Ravensdagger_Kittypunk_Cyberpunk_Kitrpg

Chapter Eighteen — Big Money

Chapter Eighteen — Big Money I never expected to have to explain to Sharp that my previous work paid well. It was one of those things that hadn't occurred to me."So, you are aware that my previous career involved me... killing people, yes?""I was trying not to think too hard about it, to be honest," Sharp said. She was checking the front fender of the bike. There was a small chip in the paint, but it wasn't so bad. "It's... well, I don't want to say it's evil. There are some bad people in the world, and maybe you worked with, uh, on them?""Sure," I said. If that's what she wanted to believe, then so be it. I'd never been one to hesitate too hard when it came to doing my job, but I understood that others had to be eased into it.Of course, there were plenty of stories about killers who took one life and then lost their minds over the fact.I always felt a little sorry for those who suffered from PTSD just for carrying out their job, but on the flip side of that same token, I found them a little... pitiful. I, for one, never had any issues sleeping.And I wasn't a psychopath or a sociopath. I'd had expensive therapists confirm it for me. "In any case. The average low-level assassination job pays anywhere from twenty to forty thousand.""That's... so much.""Not really. There are a limited number of professional killers in any given city. It's not like it's a job that allows for over-saturation of the market, and the risks are pretty high. Getting caught once is often the end for a contractor.""Uh, okay. You're not... going to encourage me to kill people, right? I don't want to be that kind of edgerunner," She asked the last while kneeling before the front of the bike.I met her eyes, then blinked slowly. "No. To be honest, you don't have the temperament." Yet."Okay," Sharp said. "I guess... I don't know. I don't think I've ever had to decide where killing people fits on my moral code."She had a code? That seemed like a foolish thing to hold dear. It sounded like the kind of thing that would do more to imprison and render one inflexible than anything else. "If that's what you want, then so be it," I said. "In any case, this last job was relatively difficult. This dead drop is the second half of my payment."Sharp choked. "It was a hundred and fifty thousand?" she asked."A bit more than that," I said. "There's middleman fees, transference fees. Expenses... Now, the one true advantage is that I don't pay taxes, so even all those small inconveniences come up to significantly less than what I'd have to pay if I were a proper tax-paying citizen. Not that I don't donate and such. I do my part to keep my community clean and healthy."Sharp gave me a rather dubious look. "With the money you made killing people."I shrugged. "How much is one person's life really worth? I'll have you know that I paid for the construction of two animal shelters and a dog park. I don't even like dogs."Sharp shook her head as she got back onto the bike. "You'd think a person's life would be worth more than a dog park... well, maybe not, I guess land is kind of expensive.""Now you're getting it."Sharp got back onto the bike, then kicked off and we were on our way again. There were other deliveries to take care of before we went to the gym and grabbed my dead drop. It was best not to carry that kind of cash around for any longer than necessary.Then again, we'd probably be stashing it in Sharp's room at the Bloody Bat.Right, I'd need to open a secure account for her. A younger woman, not yet a legal adult, no job or work history... opening an account at a respectable bank would be difficult. Depositing seventy-plus thousand would raise more alarms than if Sharp walked into the bank with a ski mask and a sawed off shotgun.Keeping the money as cash was an option, of course. It would let her buy what she needed to get to my place, at the very least.Oh well. No rush. It would get us some basic equipment in the area, maybe access to good transportation, and we could start building a more realistic identity for Sharp. Something that would stand up to some scrutiny and explain why she had some of the money she had.Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.Not the sums I had access to, of course, but lesser amounts? That was doable. Edgerunners have existed for a while, and young fools taking big risks and somehow surviving them... well, it had happened before.Sharp was rather quiet as we went about doing our last delivery in the area, then we had to pause for a moment before entering Cambridge.There was a bridge across the river in Fenway, and it was the easiest way across. It even allowed bikes to pass, though for a small toll. The issue would be getting across Cambridge itself.Not because of gangs, but because of extremely high levels of corpo-sec. The region was dominated by a few large schools and universities, but also hundreds of labs and research centres. It was also home to the Three Towers. A set of three all-black pillars, brutalist architecture at its finest, and Boston Two's centre for all things magical.We'd be avoiding those. Both the security and the mages, wizards, acolytes, and any warlocks serving whichever Eidolon was popular at the moment.Our delivery in Cambridge was, luckily, not near the towers and also not too terribly far from Groovy Galaxy."Just over there," I said after we dropped off the last package. The gym was in a small mall, next to a pharmacy and a grocery store, as well as a sub shop. The entire front was all glass, letting those on the streetside see fit young people sweating it out on various machines.I'd never been one for these kinds of places. The less my face got caught in the periphery of some gym nut's Instabook stream the better.Sharp parked the courier bike next to a few others on a rack outside, then locked it in place. This was a nicer neighbourhood, mostly because surveillance drones hummed ominous overhead every few minutes and corpo-sec was only a shout away at all times.Petty bike thieves wouldn't make a good career here, so we didn't have to worry too much.Sharp tucked me into her coat, and we walked into the gym only to be immediately assaulted by faint disco lighting and not-so-faint disco music.Groovy beats were thumping out of bass-boosted speakers and there was an entire dance-ercise group in the rear in colourful spandex working through a routine.Sharp moved up to the counter, presented herself as a courier, and the overworked teen behind the desk quickly shoved her off to a manager. From there it was one passphrase before we were allowed into the non-binary locker rooms."Twenty-Six... .twenty-six... here it is," Sharp said. She reached the right locker, and I fed her the seven-digit code.The locker opened to reveal a plain black duffel bag. Sharp grabbed it, hitched it over her shoulder, and a minute later we were back on the bike, though we didn't go far. Sharp turned into an alley soon after."What is it?" I asked."I want to see," she said.That was... probably unwise. Though checking for trackers was never a bad idea. Most couriers would bring it to their office where a manager like Mark would transfer the loose cash into another bag for the return trip... for a small nominal fee. It was hard to trust couriers sometimes, but those who cheated their clients often found themselves dead, so the survivors who'd been around for a while were generally trustworthy."Very well."I moved off the bag and watched as Sharp unzipped it and tugged it open.As promised, the interior was filled with small bundles of cash, each bill freshly pressed with a nice one hundred on the top. There were eight little stacks in the bag, next to some loose towels to pad it all out."It looks like so little," she breathed."Well, yes. Did you expect nothing but ones? That wouldn't be convenient, now would it?""I, uh, guess," she said before zipping the bag closed. Her hands were shaking.I reached over and pressed a paw over them. "It'll be fine," I said. "Just exercise your ability not to think about things, and soon you won't even be bothered by it.""I don't know. This is... this is huge. But yeah, you're right, let's get back home. We can decide what colour the mansion walls can be once we're back in our room."Mansion? Oh, this sweet child. A mansion, in this economy, with only five figures? She was going to learn the painful way that big bundles of cash moved fast in this world.

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Chapter Nineteen — Under the Bed

Chapter Nineteen — Under the Bed Sharp and I returned to the Bloody Bat in short order, and when we went in, she was quick to rush to her room and stuff the bag under her bed."Not the best hiding place, but I suppose it'll do for now," I said."Yeah," she said as she wiped her hands. "Wow... I.. I feel like I can't spend any of that money though.""Why not?" I asked."It's stolen, isn't it?""From... me?" I asked. "Sharp, I hereby give you permission to spend that money... in a reasonable and responsible way, as long as you're aware that it's very much a finite amount.""Right, uh, I guess that makes sense," Sharp said. She laughed, but it sounded nervous. I think the presence of so much money was making her anxious.I hopped up onto the bed and turned around to face her. "Ask Paris for a more reasonable schedule moving forwards. A few days off a week for training would be useful. Or... we could move to my place, but it's just outside of the city and I'm not entirely sure I can just have you show up.""Huh? Uh, yeah, I'll ask Paris for some time off. What's that about your place?""I have a nice apartment," I said. "But you lingering around it would be suspicious. However, you could rent the place next door. As long as I can access certain accounts then I can make it a sure-thing that you'll be allowed in. And I'll even keep the rent reasonable."I smiled, catlike and smug. If Sharp thought me being an assassin made me evil, then she wasn't prepared to learn that I was also a landlord.Of course, I'd only charge her a reasonable rate. Something competitive and fair. Maybe I'd put a portion of that rent money in an account she could access later?The other portion would go into maintenance, of course. I wouldn't trust a teenager to understand how much it costs to fix a roof and have the grass replaced every three years with new Arti-Turf."Go shower before work starts. If you're going to be begging Paris for time off, you might as well do it looking clean.""Okay, right!" Sharp said. She ran out of the room, leaving me with not much to do.I sighed. I'd forgotten to tell Sharp to buy a charging cable for the burner or the other that we'd gotten from the lost and found. Oh well.I didn't feel like exercising too much at the moment, and I did need my sleep. So I hopped onto the bed, spun around a few times, and laid down to rest.Sharp returning to get changed awoke me a little, but she just got dressed then ran off with not much more than a pat on my head.Back to napping.No, no, not napping. This was a proper sleep that I needed. I was in the body of what was at best a juvenile. Preventing myself from getting sleep was only going to worsen things for me in the long run.So I slept... until Sharp slid back into the room, waking me up."Hey, Queen Regine Quirky Rufflewhiskers," Sharp said."I do like the Queen part of that. I'm very much not sure about all the rest," I said as I yawned. "Is your shift done?"She nodded, but didn't move to be too much deeper in the room. "I uh... so, this is a little awkward.""Then rip it off like a bandaid," I suggested while my mind raced.Sharp tapped the pads of her fingers together, then took a deep breath. "Alyssa and Jenny are here. At the bar, I mean. They came in near the end of my shift, and I said hi, since... you know, I did work for them. And they told me to join them once they were done. What do I do? I said I would see, but I don't think they know I live here.""Ah," I said. So the moth mage and the gremlin were here? It was very possible that they didn't have ulterior motives. They'd come here before for a meeting, and they seemed to know the Bloody Bat well enough. We'd met them in a local pawn shop as well, so there was a high likelihood that they were locals.That, and sharp hadn't done anything too weird around them, other than talk to her cat a few times, maybe.Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.Joining them might not be a terrible idea.Sharp needed friends around her own age. And while those two wouldn't be good influences, I was going to be around as a moderating presence.I barely had any friends, and I ended up killing people for a living. I could see why a lack of friendships might be a poor choice at day's end."Well then, let's go say hello.""You're coming?" she asked."Do you not want me to? Is it because I'm a cat?""What? No, that's not why," she said. Then she noticed her mistake and slapped a hand over her mouth."Then why do you not want me there?""Uh, I mean, yeah, it's because you're a cat and it would be weird, no? To bring a cat out with you to a meeting?"I stared at her.She stared back.Her cheeks reddened. "I, uh... got a level in Reflex from that."I let out a sigh. "Of course you did. Let's just go, Sharp."I didn't have the time, inclination, or will, to dig into Sharp's psyche to figure out what exactly she meant by... all of that. Though I had the impression that she was starting to think of me as the parental figure she'd never had.It was nice, in a way, but also rather distressing that this girl thought of a kitten as a mother figure and didn't want to show up with said mother figure in front of her friend.That, or I was entirely wrong and she just thought I was uncool, which was the height of irony considering our current circumstances vis-a-vis the Cool stat.Sharp changed into a plain shirt from the lost and found that fit her more or less, then shucked on a large hoodie a few sizes bigger than what fit. I was unceremoniously slid down the neck of the hoodie to hang with my head under her chin like some sort of living pendant.We exited out into the main area of the Bloody Bat. Music was thumping over the dance floor and lights flashed, but Sharp seemed all too used to it as she navigated along the edge of the room and then up to the floor above.It was quieter there. Some trick of the architecture kept most of the bass-boosted noise at bay, and while it was still relatively dark, the lighting was enough to see by.The Mage and the Gremlin were in a small booth off to one side. Sharp slid in, sitting next to Jenny and across from Alyssa. "Hi," she said."Hey," Jenny replied. She had half a meal left before her. Some synthetic-meat spaghetti next to a frothy beer."Welcome back," Alyssa said. Her own meal was a salad, but there was an empty plate pushed to the side. "Did you want to order anything?""Ah, um. I suppose I should," Sharp said. "Maybe just some fries or something.""Yeah, gotta watch your intake," Jenny agreed. "I really shouldn't be eating this many carbs, but I am a bitch of little resistance."Alyssa shrugged. "To each their own. Did you... have a good shift?""Oh, yeah! It was fine," Sharp said. "Uh, did you guys have a nice... whatever you do?"Jenny snorted, then took a sip of her beer. The mug looked ridiculously large in her tiny hands. "Yeah. We had a great whatever today.""That's good," Sharp said. "Would it be rude to ask what it is you do?""I don't know, how about you tell me your biggest secret and we'll see," Jenny said."Oh... well, I guess mine is that there's a heap of cash under my bed."Jenny blinked, then laughed. "Saving up all that odd-job money the old fashioned way, huh? Nah, we're mostly working to try and build up our rep. Alyssa here wants to be a proper spell-flinger, and that takes contacts, cash, and... shit, Alyssa, think of something else that starts with C."Alyssa rolled her eyes. "Courage?""That works!" Jenny said."A spell-flinger?" Sharp asked. "I saw you do a bit of magic the other day. It was awesome." She leaned forwards, almost squishing me against the table. "Can you teach me any? Please?"Alyssa stared at her, only glimpsing down at me for a moment. "You know what, sure. Order your fries, and I'll give you magic 101 while they show up."Hmm, so the girl thought she could teach, then? Well, I wouldn't mind listening in.

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