With the servers and other equipment damaged by the Arasaka representatives, we spent about a week working on repairs.
Mostly because Judy turned out to be a clever fox.
She managed to convince the Mox leadership to put in another request for upgrades to the newly installed equipment.
She didn’t even bother mentioning that she’d become part of my crew or that a share of the profits would be coming her way.
And of course, she asked for the new equipment to be delivered to her apartment, not to Lizzie’s.
According to her, using such high-end gear to edit porn braindances was practically sacrilege.
I was just leaving Lizzie’s for the day, all my work finished, when I ran into a familiar face.
“Hey, David.”
“Hello, Valerie.
What brings you to a place like this?”
I gestured vaguely at the surroundings.
“Hardly fitting for someone of your status, wouldn’t you say?”
“Hm.
So you didn’t know who you were helping?”
“Helping?”
The pieces clicked into place.
I smirked and shook my head.
“So you’re the one who got fired from this fine establishment?”
“Yeah.”
She smiled bitterly.
“And I’d still be struggling to get back on my feet if not for that small loan you gave my friend.”
She shook her head.
“How did you find me?
And why, exactly?”
“Simple.
I talked to Vik.
He told me you came through Regina.”
She shrugged.
“You’re not exactly hiding, so I called your fixer and explained the situation.
Considering I had the loan agreement with your signature and the very generous terms…”
“Sorry to interrupt, but I don’t believe Regina would give out my location.
Whatever proof you had, she wouldn’t have done that without talking to me first.”
“You’re right.
She told me to get lost.”
A wry smile crossed Valerie’s face.
“Wakako Okada, though.
She wasn’t happy with you.
She gave me your location for a small fee.
Probably hoping I’d try to take you out.”
“And you’re not going to?”
“No.”
Valerie shook her head.
“I may not be the most upstanding person.
Counterintelligence does things to your head.
But killing my benefactor?
The man who paid for my chrome, even if it wasn’t top-tier, after I got fired?”
She tapped her temple with a finger.
“That’s a fast track to a bad reputation.
I came to thank you in person.”
She bowed at a ninety-degree angle.
“Thank you for your help.
Without you, I’d be in a much deeper hole.
I won’t forget this.
If you ever need a favor, just ask.”
I nodded.
“I also wanted to personally sign the new agreement and have the one with Jackie annulled.”
I shrugged and sent her the updated contract.
This one specified that she was taking on the full debt herself, transferring it from Jackie to her, and that she would repay it within a year.
“A year?”
She raised an eyebrow.
“Too tight?”
She smirked.
“I doubt you want to settle for mediocrity.
Knowing you, you’ll aim for the top league fast.
That means working your ass off.
Money will flow in quickly.”
“I was actually thinking of taking a bit of a break from that kind of pace.”
I shrugged.
“Two years?”
She nodded.
I amended the contract and sent it back.
It came back signed, and I reviewed it before countersigning.
“So.
How did you end up here?”
I shrugged.
“Pretty standard story.”
I waved her toward a nearby diner.
We sat down, and I continued.
“My mother died after a shootout between the Animals on the freeway.
I lost my income.
I still had a semester’s tuition paid at the Academy, but I had nothing to eat.
Honestly, I wasn’t thinking straight.
I grabbed a phone book, found a public terminal, and called Regina.”
“And she just started working with you?”
“She probably took pity on me.
Gave me some test jobs.
Dangerous ones.
If I’d screwed up, she wouldn’t have lost much.
I shrugged again.
“And that’s how I started working with her.
Actually, I should thank you.”
“Me?”
“You taught a few of my classes.
Your lectures were way more useful than the regular instructors’.
Thanks to you, I haven’t gotten myself killed yet.”
Valerie smirked.
“Nice to know someone was listening.”
“So how’d you end up here?
I know you got fired, but why?”
“Turns out I wasn’t irreplaceable enough.”
She smiled bitterly, running a hand through her red hair.
Her blue eyes drifted around the room.
“My boss wanted to push his boss out.
She figured it out.
She figured me out.
She knew I’d be sent on that job, so she sent her people.
They had me terminated on the spot.”
“And you couldn’t refuse?”
“Valerie, would you introduce me to your friend?”
I sighed.
“Valerie, this is my partner, Panam Palmer.
Panam, this is Valerie.
She used to work counterintelligence for Arasaka and occasionally lectured at the Academy.
That’s how I know her.”
“Pfft.
Anyway, to answer your question, Panam, no.
I couldn’t refuse.
In Arasaka, you don’t tell your superiors no.
I spread my legs too, not proud of it, but you do what you have to, to climb the ladder.”
“Pfft.”
“Yeah, yeah.
You’re a proud one.
You’d never do that.
But I’m not proud.
I’d do it again if it saved me from getting fired.
I’d sleep with the whole damn club if I had to.”
I kept my face neutral.
But inside, I was disgusted.
She’s a beautiful woman.
How could she…
I barely held back a head shake.
Some things just don’t sit right with me.
I understand that life doesn’t always go the way you want it to.
But still.
“I can see you’re not thrilled with that line of thinking.”
Valerie was watching me closely.
I just shrugged.
“Your life.
Your choices.
My opinion doesn’t matter.”
“You’re not wrong.”
She smirked, adjusting her hair.
“Your opinion doesn’t matter to me.”
We ate in silence for a while.
Then she spoke again.
“Ever think about working with me?
Wakako wouldn’t mind.
I worked with her back when I was still with Arasaka.”
I shook my head.
“I’m not looking to join anyone.
And working for Wakako…”
I shook my head again.
“I’ve got beef with the Claws.
Well, they have beef with me.
I don’t really care.”
“Shame.
I was hoping to work with someone who actually knows what they’re doing.”
I gave her a tired smile.
Honestly, if she’d made this offer before she’d started talking about sleeping her way to the top, I might have considered it.
David’s memories painted her as a decent person.
But now…
Now I’d always wonder if she’d stab me in the back for a promotion.
That’s the thing about this world.
It’s not a game.
And she had that corporate mindset baked in.
She saw nothing wrong with what she did.
Hell, in the game, if you pick the corpo origin, you don’t see any of that in the protagonist’s choices either.
Or maybe it’s there, just toned down.
A call from Regina pulled me out of my thoughts.
“Yeah?”
Good thing we don’t have to speak aloud for these calls.
“David, I’ve got news.
A former corpo is looking for you.”
“Already found me.”
That a problem?”
“Maybe.”
My avatar shrugged.
“Not right now.
I loaned her friend some money to save her life.
She decided to take over the debt.
That’s all.
She’s also trying to poach me for another fixer.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah.”
“Who?”
“Wakako.
Apparently, she worked with her back when she was still with Arasaka.
She’s planning to work for her now.”
“I won’t mind if you take a few jobs for Okada.”
“I won’t.
Better to work with one fixer and know you won’t get screwed over than bounce around and end up dead in a ditch.”
“I see.”
She paused.
“Listen, I’m supposed to meet with Rogue in a few days.
Want me to mention you?”
“No.”
She smirked.
“Not trying to be a big shot?”
“Not exactly.
Being famous is nice.
I’m already famous enough that specific jobs come to me through you.
But working with Rogue…”
“Uh-huh.
She’s the Queen of the Afterlife.”
“Yeah…”
My avatar nodded, with a touch of sarcasm.
“…and she’s also, by reputation, a schemer who likes using solos as pawns.
I don’t need that.
I prefer knowing what I’m doing, how I’m doing it, and when.”
“You’re right.
You should’ve picked ‘Bore’ instead of ‘Quiet.’ Still time to change it.”
“No, thanks.
I’m good.”
She nodded.
“Working today?”
My avatar scratched its cheek.
“Anything interesting?”
“Need to extract data from a Maelstrom base.
They’ve been working too closely with Scavs, planning something big.
Black market chrome’s about to flood the streets.”
I sighed.
Out loud.
“I’ll take it.
Send the address.
Quiet, as usual?”
“Yeah.”
“Kills?”
“Preferably no one even knows you were there.
If you have to, make it look like a robbery.
Just don’t let them figure out what was actually taken.”
“Understood.
I just recruited a netrunner.
We’ll test them out.”
“You got a new team member?”
“Yeah.
Using pre-made daemons isn’t sustainable.
Need someone who can break into systems properly.”
“Glad you came around.
I was thinking of recommending someone.
Do I know them?”
“Alvarez, from the Mox.
It’s a trial run for now.
We’ll see how it goes.”
“Good.
Details incoming.”
My avatar nodded, and the call ended.
“Valerie, sorry.
We’ve got a job.”
I waved the waiter over and asked for the check.
“Can’t you say no?”
She folded her arms under her chest, lifting it slightly.
Honestly, if Panam and I weren’t going at it like rabbits every night, I might have been tempted.
But I wasn’t suffering from a lack of release.
“No.
Not an option.
We’ve got work to do, even at night.”
“But you’re a solo…”
“Exactly.
That means reputation and a steady stream of jobs.”
I stood up, sent a message to Judy, paid, and left with Panam.