Chapter 21: Spit It Out
"Huu..."
Rhys picked up a bullet-riddled piece of cloth from the floor and carefully wiped the blood from his katana. He admired the weapon, a look of pure affection in his eyes. This thing... was incredible. A thousand times better than the combat knife he'd been using.
Then again, being too sharp and tough wasn't always a good thing. If he'd had this katana during the Biotechnica gig, he might have sliced through the wall too easily, and he and Sasha really would have had to take a leap of faith. The blade's thermal properties and monomolecular edge could cut through most standard metals with ease. It was a high-end Arasaka weapon, after all. The quality was undeniable.
"Stop admiring your new toy. Lead the way. We can't stay here," Maine's gruff voice snapped him out of it.
Rhys immediately came to his senses and led the crew into the chop shop's maintenance bay.
Rebecca darted past Maine, her eyes wide with excitement as she gazed upon the weapons in the open locker. She immediately started grabbing them. "Shingens, Tamayuras... and there are meds in here too!"
"Holy shit, we're gonna be rich!" she squealed with delight.
Maine stepped forward, his optics glowing as he scanned the contents of the locker. After a moment, a huge grin split his face. "She's right. We really hit the jackpot this time!"
"This one case... has to be worth at least fifty, no, sixty thousand eddies!"
"This hardware makes the risk worthwhile," Maine said, taking a deep breath. He looked at Rhys. "Grab all of it. We're leaving, now."
"Pilar's signal jammer is about to time out. 6th Street will know what happened here any second."
"Go, go, go!" Rebecca bent down and scooped up an armful of pistols. Dorio rolled her eyes. She wasn't a gun nut, but Rebecca's obsession with good hardware was almost a mania. Probably a lack of security, Dorio thought.
Kiwi, standing to the side, let out a low whistle. Sixty thousand... if she had sixty thousand eddies, the first thing she'd do is buy her own apartment. Then maybe find a less dangerous line of work.
"Let's go! Give Pilar the good news!"
With a wave of Maine's hand, the contents of the locker vanished into their bags. Rhys glanced over at Sasha, who was sitting in one of the netrunner chairs, and found her looking right back at him.
The netrunner smiled, her eyes crinkling. "What are you looking at?"
"What are you doing?"
"Wiping the data, cleaning our tracks," she said. She stood up, hands behind her back, and walked past him on her tiptoes.
Laden with loot and the target's "head," the crew returned to the garage.
And then, Maine's voice roared through the space. "FUCK! MY CAR!"
He stared mournfully at his beloved purple ride. The front end was caved in from the impact, and the body was riddled with bullet holes. It had been pristine when they left. Now it looked like it had been through a warzone.
They piled into the car. Maine drove, with Rhys, Kiwi, and Sasha squeezed into the back. Rebecca had taken her pile of treasures to go gloat to Pilar in the other vehicle.
As they sped down the highway, the mood in the car was tense. The score was huge, but with great profit came great risk.
"This isn't over," Maine said, his tone serious. "We have to find that fixer and get some answers. If we were any other crew, a gig like this would have gotten us all flatlined."
"He screwed us. And he has our info. When the corps start investigating, there's no way he won't sell us out."
Kiwi looked up at Maine, her voice cold. "The job's done. You're getting scared now?"
Maine shot her a look. He understood her attitude, he really did. But understanding didn't mean he had to accept it. Kiwi had been throwing out cynical comments since the start. If she hadn't actually helped during the breach and run the counter-intrusion, Maine would have already chewed her out. He already considered her part of the crew, one of his people.
Still, his voice was laced with annoyance when he replied. "If you don't have a better solution, then shut your mouth and let me handle it. Kiwi, we're in this together now. Understand?"
Kiwi fell silent, obediently closing her mouth.
"Rhys, I might have to ask you for another favor."
"What is it?" Rhys was sitting in the middle, Sasha on his left and Kiwi on his right. The car's frame had been bent in the crash, making the back seat even more cramped. To avoid sitting on either of their laps, he was leaning forward, his hands braced on the backs of Maine and Dorio's seats.
"Ask Susan if she can help us find the fixer. We can't get to him on our own," Maine said seriously. Most of the crew's gigs came through Pilar, usually from personal contacts or online posts. They rarely had direct contact with high-level fixers. And even if they did, finding them was another challenge entirely. For mercs at their level, a fixer was basically a client-king. You didn't just get an audience.
"Alright, I'll ask her now," Rhys nodded.
Maine's request made sense. The Mox might be a small player in Night City's gang scene, mocked by others as a "doll support group," but they were an established power with their own turf and businesses. Maine was a strong operator, definitely in the upper tier of street mercs—Rhys figured he was way tougher than Jackie from the game—but compared to the Mox's top enforcers, he was outclassed.
Anna Nox, one of the Mox's top lieutenants, was their main heavy hitter, handling their chop shop and most of Susan's dirty work on the street. She and Rita were the soul of the gang. And in a straight fight, she was even tougher than Rita.
How tough? In the game, Anna was a cyberpsycho who had probably wrecked countless players. Discharge Mantis Blades, a Sandevistan, double-jump capabilities, subdermal armor... that was her loadout. Of course, the main reason she went psycho in the game was the immense pressure she was under. But now, thanks to the butterfly effect of Rhys's presence, Anna had enough downtime that her mental state was stable. She wouldn't be going over the edge.
Before he'd gotten the thermal katana and his "Potential Overdrive" skill, Rhys wouldn't have been confident in taking Anna on. Now, things were different. With his skill active and this blade in his hand, he was pretty sure he could slice her in two. Not that he ever would. Anna had been good to him.
In the car, Maine and Dorio were silent. Kiwi, however, was looking at Rhys. The Mox... Of course she knew about the Mox. Before becoming a solo netrunner, she'd been forced to work as a doll for a time. She'd already had some hacking skills back then, and she'd used them to shield her own emotions from the trauma of the work. She respected the Mox. Every lowlife, every doll on the street knew what that gang stood for.
And now, from what Maine was saying, Rhys had a connection to the Mox's leader, Susan Q? That woman was a major player. Kiwi watched Rhys, holding her breath.
After a moment, Rhys's eyes glowed yellow as he initiated a call.
"Yeah?"
Susan's calm, impassive face appeared in his vision. "Spit it out."
"I'm in a bit of trouble. I need your help," Rhys said, getting straight to the point.
Susan paused, then spoke quickly. "Location. I'll send Anna and Rita to pick you..."
"No need. It's not that bad yet. And besides, if it was, what could Anna and Rita do? Susan, I'm telling you again, I'm strong now. I'm the strongest one in the Mox, not Anna."
Rhys shook his head, cutting her off before she could say something like, I already kicked you out, don't come crawling back. "It's about the crew. Maine took a gig, and we got screwed over by the fixer. His street name is Janus. Can you get me his info?"
"Is it serious?"
"It involves the Tyger Claws, and maybe a corporation," Rhys said.
"I'll call you back later," Susan said, and ended the call.
Maine, his hands on the wheel, turned his head to look at Rhys. "So, what's the deal between you and Susan?"
"Maine, could you please watch the road?" Rhys said, exasperated.
"I'm just curious. That day I met you, it didn't seem like she liked you much. But now... was I wrong?"
"She obviously cares about you a lot," Maine observed.
Rhys just shrugged.
His relationship with Susan... For Rhys, Susan was like that family member who had a razor-sharp tongue but was secretly always looking out for you. An elder, maybe? She was infuriating, yes. But she was also family.