Chapter 36: You Picked the Wrong Pocket
David tensed up immediately. "Wait! I-I don't have that much cash on me!"
"You're wearing an Arasaka Academy uniform and telling me you're broke?" the dealer sneered. "You taking me for a gonk? Hand over the eddies, or I'll blow your fucking head off! If I wasn't worried about Trauma Team and whoever's backing you coming after me, you'd already be flatlined!"
David stared, stunned. Friend? He thought they were almost friends. He'd messaged this guy countless times, asking about the latest black-market BDs. But now... it sounded like the dealer had been planning this all along.
"What are you looking at?! Don't push me, Martinez! If I wasn't scared of the heat killing you would bring down, you'd already be dead! Do you know what kids like you are to us? Fat, stupid sheep! Fuck it, maybe I'll just dump your body with the Scavs, let them deal with you!"
He was bluffing, mostly. He was just a BD dealer, not a Scav or some Maelstrom psycho. But he'd dealt with David long enough to know the kid was soft, despite the fancy uniform. Maybe he was scared of his family finding out about his BD habit. Still, killing him was out of the question. Too much risk. But shaking him down for some extra eddies? That was definitely doable.
One-fifty eddies? No, screw that. Fifteen thousand eddies! He'd take the cash, block the kid, and David would be too scared to report it.
Rhys hadn't planned on getting involved, but seeing the guy try to extort David, combined with the fact that Mox turf rules strictly forbade selling black-market BDs near their territory—it cut into their business—he stepped in.
"Interesting," Rhys said calmly. "Do the Mox know you're slinging BDs here?"
"What? Who the fuck are you? Mox? I'm not near Lizzie's. What right do they have to—" The dealer swung his pistol towards Rhys.
But in a flash, Rhys was behind him, one hand clamping down on the dealer's head, the other wrenching the gun away. Rhys shifted his grip, locking an arm around the man's neck and slamming his face hard against the brick wall.
"Fuck! Let me go!" the dealer struggled violently.
"Don't move. I'm aiming."
BANG!
A shot erupted, chipping the brick inches from the dealer's head. The smell of cordite filled the air. The struggling stopped instantly, replaced by sheer terror.
David, watching, froze too. He... he just shot?! That could have been a person's life!
"See? Told you not to move," Rhys said, easily holding the struggling man against the wall. He could overpower Jackie with one arm; without chrome, even Maine was manageable. Pinning a scrawny BD dealer was child's play. Rhys pressed the hot barrel of the pistol against the back of the man's head.
The dealer flinched as the metal seared his scalp, burning his hair. He started trembling uncontrollably.
"If I don't get a clean shot, it's gonna hurt," Rhys continued conversationally. "I kill you, all these BDs are mine, right?"
"I-I'll give them to you! All of them! Take my eddies too!" the dealer sobbed, his voice cracking. "I wasn't really gonna kill you! I was just trying to scare you! He's wearing an Arasaka uniform, Martinez! I wouldn't dare! I'm just a BD dealer!"
"Didn't you say you were going to dump him with the Scavs?"
"I don't have the connections! They wouldn't listen to me! I buy my stock from someone else!"
"That child torture BD... Scavs made that one, didn't they?"
"I don't know! I swear, I don't know! I'm just a nobody! Please, don't kill me! I fucked up!"
"..."
"Tch. Boring." Rhys released him, tossing the pistol to the still-stunned David.
David fumbled the catch, then bent down to pick it up, staring at the weapon, then back at Rhys, speechless.
"Take off your coat," Rhys ordered the dealer, who was now slumped against the wall like a victim.
"Y-yes, right away." The dealer scrambled to obey, shedding his coat, then reaching for his pants.
"Stop. Didn't ask for your pants."
Rhys lashed out with a kick to the gut, holding back just enough not to kill him. The dealer doubled over, gagging. Rhys picked up the coat, spread it on the ground, and started sorting through the BDs. He snapped several shards in half, picked out the one David wanted, grabbed a few other pirated titles, then tossed the coat back at the dealer.
"Don't let me see you around here again. I'll pass your picture along to Anna Nox. If you deal in this area, you know who she is."
"She's not as nice as I am."
With another swift kick, this time to the head, Rhys knocked the dealer unconscious. He turned back to David. "Let's go. You had other business, right?"
David stared at Rhys's smiling face, his heart pounding, a strange mix of fear and exhilaration flooding him. Mom... you were so wrong about him. This guy... this guy!
"What is it?"
"N-nothing. Just... you're not what I expected," David managed, taking a deep breath.
Rhys chuckled. "In this city, most people aren't what they seem. If I was what you expected, that gonk would have just ripped us off, wouldn't he?" He started walking. David hurried to catch up.
"Aniki Rhys... were you really going to kill him?"
"What do you think?"
David swallowed hard. Rhys glanced back at him. "Nah. He's just a BD slinger. But if he hadn't denied the Scav connection, if he'd tried to threaten me... then yeah, he'd be flatlined."
"Come on, David. You needed to see a ripperdoc next, right?"
"Yeah, I already contacted him. It's this way..." David nodded, falling into step beside Rhys.
"Forget that guy. I'll recommend someone. Whoever you found probably isn't reliable."
"But I don't have many eddies," David said quickly.
"Vick's not greedy. His prices are fairer than anyone else you'll find. Assuming the guy you contacted wasn't planning on ripping you off in the first place," Rhys said with a smile. "Let's go. After we see Vick, we can take the metro back."
"You didn't buy a car?"
"Thinking about it."
They walked out of the alley, Rhys leading David towards Vick's basement clinic. It wasn't far.
...
Evening. On the Night City metro, David excitedly touched the port behind his ear. The formerly rusted connection was now a gleaming silver-white. And it hadn't cost him a single eddie! That ripperdoc, Viktor, was a saint. Sure, his price for the software modification had been higher than the other guy's quote, but after Vick explained why, David had readily agreed. The other ripper was selling the pirated software cheap, but he hadn't mentioned anything about the faulty interface connection. If David had used that guy's program, the learning headset would have malfunctioned, triggered alarms, and reported a virus intrusion. The thought made his head spin.
And the person who'd saved him from all that trouble... David looked over at Rhys, who was staring intently at something outside the window. David followed his gaze and caught a flash of white disappearing into the crowd. "Aniki Rhys? What are you looking at?"
Rhys just smiled and shook his head. "Nothing." He'd been wondering where she would show up. With Kiwi joining the crew, the next netrunner in line should have been her. But since Sasha hadn't died, they already had two deckheads. He'd almost thought he wouldn't run into her. But there she was, 'working' on the metro.
Rhys sighed internally. Now probably wasn't the right time to approach h—
Zzzt—
A faint electrical crackle sounded near the neural port on his neck. Rhys's head snapped up, and his hand shot out reflexively, grabbing something—or someone—next to him.
Clack!
He closed his hand around a wrist concealed beneath a white sleeve. The hand clenched, then struggled violently, but couldn't break his grip.
The hand's owner looked surprised. Beneath a cascade of iridescent indigo and silver hair, her turquoise eyes, framed by orange eyeshadow, widened slightly. A single lock of her multi-colored hair, dyed red at the tip, fell across her face. It was a difficult style to pull off, but she wore it perfectly. Her face was a stunning blend of ethnicities, her features delicate and captivating, radiating a cool, distant aura somewhat softened by the warm tones of her makeup. She narrowed her beautiful eyes at Rhys, her voice ice-cold. "You. Come with me."
"?"
Rhys blinked, confused, as she pulled him towards the connecting passage between the metro cars.
"What are you doing?" she demanded.
"You picked the wrong pocket," he replied.
Rhys stared at her, baffled. Seriously, he thought, you picked the wrong damn pocket.
Shouldn't you be targeting the gonk kid staring out the window like a tourist?
Why the hell did you try to steal from me?