Chapter 7: New Kid
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 mows through Regina Jones' back catalog in under a day.
-x-X-x-
“Become like a ghost, V. Leave the common rabble ignorant and wondering if you even exist, while those who know will know only that your competency is unmatched and always dependable.”
Sure, V could tear through this gig and a dozen others and carve a bloody name for himself on the city overnight. He could also downplay his abilities, make some small mistakes here and there, and come across as the amateur he was supposed to be while also appearing as a diamond in the rough.
… But what was the point? To fool some Fixers and the people in charge into thinking that he was just another tool on their toolbelt? Fuck. That. They needed to learn to respect him. They needed to know he was the one they could turn to for even the most difficult of gigs.
Smiling slightly, V nods his head, before steadily picking up speed.
“Sounds like a plan.”
Alt smiles too, even as she flickers out of view, turning her attention back to the Net. No need to give V any distractions while he did his work.
-x-X-x-
A half hour later and it’s done. Alt watches on quietly as V deposits the client’s optic implant in the dropbox with no on the wiser. He’d slipped into Kashuu Hanten through a backdoor and gone entirely undetected, even as he’d moved between amateur Tyger Claws like the ghost he was. Not only had he secured Jacob Lamb’s optic cyberware, but he’d also pilfered everything else of value they had as well, and Alt watches as he sells all of that off to the dropbox too while simultaneously placing a call to Regina Jones.
Curiosity getting the better of her, Alt pushes out onto the Net and towards the Fixer’s ‘home base’. Yaiba Tower has a hell of a lot of security, both physical and cyber… but so long as Alt isn’t going on the attack and is merely slipping in to observe, it has nothing on her. She’s able to drift into the system in the same ghost-like way V had drifted through Kashuu Hanten, allowing her to watch Regina through her own cameras as the woman picks up V’s call.
“V. Just received confirmation that the implant was put in the dropbox. Have to admit, part of me almost doesn’t believe it.”
Even as she’s talking, Regina is looking at one of her monitors. Through her snooping, Alt can see that the Fixer had immediately started putting out feelers the moment she heard V was on his way to the dropbox. The complete lack of any sort of noise out of the area where the Kashuu Hanten Bar was located had her stumped. Of course, once they realized they’d been robbed blind, the Tyger Claws would be making a lot of noise more than likely. But it was too early for that. And they wouldn’t find anything anyways.
Far from being upset, V sounds amused when he responds to Regina next.
“Oh? Think I went and grabbed some other optic to try and pass off as the real deal?”
Regina huffs and Alt knows that’s precisely one of the theories that the one-eyed Fixer had. Of course, she’s already debunked it herself.
“The implant is registered to the client Jacob Lamb, so unless you hacked into government databases or somehow convinced Jacob himself to go along with this farce, it’s the real deal. And that means you’re the real deal too. Well done, V. Transferring over the eddies now.”
“Much appreciated. Got any more work for me?”
Alt watches as Regina hesitates. Obviously she does, and obviously the Fixer isn’t in such a comfortable position that she can afford to ignore a competent merc like V. It’s just a matter of which gig she’s going to give him next. Gently sifting through the Watson Fixer’s systems, Alt looks over the possibilities and waits as patiently as V for Regina to finally get around to assigning one.
“… Jotaro Shobo. Tyger Claw scum who works out of his primary studio, the Ho-Oh Club in Kabuki. Twisted motherfucker scrolls XBDs. Grabs people off the street, Joytoys and junkies alike. The sort that no one will miss. Except the Mox. The Mox don’t take too kindly to this kind of shit, so they’ve put out a hit on him. You handled Kashuu Hanten rather well… let’s see how you handle this. Find Jotaro and deal with him how you see fit.”
“Understood.”
As the call comes to an end, part of Alt remains with V as he heads in the direction of the Ho-Oh Club, mostly to act as backup Netrunner if he needs it. But the majority of her attention stays on Regina Jones because frankly… Alt already knows exactly how this is going to go.
And indeed, it’s not long at all before V calls Regina back. The Fixer has barely even managed to divert her attention to something else when he’s once more getting in touch. Alt watches as Regina’s brow furrows and her lips curl down. She still picks up the call but she’s not happy about it.
“Yes?”
“Send a car.”
Regina’s frown grows more pronounced at that, and her fingers fly across one of her keyboards as she brings up the latest news coming out of the Kabuki Area. Clearly she’s expecting to see something… but there’s nothing there.
“… And why would I do that?”
“I’ve successfully extracted Jotaro Shobo from the Ho-Oh Club without anyone knowing. He’s still breathing for now, but I can’t exactly lug him halfway across the city on my shoulder without someone taking issue with that fact. So I figure either you send a car that will deliver his twisted ass to the Mox, or you tell me it’s a bad idea and I zero the fucker here and now.”
Alt can’t help but grin as Regina slowly processes everything V has just said. Well, slow by Alt and V’s standards. To be fair, it only takes the Fixer a handful of seconds to adapt to the change in circumstances.
“N-No… ahem, I mean, no… that won’t be necessary, V. That’s an excellent idea, sending the car now. I’m sure the Mox will be very happy to make Jotaro’s acquaintance… and take a pound of flesh from his sorry skin for every Joytoy he’s killed.”
The tradeoff takes place a few minutes later, with V dropping the unconscious form of Jotaro Shobo into the trunk of the car Regina has sent and the driver heading towards Lizzie’s a moment later with the precious car. After Regina transfers over the eddies for a job well done, V grunts.
“Anything else for me, Jones?”
“… Yeah. If you can extract a monster like Jotaro, maybe you can handle an SOS for me as well. Rather average story, really. Stupid gong named Bertie joined up with Maelstrom and quickly got in over his head when he realized you don’t just leave a gang like that. His sister Lucy happened to be a ripperdoc and offered to take on his debt so he could get out. Three months of her services in exchange for her brother’s freedom. Only now it’s been four and a half months and it’s become obvious that they aren’t going to just let her go. Get in, get her out unharmed and unscathed, and the eddies are yours.”
“On it.”
Alt watches on in amusement as the call ends and Regina immediately sends a driver to be on standby near the Clean Cut Building that the Maelstrom who have Lucy Thackery are operating out of. She’s rapidly losing any hesitation or lack of belief in V’s abilities, which is good. Of course, she’s also starting to look up the mercenary for a second time, her other work all but forgotten. As V works the gig, Regina Jones starts working her sources, trying to find out just who the hell he really is.
She doesn’t find much of course, but Alt still steps in just to make things go a little smoother. Nothing direct… all the AI does is put up some false warning signs, the kind of stuff that an inquisitive mind like Regina will immediately catch. She was a journalist before she was a Fixer after all, and she was trained to note things. With a couple of revisions on Alt’s part, V’s lack of history starts to look a little less organic and a little more artificial. As though someone actually has something to hide.
It’s the kind of thing where Regina doesn’t actually learn anything new, but she’s still satisfied by the connections she thinks she’s able to make. Suddenly, V’s dangerous competence makes a lot more sense to her, and that in turn sets her at ease even as she begins compiling a proper file for V with all of the work he’s done for her so far in it.
Of course, she’s barely even started on that before V has finished the latest gig. Due to Regina’s growing belief in his skills, Lucy Thackery is delivered to the car waiting for her just down the road within moments of being freed. Meanwhile, the Maelstrom still don’t know she’s even gone. It won’t be long before they realize that their pressganged ripperdoc has rabbited, but by that point it’ll be far too late for them to do anything about it.
Alt watches on as Regina gives V her thanks as well as his next gig, before moving on to begin talking Lucy Thackery through her next options. The Fixer offers to get Lucy the hell out of Night City, but apparently Ms. Thackery is too much of a bleeding heart to run away that easily. Instead, Regina sends Lucy to another Fixer named Muamar Reyes who will supply her with a new identity.
Meanwhile, V’s latest gig is undoubtedly the hardest one that Regina has given him yet. Forget Jotaro and Lucy, for all that the Ho-Oh Club was Tyger Claw, it wasn’t as secured as it should have been. The Revere Courier Services Warehouse on Martin Street, however, had quite a lot of security surrounding it given the amount of goods that went in and out of it on the regular. And on top of that, it was controlled by Tyger Claws.
Not that any of that mattered to V. The only difference this time was that V had to steal an entire van and it was a lot harder to slip out a large vehicle without anyone noticing. But then, that was where Alt could come in.
Putting more of her focus and attention over on the ‘V side’ of things as he approaches the warehouse, Alt slips into their security systems with even more ease than she did Regina’s. Unlike Regina’s, she actually outright takes control of them as well, squelching all possible alarms. Looking through the eyes of every camera at once, she tags the Tyger Claws onsite one by one, letting V see them with his Kiroshi Optics.
Then, together, the two of them begin quickhacking. One after the other, in a time frame as fast as thirty seconds, every single Tyger Claw in and around the warehouse falls to the ground, convulsing. It’s not as quiet or stealthy as V has done before, but then it doesn’t really have to be. Nobody sees his face. Nobody gets even a trace of their presence, beyond the blitzkrieg and subsequent theft.
V is able to walk right up into the warehouse, saunter upstairs to the computer and have it authorize him as a driver. Then, he heads back downstairs and hops in the van, driving it out of the silent parking lot and to its destination.
After he’s exited the van, Regina calls him this time rather than the other way around.
“Excellent work, V. Eddies coming in now. And before you ask, yes I have more work for you. One more gig, in fact.”
Grinning in a rather carefree manner, V chuckles.
“Only one?”
Huffing, Regina crosses her arms over her chest.
“This’ll be your fifth gig with me in a day, V. You realize people in your line of work usually take their time with these things to get them right, yeah?”
Rather than get offended, V just smirks.
“Have I gotten anything wrong so far, Jones?”
“… No. Which is why I’m trusting you with a gig I’ve had on the backburner for a while. Maelstrom has an initiation ceremony. Getting into the gang requires an operation that splits your optic nerves and lets you ‘see more’ or whatever quasi-religious bullshit they’ve made up. I need footage of their ‘rite’. The whole thing from start to finish.”
V is quiet for a moment before nodding almost solemnly.
“I’ll get it done.”
Alt kind of understands why. After all, this wasn’t a gig for a client. Rather, Regina Jones WAS the client this time around. This was part of her crusade against Cyber-Psychos and Cyberpsychosis in general. Lots of Cyber-Psychos came out of Maelstrom. Lots of Maelstrom were borderline Cyber-Psycho and getting worse every day.
Of course, you don’t just send anyone up against Maelstrom, but V had already proven his capabilities today. And he does so again with this job as well, making it in and out of the HeavenMed Clinic without raising a single alarm. Within the hour, he’s depositing the footage that Regina has asked for into a dropbox and Alt watches as the Fixer slowly breathes out upon uploading the data. Then, she places the call.
“… Thanks V. For all the hard work. Nothing more today, like I already said. But you can bet I’ll call you up again when I have more for you. You’ve impressed me, V. More than impressed me.”
“Always happy to work with a competent Fixer, Jones. Let me know when you have something to send my way.”
Their call ends but Alt lingers for a moment in Regina’s systems. Just long enough to see the Fixer put V’s contact information on the short list for mercenaries who might just be worth calling on if she hears about a Cyber-Psycho situation with enough time to do something about it. Heh, V will be happy about that, Alt knows.
Pulling herself away from Yaiba Tower and back to V, Alt arrives just in time to see him get another message. Not a call, but a text with a simple address and time from a familiar name. She watches V look it over consideringly.
“… Are you going to accept her invitation, V?”
Tilting his head to the side, V hums.
“I didn’t last time. Figured it was probably a trap.”
Alt checks what she can from her end.
“… It shouldn’t be, but obviously I can’t do a deeper dive of corpo servers without risking detection. Still, everything I can see says the offer is genuine.”
All that’s really left is for V to decide if he’s going to go and take Meredith Stout up on her offer of carnal delights or not.
[ ] Ghost Meredith again, she's not worth the headache - 8%
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