Chapter 125: Job Done

The nightmares of the older generation of Night City residents had come true— Things quickly escalated into armed riot control. Company soldiers patrolled the streets with guns, taking cover behind armored vehicles. Anyone acting suspicious was shot on sight. Small-time crooks were slaughtered. In alleys, stairwells, and the dark corners where the neon lights of Night City couldn't reach, conflicts erupted and then were silenced by gunfire. The blackout didn't last long—it was an EMP attack, after all. The company towers, being high-security zones, were prepared for such attacks, which were not uncommon. After 30 minutes, the lights in the corporate buildings flickered back on. Although the power was still unstable, the buildings were lit again. During those 30 minutes, the number of attacks on corporate networks surged dramatically. With most servers down, the success rate of these attacks increased significantly! Lone wolves, hackers, fixers, and even corporate agents who had long been scheming now made their moves, either to defend or invade, turning the whole of Night City into chaos. But Faraday knew that order would eventually return to the hands of the corporations— The rising airships were proof of that—whoever controlled the skies had already won. He stood on the rooftop of his luxurious apartment, clearly watching the armored airships take off one after another, and the corporate plaza slowly lighting back up. In the past, he would admire the beauty of Night City from here, dreaming of one day standing at the top, looking down at the city. But now, he was filled with panic— The corporate plaza had blacked out, that much he knew. He also knew that there had been a motorcycle bombing at the City Center just a day ago—a terrorist attack—and that was the extent of his knowledge. For Leo's group, these had been three long days, but for Faraday—this was just three days, not three months, nor three years! It was normal for a contract timeline to stretch into months, but since receiving intel from Leo—or rather, from Brandon Murphy—it had only been three days. His panic stemmed from the fact that the lockdown at City Center happened just as the Maelstrom team arrived there. And then, Maelstrom went silent—not a word since. Had they been captured by NCPD or Militech? The Maelstrom team was wanted by NCPD, so it wasn't impossible they were caught during the lockdown—or killed. But were they captured, or killed? Would it implicate him? It was this uncertainty that gnawed at him, especially for someone like Faraday, who craved control over everything. He immediately decided to back out of this deal— But just then, he started receiving files—automatically! [Receiving Files] [Target File: Project Nightingale] [Start Date: March 24, 2074] [Estimated Investment: 80-150 million Eurodollars] [Client: Militech] [Subfile 1: Data on Painkiller Mechanism – Militech's Report] [Subfile 1-1: Numbers 1-50] [Subfile 1-2: Numbers 51-101] [Subfile 2: DNA Cutting Plan (Experimental)] [Subfile] [Equipment Information...] Faraday froze—he yelled at the bodyguard beside him: "Pull the plug on the network!" The bodyguard hesitated for a moment before sprinting toward the server room— But Faraday collapsed onto the floor, staring blankly into the distance. An airship was slowly heading toward him. It was far, far away, but he had a feeling—it was coming for him. "...It's over, too late." [Connecting to Communication] Burgerking: "The job's done. All the info on Project Nightingale is here." Faraday: "Do you know what you've done?!" Burgerking: "Of course I do. Hell, there was a monster in the Biotechnica Tower—it scared the crap out of me." Burgerking: "Hurry up with the payment. You must be happy now, having landed Arasaka's fat favor? No need to thank me." Faraday: "Thank your motherfuc—" Whoosh— The airship slowly hovered above the rooftop—it was Arasaka. Red error messages flashed across Faraday's cybernetic eyes, and a wave of nausea overwhelmed him, forcing him to his knees. Two Arasaka agents in suits jumped out of the airship, walking toward him from either side. The bodyguard who had run downstairs returned, trying to say something, but an agent casually shot him in the forehead, killing him instantly, his brainstem destroyed. There were many more bodyguards in this building, but it didn't matter—they were surely already dead. Faraday could only watch in terror as this unfolded— From now on, his body wasn't his anymore, and considering it was Arasaka, perhaps his soul wasn't his anymore either. "Perimeter secured." The agent reported the area clear, and the airship landed softly on the platform. A woman with a buzzcut stepped out. "Faraday—you've really outdone yourself. Do you even know what you've done?" "I—I was just investigating Biotechnica as instructed..." Faraday tried to stay defiant. "Investigating? The people you brought killed dozens of Militech soldiers, MaxTac got wrecked, and you even blew up several Manticores—do you have any idea what that means? Look at Night City. All this chaos—you and your people caused it! I checked the contract your fixer sent—it was for a 'covert investigation.' What part of 'covert' do you not understand? Covert investigation doesn't mean attacking Militech soldiers, and it definitely doesn't mean assaulting the Biotechnica Tower!" Faraday understood every word the woman said, but when put together, it somehow made no sense. His brain had already stopped functioning—he should never have tried to spy on Burgerking with this mindset! These guys were walking bombs! Just then, an Arasaka agent drew a katana, slashing at the air beside him! "Enemy attack!" Almost simultaneously, the other agent moved, stabbing with his blade! Optical camouflage faded, revealing a man in a Sixth Street gang outfit, lifeless. "They've found us—take him away!" Before the words finished, sparks erupted from Faraday's neural interface, and he collapsed to the ground. The agent nodded, preparing to take Faraday away, but then his head exploded from a sniper bullet! A sniper! The airship began to ascend, but the pilot saw a surface-to-air missile rise from a distant building, heading straight toward them! Boom! The missile exploded mid-air, damaging the airship's engine and forcing it to crash again! But the shooter had exposed their position. On the ground, an Arasaka convoy fired a rocket back toward the rooftop! Boom! The skirmish escalated quickly, but the attackers soon retreated— The lead woman soon received reports that other corporate armed forces were closing in. At the stairwell, a large Arasaka agent carried out equipment Faraday had never seen before— "Director, we've recovered everything!" The woman, known as the Director, felt a dull pain in her temples— Biotechnica had been robbed—or rather, someone had pulled off the most daring heist Night City had seen in years— They had even stolen the core components of the DNA cutting device and a batch of restricted high-tech parts! As soon as the news broke, Petrochem deployed nearby troops, marching toward Night City! This was a real army! A few minutes later, SovOil also made a satellite call to NCPD, delivering a warm Russian greeting and demanding that if they didn't see their property within three hours, they would come find it themselves— Monopolistic corporations were hyper-sensitive about their proprietary assets. Petrochem's CHOOH2 was the lifeblood of energy giants. Their machines and technologies capable of producing CHOOH2 were strictly regulated. The more of these machines showed up on the black market, the higher the cost of regulation, and maintaining the monopoly became more expensive. This loophole couldn't be allowed to open. And who could say for sure what the thieves' true motives were? Did anyone really believe the news that it was all about a few Nomads? Who would believe that? And this was a perfect excuse—a very reasonable excuse—to extend their reach into Night City. But the stuff SovOil was asking for—that was something the other corporations didn't want to see. And they all knew SovOil had the guts to do it—they were the winners of the Second Corporate War, and their government had once dropped a massive nuke in the Middle East. Their weaker presence in North America didn't mean they were a paper tiger. The priority now was to return the stolen goods—as for who would take the fall... The stolen equipment and data were found with Faraday. Even if they denied it, they couldn't completely avoid blame. Sooner or later, other corporate hackers would find traces of this. Covering it up would only deepen suspicions—it was better to be open about what they already knew. Who would have thought? Just hours ago, Arasaka had been laughing at Militech's misfortune, and now, they found themselves caught in a mess... The good news was that the intelligence on Project Nightingale could still be leveraged. The Director figured that whoever pulled this off was either a complete idiot or a mastermind of the highest order—a genius schemer. The blame now fell on Arasaka, and while this was a major loss, Arasaka had no choice but to accept this "gift," doing whatever they could to ensure their competitors also suffered. And this sort of tit-for-tat would only make the blame stick even more firmly. Either swallow the loss quietly, or drag the competition down with you, even though that would solidify the blame. But swallowing losses quietly wasn't Arasaka's style. Abernathy was certain the corporation would make a big deal out of this. Their top leader in Night City was a hawkish representative from Arasaka's main family. "This is Abernathy, headquarters, we've recovered the Biotechnica goods, the report is being uploaded. We've been attacked and are requesting additional reinforcements." "Received. Reinforcements are on the way—new orders received, Director Abernathy, continue the mission." "Details?" "Reports indicate that someone sighted a 'lizardman' in Corpo Plaza. The Intelligence Division is collecting data. Your task is to assist the Counter-Intelligence Division in disrupting other corporate activities. If you find any related intel, prioritize collecting it." Huh? Abernathy froze. And she could clearly hear the hesitation in the operator's voice, as if they had double-checked the mission details. What intel are they supposed to gather? Outside the building, in the shadows, Leo watched as the corporate thugs blew each other's brains out, then watched Arasaka walk off with all the components. The chaos was starting to die down. The scattered data would fan the flames of conflict among the corporations. Of course, this wouldn't fully remove Leo and his group from the center of the events, but the most the corporations would get was a name— A name so dumb that just thinking about being duped by someone using that name would make corporate higher-ups lose sleep. Besides, doing things too perfectly would seem a bit fake anyway. This world has so many mysteries, one more bizarre event for people to gossip about wouldn't hurt— The job is done.