118: Chapter 117 Dog Whistle

Returning to the hotel room, the three of them each found a spot to rest.

Jackie Welles occupied the entire sofa, his head resting back on the armrest, eyes closed, his chest rising and falling slowly with his breath.

V leaned against the window, one foot propped up on the windowsill, gazing down at the streets of Dogtown, which were under Lockdown.

Lin Yi sat at the desk next to V, organizing the data packets brought back from the server room, then opened the encrypted communication channel.

It rang several times before it connected.

Yorinobu Arasaka's hologram flickered into existence above the desktop—he was sitting in his study at the Arasaka estate, his back straight, hands clasped on the table, his expression as formal as if he were holding a board meeting.

Lin Yi stared at him for two seconds, feeling like something was off.

Even when Yorinobu Arasaka was serious during calls, he never sat in this posture.

Most of the time, he would lean back in his chair, cross his legs, speak in a laid-back tone, and occasionally take a sip of alcohol.

Today's stiff, upright posture felt more like he was trying to hide something.

Then Lin Yi noticed it—a smear of unnatural red on the side of his neck.

It wasn't a wound or a bruise; it was a glossy, dark shade, a color somewhere between dusty rose and crimson.

Lin Yi had seen this shade before.

V had a lipstick of a similar color on her vanity; he couldn't remember what it was called, but he knew what that color looked like when pressed against skin.

"Yorinobu Arasaka," Lin Yi said, his tone as flat as if he were reporting the weather, "your lipstick is showing on your neck."

"Nani?" Yorinobu Arasaka instinctively reached up to wipe the side of his neck, his movement so fast it was almost subconscious.

After rubbing his skin twice, his fingers suddenly froze—he looked down at his fingertips.

The lipstick stain on his fingertips made Yorinobu Arasaka feel awkward. He looked up, and seeing the expression on Lin Yi's face—the 'I wasn't sure before, but now I am' look—he realized he had been careless.

"Wait, man? Are you serious?" Lin Yi's voice went up half an octave. "You and Hanako Arasaka?"

V turned her head from the window.

Jackie Welles sprang up from the sofa, silently mouthing to Lin Yi: What's going on? Lin Yi signaled him to wait with his eyes, his attention returning to the hologram.

Yorinobu Arasaka's expression shifted from panic to embarrassment to forced composure in a fraction of a second—someone who had spent decades in Arasaka Corporation certainly recovered quickly.

He cleared his throat twice, sat up straight again, and reached out to adjust his collar, even though it wasn't messy to begin with.

"Ahem, you guy, Lin Yi." Yorinobu Arasaka's gaze drifted briefly off-screen before returning. "Alright, alright, there's an old saying in the Kang Tao region: those who achieve great things do not sweat the small stuff."

He nodded, as if convincing himself.

"Lin Yi, don't get hung up on these minor details of mine."

Lin Yi was speechless.

The Kang Tao region did indeed have a similar saying.

That wasn't the point.

"Fine, whatever you say." Lin Yi gave up on pursuing this topic further. "Just don't blow it out of proportion. The public opinion out there won't be small; your father offended News 54 to death, and they're dying for any Arasaka scandal."

Yorinobu Arasaka knew Lin Yi was telling the truth; he nodded, his expression becoming slightly more serious.

"Right, about Michiko Arasaka." Lin Yi cut to the chase. "She restarted the 'Danger Gal' agency, did you know that?"

Upon hearing the name, the last bit of embarrassment faded from Yorinobu Arasaka's face. "That? I only just found out from Hanako Arasaka." He said "Hanako Arasaka" with a natural tone—so natural that Lin Yi raised an eyebrow again, but he didn't interrupt this time. "I don't know her objective yet. I only know that there are shadows of Militech among the investors, but judging from the situation in Dogtown, it should be a faction opposing Myers."

Lin Yi nodded.

That added up.

Danger Gal was investigating Little Beidou in Dogtown instead of helping the crashed Myers; at the very least, it wasn't a resource from Myers' line.

Michiko Arasaka was leveraging the infighting within Militech to gain the capital for independent operations.

"As for them, as long as they don't interfere with your operations, just put them aside for now." Yorinobu Arasaka said, "I'm having the Security Department look into it these past few days."

"Alright." Lin Yi turned the topic to the second goal. "Regarding Little Beidou, I sent you the intel I found; did you read it?"

"I did." Yorinobu Arasaka leaned back in his chair—this was his usual posture. "I can only say that woman is a total lunatic. The biggest incident since Netwatch erected the Blackwall was likely caused by Little Beidou. When it comes to causing trouble, you really have to look at these corporations." His tone carried a complex emotion, somewhere between anger and sarcasm.

Arasaka had also done things that couldn't see the light of day—Soulkiller, the Relic, Mikoshi—but Militech playing with fire regarding the Blackwall Protocol was a territory that even Saburo Arasaka wouldn't dare touch lightly.

"If you ask me, let's just leak the information we have now to mess with Militech." Lin Yi said. "Among the megacorps, we and Kang Tao definitely have to mess with them, and Netwatch will take action too."

Yorinobu Arasaka thought for a moment. "If we haven't figured out the situation with Michiko Arasaka before the party ends, you'll probably have to pull out and help me figure her out. She restarted Danger Gal, who is actually investing behind the scenes, what the goal is—these things can't just be guessed."

"Then let's just play it by ear for now." Lin Yi said.

"Good luck."

The call ended.

Lin Yi leaned against the chair back, running the conversation he'd just had through his mind.

Yorinobu Arasaka's attitude toward Michiko Arasaka was interesting—not hostility, but vigilance.

It wasn't about eliminating her, but about figuring her out first.

This was completely different from his attitude toward Hanako Arasaka.

Toward Hanako Arasaka it was "I can't bring myself to do it," while toward Michiko Arasaka it was "I need to know what she's doing."

One was his sister, the other his niece; the closeness of blood didn't determine the closeness of his attitude.

In the Arasaka family, what truly determined relationships was "whether you believe in Saburo Arasaka's philosophy."

Hanako Arasaka had her whole life ruined and had only just crawled out.

Michiko Arasaka grew up abroad, and after Kei Arasaka passed away, she only managed to stand on her own feet thanks to the NUSA, though of course, she also sold out quite a bit of Arasaka.

"Why the long faces?" Lin Yi stood up, put on his jacket, and looked at the two people lounging on the sofa and sitting by the window. "Come on, let's go watch the show."

Jackie Welles sat up from the sofa, his tone already curious. "What show is it this time?"

"What else could it be? The love-hate entanglement between Hansen and the NUSA President, obviously." V had already picked up her jacket and draped it over one shoulder.

Lin Yi blinked, teasing her: "And while we're at it, you get to see an expert whose cyberware is no less impressive than Adam Smasher's. Our V is no slouch either, right?"

"Tch, like you and Jackie Welles haven't had much work done either." V walked up and punched Lin Yi on the shoulder, the force just right—enough to make him feel the pain, but not enough to be annoying; the strength was just right.

The three of them headed out, bickering and fooling around.

The hallway of the Heavy Hearts had a few new unfamiliar faces, dressed in casual clothes but standing with rigid posture; they were clearly security personnel who had just been pulled off Lockdown duty.

Most of the patrols in the lobby had been withdrawn, and the warm lights at the front desk were back on.

The Lockdown in Dogtown seemed to have ended—at least on the surface.

The crash site of Space Force One should have been cordoned off by now; Myers' whereabouts had likely fallen into Hansen's hands, and now was the time for the two sides to play their game.

The sign for Heart-to-Heart flashed with a pale, white light in the night.

The two guards were still at the door, but their expressions were much more relaxed than yesterday; when they saw the three of them approaching, they just nodded without asking any questions.

After the Lockdown ended, business at the bar had clearly recovered—you could hear the vibration of the subwoofers from half a street away, and there were a few more motorcycles and a modified armored off-road vehicle parked outside.

Lin Yi pushed open the door to Heart-to-Heart, and a wave of heat mixed with alcohol, sweat, and synthetic perfume hit them.

There were many more people tonight than last night; the bar was crowded two deep, and on the dance floor, someone was dancing something that looked a lot like a fight but was definitely a dance.

In a corner booth, a few Wraiths soldiers were shouting while playing a drinking game; the losers chugged, and the winners cheered.

The only difference from last night was that the commotion over by the casino area was much louder than usual—people were playing cards, others were watching, and the onlookers were more excited than the players.

"What show are you talking about?" Jackie Welles shouted over the noisy music.

Lin Yi didn't answer.

His gaze cut through the crowd and landed on a corner booth near the bar. A woman was sitting there. She was wearing dark casual clothes, her hair tied in a ponytail with a simple black hair tie, and she wore no makeup, making her stand out from the heavily made-up mercenaries and joytoys in Heart-to-Heart.

Her posture was straight, not out of tension, but from a habit formed by long-term training—shoulders naturally dropped, spine perpendicular to the back of the chair, hands on the table, her left hand pressing down on a portable terminal, and her right hand less than ten centimeters from the holster at her waist.

Her expression was calm.

He had seen this face countless times in the game—Rosalind Myers.

The female President of the NUSA.

Right now, she was sitting in the corner of the shittiest bar in Dogtown, with no bodyguards, no entourage, no presidential motorcade. It looked like she was waiting for someone.

Lin Yi signaled V and Jackie Welles to look her way. "The show is over there."

Jackie Welles looked where he was pointing, then turned back. "Who's that?" V recognized her too, her brow slightly furrowed. "Why is she here? Didn't Hansen catch her?"

"Apparently not." Lin Yi found a seat at the bar, ordered a drink, and kept his eyes fixed on Myers' direction.

Lin Yi remembered something and added, "Myers isn't that easy to catch, but she isn't that easy to escape either. She's sitting here waiting, so she must have contacted someone."

V sat down next to him, her tone carrying a hint of uncertainty. "Could it be those cat-eared girls we met in the server room? Or—Federal Intelligence Agency agents?" As those names left her lips, Lin Yi noticed Myers' terminal notification flash.

It wasn't a coincidence; her terminal must have received a new message.

Myers looked around, stood up, and walked toward the back door of the bar.

"She's leaving." Lin Yi stood up, put his unfinished drink back on the bar, "Let's follow and see."

The three of them crossed the crowd, keeping their distance.

Myers' route was clear—out the back door, through an alley piled with empty booze crates, and into an abandoned bus station.

There were no buses in the bus station, only a man standing with his back to them.

Dark coat, collar turned up to cover his neck, hands in his pockets, his standing posture identical to Myers'—a standard product of military training, maintaining a tightened core even in a relaxed state.

Myers stopped three steps behind him. "You're late." Her voice wasn't loud, but it was crystal clear in the empty bus station.

The man turned around.

Lin Yi recognized that face—Solomon Reed.

A Federal Intelligence Agency agent, Myers' direct subordinate, a Federal Intelligence Agency agent who was already dead in Arasaka records.

But here he stood, stepping out of the shadows of Dogtown, standing before the President he had sworn to protect.

"Not too late." Reed said.

Myers tossed the coin representing the "Dog Whistle" in her hand, not dwelling on the topic any further.

"Hansen is still searching. Song So Mi is missing too."

Reed didn't speak.

He looked at Myers, a complex emotion in his eyes—not loyalty, not anger, but more like a deeply suppressed exhaustion.

Lin Yi leaned against the wall at the alley entrance, watching the scene from afar.

Jackie Welles lowered his voice and asked: "Are we just going to watch?" V answered for Lin Yi: "Just watch the show. We shouldn't get involved with either of these two."

Lin Yi nodded. "Myers said there's no news on Songbird, but based on the experimental records in Little Beidou, Songbird is just a consumable to both sides." He paused, watching Myers and Reed walk side by side into another alley, their figures gradually disappearing into the night of Dogtown. "But Yorinobu Arasaka is right about one thing—when it comes to causing trouble, you really have to look at these corporations. They know some things can't see the light of day, so what's the point of panicking now?"