It had taken two days of messaging, but I had a meeting set up with the Shadowbroker, of course during the night and in a wide open area, so neither of us could try any shenanigans. Well, a sniper might be able to work, but I would be wearing armour and having multiple camera drones monitor the area, so I should be easily safe.

Over the two days of waiting, I had repaired all damage to my armour and Plasma-Cannon and even modified the armour a little, adding my newest toys to the gloves, on one hand, literally, a small launcher for electro-shock projectiles, basically the air-taser idea and on the other hand a nozzle to spray fluids. The air-taser It would be useless against any powered with durability as part of their power, even thick clothing might stop the projectile, but against anyone without those advantages, it should work. I had also put together a few different types of projectile, one with a small tracker and a sticky surface, strong enough to simply stick to most fabrics, allowing me to place it at range. I doubted I would need it that often, but hey, I had it just in case. Another projectile was similar to the tracker, just with a shaped charge, to use against vehicles. Shooting it at the wheels of a car would allow me to disable the car later, without making noise. Sure, I could disable cars with my railgun, but sometimes, discretion might be advised. Of course, the shaped charge could also be used against humans, but I did not want to think about the mess that would make.

The nozzle, on the other hand, was mainly planned to spray a single substance, pepper spray, to be precise, my own variant, a nice mixture of capsaicin, aka the stuff that makes chillies hot and 2-chlorobenzalmalononitrile, aka the stuff that makes tear gas work all mixed into a very invasive liquid. It might even work through some badly made gas-masks, depending on their filter. Mine would be fine. Sadly, it would take a few days to get the necessary chemicals and machines set up, but then I could look for a test-subject. Some low-life street criminal should do, it would also be my good deed of that day.

I had asked Sophia to cover my back, something she was happy to do. Shortly before the meeting, I had a rather serious choice to make, how much firepower did I want to bring. Dressing was easy, wearing my armour was obligatory after all. However bringing everything would make me look too aggressive and distrustful, bringing too little would make me look foolish. Almost like choosing clothing for a meeting, just a little more martial and without the benefit of societal rules to fall back on. I decided to go with the basic armour, without Plasma-Cannon but with the railgun and my grenade-launcher holstered at my hips. I even made myself a lab-coat out the same fabric I had used for Anath’s armour, not for any real protective reason, the armour was easily strong enough, but more as a, let’s call it, fashion statement. Ultimately, I decided against wearing it, as I wanted to leave doubt if I was the creator of the armour or not. Another question was which setting to use on my mask, it was, after all, a screen able to display practically anything on the outside, allowing for quite a bit of fun. Again, I went with something relatively simple, just a black screen, without any fancy imagery. Part of me wanted to show up with a mask mimicking my own facial-expressions inside the helmet but for one thing that would be giving an advantage away and for another thing, it would be too conspicuous.

So, with all those thoughts of super-villain fashion, non-verbal statement and possibly miss-constructed intentions out of the way, the night of our meeting arrived. Anath was happy to go out on an evening stroll, even if she did not quite understand why I wanted the active cooperation of the Shadowbroker in my new commercial venue, to her, selling on the internet seemed the better idea. In a way, it would be easier but there were a few issues, mostly of the trust-kind.. With someone like the Shadowbroker, I could gain an easier access to the market as I did not need to build trust in my product the hard way. Well, not that I knew how to build trust in a product to begin with, it had never truly interested me. Marketing and such things were just boring to me, making it extremely hard to focus on and bringing my learning-speed down to the level of a regular Joe. Galatea had the ability to help, but she had problems understanding the underlying, often irrational, motivations.

Our meeting was in the middle of a park, or to be precise, it was at the mid-point of a soccer-field, giving both of us a lot of time to spot any incoming threats. It also made clear that neither of us fully trusted the other, but that was to be expected. The Shadowbroker had not come as far as he had by trusting others, I was sure of that, and I would never get as far as I wanted by doing so. There was even a nagging voice somewhere in my subconscious questioning my trust in Sophia but I was able to ignore that one.

Anath and I arrived earlier than needed, giving us time to look at the locality from our normal eye-level after we had studied an aerial view of the area from my drones. Those same drones were in the sky, making sure that nobody was sneaking up on us. The two of us had chosen to conceal ourselves in a small copse of trees, a bit behind one of the goal-lines, allowing us to see the field in its entirety, while giving us visual cover and a good escape-path by virtue of jumping the park’s fence close by. The fence was not high enough to seriously hinder either of us, but for an unpowered human or someone without some sort of applicable power it would be an obstacle, possibly buying us a little time. Galatea and I had planned out multiple further escape-paths, just in case things went bad.

Shortly before the agreed upon time, a lone town-car was slowing close to the entrance of the park, coming to a stop in front of it and three figures left the car before it started moving again. One figure matched what I had seen of the Shadowbroker during our meeting before the Scourge-attack, one figure matched one of his bodyguards but the third did not match the other bodyguard. She, and it was quite obvious that the figure was female, was wearing a white gown, in a simple but elegant style and almost blinding white, making her stand out like a beacon in the darkness. The contrast between the Shadowbroker, in his dark suit and the bodyguard, in the dark body-stocking, could not have been greater. But there were also commonalities, the biggest one was the fact that she was also wearing a mask, matching the one the Shadowbroker was wearing.

Oh, how I wished for more information, that fact could mean so many different things. It could be a gesture, showing that he had multiple bodyguards, enough for some sort of powerplay. It could even be the same person, just in a different costume, the overall build was similar enough. Maybe the new person had some sort of special ability, something that he wanted here, an escape trick came to mind. Or it could be a mundane reason, maybe the bodyguard he had last time had to take care of something else. Or there was no reason at all, just coincidence. I assigned that last reason the smallest probability of all, I doubted that the Shadowbroker was dealing in simple coincidence.

I watched as the three of them moved through the park, coming closer to our meeting point, and shortly before they arrived, the bodyguard split off, moving towards the shrubbery that was decorating parts of the park, including the area behind the other goal-line. Again, there were many ways that action could be interpreted, some mundane, some sinister.

“After I leave cover, move in the direction of the fence. Please, be careful and quiet. No need to give them a hint where you are.” I told Anath over our com-channel.

“Okay. Be careful, Metis.”

“Do not worry. It is just a business meeting after all. I doubt that he got as far as he did by betraying everyone at the first opportunity.”

After making sure that all sensors were in passive-mode, just taking in data revealed naturally, not using any active measures to gather data, I started moving towards the field, matching the timing of the Shadowbroker and his companion so we would arrive at the midpoint at the same time.

“Greetings, Shadowbroker. Thank you for meeting me.” I took the initiative, greeting him.

“Greetings, Metis. I offered to do business with you. But before we come to that, I have to ask an important question and hope that you will answer honestly.” His voice did not betray any emotion, it was as if he was simply ordering a coffee at a restaurant. There was a strange, slight buzzing at the corners of my mind.

“Did you kill Alexandria King?”