Takemura and the others might not hesitate to attack them at the hospital, so instead of taking such a risk, it was better to have a simple treatment first in Dog Town.
What Mercer needed now was to first remove the cyberware damaged by the EMP, especially to repair the brain-computer interface. Once he restored a certain level of mobility, he could perform surgery on the team members himself.
Due to interference from the electronic countermeasures, in fact, it was only now that they sent an emergency medical assistance signal to the trauma team, and Mercer simply chose to terminate the service directly, sparing the trauma team a wasted trip.
The soldiers of the Netherworld Dog hurriedly arranged transportation to take Mercer and the others to the cyberware doctor of the Netherworld Dog. They first stopped Mann's severe bleeding; otherwise, his severed limbs would have led to his death from massive blood loss in no time.
The first thing Mercer did next was to have the cyberware doctor perform a full-body check on Rebecca. Sure enough, although she appeared not to be in much trouble externally, internally, her organs had multiple areas of internal bleeding, and even the cerebral hemorrhage was extremely severe.
Mercer immediately asked the doctor to replace his brain-computer interface to barely regain mobility. After several injections of stabilizers, he took over the surgical process directly.
Mercer performed a major operation on Rebecca himself, opening her skull before opening her chest, stopping the bleeding, and then repairing. Even for him, it took a full hour and a half to bring Rebecca back from the brink of danger.
This shows that the cyberware doctor was really rubbish—Rebecca said she felt a bit dizzy, and he really thought Rebecca was only lightly injured.
Fortunately, Mercer knew the situation himself, so no accidents occurred.
After Rebecca was pushed into the ICU in a coma, Mercer finally laid himself on the operating table, letting the cyberware doctor perform an emergency repair while he was awake, mainly to repair the neural circuits in his hacker cyberware.
Otherwise, his trembling hands would render the stabilizers ineffective.
After a simple repair surgery on himself, Mercer unceremoniously kicked this mediocre cyberware doctor out of the operating room, continuing alone to perform operations on Mann, Jack, V, and Dolio consecutively.
He worked for six hours straight in the operating room until dawn was almost breaking before he finally got off the operating table, walked outside, and took a couple of breaths of fresh air.
Looking at his still slightly trembling, blood-stained hands, Mercer sat down on a chair, staring at the ceiling in a daze.
It could be said that this was the most dangerous situation Spark Team had encountered since its formation.
In fact, if the other party's goal hadn't been clear—aiming to capture alive rather than completely annihilate—the Spark Team would very likely have been finished.
The strength of Arasaka is evident—and also, from Takemura's words, it could be heard that this time, the other side wasn't even going all out.
This was a tentative capture maneuver and also a warning.
"Mercer?"
Lucy's voice came, and at the same time, a can of icy cold cola was pressed against Mercer's face by her hand, making him shiver from the chill.
"Hiss..." Mercer shrunk his neck, then reached out to take the cola: "Haven't gone to rest yet?"
"I checked on Rebecca for a bit; her vital signs have stabilized, but she's still not awake," Lucy said softly, sitting beside him, her blue dress now slightly wrinkled, no longer the dazzling sight it was last night.
She looked concernedly at Mercer's profile: "Are you... okay?"
"Me? Of course, I'm fine. No need to worry about Rebecca either; her cerebral hemorrhage is quite severe, so it will indeed take some time before she can wake up," Mercer said with a smile.
"I'm not talking about physically," Lucy shook her head and sighed, "So, are you still thinking about going all the way against Arasaka now?"
In fact, in Lucy's view, this outcome was already considered lucky—at least no one died.
Mercer didn't reply immediately but took a sip of cola, and after a while, he smiled, "Scared?"
"The difference in strength is already very clear, isn't it?" Lucy retorted: "If the other side hadn't intended to capture alive and warn us, we would all be dead by now, but Arasaka won't hold back every time."
Mercer just stayed silent without speaking. He looked at the bloodstains on his hands, and after a moment, he spoke, "I know."
He turned his head, looked at Lucy, and revealed a somewhat helpless smile: "But, some things are still worth continuing, aren't they? Or, do you want to return to Arasaka with me and live the life we had at the base in Canada?"
Lucy pressed her lips, then said, "But haven't we already escaped? We can still keep running. Surely, you have a way. Even during those times wandering the Evil Land, we managed to get by, didn't we?"
She lowered her head, looking troubled, "Isn't that better than now? Can we really withstand the second assault from Arasaka? Aren't you worried about V, Rebecca, me, or even yourself..."
Mercer said nothing, only reached out and hugged her.
Lucy's voice stopped abruptly. After a while, she somewhat feebly stretched out her arms, holding him tightly, letting out low sobs, "I thought I was going to lose you..."
"I know." Mercer gently consoled her, reaching out to softly caress her short hair.
"When you were caught by Takemura, I couldn't do anything... I was so scared..." Her choked voice trembled, like a little dog drenched in rain, shivering in his embrace.