Cyberpunk EdgeRunners X Male Reader

Chapter 6 - Let You Down

Maine turned to me as we strolled through Afterlife with a stern look. "Let me do the talking, you hear me? I'm being serious here."

"Loud and clear, boss."

"You're certain that device of yours holds the eddies?"

Holding the ice pick up, I nodded adamantly. "You have nothing to worry about, Maine; I know what I'm doing."

Passing around the back, I got my first look at the one who hired Maine's crew for the job. The infamous Dexter Deshawn. Taking a puff of his cigar, he looked up at us with a scoff pointing to the chairs. "Sit down."

Dexter leaned forward, looking at the news broadcast; it was all the talk of the town. "You know, I'm finding it hard to imagine how a simple collection job turned into a fucking massacre. Shooting up a club? Seriously?!"

"Our apologies, Dex." Maine started off nudging me. "We were running tight on resources and time after getting hit. We didn't see much other option if we were to get your eddies to you in time."

Dexter glanced at me, still in disbelief. "You're the one who handled the job then? I don't recall you being a part of Maine's crew here."

"Recruit. Last minute, if it wasn't for him, you might have never got your money."

"Oh yeah? So what you're saying I should have just gone to the kid, to begin with?" He replied back, taking another puff before holding his arms out. "Well? Are we here to do business or chat?"

Taking out the ice pick, I put it down on the table. Dexter whistled, inspecting the gadget and nodding. "I haven't seen one of these babies in years. How did you get a hold of this kid?"

Maine yet again cut in speaking up. "Does it matter? We got you the eddies."

Dexter leaned back, tapping the ash of his cigar. "I can see Maine here has no appreciation for the authentic classics. This boy here is a netrunner's worst nightmare. Unlike jacking into systems, an ice pick is mostly undetectable; back in the day, this thing would be the heart of cyber warfare. It was such a rampant issue those fucking corpos had to band together to create a patch to counteract the device. After that, this relic became obsolete."

"And that there is my biggest advantage. These things have been so outdated for a couple of decades the corpos don't bother updating the patch anymore, giving me easy access to wherever I need to go." I add setting it up, pulling out a cable to jack into. "The money is all on here. And a little extra for your troubles."

Dexter took the cable jacking in. Then, I began transferring the funds. While not the full 50k, I made sure half of it went through as a good gesture. "I returned to Night City just a month ago, and I already see a warzone; I suppose some things never change. I'm not one for charity; this extra dough isn't just goodwill. What do you want?"

I stopped Maine looking at him. "I can explain my own problems, Maine. I don't have a data shard for you, but I can explain my situation."

Dexter tapped his knee, nodding. "Go on."

"Two days ago, Reo Hiroto died."

"Yes, I heard of this. She was found dead on the scene; Arasaka is in chaos over this."

Fidgeting, I shook my head. "Well, you see, that wasn't the whole story. I was a part of the trauma team that was tasked with saving her. I was able to do so but was stabbed in the back. The agent and who I thought was my friend Butch betrayed me; he let Reo die as ordered by a client."

Dexter stroked his beard, taking the information in. "I see, that makes sense in one way. It's already sending a domino effect up the chain of command. Are you sure?"