บท 34: It IS Rocket Science! (11)
Ever since Dex DeShawn felt he botched the Militech job his luck took a turn for the worse. First, it was that upstart Faraday doing everything in his power to wrestle control over Pacifica's clients. Then he receives a message from his contacts cutting ties with him, as they found a new Fixer that isn't 'tainted.'
Finally, when the Fixer went to Afterlife to have a drink and relax before going on the offensive, The Message arrived. Coming from a carrier pigeon, to the Fixer's surprise, a piece of paper contained the most important warning in DeShawn' short life. Somehow, against all odds, Mr. "Cool" earned the personal ire of the Engineer himself. At first he thought it was a prank, much like the message predicted, then someone on Afterlife staff gave him another message.
"I'm sorry to tell you this, Mr. DeShawn, but Rogue has barred your entrance on Afterlife starting the next day." The manager politely continues talking despite DeShawn outburst, "since you lost your prestige in Pacifica and Watson, you don't have a strong enough Reputation to be eligible for Afterlife entrance. For tonight, you are still allowed to remain and finish any business you need. Please, enjoy the rest of the night."
With trembling hands Dex looks once more at the message, and realizes that he suddenly became enemies with the Engineer. As if to deny the truth staring in front of him, he orders as much alcohol as he can, paying several rounds for the bar and burning off his immediate funds. Eventually the bar's bouncers throw him out when the Fixer becomes too intoxicated to walk back to his home.
DeShawn wakes up in his bed at his most used safe house, eager to dismiss the previous night event as a nightmare, when a pigeon enters from a window and drops another message. The Fixer jumps from his bed in fright, before gingerly picking up the message.
Another warning and an irrevocable proof that the Engineer is serious about his intentions.
The days pass, and the Wube Inc. accomplishments hit the news with the plans to build a new space station that collects space junk and micro asteroids for research, alongside a new Moon base for limited mining operations and possibly setting up a new colony. Wube Inc. claims that, in the future, it will expand its operations to send cargo rockets to send large scale material between Earth and Space to set up an industrial scale Space Logistics.
Dex DeShawn does not comprehend nor care about the implications of this news. The Fixer is more concerned with the constant death threats he's receiving via robotic carrier pigeons. Dex swears that he's constantly watched by the mechanical menaces, and he's laughed at by people on his employ, calling him paranoid for believing in such outdated conspiracy. The more mindful of his stressed condition wonders if his chrome was hacked, and the Fixer would normally agree if it weren't for the many paper letters with the death threat written in cursive.
"Who the fuck writes in cursive?"
One of DeShawn's Netrunners looks at what appears to be incriminating evidence. "Boss, have you ever thought of sending this letter to the authorities? Try and ruin the Engineer and Wube Inc. reputation?"
Dex stands up and smacks the offending Netrunner. "Do you think I didn't already try that? The bastard has Netrunners keeping watch over the net and any movement I do. Besides, did you forget about the leaked video of the meeting between The Engineer and the Arasaka and Militech representatives? That man doesn't give a fuck about the law!"
"Hey Choom, don't go hitting on her just because you're upset-" The Fixer turns to the offending voice, power walking towards him.
"What's your name, boy?" Dex grunts out to the man in his late twenties.
"Jackie Welles, sir." The recently contracted Edgerunner answers nervously. Jackie is a former Valentino's member that always dreamed to become a Legend in Night City, and when someone introduced him to Dex DeShawn after the biggest job in Pacifica he jumped at the opportunity. His friend V was happy for his success, but advised caution around Fixers with a career that burns too brightly, "a nail that sticks out gets hammered down," according to the Arasaka corpo, an almost alien concept to the former gangster.
"Well, Jackie boy, answer me this, have you ever met with the Engineer?"
"No sir."
"Well, I met him. Indirectly. That man's an absolute menace! A verified psycho!" Spit flies out of Dex mouth as he rages at the mercenary, "The night the Engineer completely eradicated the Maelstrom? The fight where he killed almost the entire gang single-handed, and used some kind of unknown poison to turn them into a biological slurry, do you know what he did once he arrived Afterlife?"
Jackie shakes his head and Dex continues, "he asked for fucking dinner! Afterlife now has an entire a la carte menu named The Engineer's Choice because after spending an entire night killing and bathing in gore the madman got hungry!" With each new work the Fixer's voice rises, as each point is emphasized by DeShawn poking at Jackie's chest with his cyberlimb.
"Most Legends in Night City have a drink dedicated to them in that Place, with two exceptions: the unofficial Adam Smasher' Selection with the various Legends that were flatlined by the Arasaka executioner, and the fucking Engineer's Choice! Don't you see, motherfucker, Afterlife acknowledged the Engineer as an Adam Smasher level threat!"
"And he's looking for me! Me! ME! If you don't know how to get me out of this situation, shut your whore fucking mouth!"
By the end of his rant Mr. "Cool" lost all of his composure as his breath turned ragged with exertion. He takes a deep breath to try and calm himself when he hears a sound that makes his eyes widen.
"Hoh hoh."
"AHHHHHH!" The top Fixer screams at the bird sitting on the table. He takes one of his guns and tries to fire at it, but none of his nervous shots hit the creature that flies away peacefully after delivering its message.
The female Netrunner gingerly approaches the message, but DeShawn roughly manhandles her. "Don't you dare touch it!"
*Crash*
A brick breaks the hideout window and Jackie goes to investigate, but soon he returns with another paper in his hand. "Uh, boss? This one reads, 'read the damn message, DeShawn. Aloud.'"
The Fixer releases his Netrunner and gingerly takes the original message and reads it out loud with a shaky voice.
"Dear Dead Man,
This is the penultimate reminder of your inevitable doom. The time of reckoning is close, so I recommend you to finish putting your affairs in order, and steel your resolve for what's to come. Hugs and kisses, The Engineer."
Strangely to Jackie, the Fixer currently looks calm and collected, as if the current message had brought him a sense of enlightenment.
"T-Bug, clean up all of my accounts." Dex says with a firm tone, "I am going to delta from Night City. I already bought a ticket out of this situation, but I didn't want to give up on my current reputation."
"Mr. Cool, you're just going to… leave?" Jackie asks one of his idols while growing up. The wreck of a man in front of him was once one of the best Fixers in the city, a member in good standing on Afterlife. For an individual instead of a corporation to have the power to make him scared like that, Jackie wonders about the kind of person that can accomplish it.
"This is just a temporary retreat," the Fixer insists, "I will leave, let the heat die down some more and after a few months, a few years, this whole thing will be blown over. It always does. Until it does, make sure to stay low."
"Here boss, your eddies." The Netrunner T-Bug, one of Dex oldest employees, hands the large man a memory shard. "It... wasn't as much as I expected. Did the Engineer also hack into your personal accounts?"
"I had to pay some bribes here and there," DeShawn vaguely answers, "anyway, Jackie, take the car and drive me to the spaceport. Afterwards I will wire you your share, then you stay low key for a few days."
"Alright, let's go."
…
The drive to the spaceport is tense and with an unusual amount of traffic for the time of the day. The car could barely drive for a street before stopping over the next street.
"Take a shortcut," Dex orders, "or else we will never get there."
Jackie looks around seeing little opportunities to take a shortcut unless he runs over the pedestrians, but he isn't desperate to face the law enforcement over this. Thankfully for the small group, on the next semaphore Jackie finds a faster lane to travel despite deviating slightly from the original route.
"We're deviating from the route too much," T-Bug remarks as she pulls a map, "we're going away from the spaceport."
"Relax," Jackie reassures the Netrunner, "I know those streets. We just need to turn at the next intersection and then we're back on track."
Unfortunately, things don't go according to the group's wishes as the car turns in a different direction. "Shit, the car's hacked! The steering wheel doesn't respond!"
"'Hacked?' What the fuck do you mean by 'hacked?'" DeShawn asks fearfully. "This is a 1970's Cadillac, there's nothing here to hack!"
"Look!" Jackie turns the steering wheel all the way to the right, but the car continues driving towards a different location. After a few minutes, the three reach a street on Santo Domingo where a crew of Edgerunners is waiting for them.
Rebecca taps the car window startling DeShawn. "Hey Choom, care to step out of the car for us?"
The fat man slams the door on the small girl's face earning a small cry as he tries to run away, but a tall man with long limbs holds an abomination of a gun to the Fixer's face. "Don't you fucking dare touch my sister, you fat fuck. I'm the only one who gets to annoy her, capisce?"
"Shut up Pillar, don't act cool!" The angry woman quickly stands up and points her own weapon to DeShawn's head. Before the sibling pair could start bickering, the tall ex-Animal and Maine' second in command Dorio break up their fight.
"Follow us without any funny business, you two too."
On the other side of the car, Sasha and Maine open the door to Jackie and T-Bug. Currently, Maine wears a Modular Armor with modified design to acclimate himself with the Engineer's equipment and to prevent himself from further straining his body after the first round of surgeries. Both Jackie and T-Bug step out of the car, sizing up their captors.
"Hands on the car." Maine orders, and with practiced ease pats down Jackie for any weapons he might have on his person.
"They're clear," Sasha proclaims after checking the chrome of the two companions of DeShawn. "They don't have anything on themselves to surprise us on the car drive."
"Good. Now move out you two, and don't try any funny business."
The trio is escorted to another car while their Cadillac disappears from view. The group enters the large vehicle before it goes away into the badlands. The drive is tense, with any attempt at communication being shut down immediately.
Jackie starts praying under his breath, not wanting to die like this, and T-Bug does her best to remain calm under the current situation. Eventually, after driving in the Badlands for half an hour the group reaches a small concrete shack.
"Set out." Maine calls the group and they reluctantly exit the vehicle.
In the shack illuminated by a single lamp, the Engineer is waiting for the group's arrival. "You done goofed, Dex DeShawn."
Jackie is taken aback by the odd slang from the Engineer, while Maine's crew already grew used to the Engineer eccentricities. They push the trio forward to face the Engineer's wrath while the rest of the crew watches a few steps away.
"L-l-look, i-if this is a-about the gonks I sent after the Factory, that's just business, alright? You work with Rogue, right? You know a lot of Fixers, so you know how the business works, right? Right?"
The Engineer stares back at DeShawn stammers, patiently waiting for something. DeShawn sees this as his opportunity.
"In the end you profited off it, didn't you? You took out most of the gangs in Pacifica, got yourself a fat paycheck, a boost in respect and reputation at Afterlife, and even the grudging respect from the corpos! I mean, when I saw the leaked video between you, Arasaka, Militech and the Mayor the first thing I thought was 'hey, what a fucking badass! He's going to be a Legend thanks to me!' So, in a sense, you owe part of your success to that night!"
The Engineer remains silent until he takes a deep breath.
*Smack*
Mark slaps DeShawn with his armored hand, leaving a bruise on the Fixer's face. "Esther."
*Smack*
"Maria." Smack. "Josue." Smack. "Nahomie." Smack. "Jesus." Smack. "Oliver." Smack. "Adine." Smack. "José." Smack. "Samyr."
With each name Mark slaps DeShawn's face strong enough for him to feel pain, but not enough to risk him losing consciousness or becoming incapacitated, but a large bruise forming on the man's face. "Those are the names of the unfortunate homeless people that were sleeping in one of my improvised shelters. The shelter that I was going to use to help the local population. The shelter with nothing there except homeless people! The shelter that was raided by one of the gangs that you called that night!"
DeShawn sputters indignantly, unable to comprehend what he just heard. "Are you going to kill me over some nobodies?"
Mark knees the Fixer on the stomach, making him lose his air. "They had names! Weren't you listening? Esther, Maria, Josue, Nahomie, Jesus, Oliver, Adine, José, Samyr!" With each name Mark slaps DeShawn once more, this time stronger until the Fixer's look like it went a full round against a professional boxer.
"You sent everything and the kitchen sink at me! There were even fucking Nazis there too! Not poser supremacists, not try hard racists, not even dumb idiots being led by an asshole, but the actual hidden Nazi community in this hellhole of a city came to knock on my door, killing off any undesirables they saw on Pacifica, which was everybody in their eyes!"
Rebecca looks startled at the revelation. "Do we have a Nazi community in this city?"
"We had." Mark corrects the Solo. It took time, but Mark managed to hunt them down quietly. "As I said, you fucked up DeShawn, and I'm going to kill you."
"No…" The fat man protests weakly from the ground due to pain. "Please… mercy…"
"Now, I'm not a monster," Mark ignores DeShawn's begging, "so I am giving you a choice. Since you're a local you probably buy into the 'style over substance' lifestyle of the City, so I'm giving you two options: you can die quickly and painlessly, but your legacy in Night City will be completely trashed, your name will become synonymous with cowardice and disrespect. A symbol to be mocked and degraded until the masses get tired and forget about you."
That cuts off the pain that Dex DeShawn is currently feeling, as the man looks up in both horror and anger at the man daring to desecrate his legacy.
"Option two, you go out as a badass. Your death will be slow and excruciating, and you will need to have a closed casket funeral, however, I will make sure to spread word on Afterlife that you fought bravely, that in your final moments you earned the respect of the Engineer, and I will ensure that your name will live on as a Legend in Night City."
The Engineer steps forward looking down on Dex. "Now, what do you choose, DeShawn?"
The man stands up, taking a deep breath before answering. "Do you think I am scared of you? Sure, you hold my life in your hands, but I'm not some little boy you can cower with your intimidation attempts. If you think I can't take it, then give me your worst! I will live on as a Legend, and you can't take this away from me!"
The Engineer nods, and brings a flamethrower from his inventory, clicking the pilot fire for effect. The Fixer steps back in fright, finally realizing what he signed himself for. "As you wish."
"No no no nonononono! Please, don't do this man! Not like this, not like this!" Dex discards all notions of dignity falling on his knees and grabbing at the Engineer's waist to beg for his life.
"Now DeShawn, you choose your execution method. Please, don't make my job harder."
DeShawn weeps and bawls, pleading for his life, but the Engineer is unmoved. He points his weapon at the soon to be dead man, but someone interrupts him.
"Wait!" Jackie calls out to Mark, and he turns to the mercenary. "Is there any way for you to spare him? He, he gave me a chance to properly join the Edgerunner scene, I owe him a lot. I can't just stand and watch him die, I will do anything!"
Mark stares at the man, evaluating his proposal. Maine signals his crew to stay silent, stopping Rebecca from speaking out for the brave man.
"Alright. I will give you a chance to walk out of this alive, DeShawn." Mark looks at the two extras that tagged along to this excursion. "If any of you two decides to take his place, DeShawn can walk away free. I will fake his death while you take the burden of his execution."
"What happens if we don't agree?" T-Bug asks the Engineer.
"Nothing," he replies promptly, "I don't have any problems with any of you."
"Then fuck you DeShawn, you fat bastard! You never paid me enough to put up with your bullshit anyway."
"T-Bug, you double crossing bitch!" The doomed man yells at his once loyal Netrunner before turning to Jackie. "You will do it, won't you? You said it yourself, you owe me for helping you! If you do that I make sure that you become a Legend in Night City! Everyone will know your name!"
"I," Jackie hesitates for a moment, until he strengthens his resolve. "I will do it."
Mark nods at the man, and gives Jackie a handgun with a full clip. "Since you're not DeShawn, you can go out easier. He will live, but his reputation in Night City will be in shambles while he will be exiled."
"That's not what you promised, you bastard!"
Mark ignores DeShawn protests, continuing to speak with Jackie Welles. "You can also suffer the same execution as him, to ensure his Legend in Night City."
The mercenary looks down at the gun, DeShawn, and the other Edgerunners in the room.
He quickly raises his gun and emptied the clip on the Engineer's armored face, to little effect.
Once the gun clicks empty Mark tilts his head. "Did you get that out of your system?"
"I had to try." Jackie admits, and hands the Engineer the gun once more, accepting his fate. In response, Mark loads another clip in the handgun and gives it back to Jackie.
This time, Jackie stares at the gun and considers his choices. If he should sacrifice himself for Dex the easy way, or take the burden of his execution, or to let the Fixer die. He slowly raises the gun towards his head, thinking of the people he will leave behind. His mother will be alone, but he only gives her disappointment; his childhood friend Misty that he never got the courage to ask out, and finally his friend at Arasaka V, whom he surprisingly became close over the years.
"What are you waiting for? Just do it! Die already so I can leave! If you can't even go out like a badass then at least get it over already!" DeShawn yells towards Jackie as fear, pain, and anger overcomes the man.
Jackie stares hurtfully at DeShawn before closing his eyes and bringing the gun to his head.
*Click*
Jackie opens his eyes and he pulls the trigger again, hearing another click. Mark gently takes the gun from the mercenary's hand.
"You're a very loyal person, Jackie Welles. This 'ride or die' attitude is precious, and you shouldn't waste it on him. This was a test, not just to DeShawn, but to you." Mark's words surprise Jackie, and he continues, "you passed, and DeShawn failed. If you want a job you can talk with me later. Maine, please escort Jackie and T-Bug outside. The rest can leave too, if you want."
Maine answers with a grunt and takes the pair outside, leaving only Sasha inside the building. Sasha doesn't say anything, and Mark likewise doesn't ask anything.
"No no, you can't do this to me!" DeShawn screams in terror and tries to escape, but Mark shoots him on the knee making the soon to be dead man fall on the ground crying.
Once more, Mark ignites the flamethrower pilot fire, pointing the weapon at the former Fixer.
The Edgerunners were expecting to hear screams from the doomed man, but instead they heard the lyrics of a music long forgotten by time, and none of them could understand the significance of the song in this context.
"Do you believe in magic ~ in a young girl's heart?"
"How the music can free her ~ whenever it starts?"
When everything is over, Mark makes sure that everyone in Night City is aware of DeShawn's last moments as a victim of 'gang warfare,' and lets them decide for themselves what to make of the former fixer.
In Mark's opinion, he doesn't believe he can come up with a better smear campaign than what Dex DeShawn did to himself. Night City will come to agree with that assessment.
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