Chapter 23: So Now We're Tangled Up with Night Corp, Too?
"Alright, enough of that talk. Drink!"
Maine raised his glass.
Just as Rhys was about to pick up his own drink, he got a call.
"It's Susan," Rhys said, looking at Maine.
Maine immediately sat up straight, his eyes wide, signaling for Rhys to take it.
Rhys accepted the call, patching it to a private channel.
"Rhys, are you fucking insane?"
The call connected, and Susan's low, furious roar filled his head. Before he could even respond, she unleashed on him.
"Wasn't your mess with the Tyger Claws enough? Now you're picking fights with 6th Street, too? Fine! You're a big shot now. Korna and I can't control you. But what the hell are you thinking, getting tangled up in Arasaka and Militech's business? Are you trying to get yourself flatlined?"
"I told you to get out so you could lay low, not so you could go play merc! Let me tell you, that's not an option. You get your ass back to the Mox, now!"
Rhys lowered his own voice. "I will come back, Susan. But not right now."
"What?" Susan took a deep breath, her voice turning to ice. "Is it that same old bullshit of yours? You going to get on your moral high horse and criticize me again? This is clearly Maine's mess. I'm already doing him a favor by not going after him. What more do you want?"
"A man's gotta have loyalty..." Rhys's voice weakened. He wasn't arguing with her, because he could tell she was genuinely angry. And he knew that anger was coming from a place of fear for his safety.
"Loyalty? How many eddies is that worth?" Susan yelled. "Don't you forget the time your damn empathy made you run off to save some random gonk, and I was the one who got hurt!"
"..." Rhys suddenly went silent.
His silence made Susan pause. She collected herself. When her image reappeared in his vision, she was rubbing her temples, a look of helplessness in her eyes.
"Don't overthink it," she said, her voice softer. "I'm not blaming you for that. I'm trying to tell you that you've known Maine and his crew for a few days. You don't need to risk your life for them. Come back to the Mox, and I'll handle the fallout."
"This 'Janus' guy is easy to deal with. But what's the point? You and your damn crew are already caught up in corpo shit. They won't hit you directly, but that's not because they're afraid of you. It's because they can't be bothered to waste their time on you!"
She was being diplomatic. Can't be bothered really meant You're not even worth the bullets it would take to clean you up. A handful of street mercs? Why would a mega-corp waste the energy?
"Say something! Are you flatlined over there?!" Susan's short fuse was back, her voice sharp.
Rhys looked at Maine in front of him, then at Sasha beside him. The netrunner was watching him, and when their eyes met, she tilted her head, a flicker of worry in her eyes. He's going back? Back to the Mox?
Not just Sasha—Maine had opened his mouth, then closed it again. He was watching Rhys, his expression carefully neutral. He would respect his choice.
"But Susan," Rhys finally said, "if I really do run back now, would you still respect me?"
The reason Susan and Korna valued him wasn't because he was some preem operator. When he first started, he was just an average kid, weaker than half the dolls in the Mox. But even back then, they had watched out for him.
The reason was his character.
He knew his worldview didn't fit in this city. But after more than twenty years of living in a peaceful world, he just couldn't accept this one. Fuck the cogs, fuck the corps, fuck this whole world. Everyone, even Rita, had told him to ditch his empathy, to become a "normal" person.
But as far as he was concerned, wasn't he the normal one? His refusal to change was his way of remembering, of proving to himself that he had lived in another, better world. He held onto that empathy, fighting as hard as he could to keep Night City from swallowing him whole.
Susan was silent. After a long moment, she ground out one word: "Gonk."
Rhys smiled. "Yeah, well. You've always had a soft spot for gonks like me, haven't you?"
He was confident about that. He was a good person. Even now, with blood on his hands—and he couldn't be sure all of it was from hostiles—he believed he hadn't lost himself. In Night City, that made him a good person. And even the worst people... they'd rather be around a good person, right? Bad people don't even like being around other bad people.
"Go to hell," Susan said, a reluctant laugh escaping her. She got back to business. "I'll send you Janus's address. Rhys, this isn't as simple as you think. He's been in contact with a corpo-dog from Night Corp. Which means this gig of yours, it probably came from that suit. If you're smart, you and your crew will keep your heads down. Act like nothing happened. The worst-case scenario is your names end up on some corpo's shit-list, and he forgets about you in a few days."
"Remember, this is between the corps. It's got nothing to do with small-timers like you. Unless you make it their business. But 6th Street... they'll definitely come looking for you. Don't expect me to clean up that mess."
Her final words were: "That's all I have to say. Stay safe."
She cut the connection.
As Rhys's optics returned to normal, Maine immediately leaned in. "Well?"
Rhys nodded. "She sent the address. Let me check." He pulled up the file. "Got it. A commercial district apartment in Heywood. Sending you the location now."
He forwarded the data to Maine, who closed his eyes to review it. A moment later, they snapped open. He looked at Rhys, his voice low. "We hit him tonight. Think we can take him?"
"The file says he's got ties to Night Corp. You sure you want to do this?" Rhys asked.
Maine nodded, his voice calm. "What choice do we have? We're already on the corps' gray-list. Zeroing this guy won't change anything. And what kind of ties could he have? He's a mid-level fixer, not a major player like Father in Heywood, Wakako in Japantown, or the Queen of the Afterlife. They have corpo connections. But Janus? He's nobody."
"We mercs rely on fixers to eat, sure. But that's only until they push us too far."
"Worst case," Maine said, "I'll come join your gang with you."
Rhys was stunned for a second, then just nodded.
Kiwi, however, suddenly spoke up, her voice sharp. "Night Corp? So this isn't over? Now we're tangled up with Night Corp, too?"
She shot an icy glare at Maine, then at Rhys. "Will this shit ever fucking end?"
Rebecca, who had been oblivious to the entire conversation, just stared at Kiwi. "Is this what you're really like? I never realized you were such a complainer."
Kiwi choked. "...Am I? This is me being pissed off!"
Rhys and Maine looked at each other, and both burst out laughing.
"So," Maine said after the laughter died down, "when are you going back?"
Rhys looked at him and shrugged. "Not for a while. The merc life is... interesting. I'm not done with it yet."
Maine's face split into a huge, genuine grin, revealing a row of white teeth. "Then settle in, choom," he said, his voice full of rough sincerity. "I'll make sure you get all the action you can handle."
"I'm looking forward to it," Rhys replied with a smile.