Runnin' Down a Dream
The trip on half-finished highways or dirt trails used more often for illegal cross-country races had been less dangerous than usual, yet every mile travelled felt heavier somehow. Like riding towards your own wedding... or your funeral. Recognising all the old places where things had happened a million years ago, or so it felt like.
And when the journey was over, the old spot still had scars from the last time they had been there.
Bags of trash, deep ruts in the red sand where the big-rigs had sat for weeks unmoving, dark spots where the gas tankers and johns had been parked, discarded and irreparable equipment ranging from busted phones to cracked car parts. The smell of spilled fuel, sweet rotting garbage and desert dust. All the leavings of a nomad camp.
Panam wandered away from the others alone, as they began setting up camp once more. Caught in a strange nostalgia and without thinking about it, she found herself moving towards the nook in the rock where the panzer had once sat, ready for battle. The last place she had been a normal person, and not some legend, fighting against the odds and winning despite it all.
Every step brought her back in time. She could almost see the dozens of cars and technicals, engines idling and revving, veterans and greens alike gearing up and getting into their cars. The dead looking up as she passed, nodding that they were ready to go to her as she passed. The attack beginning, every single fighting person of the Aldecaldos going forth to battle.
Her breath stuck in her throat, wondering if she was leading the survivors and everyone else to their doom. This was not a heist or taking on a single Militech column she was going to be planning and leading.
It was a war.
A small one by the standards of the corps and megastates, but that didn't matter.
She had no choice but to risk it all like this, and the longer it went on . The alternative was watching V wither away, his mind degrading and dissolving until it finally killed his body. Watching the Aldecaldos starve or submit.
And it was too late to bail anyway.
"Hey! Panam!" came a shout from behind, "They're coming!"
She turned, giving one last glance to the place she had been staring at over her shoulder. Jogging back to the camp, she was just in time to see the other convoy pull out of the barely visible side road two hundred yards distant.
"Carol, can you get everyone back to work?" Panam asked, as she arrived, "Don't want this to be a spectacle." No need for twenty questions with the celebrities, especially when there were things that needed doing.
Aunty Carol gave a thumbs up, before shouting to everyone to resume getting the camp ready. There were groans and complaints, but everyone dispersed, leaving Panam alone. Her eyes searched for what she needed to see. Four vehicles pulled into view, one at a time.
In front was a Quadra muscle car, a heavily modded Javelina for dual use; cross-country and urban killzone driving. It was the car V left behind in Night City that was best suited for the life he had led after getting out. Panam blew out an exasperated breath, knowing it wasn't V who was driving it and having a good idea who was.
The next was an ancient Galena that looked like most of its parts had been replaced three times over, repainted its black colour twice as many times, but was still in decent enough running order. It wasn't struggling to keep pace with the far faster lead car, even if it was a crawl compared to the latter's top speed.
The second last was a newer light blue Columbus van, though it looked like someone had doodled all over it, with random designs of cartoon characters. No threat there, but not an expected guest either.
Panam began to think she was wrong about who was driving the Javelina, when Beast finally roared over the rump of the hill from another direction, pulling alongside the lead car as they both slowed to a halt right outside camp.
She felt itchy all over as the other vehicles parked themselves to the side, their occupants meaningless to her for the moment. Even as they got out and walked over, all she could do was stand, watching the truck, hand on her hip.
V was the last person to appear. He was wearing jeans, combat boots, his Aldecaldo jacket, aviators; pretty much exactly the same she had seen him last. Her instinct told her to rush to him, but she bit that down, as he wandered over casually, like it had only been a night or two since they had last been together.
"Hey Panam," he said, cheerily, "Missed you."
Her eyes narrowed. Was that it?
"As greetings go," she said, "That fucking sucked."
A wide grin broke on V's face, before his pace quickened from a stroll to a stride. He picked her up from the waist. She forgave him and allowed it, holding his shoulders as they both leaned in to a hungry kiss. At last, everything felt right again, the unease about everything pouring away from her. When he finally set her down on her feet again, there was finally room to think again.
"Better?" he asked.
"Yeah," Panam replied.
"Not the best I can do," V continued with a tilt of the head, "But we've got company."
Time to act like it.
"So, what pile of crap have you gotten yourself into?" Panam smirked, "Something must be wrong or it wouldn't have taken you so long to get here."
V exhaled half a laugh. "Well now, not all of us are Queen of the Highways," he replied, "Uniting the nomad clans like some modern day Khan."
She slapped his arm, pretending to be offended. "Things haven't been going to plan though, right?" she said, "Else we'd already be setting a meet with a whole bunch of gonkbrain gang leaders with delusions of grandeur."
Scratching the back of his neck, V nodded a few times. "According to plan? Not exactly," he admitted, "But we're making good progress. It's just getting out of hand, you know me and my luck."
"Yeah, I do," Panam replied, "No doubt you're improvising your way to success by a longer route than is necessary."
"Well, normally I got you to do my planning for me," V said in a lower tone, smirk returning as he leaned in again, "Like I said; missed you."
Panam stopped the direct kiss on the lips with her palm, instead planting one herself on his cheek. "And here I thought you were only with me because of the sex," she joked, before her eyes caught onto the audience that had finished their own meet and greets.
It was quite a collection V had brought to their little camp.
Most obvious was Kerry Eurodyne, looking far more awkward about what he had just seen than his reputation would suggest, politely looking away over the top of gold-rimmed sunglasses, hands in the pockets of his leather pants.
There was an older lady with grey hair, wearing black utility pants and a blue bomber jacket, her eyes' irises an artificial red. She seemed to be a media, if the eye-cam in one hand and the black hardcase in the other was any evidence. This had to be Bes Isis; Nancy Hartley. Another member of Samurai.
No mystery about why that pair were along for the ride.
Finally, there was a smaller girl in her early twenties, with hair that seemed to shift colours based on what way the light hit it, jeans, a white top that left her stomach and shoulders exposed, showing off tattoos of all kinds, from roses to aquatic animals to a firetruck of all things. She was very pretty and seemed to look to V in a way that would've sent a slight twinge of jealousy through Panam, if she didn't already know who this was and what that look really meant.
The famous Judy had arrived.
None of these three spoke up however, leaving the fifth member of the troop and V's bodyguard to break the silence.
"Heya Panam," Cassidy greeted, with a tip of his cowboy hat, "Kept him safe best I could, just like you said."
V's head jerked slightly as he noticed too, before he turned to face them at her side, clearing his throat pointedly.
"He seems intact," Panam agreed, with a speculative glance at V, "Anything to report?"
To her surprise, Cassidy seemed to chew on his answer to her question, like he was a twelve year old eating reheated freeze-dried greens. "Best that V handles any reportin'," he replied at last, "But all told, he's in as good shape as can be expected. Been taking his meds, hasn't been jumping in front of guns too much."
Panam cocked an eyebrow. "Well, that's not ominous at all," she said, while V frowned at the nomad cowboy, "Presume there's a story behind why he's not telling me everything?"
"Oh yeah," V said flatly, before he moved on quickly, "Anyway, let me do some quick introductions."
He gestured to the two members of Samurai.
"Pretty sure you recognise this guy," V said, "Kerry Eurodyne, rockerboy extraordinaire."
Eurodyne shrugged, kicking the dirt a little. "And bank for this little stunt of yours," he complained, "Lucky for you, I believe in the cause, otherwise you might have had a problem."
"Y'know you're gonna get those eddies back ten-fold," V said back, scratching his earlobe, "Quit bitchin' about it."
"Yeah, yeah, just not so enthusiastic about buying... what we're gonna have to buy," Eurodyne conceded, "If my agent and manager knew, they'd shit bricks."
"Thought you hated your manager," V said flatly, "We fucked up his boat, remember?"
"Hey now, let's be accurate here!" Kerry quipped back, "It's a yacht!"
Yep, Panam thought to herself, this was what she expected. Spoilt celebrity who didn't want to get his hands dirty unless it was for his own kicks. Yet she saw he was committed, however reluctantly he appeared on the surface. No way he'd let someone talk to him the way V did otherwise. She switched on a smile, all diplomatic, and walked over to him.
"Hey Kerry, I'm Panam," she said, offering her hand, "Thanks for what you're doing. I'm sure this idiot hasn't said it properly." She thumbed over her shoulder at V with her other arm.
The rockerboy took and shook her hand vigorously.
"C'mon now, I know who you are," he snorted, before falling back on his ego, "Pretty sure everyone does. I mean, you're not as famous as I am, but who is?"
"Riiight," Panam smiled back at him. He even found the good grace to scoff and be embarrassed at her seeing right through that act.
"She doesn't want to hear about how big you are," a voice came from the side, "No matter how that phrase is interpreted."
Nancy Hartley appeared beside Eurodyne, as he muttered 'yeah right'. Panam shook her hand, glad someone had a
"Bes Isis, N54 News, though maybe you know me better as Nancy given I'm with this gonk," she said, "I'll be helping to organise the concert. I'd really appreciate if you could give me an interview at some point too. Really get the jump on the screamsheets beyond what V has already given me."
The media was practically radiating enthusiasm, even if her words were strictly professional in tone. "Not sure what you could interview me about," Panam said, "But if it helps keep us safe..."
"It will," Nancy insisted, "As much as I want nothing to do with the real reason the Aldecaldos are here, you are big news. The nomads who took on Arasaka and triumphed, and the woman who led them to expose the biggest corporate scandal in decades. And this concert..."
"It's even bigger news," Kerry cut in, "This thing will be the biggest event Night City has seen for a long time."
"And the workload to get all the moving parts working together will be equally big," Nancy sighed, rounding on him, "Shouldn't you contribute more than money?"
Eurodyne shot her a doubting look, like contribution beyond money and style wasn't his job.
There was some longstanding thing between them on the subject, Panam could tell, and she certainly wasn't going to get involved in what was probably a sixty year argument. Instead, she stepped around the feuding Samurai to the last person who had arrived.
"You must be Judy," she said, "V says he trusts you with his life. And you're a BD editor, right? The best?"
The woman looked up at Panam, having no choice as she was six inches shorter at least, eyes searching for some reason.
"Yep," Judy replied, popping the 'p', "Guess I am."
Pursing her lips for a moment at this response, Panam couldn't work out if Judy was being hostile, confident or something else.
But V could. He chuckled from behind, before coming beside her.
"Hey now, easy," V said, "What would Blue say if she saw?"
Judy suddenly found herself unable to look at Panam and V, looking up at the sky, off to the horizon, at the ground. All the while, her face turned as red as can be, the blush even reaching the ear poking out from her hair on one side.
Understanding dawned on Panam as she watched. She knew who Blue was, and she knew what it meant when someone was trying to avoid appearing attracted to someone... and doing it badly. She shot V a glare as she waved to try and get Judy's attention again.
"Ignore this insensitive asshole," she said, "You ain't gotta worry about anything here, okay?"
To her credit, Judy recovered at once. "Right," she said firmly, though she was still red enough to pass for a tomato, "Sorry. It's just..."
"You don't know which way is up," V finished for her, "I know." And he thought reminding her with a little humour was a good idea. He could be so twisted sometimes. Corpo upbringing really showed.
Panam turned her number one deadly stare on V with a purpose. Regardless of how complimentary it was, it was clearly joking at their guest's expense. The dumbass got the message at once, almost doing the reverse of Judy in going pale and grimacing.
Awkward enough to draw attention, Judy fidgeted a little with her hands. "I know you know," she said to V, "You always seem to know. I can't get my head on straight at the moment."
The man said nothing for a moment, exchanging a glance with Panam, as if trying to read her reaction. Looking if she was jealous? Panam restrained her laugh at the idea she might be more jealous of Judy because they clicked as friends than over anything romantic, and simply rolled her eyes at him.
"Which is why we make a good team," V said at last, scratching his ear again, "I can't either."
Panam could tell that was the truth; V's sense of humour got worse the more he felt the walls closing in.
Judy gave a non-committal shrug, which was more or less showing her approval of what he was saying, but also that it wasn't much help at the moment.
By now, the two members of Samurai had broken off their own little argument and were watching like it was daytime TV, Eurodyne wearing a knowing smile under his glasses that showed he in fact knew nothing at all. Though he had the wits to kill it as soon as he noticed her glare.
"Anyway, you three wanna take a look around?" Panam said, "See if this was a good idea for the location? Else we'll have to find somewhere else."
She wanted to be alone with V, for all sorts of reasons, but didn't want to simply dismiss them out of hand.
"Sure thing," Nancy sighed, "Got someone who can give us the tour?"
Seizing on the opportunity to get her partner alone, Panam gestured to Carol and called her over, her mind on other things even as she made the introductions and not the fun ones that should have been.
Preparations had to be made.
Panam led V to Warhorse, pulled out two camp chairs and some beer from the back, letting them both sit down for for what was to come. She was glad she had, because the explanation of the situation V now found himself in was something else.
He had committed the Aldecaldos alongside the Valentinos to war with the Tyger Claws, without giving Panam a call so she could call council on it, and didn't even get a commitment in return for the Valentinos to support the attack on Arasaka.
In order to get that commitment, he had agreed to try and get the Mox to join the war, but they wouldn't budge unless they were given top shelf hardware. Since the Aldecaldos needed their own weapons and Militech wasn't going to help, that meant going to the only other people in town who had the sort of firepower needed; 6th Street.
6th Street were also at war with the Tygers, which was good, but even with Kerry Eurodyne's money behind an offer to buy the guns, it wasn't certain they'd sell to V or even Panam. They were too high profile now.
But it wasn't all bad news. For one, there was a way to get all of the gangs on board with the plan here if they could walk a golden path. For another, war with the Tygers seemed inevitable anyway, and having strong allies would help a lot.
But the whole thing left Panam with a headache.
"How the hell did this all happen," she said, "No wonder it's taking you so long to get organised."
"Had real shitty luck with that attack on the Coyo," V shrugged, "It all started there. If the Tygers hadn't caught up with me there, the Valentinos would've probably just said no to our proposal, and I'd have moved on. But this war... along with what we're doing, it's gonna be at the middle of everything now too."
"Like two big storms merging," Panam agreed, "A cyclone that'll blow the whole city down."
V shook his head, not liking the sound of that one bit, and leaned over onto his knees, swirling the beer in his bottle.
"Gotta say, I'm real glad you're here," he said, "I can improvise, and I can deal death with the best of them when it comes down to it, but I can never seem to see the size of the storm on the horizon. Even when I was at Arasaka. Whole reason I got screwed over. If anything, being so good at rolling with the punches leads to not thinking far enough ahead..."
"...And I'm the one with the plans," Panam said, completing his thought, "The one who can think far ahead. Though you seem to understand this storm already."
He paused, drank, and bit his tongue for a moment.
"That's the thing... Do I?" V countered, looking up, "I gotta be missing something, Panam. You should put that beautiful mind of yours to work and tell me what, because honestly, my plan was to hit up that party in Rancho and just ask to buy guns. Come out shooting and slicing if things went south. Sounds stupid even to me."
Panam sighed. It was a very V plan. "Not exactly subtle," she said, "But it's not the worst idea either."
He seemed to brighten up, leaning back in his chair. Sometimes he was too easy to cheer up.
"How likely is it to succeed?" he asked, like it was just something on his mind.
Thinking about what she knew about 6th Street, the factions, their motivations, what seemed to be the situation at the time... none of it was very conclusive.
"Fifty-fifty," Panam said, "6th Street are arms dealers and gun runners, it's their thing, they should appreciate a straight offer. On the other hand, the Rancho Sixers are a whole lot less chill than the Arroyo or Charter Hill ones. They don't butt heads daily with the Valentinos or any other gang really, so they only have each other to fight. They're less disciplined and have more factions."
V crossed his arms. "Plus maybe Arasaka has already put a fat stack of eddies against us," he said, "They have have contacts even if the local gangs are more Militech affiliated. Basic counterintel, though it wasn't my desk."
Panam blinked. That wasn't a half bad a read on things. "Right," she said, "Anyway, we don't have any choice unless we want to give up our own iron, and lemme tell you, that would not go down well even if I wanted to do it."
"Can't ask our people to ride against 'Saka with second rate gear," V agreed, "So how do we even the odds on this meet? What's the Triple A on this one?"
A good question. Panam sat back, hands behind her head, and blew out a breath as she pondered it.
"We want 6th Street guns," she started, "And to get them, we have a small crew, your friends, Eurodyne's money. Could be worse. But what we need is to stop 6th Street betraying or killing us. We need more to do that."
"If Arasaka has offered a bounty, there's not much that gets us there," V said, "And I crossed some of them when Johnny was riding shotgun in my head too. Some will be motivated."
Panam felt giddy, as she began to like the sound of her own idea more and more, for reasons as old as humanity itself. She was going to wield power like she never had before.
"There is one thing," she said, "A threat big enough that anyone fucking with us would have to be crazy. One that an individual can't possibly stand against."
V's mouth thinned. Perhaps he wasn't the best person to talk about threats one person couldn't beat. To some extent, he had won against such a threat. But he knew this was all going somewhere, so he waited for the answer.
"We'll bring the family back to Night City," Panam concluded, "All the clans we can muster. It's a little early for it, but we need them to start organising this concert thing anyway. That should stop Arasaka attacking us openly, as the media starts to cover it. And in the mean time, it gets us more than enough huscle to guarantee respect."
"That'll stop the 6th Street leaders doing anything stupid," V agreed, "What about crews crazy or stupid enough to try it on anyway?"
"I can lean on Boz for possible threats," Panam replied, "You know, the guy from the job you helped me with? First time we met?"
"Vista del Ray Boz?" V asked, "He gonna know? He's on the wrong side of town."
"He runs most of the business with nomads, so he's out in Rancho all the time," Panam said with a dismissive wave, "So, once we know who's trouble, we can take them out. You know any sharpshooters? We're gonna need one."
V pointed straight at her. "Looking at one right now," he said, "You were deadeye at the Kang Tao crash site and the Wraith hideout. Kept the flies off my back then, why not now?"
"Someone else," Panam insisted, "I'm going to the meet, so I can't be on top of the Coronado Dam with a rifle."
Knowing better than to contest her participation, V instead rumbled what was almost a giggle from his chest. "I think I might have the perfect candidate actually," he said, "Need to check if they're available though."
Panam wondered who he was talking about. The number of people he knew with those sorts of skills was not a long list. "It isn't Rogue, is it?" she asked, "That would be expensive. Not sure she can be counted on not to pass on the information she gathered either."
V gave half a laugh into his bottle.
"Na, I still say we only go to her once we have everyone else we could get," he replied, "Else the answer will be 'You're not Johnny and I don't do amateur hour' or some shit like that. Think you'll be real surprised at who I mean to bring in, just can't name them until they agree to it is all."
Panam nodded. She didn't think Rogue still thought of them as amateur, but they still didn't have enough to get her on board. Without Silverhand anyway. As for V's mystery sniper... no need to name-drop professional assassins unless there was good reason. It was a luck thing.
"So it's settled," she said, "We bring back the family, we go to the meet fully loaded, we make the offer and organise the switch. We keep the sharpshooter as insurance."
"Sounds good," V said, before drinking and idly scratching at his earlobe yet again. The action drew Panam's eye. It was the third time she had seen him do it, and it was almost like a tick at this point.
"What the hell is wrong with your ear?" she said, examining it as best she could from her position, "You keep pawing at it, are you hurt?"
V refused to meet her eyes. "Yeah, the lobe is itchy as hell, didn't heal properly yet," he said quickly, "Long story."
What bizarre thing could've hurt him there. A glancing shot from a bullet? And why did he seem to want to change the topic?
"We've got time," Panam said, "Speak up."
V rubbed his face for a moment. "Well, it's a good thing you're sitting down already," he said, "Honestly don't know how you're going to react."
And with that, he relayed what exactly happened at Militech HQ with Meredith Stout. And the more Panam heard, the more she was sure he had been right about needing to sit down.
