Yelling about it was not something that worked on me. I was not going to yell at them either. We could go leisurely over to Neo-Rutten and Volta to see if there were any of them in need of rescue or assistance. I decided to just make a simple party to do something. We had more than enough members in the clan to run the businesses we had and still mobilize somewhere. I was going to take Maroon, Ryder, Sunny, Lucy and Cecil. We got in a big van and made our way to Neo-Rutten City. It was up to us to ask the grunts on the street. It was hard to figure out how to get them to talk. Some of them needed to be bribed to lead us to someone who could help. It was easy for me to do that. I just gave them some X-wombs and semen replicators. A small cafe on a small street near the industrial district was set up by a couple of mid-tier PEP units. It seemed to be a neutral space for certain syndicates and scrappers and reprogrammers to trade and interact with the bolder of the PEP units. I gave them all the full blueprints to the XF-02F model. They looked like I gave them a million dollars.
It was unlikely that these grunts would ever be able to build one. However, if they were clever, they could leverage the blueprints to better their station in life. If they found a big PEP unit clan, they could join them if they were coming with a full set of X-frame blueprints. "We need to go over there and flip these blueprints right away. Come with us to the cafe." one of them said. Our group went with them. When we got to the cafe they went to their own table. "We go to the different tables and look for good information. We leave when I leave." I instructed. I went to the counter and bought a cookie. "Thanks for the patronage." the female cyborg at the register said. I walked down over to a table and sat with some strangers. They looked at me. There was a PEP unit and a couple of humans. "What brings you here, friend?" one of the humans said. "I'm looking for a deal with Libra Force. Seems the ones that can be talked to don't know enough to make anything happen. I want a guy higher up. Know anybody like that?" I asked. They looked at me. "You need to grease some palms." one said.
Zipping around the city for dozens of fetch quests was not something that I wanted to do. Luckily, I was one of the richest people on the continent. "I can pay anything that I need to. Don't worry." The other human said "You did come in with a large group. Some of them couldn't have been 'borgs, could they? That would be interesting." I looked at him and raised an eyebrow. "You hate PEP units, but come out of your way to relax here?" I asked. He chuckled. "You're getting me all wrong. I do love them. I wish I could have one for myself. I have some new algorithms that I would love to try out on one of them." "Most humans would shy away from someone so gleeful at the prospect of poking through their heads." I said mockingly. He shrugged and said "Yeah. Maybe. But a human would die. Cyborgs are a bit... better. I have gotten close enough to them for sex, but they all run for the hills when I bring up the topic. I wish I had someone willing to let me experiment." I handed him a full set of blueprints for the XF-10F. "Drip feed them. The more desperate will take it." he just chuckled.
I leaned closer. "I've done you a solid. I want a treat in the form of information." His eyes narrowed. "You're new to the area. I don't know if these are real or not. You need to let me try this out. Come back tomorrow." he said in a dismissive tone. "You don't trust me?" I asked. "In this line of work, you always trust and verify." That made a lot of sense. "Fine. I am curious about how it all works." I looked at the PEP unit. She did not look kind to me at the moment. Probably because I just sold out her kind. "Do you have any information where I could find a Libra Force fixer? It would be helpful." I asked. "No. I don't do work with those guys." she told me. I finished my cookie and got up. I looked at the reprogrammer and said "I'll see you tomorrow." I went to the door and I saw everyone in my party get up to leave as well. Once we were a few blocks away, I asked if they got any new information. They got nothing that we could use. I told them about my lead. Due to that, we spent the whole day looking around the city for Libra Force. We did not see them. We returned to the cafe the next day.
