Chapter Two: A Fistful of Eurodollars

Her scouts had confirmed the general location for the ambush, but Panam wanted to see it with her own eyes. Another sleepy Arizona town, abandoned fifty years before, reoccupied occasionally and upgraded with semi-modern tech, abandoned again... a cluster of bright but fading multi-coloured facades in the middle of the deep red of the Monument Valley, near the border with Utah.

You could see for miles around from on top of one of the buttes, huge rock outcroppings that stuck up out of the ground like in a 20th century western movie. You could see even more if you had a scope to look through too, and Panam did.

"Place used to be Navajo, right?" V asked from the side, still staring through his binos, "Before everything went to shit?"

She turned to him, surprised he knew that. His Aldecaldos jacket was open, with a military netrunner suit underneath. The desert was hot in the day and the netrunners knew how to stay cool.

"Yep," Panam replied, stretching her arms high above her head, "Some of the reserves got rolled over in the 2020s. Some of our ancestors could've even lived there. Maybe even mine."

V bit his lip in thought.

"You don't know for sure?" he said, "Not that it looks like a place with postcards, but it's crazy to me that some people have lost so much of their past. My folks have been in California for like two hundred years, most of them anyway."

Panam smirked. The former rich kid needed schooling, sometimes.

"Thought you would know by now," she responded, "The plagues, the sandstorms, the corps moving in and taking everything. Everyone out here, they all lost something. Some people lost everything including their parents. Not everyone remembered exactly where they were from. Those that survived out here became family."

"Like others I could mention."

Panam watched him over the top of her rifle scope, for the reaction. The same one that kept creeping into view on V's face more and more when family came up. The reaction she had struggled not to comment on. Give it time, her better nature said, don't jump all over him for it.

But it was getting harder to not.

"Yeah..." he half-whispered. He backed off his binos and his eyes glazed over, like he was somewhere else. And there it was.

Panam grit her teeth, and looked back down the scope.

She didn't understand. It had been seven months since Arasaka Tower. V had beaten the odds. They had found a solution to his body breaking down, a doc out of Alpha Dome with a BioDyne gene therapy.

Death wasn't hanging over everything he did any more. Yet he seemed less free than ever, the past few days. Less at ease.

"The Raffen are all over that place, all ready to jump back inside when we get close," V thought aloud, "But no wheels in sight. Must be parked behind the other big rocks to the north, looking to draw in the convoy and then hit our panzer when it's among the buildings."

Enough. No more ignoring the warning signs.

"We need to talk," Panam said flatly, her eyes narrowed and glaring. With no fanfare, she moved away from the edge of the rock, out of sight of the town, sat down on a rock, placed her rifle across her lap, and pointed at the rock beside her.

V just looked over his shoulder from his crouching position, then back at the town, before joining her. A sheepish look of a kid with his hand in the cookie jar on his face.

"Okay?" V said, sitting down, "What's on your mind?" He looked up at her, with god damn puppy eyes of all things!

Panam breathed out through her teeth in frustration. The man was real disarming when he wanted to be. Acting skills learned in his corpo days, maybe. Couldn't hide his real mood from her though.

"Please tell me what's bothering you," Panam said, "The last week, you've been quieter than usual about everything except this next gig. You get distracted when someone mentions that you're part of the family. What is up?!"

V leaned back on his arms, looking up at the sky.

"I'm part of the family, sure," he agreed, before looking back at her with a smile, "But I'm also the burden of the family. The ball and chain. It's ironic. I thought I'd just fade away, but then we found an answer, at least for now."

Panic seizing her, Panam jumped off her rock and knelt in front of him, grabbing his hands.

"Hey, you saved this family," she said, "Twice. We're doing real well. Better than we did for years. Together, you and I have fulfilled the promise of a better life for the Aldecaldos that Saul promised. I know we lost him and other good people, but we would've lost everything if I hadn't stumbled into you."

"My treatment has taken a quarter of the take of every gig we've pulled," V replied, "And the only reason we've got access to it is because we're working for the Alpha Dome. If we were doing the work you guys were doing before, it'd be like half the eddies instead of just a quarter."

Panam hung her head. Of course he was beat up about that. And of course he had hid it as long as he could, to protect her. What an idiot. Her fist curled, ready to throw at his stupid face. Bottling it up like it wasn't her business?

"The Shivs are all over Arizona and Utah, it's their safe haven, we'll have work and eddies for years!" Panam shouted, "We're cheaper than Militech, we keep our word and we don't meddle in politics. The Domers love that."

"Hey, hey, quiet, the wind is blowing towards town, they might hea..." he began

"Do not tell me to shut up!" she roared back, "All this time, you're worried about the money and you don't say a fucking word to me? Don't trust me?"

"It's not that, didn't know how to..." he continued.

"By opening your damn mouth and talking, that's how," she said, "I'm the leader of this family, I decide when things aren't okay where the eddies are concerned. Got it?"

"We're talking three hundred k a month, Panam," V said, "And we only got that price through Alpha. That's new parts for the convoy, that's new chrome for everyone, that's medical expenses and fuel costs. And for what? A few more years? Eventually this thing is going to catch up with me, and faster than either of us want."

"V, you're half the reason we can do these gigs in the first place," she replied, "You're one of the greats, or you would be if it hadn't been for Johnny Silverhand. Even if he is the reason I have you."

V rubbed the back of his neck, frowning. "Nah, whatever I am today, it's because of Johnny," he said, "Good and bad. Wasn't anybody before him. Don't want to be anybody now after him. I've seen what it takes. What it takes from you. The corps stand up and take notice, and not in a good way."

Panam sighed. "We've both woken up with nightmares of Arasaka AVs dropping borg on us," she admitted, "But it hasn't happened."

That sent V to brooding, his mind wandering to the reason why that was.

"Arasaka don't want to start a war with Militech to get to us out here," he thought aloud, "Before we fucked them, they absolutely would have, they were looking for any excuse. But they're too weak now. That's the only reason Militech has left us alone too, we saved them from a Fifth Corporate War... this year, anyway."

A Fifth Corporate War... Panam shivered at the thought.

V lay back on the rock, using his hands as a pillow.

"Not much of a legend if I can't step foot in Night City without getting tagged by some Arasaka ninja," he said, "End up some fucking ghost like Jackie was after they took his body. Not like we can score big there anyway. So eventually, the Aldecaldos are gonna starve on account of me or I gotta go."

Panam knew this was probably true, but they had rolled against worse odds than that and come out on top. But V didn't see that. He just saw the walls closing around them and that it was his fault.

She climbed up on the rock and curled up beside him, pulling his head around gently so she could look into his eyes.

"Legends aren't cheap even out here," Panam said, "Neither are solos or netrunners with the sort of skills you have, and it isn't like you're the only one pulling weight around here. We'll do okay."

"It's going to be a problem when the eddies aren't flowing so freely, is what I'm saying," V whispered back, "And you're not stupid, you know it."

"What I know is that we'll cross the bridge when we come to it," Panam replied, "And that I love you. You make me happy, you're good for this family and you going away would make me sad. Let me be selfish and keep you around for a little longer. "

V smiled back at her, genuinely this time. "How could I possibly say no when you talk like that?"

He scooted closer, putting his arms around Panam. Her worry slipped away, replaced by the familiar warmth. The certainty that everything was going to be alright for another day. Then his eyes lit up blue; incoming call. It connected to her too.

With a mutual groan, they accepted it – audio only.

"Guys, please tell me you're just doing the recon," Mitch said before either of them could even say 'hello', "And not each other."

Panam put her finger over V's lips. "Mitch, your timing couldn't be better," she replied, "Raffen are waiting exactly where you thought they would be. Buncha guys hiding in the buildings to take out the panzer, then they'll send in the rides from behind the next rock. Trap us and then hit the convoy coming south."

"So we set up right outside of town, rake the place with fire," Mitch said, "Then when the reinforcements come riding to the rescue, you and V come out with the panzer to fuck them up. How's that for a plan?"

"Hard to argue with it."