A crackle of static brought Judy's attention to the speakers above her. She wiped at her face, the tears having dried now but leaving her skin feeling tight and uncomfortable. Panam stood nearby, staring blankly at the panel next to the door, but Judy wasn't sure if she was examining it or merely lost in her thoughts. When no other sounds emerged from the speaker, Judy lifted herself from where she had been slumped on the floor.
Panam glanced in Judy's direction, her eyes shadowed by dark bruises beneath them. She looked shell-shocked, the previous strength she had shown with Judy just a memory now. A sharp whine from one of the speakers made Judy wince, causing the ache in her head to pulse painfully.
"I am relieved to see you both conscious." Adriana's voice crackled through the air and Judy felt a wave of nausea pass over her.
"Like you fucking care," Panam spat, her head tilted back and a steeliness in her eyes now.
"Let us forego the pleasantries," Adriana said quickly, her tone even, unmoved. "I know you may very well wish to cause me harm, but for V's sake, I would restrain yourselves."
White-hot fire coursed through Judy's veins. "For V's sake!?" She whipped her head back and forth between the different speakers, unsure where to direct her rage. "You let her die!"
"No," came the response. "She still lives."
Judy froze on the spot, the anger within her sputtering momentarily. "What?" she asked, her voice small, confused.
A sound from her left drew her attention and Judy saw the door slide open. Panam's eyes narrowed and she launched herself through it in an instant. Judy hurried after her and when she stepped into the office, Panam had a shocked looking Adriana pinned to the wall beside the door, one arm against the clone's throat.
"Tell me why I shouldn't flatline you right now," Panam hissed, her face flushed with hate.
Adriana futilely pawed at Panam's arm, her words caught in her throat. Judy's eyes instinctively went to the body that lay nearby. Nothing had changed. V was still sprawled on the floor, her eyes closed, her chest still shifting with shallow breaths. Tears stung behind Judy's eyes and she tore her gaze away.
Judy clenched her jaw and tentatively approached the two struggling women. Adriana's eyes were wide, fearful, and they flitted between Panam and the desk behind her. Judy followed her gaze, her brow knotting. A flicker of hope danced in her chest, but she pushed it down. Adriana did nothing but lie. She couldn't trust her words now.
"There," Adriana finally managed, her voice strangled and coarse. She weakly lifted an arm and motioned to the desk.
That caused Panam to ease some of the weight behind her arm and she peered over her shoulder. When she turned back to Adriana, her eyes were cold, untrusting. "What are you trying to pull now?"
Adriana coughed out a breath. "Let me explain."
That traitorous spark of hope took root, forcing Judy to reach out and place a hand on Panam's shoulder. The muscles flinched under her fingertips, but the nomad pulled back a little.
"V did not perish when the chip was destroyed," Adriana said slowly and swallowed painfully.
Judy glanced back at V's body, her mouth twisting into a grimace. "She's still in there?"
"Minimally," Adriana said but there was something in her tone that snapped Judy's eyes back to her.
"Either she is or she fucking isn't," Panam snapped, the veins in her neck straining against her skin.
Adriana eyed Panam for a moment. "That's a simplification. The chip imprinted enough of her construct to allow minimal brain function to continue. At least for a time."
The hope fizzled. Was Adriana just stringing them along to save her own skin? But then why release them from the lab in the first place? Why even keep them alive? Anger squirmed under her skin. She was so tired of these games. Of not being certain of anything.
"Can we get her back or not?" she snapped, her eyes narrowing at Adriana.
The clone tentatively pulled at Panam's arm, but it refused to budge. "Not in the way you think, but if you release me, I can show you what I intend to do."
"Bullshit," Panam growled. "If she's just an echo of herself, she's gone. I don't understand why you're playing with us. It won't end well for you."
Judy wanted to argue against that, wanted to believe that Adriana's words made some sort of sense. But she knew Panam was right. She turned away from them and wrapped her arms around her torse, a sudden chill sweeping across her skin.
"I am not 'playing' you. Her body may contain but a whisper of her true self, but that body does not." Adriana's voice was verging on exasperated now, as if they were too stupid to figure out something that was obvious to her.
Judy peered back at Adriana, who was looking pointedly at the desk again. As Judy's gaze swept across the corpse in the chair, her heart stuttered in her chest. Its eyes were open. A shudder crept down her spine as she realised they were watching her.
"V?" Judy whispered, the name catching in her throat.
"What is this?" Panam demanded and Judy glanced over to see she had twisted around, one hand still at Adriana's throat.
"When Judy provided an aptly timed distraction, I was able to insert the chip into the transfer terminal in my desk. Valerie's construct was uploaded to the computer in my old brain."
Judy moved around the desk and looked down at the device she had hooked up for Adriana's transfer. She eyed the slot she had noticed in it before. It was conceivable that Adriana was telling the truth. Judy took in a steadying breath and peered at the shrivelled body in the chair again. Could V really be in there? Something twisted in her stomach at that thought.
"You planned this?" Judy asked, unable to take her eyes from the unmoving face in front of her. "How could you possibly know that you would get the opportunity?"
"I did not know for certain. I did know that having you all in the same room would come to a head at some point. I had to hope that would happen before Murata lost his patience."
The memory of the confrontation prickled her skin and she spun, eyes burning. "You left this all to chance!?"
Panam had backed away slightly now, her hands in fists by her sides as she eyed Adriana warily. Rubbing her throat with one hand, the clone eased herself off the wall and walked leisurely towards Judy. "No. I had planned to remove the chip sooner, to make the transfer before Murata arrived. But your… friends turning up with Biotechnica was an unforeseen complication. It shifted the timeline."
Panam's jaw worked furiously as she took in that new information. "So you were in control of the building the entire time? You're the reason why my people got hurt. Got killed."
Apparently sensing Panam's rising outrage, Adriana lifted her hands in front of her, palms open. "Not exactly. I did lose the connection during the transfer. For some time. But you have to understand, if your entire group of nomads had rushed into this office, it would have ruined everything."
Panam took a menacing step towards her. "I have to fucking understand!?"
Judy quickly stepped between them. As much as she wanted Adriana to pay for everything she had forced upon them, she had to hear this. She had to know if there was still hope. Panam's eyes burned into her, but she turned back to Adriana.
"So what was the fuckin' plan, Adriana? Give Arasaka whatever the fuck they wanted, make me believe my—she was dead? Then what? Hand us over to Arasaka?" The heat rose in Judy's chest with each successive question.
"I will explain this briefly, as we may not have a lot of time," Adriana began, faltering when Judy glared at her. "I needed Arasaka to believe that Valerie was dead. That her construct was gone. Yorinobu desires his father's legacy to be utterly destroyed. If he knew that Valerie still exists, he would just send more people after her. And this would all be for nothing." She paused then and Judy gritted her teeth as she tried to process that. "To ensure that, Murata had to be the one to destroy the chip."
Perhaps she was right. Perhaps Arasaka would leave them alone now. But the way Adriana had gone about it was so fucked up. "Why the cloak-and-dagger bullshit?" Judy asked. "Why not just fuckin' tell us?"
Adriana turned away from them then and moved to the chair behind the desk. She looked over the tubes and cables connected to her old—V's new body, checking each of the connections carefully. "That would have introduced unpredictable factors to the equation. I find it unlikely that you would have agreed to the plan, despite it being your only real option. Plus, you would have doubted my intentions when you learned of my deal with Arasaka."
"And you think I'm not doubting your intentions now!?" Judy seethed, resisting the urge to drag her away from V. A part of her pulled her towards the body, made her want to look in her eyes and prove to herself that V was actually in there. But the grief that still clogged her chest held her back, warned her that this was all a lie. That V would just be torn away from her again if she gave in to that hope.
Adriana straightened and shot Judy an ever-suffering look. "If I did not wish to help Valerie, you would not be here now, and I would not be taking this risk." She took a step towards Judy. "Now, I need your help to arrange things so I can transfer Valerie back to her own body."
"Is that even possible?" Panam interjected, moving to kneel down beside V's prone form. She lay a hand on the torn Aldecaldo jacket and peered at Adriana with narrowed eyes.
"Not currently. There is no infrastructure in Valerie's brain to hold her construct any longer. I will need to make it."
Judy's gaze flicked between the body in the chair and the more familiar form on the floor. Fuck, this is confusin'. She found herself moving towards those eyes that were still watching her. She crouched down slightly in front of the desk, bringing herself to eye level. Unease squirmed in her stomach as she stared at the milky film that covered the body's eyes. At first, she thought that they were staring blankly at her, but then there was a slight twitch of movement and Judy could feel it. Feel V. She gripped the side of the desk as a wave of emotion hit her, fresh tears threatening to spill. Was she really in there, looking back at her? Or was Judy fooling herself? Desperate for any shred of light.
"You're going to dig around in her head?" she heard Panam ask and the idea of that left an unpleasant taste in Judy's mouth.
Adriana sighed. "The computer system in my own brain bears some similarities with Arasaka's chip. It's older technology, but it was used as the basis of the research that later produced the Relic. So, yes, I will need to 'dig around in her head'."
Judy's breath caught in her throat when she saw the corner of grey lips twitch. Was V trying to tell her something? Judy wished she could ask what she would want. In her heart, though, she knew that V would want a chance at life.
"What do we need to do?" Judy asked and stood, determination pushing away the cacophony of emotions that churned within her.
Adriana glanced back at her, surprise clear on her face. "I need you to move Valerie's body to the cloning chamber. It will continue to deteriorate unless we intervene. That is also the case for Valerie's construct. The technology within my old body was not designed with her in mind and the body itself will not survive much longer. Time is very much of the essence."
A look passed between Panam and Judy then, and the nomad seemed as though she might resist, might argue further. But then she nodded and hooked her hands under V's shoulders. Judy joined her quickly, grasping V by the legs. With some awkward struggling, they managed to carry her into the lab and place her in the open chamber. Judy reached out and swept V's hair out of her face, smoothing her fingertips down one cheek. Please let this work.
She glanced over her shoulder as Adriana made her way to a cabinet and pulled out a large vial of clear gel, much like the pink cloning liquid they had stolen from Biotechnica. Adriana hurried over to the device connected to the chamber and inserted the vial into it.
At Judy's questioning gaze, she muttered, "This will sustain Valerie's body for now."
Adriana opened another cabinet and took out several items, one of which appeared to be a mask of some kind. Judy stood when the other woman approached the chamber and slid the mask over V's head, affixing it over her nose and mouth. She attached a long tube to the front of the mask and the other end to a port in the top of the chamber.
Judy took a step back when the glass cover of the chamber slid up. A thought occurred to her then. "Wait, what about the malfunction?"
Adriana glanced at her as she tapped at the touchscreen on one panel. "That was involved in the cloning process. Thankfully, none of the other systems were damaged. I will need to repair it at some point, though."
Clear liquid began to fill the chamber and Judy watched the level rise nervously. The device beside the chamber whirred and she could see the gel filtering into the other liquid. Soon, V's body was completely submerged and she floated at the centre of the large tube.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Panam move to stand beside Adriana. "What about my people? Are they safe?"
It took Adriana several, long moments to reply and Judy began to wonder if she had heard the question at all. "Yes. The tower is still locked down. However, more Arasaka troops are on their way to the city. I am unsure how long they will stay away from this building after they have purged Biotechnica from Alpha."
Panam pressed her lips into a firm line. "Can I talk to them?"
Adriana stopped what she was doing and considered that. Finally, she nodded and pointed to the other side of the room. "There is a terminal you can use over there. I'll patch you into the speaker system."
Judy wouldn't say Panam looked thankful, but she did seem relieved. As Adriana set about hauling items out of various drawers and cupboards, Judy wandered back to the office. She didn't really want to look at the desiccated husk that V was holed up in right now, but she didn't want to leave her alone either. This was almost completely overwhelming for Judy. How must V feel?
Ignoring the churning of her stomach, Judy sat on the edge of the desk, unable to bring herself to fully look at the body in the chair. She wiped her palms against her thighs and let out a long sigh. "Fuck, V. This is so messed up," she said quietly.
A heaviness sat in her chest. She yearned to hear V's voice, to see that quirk of her lips when she was about to say something stupid just to make Judy smile. She wondered if V could even hear her in that decrepit old body. If she was aware. And what would happen to her if Adriana's plan worked? Would she be the same V? Would she be whole after the trauma of being ripped from her body and forced into someone else's? Part of Judy hoped that V wasn't awake inside that shell.
"We knew that everythin' was goin' to shit, but this…" She let out a shaky breath. "I thought you were gone, V. That I'd lost you for good. An' maybe I have. Maybe I'm just talkin' to a ghost right now." She idly picked at the seam of her overalls as the grief closed in around her again. "But if you're in there, I just want you to know… I'm not givin' up. As long as there's the whisper of a chance that I get to see your gonk face again, I'm gonna keep tryin'." Her throat closed around the last words and she squeezed her eyes shut, tried to steady herself.
She pushed herself off the desk, struck by the thought that if V was actually listening to her, she might be hurt that Judy couldn't even bear to look at her. She rounded the desk and knelt beside the chair, swivelling it towards her carefully to avoid stretching the cables further. She looked down at one cracked hand and placed her palm over it. It was cold and dry to the touch. The body's head still lolled to one side, but Judy dared not try to shift it.
"Can you hear me, V?" she breathed and her heart lurched in her chest when those milky eyes twitched in her direction. "Just hang in there, okay? I know it's gotta suck, but we're doin' all we can to get you outta there." She shook her head at the absurdity of it all. "Y'know, I always thought the big plan was that Adriana would clone you a shiny, new body and we'd be on our way. Now you're stuck playin' musical fuckin' corpses."
"I am afraid that would not be possible," Adriana's voice came from behind her, causing Judy to flinch.
Judy pulled away and turned to face Adriana. "What?"
"Cloning Valerie. I used the last of the materials to complete my own cloning process. But even had I more, I would not force that on Valerie. The price is too high."
There was something behind Adriana's eyes that made Judy pause, a haunted look, and she wondered what had happened to her that made the clone the way she was. Or perhaps she had always been this way. "D'ya mean the immune system problem?"
Adriana's gaze dropped momentarily and she walked past Judy so she could fiddle with the machine in her desk. "That is part of it. My father was brilliant, but he was also spectacularly single-minded. He could not see past his grief. He gave me life again, but he left me with a frail body and a fractured mind. It was not problematic at first, but over time…" She trailed off, lost to her memories.
Judy could not find it in herself to feel pity for Adriana. The anger burned too bright. But her words did leave an uneasy feeling at the back of her mind. "What will happen to V after the transfer?"
Adriana paused, her thin fingers hovering above the circuitry of the transfer device. "It is difficult to predict. She may suffer the same side-effects as I do, but she also may not. She and I are too different for me to say for certain."
Judy's brow furrowed. "What side-effects?"
Standing suddenly, Adriana gave her a sharp look. "Judy, I need you to fetch some equipment from one of the lower floors."
Judy opened her mouth to object, to force the issue, but she held the words in. She was wasting time. V needed her to be helping, not doubting every step. Still, the shadow of that doubt loomed over her. What if the V that came back to her was not her V. Her jaw tremored at the thought.
"Two floors below there is a cybernetics lab. I need several items from there to assist with installing the computer. Will you go?" Adriana urged.
Judy nodded, her eyes drifting back to that milky gaze. She hoped she was doing the right thing.
...
V. That's what the woman had called her. The pretty, green and pink-haired woman, her face all aflutter with what she thought might be worry and pain. V sounded right to her. So that must be her name.
There was something about the woman, something so familiar. She felt drawn to her. When she'd heard the word "Judy," that had also felt right. Vague sensations crept in towards her the longer she stared at Judy, but she couldn't quite identify them. Images flashed before her clouded gaze, of fire and ice, dew drops on the morning air and acid rain on skin, but she didn't think they were memories. Perhaps associations. She needed more time to make sense of them.
At least, she thought she did. She knew time was important but it seemed an odd concept to her then. Something she couldn't quite wrap her mind around. And if she could measure it somehow, how long had she spent trying to gain control over this body? The most she had achieved was following Judy around the room with her eyes. The rest of her energy had been spent sucking air into stale lungs.
She felt rather pleased at that. She remembered what stale was. And also what pleased was. That was progress. The more she concentrated on following the map of nerves under her skin, the more she became aware of something outside of that shell. Much like those nerves, there was a network that stretched out beyond her body, beyond the room, seemingly limitlessly.
She reached out for it, curiosity nudging her on. When she followed the first path outside her body, she felt a weight fall away from her. She felt connected to everything and yet incredibly insignificant. There was data everywhere and wherever she looked, she was bombarded with images, sensations, information. She became aware of the room in which her body sat, but she was viewing it through streams of data. She quickly identified a familiar form and followed it as it entered an elevator. Her view cut to a more recognisable style and she realised she must be looking through a camera feed. Judy paced back and forth in the elevator.
V knew that Judy was upset, struggling, but she wasn't sure how she knew that. When the elevator stopped and Judy stepped out, V continued to follow her. Again, she wasn't sure why, but she had a hazy thought that she should. Both for her own sake and for the woman's. She hopped from camera feed to camera feed, finding a freedom in such easy movement.
"Valerie, what are you doing?" The voice sounded as though it was coming from all around her and yet within her at the same time.
What?
"I'm impressed you managed to find your way out."
V watched Judy as she began to search a large room filled with various machines and devices. She hadn't spoken. No, the voice pattern was similar to that of the woman who had said Judy's name earlier. Where was she?
"This must be confusing for you."
Yes.
"It will come back to you in time."
What will?
"Your memories. Your emotions. Your self."
Is that important?
There was no response. V continued to watch Judy. She had stopped her search and was leant over a counter. Her hands gripped the side of it, the knuckles white. Something flashed in V. Perhaps a memory, an urge, a feeling. She couldn't tell. Judy's shoulders shook.
V restored power to the display located just to Judy's right. She wasn't sure how she knew how to do that, but it was as simple as blinking. Perhaps easier. She focused on outputting a message on the display.
"Jude." Where had that name come from?
Judy seemed to notice the blinking text, but she didn't respond, only stared at the display. V realised she must be confused as well. That was at least something she could understand.
"Please don't cry," V typed.
Reaching out a trembling hand, Judy pressed her fingertips to the display. "V?"
"Yes."
Judy's shoulders shuddered once more and a single sob escaped her lips. V felt her body back in the office react to that. Something pinched in its chest.
"How is this possible?" Judy asked weakly.
"I don't know," V responded on the display. She felt the swollen tongue in her body flinch with the desire to form those words herself.
"Are you…" Judy paused, struggling to control her voice. "Are you okay?"
V didn't respond immediately. Her first thought was that she didn't know. But instead she wrote, "Yes."
Adriana's—ah, that's her name—voice chimed in over a speaker in one corner of the room. "Judy, I will need to ask you to hurry."
Something flashed in Judy's eyes as she glanced at the speaker. In that moment, V knew it to be anger. Pain. Judy looked back at the display.
"Is this what you want, V?" Judy asked softly and V had the thought that this woman didn't truly want to know the answer. That she feared it.
Again, V didn't know. But she knew what Judy wanted to hear. And that felt good enough for V. "Yes."
Judy's shoulders slumped slightly as the tension eased out of them and she let out a slow sigh. "Alright."
V returned to merely watching as Judy set about collecting items. Via the sensors in the room, V knew one was an intracranial installation device and another was a nanotech injector.
A blip of data attracted her attention then and she returned to surveying the network. On the ground floor of the building, she became aware of a group of people huddled near the tower's rear entrance. New images flashed in her mind and she felt a flicker of recognition. Several of these individuals were injured and required medical attention. Was that something she could help with?
A quick scan of the building revealed that only the top and bottom floors were inhabited, excluding Judy who was now making her way to the top floor again. There was a medical facility on the second floor.
"I know what you're trying to do." Adriana's voice pierced her mind.
You do?
"It is a waste of your focus. Your actions put undue strain on your body."
It doesn't feel like a waste.
"Very well. Let me guide them to the medical floor. You must rest."
V didn't really understand why she couldn't do it herself. She was enjoying this new freedom. But she couldn't think of a reason to argue, so retreated to the top floor, returning her attention to Judy. There was a comfort in that, something inexplicable but familiar, and she felt a connection to something immutable about herself. She tried to grasp what that was as she watched.
...
Judy wasn't sure how much time had passed since Adriana had banished her from the lab. She paced from one end of the office to the other, her mind flitting desperately from thought to thought. Panam had taken the elevator down to the second floor when Adriana had informed her about her people moving there. She hadn't heard from her since. She hadn't heard from V either.
Their brief exchange had bolstered her, had fed the hope within her, but it had also left her feeling on edge. It was difficult to tell over text, but V hadn't seemed like herself, and that fear that V could be forever changed niggled at her. She could feel the eyes from behind the desk on her, but she continued on her path, consumed by her doubts.
When the door to the lab swished open, Judy spun on her heel and watched as Adriana emerged. Her face looked even more gaunt now and she wobbled slightly as the door slid shut behind her.
"Everythin' okay?" Judy asked quickly.
Adriana nodded. "The technology is installed. I must go over a few details before I initiate the transfer so you will be informed for Valerie's aftercare."
Aftercare? Judy hadn't even considered that yet. She hurried over to Adriana who now perched on the edge of the desk.
"I have injected Valerie's body with nanites. They are modified versions of what I use for the cloning process. They will use her own tissue to repair any damage caused by the Relic, or any ongoing degradation, by means of what is essentially small-scale cloning." She took a breath and wiped at her brow. "You need not concern yourself with their longevity. They should outlast Valerie's body."
Judy pressed her lips together at that. "What should I concern myself with?"
"There may be some compatibility issues. I doubt that some of her cybernetics will be fully functional now, particularly some features of her optics upgrade. She should retain sight, but some of the advanced functions will likely not work."
V was not going to like that, Judy realised. "Why?"
"My technology is old. Even though I have upgraded it over the years, it was never with the prospect of cybernetics in mind. I have tried to marry the two technologies together as best I can, but there is only so much I can do in so short a time. On the other hand, with it being simpler technology, there is less that can go wrong with it."
Judy mulled that over. She could feel a tightness in her chest at the thought of all the possible ways in which this could fail. She was not prepared for this at all. "Anythin' else?"
Adriana frowned. "There are, of course, psychological factors that I am far less certain of. You are probably in a better situation to deal with those than I."
What was that supposed to mean? Before she could question Adriana on it, the clone's eyes darted to the left and her brow dipped. She jolted off the desk and stumbled. Judy reached out and grabbed her upper arms, steadying her.
"What's wrong?" she asked.
Adriana shook her head slightly. "Arasaka's reinforcements have arrived. I had to allow them access to the city or they would grow suspicious."
Judy's eyes narrowed. "You let Murata in, didn't you?"
"Of course," Adriana said dismissively, irritation creasing her brow. "But their movements are troubling. They are not focused solely on Biotechnica."
Judy pushed down the anger that flared in her chest, the imminent threat a more pressing concern. "What are they doin'?"
"Several of their vehicles are skirting the edge of the city, as if they are looking for something. I cannot tell exactly what it is that they do. They seem to be masking their intentions."
"That's pretty fuckin' telling," Judy muttered.
Adriana nodded and pulled back out of Judy's grip. "I must initiate the transfer. Perhaps you could prepare your nomad friends for the worst. Arasaka may return here soon."
Judy eyed the body in the chair and chewed on her lip. The thought of leaving V now, of all times, made her stomach twist uncomfortably.
"You will be of no help to her here, Judy," Adriana said and the softness of her tone surprised Judy.
She moved around the desk and crouched in front of V. The husk's eyes slowly shifted to look back at her and Judy reached out to brush her fingers against V's hand. Guilt fluttered in her stomach at how the sensation of that skin against hers made her shudder.
"I'll be back, okay, V? You do your part and make sure you survive this. Get back to that body of yours in one piece." Her voice cracked as she spoke, but she continued regardless. "An' then we're gettin' the fuck outta here. For good."
"Judy," Adriana murmured behind her.
Sighing, Judy lifted herself and cast one last, lingering look at V. She hoped to anything that would listen that that would not be her last image of V. Then she turned to Adriana, eyeing her warily for a few moments. Should she really be putting all her trust in her after everything she had done? This could be another ruse.
She looked Adriana squarely in the eye and forced through her teeth, "Anythin' bad happens to V and I'll kill you myself."
Adriana peered back at her coolly, but there was something in her eyes that told Judy she believed her. "I will take care of her."
Judy clenched her jaw and turned, heading for the elevator. She crouched down and picked up the abandoned rifle on the floor where V had lain. She wasn't at all experienced with this kind of weapon, but its weight felt reassuring in her hands. As the elevator door closed behind her, she forced a breath through her nose and tried to focus on the task ahead. What could Arasaka possibly be doing in Alpha? And what could she and Panam do if they decided to return to the tower?
When the elevator lurched to a stop, Judy stepped out and peered down the corridor. Several lights flickered overhead and she could see a whiter light spilling out from a doorway further up the hall. That must be where the Aldecaldos had gone. As she approached the door, a young man, perhaps younger than her, stepped out and lifted his rifle. Relief flushed over his face when he spotted her.
"Panam," he called over his shoulder and disappeared back inside.
Judy hovered in the doorway, her eyes scanning the disarray within. Several beds were occupied by injured nomads and there were discarded medical supplies littering the floor. An older man was sat up on one of the beds and she grimaced at the bloodied bandage wrapped around his shoulder. He was pale and perspiration spotted his brow, but he was awake. Some of the Aldecaldos gathered around him and she thought that he might be their leader, Eli.
"Judy," Panam said and concern tightened her voice. "Everything okay?"
Judy gave her a once over. The bandage around her head was gone and there was a fresh square of gauze above her brow. It seemed as though her arm wound had been attended to as well. She looked fresher, more alert than the last time Judy had seen her.
"Adriana's about to start the transfer, but we may have a problem," she said with a frown.
Panam let out a huffed breath. "Of course. What now?"
"Arasaka," Judy said crisply. "There's more of 'em in the city and Adriana thinks they might be heading here soon."
Panam swept a hand through her hair, wincing slightly. "Can't catch a break, can we?"
Judy glanced at the nomads behind her. "How are your people doin'? Think we'll be able to defend this place?"
Turning slightly to appraise the situation, Panam shrugged with one shoulder. "Don't think we've got much choice. But I think we should be more concerned with an exit strategy. Once V's back with us, we need to get out of the city."
Judy nodded slowly, but she wasn't sure it would be so easy. "What if V can't be moved?"
Panam's eyes darted back and forth as she considered that. "We can't hold off Arasaka for long. I think we'll just have to carry her out if it comes down to it."
As much as Judy didn't like the sound of putting V's health at risk, she could not deny the allure of getting the fuck out of Alpha. When the light dimmed momentarily overhead, she glanced up at the ceiling. Was it just a coincidence?
"So what now?" Judy asked. She wasn't a strategist. She should let Panam decide their course of action.
"We need to get eyes on the outside of the building."
"The security room on the ground floor is powered up. All the cameras were workin' last I checked," Judy suggested.
"Okay, great. That's a good starting point. We need to secure the main entrances as well as that landing pad," Panam said and turned to the Aldecaldos. "Everyone gather around."
Judy hung back and let the nomads plan their defence. Each of them seemed so focused, so invested in Panam's commands, that they didn't have time to feel fear. But anxiety skittered under Judy's sternum and she couldn't help but feel that this was their last stand. She wished she had V by her side, to reassure her, to offer her strength.
She took a deep breath and gripped the rifle more tightly. She was doing this for V. She had to be the strong one. She almost let out a rueful laugh at the thought. The fate of the legendary mercenary of Night City, the woman who had brought down Arasaka, rested, at least in part, in the trembling hands of a BD editor from little Laguna Bend. Fate certainly had a twisted sense of humour.