Sheriff Andrew stood directly in front of the Galena, preventing Valerie from driving out of the garage.
His gaze moved slowly between the two women before settling on Valerie.
“Talk,” he said.
“Which clan are you from?”
Lena understood that this was more than idle curiosity.
The Badlands operated differently from Night City.
There were no surveillance cameras covering every street corner, and the NCPD wouldn’t send officers this far outside its jurisdiction.
In an isolated settlement like this one, the local sheriff served as police, judge, and executioner.
If Lena and Valerie couldn’t provide a believable explanation for their presence, they might not be permitted to leave.
“We used to run with the Bakkers,” Lena answered calmly.
“Not anymore.”
Andrew raised one eyebrow.
“You left your clan?”
“Yeah.
After Chief Serita died, the Bakkers started falling apart.
The new leadership eventually decided to merge with the Snake Nation.”
Lena kept her voice steady and her hand close to the Burya.
“We weren’t interested in joining them or raiding trade convoys for supplies, so we left.
Now we’re heading toward Night City to try our luck.”
Andrew didn’t respond immediately.
He studied them in silence, searching their expressions for any sign of deception.
He hated Nomads—or, more precisely, he hated the raiders who hid behind Nomad colors while terrorizing isolated settlements.
Over the years, gangs and roaming clans had stolen supplies from the town, attacked its residents, and left bodies scattered along the highway.
The two women before him didn’t appear to belong to that kind of group.
Their battered Galena looked ready to fall apart.
There were no heavy weapons mounted on the vehicle and no military-grade implants visible on either woman.
Even if Lena and Valerie intended to cause trouble, they lacked the equipment and numbers required to threaten the entire settlement.
Andrew finally moved his hand away from his revolver.
He glanced toward the mechanic.
“False alarm, Mike.
Tell everyone outside to stand down.”
Mike nodded and stepped out of the garage.
A moment later, the armed townspeople waiting beyond the entrance lowered their weapons.
Some returned to their drinks, while others resumed working as if nothing had happened.
The tension inside the garage eased.
Andrew looked back at Lena and Valerie.
“So you’re heading to Night City?”
“That’s the plan,” Lena said.
“That place isn’t paradise.”
Lena smiled faintly.
“The Badlands aren’t much better.”
Andrew stared at her for a second before releasing a quiet laugh.
“Fair point.”
Now that the possibility of a gunfight had passed, Lena took her hand away from the Burya.
She had another reason for wanting to speak with the sheriff—one far more important than explaining their arrival.
“There’s something I wanted to ask you.”
Andrew waited.
“We just left our clan, and as you can see, neither of us has much chrome.
You’ve been in the Badlands for a long time.
Do you know where we might find affordable cyberware?”
Andrew rubbed his chin.
His eyes briefly moved toward the road outside as he considered the question.
After several seconds, he shook his head.
“Don’t have any cyberware.”
Disappointment flashed across Valerie’s face.
Andrew paused before adding, “I do have a few corpses.”
Valerie stared at him.
“Corpses?”
The sheriff took out a cigarette, lit it, and inhaled deeply.
His tone remained casual, as though they were discussing spare engine parts.
“A few days ago, some Wraiths started circling the town.
Looked like they were scouting our defenses and waiting for a chance to raid us.”
He blew out a thin stream of smoke.
“I gathered a few people and handled the problem.”
“Meaning you killed them,” Valerie said.
Andrew shrugged.
“They ignored the warning.”
He nodded toward the back of the settlement.
“The bodies haven’t been disposed of yet.
I’m not selling cyberware.
I’m selling you the privilege of taking a problem off my hands.”
Valerie folded her arms.
“How much?”
“Three hundred eddies per corpse.
Disposal fee.”
Andrew’s mouth curved into a faint smile.
“Whatever chrome you manage to pull from them belongs to you.
Whether any of it still works after being shot, hit by EMPs, and left in cold storage for two days is your problem.”
Valerie frowned.
“You expect us to extract the implants ourselves?”
“Of course.”
Andrew spread his hands.
“This is the Badlands, not some luxury clinic in Charter Hill.
We don’t have ripperdocs waiting around to clean secondhand chrome.”
He flicked ash onto the concrete floor.
“If you find anything usable, take it into Night City.
Plenty of back-alley ripperdocs won’t ask where an implant came from as long as you can pay.
Just don’t expect guarantees.
Some of those Wraiths took bullets through the chest.
Others got their systems fried.
What survived comes down to luck.”
Valerie turned toward Lena.
“This is a bad idea.”
Her voice had lost its usual teasing edge.
“We don’t know what condition those implants are in.
They could be damaged, contaminated, or incompatible with us.
If something fails after installation, no amount of eddies will put your nervous system back together.”
Lena gently placed a hand on Valerie’s arm.
“We’re not installing anything here.”
“That doesn’t make it safe.”
“We’ll inspect what they have, take whatever is salvageable, and find a ripperdoc after we reach the city.”
That was only partly true.
A skilled ripperdoc would certainly be useful, but Lena’s primary concern was obtaining the cyberware itself.
For an ordinary person, secondhand implants needed to be extracted carefully, sterilized, repaired, tested, and calibrated for a new nervous system.
Compatibility alone could turn salvaged chrome into worthless scrap.
Lena’s Cyberware Fusion Module changed everything.
As long as an implant retained enough of its original structure to be recognized and analyzed, the system might be able to recycle it.
It didn’t matter whether the hardware had come from a clinic, a scavenger’s market stall, or the frozen corpse of a Wraith.
At least, that was the theory.
She needed to test it.
Valerie watched her for several long seconds.
Finally, she sighed.
“Fine.
I trust you.”
She pointed a warning finger at Lena.
“But if the ripperdoc says there’s something wrong with that chrome, we dump it.
No arguments.”
“Agreed.”
“Immediately.”
“Yes, Valerie.”
“I’m serious.”
“So am I.”
Andrew waited until they had finished before dropping his cigarette and crushing it beneath his boot.
“Follow me.”
He turned and left the garage.
Lena and Valerie followed him down a narrow path between the auto shop and several low buildings with rusted sheet-metal roofs.
The town was small enough to cross on foot within minutes.
Residents watched them pass.
Some stared openly, while others observed from behind curtains or damaged windows.
None approached.
The moment they noticed Andrew leading the way, they returned to their own affairs.
The sheriff stopped before an unremarkable concrete warehouse near the edge of town.
Its walls were cracked and peeling.
Several rusted oil drums stood beside the entrance, and an old refrigeration unit hummed somewhere behind the building.
Andrew removed a key from his pocket.
“People here used to burn raider bodies immediately,” he said as he unlocked the door.
“Simple, but wasteful.
A body can be ruined while some of its chrome is still worth good money.”
The lock clicked open.
“So I built cold storage.
Wraiths, Raffen Shiv, and any other idiots who ignore my warnings usually end up here.”
Andrew pulled the door open.
A wave of freezing air rushed from the warehouse, carrying the sharp chemical smell of disinfectant and preservative fluid.
Valerie wrinkled her nose.
“Smells awful.”
“Better than letting them rot in the sun.”
Andrew entered first.
The warehouse was almost empty.
A handful of tools and sealed containers occupied shelves along one wall, but the only substantial object was an industrial freezer positioned at the back.
It was more than two meters long, with pale-blue indicators blinking along its side.
The refrigeration unit produced a constant mechanical drone.
Andrew gripped the heavy handle.
“The bodies are in here.
Whatever you recover depends on your skills.
Once you buy them, they’re no longer my responsibility.”
He opened the freezer.
Cold vapor spilled across the floor.
Four dead Wraiths had been piled inside with little concern for dignity.
Their skin was pale from refrigeration, and visible sections of metal protruded from their faces, hands, and limbs.
Bullet holes and burns marked their clothing.
Valerie stepped back.
Lena moved closer.
She reached toward the first body and focused on the cyberware embedded around its eyes.
A pale-blue notification appeared.
[Tier 2 Kiroshi Optics: Stalker — Face]
[Status: Recyclable]
Lena’s pulse quickened.
She moved to the next corpse and placed her hand near an exposed section of skeletal reinforcement beneath the Wraith’s torn jacket.
[Tier 2 General Augmentation — Skeleton]
[Status: Recyclable]
The third body possessed an implant connected to the hands.
[Tier 2 Recoil Dampening System — Hands]
[Status: Recyclable]
The final Wraith showed signs of severe electrical damage.
Blackened skin surrounded several access ports near the base of the skull, suggesting that an EMP had overloaded the implant.
Nevertheless, the system responded.
[Tier 2 Self-ICE — Frontal Cortex]
[Status: Recyclable]
Lena inspected each corpse a second time.
The Wraiths carried plenty of damaged components, but these four implants had been recognized by the Cyberware Fusion Module.
Even in their current condition, the system considered every one of them recyclable.
Her first collection of cyberware was right in front of her.
A smile tugged at the corners of Lena’s lips.
Andrew noticed.
“Well?” he asked, lighting another cigarette.
“Find something you like?”
“Yes.”
“Then we can keep this simple.”
He gestured toward the bodies.
“One thousand eddies for all four.
I’m already giving you a discount because you’re taking the whole pile.”
Valerie looked at Lena.
Their available funds were painfully limited.
They had already paid twenty eddies for the Galena’s repair, leaving them with only €$1,008.
Buying the corpses would reduce them to almost nothing.
Lena didn’t hesitate.
“Deal.”
She opened her financial interface.
Yellow data flashed across her vision as she authorized the transfer.
[Payment Successful: €$1,000]
[Remaining Balance: €$8]
Andrew’s cybereye flickered as he received the money.
His expression brightened immediately.
“Straightforward.
I like that.”
He pointed toward the warehouse entrance.
“Bring the car around and load them yourselves.
The price doesn’t include delivery or customer service.”
With that, he turned and walked toward the entrance, leaving Lena and Valerie with the bodies.
Valerie let out a long, defeated sigh.
“There goes our food money.”
“We’ll earn more.”
“With what?
Our eight-eddie corporate empire?”
Lena smiled.
“You were the one who suggested starting a megacorp.”
“I was mocking you.”
“And I chose to interpret it as encouragement.”
Valerie muttered something unpleasant beneath her breath and went to retrieve the Galena.
A few minutes later, the battered car stopped outside the warehouse.
Together, they wrapped the frozen bodies in heavy storage bags and began carrying them out.
The corpses were unnaturally heavy.
Reinforced bones and implanted metal added significantly to their weight, forcing both women to strain as they dragged the first Wraith toward the trunk.
“This bastard must’ve eaten an entire braindance studio before he died,” Valerie grunted.
“Save your breath and lift.”
“You’re the one who spent all our money on frozen corpses.”
“And you agreed.”
“That was before I knew they weighed as much as a damn car.”
One by one, they hauled the four bodies out of cold storage and forced them into the Galena’s rear compartment.
When the last corpse was loaded, the vehicle’s suspension visibly sank.
Valerie slammed the trunk shut.
“There.
If the car breaks again, you’re carrying them to Night City yourself.”
Andrew watched from the warehouse entrance.
“Find a reliable ripperdoc once you reach the city,” he advised.
“Don’t let some joytoy with a surgical license install random chrome into your skull.”
“We know,” Lena said.
Andrew gave them one final look before waving toward the road.
“Then get moving.
Good luck in Night City.”
Lena and Valerie climbed back into the Galena.
Valerie turned the key, and the engine groaned under the added weight.
After several strained attempts, it finally started.
The battered vehicle rolled away from the warehouse, its chassis riding dangerously low above the road.
Lena looked back at the fading town.
They now had only eight eddies, an unreliable car, and four Wraith corpses packed into the rear compartment.
To anyone else, they would have appeared nearly destitute.
To Lena, those bodies represented the first step toward becoming something Night City had never seen before.