Chapter 15: Will There Even Be a Lucy Now?
Evening. David sat at the dining table with his mother, eating a cheap dinner of pre-packaged meals he'd bought from the building's vending machine.
The conversation started with school, with Gloria endlessly asking David about his day, before slowly drifting to their new neighbors.
"David, you can hang out with Rhys, but I want you to stay away from that Sasha woman," Gloria said, out of the blue.
David looked up from his food, a suspicious look on his face. "Weren't you the one who told me to go say hello? What's this about now?"
Gloria sighed. "Don't think I don't know what you've got on your mind, kiddo. Those braindances you've got stashed under your bed? You think I haven't seen them?"
She knew her son too well. The moment she'd seen Sasha, one word had flashed in her mind: edgerunner. And a skilled one at that. Her outfit might have screamed cute high-schooler, but the faint lines of her cybernetic implants, the bulge of a holstered pistol on her thigh, and the feel of her grip when they shook hands had told Gloria everything she needed to know. Her instincts for that sort of thing were razor-sharp.
"You went through my room again!" David shot to his feet, his face flushing with anger. He was a normal, healthy teenager. In two months, he'd be sixteen. Was it really so strange for him to watch... those kinds of things? Braindances filled with violence, sex, anything to get the blood pumping.
"Sit down. I didn't say you couldn't watch them," Gloria said, her tone weary. She looked at her son. "But watching and interacting are two different things. I'll allow you to watch, but I forbid you from getting involved with them."
"David, your future is in a corporation. Once you graduate from the Academy, you'll have a job at Arasaka. Your life is going to be different from theirs."
David opened his mouth to argue, but then he saw the exhaustion etched on his mother's face and the EMT uniform she was already wearing. He closed it. She was about to leave for work again. She had only been home for a few hours, but she had to be on shift before seven. If she was lucky, she'd be back in the morning and sleep until the afternoon. If not, she wouldn't be back until the next afternoon.
Seeing his silence, a flicker of regret crossed Gloria's face, but she quickly suppressed it.
"I know how they treat you," she said softly. "Because I've been through the same thing."
"Getting into a mega-corp is the only way out for people like us. It's the only way to make a stable living, to achieve... freedom." Her voice grew quieter, as if she could barely convince herself. But she said it anyway, looking at David with fierce determination.
Seeing her son's continued silence, Gloria added, "But you can try talking to Rhys. He seems like a normal person."
David looked at his mother, exasperated. He wanted to ask her what, exactly, a "normal person" was in a city where you could get zeroed at any moment, where everyone was one bad day away from going psycho. He had a thousand arguments he could make, but he knew he couldn't.
She was a single mother struggling in a city of vast, insurmountable class divides. No one, not even David, knew what she had to do to get a "slum kid" into Arasaka Academy. So, he just lowered his head and quietly ate his food.
Gloria gathered her things, walked over to David, and ruffled his hair, giving him a tired smile. Then she left.
After she was gone, David finished his meal in silence. He didn't clear the table right away, just sat there for ten minutes, staring into space. Finally, he got up numbly and began to clean.
When everything was done, he collapsed onto the sofa and slowly closed his eyes.
"Whatever... It's not like I have a dream anyway."
...
Megabuilding H4, Apartment 603.
Her black hair fanned out around her, Sasha was lying upside-down on the sofa, her head hanging off the edge. Beneath her pink eyeshadow, her optics glowed orange—the color of an active comms link.
The light faded, and she flipped upright, crossing her legs as she looked at Rhys, who was eating. "Maine says he's bringing the new recruit here tomorrow."
"Here? Why?" Rhys asked, confused.
"Because you don't have a ride. And Pilar just picked up another gig. Some choom got himself into trouble with a gang. Maine says it's a preem job. An extraction from a 6th Street garage."
Sasha continued, "One-hundred twenty thousand eddies if he's alive, fifty thousand if he's dead."
"A dead body is worth that much?" Rhys's eyes lit up.
Seeing his sudden excitement, Sasha just blinked at him. "?"
"It's not the body that's valuable," she said, tapping her own head. "It's the data."
"What time tomorrow morning?"
"Around seven. We'll do some recon on the area first. I'll need to sync up with the new girl, figure out her style."
"Why did Maine suddenly decide we need another netrunner?" Rhys asked, a thoughtful look on his face. Something didn't feel right. According to the original Edgerunners timeline, Kiwi and Lucy only joined after Sasha... died. And it was Kiwi first, then Lucy. But Sasha was sitting right in front of him. So why was Maine recruiting now?
Sasha looked at Rhys and suddenly smiled.
"What's so funny?"
What's so funny? she thought. I'm laughing because you said 'we,' not 'you.'
But she didn't call him on it. She was afraid if she did, he'd go cold again and start talking about "your team," insisting he hadn't joined. She was starting to figure him out. Rhys was just like Rebecca. But where Rebecca used a fiery temper to hide her soft heart, Rhys used distance. In Night City, kindness was the most dangerous and worthless currency.
"Maine thinks we can't rely on just one deckhead for the big jobs," Sasha explained. "During an infiltration, one netrunner needs a backup to watch their six while they're in the net. I don't think I need it—what happened the other day was a one-off—but I'm not in a position to argue."
"After all, I'm the one who caused the trouble," she said with a shrug, her tone unconcerned. She was skilled, and she wasn't afraid of a little competition.
Rhys nodded. "Okay, I get it. I'll call Maine later."
So that's why Maine's crew eventually had two netrunners. It was because of Sasha...
Wait, a thought struck him. If this is how it's going... will there even be a Lucy now?
He fell into a deep, contemplative silence.
"Well, it's getting late. I should head back," Sasha said, standing up and slipping on her shoes.
Rhys stood up as well. He hesitated for a moment, then said, "You want me to walk you home?"
The netrunner turned,眯ing her eyes at him. "Are you worried something will happen to me, or do you just want to know where I live?"
"Never mind, then."
"Who said I didn't want you to? But do you know how to ride a motorcycle?"
"What do you mean?"
"Gonk. If you walk me to my place, how are you going to get back? You don't have a ride. Here, just take my bike."
As she spoke, she tossed something at him.
Rhys caught it instinctively. It was a key fob, a smart button, and... a cute maneki-neko charm. He closed his hand around it.
The apartment door was already open. Sasha had already added her biometrics to his security system right in front of him earlier. She could come and go as she pleased.
"Well? You coming or what?"
Rhys looked down at the key in his hand, then followed her out the door.