Chapter 5

I spent the next few days planning and training with Takemura. I had been avoiding him after Hellman basically told me I was a dead man walking – I figured there was no point trying any other leads. But now with Mikoshi as a target and Alt providing a solution, I needed Takemura's help getting back to Arasaka. His plan to get to Hanako at the dashi parade was pretty nuts, but it was our next step. When we weren't gathering intel, we trained. He taught me a few lessons to improve my swordplay, even how to throw knives with deadly precision. I cleaned myself up with a fresh shave and a new haircut, complete with the same fiery red hair I had before Jackie died. I started to feel like the old me again, which was long overdue. With the idea in my head that I might be around a little longer, I decided to up my game with some new implants. Vik was more than happy to help after learning what I was up to.

I took a deep breath as I felt the sedatives gently wearing off. The light above me grew slowly brighter, and I was able to nod my head back and forth on the table's headrest.

"Easy, V," Vik coached reflexively. "Your arm and leg implants aren't activated yet. Didn't want you launching yourself off the table just by waking up."

I chortled lightly, knowing that I absolutely would've done that. "How's it look?" I asked, shaking the grogginess out of my head.

"See for yourself." He raised the table to allow me to sit upright, then clicked a few keys on his computer.

I watched patiently as software loaded across my Kiroshis' display. Diagnostics ran on their own and gave me the green light for the new implants. I hummed as I examined myself. My left forearm and the calves of my legs now had silver strips of chrome separating my skin into plates, which would separate and open to reveal the new implants. On my left arm was now a Projectile Launch System – a small, implanted turret that could launch various types of small ammunition. In my legs, I finally had the Reinforced Tendons I had been lusting after which would give me the literal boost I needed to jump higher and further even from midair.

Vik rolled his chair over to a small cart to retrieve two small cylinders, then rolled back. "Alright, let's test out that PLS and see if it syncs right with your Kiroshis." He held out the cylinders, each loaded with a different set of 3 projectiles. He pointed to the first set and explained, "These blue and white darts here are tranquilizers. I know how you like to go quick, clean, and quiet, so these will be your best friend. Should work almost instantly on anything not too heavily armored. These thicker red and yellow suckers are explosive rounds, like little grenades with better accuracy. They all load like bullets in a revolver, so make sure to carry a few spares with you." He gestured across the room towards a dartboard. "Load up the darts and see how well you can aim."

I loaded the darts and took aim at the dartboard, then one-by-one I fired. Two of the three hit the dartboard, though none in the center where I had aimed.

"It takes a little to get calibrated," he reluctantly assured me. "But that's it! You're all set. I'm glad to see you're finally doing something about your passenger and not just moping around, wasting time."

I chortled and smirked. "Johnny's not all that bad. If the chip weren't killing me, I wouldn't be in as much of a rush."

Johnny materialized sitting on one of Vik's tables. "Aww, V, I might even blush."

I rolled my eyes and continued, "Just took a while to find a lead that actually went somewhere, one that meant I might actually pull out of this."

He nodded and dropped off a few cartridges of darts and rounds onto the small table next to me. "Well now that you have, you'll want these. The explosive rounds are pretty easy to find, but those are the last of the darts I have. You'll need to stock up through a ripper buddy of mine in Wellsprings."

"Thanks, Vik." I opened up my account and took a moment to admire my €$65000 balance, then exhaled as I transferred €$60000 over to Vik. I knew it would be interesting finding enough work to cover my rent for the month all while working to infiltrate the Arasaka parade, and I hoped I'd live long enough to get my money's worth out of the upgrades.

I passed through Misty's and gave her a hug on my way out to the alley, where I couldn't stop the smile from forming on my face as I overheard Garry preaching another sermon.

"They wish to rule, to control – your executives, your leaders… But they are not human, NO! But then WHAT, you ask? REPTILIANS!" he roared.

I tried not to chuckle as I walked forward to listen. I even noticed that he had a young woman sitting next to where he stood, absolutely beaming up at him with admiration and focus.

"You can recognize them by their cold, blue eyes," he continued. "Creatures born centuries ago on the Antarctic ice sheet. They hide their true faces under masks of human skin! Two-faced snakes, oppressors of humanity."

""You think President Myers is one of 'em?" I asked sarcastically.

He gestured out his arms, "Why so many shootings? Why do countless die on the streets as the police do nothing? What human would condemn his brethren to such suffering? And why? And where did this filth slither out from, you ask?"

I raised an eyebrow, hoping it would go where it would always go, but wanting to do my part. "Antarctica. You said that already," I replied.

"Today, they hide amidst the snow and ice of the South Pole, step-by-step usurping our crown as creation's chosen! Millions of years ago, they evolved from dinosaurs to become the world's first advanced, intelligent race. And who is their progenitor? Their masters? The scientists of Alpha Centauri!"

I grinned gleefully at the reference, and I transferred over €$100 for the sheer entertainment value, after which he thanked me profusely. I turned to walk back to the street, but my eyes caught someone staring at me. I thought they might've been staring at Garry, but I did a double-take, and they were definitely looking at me. Their eyes were glowing bright blue, the same way they would if someone were transferring credits or information, but they were staring directly at me and I hadn't received anything. Then the person took another drag of their cigarette and their eyes stopped glowing. I kept an eye on them for a moment as they started walking away, and I scanned them to see who they were, but they weren't registered in the NCPD database – unusual, but not suspicious. I thought back to Garry talking about people with "cold, blue eyes" and immediately shook the thought off.

"I really am losing my mind if I'm about to start believing his shit," I muttered to myself as I reached my car. It was getting late in the afternoon and I wanted to try out my new implants, so I quickly searched to see where the nearest NCPD-reported incident was, but I my holo started ringing with a call from River. I blinked curiously, then took the call. "River?"

"V, hey," he sighed exhaustedly. "I need your help."

I frowned as I heard the tone in his voice. "Sounds like it. What happened?"

"I shouldn't talk about this on the holo. We gotta meet."

"When and where? Tell me." Something inside me jumped at the chance to help him again, though I wasn't really sure why.

He lightly smiled with relief. "Glen, tonight. I'll flick you the details. Will you make it?"

I nodded. "Yeah, I'll be there."

"Thanks, V. Till then," he nodded and hung up.

I checked the address that he sent me and pulled it up on my map, then started driving. I had a feeling that he didn't have good news, which always made for an interesting job. By the time I arrived in The Glen, the central part of Heywood, I was certain that the job was the reason I was going, and not his toned body, deep voice, or his strong convictions. Well, mostly certain.

The intersection where he told me to meet him was a busy street underneath a wide stretch of the highway overhead. While buildings and streetlights illuminated the street, the block was so densely packed and covered by the overpass that it almost seemed to be night. Of course, looking in either direction would eventually reveal the sunlight outside, but none of it could directly light up this stretch. I looked up and saw River's truck pulling into a vacant parking spot near me, so I walked up to it and climbed in.

"Hey, V," he muttered, looking completely tense, though he took a moment to study me. "You look… different."

I shrugged and smiled as I quickly looked him over, then replied, "How ya holdin' up?"

"Been better," he grunted. "I know, prolly not hard to tell."

I nodded. "Yeah. So, what happened?"

"Needed someone to talk to. First, take a look." His eyes glowed blue as he transferred a file over to me.

It was a video of a news report containing police footage of cops pulling over a vehicle. It looked like a traffic stop, but then one of the officers opened the passenger door and a small body dropped out. The police began shouting, then the driver jumped out of the car and made a run for it only to be shot down. The reporter then continued reporting that the body was a 17-year-old boy who had disappeared a month prior, and that the vehicle contained possessions and DNA of seven other missing teens. The driver's name was Anthony Harris, known also as "Peter Pan."

"This, uh, 'Peter Pan' – he an old case? You were lookin' for him?" I asked.

He shook his head. "Never heard of him. Didn't cross my desk."

I shrugged and closed the video. "What's the problem if they caught the guy?"

"My nephew, Randy… disappeared not long ago," he replied. "And what you just saw – the kid was wearin' Randy's shoes.

My stomach sank. "Oh Jesus… You know anything else?"

He shook his head again. "My sister and I don't get along that well… I don't know much. Just wish I coulda been there for her when she needed it most."

"And what, they figured you'd get emotional and kept you off the case?" I guessed.

He grumbled frustratedly. "More like a restraining order – won't let me anywhere near it. Gonaghal took the lead on it – a lazy-ass gonk. And so far, he ain't accomplished shit."

I huffed. "No way I'd let this lie."

"I know," he replied and turned to me. "And that's why I'm askin' for your help."

"I'm in," I answered without hesitation.

The investigation took most of the night, during which I learned that River had been suspended from his position after reporting to Internal Affairs about our findings on Rhyne's death. I didn't have to say, "I told you so." After unexpectedly enlisting the help of an NCPD lab technician who owed him a favor, River brought me to his sister's house in a trailer park where she, Randy, and her other two kids lived. Joss seemed rather shell-shocked about the abduction and didn't seem to care about our presence, but nonetheless we kept the investigation details to ourselves. Her kids seemed to like River being around, though they were oblivious to what was going on with the adults.

We then investigated Randy's trailer where we found some drugs, an expensive video game, some questionably homoerotic magazines, and an unfamiliar laptop that we knew Randy couldn't possibly afford. The laptop had several emails which showed a progression of increasingly predatory emails between Randy and Anthony Harris, the kidnapper from the news report. Harris had even convinced Randy to meet him, and Randy was excited to. River couldn't hide his anger at himself for letting it happen, but when we figured out where Randy was being held, River held nothing back and roared us down the highway in his truck at 1:30 AM.

We crossed the badlands until we reached Edgewood Farm, an old complex listed under a corporate name but matching the rest of the evidence we found. River revved up his truck like a battering ram and charged towards the front gates.

"Grab something!" he yelled before we blasted through the metal gates and skidded to a halt.

When we stopped spinning, I dropped out of the truck and looked around. The large metal barn was accompanied by a small house with a shed near the gate. The ground was littered with proximity mines, and the front of the house was secured with two turrets on the front porch. Cameras were dotted around the facility to keep tabs on all angles.

"Let's get to the barn, quick!" he yelled as he rounded the truck. "Those turrets are live. The security system controlling them and the mines must be in the house."

The turrets nearly spotted us, so I quickly shoved River behind the shed and out of sight.

"Stay here," I warned. I then loaded explosive rounds into my launcher, then leaned around the corner and fired all three rounds from the cartridge. They hit just around the right-side turret and detonated in a loud explosion, destroying the turret and collapsing the front porch of the house entirely, which brought down the other turret and two cameras into a smoldering, smoking mess.

I looked back at the launcher still sticking out of my arm and mumbled to myself, "Damn, how are we allowed to buy these things?"

"V, focus!" River scolded.

I whipped out my SMG and shot the half-dozen mines between us and the house, carving a path for us to get in. My Reinforced Tendons came in handy for me to jump up to an open second-floor window. I found the control system in one of the bedrooms and shut it off, then made my way outside. River and I then bounded for the farm, though its doors were locked down. I tried blasting them open with more explosive rounds, but they were too thick. We then found a ladder that led us to the barn's roof, where we then dropped down onto a second-floor catwalk.

The barn looked like something out of a nightmare, the same nightmare I saw in one of the braindances we found as evidence. There were several boys all locked down on tables inside separate cattle stalls, each one with a feeding tube leading down from a machine above and clamps keeping the boys locked on the tables. The place smelled horrible, and it was clear that no one could ever leave alive on their own.

River gasped shallowly. "H-he's gotta be here. Randy!" he called out.

We dropped down from the catwalk and started checking each of the boys, but we couldn't get them freed from the table clamps or the tubes. River kept looking while I continued trying to free the others, then I heard him call out.

"I found him! He's hangin' in there! V, you have to shut down the machine. We won't get them out otherwise!"

I looked above the machines and saw several tubes leading towards another section of the barn. I followed them until I found an office where a large machine seemed to be regulating food and hormones delivered to each prisoner. I managed to shut it off while River called in for backup, then I ran back out to try to help him.

"Check the others!" he ordered as he disconnected Randy's tube. "They could still be alive."

I found two more that were still alive but barely conscious, but another two that were long dead. My stomach twisted with each one as I disconnected their tubes and unlocked their clamps.

"V!" River called pleadingly. "Help me with Randy!"

I saw him struggling to remove the clamps, so I rushed over to him. Randy's clamps weren't budging, but with the two of us, we were finally able to get them open. Randy was barely able to open his eyes, but he was clearly alive. River broke into near sobs and clutched at his nephew, then nodded gratefully to me and finally smiled.

Trauma Teams and NCPD squads had been dispatched to the scene to secure it and stabilize the survivors. Once Randy was secured, I stayed out of the way while River dealt with the police and the medics. It was nearly 6 AM when the last of the survivors had been taken by AV to a hospital. After the AV took off, River found me and handed me a cup of coffee. He still seemed to be riding the adrenaline, and I couldn't blame him.

I smiled at him. "We did it, River."

"Yep, we sure did," he replied and folded his arms. "But I'm not about to leave it like this. The horror that bastard inflicted… Can't let it go."

I picked up a slightly manic tone in his voice, which made my eyes widen. I had been trying to forget what the inside of that barn looked like as soon as I left it, but it made sense that it wasn't so easy for him. "Whaddaya wanna do?" I asked. "Zero him?"

He turned around and faced me with a clenched fist. "Exactly. Squeeze the life out of him with my bare hands. The sick fuck has to die."

I sighed worriedly. "River… c'mon man… it won't change anything. This place has been shut down, and Anthony Harris is a sad sack of meat hooked up to a respirator now."

"For how long?" he argued. "He has to die. It's the only way I'll be sure. The only way I'll never worry about this place again."

"Stop," I ordered. "Gonna throw away your life getting' revenge on a braindead vegetable?"

"Really?" he scoffed. "I've literally watched you cut down a dozen people just to get down to the bottom of a murder. We're at the bottom of a bunch of murders, kidnappings, and god-knows-what-else! We know it's Harris. Why is this so different?"

I leaned towards him and lowered my voice because of all the cops around. "That's different and you knowit. Those were gangoons who were packed with iron and had already used it to kill someone. They had a fightin' chance when I took them on. Harris doesn't. You do this, it's just murder. You'll lose everything."

He gritted his teeth, then growled and kicked a nearby crate repeatedly. "Argh, dammit!" he huffed before defeatedly leaning against the crate. "I'm sorry. Maybe you're right. I just… I can't stand this. I'm a cop, and you're a merc. I'm supposed to stop things like this from happenin', but I'm held down by all the red fucking tape the world can throw at me. Then you come in and shoot your way through, and you… you… you fix it. You get it done. I just… I dunno."

I took a breath and absorbed what he said, and it started making sense that he felt jealous. "The way I see it, the NCPD is really there just to make sure the corps and the gangs don't burn the city to the ground," I began. "They can't stop people from makin' messes, but they make a show of force and do just enough to keep people from crossing a certain line. When gonks do cross that line, that's when I'm called in, but all I do is stop something from getting worse. You help stop it from ever getting there. Then of course, you get the Johnny Silverhands of the generation who become legends for crossing that line and, I dunno, nukin' a corporate HQ? That one's a bit above both our pay grades."

He huffed wearily. "I get what you're saying, but… then what am I supposed to do if neither of those is enough? It's driving me crazy not doin' anything."

I looked at the AV where Randy was being treated, and I shook my head and sighed. "You don't know how hard I wish Trauma Team could've been there when I lost Jackie – my partner I told you about. But the job we were on wouldn't have made that possible. He was more than just my partner in the field, River. He was my input, my boyfriend. And he died in my arms in the back seat of a car. There was nothing I could do for him."

He stood up and stared at me almost like he had been slapped in the face. "I… I…"

"You don't have to say anything," I interrupted and put my hand on his arm. "My point is, you still got quite a bit you can do, River. Randy's still here. Him, Joss, the kids… They're all gonna need you now, more than ever."

"Y-yeah," he mumbled. "No, you're right…"

I continued, "Forget about Harris. Take one day at a time. But rest first. Once your head's on straight again, gimme a holo. We'll talk."

He nodded. "Yeah, need a little time to myself now. But then I'll call you. I will."

One of the Trauma Team paramedics approached and looked at River. "Hey, we're ready for evac. You riding along or not?"

River nodded at him, then looked back at me. "Really, V, thanks. I couldn't have done it without you. And… I'm sorry you lost him – Jackie, I mean. I guess being a merc isn't just about getting around rules, is it?"

I shook my head. "Not even close. Get going. But hey, don't be a stranger."

He nodded and walked back to the Trauma Team AV, which was powering up its engines. I waited until the AV took off and I had finished my coffee before wandering away from the crime scene. I still felt a bit of warmth from River's hug as I called for my I360, and I realized that I didn't hesitate when he got close to me, unlike with many other people I had been around. As I thought about him more, I wondered if he was the "fascinating and charismatic" person that Misty's tarot cards had predicted I would meet. I could only imagine the nasty smirk she'd have if I ever asked her about it.

As I got in my car, I looked back at the crime scene where at least a dozen cops were still charting and collecting evidence. As I looked around, I noticed one look at me from a distance, and I thought I noticed a blue glint in her eyes. I zoomed in with my Kiroshis. She looked for a moment, then when our eyes locked, her eyes stopped glowing. She looked away casually while continuing a conversation with another officer nearby. I felt a chill go up my spine as if I were being watched, but I quickly shook it off and attributed it to the lack of sleep and disturbing day I had. I could only hope I'd be able to get to sleep without nightmares about the barn, but I didn't count on it.