60: Chapter 59 Temporary Alliance
The ruins of the Grand Imperial Mall lay in a corner of Pacifica like a concrete beast with its insides hollowed out.
Following Placide's vague instructions, V found the guide on the outskirts of the ruins—a person with shifty eyes and the stench of cheap synthetic alcohol clinging to them.
The guide led her to a collapsed entrance deep within the mall, then scurried away like a frightened rat.
V took a deep breath and stepped into this domain filled with broken concrete, twisted rebar, and unknown dangers.
Almost as soon as she entered, Placide's "commands" crackled through the encrypted channel via the Poseidon network, choppy and full of static, mixed with unintelligible Creole and broken English—sounding just like an old-timey radio with bad reception.
"Turn left... no, wait, there's a gap on the right... Be careful, mercenary, don't screw this up..."
"Lin Yi!" V hissed through gritted teeth in the channel while carefully avoiding traps and sensors on the ground. "If you make me do this kind of thankless undercover work again, I swear I'll make sure you can't get out of bed for a week!"
She played the role of a mercenary with decent tech skills and experience, but nothing extraordinary, to perfection.
When she encountered locked doors, she hacked them in a slightly clumsy but effective way; when she spotted patrolling automated turret towers, she chose to laboriously skirt around them rather than cleanly hacking them.
Every "thrilling" dodge and "barely successful" breakthrough was clearly fed back to Placide's monitoring screen at the Batty Hotel via the disguised signals on her, further solidifying his judgment that V was "a somewhat useful greenhorn."
After much "arduous" stealth, V finally reached a relatively intact area deep inside the mall and found the disguised Netwatch assault vehicle, its shell covered in dust and rust.
Following Placide's urging, she plugged the data cable into an auxiliary port on the vehicle's exterior, attempting to establish a connection to obtain the so-called "mission details."
Just as the connection was established—Whoosh!
A powerful, official ICE (Intrusion Countermeasures Electronics) erupted instantly. It wasn't an attack, but rather an undeniable authority that forcibly severed all of V's connections to the Pacifica Poseidon regional network! Placide's annoying voice cut off abruptly, disappearing entirely from her channel.
"Connection forcibly interrupted! It's a Netwatch move!" V reported immediately on the encrypted channel.
Almost at the same time as her voice fell—Bang! Bang!
Two soft sounds came from above her. V looked up sharply and saw two blurry, transparent outlines leap down like cheetahs from the edge of the broken second-floor slab, landing precisely behind her and kicking up a cloud of dust. The Optical Camouflage faded away like a receding tide, revealing Lin Yi and Jackie.
"Holy shit!" V was startled by their sudden appearance, almost reflexively lashing out with her Monowire. "Can you two make some noise next time you show up?!"
"If we made too much noise, we might scare our friend inside." Lin Yi smiled, though his gaze swept sharply around the surroundings.
Jackie had already raised his ajax, vigilantly guarding the rear. "Looks like 'chumming the water' worked; the bait drew out the watchdog."
The three reunited, needing no further words.
Under Lin Yi's lead, they traversed several hidden passages and arrived at an abandoned cinema inside the mall.
In the projection room, there was no screen, only dense arrays of holographic displays and server units flickering with a ghostly light.
A man wearing a standard-issue Netwatch coat, his eyes as sharp as a hawk's, stood there, clearly having waited for a long time.
He appeared to be in his thirties, with a stern face and an air of battle-hardened, official lethality about him.
"Finally, you're here. Tell me about your cooperation proposal." The agent's voice was calm but carried an unquestionable authority.
Lin Yi stepped forward, skipping the pleasantries and cutting straight to the core: "Voodoo Boys, the Poseidon network, Maman Brigitte. Our goal is to make them disappear completely. And you, you want the core data of the Poseidon network, right?"
The agent's eyes flickered slightly; he neither admitted nor denied it, just watched him coldly.
"Our interests do not conflict; our goals are even highly aligned," Lin Yi continued. "We wipe out the Voodoo Boys, you get the data you want—everyone gets what they need. Cooperation is far more efficient than us getting in each other's way."
After a brief silence, the agent spoke slowly: "I can provide real-time location data for Voodoo Boys members in Pacifica. But how can you guarantee that after you get the data, you won't turn around and deal with us?"
"Because our common enemy is powerful enough and crazy enough for the few of us," Lin Yi replied. "And the sincerity we've shown will be more powerful than any promise."
As he spoke, he packaged the Poseidon core protocols and their symmetric keys, which V had dug up with the daemon she previously implanted in the hotel terminal, and sent them to the Netwatch agent.
After quickly verifying the contents of the data package, the Netwatch agent operated the terminal and sent back a link containing the location of the Voodoo Boys members.
"No need to bother, this is their internal monitoring access." Lin Yi connected directly to the terminal V had previously implanted at the Batty Hotel, triggered the addressing algorithm within, and sure enough, immediately obtained the real-time locations of all Voodoo Boys members.
The agent finished all the verifications on his end, a flash of surprise appearing in his eyes.
The other party not only knew they were being targeted by the Voodoo Boys and had laid hidden stakes in advance, but they had even seen through the Voodoo Boys' bottom line—they were so thoroughly prepared.
With this kind of capability and preparation, this mercenary team was pretty badass.
"Very... professional." The agent's tone softened slightly. He glanced at V. "Consider it a favor I owe you; I look forward to our next collaboration. By the way, so she can go back and 'report in,' I can create a temporary positioning program for her, simulating a residual tracking signal left behind after I was taken out..."
"No need," Lin Yi interrupted, his tone flat but carrying absolute confidence. "I've already implanted a similar dormant program."
The agent felt a trace of shock once again.
The other party's methods were meticulous and thoughtful.
The Netwatch agent said nothing more and quickly began to operate.
Soon, a massive stream of data flowed into the Netwatch system. On the Pacifica map, countless light points representing Voodoo Boys members were precisely located, crystal clear, and the core content of the entire Poseidon network had been copied to his terminal.
"Data verified," the agent said, simultaneously taking an old-looking spare cyberware component from his equipment box. "Take this and distress it. Then I will immediately lift the 'frozen' status on Brigitte and her core hackers, letting your companion go back to 'report in.'"
V took the cyberware, curled her lip, but still skillfully "distressed" it, making it look like a trophy stripped from an enemy during a fierce battle.
The alliance was reached in silence.
No handshakes, no oaths, only a brief union based on a common goal and mutual recognition of strength.
Lin Yi and the others quickly left the projection room, disappearing into the shadows of the mall.
The Netwatch agent watched them leave, his gaze complex.
He connected to the company's internal channel: "Report, reached a temporary cooperation with an unknown third party... Target: clear out the Pacifica Voodoo Boys. Suggestion... temporarily mark them as 'potentially friendly and high-risk units.'"
Then he incidentally notified the Animals he was working with, instructing them to let these three distinguished guests out and to make a little noise on the side.
He had a premonition that this time, the Voodoo Boys, this bunch of carbon-burning cotton machines, might be wiped out.