Chapter 72: Deals Made

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

For those who don't know, a tied vote means I get to do what I want to do >:]

Myers gonna Myers~

-x-X-x-

… This was too important for her to trust it completely to V's hands. He was a mercenary first and foremost, which meant she couldn't trust him as far as she could throw him. Of course, she's not about to tell him that. No, best to… bite her tongue for the time being, even if it had been a long, LONG time since she'd had to do so for just about anyone, let alone some edgerunner.

V has procured a vehicle with tinted windows that he shuffles her into before getting behind the wheel without hesitation. From there, they drive through Dogtown like they belong, passing by Barghest Patrols one after the other. None of them so much as glance in their direction, though Myers still finds herself growing tenser and tenser as they drive.

Just how exactly is V going to get her out of Dogtown? Surely he doesn't think he can just drive them out through the main gates, right?

Thankfully, that doesn't seem to be the case. Instead, he drives them all the way to the southwestern edge of the zone, leaving Rosalind somewhat mystified. Finally, she can't take it anymore.

"… What's the plan here, V? You haven't exactly given me any instructions in a while. I would also feel a lot better if I had a firearm to defend myself."

V glances over to her, amused.

"The time for instructions hasn't come yet. And there's no need to worry, Madam President. There's no one left to defend yourself from."

What. Rosalind's eyes narrow as V suddenly addresses her oh-so 'respectfully'. What did he mean by that?

She finds out shortly as V pulls up to a non-descript garage door and sends a signal that has his eyes flashing blue for a moment. Then, the door opens… and Rosalind's mouth opens slightly in shock at what lies behind it. The garage opens up into an entire tunnel, and that tunnel… well, it looks like a damn war has taken place there.

The bodies are still all over the place, along with bullet holes and even blast marks. They aren't Barghest though, but rather look like gang members of some sort. Maybe… scavs? Rosalind's eyes narrow and she gives V a contemplative look as he begins to drive them down the tunnel. There's a path big enough for the car carved through the murder and mayhem, allowing them to make their way through without a single ounce of fighting.

… When? When had he had the time to prepare this? Obviously it was recent if Hansen hadn't heard about it yet and the bodies were still all here. Barghest would probably be swarming the location within the week if not the day, making sure to secure this tunnel as soon as they found out about it… because as Rosalind suspects, it's not just a random tunnel.

At the other end, there's another garage door that opens up into the rest of Pacifica, the Night City District that Hansen had cut in half when he ignored her orders and settled down to create Dogtown. This is the part of Pacifica outside of his 'jurisdiction' though. Just like that, she was out of the fire… but that didn't mean she'd escaped the frying pan just yet.

V turns a corner as the garage closes behind them and a moment later they're pulling into a stop in a back alley where a heavily modified Mackinaw truck is sitting waiting for them. The doors open up to reveal a short woman with pigtails and a pink and green shotgun as well as a tanned driver who screams Nomad to Rosalind's senses.

Before they get out of the car however, V turns to her and raises an eyebrow.

"I'm surprised by the way. You're willing to pay me all those eddies to retrieve Songbird, but you aren't going to ask me how much it would cost to kill Kurt Hansen for you?"

Rosalind blinks, not having truly considered it. There had been attempts over the years to deal with Hansen. Mainly by trying to get some of his subordinates to turn on him and perform a coup that would bring them back under the control of NUSA.

Unfortunately, every attempt had failed and… and somewhere along the way, Rosalind had stopped trying. She'd given up. When had she given up on killing Kurt Hansen?! Her jaw clenches at the realization and she looks at V with a glare.

"Name your price."

V just smirks.

"Tack an extra five hundred thousand onto the first half of the payment for the Songbird Gig and I'll ensure he dies."

Only half a million? Compared to the two million that she was paying for her Songbird, that seemed low. On the other hand, it was probably one of the most expensive assassination gigs any merc had ever done. With a huff, Rosalind just nods.

"Deal."

They don't shake on it or anything like that. V just smirks and then suddenly opens the door and steps out of the car, forcing her to do the same as he goes to meet with the two women from the truck.

"Girls."

V seems to know them both intimately judging by how they smile at him and he smiles back in return. Then, he's gesturing at her.

"The package, as we discussed. Get her to the drop-off and let the Queen finish her extraction from the city."

They nod, even as they eye her carefully. Rosalind eyes them both back, especially the shorter one. She has a distinct edge to her, one that Rosalind has long associated with potential cyber-psychos from decades of experience.

"V…"

The driver tries to speak up, but V cuts her off with a smirk.

"Remember, the faster you complete this part of the gig, the faster we can decide if it's safe enough for you two to join me in Dogtown."

That gets a spine straightening and a nod from the driver, though the short one toting the shotgun scowls like the thought that they wouldn't be allowed to join him is frankly intolerable. Rosalind considers them both carefully already contemplating how to-

"You wanted instructions?"

Her eyes snap back over to V… who has a knowing smirk on his face as he stares her down.

"Your instructions are simple. You're going to be a good little package and get in the Warhorse so that Panam and Becca can drive you to your next destination. I won't try to hide their identities from you, but know that if you try anything, before or after you're home safe and sound, you're going to have a bad time. Also Becca has permission to sedate you if necessary."

Sedate her?! The girl is wielding a garish-looking shotgun! Rosalind narrows her eyes… but in the end, she knows the longer they're out in the open like this, the more dangerous things become for her.

"… Very well."

With that, she's hustled into the back seat of the truck, with 'Becca' going with her. The last Rosalind sees of V is him standing there watching them go, his eyes flashing blue as he perhaps receives or makes a call regarding her.

It's very tempting to try to make inroads with these two or at least ask some 'harmless' and 'innocent' questions. However… V's warnings had been rather clear in that regard and Rosalind still doesn't like the look of the half-pint sitting next to her. So she stays quiet and lets them drive her where they're going to drive her.

That doesn't mean she isn't tense still, of course. Even if they're out of Dogtown and seemingly have escaped without anyone in Barghest being any the wiser, that doesn't mean they're safe.

There's every possibility that someone else in Night City might have found out about V's acquisition of her and the plan to get her to safety. At any moment she might be fighting for her life again… or if she's extremely unlucky, she might just die without ever getting the chance.

So yes, Rosalind does not let herself relax. She likely won't even be able to relax once she's back in NUSA either, because there's still the question of exactly who betrayed her to Hansen. She's been categorizing her entire cabinet and every single person in her administration ever since her Songbird first told her yesterday that someone had hijacked the plane out from under them.

Rosalind has been making mental lists and checking them twice whenever she had a free moment and this certainly counted. It wasn't like she trusted anyone implicitly, but she certainly had those who she thought might have betrayed her… and those who she knew wouldn't have done so and could be counted on to get her to safety when the time came.

Although… she also finds herself distracted by V's final words. Who was this 'Queen' that his allies were taking her to, exactly?

She doesn't have to wait long to find out. In hindsight, it should have been rather obvious. They pull down into a private parking garage and Rosalind finds herself led to an equally private elevator that climbs high up into the building before depositing her in front of one of the only women in all of Night City who even used such a title in the first place.

Rogue Amendiares sits with one leg crossed over the other, a smile on her face, and a drink in her hand. The Fixer-Queen of Night City tips the glass in Rosalind's direction before taking a long pull from it.

"President Myers. I understand you've had a rough go of things. Night City really does seem to have a tendency of chewing you up and spitting you back out, doesn't it?"

Rosalind bristles, but Rogue just smirks harder.

"I hope you've figured out who you can trust back home by this point. If you have, we should be able to get you back to NUSA within the next couple of hours."

Right. Yes. That was… good. And once she was back where she belonged at the head of the country she'd been elected to lead, Rosalind could finally start fixing everything.

"I have several names, yes. I just need you to put me in touch."

Rogue hums, remaining borderline disrespectful as she nods.

"That's what I'm here for."

At least all of this makes so much more sense now. Everything about V had been one big mystery. How was he so competent? Why did he not fear the death her Songbird said was lurking around the corner? How was he pulling everything off? But now… now it makes sense. V was working for Rogue, likely directly, and had contacted her for assistance in all of this.

It wasn't just one extremely competent edgerunner, but an organization behind him. Rosalind wasn't going to let that stop her from doing what she felt was necessary… but she had to admit, she felt a little better about V rescuing her Songbird and killing Hansen now. Maybe he would even manage to pull it off without Reed's help… but at the same time, Rosalind wasn't willing to risk it.

-x-X-x-

"There it is, V."

V hums and nods as he gets the same notification that Alt does at the exact same time. They're hanging out together at an outside table in the Longshore Stacks, with Alt in her actual body now that Rosalind is out of the picture.

And not just out of the picture… she's completely back in NUSA now. It's been several hours since he'd handed her over to Panam and Rebecca and about just as long since they'd notified him that they'd handed her off to Rogue.

From there, Rogue had done the heavy lifting of course, getting the President of NUSA out of Night City without anyone else having a clue that she had made it out of Dogtown in the first place.

It was all so damn clean… if one ignored the bodies he'd had to pile up along the way. Which frankly, V didn't have much issue ignoring. Getting Rosalind out of Dogtown might have been Reed's job last time around, but V had had plenty of time to think about it all… not to mention exploring Dogtown from top to bottom and turning over every rock while prying open every nook and cranny.

As a result, he'd always known that it would be that tunnel he got Myers out through. Just had to make sure not to clear it too early because otherwise Barghest, who were of course on high alert after losing the President from the plane, would have noticed.

So yes, after fucking her silly and leaving her unconscious and completely out of it, V had left for a bit to take care of that particular hurdle during the night. Alt had still been watching over Myers digitally, so it was no big deal. He'd simply gone out, cleared the tunnel from end to end, and procured the car he'd be using to drive Myers out of Dogtown in the morning. Simple as that.

And now they had confirmation that the President was back in NUSA and had taken back control of things because there was a hefty one point five million eddies that had just been transferred into one of their accounts. Half for the gig to retrieve So Mi and five hundred thousand for the assassination of Kurt Hansen.

Of course… V only really intended to do one of those things the way Myers wanted it, in the end. He was never just going to hand So Mi over to the bitch when all was said and done. Killing Hansen though? That would be easy enough.

As for the other thing…

"Did she try?"

Alt smirks, her eyes flashing blue as she sends the relevant data packets over to V.

"Oh yeah. She tried."

There it was, clear as day. The silver bullet V would need when he eventually had to break his contract with Myers in the coming days. He'd told her that the only way he'd work for her was HIS way. He'd told her up front that activating Reed would be a sticking point.

… And she'd gone and tried to do it anyways. Exactly as V had expected. Exactly as he'd planned. Frankly, he didn't know what he was going to do if she didn't try to go behind his back and bring Reed into things. It was important that Myers made the attempt because ultimately it made it all the easier to shut her down later.

Of course, just because she tried to activate Solomon Reed, Sleeper Agent for the FIA, it didn't mean it had worked. In fact, it very much hadn't worked. Alt had been prepared to stymy that attempt for weeks now.

"I assume Reed is still very much in the dark?"

Smirking, Alt just nods.

"Oh yes. He's been oh so busy these past few days. Working some overtime shifts at the Electric Orgasm over in the City Center. Even made sure he was working inside yesterday during all the excitement. While it's still possible that he'll hear about it through word of mouth, something I am closely monitoring him for, I've so far kept all of the news reports away from him."

Right. Reed's day job was as a bouncer at Dino Dinovic's nightclub and bar, the Electric Orgasm. It kept him abreast of all the things happening in Night City… usually.

"We can't keep the news from him forever, but Myers is giving a televised speech about her recovery right now so by the time he finds out that Space Force One went down in Dogtown, he'll also find out that she was retrieved unharmed. As far as Reed will be concerned, it'll look like she didn't even try to contact him… like they didn't think he was the right asset for the job."

Yep, it really was as simple as that in the end. Obviously, they would be keeping an eye on Reed anyways to make sure he didn't make a mess of things and so that Myers didn't try to activate him again, but at this point it would seem to both of them like neither wanted anything to do with the other.

Which was good, because V didn't want to have to kill Solomon Reed again if he didn't have to. In fact, if V could help it, a lot less people would be dying this time around due to Rosalind's ego and So Mi's mistakes.

Rising from the table as Alt does the same, V rolls his shoulders and turns his gaze in the direction of The Moth, the one and only bar within Longshore Stacks.

Time to go and recruit the OTHER Sleeper Agent the FIA had lurking in Night City.

-x-X-x-

The Vote:

[ ] Stick with V's POV - 25%[ ] Switch to Alt's POV - 10%[X] Switch to Alex/Alena's POV - 65%

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