Old gang tradition in Night City: when you raid a bar, whatever you're looking for is in the manager's office. Nine tis out of ten.
Jackie and Vito kicked the door in. The Fuji Bar manager, mid-interrogation of his own problems, dropped to his knees on the spot.
"Don't shoot, I didn't touch her, I didn't touch her!"
Jackie moved to check Annie's condition. Vito stepped forward and put a boot into the manager, flipping him over.
"That's not for you to say. What's the situation with Annie Cornwall? And don't try anything clever."
The manager covered his face with his hands from the floor.
"She's fine. I only had a signal blocker inserted in her. I hadn't even started questioning her yet."
Vito kept control of the manager and called across.
"Jackie. What are we looking at?"
Jackie released Annie's restraints.
"Target's alive. Looks unhard. She's free."
Annie Cornwall worked the feeling back into her wrists and ankles and did the quiet math. Another hour and they would have transferred her to a Tyger Claws base. At that point things would have gotten considerably worse than a signal blocker.
She looked around the room.
"Just the two of you?"
Vito's expression was flat.
"Of course not. Your royal guard is on its way from London as we speak, Your Highness."
Annie stared at him for a mont.
"Kill him."
"As you wish."
"No! No!"
Bang.
The round went through the manager's palm and kept going.
Annie pulled the blocker chip from the back of her neck and put a call through.
Boop boop.
It connected fast.
"Valerie. I ssed up. It was a trap."
"The scene's cleaned up. I heard shots — should be no survivors."
"But — yes. I know. Heading back now."
She ended the call and looked at the two of them.
"Who's in charge here?"
Vito was already jacked into the bar's computer system running through their accounts.
"Vito, CEO and Executive Director of the Vito dical Dispute Resolution Group. Anything else?"
Annie's mouth did sothing involuntary.
"Clean work. My employer would like your contact information. There's a bonus in it for you."
Vito finished emptying the account and allowed himself a small smile.
"Must be my lucky day. Should have taken more jobs this morning."
He produced a card and held it out. Annie lifted it between two fingers.
Ping.
Two new contacts landed in Vito's directory. Annie Cornwall. And a second na: V.
Vito's eyebrow moved slightly. So the client on this one was V. He'd heard Annie say "Valerie" — female V, then. Corpo background, by the looks of things.
"I don't usually take Arasaka work. Rescuing beautiful princesses is the exception. Pleasure doing business. Let's go, Jackie. We're looking at cars tonight."
Annie's first instinct was that her fixer had leaked information. She turned it over and decided her employer wouldn't use a fixer that sloppy. She had to ask.
"How did you know?"
Vito was already out the door. His voice drifted back.
"The standard bow your people do for Saburo Arasaka puts a crease in your clothes right about — there."
Annie looked down on instinct.
Then she understood she'd been played.
"Bastard!"
Outside the Fuji Bar, Valerie's transfer had already arrived. Three thousand eddies exactly. Vito let out a low whistle.
They climbed into the Delamain. Jackie asked:
"You think that routine actually works on corpo types? The whole formal introduction thing?"
Vito cracked open a mini Coke.
"Makes us look professional. Otherwise you're running around shouting my na every two seconds and screaming about how many guys you just dropped. We could fight clean and precise and they'd still assu we're just so gang's street sweepings."
Jackie scratched his head.
"The thing is, we didn't exactly have an audience in there. The girl was tied up in the manager's office. She probably didn't hear any of it."
"Damn. I forgot about that. Whatever. What's the next job?"
"Kabuki. Target's a psycho who's been running a honeypot operation on won and killing them at his place. A local pimp went to look into it and got his leg broken for the trouble."
Vito looked up from his phone.
"No police report?"
Jackie sighed.
"Guy has so backing. NCPD showed up, poked around, and then warned the person who'd called that if they filed another false report they'd be looking at an arrest."
Vito checked his ammunition.
"What did the client ask for?"
"Client wants him turned into a puddle. Personally, I'd string him up in front of the victims' families and let him find out what it feels like from the other side."
Vito shook his head.
"Leave that alone. If soone with connections cos after us, that's manageable. If he decides to go after the families instead, how many of them are going to be able to fight back? We do the job and nothing more."
Jackie exhaled.
"You're right. This city, man. This city."
Vito put a hand on his shoulder.
"Relax, mano. Jobs where we get paid and get to be the good guys at the sa ti don't co along often. Del. Question. What's the single most important thing for a rc?"
Delamain's synthesized voice filled the car.
"Based on my comprehensive analysis and synthesis of available data..."
"Short version, Del."
"Of course, Mr. Vito. I believe the most important thing for a rcenary is choice."
"..."
Kabuki. The apartnt complex.
Like every cheap residential block in Night City — idle people, cut-rate food stalls, an open-air boxing ring, an elevator that worked when it felt like it, groups of extravagantly dressed n and won scanning passersby for potential clients, a vendor in a trenchcoat showing bootleg Braindances from under his jacket in a corner.
Jackie checked the address against his neural readout for the third ti.
"This is definitely right? The guy lives here? Doesn't exactly look like sowhere a connected person would set up."
"When the money goes crazy up on the hill, you stop trying to understand the crazy and just do the job."
Room 1217. Vito ran his hand across the iron door and read the material, then attached a micro breach charge to the fra.
Knock knock knock.
"Mr. Liu Yongzhe? Are you ho?"
The door didn't open. A flat, muffled voice ca from inside.
"Who is it?"
"NCPD. We've received a report, and pursuant to the constitution, we are here to carry out your righteous execution."
Bang.
The breach charge detonated. The door ca off its fra.
Jackie went in first and swept with Reason, three hundred and twenty pellets scattering evenly across the room in one roaring pull of the trigger.
Vito moved in right behind. Jackie cracked the breech and loaded two slugs.
The good news: they had the right room. Liu Yongzhe was inside.
The bad news: the backing was real.
Under the torn skin from the shotgun blast was a layer of matte black subdermal armor. Vito opened up with the Shigure, sustained fire at close range. Liu Yongzhe crossed both forearms over his skull.
Ping. Ping. Ping. Ping.
The sharp ringing off his chro made the quality clear. When the magazine ran dry, Liu lowered his arms slowly.
"Ssibal. My turn."
Snick.
Two Mantis Blades unfolded from his forearms.
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