Talks Break Down

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On the high platform to the left of the server, the young man was covered in wounds.

His Gorilla Arms hissed as they vented heat from overheating, but he seemed to feel nothing as he threw heavy punches at the solid wall.

Even a wall with steel plate inside could not endure that kind of bombardment. Web-like cracks spread across it. His fists were covered in dirt, torn skin, and blood. Every punch left another red imprint.

The remaining Voodoo Boys exchanged uneasy looks.

Slider's voice echoed through the daemon workshop.

"Upload a few Cyberware Malfunctions. Check who he is. Then bring him in. If he is NUSA, beat him half-dead and throw him out."

"Better yet, plant a daemon in him."

"If he is a merc, kill him directly."

The eyes of several Voodoo Boys lit at once. Electricity erupted across the young merc's body, and he convulsed before dropping to his knees.

His optic pupils were dilated and trembling nonstop. His head rocked faintly. His mouth muttered words no one could clearly hear.

The Voodoo Boys slowly approached Cade where he knelt. One of them clenched his teeth, raised the butt of his gun high, and smashed it into Cade's head.

There was a dull impact.

Cade's eyes stopped trembling, as if he had regained clarity.

The next second, his eyelids closed heavily and he collapsed onto the floor.

"That bastard's insane," the Voodoo Boy who had worked up the courage to knock Cade out cursed in Creole, his voice shaking. "Lift him up. See if we can find anything in his external storage."

Two of them hauled Cade up like a dead dog. The one giving orders pulled a personal link from his wrist and inserted it into the port at the back of Cade's neck.

The man's eyes lit as he began searching carefully.

Several minutes passed. The man muttered in confusion, "What the hell... there is nothing?"

Suddenly, the Voodoo Boy checking Cade's data began shaking. Smoke rose from his scalp. The stench of burning flesh and scorched hair spread through the room. His eyes rolled back, and he twitched before collapsing to the floor.

[Incoming Call: V]

Because Cade's consciousness was temporarily absent, he could not answer.

At the same time, in her office, V detected that Cade's corporate personal ICE had been attacked. She immediately called her Dogtown asset.

[The user you are calling is outside service range.]

V's heart sank. Several attempts in a row led nowhere.

Then she seemed to think of something.

"File a report with Special Operations. Get people into Dogtown. Now."

V had not expected Cade to run into trouble at this exact moment. She had personally embedded that ICE into Cade's system. It would only counterattack when an outsider physically plugged into his head to extract information.

Which meant Cade had completely lost the ability to resist.

"Fuck."

When V was irritated, curses slipped out of her, even if they did not match her polished appearance.

The Counterintelligence employees under V's command saw their superior muttering curses and quietly shrank their necks back down, burying themselves in work at their computers.

The long black corridor was covered in fluorescent Voodoo Boys graffiti, broken by scattered emergency lights.

Thick network cables lay underfoot, as if leading into a sunless hell.

Slider's voice echoed through the passage. "I can almost confirm this dog belongs to the FIA... cough. Militech firewall burned you idiots? Makes sense. Drag him in. Let me see what the FIA wants this time."

Then, half complaining and half scolding, he added, "Inhuman bastards. He almost killed everyone. Hurry up."

In the darkness, Cade's lowered eyes slowly opened.

He had woken the moment the rifle butt struck his head. The Cyberpsychosis quickhack had given him a terrible nightmare.

In that dream, every effort he had made turned into smoke. There was no corporation, no crew, only the pitiful Cade wandering an endless wasteland.

He swore he never wanted to experience that feeling a second time.

Right now, all he wanted was to get close to Slider and state his purpose.

The Voodoo Boys did not realize Cade was awake. They were still complaining to each other in Creole, likely saying Slider had no humanity. He knew someone would die and still had the unlucky fool jack into Cade. Being burned out happened in an instant.

Slider's netrunning chamber was smaller than Hamster's, but that did not mean this netrunner lacked ability. Strictly speaking, he counted as an NUSA FIA asset. He had only been forced to hole up in Dogtown because the NUSA had caught his tail.

Cade was thrown to the floor. Before the two Voodoo Boys could speak, he planted both hands on the ground, sprang up, and punched one down. Then he smashed another with the butt of his pistol.

The black muzzle pointed silently at the netrunner in the chair, whose scarred eyes could no longer see.

Slider's outfit was almost ridiculous: bright striped pants, slippers, and Voodoo Boys-style dreadlocks.

He froze for a moment, listening to the intruder's movement. Then he sneered.

"Hm. Who are you?"

Cade did not move the muzzle away from him. He slowly approached Slider.

"Where is Samir?"

Slider spread his hands. "One of the people you punched through with that shot was Samir."

Cade went silent for a moment, then said, "I want to make a deal."

It felt like a scene repeating itself.

Reed and V had once fought all the way into Slider's den to obtain a way to contact Songbird.

Cade had fought his way in for the capital to survive.

Slider tilted his head, identifying Cade's position by sound. "If I had not seen your face through the cameras, I would have thought my good friends from the NUSA had come knocking. You say you want a deal, but you are pointing a gun at me, friend."

Cade took a deep breath. The pain in his head and weakness in his legs forced him to lean against the opposite wall and slowly sit down.

"I only want the Behavioral Imprint-synced Faceplate. Name your price. As for your people, if they had listened, I would have paid to get it. Unfortunately, they did not give me the chance. So what happened to them is on them."

Slider's netrunner chair moved all the way in front of Cade.

"You still haven't told me whose man you are, Donk dim sa."

"Just a merc working for Arasaka. That cyberware is important to me. Name your price."

Cade had no energy left for schemes. He stated his identity directly.

Slider laughed.

"In one sense, you are also a dog with a corporate hand on your tail. Like my name. That kind of dog is called a slider."

"This NUSA cyberware was ordered by Dogtown's Mr. Hands. If you want it, I can give it to you. After you killed so many people, Hands can believe someone robbed the shipment."

"But..."

"You are Arasaka."

"That makes me very uncomfortable, friend."

Slider's muffled voice echoed through the hot netrunning chamber.

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