Gearbound: Cyberpunk 2077-Chapter 101

Leo noticed the ceiling fan was still spinning slowly, even though the house seemed empty. A ring of red light pulsed outward from him, scanning in all directions. After the scan, he confirmed that, aside from the basement, there were no other people in the building.

"We'll check the first floor, then the second, and finally the basement," he said.

They set their plan in motion. Lucy moved to inspect the clutter on the left side of the living room, while Rebecca headed for the couch and the smart-home devices there. Leo turned to the right.

Eventually, after a careful search, Leo spotted a small case for detachable chips on the messy table across from the TV. He pressed it lightly, and it popped open. Inside was a single chip. After a moment of thought, he inserted it into the slot on his tactical visor. Text appeared in his field of vision:

——

"I'm so sorry.

Juliet,

Please forgive me for doing this. I'm nowhere near as strong as you, and I can't keep pretending anymore. I hate to say it, but there's no saving Rose now. At least don't throw yourself away along with her. It's not too late to back out.

If you change your mind, I'll be waiting at the Sunset Motel. Please, think it over one more time. I'm begging you.

Always yours,

Sei"

...

After reading what was on the chip, Leo handed it over to Lucy and Rebecca so they could see for themselves. Lucy spoke first.

"It looks like the 'family emergency' excuse wasn't just her brushing off El Capitán. Juliet really did have a problem at home."

Rebecca scratched her head. "That 'Sei' must be Juliet's husband, but who's Rose? Juliet's sister? A friend?"

Lucy shook her head. "Whoever Rose is, she's clearly in bad shape. Maybe it's an illness?"

Leo slipped the chip back where he found it. "Given the tone in Sei's note and the anti-surveillance scrambler in the basement, I doubt it's as simple as a regular illness."

"We don't have enough info yet," he added. "Let's keep looking to see if we can find anything else."

The three of them passed through the living room, rifling through the chaos in the adjacent rooms. Eventually, they discovered a second chip. This one contained the test results for someone named Rose Horrigan.

Physically, she was slightly below the normal thresholds—but by Night City standards, that was still considered healthy, not even subpar. However, her mental evaluation was dreadful, urgently calling for psychological intervention.

"Rose Horrigan," Leo repeated thoughtfully. As he recalled, Juliet's full name was Juliet Horrigan, so Rose had to be Juliet's sister. Yet what kind of mental deterioration was she dealing with? Could it be cyberpsychosis?

"Leo, look," Lucy said, pointing toward a fallen painting lying on the floor in a deeper part of the house. The three walked over and saw that it must have fallen off the wall. Behind where the canvas should have hung was a safe embedded in the wall.

Clearly, the painting hadn't just dropped on its own. It looked as though Juliet had removed it to take something from the safe—or perhaps place something inside—only to be interrupted so abruptly that she never put it back.

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Leo inspected the safe. It was locked. He frowned, considering whether there might be a key hidden somewhere. But since Lucy was right there, he quickly decided otherwise.

"Should I hack it?" she offered.

"Please."

In less than a minute, Lucy electronically forced the safe open. All three of them leaned in curiously, only to find something surprising: The safe was practically empty, containing only a lone chip and a Militech M-76E Omaha Tech Pistol.

"No money? Seriously?" Rebecca exclaimed. She reached in, searching every corner of the safe. Then she even stuck her head inside, checking if there was a hidden compartment. Lucy and Leo couldn't help smiling at the sight.

Lucy grabbed the chip and held it up for Leo to see. "Shall I verify it?"

"Yes, better safe than sorry. If it's not the data El Capitán wants, we'd hate to leave and then have to come back."

Lucy slid the chip into her neural socket. Pale blue light flickered in her eyes. Moments later, she removed it. "It's definitely the data El Capitán hired us to find."

She placed it in a small storage case and handed it to Leo. Meanwhile, Rebecca finally pulled her head out of the safe, looking disappointed.

"It makes no sense. Not even a single eurodollar," she grumbled.

Typically, netrunners were some of the wealthiest mercs around. They might not excel at front-line combat, but they more than made up for it by diving into secure networks and extracting data that could be sold or used for infiltration. All that to say, it was odd for Juliet to have no stash of emergency cash at home—unless it was hidden elsewhere.

"Maybe there's another safe somewhere in the house," Rebecca reasoned, still unwilling to give up.

Leo chuckled and pointed at the Omaha Tech Pistol. "If you want that gun, it's yours."

"Really? You don't want it?"

"Nope. Take it."

Though the Militech Omaha, like the Arasaka Kenshin, was a burst-firing Tech Pistol, Leo already had the means and know-how to craft an equivalent anytime he liked. So he didn't mind letting Rebecca have it.

Beside the safe sat a computer, left in sleep mode.