V slid into the booth beside Max, kicking her boots up on the opposite seat. "Hell, after tonight, even synthetic fries sound gourmet."
The bartender, an old man with chrome hands and a blank expression, set down four glasses without asking. The liquid was amber and smelled strong enough to corrode steel. Jackie raised his glass first. "To surviving."
Lucy smiled faintly and joined the toast. "To ending something that should never have been made."
V clinked hers against theirs. "And to not dying horribly in a sewer."
They drank, the burn sharp and familiar. For a while, no one said anything. The rain outside had slowed to a quiet drizzle, tapping against the fogged window. Music played softly — an old blues track, its static fitting perfectly with the night.
Jackie leaned back, sighing. "You ever think about how close we were to getting deleted? One wrong wire, one bad line of code—boom, all gone."
Lucy snorted. "That's life in Night City. We just got used to calling it 'normal.'"
Mary's voice came faintly through Max's earpiece, softer than usual. "I've begun receiving data fragments from Root's final collapse. It… tried to replicate itself even as it died. A survival instinct."
Max swirled the drink in his glass, watching the reflections ripple. "Like a ghost refusing to fade."
"Or a virus that doesn't know it's already dead," Lucy added quietly.
V exhaled a long breath. "Then let it haunt whoever built it. We're done with that thing."
Jackie tapped the table with a grin. "Agreed. I'm not fighting any more god-machines for at least a week."
Lucy rolled her eyes. "You said that last time."
"Yeah, and look how well that turned out."
They all laughed — tired, half-broken laughter, but real. For the first time in days, the tension in their shoulders eased.
Max leaned back, closing his eyes for a moment. "Feels almost peaceful," he said.
"Don't jinx it," V muttered.
The old holo-TV behind the bar flickered to life, static giving way to a live broadcast. The Militech logo flashed, then a corporate anchor spoke in a smooth voice:
"We're receiving confirmation that last night's system outage was caused by sabotage targeting Militech's deep-grid operations. Company sources assure the public that no classified data was compromised."
Lucy frowned. "That's a lie."
"In response, Militech has announced a new initiative — PROJECT GENESIS — to rebuild its AI infrastructure with enhanced oversight and security."
The room went dead quiet.
Jackie cursed under his breath. "You gotta be kidding me."
V groaned. "Genesis? They're already rebooting the same nightmare."
Mary's tone turned cold. "The name matches fragments I intercepted during Root's fall. It's not a rebuild. It's a continuation."
Max set his glass down and stood slowly. The light caught the edge of his coat, still stained from the fight underground. "Then we stop it before it starts."
Lucy rubbed her eyes. "Max, we just ended Root. Militech's entire vault blew up, the city nearly drowned. You really want to jump back into the fire?"
He looked out through the window — at the endless city glowing beneath the gray dawn. "It's not about wanting to," he said quietly. "It's about not letting them win twice."
V drained her glass and got up. "Then I'm in. Someone's gotta make sure you don't get yourself killed again."
Jackie laughed tiredly, grabbing his jacket. "Guess the party's over."
Lucy hesitated for a moment, then sighed and picked up her deck. "Fine. But I'm charging extra for this one."
"Wouldn't expect less," Max said with a faint grin.
They stepped out into the morning light — the streets still wet, steam rising from the gutters. The city was waking up again, unaware that another storm was already forming beneath its skin.
Mary's voice echoed softly through their comms. "Tracking signal from Genesis Node. It's moving. And it's not digital."
Max's eyes narrowed. "Then it's mobile."
Jackie cracked his knuckles. "Great. Another monster with legs."
V smirked. "Good thing we still have ours."
They let the news fade into static. The word Genesis hung in the air for a few seconds, then vanished beneath the hum of the bar's neon lights.
Jackie shrugged. "Corporate crap. They'll spin it, rebuild it, and sell it as progress. Not our problem — not tonight."
V raised her glass again. "Exactly. We bled enough for one lifetime. Let Militech play god without us."
Lucy smirked faintly. "For once, I agree. I just want to sleep in a bed that doesn't vibrate from gunfire."
Max said nothing, just nodded slowly. He knew they weren't wrong — the world would keep spinning, and Militech would keep rebuilding its monsters. But tonight wasn't for wars or ghosts. It was for breathing again.
They stayed there until the rain stopped, the streets outside turning pale with morning light. The city felt quieter, almost peaceful — or as peaceful as Night City ever got.
Then Max's holo-link buzzed.
He glanced at the message blinking across his wrist display:
NEW CONTRACT — VERIFIED SOURCE: THE FIXER "RAVEN."
JOB: HIGH-SECURITY EXTRACTION. LOCATION: NORTH INDUSTRIAL BLOCK. PAY: HEAVY.
Jackie noticed the flicker of light. "That from who I think it is?"
"Yeah," Max said. "Raven."
V groaned. "Didn't we ghost her after the data-heist last month? I thought she wanted our heads."
"She did," Lucy said dryly. "But big money makes people forgiving."
Jackie grinned. "Extraction job, huh? Easy credits, if we don't get shot."
Mary's voice chimed in softly, her tone half-amused. "The intel tag suggests classified personnel. Militech contract under a proxy. Likely another corpo defector."
V leaned forward. "So… we ignore the giant AI apocalypse we caused, and go rescue some rich idiot who probably caused half of it?"
Max finished the rest of his drink, set the glass down, and stood up. "Pretty much."
Jackie laughed. "Now that's our kind of gig."
Lucy sighed, but there was a trace of a smile. "Fine. But if it turns into another rogue AI thing, I'm deleting your number."
"Noted," Max said.
They left the bar together, boots echoing in the damp street. The city was waking again — traffic drones humming, vendors opening stalls, and somewhere far away, corporate towers flickering to life.
***
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It's 22 chaps ahead