Gearbound: Cyberpunk 2077-Chapter 153

He'd spotted at a glance, up on the overpass, that both operatives were fully outfitted with combat implants. In particular, to prevent hacking, they had installed the same Tetratronic Rippler Mk.4 system he'd once helped Lucy acquire. With a solid defense against netrunners, Leo couldn't use the same trick he'd used on others—jamming a jammer device into the neural port at the back of the neck.

Even so, he had gone easy on them; instead of lopping off heads, he'd only removed hands and feet. Though it looked brutal, 2077 tech made reattaching limbs or installing new ones fairly straightforward, provided the patient got medical attention soon enough. Some people even replaced perfectly healthy limbs with cyberlimbs for better functionality. At least these two got to keep their lives.

Meredith, meanwhile, stood paralyzed. The cigarette she had just lit fell from her mouth, forgotten. She had seemed so composed earlier, but the shock on her face now was priceless.

Before she could speak, Leo strode over and struck her with a vicious backhand across the cheek. As a corporate exec, Meredith had never once been slapped by someone from the street. She glared furiously.

"You—!"

"Don't get the wrong idea," Leo said with a casual smile, ignoring her anger. "I'm not your enemy. That slap was payback for what you just tried."

Read lat𝙚st chapters at fɾeewebnoveℓ.co๓ Only.

He had come with full intent to negotiate in good faith, but Meredith had tried to trick and ambush him. It wouldn't have sat right to let that slide.

She clutched her stinging cheek, glaring at Leo, then turned away. Walking to her armored SUV, she retrieved two MaxDoc Mk.3 injectors from its medkit. They were the high-end variety—nothing like common off-the-shelf junk.

She planned to administer them to her fallen operatives, who lay groaning on the ground. Just then, a violent noise erupted from the SUV's trunk.

"What's that sound?"

Alarmed, Leo instinctively reached for his sword. Meredith's earlier display flashed through her mind, and for a moment, she worried he might cut her down. But Leo held off, watching her closely.

She forced herself to appear calm. "It's the mole I caught. What, do you know them? Want me to show you?"

Leo wasn't about to trust her at her word, but his tactical goggles confirmed there was indeed a former Militech mid-level staffer bound hand and foot in the SUV's trunk. She wasn't lying or playing another trick this time.

"Don't know him, and I'm not interested."

Satisfied Leo wasn't about to cut her down, Meredith let out a quiet breath. She hurried to her operative's side, injected each of them with MaxDoc Mk.3, and roughly bandaged their wounds to stop the bleeding. These were her most reliable subordinates; no time for haughty corporate posturing now.

Once finished, she looked back at Leo. "So, can we talk now?"

"How do you want to play it?" Her face darkened. Being a Militech executive, yet so easily strong-armed by a merc, felt humiliating. Leo spread his hands.

"It's not about what I want. I said on the phone we could help each other. Your convoy got hit. You lost everything. You have no clue who did it. If you don't recover that shipment, you're screwed, and Militech won't hesitate to toss you aside."

Leo had never worked for a megacorp, but spending half a year in Night City let him see how they operated. Whether low-level wage-slaves or mid-tier suits, employees were ultimately just tools—once their value was tapped out, they got thrown away like trash, no matter any past service or loyalty. Nobody pitied them.

Meredith's face turned pale. She'd hoped her lofty title might help her pressure Leo. But his blunt assessment of her situation left her no room to posture.

"All right, we're in the same sinking boat. Satisfied? Now, what do you actually know?"

"I know your shipment was jacked by a local gang, thanks to a mole on the inside. I can't tell you exactly who, but I do know the gang."

Meredith frowned. She wanted to trust him, but how did he know which gang was responsible when she didn't?

"Is your intel reliable?"

"Absolutely."

"Fine, I'll bite." Her captive, the alleged mole, still swore he was innocent. If she kept waiting on him to crack, she'd go down with him. Might as well gamble on this merc's info.

She'd considered having her own netrunner hack the suspect's neuralware, but for reasons unknown, the man had a kill-switch installed. If they tried to break in, it would fry his entire neural system. Her only option had been conventional interrogation, and that was getting her nowhere.

"What do you want out of this?" she asked. Cooperation came down to mutual benefit, and she needed to know Leo's angle.

"One of the convoy's items was a drone called 'Flathead.' I need it."

A drone, Meredith thought. She recalled something on the manifest, a prototype unit lacking real combat capability—an auxiliary model.

"What do you plan to do with that?"