Tiger Hunt
Modern Day Shadowrun version of myself needs to let off a bit of steam after a trip into the backrooms (don’t ask). But if you know anything about Cyberpunk, you know that these stories almost never have a happy ending.
Trigger Warning: Unspecified things happening to unconscious men, women, and children.
—
Characters
Kat/The Tiger - The street samurai version of your truly
H.O.P.E. - an AI version of my best friend that helps me on missions
Tristan- a “fixer” for showrunners, matches runner’s with suitable jobs
—
T: Yo! It’s been months. What have you been up to?
K: You wouldn’t believe me if I told you. Tryss I’ve got the night off and I am looking to pick up a shift. You got anything for me?
T: For my Underlings? Anything. I got quite a few jobs that would love a group of-
K: Just me tonight. Others are… busy.
T: Oh? Well alright then let's see…
K: I don’t care about big payouts. Just need something to do on my night off.
T: …You ever heard of a hobby?
K: I could ask you the same thing.
T: This is my day job. You’ve got a day job as a celebrity, a shop, a bending team, and a night job at how old?
K: Twenty five.
T: … ‘98 right? That makes you twenty four years old.
K: …
T: …
K: …
T: Tiger, you still there?
K: Yeah, sorry. Been a bit busy, hard to track of something like that i guess.
T: Are you sure you want to work tonight? I would appreciate a job done but honestly I can ping someone else if you aren’t up for it.
K: No, I am good. Just looking for something simple tonight. Return to the roots, you no?
T: Sure.. I got something easy tonight. This dudes been breathing down my crack since he sent it in.
K: What are we looking at? I am not really in the mood to flatline someone.
T: Simple, no large payout, no flatline, since when did you get to be so picky? Anyways, no. All the client is asking is for a bit of rough housing. Teach a lesson.
K: And he doesn’t do it himself…
T: If everyone could do what you do, you wouldn’t have a job. Do you want your credits or not?
K: Whose the target?
T: Colben Cristover. 34. Male. Elven qualities picked up from the awakening. Lives in Old Indy, near the tracks.
K: Simple enough. Anything else I should know?
T: I did some digging on Colben. Pretty clean record. He works as a paramedic for Riverview, recently got promoted to “Ultra Care” unit for the hospital's high value clients.
K: Hmmm. That have anything to do with the hit?
T: Client confidentiality. All you gotta do is find Colben Cristover and shake him up a little bit. Send proof to the client and cha Ching. It’s payday.
K: Ha ha alright. One shake down coming right up.
T: Later tiger.
K: Later.
—
“Are you done pissing yourself?” The Tiger’s voice modulator mused through the mask in a rumbling tone. Sneaking in had been far too easy, she even had H.O.P.E. do an intensive scan of the apartment, but the AI found nothing. No traps. No alarms. Just a sad man in his boxers.
“Please don’t kill me.” Colben whimpered; he really was pathetic. His face was due for a shave eight days ago, his eyes were bloodshot from long hours of VR, hot sauce dribbled on his boxers, and he was in dire need of deodorant. Colben Cristover was a miserable sight to behold.
“If I was here to kill you, I would have done so when you were plugged in, Colben.” The elf’s eyes widened at his name. He reeled backwards on the floor and threw the first thing that he could grab. An empty bottle arched across the room and collided with a thunk against The Tiger’s chest plate. She watched it bounce off of her and smash across the dusty floor. An extended silence filled the space between them.
“Look, you throw another bottle, we are gonna have a real issue.” Colben removed his hand from under the bed. “Let’s chat for a second, then we will get to why I am here.”
“I don’t want to die.”
“No one does, Colben.” The Tiger muttered. With casual ease, she pulled out two cheap beers from the fridge, rolled a bottle to Coben’s feet and opened hers without a word. A plate in front of her mouth opened, revealing her lips. She stared at him, waiting a few moments before the elven man opened his as well. They each took a drink. “Now, why do you think I am here?”
“I… I don’t know.”
“Come on man. The longer we drag this out the less amount of time I’ll have to beat the shit out of you. Entertain me.”
H.O.P.E.: Kat, I found something.
Kat: Is it an emergency signal?
H.O.P.E.: No… but I still think you should see.
Kat: Ok, in a moment.
Colben licked his chapped lips a couple times before answering. “You aren’t here to kill me… so someone must be paying you to h-hurt… to teach me a lesson?”
“Bingo! So, what sort of lesson do you need to be taught?”
“Uhhhh….” Colben fumbled and refused to look back at the tiger mask.The Tiger grabbed a chair, flipped it around so the back was facing Colben before straddling it to sit down.
“I heard you got promoted recently. Many people going after that position in Ultra Care?” She sipped loudly from the bottle.
“No…not really. It barely counts as a promotion, more like a lateral adjustment within the company. They needed an extra person on patrols...”
“Hmmm… Anything interesting happened since you got the job?”
“Why do you care anyways?” Colben suddenly found his voice. “Is this how you get off? By dragging out an interrogation, lulling me into a false sense of security, and then beatin’ me up when I least expect it?”
“This isn’t an interrogation, Colben. This is a conversation. Besides, I am a curious Kat. I want to know how much I should beat the shit out of you since my client wasn’t too keen on the details.”
The sound of cars, trucks, and hover craft echoed outside the apartment window. The air felt thick and full, rain ready to drop at any moment. The world hung on the edge of a suspected storm.
Surprisingly, Colben was the first to speak. “So, you really don’t know why they hired you?”
“Nope! Not a clue. So indulge me, Colben. Why do I need to beat up the newest Ultra Care paramedic?”
H.O.P.E.: Kat.
Kat: Yes, Hope I know. Come’on let me work a little.
H.O.P.E.: You should really...
Kat: Hope, if it isn’t an emergency ping or a missile coming our way I am sure it can wait.
“I uhhh… last weekend. We got an emergency signal from a guy in our Premium Ultra Care package. His heart rate suddenly spiked and he was clearly in some sort of distress so we acted immediately. Upon arrival, it was clearly a misunderstanding. The gentleman was fine, but his daughter was crying, screaming due to a broken arm from a fall. She wasn’t dying or anything, just a lot of pain. Probably the first bone she’s ever broken by her reaction...” Colben took a sip of his beer. “Unfortunately, the only patient on the Ultra Care package was the father, he never upgraded his family's care plan, so his daughter had to wait for the Choice Care paramedics to arrive. They were only five minutes out, but the entire time the father wouldn’t stop raging at us for doing nothing. I tried to explain that we could lose our licenses if we helped a non Ultra Care client but he was too worried about his daughter to hear. And I can’t blame him. For what it’s worth, I really wanted to help the kid. I hate the current healthcare system as much as the next person, but if I act out, I get a pretty hefty fine taken out of my paycheck.”
The Tiger mask vibrated with the sound of a modulated hum. “Didn’t know that. How much do they take out?”
“All of it. For two pay periods.”
“Damn.”
“Yep. I wanted to become a paramedic to help people, but now my job is to watch people suffer and wait for medical assistance they probably will never recover financially from.”
The Tiger didn’t respond. She didn’t have a response. She knew her job as a Runner has never been about enacting justice; it was always a job and some credits. So why did it never bother her until right now? Why was this pathetic piece of shit deserving pain when he had done everything right?
H.O.P.E.: Kat.
Kat: Not now.
Colben coughed quietly. “Do you have to beat me up?”
“Yes.” The Tiger said after some hesitation. Tears began to well in Colben’s eyes. He started shaking.
“Please, I didn’t… I didn’t want to leave the kid. Can’t you just tell him you did it anyways? Please, I can’t afford to not work tomorrow.”
“Look, you’ve got two choices. Choice A is to deal with me. I will pull my punches, hit you where it will hurt less, but bruises more. Make you look worse than it is. You’ll be in pain but you can work and rest easy knowing the job is finished. OR… Choice B is that I leave. And for the next couple days you pray that the next runner who picks up this job doesn’t enjoy breaking finger nails and playing with their targets. So what will it be Mr. Cristover? Want my mercy or are you going to hope that the next Shadow runner hasn’t also been fucked by the Health Care System?”
H.O.P.E.: Kat, I really think...
Kat: *mute on*
The Tiger thought he was thinking too hard. There was only one logical choice, but it took Colben more than a minute before he signed. “Fine, but before you get started, mind if I make a phone call?”
The Tiger snorted. “Wha? So the cops can come get me while I am kicking you in? I don’t think so, bud.”
“No, I was going to call my own ambulance.That way once you are done they will be here soon… relatively.”
“You work for Riverview and you don’t automatically qualify for Premium Ultra Care insurance?”
“Can’t afford it. And I would rather not bleed all over my apartment for 20 minutes waiting for them… And since you are being so generous… can I ask one more favor?”
“I guess?”
Colben smiled sheepishly. “When you are done, can you drag my body downstairs to the lobby? I don’t need my coworkers to see how ruined my apartment is, and I also can’t afford the cost of them having to go up all those stairs to get me. You would save me about 500 credits.”
“God, what the fuck is system!”
—
Kat: *mute off*
Kat: Look, I know it's been a while since we did a job, but Hope you need to lay off the communications when I am trying to learn a target’s tragic backstory!
H.O.P.E.: You are going to regret not going harder on him.
Kat: Oh come on. You and I both know I just needed to let off some steam tonight. If I need to punch something harder I can go to the Bending arena later.
H.O.P.E.: I did some scans on his tech while you were having fun talking...
Kat: ... Ok? What did you find?
H.O.P.E.: You don’t want to see it.
Kat: Hope stop being so ominous and let me see it. Is it some new fantasy on the...
H.O.P.E.: ...
Kat: ...
Kat: This is why he doesn’t want anyone snooping around his apartment.
H.O.P.E.: Yep. He had you move his body so his room and tech wouldn’t be part of a crime scene. He got away with a broken nose and a couple bruises.
Kat: I am going to kill him.
—--
T: Kat. What the fuck happened?
K: Sorry, Tryss. You would have done the same.
T: Actually, I would have just done my fucking job! Now, I look like a Fixer who sends out my big dogs for little baby missions. This takes a toll on my credibility and yours!
K: I did the job Tryss. Isn’t the client happy with that?
T: Well yeh, he is overjoyed that his 750 credits could get him so much damage. “Colben Cristover is in critical condition with a warrant for his arrest as soon as he wakes up.” That’s pretty incredible stuff... stuff we aren’t getting paid for, let me remind you!
K: Look I said I was sorry. I did the job just fine, in fact I went easy on him at first, but H.O.P.E. found something. I had to turn around and finish the job.
T: We are all on the edge of our seats to figure out what would cause you to do more than paid for.
K: ...
T: ...
K: ...
T: hmmm.
K: H.O.P.E. only scratched the surface but she found over 10 terabytes of this shit. Men, women, children. Unconscious and unawares. He went for the Ultra Premium Care position because those are the people who can regularly afford anesthetics and can be put under. So they wouldn’t know what he was doing.
T: hmmm.
K: I took the evidence straight to the cops. If... once he awakens, he will be in custody for the rest of his life.
T: ...
T: Kat, I am happy you did the right thing. I mean, this is a huge deal and I don’t want to take away that fact. But you did all this work for free. This could have easily been a multi million dollar operation and you did it for 650 credits.
K: I thought it was 750?
T: Finders fee, but I figured you wouldn’t notice since you aren’t “interested in the credits”.
K: Fine, 650.
T: I am not trying to discredit the amazing deed you did. I am glad it was you on that mission who gave a fuck enough to turn over Colben. What I am saying is that I am positive there are a number of contacts out there that could have gotten us both mega credits if we had taken the time to find the contacts before reporting directly to the police. You got me?
K: Yeh I got it.
T: Alright. I got nothing else for you tonight. I’ll send over your credits once the client gets back to me.
K: Ok.
T: ... Good job Kat.
K: G’night, Tristan.
