NOVEL NEXT Chapter 43 (Disturbing Content)
The Probes came in clutch. They managed to defeat the lock on Sinn's door but scanning it extra hard, for a millisecond. Robots for the win.
Sinn's apartment, located in Kabuki Town, was a mess. Not the type of mess that indicated someone ransacked her place, more the, "I don't know what cleaning supplies are" and "Organization, what's that?" kind of mess.
As the Probes went to work scanning everything, I searched for notes or datachips. Anything at all that might be a quicker method of deducting where she might have gone.
No luck there.
On the other hand, one of the Probes found some odd soil around some of her boots. Now the soil wasn't odd because it looked out of place, nor didn't it have an unusual odor. No, it was odd because it lit up the Probe's radiation meter to sky high levels.
So, she had been marching through mud by what? A reactor, A waste dump or somewhere a nuke had been dropped?
I searched quickly on the open Net for local reactors, and recent bombings. Any nuclear waste dumping was probably illegal, no need to bother searching the Net there.
My mind ran in a dozen different directions. Did someone actually grab her, or if she holed up at a ripper somewhere? Did she head back out to where ever this radiation was and get zeroed?
Clearing a space on her coach, I called up every Ripper I could find listed. A swing and a miss.
I tried Vik because he's not listed and hears things, also a failure. He took the time to remind me to come in for a check-up. I gave him my thanks and said I'd schedule it once this was resolved.
I tried the Hospitals, zilch.
Alright, next step go and poke around the local reactors looking for leaks. There were two still in operation. One up in the Northside Industrial District and the other smaller one just south of Pacifica.
I messaged Rita with my progress and my ideas. She informed me Sinn's former pack denied any involvement with her. Their words were, "We don't need no weak gonks, you can keep her."
I decided to poke around the reactor to the North first. Get the larger area out of the way.
There was still hours of night time left, and keeping the Probes out of sight would be a good idea.
My gut kept clenching, it was sure I was missing something. My brain had no insights and no great ideas.
Sometimes you get lucky in the worst ways.
While driving around the Northside Nuclear Plant letting the Probes get some initial readings, we happened upon a Scav camp by one of the coolant pools.
Their camp was very makeshift, with the RVs and shacks built onto trailers, it seemed they were stealing a play from the Nomads' playbook.
There were a few dozen of them dancing around all blitzed out of their skulls on drugs and a few were even using BD wreaths.
Celebrating? Well, we couldn't let them have a good night, they'd have to pay the toll for being scop sucking scum.
I wasn't feeling subtle, so I parked and started marching towards them. The Probes were already sweeping around to flank them.
I didn't bother to hide my approach, they didn't bother to notice anyway.
Time to test my new Omaha on live targets.
I walked right up to a cluster of them sitting around a fire singing weird songs and laughing at stupid jokes.
My pistol barely made a noise as six rounds found their new homes. The Probes had already started zapping.
By the time I got to the second group, the Scav assholes started to get a clue, but were still too fucked up to make much of an effort to protect themselves.
Five airsoft level pops, and more corpses hit the ground.
A round bounce off my shield. I turned and fired, the Scav had a new hole in his lung that I could see through from here.
I took my time changing to a fresh mag, no need to rush.
The Probes were having a field day zapping every Scav they could find.
At this point all that was left were a couple of the gonks using the BDs. I found some duck tape nearby and mummified the bastards. Thinking I might want someone to question later.
I had the Probes start scanning everything.
One of the Probes liked to bob about while hovering, I named it Jitters. The other Probe with me liked to hum little tunes to itself, I named it Buzz. Funny I only seem to name these guys after battle, maybe the robo buddies deserve better. However, traditions have a way of improving moral, so I guess it was fine
'Energy signature of the area matches the soil from the apartment, Executor.' Jitters informed me a minute later.
'Executor, scans of the victim's corpses has found a body that matches subject Sinnamin's biodata.' Buzz messaged.
What?
No, no, no, no.
This can't be happening. She knew not to fuck around with Scavs. Why would she come out here by herself?
I shuffled over to the pile of discarded corpses behind the largest RV. I dug through it, I had to remove over a dozen corpses before finding her ripped open remains.
Tears streamed down my face as I hugged her remains to my chest. Somehow I just wasn't affected by the smell or the mess. I pulled her free and carry what was left of her to a couch.
Searching around for a body bag, proved there where plenty just tossed about. I opened one and placed her inside before resettling her on the couch.
I spent the next hour tearing through all the stored organs and cyberware to find Sinn's and laid them in the bag with her. It seemed like the right thing to do.
Zipping up the bag was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do.
"I'm Sorry, I so sorry."
Realistically, there was nothing I could have done, but that really didn't matter right now.
Then I picked up the next victim from the pile and repeated my previous actions for them, almost on autopilot.
Somewhere in there, I vaguely remembered calling Rita and gave her the location and the bad news.
The Mox got there as I was finishing with the last body, the sun having long since risen. It's rays bathing the scene in all its morbid splendor. 37 bags laid out in rows centered around the couch with Sinn's body. A crazy man covered in rotting flesh and blood trying to bring order to the chaos in his head.
I sat on the ground, somehow tears still rolling down my cheeks.
They let me have my space, for now.