V and the Diamond Heart

In Night City, anything can happen. Those who are hungry, ambitious, and ruthless can claw their way to the top and become a legend amongst legends. But staying on top takes more than power, as one alpha can easily be toppled by another with the tides of time. The true rulers of the city, corpos who follow no law and no humane line of morality, crush any and all who oppose their profits and influence. But the existence of these pillars of greed allow for those at the bottom to chip away and grab their own fortunes from those who dictate their daily lives. For the citizens brave enough to take this risk, fixers running the underground find jobs and send them out to the right mercs, taking a slice of the pie as a consultant fee.

Enter Dexter DeShawn, a notorious fixer with a past that veers those with experience away from him, but a reputation drawing in all who are desperate to make a quick buck. V, an upcoming name in the mercenary scene, falls under those unfortunate enough to work with this character.

"V, I have a job for you."

"What's the gig, Dex?"

"High risk, high reward. Intel says there's a corpo-rat transporting a new cybernetic, bleeding-edge miltech that'll stop any round or energy blast straight to it. Nickname is the Diamond Heart. I've got some buyers lined up, but for you to get your check cut, I need that implant. You get me the goods, I'll make you the most wanted merc for hire in a paygrade you can't even think of. We got a deal?"

"Sounds tough. What's the catch?"

"He's highly protected, hard to catch, and most of all, doesn't trust anyone but other corpos. He works for Arasaka, which you so happen to be an ex-employee of. Use your background as a cover to get near him and pose as the contact he's supposed to hand the Heart off to."

"Alright, I'll get it done."

The following week, in Arasaka Plaza, V was checked in under an alias, waiting at the hotel bar to meet with the mule, known as the Monkey, and make off with the latest enhancement for the elite. Seeing a nervous man in an outfit cut just like his old red and black corpo-suit, V approached his table and sat down. The contact took one look at his clothes and instantly relaxed, the familiarity of another supposed colleague giving him a brief respite. V decided to take the lead and attempt to secure the silver briefcase he'd spotted earlier cuffed to the mule quickly before raising suspicion.

"You my contact?"

"Yeah, I'm your guy. You get here safely? No tail or anything?"

"Y-yeah... no tail..."

V realized his mistake when the man stuttered, and remembered too late that there was most likely protocol for the transport of classified goods, which he would be unaware of without having attended the mission briefing.

"Look, I just got reassigned from another sector. This is my first job with the director. Sorry if I'm slipping up."

"Y-yeah, no worries, it's just been a stressful time, I don't wanna get you in trouble either. Let's get this over with then?"

"Sure, okay. Let's get that cuff switched over so you can get home."

The man unlocked the cuff and passed the key to V, who pocketed it swiftly before locking the case onto his own wrist. Nodding to the man, V got up and walked towards the doors of the hotel to leave, noticing another man in an Arasaka uniform stepping into a van with a metal container. Feeling a sudden pang of unease, V got into his car and used his tools to crack open the case. It was empty, with nothing but a foam outline of a cybernetic heart. Sitting there in defeat, he realized too late that the goods were already long gone.

Author's Note: Using the story of the Crocodile and the Monkey's Heart, I used the setting of the game Cyberpunk 2077 and swapped out both characters and plot elements to fit in the futuristic dystopia of Night City. The original story follows a crocodile who's goal is to obtain a monkey's heart, as his wife asks him to get one. Attempting to trick the monkey into giving him his heart, the crocodile ends up being fooled by the monkey and fails to obtain his heart. I completely revamped it and inserted a cyber heart as a wanted commodity, with V taking the place of the husband who secured the heart for his contractor, originally being the crocodile's wife. Dexter DeShawn is a character from Cyberpunk that assigns contracts towards guns-for-hire, so he was the replacement for the crocodile wife. The courier was tipped off by V being unaware of new protocol, so he handed over the empty case on his body.. I also added a section of conversation between V and the courier as it would have made more sense for him to interact with the courier before attempting to steal the case, similar to the light conversation between the crocodile and monkey when he tried to persuade the monkey to give him his heart after being caught trying to drown him.

Bibliography: The Crocodile and the Monkey's Heart, from Eastern Stories and Legends by Marie L. Shedlock. Web source