

"So what part of bad town are we going? Also... do you by chance smoke?"

 

[Mr_DC]

@HarleyQuip


Jack got in the car and allowed it to drive on its own without any input from him. Jack listened to the girl speak about herself and nodded along. He just hoped Chloe didn't set him up with yet another newbie who didn't belong so deep in the spider webbing he crawled through. He tried his best to keep the first few alive but later gave up and started using them to complete the mission. That realization depressed him the first time he made it but he started blaming it on Chloe. She was the one to blame for whatever he does that's morally questionable. Not him. Jack was just doing as told. At least, that's what he told himself.


"Sorry, I smoke only when I try to get close to marks who smoke as well." Jack shrugged, giving her a quick smile. Not a habit he liked. He found smoking to be disgusting but that was just his personal tastes. After all, he was all about elegance. That's why it was so much more puzzling that he fell so hard for his rough and tough ex-partner.


Though, he would never say he hated smoking in front of someone who smoked. That was no way to make friends. "If you'd like, we can make a quick stop and get you some." He offered before the car's AI interrupted in a distinctly robotic voice with those unnatural pauses between words which lasted just enough to be uncanny.


"A massive protest erupted at Lazarus Headquarters. CEO Chloe Johnson believed that information might be of use to you." The AI said.


Of course. Of course he wouldn't get a day of rest. Of course he something like that would come up. "You not tired, are you?" Jack smiled at Monika, not feeling strong enough to hide his fatigue. Not caring enough of what she thought of him. If Chloe indeed didn't think the girl was useful, she wouldn't be thinking much for too long. "This is a great opening for what we're doing. I think we could go and check the situation. Who knows what might open up." He almost winked but stopped himself, realizing how it would seem.


(Excuse any typos, I'm about as tired as Jack  :smile9: )

 

[HarleyQuip]

Monika
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@Mr_DC
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​

Monika waved her hand dismissing the offer to stop for smokes and looked out the window before speaking.

"No, no need to stop. I don't smoke unless the situation calls for it. It's an expensive and deadly habit, one that I would like to avoid."

She caught Jack's smile out from the corner of her eye and she turned closing her eyes and returning his with a gentle smile of her own. She opened her eyes and looked at Jack... she opened up and was honest with Chloe, she felt it was time to do the same with Jack. She stretched inside the vehicle before returning her naturally white eyes to Jack.

"mmm... Jack. If I'm speaking frankly... You can talk to me about what's on your mind. Well... that's up to you I spose' afterall I'm just another new addition to Ronin. But after that announcement by Lazarus you guys seem like you need all the help you can get. I'm not here to get in your way. I think to be effective partners... it'd benefit us both to be honest with each other."

She paused for a moment letting her words sink in before replying to his other questions. The A.I. chiming into the conversation.

"Tired? No, we've only just begun haven't we?"


She nodded closing her eyes and bending her head back and forth stretching her neck. She retrieved her mobile from her bag and set the phone in her lap.

"I'll have to ask... what do you mean by "open up"? Are we planning to infiltrate Lazarus, or is that going to be later?"

She smiled knowingly at Jack.

 

[Mr_DC]

DC981

Jack nodded. "Quite deadly if you think about everything the corporations put in them these days. Though, dying from smoking is the least of your concerns in this world." He chuckled grimly. He was more of an alcohol kind of a person. It was a good way to get away from all the lies he spouted for his job. From all the personas he put up to trick his marks. From all memories. Of her.

But Jack wasn't a drunk. Far from it. Sure, he got drunk but he never once stumbled, said a miscalculated word or started a fight. He was the same person as he was before, although teary-eyed and with a shorter attention span.

"Thank you, Monika." Jack nodded, giving her a grateful smile. He didn't intend to open up. No need for it. He wouldn't probably interact with her much after this assignment was done. If she would even get out alive. And that was the reason he decided to slightly open up. Only slightly. Because there was no guarantee he would ever see her again. "I'm glad you're interested in being a good partner for me. My previous partner..." He paused, his eyes unfocusing for a moment. "My only partner." He corrected himself. "She used to be the muscle while I did the talking. You don't really look like a thug." He forced a smile on his face and winked. "I'm just saying this so you know what to expect of me. I'm pretty good with a knife, though."

He decided to demonstrate that by shaking his arm a few times until a small throwing knife slid from his sleeve into his open palm. He constantly worked on making sure his suit released the blades hidden in it swiftly and reliably but he still had problems with them. Not much of a tailor. Still, it never failed him when his life depended on it.

"I rarely use it but, you know..." He shrugged. "It's a fact of life that you have to get your hands dirty from time to time. Lest you dirty up someone else's hands."

The car came to a stop near the Lazarus Headquarters complex. A massive building in the middle, surrounded by a few others who, in turn, were surrounded by a security perimeter of Lazarus Specialists, turrets, and flying drones. Jack wasn't fond of the Specialists. They weren't thuggish brutes like the MosTech Enforcers. Jack could say whatever came to his mind and those Enforcers would believe it. The Specialists, on the other hand, were trained much more carefully. Lazarus picked their soldiers. MosTech didn't.


"Lazarus announcement?" Jack cocked an eyebrow. He wasn't sure what she meant as he spent all of his post-attack time in the lounge but it sounded important enough to take a pause before leaving the car. The protest must be connected somehow. And for him to get in, it would take all the information he could get.

"I intend to get us into Lazarus and snoop around. See what we can find. If we're lucky, we can find a more permanent way of entering Lazarus. A reliable way in." In the form of a friendly security guard or a chatty janitor, usually. Jack knew how to seduce the right people. Those who couldn't be seduced could always be bribed. No problem in the world which can't be solved with enough money, as Chloe would say. Not a single problem in the world, as his old partner would add.

 

[Mr_DC]

HarleyQuip

Monika stepped out of the vehicle with Jack and paused for a moment by the vehicle. She brought her phone up clicking away at the capture button snapshotting as many details of the scene before her. She walked alongside Jack she had a sneaking suspicion of what might be bothering him about the mission based solely on the talk of his partner. She wasn't the kind of person to usually do this but she brought her hand up and placed it on his shoulder.

"Hey... I can understand the heartache and sorrow that comes with this job..."

She smiled, maybe too confident in her abilities. She was well calculated, level headed. She didn't get tripped up under pressure. At the same time she wasn't geared up like most militants. Limbs and parts of the brain all replaced with technology to make them more lethal. However most forgot or never practiced the elegance of the mind, fine tuning it to the caliber and precision top secret espionage agents were capable of. Most let the technology do the work. Monika had watched Archie do things she thought only cyborgs were capable of. He'd always smile at her and say something like "it's all in the physics".

"I have a teacher, he used to tell me about his stories in the field. Often he'd work alone but he'd always end up in situations with other people that he inevitably grew somewhat attached too. He'd tell me that it 'was only human'. I think we'll play through this building just fine. After all... what else is anything aside from a few simplistic parts?"

She mused.

"I've already come up with a plan if you don't mind."

Her bag was slung on her shoulder loosely swaying back and forth as she followed him.

"We can wait until the right moment and one of us will pickpocket one of the maintenance crew before they go into the building. Rather you want to neutralize him or let chaos ensue is your choice. Don't think I didn't come prepared."

She had brought with her a few items that appeared normal accessories when infact they were pieces of espionage gadgets straight out of a cheesy spy movie.

"I'm sure Lazarus has an Artificial Intelligence. If we can avoid being detected, or locate it's mind prior we should have no problem getting inside and installing a back door we can utilize later."

She looked at Jack expectingly.