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David immediately tensed up, his voice cracking as he shouted, "Wait a minute! I—I don't have that much money on me!"
"You're wearing an Arasaka Academy uniform and telling me you don't have eddies?" the dealer sneered, the barrel of the pistol steady. "Are you taking me for a fool? Hand it over now, or I'll blow your head off. If I wasn't worried about the Trauma Team or your corporate handlers tracking me down, you'd already be a stain on this pavement!"
David stood frozen. He had genuinely thought he and this man were "associates." They had exchanged dozens of emails about black-market braindances (BDs), but now he realized he had been nothing more than a mark from the very beginning.
"What are you looking at? Martinez, don't make me do it. Do you know what kids like you are to us? You're fat, juicy lambs! If you keep stalling, I'll just sell you to the Scavengers and let them harvest your chrome piece by piece!"
In reality, the dealer was bluffing about the Scavengers. He was a bottom-tier peddler, not a psychopath. He knew David was a "soft" target—a kid with a corporate background who was too scared to tell his family about his illegal hobbies. Extorting fifteen thousand Eurodollars was his retirement plan. He figured David would pay up and stay silent to protect his reputation at school.
Jax had intended to let David handle his own business, but the mention of Scavengers changed things. Plus, there was a matter of territory; the Moxes had a strict policy about unmapped BD dealers operating near their turf.
"How interesting," Jax said, stepping forward. "I say, do the Moxes know you're running a shop here?"
"Who the hell are you?" the dealer barked, pivoting his gun toward Jax. "I'm not in front of Lizzie's! Why should they care?"
Before the man could finish his sentence, Jax was gone. He moved with a speed that left a blur in David's vision. In a heartbeat, Jax was behind the dealer, one hand pinning the man's head while the other expertly stripped the pistol from his grip. Jax twisted his body, pinning the dealer face-first against the damp brick wall.
"Damn it! Let me go!" the man screamed, thrashing.
"Don't move," Jax whispered. "I'm aiming."
Bang!
Jax pulled the trigger. The bullet buried itself in the brick inches from the dealer's ear. Acrid smoke filled the narrow alley. David gasped, his eyes wide. He actually shot?
"See? I told you not to move," Jax said calmly. He had the physical strength to suppress Maine or Jackie; a street peddler was nothing. He pressed the hot barrel of the gun against the back of the man's head. The smell of singed hair filled the air.
"If one shot doesn't kill you, the infection will," Jax said. "If I zero you now, all these chips are mine anyway, right?"
"I—I'll give them to you! Take it all!" the dealer wailed, his bravado vanishing into a puddle of terror. "I wasn't gonna kill him! I swear! I just wanted the eddies! I'm just a seller!"
"What about the Scavengers?" Jax asked.
"I don't have the connects! I was lying! Please, don't kill me!"
"Tsk. Boring." Jax let go and tossed the gun toward David. David fumbled, the heavy metal nearly slipping through his fingers, before he stared at it in shock.
"Take off your jacket," Jax ordered the dealer.
The man scrambled to comply, looking like a whipped dog. He started on his belt, but Jax kicked him—not hard enough to break a rib, but enough to knock the wind out of him. "Pants stay on. I'm not that kind of guy."
Jax spread the jacket on the ground. He selected David's cyberpsycho chip, a few high-quality pirated BDs, and smashed several others that looked particularly depraved. He tossed the empty jacket back.
"Don't let me see you in Watson again. I'll send your face to Anna Nox. If you know the name, you know what happens if she finds you on her turf."
The dealer turned pale. Everyone knew Anna Nox—the Moxes' legendary enforcer. Jax delivered a sharp kick to the man's temple, knocking him unconscious, then turned to David with a smile.
"Let's go. You have a ripper to see, right?"
David's heart was racing. He was terrified, but beneath the fear was a surge of adrenaline. Mom, you really didn't know who was living next door.
"Nothing... it's just, you're not what I imagined," David said, catching his breath.
"Nobody in this city is," Jax replied. "If I were 'normal,' we'd both be broke and bleeding right now."
As they walked toward the clinic, Jax steered David away from his original contact. "Don't go to the ripper you found. He's a hack. I'll take you to Viktor."
"But I don't have much money," David protested.
"Viktor has a conscience. His prices are fair, and more importantly, he won't give you software that triggers a corporate security alarm mid-class."
Later that evening, the two were on the Night City subway. David was obsessively touching the back of his neck. His interface slot felt smooth and clean—brand new, and he hadn't spent a single Euro. Viktor had been surprisingly generous after Jax made the introduction.
David looked at Jax, who was staring out the window at a flashing neon sign.
"What are you looking at, Big Brother Jax?"
"Nothing," Jax said, but his eyes were sharp.
He had been wondering when he would run into her. Now that Sasha was alive, the crew's dynamics were different, but the red thread of fate was still pulling. He saw a flash of iridescent hair—indigo and silver—moving through the crowd.
Lucy.
She was "working" the subway cars. Jax shook his head; now wasn't the time to interfere. But as the train lurched, he felt a faint electric prickle at the port in his neck.
Clatter!
Jax's hand shot out, catching a slender wrist through a white sleeve. The hand was clenched tight. The owner of the hand struggled, but Jax's grip was like iron.
She looked up. Under a fall of iridescent hair, her emerald eyes were framed by striking orange eyeshadow. Her features were delicate but her expression was frost.
"You," she said coldly, her eyes narrowing as she realized she'd been caught. "Come with me."
She led him to the space between the subway cars.
"What are you doing?" she demanded.
"You stole from the wrong person," Jax replied, bewildered.
In the anime, she stole from David. Why the hell was she trying to jack his data?
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