A Hard Knock Life: Sympathy for the Devil (ch. 5)

"Are you sure about this?" Jackie questioned as we neared Vik's place. "No shame in calling this off," he offered a way out, echoing the words that I had given to him not even an hour ago.

"I'm sure," I told him. "I just need to make some preparations first." An idea was cooking in the back of my head, refining itself into a proper plan rather than a desperate hope. I would need to get my hands on some supplies to know what was really feasible, but I had high hopes.

We entered Misty's place to see her behind the counter. She perked up at seeing the both of us, but her smile slipped a bit when she saw our grim expressions. I said nothing as we walked by, but I heard Jackie say something in a low tone before following me to Vik's. I found him at his desk, watching a fight on his TV as he idly messed with his hand that was covered with Ripperdoc tools. He glanced up as I stepped inside, cocking an eyebrow.

"V's good for the money," Jackie informed, taking out the five thousand eddies. Viktor's eyebrows shot up as he accepted the bills.

"Huh. Would you look at that," he muttered, tucking the money away as he spared me a look. "I figured you were blowing hot air."

I shrugged, "The job that I pulled before this at least paid well," I responded. Looking around, I failed to find any kind of inventory list. "And I'm looking to get more chrome installed."

To that, Viktor's lips thinned, "Bad idea. Kid, you took off your arm less than a day ago. Hell, it's only been a few hours. Let your body adjust before you think about carving away more of yourself. That's how you end up a cyberpsycho," he warned.

Shaking my head, I turned to him, "I'll be fine. I just need new optics… and I need an OS card installed." Of all things, I couldn’t see myself having a mental break because I shoved too much chrome into my body too fast. If I was going to have one… then I probably would have had it already.

"Bomb," Jackie spoke up, leaning against a wall with his arms crossed. Viktor gave him a bewildered look, "The OS card he wants installed? It's a bomb."

Viktor turned to me and took my awkward shuffling and a shrug as a confirmation. "The hell- what are you even thinking?!" He half-shouted at me.

"Look, I'm not trying to get myself killed. I need to jack it so I can find the tinker that killed my friend," I explained, and it was easy to see that didn't exactly smooth things over. Viktor frowned deeply at me, on the screen one of the figures went down, but he seemed to have forgotten all about the fight he had been watching.

Viktor gestured at me, "Then what? You go in, guns blazing, and kill them? That only works in the movies, kid. You're just going to get yourself killed." He pointed out, giving me a harsh look that I felt through his tinted black glasses. I spared Jackie an annoyed look, but he just shrugged unrepentantly.

"I've already told him. He's a stubborn one," Jackie remarked to Viktor.

I don't think anyone but me really could understand my logic. "Again, I'm not trying to die. I'm taking precautions. Look, it'll take a few hours for me to set everything up, alright? If I find a better way in that time, or if you do, then I'll do that."It was a hollow reassurance, that much I knew. My mind was made up and they saw that. They couldn't talk me out of it.

But they would try.

They were good people. Jackie seemed like a solid guy. Viktor at least acted like he gave a shit. Misty seemed nice.

In response to that, Vik threw up a hand and sighed. "I… fine. Just fine. I'll… my inventory is on the datapad in the chair," Vik said, gesturing to the chair that I had laid on earlier.

"Thanks. And I have my money with me this time," I told him, before I took a seat and swung my feet over. Grabbing the screen, I saw the inventory pop up. Viktor didn't answer. He just sighed -- he must have sent a look to Jackie, because I saw him offer a shrug.

I tapped on the optics menu, causing a list to drop down. I had a variety to choose from -- most were basic stuff like choosing my eye color or guarantees of twenty/twenty vision. I filtered them out, which considerably narrowed down my choices-

The screen flickered, and when it came back, a choice that hadn't been there was suddenly at the top of the list. Looking over to Viktor -- he wasn't able to close out of the screen fast enough to stop me from seeing that he had added an extra option. He caught me looking at him, so he shrugged, "Remembered that I got a shipment today and forgot to update my inventory." It was a weak excuse, but I accepted it all the same.

The option that was added was Kiroshi Optics MK.2. I didn't know enough to tell if it was market value, but they cost ten thousand eddies for two of them. I selected them without a second thought.

"Little suspicious how that was the exact amount that Jackie had split with me," I remarked to Viktor, sending him a knowing look. He shrugged again, thoroughly unrepentant. "Thanks." Because I'm guessing those optics were worth more.

"Can I get my hands on them? I need to take a look at the software," I said. That prompted Jackie to lean off of the wall.

"I should make myself useful. Anyone feeling pizza?" Jackie questioned, earning double nods of approval. I got my usual -- extra pepperoni and extra cheese. Viktor got some serious illegal stuff -- pineapple and tofu. If a cop saw it and they felt like enforcing a law, they'd have been in their rights to shoot him dead. So, it would seem that I wasn't the only one that liked to live dangerously.

While Jackie walked off, Viktor hooked in the optics and connected them to my screen. Opening up the OS of the optics, I saw the tech and hardware available to me. Numbers and words that should have meant nothing to me suddenly made perfect sense. I couldn't swallow the sound of disgust that I made.

"What-" Viktor started, looking at the window that was on his own screen, only to cut himself off when I deleted the software. Well, most of it. There was enough left for framework, but all the parameters were gone. "What did you just do?!" He snapped at me, rising from his seat. Likely to throttle me.

The only thing that stopped him was that I jacked into the chair and started typing out code. He looked at it, then at me, then at the code again. "What are you doing?" He asked, sounding more confused than angry.

"The software was trash," I explained. "The eyes are great -- high resolution that can magnify up to ten times base. Infrared, telescopic and microscopic, low-light and dazzle shields… really top of the line stuff." Top of the line stuff of such quality that it was a real question of how he got it. Especially the optic camo -- basically, it would blur out my face on any camera or optic. People would need organic eyes to see me. Or, they could if they managed to decrypt the optic camo. "But the software that strings everything together and interacts with the OS card? It's poorly optimized trash."

Well, maybe that was a bit much. It was serviceable. But I saw what it had under the hood -- it could be so much more. It just wasn't because it was mass-produced. Still, it wasn’t anything that a little spit and polish couldn't iron out.

Then began the task of rewriting parameters. Whoever designed the code had been afraid of glitches and such, so they played it safe. Appealing to a broader market and all that jazz. I didn't need to. I could optimize the eyes without having to worry about glitches and system failures. Viktor watched in silence as I worked, my fingers flying over the board. I needed to take a look at my arm too to see if I could up the reaction time too.

All the while I worked, barely stopping to munch down on some pizza when it arrived, it never escaped me what I was doing. I had managed to take one look at Corp grade code and decide it was literal garbage, before rewriting the code, better, from scratch. The base encryption for the optic camo was upped, improved and made more complicated. It wasn't normal. I knew it wasn't normal, but until Tattletale, I never had a solid answer for what it was.

I was a cape. I had triggered. I now had powers. Based on my skill set, I was some kind of tinker. The same as Bakuda. I could create things that were beyond modern understanding. We had the tech of the future, but tinkers could create things that defied reality. Teleportation, matter converters, pocket dimensions and so much more. Each tinker had a specialization, or something that they did best. Bakuda had bombs.

Mine remained a mystery at the moment. I didn't think I had the blueprint for a multidimensional nuke floating around my noggin, or anything like that. It could have something to do with code, or maybe that was just the surface. I didn't know. And right now, it didn't matter.

One thing I learned was that coding, even at top speeds, still took a while. Hours ticked by as I typed away. I barely noticed. I hadn't realized I had spent six hours typing away without pause until I hit the final key and glanced at the clock.

"You're lucky is a slow day," Viktor remarked, realizing that I was done.

Probably. The eyes were done, optimized perfectly. Even better, it had three mod slots, but I wouldn't touch those for now. I would probably spend another six hours on them each.

Next I brought up cyberdecks or a neural implant. I clicked on the Fuyutsui Electronics Mk.1. A simple one that was dirt cheap. By dirt cheap, I meant another five thousand eddies down the drain. I bought it and brought up another screen. This one, I began coding from scratch, not to string tech together, but something else.

A virus. One that was based on the virus I had made once before. The moment that she made contact with me, it would slip through to her systems. Undoubtedly, she would have ICE, but the fact that it would be a direct feed subverted that a fair bit. From there, I would usurp control over the bomb through whatever remote activation device she used. Thus preventing her from killing me, revealing Bakuda's location… and if I'm lucky, keeping her hostage in whatever workshop she had.

In the end, a simple trojan was the easiest solution. A highly advanced simple trojan, but still a simple trojan. Before I knew it, I lost another hour. And another crafting a joint slot to connect the two OS cards so any command that Bakuda would send to me would have to go through a filter.

I let out a sigh before I pushed myself up, glancing at Viktor, who was watching a new match. Jackie was nowhere to be seen. "Are you ready to start the procedure?" I asked him, making Vik jump in his chair. He looked at me, opening his mouth to say something… only for words to fail him.

"Are you sure about this?" He asked me with a quiet sigh.

I smiled a smile that had too much in common with a scimitar -- curved and sharp enough to cut.

"I'm sure."

…

The optics came first. My eyes were removed from my head, but I didn't feel a thing. My vision had been blacked out, but I was still aware. Viktor spoke to me as the procedure went on, helping calm me. In truth, the procedure lasted less than ten minutes.

“Hope you haven't broken them with that stunt you pulled. Because you break it, you buy it. Turning optics back on… now." Viktor muttered as my optics came back on. I peeled open my eyes and saw…

Detail. Overwhelming amounts of detail. It was like I was a blind man seeing for the first time. It was almost too much. A low groan escaped me as I squinted reflexively, trying to limit the amount of data I could take in.

“You’re fine,” Viktor reassured, going from grump to reassuring in a second. “Your new peepers settled in like a dream. Your brain is just adapting to an influx of information. It’ll wear off and you’ll get used to it.”

That was reassuring, I thought as I forced my eyes open to look up at the ceiling. I could see every detail of it. I blinked a few times, the clarity of everything a little less overwhelming. All the while, Viktor spoke. “Alright. Try cycling through the lens modes. I wanna see what you did to them,” he said, looking at a screen that displayed what I saw.

I did exactly that. With a thought, my vision became infrared. The ceiling was a light blue, while Viktor was various warm colors, but mostly red. Then I switched to low-light, and it was like someone jacked up the gamma so the shadows weren’t so dark and the lights seemed brighter, before the adjustments kicked in. After a second, it was like I was standing in a brightly lit room. After that I zoomed -- the base was times ten, but I had managed to up it to a times fifteen with little to no detail loss.

Then the other adjustments made themselves known. I blinked, and I could see the air currents that drifted down through the gate. From where the air conditioning cycled the air. I zoomed in on the airflow and my eyes analyzed the contents. The anchovy pizza that Jackie had gotten for himself. The particles were dispersed, but I could track where Jackie had been -- to the desk to drop off the pizzas. He ate a slice, went to my side to check out what I had been writing, before he headed up and out.

“I’ll be damned,” Viktor muttered.

I could improve them further with mods. Actually, it might be worth buying a few dirt-cheap ones because they would offer extra processing power. I could code a tracking algorithm on my own with no issue. I just couldn’t pop open the eyes to improve the tech in them. I didn’t have the tools.

“Alright. I think I’m good,” I muttered, before I settled into the chair. “Now… the bomb,” I told Viktor, and I saw him hesitate.

“V-”

“Vik,” I cut him off, my voice quiet, but my tone like steel. “Just install it. And as soon as you do, get out of the room.” I told him, not leaving any room for argument. To follow up on that point, I reached into my shoe and started pulling out money. Viktor made a strangled noise at the sight of it -- it was a lot of money. “Take whatever I owe you, but the rest… could you bring it to Lock’s family? Jackie knows where his mom lives. Please.” I added, really hoping that they didn’t just take it.

Vik looked down at it for a moment before an exhausted sigh escaped him. “...Okay kid. Okay, I’ll make sure that they get it,” he said, taking the cash and stuffing it into a pocket. Then he took the modified OS card and turned my head to the side. I felt it being slotted in, the cheap OS card I had was removed and the modified cheap one was put in while the bomb was left hanging out.

Just in case.

Viktor kept his word because as soon as he was done, he got up to leave. I leaned into the chair, waiting for Bakuda to realize what had just been done. I thought I would be scared. Or even nervous. And maybe I was, but more than anything else, I felt anticipation. I wanted this too badly to be scared.

I didn’t have to wait long.

“... What kind of stupid are you?” I heard Bakuda speak through my earpiece, the connection was made and the virus was sent. An alert screen appeared before my eyes before I tucked it into the corner of my vision -- a progress bar to mark how long I had to distract Bakuda from killing me. 1%

“Maybe I just wanted to hear your voice again,” I flirted, putting as much confidence in my tone as I could. The words tasted like bile, but I said them all the same. My hands curled around the armrest, my heart rake spiking. Not because of fear. Out of anger. “You made one hell of an impression.” 4%

Bakuda made a noise that I couldn’t understand because of the voice modulator. “You don’t really handle rejection very well, do you? Sorry, V, but I think we’re better off seeing different people.” I could practically see her pressing the button to detonate the bomb. 10%

“Oh, don’t be like that,” I said, my tone deceptively light. As if I had no worries at all. “I get it. I wasn’t what you needed, when you needed it,” I started, “but that doesn’t mean that we can’t be useful to each other.” 15%

There was a thoughtful pause on the other end. “I’ll bite -- what exactly are you getting at? Just keep in mind, I’m going to reduce you to ash just like I did your choom if I don’t like what I hear.” 19%

“Well, to start with -- tinker-tech bombs would be incredibly useful to me. To anyone, really. So, if we’re going to work anything out, that’s what I want.” I told her, sticking to a story that she could believe.

“Oh? Did your panties get all wet when you saw my creations in action?” Bakuda seemed to preen at the praise. “Your friend, whatshisname? Not so much as a biological marker left. They found the ash pile already, you know? I had a drone sent out to the location -- get this? They just swept him into the nearest drainage pipe.” 31%

I was going to kill her. I was going to kill her and she would die screaming.

“I saw what they did first hand,” I responded, keeping my tone even. “Little bit closer than first hand -- I lost my left arm to the ash,” I told her. She cackled, letting me continue. “So, let’s just say I know better than most how powerful your bombs can be. Which is why I want them.”

Bakuda hummed, “And why would I give them to you?” She questioned in a singsong tone that didn’t translate well with the modulator.

“Because I know you’re trying to slip the leash that Lung put on you,” I told her and there was a dangerous silence at that. I filled it by continuing, “That wasn’t a threat, by the way. It’s how I can be useful to you. With Lung being… Lung, I’m guessing it’s not easy to maneuver and get any ABB muscle under your thumb? I don’t answer to Lung.” 52%

“You did just install my bomb in your head. You working for me is a given now,” she pointed out.

I nodded despite the fact that she likely couldn’t see that. “Of course, but the difference is that I can be a lot more useful to you if I want to be. It’s been a few hours since you killed Lock. And I’ve been busy,” I told her, and now I was the one in control of the conversation.

“With what?” Bakuda bit out, and I realized I should tone it back a bit. She was getting testy. 60%

“I ran into the ones that arranged for us to hit the deal,” I admitted to her. “They didn’t seem to know who you were, or your specialty, but they did know about your plan to wipe out the Maelstrom and harvest their tech.” In response to that, the communication went silent for a few seconds. Seconds she either spent thinking or cursing. “They were capes. They mentioned something about a boss, but they didn’t say who. Or how they knew about you beyond vague allusions of connections within the ABB.”

Bakuda unmuted herself, “What the point of all of this? Are you trying to sell me out to them? Anyone listening in on the other end?” She demanded, her tone harsh.

“No. None of that. I wouldn’t have mentioned them if they were. I stumbled across them when I hunted down Jonah and they tried to kidnap me. Would have worked if it wasn’t for my prosthetic.” I just had to keep this going for a little longer. “I’m telling you all of this because you dismissed me as a complete greenhorn, and thus of no use to you. I’m trying to prove that’s not the case.”

83%

Bakuda let out a laugh, “You really do have something to prove. Lock mentioned that about you when he was selling you out. That you have big dreams about being a Night City Legend.”

“I don’t want to be a Legend of Night City,” I corrected. “I want to be the Legend of Night City.” Night City was the city of dreams, and there was no one that dreamed bigger than me. “I want to be the measuring stick that everyone else compares themself to. Whenever someone makes their name in this city, I want whatever crazy shit that they did to be compared to what I've done, and I want them to fall short. In a thousand years from now, after humanity unfucks ourselves from whatever self inflicted apocalypse we suffered through, I want my name to be the first thing they unearth in the rubble.” 93%

“And if I have to make a deal with the devil to make that happen? Then I’ll make a deal,” I finished, watching the progress bar tick upwards. 95. 96. 98. 99…

“You've just made that bargain then,” Bakuda spoke the same moment that the progress bar reached 100%. A screen appeared before my eyes, and it was from Bakuda’s point of view. She was looking at a hologram of the city, a small blimp on it where I was. The bomb in my head. There were a few others scattered about, so I would need to do something about them. I was so busy sorting through the influx of information that I nearly forgot to respond.

“Can you meet?” I asked, gloating and rubbing her face in it was so very tempting. Only luring her into a false sense of security so I could really enjoy watching her die sounded better.

Bakuda scoffed while I readied myself to disable any attempt to detonate the bomb in my head. Or any bombs at all. From her eyes, my virus spread to her OS system. There was a lot of information there. Some I would have to inspect in further detail later, but it was there that I learned Bakuda’s real name. Amanda Leskie. It didn’t suit her.

“No, we won’t meet. If you really want a few bombs, then you’re going to have to earn them,” she informed, before a data pack was sent to me. I gave it a quick scan to make sure it wasn’t a virus and found that it wasn’t. Inside were details of a deal -- an implant. Projectile Launch System -- basically a missile in your arm. Details said it was Miltech, but it had been passed to the Tyger Claws for a reward. “Get me that launcher, then we can talk about bombs. I’ll even make them custom, just for you.”

I smiled dangerously, “Consider it yours.” With that, the call ended, but my backdoor still fed me information. I heard Bakuda sigh, muttering an insult under her breath before she turned to a project on her desk. She started soldering, completely unaware that I was watching her every move. That I knew where she was. That the bomb connection had been severed, and all she was seeing was a false positive.

My gaze drifted to Jackie, who stood at the entrance. He cocked his head when he looked at me, a silent question in his eyes. I answered, “We’re golden. Grab your gun.”

I was really going to enjoy what came next.

…

Bakuda was on a short leash, I realized as Jackie and I scoped out the building that she was in. It was deep in ABB territory, which was spread out through Little China and Kabuki. The highway that ran through the bottom half of Kabuki, and the branch off that cut a quarter out of Little China, was the border that the ABB shared with the Tyger Claws and Moxie. There was a shantytown that built itself up at the edge of the territory, and that's where Bakuda resided.

I went through her messages and call transcripts. She didn't have any calls or texts to anyone but Lung. If she had any other acquaintances then she talked to them with letters or something. Even her information network was shoddy -- the launcher she told me to get was relayed to her by rumor.

In a way, it was sad. When she killed Lock, with the way she acted and talked… I built up an image of her in my head. Someone that was powerful and cruel in equal measures. Now I saw the truth. She was a prisoner of the ABB that was under guard constantly. Everything she had done was to arrange her escape.

"Locked tighter than a princess before her wedding," Jackie remarked. There were about twenty guards and various security measures -- cameras for the most part. Bakuda was in the basement of what looked like a factory before the ABB took it over. Now it was a safehouse. And a workshop for their princess tinker. "We should go in quiet. When the ABB finds out that their tinker is under attack, they'll come out in force."

I nodded in agreement. "My backdoor won't do much good -- Bakuda is isolated from the security systems. Just give me a second," I told Jackie as I zoomed in on the camera above the entrance and Pinged it. The camera had some serious ICE protecting it -- Jackie hadn't been exaggerating much. Bakuda's prison was well defended. Just not well defended enough.

The ICE on the security was way too much for me to hit with Breach. The ABB really didn’t spare any expense when it came to making sure no one could get in or out of the place. However, the personal security of those guarding the place? Far more vulnerable. Though, the one that I hit with a Breach was only able to grant me a surface level view of the security cameras.

There were fifty in total, covering just about every inch of the factory. The interior was covered in trash, with a drug den vibe to it. My fingers danced over the keyboard to Lock's computer as I began compiling footage to form a loop. All the while, I looked through the camera's lens to determine Bakuda's exact location…

"Huh," I muttered, looking through Bakuda's optics and the camera feed. "I'm not the only one in the system. Bakuda looped her cell footage," I remarked, seeing that what Bakuda was working on didn't match up with the camera reel of her sleeping.

"Can you use that?" He asked me, earning a nod as I took a closer look at Bakuda's systems.

It took a minute, but I found what I was looking for. "Bakuda has a backdoor into the security systems," I muttered. Which is how she found out about the launcher. And how she arranged the deal. She couldn't control the people there, but she had her ducks in a row for when it came time for her to escape. It just also made it extremely easy for me to use that backdoor to give me complete control over the security systems.

Now my range expanded. Alarms were turned off. Security measures were turned off. The cameras were cut and looped. We could go in guns blazing and no one would be the wiser. If only others didn't hear the gunshots. I looked at Jackie before I sent him a data packet. "That's the best path to Bakuda I found. We get in, we get out, and with any luck no one will realize that we were here in the first place."

Jackie looked to the path that I had marked out. "I really need to brush up on my hacking skill. This is some spy shit right here," He muttered to himself. I ignored him in favor of closing my laptop and stashing it in my bag. My rifle was slung across my back, while I carried a pistol in one hand. I popped the mag out to check if it was full and there was a bullet in the chamber.

"Let's get this done," I told him, pushing myself up from the ground I had been sitting on. We were across the street from the prison in question. Three guards around the entrance with the rest spread out in the interior in clumps of two, and the remaining seven were either sleeping or messing around.

Jackie led the way, bringing us across the street. We ducked into an alley that was a building down from the prison, letting us loop around the back. He glanced at me when he saw the first camera aimed at the entrance we were about to take. Pulling up the feed, I confirmed that it was looping the footage I gave it. Nodding to Jackie, he continued.

He moved soundlessly across the old sidewalks, stepping around the garbage and broken glass. I mimicked his steps and followed him to the building. With the camera's taken care of, getting into the building was a simple task. Jackie climbed up onto a dumpster, before making his way into a fire escape on the side of the building. He lowered it down as quietly as he could to me, letting me climb up.

The sensors on the fire escape were useless with me in control of them. As was the lock on the fire escape door when we climbed up to the middle of the building. Jackie cracked it open quietly, letting us slip inside without a sound. We were up on a walkway, putting us between two groups of ABB. They acted as an overwatch for the ground floor, making sure no one got in or out.

My gaze darted down to the set of double doors that would lead down into the basement. To where Bakuda was. I followed the staircase that would take me to her, my eyes seeing a highlighted trail that I had marked out. The sound of music rang out in the mostly empty building, giving me my target. Reaching out to the stereo, I messed with its signal receiver.

I heard an ABB guard suck his teeth, before he started walking towards it to deal with the issue. "I got it," he muttered.

"I have to take a piss," the other informed, seeing the chance, and leaving us with a clear path. We trailed behind them silently, making our way down the stairs. After pausing to make sure no one was looking our way, we slipped through the door without making a sound.

My gaze settled on the stairway that took us down. I brushed past Jackie, knowing that there was no one else between her and us. I heard the sound of grinding metal and I realized I was clenching my gun too hard with my prosthetic. I was lucky it wasn't a high-end model or I could have broken the gun.

Taking in a steady breath, I walked down the halls and reached a door. Inside was a workshop. The windows that let me peer into the workshop were made of damn near unbreakable glass. I saw Bakuda hunched over her desk, her back turned towards me while her video feed still showed her sleeping. I guess she was relying on it to hide what she was doing because she had no privacy in this place.

My heart hammered in my chest like a drum, barely believing my eyes. I only realized that I had moved when my hand gripped the door and pulled it open. The sound of it made Bakuda flinch out of her chair, falling to the ground as she whipped around, a soldering tool falling from her hand. She had Asian features, but blue eyes. Her skin was a sickly pale color and there were bags under her eyes. Even her hair half looked like a rat’s nest. She practically drowned in an oversized hoodie that had the sleeves pushed up. It was so big on her, I could barely make out the shorts she wore, though her legs were mostly covered by thigh high stockings that had seen better days.

"You… look damn pathetic, Bakuda," I said, stepping into the workshop and closing the door behind me. Jackie decided to wait outside, leaving us alone. I'm glad that he got it.

"Who the fuck- V?" There was fear in her voice as she looked up at me with wide eyes. That fear quickly became anger when her eyes narrowed into slits. Her system command came up and she tried to detonate the bomb that she thought was in my head. That anger bleeding back into an even deeper terror than she had felt before brought a smile to my face. The one weapon that she had was filled with blanks. She had nothing. "What, I- what are you doing here?"

I took a step forward, and Bakuda crawled back. I took another, and if she retreated any further, she would be hiding under her desk. "I think you know what I'm here for," I answered her in a deadly quiet voice. I looked down at her, a frown tugging at my lips.

She looked absolutely pathetic. Not at all what I imagined. What I thought she would be.

Bakuda paled, "I have a deadman's switch!" She shouted at me, her voice laced with terror. "You kill me and every bomb I've made will blow."

I took another step forward, crouching down so that I was at her level, "No. They won't." I had snipped that issue in the bud before it could bloom.

"I have a redundant system," Bakuda protested, swallowing thickly. Her eyes were wild. Dilated. Was she just that scared or was she on something? I spared a glance at the workshop to see the tools and materials stacked up. Add that to her appearance… I'm guessing that she was on neural boosters so she could work longer.

"No. You don't," I called her out on the lie, looking back at her. This…

Bakuda shook like a leaf, trembling in place. "You said you wanted bombs, right? I can make them for you. Just… just don't kill me. There- there's an order for Oni Lee in the next room. Really good stuff. You can have it. Just don't kill me and… and… take me with you."

She was that desperate, huh?

"You killed my friend," I told her in an even voice. Bakuda's face twisted into a snarl of rage, but tears gathered in her eyes, so even the wrath she felt looked pathetic.

"I was almost free!" She snapped at me, screaming at the top of her lungs. Bakuda heaved for breath, a few tears starting to fall. "I was almost out! Lung's kept me here for months and he's never going to let me go. Ever! I had everything all set up. I was going to take out the Maelstrom for parts, I would have cash! I could have been free!"

Bakuda jabbed a finger at me, "And you took that from me!" She screamed, going red in the face. "That was my chance and you ruined it! You fucking ruined it!" Spit flew from her mouth before she sniffled, wiping her nose on her sleeve. Even still, she glared at me with pure hate. "So I killed your friend. I wish I killed you too!" She spat, her chest heaving for breath.

I fell silent at that.

It was easier before. When Bakuda was just this evil bitch that killed Lock. That taunted me with his death. If that's who she was, then I could put the bomb in her head, detonate it and I wouldn't feel a damn thing. Well, other than satisfaction.

Looking at her now, it was clear that all of that was an act. Oh, she was still an evil bitch plotting mass murder, and she had still killed my friend. Only she wasn't doing it because of a master plan to sweep the ABB from under King, or to blow up the city. She was trying to escape. She wanted to be free and she was doing whatever it took to get that freedom.

And I could understand that. I could understand.

"You know," I started, scratching at my cheek with my real hand. "When I got here, the plan was to shove one of the bombs we stole in your head. And I was going to look you in the eyes and watch you die. No matter how much you screamed or begged… I was going to watch you die."

Bakuda's breathing hitched, but she threw on her best brave face. It was just sad.

"Now…? Lock… I think he would have wanted to help you. Maybe. He didn't really have a stomach for all of this. The entire reason he put the chip in his head was because he wanted to make sure what we got was worth people dying for," I trailed off, shaking my head before I met Bakuda's gaze with an even one of my own. "But I'm not Lock."

I had a choice before me. A decision. One of those forks in the road that decided who you were going to be for the rest of your days.

The smart decision? Kill her. Be done with it. Put the bomb in her head, watch her die, and that would be the end of it. Failing that, shoot her in the head a few times.

"But I get it. I do," I told her in a quiet voice. "To me, that's what being a Legend is all about. Living how you want to live. Being who you want to be. And dying how you want to die. That had a word for that in the back when times -- Freedom," I told her, offering a sad smile as I stood up. I looked down at her for a long moment.

I made my choice. Fuck the smart thing to do. Fuck the right thing to do. The only thing I would do was what I wanted to do.

“Up ‘n’ at ‘em,” I said, gesturing for her to stand. Bakuda hesitated, looking up at me with an anxious and fearful expression that seeped through the cracks in her brave mask. She didn’t move. “Get up. You’re getting out of here.”

Her mouth opened, then closed, then opened again. “Why? What… where the fuck is your integrity, huh? I thought you were just going to kill me. Are you really that wishy-washy? So just fucking do it already!” She snapped at me, not believing the offer.

To that, I sighed as I put away my gun. “You’re looking at my integrity,” I told her, standing tall. The anger that had plagued me all day, since I watched Lock die… it lost its grip on my heart. “I told you didn’t I? I want to be the Legend in Night City. Living how I want to live. Doing what I want to do, and fuck the consequences.”

I shook my head, “This is that. I don’t want to kill you like this. Not as some scared little girl held hostage because of her power,” I told her. “So… I’ll help you get out.”

Bakuda shook her head, not believing a word that she heard. “That makes absolutely no sense,” she said, with a sob lodged in her throat.

“Makes perfect sense to me and that’s all that matters.” I would be who I wanted to be. I would help who I wanted to help. I would kill who I wanted to kill. I would live my life exactly how I wanted to, no matter what anyone else tried to tell me. Or who tried to stop me. No matter what. If I died because of it? Fine. I’ve made my peace with that already. So long as I died true to myself, then I was happy to die at any time. “That being said -- if the first thing you do once I get you out of here is start putting more bombs in people’s heads… I will hunt you down to the ends of the earth and I will watch you die. Got it?”

With that, I held out a hand for Bakuda to take. She looked up at it, then up at me. Slowly, she reached out to take the hand made of metal. A hand that I lost because of her.

It was just bad timing that the moment that she took it a loud bang rang out from outside. I whipped around to see that it was Jackie, but I barely got a glimpse of him before my vision was filled by the sight of a man teleporting into the room. He wore a red and black yukata and a red demon mask, while the rest of his body was covered in a black skin-tight undersuit.

His forearms jutted out, letting long blades escape from their sheaths. Mantis Blades -- they were shaped like a wedge, the base of the blade going the length of his forearm, ending at an acute angle, to let a second blade pop up. They glowed an ominous red. Almost as ominous as the red lights that peered through the holes of his mask as he landed in the center of the room.

Oni Lee.

This was a bad time to have put away my gun.