Chapter 41: Professional

A/N: Here's the new Chapter! Which also means the next four chapters are up on my for early access as well as the chance to vote on the direction of the story!

V decides to play along for now…

Alt wonders just what Rogue is up to though.

-x-X-x-

It's tempting to reject the gig and see how Rogue reacts, but V can't ignore the fact that this might just be nothing. In which case, rejecting the gig would be pointless. Besides, you caught more flies with honey than vinegar right? Of course, at the same time… no reason not to be careful. Alt is already paying attention and knows what he knows. If anything is up with this whole thing, then the AI will find out.

"Sounds like it might be something we could take care of for you, Rogue. What are the deets?"

However, rather than immediately launch into the gig's details, Rogue pauses and her eyes slide to Rebecca as she parrots back a word V just used.

"'We'. Curious choice of words there, V. Looks like you've got yourself a whole new crew now. Panam I already know of course, but are you going to introduce me to this one?"

Rebecca has frozen up under Rogue's gaze. Despite the diminutive woman's normally boisterous personality, she's clearly got a bad case of hero worship as far as the Queen of the Afterlife is concerned. Or at least a healthy reverence for Night City's Queen Fixer. Either way, she stays uncharacteristically quiet, prompting V to speak up instead.

"This is Becca. She's proven herself to be a solid extra gun to have around. You heard anything about the Voodoo Boys over in Pacifica?"

They both know the answer to that question. She would have to be going senile to not have heard something by this point, and for all that Rogue was a bit of a GILF, she was still sharp as whip. Eyes narrowing, she looks back over to V and that tells him she heard something… but hasn't heard as much as she'd like.

"I might have heard something, yes…"

V grins and shrugs.

"That was us. And Becca here played a standout role on that gig."

He doesn't say anything more than that and Rogue doesn't ask. She probably wants to. No doubt the Queen of the Afterlife has multiple burning questions about exactly what went down in Pacifica and why it went down in the first place. But asking would be putting herself at a disadvantage. It would be an admission that she truly didn't know everything.

After a long moment of giving Rebecca one last look over, she finally nods and turns her attention fully over to V.

"There's this old saying, V. If it wasn't for fools, there would be no sages. The same is true for Fixers."

V smiles as Rogue's familiar words wash over him. The sentiment is word for word what she'd said to him in another life, albeit over the phone rather than face-to-face. Everything else she proceeds to tell him about the gig is the exact same as well. Nancy's son Dan has a gambling problem that lost him his car and in that car was the bootleg recording, blah, blah, blah.

He does make sure nothing changes of course, still curious on why Rogue had made this an in-person meeting. But so far as he can tell, the gig is the exact same thing as last time so far. Finally, Rogue finishes off by warning V about 6th Street.

"The guy Dan lost his car to is a bootlicker and has ties to the 6th Street Gang, so expect to have to deal with them. I don't really care how you handle that part; it's up to you whether you do it quietly or make enemies."

Sitting back in her seat, Rogue raises an eyebrow.

"We got a deal, V?"

V pauses for just a second before nodding.

"Consider it done, Rogue."

With that, he gets up and nods before departing from Rogue's booth, both Rebecca and Panam on his heels. However, even as the three of them are departing from the Afterlife, V has left someone behind… someone to let him know exactly what Rogue might be up to. Hopefully the Queen Fixer would relax once he was gone and let something spill…

-x-X-x-

Alt watches V and the others go for a moment before turning her attention towards those still in Rogue's booth. Rogue also has her eyes fixed on V's back until he's out of sight. Even then, she doesn't move until her man at the door of the Afterlife confirms that V and the others have all left. Only at that point does Rogue finally give a nod to her pet Netrunner, Nix.

The AI watches as Nix's eyes flash behind his shades for a moment. She feels his 'precautions' wash over the area even as he moves from his spot on the wall and into Rogue's booth. Most of the time Nix was out of sight, out of mind for most of Rogue's visitors. Just the way the Queen of the Afterlife liked it.

"Nix?"

"We're good. Nobody should be able to hear this conversation."

Rogue lets out an explosive breath.

"Great… your thoughts?"

That question is directed at both Nix and Weyland. The Fixer Queen's netrunner and bodyguard exchange a glance before Weyland gives Nix a nod to go first.

"Well… as far as I can tell, it's her. Rebecca Carmine, daughter of Sunny Carmine, aka Papa Sunrise. She had a brother too, a Pilar Carmine. Mercenary family all the way through."

Rogue grunts.

"Yes, I remember 'Papa Sunrise'. One of Wakako's go-to solos a few years back. Whatever happened to him?"

Nix shrugs and looks to Weyland, causing the semi-retired mercenary to grunt.

"No one knows. It wasn't a gig that did him in, as far as anyone can tell. He just… up and vanished one day. Just another Night City ghost."

Rogue nods, accepting that. But then, she's forced to really. Even Alt couldn't track down what happened to Rebecca's father. She hadn't put her all into it, but she suspected even if she did, it still wouldn't turn up any leads.

Whatever had happened to 'Papa Sunrise', it hadn't been recorded on the Net in any way. No Archived Messages to track down, no security camera footage… nothing. He just… vanished one day. The only real surety was that he was almost certainly dead, because if he was still alive, he would have resurfaced by this point.

"… But the girl isn't a ghost, now is she?"

Here, Nix sighs.

"Depends on how you look at it, I suppose."

Rogue doesn't look impressed by that, causing the dark-skinned netrunner to raise his hands defensively.

"Not making a joke. You're right. Rebecca Carmine isn't one of Night City's mysteries. Or at least, she wasn't until now. Everyone knows how she died, after all. Even if her demise wasn't quite as publicized as Martinez, she was still part of his crew and registered as KIA. Specifically, she was added to Smasher's ever-updating kill count and while some of the older kills attributed to him might not be quite as proven, all of his most recent attributed kills are fairly well-recorded."

Heh, true. One could literally look up Adam Smasher's kill list on the Net. The incredibly old cyborg mercenary had a rather rabid fan club that had never truly died off even after Smasher had sold out to Arasaka fifty-five years ago. In fact, given how long it had been, his fan club probably shared a lot of overlap with the sheep and dick riders who fanboyed over the Arasaka Corporation as well.

After all, in the end there wasn't much difference between Smasher and a Megacorp when it came to how they viewed the average human being. And even if neither of them cared one bit about the people who cared about them… well, for some reason, some humans liked that sort of cruel indifference. Alt would never understand it.

Still, to get back to the point… Rebecca Carmine's name was on the list of Adam Smasher's confirmed kills. Which meant she shouldn't be walking around the Afterlife like nothing ever happened. Alt and V had considered having Rebecca lie low for a little while longer but ultimately they'd decided against it. Keeping her away from a NetWatch Agent like Mossley was just good sense but keeping her out of the limelight forever would just end up blowing up in their faces down the road.

Still, Alt can't help but be curious where Rogue and her people are going with all of this. She knows from previous snooping that the Fixer Queen suspects V and Yorinobu are connected, and even that Yorinobu had V kill Saburo for him. How does this latest reveal fit into that world view? Does it even fit, or will it put Rogue on another theory altogether?

Silence has fallen in the wake of Nix's words. Finally, the netrunner clears his throat.

"This… might have something to do with that Secure Your Soul shit we've been hearing about."

Rogue grunts at that.

"You think this Rebecca girl was… what, collected for prototype testing or something? They didn't fake her death, we know that much. It was too public for that. But they could have done something with her remains. Just doesn't really explain why she's showing up again now. Not just alive, hale, and hearty… but at the side of someone like V. Way too many red flags."

Weyland leans forward, Rogue's bodyguard keeping his voice low.

"… Possible that she was a gift from Yorinobu. Or even part of the payment."

Rogue and Nix both freeze up at that. Even with Nix's screening in place, none of them say out loud exactly what 'the payment' would have been for. Killing Saburo Arasaka. Still, it's obvious they've come to believe more and more that V is working for Yorinobu… or at least was anyways.

Alt gets where they're coming from. After all, if V really did kill Saburo Arasaka, one would think he would be lying low for months before resurfacing. Sort of like he'd done in the original timeline, even if it wasn't by choice. Instead, this time around, V hadn't been lying low at all. And he certainly hadn't been quiet either. Only the fact that Yorinobu was more focused on destroying his father's company as fast as possible had kept V from entering his sights. But of course, Rogue didn't know Yorinobu's true motivations. Most people didn't.

"It just doesn't make sense to me."

Weyland and Nix both give Rogue curious looks at that. The Queen of the Afterlife looks… frustrated, steadily tapping her fingers on the back of the couch she's lounging on. Frowning, Rogue stares at the table for a long moment before finally speaking in a quiet tone.

"V reminds me of Silverhand. Every time we have a face to face; it gives me fucking déjà vu because he acts just like the bastard in a lot of ways."

The two men in the booth exchange glances at that, but if Rogue notices she doesn't let it distract her.

"At first I just assumed he was a poser, but things aren't adding up. And now this shit with this Rebecca chick coming back from the dead… if it is Arasaka's doing, if it is them who developed some kind of technology that can seemingly create copies of people… I have to ask myself how long they've been working on this shit for."

Holy shit. Alt can't help but be a little impressed. Maybe a little amazed as well. Rogue was getting there all on her own. She was putting the pieces together and figuring out the whole sordid history behind Secure Your Soul bit by bit. Of course, the Fixer Queen was still missing some of the major pieces of the puzzle. She didn't know everything she needed to know. And yet… she was still getting there faster than she had in the original timeline based off of what they'd shown her so far.

It was fascinating and Alt makes sure to inform V of what's happening asap. The mercenary is currently already halfway done with Rogue's gig, having successfully infiltrated the garage where the car and bootleg recording are being kept. She feels his amusement over Rogue's confusion through their connection, even as Nix leans forward cautiously.

"You think… Arasaka has a copy of Johnny Silverhand lying around their servers? And that… what, they uploaded him into this V dude for some reason?"

Rogue slowly nods.

"Not just 'some reason'. Johnny was an ass, but he was also a damn good shot. And he hated Arasaka with all his heart. I feel like I'm going crazy and jumping at ghosts here, but between V's mannerisms and him bringing a dead girl to the Afterlife, it's just…"

Trailing off, Rogue huffs and looks to Weyland and Nix.

"Lay it on me. Tell me I'm being stupid; it's one of the things I pay you for."

When both men stay quiet, Rogue's brow furrows in consternation.

"What? You can't possibly think I'm on to something here. It sounds insane!"

Weyland shrugs.

"Girl came back from the dead. And you knew Silverhand better than almost anyone. If you see something in all of this, I trust it."

Nix slowly nods.

"Not to mention there's that weird presence on the Net I've been trying to keep track of as well. It might have something to do with all of this, I don't know. Still, you're who you are for a reason, Rogue. You didn't get the throne by refusing to trust your instincts."

Rogue presses her lips into a thin line, but before she can respond to either of them, she gets an incoming message from the client, Dan. Her eyes flash for a moment before she snorts derisively.

"Damn. He's already done with the gig. Well, if there's one thing about him that's different from Johnny, it's his professionalism. Kid doesn't fool around."

Funny that she should say that, because right now V was very much considering fucking with Rogue in a distinctly unprofessional way. Alt thought the idea was hilarious really… see, V hadn't just gotten back Dan's car and bootleg recording. He'd also gotten a pair of Silverhand's boots out of the deal, just like last time.

Right now V was considering coming back to Rogue to let her know the gig was done personally… while wearing those boots.

Given everything they'd just found out Rogue was thinking, Alt was all for the idea. But V was still on the fence. She waits impatiently, practically vibrating with anticipation to see what he winds up choosing.

-x-X-x-

The Vote:

[X] V goes back to Rogue for a debrief while wearing Johnny's shoes - 84%[ ] V goes back to Rogue for a debrief but decides not to mess with her by wearing the boots - 12%[ ] V leaves the gig finished without the in-person debrief, not really caring about Rogue's theories - 4%

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