Chapter 19: The Gig Part I
In a rundown small room, two people sit across each other about to start a discussion, while another is standing.
"Sit down lady!"
"No, I don't think I will."
"I don't have time for this, so let's get this straight before we start. I'm not responsible if any of you get injured or killed during this mission. That's on you. I don't have time for babysitting, I'll be gone for the next two days. But don't worry if you actually succeed, give the details to Pedro and he'll pay you."
"I don't expect much from you guys, but Pedro trusts you both. So here are the details of the mission."
She hands me a document. The first thing I notice is the picture of a man that looked around his late twenties. Underneath, information like age, height, occupation, etc. Most of it had question marks and the only info was he was a merc. So it's some type of profile on this guy, with little to no information. He looked awfully a lot like V from the game, I was very familiar with his character.
| Picture |
"So who is he?" Asks Ciri, whilst looking over my shoulder.
The woman speaks up; his nickname is V, but no one knows his real name. As you can see on the document, this is all we have on him right now. I need someone to find him, the first guys I sent were experienced mercs. I wasn't able to contact those three after a few days. Don't even ask about the most recent recruits, they were just like you newbies, and that's why I don't have much hope of you finding anything. If it wasn't for Pedro, I would have never given you this job. So what do you say, interested?"
"Before we take this job. I wanna ask why are you trying to find this guy. And what's the pay?"
"If you can actually find him I'll reward you both with ten thousand eddies. It's generous, yes, but considering the difficulty. I'd say it's fair. Now, to the question about my motives. Let's just say the guy owes me eddies."
"Owes you eddies? How much are we talking here?"
Breaking the small silence she answers, "Well aren't you a curious bunch? You think it's over 10k, so you want to try to bargain for higher pay? Well, you're not the only ones that have tried that."
"No, I'm not interested in that, the pay is fine. I just wanna know why he owes you, specifically."
"Alright, fine. It all started with a guy I met. He was trying to hire me to create a new piece of cyberware. If I continue with any more details, it's illegal information from here on out. Do you still want to know? Even knowing that?"
"Just give us all the deets, nothing left out. I'm already too interested at this point," I said.
"Very well, let's start from the beginning. I was just a small-time newbie at the time, trying to make it big as a ripperdoc. But living as a ripperdoc wasn't enough for me, so I started experimenting on my own. It turned out I was a wiz when it came to inventing new cyber tech. Skipping the part where I painstakingly was able to land my first job at Cybermatrix. I played a big part in the creation of the Copernicus project. After my success, Arasaka became very interested in me and before you know it I was working for them. Relax, I currently don't work for Arasaka anymore. It all started when I first met him, V. That tough son of bitch. Sometimes I think the man is either a walking tank or a cockroach that can weasel himself out of any situation. Well I don't exactly want to kill him, you see the deal is he asked me to make him a modified cyberware based on Arasaka's top-of-the-line Sandevestan. It was an improved modified version of QianT 'Warp Dancer' sandevistan Mk.5 and it was worth around 125k eddies. Not available to the public of course and few people knew about it. Of course, I had the knowledge to make it. The deal was, he would pay for the materials, which was around 75k and I get a pay of 50k. I'm putting my ass on the line just to make this thing, so I gave a high fee price. However, I should have known things would go bad when he agreed so easily. Don't get me wrong I was suspicious of where the money came from but he insisted that he had been saving a lot of eddies after succeeding in a few big gigs from the Bigshot Rogue. He might be lying, but I had to give him the benefit of the doubt and accept what he said for now. I could really use the eddies you see, it's not cheap being a ripperdoc. Well as you could have guessed by now when the time came to pay up, he ghosted me and I've been trying to find him ever since."
"How long ago was this?"
"It's been close to a month if I had to guess."
"So you want us to find this guy's location, then notify you of the details? And what if we bring him to you?"
"Exactly, but if you can actually achieve that I'll pay extra."
"Any leads?"
"None, the last lead was the location we last parted, if you can even call that a lead. I haven't been able to find anything on him since he ghosted. He's good at covering his tracks, I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out he was from an assassin organization at this point."
"So where is this place you both last met up?"
"At the Konpeki Plaza."
"The Konpeki Plaza?" Asked Ciri.
"Are you new in the city? Or a nomad by chance? We rarely get tourists from other regions. As it's now overrun by gangs and violence."
"We just entered the city today."
"Damn, I knew you guys were newbies but not this new. What was Pedro thinking?"
"Hey! Even if we are new at this. We can both handle ourselves just fine," said Ciri."
"Fine, I'll believe you, take this. I see you both don't have any cyberware so you can contact me with it."
She hands over a phone and continues, "I'll give you guys a month at max to contact me and if I don't hear from you guys again it either means you're both dead or you also ghosted me. Oh, and one more thing before you go."
Her eyes glowed blue for a moment.
"If you had cyberware like a normal person I could have just transferred it to you directly. So Instead I transferred two thousand eddies to an account on the phone I gave you. The passcode is 84218310, if you forget it's on the back of the phone. You'll get the other 8k when you finish the job. Good Luck! You're gonna need it!"
Leaving the room we were met with the same empty corridor.
"I have a feeling this job isn't so simple"
"You don't say?"
"Oh shush it, I'm serious. How do we even find this guy? As she said, we have no leads."
"Ciri, why are you so into this? You know we can just leave anytime we want."
Well, I already had a good idea where he's at, but I'd rather not get into this mess. The guy was trouble.
"Why not? I won't back down from a good challenge."
"Really? That's what you got from it, a challenge?"
"Come on Art! How about we start now!"
Before I knew it I was being dragged as the girl cheekily pulled me along with her hand in mine. I just let her have her way as she pulls me. With one thought in my mind; ugh.
A few seconds later.
We were outside at the stalls once again.
"Have you seen this guy before?" Said Ciri as she raises a picture of V.
We came across a couple of people that wouldn't say anything out of fear, after seeing the photo. Acting as if they knew nothing. The rest had no clue who he was. Of course, I already had a clue, since I could read their surface thoughts. Sometimes it's hard to control it because it just comes naturally to me. Being a Legilimen is a blessing and a curse.
"You know something don't you?" Asked Ciri.
"And how would you know that exactly?"
"I didn't, I just tricked you. Besides, I know mages can read minds, I learned that from Yennefer. "
"Who's Yennefer?"
"I'll tell you that another time. Come on time is ticking we only have one day. Just tell me what you know already."
"Alright, but you have to tell me more about your world," I said.
I wasn't sure if it was the same world I know, so it doesn't hurt to check. Plus I was genuinely interested in her viewpoint on the story.
"Deal!"
…
"It was the first guy you asked, his exact thoughts were; Who are these two and why are they looking for V? I last saw him outside Lizzie's Bar, fighting some thugs. He said he was looking for someone named Evelyn Parker. I hope he's doing ok, he's a regular customer here and I've made some good money off him."
Ciri narrowed her eyes and replied, "Huh? Well, that was easy. Why are you holding out anyway? I thought we were partners?"
"Partners? Didn't we just meet not too long ago? You also kinda just teleported me with you without my consent."
"But I thought we had something special? You're the first person I've opened up to besides Geralt. Why can't we just get along?"
"Opened up to me? I gave you my trust and told you part of my life story but what about you? I don't know that much about you. Besides, it's not like I don't like you. In fact, I enjoy your company."
"Phew, well that's good to hear."
"Girl! You just ignored half of what I just said."
"Ok! Ok! I get it. It's just… It's hard for me to get close to anyone. Everyone I do get close to…"
"Dies?"
She nods.
A minute of silence later.
"Look I get it, you don't have to worry about me. I won't die so easily. Look."
Ciri Pov:
I was Confused. What am I looking at right now? When he suddenly closed his eyes his body glowed purple and I could see everything around us paused. Looking around I couldn't see any movement or sound. It's like time just stopped!
It lasted for a minute before everything continued again like nothing happened. Turning around I see Art breathing heavily as if he just ran a marathon. I support him by grabbing his shoulder.
"Hey, what just happened?"
"You know what happened."
"But aren't you going to explain anything at least? It was s-"
"So sudden?"
"Stop doing that!"
"Alright, I just can't help it sometimes." He laughs.
After walking in silence for a few minutes, I could see he no longer needed my assistance and I threw him off my shoulder.
"Ok, I'll tell you…"
He sat on the bench nearby and gestured to me to sit with him. I accepted and sat on his right side.
Thirty Minutes Later
"So that's what happened since I met you…"
He sits silently for a moment digesting my story.
"Ciri…"
"Yes?"
"Thank you for trusting me."
I smile and hug him whilst he returns the hug.
The hug didn't last long as we were interrupted by some thugs. Tsk, ruining my romantic moment.
"Mr. Starscourge?"
"You are?"
"We're with the Tyger Claws. You have guts, kid, to mess with Arasaka property like that. The madam wants to recruit you for a gig."
"Care to elaborate more?"
"Look kid, she needs someone like you. Someone with no id, new to the city, no connections, and willing to get his hands dirty. Interested?"
"No, I already have a gig as you can see."
"No, we can't see, what it looks like is you on a date with your girlfriend."
Hearing that I'm suddenly aware of my situation as I look to my left and see how close I am to Art right now. Backing away quickly I regain my composure and shout, "Well you guessed wrong! We're partners as you can see!"
Both men laugh and reply, "Sure, sure. That's why your cheeks are currently pink right now. Don't try to hide it! Kid look now's your chance this girl looks really into you. Tsk, what a player. Back in my day, I had to pay them but with that pretty face of yours it comes easy doesn't it?!"
They both laugh again. Before I could kick one of them in the balls they both suddenly stop and their eyes flashed blue for a few seconds. Afterward, they look at each other and frown.
"Looks like your lucky kid, the boss wants us to leave. For now. You'll be seeing us real soon, whenever you finish that gig of yours."
They both reluctantly do a small bow and walk away into the street, leaving on motorcycles.
"What was that about?" I ask, looking over at Art.
"Their boss told them to leave politely, it seems she knows more details about our gig somehow, something doesn't add up."
Remembering what happened just a few seconds ago I speak up, "Hey…"
"Hm?"
"Have you read my mind before?" I threaten him, holding out my sword.
I see him falter for a moment seeing me threaten him.
"No, I haven't. But I won't lie, I was tempted a few times."
Narrowing my eyes I ask, "Are you telling the truth?"
"Of course! Here if you want proof. We can set an unbreakable vow."
"An unbreakable vow?"
"The Unbreakable Vow is a spell where a witch or wizard makes an oath to another. If the terms of the oath are broken, the person who breaks it will die."
"That seems a little much don't you think?"
"I don't mind. Besides, I am confident that it will go well."
"Fine, I'll trust you. So how do we do this?"
"Just make an oath that you will listen to my next words so the vow can break off afterward. Then leave the rest to me. I'll start it off."
"I solemnly swear that I will not tell a lie to Cirilla Fiona Elen Riannon in my next coming words."
This surprised me greatly as I just realized he memorized my full name. Regaining my composure I say my oath.
"I solemnly swear that I will listen to Artorias Star Scourge's next words."
A thin tongue of brilliant flame issued from his hand and wound its way around our hands like a red-hot wire. I flinched a little, as the unfamiliar feeling washed over my hand.
He continued, "Since the day we met, to the present. I have not lied to you once."
I felt the bond between us break and both of us were unharmed.
I was genuinely worried that he might die! Hence I hugged him before he could react.
So he hasn't lied to me once? I felt a little emotional, as I thought about it more. He has been so kind and understanding to me, all this time.
"Thank you…" That was all I could say.
"No Ciri, thank you. You saved me from before. I'm sorry I told you so late. It never crossed my mind until now but I'm glad I met you."
A tear falls from my eye dropping into his shoulder. I could feel my heart beating fast.
No, I don't know what I would do without you, Art. You're the best thing that's ever happened to me. I feel alive again when I'm with you.
He tries leaving my embrace but I hold tighter not letting him go.
"I think it's time we go, it's getting late." He said.
I reluctantly let him go as he stood up. We both leave. Gaining a memory that I will never forget.
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