Wins and Losses

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Angie lifted the baseball bat high. A sticky red film clung to the uneven paint along the barrel, and then she brought it down hard on the Animals member at her feet.

Clang.

She dropped the blunt weapon and leaned back against the edge of the desk, breathing hard.

This drawn-out gang fight had exhausted her. She had never flooded herself with hormones the way the other Animals did, and she had no idea whether the next safehouse would already have hostile members waiting at the door.

The few subordinates still standing were covered in wounds. They clustered tightly around her, guarding against enemies who might rush in at any moment.

Five people.

That was all the fighting strength she had left.

[Incoming Call: Rook]

A ringtone sounded. Inside her optics, Mr. Rook's contact card appeared: the face of a devil.

Angie answered. "Still alive. These bastards just won't stop biting. How is it on your end? Did it work?"

Even with the situation this bad, her voice stayed steady.

She understood Night City. There were only two endings here: live in glory or die ugly.

Rook said a few things from the other side of the call. When Angie heard him, her face twitched, and a tired smile spread across it.

"Thank you, Mr. Rook."

She combed her fingers through the clotted blood in her hair, lit a cigarette, drew the pistol from behind her waist, and continued retreating toward the far side of the office with her people.

Pacifica. Heavy Hearts.

Emma's hand rested lightly on the back of the sofa. Her tone was flat. "Wade, we lost this one."

Mr. Hands had both hands folded over the head of his cane. His expression was ugly.

"He cannot swallow the Animals' drug business. Barghest and the Cuban side are not places he can touch."

Emma spoke slowly. "This could have been a business everyone split down the middle. You ruined it."

"You provoked him. The real problem is that someone else now understands your business structure and your upstream supplier. Wade Bleecker, you told Marta to hold the line, then went to handle Ms. Angie yourself, and you still failed. Your partner Aye and your chosen candidate Marta were both handled by the solo under him. What now?"

Emma leaned down beside him and whispered, "Are you going to surrender, Mr. Hands?"

Hands smiled faintly and picked up the teacup in front of him.

"Then we talk to him. Barghest business cannot be given to him. As for cyberware and the drug business tied to the other factions, we can let some of it out. We appoint a new boss, continue controlling the books, and pay him a share."

Things had already slipped out of control.

Emma sighed. "Let's hope he is willing to listen."

Hands had believed two months was nowhere near enough time for the other side to build anything meaningful. That Arasaka-backed Rook should have been able to steal only a few low-end customers at most.

He had not expected the man to understand his entire Animals foundation.

In simple terms, Mr. Hands controlled Dogtown's Animals leadership candidate and the business channels behind that candidate. The goods came in through the Cuban side: combat stimulants, hormones, and similar products. Barghest absorbed part of the supply. Part went to the black market. The rest reached Dogtown residents and small buyers.

Hands had used desperate Angie as a setup.

Angie wanted Hands to help move cyberware into Dogtown and quietly handle Aye. What Angie did not know was that Hands was already the Animals' business partner.

So Hands pushed Angie toward Rook, hoping Rook would get caught in the Animals' internal struggle and walk away with nothing.

Instead, the stone had come down on Hands's own foot.

Rook's background was not simply corporate. His intelligence was clean, his mercs were efficient, and Hands had not known Cade had built a real line to Jenkins. With Arasaka's actual backing, all Cade had to do was ask. V and her colleagues in Counterintelligence could dig Hands out by the roots.

Rook wanted to eat into the Animals, support Angie's cyberware and underground fight business, and put her in charge of the books. That meant Dogtown Animals accounts would pass through his hands.

Hands could not accept that.

After realizing his relationship with the Animals had been exposed, Hands had reacted the moment he heard rumors. He prepared to sacrifice Aye to protect Marta, let Marta keep control over Dogtown's drug business, remove Angie, and push Rook out of the game.

For safety, he even inserted a netrunner into the Animals.

The result had been far beyond his expectations.

Emma's conclusion made sense. To kill an Animals boss and a netrunner, a corporate solo must have moved personally.

Now Rook had not only removed Aye. Marta was dead too.

Hands guessed Rook might originally have planned to leave Marta alive. Perhaps once Rook discovered Hands was stubbornly protecting her, he simply ordered the solo to kill the new candidate.

In other words, Hands's own counterattack had made his new competitor hostile. With Marta dead, the Barghest and Cuban side now needed an explanation, and Hands would be the one cleaning up the mess.

Rook's warning was serious. Hands had to swallow it even with his teeth broken.

He exhaled softly. According to what he had found, Rook was only tied to Arasaka Counterintelligence. Was that really enough to make him this dangerous?

Emma smiled. "Sending Angie to that Rook was a rotten move from the start. You wanted to drag him in, but you underestimated his ability to trace a line and underestimated corporate connections. Did you forget what Petrochem did to you back then? Are you still unfamiliar with corpo methods?"

"You eat steak and leave him broth. You think he would accept that?"

Hands closed his eyes in silence.

Emma picked up her coat from the sofa. "Neither of us handled him today. My advice? Control your appetite. Deal with him slowly. The day Hansen is gone, support someone from the Cuban side. Once that happens, an Arasaka man will be much easier to solve."

Hands said nothing. He was already thinking about retreat, and about how he would answer the Cuban side.

Then Rook's contact card appeared in his optics.

The competitor who usually exchanged messages with him was calling first.

'Nothing friendly about this.'

Cade sat inside Vik's clinic in Little China. Vik patiently worked the medical cyberware and external equipment while Rebecca lay on the operating table.

Luckily, Rebecca's injuries were not as severe as Cade's had been. Even so, the pain from this kind of damage had to be brutal. Muscle and bone connection had been torn apart. Cade could not understand how she had gone this long without letting out a single cry of pain.

He walked up the basement stairs and stopped behind Misty's Esoterica. Cade shook ash from the cigarette in his hand.

The dust had settled. Everything that needed to be done was done.

Now came the accounting.

Cade called Hands. The other side took several dozen seconds to answer.

Cade sneered inwardly.

'Not eager, are you?'

"Hands."

The hologram showed Mr. Hands exactly as usual, the whole man tucked inside shadow. His style looked oddly similar to Rook's own hologram.

Cade did not waste time. He opened on the right topic.

"Remember our first deal? The one where Biotechnica was going to wipe my people's memories. I was not planning to make trouble for you over it."

"Then you climbed right back up the same pole and sent the Animals candidate you wanted gone straight at me. Should I call that clever, or stupid?"

Hands chuckled. "I failed. I admit you found one of my main arteries this time. But I am sorry. I cannot give you that business. If I give it to you, my own outcome will be very unpleasant. Also, you killed Marta, the candidate selected by all three sides. I still need to choose someone new to control the Animals."

"As for money, I can give you a portion of the profit."

Some people really did forget pain the moment the wound closed.

"I did not call to listen to this bullshit. Understand? Whether you want to give up the business or not, you will."

Hands took a deep breath. "Then what do you want?"

Cade spoke slowly. "I know Cuba, Barghest, and you are wearing the same pair of pants. When something does not go your way, you send a mystic little hitman to harvest heads across the city. I am not interested in that. I do not want Barghest's business. Aside from Barghest's slice, everything else comes to me."

Hands was shocked by how much Rook knew, and at the same time he realized he had underestimated Rook's appetite. The man did not want a small cut. He wanted two-thirds of the whole plate.

Hands's breathing turned heavy.

"Friend, the Cuban side does not like strangers."

Cade cut him off. "Then tell them the goods are for you and Barghest. I make the money. If I am in a good mood, I will give you a cut. As for the boss, choose whoever you like. Angie still handles Dogtown Animals accounts."

Click.

Cade ended the call. He had no intention of wasting breath.

Arasaka's power had to be used properly. Strike a snake at the vital point. Cade was beginning to understand that lesson.

At that moment, on the third floor of Heavy Hearts, inside Hands's workroom, the fixer sat on the sofa with his eyes shut, breathing deeply. His hands clenched tight over his knees.

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