Cyberpunk: I'm Not a Scavenger - Chapter 19: Meredith (Patreon)

Foul-smelling waves crashed against the seawall, driven by the wind. Fine rain gathered on Pantheon's coat, forming droplets that trickled down the fabric.

Night City's rain contained more chemicals than anyone could count. Fortunately, they generally didn't cause mutations.

Pantheon stood beneath a dim streetlight by the shore, a silver-white refrigerated case beside him.

"Whatever happens, don't panic. Stick to the plan and wait for my signal.

"Lucy, keep watch, but don't expose yourself. Jackie, get ready to pick us up. We're counting on you to get us out if things go bad."

"Got it," came two replies over his headset.

Pantheon relaxed a little, stretched, and leaned against the railing.

Anyone watching would have thought he was waiting for a courier to collect a package, not arranging a black-market transaction.

They were on the coastal promenade at the edge of City Center. During the day, pedestrians filled the walkway. At night, there wasn't another soul in sight.

"Can you at least take this seriously? You don't honestly think we're dealing with another Old Dog, do you?"

Lucy's voice was tense. Her fear of corporations had been etched too deeply into her memory to disappear.

"Why so serious?"

Pantheon took his time exhaling a long stream of smoke, watching it disperse in the sea breeze.

"We've done everything we can. The rest is down to luck."

"But what if you..."

A shriek of static interrupted Lucy before she could finish.

"Lucy?"

Pantheon raised an eyebrow and looked up at the night sky. Their guests hadn't even arrived, but the battle between netrunners had already begun. From the sound of it, Lucy was losing.

He didn't have to wait long.

A thunderous engine roar swept in from the horizon.

Two Militech Griffin medium drones arrived first, taking positions on opposite sides of the promenade and sealing off the nearby airspace.

An armored AV followed close behind, its heavy cannons already aimed at Pantheon from either side of the nose.

The aircraft descended, its antigravity engines whipping up a blast powerful enough to evaporate the puddles below. The Militech emblem on its flank gleamed coldly under the searchlights.

The hatch opened, and heavily armed elite soldiers spilled out, spreading into a perimeter around the meeting place.

Pantheon glanced around. They'd blocked his escape routes, too.

Before he could give it much thought, a pair of long legs in high heels emerged from the AV.

A woman in a sharply tailored Militech business uniform stepped out. Her short blond hair was swept back, and her stern features were matched by an equally piercing gaze.

"You're King?"

She stopped three paces away and looked him over critically.

"I'm Meredith, Militech's head of Government and Public Relations. Do you have any idea how much damage you've caused the company?"

"You appeared out of nowhere in Night City two months ago. Who sent you? Kang Tao? Arasaka? What are you doing here?"

The questions came one after another, while the soldiers subtly tightened their circle.

It was an unmistakable show of force. Corporations seemed to regard people from the bottom of society with a mixture of suspicion and contempt.

"All these years, and it's still the same routine. You corpos really do love looking down on people."

Pantheon exhaled the last of his smoke, flicked away his cigarette, and remained utterly calm.

"First the charm, then the threats, then the leash. Can't you come up with anything new?"

Well, a trick didn't have to be new if it still worked.

When Meredith saw that he hadn't been intimidated, she raised a hand to send the soldiers back and changed tactics.

"My time is valuable, so let's talk business. We've raided the Animals' laboratory. Militech already has the drug samples and research data."

"Yours is nothing more than a backup. One hundred thousand eddies. That's my final offer."

Were all Night City residents idiots?

Pantheon was beginning to think he'd overestimated their intelligence.

Who brought this much firepower to an ordinary transaction? Did Militech have so much money it couldn't be bothered to care?

It was possible the company had raided the lab and obtained samples. But unless that researcher was a complete fool, he would never have left a copy of the full research behind.

Pantheon surveyed the surroundings. Drones blocking the airspace, an armored AV overhead, elite soldiers on the ground, and netrunners maintaining electronic suppression.

Anyone with functioning eyes could see how badly Militech wanted the Chiron serum and its research.

He gave a crooked smile, produced the chip containing the complete files, and weighed it casually in his hand.

"I've changed my mind. We originally agreed on one million eddies. Now it's one and a half million. Consider the extra five hundred thousand compensation for emotional distress."

Meredith's expression darkened immediately. She took a step forward and stared at him.

"What exactly are you trying to pull?"

Pantheon ignored the question and continued.

"The chip uses dynamic encryption. Without the synchronized password, even if you crack the encryption, you'll only get gibberish."

"Of course, I'm sure your people can work around that. But suppose something happens to me, and copies of the data automatically go to Arasaka and Biotechnica. What then?"

Meredith narrowed her eyes, weighing whether he was bluffing.

"You're threatening Militech."

"No. I'm showing good faith." Pantheon tapped his temple. "If I didn't want to sell, why would I go to all this trouble?"

The air on the waterfront seemed to freeze.

Several soldiers tightened their grips on their weapons, their barrels drifting toward Pantheon.

Meredith raised a hand and stopped them.

She studied him for a long moment. Her disdain had vanished, replaced by genuine interest and a measure of admiration.

"Not many people have the nerve to bargain with Militech anymore. Courage like yours is rare among mercenaries."

"Interested in working for me, King?"

Pantheon smiled and shook his head. Only then did he quietly breathe a sigh of relief.

"One million two hundred thousand. That's as high as I can go. The extra two hundred thousand is a personal concession from me."

Meredith sighed. Whether she regretted his refusal or the amount of money involved was anyone's guess.

"Deal."

Pantheon nodded readily and tossed the chip to her.

He didn't believe the extra money was actually coming out of Meredith's pocket. For all he knew, she'd merely reduced the portion she intended to skim for herself.

She caught the chip and passed it to a subordinate.

She didn't bother verifying the full contents. In her view, nobody could afford the consequences of cheating Militech.

A blue light flickered in Meredith's cybernetic eyes. A notification appeared across Pantheon's retina.

[Transfer: +1,200,000€]

Looking at all those zeros, Pantheon couldn't keep the corners of his mouth from rising.

"Pleasure doing business."

The Griffin drones climbed into the sky, lifting their blockade. The soldiers withdrew and boarded the AV.

Meredith folded her arms and looked Pantheon over again with obvious interest.

"Militech knows what's happening throughout Night City. The highway shootout, your infiltration of the Tyger Claws, the two heavy security robots you defeated, even the shooting contest on Vine Street a couple of days ago."

"Your combat record is impressive. You've earned a very favorable assessment inside the company."

"I'm sure you've heard of Morgan Blackhand. Our doors are always open to you."

She gave him a meaningful look and turned to board the aircraft.

The engines roared, sending blue exhaust streaming behind them. Meredith suddenly seemed to remember something and held up one hand to stop the closing hatch.

"Didn't you pick up a Militech technology chip from the Tyger Claws earlier?"

Pantheon immediately thought of the chip he'd found during the roadside shootout. He didn't answer, simply watching her.

"Relax. That chip contains nothing but obsolete technological junk. Some middle managers at Militech and Arasaka are using it to pad each other's performance reports."

"You catch my spies, I steal your technology. Nobody says it aloud, but everyone involved understands the arrangement. Everyone gets something out of it, even if the little people end up doing all the work."

Meredith said it as casually as though she were discussing the weather, despite revealing corporate secrets outsiders should never have heard.

Pantheon's mouth twitched.

Please stop talking. I don't want to know any of this. Is knowing too much going to get me killed?

Meredith settled back into her seat with a smile.

"If you'll return the chip, I'll personally give you another hundred thousand eddies as a thank-you. Here's my private number."

Her tone turned distinctly flirtatious toward the end. Just before the hatch closed, she even gave him a suggestive wink.

A new contact had appeared in his directory. Militech's netrunner had bypassed his ICE without him noticing.

"Keep what we discussed today to yourself."

Ignoring the characters floating across his vision, Pantheon reached toward the neural interface behind his ear.

At this point, the only cyberware he still had was that neural interface and one cybernetic eye. Everything else had been replaced with biological components that netrunners couldn't hack.

He really needed to improve his network security. Against top-tier netrunners, he was still far too vulnerable.