I walked outside, ‘greeted’ by the two men sent as my envoys. Those same idiots who did all that ‘recon’ work from earlier. Making my job look like a fucking joke.

  “We are to take you to Placide,” one of them said. I didn’t even ingratiate them with a response, simply walking past them into the inky night.

  Pacifica lacked basic electricity and running water, much less the infrastructure one would expect of an organization with the funding to pay for the Relic. I’m sure Evelyn wasn’t that dumb to have trusted them. Perhaps she wanted to sell it to NetWatch instead…? This thing seemed right up their alley, now that I think about it. I guess it’s an immaterial thought now, considering I just left Bryce Mosley behind. But I refuse to play party to any more games. I want this fucking thing out. And if Brigitte stands in my way, then I have no compunctions about slicing her in half before Mosley even gets the chance to hack into the subnet. Blades are faster than keyboards.

  “My question is,” Johnny said as he appeared next to me, “Why side with the Watch? All you’re doin’ is makin’ shit harder for yourself, you know that, right?”

  “Johnny, are you even aware of what the Blackwall is?”

  “Nah, bit after my time.”

  “Okay. Quick history lesson for you,” I explained as I walked through the parking lot and back up to the hotel, “You know who Rache Bartmoss is, right?”

  “Are you fuckin’ kiddin’ me?” he scoffed, “Most brilliant cyberjock who ever rode the Net. Caused the DataKrash of ‘22.”

  “Right, and you’re aware of the fallout that caused, right?” I went on, “Rogue AIs prowling every corner of the Net, mutating into monsters with unknowable goals… NetWatch is the sole entity responsible for keeping them from burning down all of cyberspace and potentially invading our world as well. Or, more accurately, the Blackwall is.”

  I stopped to illustrate it for him with my hands. “Imagine the Blackwall as a literal border wall between our world and theirs. If just one of those rogue AIs get through, it could spell the death of us all. You, me, everyone. So it doesn’t matter if I agree with NetWatch’s methods or not. The simple fact is that maintaining this barrier is more important than saving my life. Okay?”

  “Tch,” he turned his head judgementally, “How altruistic of you. Can’t wait ‘till your number comes up and you gotta go on stage and face the music. Then we’ll see what you’re really made of.”

  “Well, one thing’s for sure,” I narrowed my eyes at him, “I’m not about to bomb anyone to make a statement.”

  I walked away before he could retaliate with his usual bullshit. I couldn’t afford his pestering anyway – needed to keep my head in the game. And Johnny has a nasty habit of getting in the way of that.

  The building itself remained utterly shrouded in darkness, much like the rest of this God-forsaken part of the city. I certainly had no love for these people. Deceivers in general made me irrationally annoyed. Even so, I will never suffer someone who’s willing to throw the world’s life away on a whim. And someone fucking with the Blackwall is doing exactly that. It’s more or less a given that you simply do not do that, no matter what. And I had a feeling that the most powerful netrunners in all of Night City had some sort of plan regarding this. If there’s one thing that people with power almost inevitably desire, it’s more power. And what better source than beyond the Blackwall.

  Us Japanese had never truly validated human life for what it was. Wars were fought with senseless amounts of lives lost, and that only compounded with AIs. It was us who ruined maritime travel forever with our stupid self-replicating sea mine AI. It was us who scorched the Bridge. And it was us who nearly deleted the planet several times over during the Fourth and Unification War. I was sick and tired of it all, and I held people who treated life similarly in the lowest regard.

  And that’s not even mentioning what these people have done at a personal level. Innocents like Evelyn, countless other mercs, how many have lost their lives to the Voodoo Boys’ schemes. It wasn’t just insular, it was needlessly cruel.

  I brazenly walked straight in through the main entrance, in no way being subtle about my approach. I welcomed these fucking people to test me. Some appeared to, side-eyeing me as if I was an unwelcome house fly. A house fly with a razor-sharp sword. They all gave me an appropriately wide berth. I imagine most of them thought me dead, how much I hated to disappoint them.

  “Placide await you up de stair,” a guard told me, guiding me to where the netrunner den was. I neither acknowledged nor cared to obey any instructions, merely going to where I knew Brigitte was. As far as I was concerned, Placide was nothing more than a nuisance to be eliminated, when the time came. And that time would come far sooner if there was Placide with no Brigitte on the other side of this door.

  “Here for Brigitte,” I demanded to the guard standing beside the door, “As per our agreement.” The man simply nodded and let the door open.

  A cold draught greeted me – a server room, without a doubt. Likely buried deep inside to conceal its location – smart. I took a brief look around before entering, noting Placide on the left. My right arm itched for my sword, though I withheld myself – for now. First thing’s first, I needed eyes on Brigitte.

  Of course, it seems I have one more obstacle in my way… “De fuck you do at GIM?” that obstacle, Placide, came bounding over to me, “You were supposed to hack de agent, not cut deal wid him.”

  This man has some nerve to talk to me about cutting deals behind my back, considering he was about to ghost me as soon as I accomplished the mission. I was willing to bet a million eddies that he had planted some sort of lethal spike on my person as insurance, given that once I hacked this person, I’d have no more use to the Voodoo Boys.

  We stared each other down, neither one of us giving an inch.

  “See, that’s the nice thing about being a freelancer,” I stuck my nose up at him, “I don’t owe you any explanation. Especially not after you spiked me with a virus. I was never meant to get out of there alive, much less see BrigITTE–”

  He grabbed me and pressed me up against the wall, squeezing my shoulders with an intense amount of torque. Painful, sure, but I’ve been through far worse.

  “You believe what de Netwatches say?! What he say!” he demanded, “Tell me, or I open you, see wid my own eyes what crawlin’ widdin–”

  “Fuck you,” I interrupted his stupid little speech with a sucker-punch to the jaw, putting all my strength into it and forcing him back. I nearly broke my knuckles on his jaw, but damn, was it worth it. “Come on, you fucking traitor, give me your best shot, I dare you,” I hissed at him as someone else entered the room with us, probably drawn by all the commotion.

  “Enough!” the woman demanded, and suddenly Placide dropped his guard. Maman Brigitte, I’m guessing. “We must head under. I do not know what Netwatch are planning, but they are not done.”

  “You are worried about agents?” Placide growled at her, “Then shoot her in de head!” I’d like to see them try. Someone already pulled that trick on me, and it didn’t work out too well. “I do not know what dey put in her, what corruption is in her system!”

  I kept my fists balled at my side, ready to defend myself at a millisecond’s notice as Brigitte stared me down. The woman was skinny, shorter than me, yet carried a threatening aura about her. There wasn’t a doubt in my mind that she planned to play me. What a surprise to her, then, when it turned out that I was the one with the hidden agenda. I’m guessing they weren’t exactly used to dealing with counterintel officers who knew how to play the game. Best that my fingers remained crossed that I could play it better than them – these were hardened career experts at conning people. Luckily, I had some experience with those very sorts.

  “You don’t know what is in there to begin with,” she interrupted him, “How much it is worth.” No wonder why they could not give a shit, as Mr. Hands put it. In all likelihood, he negotiated with Placide, not Maman Brigitte. Which is why Placide was so keen on eliminating me. Brigitte must be one of the only people in this group who even knows of the Relic’s existence, otherwise he would’ve immediately flagged it. Okay, I can work with that.

  “I know! I scanned her. Only a normal, filthy ranyon. She doesn’t even have optics or a biomon!” he shouted back, wiping his boots on the floor in a fit of rage.

  “Go,” Brigitte ordered him, “Take the others to the crypt.” Placide simply shook his head and stared straight at me with a deadened expression, as if he was marking me. I’d like to see him try. Filthy ranyon, my ass. And even if that is true, it is still so very insulting – I cannot let such an affront stand. “Come with me,” Brigitte motioned to me, nodding to a man sitting in another netrunning chair – one I could assume was Ti Neptune.

  “Maman Brigitte?” I said, following her to a computer at the other end of the room, “You know of the biochip.”

  “Mm,” she turned her head slightly, “If it is functional, we pay good price for it.” I’m sorry, ‘good price?’ I doubt that she is made of money, nor is she well-connected enough to afford what such a device is actually worth.

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  “Save it,” I told her bluntly, “If I was interested in selling it, I would be talking to Militech right now. I am here because the chip is damaged beyond reasonable repair and I need it extracted. If I do this on my own, both myself and the chip are dead. And so far, no one who has looked at it, down to the people who designed it, have been able to remove it. You’re next on the list, and if you can remove it, then I will forfeit the chip to you, free of charge. Considering you commissioned the Heist, I figured you would likely know something.”

  “How do you know all this? How did you find us?” she asked me.

  “Evelyn Parker,” I said with bared teeth to her as she casually perused her computer, “Name ring a bell?”

  “Ah, the doll… the whore,” she replied dismissively, looking back on me with contempt. Fucking hell, it’ll be so satisfying to rip these people apart… “You found us because she led you to us. She has not proved completely useless after all.” Hopefully, neither will you. Regardless, I will personally see to it that you go through a living Hell… No no, keep it together. We need her. For now. That will come later. I nursed my aching knuckles from when I struck Placide, making sure I still had plenty of gas left in the tank to punch Brigitte in the gut for that remark.

  “Now I have answered all of your questions. I will not answer another until I get what I want,” I demanded, “Can you extract the Relic or not?”

  “Yes, of course, but not here,” she told me, turning around and crossing her arms, “We will go to de crypt. Where you must give us access to de chip. Once we have the data we need, we will do our best to help you.”

  “Thank you,” I subtly nodded, “After you, then.”

  We walked over to the chapel together completely wordlessly. It seemed as if the entire town was eyeballing us, or me, I suppose. Like I was a virus in a hostile immune system. I had no interest in staying here for any longer than I absolutely had to. Part of me regrets coming here, but it’s not like I have much of a choice anymore. As I walked past my car still parked in front of the church, I glared at a pair of goons who were side-eyeing it before they looked at me and realized the error of their ways. I suppose standing next to your esteemed leader carried weight, even with someone like me.

  “You quite like this place, don’t you?” I asked her to make conversation as we entered the church again, “Yet from what I can tell, you’re not actually practicing Haitian Vodou.”

  “We left our gods on Haiti, yet we are strong without them,” she said to me as she glanced around the room. It suddenly appeared far smaller without the dazzling lightshow and crowds. “Dis way.”

  Brigitte guided us through a thick wooden door guarded by several people inside, leading me down a set of stairs to what seemed like a utility room of some sort. “Why didn’t you tell Placide about the chip?” I asked her out of curiosity.

  “Few of our people know about Konpeki Tower.” Yeah, I guessed as much. “But Placide, he is… Yon bèt debaz [A basic animal].” I had no arguments there.

  This place was old country, no doubt about it. It smelled musty and damp. The floor was covered in sand and soot, the bricks waterlogged from likely being beneath sea level. Rows of arches supported the structures overhead with ease – nothing like classic 19th and 20th century architecture when it comes to standing the test of time.

  “Where are we going? I asked her as she opened yet another gate, the warm brick floor and walls giving way to cold cement and wires. This felt like what lay beneath the underground of the city, some sort of forbidden section long-forgotten by humans and the Earth itself, left to rot into nothingness.

  “Soon you will see,” Maman Brigitte said forebodingly as we continued down sections of rubble, the rocks clattering beneath my boots. “De watcher did not notice de biochip in you?” she observed, “Strange. Did you let him scan you?”

  “Watcher?” I paused, “You mean the one who met me in the church? No, why?”

  “It would complicate our work,” she told me… What? What the hell was she on about? Then why bother asking? Whatever. Sure.

  Wait a minute… I know what this is… I think I read about this once a while back. “Is this… the high-speed rail network?!” I asked her with genuine shock as we entered one of the several bullet trains. Planetran… What a hell of a thing. “I didn’t think that any of these stations survived.”

  “Mm,” she nodded as we walked through and onto the main platform, “De transcontinental maglev system. Back when all states were connected. Like de net, it too crumbled during de war.” Brigitte cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted, “Turn on de power!”

  Kansas City, Atlanta, Washington, D.C. – here I thought every station was destroyed, but apparently not. Even the trains themselves seemed to be in perfect running order. Lights flickered to life, the train humming in acknowledgement as each breaker was flipped. Extensive wire bundles ran to the engine cars, scavenging the power for use in the myriad of computers built into the sides of the passenger cars down the line.

  The whole place was immaculate, littered with functioning relics dating back to the 2020s adapted for use alongside the latest in modern technology. The cool, dry air kept everything operating at peak capacity, I’m sure. If Judy saw this, I bet she would instantly fall in love with it and I wouldn’t get her out in months.

  Bespoke adaptive codes and matrices flooded every screen. What looked to be their own version of a SynTech interface sat at the other end of massive cable strands. Banks of netrunners got situated in the latest chairs rated to 128 teraflops per second, all connected to massive cyberdecks the size of server towers on their own. Never did I imagine that such a treasure trove of pre-Fourth War technology would be sitting right beneath us. Someone even converted one of the cars to be a giant liquid cooler – fucking hell. It felt like I was wandering through the bowels of a supercomputer, like a little termite that found its way into the casing. This was incredible…

  Alright, I believe her when she says she can extract the chip. Packing this level of hardware? Yeah, I think it’ll get the job done.

  “Everything is ready,” someone said as Brigitte tended to one of the multitude of computer interfaces, “We can begin.”

  “Good,” she nodded to him as each of the netrunners sat in their respective chairs. “We take you into de cyberspace. No better place for you to interact with de construct.” Uh… excuse me? She was awfully calm considering what she just said.

  “I’m no netrunner,” I explained to her, “I don’t have the hardware. How am I supposed to jack in, exactly? Could I even, you know, see this other side of cyberspace you're talking about?”

  “Your cyberdeck,” she pointed to the device on my thigh, “A Kirama. We have adaptors for this, it will suffice. As for what you will see, de interface show you de data layers from de Net. Read-only, of course. What de basic runners see is only a map. They cannot see beneath de surface. Their tech is too weak. Just close your eyes, de interface and your Personal Link will do de rest.”

  "And it doesn't matter that I don't have a cyberdeck in my brain?"

  "No. De location of de cyberdeck matters not. Only de power. We fill your bath with mineral oil dat's not conductive so your deck will not be damaged." How considerate of them… Maybe they'll even give me a nice steak dinner when I come out. Somehow I doubt it.

  “Just one more thing,” I asked as she was typing, “I know all you’re after is Silverhand, not the chip. Why him?”

  “We wish to contact Alt Cunningham,” she explained to me, “We know she and Silverhand were close.”

  “Alt?” Johnny suddenly manifested behind her, his curiosity clearly piqued.

  “The Relic which Arasaka held close, it is our only lead,” Brigitte finished. That still explains nothing new to me. Whatever, at least she’s being honest about it for a change. And I have a powerful ace up my sleeve now.

  “Alt Cunningham, okay,” I nodded, “I know of her.”

  “Oh?” she turned around, “From where? Who?”

  “How do we contact her?” I asked, completely dodging her question just the same as she and her crew did nothing but dodged mine. The nice thing is now they needed me more than I needed them. If my head contained the crew’s only lead, then that is my guarantee that I will make it out of whatever level of Hell they send me to, otherwise they will risk frying the chip.

  I had to play this extremely carefully. Diving into the Net would leave my body completely vulnerable. It’s the main reason why I’ve never done it – I hated the idea of surrendering myself completely to something like this. At least with a BD, I could remove the wreath when I’m done. I remember Kiyo mentioning something about unsafe jacking out, that her rig was set up so that wasn’t an issue, but I still didn’t trust it. Certainly not with these people. If they’re familiar with my device, then they’ll likely know a way to circumvent its defenses. I had to keep everything close to my chest, otherwise it won’t end well for me.

  “We try to cut out a unique piece of Silverhand’s engram from de biochip,” Brigitte said, “Alt will know it. If something of de human is left after all these years beyond de Blackwall, she will answer.” What?!

  “Hang on, wait a minute,” I stopped her, “You mean to tell me that Alt Cunningham lives on the other side of the Blackwall, and you want me to what, pop over there and say hello?!”

  “Consider yourself informed,” she hissed as she approached an ice bath. I’m sorry, what the fuck. “You know only what de Netwatch tell you. De final bastion against de postwar AIs… De great victory of humanity over chaos. But de Blackwall is an AI itself. De boundary condition let no thing pass, either way. If de AIs thought like people, dey would consider it a traitor.”

  “Yeah, that’s great, but I still have no interest in being ravaged by rogue AIs,” I growled back, “Whole teams of dedicated netrunners have tried to breach it and ended up as nothing more than husks. Sending me over there to find a single AI who might want to talk to me does nothing to prevent the other rogue AIs from flaying me alive. So you’re gonna need to do better than that to give me some assurances. How do you even know if I can get through at all?”

  “De key is Alt,” Brigitte replied, “She is de only one who can give you safe passage through de Blackwall.”

  “Why, is she friends with it or something? How do you know?!”

  “Because she sees software on a different level to us all,” she went on, “And we want to be on de winning side when de change come.”

  “Change…?”

  “When de Blackwall was built, everyone think that de ICE would be enough. To keep de wild AIs out, away. But technology advances, it cannot be stopped. And now, catastrophe come again. This is sure. And soon. De corporations, they do not see de danger. But we do, and we will be ready.” That’s awfully presumptuous of her.

  “So let me get this straight, you want to do what, bargain with the rogue AIs threatening our very existence, their motives thus far totally opaque and unknowable?”

  “We do not ask that you understand our motives,” she said plainly, “Only that we may help one another accomplish them.”

  “Yeah, good luck with that,” I mumbled under my breath as I looked at the icewater bath. “Johnny? You can’t seriously agree to this. You’re gonna be the bait for a fucking rogue AI.”

  “Yeah whatever, just do what she says,” he replied without even blinking.

  “…” I leaned over the mineral oil ice bath, looking more like a casket than anything. “Give… uh… give me a moment…”

  “Whenever you are ready,” she told me as she glanced over to the netrunner beside me, giving her the signal. I clasped my hands together and tucked myself in, mentally preparing myself for the plunge. I knew I had to do this, otherwise I’d sizzle like a burrito left on the pavement. Part of me didn’t want to believe that this was happening… No, no… come on, you’ve been through worse, you can do this…

  …Fuck it, fine…

  I tightened down Shinden’s straps and stepped in, the oil immediately setting off my ballistic leggings’ thermal warnings. “Saturation detected, hypothermia imminent, seek shelter immediately,” my suit screamed at me as she handed me a wired interface to plug into my cyberdeck. I connected everything as requested and slowly got my other leg in, shuffling around so the ice covered my body, and dipped–OOOHH Fuuuck… Arctic warfare training in Hokkaido didn’t prepare me for the sudden shock… But my muscle memory kicked in regardless. I had to consciously force myself down into the water… Easy now… It’s okay, you’re okay…

  “A-alright, r-rea-ady,” I spoke through clattering teeth as my suit adjusted the temperature to the best it could. The hyper-chilled oil was far below freezing. My whole body felt like it was engulfed in flames as every single nerve screamed at me to be anywhere but there. “P-p-please…” I whimpered… “J-Johnny…”

  “She’s ready,” someone announced as she threw another bucket of ice on top of my body… I c–can’t feel my legs…

  Wait…

  What… What’s…

  My insides… I feel like my insides are… burning up…

  “Ready to plunge,” I heard a man say in the distance… Everything was blurry, out of focus… I can’t see… can’t hear anything…

  Johnny, I’m scared, get me o–