New chapter!
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Rook hesitated for only a moment before walking into the narrow back alley.
The cache was right there.
Leaving it behind would have been stupid.
“Hey, hey, hey.
What are you doing?”
Lucy hurried after him and caught his arm when she saw him turning toward the 6th Street gangers.
The noise drew their attention.
Several of them turned.
One punk with heavily modified eyes came forward with a metal club resting on his shoulder, swaggering like the alley belonged to him.
“Well, look at that.
An Arasaka lapdog.
What brings a corpo suit down to our slums?”
His gaze slid to Lucy, and his grin got uglier.
“And look at the little beauty with him.
Here for a thrill, sweetheart?
Want to play with us instead?”
The taunt cut through the alley.
Behind him, his friends laughed and lifted their weapons.
Rook’s expression went cold.
“I was going to handle this peacefully,” he said.
“Then you opened your mouth.
Now I’m choosing the other option.”
As he spoke, he slipped out of the Arasaka suit jacket.
The logo had drawn hostile eyes all the way through Heywood, and what came next was not something he wanted to do dressed like an office worker.
“Fuck you, asshole.
You’re dead.”
The metal club came down toward his head.
Rook turned calmly and handed the jacket to Lucy.
The man folded to the ground, retching bile and curling in on himself.
“Flatline him!”
“Fuck!”
“Get your iron!”
The alley erupted.
Seven or eight gangers rushed him with weapons, and farther back, others started drawing guns.
Rook gave a quiet, dismissive snort.
At his thought, nanite armor spread from the slot at his neck and sealed over his entire body.
By the time the first wave reached him, dark red-and-gold plating had swallowed him whole.
Beneath the alloy faceplate, the eyes lit with a cold glow.
He punched twice, sending two 6th Street gangers flying.
A sweeping kick followed, smashing the rest of the front line into the alley wall hard enough to break through it.
Blood sprayed across concrete.
The ones farther back opened fire.
Rook walked toward them through the gunfire like a machine built for murder.
Bullets rang against the armor and bounced away without even scuffing the surface.
“No!
No, help!”
He caught one screaming ganger by the front of his jacket and hurled him into the crowd.
The impact knocked bodies apart and filled the alley with pain.
Then he stopped, scanned the remaining 6th Street members, and raised one hand.
Energy gathered in the palm emitter.
Three blasts tore down the alley, throwing the rest of them off their feet.
Rook turned away without looking back and walked to the blue cache in the corner.
[System Cache]
Blue cache acquired.
Open cache?
‘Open it.’
[System Cache]
Rewards
– 1,000,000 eurodollars
– Close-Quarters Combat chip (Blue tier)
“Not bad.”
The rewards pulled a grin out of him.
“Whoa.
What kind of cyberware is that?
That is so damn cool!”
Lucy’s voice rang out behind him, bright with excitement and shock.
Before he could turn and explain, boots pounded into the alley.
Sirens wailed nearby.
“NCPD!
Hands up!
Disarm now!”
His sensors picked up several Night City officers closing in, and worse, MaxTac was moving with them.
“Damn it.”
Rook did not want to turn his first night in Night City into a citywide incident.
He crossed the alley in a burst of speed, swept Lucy into his arms, and fired the thrusters under his feet.
The Model 85 launched them into the air under the stunned eyes of the NCPD.
“This cyberware can fly?
Holy shit!
That’s incredible!”
Lucy was not scared.
She was ecstatic, clinging to him and shouting into the wind.
“Oh my God, yes!
Rook, how many secrets are you hiding?
I’m getting more interested by the second!”
“Lucy, this isn’t cyberware.
It’s a product I developed, an exo-armor.
And stop yelling while we’re in the air.”
He searched for a quiet place to land.
Lucy ignored him and wrapped her arms tighter around his neck.
“Keep flying.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter.