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One bite at a time.
One job at a time.
Argus’s proposal for a new netrunning method, combining real-time braindance with cyberspace, was clearly better than conscious deep diving.
Rook knew that.
But for him, the most important thing right now was not building a powerful netrunner team.
It was building his own Source Protocol mercenary unit.
Only after gaining real influence in Night City would the data obtained through netrunning have real value.
Otherwise, it would only become a faster way to die.
“That can wait.
Argus, keep your subsystems inside the four corporate networks.
Also, erase my traces across Night City at the first opportunity.”
Rook waved the matter aside and brought Lucy and the others back to the first-floor living room.
Rebecca had somehow fallen asleep facedown on the sofa.
He glanced at the little troublemaker with indulgent amusement, picked up a blanket, and carefully covered her.
He had just reached the grill when Maine and Dorio returned with William Hare.
They had knocked him out and carried him back.
William lived in the building just across the street below, so the whole trip had only taken a little over ten minutes.
“Hey, Mr.
Mercer,” Maine complained, rubbing his arm.
“Why didn’t you tell me he had a little cyberpsychosis, same as me?”
William was ex-military, after all.
If Maine had not gone with Dorio, taking him down might not have been so easy.
“PTSD.
Mild postwar trauma, followed by losing his military-grade cyberware and making unauthorized modifications on his own.
Night City has plenty of people like him.”
Rook sighed.
Sergeant Hare had simply gotten lucky.
Rook remembered him from his memories of the old timeline.
“One more errand.
This time, take Kiwi with you.
Go find ripperdocs around the city.
I need fifty sets of full-body cyberware frames and fifty operating system chips.
They don’t need to be good.
The cheapest ones are fine.
Hit multiple ripperdocs if you have to.
I need everything tonight.”
Were full-body cyberware modifications expensive?
Very.
In Night City, even the cheapest full-body implant frame plus one operating system chip cost ten thousand eddies.
And there was no guarantee the junk would even work.
…
“Mr.
Mercer,” Dorio finally asked, “why spend that much money buying so much trash chrome?”
Even as she asked, she closed the case and took it in hand.
“Tomorrow morning, I will choose five of you for priority Source-series cyberware installation.
Those parts are coming back so I can dismantle and reuse them.”
Maine and Kiwi both grew visibly excited.
Maine saw hope that his hardware-driven symptoms might finally stop coming back.
Kiwi took being sent to purchase materials as proof that one of those five slots might belong to her.
“Right.
Maine.” Rook suddenly remembered something as the three of them reached the elevator.
“Do you have a cyberware supplier named Gloria Martinez?
Did you order a Sandevistan from her?”
He had just thought of David’s mother.
“That’s right, Mr.
Mercer.
How do you know that?”
Rook smiled and shrugged.
Tell her that coming to this meeting can earn her a fifty-square-meter apartment, permanently rent-free.”
“Got it.”
Maine waved back at him, then took Dorio and Kiwi into the elevator.
…
Around eleven that night, everyone finally returned.
During that time, William Hare woke up and recovered his normal state of mind.
After Rook spoke with him, he agreed to join the Source Protocol and work for him.
By the time Maine returned with the materials Rook needed, Jackie had already parked the vehicles in the underground garage and had been waiting upstairs for quite a while.
But when Maine reached the building, everyone was sent back down to help move cyberware parts.
It took several trips to bring everything Rook wanted up into the workshop.
Looking at the cyberware parts piled wall to wall, Rook felt a little pain in his chest.
That was five hundred thousand eddies.
Enough to buy three Rayfield Caliburns.
But when he thought of the five Source-series frames that were about to be born, excitement won out.
“Dios mio, tonight was brutal,” Jackie said from the workshop doorway, taking a hard drink of beer.
“When we were buying the cars, good thing I can talk, or we would’ve gotten fleeced.”
No one paid attention to him.
Everyone was waiting for Rook’s decision.
There were so many people here, and only five of them would receive the first Source-series modifications.
No one could help feeling excited.
At last, Rook turned toward them.
“Maine.
Kiwi.
Jackie.
Hare.
Dorio.”
“Tomorrow morning, you five will be first to receive the cyberware frame installation.”
“I have customized a Source-series frame for each of you.
Now everyone out.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter.