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"Start from the top," Eddie sighed, the Crypt ran cold and heavy with the scent of and smoke of sage, the hot black coffee in the black and bronze cup steaming as she took another sip. Of the four present, only Nix was at the main monitor, datapad in hand. With a flick of his wrist, they indeed started, Crispin and Dino settled in the center of the room on stools. Eddie stood, leaning her ass against the edge of what had once been used as an autopsy table.

The woman's image came up, first; her last official headshots for Trauma Team identification, as well as video captures from all over town. "First up, Connie Zhu. Her official status with Trauma Team is a bit murky, but it seems they've moved on and are just processing the departure according to their stricter than most corporate guidelines for termination. Father recently died, mother still alive, lives in a MegaBuilding. Seems to be in something of a spiral going off recent vid captures, but she is capable."

"She doesn't know we're watching her?"

Nix's mouth tightened as his head gave a quick shake to Dino's question. "No, she is one of the ones on this list that Eddie has not reached out to. But it's fair to say she needs the money and the resources. If accepted to this job, Eddie can make sure she gets every last bit of resources Trauma Team has cut her off from back into her life. That, plus the overwhelming financial reward, seems a good bet. Whether she's a team player, not my department, that's all you, Ed."

Eddie sipped at the black coffee with a touch of synthhoney, and shrugged.

"Right. Next up: John Brown." Brown's image came up, as well as a picture of a recent kill from a vid capture and a picture of the man looking downright peaceful in a diner. "A Militech trained killer, no other way to put this. No longer works with them, and it wasn't the most ideal of separations. This is a blunt instrument who may very well enjoy the Armory the job provides. He's an insight into Militech, and that's helpful enough, although Eddie has her Militech moles. Couldn't hurt. This seems black and white; Brown digs cash for kills, and we offer both the kills and more cash than anyone else. Record suggests a decent team player. Also, Dino, another one we haven't reached out to yet."

"That's you, Dino, if you don't mind?" Eddie asked, eyes shooting over to the other resident Afterlife Fixer.

Dino gave a wry crooked lips smile, and nodded with arms crossed over his chest, "Yep, I got you, I'll reach out to both and tell them job of the lifetime, come to Afterlife at such-and-such time."

"These two Eddie's worked with before, John Valentine and Abby Etienne. These also two work as a team, and frequent a Ripperdoc we know well enough in Straid."

"I asked him," the large Solo with the ocular cyberware broke in with his light accent, Crispin Weyland, interjected, "Says they're likely to agree and they're pretty good. Wanted to tell me why they'd be good for Afterlife, I said nothing more."

Dino chuckled, "Professional to a fault, Squama."

"I can see why he pushes them," Eddie said before another sip, her eyes on Nix. Nix brought up their images, although there was some hesitation in the man as he redistributed his weight between feet and brought in air with a heavy sound.

"Yeah, well, Etienne is slightly concerning despite your endorsement. Might be V.B. connections, Valentine is another former Trauma Team with Euro military experience beyond that. I did talk to your guy from Brussels, Eddie, and the military service was good. Seemed Trauma Team was a stake out for a different kind of life because of a wife and wanting a family...obviously that worked out for shit, but he's got skill if you're saying so, and Etienne is legit good in a number of facets, so that's a positive."

"Couple?"

Nix shrugged at Dinovic's question. "I dunno, hard to tell in this city, especially among Mercs who's an output, but I wouldn't rule it out. Think that overcomplicates it?"

Dino's answer was to turn his head, and look at Eddie. 

Blue eyes widened, and Eddie smiled into her coffee for a second, her voice sounding the slight amusement she felt, "No. If their Ripperdoc is hyping them for an Afterlife gig, and if I didn't notice a problem before, I just have to doubt it will become one. People like to talk about that kind of thing," and she knew it, too, as word had gotten around about Etta and James, married Mercs that complicated their hiring status to far too many corpo Euro fixers at the time. "So yeah, I'll send them a message. The others are like these two, we've all met?"

"Yep," Nix brought up images for Conrad, Silvain, Qiara, and Mac. "Let's start with the Netrunner. She's corpo, NightCorp. Why they put her on the open market like they have, I don't know. She's paranoid, she's careful, she hates all of us before she's even met us--"

"--but I'm so charming--"

"--and she doesn't give a shit, Dino. But, and I say this with some expertise in the field, she's very good at the sort of deep Netrunning you'll want her to do. She uses other tricks to be present, but her physical situation...she's be a holo-presence, a ghost in their machines, and not much else. That's probably not a bad thing. Silvain is a tech and I'm...actually impressed with their work."

To a solo of renown like Crispin Weyland, what mattered more was, "Do they fight?"

"No idea. Eddie?"

She shrugged, "Is 'Bluejay' a solo like you, Squama? No. Can they handle some fireteam work if they're mixed in with some of the others? Yeah."

The dark skinned solo seemed less than warmed by the information, but it didn't stop Nix from rolling on, "Conrad. NetWatch. Fuck that, but Eddie...well. We all witnessed the madness of a Blue Glass job interview, didn't we? Claire mentioned he held himself pretty well considering Emmerick had to help him up the stairs, and he never noticed you left the table? Wow. Skilled, comes with a reference we've discussed before, and Eddie seems confident in him. A frontline, in the shit, Runner to go along with the deeper system attacks and monitoring of Qiara. It's actually a pretty good team if it works out. The last one..."

"Yeah," Eddie put the now empty coffee cup down, "former Clan, Euro military of a sort, prison. Turns out that blank spot in his timeline was time spent with a group that were Raffen Shiv. Not true Wraiths, but a group that started very much going down that line. There is a location in Rancho, there is someone present in their life, though I didn't pry that much, and it seems they bounced on the Shiv when they realized the kind of group they really were."

"Just curious, Fixer to Fixer, what about the Sixth Street 'Fixer' who sent him on your job?"

Eddie just snickered, "He, uh...he won't be doing anymore jobs in an area that isn't directly Sixth Street controlled anymore."

Dino's eyes widened, lips curled at the corners, head nodded, tone sounding as surprised as his face looked, "Interesting. I'm just shocked he can still offer any jobs after you visited him. Sure on this guy? He seems like a lightweight."

"Maybe he is, maybe he's seen more shit in Europe than we can quantify here in the Afterlife. Maybe it's just a gut feeling on my part, either way, he's in. I'll send him a message, Dino. Tonight, 10PM? Right here, in the Crypt? Have Emmerick and Claire tell them to head down as they arrive?"

"Sounds good. Need any thing concerning this?"

"No, thank you, Dino."

The Fixer tipped an invisible cap, stood from the stool, and made his way out. Once the door closed, Nix's discomfort came forward. "I've looked at the details on this job, I poked around a little at this warehouse we've got setup for it...this some serious fucking shit, Eddie. Rogue never touched anything like this. I know Crispin is stone cold, hell he stormed Arasaka with Rogue and V, I KNOW he's batshit insane. Are you sure about this? You know exactly what you're getting into? What they're getting into?"

There was no hesitation, no pause for thought, nothing but a stare from the blue eyes of the Fixer. "Yeah, Nix. I appreciate what you've done, and I'm not cutting you out of it. Qiara and Conrad aren't as trusted as you, I'll still need you in support just like I will Crispin. Just like I will the Nomad, and the Yakuza. Rogue didn't do something like this, but she stormed Arasaka on little more than a whim. This is planned, we're being careful as we can be, and if it blows up, then it blows up on all of Night City, not just the Afterlife. Dino went to make the calls, I'm gonna send messages to the rest. Be here at 10. You will, the both of you, make enough money to buy your own Afterlife after this so long as nothing fucks this up, so let's not fuck this up, chooms."

[i]And me[/i], she thought, [i]I'll buy a chance to escape.[/i]