Chapter One
V walked into the Afterlife for the second time, greeted by the familiar smell of booze and broken dreams. The bass from the music blaring through the speakers rumbled his ribcage. This time of night the club was pretty packed, but the only person he recognized was Claire, the bartender. His last foray into the infamous nightclub was with Jackie, the both of 'em sky high on the possibility of potential eddies. Jackie had given Claire specific instructions for his drink, the one they'd name after him when he hit the big leagues. These days he felt Jackie's absence almost as strongly as he felt Johnny's presence. Other than the talking terrorist in his head, he had pretty much no one. Judy had helped him find Evelyn Parker, and she seemed like a real one, but he didn't know her all that well. He was alone. He wasn't sure how much longer he could carry that.
He could hear the shouting coming from Rogue's corner before he could see who was causing it, but one of Rogue's huscle stopped him from entering. Looking over the guy's brawny shoulder, V could see a woman, obviously a nomad, tearing Rogue a new one. Judging by the logo emblazoned across the back of her jacket, the woman rode for the Aldecaldos. V's Bakker jacket had been gathering dust in his closet, buried underneath the pile of impractical city threads he'd abandoned after Jackie died. They no longer seemed to fit right. Now he only felt like himself in the clothes he'd brought with him from the Badlands, threads built to withstand life on the road. The jacket, though. He wasn't quite ready to put that back on.
"No. This trouble, the net around me–you wove it. You know it. I lost everything. Through you." The nomad's words carried fire, the kind he had only ever heard in Jackie's. He grudgingly admitted to himself that Johnny had that fire too–at least when it came to cigarettes and Arasaka.
Rogue sat smugly on her sofa, unphased. She responded in a calm, even tone. "Lemme be plain. Again. Solve your own problems, clean up your shit." Rogue turned away from the nomad and started talking to some guy on the other side of the couch. Cold.
The Aldecaldo stormed away, shouting over her shoulder, "You know what, Rogue? Go fuck yourself."
Rogue was a Night City legend. Pretty bold words, coming from a nomad no less. The Aldecaldo ran into V on her way out, too busy firing back at Rogue to have noticed he was even there. She stopped and sized him up for a split second. "Be careful who you bargain with," she said. There was something intense hiding behind the Aldecaldo's deep brown eyes, a force he recognized but couldn't quite place.
The nomad continued on her way.
V raised his eyebrows as he watched her leave. She really didn't seem like someone you'd wanna mess with.
He took a deep breath and turned back to Rogue. He waved to get her attention. "Rogue? Wanted to talk."
"Another fuckin' nomad," she said under her breath. "It's okay," she told her huscle with a sigh, who stepped aside and let V pass. "Who are you?" she asked.
"I'm V."
"And what is it you want, V?"
It was then that Johnny decided to make an appearance, perched on the couch next to Rogue. "All these years…It's really her," he said. "Fuckin' Rogue, just kickin it back on a couch at the Afterlife."
Quiet. Can't mess this up.
"I'm lookin' for Anders Hellman," V explained. "Hot-shot engineer. Worked for Arasaka." He tried to keep the desperation out of his voice. He knew breaking into Mikoshi was his best bet at survival, but he still had no fuckin' clue how he was gonna pull that one off. Even the idea made Konpeki Plaza seem like a weekend at the beach. He needed Anders Hellman to give him a lead.
Rogue's ocular implants lit up and she was quiet for a moment. "My help's got a price," she said. "If you want it, get those eddies ready."
V initiated a transfer for 15k. "Should be enough," he said.
Rogue waved Claire down from the bar and asked for a couple of drinks before ordering V to sit. "Don't see determination like yours often," she said. "Must really need this guy."
Damn. She could tell he was desperate. No use hiding it anymore, then.
"Matter of life and death," he said.
Some guy stepped in just then and slid a shard across the table to Rogue before dipping out as quietly as he came. Rogue slotted the shard into her port and her ocular implants lit up once again. After a few seconds, she removed the shard, offered it to V, and said, "Intel for you. Interesting stuff."
He couldn't help but be impressed at how quickly she'd acquired it.
Rogue explained while the detes flashed before V's eyes. Hellman was with Kang Tao, hiding out from Arasaka. A Kang Tao convoy was currently prepping to take him away from Night City, and V's only chance to grab him was a dead zone out in the Jackson Plains.
V felt a rush of hope. What if Hellman could actually help him remove the engram? What if he didn't have to die?
Claire stepped in just then, bringing their drinks and breaking V out of his trance. He wasn't thirsty. He stamped out the excitement before letting himself get too carried away. He'd been burned before, and this might be no different.
"Gonna need a native to the area," Rogue said. "Someone who'll set up the op, cobble up the gear."
"You know any hick mercs?" V asked. "Besides me, anyway?"
Rogue gave a sharp, brief laugh. "Just one other. Panam Palmer."
The Aldecaldo.
"She can't count on her clan anymore, but she's a true nomad. She knows those lands," Rogue continued.
V couldn't help but picture Amata, the woman who'd led the Bakkers for as long as he could remember. The wrinkles around her smiling eyes when she'd called a clan meeting to announce the deal with Snake Nation. The deep line between her furrowed eyebrows when he'd told her he was leaving.
"Panam will help you," Rogue said. "She won't have a choice."
V cut her off. "Won't have a choice? Does not sound enticing–not for her, not for me."
"Enticing comes at a price you can't possibly afford," Rogue said. Her expression was stone, her voice like ice.
What he couldn't afford was to blow this chance at nabbing Hellman.
Johnny piped in again. Now he sat on the table in front of Rogue. "Got a bad feeling, V."
Yeah, I know. Panam's outcast status didn't necessarily inspire trust. But who was he to judge? He had no clan himself.
"I sense a catch," V said, turning his attention back to Rogue. "Pretty big one."
Rogue sighed. "Occasionally, Panam moves merch for me. Last job…well, it wasn't a good day for her. Lost the goods and her ride. Panam'll do anything to get the load back. Means her dignity–I know her."
Well, that explained the shouting.
"Okay, I'll help her," V said. "Lemme hear what you know."
"Rocky Ridge. Panam knows where. Go there, get the merch back–wheels too."
V turned it all over in his head. Didn't really have another choice, did he?
"Sending you her detes," Rogue said.
Johnny stood up from his spot on the table. "Finally. Let's get outta here."
V rose from the couch. "Thanks," he said to Rogue. She wished him luck and sent him on his way.
As he made his way out of the Afterlife, V thought back to the moment Panam had warned him about Rogue. He hadn't been able to shake it this whole time. He walked up the steps from the Afterlife back up onto the street. It was late, and the acrid air burned V's throat. He felt a relic malfunction coming on, so he leaned against a nearby vending machine for support.
"Ah, shit…" It felt like his head had been split in two by a mantis blade, and the ringing in his ears was louder than the feedback at a Samurai concert.
A fresh sharp wave of pain brought him to his knees. After what felt like forever, it finally began to subside, pulling back slowly like an ocean tide. He looked up and saw his reflection looking back at him from the shiny exterior of the Spontaneous Craving Satisfaction Machine. Looking into his own eyes, he finally placed it, the force he'd seen behind the Aldecaldo's too.
Fear.