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"River Ward?"
"And you, I take it, are Ghost?"
"Yeah."
"Alright, where are you?"
"Well, we just got to the Night City Police Lab. Where should Smarty-Pants and I meet you?"
"I'm in my car…"
He gave me the make of his car and specified that it was parked on the opposite side of the main entrance. So Judy and I walked over to him, and soon we were sitting in his car.
"Alright? I assume Peter Pan is here?"
"Yeah… and we need to get inside, get the data, and get out…"
I nodded and quickly connected with the girls, and I fell out of the conversation a little. But at the moment, that wasn't too important.
"Snowflake, Mentor, find an access point. I need a map of the lab, just in case we have to go in there, and all the data on Peter Pan…"
I stepped out of the conversation and looked at River.
"What's this guy's real name?"
"Anthony Harris… why?"
"Wait…"
And I went back to talking to the girls.
"…his real name is Anthony Harris. Find everything. Everything you can and can't. Where he was born, where he grew up, where he went to school, and at the same time, find the data on his medical scans in the lab itself. I need Judy to study it before we do anything…"
"Got it…"
"And now…"
I disconnected from the conversation and turned to River.
"…we wait."
"Wait?!"
"Yeah, two good netrunners are now hacking the lab's network, and without going inside, they'll get all the information on this Anthony Harris. Including the data on the condition of his brain, from which Smarty-Pants…"
I gestured to Judy.
"…will tell us if there's any point in going in there, or if it's better to dig somewhere else."
Tch… "I never thought I'd just sit here while netrunners hacked the police network…"
"Well, don't be so dramatic. It's not the police network; it's just the police lab. We're not going to get access to any active investigations. We don't even know what you guys are investigating and what you aren't… so we're only interested in the medical records of this Anthony Harris. And after that, we'll hack into other systems and find out everything we can and can't about him."
Tch…
It took the girls about ten minutes to carefully get into the Night City Police Lab's network, and then another ten minutes to find the right data, which they immediately forwarded to Judy.
"It's mush…"
That was the first thing she said after she looked at the data.
"Huh?"
"I said his brain is mush. The only reason he hasn't flatlined yet is because his chrome has partially taken over his life support systems. Other than that, there's almost nothing left of his brain. Of course, we could use the technology Regina talked about… but the chances of us getting anything are so low that it's just pointless."
"So what do we do?! Give up?!"
I shook my head.
"Who said we were giving up?"
I sighed.
"We're not giving up. Let's try to track his route…"
"You think I haven't tried?!"
"I think you're an honest cop. At least, that's what Regina said about you… I don't know and I don't want to know how and where you met her, but she vouched for you, so we'll do everything in our power to help… and for starters, tell me what server the file on this Peter Pan is on. We need to get access to it."
Ugh… "Night City Police Main Headquarters…"
I nodded at the name and address that River gave me, then looked at him intently.
"I assume that telling you we can handle it and you can go home would be pointless?"
"Yeah…"
He gave me a grim look and nodded as if to add more weight to his words.
"Alright, then you're following us…"
I got out of the car and went to the Thorton. Judy followed me, and soon Panam floored the gas. We had to drive a couple of blocks to the new destination. River's car got lost somewhere in the traffic. He just couldn't keep up with Panam. She was already a first-class driver, but now, after getting her racer chrome, she was on a whole other level.
"We're here."
"Ladies, do you need my help?"
"Nah… the access point is right there…"
Judy gestured to an unremarkable panel on the side of the building, next to which we had stopped.
"…it looks like that one is for the Night City Police Main Headquarters. So we'll just hack into it carefully… should we look for anything else?"
"Well, if you can find the locations of the Scav bases that the corrupt cops aren't touching, that would be good. But the priority is still this Peter Pan."
"Got it. Well, we're connecting…"
River only pulled up about seven minutes later, when Judy, Lucy, and Kiwi were already in the middle of their work.
"Well, how's it going?"
"We're working…"
"Got it…"
This time, they needed a little more time. This wasn't some intercontinental corporation like Arasaka or Militech, or even a local corporation like the Night Corp, or its "branch," MaxTac. But the Night City Police Main Headquarters also had some pretty good ice. So it took them about half an hour to hack into it.
Then they spent some more time looking for the information. I did, however, get a few messages from the girls with the locations of Scav bases that the corrupt cops weren't touching, since the thugs were paying for protection. There were even reports about who was taking how much and which of their bosses they were sharing it with!
I could sell that information to Regina. I think she would appreciate having some dirt like that. And I would also have to sell the chrome through someone. After all, I could only sell one or two locations to Saul, and not even in full. What would I do with the rest? But with Regina, a ton of cheap chrome could end up in the hands of all the vetted rippers in Night City…
"Alright…"
"Did you find something?"
All this time, while the girls were hacking the main headquarters and looking for the data, he was pacing back and forth next to the Thorton. And he was looking at me with a slightly anxious gaze. The moment I showed any reaction, he was right next to the car window.
"Well… we figured out where he was arrested, the make and number of his car, and his direction of travel."
I frowned.
"Only, for some reason, there's no data on the camera footage from the highway… and there's a ton of cameras there. They only don't get checked in one case…"
"Someone didn't want them to…"
"Exactly…"
I nodded. I had also taken advantage of a similar selective blindness from the cops, though through Regina, when the Wraiths attacked us on the highway. So I knew perfectly well how all of this worked.
"Alright, so… we have to go to one of the Night Road servers, a subsidiary of the Night Corporation. That's where the camera footage should be stored. And let's hope the data hasn't been purged yet, and that they just stopped at paying off the cops so they wouldn't check them. After all, that's a lot cheaper than bribing, even a small corporation, to purge its servers of data."
"And what are we waiting for?"
"We're waiting for the girls to check if they missed anything and to clean up their tracks. After all, this isn't just a lab; it's the Main Police Headquarters…"
I shook my head.
"The ice here has to be pretty good, so we have to be careful and not take any chances. I don't need any problems with the cops…"
"Yeah?"
River smirked.
"Yeah. For your information, I don't even like working against corporations. My targets are mostly gangs, or more specifically, the ones who have gone too far. Rarely individual corporate employees. But I've never worked against Arasaka or Militech. And cops… even though a lot of you are corrupt, working against you…"
I shook my head.
"…can lead to some big problems…"
"Got it. So you're making sure you don't cross the big boys and girls?"
River smirked.
"Uh-huh…"
I shrugged nonchalantly.
"…I have more than just my life and freedom on my shoulders. I also have the lives and freedom of these girls. So I have to be very serious about the jobs we take on and the fixers we work with."
"We're done…"
Judy opened her eyes and informed me that they were done working, so I nodded at River.
"We'll meet at the next location, or you could go to your nephew's mom and try to calm her down, and we'll call you when we find out something about his location."
"I…"
"You should go to the kid's mom, choom…"
Becca looked at River seriously.
"…she probably needs some support right now. And you're just… standing around here… no, if it were someone else, they might have needed your guidance… but we can handle it ourselves. If we need anything, we'll contact Regina to get more details…"
"Alright… I get it…"
River nodded and, after a shaky turn, headed for his car.
"Alright, where to next?"
"Our netrunners are going to tell us where to look for the footage from the cameras we need…"
And they did tell us, but they weren't sure about the exact location, so they gave us three places at once. The thing is, Peter Pan's route went through a kind of disputed territory, the exact ownership of which was impossible to determine from public data.
I nodded at Panam, and she chose the closest location to us. Then she stepped on the gas, and with a little screech of the tires, the Thorton took off.
"Do you think we'll find him?"
I glanced at Becca, who had asked that question.
"I think so… the only question is if he's even alive right now, and if he is, will he still be alive when we've gone through the whole chain of events that will allow us to find him."
"Man… so we're working for the cops…"
She shook her head.
"…I never thought something like that could happen."
"Come on, if he's an honest cop, then why not? Besides, we're not working for a cop; we're working for Regina. It was at her request that we took on this job now, instead of just resting…"
"Uh-huh, you would have rested, wouldn't you… we heard you planning that threesome with Judy and Panam… and when are you going to pay attention to me and Lucy?!"
"Hey…"
Lucy looked at Becca with a little indignation.
"What 'hey?' Kiwi's the one who's got it bad for Pilar… but you and I are single, and David is a good-looking guy… so we could at least get a piece of him…"
"And what about our opinion? Doesn't that matter to you?"
Panam spoke up.
"Come on, choom, we can definitely come to an agreement among ourselves. The main thing is our big boss's decision. We can come to an agreement, but what if he doesn't agree?"
"Well…"
I glanced at Becca.
"You and Lucy are definitely my type, and Kiwi… at first, when we first started working together, I was a little suspicious and… a little prejudiced toward her, but now everything has changed…"
"Especially after she finally got a bio-prosthesis under her mask, huh?"
Judy decided to get a little sarcastic.
"I can't deny that it affected my opinion. Though it wasn't so much the bio-prosthesis as it was the fact that she made what was under her mask aesthetically pleasing. And even if she had done it with regular chrome instead of a bio-implant, I would still have been staring at our beauty."
Ahem…
Kiwi pulled the high collar of her jacket up to her face, clearly embarrassed by my words.
"…the other thing is, as you said, you guys haven't come to an agreement with my girlfriends yet. And without that agreement, I won't allow myself to do anything more than just be curious and stare from afar."
Tch… "He's so principled…"
"That's why they chose him…"
Panam glanced at Becca.
"…alright, we'll talk with you guys later. But for now, we're approaching the destination…"
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