"The client wants research data on a drug from Biotechnica. The job's worth 300,000 eddies," Padre said, sending the details to Riku and Jack Welles.
Riku opened the file and skimmed it. A drug? More like a virus, designed to target a specific wheat subspecies. Nasty stuff.
"These corporate bastards," Jack spat, fuming. "Half the species on the planet are extinct because of their crap." He wasn't wrong—corpos like Biotechnica loved playing dirty, cooking up ways to screw over the world.
"You in or out?" Riku asked, glancing at Jack. He was itching to take the gig—300,000 eddies was a fortune—but he wasn't a netrunner. This job needed a top-tier hacker to crack Biotechnica's systems, or they'd just be standing around looking like gonks.
"In!" Jack said without hesitation. Even split a few ways, 300,000 eddies meant a fat payday—tens of thousands each, easy.
"Alright, I'll check with the client. Without a netrunner, they might not trust you. They're in a rush and probably reached out to others too," Padre said, nodding. A job this big wasn't like popping a few Scavs—there were hoops to jump through.
"Bet the client's a corpo dog too," Jack muttered. Regular folks didn't need virus data like this.
Padre ignored him. As a fixer, he never spilled client info unless they allowed it—not even to Jack. That was his code, his bushido as a middleman.
"Check who owns that wheat strain. That'll tell you who's behind it," Riku suggested. It was simple: whoever's crop was targeted by this virus would be desperate for the data.
Agri-corps were always at war, wiping out species while engineering new ones—disease-resistant, high-yield crops. Want to plant them? Pay the corpo for the license. Don't pay? Risk some rival's virus wiping out your fields overnight. Even if you paid, the other guy was already cooking up a new virus to kill your shiny new seeds.
"Smart thinking," Jack said, giving Riku a thumbs-up. He dove into the net, searching for answers.
For regular folks, the net was basic—gossip, news, entertainment, nothing deep. After digging through agri-news, Jack came up empty. "What the hell? It's not even on the market yet!" he said, shocked.
"Biotechnica's got some serious game," Riku said, impressed. The pieces clicked: Biotechnica had a virus ready before their rival's seed even hit the market. Ruthless. Whoever the client was, they were probably sweating bullets.
"What's this about Biotechnica?" V asked, strolling in with a puzzled look.
"V, back already? Score anything good?" Riku asked, eyeing her. She'd shown up fast—probably didn't find much loot.
"Don't even. We got there too early," V said, waving it off, clearly annoyed. Riku and Jack got the hint: they'd hit the Scavs before they could sell their haul, so there wasn't much eddie-worthy gear to grab.
"What'd you do with the bodies?" Riku asked. He trusted V wasn't the type to cash in on organs, but he had to be sure.
A good Scav haul could net thousands of eddies—easy money, and the real reason Scavs never ran dry. Greed was a hell of a motivator.
"Torched the whole basement," V said, raising an eyebrow. No way she'd let someone else profit off that mess. Burn it and move on.
"Choom, you're speaking my language," Jack said, grinning and throwing up another thumbs-up. He was turning into a total V fanboy.
"What were you guys talking about? Biotechnica? Got a gig?" V asked, her street instincts kicking in. She could smell a big job from a mile away.
Riku and Jack exchanged a quick glance, silently agreeing: V was in. She was tight with Padre, so hiding it wasn't an option. Plus, Riku had been planning to loop her in anyway—this was perfect timing.
"Not heading to Atlanta anymore?" Riku asked, sidestepping the job details for a moment.
"Eh, let's talk about that later," V said, grimacing. Her Atlanta hype had clearly cooled off.
"Perfect. You're a solo act, right? Wanna join us for a big score?" Riku said, seizing the chance. His earlier talk must've worked—V was halfway to ditching the Atlanta plan.
"Spill the details," V said, not committing yet. She wanted the full picture first.
"It's a 300,000-eddie job," Riku said.
"I'm in," V replied instantly, no hesitation.
"Just us three?" she asked. If it was, that meant 100,000 eddies each. For that kind of cash, she'd take on anything.
"Nah, there's a netrunner. Padre's sorting it," Riku said.
"Can't we bring our own netrunner?" Jack asked, frowning. He had a go-to hacker he trusted.
"No dice. The client trusts this netrunner's skills. They were gonna solo it, but the client wanted extra muscle—you're the insurance," Padre said with a helpless shrug. Big eddies, big demands. Don't like it? Don't take the job.
"Fine. The netrunner splitting the 300,000 with us?" Jack asked. You didn't argue with the client's wallet.
"Nope. The netrunner's got their own cut. The 300,000 is all yours," Padre said.
Riku, Jack, and V locked eyes, reading each other's thoughts.
"Hell yeah! What are we waiting for? Let's do this!" Jack roared.
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