Edgerunners2077

V: 31

District: Japantown, Westbrook

I come to from the Braindance in the back of Falco's van and the warm scent of cologne, soap and musk hits my senses first before my vision clears up. Bright yellow, abandon in the corner near my face like the damn thing was meant to keep me company.

David.

He fucking left us.

Cursing, I snatch the Wreath off my head and toss it to the side. I don't have time for this. In actuality, I'm running OUT of time. With everything I'd seen on that tape, Lucy is in a whole heap of trouble, and I might be the only one able to get her out of it. I slam the door to the trunk and toss the jacket at Falco and Rebecca, who were sharing a smoke by a nearby sushi stand.

"He's gone. Fuckin' blew the coop!" I snap. Girlfriend, ex-girlfriend, lover, friend. Whatever I am to David, that dickhead shouldn't have left me like that. I know he's strung out and losing his mind, but still! "I don't have time to babysit David. The situation has gone from bad to worse. Lucy is being used as a hostage ragdoll trapped in the Net for vengeful ex-Corpos while that fuckin' Gonk can't keep his head on straight for fuckin' 5 minutes!!!!"

"Ex-Corpos?!" Falco nearly drops his cig. "I expected Maelstrom, Valentinos even. But Corpos??? Fuck! The hell does Lucy have to do with Corpos??"

Becca, on the other hand, was speechless. Her little body was shaking like a leaf. "L-Lucy is .... Lu-cy... A ragdoll!!!" She cries between words. I can't blame her, the horrors hidden on that BD was only a glimpse of the shit Lucy has been subjected to.

"I have a lead." I say, glancing between the two of them. "It's a small one but it's something. A name of a guy who attended the... casino she's held in."

"Casino??! The hell!" Falco outs his bud, then quickly waves his hands in the air. "None of this is adding up! Ex-Corpos. Casinos. Why Lucy?? How does any of that connect to anything?? The Wanted Posters or the mass burning of Wellsprings???"

I shake my head. "I dunno. Becca said the Gustavo Orta gig was given out by Padre. Who was the middleman for the client, an angry 6th Street boss. It's possible the fires were started by 6th Street, given Wellsprings is fully Valentino territory while Gustavo stays in Vista Del Ray, half the Patriots area. They could have been trying to scare them off, seize the area in totality. Maybe somehow that would justify as revenge for getting his daughter stuck in a coma. The Edgerunners could have just had bad timing. The Valentinos and 6th Street beef goes back generations."

"So, this isn't the streets starting a war. It's the Corpos, picking us off and dangling us and feeding us to each other like worms on a hook!" Falco spits in disgust.

"No. It's worse. Much worse! Lucy is the target of something bigger. Much bigger!" I dive into the retelling of what I encountered on the Braindance, careful to leave out any super triggering details for Becca's sake.

"There was a name I heard, Kuznetsov. Ring any bells??? Tall, blonde, built like a truck."

Rebecca blinks at me with her wide eyes as she pulls the memory from her brain. It was as if she were unlocking a padlock and had to hit every segment on the way before the full picture was revealed. "That guy! Falco!!!" She jabs at his ribs. "Remember that job Maine had me go on with David at a bar in Arroyo? He was such an amateur back then, but the kid did play it cool until it was time to improvise and drove off with the gonk's car nearly totaling the damn thing!"

"You guys stole his car?" I raise a brow. "Must've been some sweet wheels."

"No, no! He was just the driver. It wasn't his wheels, and it wasn't the car we were after it was the databank inside the vehicle. Important gig. One that Maine said we couldn't fuck up. A gig from Faraday."