Chapter 145

“Stealth is still the superior tactic.” I argued and once again Rebecca scoffed.

“Some gigs you need to be sneaky, but nothing beats overwhelming firepower!” She argued. It turns out that Rebecca didn’t have a lot of chrome. Besides the obvious Chem skin and stuff, but she had all of her chrome plotted out. Like how people would plan out every part of their perfect car, or all the pieces to make up their perfect gun.

 

Funnily enough I already knew most of her desires, having seen her future self.

 

“Firepower is great, I carry my Burya around in case I run into some borg fuck. But there is nothing better than sneaking up on somebody and just flatlining them without them noticing.” I argued. And she scoffed.

 

“Optical Camo is mid.”

“You take that back!” I demanded and she just cackled as she was going to nothing of the sort.

 

We had moved away from Maines crew after a client had shown up, so Becca and I were hanging out at the bar, and to my delight we were getting along much better than we had at the start.

 

“Hey. Listen, I’m pissed that Rogue hasn’t given me an invite yet, it has nothing to do with you specifically. The fact you were able to get an invite is preem.” She admitted suddenly, swirling around her drink and I realized she must have been a bit embarrassed at how she had acted.

 

“It’s fine Becca. I have another choom Jackie that gets the same way. I don’t take it personally. It’s gotta be frustrating.”

 

“It is! I go on some of the gigs with Maine, but… Fucking Pilar makes sure I can’t get involved. Maine brings me in as a distraction or some shit sometimes, but I’m never a shooter.”

“Did you talk to Maine about it? Did he say why?”

“Apparently I’m too fucking short and shit.” She grumbled. Yeah that was true. Rebecca was very smole.

 

“You could fix that with chrome or bio.”

“Tch. I don’t… I don’t hate that I’m short. It’s fun sometimes. I just want to blow gonks fucking heads off. I’m not a kid anymore. I’m eighteen!”

 

“Ever think about… Branching out?” I asked and instantly got a look from her

 

“You asking me to join your crew?”

“Not specifically like that. See I got my core crew, but we don’t have every skillset. We got a driver. A Fixer, and a secondary Solo. While I cover the net, and solo duties. But I have my choom Jackie that’s a big fuck he’s a solo I brought him in once, and I want to do it more, and I want to increase the size of my team, even if it’s just temp mercs… How about it? Want to go on a gig with a different team sometime?”

 

“I… I don’t know. Maine is being a shit, and Pilar is a fucking scumfuck gonkfucker… But I owe Maine.”

“Hey, I’m not saying to betray your chooms. Just a job offer. Make some eddies, get more chrome, get some experience.”

 

“Let me… I’ll think about it. Can’t say I really want to work with kids though.”

 

“Hey! We made hundreds of thousands of eddies on our last gig. Mostly from selling off loot, vehicles and weapons.”

 

“Wait. How much!?” My Answer shocked Becca and I couldn’t help but laugh as I went into some detail on how Section 9 functioned.

 

“Fuck. Maine never loots the place like that… I’ll have to do that next time.” She muttered to herself, hand covering her lips.

 

“It takes time, and you have to have people to haul stuff out. You can’t exactly wait around.”

 

She scoffed and nodded downing her drink.

 

“You’re not bad Kitten.”

 

“Wha Kitten!?”

“Hehe! You told me about your helmet.” She pointed out with a wicked grin and a pointed finger.

“It’s completely accidental that it looks like cat ears! I already told my chooms that it’s not cat ears!”

 

“Well too late. Just like with Whiskers, you’re Kitten now.”

 

“Ugh.” I denied crossing my arms in an X. “I refuse.”

“Too late!”

 

She cackled as I pouted at her. Rebecca was fun.

 

We continued to shoot the shit for a while until Maines crew finally got up to leave and Rebecca followed. All of us waving a goodbye.

 

It was time to get back to work.

 

—–

 

“Are you serious? No!” I demanded arms crossed into an X in absolute denial. Hiromi just rolled her eyes at me.

 

“I already talked to the dealer. We got a trader pass to get through the checkpoint.”

“Hiromi. I am not taking you anywhere near the combat zone! That place is full of Cyberpsychos!”

 

“Dogtown is the best place in Night City to get gear Motoko, and you were the one that wanted the ECM system. I found someone selling them, but they are in Dogtown and they aren’t coming out.”

“Then we do without, or find a different seller.” I argued.

 

I didn’t know much about the Combat zone. At least not the modern version of it. What I did know was that NCPD didn’t go in there. That death was everywhere, and it was rumored that’s where all the Cyberpsychos were ‘put’ but the corps. Either as a test, or some sick experiment.

 

But Hiromi wasn’t going anywhere near it.

 

“Motoko, you are being a total rust case here.”

“Hey!”

 

Hiromi raised her hands to silence me and took a deep breath. “Right. Sorry. That was mean, but you are way more dangerous than some gonks in the Dogtown. Plus we are going to the arena. Lots of trade goes on there. It’s got the biggest blackmarket in NC.”

 

“It’s a fucking combat zone Hiromi!” I snapped at her pacing around the front of the Quadra. She had asked me to come pick her up, but there was no way I was driving into the Combat Zone!

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I wasn’t crazy!

 

“Ugh.” Hiromi groaned as she followed me around as I paced around the car. Hiromi’s parking garage was thankfully empty so no one was able to hear our fight.

 

I ran a chrome palm over my face, the cool metal soothing my temper. Seriously! Going out and fighting Raffen was one thing, but going into a damn combat zone was another!

 

“We need the ECM systems.” Hiromi argued, and I instantly knew what was happening. She was trying to attack the conversation from the side.

 

Luckily I gave zero fucks!

 

“Not enough to go into a combat zone. This isn’t a life risk level thing Hiromi.”

“It’s not dangerous! Well not that dangerous. Going into Dogtown is perfectly normal Motoko!”

“For Cyberpsychos!”

“Motoko, that is just a weird rumor, and not at all the truth. I even got information on Dogtown at the academy. As long as we stick to the main areas we will be fine. Barghest want people to come in and out. Dogtown is a wonderful spot for some black market trading.”

I grit my teeth and wanted to yell at her some more. Didn’t she understand!? I’m normally all for jumping into danger, but I knew nothing about the Combat zone. Which was called Dogtown apparently. All I knew is that it was super mega dangerous and you don’t fucking go there, so why was Hiromi so eager to run right towards it?

 

“Fine.” She offered and I felt my breath come out in relief. Finally! I had gotten through to her! “We’ll just hire some additional protection. Problem solved!”

 

“That doesn’t… Dammit.” I grumbled because it was sort of the answer. “Fine!”

“Good!” She offered in return smiling as if she had won.

 

I grumbled under my breath as her eyes went yellow as she made some phone calls.

 

—–

 

“Hey Jackie.”

“Hermanita! I hear you are heading into Dogtown and want some guards huh?” The big man offered with a hearty chuckle. We were all meeting up at Hiromi’s place, including the extra guards.

“More for Hiromi than anything. The combat zone is dangerous, and I know very little about it.”

“Eh, it’s not so bad. The Barghest pendejos are annoying, but as long as you aren’t causing trouble they leave ya alone.”