Gearbound: Cyberpunk 2077-Chapter 166

Leo didn't think Dexter was a decent guy, but sometimes the most basic bottom line still mattered—unless Dexter turned out to be a scumbag like Faraday. Besides, if they wanted to ditch Dexter, they needed to handle the fallout properly.

In this case, "fallout" meant ensuring Dexter would have no way to come after them. Otherwise, with Evelyn's current line of thinking, things could only end badly.

Evelyn held up five fingers. "I can give you fifty percent. That's more than enough money for you to leave Night City and start a new life somewhere else."

Leo didn't refuse outright. He decided to placate Evelyn first. "I'll have to think about it."

He worried that if he turned her down too harshly, who knew what she might do next.

Evelyn nodded, then opened the door to the storage room and motioned for him to leave.

"All right. You have my number. Call me when you've made up your mind."

...

Leo left Lizzie's Bar and got back into the Delamain cab.

"All right, let's go pick up Lucy."

After Lucy joined them in the car, Leo told everyone about the intel he got from Evelyn, including her plan to cut Dexter out. V, Jackie, and Lucy were all people he trusted—no need to hide anything from them.

The moment Jackie heard about getting rid of Dexter, it was like a bucket of cold water had been dumped over him. He froze. V and Lucy both fell silent, thinking it over.

Even Jackie, who desperately wanted to get rich, couldn't help but question Evelyn's proposal.

"Isn't that going too far?"

Jackie was a Night City native. This city was his home. He only wanted to earn enough money to leave Heywood and buy a place in North Oak or Charter Hill for himself, Misty, and whatever kids they might have in the future. If they double-crossed Dexter, he'd have to skip town. Evelyn could do that without a second thought, but he couldn't. After all, his mom, Mama Welles, also lived here in Night City. freёweɓnovel.com

V, who had been lost in thought, eventually spoke up with a measured tone.

"Even from a purely practical standpoint, I think we should avoid going back on our word. Not to mention Jackie has a lot of ties here—those aren't so easy to cut. And let's not forget we don't even know if this Relic is truly worth that much. Could Evelyn actually sell it for a fortune? We have no idea.

"We shouldn't only consider best-case scenarios and ignore worst-case outcomes.

"Take someone like the 'Grand Wise Master' Ram, for example.

Even after factoring in every possibility, he still failed in the end. If this Relic doesn't bring in the big payday we're expecting, and we've already offended our fixer in the process, we'll be screwed."

Leo nodded. V's line of thinking matched his own. Reputation mattered a lot for mercs. Sure, it sounded laughable in a city as rotten as Night City, but the more morals went down the drain, the more crucial a decent reputation became. They couldn't be the first to betray Dexter unless he betrayed them.

Plus, something about Evelyn Parker struck Leo as unreliable. She was the one who had gone to Dexter in the first place, but now, before the job was even done, she already wanted to kick him out and reduce the cut. That, along with another core issue: once they got the chip and handed it over to her, how could they be sure she wouldn't cut them out too? She was promising them a whopping fifty percent. If she truly didn't care about money, she wouldn't be risking Arasaka's wrath in the first place.

Because Evelyn had already shown she might ignore the rules of the streets, how could they trust her to split such a massive sum honestly?

After some debate, the group decided to ignore Evelyn's idea. Jackie hesitated for a moment.

"Should we tell Dexter?"

Leo shook his head. "Better not. Who knows how many new complications might pop up if we do. Neither Evelyn nor Dexter are naive. We're better off staying out of it."

"Right. I've got this braindance recording. Why don't we all watch it first, then I'll pass it on to Dexter."

...

Half an hour later, Jackie removed his tactical goggles with a stunned expression.

"No way. Yorinobu Arasaka's bodyguard is that legendary dude, Adam Smasher?"

Leo nodded. He had noticed it back at Lizzie's Bar when he first watched the braindance. Adam Smasher was a legend from the same era as Johnny Silverhand, Morgan Blackhand, and Andrew Weyland. The difference was that only Smasher remained alive.

Morgan Blackhand and the others left behind stories, but the mere mention of Smasher's name brought fear and dread. He had killed hundreds of people—maybe even a thousand. Johnny Silverhand had died by his hand. He was the only living legend in Night City.

"But it's not really a big problem," Leo said. "Smasher's basically Yorinobu's close-protection bodyguard. He never leaves his side. As long as we sneak into the penthouse suite when Yorinobu isn't there, we shouldn't run into Smasher."

Jackie thought about it and realized that made sense. They were there to grab something, not to fight. If they were careful enough and avoided tripping the alarms, how would Smasher even know they'd been there?

They ironed out a few more details until no one had anything else to add. Then Leo had Delamain drive them to the Afterlife. He went in alone, delivering the braindance chip to Dexter. Dexter said he'd make good use of the intel and would come up with a plan alongside T-Bug. All Leo had to do was wait for their word.

.......

..

.

After leaving Dexter's booth, Leo frowned—not because he feared Arasaka's retaliation, but because he had something else on his mind: his own abilities.

According to Murphy's Law, anything that could go wrong would go wrong. Sure, their plan called for hitting the suite while Smasher wasn't there, but plans could fall apart. The idea of running into Adam Smasher made Leo's stomach churn.

He recalled everything he knew about the man: Adam Smasher had started off as a lowly thug in New York. After his gang got wiped out, he enlisted in the New United States military. He served for a few years but was discharged for misconduct and ended up working as a hired gun back in New York. That gig suited him. He was unhinged and brutal, which helped him rack up decent pay in the form of weapons, gear, drugs, and random hook-ups.

Eventually, like everyone in that line of work, he took a job that doomed him. A few rockets left him a mangled pile of flesh. By all rights, he should've died, but he managed to hang on to life. His buddies gathered up what was left of him, shoved him into a bag, and hauled him back to New York. Then Arasaka reached out with an offer he couldn't refuse:

—Either undergo near-total cybernetic conversion and work for the company until the end of the world, or die.

Naturally, Smasher chose the first option. Over the next seven years, the newly reborn Adam Smasher made a name for himself on the East Coast. His full-body conversion gave him far more power than any typical cyborg mercenary. Armed with first-rate Arasaka hardware and maintenance, plus his own ruthless, bloodthirsty personality and iron will, he managed to stave off cyberpsychosis. Anyone else with that many implants would have gone insane long ago, but Smasher hadn't shown the slightest sign of losing it.

After his rebirth, Smasher never turned down a job, as long as it wasn't an obvious suicide mission or a trap targeting him.

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