A/N: This is more of a note for people who have been following all my work as opposed to anyone who is just fining this story now. It's been a while since I have worked on any stories. Honestly I've been working too much, and haven't at all focused on this hobby. But after a while eventually I remember that there is something very cathartic to about creating something (in this case, the literary equivalent to a coloring book. Someone else did the framing in one form, I'm just adding a certain color).
This is going to be a half novelization of Cyberpunk 2077, half reimagining. Many of the same events will be in this story, and characterizations will be familiar as well, but some things may play out differently.
Chapter 01
V looked at himself in the mirror of the bathroom in Arasaka Tower. He could feel it coming up same has he could feel the ringing in his ear from the implant that connected to his phone. No two ways about it, what was about to happen was inevitable as getting a venereal disease from a discount Jig Jig Street Joytoy. V braced himself against the edge of the sink, on vomited up a combination of stomach acid, and synthetic meat from dinner.
The ringing finally ended as V answered the phone to his buddy Jackie. He answered as he wiped his mouth with the sleeve of is tailored silk suit.
"Whoah holmes, you don't look so good." Jackie remarked instantly when he saw V on the phone video link. "Like your stomach just blew your airlock." Despite the quip, he had view of genuine concern on his face.
"I'm fine. Just got a meeting with my boss in a few." V said, trying to sound like everything was normal.
"Bro, you gotta get out of that corpo life before you get fucked."
V reflected on their fast friendship that they had pretty much since V got to Night City. V had moved back to Night City after a worldwide jet setting carrer in Arasaka Counter Intelligence. As one of the largest companies in the world, Arasaka had no shortage of enemies that sought to ruin any business possible for the mega corperation. But despite the exposure to worldwide life, V was glad to be back home, despite the fact that Night City loved it prodigal children like pimps love their 'employees'. V met Jackie when he had hired the large, boisterous Hispanic man as security for some materials that V was moving into Mexico, and the ensuing shit show of an operation was a one-of-a-kind bonding experience.
"Jackie," V sighed "Don't you know by now, in Arasaka Counter Intel, your always fucked."
"Suerte holmes. Meet up at Lizzie's later?" Jackie asked.
"Sure. See ya later." V confirmed and hung up.
V looked around the cleanly designed and maintained bathroom. He was glad he had something good to look forward to tonight. Between the suck fest going on in Frankfurt, and the meeting with his boss, Arthur Jenkins, V's night was beginning to look like the remains of his lunch. A couple people were in a nearby stall smoking what reeked of high-quality narcotics, and V caught them gazing and likely eavesdropping on his call.
"The fuck you lookin' at?" V grunted as he walked past them and out into the foyer.
The foyer was at least seven stories high, complete with trees to help fill the massive dead space that could have been used for office space. Despite having room for more that 200 people to mingle, there was maybe 2 dozen milling about talking about work. 14 hours days may be the usual at Arasaka, but at 10:00 PM all that was left was the workaholics and insomniacs. Even without the audience, Arasaka still played it own commercials and propaganda on screen throughout area. V strode across the room to elevators on the opposite side.
V rode the elevator up. In the background a biography on Saburo Arasaka, the company's founder and CEO, played on a screen. V payed no attention to it as he watched the stock ticker on his ocular implants heads up display. In the middle of checking his investments, his phone rang again, this time from Jenkins. V was pissed his boss couldn't wait two more minutes.
"V! Where the fuck are you? You were supposed to be here 20 minutes ago." Jenkins opened angrily.
"One my way. Got held up." V responded curtly.
"Christ this is a shit show. Fuckin' Frankfurt! Someone talked." V's boss continued to vent.
"I'll be there in a minute." V said and hung up. He knew this conversation was going to be bad.
V stepped out onto the floor of the Counter Intel office. There were just as many people working on this floor alone as the lobby below, probably because Arasaka paid them enough to not have a social life for the most part. As V walked through, he saw a guy he worked with in Munich, Frank was his name as V recalled, try to wave him over. V ignored him and kept walking, Frank was an asshole as V also recalled. V arrived at the office to Jenkins and waited patiently as a security drone scanned him. The door opened and V walked in.
"V, you're here. Good. Take a seat." Jenkins said as he waved his arm to an open seat. Jenkins was standing behind his desk watching a news reel of some European Space Agency vote.
V sat down and waited as the news played out. To his very minimal horror, and not an iota of surprise, several of the members of the ESA board, those plugged into the net via net running equipment, dropped dead as their systems were overloaded. V kept his cool through and looked back at Jenkins as he turned off the news and took a seat at his desk.
"What was that?" V asked.
"Wait for it." Jenkins said will a small grin. He then held up three fingers. "Three, two, one…" and the phone on his desk started to ring. Jenkins picked it up.
"What the fuck was that?" Abernathy, the Arasaka director of Special Operations, said. The tone of her voice dripped with venom.
"A deep clean." The Director of Counter Intel stated matter of factly as he spun around in his chair.
Abernathy hmphed "Path of least resistance with no subtlety. All the trademarks of a sociopath. Knew this was your work. Do you know how much this is going to cost to cover up?"
Jenkins got up out of his chair. "We would have lost the contract and lost a fortune. This buys us a few weeks." He counters.
"I'll have your ass for this." Abernathy finished and hung up. Even the click of the phone hanging up was more aggressive than normal.
Jenkins sighed and got up out of his chair and walked over to a seating area next to a bar in his office. "What am I going to do?" he asked aloud, though seemingly not specifically to V.
V had watched the whole conversation quietly. The whole excange was two apex predators circling each other trying to figure out how to kill the other, and he was feeling like a lamb just hoping that neither noticed him. But he knew Jenkins well enough to know the question far from rhetorical. The supposed meeting about Frankfurt he was supposed to have had been a ruse, and now he was involved in whatever scheme Jenkins was hatching. V had the gut feeling that whatever was about to happen next had much greater potential to get him killed than get him paid.
"Not much you can do. From her position, she has your balls in a vice." V said trying to remain calm, and defuse the situation.
"Ah, but does she?" Jenkins said. The grin had returned to his face. He pulled a data shard out from the table in the seating area. "Here V, take it."
V walked up as Jenkins poured two drinks. V grabbed the shard and slotted it into a reader located at the base of the backside of his skull, just to the right of his neck. Immediately, several files began to scroll across his ocular implant. V noticed it was every facet of Abernathy's life that could be reasonably discovered with a disturbingly deep investigation. V felt the need to not just sit down, but run.
"For the past couple of weeks, I've collected everything that I possibly could on Abernathy." Jenkins started as then took a sip from his glass. "Driver, Accountant, Lover, Lover's husband. Use this information in whatever manner you see fit to take care of her." Jenkins had just ordered the murder of one the most dangerous women in Night City with the same casual authority someone would order a pizza from Buck A Slice.
"If anyone knows about me doing this, there's know way that anyone will believe that you had nothing to do with this." V stated, trying to appeal to Jenkins' sense of self preservation, or at least his own self-interest.
Jenkins' grin was even wider now. "Correct you are." He said and pulled out a wad of cash and placed it on the table.
V stared at it for a second before picking it up. "Smart. Creds can be tracked, but cash is gone as soon as it's spent." He was beginning to think that Jenkins had thought of everything. "But what happens if I refuse to do this?" This was V's Hail Mary play.
"V…you've worked in this business too long to know…this is an order you can't refuse." Jenkins said with the biggest shit eating grin of the night.
V stared at the money a second longer. "When do I start?" He sounded confident out loud, but knew he was in trouble.
"You start right now. Take my AV." Jenkins said and gestured with his arm to the door. He clearly wanted V to leave now.
V rode in the AV above night city. The onboard AI was reporting crime statistics and local news, all bad. The champagne in his glass had little taste. There was a notification on his ocular HUD that he had elevated cortisol levels, his life coach had even called him about it. Despite the hole that he found himself in, V's still took a moment to admire Night City as he rode above it to Lizzie's Bar.
"No landing pads within parameters." The AV Artificial Intelligence chimed as the vehicle approached its destination.
"Land on the roof. Fuck protocol." V commanded unfazed.
The AV slowly settled down onto a basketball court that was next to the rooftop entrance to Lizzie's. Three buff dudes with just enough flashy chrome to merit respect approached the AV. The basketball in the leader's hand indicated V had interrupted a game. The look on his face showed that he was pissed off. V stepped out has the doors opened up on the AV.
"Hey suit you can't park here." The lead gonk said as he passed the ball aggressively to V.
V caught the ball one handed and immediately threw it with excessive force into the lead player's face. He then threw a quick, but powerful right hook into the second player's face. The third player was out of arms reach, so V just shot him a menacing glare that the last man should not be messing with this particular suit. V had way more cyberware than these three hoodlums, but it was all hidden under the skin, he didn't want to show off how dangerous he was until needed.
"Whoa man. We don't want to start no beef." The last man said as he backed away with his hands up.
V nodded and moved across the court with purpose to the rooftop entrance to Lizzie's Bar. This time of night, Lizzie's was hopping with activity. Even outside, people were smoking and drinking because there was so little room on the inside. The entire atmosphere was the exact opposite of Arasaka officies, and V had to admit that he was more comfortable and more confident here. V walked up to the scantily clad bouncer at the door armed with a baseball bat.
"Make sure the AV is still here when I get back, and not a scratch on her." V said.
"This isn't a valet parking lot pal." The female bouncer said. If her outfit, blue hair, and he role as bouncer at Lizzie's didn't announce to the world that she was a member of The Mox, then the tattoos with the gangs name all over her screamed that fact clearly.
The Mox was a gang in night city that exclusively deled in prostitution, the security of joy toys, and related sins of the flesh (Braindances, pornography, and logistics related to those). They formed during a gang war when the Tyger Claws, an Asian triad, killed a joy toy and the rest united to fight back. The Mox didn't have the muscle to protect any more territory than Lizzie's Bar and their joy toys, but it was understood that if you messed with The Mox, they would mess you up right back. V also knew that Arasaka was far more powerful than some tattooed tough chicks with blunt objects, or their Asian competition. If Arasaka lost assets on The Mox's watch, they would shortly be a list of obituaries that everyone skipped over to read to read the sports section.
"Not a scratch." V said, this time with the unsaid addition of 'or else'.
The Mox briefly considered the demand. "Have a good evening, sir. You see something you like, don't touch, but find them in the catalogue and grab a BD (Braindance) harness." The Mox stepped to the side of the door.
"Thank you kindly." V said much more pleasantly and walked past.
A short walk down some stairs and through a service hallway, V walked into the main room of Lizzie's. The combination bar and nightclub was indeed in full swing. Blue lights flashed as electronic music played from speakers. People were all over the bars, booths and dance floor. Some had clearly found a girl or guy they liked, as there were several individuals were wearing BD wreaths clearly enjoying whatever fantasy they were in. V made a note of the exits and potential threats as he walked through the club to his and Jackie's usual table.
The large man was decked out in his customary tight pants, boots, shirt and black and red bomber jacket adorned with the Santa Maria. The cyberware on his face was muted in contrast to the gold cross that hung on his neck. His black hair was shaved at the sides, but long enough on top that he pulled it into a top knot. The biggest accessory of all those was his ecstatic smile when he saw V.
"Good to see you mano." Jackie said earnestly as he got up out of the corner booth.
"Jackie. Been a while." V responded. The two men clasped hands and gave each other a brief hug before settling into the booth.
Jackie reached for a bottle of tequila and some glasses. "So what's new?" he asked.
"Got a job for you, need someone I can trust." V said as he pulled the data shard out of his head on the Abernathy hit.
Jackie took the shard and slid a glass of tequila to V. Jackie then slotted the shard into his own head. His eyes pulsed brighter as the information displayed on his own eyes. V took a drink and felt the burn as it passed the lips, over the gums and down the throat. V briefly thought that not was either the worst time to be drinking, or one of the times where he needed it. V waited until Jackie pulled the shard out of his head.
"What do you think?" The corpo asked.
"Won't be easy. Gonna need a techie, maybe two, a driver with hell on wheels, a runner with a gold-plated brain…and a solo." Jackie surmised as he set the shard on the table and took his own sip of booze.
V had come to the same conclusion. The level of personal security on top of what Arasaka provided for their Director of Special Ops would demand a full crew of talented, trained, and equipped professionals. People who didn't crack when the shit hits the fan. People who had the discretion to not shoot their mouth off if something jammed them up down the line. The last requirement was hard to find in Night City, but not impossible.
"Got everything but the last one." V said. "That's where you come in."
Jackie nodded. "And how're we going to pay for everything we need?"
V pulled out the stack of Eurodollars, or Eddies, that Jenkins had given him. "Don't worry about that. We've got the bankroll."
Jackie pondered something for a moment. V wondered what was going on in his friend's head. Underneath his swagger and brash confidence, Jackie was capable of being quite insightful from time to time. The irony was Jackie's insightfulness rarely came when Jackie intended it.
"You know you could take that cash, start a new life." Jackie pointed out casually.
V looked around Lizzie's took see if anyone had heard that. He knew that Arasaka had people on their payroll everywhere. Even though he had just been told to whack one of their directors, that was a smaller crime than committing treason to the company. Defrauding them was definitely considered treason by Arasaka. If someone reported that he was about to kill one of their employees, they would kill Jenkins, and burn V. If he took the money and ran, Arasaka would crucify all people with a hand in it. The irony of the situation was not lost on V.
V shook his head and turned back to Jackie. "This is not something that I can refuse."
Jackie shrugged. "Sure you can. Just say no…like I am. Today they hired you to zero someone, whose to say tomorrow they don't hire someone to zero you?"
V knew that he was suck between a rock and a hard place. He looked around the bar again just in time to see three suits walk through the front door to the bar. Jackie was talking in the background still but V wasn't paying attention. The three Japanese men walking in reeked of Arasaka. V had just enough time to realize that his night just got worse.
"Are you V?" The front man asked.
V looked back to Jackie who had shifted closer to the opening of the booth. V felt marginally better knowing the Jackie also thought the gonks were trouble, and that he had V's back in case the situation escalated from hostile to violent.
"You guys from HQ? You know it's polite to introduce yourselves to someone." V deflected. His suit gave away his employer same as them, but he still hopped to deflect if he was indeed the man they were looking for.
The lead man didn't even pretend that V had just spoke. "You were given a data shard earlier. Where is it?"
"Do you know who I work for?" V asked aggressively.
A nanosecond of discomfort rolled into V frontal lobe followed by a short stab of pain. V cried in pain has slumped over in the booth. Text across his eyes showed that someone was accessing his cyberware, shutting it down bit by bit.
"Where?" shouted the Arasaka employee.
V raised his hand and pointed to the table. "There." He was fighting through the pain.
The leader reached over and grabbed the shard. "Your company accounts have been reclaimed. Any company cyberware will be non-functional in a few seconds. This concludes termination procedures."
V could feel everything beginning to shut down, and he was starting to feel like shit that had been beaten into the ground.
The second Gonk decided to chime in. "You know Abernathy would probably give a bonus for bringing this piece of shit?"
The leader of the trio smirked in agreement. "Grab 'im."
Jackie stood up and walked around the table. "Hold up guys. I'm beginin' to think that you've forgot how far from home you are. This isn't Tokyo, this is Night City."
"Just who do you think you are?" The leader of the group asked like he could intimidate Jackie.
"I'm his boy." Jackie said confidently. "If you continue this way, maybe guns come out. Maybe you start shooting. Maybe we shoot back. Next thing you know, someone is getting carried out. Maybe it's you guys." Jackie finished.
The three looked at each other. They clearly had the numbers at three on two (though V considered himself far from fighting shape as his guts heaved and he tried to remember how to breath). The Arasaka crew didn't know who a gunfight would turn out after that though. The Tokyo office would have been able to send backup in an instant, and sweep the incident under the rug. In Night City though, even if Arasaka could pull it off, who knows if the three would be alive to see it?
The leader made a decision and jerked his thumb to the front door. "Let's get out of here. We've got what we came here for." He said.
V felt Jackie move to his side as they left.
"You ain't lookin' to good holmes." Jackie remarked as he put his arm around his friend.
"Fuck man…I can't…catch…my breath." V gasped.
"Shit man. This was like when my little cousin was comin' off the drugs man. The chills, the shakes." Jackie said.
"Fuck…got nothin' left now." V moaned.
Jackie had a small smirk. "Nah man, not nothin'."
V tried to smile, but only got halfway there. "You gonna say I still have a friend? That's sweet…but they just took my life from me Jackie. It's over."
Jackie gave a small laugh. "Nah man. They left the cash here." He pointed to the Eddies that Jenkins had given him to kill Abernathy. "Chunk of cha-ching like that…might be enough to start a new life. I wouldn't say it's over…I'd say your life's just beginning."
V just let the realization wash over him. He may have had just lost the past decade of work for Arasaka, but he wasn't dead, and he had just enough to get the ball rolling again. But he was also about to blow chunks all over the second nicest booth in one of the more infamous bars in town.
"C'mon buddy. I'll get you some place to get cleaned up." Jackie said as he pulled V up to his feet and helped him walk out of Lizzie's Bar.
A/N: So how did you like it. Please review and let me know what you thought.