Gloria's Business

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Moonlit night.

Beside Heavy Hearts, wrapped in emerald neon, was the spot where drinkers came out for air and conversation.

Rock-punk graffiti covered the wall, and laughter drifted over from time to time.

Cade looked at the sky. His drink held a full block of ice, water dripping steadily near his feet.

"Champagne is meant to be drunk while it still has bubbles."

Rebecca leaned against the railing, slid over beside him, and drank deep with a satisfied smile.

Cade nodded. The bitter liquor made his brow crease slightly.

Rebecca's expression turned teasing. "Wait. Can you not drink? That is so innocent."

Refusing to admit defeat, Cade poured down a large mouthful of champagne. The next second, bubbles escaped through his nose.

Rebecca clutched her stomach and pointed at him, laughing hard.

"Show-off."

Cade coughed and wiped champagne from his mouth. "You look more like one."

When Rebecca finished laughing, she shot back unhappily, "Do not underestimate me. I'm not that much younger than Pilar."

Cade raised his hand to the top of his own head, then slowly lowered it to the black clips holding Rebecca's twin tails.

The meaning did not need words.

Rebecca grabbed his clothes at once, trying to climb him and punch him in the head.

After enough messing around, Rebecca collapsed to the ground, swinging her legs. The alcohol had made her a little warm, and she had pulled her jacket zipper down. Pale-pink tattoos spread over her chest.

"Keep staring and I take your eyes."

Cade withdrew his gaze awkwardly. He had only wanted to see what the tattoo meant.

Really.

Near a distant barrel fire, Heavy Hearts customers danced with bottles in hand, as if the music could make them forget this was Dogtown, where bodies turned up everywhere.

"You are really weird," Rebecca said.

It sounded like she was talking to herself, but also to Cade.

"Every job, whenever you see something new, you look like a rookie. But then you act like you know exactly what you are doing. Head full of tricks. Good boss in Dogtown. Takes us along and makes us a pile of money."

"Pilar says you are too nice. Like a scammer who knows how to trap people. You know crews like ours do not usually get work this steady."

"This stretch has been pretty comfortable."

Cade mentally whistled.

She had seen through a lot.

Rebecca, as he understood her, only acted like she did not care about anything. In reality, she noticed plenty.

Everyone could feel the boss Rook's favoritism.

As for Cade acting amazed whenever he saw new things, that was only a transmigrator's shock.

Imagine it.

A city wrapped in data streams and neon suddenly made real. Future technology, cyberware, netrunning, all of it fields his old world had never touched, and all of it now directly tied to him. Awe was a normal response.

"Was the army that restrictive?"

"What?"

Cade realized Rebecca was asking about his body's former life in Barghest.

He had the original owner's memories, but the feeling was fragmented, like watching a movie someone else had acted in.

"Maybe. It was Dogtown. Training every day, working for Hansen, sometimes burying dead brothers. That was it."

Cade honestly described what he remembered.

Rebecca made a small sound and went quiet for a moment.

"Hey, asshole. How did you know my name?"

Cade said nothing.

What was he supposed to say?

Should he tell Rebecca not to meet a boy named David Martinez, tell Maine not to install a Projectile Launch System, tell Dorio not to take Trauma Team bullets for the man she loved, or tell Pilar not to approach a cyberpsycho while the man was taking a leak?

Or tell her he knew the trajectory of their lives, that Rebecca would die under Arasaka Tower, torn apart by Adam Smasher?

He could not say any of it. He did not even understand his own future.

This city blinded people with cutting-edge technology and bizarre lives.

No one could live cleanly and untouched.

"Your boss told you?"

Rebecca did not seem to expect him to answer. Everyone had secrets. She understood.

Cade shook his head. "Maybe that person mentioned your crew when introducing you."

"That person?" Rebecca's big eyes filled with confusion.

"Mm-hm. A hacker from the far side of the world. Back when the boss needed people for a job, he learned your name."

Cade nodded inwardly.

Yes. Earth. An old-world player named Cade Mercer.

Perfectly reasonable.

Rebecca could be surprisingly simple sometimes. She actually nodded as if this nonsense made sense.

"So that's why you did not snipe us dead when we went looking for the hacker den. You were already not Hansen's man by then. Hands found out, sold you, and used us as bait. That it?"

What Rebecca had filled in did not fully match the facts, but one thing was right.

Hansen wanted him dead, and Hands had gone fishing.

Cade had held back. He had been sold out. He had not known Barghest would truly come for him either.

That moment, the severed arm and the smell of death, was when Cade finally accepted that he was a living bottom-feeder in Night City, not some player standing above the board.

"Maine sent you, right?"

Cade did not look at Rebecca. His mind moved quickly, and he understood what people wanted.

Rebecca's doubts were probably Maine's doubts too.

There was no free lunch.

Cade used the identity of Rook to find work for everyone and help them make money, apparently at no cost.

At least in Maine's eyes, the mysterious fixer Rook was taking jobs with corporate backing. The pay was generous too.

For edgerunners used to licking blood off the knife edge, that was very attractive.

Rebecca looked a little embarrassed. "My brother was right. You really are smart."

Cade smiled and lightly clinked his glass against hers.

"Dogtown is complicated. Hansen has trusted people like Yuri, Jago handling books, plus gangs, Scavs, Animals, Voodoo Boys. You want me to find those people for the boss instead?"

Cade needed manpower to rise. Dogtown was full of predators eating predators. No matter what, he would not partner with gang trash for daily work.

"And thank Maine for the money. Truly."

The gratitude was real. Cade also did not plan to transfer the money back. Sometimes accepting someone's care was a form of courtesy.

"Thank him yourself," Rebecca said thoughtfully. "But yeah. Those net weirdos? Maine and the rest of us never dealt much with them."

"Sasha told us they do all their damage online."

Cade paused.

Rebecca thought he did not know Sasha.

"Oh. Forgot you do not know. Our crew has a hacker. Very cute girl. Kind of like a cat." Rebecca introduced her openly, then waggled her brows. "What, want to meet a cute babe?"

Cade had no answer for this walking disaster of a person.

"But Maine won't let her come to Dogtown. Sasha has called me a few times. Dorio too."

Rebecca sighed and hugged her knees, speaking slowly beside Cade. "She is hard to read. Really smart. But Maine thinks she should not eat from the edgerunner bowl. Her sister looks down on us because she went to a police academy and apparently wants NCPD."

So that was how it was. Cade understood.

Sasha probably could have lived a better life without committing crimes on the Net.

Maine's thinking made sense too. That careful big brother was trying to protect her.

The two of them looked at the moon in silence.

Rebecca muttered, "Anyway, do not do that stupid thing again. Jumping out to catch bullets for me."

"Also, Maine says you have too much chrome. You should stop."

Cade nodded with a serious face. "Next time you block for me. But with your build..."

Rebecca's teeth clenched as she sprang up.

Maine and the others came out of Heavy Hearts to find Rebecca repeatedly smacking Cade on the head while he wore the dead-eyed expression of a man with thick skin and no regrets.

"There they go again," Dorio said helplessly.

Maine chuckled. Pilar smoked with total indifference.

"You asshole. Stop attacking my body!"

Rebecca's embarrassed shout echoed above the lively barrel fires of Heavy Hearts.

...

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