Never Fade Away: I Am Your Demon (ch. 16) (Patreon)

V hadn’t reconnected with me in a month after shooting me a text to deliver the Element Zero implants to a drop point in the Glen. I parted with them with some reluctance, mostly because I still didn’t understand the substance at all and J had given me an inkling of what it was capable of. That lack of contact should have been something of a reassurance, but I found myself more nervous than ever. It felt like there was a leash around my neck and at any moment, without warning, I was going to feel a hard yank that pulled me in a direction I had no interest in.

However, beyond that, the past month was progressing smoothly. I proved as much by reaching down to my belt and grabbing hold of the Recycler Charge that was hanging off of it -- a mostly spherical orb that had a few cables running in and out of the red case. Pressing down on a copper plate, the primer, I lobbed the recycler charge at a veritable mountain of trash in front of me.

For a split second, nothing happened. Then the ecycler charge went off, space began to warp in on itself like a rubber band being stretched out while trash bags and loose pieces of metal flew into the singularity. Then, like a rubberband, the tension snapped and the singularity spat out chunks of material ranging from biological, metal, and minerals. The mountain began to shift, falling inward to fill the gap that had been opened up, but not enough so to smother the materials.

I hauled them into the Zeya, satisfied with what I was seeing. Since I started using the recycler charges, each trip yielded up to five times the amount of material that I got before. Could still stand to be more efficient, but the only way I was going to manage that was by automating it so I didn’t have to come out here at all. For now, I was satisfied with expending all of the Recycler Charges, loading up, then heading back home.

Home had seen a number of security upgrades -- the front of the parking garage had been walled off and security auto turrets were installed, connected to my own personal subnet. The garage door that I had installed slid up, letting me roll through and head down a few levels where I could start unloading.

“Yo! L!” Becca greeted me from within my home, waving an oversized hand with a smile on her face that promised trouble. I looked around quickly to make sure nothing showed signs of fire damage, but I only saw the progress that I had made in the past month -- the fabricators were upgraded to their MK. III versions at long last. The material recyclers now had an efficiency rate of 98.9 percent, while the fabricators saw a sharp increase in detail orientation and precision.

The GN Drive MK. I was still operational, and at the moment, building the MK. II was a low priority. The radiation was contained and it produced a surplus of electricity. At the moment, it was supplying energy to a number of safety features in my home as well as the MK. II to the cloaking technology that I saw Falco was currently working on as he was building a vehicle from the ground up.

Beyond that, the garage level had mostly been segmented up with a number of rooms like a bathroom, a few bedrooms, an armory, and so on. All of which was in the process of being decorated by Becca and J because they both hated the plainness.

“Becca… what did you do?” I questioned, looking at her, knowing that smile. That was a smile that told me she just did something and she couldn’t wait to see my reaction. In response to that, her smile just grew.

“I~ dunno what you’re talkin’ about, L~,” Becca responded, sounding entirely too pleased with herself. Over in the corner, underneath the chassis of a car, I heard Falco bark a laugh. “You shouldn’t go-” Becca started, pretending that she had absolutely no idea what I was talking about, only for J to appear from around the corner, a cocky smile on her face and I saw exactly what Becca did.

J had been growing out some hair, but on the sides, she shaved it back down to show off a tattoo that started at her temple and it seemed to loop around the back of her head to stop at her other temple. Between them, at the crown of her head, her reddish brown hair which had been little more than stubble had been artificially lengthened until her hair brushed one of her shoulders.

“Jack,” J said, crossing her arms over her modest chest. “My name is Jack now,” Jack decided, thrusting out her chin as if daring me to contradict her.

"Alright," I agreed easily enough and for some reason, I saw that annoyed her. Falco chuckled from underneath the car. It wasn't like it was exactly a revelation to me. Jack hadn't made it a secret that she wanted a real name. It was only a matter of time that she settled on one.

"Told you," Becca remarked, shaking her head and letting out an exaggerated sigh.

My eyes narrowed, "Told who what?"

"Nothing," Jack responded, shooting Becca a look. "I'll unload the truck," Jack said, brushing past me before she reached out with a hand. Clenching a fist, a mass effect field appeared within the truck and the contents began to drift upward. Chunks of steel, aluminum, copper, gold, along with more valuable materials like titanium and tungsten. The minerals were less diverse -- a few clumps of precious gems, but the most useful of them all was the fist-sized diamond that had formed. Not sure how that happened, but you found odd stuff forgotten in the dump all the time.

Jack sorted the hundreds of clumps into the overflow containers while the recyclers began to dismantle the materials into usable cubes. Becca and I watched her work -- it never got less mesmerizing. Jack's biotics were a versatile tool and a deadly weapon. How they functioned exactly was still beyond us, but Jack had parroted what she overheard -- she created "mass effect fields" and then weird shit happened. To paraphrase.

"Fuckin' nova," Jack muttered, satisfied with the chance to use her biotics. She jumped at every chance to do so.

"Fuckin' nova is right," Becca agreed, clapping Jack on the back. The two got along pretty well. Almost too well. I could see the influence that Becca was having on Jack -- Jack only wore a black tube top and a pair of tight-fitted pants. Now she was inking up. It was a little weird, but I saw the parallels between me and David, so I said nothing.

While the recyclers went about their work, Becca glanced at me, "You up for a gig?" She questioned, catching my attention. “The Queen of the Afterlife is calling for David for something. Gun for Hire by the sound of it. Small crew -- Netrunner, gun, and some wheels.”

“I’m the wheels,” Falco remarked, scooting out of what would one day be a car. His face had a few smudges, but he wore them well. Falco was a man of few words, I’ve found. But, when he did speak, I always noticed that he had an odd accent that I didn’t hear in anyone else. “Don’t want to come, darlin’?”

“Pssshhh,” Becca dismissed, making a sweeping gesture at him with a dark blue hand. “Girls' night out, sucker! Me, Jack, and Kiwi are going to be painting the town,” Becca decided, earning a smirk from Jack in agreement. “Plus, I don’t want eddies I get by sittin’ on my ass like you do. The gig won’t need me and L.”

I tilted my head, and Falco explained. “The queen wants to meet you, L. Hard work always pays off,” he remarked, sending a lopsided smile my way.

“That, and no longer hauling bodies to Maelstrom,” Becca added on, making me swallow a sigh. Naturally, after things broke down between me and Maelstrom, I stopped bringing them corpses to harvest. I tried to get in touch with a few scav gangs, but that idea died in the cradle when the three groups I tried immediately tried to betray me. In the end, the eddies that I got from the implants wasn’t all that much to begin with, especially when other higher-paying gigs were being tossed my way.

Faraday contacted me twice to do a Netrunning gig. Simple and clean -- uploading a piece of nearly undetectable malware to a corporate subnet for a rival corporation, and stealing a file from someone in Night Corp. One paid fifteen thousand eddies, the other twenty, and both had taken a grand total of about thirty minutes each. Beyond that, to make up the difference, I ran jobs for Regina near non-stop until she started pawning me off to other fixers so I didn’t end up collapsing her merc network.

“I’ll make sure to dress nicely, then,” I remarked, heading to the erected walls that marked my bedroom. The door slid open to reveal my rather sparse furnishing -- a bed on a frame that rested on the floor, a table in one corner, nightstand next to the bed. Neither had anything on them and the walls were a familiar drab white. “What time am I heading over?” I asked Becca, knowing that she could still hear me.

“‘Bout an hour. You have plenty of time to make yourself look nice for the queen,” Becca said, letting out a laugh.

…

“Go on in,” the muscle in front of the door decided upon seeing me. I tried to follow Becca’s suggestion and make myself look presentable, but Becca just laughed when she saw what I was wearing. I really don’t think there was any winning with her sometimes. I caught my reflection in the glass of a tube that a dancer swayed in -- White shirt with a graphic on it, khaki cargo shorts, and a pair of loafer shoes.

Frowning at my reflection, I glanced over at the bar to see David’s familiar EMT jacket marked with a symbol that was generally associated with him. He was talking to the bartender -- Claire, if I remembered right. Approaching the bar, David glanced over his shoulder at me and offered a smile. "L, want a drink?"

My expression must have given my answer away because he just laughed lightly. "You only wake up feeling like that if you go overboard. Plus, you'll need to come up with a signature cocktail," he informed me as he took a sip from a beer.

"Why would I need to come up with a cocktail?" I questioned, but it was Claire that answered.

"Old Afterlife tradition. Our signature drinks are all named after legends of Night City. Used to be the bartender used to come up with something until one caught on, but nowadays, aspiring legends come prepared," Claire said, her eyes running over the length of me. Her gaze lingered on the exposed surgery lines. I looked at David to confirm and got a nod.

"Mines a shot of vodka and a splash of Ni-cola blue. Doesn't have to be anything complicated," David admitted.

"You hate soda," I pointed out and that just got a shrug.

"Lucy doesn't," he pointed out, his smile growing a fraction more. He was doing it more often, I noticed. I never saw it exactly, but there had been a lot of tension in David for as long as I've known him. Like a weight on his shoulders. But, in the past couple of weeks, David was smiling more. I wouldn't say that the weight was removed entirely, but it seemed like he was able to carry it easier than he had. He patted me on the back before he stood up, "Just give it a think. Pretty sure the reason people remember guys like Silverhand is because of their drinks."

I glanced at the bar, feeling wholly indifferent to the idea. But…

Z had wanted to be remembered.

"I'll come up with something," I told him, "Are we meeting Rogue now?"

"Looks like it," David said, finishing off his beer before he looked to a woman that was entering a booth. The first thing that I noticed was that she looked on the older side with a mane of gray hair. It stood out simply because it was extremely easy to hide one's age. She wore a bright yellow long sleeve crop top, tight fitted leather pants, and a pair of boots. She took a seat in a private booth that had a couple pieces of muscle guarding it and lounged in the booth like it was a throne.

Her eyes found mine. Bright blue and on her cheekbones were two matching cyberlines. She made a gesture and the muscle parted ways as David and I approached.

"Rogue," David greeted her, taking a seat. His voice was calm and neutral. I only really heard him speak like that when he was dealing with biz. It seemed like he was trying to cultivate an image.

"David," Rogue returned, still looking at me. Her datapicks were trying to chip away at the first layer of ICE I had. I saw as much when an alert popped up before my eyes that Rogue was trying to get a look at my specs and deetes. That told me that there wasn't a lot about me floating around. That was good news.

In response, I snipped the datapicks, making the blue light fade from her eyes. Rogue smirked at that, resting her arms on the back of the couch. "And you must be L," Rogue greeted me at last while I chose to stand. "I've heard quite a bit about you. Professional, reliable… and a scav. I wonder what you need money for so desperately?"

I wasn't surprised by the remark. Regina had made a similar remark. The first two didn't make up for the latter because Scavs were inherently unreliable and dangerous. "Why don't you give me some and find out?" I shot back, crossing my arms over my chest.

"No such thing as free money, but I do have something close," Rogue remarked before inclining her head towards me. "Provided that you don't have any issue taking out some old biz associates," she continued, catching my attention. Maelstrom?

"That bridge has been burnt. What's the gig?" David spoke for me, making Rogue's eyes flicker to him, then to me for a moment. She seemed to come to some conclusion because she nodded to herself before she made a flicking motion. A file was sent my way and after a quick inspection, I saw that it was daemon free.

As I opened the file, Rogue spoke. "I'm sure you've both heard about the pissing contest Militech and Arasaka got into outside city limits a month ago. However, unknown to most, Maelstrom was involved. Picked over the corpses and looted whatever they could from both sides of the battle," Rogue began, showing me clips of a battle that I had witnessed.

This was a little awkward. Though, it was good confirmation that people didn't know it had been us. Or I imagine this gig would have gone to someone else.

"That shortlist? Sandevistans, Microvibration Generators, Mantis Blades, Heal-on-kills, and Limbic System Enhancements to name a few. An incredible haul for them, but not why Militech and Arasaka have been tearing up Arroyo for them. They got their hands on three Militech Minotaurs, Arasaka drones, and the cherry on top? Two top-of-the-line tanks. One from Arasaka and one from Militech," Rogue elaborated, and that was news to me.

I was in Maelstrom's systems. The only way that they could have hidden that from me was if they were keeping it off the subnet entirely. Maybe not to hide from me, but to hide from the megacorporations hunting them down. I saw pictures and videos of the tanks entering the city, but they vanished not long after. Brick had been laying low for a month now and I saw why. The rest of Maelstrom had been ravaged in the initial weeks while his crew let it happen to throw the scent off.

David let out a whistle, "I'm guessing that they want their toys back."

"You'd be surprised. Brick is selling the tanks to the rival corporations -- Arasaka gets a Militech tank, and Militech gets the Arasaka. However, Arasaka counter intel got word of it and decided to play dirty. The gig is to secure both tanks for Arasaka, and purge Maelstrom for good measure," Rogue finished as I was done shifting through the file. Big part of the job was finding the group of Maelstrom before the deal went through a week from now.

I tilted my head to the side, "That's why you wanted me on this gig." It made a lot more sense, now.

Rogue made no secret of it. "The only people that willingly work with Maelstrom are gonks, fellow gearheads, or those that know they'll win that fight. Not chromed up enough to be a gearhead, and you don't strike me as a gonk. I'm betting you know exactly where to find Maelstrom and if you're as good of a 'runner as people say, then I'm also betting you could kill them all right here." She voiced, cocking her head right back at me.

I glanced at David for a second, who offered a shrug. It was my call. Looking back at Rogue, I considered my options for a moment. Rogue was the top fixer in Night City. Something that was acknowledged as fact. This was a good way to get my foot in the door for bigger gigs. Ones that paid better. Enough that it would offset the loss in revenue from selling corpses to Maelstrom and bring me to my goal faster.

"What does the job pay?" I questioned, knowing that I needed to get the number now.

"Twenty-five thousand eddies," Rogue answered, sounding faintly amused.

In response, my eyes flashed red as I uploaded a piece of malware through the backdoor I had in Maelstrom's systems. My list of active members in the subnet began to drop as the tech in their bodys’ system locked while the OS cranked up the blood pressure until veins in their brains began to rupture.

"Done," I told David and Rogue, looking at the former. "We just need to do a pick up and sweep," I told him and David just smirked at me.

"Not an idiot indeed," Rogue remarked. "Eddies will be deposited the moment the customer sees the goods. Not a moment before," she voiced and I just walked away, David patting me on the back on the way out of Afterlife.

"You made an impression," David encouraged, and I felt a bit of relief that I hadn't managed to screw that up. "Is Maelstrom really dead?"

"As far as I can tell, yeah," I answered as David brought us over to the truck that Falco had pulled up in. It wasn’t a particularly nice one by any means, but I saw the clear signs of his modifications. “But, if they managed to hide two tanks from me, then who knows what else they did. I’d expect a warm reception when we pull up to Whole Foods.”

“Hear that Falco?” David questioned as we got in, earning a thumbs up from the man before he rejoined the flow of traffic toward our destination. “Lucy said that Arasaka stopped looking into Maelstorm about a week after the exchange. Likewise from Kiwi about Militech,” David informed me, and I nodded, knowing as much. “But, she found out that Militech thinks that Arasaka klept Jack.” That, however, was news.

“That’s good for us,” I decided. Better they think it was each other than us.

Up front, Falco grunted. “Not if they decide to start another war over it. Dick wagglin’ is normal ‘nough for corpos. That kind of firefight over in Rocky Ridge? That’s reserved for Corpo Wars,” he spoke up from the front, sparing a glance back at us. “I cannot rightly say how badly they want Jack, but this Element Zero business? It’s important to them. Important enough to fight over.”

The Corpo Wars. I still didn’t fully understand them. I didn’t really understand corporations still, to be honest. I grew up in a handful of rooms, and in the past three months, Night City felt like an entirely new world. The idea that it could be even bigger was… incredible and frightening. However, that snap shot of the battle between Militech and Arasaka had been devastating. Rocky Ridge had been reduced to rubble and ash in a handful of minutes.

Looking out the window, I tried to imagine what it would look like it a war had come to the city and my stomach clenched at the mental image I envisioned.

“What the corpos do next is on them,” David spoke up as we began to rapidly approach our destination. “We got Jack out. That’s all that matters.”

“Right,” I nodded, looking away from the window. It was worth it to get Jack out, but I couldn’t say that I liked the idea of bringing a war to the streets. Falco hummed up front and before he could say anything, he rolled to a stop just outside the gate of Whole Foods. Giving us a thumbs up with his prosthetic, David patted him on the shoulder.

“Keep the engine running,” David instructed as we got out. Reaching out through the system, I started to circle through the camera feeds. The fact that I saw absolutely nothing, virtually no change from any other day, gave away that the camera feeds were on a loop. Inspecting the data, I saw that the loop came from inside the system rather than a loop that was input. One way to hide the tanks, I suppose. “Stay behind me, L.”

I looked at him before David jabbed a thumb at his back, “If there are any Maelstrom left, they'll be loaded up with military-grade tech. So far, the only thing I’ve seen that can beat a Sandy is another Sandy,” he voiced, and I could see his point. Letting him lead the way, I followed David in as he ripped a door off the hinges to enter the meat processing plant. We were greeted by a handful of turrets that were powered down.

I didn’t hear anything, I thought as I followed David through the processing plant. I smelled death though -- blood and shit. Heading up some stairs and rounding a corner, we entered the docking area. I recognized it even if I didn’t see much of it when I stopped by. Inside of it were two tanks, as Rogue said. Around them were a number of Maelstrom laying dead. Quite a few of them look like they were in the middle of adding stuff to the tanks.

Both of them were sporting a decent amount of damage. They were clearly salvaged and even after a month, they weren’t quite put back together. Likely because they were lacking parts. The armor plating that they were slapping on looked improvised and bulky. It seemed Brick was looking to sell them not because he didn’t want them, but because he couldn’t get them in working order.

“I’m not seeing anyone,” David remarked as we walked the perimeter of the loading area. “I say we drop a bead and call it in.”

I looked at the tanks for a moment, then over to the computer that was hooked into them. Tapping a few keys, I pulled up what they were working on -- designs, timelines, where they would be getting materials, and even the decision to sell the tanks. “Hold up a second, David,” I responded, digging a bit deeper. The computer and the tanks were on a mini subnet. Completely isolated from the Maelstrom subnet. They had some decent ICE, but it was undercut by the fact that the computer was already keyed into it.

“What are you thinking, L?” David questioned and I found what I was looking for. The specs for the tanks. They ripped them right from the tanks themselves. Not quite a blueprint, but when combined with the blueprints that Maelstorm had cooked up?

“Making a copy for ourselves,” I answered, giving him a cheeky grin. The designs weren’t complete. Power system was completely shot. Balance and propulsion systems were estimates, and that was being generous. However, I could cobble something together with the info.

David just laughed, “What are you going to use a tank-” he started, only to cut himself off when a low hum filled the air. Our gazes snapped to the Militech Lincon to see that the engine had flipped on. “L, what’s going on?” David questioned and I shifted to the system checks to see if I had somehow triggered a test or something.

I didn’t get a chance to answer because a split second later, the main gun swiveled with a harsh screeching sound to point directly at me. I moved on instinct, throwing myself to the side, but I was only saved by David snapping to the main gun and grabbing it with both hands, heaving to lift it up enough that it missed me. The shot tore straight through a wall, filling the loading area with a devastating thunderous clap. Rolling to my feet, I saw David straining to get the gun pointed up at the ceiling.

“Power source!” David shouted as the tank started to lift up, but one of the thrusters exploded with a small pop. The main gun fired again, this time punching a hold in the ceiling while I scrambled around the tank itself. The tank surged forward, dragging itself across the ground in an attempt to crush me but as it neared, I threw myself over the lip of it and rolled to my feet. As the tank crashed into the other, I reached a thick black cable that was poking into the back of the tank.

Grabbing it, I ripped it out with a heave. In response, the tank sputtered a bit, reversing for a split second before it came to an abrupt halt. With a loud thump, it fell to the ground, shaking the building and making some roofing fall inside the building. Running to the tank itself, I watched as David tore off the cockpit door with his bare hand before he suddenly jerked out of the way. I heard the sound of a crusher shotgun going off, followed by a snap as David kicked out and crushed the offending arm.

“L,” I heard a familiar voice speak up. Dum-Dum. “Nice… trick with the malware… subtle,” I heard Dum-Dum gasp as I crawled up onto the tank. Dum-Dum was seated in the cockpit, jacked in, but his veins were cut open and they were bleeding profusely. Three straight lines down his wrist, severing an artery. So, that’s how he survived it. Must have seen someone drop, realized what was happening, then slit his wrist to prevent the build-up from happening inside his brain.

“Dum-Dum,” I returned, looking down at the man. All of the Maelstrom members… I didn’t really care about them one way or the other. I sold to them because they were willing to pay, and I needed the money. I didn’t like them. Didn’t trust them. Killing them was just biz. Nothing more to it.

Dum-Dum was a little different only because I knew him. He was the one that I talked to. He barely looked human, but he treated me reasonably well. So, this one felt a bit different. It was less than what I felt murdering Dr. K, but it was more than just another kill. “Sorry it had to be this way, Dum-Dum,” I told him, genuinely meaning that. I didn’t want to kill him. Not really.

“Eh… don’t be,” Dum-Dum dismissed. “This is Night City. Can’t be any other way,” he told me, his breathing getting weaker as more blood flowed out of his veins.

I was silent for a moment. “No, it can’t,” I agreed, raising my pistol and shooting him in the head four times to make sure that he was dead.

David was giving me a lingering look for a moment before he nodded. “Lets load up what we can, L. Then we can drop the bead.” He placed a reassuring hand on my shoulder as I looked down at Dum-Dum’s corpse, feeling conflicted in a way that I hadn’t ever really felt before. Everyone until now, with the exclusion of Dr. K, I killed because they were in my way. That was reason enough to kill them. Dr. K? I murdered her because I wanted her dead. Simple. Dum-Dum?

I don’t know. This one felt a little different. Like maybe I should have found a way that didn’t end with him dead, but I genuinely had no idea how I would even manage that. Reach out to him beforehand? He would have raised the alarm or killed my backdoor. Dum-Dum might have been fond of me, but I imagine that he was more fond of his gang. Even though there was no feasible way to make sure that he lived, I felt a little… disquieted by killing him.

Doing my best to shake off the feeling, I copied what I could from the computer while David started loading up the military hardware that Maelstrom had looted. I grabbed the security drones that I saw flying through the air, while David had his eye on something else entirely. It was a medical case that was covered in stickers and crude words, but when we finally loaded up into the car and took off, he showed me what was inside.

Vials of Dense Marrow that would have had to have been extracted from the corpses that Maelstrom took with them. Next to them was a plastic vacuum-sealed bag around a heart.

Even before Rogue flicked us our eddies… I had to say, we made out like bandits.