Get comfortable, turn the page, and let’s see what this story has been hiding 🔥 ✦ Dogtown, Terra Cognita.
Hands had already pushed the first client to Rook, which meant a random number Cade had asked V to route calls through.
Unfortunately, the idiot who needed the job done refused to answer.
Cade could only squat by the roadside in Dogtown, staring at a graffiti-covered container across the street while waiting for a message.
“Dogtown has plenty of Scavs too.” He shook his head.
No telling how many jobs Scavengers made in this broken place every day.
The graffiti showed a giant hand squeezing a heart full of cyberware.
Blood slipped between its fingers.
That was the sort of art Scavs liked.
Corpse-strippers were always desperate to announce they existed.
Hit you with a pipe.
Kidnap you.
Extort the money.
Kill you anyway.
One trick, endless profit.
Night City had as many of these bastards as roaches in a basement.
If the money was right, people with thick Eastern European accents would handle almost anything, as long as the target did not have chrome worth more than the job.
With Scavs, moral limits did not exist.
They might decide the client was the better payday.
“Maine, why does this place smell weird?” Rebecca leaned out of the car.
It was Maine’s ride: simple, heavy, and built with a thick alloy shell around an old fuel burner.
“Dogtown have this many organ cutters?” Maine glanced at Cade.
“What’s this job paying?
Enough to split between all of us?” “Thirty thousand.” Cade gave the number directly.
“What the hell?
Thirty?” Pilar’s Arasaka tech goggles nearly slipped off.
“Are we supposed to kill a whole Scav nest?” Dorio gave her own assessment.
“No wonder you did not swallow this one alone.” Getting a crew to share one opinion at the start was difficult.
Right now, everyone had their own thoughts.
They were still temporary partners trying to make the day pass.
Cade felt like a day laborer waiting for a boss at a hiring lot.
Humiliating.
[Message] Agata Leszcz: Why did Hands send me to you?
The hell, he changing people now?
Rook: Yes.
I can handle it too.
Agata Leszcz: Big job.
Forty thousand.
You jerking me around, choom?
I do not care.
Hands was supposed to find someone to fix this.
I do not know you.
Rook: Thirty thousand.
No success, no fee.
Agata Leszcz: Should have said that first.
We are all chooms here.
You take organ-cutter work or not?
Rook: Against organ cutters?
Tell me what you want done.
Agata Leszcz: What do I want?
Simple job.
Terra Cognita.
Do not stand me up 😀 “Ugh.
The stink of Scavs around here is crawling right up my ass.” Pilar nudged Cade with the toe of his boot.
“So, if the Scavs are the ones hiring us, you taking it?” “I take it if the job is killing Scavs.” “Oh.
Righteous.” Pilar’s tone dripped with mockery.
Cade shook his head.
He already had reason to suspect Hands was messing with them.
If the NCPD ended up tagging them as Scavs, that would be hilarious in the worst possible way.
“Pilar…” Dorio warned.
Another message came in.
[Message] Agata Leszcz: You here yet?
You here yet?
Rook: Where are you?
Agata Leszcz: Outside is inconvenient.
Walk deeper in.
There is an old power plant.
We shoot dark BDs here.
Relax.
Good job.
Move one person out of Dogtown.
Simple, right?
Cade’s expression turned ugly.
Could this really be business with Scavs?
He had no choice but to confirm with Hands.
The old fox spoke over the phone in an unhurried tone.
“Legitimate corporate work.
Your contact is a…
friend who had no choice but to hide inside Dogtown.” “I guarantee this is not helping Scavengers with their filth.” “Save a life, earn some virtue.” Cade hesitated.
This was Rook’s first real job.
So why did it feel disgusting?
He cursed his luck and walked toward the power plant in the distance.
“You might actually have called it.
It is connected to Scavs, but Hands says the people dealing with our boss are corporate.” Maine watched him.
“Shit.
Feels like the organ cutters are tied into this somehow.” The moment they entered the plant, Cade noticed the cameras scanning them nonstop.
“Maelstrom, Scavs…” Maine spat.
“Your boss wants to do peaceful business with these people?
Cade, he is going to regret that.” “Here!” Behind a pile of scrap near the roll-up door, a red-haired man with a pitted face waved at them like a nervous rat.
“You get three seconds,” Pilar said, pistol already in his hand as he stepped around Maine and Cade.
“If you do not say who you are working for, I blow your head off.” “Cade, we are not doing this job!” Rebecca drew her gun too.
“Scavs are all bastards.” Cade frowned.
The crew clearly did not believe this was corporate work.
The red-haired man smiled obsequiously.
“Don’t be like that.
I’m quitting today.
Corp hired me.
I am done with this kind of shit.” Cade scanned him up and down.
The man had no Scav turbulence mask, no fresh blood spots, no chunks of meat stuck to him.
He did look like someone trying to leave the business.
Cade shrugged.
“You see how this is.
These chooms all want to shoot you.
Better explain fast.” “Biotechnica paid me a pile of money.
I am coughing up this sheep.
You take him and go.” Understanding hit the group.
Pilar said, “Oh, so you are the rat.
Took corpo money and sold out your boss?” “Hurry up, chooms.
Take him and move.
If the others come back, this gets bad.” As he spoke, two of the former Scav’s men dragged out a black body bag.
Dorio saw the fresh blood on it, cursed, and hurried forward to unzip it.
A man lay soaked in an ice-water slurry.
Someone had tampered with his chrome.
Red patches had settled over his arms, and his face was corpse-pale.
“Take him to Coastview, Pacifica.
Corp sends someone to pick him up.
Move.” Agata Leszcz sent Cade the address and waved them away, shrinking behind the boxes.
At the same time, sixty thousand eurodollars appeared in the fictional Rook account.
Fixer takes twenty thousand?
Cade suddenly understood why successful fixers lived so well.
If the network opened, it really did smell better than merc work.
Provided you had someone at your back, of course.
A corp, a gang, something.
Cade dared to play this game because he had Arasaka and people in hand.
“Still alive?” Maine asked quickly.
Rebecca’s monowire retracted into her palm.
“Trauma Team routines are jammed solid.
Guy has maybe one breath left.
We move now.” They lifted the bag and rushed back toward the car.
There was not even time to curse the Scavs properly or start a firefight.
“Even the organ cutters gave him up.
How much blood did the corp have to spill for this?” Maine looked at Cade.
When their eyes met, both men were certain the other was thinking the same thing.
On the surface, this looked like a Scav suddenly growing a conscience and releasing someone.
But there had to be more coils under the floor.
A Scavenger conscience was about as believable as an honest NCPD cop.
…
✦ ✦ ✦ 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.