Finn pushed through the front doors of Okada's pachinko parlor with rain still drying on his jacket. Two guards moved when they saw him. One stepped in front of the stairs. The other lifted a hand and told him to stop. Finn ignored both.
He brushed past them, and shoved open the door marked as Okada's office. Okada was already in her office. Her coat was still half on, one sleeve not yet settled, clearly, she had only just come back from the motel too.
Okada looked up from behind her desk. "You look angry, Mr. Wegner. What happened?"
He did not waste time answering. He sent her the pictures by just a flick of his fingers. The dead gang members appeared in her vision. Okada's eyes sharpened. Her optics worked over the images quickly, tiny focus shifts moving across each face.
She let out a slow breath and leaned back in her chair. She seemed to know why he's here now.
"I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience," she said. "I will audit my contacts again. Whoever leaked your information will be removed immediately."
Finn set both hands on the desk and leaned forward. "That deed's done already. Now those gangs are chasing after me. Who even are they?"
"Scavengers," Okada said. "Scavs, if you prefer the street word. They prey on the weak and the innocent. Their money mostly comes from extortion and robbery. They operate mainly in Heywood and Pacifica."
"Heywood and Pacifica?" Finn stared at her. "That's like two neighborhoods away! Why are they here just for me?"
Okada tapped one nail against the arm of her chair. "Because the eddies I gave you are a lot of money. Someone likely heard the transaction. They cannot target me. They know better. So they targeted you instead. A man they believed was a nobody. Easy to grab. Easy to pressure."
Finn straightened, then dragged a hand over his face. "Do they know where I live now?"
"I don't know." Okada did not try to lie. "I need to investigate how much was leaked. But the possibility is there."
Finn shook his head and pressed his fingers against his temple. "I just want peace. I don't want to deal with gangs all over my neck every day." He lowered his hand and looked at her again. "Find me another place to stay. Make sure it doesn't get leaked at all."
"I could arrange a place in the Watson district," Okada said. "It is richer territory. Corpo territory. Security there is much stricter when it comes to gangs."
Finn waved a hand. "Whatever you think is best. Just make sure the location stays locked down this time. We're here to cool down, not to make a mess out of other people's city."
Okada raised a brow. "I will get on it. And due to the fact that this mess began on my side, I will give you a discount."
"I'll transfer the fee later," Finn said. He had already turned toward the door. "For now, just get to it."
He left before she could answer.
—
The apartment lights were bright when Finn got back, and the first thing he heard through the door was the snap of displaced air.
He stepped inside and stopped for half a second. The coffee table had been shoved against the wall. The chairs were stacked near the kitchenette. Ciri was in the middle of a lesson, blinking from one end of the room to the other in short jumps. Turquoise light flashed around each time she vanished. First by the couch. Then by the window. Then beside the kitchen counter. Avallach stood near the far wall with a book in one hand and the other behind his back, following her movement with patience.
Finn shut the door hard enough to make both of them look.
"Pack up," he said. "Now."
Ciri reappeared beside the table and caught its edge before the last bit of green faded from her hand. She looked him over once and frowned. "What is going on?"
"Someone's trying to hunt us."
"...Why?"
"Money. What else?" Finn crossed the room and went straight for his bag. He yanked it open, started pulling clothes from drawers, then shoved them inside without folding any of them. "Someone leaked my transaction with Okada. Now a gang called the Scavengers wants that money. They'll probably try to pry the account information out of my brain if they get close enough. We need to move. Right now. This place isn't safe enough anymore."
Ciri stepped closer. "Where are we going?"
"Okada got us a place in the Watson District. Rich neighborhood. Corpo neighborhood. Security should be tighter there. At least that's what she said."
Behind them, Avallach closed his book with careful fingers. "This," he said, "is why you should seldom trust the inhabitants of this world, crwydren. Their greed is immediate. Their loyalty, thinner still."
Finn stopped in the middle of stuffing a jacket into the bag. He turned and looked straight at the elf.
"If it wasn't for my involvement with the fixers," he said, "we'd be living in the street right now. We'd be sleeping in some alley and eating vending machine slop when we could afford it." He jerked his chin toward the pile of books near Avallach's feet. "So just shut the fuck up and pack up your books, sage."
For a moment Avallach only looked at him. There was no anger in his face. No surprise either. Only that familiar, distant contempt.
"As you wish," he said.
He crouched and began gathering his books. He wrapped each one in cloth before placing it in his bag. Even now he moved with maddening care, like haste was a habit for lesser creatures. Ciri watched him for a moment, clicked her tongue, and started packing her own things without further questions.
The apartment filled with the small sounds of leaving. Zippers. Drawers. Fabric dragged over cushions. Finn moved from room to room twice to make sure nothing important stayed behind.
When he came back into the living room, Ciri had already buckled Zireael to her back. Avallach had his books in hand and his expression unchanged.
"Good," Finn said. "Let's get out of here."
—
By the time they were on the road, Night City had thinned out into late-night traffic and long strips of neon-lit puddles.
Finn drove with both hands on the wheel, his shoulders still a bit stiff from the talk with Okada. The car smelled new inside. Cheap plastic, fresh synth-leather. Ciri sat in the front seat and looked around with open interest. The dash lights painted her hands in pale blue. She glanced at Finn, then at the road ahead again.
"I didn't know you could drive one of these things," she said.
"Just learned it a few days ago."
She looked at him properly this time. "Where did you get the car?"
"Bought it."
"...When?"
"On the way back from Okada's."
Ciri let out a slow breath. "You are throwing around money now."
Finn smirked without taking his eyes off the road. "I'm getting chased down by a feral gang because of it. Might as well enjoy it."
She leaned back against the seat. Streetlights passed over her face one by one. "How are we going to bring the car to another world?"
"That's the neat part," Finn said. "We don't."
That got a scoff out of her. In the back seat Avallach sat with his books beside him, straight-backed, hands folded over one another, looking profoundly out of place in a Night City car.
Then suddenly gunfire cracked behind them.
The first rounds slammed into the rear of the car. A second burst followed, louder, and Ciri turned in her seat at once. Through the side mirror she caught the headlights, then the shapes behind them: two cars close, a third further back, all of them riding with their passengers leaning out of the windows. All with big guns.
Finn cursed and reached behind his seat with one arm. He kept the other hand on the wheel while the car drifted around a slow truck. His fingers closed on the rifle in the bag. He yanked it free and shoved it toward Ciri.
"Would you mind?"
She stared at the weapon, then took it. "I can barely shoot! Let alone inside a moving car!"
"Just try!" Finn pulled the Nue from his holster, hit the window controls, and all windows rolled down at once. Cold air and city noise rushed into the cabin. He raised his voice toward the back seat. "Mind giving a hand over here, Avallach? And don't use magic! I'd rather not have some corpos knocking down our door later because a camera caught whatever you're doing!"
"I understand your concern," Avallach said. He had not even braced himself against the movement of the car. "But I would not use a firearm. I shall use magic that is difficult to perceive."
Ciri glanced back at him. Even now, with bullets hitting the trunk, that line of his was enough to pull her attention.
Avallach lifted one hand. He bent his head slightly and whispered into his palm in Elder Speech. A faint shimmer gathered over his skin, too pale to be called light, too thin to be called smoke. He blew across his hand and sent it out through the open window.
Finn risked one look in the mirror.
For a moment nothing changed. The scavs kept driving, with gunfire spitting across the road behind them. Then the first car swerved hard to one side. Its front tire struck the curb and the whole thing bounced into a parked van. The second drifted across two lanes in a slow, lazy slide and clipped a divider. The third car wobbled, slowed, and then simply rolled to a stop with its lights still on.
After that, no more gunfire came.
Finn stared into the mirror for a second longer than he should have. He was simply gobsmacked. "...What did you do?"
"Sleeping charm," Avallach said. He lowered his hand to his lap again. "As I'd understand it, one has to be conscious in order to operate these automobiles."
"Well..." Finn let out a breath and holstered the Nue. "You'd be correct."
Ciri kept looking back through the rear window for another moment, the rifle still in her hands. Then she turned forward again. There was a small, unwilling curve at the corner of her mouth, like she still had not decided whether the whole thing had been clever or ridiculous.
She handed the rifle back to Finn. "That was almost disappointing."
Finn took it, slid it into the bag, and settled both hands on the wheel again. "You just complained that you barely ever shoot and you call that encounter disappointing?"
"I was just stating the obvious." Ciri scoffed.
The gang cars were gone behind them now. The only sounds left in the cabin were the engine, and the wind passing through the opened windows.
"To the new place then," Finn said.