Cyberpunk: I'm Not a Scavenger - Chapter 59: Hunters and Prey (Patreon)

“King, I’ve arranged delivery of the equipment you asked for.”

“Getting you to take a job really is a headache.”

Rogue sat with her legs crossed in the holographic call. She sounded annoyed, but her eyes held unmistakable approval. The gig had gone beautifully, and Rogue had made a tidy profit as the fixer. Little wonder she had warmed to Pantheon.

Pantheon looked through the equipment specifications and nodded with satisfaction.

“Don’t worry. There won’t be a next time. I’ll work out another way to get the equipment.”

After ending the call, he winced at the thought of the price of all those machines. Research was a bottomless money pit! High-precision instruments and advanced hardware were expensive enough, but even the experimental materials ate through an enormous share of his budget.

Night Corp’s gig had paid 1.2 million eddies, yet that money barely made a dent in the cost of setting up a lab. And those were the discounted prices Rogue had secured through her connections. At this rate, no number of mercenary gigs would ever be enough.

At this level of technological development, money was only the beginning. Equipment, personnel, premises. Every part demanded time, effort, and more money. Pantheon made up his mind. In the future, he would pay for consumables and simply steal the major equipment from corporations. Consider it their small contribution to the world.

Time passed as he adjusted and calibrated his instruments. When he finally stopped for a cigarette, an incoming call flashed across his vision.

“Kiwi? What’s up at this hour?”

“I found Jae-Hyun Lee.”

Kiwi sounded tired. Pantheon stopped with the cigarette halfway to his mouth. A murderous light entered his eyes.

That monster had escaped while Pantheon was busy rescuing the trafficked girls. The humiliation had been eating at him ever since. Letting a Scavenger, a sewer cockroach, slip away right under his nose was a slap in the face.

Still, Jae-Hyun Lee was no amateur. He had survived more than a decade of criminal life in Night City. More than two weeks had passed without a single useful lead. Why would he surface now?

“Where?”

“Pacifica. He’s a cornered animal now. We’re not the only ones hunting him. Some mercenaries want his savings, and I’ve heard the NCPD is looking too.”

“He doesn’t dare return to his own territory. He’s hiding in a Scavenger base inside a transit warehouse run by Revere Courier Services.”

Kiwi sent him an intercepted comms log.

“I hacked the Scavengers’ communications. Lee plans to use Revere Courier Services to smuggle himself into Cuba.”

“He’s already paid the deposit. He’ll probably leave within the next two days.”

Pantheon took a long drag on his cigarette, forcing his anger back under control. His steadily improving Cool attribute did more than steady his aim. It helped him think clearly, even when he wanted to kill someone.

“Kiwi, where did you get this information?”

She went quiet on the other end, quickly grasping what he was really asking. After a moment, she explained the source without hiding anything.

“Some time ago, Lee went to an underground ripperdoc to get a new face.”

“The moment he left, the ripperdoc sold the information to a data broker.”

“I intercepted the lead by chance while working another gig.”

Pantheon listened, his suspicions easing a little. Typical Night City ripperdocs. For the right price, they would sell their own mothers.

Hell, by that logic, when he first arrived he needn’t have bothered ruining his natural organs. He could have just found a doctor and sold off the healthy ones.

Kiwi went on.

“After getting his new facial data, I pulled every surveillance recording around the clinic, including footage from private cameras.”

“I ran gait recognition and biometric comparisons. It took more than two days, but I found him.”

“Once I knew his hiding place, I hacked the Scavengers’ subnet and found his transactions with Revere Courier Services.”

Kiwi made no attempt to justify herself. She simply laid out exactly how she had tracked him.

Pantheon nodded and explained his concern.

“A man who’s stayed out of trouble for more than ten years wouldn’t make such a stupid mistake.”

“You said others were hunting him too. Let’s wait and see which hunters end up becoming prey.”

...

Jae-Hyun Lee considered himself the smartest man alive. Over the years, he had made an obscene fortune trafficking people, drugs, organs, and anything else illegal enough to turn a profit.

He knew those businesses were against the law, but he had never regarded himself as a criminal. In his own mind, he was carrying out a sacred mission. He was redistributing society’s resources, taking wealth and health from people who didn’t deserve them and giving both to the right people.

Of course, not everyone could appreciate his noble work. Then, not long ago, a “former colleague” had attacked him. The assault destroyed everything he had built. Even his MUSE bar had been seized by another group of Scavengers.

Yet even after this terrible setback, he refused to give up. Once it was safe, he sold his treasured gold antiques, reconnected with old business partners, and secured another chance to start over.

To deal with the hounds pursuing him, he deliberately left clues that would lead them straight into his trap. Exactly as he had now.

Pacifica. A transit warehouse belonging to Revere Courier Services. Police searchlights turned the dark factory grounds bright as day.

Six or seven armored NCPD patrol cars blocked every exit, while more than twenty officers surrounded the building.

The fat NCPD officer in command sheltered behind a car door, wearing three layers of body armor with only his head exposed. He lifted a megaphone and delivered an ultimatum to Lee and the Scavengers with him.

“Jae-Hyun Lee, you’re surrounded!”

The officer sounded certain of victory, eager to claim the arrest for himself. “Drop your weapons and surrender! This is your last chance!”

But things were not going to unfold the way he expected. Lee’s newly reconstructed face twisted into a contemptuous sneer.

From the second floor, he leisurely swirled the red wine in his glass.

“You think a handful of dead-end cops on a fixed salary can make me surrender?” He took a deep swallow of wine, his eyes darkening.

“Just how little does your chief think of me?! No MaxTac? Not even the goddamn S.T.A.R.S. squad? You expect to take me down with a few patrol officers and detectives?!”