>>5836674“We’re heading out to the badlands! Got a route set to get past the badges, we’re leaving through Rancho!” Cannon shouts from inside the truck, finally letting you know your destination - he was talking with someone on the holo earlier, Dakota you assume, but it was far too muffled to hear any details. You reached the edge of Westbrook about a minute ago, and have been doing your best to lay low and avoid the eyes of NCPD foot patrols. Know there’s a real route Cannon is following comes a huge relief, a bloody corpse in the back of a truck will draw eyes here. Most of Westbrook, and Japantown within it, is a thick forest of neon and high-rises, some of the most vertical area in all of Night City - any gonk on a balcony could just look down and see what’s left of Jan, even after you made some small efforts to hide her.
“A route past all the pigs in Westbrook?... How’d he manage that? Hardly made it <span class="mu-i">in</span>, and that was on fucking new years.” Maeve wonders aloud, and you can’t help but shrug in response - the answer obvious at once to you, between your father’s stories and his own still unclear ‘side business’.
“Bribes.” You explain bluntly, “They probably pay one of the dispatchers and get the patrols moved for a few minutes. Thought you’d know that, being a-”
“Being a raffen?” Maeve asks sharply, as easily set off as ever, “No, usually we… <span class="mu-i">they</span> just flatline badges, or come up through Pacifica and drop goods off there or in Dogtown.”
…Shoot badges? Of course wraiths do, half the city does on a bad day. You hadn’t thought about that much until now - you could very easily end up in that situation. Not at some nebulous point in the future, but <span class="mu-i">today</span>. It doesn’t sit well with you, too many people on the force that you know. Too many memories of your dad.
Today hasn’t gone how you thought it would.
>”...Dogtown? Really?” Dogtown is a Combat Zone in Pacifica run by a rogue NUSA colonel turned warlord - absolutely no one sane goes there.>”...Are we just going to bring the body… uh, Jan, the whole way with us?” You thought Cannon would’ve stopped by now to dump the body somewhere, he knows she’s back here, but he hasn’t even tried. Maeve has been trying her best to ignore the corpse. It’s really, really beginning to bother you as well.>Wait out the ride. Payment and hopefully a ride back into Night City awaits - you really need to scour dad’s comp and call Regina. …Or maybe you’ll talk to this ‘Dakota,’ she was in dad’s contacts.>Write-in. 