The drive back from the funeral was heavy. Vito's head was in a bad place. Two things pressing against each other, neither giving ground.
When he plugged his personal interface into the surgery chair and worked on his own chro, he had the feeling of slowly erasing the part of himself that made him a person.
And when he killed through that chro, he had the feeling of building sothing powerful with his own hands.
He needed the killing to relieve the anxiety of having so much machinery in his body. He needed the stimulation to keep his brain from asking whether he was still human.
Without noticing where he was going, Vito ended up outside Lizzie's Bar.
He hadn't been to Lizzie's since arriving in Night City. Word was the BDs here were sothing else.
He walked up to the entrance. Rita Wheeler, the Mox mber on door duty, was leaning on a baseball bat.
"Well. Vito, the big money himself. Welco to Lizzie's. You put a lot of eddies in my pocket. Go on in. Best BDs in the city, no argunt. You know the rules?"
Vito answered without thinking about it.
"Yeah. No touching. Order first, then watch."
Rita Wheeler nodded.
"That's the way. Have a good ti."
He went in and settled at the bar. He was going to ask if Liying was around.
"What are you drinking?"
The bartender, Matteo, asked.
Vito thought about it. When he was out with Jackie they always ended up with tequila or vodka. Maybe it was ti for sothing different.
"Gin on the rocks. Thanks."
Matteo set a glass in front of him, ice and a lemon slice.
"Call if you need anything."
Vito was about to ask about Liying when soone sat down next to him.
"Vito?"
He turned. A familiar face from the ga. Evelyn Parker. Blue hair. Better looking than the ga had suggested.
"Am I that well known?"
Evelyn smiled slightly.
"You're hotter in Night City right now than most BD stars. People are calling you Stopwatch. They say you're terrifyingly precise."
Vito grimaced. Night City rubes and their garbage nas. Stopwatch sounded worse than the Punisher. Like sothing you'd put on a sign outside a reflex implant clinic.
"Precise and efficient. That's my crew's reputation."
Evelyn was satisfied with the confidence.
"I'm looking for soone reliable to handle a job. No middleman. The fewer people who know, the better."
Vito instinctively checked the date. It wasn't even 2077 yet. How had Evelyn found him?
He was genuinely curious about that.
"Even though I'm not big on Night City's rule of always going through a middleman first, for a first collaboration I still think that's the safer approach. Want to recomnd a few?"
Evelyn didn't engage with that. She kept talking.
"This is important. I'll pay well. Right now, let's take a private room and talk. What do you say?"
Vito shook his head.
"Not tonight. I'm here to see a friend."
He called Matteo over and asked where Liying was.
Vito went up to the second floor and found her. He also found Mox leader Susanna Quinn in the middle of a full-volu tirade.
"Ten girls gone missing already! They can't all have just walked out without saying a word to anyone!"
Vito tapped Liying on the shoulder.
She turned and saw him, eyes wide.
"Co on. I ca to find you for that drink."
Liying went a little flustered.
"You, you actually ca to find ?"
Vito found that slightly odd.
"Yeah. We talked about it. Let's grab a private room. I'll order."
Liying hesitated.
"I'm... still working."
Vito waved it off. He called over to Susanna Quinn.
"Hey, Susanna. Liying Wesley and I are taking a private room for drinks. You don't mind?"
Susanna was still running hot. She looked at Vito and said imdiately:
"Not at all. And you don't mind looking into these missing girls for ? Na your price."
Vito smiled.
"Consider it done. I'll ssage the crew right now and have them start pulling on threads."
Susanna settled slightly. She turned to one of the Mox nearby.
"Send a good bottle to Vito's room."
In the private room, both of them were inexplicably stiff about it. Vito broke the silence first.
"Ice?"
Liying nodded.
"Just a little. Thank you."
Then both of them fell back into quiet.
Vito clinked his glass against hers and raised it to his lips.
"Vito. Are you in love with ?"
He nearly choked on his drink.
He recovered, and said:
"Part of my soul might be. I don't know what happened today. I was just drifting, and sohow I ended up outside Lizzie's, and sothing said: go in. Go see her."
"Vito! That sounds like a line from an old movie!"
Liying laughed.
"Then let's drink to old movies. Life doesn't have to be a song. One day we might be deeply disappointed."
He raised his glass.
"Yes. One day we might be deeply disappointed."
Liying clinked her glass against his and drank it down in one go.
They talked the way people talk when neither of them is entirely sure where the conversation is going, clinking glasses now and then. Liying's tolerance was lower than most Night City people. After a while she was starting to show it.
"Vito. Are you from Night City?"
"No. I'd say I was dragged here against my better judgnt. At first I thought Night City was sothing worth seeing. Then I actually got here and found out it slls like a cri scene and looks even worse."
" too. I had all kinds of ideas about it that didn't survive contact with reality."
"You're not from Night City either?"
"No. I grew up in a small town in the south. Close enough to Night City that you could see the neon at night."
Liying's eyes went a little unfocused. Vito signaled Matteo for a glass of water.
"What happened after that? How did you end up here?"
Liying seed to be reaching back into sothing.
"Back ho they used to grow avocados. That kind of crop pulls a lot of water. After the corporate wars the land dried up completely. A lot of people moved to the cities. My family was one of the ones who stayed.
My dad opened a repair shop. We got by okay. Then the Unification War ca. Nobody wanted anything to do with that piece of wasteland. My friends left for Night City one by one, and I thought: soday I'll go too."
Vito listened. Then Liying stopped.
"Tell about you, Vito. My story can wait. Next ti I'll give you another part."
Vito thought about it for a mont.
"My hotown is far from Night City by any asure. But a lot of people know about this city. So of my closest people are here now. So of my biggest problems too. I ended up here by accident. In the beginning, I just wanted to make sure no scav gutted for parts. Then I found the people who are my friends now. They got to where I am."
"That's lucky."
"Hmm. Not exactly. I can tell you about the first shady ripperdoc I ran into. A guy nad Janpeng. And the first al I ate in Night City. Almost flatlined ..."
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