"Go in." was the only thing I heard before I entered the afterlife. As much as I loved this club, right now this was as inviting to me as a headache. Lights flickering and flashing to a machine gun beat, music thrumming loudly, vibrating the entire building. Drug-addicted junkies ready to blow up in random acts of violence and goon squads from every single gang known in this city.
Ignoring everyone, I just walked in and focused on the bartender standing behind the counter waving at me, "Hey, V! Can I get ya something?"
Smiling, I gently shook my head and said, "Not really Claire, but thanks for asking."
"Well, if you change your mind, you know where to find me."
Walking towards the cubicle occupied by Rouge, I saw that this time there was no guard, plus there were not a lot of people sitting there either. "Rouge," I said with a small nod, "sorry for the delay."
"Hey kid. Sit down. And don't worry about it," was all she said in return, waving her hand towards the couch. Nodding, I sat down and relaxed a bit. It has been a long fucking day already; actually, it has been long fucking two days! Last night I was once again meeting Oda, trying to convince him that Yorinobu is the fuckin' culprit. But of course the guy has got such a fucking hard-on for the Arasaka family that he was not willing to listen to a word I said. It makes me wonder, Why did I even try? Should've just let Takemura handle him. A complete waste of time that was. But then we had to go and meet wakako and that was another battle of tongues that I genuinely didn't want to have because of two reasons: one, because Takemura has no fucking backbone and is seriously willing to rollover like a dog if it meant that Yorinbu would be caught. And second is that in recent days I have dispatched quite a few tyger claws; i mean, they were the ones who came after me in the first place, but somehow people always forget that small piece of knowledge whenever they think about tygers and me. So I wanted to avoid it all, but the arasaka pared is a little too close for comfort, so the meeting was quite unavoidable.
And then today I thought that I've been neglecting both Mama Wells and Misty with all my galavanting around nightcity, so I thought that I would just spend the day with them and relax. Well, it was an experience, I'll tell you that much. Misty was not joking when she said that Mama Wells was trying to adopt her as her daughter for the first time. Mama Wells was going full on mother mode, like how she was with me for the first few weeks I lived with her and Jackie. The whole thing was hilarious but extremely draining. Emotionally.
So now that I'm in Rouge's cabin, I'm almost tempted to just go to sleep, because this place is probably the safest place here. Sitting beside Rouge, no one would do anything. So I just leaned back and relaxed, and I almost would've fallen asleep were it not for Rouge, who started speaking. "So... from what I understand, you've been quite busy clearing up some... trash."
I immediately knew who she was talking about. As good as it was to give that asshole the public execution that he deserved, it is also giving me a lot of notoriety, which is something that I usually avoid. Oh well. At least this time it was for something I did, and people were generally happy with me. So I just shrugged my shoulders and said, "It's good to clean the house once in a while."
"Cute," was all Rouge said after staring at me for a few seconds before turning her head towards the bar and signaling Claire for a few drinks. And when I said signal, I meant eyes turning blue signal. "So, who put up the contract?" she asked, turning back towards me. "Or was it from the goodness of your own heart?" she said with raised eyebrows.
"Now you know that I cannot tell you that," I said with a small laugh and narrowed eyes. "Client confidentiality and what not."
Accepting that, she leaned back in her seat and said, "Well, it's not as if he didn't have enough enemies. Hell, I know that even the mox had him on their shit list."
Oh, this bitch knew exactly who my client was; she was just fishing here. "Did they now?" asked playing along.
"Yes, but I think you beat them to the punch," she said with a small smirk before Claire came into the cubicle with our drinks. "The bottle stays!" Rouge stated, not said, but stated to Claire, who without hesitation put the bottle on the table and turned around.
"Thanks, love," I said behind her as I leaned forward to grab my glass.
After a few minutes, Nix came by to drop off the shard and promptly walked away, without even saying a word.
"Here, got your info," Rouge said, picking up the shard and inserting it into her port (No,that's not a double entendre.) for a quick second before handing it to me.
"Kang tao?" I said, looking at the manifest of QianT.
"It's one of their subsidiary companies." Rouge said before pointing towards the flight list and stuff, "Look at the passenger list."
"That one vip, I bet that's hellman. If I'm seeing this flight pattern correctly, then that means that nabbing him anywhere near night city would be suicide; that means I have to down that AV somewhere in the badlands." I already knew this stuff, so instead of letting her guide me to it, I just prompted it out, hoping we can just move forward with this.
"Perceptive." Rouge said a little impressed, and after a secod continued, "And you're right, the perfect place for this little oppression of yours would be Jackson Fields, Here"
"Alright, easy enough."
"Not so fast. To actually pull this off, you'll need a local to help you properly."
"Do you have someone in mind?"
"I do," I waited for her to say panam's name, but instead of that, Nash's photo popped up in my HUD. "This here is Nash. He's a local."
What the fuck?
Closing everything, I took out the shard and turned towards Rouge, and with an incredulous look, I began, "If my GK is right, which I like to think it is, then that's a raffen you're trying to partner me up with."
"Problem?" She asked with raised eyebrows, to which I just exclaimed and said, "Fuck yes, that's a problem. Raffens are people who were exiled by the nomads; that tells you what kind of people they are."
"I understand where you're coming from," she said with a grimace before sighing and saying, "The thing is that I had someone else in mind, but unfortunately for you, she quit her job last night."
...….i wasted too much time. Fuck!
"Just tell me about her, and I'll get in touch with her." I said trying to mitigate the situation a bit.
"Her name is Panam Palmer; she's a nomad. I think she was part of a group named Aldecadlos." "sending you her deets." Her eyes flashed blue for a second before I got the number and panam's information. "Now, from what I remembered, Nash kleped Panam's truck and betrayed her while they were both working for me, which led to her leaving."
I just couldn't help myself. Smirking, I just said, "Probably because you paired up a nomad and a raffen, a partnership which eventually ended by a raffen doing what they always do."
"I get that, thanks." She cut me off with a glaring side eye before getting back on track. "Now I suggest that you contact Panam fast, and you can maybe get her truck to her or help her get her truck." After a second, she just gave a huff of a laugh and said, "Knowing her, the second idea would be more attractive to her."
Nodding in agreement, I took a big sigh and stood up, gave Rouge a quick "I'll do that, thanks," and simply walked out.
"See you around, kid." was the last thing I heard from her before I made a quick exit. Walking out of the bar, I ignored everyone. I just walked towards my car, where Johnny was waiting for me, leaning against the hood of the car. 'See? This is what happens when you unnecessarily waste time.'
Flipping him off, I just got in my seat and drove as fast as I could, hoping to make the glitchy rocker into a roadkill, but instead the car passed through him, the fucker just appeared in the passenger seat and flipped me off before disappearing again.
Shaking my head in amusement, I just drove a little farther before calling Panam, who picked up just after two rings.
"Hello?"
"Hey, who are you?"
"Eh, a friend..." I mean, what else could I even say right now? I'm pretty sure she hates rouge right now.
"You don't sound very sure," she said a bit incredulously and with a hint of amusement.
"Look, I got your number from Rouge; she said that maybe we could help each other out."
"No thanks, I've got quite enough of Rouge's contacts!" Yeah, she hates rouge...
"Wait! Wait! Just listen to me!" I almost began new plans about this situation when I noticed Pam still on the phone looking at me expectantly, "Oh, you're actually listening."
"I tend to listen when a person shouts at the top of their lungs."
"Ahh.. haha.. good policy." She sure as shit didn't do that when I came back before. "Anyways, Rouge told me all that happened between you and that raffin scum you were partnered up with."
"Not by choice."
"Obviously, who would want to partner up with them?" well…. B@D, scavs, woodoo boys..tygers… petrochem….biotechnica…. Damn, the list just goes on... Why do people put up with them?? Shaking the thoughts away, I focused on the conversation and got back to it. "Anyways, I was thinking that I can either get your truck back from this nash guy and make him disappear from the face of the earth, or I can help you do that exact same thing... interested?"
After a few seconds, she flicked me some coordinates and said, "Meet me here." before hanging up.
"Well, at least we salvaged that," I murmured before stepping on the gas.
'And with great timing too, that girl almost looked ready to leave.' Johnny said, appearing beside me, before kicking his feet up on the dashboard and lighting up a cigarette. 'was probably on her way to get her ride back.'
Yup, always running into situations without thinking that girl... That's one thing that I never liked about her. Her tendency to just jump into situations like that without thinking.
While driving to the given location, my thoughts started going back to the past... or the future... or the future that will never come to pass now?
'How about we just call it LF? Lost Future?' That is actually better... So my thoughts once again started going back to the lost future and what actually happened with aldecaldos. To be perfectly clear, apart from Saul and Mitch, no one actually bothered to even ask what happened and where I was; the only thing anyone was concerned with was that Panam was sad that I disappeared, but no one bothered to ask why? I mean, I don't really care about concern from any of them if I'm being honest, but if they have the gaul to come up to me and scream at me how much I've hurt their leader, then they very well should actually care about what actually happened, but nope. They just saw a sick, helpless woman and jumped on her. I can bet you million eddies that if I were still my old self back then, then no one would even dare look at me the wrong way... And that is another thing I'm still salty about!! Except for 9 people, no one in the entire night city cared about my well-being after I came back!! Everyone either ignored my presence all together (looking at you, panam!) or they simply laughed at my face. Or if they were my enemies, then they tried to exact revenge for their comrades who fell by my hands.
The more I thought about the entire thing, the more my mood soured... I really need to talk to someone about this...
So it was with these thoughts that I reached my destination. "Hey," I greeted Panam, who was standing leaning on the wall, but immediately my eyes went wide seeing the amount of weaponry this girl had. "Whoa, you look ready to start another corporate war."
"Seriously?"
Huffing out a laugh, I just said, "Believe me, you just need that rifle and a bag of crisps to create a spark." before leaning towards the passenger side and opening the door for her.
"Really?" She asked incredulously, but I just waved dismissively before asking, "Anyways, where am I taking you?"
"Rocky ridge. That is where the wraiths live."
Nodding, I started the car and slowly drove up the freeway. Once we were on the open roads, I increased the speed and leaned back in my seat before asking. "You wanna take on the wraiths? As in all of them?"
"Problem?" She asked with a hint of amusement, to which I just shook my head and said, "Not really, just trying to prepare myself mentally."
Nodding in acceptance, she also leaned back before asking, "So tell me, why are you helping me? As in, what is it that I can do for you?"
"I need to grab a guy from a Kangtao convoy; the convoy will pass over Jackson Fields, which is my only chance to grab him; if I miss that, then the carrier will enter the night city airspace."
"And out of your hand."
"I mean, I can still go after the target in the city, and I'll probably get the job done too, but the problem is that the target will be on the corps' raider. And that is something that I don't want."
"So Badlands is your best bet?" She finished my line of thought before turning her gaze out of the window.
"Yup." I agreed in words, but in my mind I was having some major doubts about the whole plan. Essentially, the only reason why I'm doing this is because I thought that should rekindle my relationship with the aldecaldos, but I don't have any need for hellman this time. And if I'm being completely honest with myself, then I'm not really looking forward to going through with this plan now that I'm here. The relationship that I had with Sal and Mitch was made because of the events that I don't think I'm going to follow... Plus, one of the biggest reasons why I was so tight with them in the first place was my friendship with Panam. which I'm finding a little hard to strike up this time... not that anything is preventing me. Nope, it's just my own pesky thoughts and the memories of LF that are discouraging me from going forward with this.
Taking a big sigh, I just shook my head and tried to lighten the mood by asking, "So tell me, what is so good about this car that you're willing to obliterate an entire gang of wraiths for it?"
"It's one of the best vehicles I've ever driven, and with that car I can do almost anything. I can take almost any job out there, but without it, the best I can do is pizza. Maybe."
"You formed an emotional connection to that car," I said with a knowing smile. I understand very well what she's trying to say here. I would blow up this city if something happened to this car. This vigilante and Jackie's arch are the only material things that I love so much. "I can understand. This beauty has been with me for a long time. I can't begin to imagine my day without driving it," I said, tapping the steering wheel of the car.
We were just a few minutes away from the rocky ridge when I asked her, "Again, you have everything we might need? Right?"
"What this is not enough for you?" She asked, pointing to the bag filled with ammo and explosives in the backseat. And to that, I just shrugged my shoulders before saying, "I just like being prepared."
contemplating it for a few seconds, she took a big sigh before saying, "Can we go here before the rocky ridge?" she said before sending me the address for the nomad camp. "What is this place?" I asked, knowing full well where we are going.
"Somewhere where we will be able to get some help."
"Alright." I said before turning my car towards the camp, We were almost at the camp when I asked, "By the way, how did you know about nash and stuff?"
"I called our last client to apologize for the missing shipment and that I'm working on it; it turns out that Naz already delivered it in my fucking car!!"
Nodding my head in understanding, I just said, "I can see how that might convince you to go on a revenge trip against raffens." After that, I just lean back in my seat and relax before saying, "Do you know that this car is free?"
With raised eyebrows, she turned towards me and asked, "What? Got it in a job or something?"
Grinning at the memory, I just shook my head and said, "Nope, I accidentally won a lottery that I never entered in the first place."
"What?" She asked with an astonished expression.
"Yeah, they dialed the wrong number, i guess."
"You're really lucky," she muttered with an impressed expression on her face.
Nodding, I took the car off of the highway and slowly rolled towards the big nomad camp. "Here we are." Turning off the engine, I turned towards Pam and asked, "Want me to come with you??"
Thinking about it for a quick second, she jerked her head in agreement and said, "Yeah, sure."
Sitting in the car, I looked through the windshield and watched as Mitch and Scorpion both greet Pam. Now sitting here alone with my thoughts, I could once again feel the apprehension build up regarding this whole plan. The mitch that I knew is gone. And saul won't even look at me with anything but mild suspicion, because I'm not the girl who's Panam's best friend or the girl who saved Mitch. Right now I'm just a solo merc who's buying services of a nomad, for lack of better words... And if I'm being honest, I don't know if I want what I had with Mitch Sall. I mean, not completely. I was always happy whenever Sal and Mitch visited me, but that doesn't mean that their eyes filled with pity didn't hurt and disgust me a bit. I was one of the best MCs this city ever saw. I was up there with legends like Morgan Blackhand and rache Bartmoss, but whenever they visited, I was always reminded of how much I've lost.
Now I have no fucking intention of ever experiencing those days again, and I'm going to make damn sure that this time I don't just end up there with those names but surpass the entire list.
With that determination, I pulled the keys out and climbed out of the car.
"And who's this?" scorpion asked the moment I stepped out and straightened up.
"My babysitter. This is scorpion and mitch."
"Hey," I greeted with a small smile and a wave before turning towards Pam and saying, "And to be fair, you did lose your car sooo."
Blushing, Panam quickly hissed "Shut it V!" before turning back towards scorpion and mitch. Who were both looking at each other with a bewildered expression before bursting out into laughter? Trying to control his laughter, Mitch finally straightened up and asked, "Ha ha! Are you serious? Did that beauty Thornton of yours finally bite it?"
"She rode it to death in the night city!" scorpion added snickering.
Amused at their antics, I just shook my head before saying, "It got kleped."
Which sobered them up pretty quickly. "Shit, who dared?" the scorpion asked with narrowed eyes.
"It doesn't matter; I'll get her back; that's why I'm here." She said with conviction before turning towards me, gesturing for me to join in.
Sighing, I slightly nodded my head before saying, "We need your help."
Looking more serious, both of the men looked at Panam with raised eyebrows before asking, "With what? What is this about?"
I already knew where this conversation was heading, yet I'm still here, trying. "Raffens screwed this one over here. Plan is to show them why that's a bad idea." I said, and watched as their eyes got a bit wide, turning towards panam scorpion, and asked, "How bad did they get you?"
"Bad enough to make me sit through all your bullshit." was the only thing that Panam muttered before looking away.
Looking at each other a bit uneasily, both scorpion and mitch turned towards panam and said, "You know that we would do anything for you, sister..."
"I'm sensing a but," I slowly said, leaning on the hood of my car.
With a grimace on his face, Mitch nodded his head. "Yeah, it is hard right now."
"Seriously?!" Panam screamed with surprise on her face, "You won't help."
"The old man told us to get those generators backup after the batteries went kaput," Mitch said with a bit of hesitation and an apologetic tone, which only made Panam more angry.
Sighing, I just shook my head in despair; I can already feel the oncoming headache as a result of her screaming. Tilting my head up in exasperation, I looked up at the sky and just tuned out of the family spat. Why can't this girl use her inner voice?! Damn… where did that come from??
It looks like Johnny's thoughts are rubbing off on me. Or is it just mine... Fuck me, why are feelings so damn irrational and confusing?!
For a few minutes, I just stood there looking at the sky, trying very hard to sort through my own feelings. This morning I was so excited to have Pam back in my life, but now that she's here and everything is going smoothly, I for some reason just want to get away from her. It's like all those feelings from LF are just amplified... and I have absolutely no idea what I am supposed to do here.
Before I could spiral down any more, I was pulled out of my musings by tapping on my shoulder. Stiffening up, I saw that everyone was looking at me with confusion and curiosity.
Clearing my throat, I shook my head and asked, "Sorry what happened?"
"I need some stuff from the camp," Panam said, pointing to the camps behind her. Nodding, I got up from the hood of my car and started following her. "Looks like you're stuck with me," I said, trying to make conversation, but the only thing I got in return was a quick "Hmm."
Tilting my head in confusion, I looked at her and tried again. "This is a nice place, by the way," I said, looking around, and it genuinely was a good place. Children playing around, adults lounging, relaxing, and just having a good time. There was a time when I longed for this; hell, on some level, I still do. But I highly doubt I can ever give up my life again.
Taking a deep breath, I looked at her expectantly, but once again, I only got a quick "I know." from her. Frowning, I just shrugged my shoulders before taking the hint. But funnily enough, instead of going to Pam's old tent, we turned right and walked into a different and a bit bigger tent. Looking around, I could see that it was made for two people; my best guess was that it was for Mitch and Scorpion. I was just standing by the flap, observing Panam throwing a bunch of explosives and some guns in a big box, but the only thing that I could think of was that this is just a big fucking overkill. The amount of weapons that Panam already brought with her will be enough for me to start a war with the Six Street Gang and win it!
"Can you carry that?" panam asked, pulling me out of my musings. Following her line of sight, I saw a smaller box filled with some explosives. Nodding, I picked up the box and began following Panam out of the camp.
Reaching the car, I opened the door with a mental command and threw the entire box in the back seat. Walking to the driver's side, I opened the door and was about to get in when I heard Mitch calling out to me. Turning my attention to him, I heard him say, "Look out for her out there."
"I will," I said, nodding my head. Getting in the car, I waited for Pam to get in. Once we were ready, I pulled the car in reverse and pulled away. Before driving away, an idea quickly formed in my head, and I reversed and leaned out of the window. "Hey!" I screamed, attracting Mitch and Scorpion's attention. "If you guys see any AVs going down near Jackson Fields in the coming days, then don't go near it. Okay?"
Confused, they looked at each other, but with a quick shrug, Mitch just said, "Sure."
Satisfied, I once again settled back in my seat and pulled away from the camp.
After driving for a few minutes, I did a quick mental check to see if I have everything I'll need. From what I remember, we took out almost half of the roads in that intersection of that abandoned town, which helped us in that cave a lot back then, but this time their number would be quite high. Satisfied with my check, I leaned back in my seat. We were almost at the cave's entrance; at most we were five minutes away, but the silence in the car was still stifling. Taking a deep breath, I absentmindedly asked Panam, "You seemed to be in a real hurry to delta the fuck out of there."
With a small grimace, Panam gave me a quite hmm and said, "Let's just say, Saul, their leader, he won't be happy to see me."
"Saul, rouge. There's a pattern emerging here, panam," I said with a quite snicker. Before Panam could get in a single word in retaliation, I quickly slammed on the brakes and exclaimed, "We're here!"
Taking a big breath, I quickly got ready and jumped out of the car, with Panam following me just a second behind. While she was getting everything she needed from the back of the car, I quietly walked towards the cave's entrance.
It was a sad old thing—a bunch of old machinery and wires coming out of the cave. The entire place was a run-down hell hole, complete with faded colors and flickering lights.
Uploading a ping in a nearby control panel, I began searching for people in it, and it looks like I was right; there were a lot more wraiths than I remembered. Well, I highly doubt they would be a problem. With the kind of weapons that I brought with me, these guys won't be able to even understand what happened.
"You ready?" I asked without looking at Panam once I noticed her double-checking Ammos and stuff.
Distractedly, she looked towards me for a quick second before quickly nodding her head and saying, "Oh yeah."
And without looking at her, I took out a small submachine gun in one hand and a small custom gun in the other, with the words cannon in Russian printed over it, and then simply walked in the cave.
Just a few steps in, and we immediately encountered a few wraiths guarding the exit; noticing us, they immediately leveled their guns toward us and started shouting.
One of them screamed, "On your fucking knees!" and I said, "I'm not your mother last night!"
And obviously they took exception to that, but before they could do anything, I quickly whipped out my gun and created two more holes in their heads. The ringing shot alerted almost everyone in the cave, which was evident by the surprised screams coming from inside the dark cave.
"Get ready," I said, and I tightened my grip around the gun as I raised it in the direction of rushing steps. Redying myself for the insane recoil, I narrowed my eyes, and the moment I saw the first person round the corner, I pulled the trigger. The resulting blast took out almost three people with it.
"Holy sh*t, is that a canon in your hands?!" panam asked from beside me. Reloading the gun once again, I gave her a quick smile before saying, "It's called a commerade's hammer! you like it?"
She exclaimed with a big smile, "Damn right, I do!" before turning around and shooting at a few survivors of the blast.
After that, it was really smooth sailing, hacking the stuff all around us, blowing up equipment from afar, like a car someone is ducking behind or a canister of flammable liquid that is very conveniently lying around someone. After a few more minutes of this dodging, weaving, and killing, we finally reached the inner stronghold. Looking up in the cabin, I could see that Nash was hiding up there and sniping us from there.
"Is that nash?!" I asked Panam while pointing at the guy peeking from the window, and suddenly Panam's face got all hard and serious. "That's him!" she exclaimed, and she immediately threw a bomb towards the window, but unfortunately it was shot in the air and blown before anything could even happen.
Rolling my eyes at the brashness, I simply asked her, "Want me to take him?" in a very monotone voice.
I could see on her face that she was a bit conflicted; after a few more seconds, she took a big sigh and screamed, "Go for it!"
Activating the cyberdeck, I locked on to Nash and told Pam to "Take cover and hide."
After waiting for a few seconds, she jerkily nodded her head. With that sorted, I scrolled through the available hacks and hit him with a mean mother fucker. Satisfied, I just crouched behind a barrier and stayed put, defending my own position.
With almost a lazy expression, I counted the number of seconds on my fingers all while Panam was looking at me from a little far away, waiting for something to happen. The moment I reached one, we heard a bloodcurdling scream, and with a smirk, I relaxed a bit and just heard surprised and a bit panicked screams of people in the cave. Dieing people, to be exact.
"Holy shit, what did you do?" panam asked as he took in the scene with wide eyes.
"Just a small virus. Made him a cyberpsycho," I said with a small, humorless chuckle. Getting up, I saw that there were only four people alive now, and all of them were badly injured. The only one who was still standing, albeit a bit limply, was Nash, but only because his mind was completely gone. Who spotted the shift in our direction and immediately raised his guns, but before he could do anything, Panam shot him right in the heart. With an anticlimactic huff, he fell on his back.
Breathing heavily, Panam dispatched the rest of the guys who were still clinging to life and said, "That was more than a little virus V."
"Wonders of technology," I said with a small snicker before turning towards her with a serious look. "Hear my warning; if you have even a shred of chrome, then get a good ice. Very good ice." thoroughly disturbed, she jerkily nodded her head before turning towards the parked vehicles, and the moment she spotted her truck, she just booked it.
With a light chuckle, I walked towards her and watched as she did all the checks and adjustments. "So this is what all the fuss is about?" I asked with a small chuckle.
"My pride and joy," she said with an elated look before climbing in to the truck and starting it up. Feeling the vibrations of the truck, she gave a delighted laugh before turning towards me and, with a smile, said, "Well, you gave me a solid V. Now I will help you in return." Hearing those words, I gave her an absentminded nod before thinking of my earlier musings. I don't actually think grabbing Hellman is worth the risks. Or my time. The only people who actually benefited from the entire debacle were Arasaka. He couldn't help me, but I'm pretty sure Takemura took him back to arasaka the moment I left the motel.
"I'm having some reservations about the plan actually," I finally said after a few seconds.
"Why?" panam asked confused, and for a pretty good reason, actually. I mean, I have already spent so much money on rouge, and then I've helped panam take almost an entire crew of wraiths, and now I'm stopping when it's my turn. So I can understand. "I'm trying to think about whether I actually need her."
Still confused, she just looked at them for a few seconds before getting out of the truck while asking, "Do you not need him?"
Which is a very good question—do I need him? No. I already established that I don't actually have a need for Herman. The only reason I was going after him was so that I could get close to Panam again, but I'm not sure even about that. "I don't know," I said lamely before shaking my head a little frustrated. "How about this? Go back to your life; I will go and research for a while. And we'll see how things go from there. Savvy?"
After staring at me for a few seconds, she slowly began, "Okay, but seriously? Savvy?"