Southern Santo Domingo, old residential district. Garbage and wrecked vehicles everywhere you looked. Vito and Jackie stood together studying the angle at which the H06 skyscraper and a cluster of spherical industrial gas tanks combined to form a very specific silhouette.
"I guarantee whoever approved H06's location knew exactly what they were doing. What do you think, Vito."
Vito drank his mini Coke and waited for Kiwi's ssage.
This was 6th Street territory. Yesterday, they'd moved in a load of goods appropriated from a Militech military tech truck. The value of the cargo wasn't in whether it was weapons or cyberware — it was the thing itself: a Militech portable data terminal loaded with encrypted algorithms that could keep several of Night City's major corporations busy for a week.
Kiwi was already in position. Sowhere in a nearby parking structure.
"Listen. I'm saying this once."
Kiwi's voice ca through the encrypted channel directly into their neural interfaces. Two kiloters away, she was lying in the hacker chair inside a modified van, eyes open and empty — the standard expression when emotional dampening was running. No fear. No hesitation. Nothing but calculation.
"Target is in C Area, Warehouse 4, second floor office. 6th Street deployed a three-man squad: all heavy infantry. Direct assault pulls more. But here's the good news — their network firewall is old Militech architecture. I have a backdoor."
"Copy. How do we get in?"
Jackie's voice was low. His massive fra was folded behind a shipping container with Reason in his hand. He looked wrong in the space, like a piece of heavy equipnt stored in the wrong building.
"You don't need to go in. Vito: three o'clock, the ventilation duct. Jackie: cover Vito. Don't let your voice give away the position."
"Hey. Am I really that loud?"
Jackie muttered but traded Reason for a silenced pistol without argunt.
Vito said nothing. He adjusted his breathing, went flat, and moved across the overgrown open ground between them and the warehouse. Low and quiet and quick.
"Move." Kiwi's voice was flat.
Vito broke into a short approach run, leapt, caught the ventilation duct's edge with both hands, and pulled himself in without a sound.
Kiwi's hack went live at the sa mont.
At the warehouse main entrance, two 6th Street guards were leaning on the wall with cigarettes. Their Kiroshi interfaces flickered.
SYSTEM WARNING: COOLANT LEAK DETECTED.
"What the—" The left guard started to check his cyberware status. A sharp alarm detonated inside his skull.
SYSTEM WARNING: VISUAL MODULE OVERLOAD.
His field of vision beca static. Loud tinnitus. He stumbled backward into his partner.
"What's happening? Hack?!"
Before either of them could process it, every light in the warehouse went out completely.
"Jackie. Now." Kiwi's voice didn't change register.
Jackie ca out of the dark and hit the side door the way a vehicle hits sothing it has decided to go through. While the two guards were still fighting their own cyberware, he put two armor-piercing capped rounds through both of their skulls.
Bang. Bang.
Both of them sat down without making a sound and didn't get back up.
"Two down. Vito, the inside one is yours."
"Done."
Vito's voice ca from the second floor.
A second later, Vito dropped to the ground holding a silver data terminal.
He'd co through the ventilation duct into the room and used a rope gun to lower himself in silently. He'd waited for the right mont — the guard turned to check the warehouse lights, and Vito sent one AP round from the silenced Eddie through the eye socket. Ten seconds total. No noise. No alarms. Not a single unnecessary word.
He tossed the terminal to Jackie and gave a small nod to the air. Kiwi's acknowledgnt.
"Out."
Three people left on the planned route. Jackie drove the Magician. Vito rode passenger and ran a connection to the data terminal to begin decryption. Kiwi's van pulled away from the scene from a separate direction.
Tires rolled over the debris on the road with a sustained grinding.
Jackie checked the rearview mirror and watched the sleeping industrial district drop behind them. He let out a slow whistle.
"That was it? I was fully prepared to blow that warehouse off its foundation. Instead we walk out without making a sound. Package in hand."
He turned to look at Vito.
"That rope entry was sothing else, mano. And Kiwi—" He opened the channel again. "Your hack work is in a different category entirely. But I have a question."
Kiwi's voice: "Go."
"Do all female netrunners run this cold?"
"Calm is the standard for a netrunner." Kiwi said it without anything in her voice. She hadn't closed the emotional dampening yet. The side effect was exactly what she'd described: no satisfaction from completing the job, no particular warmth toward the people she'd just worked with. The dampening didn't distinguish.
Jackie pressed on, gently.
"This is our last run together. How about a farewell dinner?"
"Not necessary. I'm going back to Maine's squad."
He was slightly surprised.
"That soon? Not even one drink?"
"Next ti there's an opportunity."
Kiwi closed the channel.
Jackie was quiet for a mont.
"She's clearly a girl with a story. I've t that kind of person before. Everything on them has sothing from the past attached to it."
Vito nodded.
Jackie slowed the car.
"Hey, mano. Don't let the money situation put you through the floor. Didn't Misty say that sotis slowing down takes more courage than pushing forward?"
Vito smiled a little.
"I'm alright. The money is mostly sorted. It's just... the things I've been seeing lately. Gets into your head."
"Yeah." Jackie turned back to the road. "But at least we haven't started taking the genuinely disgusting work. Co on, let take you sowhere. We both need to decompress."
"Where?"
"Devil's Boxing Club. The real thing — everybody there is an enthusiast. They have an old saying at that place: whoever knocks your teeth out, go make friends with them."
"Alright. We need an actual break."
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