Forlorn
Hope, Night City 9.08pm - 22/12/2016Guns for Hire - Script Forty Four
Forlorn
Hope, Night City 9.08pm - 22/12/2016
It was just over four months since the C-27 Spartan had flown out of Pemba Island & touched down at Burfield, the flight had gone pretty much without incident & the "acquired" pimp truck was still where Vrasten had stashed it in the derelict hanger, thankfully the battery hadn't gone flat.
Loading the kit into the pimp mobile's trunk the Spartan had turned itself straight about about & trundled back into the dark winter sky before Vrasten, T-Bird, Alex & Skinpin had got back to the freeway.
Forlorn Hope, Night City 9.11pm - 22/12/2016
Vrasten thought back over the couple of months that had elapsed since they'd got back to the US, driving back towards Night City Vrasten had left a message on Uriel's answer phone just to let him know they were back on home ground & would give a call in the next few days to meet up, report & collect the balance of the outstanding payment, they'd finally met Uriel around a week later & spilt the beans over the Yemen Minister, Uriel could understand why they'd done but had expressed some concern over potential repercussions between MilKor & the Yemen authorities in respect of their operation in Damqawt, putting that aside he'd passed over a prepaid card with the agreed balance of $1.3m, Uriel hadn't hung about to long, but before leaving he'd promised to be in touch if anything else cropped up that MilKor couldn't be involved.
Whilst the money was definitely a big plus point Vrasten's main issue since returning however had been Skinpin's repeated efforts to get Vrasten to see a shrink, with the nightmares & headaches getting worse & increasingly frequent as well as the near daily urges to, well, best not dwell on them to much, it had become obvious he needed help so eventually he'd asked Skinpin to make some calls. He had to admit that whilst he'd been more than just a little skeptical at first it had panned out long term. Of course the surgery had helped, reduce some of his reliance on peripheral cyberware that was more fashion than everyday practical use, it had also allowed him to take more practical steps to better his resistance to injury, something he'd been repeatedly prone to, how else could he explain two replacement hands as well as his left foot. He missed the comfort factor of the micro missile but hell all over Skinweave would hopefully prevent any further loss of body parts.
Alex
sipped her Sazerac, she'd been busy since getting back chasing down the MV Magellan
Star's shipping line, Sirius Shipping, in an attempt to claim any recovery payoff,
she still wasn't entirely convinced that it wouldn't have been more profitable
to dispose of the crew & claim salvage but then . . . . she stared at Vrasten,
bloody do-gooder.
Initially Sirius had simply refused to take her calls or made false promises to get back to her, after a couple of frustrating weeks of getting nowhere some suit wearing jerk had tried to tell her that company policy in these matters was that they didn't recognise any privateer operation as a legitimate enterprise & additionally as the first knowledge of the ships recovery came via CTF-150 it stood to reason that CTF must be responsible for the release of the hostages, this hadn't gone down particularly well with Alex.
Alex had, at some length, put the suit straight on just what had taken place, taken aback he'd promised to make further esquires at a higher level & get back to her, around a week later surprisingly he did.
The suit confided that despite what Alex had told him previously he had still considered her approach a simple attempt at extortion however the more he had dug the more it seemed she had actually been telling him the truth, he'd gone on to say that following informal discussions with a number of third parties including the ships Captain, Henry Crippen, it had been established that a privateer may have assisted with the recovery of the ship & the release of its crew.
On the downside however he'd also gone on to say that the companies legal department had advised that although the private enterprise had been undertaken with the best of intentions, it was itself an act of piracy, he'd also gone on to suggest that if complaints originating from the Yemen General People's Congress & made to CTF-150 proved to be correct regarding the circumstances surrounding the Yemen Minister for the Interior, Mutahir Rashad al-Masri, then politically & commercially it would put Sirius in a very difficult position if it were known that they had made a payment to these very same privateers, in fact Sirius would be legally obliged to report any details held in respect of these individuals to the respective authorities which he assumed she, Alex, would prefer not to happen. Finally he'd added that whilst such reporting may not unduly concern the individuals it was a position that Sirius Shipping did wish to become embroiled in as it may adversely affect current & future Sirius commercial enterprises in & around the Gulf of Aden.
Before
Alex could explode Sirius's representative had suggested that on an entirely
separate matter that Sirius had a track record of making tax deductible charitable
donations & to that end should they be advised of a "good & worthy
cause" Sirius could consider just such a cause worthy of a one off
donation of say $925,000. The beneficiary would of course however have to be
registered as a charity, he confirmed therefore that he would await details
of the suggested charitable organisation & on receipt of proof of the organisations'
charitable
status Sirius would instigate a transfer of payment.
Looking around the table Alex struggled with her conscience, she still felt that Vrasten had previously cost her big time, now he'd got in the way of claiming salvage on the Magellan Star, it was like having some little angelic gimp on her shoulder telling her all the time what was right & what was wrong. Unconsciously frowning Alex considered whether she could get away with setting up a charity & claiming the money without Vrasten, T-Bird & Skinpin finding out about it, would it be worth the risk of them maybe finding out, more fucking moral dilemma's.
T-Bird watched Alex rise & head for ladies room, something was clearly on her mind, as she walked away his eyes lingered on her ass, it wasn't good for him, he new the likely outcome of any attempted wooing but at least it took his mind of the constant itch where the Realskinn covering to his fully functional prosthetic right hand had been melded into the flesh of right wrist. He'd had the cyberware replacement installed almost immediately he got back to the US as he wanted it up & running as soon as possible so as he could put some serious hours in honing his rotor control skills, he reckoned that since the operation he'd logged nearly a hundred & fifty hours flying time, it hadn't come cheap but it & the refresher training he'd taken was definitely noticeable.
Forlorn Hope, Night City 9.21pm - 22/12/2016
They'd come for a quiet beer this eveneing as Alex had got a meesage that some small time weasel, Idwal Knox, had got a job for a friend that he thought they'd be interested in however as they sipped thier beer Skinpin rejoined them, for once he wasn't his normal laid back self, as he sat down he passed Vrasten a couple of letters that had been delivered care off the Forlorn Hope but for whatever reason forgotten until now,
"I've got some bad news" announced Skinpin, "got a letter from Roxy, she says Mariusz rolled the pick up, Kissy & the twins are OK but, shit, Mariusz has got major spinal injuries, looks like even with heavy duty hardware he could be up shit creak, maybe in a wheel chair for the foreseeable, I've got flight lined up for tomorrow, gonna go see what can be done."
All three looked at each other & recalled Mariusz's Flash Forward.
Forlorn Hope, Night City 9.43pm - 22/12/2016
Struggling to digest Skinpin's shocking news Vrasten numbly thumbed open the two letters . . . . . .