When Meredith realized Kai had barely mentioned Militech at all, she was genuinely surprised.
It did not take her long to understand what that meant.
The situation was not turning in a bad direction. The real player behind the board had only just stepped onto the field, and even she had been used as one of the pieces.
Still, she could live with the final result.
Kai had used Militech's hand to kill off hostile forces inside his own company.
And she had used Kai's hand to bury the fact that Militech had set up an ambush against Arasaka executives.
By the time the whole game was over, the only losses were more than a dozen dead Maelstrom gangers, three Arasaka Special Ops tactical teams, and their commander, Caitlin.
A perfect win-win, if you only counted the sides that had been hurt as Maelstrom and Arasaka.
Meredith had not expected the young man in front of her to be this sharp. The severity in her expression eased, and she calmly gave the order.
"Pull out. Tonight's Militech operation is classified as top-level confidential. Anyone who leaks it is terminated."
When Meredith said terminated, she did not mean fired.
She meant the old corporate method: bind their hands and feet, sink them to the bottom of a lake, and make sure they truly kept their mouths shut.
Under Meredith's orders, Militech's armed personnel quickly began regrouping in orderly formation.
A moment later, all Militech soldiers had returned to position. The drones withdrew into the armored vehicles, and the signal blackout was lifted at the same time.
That meant Trauma Team would reconnect with the biosignals of the dead Arasaka personnel on-site within three minutes.
Caitlin had already been blown into chunks, but the tactical operators who had purchased medical coverage would still be picked up by Trauma Team.
That said, none of them would escape their final fate.
They would be sent to the city morgue to wait for their families to identify them, and their relatives would later collect an Arasaka compensation payout.
Once the withdrawal was complete, Meredith did not get into the AV right away.
Instead, she turned and looked toward Maine's crew.
"What about those five edgerunners? Want me to clean them up for you?"
Meredith knew the young man in front of her was ruthless, so she assumed those five were as good as dead already.
Kai looked toward Maine and the others as well.
That sudden attention made them all tense up even more.
It was obvious that the two corporate higher-ups were deciding whether they lived or died, in tones as casual as if they were discussing livestock.
Rebecca, who had always had a violent temper, felt deeply humiliated by it. Without a second thought, she almost pulled her gun to blow the heads off those two corp bastards in the distance.
Pilar immediately locked both arms around his sister to stop her from making a choice she would regret.
Rebecca struggled furiously and cursed,
"They've never treated us like people! To them we're just tools, just work animals! I want them to taste what real anger feels like!"
The moment Arasaka's elite squad noticed the movement from Maine's side, they stepped in front of Kai and raised their electromagnetic pulse rifles at them.
Blue arcs crackled around the muzzles.
One shot from those things could turn a person into a pile of charred pulp.
Kai declined Meredith's offer with cool politeness.
"No need to trouble yourself, Ms. Meredith. Leave those edgerunners to me."
"I'm sure they'll never speak a word of the secrets between us."
Hearing that promise, Meredith nodded, satisfied enough, and led her people toward the armored vehicles.
The Militech AVs started up again and rose into the air to escort the convoy out.
Just before leaving, Meredith opened her window and called out to Kai,
"Working with you was enjoyable. I hope we get another chance. Consider that Sandevistan a little gift for our first meeting."
Kai gave her a smile bright enough to rival the sun, while inwardly thinking, Thanks, Meredith. Keep that nice gun of yours safe. I'll come collect it later.
With that, Meredith departed quickly with Militech's full force.
As for the implant, she did not care about it in the slightest.
There were countless human test subjects like James inside the New United States military. Militech could grab another one whenever it wanted.
Those NUSA soldiers were usually more than willing to install Militech's experimental products if it meant staying alive on the battlefield.
Experimental meant cutting-edge.
It meant power.
It meant a better chance of making it home.
As for turning into a cyberpsycho, that was a problem for the survivors to worry about later.
Besides, there were all kinds of immunoblockers on the market that could effectively suppress metallic toxicity and neural degradation from cyberware.
What really interested Meredith was Kai himself.
Everything he had done tonight made one thing very clear.
Arasaka was not united.
Sitting steadily in the vehicle, Meredith Stout removed the blood-stained glove from her right hand and flexed her fingers.
"Pretty face. Brutal methods."
"Looks like what you're loyal to isn't Arasaka. It's power."
"And power... I might be able to offer more of it."
Kai watched Meredith and the rest of Militech withdraw, and only then did he finally have time to pay attention to Maine's crew.
When he turned back to look at them, he found that every single one of them was glaring at him as though he had personally committed some unforgivable crime.
Especially the twin-tailed little menace standing in front of Pilar. Her big eyes were locked onto him like she wanted to bite him in half.
Kai felt a bit helpless.
He had shown up at the critical moment to save them. Shouldn't that have earned at least one tearful thank-you?
Still, he did not take it personally.
As long as they were alive, that was enough.
Maine and the others looked rough.
Dorio had been shot in the shoulder, Pilar's arm was wrecked, and only Kiwi and Rebecca looked somewhat better, though both of them were still injured and had blood streaked across their faces.
Kai ordered the Arasaka elite squad to withdraw. Their escort duty for the night was over, and they could return to Arasaka Tower to report in.
As soon as they received the order, the two black Arasaka AVs descended, picked up the four elite operators, and immediately departed for Arasaka Tower.
Kai, meanwhile, walked toward Maine's crew at an unhurried pace.
When Rebecca saw him coming closer, she almost raised her gun again, but Maine stopped her with one hand.
"Rebecca. He's not an enemy. At least not right now."
Only then did Rebecca lower the weapon, though she kept staring at Kai with intense suspicion and irritation.
Even if Kai had just saved them, he was still the one who had designed this entire setup and pushed Maine's crew into a situation where they had nearly all died.
Maine, on the other hand, was much calmer.
He knew perfectly well that without Kai, his entire team would have been wiped out tonight.
No matter how the game had been arranged beforehand, Kai had kept his end of the agreement.
And not just barely. He had come in hard and openly clashed with Militech on their behalf.
Maine took a few steps forward and met Kai's eyes, then extended his massive gorilla hand.
"Thanks."
Kai reached out and clasped that iron-heavy hand in return.
"Don't mention it."
And with that, the pit Kai had dug for Susan had finally been filled in.
The next part of the show belonged to his old boss Jenkins, who would be the one singing on the boardroom stage.
Even if they couldn't kill Susan with this, they could at least strip some flesh off her.
(End of Chapter)
[Check Out My P@treon For +20 Extra Chapters On All My Fanfics!!][[email protected]/euridome]
[+500 Power Stones = +1 Extra Chapter]
[Thank You For Your Support!]