Stray Cat Strut

Chapter Thirty-Seven - The Rolodex Gambit

Chapter Thirty-Seven - The Rolodex Gambit

"There are some things that are just... you know, common decency? Nice things to do. You don't need to do them, but it doesn't hurt anyone, doesn't take a lot of effort, and it makes people just a little happier. So, yeah, open doors for people, nod to them when passing by, say hello to the person behind the counter, take off your shoes on entering someone's house, and just be a little more polite."

--A Man's Guide to Living Good, 2038

***

"So, how many gangs are there, across New Montreal?" I asked.

Franny shrugged, still while holding her coffee close. "No way of knowing, really. Maybe ten thousand?"

"Gangs?" I asked. "No, wait, I guess that makes sense. Most are probably small-fries, right?"

"Yeah. Most are like, a few people that hang out. They technically count, but they're not what you imagine when you think of a gang," Franny said. "But if you're talking about big gangs, of like a thousand or more people? There's probably a hundred of those in the city, maybe a bit more."

"That's some easy math there," I said. "A hundred thousand gang-members in the city? That's... like, a significant chunk. And it's not counting members of those smaller gangs as well. Fuck, we're never going to be able to handle all of that."

"Right... I guess it's not like we need to arrest them all. Just give them a slap on the wrist and a reminder not to fuck shit up." I leaned back a bit, then nodded to myself. "Yeah, okay. So the best would be to contact all the leaders of those gangs, right?"

"That couldn't hurt," Franny said. "No idea how you'd manage that. Though..."

"Though?" I asked.

"There's a way to set something up. It's happened a few times before. I think the last time was during the VV crisis."

"What's VV, nya?" Nya asked.

Franny frowned. "They don't have that in Japan?"

Nya shrugged. "Nya is high on life!"

"Right, uh... right. Anyway, VV, or vee-vee, is short for Velvet Valium. It's not actually valium, it's some sort of synthetic benzodiazepine derivative," she said, pronouncing that last bit very carefully. I was impressed she knew the name offhand. "There was a huge lab that produced it by the ton down in Mega City New York, and it started to become popular here. Anyway, the gangs, a few of the bigger ones at least, called a sort of conclave? They talked it over and banned the sale of it. Strung up a few guys from smaller gangs trying to peddle it here. It's still around, but not super common."

"That's altruistic of them," I said.

Franny snorted indelicately. "No. Not at all. The drug of choice in New Montreal is CVV. Uh, that's 'Ca Vas Vite.'"

"It goes fast in French?" I asked as I translated it.

"Yeah. You ever seen people on the streets with external cyberware? It looks like a sort of small sack built into a sticky-bangadge?"

I nodded. I'd seen something like that before, sure. They were these off-white patches that people stuck to their arms or thighs. The middle part was some semi-transparent plastic, with some sort of little bulb in it. ṙἈ₦ꝊВÈS

"Yeah, that's a Cathinones patch. It injects a slow-drip of drugs into the user over the course of like, a day. The more they use, the faster they set the drip. It's called Rush out west. A mix of like, old-school bath salts and nootropics. It makes everything feel slow around you."

"You can just buy speedware that does that," Nya said. "Quick little brain surgery. No drugs required. It's much safer, nya!"

"So, this conclave thing," I said, getting back to the point. "What happened with the last one?"

"That was like, six, seven years ago," Franny said. "But nothing bad happened? A neutral ground was picked, I think one of the big casinos on the south shore, and the meeting happened. I don't think anyone died, and none of the Tcorpos or police interfered. I think the conclave before that one was back during the second-last local incursion, about ten years ago? There was a small outbreak near the city."

"Don't remember that one," I muttered before shuddering. "Anyway. Yeah, let's do that, then?"

Franny eyed me. "I know I was kind of leading to it, but do you really think you can just call for all the gangs to meet up?"

"Sure," I said. "Why wouldn't they want to listen? I mean, besides the fact that what we're trying to sell them is in their best interest."

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"Is it?" Delilah asked. "We'll be telling them to not act in their best interest. We want them to stop pushing for more territory and power."

"I meant more... it's in their best interest, because if they don't do what we say, we'll have no choice but to act in our own best interest, and then a lot of them will die."

"Ah," Delilah said. She considered it for a moment before nodding. "That's reasonable enough."

"Cool," I said. "So, how do we call one of these conclaves?"

"I have no idea," Franny said.

I blinked. "Really?"

"Yeah, obviously," she said. "I'm not secretly the daughter of some big-shot gang lord. I just know these things because I volunteer to help a lot and that sometimes means bumping heads with some gangs. I don't have the leaders of the gangs in my rolodex."

What the fuck is a rolodex? "Yeah, that's fair," I said. "Maybe we can pop over to that casino and see what they have to say? They've got to be linked with someone important if they were chosen last time?"

"That seems reasonable," Delilah said. "But don't start gambling away everything you have while you're there."

"Hey now. I got burned on gacha games once, and it was enough to turn me off on gambling forever," I said.

"Nya... likes gambling. She has rolled all the five stars," Nya said. "But it's okay. Nya is good at winning!"

"That's how they get you," I said. "But yeah... so, anyone wanna go to a casino?"

"Right now?" Delilah asked.

"Or tomorrow, or the day after. I figure sooner is better than later when we're dealing with shit that could hurt the whole city, but we also can't stop to fix every little problem."

"You'd end up with a Chocolate problem," Franny said.

"A what?" I asked.

She stared at me for a moment. "Chocolate? Famous Brazilian samurai from like, the 30s? She basically ran around and tried to fix everything, and within a year it ended up with an entire city in something like martial law. It was a pretty big issue. She wasn't bad or anything, it's just that she was taking on so many things at once that eventually she had to shut down the city to make it work again. It was a mess."

"And what happened?"

"City's prosperous now, but a lot of people complained," Franny said.

"I can live with people bitching."

"I feel like you missed the entire point of what I said," Franny said.

Delilah smiled. "It's Cat," she replied.

"Anyway. If we're done not-so-subtly insulting my lack of knowledge of random trivia, can we move on? Big meeting. We get all of the gangs together, or at least some of their leaders, and we lay down the law. We tell them that we don't care if they rebel a little bit, but they need to keep it within... reasonable limits."

"And those would be?" Delilah asked.

"I dunno, I'm not the smart one here. You figure that part out, and I'll do the harder task of encouraging them all to show up, alright?"

Delilah nodded. "Fine. I can do that."

"Really? I mean, yeah, good. I've got some meetings with a few of the other newbies in the city coming up. I'll ask them to show up."

"How many samurai are going to be there?" Franny asked.

"Me, Gom, Nya here maybe. I can probably drag Shy along. Maybe two more?" I asked. "Do we need more?"

Franny took a long, slow sip of her coffee. "No, I think five to six people able to summon nukes all in one place is enough to get the message across."

Right, that was a lot of firepower, wasn't it? Some cities only had three or four samurai in total. My friends were mostly newbies, but others wouldn't know that at first glance. All in all, we would be representing a fuck load of potential danger.

"Yeah, that ought to do it," I said. "Anyway, it's approaching the time where I need to go pick Lucy up. I'll ping you about shit tomorrow, alright?"

"Sure," Delilah said. "I'll see you out."

She did just that, escorting me and Nya to the door. "Was nice seeing you again," I said. "We need to chill out together more."

"Yes, but every time I end up near you, something tries to eat me."

"Hey now, sometimes that thing might be a cute redheaded nun," I said.

Delilah sighed. "I'll see you tomorrow, Catherine. And next time, take your shoes off at the door. You're not a barbarian."

***