Chương 223: Can the NCPD Handle This?
"Go! All of you, get in there!"
Hiroto crouched behind a car, catching his breath. With a wave of his hand, he motioned for his crew to charge—cyberware or guns, and use whatever they had.
Clang!
A deafening crash echoed as something smashed into a man, crushing both bone and cyberware. Hiroto looked up and saw one of his men flying through the air, hit by a car door.
Raising his head further, he spotted Jackie charging forward with two ripped-off car doors, using them as shields. He barreled toward them like a human bulldozer!
Facing him was a Tyger Claws bruiser, a massive man who clapped his hands together, his stance lowering as if preparing for a sumo match.
Boom!
Jackie's bulldozer-like charge slammed into him. The Tyger Claws abruptly stopped firing.
The sumo's feet cracked the pavement as he strained to hold his ground. His legs trembled under the immense force, sparks flying from his cyberware—
Snap.
At last, he steadied himself.
The sumo's face flushed red as he prepared to counterattack. But before he could, Jackie punched straight through the car door, sending the man's cyber jaw flying.
The prosthetic jaw landed in front of the Tyger Claws gang, who had been gearing up for another charge. They froze, unsure of their next move.
"Damn it! Retreat!"
Sensing the tides turning, Hiroto tried to make a run for it, only to hear the roar of an engine behind him. The car he had been using for cover suddenly came to life.
His legs froze as if encased in iron. He could only watch as the car rammed into him, sending him flying.
Bang!
Although a hostile hacker's interference had rendered his cyberware sluggish, limiting his mobility, Hiroto's Sandevistan implant kicked in mid-air, enhancing his reaction time.
From his elevated position, he could see the entire battlefield.
Jackie continued his rampage, scattering the remaining gang members like leaves. Most were already abandoning their weapons and fleeing.
Further away, a woman with mantis blades was engaged in a deadly dance with a Tyger Claws kunoichi. Despite her opponent's best efforts, the ground behind the kunoichi was littered with shattered blades and bodies.
As Hiroto spun mid-air, his view shifted to the market's central building. On the rooftop, a hacker with glowing eyes was directing the fight. But the hacker also wielded a Militech submachine gun, which he aimed at Hiroto, unleashing a hail of bullets.
"Well, I'm screwed."
Boom!
Time resumed its normal flow as an EMP pulse exploded nearby. Hiroto hit the ground hard, battered and bloodied, but alive.
Blades clattered to the ground as another kunoichi fell. The remaining Tyger Claws members scattered into the crowd, desperate to blend in.
Leo swapped magazines and stowed away his weapon before stepping onto the street.
"All right, wrap it up. Let's consolidate the evidence and leads."
Evan's Nightmare
Evan dreamed of being tied to a cross. A man in a white suit stood bathed in pink and purple neon lights, fiddling with a control panel.
"Evan, Evan... I wasn't too hard on you, was I? Paid you well, didn't I? So why betray me?"
"No, Mr. Jotaro, it wasn't intentional! It wasn't!"
"Oh? Unintentional, you say? Careless, then?"
The suited man stepped closer with a sinister grin, toying with something on the cross.
"I'm sorry! I'm truly sorry! Please forgive me! I swear I won't—"
"Take a look at this."
The man stepped back, gesturing upward.
Evan hesitated before lifting his head.
Bang!
His sister's head suddenly dropped down before him, her lifeless eyes staring into his, her tongue torn out, her mouth still moving.
"AAAAAAHHHHH!"
Slap.
Jackie's gentle smack snapped Evan out of his nightmare. Leo glanced at him. "He's awake."
Evan stared blankly at his surroundings. The graffitied walls, the grimy air—this was Kabuki's streets, reeking of filth but mercifully lacking the bloodbath from his nightmare.
Interrogation
Leo sat in front of Evan. "So, Lenny came to you for goods? What's your name?"
"I—I don't know anything! I swear!" Evan's head shook like a rattle. Leo signaled Jackie with a glance.
Jackie lifted Evan and turned him around.
They were still on the rooftop overlooking the Kabuki market. The scene below was chaotic.
The NCPD had cordoned off the streets, identifying the bodies—all members of the Tyger Claws.
When the NCPD realized the casualties were all gang members, they'd likely close the case quickly, outsourcing the cleanup to private corpse disposal crews.
No one in Night City shed tears for gangsters. In fact, precision strikes like this, with no collateral damage, were practically encouraged.
Evan stared, slack-jawed. "The Tyger Claws are... all dead?"
Jackie turned him back to face Leo.
"We did it," Leo said flatly. "We're investigating a series of kidnappings, which led us to you."
"Are you NCPD?"
"Nope." Leo shook his head. "Could the NCPD pull off something like this?"
Evan hesitated. "No."
His nightmare and the brutal reality around him left him stunned. Then something clicked. His sister!
"Please, save my sister! The Tyger Claws won't let us go! I'll give you everything I have—5000 eddies, my market stall in Kabuki—anything!"
Leo waved a dismissive hand. "What's your sister's story? How's she involved in this?"
"She's not! She works at the docks—a legitimate job! Please, help her. It's all my fault!"
"Calm down. We're busy. No time for this."
Leo's words nearly caused Evan to faint, but he added, "I can connect you with a merc squad. Whether they take the job depends on you."
Evan nodded desperately. "I'll cooperate!"
As Leo messaged the mercs, the scene shifted.
Elsewhere in Santo Domingo
David adjusted his welding goggles, searching through a tangle of wires to fix a broken connection. With a tug and a spark of his welding torch, he completed the repair.
"Power's back on," he said over the comms.
[Contact: Lucy]
Lucy: "Systems are stable. Payment came through—200 eddies each."
David grinned. After surviving harrowing events, his life had stabilized. He now juggled legal tech gigs during the day and occasional shady jobs at night.
Legal jobs didn't pay much, but they helped build skills. David figured: no good gear without good skills, and no hard jobs without good gear.
As he climbed out of a maintenance hatch, a nearby TV broadcast caught his eye.
"Earlier today, a fierce gunfight erupted in Kabuki…"
The footage left David stunned. Cars flipped, riddled with bullets. The streets were cratered as if hit by heavy machinery.
"Damn," he muttered. "What kind of cyberware causes that level of destruction?"
Just then, a message popped up.
[Sender: Burger King]
Burger King: "David, got a gig for you."
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