He pointed at Oliver. The Corpo Rats did not even glance his way. She crossed her arms in front of Carl, her corporate outfit shifting as she did.
"I saw the footage. I am not blind, and I know who did the heavy lifting," she said. "Relax. I am not NCPD, not some do-gooder, and not related to the trash you killed. I have a job for you. One hundred thousand Eurodollars. Interested?"
"One hundred thousand Eurodollars?" Carl repeated.
Just as she expected, the number caught him at once. A second later, he smiled in understanding. "So you are here with a Contract."
His expression changed, and his tone turned warm. "You should have said so earlier. Please, have a seat, miss corporate employee. As long as it is within our limits, we will handle it properly."
Once a Corpo Rats became a Contract giver, bias could wait. Oliver and Jack Welles exchanged looks, each seeing a bit of disdain for Carl in the other's eyes. Even so, they stood up quickly and gave up their seats so the two could talk.
The corporate woman finally looked at Jack Welles and Oliver. She did not like sitting where mercs had just been, but after checking around, she chose the empty seat beside Carl. It was not clean either, but at least no one had used it recently.
She sat down and took out a thin data shard, gesturing for Carl to take it. He slotted it into his Cyberdeck, recently upgraded just the day before. The contents displayed directly before his eyes.
After a few seconds, he removed the shard and handed it back. "Looks doable."
"How should I address you?" he asked.
This time, his voice was serious. The job was worth taking.
"You do not need my name," she said. "Just tell me if you can do it."
"Of course," Carl replied. "How do we send proof?"
"When it is done, send photos to this number," she said. "Do not call unless needed. I am busy."
As the data transferred, Carl memorized the number. A moment later, thirty thousand Eurodollars hit his account.
"That is the advance," she warned. "Do not think about running. Unless you want me to spend the rest to buy your life."
With that, the corporate woman stood up and left in a hurry, heels tapping as she walked out of Wild Wolf Bar. From the moment she entered to the moment she left, she had not spoken to anyone else or spared them a glance.
"Carl, how is it?" Oliver asked.
"I should have asked you first before accepting," Carl said.
"It is fine. We are brothers," Oliver replied. "If anything, it means you are impressive. Jobs already coming to you. I am happy."
He leaned closer, curiosity clear. "So what is the job?"
"Wait a second."
Carl raised a hand, then turned to Jack Welles, who had been watching nearby. "Jack Welles, you are working solo right now. Want to try a job with us?"
"Me? I can join too?" Jack Welles asked.
A Corpo Rats job paid well, and he knew that. He had not expected Carl to pull him in.
"More hands help," Carl said with a smile. "So, are you in?"
"We are brothers. Of course I am in," Jack Welles said.
He smiled back and agreed without even asking about the details or the split. When Jack Welles liked someone, he was always straightforward.
"Then let us split the advance first."
Light flashed in Oliver and Jack Welles's eyes. Before anything even started, their ten thousand shares were already secured. Carl was just as quick with money as he was with decisions.
"Dios mío," Jack Welles said. "That much advance. What kind of job did you take, brother?"
"It is not anything dirty or against conscience, right?"
As they sat back down, Carl explained the job that would make most low-level mercs jealous. The details were long, but his summary was simple.
"Go to a Maelstrom turf in Watson District with about twenty people," he said. "Find a crate stolen from a corporation. Do not return it. Destroy it, take a photo of the remains, and send it."
"Sounds like that corporate girl has some leverage tied to it," Jack Welles said.
"Probably blackmail photos or something," Oliver added. "Movies from Japan always do that."
Carl thought about the connections instead. Maelstrom had robbed 6th Street before, and now they had taken something from a corporation whose agent had seen him fight Maelstrom. It could mean something, or it could mean Maelstrom had been busy robbing everyone lately.
There was too little information to dig deeper. What mattered now was simple.
"Go?"
"After we finish eating."
Oliver and Jack Welles stuffed their mouths with Spanish Ham Slices. They did not question where the meat came from.
Preparation was still necessary if they were going to deal with Maelstrom, and the most obvious task was gear. The first problem was Jack Welles, who liked to leave his chest wide open and walk around without any protection. Someone had to get him a proper bulletproof vest before things went bad.
"I thought you at least had ballistic plates sewn into your clothes, so you could zip it up when things got serious," Oliver said. "And now you tell me that when you are not wearing leather armor, you do not wear any body armor at all?"
Even though they were already standing inside a weapons shop, Oliver still could not understand Jack Welles's carelessness. Even Viktor Vektor warned first-time customers about protection, so someone as familiar as Jack Welles must have heard it countless times. The strangest part was that Jack Welles was a merc who clearly understood how armor worked, yet he still walked around with nothing on.
"You are really pushing it," Carl added from the side. He joked that in a game it might make sense to dress for looks, but there were two problems here. First, Jack Welles was a man, and second, this was real life, not a game.
Carl did not know much about game storylines, but he had a bad feeling that Jack Welles would pay for this habit someday. A bulletproof vest and plates could not compare to something like Subdermal Armor, and they could not stop every kind of weapon. Still, they were enough against basic kinetic guns.
Take the Militech Lexington Carl used, for example. With a vest on, even a frontal hit would not sink the bullet too deep, and there would still be time to get someone to a hospital. That alone was reason enough to wear one.
"That is why I came with you," Jack Welles said, sounding unconcerned. Since both friends insisted, he agreed to get a vest. His original plan had been to save up and jump straight to Subdermal Armor, skipping armor entirely, since even a vest cost a lot of Eurodollars.
That plan had been around for a long time already. Every time he saved some money, he spent it on something else, like motorcycle parts or books. The idea of Subdermal Armor kept getting delayed until now.
"Still, if I am getting a vest, KK, are you not planning to change your gun?" Jack Welles asked. He glanced at the pistol on Carl's waist. "The Militech Lexington is something only the NCPD uses because their higher-ups are corrupt and broke. You cannot even punch through the worst Subdermal Armor with it."
"A low-end pistol for low-end people," Carl replied. "That sounds perfect for mercs like us."
He did not care much about it. When he looted guns from dead members of Maelstrom and 6th Street, most of them were either poorly maintained or modified into unusable messes. There were a few decent ones, like the Unity Pistol made by Constitutional Arms, with a twelve-round magazine and solid power, but the Militech Lexington felt good in his hands, so he saw no reason to switch.