Discharged

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The Black Sapphire, Colonel Hansen's viper pit.

"I hope this won't cause you trouble... mm-hm. I'll handle it. Don't worry."

Hidden in shadow, Kurt Hansen ended the call with a Night City official. He was a businessman. Anything could be negotiated, and a firefight this big was just another part of business risk.

He had to control the fallout.

He also had to get revenge.

For that, he would need help from Night City's politicians.

Cade could only keep his head down while he was held in place. In the distance, Colonel Hansen's military boots crossed the clean, polished floor at an unhurried pace.

"Let him go. Our friend here still has broken bones."

Cade shook out his numb, aching arms. His eyes stayed firm, but the sweat sliding down his forehead betrayed him.

'Please don't let that panel have lied to me.'

The man in the sharp military T-shirt was cold-eyed, powerful, and built like he belonged in every room he entered. He looked over Cade and the other two Barghest soldiers who had been dragged in with him.

No. Not soldiers.

Curs who had crawled back after losing their tails.

"Talk. You should know what happened."

Cade drew a deep breath.

"Colonel, an edgerunner crew hit us."

That was not a lie. This cold-blooded warlord had terrifying skill when it came to investigation and interrogation, and Cade did not want to reveal more than he had to.

"I know that, kid." Colonel Hansen tapped Cade's chest with one finger. "You should have waited for our support team, don't you think?"

'So he is still going to use desertion as an excuse to deal with me?'

Cade swallowed and unconsciously clenched his fist.

Colonel Hansen gave a look. The soldier behind Cade hesitated, but pressure won out, and he pressed a hand down on Cade's shoulder.

"Sorry, choom."

Cade's mind spun hard.

An edgerunner crew. Dogtown soldiers. A convoy transporting large quantities of weapons and equipment.

'Damn it. There has to be something I missed.'

"Wait, Colonel Hansen!"

Cade stepped forward, and two black gun barrels immediately dug into his broken ribs. Pain twisted his expression.

"The edgerunners weren't there to steal the cargo. They were there to sabotage us and catch us off guard."

"A crew of mercs had no reason to ignore brand-new corpo gear they could use themselves."

"You should consider whether someone else set this up."

Colonel Hansen immediately raised a hand.

"Let him finish."

Cade hurried on.

"Almost everything in this purchase was Arasaka equipment. It changed hands three times. How could the route have leaked to edgerunners that easily?"

"Only a business angle makes sense, Colonel Hansen. That shipment was corporate property from the start. They were never going to let one of their own people pocket the markup. This... this was retaliation."

Colonel Hansen listened while draining the whiskey in his hand.

His breath, heavy with alcohol, rolled across Cade's face. Hansen studied his subordinate with a gaze like a wolf's.

"Bring that one in."

The Barghest soldiers dragged someone over like a corpse. Only when the man was thrown to the floor did Cade realize who he was.

If not for the gaudy Barghest tattoos, he would never have imagined the soldier with his head beaten almost to pulp was Sino.

"Deserter."

Colonel Hansen's voice was full of disgust. He nudged Sino with his boot. The poor bastard's throat was still making sounds, but no one could understand a word.

"He wanted to leave this paradise. Guess who sold the intel?"

A chill crawled up Cade's spine.

'Sino sold the intel?'

"You know me. I'm lazy. I don't care enough to investigate whether you two were in it together, but you should be grateful. This one confessed to selling the route himself."

"You and him were close. Ate together. Slept under the same roof. I should shoot you along with him."

"But right now, I'm willing to give you a chance."

Cade had been standing straight since the moment he came in. Even after seeing Sino, he had only glanced at him once. Hansen found himself a little interested in the young soldier in front of him.

'Yeah. That is how edgerunners do business.'

Today you sold me out. Tomorrow I put a knife in your back. No one ever knew whether their "good choom" was loyal or just waiting to betray them until the bullet came.

Hansen drew a pistol from his waist and aimed it at Sino on the floor.

He knew perfectly well that the young soldier named Cade Mercer had not taken part in selling the intel, but he was still willing to use both kindness and fear. Loyalty was built in the space between life and death, one little mercy at a time.

The former Militech soldier understood that better than most.

"Bang!"

The gunshot stabbed through Cade's eardrums, and his body jerked.

Hansen fired three times.

When Cade opened his eyes, the steaming muzzle was pressed against his head.

Cade swallowed.

He looked at Hansen and knew he could not flinch. If he did, Hansen would not mind having one less Barghest doing his work.

"Go to Heavy Hearts. Find an old friend of mine. Every trace of you in Barghest will disappear."

"Help me, kid. Someone needs to give me an answer for that shipment, don't they?"

He lowered the gun. The soldier behind Cade patted his shoulder, and only then did Cade force his stiff legs to move him out of the Black Sapphire.

In the elevator, Cade's knees nearly gave out. The lingering side effects of the Pain Editor, combined with the stabbing ache of his fractured ribs, forced him to hold the rail just to stay upright.

"Hey, Mercer. Maybe it's not all bad."

It was Otto, the soldier who had warned him to think on his feet.

"No Barghest soldier in Dogtown wants to leave the camp. You know how it is. One day you're sleeping just fine at home, and the next, some resident you roughed up comes looking for payback."

Barghest was infamous for how harshly it treated Dogtown residents. Once a soldier lost that uniform, retaliation was almost inevitable.

On top of that, losing military pay was a disaster. Otto sounded like he was comforting Cade, but he was basically crushing the man's hope.

For people used to smoking Glitter, having no money was practically a death sentence.

"But I believe in you, kid. Shit, Hansen had a gun pressed to your forehead and you still looked him in the eye? You've got balls."

The name of Cade's destination suddenly felt painfully appropriate.

Heavy Hearts.

'Did I just get fired?'

But from what Hansen had said, Cade still needed to do something for him.

Everything was a tangled mess. No one let a common grunt see the whole picture. That was reality, and Cade understood it clearly.

After all, a god's-eye view belonged to players, not living NPCs.

[System Notification]

Character: Kurt Hansen

Affinity: 10

Note: Do your boss's work. Keeping your head on the chopping block is nothing new.

Reward: All Attributes +1. Chance to contact other legendary figures unlocked.

Special Reminder: From now on, you do the work yourself and carry the weight yourself.

Aside from rewards, this panel will no longer provide any mission guidance. See you around.

The last thing holding Cade's spine straight finally snapped.

Otto saw him starting to collapse and hurried to catch him. He pulled a canister of Bounce Back from his waist and pressed it to Cade's mouth.

'Too damn dark. Even the panel knows how to backstab.'

As the medication entered his system, Cade's strained nerves finally loosened.

"Mercer! Mercer! All right... you need to rest..."

Otto's voice gradually blurred.

Cade's vision sank completely into darkness.

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