Chrome Symphony - Chapter 1

Atlas grabbed the arm of one of the remaining corporate guys and yanked him toward the door. "Come on," he said, "You heard her. Out you go."

The man struggled with Atlas as he tried to pull him away from the table. Atlas pulled his arm over his own shoulder and threw him to the ground using an old Judo move. "The hell you trying to do, you b******? If you think you're stronger than me, why'd you need me in the first place?" Atlas yelled.

After the man hit the ground, Atlas grabbed his arm again and literally dragged him out of the private room's door. As he continued to drag him through the main part of the bar and toward the front door, the other patrons at the bar looked onward. Atlas passed by Duncan and Shell and threw the man out the door, into the rain, and gave him a good kick in the leg.

"And stay out," Atlas told him. "I'm not your damn thug, you got that?"

Atlas walked back into the bar where Elise was escorting Georg and the remaining corporate guy to the front door. "Sorry about this," Atlas told Elise, "I really didn't know this was how it was going to be."

He then walked over to Duncan and Shell, who had come back to the private room to check on things. "I think we have everything under control. Sorry about trying to detain you earlier. I should have known better."

Shell gave Atlas an incredulous stare. Duncan didn't look convinced, either. I can't blame them, Atlas thought. "Yeah... I owe you a bit more than just an apology," he told them.

"Damn straight, you should've," Elise remarked, on Atlas' comment on knowing better. "I doubt either of you 'borgs are all-in on heavy augmentation, but I still wouldn't just try to keep you from going anywhere, all the same," she continued, addressing Duncan and Shell.

She made her way back behind the bar. "Show's over, folks, 'she announced to the room at large. "If you're out of booze, just come on by and I'll get right on it!" A few customers came up to get fresh drinks, or comment on the whole business that had just transpired. It was a good while before Elise was free enough to get back to Atlas, Shell, and Duncan.

When she finally did, she just turned and beckoned them over to the bar. "So, you three mind giving your story on things," she asked. "it's not every day I get to see that sort of idiocy. At least none of them were armed."

Duncan sat down on one of the available bar stools.

"Well, I get an e-mail from Crest, looking for a freelance hacker and, oddly, they say they they want to recruit me in particular. So, I'm hard up for cash so I agree to meet with them to find out more," he told Elise while Shell and Atlas listen.

"Turns out they're all hush-hush about the whole thing and, after some digging, I find out they want to hire cyborgs in particular. At the time, I figure that's no big deal, probably want to make sure their freelancers can handle any trouble on location."

Duncan shook his head. "But... I didn't anticipate that this was the reason. They were looking to put us under their direct control by the way of an illegal augmentation."

He looked around the bar and shrugged. "Hey, I get that you don't want us running to the cops. I have my own reasons for not wanting to do that so don't worry about me."

Atlas took a drink of his whiskey.

"I was looking for work, too. I was on another mission about a week ago and these guys approached me when I was at HQ collecting my payment. They said they needed someone to work security detail on a few high-risk meetings and to come here to discuss the details before I started.", he told Elise.

"Next thing you know, this guy Georg is my superior and he tells me to just do what he says. Not knowing what to expect, I figured these two here might have been up to something. Didn't take me long to figure out that these Crest guys were the ones up to no good."

He took another drink. "Look, I don't know what else to tell you. I'm sorry."

Miroku took a seat and listened to Duncan and Atlas tell Elise what happened.

"Same story here," she said, "I was hired through EMAcorp to perform some maintenance and diagnostics on the computer systems in this building. The contract I read didn't mention Crest - it only mentioned the owners of the Velvet Room."

Shell scratched her head. "Why I was dealing with Crest doesn't make sense to me. Did you know anything about maintenance needed on the network here?" she asked Elise.