Chapter 86: Job: Nightingale's Nocturne

"Hahahahaha—what a ridiculous name, Faraday, did you find these guys in a psych ward?" Maine burst out laughing, openly mocking them. The three of them were already in a bad mood, and Jackie and V immediately flashed hostile glares. V fired back, "Where'd this gorilla come from? Which gutter did you crawl out of?" Maine stood up right away, towering over V by quite a bit in terms of height. "Maine—I don't need to be from anywhere. I am the big deal around here. Let me count, I've killed 17 people already. And who the hell are you?" V raised an amused eyebrow, "Not bad. So, how many last week?" "Huh?" It's worth noting that edgerunners don't typically rack up high kill counts. First off, those numbers don't include unarmed civilians. Secondly, Maine's 17 kills probably only count the opponents who put up a fight—those who at least exchanged a few blows with him, right? But even so, Maine's proud tally of 17 doesn't mean much to these three. Just on the road to Arroyo, V and Jackie probably gunned down 20 or 30 members of the 6th Street Gang, not to mention all the ones they injured. Too many to count. And let's not forget, just before that, they took down almost two full squads of corporate operatives at the border. Earlier still, back in Atlanta, V alone executed two whole platoons of soldiers. Corporate operatives may die horribly, but that doesn't mean they're weak. In fact, any team of corporate operatives would be a serious challenge for experienced mercs. And those last two jobs, both were far more difficult than your average gig. Any other team would've been dead meat. So, even if mercs only count kills that have some combat ability, the number of people these three have taken down is countless, except for cyberpsychos like James Norris. Those are the ones that stand out. Now those two—they're the real deal, killing countless opponents, and those opponents are soldiers too. Of course, the biggest reason mercs don't have sky-high kill counts is that they don't live long. Mission, get combat implants, earn money, get more implants... Either you don't get strong fast enough and get killed, or you implant too much and turn into a cyberpsycho, then the MaxTac comes to put you down. Guys like Maine, who barely qualify as elite edgerunners, are stuck in an awkward spot—fine against gang members, easily taking on three at a time. But against corporate types, it gets tricky—corporates have better ripperdocs, better implants, more efficient setups with less risk. Throw in a couple of military drones on the corporate side, and things get messy. So, at this stage, edgerunners have to start teaming up—being a lone wolf only gets you so far, which is why famous lone wolves are respected. But Maine? He's stuck in the middle, neither here nor there. Seeing Maine hesitate, V waved dismissively— You're not worth sitting at the same table with me. Leo didn't bother with Maine. Strictly speaking, Maine wasn't a bad guy. He genuinely cared for his team, acting as a big brother. Unfortunately, that big brother had a past he didn't want to remember, and he walked further and further down the edge runner's path, eventually becoming a cyberpsycho in Cyberpunk: Edgerunners—killing his lover, even attacking his own team. Unlike Maine, V wasn't just heavily cyberized; her implants were handpicked by Leo, with no expense spared where it mattered. If it came down to a fight, V would be far more stable than Maine—in fact, even Jackie, with slightly fewer implants, could overpower Maine. Just the heavy subdermal armor covering Jackie's body would be too much for most people to handle, Maine included. But Jackie was relatively kind, just standing there. Leo, meanwhile, ignored the odd conversation and turned his attention to Faraday: "Heard a lot about you, Santo Domingo's most famous fixer." That flattery worked on Faraday; he smiled, "Likewise, the ones who took down the 6th Street Gang—Mr. Burgerking—Maine, sit down." Leo's mouth twitched uncontrollably. Luckily, this time Faraday didn't say that name. But then Maine, like he was a beat behind, suddenly caught on, "You're the ones with that dumb name going around, Big Shots Burgerking?" Can't blame him for being slow; no one could remember that ridiculous name. But as soon as Arroyo came up, it clicked for him—yeah, there was that squad with the weird name. He even got the name wrong again, just 30 seconds after Faraday had mentioned it. Faraday immediately corrected him, "It's Burgerking Big Shots, Maine. It's rude to get someone's name wrong." The whole scene felt surreal. Like a bunch of mob bosses arguing over which Ultraman was on TV—was it the original, Zoffy, or Jack? It was absurd. Leo coughed twice to bring everyone back: "Ahem, let's get to the point, Mr. Faraday. You got a job?" "It's an unfinished job. I need some intel from Biotechnica, but the last team botched it, so the investigation has to start over." Maine bristled at that—his people died, and all Faraday had to say was they messed up? Just as Maine was about to blow up, Faraday tossed a data shard onto the table. "Of course, we've made some progress, but the operation needs to be re-planned, and the target is more cautious now." Leo picked up the data shard and slotted it into the port at the back of his neck. This involved a case from a year ago, a fall from a building. The victim's name was redacted, but Leo knew who it was—Sasha Yakovleva. Sasha was on an infiltration mission, breaking into Biotechnica's building to retrieve some specific intel. But it seemed Sasha found something that hit her hard—something personal. She decided to download that extra data, even though it wasn't part of the mission. That decision led to her staying longer than planned, and she was eventually cornered by defense robots, forced to jump, and died from the fall. Leo knew the truth: Sasha found some data on a drug in Biotechnica's database—a drug her mother used frequently. However, this drug had undisclosed side effects that ultimately caused her mother's death, so Sasha wanted to bring justice to her mother. Sadly, she tried to leak it to News54, a network sponsored by Militech, and Militech happened to be in bed with Biotechnica. Of course, that's just what Leo knew. Neither Faraday nor Maine had any idea; to them, Sasha just stopped following orders and died from the fall. After reviewing the shard, Leo sighed inwardly. The pieces of his plan were starting to fall into place, but it involved a dead girl. The first key term appeared in Leo's visual interface: Operation Nightingale. This was the information the girl had risked her life to obtain—just a name. Pulling out the data shard, Leo cut straight to the point: "You want us to finish this investigation. But given what's happened, it's only going to be harder." "Exactly." Faraday nodded. "That's why I want both your teams on it—of course, if you want to handle it solo, the reward will be double." Leo glanced at the wary Maine, then at the scheming Faraday, and slowly shook his head. "You don't think, after all that's happened, I'd still trust your operation, do you? Let's do this differently—I'll find the info myself, without your help. If I get results, I'll sell it to you. If not, or if Biotechnica kills us, you won't be linked." Faraday was caught off guard; Leo's reaction wasn't what he expected. He figured this Burgerking would either take the job or kick Maine's team out in a fit of bravado. Either outcome was acceptable—Maine's team was fine for brute-force jobs but consistently messed up more covert assignments. But this Burgerking squad... Rumor had it they had a top-tier netrunner backing them—but today, that netrunner still hadn't shown up. Faraday shifted in his seat, leaning back with his arms resting on the chair's high back, tapping it rhythmically. "Going up against a corp solo is a quick way to die." Leo shrugged, "Working under you to fight a corp isn't much better—but if you want, I can check in with updates." "Watch your tone." Faraday paused, then added, "—But I won't stop you if you're looking to get yourself killed." "Then get the money ready." Leo turned and walked out of the smoke-filled booth— Damn, how much do these guys smoke in a day? "Cough, cough... this sucks." Seeing Leo like that, V immediately laughed, "Weak."