I had been killing time in my room since delivering my report from the Stardust, listening to some old-world pianist called Stan Kenton and looking for traces of the mysterious person who had contacted me the previous night. The message from Kato was short and to the point as always.
Kato: >>My office, 17:22. Kato<<
"7 minutes and 18 seconds. Enough time for the stairs" I thought to myself as I jacked out, grabbed my suit jacket and fedora, and headed out the door. The three flights of stairs to the top of The Joke did wonders for loosening up tight muscles gained from spending too much time in full VR, and by the time I entered the office of the security chief at 17:21 sharp I was slightly out of breath. To my surprise I was not alone, as an older gentleman entered along with me and listened to Kato talk. I chuckled to myself as I noticed we were both wearing the same cut of suit. "Can't fault the man for having good taste..."
"I want the both of you to go to The Stardust tomorrow night together. I've already made the arrangements. Blackhat, you're there because you've been before. You know the layout, keep you're eyes and ears open for security that isn't electronic and on the grid. Ambrose, you're there to get something for me. A drug, the "house special". Nakagawa told me about it before she began changing. I thought nothing of it then, party drugs were well known to her, and were never a problem. Now, I'm thinking that it must be what is responsible just for that reason."
I looked over at the man Kato had addressed as Ambrose. "Demolitions expert, huh. Why is Kato sending a demo guy to get drugs? Maybe he is a user." He showed none of the obvious signs of abuse, so for all I knew he could just be in the pocket of the Yakuza. Kato was frowning at us when I turned my eyes back at the man.
"You are to back each other up. Be each others distractions if needed. Ambrose, I expect a full report of exactly where to place bombs and of what kind when you return. If they did take Nakagawa they need to learn that the anger of the Yakuza is not to be taken lightly."
With an internal sigh I nodded in understanding. "Great. Running interference for some washed-up ordnance guy who either has a habit or is in deep with the Yaks."
Kato finished his briefing with his usual stare. "Any questions?" Ambrose was the first to answer. "Drugs, Bombs, Report. Got it." When they both looked to me, I addressed Kato. "Just to clarify, we are to obtain a sample of the drugs and report back, not level the place, right? At least not tonight, anyway." After Kato confirmed his orders I turned to Ambrose and extended a hand. "Daemon O'Toole, aka BlackHat. Looks like you're on point, so you just tell me what you need. Here, scan this." With a few mental commands to my deck I created an ARO for Ambrose so he could take a look at the report I had put together for Kato. It had taken minimal effort to extrapolate on the interior and exterior footage obtained during my first outing, and the result was a high resolution floor plan complete with dimensions, the locations and types of electronic security, and annotations for everything else I had been able to see with both my meat eyes and my digital sight.
Waiting for the response, I made a mental note to run a quick Matrix search on Ambrose while en route to the Stardust. "Better safe than sorry."