[Leo: I need to restore communications and investigate a few things I find suspicious while I'm at it.]
[Leo: Hack the Voodoo Boys' equipment.]
"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 me lead you to Voodoo Boys turf. How am I supposed to smile?!
The Voodoo Boys were basically the local tyrants of Pacifica, somewhere 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 equipment.
"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 came first.
Leo walked forward a few steps and pointed at the camera on the roof. Jackie jumped up and tore it down.
Only then did Leo and V suddenly realize Jackie seemed to have slimmed 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 equipment 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 time with higher-grade equipment—
Enough to resist nuclear radiation and geomagnetic disruption caused by the nuclear EMP.
With equipment of this grade, silently frying someone'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 came 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 slammed 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, same as those idiots who set off a nuke in Arasaka Tower fifty years ago.]
[Bryce: Don't you owe me an explanation? Several explanations?]
[Leo: If you mean 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 mention that Peralez had an older brother who supported him through college, worked himself to death, and was buried in Night City's digital cemetery.]
[Leo: But he hasn't visited in years. He doesn't even mention 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 something dead-on.
Because tonight—just now—Peralez had gone to that cemetery 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 me, go to Dogtown.]
[Leo: I'll be there. Then you can say you successfully gathered intel and tracked me down.]
[Leo: I'm taking the van. Don't come.]
[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 troublesome.
[Leo: Make it quick.]