Gig: Border smuggling

"You're practically bullying an honest man! I bet McCoy's about to blow his top. Too bad we couldn't make it a video call. I'd really love to see his face."

"You couldn't pull that face-to-face. Nomads with guns are a lot more short-tempered in person than you'd think."

"Cheers! To McCoy the pighead!"

At the bar, Lier decided to have a couple of drinks with V to while away the three boring hours.

That took care of two problems at once-the armored vehicle could be swapped for a nomad car later.

They also had a way through the border checkpoint now-once they moved the prototype smart weapons into the new car, they could get through without trouble.

As for what happened after they crossed... they would deal with that later.

Did it hurt to give it up? Well... there was no way the Behemoth could make it through the border checkpoint anyway.

Militech wouldn't talk about its losses on the news, so nobody knew its vehicle had been stolen. But going through the border checkpoint would change that.

The border checkpoint would transmit the data it collected to the orbital rapid-response system, and then their chances of getting caught would shoot up to ninety-nine percent.

Sometimes it didn't pay to be too greedy, even if Lier really liked this vehicle.

"This booze has a flavor all its own." V drained her glass and continued, "You were standing up for those nomads earlier. I thought you felt sorry for them.

"Then you turned around and screwed them out of fifty thousand eddies. You really aren't a good person."

"I think the booze has fried your brain." Lier only took a small sip, since his internal organs were barely functioning. "It's my money. He was the one who rejected the offer.

"Besides... we'll be leaving the vehicle with them. They'll make plenty off it."

Even if they couldn't sell the Behemoth Armored Vehicle, driving it around wasn't an option either.

But it was still valuable for parts. For nomads, stripping and modifying vehicles was practically a required course.

V raised her glass high. "This is the first time I've seen anyone put those fixers in their place-it's hilarious. For that alone, drinks are on me today!"

Lier didn't think much of it. "With enough money, you can put anyone in their place."

It was broad daylight, and there weren't many people in the bar. Before long, the two were sitting around in utter boredom, watching windblown sand sweep through the town.

Fortunately, the nomad delivering the car and information arrived soon. He was visibly nervous when they met, and clearly young.

Lier didn't say much. This kid was just running an errand, so there was no point saying more.

In fact, deliberately striking up a conversation might put McCoy on his guard.

Money for goods-the kid received the money shard, and they received a modified car along with a shard containing the intel.

It was a Thorton Galena "Rattler," a typical little junker nicknamed a "tetanus trap on wheels." It had clearly been modified many times.

A weapon seemed to have been mounted on the roof at some point, but unfortunately, it had been removed-whether ages ago or just recently, they couldn't tell.

The good news was that the cargo compartment had been modified to keep contraband from being fully scanned, and it had a little more room too.

It held exactly five Yinglongs and two Eight-Star Shotguns-Lier and V had to stuff the other three under the seats.

The Nekomata was more of a problem. They had no choice but to take it apart and put it in the trunk.

V winced as they dismantled it-they would have to find a gunsmith bold enough to try putting it back together once they returned.

This was a tech sniper rifle that could punch through the Behemoth's armor plating in a single shot, not some piece of junk you could find anywhere.

As for the rest, weapons didn't count as contraband unless a whole carload turned up on a scan-who didn't have a gun on them?

Of course, that would certainly raise the cost of getting through the border checkpoint considerably.

V pinched her nose as she looked at the little car. "Ugh... this reminds me of the junker I drove in Atlanta, only it stinks a lot worse."

"Of course it stinks. Nomad cars are handed down from generation to generation. The smell's a family heirloom too.

"Let's see who this smuggler is."

Lier inserted the shard, and the gig information appeared in his Cyber-Eye.

[Client name: Jackie Welles]

[Place of residence: Night City]

[Gig: Smuggle a shipment of goods of unknown origin]

[Cargo owner's instructions: After crossing the border checkpoint, leave the goods at the designated location.]

[Additional notes: The goods most likely came from the Arasaka convoy hijacked several months ago. Exact details are unknown. Because of the Atlanta incident, nobody cares about what happened to Arasaka months ago anymore. Someone is probably taking the opportunity to unload the goods.

The client is offering very little. Nobody in the Snake Nation wants this job, especially at a time like this.]

[Client location: An abandoned farm (coordinates)]

After reading it, Lier rubbed his chin-

Well, great. Now I've played through two of the game's prologues back-to-back.

With that thought, he looked at V again. She was supposed to return to Night City more than a year from now, then run into Jackie while stealing a car and become his best friend.

But now... so Jackie had been smuggling during this time?

He would chalk it up to a change caused by the butterfly effect.

"What?" V found it odd that Lier was looking at her. "Something wrong with the client?"

"No, nothing like that... You're from Heywood, right? So is he."

Lier sent her a copy of the information. After reading it, V shook her head. "Don't know him. He looks a little familiar, but... no, I don't know him."

Good, Lier thought.

If these two had been childhood friends, he would have had to consider the possibility of V going back to Arasaka to report for duty.

After a moment's thought, Lier said, "I'll drive. You talk to him. Just remember, we're from the Barkley Family.

"If he asks what the Barkley Family is like, tell him-"

"A bunch of Heywood folks wandering the world-I remember. But why do you suddenly want me to do the talking?"

Lier froze-for the first time ever.

V seemed to realize something too. She still remembered why Lier had told her not to speak when they met the sheriff.

The reason was that the moment she opened her mouth, she sounded like a street thug.

So the reason he wanted her to handle the conversation was...

V gave him a knowing look. "Heh. You little shit."

Lier spread his hands. "Can't help it. I'm too well educated to make it convincing."

"Moron-fine, you drive. Oh, right. Won't carrying these smart weapons around tip off Militech?"

"No. Kang Tao lost them. They have no obligation to report it to Militech, and they won't. Otherwise, news of the missing Prototype Weapons would've been everywhere by now.

"We're smuggling anyway. Carrying a few high-end weapons is perfectly normal."

"All right. Anything else I should watch out for?"

Lier scratched his head. "Well, I'll say it now so you can brace yourself-I figure Militech will try to rob us on the other side."

"Why?"

V was a little surprised. Everyone knew corporations were shameless.

But letting people through customs only to rob them on the other side?

Wasn't that a little...

"We're nomads who've just left our family, smuggling valuable cargo. Customs certainly won't mind tipping off the nearby Militech agents so everyone can make a little money."

"Another fight?" V was annoyed. "But we took the Nekomata apart."

"Even if we hadn't, we couldn't use it-you can use these smart guns if you know how."

V dismissed that option outright. Without a Smart Link, smart weapons were worse than old-fashioned guns.

Smart weapons required a connection through a Smart Link implant in the hand, which picked up sympathetic nerve signals, converted them into data, and processed them using preset programs.

Ultimately, they performed tracking fire according to the user's needs.

An experienced user like Zhu Shen could even use a smart submachine gun to intercept rockets.

Without that system's support, a smart weapon's tracking was so poor it might as well not exist. On top of that, the fuel inside the bullets wouldn't be fully consumed, leaving their final kinetic energy far below that of ordinary power weapons.

"I'd rather use my little pistol-I'll have to give it a proper repair job when we get back. Hopefully this client can handle himself."

V drew her pistol, Dying Night, from her waist and inspected it. It was a fully automatic pistol modified from a Lexington, with a small blade fitted beneath the muzzle so it could serve as a dagger when necessary.

"Well... considering he makes his living on the streets, he probably won't disappoint us." Lier shrugged.

Despite saying that, Lier still felt something was off-

Arasaka cargo, Jackie, V... all the ingredients are here. And I'm even stuck in the unlucky hacker's spot.

As he thought about that, Lier noticed the words "Weapons offline" on the dashboard screen.

Then he looked at the Eight-Star Shotgun...

Maybe I could hook this thing up to the car?