Chapter 28 - Chapter Twenty Eight

The first reports of the failed infiltrations landed on Corpo boardroom tables like live grenades, grainy photos and shaky footage projected on wall screens while executives leaned forward in silence, their faces caught somewhere between disbelief and anger as they studied the evidence: Aperture Science's facility with its endless white panels moving like puzzle pieces, impossible rooms shifting under their own power, testing chambers that proved cyberware was being pushed beyond normal thresholds, and Black Mesa's armed fortress bristling with weapons no corpo database recognized, soldiers clad in unfamiliar armor carrying guns that spat plasma, footage of one of their own agents collapsing as his arm melted into green slag before barely escaping alive. The room filled with voices at once, some demanding immediate retaliation, others insisting on patience, a few cautioning that whoever controlled these companies had already shown the ability to repel infiltrators without effort, and worse, they seemed to let the intruders escape with just enough information to spark fear without giving away real secrets. One executive slammed his fist on the table and barked, "They're flaunting power we can't match and laughing at us for even trying," while another whispered that it might be better to quietly observe until they knew more, but the fear was obvious—someone outside the Corpo structure was building tech on par with, or even ahead of, their own, and that alone was intolerable. Biotechnica denied involvement again, Arasaka claimed ignorance, Militech demanded more proof before acting, and all of them agreed on one point: whoever Aperture Science and Black Mesa really were, they had resources, infrastructure, and secrecy on a scale that shouldn't exist, and until they understood more, none of them wanted to risk a direct assault. Across the city, the ripples of this discussion reached the streets in quieter ways, rumors traded in bars and back alleys about plasma weapons that could melt chrome and a labyrinth facility that ate intruders alive, and while most people laughed it off as Corpo paranoia, Maine wasn't laughing, because after weeks of trying to dig up dirt on Vault-Tec Medical Clinic, Aperture Science, and Black Mesa, he had found nothing that didn't match what was already public, and that was more suspicious than any bloodstained report, because in Night City everyone had skeletons in their closets, but this group looked squeaky clean. Sitting with Dorio, Rebecca, Pilar, Lucy, and David one night, he finally said what had been gnawing at him, "Maybe I'm overthinking it, but if these chooms were dirty, I'd have found something by now, and all I got is they treat people fair, keep their prices decent, and don't screw clients when the bill's due, which in this city makes them saints or psychos, and I don't believe in saints." The others shrugged, Rebecca more interested in feeding her rabbit scraps of real lettuce than Corpo theories, but David kept quiet, because he knew first-hand the clinic wasn't a scam, it had saved his mother and given him a chance at a life he hadn't thought possible, and maybe that was why Maine finally made his decision: if he couldn't find a reason not to, then maybe it was time to walk into the clinic himself, not as a skeptic looking for dirt but as a client, and see what kind of chrome they could put under his skin. The thought hung heavy in the room as he lit another cigarette, exhaled smoke toward the ceiling, and muttered, "If they're hiding something, maybe I'll feel it when the scalpel's in me," and nobody argued, because even in Night City, sometimes the only way to know if something was too good to be true was to risk it personally.