The electric blast rips through the car. The last Maelstrom inside slumps.
"Awesome." Rebecca claps once. Two Arc Stars erased a whole crew.
Threat gone, Rocky eases the throttle. Rebecca shifts upright, hands on his shoulders, and speaks close to his ear.
"Where did you get those?"
"I made them. If you want some, I can send a few your way."
He had pulled the grenade pack for emergencies. After tonight, production looks worth it. The kit works well, and the cost stays low.
"You made them? How many secrets do you have?"
A ripperdoc who hands out commissions and muscles through Maelstrom now manufactures grenades. Rebecca keeps redrawing her picture of him.
"There is a lot you do not know about me," he says. "You will understand later. We have time."
That reminds her she still has her legs looped around him from the fight. She unlocks fast and switches to an unusual hug at his waist.
"Sorry. Bad angle earlier. This was the only way."
"It is fine. Comfortable, actually." He smiles.
With his conditioning, the pressure barely registers. A stray thought wonders what it would feel without two layers of fabric.
Rebecca bumps his left hand with the pistol and deadpans, "Careful, or I will kill you."
Sharing a fight closes the distance fast. She starts accepting him as a friend between the rush and the banter,
At her building, she slides off and waves. "See you tomorrow, L."
"See you tomorrow."
He watches her take the stairs, then turns the bike toward the tower.
…
Morning.A rented warehouse in Japantown.
Rocky took the unit anonymously through the black market to stage shipments and store stock. Inside, he counts the medicines for distribution. Each prepackaged box carries a clinic label.
A knock. Rebecca.
"Morning, L."
He rolls up the shutter. "Morning."
He glances past her. A car idles at the curb with a driver at the wheel.
"Who is that?"
"Falco. Our crew's driver."
After she got home last night, she told Maine about the commission. The crew has no job on the board, so Maine told her to handle it. She called Falco to help run the route since she has no car.
Falco agreed. Night City driving for five thousand euros is easy money.
"Got it. Come in," Rocky says, waving her inside. "These are the drops. Each box is labeled."
"No problem."
"I will leave it to you here. I have an errand."
He hands her a warehouse access card and slips out the back with a separate case.
He rides to Vik's clinic.
Vik sets a tool down and looks up, more curious than annoyed. "Time to visit me today?"
"Brought you medicine," Rocky says.
He sets a crate of one hundred bottles on the table. "Power Stimulant Type II. Put them on your shelf."
Vik uncaps one. It matches the variant he spotted at another shop this week.
"These are worth real money. I will transfer it."
"Come on, Vik. The cost is only a few thousand euros. It will not even touch what I owe you. Keep them."
He still owes Vik close to one hundred thousand euros for supplies and that first arm. Vik's ledger runs forgiving, but Rocky cannot clear it yet. Not until the second batch of orders lands.
"Talk money later," Vik says. "If you sell these to other clinics, you clear nearly twenty thousand. You need cash more than I do."
"You know I do not like hearing that," Rocky says, smiling. "Keep them. Call it interest on what I owe."
Vik watches him for a second, then nods and stows the crate. "Alright."
Rocky lifts a second bag onto the table.
"This is another stimulant. Original version. Not for sale. Better effect than the previous one, which accelerates recovery but has user requirements."
He nudges the bag closer. "Take some. Use them yourself or save them for patients. If someone comes in bleeding out, this might tip it."
Vik checks a vial. It looks the same, except the shell carries an A-type mark.
"Why not sell it? Better performance means bigger market."
"Habit," Rocky says. "I keep my best work for myself. That way, I hold more cards. What goes to market only needs to make money."
"That sounds about right," Vik says. Even the big corps arm their own first.
"I am done here. I need to open my shop. Clients are probably waiting."
They bump fists once. Rocky heads out, mounts up, and rides back to Japantown. The day's grind starts on schedule.