"A hacker who's different, huh? Now you've got my attention."
Karl stared at the door, now closed once more. He casually disabled and tampered with the small surveillance camera the Hellhounds had left behind after their inspection. "You're telling me that in a place like Dogtown—where Hellhounds are flipping over every stone—we still have a hacker who can help us?"
"His background is a little... unique. And he might be connected to you."
"He?"
Hearing Lied clearly use a masculine pronoun, Karl sifted through his memory for any male hackers he'd crossed paths with—but came up mostly empty.
He did know a few: like Nyx, who worked under Rogue in Afterlife; and Nam Chang-hoon, the Korean netrunner who sometimes helped Wakako. Even with T-Bug on his team, Karl had relied on outside hackers for specific tasks.
But those people were all active in Night City. Lied was clearly talking about someone based in Dogtown.
"So I knew a hacker here in Dogtown with ties to your agency? What's his name?"
Karl was genuinely confused—he didn't recall ever meeting someone like that.
"You don't know him, but he knows you. And when I say 'connected,' I mean he used to run with the Voodoo Boys. He split from them after things went south internally."
"Ah... Voodoo Boys. Got it."
No wonder Lied said there was a connection.
Karl and his team had taken down the Voodoo Boys—so this guy splitting from them before the hit naturally created a link between them.
"So what you're really saying is..." Karl chose his words carefully. "You want me not to kill him, right?"
"…"
Lied fell silent for a moment. He clearly hadn't expected Karl to interpret it that way.
His intention in mentioning the hacker's former Voodoo Boys affiliation had been to warn Karl—to be cautious. Even if the guy had defected, he'd still once been part of the gang.
If there had been bad blood in the past, Lied worried it might escalate. But somehow, Karl had taken his warning as a plea not to massacre them all.
Where had the miscommunication gone wrong?
As Lied silently wondered if his interpersonal skills had regressed, Karl's voice came through again, this time with a reassuring tone:
"Relax, Lied. I've been in this merc game long enough to know what's necessary and what isn't. I get the mission."
"We're going to ask for their help, right? Don't worry—I won't do anything reckless. As long as they cooperate, I'm perfectly reasonable."
Lied grew more and more silent as he listened.
"I won't kill them all"— what kind of qualifier was that? That still sounded pretty reckless.
And "as long as they cooperate"… That didn't sound very reasonable—it sounded like a threat.
Was Karl basically saying: "You Voodoo Boy defectors better behave or I'll finish what I started"?
How was it that this mercenary sounded more domineering than Lied, the one with leverage over the hacker?
Lied had a hold over these guys—Karl had nothing but a shared history of bloodshed. What made him think they'd listen?
Lied had worked with mercs before, but Karl was… different. Unique. It wasn't just his skills—it was the way he thought.
But then again, Lied had never worked with V. He'd never seen the one person on Karl's team even more bloodthirsty. If he had, he might have understood why Karl genuinely believed he was being diplomatic.
Karl was comparing himself.
To Karl, it was simple: if V were here, she'd probably storm in, blades drawn, pinning defectors against the wall to "politely" demand help.
Karl, on the other hand, was merely pressuring them a little. If they cooperated, he'd spare them. By his standards, that was generous. That was reasonable.
It was all relative—and by comparison, Karl saw himself as downright easygoing.
Still, even Karl's version of "easygoing" made Lied hesitate.
"Just... wait for my signal before making a move, okay? Let's try to avoid any conflict if we can."
"Sure," Karl replied smoothly. "So where do we find this hacker? Sounds like we'll have to go to him, right? With how locked-down Dogtown is right now, we'll need expert help to safely extract the chip's contents."
"When do we leave? The whole district's crawling with Hellhounds—we'll need to time this carefully."
"I'll send you the location," Lied said. "Meet me there. As for timing…"
He glanced around.
After stashing the chip via the sewage tunnels, Lied had doubled back and infiltrated Jadeite Tower again.
Using the chaos and a disguise-enhancing chip, he'd successfully created the illusion that he'd never left. He'd even cleaned off the filth from the tunnels.
Now he was just another disgruntled guest, blending in with the rest—grumbling, being scanned by Hellhounds like everyone else. Based on how things were unfolding, Hansen would likely be forced to apologize soon and let the guests go.
"I'll be ready in two hours."
At that moment, while Lied and Karl were finalizing their plans, Kurt Hansen received a message—one that self-deleted immediately after delivery.
It was short. Very short.
But the moment he read it, Hansen narrowed his eyes.
"There's an Intelligence Agency operative at your banquet. They've already gotten what they came for."
They've already gotten what they came for...
Hansen already knew something had been stolen—and that the Intelligence Agency was likely behind it. But the phrasing and tone of the message were... revealing.
Style, tone, perspective—these things often betray someone's intent.
And this one, written with the air of a warning—one that directly pointed the finger at the perpetrators—made its author's stance crystal clear.
Someone had tipped him off.
But who could've known so quickly what had gone missing? And that the Intelligence Agency was responsible?
There were many possibilities, but considering the context—
Arasaka agents? Unlikely. They'd rather intercept the intel for themselves.
His allies in Washington? No. They might have the means to find out, but they didn't trust him enough to help him like this.
That chip—Hansen had kept it to maintain leverage in his alliance with them. But if he couldn't even safeguard that, they wouldn't step in to help. They'd probably use it as a pretext to replace him.
That left only a handful of people who could have known—and leaked it to him.
Someone from within the Intelligence Agency?
"Interesting."
It seemed the Agency wasn't as unified or tightly knit as it liked to appear.
Based on the timing, it looked like the operative had barely succeeded—only to be betrayed immediately after reporting in.
(End of Chapter)
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🔥🦾 CYBERPUNK: THE RELENTLESS 🦾🔥
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