Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Six's blog. Bum-fluff

By N.Barnes

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Entry 27: 22.08.70>
Just back from a track day and I can still smell the burnt rubber and gasoline. What a great day :o)

I suppose a word or two of explanation. First things first, we’re back in good old San Fran and all seems sweet. Kitty is as hot as ever and someone gave my apartment a new lick of paint to repair the damage done by the Triad before we smoothed things over with them. I’ve decided I’m never getting caught unawares again and Mal has very kindly fitted me out with the latest Betaware cyber leg – fully synthetic and realistic to look at and touch but with a nifty little cyber holster built in so I can keep a surprise or two to hand. Good kit.

In addition, while I was away I seem to have become Grasshopper or Old Father Time or something, invested with the wisdom of ages. Why? Because Kitty and I took a reunion cruise down the strip for race night yesterday and that punk Bumfluff came to me with his life story begging for my help.
For real. I mean this kid has got serious stones and vitamin Reality deficiency if he thinks getting his ass handed to him on the streets a few times in some way makes me his protector and mentor… However, we all know I’m really a soft touch and it can’t do my rep any harm – so I listen.

Seems Bumfluff fell foul of Seto’s gig the same way I did. There was a 100k bet down on a simple drag, Bumfluff felt certain he’d have the edge but as soon as things got underway experienced an few ‘technical’ troubles. Now Seto’s an ass and he’s pulling this shit on decent folks. I’d love to sock one to the smug fragger so Bumfluff has my attention but he ain’t done yakking. To try and rectify his first mistake, he made another. Trusted a nobody by the name of Grifter who offered him a suitcase full of Smack for 20 or 30 large. Figuring he can sell it on for enough dough to cover his debt to Seto, Bumfluff bit the scam. He then tries to sell the Smack to the local Vory Novacoke dealer, only to be told the Smack is hookey, ripped off from the Vory not 24 hours before. So now Bumfluff has a fat debt and some explaining to do to the Russian Mafia if he hopes to live out the day. I’m about ready to walk and let the knobhead swing but maybe just maybe we can help…

I bring in the team, Glyph, Ash and our infrequent tagalong Drifter.
Drifter’s worth his weight in gold and remembers that when we were down on our luck, Ash paid this Grifter dude who just scammed Bumfluff for a run to pick up a piece of art from a museum exhibition. We never did get around to that run and a little checking now proves Drifter right – Ash has also been scammed by Grifter.

Well, now it’s personal so we make moves to track Grifter down. Thanks to Daisy, it soon transpires that Grifter was responsible for doing over the Vory drug den and lifting the Novacoke. From our knowledge of Sickle and a couple of other brushes with the Vory we know they set a great store by personal honour so I make contact with the Dealer, Kier and offer a trade.
He lays off Bumfluff and we give him the little turd who raided his safe house. Kier’s a reasonable chap it seems. He’s happy with the trade, so we set a fake hard luck story circulating on Shadowlands BBS and set Drifter up as a honey trap – a down on his luck Runner looking for a quick, no questions asked buck. We strike gold, Drifter is invited to a meet and we set up a stake out and get ready to bust some heads. On Fly Spy I watch Drifter make contact at the meet. He’s joining a gang of Hispanics and Grifter for a raid on a poorly defended drug den. Drifter makes his excuses and leaves, somewhat smacked off his tits from the Blunt the Hispanics are toking and we hastily rearrange our hit.

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It soon becomes apparent that Grifter and his new friends are about to turn over the same Vory drug den he struck gold at, just a few days ago. It’s too much of an opportunity to really impress Kier so we take our chances against the whole crew and make our move – Glyph and I run a little drive-by as the Hispanics make to bail out of their vehicles and they come blazing after us.
Grifter, loaded down with the cash the Hispanics put up to buy into the hit, decides he’s got what he wanted and pushes off pronto with Ash and Drifter in tow.

Up and down the hills of San Fran, Glyph and I have our fun, taunting the Hispanics, outburning their lowriders and trading shots. They get outdriven, outclassed and outgunned – it’s Glyph and her custom automatics and me with the turret mounted Ares Antioch against SMG firing hippies so high they can barely shoot straight. It’s no contest – like shooting fish in a barrel. I lay down smoke and flash bangs as a distraction, dropping them through the windows and into the vehicles where I can, while Glyph methodically works her way through the whole damn crew. You’d count to ten slower than we made two burning messes on the highway!

By the time we catch up with Ash, he’s already run Grifter off of the road.
Glyph and I pull up just in time to watch the show as Grifter’s tub goes over on its roof and crunches to a stop in front of us. While Ash has a one-to-one with our itinerant scammer, Glyph and Drifter retrieve the cash – a cool 50k for the Bumfluff benevolent fund – and I arrange to hand Grifter over to Kier.

Kier is good to his word and I warn Bumfluff to steer clear of the Vory in future. He’s been a knobhead this time but he’s smart enough to know what a close shave he’s had – he could have been sleeping with fishes at the bottom of the bay if the Russian Mafia got hold of him. We still have a problem though – Bumfluff needs another 50k for Seto, PDQ. Fortunately, this time, Ash has a cunning plan…

And that’s where the track day fits in. Ash, Glyph, Drifter and Bumfluff came with me down to the track. I laid down a marker time for the others and they tried to beat it. If ten seconds slower can be counted as beating me, then I guess I’m in trouble lol. Bumfluff came closest though – kid’s got some skills and that was all Ash needed to know. At his suggestion, Ash and I have put up 25k each to cover the rest of Bumfluff’s debt and now the Punk’s gonna race for us. He’ll race in the colours and livery we choose, so we can advertise some of Ash’ contacts, my Custom work etc and he’ll race when we tell him to race. That means he’ll either play wingman to me and watch my back out on the track or he’ll split his winnings with us, 60:40 in his favour with Ash and I take 20 per cent a pop until he’s quits with us.
Bumfluff’s fragging ecstatic and while I have my reservations, Ash is convinced that we can make this work…

Mood: High. I can still hear the NOS firing!
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5 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's only after reading this back that it occurs to me my cyberleg is either Beta-ware (after the greek letter) or Beta-ware (after the home delivered tupperware and household goods firm)!

:o)

Owain said...

Tragically you have a tupperware cyber leg. ON the plus side, your gun is nice and fresh.

Anonymous said...

Not that i disapprove, just curious, but i thought you needed readies for cars. Was your other leg broken? Why the upgrade to metal?

Anonymous said...

I return this weds for death and large portions of property damage ph34r me minions of evil!!

Owain said...

There will be no destruction of property or death of minions Mr!