"Done, Vito. Susanna put a drill to that Lenny Nero's knee and he talked. He said the person behind the filming is called Jotaro Shoji. He's at the Phoenix Club right now. I'm sending you the location."
Vito checked his weapons. He was going in through the second floor.
"Good. Jackie, bring the car to the Phoenix Club. I'll clean this up."
"T-Bug. Prepare to breach."
"Breaching. Puppet releasing. Caras will tag enemies and project to your Kiroshi. Stand by to receive."
...
Jotaro Shoji had just finished cutting another BD. This one had co out well. Creative and visually compelling in equal asure.
He stretched, drank so coffee that had gone completely cold. Work always made him lose track of ti.
He opened the club's surveillance feed on his computer. The Phoenix was doing good business tonight — the private rooms were full of guests deep in his BDs.
"Today really is a good day."
It was worth celebrating. He would open a bottle of champagne, to mark the Phoenix Club's official first night, and to mark the beginning of what ca next.
He loved making BDs. If your passion and your career could rise together, Night City was paradise.
He called Koizumi Kenji.
"Hey. Bring a bottle of champagne up. Then co take the data and get production going downstairs."
He lit a cigarette, closed his eyes, leaned back in his chair. The lody he'd been humming finally found its shape. A classic from the last century. Singin' in the Rain.
"I'm singin' in the rain~"
The song finished. The champagne still hadn't arrived.
He frowned and reached for his comm.
"This idiot. Can't bring one bottle without dragging his feet."
The sliding tal door moved.
"What took you so long? Don't you think you're inefficient? Koizumi."
Thud.
Sothing landed on the desk in front of him.
Shoji opened his eyes.
Koizumi Kenji's head.
He pulled a Kenshin from the desk drawer and pointed it at the uninvited guest.
"Who are you?"
"A rc. You're part of my commission."
Shoji fired at the man's face. The man tilted his head just slightly. Didn't change his pace. As if he'd already known the shot wouldn't connect.
Shoji stared. His voice shook slightly.
"You. You're Cube Head?"
Underneath the shaking, Vito could hear sothing else. Suppressed excitent.
"No. I'm just a rc."
Shoji dropped the gun. His eyes had caught fire.
"You are Cube Head. I know it. I've watched the original footage more tis than I can count. If Cube Head stood in front of , I'd know him at once."
Vito shrugged.
"Fine. I underestimated how far gone you are. Have you seen a doctor about your condition?"
Shoji blinked.
"A condition? No. This is the pursuit of art. Everything we do is creating art. The public simply hasn't developed fast enough to appreciate it. Otherwise my work would have earned a speech on the Pal d'Or stage."
Vito didn't want any more of this conversation. He grabbed Shoji by the throat and pushed him down against the computer.
"Transfer the money to the chip. Finding your two lowlife associates cost ."
Shoji transferred without argunt.
"Work with . You'll have more money than you know what to do with. There's sothing about you — that presence of death. It's captivating. With my connections, Arasaka won't co after you anymore."
Vito shot Shoji's knee.
"Drop the pretentious artistic routine. Who do you think you are? Yorinobu Arasaka? Keeping Arasaka from coming after ? I'm going to go make trouble for Arasaka myself."
Severe pain brought Shoji back to sothing closer to coherent. He gritted his teeth and activated his pain editor.
"You can't fight the corporations. That's Arasaka. Their Tyger Claws alone will make your life miserable. You'll be afraid to sleep because you'll lie there waiting for the Tyger Claws to kick in your door and kill your family in front of you."
Bang.
The kneecap of his other leg went.
Vito let him go. Shoji dropped to the floor and grabbed the edge of the desk to hold himself up.
"You said you've watched the original footage countless tis. Did you ever see fear in ?"
Shoji shook his head.
Vito crouched down. He tapped Eddie against Shoji's face.
"I don't know how I got to this city. I don't know if there's a day I get back. But you know what I do know?"
Shoji shook his head.
"I know that I've never had any respect for parasites like you. And I've never had any respect for Arasaka, which you treat like a god. n in suits might be dirty. But you garbage are filthy. I'm not afraid of your dirty blood getting on . I'm afraid you'll hide in your gutters where I can't find you."
Vito's fist put out Shoji's pain editor. Shoji writhed on the floor.
"Tyger Claws? Shit Swamp Clan."
Bang bang. Both elbows.
"You lowlife, disgusting pieces of garbage. The trash you film is just like you. A pile of moving filth."
Bang bang bang bang. His shoulders. What was installed there ca away.
"Your filthy little nest has decent soundproofing. I really don't like that. I want all of Night City to hear the screaming of the man who spent his life torturing others."
Bang bang. His heavy cyberware ca off.
"Tell what it feels like now."
Shoji was on the floor screaming. He no longer had the strength to move.
Vito put a shot of high-strength stimulant into him. Make sure he felt every second of what was left.
"When you torture others, be ready for the day soone returns it in kind."
Bang.
"Stop dressing up what's inside you as art. You learned one word and you throw it around everywhere."
Bang.
"I don't have the ability to bring anyone back. But I have the ability to send you where you belong."
Bang bang.
Shoji was dead. He died the way he'd made others die, and worse, and his corpse lay in his own filth.
Vito looked at it without expression. Then he took out the Saratoga and, like a man emptying sothing out of himself, worked through what was left on the floor until there wasn't much left to call a body.
When it was done, he started collecting what he'd co for.
The Mox girls had been taken by Koizumi and Kawaguchi and brought to the Phoenix Club's second and third floors. There was no one who ca in ti. None of them survived. After they died, Shoji had scavengers strip anything usable and put the rest into the incinerator.
That was the machine. Human lives as fuel, driving n like Jotaro Shoji through Night City's streets.
30 advance chapters at patreon/Eatinpieces
User Comments
0 comments from readers