"Luna Moth Bar… So this is where your little spy den's been hiding all along. I guess I finally understand where your base of operations in Dogtown was."
Slidewire was now seated in a rigged-up hacker chair in the basement beneath the Luna Moth Bar. With a temp line patched in and various gear cobbled together, he worked while talking to Lied:
"You're showing me this place, Lied. Be honest—did you ever intend for me to walk out of this job alive? You agents love tying up loose ends. How many times have you cleaned house after someone found out about one of your safehouses?"
"Enough with the paranoia, Slidewire. Get to work. The gear here might not be as slick as your own setup, but it's good enough to get the job done. We're on the clock."
"Old tech—seven, maybe eight years out of date… yeah, I'll make do. But at least let me know whether I'm walking away from this or not, yeah? No need to leave me guessing how I'll be executed once the job's done."
Lied shot him a cold look… but then exhaled and said in a low voice:
"Once this is over, you're off our books. We won't come looking for you again. What you do after that is your business. Even if you rebuild the Voodoo Boys from scratch in Dogtown, no one's coming for you."
"Well, I'll take your word for it, Lied. Not like I'm in any position to argue. But..."
Slidewire shifted his head in Karl's direction.
"Good thing there's a second witness to this 'secret' base. Makes me feel a little safer."
"This place isn't much of a secret anymore," Karl replied, arms crossed, leaning against the wall. "I knew about it the last time I took a job here. Honestly, the Bureau must trust my squad's discretion a hell of a lot. Can't believe this place is still operational."
He glanced at Lied.
"Then again, if the Bureau actually had enough agents and resources in Dogtown, they wouldn't be sending one 'ace operative' and one merc to handle this. Not to mention dragging in a 'scumbag' netrunner like you."
"That actually makes sense."
Slidewire chuckled, finding Karl's blunt assessment refreshing. Compared to Lied—who always had the warmth of a corpse and the charm of a gravestone—Karl was far more pleasant to talk to.
Lied's face was always cold and stern. Everything was pressure and business. Even someone motivated would lose steam under his attitude. If this weren't a life-or-death job, Slidewire wouldn't be bothering to set anything up.
"Feels like we can actually have a conversation. You may have wiped out the Voodoo Boys, but hey, I'd already split from those assholes long before that. If I do survive this, and I'm free from the Bureau like he says, hit me up if you ever need help. My gear's solid, and my daemon dolls are top-tier. I'll even throw in a discount."
Karl nodded casually.
"Sure. I mean, I still think my team's hacker is second to none—but who knows, maybe I'll need backup someday. Just don't let me catch you pulling Voodoo Boy-level shit again. If you cross the line, I will come knocking. But as long as you keep it clean, I've got no problem calling you."
"Then I'll be looking forward to that future business."
Their banter continued under Lied's watchful gaze until Slidewire finally finished tuning the rig and began the actual decryption. The chat stopped immediately.
Even for someone like him, cracking secure intel wasn't something you did while multitasking.
Karl noticed Lied was now staring silently at Slidewire with laser focus—so he took that as his cue to stop talking too.
Figuring it might take a while, Karl headed upstairs. After setting up a few "surprises" just in case, he mixed three glasses of mint-iced sweet tea and brought them down.
He placed one next to Slidewire, taking care to protect it so the drink wouldn't spill onto any critical tech. Then he handed another to Lied.
Lied, noticing Karl approach from the corner of his eye, turned to find the merc offering him a drink.
"Want a sip?"
Lied immediately recognized what it was. He paused, suspicious at first—but accepted the glass after a moment.
He judged that Karl probably wouldn't go through the trouble of poisoning him. Besides, after carrying Slidewire all over Dogtown, he was legitimately thirsty.
Karl didn't care either way. He took a big gulp from his own glass and let the mint cool his throat.
That's when Slidewire's eyes opened.
Of course, being blind, he wasn't actually seeing anything—but he'd had them closed while working, and opening them now felt like a signal.
Lied, who had just taken a sip, instantly held his tea steady and rushed over.
"Well? What've you got?"
"The encryption… the data… it's beyond advanced. Beyond imagination."
Slidewire started off speaking like he was reciting a riddle—then realized this wasn't one of his junior hackers. It was Lied and Karl. He quickly rephrased.
"The data on this chip is insane. I've never seen so many layers of security on a single storage device. The contents are fragmented, out of order, deliberately scrambled. The hacker who encoded this—absolutely brilliant. Unbelievable work."
Lied's brows furrowed.
"So what's on it? What did you see?"
"I've only cracked part of it. The rest is still being worked on by an automated daemon script. Shouldn't take long. But I figured you'd want to hear what I've seen so far."
Slidewire didn't bother holding anything back. He said one sentence—and it hit Lied like a truck.
"Looks like the President has a traitor in his inner circle. Someone very close to him. I found his upcoming itinerary on this chip."
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🔥🦾 CYBERPUNK: THE RELENTLESS 🦾🔥
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