Chapter 12

The next afternoon Blake and I pulled into a warehouse next to a van and stopped. Eddie got out and opened the rear of the van so we could see that he was alone. That didn't mean much as he was probably being covered just like we were. We took the sacs out of the car and over to his van. The ones with the weapons we place carefully in the back, the others we just dumped.

Indicating the bags he had dumped on the ground Blake said, "These have body armor, some of it chewed up a bit but still should be serviceable. The others have weapons. We cleaned them and went through them, none of them are junk."

Eddie pulled out the weapons one at the time and went through them. He put them to one side and went on until he had checked all of them. There was quite a pile of arms there when he finished.

"Ok, what do you want for them?" he asked.

"I want a million nuyen, what will you give me for them is more important," Blake laughed.

They dickered a while and came to an agreement. After the credsticks had changed hands Eddie said, "Word on the street is that some important people are looking for a group like yours. I'd keep my head down if I was you until it cools off around here."

Blake nodded and we left. About an hour later we met with another man who exchanged all of the credsticks we had for clean ones. This time there was a lot of dickering as he didn't want to give us anything for what we had. Blake finally convinced him that they were not hot, that there wasn't anyone looking for them and we got a much better price for them.

Now it was time for a change. I was to do the wheeling and dealing as we were in my ballpark. We met Smokey at the Mapped Matrix in the University district. We had needed a place where Deckers hang out so that was as good as any and better than most. I didn't want one of the Decker Bars.

She was already there when I arrived. I walked up behind her and whispered in her ear. "Hey lady, looking for a good time?"

She spun around ready to flatten me, then started to laugh. "Don't do that to me, chummer. I'm not used to carrying this much money with me. Especially in demand sticks. Man, anyone could knock me over the head and make off with them and have a field day."

She showed me the sticks and we made the swap. I slotted the sticks and checked the amounts while she checked out the chips. It took her a lot longer as there were more chips than credsticks. While she was doing that I checked over the people in the place to make sure no one was paying us more attention than they should.

When she finished she seemed happy. "You'll notice I'm being generous. The price was for the chips, I threw in the carriers free for nothing," I said with a smile.

"Very big hearted of you. Where did you get these and why are you letting them go?"

"They fell into my hands and I need the scratch. I have some other things that came with them. Some I'm keeping and some I'm letting go. If you're satisfied then I got to split. I got another appointment to turn loose of some of it. I don't think you would be interested in it so I didn't offer it to you."

"You know me, I'm always looking for a good deal. Stay loose and don't let the Ice freeze your butt. And hey, keep in touch, I miss you."

We buzzed north to the Aurora Village Mall where I was to meet with Dee. The Wrecked Deck was another Decker hangout where deals could be made if you had something to let go. I had picked up parts there in the past but this would be the first time I was selling.

We got there before Dee so I looked around at what was available in case there was something that I wanted. One thing I needed was chips, as I was running low on blank chips. I have never been able to walk into a place like this without buying something. I picked up a few things and was looking at others when Dee finally arrived.

He sidled up to me and out of the side of his mouth he said, "Hey man, I couldn't get all the bread. I'll have to owe you the last 50."

"Call me when you get it and we'll do business," I said as I gathered up the things I was purchasing.

"Wait a minute, can't blame a man for trying."

"Look, you know as well as I do that you can turn these over for twice what I'm charging you. If I had the time I wouldn't have called you I would have turned them myself so don't play games with me. Do you want to deal or not?"

He handed me the credsticks and I passed him the holders. After checking the amounts on each stick I took my stuff to the counter and drained two of my own credsticks that I had with me. I then walked out the door and had a seat on a bench just outside the shop while he looked over the chips he had purchased. I sat waiting but had already passed the Demand Sticks off to Dane.

I had dealt with Dee before. He wasn't the best person to deal with but he had or could always come up with money. When he was in the catbird seat he liked to lord it over everyone but when he was on the other end he always cried poor mouth. He tried to live up to his name even when he wasn't in the Matrix and that's why I charged him more than Smokey. That plus Smokey was special to me. As long as you went into a deal with him with that in mind it was no problem. When he finished he nodded and I got up and slowly strolled away. I met up with Blake and we took off for Renton.