Chapter 15:
– David Martinez –
Sound returned before David’s sight did.
A high electronic whine filled his skull. Beneath it came the ticking of cooling metal, the hiss of something leaking, and the distant crack of gunfire.
David opened his eyes.
The world swam in and out of focus. Warning symbols flickered across the ruined dashboard in front of him. Half the displays were dead, while the others flashed messages about catastrophic engine failure, collision damage, and unavailable emergency services.
The car had stopped at an angle against the highway barrier. Its front end was crushed, the windshield had shattered, and smoke poured from beneath the folded hood.
David tried to move and discovered that his restraint had locked around his chest. “What the fuck happened?” The words came out weak and slurred.
He blinked several times, trying to force his thoughts into order.
Then the memories returned.
His mother had picked him up from Arasaka Academy. They had been driving home, talking about the rent and the mercenary job. Gloria had told him she was proud that he wanted to help, even if she hated how he had earned the money.
A corporate limousine had started passing them.
Then the Thorton had appeared. Animals leaned through its windows with machine guns in their augmented hands. They had opened fire on the limousine without caring that Gloria’s battered car was trapped directly between them and their target.
David remembered the windows exploding.
He remembered Gloria jerking sideways as blood sprayed across the driver’s seat.
He remembered the car turning sharply.
After that, there had only been spinning pavement, tearing metal, and darkness.
“Mom?” David turned toward the driver’s seat.
It was empty.
The door had been partially torn away by the crash. Blood covered the seat and continued across the buckled frame.
“Mom!” David clawed at his restraint until the damaged mechanism released. Pain shot through his shoulder as he twisted toward the shattered windshield.
He saw her lying on the road.
Gloria had been thrown several meters from the wreck. She was facedown near the highway barrier, one arm bent beneath her and her dark hair spread across the asphalt.
She wasn’t moving.
“No!” David shoved himself toward the ruined passenger door.
Automatic gunfire ripped across the highway!
Bullets struck the wreck, punching holes through metal and shattering what remained of the rear window. David dropped back into the footwell and covered his head.
The attack hadn’t ended.
Through the broken passenger window, he saw the corporate limousine stopped sideways across two lanes. Its armored body had absorbed dozens of impacts, but the windows were cracked and one of its doors hung open.
Two corporate security guards remained alive.
One crouched behind the engine block, firing disciplined bursts from an assault rifle. The other knelt behind the open rear door, trying to protect whoever was inside the limousine.
The Animals had taken casualties. Two enormous bodies lay near their modified Thorton, their chrome limbs twitching against the pavement.
Three others remained standing.
They looked less like people than walking collections of muscle and machinery. Their arms were too large, their shoulders too broad, and their exposed skin was crossed by thick lines of combat implants. One carried a light machine gun that would have looked ridiculous in David’s hands.
The guard behind the limousine fired.
A burst tore into an Animal’s chest. The ganger stumbled backward but remained upright long enough to answer with the machine gun.
The corporate guard disappeared inside a storm of bullets.
The second guard rose from behind the engine block and killed one of the Animals with a clean shot through the face.
Then the other two opened fire.
The guard jerked repeatedly as rounds struck his armor. He collapsed against the limousine and slid down its side, leaving a dark trail behind him.
The highway fell quiet except for the ringing in David’s ears.
One of the surviving Animals laughed.
Another walked to the limousine, tore open its damaged rear door, and aimed inside.
Someone shouted from within.
The Animal fired until the shouting stopped.
David stared through the wreck.
His mother remained on the road between him and the killers.
They had shot her and forgotten about her. To them, Gloria was nothing more than a civilian who had wandered into the wrong line of fire.
One of the Animals started back toward the Thorton. Another pulled a bag from the limousine, while the third checked the fallen corporate guards for weapons.
They were leaving.
David looked down. His school bag lay beneath the collapsed glove compartment. He reached for it with shaking hands and tore open the top. His slate, school supplies, and the things Gloria thought he needed spilled across the floor.
Beneath them lay the Nova. Gloria had returned the revolver before driving him to school. She had made him promise to leave it unloaded.
David had broken that promise in an academy bathroom. He had fed rounds into the cylinder because walking through Night City without a weapon had felt like asking the city to kill him.
Now the revolver felt impossibly heavy in his hand.
John’s voice returned to him. Don’t draw it unless you have to. Don’t put your finger on the trigger until you’re ready. Don’t point it at someone unless you’re prepared to kill them.
David looked at Gloria. He was prepared to do anything for his mom!
David shoved the passenger door open and stumbled onto the highway. His legs nearly collapsed beneath him. Blood ran from a cut above his eyebrow, and the entire world tilted every time he moved his head.
The Animals hadn’t noticed him.
He could have waited. They were already leaving. If he stayed hidden for another minute, he might reach Gloria without fighting them.
Then he saw the blood around his mother. Rage swallowed everything else.
“YOU SHOT MY MOM!”
All three Animals turned. One of them looked at David’s academy uniform and laughed. “The fuck is this?”
David raised the Nova. The first shot missed. The revolver bucked violently, sending the round past the closest Animal and through the Thorton’s side mirror.
The Animal stopped laughing and reached for his rifle.
David fired again.
The round struck the ganger high in the chest. His armored vest caught part of the impact, but the force still knocked him back.
David pulled the trigger a third time.
The shot tore into the Animal’s throat above his armor. Blood sprayed across the side of the Thorton. The ganger dropped his rifle, clutched at the wound, and collapsed.
The second Animal raised a pistol.
David fired before he could aim.
The bullet struck the ganger’s shoulder. His arm snapped backward and the pistol flew from his hand. He screamed and dropped to one knee.
The third Animal lunged toward the machine gun lying beside one of the bodies.
David fired again.
The round hit the Animal in the thigh. His leg folded beneath him, sending his enormous body crashing onto the pavement.
David kept pulling the trigger.
Another shot struck the wounded Animal near the hip. The ganger rolled onto his back, roaring in pain.
The Nova clicked empty. David pulled the trigger again. Click. His hands were numb. His wrist felt as if someone had struck it with a hammer, and smoke curled from the revolver’s barrel.
The Animal clutching his ruined shoulder glared at him. “You’re fucking dead, kid!”
David barely heard him.
He ran toward Gloria.
His empty revolver remained clenched in his hand as he dropped beside her. Up close, the blood looked worse. It covered her clothes, her face, and the asphalt beneath her.
“Mom?” David rolled her onto her back as carefully as he could. Her eyes remained closed. “No, no, no. Mom, wake up!” He pressed trembling fingers against her neck.
For one horrifying second, he felt nothing. Then a weak pulse fluttered beneath his fingertips.
Gloria drew a shallow, broken breath.
David almost sobbed. “You’re okay,” he told her. “You’re gonna be okay.”
She didn’t respond.
Blood soaked one side of her jacket. More ran from a cut along her scalp, matting her hair. David didn’t know which injury was worse.
Gloria was the EMT. She would have known what to check and how to move someone without damaging their spine.
David only knew she was dying.
He looked toward their car.
The front end was destroyed. Smoke had become open flame beneath the hood, and the remaining dashboard displays were shutting down one by one.
The corporate limousine wasn’t an option. Its interior was full of bodies, and its engine had been torn apart by gunfire.
The Animals’ Thorton remained twenty meters away.
Its engine was still running.
David shoved the Nova into his waistband and slipped one arm beneath Gloria’s knees. He placed the other behind her shoulders, trying to support her head. “I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I have to move you.”
He lifted. Gloria was heavier than he expected. Pain tore through his injured shoulder, and his knees almost gave out.
David held on. He staggered toward the Thorton with his mother in his arms.
Behind him, one of the wounded Animals tried to stand and immediately collapsed again. “You hear me, little shit?” the ganger screamed. “You’re dead! Every Animal in this city is gonna know your face!”
David kept walking.
The other wounded Animal dragged himself toward his dropped pistol, but his damaged arm failed when he tried to reach for it.
David stepped around the dead ganger and reached the Thorton. Its passenger door stood open. The interior smelled of sweat, gun oil, blood, and chemical stimulants. Ammunition boxes and discarded weapons covered the floor.
David swept the clutter aside with one hand. He eased Gloria into the passenger seat, trying not to bend her body more than necessary. Her head fell toward the window. “Stay with me, Mom.” He pulled the restraint across her and tightened it enough to keep her upright. He had no idea whether that helped or made things worse.
There was no time to decide.
David ran around the front of the Thorton and climbed into the driver’s seat.
The vehicle’s dashboard was still active. Gang communications flashed across one display while a map showed the Animals’ planned escape route.
A warning appeared when the vehicle failed to recognize him.
David slammed his foot onto the accelerator anyway.
The Thorton roared. Its tires spun against the asphalt before finding traction. The vehicle launched forward hard enough to throw David against his seat.
In the mirror, the wounded Animals became smaller. One raised his functioning hand and pointed after him, still shouting threats David could no longer hear.
David gripped the wheel and forced the Thorton between the wrecked limousine and the highway barrier.
“Nearest emergency clinic!” he shouted at the dashboard.
A route appeared across the windshield.
Beneath it, the navigation system displayed estimated treatment fees and requested confirmation of insurance coverage. “Just take me there!”
The system calculated a new route.
David looked at Gloria.
Her head rested against the passenger window. Blood continued spreading across her clothes and the seat beneath her.
He reached over and grabbed her limp hand. “Don’t die,” he pleaded. “Please, Mom. Just don’t die.”
Gloria took another shallow breath.
David pressed the accelerator harder.
The stolen Thorton surged down the highway, carrying them toward the nearest hospital while gang communications continued flashing unanswered across its dashboard.
– John Welles –
…An hour and a half after Mama Welles sat V and Lucy down at the kitchen table, the conversation finally appeared to be ending.
I had wisely contributed almost nothing.
That decision had probably saved my life more effectively than the subdermal armor currently making every inch of my body itch. My cracked ribs hurt whenever I breathed too deeply, my shoulders still ached from being thrown down a stairwell, and the medication Vik had given me was fighting a losing battle against the tension in the room.
V sat on one side of the table, composed and confident despite having lost almost everything she owned in the last twenty-four hours. Lucy sat across from her with her arms folded, wearing the carefully blank expression she used whenever she wanted everyone to believe she wasn’t bothered.
Mama sat at the head of the table.
That arrangement had somehow made the conversation feel less like a family discussion and more like a corporate tribunal—except the corporation was Catholic, owned a bar, and could weaponize a wooden spoon.
Jackie had escaped the worst of it by falling asleep on the couch.
I had considered joining him. Unfortunately, Mama had made it very clear with a single look that I was expected to remain conscious for the entire discussion.
Finally, she leaned back and looked between V and Lucy. V straightened slightly. Lucy did too.
“I am a Catholic woman,” Mama said. “I will not pretend I am completely happy that two women are interested in my youngest son at the same time.” Mama’s eyes moved between them. “This is not what I imagined for him.”
I resisted the urge to sink beneath the table.
“But John is a grown man,” she continued. “He has to make his own decisions, even when those decisions frighten his mother.”
Her gaze briefly settled on me.
I tried to look like someone capable of making responsible adult decisions.
Judging by her expression, I failed.
Mama sighed and turned back to V and Lucy. “In the end, I want my son to be happy. I want him with people who care about him, who will tell him the truth, and who will help bring him home alive.” The last part came out quieter than the rest.
Something tightened inside my chest that had nothing to do with my cracked ribs.
Mama smiled at both women. “If you truly care about him, then I will judge you by how you treat him.”
V and Lucy released their breath at almost exactly the same moment. It might have been the first thing they had agreed on all afternoon.
Then V smiled. It was the confident, predatory smirk she wore whenever she had found an opening and intended to exploit it. “Of course, Mama Welles,” V said. “Although you have known me the longest. If you decide to withdraw your approval from the picksocket and let me take care of your son by myself, I’d understand…”
Lucy’s eyes narrowed. “I’m not a picksocket anymore.”
“So you keep saying.”
“And what exactly do you mean by taking care of John?” Lucy asked. “Last time I checked, you were unemployed.”
V’s smile remained in place, but her red eyes sharpened. For half a second, I saw the remark land.
V had lost her position, her apartment, her accounts, and almost her life. Arasaka had not merely fired her. It had tried to erase her, along with an entire restaurant full of witnesses.
Then the vulnerability vanished beneath her usual confidence. “I may be unemployed,” V said, “but I can still afford dinner without stealing someone else’s credchip.”
Lucy leaned forward.
V did the same.
I remained perfectly still.
“An excellent survival strategy,” Cortana observed.
“I am not a thief,” Lucy said.
“Former thief,” V corrected. “My mistake…”
“That is enough.” Mama didn’t raise her voice. She didn’t need to. V and Lucy stopped immediately. “There will be no fighting under my roof,” Mama said. “If both of you intend to “share” with my son, you will learn how to sit at the same table without threatening each other.”
Lucy settled back into her chair.
V did the same, although neither woman stopped glaring.
Then Mama turned toward me. “And you.”
My stomach dropped.
There were tones of voice that could stop wars. Mama Welles had apparently collected all of them.
“Yes, Mama?”
Her expression softened. “I am glad you are okay, mijo. More glad than I can ever explain.” She reached over and rested her hand against my cheek. “But I wish you would stop almost dying every other day…”
“That makes two of us,” Cortana grumbled inside my head.
“I’m trying.”
“Try harder!”
I almost smiled, but Mama was still looking at me, so I converted it into what I hoped was a solemn nod.
From the living room came a loud snort, followed by the protesting creak of the couch.
Jackie sat up, blinked several times, and rubbed both hands over his face. “Is it over finally?” he asked.
Mama stared at him.
Jackie looked between everyone at the table. “...What? I fell asleep after a bit.”
“I noticed,” Mama said.
Jackie stood and stretched, his back popping loudly enough that it sounded like gunfire. His shirt pulled tight across his chest as he raised his arms, and he yawned with absolutely no concern for the fact that he had slept through what might have been the most dangerous conversation in the apartment’s history.
Then his attention shifted to V. The humor faded from his face. “Me and you got some planning to do,” he said. “Your old boss already came after you once. Came after John too. He slaughtered a whole restaurant and sent enough soldiers to start a war.”
V’s expression hardened. “Jenkins won’t stop,” she said. “He will pause for a week or two as he puts out all his fires, but it won't last forever.”
“Then we get rid of him before he tries again.” Jackie glanced toward me. “Nobody comes after my family and gets a second chance.”
The words were spoken calmly, but I knew what they meant.
Jackie and V weren’t discussing a sternly worded complaint to Arasaka’s human resources department.
After everything I had witnessed at Carmello’s, I couldn’t even argue with them. Jenkins had murdered dozens of innocent people just to erase V. If he survived long enough to recover from the failed operation, he would try again.
Mama slowly turned toward Jackie. “There will be no planning murder in my house.”
Jackie considered that for all of two seconds. “That’s fine. We can go to my garage. The garage is not technically in the house,” Jackie added.
Mama’s eyes narrowed. “Keep smiling, Jacquito...”
His grin weakened.
V rose from the table, but her eyes moved from me to Lucy.
Lucy had leaned back in her chair with a small, satisfied smile. With V leaving alongside Jackie, she apparently believed she had won something.
V noticed too. Her gaze returned to me. Then she began walking around the table.
My survival instincts, which had functioned so admirably during the preceding hour and a half, abandoned me completely.
V moved with effortless confidence, every step deliberate. Up close, she was almost unfair to look at. Her skin was flawless and warmly tanned. Her red eyes held that familiar mixture of mischief, intelligence, and danger. Her face was beautiful, and the rest of her was—
“You are staring,” Cortana informed me coldly.
I swallowed.
V’s smirk deepened. She had definitely noticed. “Careful, handsome,” she murmured. “Keep looking at me like that and I might start getting ideas.”
“She already has ideas.”
V stopped directly in front of me and leaned down. One hand settled gently against the side of my face, carefully avoiding my remaining bruises.
Her eyes met mine.
She paused close enough that I could feel her breath, giving me just enough time to turn away.
I didn’t.
V kissed me. It wasn’t the desperate, frightened kiss she had given me after Cortana restored her cyberware. This one was slower and more deliberate—a warm, confident promise delivered in front of Lucy, Jackie, and Mama.
My brain temporarily stopped performing any useful functions.
When V pulled away, her thumb brushed once across my cheek. “I’ll see you later,” she said.
I could feel the heat rushing into my face.
Jackie whistled from behind her.
Lucy’s expression could have cut through tactical armor.
Cortana’s silence was so cold that I imagined frost forming across the inside of my skull.
Mama gave V a pointed look.
“What?” V asked innocently. “I was saying goodbye.”
“Very thoroughly,” Lucy muttered.
V looked over her shoulder. “Jealous?”
“GO MURDER YOUR BOSS!”
“That’s the plan!”
Jackie laughed and opened the apartment door. V gave me one last smile before following him into the hallway. “Come on, chica,” Jackie said. “Let’s go figure out how to kill your boss without getting the whole city dropped on us.”
The door closed behind them.
Mama exhaled and stood. “I have to get to work as well. The bar will not run itself.” She collected her apron from the back of a chair, then pointed at me. “You will rest. No gigs, no guns, and no leaving this apartment unless the building is on fire.”
“What if—”
“Not even if someone calls you with a very good reason.”
I closed my mouth.
“Take your medicine,” she continued. “Eat something. And if your ribs hurt more, you call Viktor.”
“Yes, Mama.”
She leaned down and kissed my forehead. Then she turned toward Lucy.
Lucy Kushinada had survived Arasaka facilities as a child. She had survived beyond the Blackwall. She carried a monowire in her wrist and could kill someone before most people realized they were in danger.
None of that appeared to help her when Mama Welles fixed her with a stern maternal glare. “No funny business with my son.”
Lucy sat straighter. “There won’t be…”
Mama continued staring.
Lucy swallowed. “I promise.”
“...Good.” Mama walked into the hallway and closed the apartment door behind her.
Silence settled over the kitchen.
I looked at the door.
Then I looked at Lucy.
Her nervous expression slowly disappeared. The corners of her mouth lifted as she turned toward me, leaving behind a smile that was far too knowing for my peace of mind.
Cortana appeared beside the table in my optics, arms folded across her chest. “I don’t like that smile.”
The apartment remained silent for three whole seconds after Mama closed the door.
Then Lucy looked at me. “Wanna show me your room?” The question sounded innocent. Her smile did not.
“This is a trap,” Cortana warned.
You say that about everything Lucy does.
“Because most things Lucy does are traps!”
I pushed myself carefully out of the chair. My ribs objected immediately, sending a dull ache through my chest. The rest of my body wasn’t much happier. Bruises covered places I hadn’t known could bruise, and the subdermal armor beneath my skin still itched like an entire ant colony had moved into me.
Lucy followed me down the short hallway.
I could feel her watching me, which made me acutely conscious of every awkward step. It was ridiculous. I had survived an Arasaka death squad, stolen a tactical AV, and fallen down part of a stairwell.
Walking fifteen feet with a beautiful woman behind me was somehow more intimidating.
I opened my bedroom door. “This is it.”
Lucy stepped inside and slowly looked around.
There wasn’t much to see. A narrow bed occupied one wall. My desk and terminal sat opposite it, accompanied by a few battered paperback books. Old rockerboy posters shared wall space with bikini models the original John had apparently considered tasteful decoration.
I hadn’t added anything of my own.
I wasn’t sure what I would have added. Everything I owned had either belonged to the original John Welles, been borrowed from Jackie, or been purchased during the strangest week of my existence.
Lucy ran one finger along the edge of my desk. She glanced at the posters and smiled. “Your room gives off a very innocent vibe.”
“There are half-naked women on the walls. It's not innocent!”
“Uh huh. Sure...” The way she said it made arguing feel pointless. Lucy wandered farther into the room, examining the few books and belongings without touching anything else. Her attention briefly settled on one of the faded family photographs beside my terminal.
Guilt stirred inside me. That photograph belonged to another John. The life represented by everything in this room had belonged to him too.
Cortana felt the shift in my thoughts. “Don’t spiral,” she said gently. “You’re here. This is your room now.”
I forced my attention back to Lucy. “Did Rebecca make it back okay?”
Lucy stopped and looked at me over her shoulder.
“She went to talk to Maine and the others in person, right?” I continued. “I know she contacted them from Rocky Ridge, but Maine sounded pretty upset. I just wanted to make sure—”
“Rebecca is probably fine.”
“Probably…?”
“She has survived Maine yelling at her before.” Lucy shrugged. “She usually starts yelling back halfway through.”
“That sounds productive.”
“It isn’t.” Lucy turned fully toward me. Her mouth curved into a slow grin. “But do you really want to talk about Rebecca right now?” She started walking toward me.
No—she was sauntering.
There was no other word for it.
Lucy’s tight black top clung to her breasts and narrow waist, leaving a strip of pale skin exposed above her fitted shorts. The shorts hugged her hips and ass closely enough to make coherent thought difficult. Beneath them, her long legs moved with effortless confidence.
My Kiroshis captured every detail. They had been a terrible investment.
“Your enhanced optics were not installed so she could use them to seduce you,” Cortana complained.
Lucy noticed where my eyes were going. Rather than becoming offended, she slowed down. Her hips swayed slightly more with each step.
I swallowed.
She stopped directly in front of me, close enough that I could smell her perfume beneath the lingering smoke and gunpowder from the previous night.
“Lucy?”
“Yes?”
“...Didn’t you just promise my mother there wouldn’t be any funny business?”
Her grin widened. “I lied...”
“I knew she couldn’t be trusted.”
“That promise lasted less than a minute,” I said.
“I waited until she closed the door.”
“That doesn’t make it better.”
“I wasn’t trying to make it better.” Lucy caught the bottom of her top with both hands.
My mouth went dry.
She watched my face as she slowly pulled it upward, exposing her stomach first. Pale skin appeared inch by inch, interrupted by faint seams and traces of cyberware. The shirt passed over her breasts before she lifted it completely over her head.
She wasn’t wearing anything beneath it.
Lucy dropped the shirt onto the floor.
For several seconds, I forgot how breathing worked.
Her breasts were perky and beautifully shaped, tipped by pink nipples that had already tightened in the cooler air. Her torso was slender and toned, her pale skin almost luminous beneath the weak light coming through my window.
Every sophisticated thought in my head vanished.
Lucy smiled. She clearly loved my reaction. “There it is,” she whispered.
“What?”
“That look.”
“What look?”
“The one where your brain stops working.”
“My brain is working.”
“Barely,” Cortana said.
Lucy stepped closer. “If you want me to stop, tell me.” Her teasing expression softened just enough for me to understand that she meant it.
I looked into her eyes. “I don’t want you to stop.”
The playful smile returned. “Good.”
The backs of my knees struck the bed.
Lucy placed one hand against my shoulder. “Sit down before you hurt yourself.”
“I’m fine.”
“You fell down a stairwell yesterday…”
“I was thrown down a stairwell. There’s a difference.”
“Sit.”
I sat.
Lucy moved between my legs, placing her hands lightly on my shoulders. She was careful to avoid my ribs and the darkest bruises. Her eyes searched my face for any sign that she had hurt me before she slowly climbed onto my lap.
Her legs settled on either side of my hips. The soft weight of her ass rested across my thighs, and her bare chest hovered inches from my face.
My cock hardened immediately beneath my pants. There was no hiding it. The tightness in my jeans became painfully obvious, and Lucy could undoubtedly feel it pressing beneath her.
“Sorry,” I blurted.
Lucy stared at me. Then she laughed softly. “Why are you apologizing?”
“I don’t know.”
“I wanted that reaction.” To prove her point, she shifted her hips once.
My breath caught.
Lucy’s smile became wicked.
“She is doing that deliberately,” Cortana said.
I noticed.
“I wanted it noted for the record.”
Lucy cupped my face and kissed me.
The first touch of her lips was slow and soft. She gave me time to respond, and when I did, she leaned closer.
Her fingers slipped into my hair.
The kiss deepened. Her tongue brushed mine, and every coherent thought I had managed to recover disappeared again.
I placed my hands uncertainly around her waist. Her skin was warm and impossibly smooth beneath my palms. I wanted to pull her closer, but I wasn’t sure where I was allowed to touch—or how much pressure my battered ribs could survive.
Lucy felt my hesitation.
She drew back just far enough to look at me.
My hands remained hovering awkwardly around her sides.
“You can touch me,” she whispered.
“I am touching you.”
“I meant my tits, John!”
My face burned.
Lucy looked delighted.
“Are you sure?” I asked.
“I took my shirt off and climbed onto your lap…” She took my right hand and guided it upward.
My palm settled over her breast.
Lucy inhaled softly.
Her breast was warm and soft beneath my hand, with enough firmness to fill my palm. Her nipple pressed against my skin as she slowly encouraged my fingers to close around her.
I watched her face, afraid of doing something wrong. “Like that?” I asked. My thumb brushed carefully across her nipple.
Lucy’s breath broke.
The sound sent another surge of heat through me.
Her pale eyes darkened, and she pulled me into another kiss.
I touched her more confidently, cupping her breast while my other hand moved from her waist to the curve of her hip. She pressed closer, her bare chest brushing against me as her mouth moved hungrily over mine.
A groan sounded inside my head. “I would like the official record to show that I am demonstrating an extraordinary degree of restraint,” Cortana announced.
I nearly laughed into Lucy’s mouth.
Lucy pulled back slightly. “What’s funny?”
“...Nothing.”
She studied me suspiciously.
“Do not tell her,” Cortana ordered. “She will become smugger!”
Lucy’s eyes narrowed as if she knew there was a conversation happening that she couldn’t hear.
Then she kissed me again.
I stopped trying to think. My hand remained on her breast, my thumb tracing another slow circle around her nipple as she settled more comfortably against me.
Lucy pulled back from my mouth with a satisfied smirk.
Her lips were swollen from kissing, her white hair had fallen messily around her face, and her naked breasts rose and fell with each slightly accelerated breath. “Ready to go further?” she asked.
My hand was still cupped around one of her breasts.
Before I could answer, Lucy’s fingers drifted toward the buttons of her shorts.
I gulped.
She already looked incredible half naked. My imagination immediately tried to fill in what she would look like without the shorts—completely naked, still straddling my lap, with nothing between us except—
“Your imagination is becoming increasingly pornographic.” Cortana’s complaint barely registered.
Lucy slowly opened the first button.
An incoming call flashed across my vision.
DAVID MARTINEZ
Of course. The universe had apparently decided I didn’t deserve to know what happened next!
For one selfish second, I considered ignoring it…
David could call back. Whatever he wanted could probably wait… a few hours. I currently had Lucy Kushinada topless on my lap with her fingers on the front of her shorts.
Surely Night City could survive without me for a little while.
Cortana sounded delighted. “David has excellent timing!”
Don’t you dare!
She answered the call.
“David, this isn’t really—”
“John, I need help!” The panic in David’s voice erased every other thought in my head.
He was shouting over the roar of an engine. Horns blared in the background, accompanied by tires squealing and the occasional burst of static.
“David? What happened?”
“It’s my mom. She’s hurt. She’s really fucking hurt!”
Lucy stopped moving. Her teasing smile disappeared as she studied my face.
“Slow down,” I said. “Tell me what happened.”
“I can’t slow down! I’m driving!”
“I meant your breathing.”
“That’s not helping!”
“Okay. Fine. Where are you?”
“Highway—I don’t fucking know. The car has a map. I’m following it.”
“What car?”
“The Animals’ car!”
I stared straight ahead. Lucy tilted her head, clearly trying to understand my half of the conversation.
“Why are you driving an Animals car?”
“Because I stole it!”
“You stole—David, start from the beginning!”
He made a strangled sound somewhere between a sob and a frustrated scream. “My mom picked me up from the academy. We were driving home, and there was this corpo limo. Then these Animals came up beside us and started shooting at it. We were between them.”
My blood went cold.
David kept talking, the words tumbling over one another.
“They hit Mom. She got shot, and the car crashed. She went through the door or the window—I don’t know. I woke up, and she was on the road. They were still shooting.”
“Is she alive?”
“Yes. I think so. She’s breathing, but it’s wrong. There’s blood everywhere.”
“What happened to the Animals?”
A pause followed. “I shot them.”
“YOU WHAT?”
“With the Nova you gave me. I killed one. Maybe more—I don’t know. Two were still moving. I took their car and put Mom inside.”
That should have been impossible. Unfortunately, Night City had a flexible relationship with the impossible.
“Where are you taking her?”
“The car found an emergency clinic. I’m almost there.”
It was the same accident. The details were different, but this event was almost exactly what had happened in Cyberpunk: Edgerunners. In canon, Gloria Martinez had been critically injured after their car was caught between the Animals and their target. David had survived. Gloria hadn’t.
“This shouldn’t be happening.” Cortana’s earlier satisfaction had vanished. “The conditions changed. Katsuo is dead. David wasn’t expelled, and Gloria didn’t have to collect him after an academy disciplinary meeting. They should not have been on that highway at the canonical time!”
Yet they had been… The timeline had changed. Katsuo had died in a scav den. David had earned money working for Regina. Gloria knew about his mercenary work. None of this had happened in the original story.
But the accident had found them anyway.
“The probability of the same gang attacking the same type of corporate target while Gloria and David occupied the same relative position—”
Later, I told Cortana mentally.
“John—”
Gloria was alive now. We could argue about fate after we kept her that way.
Cortana fell silent for a fraction of a second.
“You’re right. I’m tracking David’s signal and pulling the vehicle’s navigation data.”
“John?” David said. “Are you still there?”
“I’m here.”
“I don’t know what to do!” His voice broke. For all the gunfire, the stolen vehicle, and the loaded revolver, David was still a frightened kid driving through Night City with his dying mother beside him. “I need you,” he said. “Can you come? Please?”
“...Of course I’ll come.” The answer left my mouth without hesitation.
“Just keep driving. Cortana—I mean, I’ll find you.”
I squeezed my eyes shut. That had been close. David was too panicked to notice.
“Hurry,” he pleaded. The call ended with a burst of static.
Silence returned to my bedroom.
I became aware of Lucy’s weight on my lap again. She was still topless. My eyes dropped involuntarily to her breasts before climbing back to her face. Lucy looked mildly annoyed by where my attention had gone, but concern quickly replaced it.
She climbed off my lap. “I only heard half of that,” she said. “Was that the same David who went into the scav den with you and Rebecca?”
“Yeah.”
“What happened?”
“His mother was caught in a shootout. Animals were trying to kill someone in a corporate limousine, and her car got trapped between them.” I carefully stood. “She was shot, and they crashed. David fought the Animals, stole their car, and he’s taking her to an emergency clinic.”
Lucy frowned. “What clinic?”
“Cortana’s checking.”
Lucy bent down and retrieved her shirt. “The cheap kind?”
“I don’t know.”
“Does David’s mom have trauma coverage?”
I shook my head. “No...”
“Then it’s the cheap kind.” Lucy pulled her shirt over her head. The fabric briefly caught around her hair before she yanked it down over her torso.
I tried not to mourn the loss.
Her expression had become completely serious. “Those places are mostly scams, John.”
“What do you mean, scams?”
“Some might patch a stab wound or sell antibiotics. Anything more complicated than that, you’re gambling with your life!”
“She was shot and thrown out of a crashing car…”
“Then she needs a real trauma surgeon, not whoever happens to be working at a street clinic.” Lucy collected the rest of her clothing as she continued. “The worst clinics are scav fronts. They wait for desperate people without insurance to bring in someone unconscious. If the patient has useful chrome, compatible organs, or anything else they can sell, the patient never comes back out!”
I stared at her. My worry deepened. “You’re serious?”
“You’ve seen what scavs do…” she told me.
Images from the condemned clinic flashed through my mind. Bloodstained surgical tables. Bodies opened for parts. Victims locked in a room while they waited for someone to carve them apart. Katsuo reaching for the gun…the shot that killed him.
David is taking his mother to one of those places?
Gloria’s canonical death returned to me. The story had treated it as another Night City tragedy. She had survived the crash long enough to reach medical care, only for David to learn later that she had died. He had received bills, an urn, and almost nothing resembling a satisfying explanation. At the time, it had seemed like a brutal demonstration of Night City’s healthcare system. Gloria lacked premium coverage, so she received inadequate treatment and died.
But what if that wasn’t the whole truth? What if the crash hadn’t killed her? What if the people who were supposed to save her had decided she was worth more as parts?
“I have the clinic.” Cortana placed its location in my vision. A route appeared beside it, along with David’s rapidly moving signal. “...Its advertised name has changed four times in six years. The current owner is a shell company registered through two additional shell companies. Its medical license is technically valid, but none of the registered physicians appear to work there. Three are dead. One left Night City two years ago.”
A knot formed in my stomach.
Lucy watched my expression. “What did she find?”
“Nothing good.” My hands curled into fists.
“Lucy was right. That isn’t a real clinic.”
“How far away is David?” I asked aloud.
“Eleven minutes… If we had a car. Which we do not…”
Lucy brought the stolen car to a stop so hard that my restraint locked across my chest. The gray sedan rocked once on its suspension before settling beside the curb. Its engine remained running, and several security warnings continued blinking across the dashboard.
The vehicle did not belong to either of us.
When we reached Jackie’s garage, we had found it empty. Jackie and V had already left in V’s Quadra, presumably to find somewhere Mama couldn’t interrupt their murder planning.
With David less than ten minutes from the clinic, waiting for a cab or taking the NCART hadn’t been an option.
Lucy had selected a parked sedan, connected to it, and defeated its security in approximately five seconds.
I still felt guilty. Then again, this was Night City. If someone’s car could be stolen in five seconds, they should have purchased better security.
That logic sounded suspiciously like something a car thief would say.
I would find a way to return it later. Or compensate the owner. Assuming they didn’t shoot me first…
Lucy looked at me from behind the wheel. “You good?”
“...I’m fine.”
She gave me a look that said she knew I was lying but didn’t have time to argue.
Beyond the windshield stood the clinic Cortana had identified. A flickering sign promised affordable emergency care twenty-four hours a day. Half the letters were dark, making the promise considerably less convincing.
Before we went inside, I looked at Lucy. “Thank you for coming.”
Her expression softened. “You don’t have to thank me.”
“You didn’t have to come. You don’t know David or his mom.”
“Of course I had to come!”
“Why?”
Lucy stared at me as if the answer should have been obvious. “I’m your output.”
I blinked.
“You’re my input,” she continued. “That means you’re my boyfriend, I’m your girlfriend, and when you’re hurt and trying to save your friend’s mother, I make sure you don’t do anything stupid!”
Something warm expanded inside my chest. It might have been another internal injury. “You’re my girlfriend…” I repeated. “I guess that’s just sinking in now…”
The label made everything feel suddenly more real.
Lucy Kushinada is my girlfriend. The beautiful, dangerous, moon-obsessed netrunner who had called me a corpo brat when we met had willingly declared herself my girlfriend.
Lucy smiled. “Try to keep up. You didn’t figure it out when I was half naked grinding on you?” Her smile turned wicked. “...And after we save David’s mom, we can go back to your room and pick up where we stopped.”
My brain immediately produced an image of her pulling down those tight shorts.
Lucy noticed my reaction. “You’ll have to scold your friend later,” she added. “He cock-blocked you.”
I sputtered. “You can’t say that while we’re about to enter an emergency clinic.”
“I just did.”
My face felt hot enough to melt the stolen car’s dashboard.
A dissatisfied sound came from inside my head. “Hmph. Me too, John. I am also your…Output. Although I still think this world’s slang is really stupid…” Cortana sounded genuinely offended.
I smiled despite myself. “Of course you are.”
Lucy’s eyes narrowed. “...Cortana?”
“Yeah.”
“Is she complaining?”
“I am asserting my rightful relationship status!”
“She says she’s asserting her relationship status.”
Lucy rolled her eyes. “Tell her she can assert it after we save Gloria.”
“Arrogant picksocket.”
I decided not to relay that part. My attention returned to the clinic. The warmth vanished. “We should go.”
Lucy killed the engine. We climbed out, and I immediately had to brace one hand against the car while my ribs adjusted to standing. Every injury from Carmello’s seemed determined to remind me that Vik had ordered bed rest.
Lucy came around the hood. “You sure you can do this?”
“No.”
“Good answer.” She stayed close enough to catch me if my legs failed, but she didn’t insult me by taking my arm.
A heavily modified Thorton sat crookedly across three parking spaces near the clinic entrance. Animals markings covered its reinforced body. Fresh bullet holes ran along one side, its mirror had been shot away, and blood stained the passenger seat.
David hadn’t parked it so much as abandoned it. “That’s his,” I said.
Lucy examined the damage. “Looks like your academy friend had an interesting drive.”
“He shot three Animals and stole their car.”
“He’s learning quickly.”
“That isn’t a good thing.”
“In Night City, it usually is.”
We approached the clinic. The closer we got, the worse it looked. The exterior cameras were cheap but positioned to cover every approach. A reinforced security door separated the lobby from the treatment area. There were no ambulances, legitimate trauma vehicles, or corporate medical markings.
The front door opened automatically.
The smell hit me first. Disinfectant. Too much of it. It attempted to conceal blood, burned plastic, and something metallic that reminded me of the scav den.
Lucy’s hand drifted toward her wrist.
The lobby consisted of several plastic chairs, a reception desk protected by thick glass, and an old vending machine selling painkillers at extortionate prices.
Two men dressed as orderlies stood near the treatment doors.
Neither looked medically trained.
One had a pistol concealed beneath his stained coat. The other carried a stun baton and had reinforced arms large enough to restrain unwilling patients.
Red outlines appeared around them.
“Both armed,” Cortana warned. “I am detecting six life signs on this floor and additional activity below us.”
Below us.
Clinics generally didn’t need hidden basements.
“Beginning network intrusion…”
Voices came from deeper inside the lobby.
Lucy and I moved past the empty reception desk.
David stood near the secured treatment doors. His academy uniform was covered in blood. More blood had dried across his hands, face, and hair. A cut above his eyebrow had swollen badly, and he looked barely capable of standing.
A man wearing faded surgical scrubs stood in front of him. The man had a cheap optical implant and chrome fingers stained around the joints. His clothing looked medical from a distance, but there was no identification badge or clinic insignia.
He rested one hand on David’s shoulder. “I’m sorry,” the supposed doctor said. “Your mother’s injuries were simply too severe.”
David stared at him. “No.”
“We did everything we could…”
“No, you didn’t.” David’s voice trembled. “I just brought her in…”
“She had suffered catastrophic internal trauma.”
“She was breathing!”
“Agonal respiration can continue after meaningful brain function has ceased.”
David looked as if the man had spoken in another language. “What…? I don’t know what that is…”
“Your mother is dead…”
The words struck David harder than any bullet could have. His shoulders collapsed. His mouth opened, but nothing came out.
I had seen this moment before. Not exactly like this, but close enough. Gloria’s death had broken the last remaining support beneath David’s life. After losing her, he had abandoned the academy, installed the Sandevistan, and entered a world that eventually killed him too.
Canon was trying to drag him toward the same path.
I refused to let it.
“I want to see her,” David said.
“That isn’t possible.”
“Why not?”
“Her remains have already been transferred for processing.”
“PROCESSING!?”
“The clinic’s disposal service. There will be some forms and fees to discuss, but—”
Lucy scoffed. Everyone in the lobby turned toward her. The fake doctor removed his hand from David’s shoulder. “This is a restricted medical area,” he said. “You need to leave.”
“Bullshit.” Lucy walked toward him.
His gaze flicked over her, briefly dismissing her as a thin young woman in street clothes. That was his first mistake. “I don’t know who you think you are,” he began, “but this is none of your—”
Lucy moved. Her thermal monowire emerged with a bright hiss. The glowing wire looped around the doctor’s throat before he could step back. Lucy pulled it taut enough to touch his skin. The smell of burning flesh joined the disinfectant.
He froze.
The two orderlies reached beneath their coats.
I drew my Unity. The motion hurt my shoulder, and my stance was far less steady than I wanted, but the pistol still ended up pointed in their direction.
Cortana painted targeting markers across their heads and torsos.
“Alarm disabled. Security cameras looped. Treatment door controls are mine.”
Lucy stared into the doctor’s eyes. “Cut the bullshit,” she said. “Show me where David’s mother is, or I’ll kill you and every other scav fuck in this clinic.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Lucy tightened the wire. A thin line of blood appeared across his throat. “You’re about to lose the ability to talk. Choose your next words carefully.”
One orderly drew his pistol halfway.
I aimed at him. “Don’t.”
He looked at my bandages and unsteady posture, evidently trying to decide whether I could shoot him.
I hoped he didn’t realize I was asking myself the same question.
David stared at Lucy in shock. Then his eyes moved past her and found me. “John?”
“I’m here.”
His expression fractured. Grief, confusion, and desperate hope fought across his face. “The doctor said she’s dead.”
“We aren’t taking his word for it!”
“She was alive when I brought her in.”
“I know, man…” Behind my eyes, the clinic’s systems unfolded beneath Cortana’s intrusion. Medical monitors, locked rooms, falsified patient files, and equipment inventories flashed through my vision too quickly for me to follow.
“I found Gloria’s intake record.”
What did it say?
“They marked her dead four minutes after admission.”
Could she have died that quickly?
“No examination data was entered. No resuscitation attempt was logged.”
Find her.
“Searching.”
The fake doctor attempted to shift away from Lucy’s wire. She burned another shallow line into his neck. “Where is she?”
“I told you, she’s—”
A new marker appeared in my optics. It rested beyond the secured door, down a corridor, and inside a room labeled Surgical Three.
Beside it, a medical display showed a heartbeat. Weak, but present.
“John, Gloria Martinez is alive.”
I looked at David. “She’s still alive.”
The fake doctor went completely still at my words.
David stared at me as though he was afraid to believe what I had said. “She’s alive?” he whispered.
Before I could answer, the doctor twisted his head toward the two armed orderlies. “KILL THEM!”
Both men drew their weapons.
Heat spread across the back of my neck as Cortana attacked. “Optics disabled. Move.”
Sparks burst from the first orderly’s eyes. He screamed and dropped his pistol, clutching at his smoking implants. The second man cursed as his optics flickered and died, but he managed to finish drawing his weapon. He pointed it blindly toward the sound of our voices.
I raised my Unity. The movement sent pain through my battered shoulder. I gritted my teeth and fired twice into the first man’s chest.
He collapsed against the wall.
The second orderly pulled his trigger.
His shot struck the ceiling, showering the lobby with dust and fragments of cheap paneling.
I turned and fired three more times. Two rounds struck his torso. The third caught him beneath the jaw and snapped his head backward.
He fell beside the reception desk. My ears rang in the sudden silence.
Smoke drifted from the barrel of my pistol. The back of my neck felt warm, but Cortana’s quickhack had produced only a mild thermal spike compared with what she had done at Carmello’s.
I waited for the guilt. It came, but it was quieter than before. Both men had been armed. They had tried to kill us on command, and one had fired in our direction after losing his sight. Leaving them alive would not have been mercy. It would have given them another opportunity to murder me, Lucy, David, or Gloria.
Night City punished hesitation. I hated that lesson, but I was beginning to understand it.
The doctor’s face twisted with fury despite the heated monowire resting against his throat. “You stupid little shits,” he snarled. “That was a mistake. You’re all going to regret this. Backup is already coming!”
David wiped blood from his face with a trembling hand. “You’re the second gonk to tell me that today.”
The doctor glanced at him.
Lucy pulled the wire tighter. A thin line of smoke rose from the doctor’s neck. He was very close to losing his head. “You’re going to take us to Gloria,” she said. “Then you’re going to administer whatever treatment she needs to stay alive.”
“I already told you—”
Lucy moved her wrist slightly. The monowire cut through the outer layer of his skin. “When she’s stable enough to move, we’re taking her to a real ripperdoc,” Lucy continued. “Not fake scav trash like you!”
He gasped.
Something about the way she took control of the situation sent an entirely inappropriate surge of attraction through me. Her voice was cold and certain. Her posture remained perfectly relaxed despite the two bodies on the floor and the threat of incoming reinforcements.
Lucy could kill the doctor with a flick of her wrist, and everyone in the room knew it.
“You have a deeply concerning attraction to terrifying women…”
I couldn’t argue.
Lucy noticed me staring. She winked.
My face warmed.
“Focus, John!”
Right. Dying mother. Scav clinic. Armed reinforcements. Not the time.
“Open the treatment door,” Lucy ordered.
“I need my hand.”
“Use it slowly.”
The doctor raised one trembling hand toward the access panel.
Before he could touch it, the lock flashed green.
“I have the doors,” Cortana said.
The doctor stared at the panel.
Lucy smiled without humor. “Looks like we don’t need your hand after all.”
The treatment corridor beyond the door looked more like the scav den than any legitimate medical facility. Blood stained the seams between the floor tiles. Surgical tools sat in open trays without proper sterilization. Several refrigerated containers lined one wall, each labeled with a string of numbers rather than a patient’s name.
Cortana highlighted three closed doors and the camera above us. “Camera loop maintained. No additional armed personnel on this level. The remaining staff have barricaded themselves downstairs.”
“Room three,” I said.
The doctor looked sharply at me. “HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT?”
“Keep walking!”
David stayed close beside me. The Nova remained tucked into his waistband, but it was empty. His hands shook as adrenaline drained from his body. “John,” he whispered, “are you sure?”
“My… netrunner… found her. Trust me…”
Lucy glanced back at us. “His ‘netrunner’ is pretty good…”
“At last, the picksocket acknowledges my superiority!”
I didn’t relay that out loud…
The doctor stopped outside Surgical Three.
Lucy gestured with her monowire. “Open it.”
The lock disengaged before he could respond.
Gloria lay on a surgical table beneath harsh white lights. Her bloody clothing had been cut away from her side. Cheap monitoring leads covered her chest, and an oxygen tube rested beneath her nose. Blood had pooled beneath her despite the pressure dressing someone had applied over her wound.
A tray beside the table held several surgical instruments. The tools hadn’t been arranged to save her. They had been arranged to take her apart.
David made a broken sound. “Mom!” He rushed to the table.
Gloria didn’t respond when he took her hand. The monitor continued recording a rapid, fragile heartbeat.
David looked at the doctor. “You said she was dead!”
“She was going to die anyway!”
Lucy burned the side of his neck again. “She isn’t dead yet.”
The doctor hissed through his teeth. “Bullet damaged something inside her. The crash caused additional internal bleeding. I don’t have a full diagnostic suite.”
“You have enough equipment to carve people apart,” Lucy said. “Use it to keep her alive.”
The man looked from Lucy to the bodies visible through the open doorway. Then he surrendered. “I need access to the table…”
Lucy released enough tension for him to move but kept the monowire looped around his neck.
The doctor approached Gloria slowly.
Cortana filled my vision with information as she accessed the surgical monitor. “Blood pressure is dangerously low. Heart rate elevated. Oxygen saturation declining. She is entering hemorrhagic shock.”
Can we save her?
A brief pause followed. “Yes, but not here. He can stabilize her. Viktor will need to operate immediately.”
“Tell me what he needs to do…”
Cortana began identifying the clinic’s supplies.
I repeated her instructions aloud. “Start a trauma infusion. Coagulant first, then the cardiovascular support beside it.”
The doctor stared at me. “How do you—”
Lucy’s monowire glowed brighter.
He reached for the medication.
“Blue injector. Not the red.”
“The blue one!”
The doctor picked it up.
Cortana checked the label and dosage before allowing him to administer it.
He inserted an intravenous line, started the infusion, and applied a thick layer of hemostatic foam inside the wound. The expanding material turned dark as it absorbed blood.
Gloria’s heart rate remained dangerously high.
David stood at her head, holding her hand. “You’re gonna be okay,” he whispered. “I got help, Mom. John came. You just have to hold on.”
The doctor reinforced the pressure dressing, fitted Gloria with an oxygen mask, and injected something Cortana identified as a neuroprotective agent. He placed a temporary brace around her neck and sealed a smaller wound near her shoulder. The work took only a few minutes, but every second felt longer.
Finally, the monitor showed Gloria’s blood pressure climbing slightly. Not enough to make her safe. Enough to buy time.
“That’s all I can do without opening her up,” the doctor said. “She needs surgery and blood immediately. Her abdomen is filling. If you move her wrong, she’ll bleed out before you reach the next block.”
“Then we won’t move her wrong,” Lucy said.
The clinic had a collapsible stretcher against the wall. David and I unfolded it while the doctor disconnected Gloria from the fixed equipment. Cortana made us take the portable monitor and infusion pump.
When we transferred Gloria, my cracked ribs protested violently. I nearly lost my grip.
David immediately took more of her weight. “I’ve got her,” he said. His voice still shook, but his hands steadied when they touched his mother.
We secured Gloria to the stretcher and moved her down the corridor.
The doctor followed until Lucy stopped at the lobby door. “If anyone follows us,” she said, “I’ll come back.”
“You think you’re walking away from this?”
Lucy glanced at the two dead guards. “We’re not walking.”
Cortana locked the treatment doors behind us, trapping the doctor inside. “That should delay him for approximately ninety seconds.”
Outside, our stolen gray sedan remained where we had left it. Lucy opened the rear doors.
David and I loaded Gloria while Cortana guided us through my optics, marking where to secure the stretcher and how to keep the infusion elevated. Once she was locked in place, David climbed in beside her.
I followed, pulling the doors closed behind us.
Lucy took the driver’s seat. The engine roared to life. We made it approximately half a block before the first vehicles passed us.
Two heavily modified SUVs raced toward the clinic. Animals markings covered their doors, and armed gangers leaned out through the windows.
More vehicles followed from another street.
Those belonged to scavs. Their vans were unmarked, but Cortana identified their weapons, stolen plates, and communication traffic. “Animals responding to the stolen Thorton. Scavengers responding to the clinic’s distress signal.”
“Are they following us?” I asked.
“I don’t think so,” Lucy said. “We’re just some random people driving a shitty mini-van…” She turned sharply onto a side street as the reinforcements converged behind us.
The Animals reached the parking lot first.
The scavs arrived seconds later.
Neither group asked questions.
One Animal opened fire on a scav van.
The scavs answered with automatic weapons.
The clinic’s front windows exploded. An Animal vehicle rammed through the stolen Thorton David had abandoned, crushing it against the curb. A scav fired a rocket into one of the Animals’ SUVs. The explosion filled the rear camera with light and threw burning debris across the parking lot.
Lucy glanced at the feed in the rear view camera mirror. “Idiots…”
“Sometimes Night City solves its own problems…”
Lucy accelerated away while the two gangs slaughtered each other behind us. For several seconds, the only sounds in the rear compartment were the engine, Gloria’s monitor, and David’s uneven breathing.
Then David started laughing. It was a weak, disbelieving sound. He looked at the blood on his hands and laughed harder.
The laughter turned into a sob. David covered his face. “Holy shit!”
I stayed beside him.
“If you hadn’t shown up…” He struggled to breathe. “That fucker told me she was dead. I believed him… They were going to cut her apart.” His gaze moved to Gloria. “Then the animals tracked the car I stole. They would’ve killed me too, wouldn’t they?”
I didn’t answer quickly enough.
David wiped his eyes with his sleeve. “Thank you, man.”
“You don’t have to—”
“Yes, I do.” He looked at me. “You got expelled because of me. You took me on a gig. You gave me the gun that saved my life. Now you came into that place and saved my mom!” He laughed again, but tears continued running down his face. “I don’t know how I’m ever supposed to pay you back!”
“That’s what… friends… are for…” I hesitated slightly on the word.
Friend. David and I had known each other for only a few days. Initially, I had thought of him as a fictional character whose future I needed to change. Then I had considered him a source of information about the Sandevistan. Cortana and I had already admitted how wrong that was. David wasn’t a character anymore. He wasn’t future equipment or a problem to solve. He was a frightened teenager sitting beside his wounded mother. He had trusted me enough to call when his world collapsed.
He was my friend.
I placed a hand on his shoulder. “We’re friends, David. You don’t owe me anything.”
David lowered his head and cried quietly.
From the driver’s seat, Lucy called back to us. “Five minutes to Viktor’s… I’m sure he’s going to be shocked to see you once again, John.” My Output said with a touch of playful sarcasm.
Mama would hear about this. That realization introduced a new and completely different kind of terror. Vik knew Mama. Misty knew Mama. Within an hour, she would learn that I had ignored her orders, escaped the apartment, helped steal a car, stormed a scav clinic, and killed two men…
After she had specifically asked me to stop nearly dying every other day.
I leaned toward the front. “Lucy? …Can I stay at your place tonight?”
David made a strangled noise. His head snapped toward me.
Lucy looked over her shoulder with a delighted grin. “Of course you can!” Her tone made it clear she remembered exactly where our interrupted bedroom encounter had been going.
My face heated. “It’s not what either of you is thinking!”
“I wasn’t thinking anything!” David said far too quickly.
Lucy laughed. “Why do you want to stay with me?” she asked. “Not that I’m not happy to have you over!”
“...I left the apartment after Mama told me not to. We stole a car. Then we stormed a scav clinic, killed two people, and escaped in the same stolen vehicle…” I listed off everything we did.
Lucy became visibly nervous. She had also promised Mama there would be no funny business. Instead, she had helped me sneak out and enter another life-or-death situation less than fifteen minutes later.
“Avoiding Mama Welles until she calms down is not cowardice,” Cortana declared. “It is sound tactical doctrine.”
David looked between me and Lucy. “Your mom is really that scary?”
“Yes,” Lucy and I answered together.
Gloria’s monitor continued beeping beside us.
XXX