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"Listening..."
"Ghost, I need to meet with your runners."
"Dex, call them. Why are you bothering me?"
"They aren't answering my calls and..."
"And what do you want from me?"
I cut him off, not wanting to listen to his complaints about my girls.
"What, am I supposed to drag them to you by their hair? What do you even think that looks like?"
"Just tell them and..."
"Tell them what? Dex, if they don't want to talk to you, am I supposed to force them?"
"I..."
"You. You were already bothering them with your calls, and when one of them told you to fuck off, you decided to call me? Although, judging by the time that's passed since the call, you probably tried to call the other girls first... and how'd that go?"
"Ghost, don't piss me off..."
"Dex, you don't piss me off. You're just a fixer, and you're not always in the Afterlife, where it would be a bit difficult to get to you..."
Well, not exactly difficult, just that I don't want to ruin my relationship with Rogue. So if I do have to deal with Dex, I'll definitely do it somewhere other than her turf.
"...and a high-caliber rifle from a kilometer away will solve the problem very nicely..."
"Are you sure about what you're saying?"
"Dex, don't play the offended innocent here. You're the one who started with threats, even if they weren't specific. I just don't feel like beating around the bush. End of comms..."
I dropped his call and added him to the blacklist anyway.
"Your mood's soured..."
"Dex called... I have a feeling that fat gonk is way too confident in his untouchability as a fixer, and he's not used to being turned down. So I added him to the blacklist..."
A Day Later
"So that's what you wanted, huh?!"
Saul burst into my Behemoth, glaring at me furiously. But I couldn't care less about his fury. So I calmly looked up from my tools at Saul.
"Saul, what's your problem with me?"
"What's my problem? What's my problem?!"
"Saul, calm down and look at me. I don't give a shit who's the clan leader, and you ran here because of that, right?"
He glared at me angrily, but nodded.
"Right. I don't give a shit about it. I'd be happy to just be a clan member, just work for its benefit, without forgetting my own. As a solo group leader, I understand what a pain in the ass it is to manage a whole nomadic clan like yours, and I didn't want to hang that yoke around my neck. But I don't have a choice."
"Huh?"
"B. Panam. She loves this clan. And she said herself: either the 'old-timers' nominate me for clan leader, or she leaves."
"Well, then let her leave!"
"We would've left..."
I nodded.
"...but I know Panam, and that move would make her unhappy. And I don't want my girl to be unhappy. So it turns out that even with a choice, I don't have one, other than to 'run' for clan leader. But I want you to just think. Could I have done all this 'loudly'?"
"Yeah..."
He didn't like admitting it, but we both knew that if I'd announced my desire and showed them the haul I was ready to give the clan for a small fee—the clan members don't forget about their personal wealth, after all—Saul would've been kicked out of his position with a dirty rag.
"But instead, I called Mitch and Scorpion, the 'old-timers' who have been in the clan for decades and are capable of assessing all the prospects. I suggested that before they went to you, they talk to the other 'old-timers', and only after that did they approach you quietly and peacefully."
"You..."
"Me. Saul, you're a good guy. Even if you've gotten a little too into Biotechnica, you're a decent guy. I don't need an enemy like that, and that's why I asked for everything to be done quietly. You'll keep your authority; in fact, they'll start respecting you even more, because you were so wise, you saw someone who brought such benefit to the clan, and you gave up your place to him..."
I looked him in the eyes carefully.
You could see that Saul's first emotional outburst was already over, and he was calming down quickly.
"Is that actually true?"
"Hmm?"
"Well, about the Basilisks and Manticores..."
"It is. Although we'll have to dismantle the latter. The clan won't be allowed to own them, but we can use the engines and reactors. We can install the engines on the Basilisks, and use the reactors to provide energy independence for the clan."
"Oh, man..."
He collapsed onto the table and looked thoughtfully at the ceiling.
"...I guess I've gotten old... I just want peace and certainty. You probably think I don't understand what joining Biotechnica would mean for the clan?"
I shrugged.
"I understand... but... how many young people have I already sent on jobs who died? How many children have died because the clan didn't have the right medicine? How many times have the Stingers and just solos attacked us to get a profit from us?"
"And you were hoping that Biotechnica would shield you from some of those problems?"
"Yes..."
"But you understand that other problems will appear... and problems from corporations like Biotechnica are much... more unpleasant than the problems of an ordinary clan."
"Yeah, I get it... kid, you'll take care of the clan, won't you?"
"You're talking as if I'm going to kick you out and you won't be able to keep an eye on the clan yourself and intervene if needed..."
"You're not going to kick me out?"
"No..."
I shook my head.
"...no one's going to kick you out. What's more, there definitely won't be any combat ops for the clan in the near future. We'll have to get the tech ready, get the people ready; there's a lot of work to do. And after that... I don't think I'll decide to have combat encounters with major corporations."
"Alright... I... I'll step down... but I'll be watching you..."
"Yeah..."
Saul got up and slowly left the Behemoth.
"How much longer are you going to hide?"
"Well... I was just covering for you..."
Panam came out of the adjacent room, embarrassed. She had been in there the whole time, while the other girls were sunbathing outside.
"Were you worried?"
"Well... yeah... I know Saul; he can be a stubborn old goat. And if he got something in his head... he could've done something stupid..."
"So you were going to intervene if things got heated?"
"Yeah..."
"And on whose side?"
"Huh?"
She looked at me in confusion.
"Isn't it obvious?"
"Panam, it's obvious that I would've been able to take down Saul without your help, so I'm asking when exactly and on whose side you were planning to intervene? Although..."
I gave her a cunning look.
"You were probably going to intervene after I took down Saul, so you could stop me from doing certain things, right?"
Panam nodded shyly.
"Oh... you little shy one, you... come here..."
Panam came over to me, and I grabbed her waist and sat her on my lap.
"Be careful! You just lost an arm and a leg!"
"It's nothing. Vik knows his stuff, and a small thing like a very slender girl sitting on my lap definitely won't hurt me."
"Well... alright..."
She shifted her butt on my knees.
"So, you wanted to save old man Saul, who took care of you and the other kids?"
"Well... yeah..."
I chuckled.
"Well, he wasn't in any danger. Even if the impossible happened and he decided to attack me, I would've just neutralized him. Though in that case, it would've been dangerous to leave him in the clan. Who knows what else he would've pulled?"
"Oh, man..."
"But this way, I think he'll become something like my deputy. He'll work for the good of the clan, hand out jobs, watch over our reputation, and I'll get the resources and set the course the clan will take."
"I see..."
Panam sighed in relief.
"So?"
"What?"
"Well, you've tied me to the clan... knowing my character, you understand perfectly well that while I won't give the clan stuff for free, they'll get some impressive discounts now. And I won't be able to abandon the clan if it gets into trouble. My character won't allow it."
Panam looked down at her knees, embarrassed.
"Through me, and yourself, you've also tied Judy to the clan. The benefit isn't as obvious here, but she's a good tech and runner, and she knows her way around a brain... But what I'm really interested in is how you plan to tie Becca, Lucy, and Kiwi to the clan?"
"Huh?"
"Don't tell me you haven't thought about it; I won't believe you."
"I have..."
She said it very, very quietly.
"So?"
"Well... through you..."
I blinked.
"What?"
"Through you... you think I don't see how you look at them? And Judy... even though she's keeping herself in check and you're still more important to her, she's also looking at them. So through the two of you, I was planning to tie the whole crew to the clan."
"You little evil genius... although..."
I looked down at her chest.
"...not so little, but still an evil genius..."
"You're not mad?"
"No... like I said, I was considering joining the clan. Spending my whole life in Night City isn't a great prospect. I actually have an idea, but to make it happen, it's going to require a lot more money than all of us have put together right now."
"An idea?"
"Well... I want to explore space."
"Huh?"
"I've actually only had this thought recently, and I'm still just thinking about it, but if you think about it, what's to stop us from setting a big goal? Say, building a spaceship and flying off to explore the solar system?"
"Uh..."
Panam was at a loss for words.
"But for now, those are just... dreams. Before this, I was thinking about just traveling with the clan, doing jobs in different cities, and maybe settling down with the clan somewhere quieter. But one doesn't get in the way of the other; we can find a reliable and peaceful place first, and then go to space..."
"Did someone say space?"
Lucy walked into the Behemoth.
"Yeah... David here's sharing his crazy plans..."
"Why crazy?"
I shrugged.
"We'll get me back to normal, and we'll still go to the moon, as I promised our Lucy..."
Lucy flinched at these words and looked at me with shock and disbelief.
"...and we'll figure out on the flight if we should think about building our own personal spaceship and becoming noble pirates, or just wanderers who will visit different planets. But my immediate plans are still to take all of you to the moon."
"Wow... you're jumping from topic to topic..."
"Not at all. I'm just revealing a new side of myself with every word. So get ready... I think in a month or a month and a half... and the clan?"
"What about the clan? Won't Saul be able to handle it without my guiding hand?"
"He will, it's just..."
"Panam, you're the one who wanted me to be the leader, not me..."
"Well..."
"So now we'll work with what we have."
"Wait, you're the new clan leader?"
Lucy looked at me in surprise.
"Not yet; there has to be a general meeting during which Saul will step down and hand his authority over to me."
"Uh... I see..."
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