Chapter 38: Whose Kid Is This?
[A Beautiful Encounter]
Threat Level: Low
Objective: Morality is bullshit in Night City. While you still cling to a shred of your 'principles,' you don't mind lifting from corpo-dogs. Team up with Lucy and successfully steal from ten suits.
Reward: Random Attribute +0.1.
Description: Are there good people working for the corps? Sure. But remember, even the 'good' ones aren't in your league. So stash that useless empathy, choom. In this city, it's the most worthless thing you can have. Or is it? Maybe it's the most precious. Maybe you're right.
On the metro line running from the City Center towards Heywood, Rhys leaned against a pole, Lucy's pleasant voice echoing in his ear.
"Three meters ahead. Suit in the charcoal gray."
"You ready, kid?"
Rhys really wanted to tell her he wasn't a kid, but considering Lucy was probably older than him, he kept his mouth shut. Yeah, Lucy looked to be in her early twenties, while Rhys had just hit legal adulthood. So, he just replied, "Ready."
"3, 2, 1..."
"Go!"
At her command, Rhys moved like smoke through the crowded car, appearing behind the man in the charcoal suit in the blink of an eye.
"You're... fast!" Lucy's optics had been tracking him. Seeing him materialize behind the target, her iridescent eyes widened slightly. Her orange-shadowed eyelids lifted, her mouth falling open just a fraction, betraying her shock. She was genuinely stunned by his speed.
"What the hell are you? I scanned you; you don't have any neuralware..."
"Got it!" Lucy cut herself off, her focus snapping back to the task.
At Rhys's side, near the neck of the oblivious corpo-dog, a faint click sounded. A small data shard, barely the size of a thumb, ejected from the port below his ear.
Rhys snatched it out of the air and was already moving towards the next car.
"One down," he reported to Lucy over their private comms link with a grin.
"Not bad. Working with you is way faster than doing it solo. Okay, I'm speeding things up. Think you can keep up?"
"Give me another ten percent cut, and I definitely can," Rhys shot back.
"Screw you! We agreed on forty percent, that's what you get. I could do this myself without you, just slower. But without me, you wouldn't be making these eddies at all," Lucy retorted, annoyed. Wait, she thought, is he leading me around now? She quickly pushed the thought aside and gave him the next target.
Her voice turned crisp and rapid-fire, instantly selecting several more marks.
"Your one o'clock. Yeah, the woman in the red dress."
"She doesn't look like a suit."
"Gonk, her handbag alone is worth seventy grand. You think she's just some nobody?" Lucy snapped.
"Why would someone with a bag like that be on the metro..." Rhys muttered, but he was already moving into position.
Click—
Another shard landed in his hand. This one was different, a pale silver color, clearly higher quality than the last. Okay, Lucy's eye for targets was better than his. He'd follow her lead.
They fell into a rhythm. Lucy hacked the target's personal device, Rhys snagged the ejected shard. Soon, his pockets were bulging with over a dozen stolen data shards. The mission objective pinged as complete.
[A Beautiful Encounter: Completed]
[Reward Granted: Body +0.1]
Rhys checked his status screen.
[Name: Rhys]
Body: 9.35
Reflexes: 8.16
Technical Ability: 9.02
Intelligence: 4.1
Cool: 8.25
Skills: Potential Overdrive, Rapid Healing
Nine PM. Still a while before the last metro trains stopped running, but Lucy was clearly flagging. Her white jacket was damp with sweat, clinging to the black netrunner suit underneath.
"Alright, that's enough. Getting off at the next stop. I'm wiped," she said, breathing heavily.
Rhys nodded.
The train arrived at Glen North station. Rhys stepped onto the platform, glancing left. He saw Lucy emerge from the train, running a hand through her vibrant hair, then look his way.
She walked over, humming softly, and held out her hand.
"What?" Rhys asked.
"The goods? Or do you have your own fence?" Lucy waggled her outstretched fingers, then paused. "Right, you used to sell black-market BDs. You probably have contacts for hot shards too."
"Fine, you hang onto them. Fence them, and we'll split the eddies later," she said, retracting her hand and heading towards the station exit.
Rhys followed, curious. "You're just leaving them with me? Aren't you worried I'll just run off with everything?"
"Run off?" Lucy turned, hands clasped behind her back, leaning forward slightly from the top of the stairs to look down at him. "I'm a netrunner. I already pulled your file."
"I accessed the data related to Megabuilding H4 in your memory."
A sly smile touched her lips, and she winked. "Mr. Rhys, resident of Megabuilding H4, sixth floor, apartment 603, correct?"
"..."
What the hell? Doxxed.
Rhys's expression turned slightly awkward. He hadn't actually planned on stealing the eddies; he wanted to recruit Lucy into Maine's crew. In Night City, Lucy wasn't the absolute top-tier netrunner – she was definitely skilled, but probably not quite on Sasha's level, and certainly below legends like T-Bug. In Rhys's mind, the T0 netrunners were Bartmoss, Spider Murphy, the digital goddess Alt Cunningham, and maybe Militech's Songbird. Lucy probably ranked somewhere in T2, which was still impressive. Netrunning required training, but raw talent was the biggest factor.
Still... it was a personal thing for Rhys. He knew Night City chewed people up and spat them out every day, leaving behind countless tragedies. But compared to those anonymous victims, Lucy was someone he knew, someone familiar. People who hadn't watched the Edgerunners anime might not know her name, but everyone knew the story of the 'Cyber-Widow'...
Besides, you could never have too many skilled netrunners. They were always in high demand. The only reason Lucy was still resorting to petty theft on the metro was likely because she was trying to stay off Arasaka's radar. After all, Arasaka Tower dominated the City Center skyline.
"So, it's settled then," Lucy said, turning and continuing up the stairs. "You hold the shards. Call me or wire me the eddies when they're fenced."
Rhys followed, his mind racing. The last few days since joining Maine's crew had been a non-stop adrenaline rush. He'd gotten caught in the crossfire between 6th Street and the Tyger Claws, assassinated the fixer Janus, met Vick and Jackie, got recruited by Rogue... and now, run into Lucy.
Lost in thought, he walked straight into something soft.
He looked up instinctively and saw Lucy staggering back a couple of steps, clutching her chest. She shot him an annoyed glare. "Watch where you're going?"
"Sorry, I was thinking," Rhys apologized immediately, realizing what his forehead had just bumped into.
"About what? The eddies?" Lucy asked casually, not really curious, just making conversation.
Rhys looked at her, then decided. "Let's meet up again tomorrow. We can figure out how to fence these and split the pay. And... there's something else I want to talk to you about."
"I'm not exactly free," Lucy said, waving dismissively, clearly intending to refuse.
"You sure?" Rhys pressed. He thought for a moment. "The intel you pulled on me wasn't complete. Hmm. You should check out some recent events in Heywood and Santo Domingo."
Lucy froze, then narrowed her eyes. "..." After a moment, she asked quietly, "The hit at the condominiums... that was you?"
Rhys just smiled and shook his pockets, the stolen shards rattling faintly. "I need eddies right now, yeah. But I have a day job. Hmm. I'm a merc. An edgerunner."
"So, I'm not planning on making a career out of pickpocketing with you. Once was enough for the experience. I haven't quit my real job yet." If a merc started relying on petty theft, Rhys's edgerunner life would turn into a depressing documentary: Night City: Downsized and Desperate. He'd just started; he wasn't looking for a side hustle yet.
"I spent half the day playing thief with you. Asking for a little of your time tomorrow isn't too much, is it?"
Lucy studied him, her eyes narrowed. After a long moment, she sighed. "Fine. Contact me tomorrow." With that, she turned and walked down the street, giving him a casual wave over her shoulder without looking back.
Rhys opened his map, checked the distance back to his apartment, and immediately discarded the idea of calling a cab. Screw it. He could run. For him, this distance was nothing.
And so, in the dead of night, a lone black-haired figure sprinted down the main highway through the Glen.
...
Nine-thirty the next morning, at a Mexican diner in the Glen, Heywood.
Rhys looked at Lucy. Lucy looked at him, then glanced beside him, then looked back at him.
Finally, she pointed a finger at the green-haired, pigtail-wearing, chubby-faced loli sitting next to Rhys. Her voice was ice-cold.
"Whose kid is this?"
Next to Rhys, Rebecca shot to her feet, slamming both hands on the table. Her cybernetic eyes glared at Lucy. "You wanna start something?!"