Artifice

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Five more taps on the screen and she was ready to go. She had synced the files and was ready for the final point. Gracia wondered what was in store. She'd found nothing to big - in fact, she'd actually cut someone off at work. Running scans on the name, she found out he was a really creepy prick and she'd cut off not only for the boyfriend who was trying to get her killed, but also because she was plainly uncomfortable. "I got conclusive evidence that the girl's got a conscience, as well as a fair amount of self-respect. I'm going to call this a no kill right now. She's not cheating right now, from what I see, but there's still the last spot."

And with that, she dove into the passenger seat feet first, taking off one more leg as she sealed the window. "What's the last spot? I gotta unload all this data, so I'm gonna need access to the Imperial's data stores." She sidled up closer to Caesar, or at least, as far as she could within the constraints of the hover car, placing her hands and her head on his shoulder. "And I'd like to get this over with so that we can move on to other business."
 
Caesar pressed a sequence of buttons, sending the car to it's next destination and blacking out the windows to the outside. Jets of steam and a small click released the lock on the man's helm, and he removed it, placing it on the dash. "It'll be done soon. Next spot is a cybercafé in the 'nice' part of Neutra. Well, the one with the lowest crime rate in consideration, anyway." he said, ending with a sigh. He placed his arm around Gracia as she leaned on him, sinking lower into his seat and sighing deeply as the adrenaline began leaving his bloodstream. "Should be easy from here on. Brutus, sync Gracia's databanks to the Imperial's and send the info home." He rubbed the back of his neck with his free hand, the cold metal fingers causing and releasing tension in his muscles. "I need a coffee, anyway."
 
She sighed and snuggled up to him as his metallic arm wrapped around her. It was her organic side, sure, but it didn't bother her. She liked the feel of metal against her skin, as long as it wasn't pinching her - well, not too hard, anyway. She's alright with light pinching, not caught between the gears pinching. Let's not get too far into that. "That's a fine bit of machinery, especially for something from Neutra. Your Artificer did good work, even if he does come off as a prick." Gracia licked her lips and closed her eyes. "Let me know when we get there, big boy. My mods have been taxing me something heavy, thank God for adrenaline."
 
Caesar smiled. "He did do a good job, but you must know someone else. He can't come off as a prick if he doesn't have a head." he laughed darkly at his personal joke as the hover car sped down the ramp leading toward the bustling Neutra sector of Regalia.

He nudged her with his shoulder as the hover car stopped in front of the cybercafé, and he re-placed the helm on his head, locking it into place. "Wake up. We're here. All we have to do is walk in and ask the bartender for the logs. They're usually fine with this kind of thing." He got out, and headed into the establishment.
 
Gracia woke up with a yawn and took her PDW and shotgun from their slings, leaving them in the car. "Nothing's gone right so far, so I'm taking my MP since it's concealed. We'll see how this goes down." She stretched as she stepped out of the car, working out the bones of her body, and twisting her left arm to act as a brunt against her spine as she popped out the kinks in her vertebrae. She quickly followed him in and scanned the ground for any plumbing or anythng. The ground was weak, her legs were strong enough to force her metal heels through it and pop a pipe out of the ground. That would be smooth as Hell, and she was good at it. As such, she placed herself close to the counter, but in a spot where all she had to do was bring her foot down flat-footed, and the heel would go through.
 
"Eh? Mercenaries? Yeh, I've seen you 'round a bit, helmet boy. What can I do ye fer?" asked the man behind the bar.
"We need the logs for a miss Angelique Asarrat. Business." came Caesar's reply. The man pulled up a portable holoscreen, typing in a few security codes. "There's all o' her activity since three months time, the last server clearing. Holoscreen's set to self destruct after twenny-four hours or a hacking attempt. I say ye can look at her stuff, but that's all. I don't like her, or the men she takes out back. And by 'out back', I mean the private rooms in the back of the café. You can imagine what goes on in there." he added, with a sly wink.
 
This didn't look good for the girl. "Well, C, I suppose we should investigate. This sort of makes sense with what we found at her house, but we need to look into this. You guys got security cameras in the back rooms? Save us a lot of time." At this point, Gracia sort of wished she had a pair of gunrange shades to really complete her look. In all honesty, after hearing about how the boyfriend was, she had been sort of pulling for the girl, but even if the guy's a scumbag, she could never excuse a cheater. "I sort of wish I didn't have to think about this stuff. I'm feeling kind of messed up about this whole thing."
 
"Er, yah, yah, follow me." said the bartender. He led them to a room full of screens, each one watching a different room. He typed in more codes, and each screen displayed the same room at different times, each one a different time Angelique was in there with a different man.

Each one displayed the exact same thing- her leading the drunken man to the bed, making out with him, laying down and pulling him over top of her, and then running each through with a retractable blade. She then watched as the man bled out, and left with a twisted smile on her face. All thirty-four screens displayed the exact same thing, almost in perfect synchronization. The bartender stared at the bloody displays in horror, this obviously being the first time he's viewed these particular tapes.
"Looks like we got ourselves a man killer. Brutus, message the client and ask if we should kill the skank for being murderous, and using sexual allure to draw them into her deadly web." several moments passed in silence as they rewatched the recordings.
"Received, Lord Caesar. He replied as follows: 'Seriously? She kills people? Slaughter her, I'll pay extra if you do so similar to how people used to butcher deer, and send me a video of it. I hate Black Widow type women even more than I hate cheaters.' What shall I tell him?" "Nothing, yet."
Caesar sighed. "Gracia, what d'you think? Should we do as he says? Or just execute her?" he asked, turning towards the ex-resident of Forma Regalia and his new partner in business.
 
She was a smart girl, if Gracia had to admit. It was something she'd never considered. Some people saw her as a black widow, but she just really wanted to get laid. "She's... A damn genius. Best way for a girl to kill a target, way I see it. Shit, though, I don't feel anything about this anymore. I'll record, you just tell me if you need a specific tool. I don't really know what he means by how people used to butcher dear, so I'll leave it to you. I imagine it'll be gruesome."

She smiled and her left arm started to twist out of form. Her gaze turned to the bartender. "Not a word, alright? You've been very cooperative, and we certainly appreciate that." She stood by the door waiting for Caesar with a steady and trademark smirk stretching on her face. "Come on, babe, we've got a job to finish."
 
Caesar nodded and followed her out. "You're right, actually, girl is pretty clever. Lure the man into a room not often monitored, draw him into a false sense of security through booze and foreplay, and then run him through with a hidden blade. I'll give her credit for that." as he set the Imperial to go back home, he thought a moment. "Brutus, pull up a video of how people used to clean deer kills. Visuals and audio for me only." "Playing now, Lord Caesar."
Several minutes passed as he watched the video in his helm.
At it's end, he smiled evilly, unseen to all but Brutus. His voice was heavily laden with joy and malice as they arrived at the hideout.

"This is going to be fun."
 
Gracia stepped out of the car and moved toward the trunk to retrieve Ms. Asarrat when she heard a bang. It appeared she was awake. "Ooh, just in time for her to feel everything, good." She opened the trunk with her left arm and looked inside. "You know, girly, you really fucked up. You should've just left Regalia, it'd be so much easier than what you're going to have to go through. You see, we're going to have to string you up and kill you slowly for a bit of extra pay. Your boyfriend, despite being a major asshat, was right to call us, because you're a killer. We know what you did, and it was smart. Really smart. But you should've taken into account his psychotic watchfulness. That was stupid."

She grabbed the query by the hair and pulled her head out of the trunk to slam her forehead on the edge. The bone plate would've prevented too much damage from being done. Gracia really wanted to get a few hits of her own in. "I was pulling for you, believe me, but you really fucked up. Now we have to kill you. And not quickly, either." But how would the murderous prey take all of this? Would she defiant? Would she be messing herself out of fear? "Caesar, what do you need for me to get for this?"
 
((Warning: This post contains graphic material. If you are not comfortable reading gory things reminiscent of many horror movies, I advise you do not read this.))

Caesar went though a mental checklist. "Alright. I need rope, something to gag her with, a saw, and several very sharp knives, and adrenaline. And a paralyzing agent."

He went down into the hideout, and into an empty room he often used for interrogations. Because they often got very bloody and usually resulted in death, it was already pre-covered in plastic to contain any blood. There was a metal loop on the ceiling which he usually tied a rope to and dangled victims from by their hands, and a desk on which he could set the tools. The whole set was perfect.

After Gracia had retrieved the necessary supplies and laid them out on the table, Caesar gagged Angelique and injected her with the paralyzing agent, making her go limp, but not numb, and the adrenaline, so she would be awake and alive through almost the entire ordeal. "Start recording." He tied up her hands and hung her from the loop by her feet, cutting open her Achilles' heels and running the rope through the opening between the tendon and bone. He made a few long, shallow slits down her body with one of the knives, making sure not to cut anything vital. He then slowly peeled the skin from her muscles, using the knife to sever the connections between the skin and the flesh. After that, he slowly and carefully slit her open from the pelvis to the sternum, moving the muscle aside. He began pulling out the organs one by one, first the kidneys, then the bladder, the spleen, the stomach, esophagus, intestines, leaving the heart and lungs.
He removed his helm and set it on the table, his boots splashing in the accumulated blood pooled all over the floor. He knelt down and stared the woman in the eyes, reaching up and pulling out her still-beating heart, holding it in front of her face. He watched the light fade from her eyes as it stopped beating. He let go of it and dropped it to the floor, standing and keeping his face out of the frame.

"And that is the end of Angelique Assarat, Black Widow extraordinaire. Cut the recording."
 
Gracia got what was needed and started recording with her Neuroprocessor, smiling up until the intestines were removed. She was quite repulsed by the smell of shit, but at least the smell of blood made the place smell like an iron-washing factory - which, mind you, did not exist - and mostly overpowered the terrible fecal odor. After Caesar removed his helmet, she did her best to angle her perspective in such a way that his face was never seen. "It's beautiful, babe," she said just before cutting the recording.

She uploaded the file from her memory to the Imperial, her smartphone acting as a medium of connection. "Uploaded to the Imperial's computer. Let's get you cleaned up, big boy. Then we can make our collection." She would slap his rump, but he was a bit more bloody than she was used to people being. He overdid it a tad on the gutting bit.
 
"Good idea." he said, picking up his Helm. "I need a new outfit. This one's all bloody."

He entered a different room, stripping to his underwear and threw his clothes and armor into machines to be washed. He grabbing a clean pair of black tactical cargo pants, and a grey t-shirt. "Feel free to explore the place. I'll be in the shower. No, you can't join me. This time." he said, adding a wink at Gracia and stepping into the adjacent bathroom.

A short while later, he emerged from the room free of bloodstains and sweat. "Alright, let's go collect." removing his armor vest from the cleaner and grabbing his Helm, he headed for the hover car that would "I took the liberty of sending him the video, and he has already wired the credits to your account. He was disgusted, but very pleased at your work. He also wishes to know who it was that kept adjusting the picture and called you 'babe', as he thought you worked alone." "Thank you, Brutus. But, if you would be so kind as to stop interrupting my mental narration of things?" "Of course. My apologies, Lord Caesar."
Caesar sighed and set down both the helm and the armor, plopping onto the couch. "Looks like we got time to kill, Grace." he said with a smirk.
 
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