The Hijack

The neon-lit rain poured down so hard that my cigarette wouldn't stay lit for more than a minute, and I had a three hour wait ahead of me. Sucks to suck, but this score fix up my ride and get me out of Night City, and the thought of that was all I needed to keep myself still and quiet. It wasn't easy, though. Karoshi won't tell you this, but I swear their implants assume some baseline depressants in the bloodstream; my new eye kept flicking all over the place before I took a slug of vodka. Piece of shit.

Three hours later and it was still raining. The streets ran with jetsam floating in gutterwater. Good. We needed this for the stop and the getaway. Still, I was glad I wore my boots.

A call came in. Decker. It rang thrice and stopped. I got up from my squat and pulled my bandana over my mouth. Militech's tapped into the phone systems, even if they say they aren't, so we had to work around it. Three rings for go, two for stop, one for run. I squinted across the street and flipped the bird to the derelict on the sidewalk. Another signal, something no one would think to suspect here. He walked around the corner and I started the clock.

The Militech bigwig would be rolling through five minutes from Decker's signal. We had a blocker that'd run for 30 seconds. The timing would be tough, but not impossible. I checked my watch. Three minutes and change to go.

Two minutes later, I heard the sound of a car's exhaust bounce off the the walls lining the street. Shit. I checked my watch again. Ten seconds til the blocker went up. My heart pounded and I gripped my pistol to calm it down.

Five seconds. No car yet.

Three seconds. Lights were flashing through the gloom, but the engine was quieter. Maybe the driver just had to pass someone.

Zero. Our blockers popped up just as the car came past. The steel pistons popped the rear axle up and the whole thing went head-over-heels and slid on its roof. Not a great result, but not terrible.

I sprinted towards the car and the derelict joined me. Militech security would be here in a couple minutes, but we had drilled our opening sequence for a week. I aimed my pistol at the driver's-side back door handle and let three shots loose, then yanked the handle.

It didn't open.

What the fuck? Was this some new deadbolt shit? Did they add it after we jacked that other car to practice on? I glanced at the derelict as he pulled out the data cable from his hand. What now?

We got lucky. The driver opened his door and tried to crawl out, coughing blood onto the wet asphalt. Obviously a rookie, so why the fuck would he be driving a boss? It didn't matter. I capped him and reloaded as the derelict dragged his body out.

The nice thing about these rides is that the glass between the front and back seats is bulletproof and auto-tints in a crash, so the hijacker can't see who's in it. Nice idea in theory, but it also means that the passenger can't see who's hijacking them. In our case, it meant we didn't have to hose down the back seat with lead, and the derelict could jack in and grab the data we needed without any problems. He did so and I watched the streets for signs of choppers.

After a minute, the derelict swore.

"What the fuck is going on in there?!" I shouted

"ICE's too thick. Gonna need more time"

"The fuck do you mean, 'more time'?! We've got a hard limit!"

"I NEED MORE TIME! Get our ride ready!"

Fine. I ran to the alley and pulled the tarp off a couple dirtbikes. Old models, on purpose. Even the best netrunner can't hack two pistons and some gasoline. A call from Decker flashed as I checked my watch again. One ring. Shit, fuck, and shit again.

I ran back to the car and was greeted by the stench of burning hair and ozone. The ICE had flatlined the derelict. Son of a bitch.

Something within the car dinged and started speaking in the usual corpo manner.

"Attention, thief. If you are hearing this, your 'runner is dead and your fixer is in custody. Lay down your weapons and Militech will-"

SHIT!

This was a counter-intel op, I could smell it. No wonder the ICE was too thick, they were expecting us! Right on cue, I heard a chopper thump overhead. Time to exfil; I could worry about payment later.

I hopped on the bike and got about twenty yards down the street before Militech's goons showed. It'd be a close one, but at least this part of the plan was still going right. They could overtake me, sure enough, but I had an obstacle ready that'd stop them even if I'd been made.

A left, a right, and we were sprinting down the back alleys of Watson. They could only roll single-file, and I didn't have to fear any PIT attempts. Fuckin' finally.

Shots were whizzing past my head, but I couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief as my little obstacle came into view.

The thing about Night City is that it can't drain for shit, being in California and all. Almost never rains here, so nobody cares. But when it does, you get whitecaps in the streets, including the one that I and my trail of pursuers were about to cross. I stood and braced for impact as my bike hit the water, but the engine pulled through and I was across right as Militech's finest piled up in the creek.

I didn't look back, though. We'd been made, which meant someone talked. The derelict was dead and our fixer was captured, the car had said, which left one suspect.

I called Decker and gave it three rings to let him know I was heading to the safehouse, then hung up as I came to a stop. I shoved a 'nade in the tailpipe and started a ten-count as I walked away. Five eddies said that Militech had redirected their boys to the safehouse, which gave me just enough time to get out of the city and into the Badlands. There was no crossing back over to the NUSA now, but maybe that didn't matter. I used to know a guy in the Bakkers, he could probably get me some wheels and ammo…

The bike blew, but I didn't hear it. Decker had fucked me, and he was gonna get his.