[Leo: I need to restore communications and investigate a few things I find suspicious while I'm at it.]
[Leo: Hack the Voodoo Boys' equipnt.]
"Hey." Leo patted Matt. "Matt, right? Don't be so nervous. Just lead the way. Pretty gutsy kid, aren't you? Running all the way to Pacifica to make a living this young?"
Matt's smile looked uglier than crying.
Bro, you're making lead you to Voodoo Boys turf. How am I supposed to smile?!
The Voodoo Boys were basically the local tyrants of Pacifica, sowhere between Night City gang and NCPD. Mysterious, brutal, and feared.
They were xenophobic toward Night City people, much like street kids hated corpo dogs.
Still, they did do a few things, like occasionally handing out food to kids at fixed spots.
And wherever the Voodoo Boys were, there would be network equipnt.
"B-Bro… this is it…"
Matt shakily pointed at the busted stall in front of them, apologizing to the Voodoo Boys like crazy in his head.
Survival ca first.
Leo walked forward a few steps and pointed at the cara on the roof. Jackie jumped up and tore it down.
Only then did Leo and V suddenly realize Jackie seed to have slimd down quite a bit.
He was never fat, but now… he looked kind of hungry.
"Good…" Leo pulled out Matt's personal link and moved to plug it into the machine.
"Bro! Bro! You're my bro!"
The ten-year-old exploded with strength, jerking backward and crashing to the floor, almost pulling the weakened Leo down with him.
His face was purple with terror. "Hacking the Voodoo Boys will get you killed! Nobody can hack them! I don't wanna die!"
Jackie lifted Matt off the ground with one hand.
Leo only said, "Don't be so absolute, kid."
Like Leo expected, Muramasa breached the Voodoo Boys' system in an instant.
Damaged circuits inside the building were selectively bypassed. Current reached the signal equipnt in the room, and the dish antenna on the roof began to operate.
But the network between Night City and Pacifica was nearly unusable due to radiation and geomagnetic disruption.
Leo had just frowned when a hidden yet familiar communications frequency appeared in Pacifica.
NetWatch had arrived.
[hQEMA5n/YT8YyV/7AQf R3cFOS3s7v5]
[Bzzzt]
[Bzzzt—]
Bryce drove the NetWatch comms van across the overpass and into Pacifica.
The headquarters had ordered him to establish a new operating base in Pacifica, this ti with higher-grade equipnt—
Enough to resist nuclear radiation and geomagnetic disruption caused by the nuclear EMP.
With equipnt of this grade, silently frying soone's cyberware and electronics at close range was effortless.
Bryce gripped the steering wheel, expressionless, and activated the signal.
[hQEMA5n/YT8YyV/7AQf R3cFOS3s7v5 alMhMI1nUVY/GT1CM1tkKpR5H1FvGy jWBBuB4ybp5FN3G5FykJvAiO5k8YZcOOhJmOrBbSj3wOVo5afBl5E45JJbECYNtK9STvIY/AJcZYWkaO9p5WYlNdpJ0MTgjyTO6EOw3Q4tQCTAvXSPic2RjtANQ===Xz4k]
It was an encrypted code.
The content was the location and access key for the NetWatch comms van Bryce had previously left in Pacifica.
After decryption, it pointed to the Grand Imperial Mall.
The only obstacle was the Animals muscle he'd hired to guard it.
The two-way communication ca faster than Bryce expected.
[Bzzzt]
[NetWatch Signal Access / Special Communications Protocol / Long-Range Mode Interrupted / Enhanced Communications Mode.]
[Bzzzt—]
[zY2o#E: Pretty bold, aren't you? Selling off company assets? This better not be a trap.]
[Leo: Nice gear.]
Bryce slamd the steering wheel so hard the horn blared, scaring the vagrants cursing at him on both sides of the road into running.
[Bryce: I thought you were dead, sa as those idiots who set off a nuke in Arasaka Tower fifty years ago.]
[Bryce: Don't you owe an explanation? Several explanations?]
[Leo: If you an Night Corp, I've got information. But I don't want you reporting it to NetWatch right now.]
[Leo: Night Corp's real controller is a rogue AI. It has technology that directly affects human minds. Peralez is one of its victims. The brainwashing may have started when he received his first Night Corp scholarship.]
[Bryce: …]
[Bryce: What evidence do you have?]
[Leo: Your files should ntion that Peralez had an older brother who supported him through college, worked himself to death, and was buried in Night City's digital cetery.]
[Leo: But he hasn't visited in years. He doesn't even ntion that brother anymore.]
[Leo: Yet he used to constantly emphasize how close they were. That's illogical. Your psychological profile of him should've marked that heavily.]
Bryce froze completely.
No hard proof.
But Leo had hit sothing dead-on.
Because tonight—just now—Peralez had gone to that cetery under escort from his newly hired security team.
After so many years of never going.
And yet tonight, of all nights.
[Bryce: I'm coming over now.]
[Leo: Forget it. I know what you want to do. I'm not an AI. If you want to see , go to Dogtown.]
[Leo: I'll be there. Then you can say you successfully gathered intel and tracked down.]
[Leo: I'm taking the van. Don't co.]
[Bryce: Fuck you! Don't run! I still have questions!]
[Bryce: Hang up and I'll call backup right now!]
Leo's finger stopped just as he was about to cut the call.
He shook his head.
This seemingly sharp, secretly hotheaded NetWatch agent really was troubleso.
[Leo: Make it quick.]
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