Exploiting An Extortionist
03 Jul 2024Maul Montresor
Following
Quid Pro Quo
Quid Pro Quo
The room erupted in a mix of cheers and boos as "Two Tooth Tony" connected with a finishing blow against his opponent "Crazy Eyes Bradford", causing Bradford to collapse onto the cold steel floor of the dock warehouse, one of his teeth dislodging and clacking across the ground between Tony's feet.
"Two Tooth Tony continues his quest of eradicating all those who stand in his way!" Shouted one announcer excitedly over the intercom system.
"The man won't stop until he has the highest tooth count in the galaxy!" The second announcer responded drunkenly.
Fights between raiders, even of the same outfit, were fairly common. Especially when forced into a tin can of a station as they waited for Fleet Carrier repairs. It was a sport as old as time, or so they say. Maul didn't care about any of that, he was here to sleuth around and sus out a weakness within any crew associated with Vengerfield. He'd never heard the name before and found nothing when reaching out to his associates within The Network. Vengerfield was a ghost as far as Maul could discern, but all of these raiders working for him proved otherwise. Someone that far off the radar is either smart, dangerous or worse; both.
Pulling away from the crowd of fight observers, Maul found a small popup bar in the corner of the warehouse. Individuals and small groups alike were scattered and leaning around on the structurally unsound bar top and the even more unsound tables and stools, most made up of small personal shipping containers or cobbled together metals. Though, one group in particular seemed to have a very mouthy individual, his expressions and exaggerated body language was enough to make Maul interested. He approached casually to get within ear shot but without drawing much attention to his presence.
"Ah, that Vodan ain't shit! Captain my ass!"
The man was very inebriated and perhaps was just spouting nonsense to his fellow crew members; venting even, but oddly, his crewmates cheered him on.
"Nearly wiped us out over fuckin' what?! Nothin'! That's what! Just some sour deal with that pale bitch!" He said, finishing with a healthy dose of blowing raspberries.
Maul glanced over at the group and saw the Insight devices worn by each of them. A few looked to be legacy hardware, outdated and exploitable. He pulled out his data slate and ran a proximity scan for wireless devices, his slate acting as a standard data port to trick their Insights devices into offering a connection. A slew of devices appeared on screen, including a couple of the raiders. Within minutes Maul had accessed and enabled the mouthy raider's comlink to record all of his boasting and excessive roasting of Vodan and Belladonna, sending the audio recording straight to his slate. Using his own Insight, Maul recorded video of the group as they continuously trashed their captain.
"And that fuckin' lazy eye! Tell me you guys have noticed it as well!? It's no wonder the Anansi is in such shit shape. The idiot can't shoot straight if he can't see straight!"
Maul sat quietly as the band of boasters mouthed off. Once he'd felt he had enough material to work with, he stopped the recording and left the warehouse with his next stop being the concourse.
----------
After compiling the audio and video, Maul watched it back one final time to confirm they synced before sending it along to Carter Arlo, the aggressor from the video. Mere moments passed before a comms request came through from Carter. Maul answered, leaving the line silent.
"Who the fuck is this? Ghoulie? Is this supposed to be a fuckin' joke or something?"
Maul smirked proudly at his terrible and all too often used pseudonym. His line of work almost always required a few layers of obfuscation and "Ghoulie" was the name he chose at 19 when these types of escapades first began. Encapsulating the silliness that he tended to carry into the contrasting serious nature of the actual jobs he'd take on. All in an attempt to further blur the lines and confuse.
"I was thinking. Carter "Big Mouth" Arlo, has a nice ring to it, huh? Ya think Vodan would like to see this footage? How about Belladonna? I'm sure she'd be impressed."
"What the fuck do you want man? I- I- was just joking is all, seriously I didn't mean any—"
"Concourse, Pioneer Supplies. Taped underneath the bench outside is a memory chip. Come alone. Once you have it, I'll contact you. 10 minutes. Don't. Fucking. Test. Me."
Maul abruptly ended the call and ignored as Carter continued to repeatedly send request after request.
All of five minutes had passed before Carter was seen jogging through the concourse from the lifts. Maul leaned over the railing, watching as he drunkenly stumbled up the stairs. Once in front of Pioneer Supplies, Carter fell to his stomach in front of the bench and desperately felt around for the memory chip, pulling it from it's previously adhered location. Maul immediately sent out a request as Carter fumbled to his feet, eventually collapsing onto the bench to catch his breath.
"Yeah man, I got it." Carter said between labored breaths.
"Good. Now take that chip to the Anansi, plug it into the command center terminal and upload the virus."
"No fuckin' shot!" Carter shouted as he stood from the bench, looking around the concourse franticly.
"Who the fuck even are you? They'll find you, you know?"
Maul turned around, leaning back on the railing with his front now facing away from Carter.
"Nah, they won't. If the breach is discovered, all evidence leads back to you."
"Well...well then fuck you then! I'm not doing it!" Said Carter, ending the call.
Maul stared at the dead waveform image in awe as the comms died. He turned back to look at Carter. Even at this distance, it was evident from his body language that the realization was beginning to set in. He had no choice.
Another request from Carter appeared on Maul's Insight HUD.
"Yeah, okay, if I don't do this, you send Vodan the video. Fuck man, you've got my balls inna vice here. "
"Glad we're on the same page now., Anyway, since the carrier is being repaired right now, there shouldn't be any prying eyes on board, and if there are, well, you're a member of Vodan's crew, no reason for anyone to think twice about seeing you, unless you give them a reason that is. I'm giving you three hours to figure something out. If I don't see the connection on my end by then, this video will be on every holo ad in the concourse. Get it done."
Maul closed the comms with a heavy sigh, only then noticing a message notification from Lambast.
"I’m leaving now, do you need more time, mister Montresor? I can find some way to entertain myself if required"
Removing his data slate from his jacket pocket, he sent along a reply.
Three hours max, working on something. Meet me back at your ship in 30, will give you the deets.