River Ward

River Ward is a detective with the NCPD in Cyberpunk 2077.

Overview
River Ward is a Night City Police Department detective. He is the junior partner of Detective Harold Han. River has a sister, Joss Kutcher, and two nephews and one niece: Randy Kutcher, Dorian Kutcher, and Monique Kutcher.

Biography
River Ward is first encountered after V is contacted by Elizabeth and Jefferson Peralez about investigating the death of Mayor Lucius Rhyne. On the day of Rhyne's demise, Ward went to see the mayor to warn him about the threat posed by Péter Horváth, when Péter arrived seconds later. Ward shot him dead before he could touch Rhyne. When Rhyne's death of seemingly natural causes was announced the next day, Ward could not help trying to link the two incidents, but the case was closed and his superior ordered him to drop it. Ward's partner, Detective Harold Han, likewise warned him not to reopen the case.

River helped V investigate Péter and track down the Red Queen's Race, an invitation-only sex club that Rhyne had visited on the night of his death. They learned that Rhyne had died in the club from a virus-spiked braindance, and Deputy Mayor Weldon Holt had ordered Detective Han to cover it up. While V reported the findings to the Peralezes, River decided to try having the inquest into Rhyne's death reopened.

River failed to persuade his superiors was suspended from the force for his trouble. Worse, he came to believe that his missing nephew, Randy Kutcher, had been abducted by Anthony Harris, the man behind the "Peter Pan" child abductions. Harris was apprehended by the NCPD during a routine traffic stop in which officers discovered one of his victims close to death in his car. Harris was shot while fleeing arrest, and though he survived, he was comatose, preventing the NCPD from determining where his other victims were kept. Dismayed that the Peter Pan case was assigned to Detective Gonaghal, who was unlikely to pursue it seriously, River roped V into helping him so that he could rescue Randy.

Together, they infiltrated a NCPD-contracted medical lab in The Glen which had been experimenting with scrolling braindances of dreams for therapeutic and investigative purposes, hoping to examine any braindances of Harris's dreams. They were confronted by Dr. Yawen Packard, a longtime friend of River's, who revealed that Harris was not dreaming due to his condition. With no other leads, River decided to break the news that Randy had been abducted to Joss and search Randy's room for clues to his whereabouts leading up to his disappearance, as well as any sensory stimulus that could be used to make Harris dream. They found Randy had a new laptop and had come into contact with Harris through a secret website hidden on a false website for people looking to kick their drug abuse habits. Thanks to a cartoon that Randy had downloaded from the site, Yawen was able to trigger Harris's dreams.

Possible fates
The search for Randy has multiple outcomes. If V found enough clues in the braindances to located Harris's hideout, Edgewood Farm, then River and V arrived in time to save Randy and some of the other victims, who Harris had been force-feeding and injecting with hormones using equipment designed for livestock.

If V did not find enough clues and led River to the wrong farm, they failed to rescue Randy and he died. If V abandoned the search partway through, River continued looking for Randy on his own and traced him to Edgewood Farm, but was killed by the farm's defenses and did not save Randy.

If Randy was saved, River later invited V to a dinner with Joss and the kids. He confessed that he visited Anthony Harris in the hospital, but could not bring himself to execute the murderer. He also revealed that he had left the NCPD and was looking into becoming a private investigator.

Associated Jobs

 * I Fought the Law
 * The Hunt
 * Following the River