Get comfortable, turn the page, and let’s see what this story has been hiding 🔥 ✦ Rebecca propped up her chin and stared into nothing.
She was hungry.
Miserable.
More than anything, she missed the little NiCola cans from the vending machines in Japantown, cold enough to sting her tongue.
This place sucked.
Even the snacks in Dogtown were expired.
“Maine!
Maine!” Pilar came in through the rusted metal door of the unfinished building.
He, at least, seemed to be enjoying Dogtown.
The place was full of mechanical junk, enough to keep a techie who loved “inventing” busy all day.
Maine and Dorio sat beside the barrel fire they were using for light.
The radio was still playing Body Heat Radio.
“So, get away…” The soft song made Rebecca’s mood even worse.
Love songs did nothing for a starving Rebecca.
She wanted NiCola, or any carbonated drink that had not crawled out of a landfill.
“No going outside,” Maine ordered Pilar.
“Barghest might still be sniffing around.” Pilar shrank his neck a little.
For all his noise, he listened to Maine.
No matter how anyone sliced it, Maine was the head of this crew.
“Come on, Maine.
Have you decided or not?” Rebecca was running out of patience.
Cade had said the whole crew had to agree, and if they changed their minds after leaving Dogtown, things would only get messier.
Sasha had contacted fixers from Night City, but at this point, who in their right mind wanted to run jobs inside Dogtown?
The routes in and out had only gotten harder.
There was one other option.
Walk into the NCPD, stack a few dozen criminal charges on themselves, and see whether Barghest felt like recruiting them.
Maine scratched his head.
“Where the hell did this guy come from?
The more I think about it, the more I think his boss is corporate.” Rebecca muttered, “How would I know?
Half of Night City knows our names.
We can’t interrogate every last one and ask if they work for Barghest or a corp.” “Rebecca’s right.” Dorio stood.
“Maine, whoever is behind Cade, we cannot rot in Dogtown.” “Sasha is out there alone, and she’s worried sick.” Maine sat in silence for a while.
“Then we talk to him first.” Dorio nodded.
“If anything, we are the ones who screwed him over.” “Barghest looked like they wanted him too.” Rebecca nodded.
“Yeah.
Shit, he cursed me out too.
Guess he had plenty to be mad about.” The memory of Cade telling her to get lost echoed in her skull, and her expression dimmed for a second.
If he wanted payback, she could not exactly call it unreasonable.
Pilar started loading rounds into his gun.
“If this guy sells us out, that gets ugly.
I should get my toys ready.” Rebecca glanced at the shotgun nearby.
She did not want to use that thing as their final warning shot anymore.
‘Let it all burn.
This busted place can eat lead for all I care.’ “Pilar, keep watch,” Maine said.
“If we are talking business, we show a little courtesy.” Maine had dealt with fixers and gangs often enough to know that making Cade hate them any more would cost them.
That did not mean relaxing.
On the small end, they did not even know if Sasha’s contact really belonged to Cade.
On the large end, after what happened last time, the man had every reason to sell the whole crew.
[Incoming Call: Unknown] Rebecca’s eyes lit up.
She shared the call with the others.
“So?” Cade said.
“I’m outside Longshore Stacks.
Are you taking my boss’s offer?” Dorio shook her head gently.
“Uh…
we can pay,” Rebecca said.
Cade made a quiet sound.
“Then I’m hanging up.
Safe travels.” Rebecca snapped at once, climbing onto the window ledge and shouting out.
“Hey!
We can pay!
Say a number!” “Asshole, asshole, asshole!” On Cade’s side, his brow twitched.
This woman was vicious.
“My boss said work.
You leave, then you work.
That simple.” Dorio and Maine both went silent.
Why did the other side insist on their crew?
The Afterlife had mercs with far better names, hard cases who had survived plenty worse.
Besides, Maine’s crew was not exactly packed with top-shelf chrome yet.
They were a scrappy work crew.
They had no way of knowing Cade chose them because he understood their roots.
In Cade’s mind, Maine’s crew was still comparatively simple.
The only person he would have to guard against was the hacker, Kiwi.
He did not yet know there was no Kiwi in this version of the team.
Maine’s people wanted to make a name in the city.
They did not want to be stepped on.
They wanted out of the bottom layer.
In the future, their frantic chrome upgrades would come from money, lifestyle, reputation, and a hunger for power.
Cyberpsychosis picked at people whose emotions were unstable, whose grief blinded them, whose personalities were already slipping away.
David Martinez, in a sense, would become the clearest symbol of that will.
They all wanted to stand at the top and prove themselves to the world.
A merc crew with simple goals was exactly what Cade needed.
He did not have time to comb the Afterlife for elite mercs.
“Call me asshole one more time,” Cade said, “and I hang up right now.” He knew Rebecca was blunt more than malicious, but he had ways to make a crew like this bend.
Bosses had to break employees in somehow.
“Maine!
Are we agreeing or not?
Don’t just sit there nodding and shaking your head like your vocal cords got repossessed.” Cade nearly laughed.
Rebecca really was something.
“This is Maine.” The leader’s low voice cut in.
He spoke simply.
“Truth is, we do not trust you.
That is why Rebecca contacted you.
Hope you do not take it wrong.” Cade shook his head.
“I don’t.
I am not angry either.
What I can promise is this: you get out, my boss calls you when there is work, and the pay is market rate.” “One more condition.
If the boss gives you a job, I move with you.
How does that sound?” For a moment, Maine could not read Cade or his so-called boss at all.
This boss was giving Cade a frightening amount of freedom.
Since when did Pacifica have a fixer with that kind of reach?
No wonder Maine was tempted.
The offer seemed tailor-made for them.
It stripped away almost every concern.
Cade moving with them meant collateral.
If a job went bad, he went down with them.
And if he had this much confidence, the boss behind him might actually be solid.
Maine could not overthink it.
The crew was in bad shape, and he was responsible for every one of them.
That had been true from the start.
He was the big brother, and that came with duties.
“Cade, you know how to talk.
I agree.
I’ll send the place.
We will set up early and verify your identity before you come in.
You can understand that, right?” “I understand.” Rebecca shoved herself back onto the line, her voice suddenly much sweeter.
“You better show, Cade.” “I’m dying here.
One sip of NiCola and I might make it.” “All right, Rebecca.
Stop.” Dorio pressed a hand to her forehead, smiling despite herself.
Even over the shared call, the woman’s performance was painful.
The call ended.
Cade stared ahead, speechless.
She had lungs to curse with, then suddenly she sounded half-dead.
Incredible.
He had started walking toward Longshore Stacks the moment Rebecca first called.
Passing a wrecked mall that Dogtown residents had converted into shelter, he took a few steps, then backed up.
A vending machine covered in blood, dust, and grime still seemed to be working.
Its ad copy flickered in a broken loop.
“Ni…
Cola…
love on…
your tongue!” Cade’s eyes brightened.
A drink with a little chill left in it rolled out.
He picked it up, wiped the dust away, and found the production date was not that old.
Satisfied, he tucked it into his pocket.
Rebecca had given him an assist today.
Consider it a reward.
…
✦ ✦ ✦ Ready for more?
CREATORS’ THOUGHTS EmberHollow Thank you for reading.
I hope this chapter pulled you deeper into the story.
Stick around, because there’s still a lot waiting just ahead.