Anti-antithesis

Mason woke up to the sounds of heavy boots on the metal grated floor, the only warning that the boss was on his way to check up on his work. Mason scrambled quietly to close his tabs on his terminal and reopen the security cameras showing the various client rooms. Officially, the cameras were there to make sure their property was not damaged too much by the clients, while unofficially they existed to blackmail any higher society types that frequented the Scarlet Moon Brothel.

Mason finished hiding his nap just as his boss, Damian, walked through the side door behind him. He was a massive figure, easily six foot four and bulging with chrome, barely concealed beneath a tight fitting, well pressed suit. His black, bald head polished to a sheen reflecting Mason’s face of faux vigilance, something Damian’s face told Mason that he didn’t believe was genuine.

Damian raised an eyebrow at Mason, yet said nothing about his slacking. “Anyone interesting come in today?” Damian asked, his voice deeper and smoother than normal due to a recent voicebox aug.

Mason nodded and flicked open a specific VIP room’s camera, showing someone who came in shortly before Mason took his nap. “New big fish today, Boss. One Angelo Carmichael, Senior aide for the Mayor’s Office. He requested a dom and has been having quite the time for the last hour or so.”

Damian nodded as a smirk formed across his face, no doubt thinking of how to further corrupt the aide to later squeeze him for favors later, especially considering we had very few connections with the Mayor’s office. It would be rather easy, considering he requested a dominatrix on his first visit. The reputation of the Scarlet Moon was something that Damian had cultivated carefully for the last two decades, one of utmost privacy, security, and freedom for those who could afford it, while using recordings of those freedoms to gain small advantages, favors, and endorsements to better enhance the Scarlet Moon as a whole.

Mason’s mind wandered to the past, to the time when this business first started. He was a simple guy who got lucky when out drinking, making friends with Damian on a whim. And when Damian offered him a job as a founder of a brothel he was making, Mason didn’t think too much about it. Watch over some joytoys, use his decent muscles and even better aim to scare off shitheels, and make some easy cash.

This issue was, Damian had skills and ambition to do so much more. Damian knew how to actually play this game of blackmail right from this mega-building foundation, knowing what information to hold over which person, what level of favor to ask from who, and knowing what information to delete, as it was more trouble than it was worth. After all, while a scandalous affair might be devastating for a middle manager, the simple fact that the Scarlet Moon had dirt on a board member or a share holder was enough to ruin them socially. Everyone at that level had dirt, and they all knew it, flaunted the fact that they wore white despite the filth they waded through, so by simply capturing and safeguarding evidence of that dirt was enough to keep those types in line.

Mason kept his head down and did his job well for years, keeping the men in line and making sure the security hardware and protocols were as good as they could be, and Damian trusted him and his eyes for detail to supervise the floor. It was only a few years ago that Damian opened up to Mason about his true connections, about how he was so good at playing this game from basically nothing.

Damien, unsurprisingly, came from old money, from even back before the plants started raining from the sky. They saw the writing on the wall and adapted rapidly to this new reality, one where humanity had a need for survival greater than ever before, yet also one where that very survival was threatened even behind the walls governments erected. They were the first to focus on shelter building, one of the first to actually build and sell stable, strong shelters for middle class and higher economic bracket neighborhoods, while also investing in scavenger groups to pick through the areas the plants landed.

And they were one of the few families to ride the grey wave following the collapse of NATO to raise their status from old money to Anonymous Money, entrenching themselves in the very pillars that made the Independent City State of New Phoenix a mega-city, all the while hiding behind other, large corporations and dozens of small gangs, running this city as they pleased.

Damian was from a collateral line, yet still received a decent sized loan from his family to start up this brothel, something he had more than paid back years ago, and he was damn proud of the fact that he was his own man now, that he never had to rely on his family to solve any of his problems.

Damian patted Mason on the back, bringing him back from his thoughts. “Mark him as a high priority for Venessa,” Damian said as he took a seat next to Mason before sighing hard.

Mason understood that que, as it meant Damian had something on his mind that he wanted to talk about, yet was too proud to bring it up first.

“Anything new going on in the city, boss?” Mason asked, knowing the answer to the puzzle that was his boss after decades of working with him.

Damian leaned back and rubbed his shiny head, “Yeah. Some new upstart brothel owner has been raiding other brothels for their joytoys and wiping out the people who owned them to prevent them from simply grabbing new people to restart.”

Mason received a news article, detailing an investigative report on the Lower Six brothel and their resident gang, the Customer Service Department. It described their rise from indentured workers of Bestle to an armed, Samurai backed force that has been systematically raiding the surrounding mega-building’s brothels, wiping out gangs and “rescuing” the various joytoys and bringing them back to their base, giving them medical attention and a choice of working at the Niltmore Hotel above, the Lower Six, the Customer Service Department, or take a different position in the Real Dreams Corporation the Samurai, War Games, owned. All over the course of a few months, at that. There was also a side note that said that a few of the gang members or leaders body’s were not among those accounted for, but No one from the Customer Service Department claimed to take prisoners.

Mason recognised the problem right away. “They are not that far from us, making us a potential target soon. Not to mention that they are backed by War Games, of all Samurai.”

Damian nodded heavily, yet slowly. “Yeah… Bastard owns more than half of the PMCs in the city, not to mention is the darling of The Family, meaning we have very little chance of shutting them down ourselves.”

Mason heard the unsaid solution, yet he also knew he should not be the one to mention it. If he reached out to his family, they might be able to negotiate a truce between the Scarlet Moon and the Lower Six, might even be able to secure an alliance from War Games himself. The biggest problem was Damian’s pride would prevent that from being an option until the very last moment.

Before Mason could offer advice to possibly lead Damian to that solution, he heard his boss whisper something that shocked him hard.

“If only cousin Doma were here, she could curtail this worry.”

Doma, the Head of the local branch of The Family, was a part of Damian’s shadow family. A lot of puzzle pieces locked into place at once, causing Mason to almost miss his personal perimeter alarm. Almost.

He pulled himself to attention rapidly, pulling up the dozens of feeds that covered the various alleys and corridors that lead to their very secure location at the heart of City Plate Forty Six. The alarm came from both the official entrance in the mega-building above, as well as three escape corridors. Mason ran through the list of emergency protocols he and a few others drew up, more as a joke than for serious usage, after all, who would attack the Scarlet Moon?

The only option was to seal the entrances and evacuate the customers through the modified sewer tunnel, but that would require Damian’s approval. Mason turned to face his boss, but before he could ask, he received approval from the departing figure of Damian. Mason activated the sealing protocol while running after him, making their way towards their own escape route through his office. Mason received dozens of alerts and reports as they power walked through the corridors, of their men engaging in combat with heavily armored intruders as they retreated through the halls, doomed to never reach safety as they were beyond the bulkheads designed to slow down the Samurai backed gang.

And it was the Customer Service Department, undoubtedly, as they were the only ones who would be this brazen, attacking in such broad daylight.

Mason and Damian reached the head office, with Damian opening a safe and grabbing a large duffle bag out of it, tossing it to Mason while activating their escape tunnel, a secret path dug through the City Plate itself, one that led to an experimental Hover Car that would take them out of the city to hide for a time.

Yet, as the tunnel door opened, there were a few shapes standing inside it, pointing their weapons at Damien and Mason as a large, black bird flew in and landed on Damian’s desk.

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Bubie

Seeing the large black man shake in anger was a treat, while seeing the cut white guy deflate in defeat brought a smile to my face. Daliah really wanted to make a statement, so when she decided that the Scarlet Moon was our next target, I knew we would need to use some resources from the Monster Box to make it happen. If it was a normal PMC, they would probably request some crazy price or debt to use their gear or intel, but thankfully Roger offered us the use of his birds for a decent price, something he said he had to charge us for, if only to maintain proper accountability for himself, which was pretty wild to think about.

The only accountability I was used to was military accountability, which meant that those below would take the punishments while those above would take the praise and prizes.

Thankfully, these birds were crazy efficient for their value, mapping out a dozen different paths in and out of the brothel, not to mention discovering the two escape tunnels that were definitely not on the city’s blueprints, something I am sure Bub the Worker would love to hear.

“If you surrender, I can guarantee your lives for a time,” I said, “Or, you could try to resist and see what happens.”

I had no idea what Morrigan needed evil bastards for, but she paid for each person that met some program’s criteria, so it was not really any of her concern.

The white guy looked to his boss with a look of pleading, one that caused the boss man to simply sigh. He nodded slightly to himself before looking me in my eyes. “I suppose surrender makes sense, considering my worth and connections.” Then he smirked as a signal was sent out from the big guy. It was intercepted by the Raven, of course, so whatever he was trying to signal would remain inactive. “I wonder if the fact that I am Doma’s blood relative would weigh into my treatment as a prisoner?”

That caught me and mine off guard. It might be a bluff, but it was one that I could not afford to test. So, time to throw things up the chain.

I made a call to Bahamut, who answered basically the moment I hit dial, his dragonoid face and funny taking up the screen in my augs. “Good afternoon, Ms. Bubie. To what do I owe the pleasure of this unexpected call in the middle of your raid?”

I rolled my eyes at him, knowing good and Goddess damned well he knew what was going on through that bird that was smoking this brothel owner’s cigar. “Any way to verify his claim as a blood relative of Doma’s?”

Bahamut chuckled. “Not here, no. But I am sure Black Log should. Capture him for now and send him to us. We shall deal with him as a proper guest. I shall make sure to reimburse you for Morrigan’s bounty myself for these two.”

Good enough for me. I ended the call and signaled for the others to capture them, where they were cuffed, bagged, and drugged before being hauled off down the tunnel to the sweet ride we had acquired through this raid. Ammaliese would handle the customers while Yang would make sure the joytoys were taken care of, meaning I could enjoy driving this thing back home. Maybe I could take Harmony for a drive around the city in it.

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