Scavengers

8. Scavengers

"Got work?"

That was Carl's first reaction. Her second was, "Faraday, who are you?"

"Faraday?"

Oliver was very familiar with the name Carl had mentioned. "I remember him. He's a fixer who gets around City Center, Watson District, and Santo Domingo. Back when I was with the Sixth Street Gang, some people took jobs from him."

Jack lowered his voice. "How good is he?"

"Bottom-tier mercs with a bottom-tier fixer."

Oliver's lowered voice practically spelled out that the fixer was not much good. But Carl, who was still on the call, was not thinking as much as they were. Once she learned from Oliver that the person on the other end was a fixer, she understood why he had called.

"A fixer? You planning to send me a job?"

"One of my old corporate clients recommended your number. Said you were very capable. So, how about it? Want to stretch your legs?"

"An old corporate client."

The only Corpo Dog Carl knew well was Blanca. It seemed Blanca thought highly of her services and had recommended her to someone.

"What kind of job? Can you give me the details?"

Of course she had to look at any job that came her way, even if they had just finished a major one today.

"Just a little warm-up. Go save someone from the organ harvesters. Don't treat it like a formal contract. Before we work together on a big job, I always like to get a clear idea of what the other side can do first. Considering the difficulty, the pay won't be very high. Six thousand eurodollars. You don't mind, do you?"

Six thousand eurodollars.

Hearing that number, both Oliver and Jack felt strangely as though they were being treated like idiots.

Talking about testing their abilities before a major formal partnership was something only idiot mercenaries would believe. It was really just dangling a carrot. What he truly meant was that he had all sorts of jobs that could get them killed later, but he was worried they could not even handle this one, so they should first try a low-paying job where he swallowed most of the money and there was barely any profit left.

Still, he was the first fixer to come knocking. Neither Oliver nor Jack intended to refuse on Carl's behalf. Their little team had Carl handle jobs and negotiations now. If she thought they could do it, they would do it. If not, then they would not. They only had to listen, get the work done, and wait to split the money.

"Save someone from the organ harvesters."

Carl thought for a moment before speaking. "Send me the details. What's the deadline?"

"I'll send the details right away, along with fifteen hundred as a deposit. As for the timing, it's up to you. If you feel like going early, then go early. If you're busy, going later is fine too. The client's minimum expectation is that you can at least bring out a body. The money is roughly the bare minimum for that."

Faraday's unspoken meaning was that the client only had enough money to save a corpse.

"I understand. Send it over first. I'll decide whether to take it after I look it over."

"Fine. We'll hang up here, then."

The fixer on the other end, Faraday, clearly regarded this as a trivial matter and did not care much about it. Within ten seconds of the call ending, a file came through. Carl used the program built into the Access Port to scan it, and after confirming it contained no common viruses, she opened it.

"A fixer grabs a few suicidal idiots off the street, pays them money that can't even buy them shitty cyberware, and sends them in with guns to fight Scavengers. I thought that was just something people said. Didn't expect us to actually run into it."

Jack glanced at the chips he had just opened and had not even taken a bite from, sighed, and picked up the Saratoga.

"Tell me about it."

One look at Carl told Oliver that they were probably taking the job. He sighed too, got to his feet, and began preparing. They had just eaten their fill and now had to work. He would probably throw up later.

"I'm still reading it, and you're already getting ready?"

After finishing the file, Carl looked at Oliver and Jack as they prepared. "Isn't today supposed to be our rare day off?"

"You really want to rest?"

After checking his equipment, Oliver said, "Come on. The sooner we finish, the sooner we can come back and keep eating. Think of it as walking off the meal."

"You don't want to rest a little longer?"

"Oh, come on, Carl. Don't we know ourselves?"

Jack flipped Carl the middle finger. "We're killing organ-harvesting scum. Why are you still putting on an act and asking questions? Let's go already. If we get there too late, whoever spent their whole fortune on this job might really only get a body back."

"Didn't know you were such a kindhearted guy, Jack."

Carl smiled, but she also rose from the couch and set the full bucket of fries on the table, intending to finish them when they returned. "And we really can't let those bastards keep doing disgusting things."

When it came to scum like the Scavengers, even without a job, Carl, Oliver, and Jack would clean them up whenever they ran into them. After all, no one wanted someone they knew to be walking down the street, get snatched away because they let their guard down for a moment, and have their body hollowed out.

The group went downstairs and squeezed into Oliver's junker.

"Why are you calling my car a junker again? Believe it or not, Carl, I'll make you walk back yourself."

"I only said it in my head. I didn't realize you heard it."

"Bullshit. You were practically saying it out loud. Fine, if you think it's too cramped, I'll get someone to modify it later. See if they can stuff you into the engine."

"Enough. We're all crammed in here. Stop talking and quit moving around. My face is practically pressed against the window."

Jack complained about Oliver and Carl fidgeting around, then brought up the fixer from before. "Come to think of it, this job pays six thousand eurodollars. How much do you think that Faraday guy skimmed?"

"He's treating us like idiots, so I doubt he's giving us much. I bet he skimmed at least half."

Oliver thought of the complaints from people in the Sixth Street Gang who had taken Faraday's jobs. "I heard taking half off the top is standard practice for these fixers."

"From the look of him, it's more than half. I'm worried this job might be worth thirty or forty thousand, enough to drain the client's savings dry, and all they'll get in return is the body of a friend or relative who got hollowed out and sent back to them."

Jack shifted slightly to the side. "I moved over a little. Carl, where's the place? Tell Oliver so he can step on it."

"Fine."

This was important. No more messing around.

Carl quickly gave them the address.

The Scavengers were located in City Center.

City Center: The heart of Night City, packed with corporations. The safest place in all of Night City. To corporate employees, all those rumors of robberies and gang violence were nothing but rumors.

Night City Police Department danger rating: Safe