Night fell.
All of northern Watson sank into broad stretches of darkness.
Only a few old public streetlights remained, throwing down isolated patches of light every few meters.
Some of them crackled with sparks, their glow flickering on and off, while the alleys on both sides of the street were swallowed entirely by blackness.
At that moment, Kai and Jackie were hidden in the core area of the abandoned steel factory.
Far outside the workshop, they had found a high vantage point formed by stacked shipping containers and were quietly watching the situation around the building.
They had deliberately not moved in too close, mainly to avoid being spotted by drones.
After all, their real purpose tonight was more to watch from the sidelines and step in at the right moment to close the net.
The two sat cross-legged on top of the containers in silence.
Kai had already noticed that, of the six Maelstrom members inside the central workshop, two had left around dusk, apparently because of some other matter.
The remaining four had made no new moves. They were still inside the workshop, smoking, drinking, and drowning themselves in heavy metal music, not looking the least bit worried about the coming deal with Maine's crew.
Soon enough, nine o'clock arrived.
That was the agreed trade time.
Kai narrowed his eyes. Though he could not make out every detail clearly from this distance, he could still tell that a group had entered the factory grounds and was slowly approaching the workshop gate.
A moment later, the Maelstrom members inside opened the modified automatic gate.
They had done some minor upgrades to this workshop safehouse. It served not only as a regular hangout spot but also had a fair amount of defensive capability.
They usually only bothered fortifying one part of a factory at a time. Everything else around it was left to rot.
Their real headquarters, however, was elsewhere.
All Foods.
They had poured a huge amount of labor and resources into rebuilding it into a proper base, complete with stable power, running water, and various armored gun emplacements. At that point, it was practically a small military fortress.
This workshop, by comparison, was just one of Maelstrom's many small footholds across Watson.
As the incoming group stepped under the lights by the gate, Kai instantly recognized them.
It was Maine's crew.
At the front was the big man himself, Maine, carrying a case that likely held the item for trade.
Walking on either side of him were the long-armed tech maniac Pilar and the powerhouse Dorio.
At the rear was Kiwi, as cool and unreadable as ever, her expression flat and distant.
The one person who drew Kai's special attention was a new addition to the group, someone he had never seen with them before.
She stood beside Pilar, chewing gum and blowing bubbles, looking openly impatient.
Her light green hair fell past her shoulders, tied into twin tails with black bands. A black high-collared punk hoodie and tight shorts hugged her body. She held two green-plated modified pistols, both crossed behind her head in a casual pose.
Kai checked again.
Five members had come with Maine.
Lucy was not among them.
Kai guessed she was likely acting as external support, hacking from a distance while Kiwi handled cyberware intrusion on the Maelstrom side.
Still, thinking back to Lucy's reaction on the train, it was possible she simply did not want to confront Arasaka operatives directly.
Lucy clearly had some buried history with Arasaka, and Kai strongly suspected it involved persecution and escape.
When it came to Arasaka's filth, almost no one understood it better than he did.
Human experiments like the one on James the cyberpsycho were only the tip of that dark empire.
But from what Kai saw now, even without Lucy on the ground, Maine's lineup was still more than enough.
Four Maelstrom members inside the workshop were nowhere near enough to handle them.
Even if Arasaka's tactical team arrived, they still might not be a match.
Maine's crew had clawed their way up through piles of bodies. Their individual strength and teamwork were both far above average.
Given Maelstrom's mindless, violent tendencies, there was no chance they were going to sit in their own territory and politely pay for the goods.
Most of those cyberpsychos suffered from one degree or another of cyberpsychosis, and their actions rarely had anything to do with logic.
At that moment, after confirming Maine's group's identity, the gate slowly rolled upward.
Two Maelstrom members stepped out from inside.
Their skin had a bluish-metal tint, a clear symptom of heavy-metal poisoning.
The front of their skulls, from forehead to eye sockets, had been torn away and replaced with metallic facial plates. Mounted on those plates were four or five glowing red cyberoptics each.
They looked just like the blood-red skull spider on Maelstrom's emblem, like cyber-zombies stitched together from death, machinery, chrome, and flesh.
Every inch of them radiated something warped and mad.
Maine saw the red lights in their cyberoptics shifting and narrowing in a spiral pattern, as though they were focusing, tracking, zooming in on him.
The leading Maelstrom member coughed a few times, ash and powder hissing from his nostrils, carrying a burnt-plastic smell.
"You're on time, at least. You bring the goods?"
Maine lifted the case in his hand and slapped it heavily, making it obvious that the merchandise was inside.
The Maelstrom ganger sized him up again and growled,
"Once you're inside, you'd better behave."
Maine only grunted in reply.
His five-man team followed the Maelstrom pair through the gate and into the workshop.
The girl with the twin tails, walking beside Pilar, turned her head and spat the gum she had been chewing onto the ground, then shot Maelstrom a contemptuous look before swaggering after the others.
Once Maine's crew entered, Kai switched Dragon Fist to thermal mode and kept watching the interior.
He could not see every detail, but from the shapes and positions of the colored heat signatures, he could still make out the general flow of events.
As soon as Maine and the others entered, they started taking in the layout.
The whole workshop was filled with dim red mist lighting, and pounding heavy metal hammered at the ears, creating the same red-black hellscape reflected in Maelstrom's eyes.
The interior was not large. It had been converted into two levels, with crude metal stairways on both sides leading to the upper platform. Two Maelstrom members stood above, watching from the second level, with an automated heavy machine gun mounted between them.
In the middle of the ground floor sat a few broken couches arranged around a steel-cutting table. On top of it sat an old twin-speaker stereo, blasting deafening music.
Used syringes and half-burned foil were scattered over the floor and tables.
Maine was directed to sit on a battered couch in the center. Dorio sat to his right, Kiwi crossed her long legs on his left, and the twin-tailed girl took an entire couch for herself.
Only Pilar got immediately distracted by the little gadgets scattered over the cutting table and wandered over.
One of the Maelstrom gangers bent over the table, picked up a half-burned piece of foil, and carefully scraped the remaining yellow powder from the surface into it.
Metal filings and dust got mixed in too.
Then he rolled it all into a little ball.
With a grin, he lit the foil ball, dropped it into a smoking canister, and let it fill with thick yellow-white fumes.
Then he jammed the nozzle into his mouth and nose and took a long drag.
Only after his lungs were completely full did he pull it away and let out a long cloud of smoke.
"Ohhh..."
Then his whole body shuddered with pleasure.
He shook the canister in front of Maine's face.
"Take a hit. This stuff'll blow your soul apart."
Maine stayed silent and made no move to take it.
He knew perfectly well the thing was poison.
But the ganger held it right in his face with a clear expression that said no hit, no business.
Dorio's face darkened, and she said flatly,
"We came here to make a deal, not sit around sampling whatever gutter trash that is."
The Maelstrom ganger just grinned and shoved the canister toward her instead.
"Then you."
Maine's crew immediately sharpened.
Hands drifted toward triggers.
The Maelstrom side lost their mocking smiles too, while the two men upstairs openly raised their guns and aimed down at them.
Maine was just about to reach out and take the canister himself when a long cybernetic arm shot past him and snatched it away.
Pilar lifted it and took a huge drag just like the ganger had.
His face went red instantly as he fought back the sting and burn in his throat.
Then he blew out two thick jets of smoke like a raging bull.
"Hoo..."
Pilar looked delighted.
"This stuff is incredible. I could hit this all day."
The Maelstrom crew stared at him in surprise at first, then broke into wide grins when they saw how much he liked it.
"You're all right. Now we're finally talking as friends."
"You can call me Dum Dum."
Pilar, dazed and grinning, pointed to himself.
"You can call me Pilar Pilar. Ha!"
That got the whole workshop laughing.
The atmosphere, which had been seconds away from exploding, relaxed just enough.
Maine set the case down on the cutting table.
"This is the item. Military-grade Sandevistan, taken from the cyberpsycho James. Flat price, fifty thousand eddies."
Dum Dum picked up the case and set it beside him.
"What's the code? We inspect first."
"1003."
Dum Dum entered the code Maine gave him and opened the case.
Inside lay the Sandevistan neural operating system set, still marked with traces of blood.
Dum Dum activated his optics and scanned the implant in detail. After confirming it, he shut the case again and looked at Maine.
"Real piece. No problem there. But you know who's after this thing?"
Maine met his gaze.
"That's your concern. I'm here to get paid and walk."
The moment he said that, the workshop gate behind them crashed open and more than ten Maelstrom gangers stormed in, all of them leveling guns at Maine's crew.
At almost the same instant, Maine brought up his arm cannon and heavy machine gun to answer them, while Dorio and the others all drew and aimed back.
The twin-tailed girl went from bored to furious in a heartbeat, shoving both pistols up toward the heads of two different Maelstrom members, each of whom looked like they barely had half a brain left.
The two sides locked in place.
But Maelstrom clearly held the edge in numbers and terrain.
Their leader swaggered forward and stopped right in front of Maine.
"So this is how you're doing business with me?"
"Then let me show you how business works. Leave the implant and get the hell out."
Maine did not flinch.
"Bastard. And who the hell are you?"
The question clearly set the other man off.
He spread both arms and laughed wildly.
"Ha! You don't even know who I am and you still came here to trade?"
"Then listen up. I'm Royce. And this implant belongs to me now."
Royce shoved his gun against Maine's forehead.
"So are you dying here, or are you getting the hell out before I change my mind?"
Maine had heard of Royce.
Second-in-command of Maelstrom.
A classic cyberpsycho brute who never cared about consequences.
Maine guessed Royce had seen that his side had only five people and decided to swallow the whole deal for himself.
Kiwi raised one hand to her temple. The pink cyberoptics in her eyes spun with red rings as she locked onto the fourteen Maelstrom members in the room.
Given a few seconds, she could remotely breach their implants and fry them.
All she needed was for Maine to give the word.
But Maine's real concern was not the people in front of him.
It was when Arasaka's tactical team would make their move.
Dum Dum had already opened the case and inspected the military-grade Sandevistan. Maine was certain Arasaka had to know by now.
Just wait a little longer.
Seeing that Maine still would not yield, Royce's expression twisted more viciously.
He was just about to lose patience and put a round through the big man's skull when the red lighting across the workshop suddenly died, plunging the whole interior into darkness.
A few emergency lights flickered on, illuminating safety exits that no longer actually existed.
At the same time, the steel gate blew inward under a massive impact.
With a thunderous crash, it slammed down onto the two Maelstrom men standing nearest the entrance and crushed them before they could react.
Dozens of red targeting lasers cut through the darkness from outside, and wherever they landed, muzzle flashes and gunfire followed.
Several Maelstrom members dropped in the opening burst, their red cyberoptics blasted dark.
The sudden ambush shocked everyone inside.
They all looked toward the gate at once.
Royce reacted first and roared,
"Shit! They set us up! Kill them!"
He was convinced the outside attack had been arranged by Maine's side, and he instantly turned to fire at them.
But Maine had already charged up his gorilla arm.
The moment Royce turned to shout, Maine drove a brutal punch straight into him.
At the same instant, Royce pulled the trigger.
The bullet struck Maine's oversized fist and only left a shallow dent, while the punch smashed straight into Royce's face and sent him flying backward.
The instant Maine moved, the twin-tailed girl exploded into action too, cackling as she opened fire with both pistols.
Kiwi kicked backward off the couch, flipping behind cover and preparing to start her breach.
Meanwhile, the two Maelstrom members on the second level swung their heavy machine guns down and raked the floor below with fire.
They activated the mounted turret as well.
The sheer volume of fire pinned Maine's crew down and forced them to scramble for cover.
In the chaos, Dum Dum grabbed the case and bolted.
He no longer cared about the fight. All he wanted was to get the goods out.
With smoke and darkness filling the workshop, he managed to vanish toward a hidden passage.
That path led to the overgrown western yard, a long-abandoned patch of wild ground with no active electronics to track his escape.
The fire coming down from above was too intense for Maine's team to counter properly. Even the twin-tailed psycho girl had to be dragged under cover by Maine, both of them crouching behind the cutting table while bullets hammered sparks off the metal above.
Even then, she still looked completely unafraid, trying to raise her pistols again until someone forced her shoulder down.
At that point, the assault team outside began pushing into the workshop, clearing the remaining Maelstrom members with precise bursts.
The last two Maelstrom men on the upper level turned their machine guns on the intruders, but their fire hardly slowed them at all.
Moments later, those two gangers were cut down as well and tumbled from the second floor.
Using the edge of the cutting table as cover, Maine checked the situation and snapped,
"Arasaka tactical team!"
Within seconds, Kiwi seized control of the mounted heavy gun through a remote breach and swung it around toward the Arasaka team pouring through the entrance.
Armor-piercing rounds ripped into them, dropping several before they could fully spread out.
Pilar hurled a string of grenades toward the doorway.
The explosions tore through the entrance zone and shredded more of the Arasaka operators, buying Maine's side a few seconds of breathing room.
They shifted positions fast and took up stronger defensive angles.
But a fresh wave of Arasaka pressure came immediately after.
High-explosive grenades began dropping into the workshop one after another to clear the room, while heavier support weapons punched through the walls and blasted apart the mounted turret upstairs.
The situation was turning ugly.
Kiwi quickly linked to Lucy outside the area.
"Has Militech arrived yet?"
Lucy was in a work van, focused intently on a drone feed of the workshop.
But just as the drone started circling for a better view, an EMP shot knocked it out of the air.
The last image it sent back was the side of a Militech AV.
MILITECH.
Lucy answered in a low voice,
"Militech's armed AV has arrived. My drone just got shot down."
Kiwi passed the news to the others at once.
As long as Militech hit Arasaka from behind, they could use the chaos to escape.
Maine glanced around and realized the case was gone.
"The implant's missing. Maelstrom took it."
"We can't break away right now. Tell Lucy to check the factory's west side. That's all overgrown dead ground."
Lucy got the order and was already moving, slipping out of the van and cutting through the dark alleys around the abandoned steel plant at full speed toward the west.
At that same moment, aboard the Militech AV, Meredith Stout stood with an optical scope in hand, looking down over the abandoned factory.
After confirming that Arasaka's tactical team was engaged in a firefight with the people inside, she said coldly,
"Not yet."
"Let them wear each other down first."
"Then we clean up."
(End of Chapter)
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