"--Yes, but like I said, I highly advise you to not take this particular job, my dear. From what I've gathered, this little job is meant for a cannon fodder." Hands said with an air of nonchalance, before leaning back in his chair.
Absentmindedly, I nodded my head while looking around Viktor's clinic, where I was chilling around with Misty and Vik. After dealing with aldacaldos, the wraiths, and my pesky feelings earlier this week, I just wanted a calm day today, so after waking up today, I immediately made my way towards Misty's shop, where Misty and I spent almost 2 hours just bitching about different customers she encountered or the different clints I encountered. It was fun. At the end, I was thinking about what I should do next when Vik called Misty for some help with a patient, and since I was free, I just tagged along with her.
To be fair, it wasn't that big of a deal, just a small cyberware malfunction that was causing the patient to twitch erratically, so we just had to hold him down while Vik dealt with them. All in all, it was a pretty easy task, one that didn't take more than two minutes. After that Vik asked us if we had anything else to do right now, and of course we didn't; hearing that, Vik broke out a few bottles of beer and some chips. And then we just lazed around for the better part of the day. We were talking about something related to Us Cracks, or something, when my holo lit up. It was Hands.
Confused, I tried to match my timelines a bit, and if I'm remembering things correctly, the timeline was off by almost two weeks. Thinking about it for a second, I leaned back in my seat and answered the call, and it was exactly how I remembered it being: VDBs wanted a cannon fodder for a job, and if I wanted, then I could take it. The only difference this time was that Hands was actively telling me not to take the job. God knows what changed this time around, but the concern was touching, if a little unnecessary.
"How did you come by that information?" I asked, leaning back against the wall on the counter while eyeing the processed shit, or burritos as everyone likes to call it, in Misty's hand.
"As a fixer, it's my job to know. Anyways, if you want, then you have your way in, but think about what I said."
"Thanks, Wrists, really appreciate it."
I was about to end the call when Hands chimed in again, "Just a second, my dear. I have a small contract for you, and you can completely refuse it if you want. It's not an urgent or important one."
There was only one gig that got from hands out of Dogtown, so it is somewhat intriguing that he was offering me something else.
Getting up from Misty and Vik, I walked towards the locker behind the wall in the clinic, knowing that I wouldn't be bothered here. "Alright, lay it on me."
"Two days ago you found out a lot of victims of one Anthony Harris, also known as the 'Peter Pan.'"
Now that, I was not expecting. No one outside of NCPD knows about my involvement with the discovery of the barn with Anthony Harris' victims. After dealing with all the mess with Panam and Aldecaldos, I was left with a lot of time on my hands, so instead of wasting it, I wanted to do something productive with my time, so I thought about who were the few people that I could help without arousing any sort of suspicion, and then I remembered about Randy, River's nephew. Since I already knew the location, it was almost a walk in the park… I mean, I still had to disable a few bombs, but it was still easy. After disabling the bombs, I contacted the NCPD and freed the kids while waiting for the cops. Because I was so early this time, many kids who passed away last time were still alive.
Now I know that cops won't release the info for another few days, so Hands outright spelling it out was kind of odd… but at the same time it was sort of on brand too. He's considered one of the best-informed people among the fixers. So, nodding my head, I said, "You are well informed, but tell me, what is this really about?"
"I need you to find the identity of a person. A netrunner, actually."
Taking a deep sigh, I leaned on the wall and said, "Let me guess… B@D?"
"Perspective as usual, my dear."
Shaking my head at the absurd request, I just said, "I'll try my best, Arms, but you know that it won't be easy. I mean, this is B@D we're talking about here."
"I know; I'm aware of the difficulty and gravity of the contract. But given your history, you possess some investigative quality; that's why I asked you. If you find it, then good. But if not, then that's fine too."
"What exactly do you want with her? Want to hold her identity as leverage and make her work for you?"
"No," he said with an amused laugh. "I'm just curious."
Rolling my eyes, I nodded my head and said, "I'll see what I can do; send me any additional information you have." And with that, I ended the call and returned back to Vik and Misty, who immediately asked, "Who was that?"
"A fixer goes by the name of Hands."
"Hands?"
"Hands," I replied with an amused smile because I get it. The first time I heard him, I was snickering too. Looking at their confused faces, I added, "Because whenever you talk to him, the only part of his body that will be visible will be his hands."
"Huh, that's a gimmick I haven't heard before." Vik said with an amused huff before turning around towards his workbench and asking, "Anyways, so he got a job for you?"
"Not really; I wanted to make contact with VDBs, and he is the only fixer who operates out of Pacifica."
"Why do you need to contact VDBs of all people?" Vik asked with a slight grimace and disgust on his face.
"Yeah, it's not like you need tech support. Hell, you're one of the best netrunners I've ever seen!," Misty exclaimed with a happy smile while chowing down on her wrap. But I couldn't help but focus on what Misty just said.
"How sheltered of a life are you living, Misty?" I asked her with an incredulous look. But she just giggled and in a joking manner said, "You know what I meant."
With a small smile, I shook my head before saying, "It's nothing like that," before taking a big sigh and slowly saying, "It's the chip." and immediately Vik jumped up from where he was crouching in front of his workstation and turned towards us and exclaimed, "What?!" With a scalpel in hand and concern on his face, he moved towards me and asked, "Is something wrong with it?"
Now I like Vik like an older brother, and his reaction just cements those feelings. But right now, with a bloodied scalpel in his hand and looking at me, or more like examining me, while towering over both Misty and me, he looks like a deranged serial killer.
Suppressing my smile I slowly said, "Okay, first of all, put the bloody scalpel down." Blinking owlishly at me, he looked down at the hand I was pointing to and, with a sheepish smile, dropped the bloodied scalpel on the workstation while Misty and I quietly chuckled. "Sorry," he said quietly, turning back towards us.
Smiling, I thought about what I should say for a moment before shrugging my shoulders and deciding to go with the truth. "And no, VDBs were the ones who nuked Evelyn's chip. They wanted Johnny's construct that was on the chip."
Before Vik can even get a word in, Misty jumps in, asking, "Who's Johnny, and what chip?"
Before I could even say anything, Vik took a big sigh and in an exasperated voice said, "Johnny Silverhand was the sociopath who nuked the old Arasaka tower in 2023," which was a pretty accurate description. I mean, even Johnny, who was standing in the corner, was nodding, as if saying, 'True.'.
Looking at his expression, I gave an amused huff of a laugh before turning back to Vik, who immediately asked, "What do VDBs want with his construct?"
"Wait—wait, what do you mean by construct?" Misty interrupted us again, looking at us with a confused expression.
Taking a small sigh, I leaned back against the wall and asked, "Remember the Secure Your Soul program that Arasaka released?"
"Yeah?"
"Johnny was one of the first recipient of it. And the relic on which his construct was on—"
"Was that the one that Jackie and you were contracted to steal?" She completed it with a look of understanding and concentration.
"Bingo."
"And now it is in you?" She asked, looking at me with concerned eyes.
"Yup. I have a terrorist in my head." I said with an amused look. "I see him around. Think of it like a ghost possession."
"Can he take over for you?"
"No, the chip is busted, so that won't happen anymore." unless I take the, as Johnny calls them, 'goth girl pills.'.
Pushing his tools away, Vik finally sat down next to us and said, "But that still doesn't tell me why you want to go and meet with VDBs."
Well, I can't exactly tell them that I need to see a real-life AI goddess and ask her for unrestricted access to one of the most dangerous weapons in Night City. "Okay, here's the deal. Johnny had a girlfriend; her name was Alt Cunningham."
"Wait, I think I've heard about her." Vik suddenly interrupted me, and with an old man expression, he turned towards Misty. "In the old days, she was one of the best netrunners, but she disappeared without a single squeak."
"Yeah, well, Alt created a program named the Soulkiller." I said, wiggling my fingers in a mocking, creepy way for added effect, "It basically turns human consciousness into AI."
Nodding her head, Misty blinked and processed it for a while before turning towards me with wide eyes and asking, "What, like the relic?"
"That is the relic." I said with a smile and watched as understanding spread across her face. "Arasaka turned Alt into an AI; I don't remember why, but for a while, Alt was just roaming inside Arasaka's servers. But after a while, Johnny nuked Arasaka Tower, and while doing that, also freed Alt. Now she is a very powerful AI entity that exists beyond Blackwall. Of her own volition, might I add."
"What does this have to do with VDBs?" Vik asked, leaning forward in his chair a bit.
"Voodoo bitches want Johnny's engram to lead them to Alt so that she can take them beyond the Blackwall when the AI uprising happens."
"AI uprising?" Misty asked with an amused expression. To be completely honest, it is a bit hard to imagine an AI uprising in our age, with such strict rules and regulations by Netwatch. But it is a possibility. And it is a possibility that Vik understands, if his expression is anything to go by.
"Not anytime soon." I said with a small smirk on my face. It was a bit hard not to laugh when his face suddenly paled at the wording. "but they believe that it will be very soon, so they are preparing." saying that I chuckled a bit at the thought and leaned back in my chair and waited for others to laugh at the absurdity too. But instead all I got from them was worried and horrified expressions.
"Listen, VDBs are nothing but a bunch of doomsday preppers," I said, trying to placate them a bit, "but the only difference is that they will bring the very end that they fear so much. Every day they go and fuck around with Blackwall because now they don't have access to Johnny or alt."
"But you do, and you're voluntarily going to them." Vik said with a bit of an accusatory tone and a frown on his face.
It is a fair question; knowing what I know now, we obviously don't need to be scared. Alt would've dealt with them on their own, but I need to see her, and VDBs are the only available option right now.
"They need to be taken out. Plus, I wanted to talk with Alt, actually."
"I would advise against it, but when have you ever listened to me?" Vik said with an annoyed grunt and a deep sigh before walking away.
With a fond smile, I shook my head before turning to Misty, "Listen, I need to talk to you."
"Everything okay?"
"Yeah, everything is good, but I think talking would still be good." I think it's about time I tell Misty about death and other eldritch entities.
"Okay… Yeah, sure, we can talk."
"Later, I'll come to your apartment, or you can come to mine, and we'll talk. Just remember, it'll be heavy." I said before moving out of the clinic. I was almost at the door when I heard a faint "Well, that's not ominous at all."