Chapter 13 - Chapter Thirteen

David's delivery shift ran long that day and he was still in the Vault-Tec courier jacket when Lucy pinged him with a location pin, neutral ground again but this time not a gym or a stall row, instead a half-abandoned bar with its windows bricked up and a door patched with three different kinds of metal, the kind of place nobody bothered to look twice at because it already looked dead, and when he pushed through the door the first thing he saw was Maine and the crew spread out like they owned the space, Rebecca lounging with her boots on a chair, Pilar flexing his fingers over a disassembled gun, Dorio leaning against a wall with her arms crossed, Kiwi at a table with a slate that was probably tapped into every feed within a mile, and Lucy standing near the bar, relaxed but watchful, and the second thing he noticed was how all their eyes slid to his jacket logo, the bright Vault-Tec Medical Courier patch, and Rebecca burst out laughing, "Oh my god, he really came dressed for work, like frontline medic chic," and Pilar snorted, "Looks like he's about to hand me a prescription and a bill," and Dorio just raised an eyebrow, not unkind but assessing, while Maine rumbled, "Sit," and David sat because there wasn't much else to do. They didn't grill him right away, instead letting the silence stretch until Rebecca broke it with, "So courier boy, what's the pay for hauling meds around, enough for noodles or enough for meat?" and David shrugged, "Enough for rent, enough for some food, not enough for chrome," and that got a hum from Dorio, because it was a straight answer, and Maine leaned forward and asked, "And you still running their logo in the street, even when you're not clocked?" and David looked him in the eye and said, "People don't bother you as much when they think you've got a clinic behind you, and it's not a lie, I do run for them," and Maine grunted, maybe respect, maybe just acknowledgment. They talked light for a bit, Rebecca asking about his routes, Pilar poking fun, Kiwi listening without comment, and David kept his answers short, not giving more than he needed, and eventually Lucy cut in, "He's reliable, he's careful, and he doesn't mouth off when it matters," and that was as much of an endorsement as you could get from her. But the meeting wasn't just about David, it was about the bigger picture, because outside the city things were shifting, and while they sat in the bar people across Night City were noticing the green edging closer, fresher air, streams that hadn't run in decades starting to move again, and rumors about a new city popping up somewhere inland, and Maine's crew were not the only ones paying attention. While David was trading dry banter with Rebecca, Kevin and Angela were on the far side of California overseeing deployment of the bigger plan, because patchwork G.E.C.K.s had proven themselves and now it was time to expand, not just spots of green but swaths, whole corridors that could support travel, which meant mobilizing entire squads of advanced Gen 3 synth soldiers outfitted for construction and defense both, and they moved like clockwork, sandevistans humming as they carried prefab sections, drones flying cover overhead, synthetic wolves and crows spreading wide for early warning, every piece designed to make sure nothing interrupted the rollout. Kevin stood on a rise with Angela, watching an oasis bloom in real time as nutrient dispersers cracked, water filters poured, and engineered seeds took root, and Angela said, "They'll notice sooner this time," and Kevin nodded, "Let them, we'll be ready," because secrecy was already breaking down and he knew it, the corpos were sniffing around the clinic and Aperture, rumors on the street were turning to questions, but as long as they controlled the pace they controlled the narrative. The synth soldiers were not like the public-facing staff in the clinic, they weren't indistinguishable humans with fake backstories, they were efficient and obvious, chrome gleaming, eyes bright, carrying weapons Kevin had designed himself—plasma rifles and energy repeaters for suppression, heavy Saturnite blades enhanced with monowire edges for close work, and, most unsettling to anyone who knew the lore, weapons built from the tails of reconstructed robo-scorpions, single-barrel devices that could rip memory and thought straight from a brain port, leaving a target alive but blank, a newborn in an adult body, and Kevin kept them under strict lock because he knew too well what kind of terror they could sow if ever unleashed carelessly. Angela monitored the tests from a tablet, noting efficiency rates and error margins, her voice calm as she called out adjustments, and Kevin cracked a small smile when she joked, "You've made a private army that would scare the Think Tank back into jars," and he said, "They were scared of a single tail, imagine a battalion," and for a moment they both let the weight of it sit before moving back to logistics. Back in Night City the effect was creeping into daily life whether people liked it or not, real meat hitting stalls again, not vat-grown but hunted or farmed, vegetables big and flavorful showing up in alleys, water that tasted like water coming out of cracked fountains, and Maine and his crew noticed it too, Rebecca biting into an apple like it was a joke and then making a face because it was actually good, Dorio buying a cut of beef and grilling it herself, Maine watching it all with suspicion but also hunger, because no matter how much you distrusted a thing your body still wanted food that wasn't soy and paste. David caught it on his routes, seeing homeless people set traps for rabbits, families boiling stream water instead of buying Corpo-filtered bottles, and he didn't know if it was good or bad but he knew it was different, and in Night City different was dangerous just by existing. In the bar, Pilar asked David straight, "So what's Aperture like inside, really," and David thought about the sterile halls, the calm techs, the way they treated him like a patient instead of a mark, and he said, "Professional, like a real clinic should be," and that answer shut Pilar up for once. Kiwi finally unplugged and said, "If they're making that kind of chrome, and Black Mesa's putting weapons in circulation, and Vault-Tec Medical's running the clinic front, then whoever's running the three is hiding big, and big never stays hidden," and Maine said, "Then we watch, we wait, and if there's an opening we take it," and Rebecca smirked, "Or we just keep eating like kings while the city scrambles," and Dorio muttered, "Don't jinx it." The night ended with nothing settled except that David wasn't an outsider anymore, not exactly a member but not a stranger either, sitting in the middle of them with his courier jacket still on, and when he left with Lucy, Maine watched him go and said, "Kid's green but he's not dumb," and Dorio said, "That's the kind you want." Across the state line, Kevin watched the map update as green zones expanded and said to Angela, "First corridor's done, travel between cities is possible again," and Angela nodded, "Nomads will notice first," and Kevin said, "Good, let them, they'll spread the word," and they both knew the world was tilting and nobody in Night City really understood how fast yet.