Vito put his arm around Liying. This girl who seed cheerful and bright on the outside was just fighting fate in the only way she knew how.
Liying kept going.
"After that I joined the Mox. People kept showing up to shake down for protection money, and I'd heard that if you were Mox you got real protection.
After that my days kind of blurred together. Going through the motions. Then one day I saw street racing happening on the road and I suddenly rembered my car. The races back ho in the town.
I desperately wanted to drive. Wanted to get my hands back on the wheel. But you probably already know I had no money for a car. Couldn't afford second-hand either.
I found a junked Thorton Galena in a scrapyard and started looking for parts, thinking I could build sothing worth driving. I scrimped for the better part of a year. Finally put together a car that could actually run. I was so excited I could barely hold still.
Then I took it to a street race. The way those people laughed at , I didn't dare roll down my windows. I just wanted to get away in that wreck. Then it stalled in the middle of the road. At least it had the decency to not make sit through more of that. I managed to get it ho.
I sulked like a kid and didn't touch the car for a whole week. But I couldn't shake the feeling. And eventually I got back in the seat."
Liying stopped at that. She drained her glass in one go. The corners of her eyes had gone faintly red, hard to tell if it was the alcohol or sothing else.
"The day we t. I watched your car creaking away into the distance and I thought: if only it had broken down right there. Then I could have talked to you again."
Liying laughed after hearing that.
"Ha. That thing stalls on all the ti. That night was the one night it decided to hold together all the way ho."
She rested her head against his shoulder again.
"After that, well, that was the day we actually t. Honestly, I'd already noticed you before then. You in the ring, everyone calling out for you, completely calm, like you had the whole thing in hand.
My friends told you were the hottest rc in Heywood. Sothing made work up the nerve to talk to you that day. I don't really know where it ca from. You told to bet on six rounds or under, and I don't know what happened but I went and put money on it. That was actually my last five hundred eddies. My rent money.
I wasn't running deliveries on the street anymore, but the ghost was still right behind . If I'd lost, I was going to get in that old Thorton and drive out of Night City. I was tired. Really, genuinely tired."
Liying's hand moved to his face.
"But in the end you won. Everything was in your control. Honestly, Vito, I never once thought you'd actually co to Lizzie's to find ."
Vito pressed her cold hand against his face and held it there.
"We're both people living on Night City's edges. I wasn't lying to you. The day we t, a piece of my soul had already gone with you."
"I heard rcs all leave their drink recipes on the wall at the Afterlife. Do you have a recipe, Vito?"
Vito smiled slightly.
"I had one once. Had a certain novelty to it. But I never left it there."
Liying didn't follow.
"Why not?"
"Because it doesn't taste good. Leaving it at the Afterlife would have been cruel to the patrons. I have a new one now."
"What is it?"
"Gin on the rocks. One slice of lemon on top."
"You like gin that much?"
"Gin. Distilled to suppress grief that can't be cured."
Two lonely souls leaning into each other. Vito, wrung out by flesh-and-chro existence, always walking the line of death with the abyss staring back. But eting Liying had finally let him clear out a small corner of himself to hold sothing worth keeping. Sothing that belonged to both of them.
That corner would keep Vito from running headlong into the chanical monster side of himself.
...
The next day, two ssages. One from Evelyn. One from Romano.
Evelyn still wanted to bypass the middleman for a job she still hadn't revealed a single word about.
The problem was that Vito hated working with incomplete information. In his read, Evelyn Parker was a person whose ambitions were sky-high and whose odds were paper-thin.
That kind of person was everywhere in Night City. The ones who made sothing of it were rare. Vito hadn't heard of one.
The other ssage was from the old friend, Romano.
The journalist had found more corporate dirt and couldn't wait to dig further.
"Reply when you see this."
Vito called him directly.
"Hey, Romano. Has the Pulitzer arrived yet?"
Romano didn't engage with the teasing. He imdiately pushed over an attachnt.
"Vito, Biotechnica is absolutely running sothing. They've got the Night Wraiths doing their killing and grabbing for them. This isn't just about pushing Nomads off the land to grow synthetic wheat anymore. They're hiding sothing they can't afford to let out."
"Of course they are. Is Biotechnica going to hold a press conference?"
"Let's et in person. You pick the place, Vito. This matters. It's a big story."
"Wild Wolf, Mr. Big Story."
They t at the Wild Wolf. Early morning, barely anyone in. Pepe was directing workers hauling arcade machines out of the bar. Per Jackie, the old junk had to go to make room for the renovation.
Vito greeted Pepe, then vaulted the bar one-handed, grabbed two glasses and opened a bottle of tequila.
He pushed a glass across to Romano.
"All right. What's the job?"
Romano took the glass and slid a chip across the counter.
"This is what I've found on the Night Wraiths' Chaos Blades branch. They're connected to multiple recent kidnappings. I need you to find the Chaos Blades' base and pull the specific information I'm after. Whether you go in shooting or go in quiet is your business."
Vito read the chip. The contents were detailed, more thorough than what most fixers bothered to provide.
"This is a serious job. Not cheap."
Romano produced a credit chip.
"This is your deposit. I know it's a serious job. That's why I want the best. Money isn't the problem."
Vito took the chip.
"dia work pays this well? Any chance you take a partner? You know this money of mine doesn't co easy."
Romano took a slow pull of tequila.
"Money? I'm trying to make sure the public knows the truth. Like my idol Thompson. He exposed the conspiracies of countless corporations."
At that na Vito paused.
"The one who went into Arasaka Tower with Johnny Silverhand to rescue Alt and then got beaten up by Johnny?"
"Going in to rescue Alt Cunningham, accurate. But where did you get that Johnny Silverhand beat him up? Whether that rock star could take Thompson is a genuinely open question."
Vito rubbed his forehead and laughed. He thought to himself:
Johnny. How much have your mories been flattering you?
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