A Strange Friendship

The bar smelled nice. Jisoo's favorite bar was quite something. It smelled good and the atmosphere was quite different from the usual bar you'd find in Coleman or Brooks. She took me here after discovering that I became a Freelancer associated with the Solomons.

"Man, you must be quite lonely."

"Shut up," Jisoo complained. "Why do I have to spend time with you, asshole."

"Please, you're the one who 'accidentally' sent the message. I am a working man you know?"

She glared.

"Goodness, why do you glare like that?"

"I was born with this."

"Sure," I drank the whiskey she ordered. It tasted more spicy than awful. "Anyway, High-Garden sure has a lot of places, but didn't think that it had one like this. From the looks of it, I'm the only one who cannot enter normally."

"Well, you can now. I covered your cost and membership, remember?"

"Thanks, Veda."

She frowned.

"You really do like calling me that."

"It's not my fault that you like that nickname so much."

She didn't reply to my provocation. Although Nance was quite the teaser, she didn't have much of a reaction compared to Jisoo here. I don't know why Jisoo picked up 'Veda' as her other name.

"So what brought you here? Want a driver?"

She nodded her head. I gawked at her before placing my mix of whiskey down.

"Seriously?"

"Seriously. You are a good driver."

"This isn't about driving some high-powered car or any kind of vehicle that needs an actual good driver, right?"

"It might be."

She took out her pricey and expensive PDA and projected the 'car' that I will be driving. It was some sort of submersible and air vehicle. What the fuck was she going to do with it?

"You know, Veda. I think that my life lately has been nothing but piloting things and driving beautiful women all day."

"Hmm, I didn't know you were the type to boast. I saw your 'beautiful' women and who knew that the Solomons invested so much in the widowmakers."

"Widowmakers?"

"They are expensive, but not fragile. The Solomons aren't so stupid they'd invest in women who can only do one thing and not the other. Miss Philippa, she was quite a fighter, she was my mentor for at least a year."

"Mentor?"

She nodded solemnly, "She isn't old, but she had the talent and grasp so we learned from her."

"Is she Augmented?"

"You didn't notice? Ah, it's her style to be a hidden dagger. I hope she doesn't hear this from me. She might punch me."

Jisoo's speaking has become lax. Maybe because of the sparring and the casual conversation that made her talk so easily to me now. She was stiff to talk to but since I kinda know where her interest was. It was easy to befriend her and raise some points. Of course I'm not dumb enough to tell her that I have this kind of info in my head. Besides, she's one of the folk that I know personally and liked. Jon Locke's second, but he was kinda busy all the time so the position went to Jisoo naturally. I did wonder sometimes what happened to Nance, but from the text I got from her. Seems like she's going on some heartbreak vacation and was tending to her heart with her best friend. Best friend was Milana who was enjoying her time on some tropical beach.

I really need more male friends.

"So, what about this driving job you want me. Are you planning to steal something?"

"Inspect something."

She corrected me dutifully. Showed me this video of this thing she was after. She came to me because she thought she could trust me when it comes to this. I've no idea what it was, but all I needed to do was drive and fly her with her vehicle so I agreed.

She spent the next hours explaining to me the job. Not far from the City was this ship that she needed to infiltrate. It was quite a highly-advanced ship, and yet all she needed for me to do was to drive her into this place.

Maybe I'm getting too big in the head because it was driving and piloting so I didn't think that it would cause me trouble. Which made me wonder if it was right to drink whiskey while talking about the job. Of course, I could just switch to third-person and get rid of my intoxication.

"So this is tomorrow, right?"

"It is. I will lend you protective gear. The ship has many sensors so it might catch your face and connect us two together."

"How does that make sense?"

"Don't underestimate technology. Even with my skills, it's still hard to do anything alone. So I need your skills here."

"Someone should be as good as me. Why?"

"Because they are predictable," she gave a teasing smile. "And you're cheaper to hire and aren't so busy. You owe me. Your records are quite clear and you didn't think of hiding your trail. Goodness, I feel like your manager, Nikolai."

"Sorry," I thought about my work. She showed me what 'trail' I left and it seems like the only thing they knew was that I might have been the one who transported the container worth of gold. It looks like they were wearing this receptor chip on them that allowed them to stay hidden from sensors who could make a scan of them.

Still, it also made me curious if my stealth skill could affect this problem. I was more careful during my previous job, but transporting the bullion I wasn't that prepared. Jisoo handed me the receptor, and what seemed to be a digital mask that projected an image around me. Mine was quite sinister with a skull on it.

"What's with the skull?"

She turned on her digital mask and it was quite the same as his. It made me look at my mask and hers.

"You sure like these kind of things."

She didn't answer me. We spent some time before we left the bar separately. She had something to do and I had some sleeping to do. When tomorrow came I arrived at the location she chatted and told me to wait for the vehicle. I turned on my mask and waited for her and the vehicle. When she arrived she was wearing a skintight suit that showed her curves and wore the mask.

"You two sure are uniformed."

The beanie wearing man wore his own mask. I wonder if this is how things are in the higher level syndicates. I know that Jisoo worked for someone, but thinking how she is used to this kind of work as a merc, made me wonder about some things.

The beanie wearing man was named Carl. He told me the specifics and how to handle the vehicle. I switched to third person and manipulated the vehicle like I was a master of it. His digital mask made accusing eyes.

"You've ridden this before?"

"I did not."

"Strange."

"He's a good pilot. Why would I bring an Amateur here?"

"Okay then," Carl left the area and handed full control to me. I took Jisoo for a quick drive before she thumped me on the head and told me to approach the ship. The onboard radar was useful, but I trusted the radar on my left more and followed it. Jisoo was glaring at me because the AI on board kept warning us that we might get detected.

"Of course I can hear," I started persuading her. "But let me do this okay? Look, it's just a feint on their sensors so sit down and please trust your driver, okay?"

Jisoo glared. Folded her arms and raised her skull-covered head. It was only when we got past the sensors that she calmed herself down and readied herself. She carried her slender blade while also holstering two pistols on her gun belt.

I stared at her for a moment before motioning me to stay focused. I drove the subsonic vehicle near the ship and she leapt so easily. The drones in the ship activated and with it, I knew that it was time to escape.

***

Jisoo landed on the deck of the ship. Her black fluttering while the digital mask on her face brought forth this terrifying look. Like a reaper's servant, she stared at the crew members and dashed forward.

Behind that mask was the face of murder. She held a crazed smile as she easily tore through the non-human enemies and slashed on her enemies. She lied to Nikolai. Although she was here to examine.

She also had other objectives.

Silence the crew and let the recovery crew dismantle the ship. She felt back doing this to Nikolai who didn't approve of killing, but she had to separate her professional self from her personal self. She liked Nikolai, who was easy to talk to. It has been a long time since she had someone to talk to.

But a job was a job.

Even Nikolai wasn't that enough to make her mess up her job. She continued running down, slashing, and gunning down. She was like a malevolent servant of the reaper cleaning up the decks. She spared no one.

When she approached the center of the ship. She saw the man that was once one of her targets.

"Well, if it isn't you bitch."

"Hello, Mr. Xiao, and now die."

She slashed her sword. The man calmly blocked his attack and returned with his own blade. It was different from her blade, and was covered in superheated energy. Her high-frequency sword rattled.

Nonetheless her skull-like digital mask showed a vicious look. The exchange started and it was vicious. The man in front of her was no pushover. She herself was sure of her swordsmanship that it made her reckless.

It wasn't swords that were exchanged. She wielded her sword in her right hand while her off-hand gripped the pistol she carried. Jisoo fought without care. And before she knew it the ship itself was being cut apart and torn by their exchange.

Augmented or Mutant carried themselves with exceptional strength. The result of technology directly causing her and others to be so strong. Nonetheless her exchange this time was not like her spar with Nikolai. It was deadly. It did not have any sense of fairness and was focused on killing.

Nonetheless she took a dangerous risk herself and risked her head to catch the man off-guard and stabbed him in the center of his chest. The man didn't flinch, he removed his digital mask, and approached Jisoo, daring to kiss her. Only for his lips to meet the solid surface of her digital mask. She swiped her sword, rending the man's side. She pulled her mask, wiped it with her black gloves and tore the man for good measure. She inspected the man's carcass and noticed that he had cybernetics as well. No wonder her sword hand rattled when she exchanged blows with her.

She carried on and found the object she was looking for her. She connected her PDA with the black box and created a data link that allowed the black hat behind the data link to execute a program that changed the ownership of the ship to her faction.

"Good job, Sister Kim. I didn't know that you'd reach this ship."

"I had help. I found him here. I tore him apart."

"Poor man. You did hate him to death after that shit he pulled years ago. Guess that's one of them down. Sister Kim, how many more do you have to kill after this?"

"Enough. Let's get rid of this ship. Send the cleaners. I made a mess. I need to return since he's waiting."

"Ah, it's your new friend you've been hanging out with. Boohoo, you don't like me anymore Sister Kim!"

"He's a decent guy. And a good getaway driver and pilot."

"That he is," the voice whistled. "He's been avoiding the drones and has been shooting them down with his pistol. Man's a deadeye and awfully good pilot and driver. Where did you find this friend?"

The video feed that was sent to her made her quite curious. She didn't know that Nikolai was so good at shooting. Still, it made sense since she had experienced fighting him and was sure that he has quite a good eye and strength to handle the recoil.

Bathed in blood. Jisoo removed her tight-fitting leather suit and disposed of it. Climbing back to the top deck she sent a signal to Nikolai. She looked back and saw the mess she made. Her expression changed for a moment, then she shook her head, and leapt back to the vehicle with a conflicted heart.