"Hey, Carlo, who's the new friend?"
People in the camp called out as Carlo passed. He was wound tight, scanning every face, responding to the warm greetings with nothing but nods.
Once he and Jackie had worked their way clear of the camp, Jackie finally said sothing.
"Hey, choom. You're acting like you're sneaking past a guard dog. You don't have to announce what we're doing. Your face is doing it for you."
Carlo got in the car and locked both hands around the wheel. His knuckles had gone white.
"Sorry."
He pressed the accelerator. The car didn't move. He pressed it again, harder, then again.
Jackie watched from the passenger seat for about as long as he could stand it, then reached over and hit the ignition.
Carlo's expression didn't change. The corners of his mouth moved in what might have been a smile.
"Thanks."
The whole drive out, Carlo was sowhere else entirely. He kept drifting off the road and into the Badlands brush, clipping cacti on the shoulder.
Jackie was sweating. In Night City this kind of driving would have had MAX-TAC calling Carlo a cyberpsycho and scraping both of them off the road.
"Carlo. Hey. What are you doing?"
Carlo was heading straight for a large rock. Jackie shouted and Carlo snapped back, hit the brakes hard, and barely corrected the wheel in ti.
That was enough. Jackie was not sitting in Carlo's passenger seat anymore.
He got out, lit a cigarette, and checked the ssage Vito had sent him.
"If Carlo's the mole, put a round in him."
Jackie scratched his head. The way Carlo was acting right now, looking guilty of sothing he hadn't been asked about yet, wasn't helping his case.
To avoid shooting the wrong person, Jackie walked to the driver's side window and offered Carlo a cigarette.
"Choom. Your head's not on the job. The way you're driving, we're both going to be Badlands wreckage before we get anywhere near the Aldecaldos."
Carlo took the cigarette on autopilot. Then Aldecaldos registered and he looked up.
"Right. We need to ask soone for the camp coordinates before we can find them."
Jackie was completely out of words. The guy was normally solid. Now he couldn't manage the most basic thing without being walked through it.
He gave Carlo a pat on the back.
"It's fine, we can ask now. You want to step out and clear your head? I'll drive."
Carlo sat there a mont, breathed in slow and deep, and then slapped himself across the face a few tis while muttering sothing under his breath.
Jackie's hand had moved to the Golden Hellcats before he'd made a conscious decision about it.
Carlo got out of the car while Jackie was still staring.
"Sorry, friend. I've got a lot on my mind. You drive. I'll call the Aldecaldos."
He looked like himself again. More or less.
Jackie dropped the half-smoked cigarette into the dirt and took the wheel.
"Coordinates are uploaded. Just follow the holographic nav."
Carlo got through to Mitch at the Aldecaldos. Their leader Saul had already spoken with Max.
Halfway there, Carlo broke the quiet.
"Jackie. How does your crew handle traitors?"
Jackie thought about it.
"I haven't been in the rc business long. We haven't had a traitor yet. But back when I was with a gang, I heard about one informant who got put in an oil drum and burned alive."
Carlo swallowed.
"You ran with a gang?"
"Grew up in Heywood. A lot of kids in Heywood end up in gangs. Valentinos, in my case. I got out eventually, ran into Vito, started taking contracts."
"So you've only known Vito a few years?"
"Not long. But I don't know. It feels like he's known longer. We're on the sa frequency. First ti we had a drink together we called each other family and ford a crew on the spot. The next day we ran our first job."
Carlo seed to have thought Vito had years of history behind him. He kept going.
"I figured you two had been friends for a long ti. The way you operate together, it looks like it."
"Vito makes friends the sa way he works. Precise and efficient."
"Isn't that your crew's tagline?"
Jackie smiled.
"Vito built the reputation. I can't take much credit for it."
Carlo tried the question he'd been working up to.
"Do you think Vito would ever sell you out?"
Jackie's expression shifted. What kind of question was that.
"Vito isn't going to sell out. There's nothing on worth selling."
Carlo went quiet after that.
Jackie glanced over. He was about ninety percent sure now that Carlo knew exactly who the mole was.
The road through the Badlands was rough. Best suspension in the world doesn't help when there's no road to speak of.
By the ti they reached the Aldecaldos camp, Jackie felt like he'd put his back out.
"Hey, Carlo! Long ti. You look terrible."
"Hey, Mitch. Good to see you. This is Jackie, a friend of the clan. Is the shipnt ready?"
Mitch ca over to greet them.
"Loaded and ready to go whenever. But it's just the two of you? I've been hearing the Night Wraiths are stirring up trouble everywhere."
"You'll need to escort this shipnt back with us. Max will cover the extra cost. We took losses recently. We don't have the people to run it ourselves."
Mitch hesitated.
"Max didn't ntion that to Saul. Let check with him."
While Mitch was gone, a hooded figure carried a crate of beer over and set it by the vehicle. He pulled out two bottles and handed one each to Carlo and Jackie.
"You're in a hurry this ti? Not staying for a bit?"
Carlo used his cyberware to pop the cap, poured most of the bottle down his throat, and belched.
"Things are bad. The Chaos Blades have their teeth in the Serpents and they won't let go. But forget that for a second. Scorpion, how are you wearing that much gear in this heat? You're going to sweat through everything."
Scorpion took the joke in stride.
"Still cooler than your friend in that leather jacket."
"Fair enough. I'm Jackie. What do I call you, choom?"
"Scorpion is what everyone uses."
"Is that a nickna?"
"Military callsign."
The three of them drank and talked. Then a girl with her hair up walked past them, a sniper rifle over one shoulder.
"Hey, Scorpion. Hey, Carlo. What brings you out to camp?"
"Picking up a shipnt."
"Okay. I'm tied up today. Let's get drinks again soon. Don't forget to bring Samir next ti."
"Sure. See you around, Panam."
Carlo's expression changed the mont he heard Samir's na.
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