Cyberpunk: I'm Not Cheating Chapter 17: Listen to Your Mother

"You cheated! That was a cheat!"

Fernando ca out of the car furious, watching the win slip away from him.

Vito nodded at Jackie. The sawed-off ca up. Fernando's voice stopped like soone had cut a wire.

"You know the rules. Running a quickhack isn't cheating. Getting out of the car and pointing a gun at soone — that's cheating. Take the three hundred and get out of here, or I have this man put two slugs into your skull. Pick one."

Fernando weighed his options and decided staying alive outranked the argunt.

"I'll — I'll take the three hundred."

Vito transferred it. Fernando and his crew imdiately turned to leave. Vito called them back.

"What? What? We gave you the car."

Fernando braced for the worst.

"Say thank you."

Vito showed his teeth.

"...Thank you."

"There we go. Take care."

Fernando and his crew left at a brisk walk, collectively convinced they had just spent the afternoon with a certified cyberpsycho.

"Hell, mano. My first job and it goes like that. Your hardware is sothing else though — felt incredible just holding it. Sha I didn't actually get to use it."

Jackie ran his thumb along the sawed-off, admiring it.

"Think I should na it?"

Vito was opening the Falcon's door.

"Call it Reason. When soone stops making sense, give them a dose of Reason and they'll find their words real fast."

Jackie holstered it.

"Perfect, mano. With Reason in the room, even the craziest gonk suddenly gets very articulate. Driving to Padre now?"

Vito slid into the driver's seat of the Falcon.

"I'll take the Falcon. Send the location. I'll et you there. Ergency comms if anything cos up."

"Copy that. Wild Wolf tonight — I'm buying."

Both of them put their foot down back to Heywood. Vito got his first look at one of the city's better-known fixers: Padre Sebastian Ibarra.

The man looked like a reasonable priest. In practice he was a gang veteran with connections to more grey-market operations than anyone kept proper count of.

When he heard they'd wrapped the job cleanly and fast, he looked genuinely surprised.

"I figured you boys would paint the road red, then co rolling back with a Falcon that was missing half a door and had bone fragnts in the upholstery."

He made the joke with a glance at the completely intact vehicle.

"I'm a pacifist, sir. Besides, I've been in Night City long enough to know bullets and car washes are both expensive."

Vito spread his hands with an expression of total helplessness.

Padre laughed.

"Ha. That's not what I heard about you at all. Co, sit down — tell an old man sothing interesting. What happened out there?"

He had a hand bring out three plastic stools and the three of them sat down in the garage.

"Took the job. Drove out. Worked the problem. Drove back. Waiting for the transfer. Nothing worth telling."

Vito kept it short. Padre smiled and looked at Jackie.

"Your friend's the decisive type. What about you, Jackie? Anything for an old priest?"

Jackie scratched the back of his head.

"Went pretty smooth overall. I was ready to pull a gun and make them hand it over, but it turned out they said the car was theirs by rights — they'd won it clean. That's not what the job description said. Honestly I nearly walked away from it. LeBron wasn't straight with us, that's a fact. But Vito didn't hesitate. He raced them for it, won clean, and left them with no complaints about how it went."

Padre stood and put a hand on Jackie's shoulder.

"LeBron's always been a little loose with the truth. But you two handled it well. He'll be paying you an extra thousand for the lie. Good work. I can see you're going to do well on this path."

Then Padre turned to Vito, right hand extended.

"Welco to Night City, son. Jackie has a gift for finding good people. I hope this is the first of many jobs. Would you be willing to share your contact? Makes it easier to reach you directly."

Vito stood and shook his hand, and passed his contact details across.

"Of course, Padre. Good doing business."

Padre transferred the eddies without ceremony. Jackie, flushed with the cleanness of his first post-gang job, turned to the Valentinos hanging around the garage and invited all of them to the Wild Wolf for drinks that night — twenty percent off, on him.

He slung his arm around Vito's shoulder as they stepped out to the street. Then he saw Vito flagging down a Delamain.

"Hey, Vito. Money's not water. Do we really need Delamain every ti we need a ride?"

Vito pulled him into the car.

"One day the two of us will be cruising Night City in a fully armored Caliburn. But until then, Delamain is our mobile security guarantee. I'm not getting taken out by so random stray bullet on a street corner."

Jackie thought about it. He couldn't argue with the logic. He grumbled anyway.

"Delamain really isn't cheap though. We need to get a car sorted."

"Mr. Welles. Choose Delamain. Leave your worries at the door."

"..."

On the other side of the city, David's morning had gone differently.

Maine's call that morning was to link up with crew mbers and pull data off a corpo's car. Small complication: the corpo noticed his key chip had gone missing and ca outside to check on his vehicle.

David and Lucy were inside the car mid-download when the corpo walked out and found them. David had no choice but to drive.

The corpo reacted fast — called in Tyger Claws to run them down. David couldn't shake the chase. He activated the Sandevistan, reversed hard along an overpass, and pushed a combat quickhack through to the closest pursuer. The Tyger Claws crashed and went up in a bright shower of sparks and twisted tal.

"Not bad driving, right?"

David, Sandevistan burning hot through his system, forced a grin and looked at Lucy.

Lucy, finishing the last of the download, answered without looking up.

"The autopilot on this car is excellent."

Then she glanced over at him, took in how rough he looked, and added:

"Your reflexes are good."

Boop boop boop.

Standard Night City ringtone. Maine.

"Hey. You get it?"

David wiped his nose. "Lucy's got it. What do we do with the car?"

Maine sent a location.

"Drop Lucy off first. Then take the car here and tell them Maine sent you. After that it's out of your hands. Co straight to the bar."

"Got it."

Maine hung up. The ringtone ca again imdiately.

David checked the caller. Gloria.

He sat with it for a few seconds, then answered.

"Mom. I'm in the middle of sothing right now. Can I call you back in a bit?"

Two seconds of silence on the other end.

"Stay safe, David. Rember to call back."

David hung up. A strange quiet settled into the car and stayed there all the way to Sakura Market. Lucy got out.

"Don't forget to call your mother back."

She closed the door.

"Uh, yeah, than—"