124: Chapter 123 Tacit Understanding (Part Two)

With the hacker's cover, and after forging visitor information for both of them in the academy's system, the two of them slipped inside without a hitch.

Compared to the security level of Konpeki Plaza, this place was pathetic.

The two of them infiltrated the dean's office without the slightest effort.

V's fingers swiped across the terminal screen, flipping through the files one by one that had just been dragged from the dean's office server.

Fiona Vargas wasn't meticulous, but she wasn't sloppy either—the server was encrypted, access control had permission levels, and there were plenty of security cameras installed in the hallways.

For a "dean" of a sports academy, this was already considered overly cautious.

But her excessive caution was no match for V.

"Found it." V lowered her voice and turned the terminal screen toward Jackie.

On the screen was a list.

Not a player list, but a scout list.

Each line was a name, an affiliated team or agency, and a summary of player contracts signed within the last six months.

The teams and companies on the list were from all over North America—Night City, Chicago, Atlanta, Boston, and even a few names of European clubs.

"This is what Hands wanted." V said, "Every scout Fiona has signed in these past few years has bought players from her."

"That's it?" Jackie leaned over to take a look, his brows furrowing. "She owes people money; why does the client want this list?"

"The list itself isn't worth anything. What's valuable are the contract terms on the list." V compressed and packaged the files, encrypted them, and saved them to the terminal. "Every contract contains commitment clauses signed by Fiona—like 'the player will not undergo any cyberware modification before the age of sixteen' or something similar. But the reality is, these players were already sent to the operating table at fourteen."

"So she dragged the scouts into this?"

"Not dragged into it, she left herself a contingency." V stood up. "Every scout who bought players from her has a 'clean' contract in their Hands. But Fiona has a 'real' contract—a comparison of the player's actual modification records and the contract's commitment clauses. If these things were exposed, the teams and companies behind those scouts would all be finished."

Jackie's expression shifted. "So the client wants to use these contracts to blackmail this guy?"

"Screw it, none of them are good guys anyway." V said, "And that's not our business. Hands wanted this list, we got it, let's go."

The two of them retraced their steps back the way they came.

The hallway was long and dimly lit, with the office doors on both sides closed.

Through the glass windows on the doors, one could see various trophies and team photos displayed in the offices.

The dazzling array of "merchandise" on both sides were those framed photos on the walls—each one was a modified child, wearing a jersey, posing in a standardized stance, staring at the camera with hollow eyes.

V's footsteps slowed for a beat in front of one of the doors, but she didn't stop.

The two successfully escaped the academy, and V packaged the obtained contract data and sent it to Hands.

A message from Hands popped up on the terminal screen saying "Pleasure doing business," and just as she closed the terminal page, she suddenly stopped in her tracks while passing a corner.

"What—" Before Jackie could finish his sentence, he saw the reason why V had stopped.

At the end of the corridor ahead stood a person.

A woman.

She was wearing a dark tactical jacket and cargo pants, with a pair of combat boots polished to a shine on her feet.

Her hair was braided into two tails resting on her chest, with a small silver bell hanging from the end of each braid, but it was clearly just an ornament; there was no clapper inside, which was why there was no sound.

But what was most eye-catching wasn't her clothes, her braids, or her bells—it was the pair of cat ears on her head.

Not an ornament, but a piece of cyberware.

Black, streamlined, tightly hugging the contours of her skull, with two rows of micro-sensor arrays at the auricles, reflecting a faint red light in the dim environment, like the eyes of some nocturnal animal opening in the darkness.

It was one of Michiko's people.

The three cat-eared girls encountered earlier in the Little Beidou underground facility—this was the fourth, but V could recognize the same equipment style at a glance.

The three of them stared at each other for two seconds.

V's hand had already touched the gun at her waist, but the other party spoke first.

"Don't be nervous." The woman said, her voice not loud, but speaking quickly with a crispness that conveyed "I don't mean any harm, but I also don't want to waste time." "I'm not here to cause trouble. Our boss wants to see you two."

"Who is your boss?" V asked.

The woman tilted her head, gesturing toward a door next to the hallway. "Follow me and you'll know."

V glanced at Jackie.

Jackie shook his head slightly—meaning "Don't go."

But V had already reached out to push open the door and followed.

Jackie cursed under his breath behind her, but followed anyway.

Before long, they arrived at a small stronghold of theirs.

What came into view was a small conference room, a long table, a few chairs, and a whiteboard hanging on the wall, filled with various tactical terms and formation diagrams.

The conference room window faced the Biotechnica dorms, and through the dirty glass, one could see the densely packed buildings.

A woman in a suit sat at the head of the conference table.

Her appearance was no different from any corporate executive V had ever seen—dark suit, white shirt, low heels.

Her hair was combed meticulously, her makeup was exquisite but not heavy, and she wore a pair of small pearl stud earrings on her earlobes.

If it weren't for the cat ears on her head, she would look like any professional woman one could see in any office building in Night City.

"Michiko Arasaka." V said. It wasn't a question, but a statement.

Michiko smiled slightly.

The smile was faint, just a slight movement of the corners of her mouth, but the light in her eyes brightened for a moment.

"V. Former Counterintelligence, under Jenkins. When you were dismissed, the conflict between Jenkins and Abernathy had just entered a white-hot stage. If you hadn't been betrayed by your subordinates, Abernathy wouldn't have succeeded so quickly."

V's expression didn't change at all, but her body tensed slightly for a moment. "What do you mean?"

"Nothing in particular. Just a habit of getting to know everyone I might deal with—especially those who are capable." Michiko leaned back in her chair, her Hands folded and resting on the table.

Then she glanced at Jackie. "Jackie Welles, born in Heywood, formerly involved with the Valentinos. Later left the gang, but still maintains good relations with the gang and Padre. You grew up in that place and then carved out your own path."

Jackie's expression didn't change, but his right hand had already released its grip on his holster.

"You went through all this trouble to get us here, surely not just to run a background check and show off how badass you are, right?" V said.

"Of course not." Michiko pulled a data pad from her suit's inner pocket and pushed it toward V. On the data pad's screen was a document with a line of text in the title bar: "Cooperation Agreement Regarding Doves and Hawks." V scanned it quickly; the document was signed by Michiko, accompanied by a name she hadn't seen before and a badge she hadn't seen before—a silhouette of a cat's head, where the cat's two eyes were two stylized letters "D" and "G."

"Danger Gal." V said.

Michiko nodded. "The firm I founded. Before I returned to Arasaka, it was my everything. Now, I've reopened it."

"Why?"

"Because there are some things that cannot be done under the identity of 'Michiko Arasaka'." Michiko didn't evade the question, nor did she beat around the bush. "For example, this matter right now." She extended a finger, tapped the data pad's screen, and switched to the next page. The next page was a photo of a middle-aged man in a tailored suit, standing on the deck of a yacht, holding a glass of champagne, smiling with an air of comfort. Below the photo was a line of small text: Sergei Ryabkov, representative of a certain Eastern European energy group in North America.

"This man is one of the financial backers behind Rosalind." Michiko said, "I will also be frank about one point: I am currently planning to cooperate with a certain faction within Militech in exchange for internal status and authority."

"And their goal is to take down the Myers faction?" Jackie interjected.

"Correct. Ever since that lunatic Myers took power, the factions that used to cooperate with me have suffered severe blows, and the annual input-to-output ratio has become increasingly disproportionate. Plus, our firm recently uncovered the insane details of the 'Little Beidou' project that Myers has restarted; they have decided that Myers must be ousted as soon as possible."

V didn't respond; she was waiting for Michiko to reveal the real bargaining chip.

And Michiko didn't make her wait too long.

"I know you didn't come to Dogtown just to run errands for Hands. You're here to find the girl called Songbird." Michiko pulled back her data pad and turned off the screen. "I know where Songbird is right now. I also know about the cooperation agreement with Myers that Ryabkov has, and he is in Dogtown right now. Your goal is Little Beidou, and my goal is Militech's layout in Eastern Europe. These two things point in the same direction."

"What direction?" V asked.

Michiko looked at her and fell silent for two seconds. "Militech is pushing two projects simultaneously—one is the rebooted Little Beidou, researching the application of the Blackwall Protocol on individual soldiers."

"The other is a secret project in Eastern Europe, the specific details of which are currently unknown."

"But in the eyes of those inside the company, one is a hot potato that would invite collective attack if handled carelessly, while the other is a long-term meal ticket that no one could replicate for decades once successful."

"They have already decided what to choose. The agreement and correspondence in Ryabkov's Hands are ironclad proof of Myers' involvement with the Blackwall."

She stood up and walked to the window. "If this agreement is exposed, Militech's Blackwall project will go bankrupt immediately. Not only will it be banned by Netwatch, but it will also be abandoned by its own allies."

"The European Economic Community will not tolerate anyone who exports Blackwall technology into their territory and triggers a second network collapse."

She turned around and looked at V. "You help me get the agreement from Ryabkov, and I'll help you find Songbird."

V looked at her. "Why should I trust you? Hands will also give us information on Songbird."

"You don't need to trust me," Michiko said. "You just need to believe that in this transaction, we are each getting what we need. I don't need you to fight for me, and I don't need you to steal anything for me. I just need you to come forward in the name of the 'Arasaka Security Department' after you get the agreement, and make the contents of the agreement public."

"Why don't you make it public yourself?"

"Because I am Michiko Arasaka, an unremarkable existence within Arasaka Corporation."

She smiled slightly, the smile even fainter than before, almost imperceptible. "If this evidence leaked from the Hands of 'Arasaka', no one would suspect that Michiko did it."

"They would only think it was Yorinobu who did it. And I—am just a disobedient niece of Yorinobu."

V was silent for a few seconds. Then she pushed the data pad back. "I need to think about it."

"Of course." Michiko stood up, took a business card out of her pocket, and placed it on the table. "This is my contact information. Once you've decided, find me anytime." She walked toward the door, stopped for a moment when passing by Jackie, and tilted her head to look at him. "Big guy, I've seen that Misty of yours. She's a good girl. Don't let her down."

Jackie's expression finally changed—not anger, but a kind of helplessness that said, "How do you even know about that?"

Michiko walked out of the conference room. The woman with the cat-ear cyberware followed behind, the small bells on her braids making a series of faint, almost inaudible sounds. The footsteps gradually faded away.

Jackie looked at the door, silent for a few seconds, then turned to look at V. "She investigated me?"

"She investigated all of us." V put the business card into her pocket. "That's her job."

When they returned to the Heavy Hearts suite, it had already turned dark. Lin Yi was sitting on the sofa, and the holographic screen in front of him still retained the data he had copied from the Night Corp network—analysis charts of the Blackwall fluctuation cycles, coordinate markings of the Old Net fallen zones, and text records of conversations with Europa. Seeing V and Jackie push the door open, he turned off the screen.

"Why were you gone so long?" He asked, then noticed their expressions. "Did something happen?"

V took off her tactical jacket and draped it over the arm of the sofa, then pulled the business card from her pocket and handed it to him. "It went smoothly, but guess who we ran into outside the Sports Academy."

Lin Yi took the business card and flipped it over. Dark gray cardstock, silver-stamped font, with only a name and an encrypted communication code. No firm name, no title, no extra information whatsoever. He placed the business card on the coffee table. "Michiko."

"She wants to make a deal with us." V sat down and recounted everything she had heard in the conference room to Lin Yi—the factional infighting within Militech, Myers' benefactor in Eastern Europe, Sergei Ryabkov, the cooperation agreement that could take down Myers, and the condition Michiko set: help her get the agreement, and she would help them find Songbird.

Lin Yi listened, then leaned back into the sofa and was silent for a long time. He picked up the business card from the coffee table, looked at it back and forth twice, and then tapped the edge of the card lightly with his fingertips.

White Marsh's backend was rapidly analyzing the logical chain in Michiko's words—Militech was simultaneously pushing two projects, one was the Little Beidou reboot plan, and the other was an Eastern European secret R&D project. Little Beidou was researching the application of the Blackwall Protocol on individual soldiers, while the specific content of the Eastern European project was currently unknown.

But in the eyes of those old foxes inside Militech, Little Beidou was a hot potato that could explode at any moment—once the Blackwall technology was discovered by Netwatch, the entire corporation would face sanctions; while the Eastern European project was a meal ticket that could bring stable, long-term returns. Myers had bet everything on the former, which gave her opposition the leverage to take her down.

The logic held up. But any transaction where the logic is too smooth hides parts that haven't been said.

"She's probably right." Lin Yi placed the business card back on the coffee table. "Militech's R&D layout in Eastern Europe, the risks of the Little Beidou reboot plan—this logic holds up. The Blackwall was completed jointly by those super AIs, Netwatch, and some top hackers at the time. After Militech stole part of the content, they split it into two lines: one used for weapons, which is Little Beidou; one used for R&D, which is the Eastern European project. The two lines are independent of each other and have different directions."

"So the information about Songbird is real?" Jackie asked.

"It's both real and fake. This person didn't tell the whole story."

"What do you mean?"

"She said she knows Songbird's location, but she didn't say how she knows it. Someone who has been hiding in Dogtown for so long, someone even Myers and Reed can't find—how does Michiko know?"

Lin Yi shifted his gaze from the business card to V. "Also, she said the stuff in that guy's Hands in Eastern Europe could force Myers out, but she didn't say who would take over Militech's Eastern European market after the agreement is exposed. She isn't making a deal; she's setting up a scheme."

The room was quiet for a while. Jackie scratched his head, looked at Lin Yi and then at V, then stood up from the sofa and walked to the mini bar to pour himself a glass of whiskey. "So what do we do? We don't do it?"

"We do it." Lin Yi stood up and walked to the window. Outside the window, the lights of Dogtown were sparsely lit in the night, like a pile of ashes slowly extinguishing. "But not for her. It's what we were going to do anyway."

"Michiko has provided us with an opportunity—using Ryabkov as an entry point. We can use this opportunity to contact companies and people over in Eastern Europe, so we won't just be acting as Michiko's pawns."

"Then for what?" V asked.

"To build up our own foundation."

Lin Yi turned around. "Right now, our situation in Dogtown is awkward—Hansen treats us as partners, but it's purely business; Yorinobu cooperates with us, but the problems within Arasaka haven't been completely resolved; Michiko is using us, but at least she gave us solid intelligence. We need to have our own team."

He picked up the business card, glanced at it, and then set it down. "Tomorrow, I'll go meet this Ryabkov."

"By yourself?" V frowned.

"By myself, through Cyberspace. You two stay at Heavy Hearts and help me keep an eye on Michiko. If she really needs the name of the 'Arasaka Security Department' to make the agreement public, then she won't let anything happen to us."

V looked at him without speaking immediately. Her lips were pressed into a thin line, and her fingers tapped lightly on the arm of the sofa—this was her habitual action when thinking. Then she said: "Fine. Leave this side to us."

"Right, we also need to touch base with Yorinobu first."

Lin Yi remembered, walked to the terminal, and opened the encrypted communication channel. "Michiko is Arasaka personnel after all. If she wants to use our Hands to mess with Militech, this matter cannot bypass Yorinobu. Besides, he said before that he wanted to investigate Michiko—now that we have directly connected with Michiko, we at least have to share this intelligence with him."