A Hard Knock Life: I Can't Help Myself (ch. 4) (Patreon)

“The No-Tell Motel,” Jackie read the sign as we walked towards the hotel. It was a short building compared to those that surrounded it, but it didn’t need to be tall. The name of the place flashed neon pink. “If there was a place to lay low at, then this would be it.”

I glanced at Jackie, eyeing how he took out his pistol. He had other options with what we looted at Lock’s place, but I guess he was just more familiar with what he had. “You know this place?” I asked, looking back at the motel. I didn’t see any obvious security or anything.

“Well known spot for deals and meetings you don’t want people to know about. As the name implies, there are no questions asked. There are no cameras or microphones. I’m not sure anyone actually works here. You just have to wire some money, you get a key and a room. No questions asked,” Jackie explained. “You know for sure where he is?”

I looked down at my phone, “Third story,” I confirmed. I would know what room when we neared. Tucking my phone away, I unholstered the assault rifle that I had on my back. I had an extra magazine from Lock’s place. I hoped that I wouldn’t need to fire a bullet, but I doubt that Jonah would be willing to talk without any fuss. Or be very happy to see us.

Given that I had watched Jonah kill two people in cold blood, I had very little doubt that I was about to get shot at.

As if he had read my mind, Jackie spoke up, “I’ll take point, mano,” he informed me, before he started walking. I hesitated for a moment, wanting to argue, but I followed him all the same. Of the two of us, he was by far the most experienced. Letting him take point was smart.

The No-Tell Motel was in disrepair. The floors were filthy -- covered in trash and stained with old blood. There was someone sleeping on a bench outside, while someone else was kicking at the gated off hallway. We paid them no mind in favor of heading upstairs. Once we were on the third story, I checked my phone and pointed out the door.

My heart started pounding as we neared, just like it had during the deal. This time, however, I had something to compare it to. The nerves weren’t anywhere near as bad as trying to talk a psychopath out of killing you with a bomb implanted in your friend’s head. I kept a grip on my nerves, keeping my breathing even. Jackie reached the door first, looking to me to confirm that it was the right one. I nodded.

I had to give the No-Tell Motel one thing -- they understood their clients' needs. Every system was encrypted with heavy-duty ICE. From TV signals to door locks. If I could jack into the server, then I could make short work of it, but I had no clue where it could be. And I couldn’t find out without tripping on the ICE. Well, I could in theory, but I would need time.

Time I didn’t have, and time I wasn’t willing to waste waiting. Not when Jonah was so very close.

“Jackie, keep an eye out, alright?” I told him, setting my gun to the side before I parked my butt on the filthy floor and leaned against one of the questionably stained walls.

“...Sure? Are you gonna try to hack the system or something?” He hazarded a guess, which I practically confirmed when I pulled out the laptop. “Can you really do that? Just like that?”

I shook my head as I brought up my backdoor to Jonah’s phone. “Maybe, but I don’t need to. I’m already inside Jonah’s phone.” It took me a moment to puzzle out what exactly I needed to do. Or, rather, how to do it. Code a quantum cipher decoder to create a cyberkey to his room? Create a number randomizer and pretend that I was the client to trick him into opening the door? Or maybe I could improve upon Ping’s code… maybe make it something more insidious? Something that would grant me access to every system that it touched? I could do it. I would just need…

Blinking hard, I shook my head of the stray ideas. I already had all that I needed. Pulling up Jonah’s history, I saw that he had made a wire transfer to what had to be the No-Tell Motel account. And he was in turn granted a temporary cyberkey that would expire in twenty-four hours. All I had to do was copy and paste, more or less. Boring. But effective.

“We’re golden,” I said, earning an increasingly bewildered look from Jackie as he glanced between me and the door. “I just copied the key that he had. Nothing special.”

Jackie shook his head, “I should really brush up on my coding,” he remarked to himself. “Seems to make things go a lot smoother. Otherwise, I was going to have to shoot the doors open,” he remarked, turning to focus on the door.

“Wait,” I said, looking down at the computer before I closed it. “If I can use the camera…” I trailed off, accessing the camera on his phone. I wanted to make sure he wasn’t doing something like camping the door, waiting to shoot whoever came through. It only took a moment and I saw that the camera had been tossed onto the bed, camera up. The ceiling had bloodstains on it.

I also heard the sound of running water, so Jonah seemed to be taking a shower. Gross. Really gross. What on earth made him think that was a good idea? He probably wanted to clean up before he met whoever he was meeting, but he was probably dirtier showering here than he had been before he showered. Turning to Jackie, I offered a nod as I snapped the laptop closed and grabbed my gun.

With the key that we now had, the door slid open. The first thing that I noticed was that there were sex toys everywhere, and of all shapes and varieties. The second was that I saw an OS card sitting on the bed, next to a gun. Jackie approached slowly towards the bathroom while I went to the card and gun. Putting them both across the room, out of reach for Jonah, I heard the water shut off just in time for me to silently hug the other side of the doorframe.

Jonah stepped by me, unaware of my presence and dripping wet. He froze when he saw Jackie, his hands going up, but…

“You son of a bitch!” I snapped, punching him in the side of the head. Jonah went down like a sack of trash-- I always had a mean left hook, but with a fist made of metal, it was that much meaner. The older man went to catch himself as he fell to his hands and knees instead of flat on his face. I put an end to that by kicking him as hard as I could in the ribs. He grunted as he hit the floor, groaning pathetically when I kicked him a second time for good measure.

“Hey! V, cool it!” Jackie snapped at me, keeping his gun pointed down at Jonah. I did the same, pointing my assault rifle at the back of his head.

I barely heard Jackie. “Lock’s dead,” I snarled at him. “I fucking watched him die. Where were you, asshole?” I demanded, kicking him in the ribs again. This time Jonah rolled over, one hand cupping the side of his head that seemed to be bleeding. He looked up at me, his expression grim.

He opened his mouth, gesturing a surrender with his other hand, only to close it a second later. “You knew it was a trap, man. What the fuck else could I have done?! Fucking died with him?!” He shouted back at me with a shake of his head, going red in the face. My lips peeled back into a snarl and my finger itched to pull the trigger. Jackie started to shift where he stood -- maybe I was wrong about him if he was shifting already? Didn’t matter now.

“Something. Fucking anything. How about you fucking tell us the mountain of goddamn shit you were dragging us into-” I shouted at Jonah, and he interjected, his tone just as harsh as mine.

“You fucking knew what you were getting into! Lock begged me to tag along! I wasn’t going to let him until he told me you were a netrunner! Fucking blame yourself if you’re going to do this shit. Fuck!” Jonah cursed, slinging blame left, right, and center. Maybe what he said was true. Maybe if both of us hadn’t been so desperate to make our names known, none of this would have happened.

Lock would still be alive. We would be at school right now, continuing to live out our miserable lives as utter nobodies. Instead, Lock was dead and I had my gun in the face of his older cousin.

“I’m not talking about that shit, Jonah. I’m talkin’ about the deal itself. You had a client lined up. Buying those fucking bombs that killed Lock. There was no fixer, was there? The only one that knew what the fuck was going on that night was you, you fucking asshole.” I tried to keep my growing anger in check, but it became more difficult by the second. Just seeing him there, saying whatever he could to not take responsibility or blame for Lock…

Jonah’s lips thinned, unable to argue my point. So I piled it on. “You got us into this mess. You found out about the deal between the Maelstrom and ABB. You made contact with the client you’re here to meet to pawn off the OS cards.” I listed off the information I knew, jabbing the gun in his direction, “So, what? You had a meeting so you couldn’t be bothered to help your cousin?”

Jackie rolled his shoulders as he shook his head, his face curling into one of distaste. That really seemed to push his buttons.

“You said he was made,” Jonah repeated himself. “He was a dead man. He was already dead when he… when he put that card in his head. There was nothing I could have done. There was nothing that you could have done. Fuck, V. You lost an arm by the looks of it.” The anger seemed to bleed out of Jonah, leaving him wet and naked on the floor as he seemed to accept his fate.

I fell silent for a moment, unable to tear my eyes away from Jonah. I had absolutely no idea what I wanted to do. I wanted to make him pay for just… turning his back on me and Lock, but it wasn’t like I didn’t get it. That had been the smart call. That’s what he should have done. If it was the other way around, I know that’s what I should do. Yet, it was so… galling to think about. How easily he wrote Lock and me off.

If Lock hadn’t died? Then I could accept it. But Lock was dead. I was missing an arm. And I wanted to make him pay.

“Jonah… did you know that they were bombs?” I asked him, my voice deadly quiet. His adam’s apple bobbed at the question, making my lips thin. “Did you? Why did you decide to split them up?”

“Insurance,” A new voice spoke up. A woman’s. My gun leaped up to the source of it to find a woman standing in the middle of the room, her hands on her hips, with one cocked in a stance that every man learned to recognize. She wore a skintight outfit that was colored black with lines of purple. At the center of her chest was an eye. It was impossible to make out what she looked like -- around her eyes was a black mask that covered from the bridge to her nose to her eyebrows, while the rest of her face was obscured by holographic glitching.

She reached up and flicked some blonde hair over her ear, “He brought his OS cards to verify the product. Then he was going to send us to you to pick up the others after he got the money and got away. You would have been the distractions to give him the time he needed to get out of the city.” She informed, ignoring the guns that Jackie and I had trained on her.

“Chica, would you mind introducing yourself?” Jackie requested, an easy grin on his face that seemed painfully fake as he had one gun pointed at her and another at Jonah. Her eyes seemed focused on me. Most likely because I had an assault rifle. Didn’t help that Jackie still shifted uneasily with her sudden arrival.

“And you were wrong about the order, but not much else. Jonah here found out about the deal because he’s friends with the merc that actually got the job- oh? Scratch that, they were really good friends. He decided to hit the deal on his own, only for your friend and his cousin, Lock, to beg to get involved. Talk about a tough-”

There was something about this girl that made my skin crawl the more that she talked. Like she was seeing right through me. Through all of us. It was in her smug tone, her confident stance, as if we weren’t a threat at all.

“I don’t know who you are,” I interjected, my voice low. “But, I’m going to be really fucking honest right now -- I am not in the mood. I watched my friend die. This asshole left us both to die. So, if you have a point? Then get to it.” I snapped at her, my eyes narrowing into a glare.

I couldn’t see her face, but I could see her reaction in her body language. She seemed to stiffen at that as if it just now occurred to her that I really would shoot her. So, I’m guessing that she wasn’t bulletproof.

Good to know.

“My point is that you earned some brownie points. For a fresh-faced mercenary, you aren’t a half-bad detective,” she offered the compliment in the same tone that one would deliver a sarcastic insult. “You also seem really torn up about your dead friend, so I think you might make a better contact than the guy that’s betrayed about… five people in the past twelve hours?”

Jackie held up a hand as if telling me not to shoot while the girl stared me down. It would be a lie to say that I didn’t think about pulling the trigger. Jonah took advantage of the lack of guns pointed at him to shift into a sitting position -- an action that earned him a barrel pointed in the face when I moved to make sure he didn’t try anything.

“You bitch,” Jonah spat at her and I thought I saw a hint of a grin behind the shifting hologram, but I couldn’t be sure.

“Sticks and stones, Jonah,” The girl dismissed with a wave of her hand. I looked between them, the interruption cooling my anger enough that I could start thinking again. And the more that I did, the more that this seemed off. Unless she had some serious mods, then she wouldn’t be standing out in the open like this. No, this girl had an ace up her sleeve.

Jackie let out a huff, “Would you mind answering the question, please? A girl like you deserves a bit more than a ‘hey, girl.’” He requested, his tone smooth. The girl glanced at him, tilting her head as she seemed to think about it.

“Don’t try the smooth guy act with me, Valentino. I’m not into older men. Especially ones in a committed relationship,” she responded, and it couldn’t be more obvious that Jackie was put on edge with the casual reveal that we had been followed. And investigated. How else would she have known that? If Jonah hadn’t passed on that information, and considering everything she said… she must have been watching us since the deal.

“But, if you have to call me something, you can call me Tattletale,” she stated. Jackie cursed and I felt like doing the same.

No wonder she was so confident, “You’re a cape,” I realized. Even Jonah seemed to pale at that. That was… could she be the one that led me to Viks?

Tattletale tilted her head as if she was considering something, “Ding, ding, ding -- we have a winner. I’m a cape. I’m the client. And I would like to discuss biz if that’s alright with you gentlemen?” Her tone and body language changed. Almost as if something caught her off guard. Not quite defensive, but the air of confidence had taken a hit for some reason that I didn’t understand.

Jackie offered a confident smile, pointedly lowering his gun. “I’m always willing to talk biz,” he announced. Then he offered a shrug, “But I’m just hired muscle. He’s the one that decides.” I spared a glance at Jackie, slightly caught off guard by the vote of confidence.

I turned to look at Tattletale, my lips thinning. “Before we discuss anything -- I want the story behind the deal. None of that shit that I already know. What do you gain by stopping an ABB tinker from wiping out the Maelstrom and harvesting their tech?” I demanded -- I was tired of grasping for answers. I wanted them now.

Tattletale seemed to consider that before she offered a shrug. “Balance of power is king in this city,” she answered. “The ABB’s tinker doesn’t seem to understand that. She wipes out the Maelstrom, and all of a sudden a lot of territory is up for grabs. With all that tech, her Christmas wish list is going to get checked off.”

The ABB tinker.

“You don’t know who she is,” I realized, and half guessed. If she did, then she would be using her name. Meaning that Plan A was shot. It also meant that she hadn’t been watching me when Lock died and I lost my arm. Not like the bug cape had been. So, whoever the bug cape was, either they weren’t with Tattletale, or they were keeping secrets. “How did you find out about her?”

“I have my sources in various gangs,” Tattletale hedged, all but confirming it. She was getting defensive. It was a gamble, but I was willing to bet that she didn’t have as many cards up her sleeve as she pretended to.

“Just not good enough to give you her name,” I shot back. “Or her specialty, huh?” I questioned, and for the first time, I realized that I had cards in my hands to play. When she showed up out of nowhere, she caught me completely off guard. I had assumed that she had all the answers, but that wasn’t the case.

That’s why she was here. To get answers. That’s why she wanted the OS cards.

“Have something you would like to share?” Tattletale questioned, a frosty quality to her tone. She knew I knew that she didn’t know, and she also knew that I had the answers. My mind raced, thinking about how to best leverage the information. Tattletale was a cape and one with connections. I could use this. I could use her to get my shot at Bakuda…

And all the pieces fell into place the moment I stopped to put them together. Lung was the definition of a sleeping dragon and Tattletale had been right -- a move like what Bakuda tried to pull was a game-changer. I might not have thought anything of it -- after all, Lung could have reason to expand. I didn’t know. But my apartment hadn’t been visited. Lock’s house hadn’t been hit. Even Jonah had been unmolested by the ABB.

Bakuda was the mastermind behind the idea, but she was not in charge. Every action, every piece of information that I had pointed to one picture.

She was trying to slip her leash. Maybe to get away, or maybe to take over the ABB. It didn’t matter. She didn’t have the resources of the ABB at her disposal. She had what she could klep from Lung without him realizing.

“I’m not sure what you have to offer,” I told Tattletale, thinking it over, and the more I considered it, the more confident that I was right I became. I had the OS cards. I had the information. I had the leverage. I was the one that was in control of the situation.

Her body language became defensive, "More than you," she responded, her tone taking a scathing quality to it. "Resources, connections and money."

"In exchange for what?" I asked, feeling that we could work something out. My disastrous talk with Bakuda wasn't enough to destroy my confidence completely. I knew how to talk to people. And how to leverage their wants with mine.

"Information to start," Tattletale began. "I wanted the OS cards because I knew they would be connected to how the Maelstrom would be wiped out. You said something about bombs? Is that her specialty? Ah, it is, isn't it? Scary." Tattletale remarked, earning a deep frown from me. Just like that, with a few words, she incredibly devalued my information and my position. How? Was she reading my mind or something? Or did she already know and she was putting on an act to test the validity of my info?

"Well, now that I know that, I don't really need to pay for them, do I?" Tattletale announced, making a show of tapping her chin in thought. "Shame. But it's not like you're hurting for money. You're pretty flushed with cash, aren't you, V? Keeping it in your shoes -- that's smart. No one ever thinks to check the shoes." She was needling me. Trying to annoy me. And it was working like a charm.

I saw Jackie give me a look out of the corner of his eyes, likely filing that information away for later. She was driving a wedge between us and I saw Jackie shift uneasily.

"Wasn't going to sell them anyway," I returned, all too aware of the OS cards in the room. If she wanted them, then I had inadvertently gathered the remaining four up.

"You're going to use them to get to the ABB tinker?" Tattletale said -- and it wasn't a guess. And it really was starting to feel like she could read my mind. "How would you even do that? Wait, did she reveal herself before she killed your friend? To gloat? Oh, she did, didn't she? No wonder you want revenge so badly. You're not in a good place up top are you…" her tone started off amused, turned mocking, only to trail off at the end.

She had figured it out. I wasn't sure how, but she had figured it out.

So, I finished for her, revealing what was Plan B. "The OS card connection goes both ways. I plug it in, and she finds me. And I find her."

Tattletale seemed to recoil, while Jackie sent me a frown. "You want to put that bomb in your head? Why? There are better ways, mano," he pointed out. And I knew that.

"I know," I admitted. "But doing it this way is the best shot. She thinks I'm dead, so the element of surprise is on my side."

"So put it into a system," Jackie pointed out. "You're practically a tech wizard. Are you really telling me you can't do that?" He demanded, his tone harsh. He actually sounded worried about me.

"Because of system checks that'll flag. For all I know, the bomb will explode," I explained. Lock had stated that there was an OS system on the bomb, but it was a real possibility. She had a backdoor and administrator access to the systems on the OS card. The moment that it gets so much as a handshake, she could decide to detonate the bomb. The best way to get to Bakuda was not the safest way. She could just assume that the cards were being tampered with or something like that and just decide to get rid of the evidence.

But, if she realizes that it's in the head of someone she thought she killed…

"You're betting your life on her desire to grandstand?" Tattletale sounded grim. "Are you really so desperate to die?"

"No," I refused with a shake of my head. "I just don't care if I do," I admitted, and it was frightening how honest the words were.

But, it all came back to what I told Taylor in the elevator. The moment I decided to become someone, I threw away my life. I resigned myself to an ultimately pointless death, likely before I accomplished a damn thing. Before, so long as I died on my way to becoming a Legend… I could make my peace with it.

Now, so long as Bakuda died with me? Then I could die happy.

"You triggered," Tattletale muttered to herself, earning a look from me.

"I what now?" I questioned, unable to make sense of the phrase. If it meant I was pissed as all hell, then yeah. I'm fucking triggered.

Tattletale failed to answer, and I didn't care enough to press her. "I just need to write up a bit of code. The moment that Bakuda makes the connection, I can infect her systems with malware. It should be enough to stop the bomb in my head from blowing. I'll know where she is. I can find her. Might even be able to cut her off long enough to reach her."

And then I would put a bomb in her head and I would watch her die.

I had all the pieces of the puzzle now. I had everything that I needed to take my shot.

"I'm sorry, but that doesn't look like it's going to happen because you're coming with us," Tattletale said, almost sounding like she meant that. I looked to her for a moment, and it was because of that I wasn't able to react in time to Jackie pointing his gun in my face. My eyes widened, not expecting the betrayal to be here and now.

Except neither did Jackie, it would seem. "I can't- V, it's not me!" He half-shouted, his gun pointed directly at my head. He looked like he was fighting it almost, his body twitching and jerking, but his gun refused to budge from my face.

"Finally," a bored voice announced as the door to the motel room slid open. He was a weird-looking guy -- a loose white shirt that could best be described as frilly, tight black pants, and knee-high boots. He also wore a top hat, while his face was covered with a plain white mask that was marked with a smiley face. "I thought that this was going to take forever. I was counting cockroaches out there."

Tattletale didn't seem happy to see the guy, "Regent," she hissed, half with annoyance and with half exasperation.

Regent offered a careless shrug, twirling a scepter in his hand. "Wanted to make an impression. The boss-man probably wants to recruit him, right?" Regent said, making my eyes narrow into slits. I spared a glance at Jackie, finding him still twitching. The gun was pointed at my head, but…

"You're controlling his body?" I asked, having heard of stuff like this before. If your ICE was breached and your implants were high end and extensive, it was possible to control someone like a puppet. The only issue was that Jackie didn't have extensive enough implants to do that. Meaning that his human bits were being controlled. "And did you say boss?"

"Don't answer that, Regent. He's fishing for information," Tattletale sighed, a hand going up to her eyes that she massaged through her mask. Regent glanced over at her, his mouth likely open to say something, but whatever it was, I didn’t care to hear it. That same moment, I moved.

My legs locked up, half throwing me down to the floor, but I could control my landing. I hit the floor, pinning my arm down against the ground while Jackie fired a bullet where my head had been. I was in a bad spot now, on the ground, unable to move. I just wasn’t the only one.

“Oh, cool,” Regent remarked, nonplussed about the assault rifle pointed in his and Tattletales direction. With my arm pinned against the floor, the shoulder portion of my left arm wouldn’t be able to throw off my aim. The bottom half was steel, wires, and grease. He couldn’t stop me from pulling the trigger. “I thought you were just bluffing about the whole ‘I don’t care if I die’ thing, but you actually don’t, do you? You've got issues.”

“Yeah, but they come in handy,” I returned, not taking my eyes off them. “Because I’m betting that both of you do,” I said, my finger coiling around the trigger. I had to be careful, I reminded myself. I couldn’t feel the hand so if I didn’t calm down, I could end up pulling it by accident. Regent was worryingly aloof, but Tattletales body language told me that she wasn’t bulletproof. That confidence before came from Regent using his power to control Jackie’s body.

Regent nodded, “Yeah. Don’t shoot. Please?” He requested, earning what I’m guessing was a very unhappy look from Tattletale.

“Why did you even come in here?” She snapped at him, earning a thoroughly unrepentant shrug from Regent.

“I wanted to join in on the grandstanding. It’s one of the few things that I enjoy. You know that,” Regent said, sounding like he thought it was her fault for not anticipating that he would come in.

“I don’t care about your lover’s spat,” I interjected. “We’re through here. Let go of Jackie’s body, or I’m going to pull the trigger,” I warned them, making Regent spare me a glance.

“Or I could just have him shoot you. Prosthetics don’t have a death twitch,” he pointed out, earning a nasty smirk from me.

He really should learn to not talk so much. “What would your boss say about that?” I asked, “You just said he wanted to recruit me. A little hard to do that if you spill my brain matter all over the floor,” I pointed out.

Regent tilted his head, “He has a point there,” Regent admitted. And I swallowed my questions about their boss and what he could want to do with me. Both of them were capes… I had my suspicions, but it wasn’t the time to think about that.

Tattletale said nothing for a moment. Then she offered a shallow nod, “Alright. Regent?” She said, glancing at the other cape. He offered a shrug before Jackie let out a strangled gasp.

He cursed in Spanish, his guns jerking toward Tattletale and Regent. The former held up her hands, “We’re leaving now,” she announced, taking a step back.

“You think you can just get away with a stunt like that?” Jackie questioned, raw anger in his tone. Regent shrugged and nodded, which certainly didn’t help things. “Can you give me a reason why we shouldn’t pop the two of you?” He did have a point, I thought.

Tattletale stepped in, “How about twenty-five thousand reasons to not shoot?” She haggled, and it was a good starting point. The money that was brought here to buy the cards. Honestly, I’m shocked that it was real and they weren’t just planning to rob Jonah. She must have noticed our doubts because she very slowly went to her waist and pulled out a stack of bills.

It looked thick enough. “It’s not our cash,” Tattletale remarked as she and Regent backed up towards the door. Her gaze drifted over to me. It was impossible to tell what expression she wore with the mask, but her eyes were pleading. For what, I wasn’t entirely sure. “If you’re going to do what you’re going to do… if you live through it… then we’ll be in touch.”

With that, she set the bundle of bills on the floor and stepped out of the room. The door slid closed and in that same moment, Jackie rushed the door. It slid open again, letting him step through it. If they were outside then it seemed that Jackie couldn’t find them.

“You people are fucking crazy,” Jonah spoke up, having gone unnoticed throughout the exchange. He didn’t bother getting up in favor of slumping against the wall. He looked up at me when I pushed myself to my feet. “Especially you, V.”

Jackie grabbed the stack of bills, “He does have a point. Sticking a bomb in your head to get even?” He questioned, meeting my gaze evenly. All I could do was shrug in response.

“It was plan B. Plan A was using Tattletale and whoever she works for to find Bakuda since they knew about the plan to wipe out the Maelstrom,” I defended my decision. It wasn’t like I was eager to go shoving bombs in my head, but if I had to do it then I had to do it. Whatever it took to get me closer to Bakuda.

Jackie held my gaze, his expression one of concern. “You kinda missed the point there, V,” he pointed out. Then he sent a very loaded look at Jonah, but before he could even voice the idea, I was already shaking my head.

“Nah,” I dismissed the idea of putting the bomb in Jonah’s head. “That’s not my style. I don’t do things to people I’m not willing to do myself. And if I have to risk anyone’s life, I’d rather it just be my own.” It wasn’t like the idea didn’t have merit. It could work. And even if it failed, I would be alive to try again.

But that wasn’t me, so I wouldn’t do it.

I looked at Jackie, “If you want to back out now, Jackie, then I won’t blame you. You can take the money as your fee. Probably wouldn’t be enough for what sticking with me would cost.” It would be a stretch to say that I knew Jackie well, but he did strike me as a relatively decent person. About as decent as you could be in Night City. And there was no way to say it other than I was on a collision course with the ABB.

That meant thousands of gangsters. That meant Oni Lee. It meant Bakuda. It meant butting heads with Lung.

Even if I somehow lived through getting even with Bakuda, then I was as good as dead.

“Lock… he was that good of a friend?” Jackie questioned, looking down at the cash with consideration. I really couldn’t blame him if he decided to take it and walk.

I thought about it before a small huff of laughter escaped me. “Honestly, not really,” I admitted with a deprecating smirk. “I always figured we were fair weather friends, you know? I never talked to him about personal shit, and he didn’t talk to me about the shit in his life. We hung out after school like twice…” Jackie seemed surprised by that. I guess my actions painted a picture that we were far better friends than we actually were.

“But… I’d be dead if it wasn’t for Lock. After the deal, he was freaking out and I just walked away. I was dealing with my own shit, so he put a bomb in his head, because he wanted to make sure that what we stole was worth people dying over. Then, in the alley… when he realized that Bakuda was going to blow the bomb, he dove away. Didn’t think about it or nothing. He just moved. I wouldn’t have even lost the arm if I hadn’t reached out to him,” I half rambled, my voice starting to grow thick with emotion.

I shook my head before I looked down at Jonah, gathering myself. Jackie took advantage of the lull to speak up. “Then why are you so eager to throw your life away? If he saved your life, then why throw it away?”

“Because stopping Bakuda is what Lock would want. And killing her is what I want,” I added. And it was how I was raised in this city. You get hit? Hit them harder. They take something of yours? Take everything they had. They killed one of you? Kill them all. Let nothing stand in your way. Even if you had to burn the city to the ground. “So, as far as I’m concerned, all roads lead to that bitch dying.”

Jackie chuckled at that before he turned to Jonah. He watched us both, the fight leaving his body. Jackie came to a stop next to me before he handed me half of the stack. I glanced at him, knowing what that meant and Jackie simply shrugged. “I’m not much of a quitter and I don’t care for leaving things half-finished.”

Offering a half-hearted smirk, I accepted half of the payout. Tattletale and Regent… I could deal with them later. If there was a later. For now, my target was set on the ABB.

“What are you going to do to me?” Jonah asked, his tone as defeated as he looked at us. There was fear in his eyes, knowing that he couldn’t escape. He had his chance to when Tattletale showed up. He hadn’t. Too afraid to try, maybe.

Tattletale had confirmed that he didn’t know about the bombs, because she hadn’t known. He just knew that they were dangerous. And he had still given them to us. “Your share of the deal. Do you still have it?” I asked, not sure what I wanted to do with him. Kill him? Beat the shit out of him? Maybe if he was still screaming at me. Now… it would be like kicking a dog that couldn’t bite back.

Jonah paled but offered a slow nod, “I- it’s… it’s in the drawer. But, man, V-” He started to protest when I grabbed the money. It was mostly there, comparing it to the stacks I got from my apartment and Lock’s house.

“Don’t,” I snapped at him, holding up the wad of bills. “This? This is going to Lock’s family. His real family. Not the asshole that left us to die,” I told him, shoving the money in my pocket. Altogether, I had over sixty thousand eddies. More money than I thought possible.

I didn’t have a family of my own. Parents… they were long gone. No siblings either. But, if I did, then I would want them to have some cash in their pockets after I was gone. To set them up for a better life. So, that’s why Lock’s mom would get the lion’s share of the cash. It wouldn’t replace her son, but it could help. Even if it was only a little.

I stared hard at Jonah -- naked, wet, and curled up into a ball. He looked absolutely pathetic. I shook my head as I started walking away. Jackie hesitated, following me as I grabbed the gun and the OS cards.

“Don’t ever let me see you again, Jonah,” I said in place of a farewell, letting it serve as a warning. I had more important things to do than to sully myself with his blood. As the door closed behind us, I heard sobbing. Sobbing that could only come from a broken man.

I didn’t care. My target was in sight. All I had to do was set the dominoes up and then watch them fall.