A figure stood over a patch of red. He inspected the floor carefully. Looking around, he found his backpack on the table.
Rummaging in his backpack, the figure produced a bottle.
It read "Febreze. Everyone Breathe Happy".
*pssh *pssh
Scrubbing sounds filled the room for a moment.
"The Spire has announced the confirmation of the this year's Annual Intramurals. Today we have...". The Holo screen blared loudly.
"It's starting soon, huh?". Looking around the room, I spotted the tell-tale signs of a secret compartment on the far side of the wall. Walking with purpose, I inspected the wall.
"Scan." With a beep, a droning sound emerged from my wristguard, a smart communication system, courtesy of yours truly. The wall lit up as a laser scanned the wall.
"Open it as well. Need a magic word?"
With a humming sound, a door opened up leading down. "I guess not, thank you." After a bit of walking, I chanced upon my target.
A full body VR capsule. An aquarium. A high-end quantum computer.
Which one is my target you ask?
Of course it's the VR capsule.
What're you lookin' at?
Limited edition year 2666, Phoenix Custom no. 69. Nice.
Sleek black body, with red flaming touches.
So cool.
"Man, what a beauty. Don't you agree?"
'Of course I do. Look at that.' A feminine voice replied through my comms.
"Oh the things we could do with that. Shame." I sighed as I started packing all the wires, and the capsule into a space ring.
'Client didn't say anything about the computer though.' The voice chirped.
"That's true. It's fairly high-end as well. Might as well take it. Hehe." Looking over the table, the quantum computer looked fairly tiny compared to the capsule.
"Anything about the fish?"
'Grade 9 Piranha, dark/ice subspecies. Market price: 6,750 credits. Can probably get double on the black market.'
"Costs quite a bit as well. Nice." Inspecting the black fish with red eyes, I looked over the room once more.
"Anything else here?"
'See the table? It's got a compartment right below the aquarium. Got a bit of space.'
"Wow. Would've missed that. Thank you G," I kissed my comms.
'Anytime. Praise me more.' G replied in a jovial tone.
"Of course. Your buddy here probably would've died countless times without you." I caressed the comm lightly.
After I packed all of the stuff, table included of course, the room seemed bleak.
"Status?"
'27 open contracts,' G started. 'According to your preference, 3 jobs are previewed. 1 acquisition, 2 kill contracts.'
27 contracts huh. Still got lots of work. Thinking stuff over, I head back upstairs.
"...Megalodon Corp opens its alliance with the Fire Sages, a mercenary group focused on hunting..." The holo screen flashed over.
The former tenant, Johnson Roe, was sadly killed by lil old me. Job described him as my kind. You know, an informant. He must've swiped some sweet data, before he got tagged.
Checking my inventory, I sauntered over the bedroom.
"Nice place. Do you know if Mr. Roe has contacts?"
'None. Like you, he spends most of his time on the dark web,' G read aloud as my comms flashed with lines of data. 'All his expenses are automated as well, it seems.'
Automated? "When's payment due?" This could be good.
'47 days.' G replied.
"Nice. We'll live here for a while," Looking around the full apartment, I walked over to the window.
Johnson Roe. As a kindred over the same business, he really knew what he was doing. Dark house with lamp lighting, he probably spent most of his days in his secret room.
Shame he had to die though. He was in the living room on his comms, checking standard news. Didn't see me coming. Weird, though, he wasn't armed.
Walking towards the bedroom, I put my backpack down by the bed. "Bathroom connected to the bedroom, nice. Really nice place."
After making sure there are no traces left of the poor tenant, I sat down in the living room, and watched the broadcast.
"Do we wanna join the intrams?" I asked G.
'Nothing worth participating over,' G started. 'Although the class that wins gets a field trip over to Genova.'
Genova?
"Ain't that the safari planet? Seriously? Field trip? More like hunting trip." Sneering, I looked it up.
"Need a new iron," I muttered as I inspected my gun. An old tech, pure iron. "G, contact Romeo."
With a trilling sound, the wristguard displayed Romeo's contact information.
Romeo
Romeo's Golden Garage. Black market. "Old and new, whatever you do, I've got you"
'Hey G, my beautiful girl,' a deep voice spoke out endearingly. 'Geist here bullying you? You know I can take more care of you.'
"Haha, funny," Gah, this dude always makes me feel funny. "Need some iron."
'Mr. Geist. A pleasure as always. So direct,' Romeo replied. 'How's business? Hope you die soon.'
"It's cool. Please do something bad, can't wait to take you out." I said sternly.
'Please, you can always take me out sometime, hon,'. Always flirting. Can't beat him.
"Whatchu got for me? Got .50cals?"
'Darling, please. Who do you think I am?'
"Ok then. Thank you." I turned my comms off. Ah, Romeo. Oh Romeo. Nice guy. Always got my needs.
"G, contact Sir Reginald."
With a trilling sound, an unknown number was brought up, 'X-XX2-X305'.
'Mr. Geist,' a distorted voice came out of the comms.
"Sir Reginald," I greeted. My broker/fixer. Of course I had one. "How's your day goin'?"
'As usual, people to find, murderers to kill, bounty to be taken,' Good old little banter. Business with humor. 'I take it you had no trouble?'
"Of course, Sir, who do you think I am?" I stuck my chest out, they can't see it of course.
'Ah yes, the famed Ghost of Sunset City,' Reg jokingly joined my rhythm.
"Yep, that's me," Of course I said that proudly. "Job's done. Capsule secured, target never saw me comin'."
'Your notoriety precedes you. Deposit the package at the same location as usual.'
"Done. Credits?"
'When the package arrives, of course. As always. Pleasure doing business with you'
"And I you. Hit me up when you've got some specials eh?"
'Will do.'
With a beep, they're gone. Hanged up of course. Old Reginald will probably outlive me.
*****
Somewhere in Sunset City
A dark figure was looming over a table, on which seemed sat a map. Of course it's not an ordinary one, for this was holographic. With real time processing. Well, now. Would you look at that.
The figure tapped on the holo a few times, and zoomed in on a dark apartment. "Resourceful as always," the figure muttered. "Aegis, any news?"
The holo blurred for a moment, and a voice answered. 'No news about that area, even the block next door heard nothing.'
"Really resourceful. And efficient. Clues on identity?" The figure stood up, revealing a woman.
'None whatsoever. Truly the Ghost of Sunset City.'
"Hopefully the target was a hit... He'd be great asset to have on our side," the woman sighed. "I wonder if our ghost can fight against the real ones?"