Interlude 3: River

This girl was... strange.

When he had called the security team of the latest victim of what looked to be an ever-growing conspiracy, he had not expected a hundred-and-twenty pound woman with the patience of a border collie and the temperament of a cyberpsycho. The whole time they first met, she shot a glare at him, her hand hovering above the holster strapped to her thigh. Her responses to his questions were evasive at best and hostile at worst. When he told her he had a lead, her reaction seemed to indicate that she had some role to play in the premature demise of her most recent employer.

Those doubts were dashed not a moment later when the next question she asked wasn't about what he knew but who.

Now, River may not have been the best detective in the world, but he was certainly good enough to pick up on a cue like that. Judging from her behaviour, she wasn't nervous, she was out for blood.

That was either very good, or it was very bad.

To be perfectly honest, it was difficult to decide which was which nowadays. River was an agent of law and order, he didn't doubt that. His badge had the the words 'protect and serve' very clearly stamped onto it, and that was an oath he intended to honour, come what may. Unfortunately, the dream of justice was less of a sprint and more of a marathon. Every time River thought he was coming close to honest justice, or a legitimately well-thought law he had to enforce, Night City found a way to disappoint. Everyone higher than him was too busy covering their own arses to change anything, and anyone below him was either too powerless or too unstable to even try.

And so, River decided, if he couldn't find justice in this world, he would simply have to make his own.

It wasn't perfect, and River was well aware of the fact that he wasn't exactly Batman. The sheer scale of the problem was too large and far too systemic for River to do anything more than clean up at the edges. Save the occasional life, prevent another child from being orphaned like he was, expose the occasional bit of corruption. To that effect, some of his more covert contacts at N54 proved to be a godsend, in spite of their relative uselessness at actually producing any results. Still, as far as River was concerned, every additional scandal made for a more honest world, one slightly better than the one that existed before it broke.

And then Peter Horvath, and Rhyne dies not long after, and from heart failure, of all things.

How was that not a scandal?

Clearly, his superiors disagreed, cause they suspended him shortly after, and all for some measly suspicions. This was as fishy as it got, and seemingly, it was either the largest coincidence in the world, or it was a move to be made in a much larger game. Now, to be clear, River didn't really care if Rhyne was dead or not, or by whom. The man had been in the pockets of anyone wealthy enough to buy him, and as far as River was concerned, one less gonk in office could only be a good thing. However, whoever wanted him removed likely wanted to see him replaced as well, and there was no guarantee that what would follow wouldn't be worse.

Clearly, some people in power shared his concerns, because shortly after his suspension, a very generous line of credit from the Peralez's was offered, and all he had to do in exchange is do what he always intended to do in the first place. Honestly, with how lucrative this was looking to be, River was beginning to wonder if the NCPD would even remain a part of his life for much longer.

But I digress. You see, River, in the course of his investigation into the seeming non-mystery uncovered something that was very mysterious indeed, because it wasn't a heart attack that killed Rhyne, it was a virus-spiked braindance, and of the smutty variety too.

Talk about scandalous.

But that was the point. Before he had uncovered that little titbit, the Peralez's demanded answers to the questions he had raised, and when he turned up empty handed, they had started sending people to help him. The first admittedly had been useful, a smart woman with anger issues who got to the bottom of the matter in stupidly short amount of time, which River explained away with the logic that he had laid the groundwork for the discovery in the first place. He was a good detective, damn it!

Still, even if it was her wits and brawn that got down to business, River could hardly help himself as he tilted his head and watched her hips sway hypnotically from side to side as she walked away.

Ahem. Well, once he had discovered that, and the reasoning behind the subsequent cover-up, the plot only seemed to thicken as for every question he answered, two more appeared to materialise. What's more, the atmosphere surrounding his investigation was becoming more and more tense by the day. Maybe he was being paranoid, but River could swear he was being followed. It wouldn't surprise him if such was the case. A lot was riding on the outcome of the case, and not only for the Peralez's. As the events of the last few days had shown, people had, and still could, be caught in the crossfires of whatever it was playing out. It was a shame too, River really liked him. Nobody he knew had so much as a bad word to say about the man.

And now, he knew this woman, Panam. Naturally, he had done his research before they met, and though concrete details were harder to come by that he would have liked, Joss vouched for her. As far as she was concerned, she was an Aldecaldo, even if she was on the outs, and so she had to be one of the good ones running around.

River wasn't exactly a cynic, but to say he was sceptical would be an understatement. Maybe the death of Joss's husband had been more traumatic than she had let on?

Fortunately, or maybe unfortunately, Joss was right. After only a minute, River could tell, deep down in his gut, that Panam was in fact one of the good ones. However, whilst her character may have been satisfactory, her temperament most definitely was not.

And he'd thought V had had an anger problem. Compared to Panam, she was just fucking nova.

This level of anger, there was no way it was habitually sustainable. That only meant that she was angry at something specific, and the obvious suspect made River just a little reluctant to work with her. The death of her employer seemed the only possible source of so much rage. But who got that angry over a lost job? To River, this looked more like the sort of reaction one has to losing something beloved, like a family member, or a close friend, or a... boyfriend?

Yeah, that didn't massively complicate things at all.

In spite of the fact that he would be running around with the emotional equivalent of a ticking bomb for the next few days, there was no denying that he could use the help. Beyond pumping her for info regarding the surprise candidacy of her former boss, and the equally surprising termination of his candidacy, there was no denying that the woman was a good fighter. Hell, River wasn't too proud to admit that she was probably better than him at it, and that was muscle that River could be using over the next few days as he began to pull at the next line of enquiry he had available to him, namely that of Delamain.

One mayor died of a virus, a potential replacement dies by a corrupted AI. This wasn't mere coincidence, it was the establishment of of a pattern. Whoever this person was, it was clear that they were more comfortable with computers than people. It was also clear that they had some reason to desire that either Holt or Peralez rise to power. It wasn't all that uncommon an attitude to hold amongst the various netrunners in Night City, especially those who were brave, stupid or powerful enough to go beyond the Blackwall into the no-man's-land of the Old Net. Someone willing to fuck with Netwatch, and capable of getting away with it afterwards, was clearly a force to be reckoned with. There was only one group that River knew of that could do that without starting a war, though the notion of Voodoo Boy involvement was by no means a sure thing.

And then there remained the question of motive.

Those, however, remained topics deserving of consideration at a later date, because River had yet to confirm his theory, hence why he was stood here, with Panam, outside the headquarters of the Delamain company.

Interviewing a potentially rampant AI, with a definitely uncontrollable partner in tow, would certainly be one of the more interesting conversations River would have in his career. With how complicated this whole mess was rapidly becoming, River almost felt nostalgic for those simpler days of butting his head against the wall at the NCPD.

Almost.

Taking a deep breath, River calmed his mind, gestured to his new partner, and walked forwards through the automatic doors of the entrance and into the headquarters.

Once more then, into the breach.

He had a murder to solve.

And so River is finally beginning to close in on our mysterious player. Who will it be? What do they want?

I'm thinking of making the next chapter from the perspective of Silverhand to catch us up on V's story, thoughts?

Sorry for the delay between chapters, I've been really busy recently.

Feel free to comment and let me know what you think.

Hope you guys are enjoying the story thus far!