Friday Night Firefight - A Cyberpunk 2077 Isekai

Friday Night Firefight - Chapter 8

"Get tighter on him Joe. You gotta close the lanes down. They're killing us in the paint choom."

I leaned my back against the wall and popped another chip in my mouth as I watched the game. Some residents from Megabuilding 10 had formed a pick-up basketball team and were holding down the court over by Lizzie's They had put out the word earlier in the day, saying they'd best all challengers, and a small crowd had formed for the free entertainment. That was something I long learned to cherish in Night City.

One of the things I most wanted to do in the city was watch all the braindances that I couldn't watch in the game. That wasn't in the cards though as all my money went towards survival. After food and drink and clothes and everything else, I never had enough eddies left over to count as disposable income. During my time in the city, I had been bombarded with ads about all the new braindances being released weekly.

Badlands Raid 2.0, Crime and Punishment and Zombies, Conqueror 9000. I wanted to watch all those and more. There were BDs of police chases, rock shows, and odd slice-of-life BDs where you were a farmer or a pastor or a handy man in a megabuilding. I had neither a BD wreath nor the money to rent any of the BDs I heard about, instead relying on the free entertainment of the city to pass my time. That was probably true for most everyone who was crowded around the half-court near Lizzie's.

That was also my cover for being at the game that day. In listening to Deng's stories about his time with Militech, as well as being bombarded with sermons that Fred and Mor preached about how best to protect myself, I learned that one of the most important rules of safety was recon.

About to ambush a SovOil convoy sending supplies to South American paramilitaries? How many cards and guards and guns are you expecting? What's the threat level? What route are they taking and where can you set up your shooters? Going to a part of Watson you don't normally frequent? Who are the major players? Who controls the territory? Do any of the gangs there target the homeless or will they leave you alone as long as you don't interfere in their business?

Recon was exceedingly important, and it was why I kept one eye on the drug dealers while still watching the game and cheering. It was why I was noting how the dealers interacted with each other and the clients, where the money was kept, who was charged with guarding the stash, and when they did their re-up.

After an hour of hanging around the court I had a basic understanding of the crew. They were relatively inexperienced, and I couldn't tell if they were ballsy or just plain stupid. This was Tyger Claw territory. Everyone knew that. So why were these fools openly selling drugs here and not cutting in the Claws? Deng would have been embarrassed by how sloppy the dealers took their security.

The court was placed between an alleyway that led up to Lizzie's and a set of stairs that led out to an apartment block. The two dealers on the court were positioned so they had a view of both ends of the alley; one watching the ramp that led past the court towards Lizzie's, and the other watching the end that fed out to a street about a block away. It was the third dealer, the one stationed at the top of the stairs, who was their weak link.

He was supposed to be extra muscle for the dealers on the court as well as make sure that there was no one sneaking up on them from the apartment block behind the court. He was also supposed to guard the stash. If the NCPD came around, he'd grab the stash and make a run for it. This would ensure the crew didn't lose all their drugs if the badges decided to do their jobs. But with the basketball game going on, he had allowed his attention to drift and was more engrossed with what was happening on the court than watching for potential threats.

With a plan in place, I crumpled my bag of chips in a ball and tossed it away before heading down the long alley that would let me out several streets away. It would be a five- or ten-minute walk around the block and then I'd come up behind the dealer on the stairs. Every step I took increased the beat of my heart as I repeated the plan in my head.