Clack.
A small fla shot from Carlo's cyberware.
Everyone leaned in and lit their cigarettes off his hand.
Vito took a long draw. Since arriving in Night City his habit had been getting worse. Even out here in the Badlands, where the air was at least marginally better, he found himself reaching for a cigarette whenever there was a quiet mont.
"A lighter built into your cyberware. Carlo, that's genuinely creative."
Jackie looked at Carlo's hand with sothing close to admiration.
"He used to forget his lighter every ti. We'd be out camping in the Badlands freezing in the wind, stuck in the car. He got so sick of it he went and had that installed."
Cala had rested for a while. She looked considerably better.
Vito worked the tablet with a cigarette hanging from his lip, left eye half-closed against the smoke.
"Good news, everyone. The Chaos Blades' patrol discipline is even worse than I expected. No surveillance caras. No periter patrols. Guards that barely deserve the na. Honestly, their security is so loose that Janpeng could wander in and out all night and nobody would notice."
Carlo spat on the ground.
"Those animals are going to pay for that arrogance."
"Who's Janpeng?"
Cala asked.
"A back-alley ripperdoc in Night City. No professional ethics whatsoever. Tried to charge five eddies just to look in a mirror."
Vito still felt his jaw tighten thinking about Janpeng.
Jackie looked at Carlo.
"And that photo Vito got. Is that the one who played your sister?"
Carlo crushed the lit end of his cigarette between his fingers.
"That's him. Simpson. I'm going to put him down myself."
Vito's cigarette had burned down to a long hanging column of ash.
"You'll have your chance. I got a good look at the robot situation in the camp. They're on charge, but they can go operational without warning. That's why the Chaos Blades don't bother with proper defense. They figure the robots are all they need.
But are these Kang Tao bodyguard units really as tough as you described?"
Carlo brushed the ash off his hand.
"Hard to deal with. More flexible than standard civilian models. More combat-oriented in how they respond."
Vito dropped the butt and passed the tablet to Cala.
"Combat chips, probably. Jackie and I are moving in. You stay here and coordinate with the Serpents.
One suggestion for the attack approach: co in from the east, south, and west in a three-way squeeze. Then put a flanking group on the north road to catch anyone who tries to run. Tell Max to keep the noise down. No early exposure."
Vito and Jackie started running their equipnt checks. Vito handed Jackie the Captain for supplentary firepower.
Both of them fitted suppressors.
"Good luck."
Vito and Jackie gave a nod and slipped into the dark.
They worked their way slowly toward the town, moving on instinct rather than light. They ca in from the west side, the end of the camp closest to the police station, where the coverage was the thinnest. One Night Wraiths mber on a patrol loop was all that stood between them and the periter.
They ducked into a derelict building first. Walls gave better cover from the Hornet drones' patrol patterns.
Both of them moved in a low crouch, footsteps that weren't worth hearing.
Out through a side door, they pressed to the wall of the auto-repair shop next to the police station. The plan was to use the repair shop's roof to reach the police station's second floor. The two buildings were close enough to step across.
Vito hacked the repair shop's side door. The broken door, years past its last maintenance cycle, creaked open. Both of them pulled their pistols by reflex, ready to deal with whoever ca to investigate.
Nobody ca. The Night Wraiths in this town had long made their peace with every rotting thing in it.
Vito let out a quiet breath and signaled Jackie to move inside.
The repair shop had been cleared out years ago. The only thing left that had originally belonged to the place was the holographic TV mounted to the ceiling, still running.
News 54. Gillian Jordan, the anchor, was midway through a story.
"...Kabuki's cri king eliminated. Jotaro Shoji, the Tyger Claws-"
A few supply crates had been repurposed as beds and placed around the floor. Three Night Wraiths with BD headrigs were sprawled across them, bodies twitching through whatever they were watching.
Vito scanned them. No heavy cyberware. He signaled Jackie.
He put a knife through one Night Wraiths fighter's heart. Jackie broke the other two's necks with clean, quiet efficiency.
Up to the roof. This ti Vito was smarter about it. He left the broken doors and windows alone. He adjusted the plan on the spot and decided to co down from the third floor instead.
The third floor had a signal relay installation, which ant a purpose-built access door. Manual operation. Controllable noise.
He sent Jackie a ssage to hold position on the repair shop roof and cover, then pulled himself up the police station's exterior wall to the third floor.
He used the knife to work out the bolts on the iron sh door, eased it free, and slipped inside.
The whole building was empty of guards. Not one patrol. The Chaos Blades had set a new standard for the industry, and it was a low one.
Third floor had no data equipnt. Vito moved down to the second floor, found a storage room with empty rooms on both sides, opened the window, and brought Jackie up.
They worked through the building together. An office with a makeshift server cluster and a few terminals. Vito sent Jackie to the door and moved in.
Personal interface in. Data chip into the port. He ssaged T-Bug.
[Line connected. Puppet loaded. Pull the files as fast as you can.]
[Copy. Releasing the crawler now.]
Five minutes, give or take. T-Bug confird completion and told him to disconnect.
Vito pulled the chip and locked it in a shielded case.
Commission target complete. All that was left was the Chaos Blades.
He and Jackie moved toward the front entrance of the police station. The plan was to exit through the main door, cover the seventy ters to the robot charging area, throw the EMP, and pull out west the mont it detonated.
The EMP was good work, but the C7 charge inside it had a limited blast radius. It would put the robots down but wouldn't do much to the hardware from distance.
Passing the room that looked directly onto the stairwell, Vito glanced through the doorway.
Angel Eye and Simpson. Asleep in a large bed.
He kept the observation brief.
The whole police station has worse security than Yorinobu Arasaka's Konpeki Plaza penthouse. Must be nice not worrying about interruptions.
He and Jackie reached the ground floor without incident. One Night Wraiths guard silhouetted at the front entrance, stretching.
Vito checked the distance to the robot charging stations in the town center. Seventy ters. Three seconds at a run to reach throwing range. Detonate, exit west.
He pulled out the EMP device and signaled Jackie to deal with the guard quietly.
Jackie moved forward, locked an arm around the guard's throat to cut off any sound, and had the neck positioned when the guard drove an elbow hard into Jackie's gut.
"Son of a... Vito. It's a robot."
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