\+/ Tales From Night City \+/ Chapter 88 – It's A Dark Night
A heavy splash of bone chilling cold water slams into Audrey's face before splattering to the concrete. Her pale wrists lay gripped in chains dangling from the ceiling as she frantically gasps for air through choking water.
"Again. Presca." A suited figure shrouded in shadow demands with remorseless force.
Audrey coughs up spit water as she dangles from the clanking chains trying to catch her breath. Her goosebumped skin shivers uncontrollably as the various suits in the room move about the space. Their formal footwear echoing throughout the spacious interrogation room unseen.
"Who are you." The man demands. His tone aggressive.
"P-Presca… B eighty-four" She struggles to mutter in pain… her short white hair hanging soaked over her face.
"What is your purpose."
"….To serve"
"Who... do you serve."
"...PetroChem"
"How does it feel to serve the company that embraced you."
"...Embraced"
"Do you desire to be embraced by someone you love? A loving embrace."
"...A loving embrace"
"Is it factual."
"....Factual"
"Go ahead and say the clearance categories of your last three rip and recycles in order."
"A-nineteen… A-twenty-eight...…... A-thirty-six. She weeps at Zayta's number.
"Do you yearn for the embrace of a flatline."
"...Embrace"
"Do you find pleasure in killing on orders. Actuality."
"...Actuality.
"Why were you not at the Animal's compound."
She breathes heavy in pain... no response.
"Who are you."
She doesn't respond… her weeping cries of pain echoing through the darkness. A long pause rests in the intensity as water drips to the floor and her chains clink.
"WHO ARE YOU!!" The man roars. A bucket of scolding hot water's dumped on her back from an unseen suit behind her… she shrieks snapping her head back.
She struggles to mutter through overwhelming pain... steam rises from her skin's surface.
"P-Presca.. B-B…..B eighty-four"
"Do you desire to be embraced by someone you love."
"...f-factual."
The back of her thin white shirt is effortlessly ripped open from behind… revealing the countless deep scars cascaded throughout her back from time's past. They grip her hair and yank back with one hand and claw grip her face with the other.
"What! Is! Your! Purpose!"
"T-To S-SERVE-" She growls gritting her teeth as he lets go of her hair.
"-SAY! THE CLEARANCE! CATEGORIES OF YOUR LAST THREE RIP AND RECYCLES IN!! ORDER!!!"
"...A NINETEEN!!-"
"-WHAT! IS IT LIKE! TO LOSE!! SOMEONE!!! YOU LOVE!!!"
"AAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" She screams in desperation… frantically yanking at the chains holding her.
Audrey's screams fade as we find ourselves back at the top floors of the PetroChem megabuilding. The PetroChem executive rests against his black desk with arms crossed... ready to turn in for the night. His gaze fixates on Night City's beautiful glow... he enjoys the silent sight more than he'd ever admit. Seeing it less like an alluring anomaly… and more like a gorgeous, wild animal in need of being tamed.
Hes uninterested in how confidently it stares back at him.
The elevator behind him dings open… the all too familiar taps of a woman's high-heels on marbled floors quickly approach.
"S-Sir! We've got a hit. Just like you said. Intel just came in from the crypts down below." Anna breathes heavy with adrenaline flowing. The breakthrough grabs hold… but doesn't stop him from recognizing how out of line her demeanor is.
"Bring it up." He demands
"Haven't had the chance to thoroughly look through everything and cross reference but one of our in house contractors you had us bring in spilled. One of the Rippers we have on retainer... A B-eighty-four. Her company history and known affiliates are being combed through as we speak since she didn't show up in our EPV database. Considering her tenure, there's only currently one AWOL that had the clearance to affect anything in regards to our warehouse." Anna says scrolling through a bunch of blue holograms floating in front of the pair of them filled with reports and images.
She ends the scrolling on a single image.... Zaunya… staring at the camera for her PetroChem company headshot. A rather common reading of intel sits alongside it… bred in-house… former executive shield… classification – expendable. MIA beyond interest.
The executive says nothing… staring daggers at the holographic photo of Zaunya. Anna looks at the photo unfamiliarly… glancing at the exec several times in anticipation… standing in the tense silence.
"D-Do you…. Do you know her sir?"
A long pause takes place as he continues to stare deep into Zaunya's eyes… a look of anger combines with familiarity on his face.... he can't believe it. With no eye for the impossible… his executive level of power and access to resources has failed him. After all this time… company costs and consequences rise from a mistaken grave long forgotten. He growls a single name from the back of his throat... with eyes locked on the now identified ire of his life.
".....Gatlyn…"
A short time later, Anna returns to the exec's office out of breath… her humanity on display more than ever before. She quickly makes her way back to his desk and drops a handful of clearly old and tattered datashards the company had stored away somewhere long forgotten. She brings up a new blue hologram for the pair of them to look at as she speaks.
"….Zaunya Gatlyn. Biological daughter of one Zayta Gatlyn – bred in-house. Former sworn shield to now deceased PetroChem board of directors member Bolster Connolly.
"Hm… Connolly was the successor once upon a time... next in line for PetroChem CEO i'm sure you well know."
"Sir, but if I recall correctly... reasons for his death were never disclosed, even in-house."
"That's the thing with company board politics Anna... power at the highest echelons is held by the weak… the most fragile. Surrounding themselves with yesmen and sycophants that do the real work. Enough time spent wallowing in that shit'll make you feel invulnerable- tch… even in death you're protected." He concludes… his tone bitter and jealous.
She silently concludes even he himself has no idea. She continues.
"Doesn't quite explain her moves though. I mean, based on her profile her street knowledge is anything but extensive. Born into the company with an assigned directive… she must've had help."
"I want you to tell procurement to put the squeeze on that B eighty-four. I mean the real squeeze, so make sure shes taken out of house under wraps… and have them hurry the fuck up. There's no time that can afford to be wasted… send her to site four… B wing."
"And Gatlyn sir? Appears this B eighty-four did quite the job of scrubbing her implants overtime… and Seeker hasn't turned up anything yet either on the board's end… sure we would've heard about it by now."
A long pause sits between the two of them… he's stuck in a tactical leverage pin. With how thin the veil is holding together his black project Dawning Perpetualis, his resources to pursuit the cause are steadily running dry. His board superiors have long since called for a discreet wrap up… forget about recovery and control... the project's been slowly pulled from his hands. He knows Anna's right... just who is this…. nobody with the gall to sink this deep into his affairs. Sure, Gatlyn is the weapon… but her profile just doesn't match the moves. Perhaps she's turncoat for another corp pulling her strings… or just hellbent on a suicidal vendetta for who gives a fuck reason at this point. No EPV file, no listed reasoning for forced retirement… not even a clearance category for her position. Just a ghost of a weapon… being honed and utilized by an unknown third party who seems to have his number. His chest tightens... the realization hits him having underestimated the severity of his situation…he's off balance... he's been outplayed.
"What of that street scum Aces."
"Flatlined sir. He turned up nothing after giving us the rundown on Seeker."
The executive turns and looks at Anna with direct eye contact... she does the same unwavering.
They sit in the silence after that exchange... communicating unspoken words. The extreme tension in the air is clear even if neither of them want to acknowledge it. Running out of options… he has no choice but to trust her.
Somewhere else in the streets... dark night skies and distant whaling sirens ring out in absence of any commotion.
Beatrice flicks her cigarette and exhales a final cloud of smoke. With her heart racing she puts her hands on her head… tension in the back of her neck and shoulders squeezing uncomfortably tight. She stands, breathing heavy in the quiet white noise of the city… her eyes red and raw from uncontrollable tears… racked with regret. The stakes have been raised long past her limits… as rocksteady as she's been through it all... the feeling of loss… of time steadily slipping away is unshakeable.
The sensation of remorse constricts her very soul… the thought… the feeling of never getting the chance to tell him… to hold him again. Struggling with the unbearable weight of the-
"-You need to calm down Bear… seriously." A tired monotone mutters out.
She quickly turns around and storms toward it.
She gently grabs Netty's face… before a tight hug that causes him to squeal in heavy pain. She immediately lets go and comforts him gingerly… resting her head on his chest.
"Netty!" She whispers weeping… her mind racing with the series of events that've lead them to this very moment.
He stagger corrects his balance and gets his arms around her… a feeling he's forgotten to long for at this point… returning with urgency layered on fear. He doesn't care though… in this moment… the why didn't matter to them… all that mattered was the embrace… and nothing more.
"I'm here…" He whispers as she sobs into his chest.
"M-Maelstrom's finished… its a bad string cut off at the head… the corpos are gonna-"
"-Netty! You… we need to talk- there… there isn't a scenario where this doesn't get worse. This… run- th-this war... P-PetroChem isn't gonna just let this go... for any reason. Maelstrom's NOT the end of this- it never was! The corps… they won't just have private investigators and uniforms on us anymore! We have to!… w-we have to-"
Netty grabs her and yanks her in… hugging even tighter... catching her adrenaline and baring the frantic fear with her.
He gently grabs her face… forcing eye contact as they stand embraced together under a stray streetlight, surrounded by darkness and very sparse foot traffic. She whispers… her tone low and serious.
"I… I'm… I'm here- I… I'm here for you- I… I wanna be.. here for you. I can… I can fight I-"
"-Bear… there's something you need to know… please… something you need to understand. After… after everything that's gone down... no matter what happens… no matter what's coming... there's… there's nothing…. no one that'll ever keep me away from you."
They lock eyes during an impossible moment… deep in the depths of the grim and unforgiving Night City. A string of memories from time's past flash by… the netruns… the violence… the dance... the late nights on the edge… the connection… the embrace.
Netty's voice… more grave than ever before continues.
"Listen, PetroChem's break on the trail isn't gonna slow down. There's only-"
Netty's abruptly interrupted by a passing voice that instantly yanks the moment and their attention away from them. It was gravely and off putting… like nails on bus glass… he made sure they heard him.
"-Daaamn baby… don't even ask me what I would do wit all that. So much fuckin' back I don't even know how to act." He snidely says walking by with his 2 choombas.
"Fuck off." Beatrice barks dismissively over her shoulder... so dismissively that it strikes a deep nerve in the ego of this sensitive street punk.
"The fuck did you say to me bitch?"
He immediately steps to Beatrice and snatches her throat… the augmented force of his prosthetic's grip around her neck causes her to shriek.
A surge of adrenaline explodes within Netty as his eyes open wide and he bares his teeth… it was as if all of his injuries suddenly didn't exist... he connects a heavy right hand on the punk staggering him hard but his grip on Beatrice's throat remains iron tight with her struggling against it.
Netty's immediately punched hard in the face by a second punk staggering him back as the third follows after him.
Beatrice engages her diamond tipped nails and deeply slashes the punk's face sending blood flying.. he shouts as he lets go. She swings her claws again as he turns his shoulder… he cocks back and backhands her hard.. slicing her face with his chrome prosthetic and sending her to the pavement. He grabs a handful of her hair and drags her by it up the sidewalk as she screams in pain. "AAAHH!!! NETTY!!!!"
Netty staggers back to balance and squares up with these two punks. He fields the incoming cross… slipping the strike and landing a heavy elbow flush breaking his nose and splitting open his face... dropping him to the pavement face first with a heavy thud, knocked out. Netty takes another sharp step back away from the third punk pushing forward with a flurry of kicks and punches. He catches him with a kick hard in the stomach… square in his Mantis Blade stab wound causing him to shriek and fall to his back… the punk stays on him... kicking and stomping on Netty as he barks "Gonna kill ya motherfucker!" through his teeth... stomping and stomping on his ribs.
Netty turns and swings with all of his strength… burying his knife directly in the punks knee causing him to scream up to the sky. He twists the knife and yanks down as bright red blood comes gushing out of the chunked ligaments. He falls to the pavement beside Netty who goes knee on belly… he instinctually punches him in the face hard several times to loud thumps… knife gripped tight in his hand before he switches to stabs. The blade plunges deep into and out of the punk's face and torso with every wet crunch and shink as blood sprays on Netty's face. The feral nature of his being forcibly yanked out of him with each heavy stab in a fight for survival… deep in the depths of the Night City streets. He soon comes too and halts his flurry… he staggers to his feet while dropping the knife and turning around.
Just a few yards away he sees Beatrice on her knees… helplessly choking for air.
He sees her arm that was reaching back go limp alongside her other one after doing everything she can to resist…
He sees her eyes wide open and bloodshot… with her mouth agape and helplessly gurgling... as the streetpunk strangles her from behind with a chain… his knee dug into her back for leverage with all of his strength.
Netty's eyes open wide as his body reacts on it's own… with gritted teeth he charges the punk at full speed… drawing his yellow DR5 nova and pointing it at the side of the punk's head.
Netaniel…. finally... pulls the trigger… a loud bang from his iron rings out in echo through the light starved block.
{Start song now: Dark Night – The Blasters }
A smoking barrel gently wafts into the air… iron clutched tightly in Netty's hand.
He stares down at the streetpunk's head laid on its side... volumes of thick blood glug out of the large bullethole like a spilled gallon of milk. The eyes pulsate from the pressure of brain and blood gushing to the concrete. Netty squints slightly… his brain struggling to register what its seeing.
Rapid footsteps approach from behind.
"MOTHERFUCKER!!!!!" Beatrice's screams at the corpse as Carter quickly carries her away from the bodies up the street.
"Come on kid… we-" Brian says rushing up to Netty trailing off… joining him looking down at the gory sight.
"W-We we gotta get outta here… Netty." He mutters to distant sirens… he gets no response.
He yanks the back of Netty's shoulder. "MOVE YOUR ASS!!! NOW!!!" He screams making Netaniel snap out of it... they take off up the light starved street.
Back at the hideout… Zaunya's cocoon lay bursted open on Audrey's bed alongside Zayta's old bodybag.
She stands naked on the balcony… her long black hair gently blowing in the wind covering her backside.
The flick of her lighter is heard… cutting to black.