When the first grey light crept over the horizon, the Badlands wind finally eased off. The Serpents camp shed the tension and silence that had been sitting over it and started moving toward sothing that felt like recovery.
The deadness that had settled into the camp began to lift. The Nomad energy that belonged there started coming back, though after what had happened with the moles, people looked at each other a little more carefully than they used to.
At sunrise, Vito leaned against the fully repaired Magician with his hands in his pockets and tried to look like a movie star brooding against a car.
"Quick, Jackie. I've got the feeling now. Get a shot."
Jackie took a few and sent them over.
"It doesn't look like I imagined. Is it the car? Maybe I need a sports car for this."
Jackie ca over and leaned against the Magician next to him, ready for a few photos together.
"Why are you so obsessed with poses from old movies? I think those shots ca out fine. Co on, mano. Let's get a couple together."
Jackie took a few. Not satisfied.
"Vito, stop standing there like a statue. Do sothing."
Vito sighed and put his right arm around Jackie, then put his left hand out in a thumbs-up.
The bare Badlands, the blood-red sunrise, and two people setting aside the bodies and the betrayals of yesterday. Living in the mont. Doing the thing every person in Night City fought so hard to do. Just being alive, properly alive.
Carlo ca over with two clan mbers, a data disc in hand.
"Vito, Jackie, the commission fee has been transferred to your accounts. Max asked to check: the cargo is ready. When can we start?"
"Waiting on word. The mont my netrunner confirms she's ready, we move."
Vito pulled Jackie up to sit on the roof of the Magician.
"Carlo, take a few photos for us. Make sure you get the sunrise in."
A minute later Carlo sent over a set.
"Carlo, you're good at this. Way better than Jackie."
Carlo scratched the back of his head.
"I'm always taking photos of Samir and Cala. Probably just practice."
Vito nudged Jackie with his elbow.
"Take notes."
"To take photos of Misty?"
"No. For and Liying."
"Then learn it yourself."
T-Bug's encrypted ssage window popped up: [Toby identity cover complete. Terminal data, voice profile, and comm encryption fully replicated. No detectable gaps. Ready to transmit on your signal.]
Vito jumped down from the Magician.
"We're on. Execute the plan. Take four people, drive escort for the transport, load the bait cargo at the supply point west of camp. Trackers on the vehicle and in the cargo, double coverage. Don't break cover at any point."
Carlo gave a firm nod.
"Understood. I'll drop a few Night Wraiths before we pull back. Make it convincing."
"Good. When the ti cos, abandon the transport and fall back. Let them chase you for a stretch. Max and I will co in and pull you out. Draw it out, give the Chaos Blades enough ti to drive the transport away."
Carlo and four capable clan mbers took Max's heavy transport, a massive vehicle loaded with high-value cargo, and headed toward the supply point west of camp. The engine rumbled as the wheels cut into the desert hardpack, and the vehicle left two deep tracks behind it as it rolled out.
Vito watched them go and sent T-Bug the signal to begin.
In her Night City safehouse, T-Bug settled into the hacker chair and took control of the replicated Toby terminal. In Toby's voice, through his encryption, she pushed a ssage into the Chaos Blades' private channel: [Max's heavy transport has departed. Vehicle is carrying clan military supplies. Route: western Badlands hardpan, old highway section, secondary relay point. Carlo driving with a small escort. Defensive coverage is light. Clean intercept opportunity.]
Ten minutes after the ssage went out, T-Bug reported back: the Chaos Blades had received the tip and were already moving, a large force converging on the designated ambush position.
Vito gave Max the word and got into the Magician. He watched the transport's tracker blink on his panel and felt a smile cross his face.
Before long, the heavy transport rolled loaded into the old highway section at a steady pace. High dunes on both sides, broken terrain, exactly the kind of ground an ambush was designed for.
The transport reached the middle of the stretch.
Gunfire erupted from every direction.
Dozens of Chaos Blades fighters poured out from behind the dunes in modified off-road vehicles, kinetic rifles and precision rifles blazing, rounds hamring the transport's armor in a continuous crackle. The windows were pocked with impact marks inside seconds.
"Ambush! Chaos Blades!" The Serpents on the transport played panic convincingly, returning fire at a level that looked exactly like n barely holding on.
The Chaos Blades pressed harder. Flashbang grenades detonated alongside the transport. The burst of light and sound gave the crew inside a genuine few seconds of disorientation to work with. Carlo's expression was appropriately grim as he called it.
"Too much firepower. We can't hold. Abandon the vehicle. Everyone out, move!"
Carlo helped the transport driver off and led the group back. The Night Wraiths split. Half went after the retreating Serpents, half went for the transport.
"Ha! That's it. We've got the old man's ride!"
"Boss says count the cargo and get moving. Drive it back now."
The Chaos Blades even sent people with sweeping equipnt to clear the transport's tire tracks from the ground, then cleaned up the spent casings and debris from the ambush site.
They drove Max's heavy transport back toward their base in force, completely unaware that the micro-tracker and the embedded chip were pulsing at steady intervals, logging every ter of the route.
Vito and Max staged a hurried arrival with their fighters, took out part of the pursuit force, and then went through the motions of chasing the withdrawing Chaos Blades around the Badlands for a while. Carlo took his group to the spot where the transport had been abandoned and made a convincing show of looking for it.
Vito accepted the cigarette Max offered and lit it.
"Honestly, old man. You really committed to this. That was your bedroom on wheels."
Max's eyes were locked on the tracker panel in Vito's hand, watching the signal drift further away. He bit down on whatever he was feeling.
"I'll consider it the coffin I'm sending those Chaos Blades animals."
30 advance chapters at patreon/Eatinpieces
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