Things continued to move as the week progressed. My two week timer kept counting down, and I kept putting together various small things from Westworld. While most of their tech was far below what I had had access to, some of their medical innovations proved to be interesting. Unfortunately, it was usually interesting because it utilized a cool trick or creation, rather than doing something groundbreaking, at least to me.
For example, they had a small internal device used to treat diabetes that sparked a few ideas. The enzymes used to make stimpaks were rather simple and space-efficient, meaning I could put them into an implant pretty easily. With a bit of problem-solving, it would be rather easy to create a small implant that slowly siphons off blood from your body, converts it into stimpak liquid, and holds it for later use. Then, with proper connection to a monitoring device, which I could easily create with Fallout tech, it could read when the body was injured and inject a certain amount of healing juice. The fact that it wasn't targeted made it less efficient, but having a ready-to-inject stimpak inside you at all times would be incredibly useful, and potentially life-saving.
It would likely have to be attached to your intestines somewhere, as the stimpak creation process created a lot of semi-liquid waste, but that was a small price to pay for on-tap, guaranteed healing. Plus, I could set it up to take it slow, so as not to affect the person's blood pressure and to keep waste to a minimum over time.
I sketched out a basic idea to work with before saving it for later and continuing to work on Westworld tech.
As I was building, Mary and Murtaugh continued hunting scavs, clearing hundreds of dangerous people from the city. Mary asked for clarification frequently, and I was happy to see that she was drawing a very good line when it came to who was an acceptable target, who was questionable, and who we should stick to scare tactics with, or even ignore. Some nuanced concepts needed to be explained, but honestly, I wouldn't have been surprised if a normal person had the same sort of gaps.
A few days after the original raids were complete, Mary reached out to Sable and I, waking us up in the middle of the night. We both, rather reluctantly, woke up enough to listen to what she needed to tell us.
"We have someone approaching the base," she explained. "They are covered in optical camo, but we have gotten enough of a look at their face to figure out who it is."
A 2D image appeared beside her on her projection point, showing a middle-aged man in his forties, with a rough five o'clock shadow and dark blond hair. He looked tired, even though the image appeared to be from a press docket of some kind.
"Meet Luke Watts, reporter for Night City Today, the third most popular news source in Night City," She said. "He has a reputation for being relatively clean and putting out good news articles. Only four corporate ad references in the last month."
"That's pretty low," Sable said with a frown. "Mary, could you send some of his stuff to my tablet?"
Mary nodded, and Sable picked up one of the thin data tablets we used. We had likely moved past the need for them, if I was honest, especially since I could just download things with my computer interface and read them that way, but there was something nice about reading with something in your hands.
"How close is he?" I asked as Sable started to skim through his.
"At his current speed, he will be at the entrance in an hour and thirteen minutes," She responded. "Normally, we would turn away or kill anyone trying to infiltrate, informing you later when you are free, but his record made me interested."
"Good call, Mary. I recognize some of these stories," she admitted. "Some of them were done anonymously… and this one wasn't even connected to NCT, which is good because mocking that corp is definitely a death sentence…"
She trailed off as she pushed back into the reading, scanning through a few more articles before putting down the tablet.
"How do you feel about letting him see a few things?" She asked. "It would go a long way to de-mystifying the town and our factories, which in turn would help convince people to trust the towers."
"I don't hate it," I admitted, making a so-so gesture with my hand. "Can he be trusted not to sensationalize or bullshit to get more views?"
"From what I read? Yeah," Sable said with a nod, before looking at Mary. "What do you think?"
"His articles, including the ones he hasn't taken credit for to protect himself, are well done, and as far as I can tell, factual," Mary commented, standing a bit straighter as she was asked for her opinion. "Some of his financial records indicate bribes, but reading his emails and messages, it's nothing too egregious. In Night City, he is as close to a good, ethical reporter as we could likely recruit. He was also part of the tour of the resort."
"Okay, so we bring him in, show him the town and the factories," I agreed. "It's not like bits and pieces haven't already leaked out from our employees. What else?"
"Does there need to be anything else?" Sable asked, raising her eyebrow. "That's already a pretty good scoop for him."
"Sure, but he is going to have a lot of questions," I pointed out. "Things like where are we getting our materials, where is our ridiculous production coming from. What do we tell him?"
"Nothing?" Sable asked, tilting her head to the side in confusion. "Tell him the first stages of our production are top secret or something. What is he going to do, force you?"
"No, but if the point is to satisfy people's curiosity and make them feel safer using our products and moving into our buildings, then isn't hiding things counterintuitive?"
"What? No, Jay, this is already an insane level of openness," she explained, patting my shoulder. "Trust me, people are going to be shocked you let him walk around, take pictures, and talk to our workers about what they are experiencing. Sure, some people will point out that you didn't reveal everything, but this isn't for them. They were never going to trust us anyway."
"Fair enough, I'll head out and greet him," I said, before slowly smirking. "Mary… You said it will be an hour before he gets to the front gate?"
"And then some."
"Good," I said, continuing when Sable gave me a curious look. "He is trying to break in. Only fair to put the fear of god into him."
Sable shook her head and lay back in bed, while I told Mary to send a message to Riggs, as he would likely be annoyed if I went out without him, even if I was going to use a doppelganger. I then lay back, connecting to my level two doppelganger. I then got dressed in a simplified version of my ostentatious gold and black corpo outfit, and made my way outside to the courtyard. By the time I left, Riggs was already waiting for me.
"Mary said we had an intruder?"
"Yeah, but we can use it to our advantage," I explained. "Let's go grab some stealth suits."
Riggs nodded, and together we started heading to the teleporter hub, taking a trip down to the mass production cavern. As usual, it was busy handling a solid chunk of our production, with its current major projects being the second wave of our exploratory ships, the starting parts for our new vault, and the production of parts and ingredients for our factories. Once we grabbed the stealth armor, we headed back up to the surface, and I had to resist the urge to cloak for the whole way.
"We got a good forty-five minutes," I said to Riggs, checking the time through my computer interface. "Feels like a good time for a late-night snack."
We made our way to one of the several new food places in our small town. Since they were run by robots and essentially cost us nothing, they were always open, meaning I could grab a pile of wings and some fries, sitting down at a nearby bench.
"So how's it going with you, Riggs?" I asked. "We may spend a bunch of time together, but these days we don't talk much."
"You are usually busy when I am guarding you," Riggs responded. "I am well."
"How did Kaytlyn react to learning Missy and Jackie are getting married?"
"While she is glad they are happy, she thinks marriage is pointless," He responded. "There is no useful benefit, and I find myself agreeing."
"It's not for everyone," I agreed with a shrug, swallowing a bite of chicken. "Some people see the symbolism as beautiful, some people just don't get the point."
"I fail to see how the symbolism affects us, so I am glad she feels the same," He admitted. "I… think I may still find some way to commemorate our relationship. Someday, at a milestone, perhaps a piece of jewelry or something to display."
"That's a good idea," I agreed with a nod. "I'm sure she would appreciate that, as long as you don't get anything over the top."
We continued to chat while I finished my food, eventually heading out to the front gate, now completely invisible and making no sound. It was a bit disconcerting, actually, as such a high level of sound negation affected us as well, and standing in a bubble of silence was actually pretty disconcerting. Thankfully, Riggs wasn't affected, and I could use my computer interface to make up for the loss of all normal noise.
Plus, I actually couldn't see Riggs, and he couldn't see me, so we could only navigate by footprints and tracking from our sensor net, which Murtaugh was feeding into our helmets. We could still talk, of course, since we were connected by tangled photons, but that had its limitations.
Once we were outside the town, it didn't take long for Murtaugh to lead us to him. Judging from his previous path, we estimated where he would go next, so we sat down on a rock to wait. We had to adjust a few times as he moved, but eventually he was close enough. I turned off my sound dampening and finally spoke up.
"Alright, friend, I think that's far enough."
The reporter froze as I spoke, slowly turning to face me. Even with his optical camo engaged, his face was covered in enough dust for me to make out his expression, and I had to partially turn off the connection to my doppelganger so he wouldn't hear me laughing. I deactivated my cloak, prompting Riggs to do so as well a moment later. When I managed to get a hold of myself, I pulled off my helmet.
I almost broke again as his jaw dropped when he saw who I was.
"Luke Watts, I can't say this was your smartest choice," he said, passing his helmet to the second armored man. "But Sable says you're not a half-bad reporter. So…how about we make a deal?"
I watched him stare back, and after a few minutes, I began to wonder if I had broken him. Finally, he started to talk, stuttered, paused, collected his thoughts, and started again.
"A deal?" he asked, somehow managing to wrangle control of his voice. "What kind of deal?"
"The kind of deal where I give you a tour, and we don't kill you for trying to break in," I explained with a raised eyebrow. "I'll answer some questions, you can look around, even talk to some of the employees."
"And…Can I write an article?" He asked, sounding deeply suspicious.
"And you can write an article," I agreed, standing up and holding up my hand. "So why don't you disengage that optical camo, and we can head inside. I can give you a tour around town to kill time before the morning shift starts."
He stared at my hand for a long while, likely wondering if he was about to shake hands with the devil, before eventually reaching out and taking it. I helped him to his feet and patted his shoulder.
"Good choice," I said with a smile. "So, how about we start with the wall? Not many people get to see it from the inside looking out."
I walked the reporter back towards the town, ignoring the pair of Spartans that fell in behind me, though I had to hold back yet another chuckle at Luke's expression. I led him up to the walls and walked him around the perimeter. I didn't really provide much specific information about our defences, but I did pause so he could get a look at the heavy cannon and anti-personnel weapons that dotted the wall.
At this point, they were basically ancient, and due for an update, something I made a note about and added to our update list. They didn't necessarily need to be replaced with something completely new, since the design methodology was solid, but they definitely needed some serious revitalization.
I also wanted to consider building larger weapons scattered throughout the surrounding area, ones that could be hidden underground and deployed as needed. The cannons were potent pieces of equipment, but with enough armor, they could be stopped.
I had also all but abandoned my dedicated anti-missile defenses, since we all had instant teleportation systems to the vault. Now that my town had people who didn't have that luxury, yet, it was time to re-examine that concept.
After showing off the soon-to-be-changed weapons, we headed back into the town, showing off its features, starting with the newest additions, the plant pots that dotted the entire area. There were hundreds of them throughout the lived-in sections of the town, and about half that around the factory and office buildings. I had Mary activate one of them so he could see the process of changing them out.
"Why not just use fake plants?" He asked with a frown. "Each of these must cost you a fortune."
"Take a deep breath," I suggested, ignoring the strange look and waiting for him to do it. "Do you notice anything?"
His look of confusion slowly faded away, before he tilted his head and took another one. Eventually, he opened his eyes and looked at me with a frown.
"What is that?" he asked, sounding baffled. "That… It smells…Good, but not like a real scent."
"That, my friends, is fresh air," I said with a smile. "Or, at least, the closest you could possibly get in North America. You remember those spinning things built around the walls?"
"Yes, I assumed they were wind farms of some kind," He admitted.
"Powerful air purifiers, capable of pulling a significant portion of harmful materials out of the air," I explained. "Alone, they are inefficient, but there are hundreds of them around the town, and more on roofs. Together, they clean the air of nearly all the smog and dangerous crap. But clean air isn't the same as fresh air. Fresh air comes from nature. But since rain is still deadly to most plants, we can't exactly leave them out and about. Hence the lowering mechanisms."
"Huh… I didn't notice it before, but now that you pointed it out… It's a big difference," he admitted, sounding a bit surprised. "Impressive. Any plans to sell them to the public?"
"If I thought they would help, I would give them out for free," I admitted with a frown. "Unfortunately, they need to be precisely placed, both because of their support and because they give rise to some serious interference with communication equipment. Just putting one down wouldn't really help much, and it would really piss off the neighbors."
He seemed to get the picture, though it was clear he didn't know what to do with the information. He could obviously detect the difference, but he had grown up in a time where the concept of "fresh air" meant a deep breath that didn't make you cough blood.
The slight feel of nature didn't exactly mean much to him, though now that it was pointed out to him, hopefully that would change.
The tour continued, eventually arriving at one of the restaurants around town for an early breakfast. By now, we had explored all over the place, including some of the apartments, taking a look inside the rooms. I was proud of how they had turned out, and Luke was impressed, though also confused when I explained we didn't have any suites or larger apartments.
"There isn't enough room for me to start building things like luxury rooms or anything," I explained. "Eventually, I might include some level of variance, but for now it's better to keep it simple. Besides, I don't feel like dealing with people looking down on someone because their rooms are inferior or stuff like that."
After Luke absolutely demolished his breakfast, we made our way to one of our factories. The town was starting to come alive, and he got a chance to see the various assembly rooms, as well as interview workers. He, of course, asked a lot of questions, and I answered what I could, but drew a clear line. He was surprisingly gentle with his pushing, but then again, I did catch him attempting to break in, so he was probably just worried I would get sick of his bullshit and kill him.
I would have likely only tossed him out if I got that annoyed.
When he was done, I sent him home courtesy of one of our vehicles and a Spartan unit. It was overkill, but I wanted to be sure he was gone, not trying to sneak back in when we turned around. Not that he would make it any closer the second time.
When I was done escorting him around, I returned my doppelganger to its room and went to find Sable. She was still in Cassie's apartment, enjoying breakfast with Cassie. Seeing as my doppelganger was the one who ate, not me, I sat down with an empty stomach and a smile, serving myself a bowl of fruit and a breakfast sandwich.
"How did it go?" Sable asked. "Did he cause any issues?"
"No, pretty sure he was just glad I was reacting so well to finding him," I explained. "He seemed reasonable. If his article is any good, I might ask for him specifically for a background look at the towers."
After finishing breakfast, I headed down to the workshop. I spent most of the day switching back and forth between making new Westworld tech, doing my best to expand my knowledge across every field of engineering I could, and making my own creations. While it was nice to work on both, my own creations mostly consisted of helping Samwise get through the list of necessary updates, redesigns, and more that I had piled on him. Admittedly, he and his team tore through the things I passed on to him pretty quickly, but it was only fair that I chipped in when I could.
By the end of the thirteenth day of the Westworld cycle, I was pretty sure that I had gotten everything I could want from it. Quite a few mundane things, quite a few luxuries, and a few handfuls of tech that actually stood out as unique.
All that was left to do for the cycle was open the towers to the public and finally let people in. Doing so would mark the next part of our journey, where we could finally start taking control of Night City, fortifying it, and making serious changes.
At the same time, we would be preparing for conflict, since as we were making Night City our bastion, it was likely that most of the world would be watching us, and it was impossible to predict how they would react, beyond the near guarantee that someone would fuck up, and we would have to defend ourselves.