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The drive to the garage where the client's car was supposed to be was calm, in comfortable silence. Well, almost silence, as the Night City radio was playing, looping news reports. What can I say, someone was having fun in the city again, as Max-Tac had been called out five times in twenty-four hours to different parts of the city to solve extremely difficult problems.
Something caught my eye, and I sharply pulled my hand toward the handbrake, yanking it up, which sent the car into a skid. That didn't bother me much, unlike Panam.
"You!"
She turned to me with a furious look, but she immediately went silent when the car that had driven a little further took a Max-Tac officer onto its roof...
Naturally, the car couldn't handle that kind of impact and crumpled, but the officer from the special police unit calmly got off the car and held out his hand in our direction and the direction of the others who had managed to stop.
"The road ahead is closed. Max-Tac is at work."
"That's..."
"Yeah... it looks like the habit of working with the Sandevistan allowed me to notice the danger and react to it. It's a shame I can't understand what exactly I noticed... maybe some kind of shadow..."
"Maybe..."
The girls looked absolutely stunned by the turn of events. I turned to Panam.
"So what did you want to say?"
"Uh... well... thank you?"
I grinned slightly.
"I'll pretend I believed you."
Panam frowned.
"Alright... I was going to lose my shit because you pulled the handbrake and tell you everything I thought about that. But as it turns out, you were right in that situation, and I can stick my outrage up my ass, because if you hadn't pulled the handbrake, our car could have ended up like that one..."
"I don't give a damn about the car..."
I shrugged.
"The problem is that we probably wouldn't survive a collision like that. And the car could actually survive it... but that would just mean a Max-Tac officer would attack us and shoot us for violating the cordoned-off area."
"Ugh..."
Judy shook her head, as Panam was speechless from the horrifying truth I had just stated—that I didn't care about the car—and could only open and close her mouth.
"This is Night City, a city where the police act first and then beat a confession out of the victims... and it doesn't matter whether they're guilty or not. And no one can do anything about it... even I couldn't, until you told me that fighting the system is pointless. You have to fight the specific cogs that can be replaced in the system, and that's why the system won't defend them so fiercely."
"David! Apologize to Thorton 2 right now!"
I looked at Panam in surprise.
"Panam, I really like our car. I really like what you've turned it into, because from an ordinary, not-very-comfortable car, it's become very comfortable for a large group like ours..."
Panam was nodding happily.
"But if I have to choose between your lives and Thorton 2, I'll choose your lives, because we can create Thorton 3 and Thorton 5, or any number of cars! But no one can replace you..."
"You know, Panam, you're overreacting..."
Kiwi decided to join the conversation.
"...we all like Thorton 2, but choosing between it and us..."
"You! All of you!"
"Panam, stop acting like a fool..."
I sighed, and she shook her head.
"Well, there... I can't even joke anymore. We're going to be stuck here for forty minutes anyway, because we can't drive forward, and we can't back up. So we have to find something to do..."
"Well..."
Becca gave a suggestive grin.
"I, as the most petite one, can fit in front of David at his feet and suck on a lollipop..."
"Becca..."
I sighed.
"...I would happily let you have my 'lollipop,' but knowing you, you definitely have a lollipop on a stick in your pocket, and once you got settled at my feet, you'd probably start licking that one."
"Who do you take me for... hey! What are you doing?!"
Lucy and Judy lunged at Becca and soon pulled a couple of regular lollipops and one on a stick out of her pockets.
"Well, there..."
She pouted, but I could see it wasn't for real.
"Well, we can spend some time training... we haven't studied all the training shards yet..."
"Well..."
I shrugged.
"You can... " I nodded at the girls in the back seat, "but Panam and I are out of luck. Who knows how long these 'fighters for justice' will need to dismantle another cyberpsycho..."
"Well, yeah... they could be done in five minutes, or they could be messing around for two or three hours, calling for backup one after another..."
Panam nodded, confirming my words and voicing her thoughts on the matter.
"Hmm... alright, then..."
In the end, Judy, Kiwi, Lucy, and Becca dove into studying the shards, and Panam and I got into a relaxed conversation about a random topic. Well, not entirely random; we were taking small bets on how long we would be stuck here, and also on how many Max-Tac representatives would be zeroed out.
About an hour passed like that until a Max-Tac av flew up and took the officer who was blocking the road away.
The car quietly roared to life and drove on. I looked to the side and noticed an ambulance, which had clearly gotten here by driving against traffic, loading the body of the psycho into a large van. And that's how Gloria used to work... ugh...
Only a few years have passed, but it feels like ten years have flown by since I came into this world...
I closed my eyes and got lost in my memories... memories of how I started and how I met Judy and Panam...
"What are you grinning about?"
"Oh, nothing..."
I shrugged.
"The sight of the ambulance brought back so many memories..."
I shook my head.
"...including the first time I met each of you."
"And?"
"Well... I only had positive feelings for you and Judy. But Kiwi, Lucy, and Becca... well, it was everything from suspicion to annoyance... I quickly changed my mind about those girls, though."
"I see..."
The car, meanwhile, finally reached the destination, and I had to snap the girls out of their concentration. After that, I went to complete the job, and the girls waited for access to the garage's systems. Or rather, several garages, since we were in a kind of garage area, and I had to check all of it to find where they were keeping the client's car and figure out if they had found the Samurai disc or not...
I crouched a little, jumped onto the roof of the nearest garage, and calmly used my optics to look over the nearby garage bays. The car I needed wasn't there, and neither were any people, so I continued to walk across the roofs, slightly hunched over.
Ten minutes passed, and now I was standing next to five garages that were right next to each other and connected. And inside were not only the client's car but two other cars, as well as about twenty people. Some of them were working on the cars, some were standing outside the garages, and some were guarding the cars inside...
I activated my Sandevistan and quickly jumped off the roof, zeroing out the first opponents who were outside the garages, slotting shards into them. After that, I calmly walked up to a small door that led inside the garage, and after opening it, I went inside...
Ten minutes of subjective time, and I had put all the Sixth Street gang members to sleep. But the disc wasn't here, unlike the car.
"David... the disc has already been bought..."
"Oh, really?"
"Uh-huh... and you won't believe who bought it."
"Well... if you're asking like that, I can guess that Hanako Arasaka did it."
"Nope..."
Kiwi laughed out loud at my guess, denying that it was correct. I wasn't expecting to guess who bought the rare recording on the first try, though.
"Saburo?"
"Stop joking..."
Lucy joined the conversation.
"I'm not joking... it's just that if the question is about a person who could buy the disc, and who I would find hard to believe... "
I shrugged, even though the girls couldn't see it, and at the same time, I opened one of the garage doors that was right in front of the young, gambling-addicted idiot's car. The car was clearly very expensive.
"Girls, just look at that beauty..."
Panam couldn't help herself, and after connecting to my optics with the runners, she whistled when she saw the Rayfield Caliburn, the car I was supposed to return to its owner.
"Quiet Man, you'll let me..."
"Cherry, won't your Thorton 2 get jealous?"
"Well... I'll work it out with Thorton 2. So?"
"Of course I'll let you..."
I sighed.
"...to be honest, I'm a little nervous about driving a car like that myself. No, I could do it, but it wouldn't be as cool as when you're behind the wheel."
"That's good..."
I got into the car and started it.
"It purrs like a kitten..."
"Hey!"
"Cherry, I'll drive the car out of this garage maze anyway, but you'll drive it on the highway and the city streets."
"And where to?"
The car quietly purred as it drove out of the garage and stopped.
"Ladies?"
"We're done; we don't need the shards anymore."
After I got that info, I immediately pulled out all the shards, and after that, I got back in the car and slowly drove out of the garage area in the very expensive car.
Panam was already waiting for me at the exit.
"Get out!"
I grinned and got out of the car. Panam immediately got behind the wheel, and she opened the passenger door for me.
"Uh..."
"Bookworm can handle the car."
I nodded in understanding and got into the passenger seat.
"So, are you giving up?"
"Well... out of the unbelievable options... Rogue?"
"And why would she send us to steal the recording, then?"
"Well, I wouldn't know that..."
I shrugged, and the car door closed. Then it started with a screech of tires, and I was pressed against the seat. I frantically reached for the seatbelt and managed to click it in with some difficulty.
"Woo-hoo!"
"Are you out of options?"
"Nancy? I mean, our client's mom."
"Nope... but you're getting closer..."
"Closer? Then maybe Kerry?"
"Bingo!"
Judy happily confirmed that I was right, and I groaned.
"Panam, we're going to the Afterlife."
"Hmm?"
"Rogue can deliver the car herself, and with the recording... I doubt she'd be happy if we broke into Kerry's place and stole the recording from him. So I'll talk to her first."
"Alright..."
I put the conversation with the girls on hold and called Rogue.
"Quiet Man?"
"We've run into a bit of a snag here..."
"A snag? You did?"
"Uh-huh... we'll deliver the car to the Afterlife, but with the disc..."
"What about the disc?"
"It's already been sold."
"And what's the problem? I'm guessing the buyer is the problem? Because the idea of simply stealing the recording from the buyer is the obvious next step."
"Uh-huh... the buyer is Eurodyne."
"Heh..."
Rogue let out a heavy sigh.
"...ugh... that's a problem... I wouldn't want to steal from him. Alright, I'll contact him and talk to him. I think he won't refuse me the right to buy the disc back and return it to its owner. Drive the car to the Afterlife; I'll hand it over to that idiot myself, along with the disc."
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