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Chapter 105 c
🕑 Added 2025-03-15 16:03:01 +0000 UTCChapter 105 c
Maine spent a long time in silence before finally agreeing not to upgrade his cyberware any further, at least for now.
He also took Leo’s advice and stopped running with Faraday. Instead, he decided to side with El Capitán.
One piece of good news after another followed. A few days later, T-Bug, the female cop, and Juliet all called to express their gratitude. They even transferred several thousand eurodollars to Leo as a token of thanks.
Juliet felt no resentment toward Leo for killing her sister, Rose. Instead, she seemed relieved. Maybe in this world, there were no true cyberpsychos—only the sickness of poverty. She had spent her life savings on her sister and driven her husband away. Now, with her sister freed by death, she felt freed herself.
Ever since her husband, Sai, had left home, he had stayed at the Sunset Motel waiting for her. While El Capitán helped Juliet find a reliable ripperdoc, he also tracked down Sai, and Sai returned to her side. They couldn’t simply go back to how things were before, but at least their nearly broken family hadn’t been destroyed. Neither Juliet nor Sai forgot that it was Leo who reunited them and gave them a chance at a new life. Juliet made it clear that if Leo ever needed her help, all he had to do was ask.
Meanwhile, the NCPD officers Leo had rescued had once mentioned he deserved a medal. He thought they were just being polite. To his surprise, a week later the NCPD privately presented medals to him, Lucy, and Rebecca for their brave act in saving those officers. At first, the three of them looked baffled. Then Leo watched Commissioner Jerry Fort on TV, boasting that he alone was responsible for wiping out the Eden gang. It turned out those medals were basically hush money.
Dirty politics at its finest.
…
A woman walked alone along a deserted street in the Northern Industrial District late at night. The darkness was deep, and only the cold glow of streetlights lit her way. Locals called this area “Little Taiping Zhou.” It lay in the northern part of Watson, far more desolate than Little Chinatown or Kabuki in the south. Even the NCPD didn’t bother much with patrolling here.
It hadn’t always been like this. Decades ago, the Northern Industrial District had been packed with factories, providing thousands of jobs and fueling Night City’s economy. Back then, people used to call it “Little Manchester.” But after the Unification War of the ’60s and ’70s, Saburo Arasaka returned to Night City, and Watson’s prosperity quickly faded. Arasaka’s lawyers and bankers pushed all other interests out of the district, carved out the western portion behind walls, and called it Arasaka Waterfront. The capital fled, leaving the old factories to rust away like abandoned husks.
Despite rampant crime and a worsening security situation, this district had one advantage no one could ignore: the rent was cheap. Just a few thousand eurodollars a month could get you a decent apartment of dozens of square meters—far better than a flimsy shack or cramped trailer. That was reason enough for the woman to live here.
The street remained deathly silent as she hurried home, glancing around as though worried someone might be tailing her. Suddenly, a noise made her jump. It came from a nearby alley. Tiptoeing closer, she found a stray cat on a trashcan lid and breathed a sigh of relief—just her imagination.
She had good reason to be on edge, though: people had been vanishing in the Northern Industrial District at night. Commissioner Fort had appeared on TV, promising a thorough investigation, but after a week of coming up empty-handed, the NCPD stopped acknowledging the disappearances altogether.
Normally, the woman worked from six in the evening to six in the morning, so she wouldn’t be out so late. An emergency had forced her to take leave, catch the subway from Kabuki to the Northern Industrial District, and then walk home alone in the dark. She felt a bit safer knowing she was only two blocks away from home.
Just then, she spotted a car approaching from up ahead, its headlights so bright she had to shield her eyes. She stepped aside and waited, relieved when it seemed to pass her by. But her relief didn’t last long—she noticed from the shadows on the ground that the car had turned around and was heading back toward her.
She tried to stay calm and kept walking, but the car drew closer, its glaring headlights locking onto her like a spotlight. Finally, terror overwhelmed her, and she sprinted. The car sped up as well, following right behind like a cat playing with a mouse. When her legs grew tired and her pace slowed, the car pulled in front of her and stopped. Its doors swung open, and several heavily tattooed men got out. Before she could resist, they bundled her inside. The engine revved, and the car sped off, leaving the street silent once more, as though nothing had happened.
.......
..
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Two days later…
At the Mox headquarters in Lizzie’s Bar, Susie—leader of the Mox—sat in a dimly lit room lined with screens on the walls. She frowned at the data on the monitors, lost in thought. Suddenly, the door behind her opened, and a Mox girl stepped in. Her hair was dyed in a gradient from green to pink, with bangs covering half her face. She wore only a small white tank top, leaving her neck, shoulders, and arms covered in tattoos. Black suspenders completed the outfit.
Seeing the newcomer, Susie rubbed her temples. “What now, Judy?”
The girl named Judy was relatively new to the Mox. She used to work at Clouds—not as a doll, but editing braindances—and had once been tangled in a complicated relationship with Maiko Maeda, the second-in-command there. Something happened, they fell out, and Judy cut ties with Maiko before leaving Clouds for good. Susie had taken Judy in, giving her a home and a job.
It was a decision she both loved and hated.
She loved Judy because her skill at creating braindances was among the best in Night City. It was a stroke of luck for the Mox to hire such top talent without an enormous salary. And indeed, ever since Judy joined, Lizzie’s Bar had seen its braindance sales skyrocket several times over. The girls were making more money than ever.
But still…there were times Judy tested Susie’s patience.
And right now, Susie could only brace herself for whatever Judy wanted to say next.
