Chapter 10
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Arasaka Tower.
Floor Thirty-three, Counterintelligence Division office area.
Carter returned to his workstation uneasily with the chip in hand. After booting up his computer, he inserted the chip to read the mission data regarding the cyber-loony James.
Finally, the symbol options in his cybernetic eye stopped at the copy interface.
[Copy? Y/N]
Carter hesitated, and the thought of his superior's recent interrogation made him grow increasingly anxious—not knowing the true purpose behind it.
"Could I have been discovered?"
He plunged into severe self-doubt, his mind scouring for any trace of when he might have slipped up.
"I just got back from out of town, there's no way they could know about my situation."
"If there really was any evidence, they would've kicked me out of Arasaka by now."
"But there's sure to be a whiff of suspicion, he can't think that the Animal Gang attack was an intel leak from me."
"If that's the case, then no matter how much they investigate, they won't find anything, and I'd be safe."
"It's just too bad he didn't die in that attack, or else I still might have had a chance to climb higher."
Seemingly with resolved determination, Carter chose to copy. His cybernetic eye recorded all the information and then he took out a new chip and inserted it into his neck's neural socket.
He wouldn't even use the Net to pass any message, coming from the Counterintelligence department. The public Net is saturated with corporate surveillance and network watchdogs.
After copying the data, Carter immediately stood up and walked out...
Meanwhile, Tang Yu was sitting at his office station, browsing mission-related graphics, text, and video intelligence, and making his own inferences.
The experimental military-grade Stanfield implant wouldn't be understood by many, and even if it made its way to the black market, it might be sold as a standard model, as unauthorized military tech poses a high risk. Often, those who purchase such implants are desperados with nothing to lose.
If the NCPD didn't take the cyberware for themselves, and the military tech department had no intention of claiming it back, then there's only one possibility—it had been intercepted by someone else.
Perhaps out of greed, poverty, or some other motive, the thief did not realize the storm they had entered.
Before long, Jackie called to inform him about the intelligence from Commissioner Stints at NCPD. It was confirmed that NCPD did not recover the cyberware; it had vanished before the cyborg-loony's body was brought to the NCPD center. Jackie also made it clear that he didn't want to get tangled with corporate affairs and asked Tang Yu not to reach out for information often.
After hearing Jackie's message, Tang Yu couldn't help but mock himself.
"Haywood still despises the corps as always."
"And here I am, a corporate shill with a true Haywood friend."
"Ha, that just means I'm a cyberpunk draped in a corporates' hide."
"Am I right, Jackie?"
Jackie replied, "I think you should just get out of that snake pit, who knows when a venomous fang will strike."
Tang Yu didn't respond directly to Jackie's words, instead he agreed saying, "Snake pit, whorehouse, you always had a way with words. Alright, I'm busy now. Once this is over, how about we hit Lizzy's for a drink?"
Jackie laughed, expressing his full agreement, "It's gotta be Lizzy's. The braindance there really is something else!"
Tang Yu thought to himself: No kidding, you've seen who the braindance expert there is—the famous Judy Alvarez.
After receiving the intel from Jackie, Carter also came to the office to report his findings. No trades related to the cyberware mentioned in the data were found on the black market. The Stanfields currently up for trade were all entry-level gang products.
After gathering intelligence from various sources, Tang Yu turned his attention to the scene of the cyber-loony's death, pulling up surveillance footage around the corporate plaza while also accessing the Counterintelligence Division's internal database to obtain basic information about NCPD center duty and cleanup personnel, and began cross-referencing.
He wanted to see who from the NCPD was on the scene and could have had the chance to steal the Stanfield cyberware.
Images of personnel and various information codes scrolled across the screen, listing all the NCPD officers on site the day of the incident before further filtering for those who had contact with the cyber-loony's body.
The list of potential suspects grew shorter, until Tang Yu saw a familiar name.
[Name: Gloria Martinez]
[Position: Emergency Medical Technician, Night City Public Health Center]
"Is it a coincidence?"
Gloria was the one he had saved in the Animals' attack, a mother and son now being treated at the trauma center.
Tang Yu reviewed the scene videos and noticed Gloria transporting the trolley with the cyber-looney's body to the ambulance, before leaving the scene.
Upon a closer look at David Martinez's personal details, he learned the boy had recently wrecked the network education system of Arasaka Academy and owed a significant amount of compensation.
"Emergency medical technician, in urgent need of money, had the chance to steal the cyberware alone."Tang Yu had almost certainly secured the military-grade Sandevistan.
"It must be her"
With Gloria in his hands, there's no way that Sandevistan could slip through his fingers. A simple phone call would get him the cyberware.
But the cage he wanted to build for Susan had to be enticing enough to lure the rat into a trap, and the military-grade Sandevistan was the perfect bait. Given Abernathy's track record, she would never pass up an opportunity to clamp down on the counter-intelligence department.
Tang Yu logged off from the desktop system, glanced at the time, and noticed it was getting late, so he got up from his desk to go downstairs.
He walked through the office area, passed the front desk to the elevator doors, and pressed the button to go down.
As the elevator doors opened, Tang Yu stepped inside, where the electronic screen inside continued to prattle on about Saburo Arasaka's 'great' life.
Exiting the elevator, Tang Yu came out to the exterior of Arasaka Tower and the first thing he saw were two floating giant koi moving in the plaza.
At the same time, a crowd of people in business suits hustled back and forth on the plaza's roundabout, and there was no shortage of stylishly-dressed men and women mingling among them, with various types of business and personal flying vehicles weaving through the buildings overhead.
The rebuilt plaza was now one of the world's most famous landmarks, yet the true destroyers of the plaza, Arasaka Tower and the Military Tech building, sat facing each other like two black giants dominating the square.
Tang Yu looked up at the two 'giants' in silence, took a moment's pause, and then strode towards the transportation hub.
Inside the suspensor-track vehicle.
Tang Yu took off the portable communicator worn on his left eye and loosened the black tie around his neck, having decided to rest and not wanting to be disturbed by other matters. On the first night of his rebirth, he only wanted to enjoy the rare and familiar night view of Night City.
Standing inside the car, grasping a handrail, he looked out of the window.
A steel forest adorned with layers of lights stood tall, with neon lights extending to the horizon from the city's rooftops, meandering rivers flowing from the estuary through steel bridges into underground channels, the night draped in rain, somewhat hazy.
Listening to the music playing in the vehicle, Tang Yu gazed out the window and muttered to himself.
"I should have left a long time ago"
"But, to be fair"
"In this damned city"
"I have my life..."