Stints was Heywood-born. After he joined the NCPD his flexible approach to the job made him popular with the people who counted, which ant his path to sergeant had been smoother than most of the idealists who'd co up alongside him.
As a seasoned Night City cop, Stints had no soft spots for small-ti street criminals, but for well-connected corpo figures he had always preferred to develop a convenient blind spot.
What had kept nagging at him, in spite of all that, was the serial killer. The systematic brutalizing of innocent people. He had spent whatever free ti he had circling the block around Liu Yongzhe's apartnt, turning away anyone who tried to make house calls, using his badge as a barrier between the tenants and whatever was moving through that building.
Until the night he saw an old acquaintance from Heywood and his new partner walk straight through Liu's door.
Stints had heard Jackie had gone rc. In his estimation, a hot-headed Heywood kid who ran on adrenaline and talked constantly about the Afterlife was going to catch a random bullet on so diocre job and that would be the end of it.
What Stints had not expected was for that kid to co up quickly, or for his partner to be the kind of operator who made Stints reconsider what he thought he knew about street talent.
He had still been telling himself it was a coincidence when the two of them strolled out of the building whistling. Liu Yongzhe had been turned into paste behind them.
Stints went up and checked the room. He wasn't bothered by the violence. He was bothered by what he knew was about to co through the door next.
He called into HQ dispatch. Three black corporate gunships were on the ground before the first patrol unit arrived. The n who stepped out of them were not the kind Stints argued with. They waved him off the scene like a fly on a al.
Half an hour later his comm unit crackled. Dispatch: "Liu Yongzhe case. Classification: cyberpsychosis episode, self-inflicted death. Case closed."
Stints laughed once, without humor. He knew perfectly well that the real hunters were never the ones foaming at the mouth on the street.
A connected corpo gets killed, the corp sends cleanup, and the case dies quietly. Sothing was running underneath all of this.
When he got back he ran a check on Vito. What he found was practically nothing. No ID on record. No entry or exit docuntation. An account that had materialized from nowhere. Either this man had climbed out of a wall in Night City, or he had the kind of backing that buried paperwork cleanly. Governnt agent, possibly. Corporate intelligence, high clearance. Word was President Myers had been pushing to rebuild federal reach lately. Vito could be one of her people.
Now, watching that take-down in the alley, Stints felt more sure of it.
He put away the arrogance.
"I wasn't looking to give you two trouble. The psycho got what was coming to him. That's fine by . I've been hearing you're running so of the most efficient gigs in the Valley right now. I've got a commission. You interested?"
Vito holstered Eddie.
He was aware that so NCPD officers brought in rcs to do what they couldn't. Regina Jones worked exactly that way, all of her gigs involving cyberpsychos. It was a known arrangent.
"Sergeant Stints. Go through a fixer. That's how Night City does this."
Stints gave a thin smile.
"Rules? You don't look like soone who cares much about rules. And frankly, the job I'm looking at is better handled with as few people knowing about it as possible."
Vito waited.
"There are people inside the departnt who have gang backing, and in return they run cover for those gangs. Normally I don't waste energy getting into it with colleagues over gang business. But sothing's crossed a line that I can't ignore. There's a sergeant nad Dutt. He and his crew have been picking up petty criminals off the street and selling them to gangs. You know how it is since the NCPD went private this year — half the force got cut. Dutt and his crew kept their jobs because Dutt was paying the people above him with what he made from selling people."
Vito had heard approximately this from Margot. The pieces fit.
"So you want to report Dutt. There are press outlets for that."
Stints shook his head, checked the alley, then lowered his voice.
"Dutt handles most of the actual transactions through trusted n, but occasionally he ets his gang contacts in person. I need you to stake him out and hit that eting when it happens. Kill his crew. Kill the gang contacts. Leave Dutt standing. When you give the signal, I'll have my people in the area. I'll walk in and take him with witnesses and evidence."
Vito lit a cigarette.
"Killing him outright would be a lot less complicated."
Stints shook his head again.
"Alive. And contact before you move. I need to be close."
Vito turned this over. One sergeant running an operation against another. Dutt was probably competing with Stints for the next promotion. Stints had frad it respectably, but what he was really doing was using hired hands to clear a rival and walk away clean, with Dutt as a trophy instead of a body.
Night City justice. Correct outco, ugly process.
"It can be done. Thirty percent deposit upfront. Non-negotiable."
Stints considered it for a few seconds and nodded.
Vito quoted forty thousand eddies.
Stints transferred twelve thousand on the spot.
Vito raised an eyebrow slightly. Stints had his own fund sowhere that didn't appear in the departnt ledger.
"I'll stay on top of this. Anything else? If not, you can go ho and iron your uniform."
Stints left without further words.
Vito walked down to Vik's clinic.
"How is she, Vik? She doing alright?"
Vik had already done the physical repair work. She looked markedly better.
"Nothing wrong with her body. The other part is harder to say. She's badly shaken. Any noise sets her off. She's been on sedative mist just to keep things manageable."
Vik sighed. He'd heard what had happened. The girl had been lucky to get out at all.
Misty sat with her for a while and tried to help her find her footing. It helped, but not enough.
Jackie and Misty took her ho. She lived in an old apartnt block in the Northside, on her own, but she kept the place clean. A neighbor who knew her well was surprised to find she hadn't left the city. She hadn't expected to hear sothing this bad had happened. The neighbor promised to check in on her over the next few days. Jackie and Misty felt comfortable enough to leave.
One month later, the neighbor called the NCPD to collect a body.
The girl had tried to find work after she started to feel steadier. Her concentration wasn't reliable. On her first day she spilled coffee on a corpo's suit and was let go on the spot and threatened with a lawsuit before she was out the door.
No work. No inco. Then an overdue rent notice. That final piece was what finished her.
She ended her life with a small knife.
Her soul had already died from the weight of each blow, one after another. The knife was only the last period on a shell that had long been empty. Night City had been consuming her. Perhaps she had already been dead from the mont they took her to film those black BDs.
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