Gearbound: Cyberpunk 2077

2-in-1-chapter

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Rather than being inconvenienced, some people considered watching others stumble to be a benefit.

"If they won't approve the funds, it's fine. Just keep sending them reports."

It was much like Andy in The Shawshank Redemption, who kept writing to the governor to request funding for a prison library. What Mosley could do now was keep sending updates to headquarters in the United Kingdom.

Their situation wasn't entirely like the one in the film. In that story, a prison library was something nonessential in the eyes of others, which was why the prison had gone without one for years. The Voodoo Boys, however, posed a very real threat to the security of the Blackwall.

Those colleagues and superiors eager to see Mosley fail had been too focused on the prospect of his embarrassment to realize that, should he botch the job, they would also suffer. If Mosley were dismissed for incompetence, someone else would be "exiled" to Night City to take his place. When that time came, would they still be able to smile?

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Mosley didn't share Leo's optimism. He thought further effort would be futile. Still, if the money wasn't forthcoming, Leo wasn't going to move, and there was nothing Mosley could do about that. With nothing else to occupy him, he followed Leo's suggestion and kept trying.

What Mosley didn't expect was that, several days later, the situation shifted. Headquarters stance changed suddenly.

The Blackwall's monitoring systems had detected a rogue AI slipping past the wall into the world on this side. It was a major crisis, and the entire London headquarters mobilized at once, pushing themselves to full capacity.

They quickly identified the cause: the problem originated in Night City. Hackers from the Voodoo Boys had brought the rogue AI through the wall.

The discovery shocked everyone. Since the Blackwall had been built, no hacker had ever managed to coexist peacefully with a rogue AI. They were called rogue for a reason—attacking humans without provocation and utterly incapable of communication.

Yet the Voodoo Boys had done it.

Many inside headquarters suspected the gang hadn't truly "coexisted" with the rogue AI, but had instead captured it somehow. No matter how they framed it, the Voodoo Boys were still just a gang, without the technology to communicate with such entities. Even so, the fact remained—they had brought the rogue AI past the Blackwall.

The Network Watchdogs didn't know the gang's ultimate plan, but they knew one thing: they couldn't allow such a group, essentially acting as guides for a rogue AI, to go unchecked. Recognizing the danger, even Mosley's detractors in headquarters no longer dared to reject his funding requests.

They not only approved his budget increase but even exceeded his request, allocating him a total of thirty million eurodollars, with a single condition: the Voodoo Boys were to be eradicated completely.

…...

Mosley was elated. Not only had headquarters agreed to his proposal, they had raised his budget to thirty million.

A new problem arose, however. Under the earlier agreement with Leo, if the NetWatch allocated him twenty million, Leo would return three million as a "free donation." Now that the figure was thirty million, how would they divide it?

Mosley had expected Leo to raise his fee proportionally, perhaps even gouge him. Instead, Leo was unexpectedly generous.

"Here's how we'll do it. Our agreed contract fee was twenty million. I won't give you a cut from that. But the remaining ten million? You keep it."

Mosley stared at him, surprised. He had assumed that with a higher budget, Leo would push for more. Instead, Leo simply withdrew the agreed rebate but offered him an extra ten million outright. Three million versus ten million—Mosley could see which was more.

It meant Leo would only earn three million more than before, while Mosley gained an additional seven million.

"Twenty million was the agreed fee," Leo said. "Even if your company raised your budget, what we agreed on stays the same. You have to keep your word."

It was genuine, not just a polite front. Still, there was another reason Leo didn't voice.

Now that the Voodoo Boys had attracted the NetWatch's full attention, eliminating them would not only allow Leo to put that achievement on the Dawn Company's site, but also earn a significant favor from Mosley.

Mosley was competent, but he lacked background and connections, having spent his career with his head down, doing the work without cultivating relationships. That was why, despite years in NetWatch, he was still in a low-ranking field role.

This time would be different. Once the Voodoo Boys were dealt with, Mosley could expect a promotion. Faced with that, would he still resign as he'd once planned after taking a single payout? Likely not.

A friendship with an advancing NetWatch agent was worth more than the extra money.

…......

Leo told Mosley to accept the money without guilt—there would be plenty more opportunities to earn together if they kept working.

Once the deal was set, Leo was satisfied. With the NetWatch's funding secured, he could finally move.

He called V and Lucy, telling them to bring their people. Around three in the morning on the third day, three vans rolled into the underground parking of the Grand Imperial Mall under cover of darkness.

Leo had already secured rooms and a meeting space on the top floor. Everyone went upstairs to get some rest.

When daylight came, Leo woke them, and after breakfast, they gathered in the meeting room. Only their own people were allowed inside—not even the Animals, and certainly not Mosley. The operation was too important to risk leaks.

For clarity, Leo had prepared the space in advance with a projector. The others sat watching the images on the wall. There were more than twenty in attendance—aside from River and a few left at Rocky Ridge to hold down the fort, everyone else had come.

At Leo's request, the construction team had prioritized completing the perimeter walls and automated turrets. This freed up manpower—any scavenger seeing the high walls and heavy defenses would back off instinctively. Even the Raffen Shiv were cowards at heart, eager to pick on the weak but unwilling to assault a fortified corporate base.

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With the meeting room's smart glass darkened, Leo brought up projected images of the Batty Hotel and the Chapel. These came from drone surveillance, complete with multiple attack and withdrawal routes mapped out.

Mitch studied the projected attack and retreat routes and said, "Boss, you work fast. It's only been a few days, and you've already drawn up such a detailed plan."

"Our target, strictly speaking, won't be any easier than taking the life of a corporate executive. The Voodoo Boys may not have large numbers, but we can't let even one of them slip away, or they'll bring us endless trouble."

Scorpion's voice was low and steady. "Don't worry. Not one will walk away alive."

"That's best," Leo nodded. "Mitch, Scorpion—you take ten people and assault the Chapel. Here's the detailed layout of the interior. Study it, and if anything looks unclear, ask me now."

"V, Lucy, and the other ten—come with me to the Batty Hotel. The Batty has multiple entrances and exits, so we'll split into three teams, each covering one. No one from the Voodoo Boys gets out."

When Leo saw V raise her hand, he gave her a nod. "Go ahead."

"If Lucy and I lead the assault on the Batty, you should stay at the Grand Imperial Mall and coordinate remotely."

Leo knew she was worried about his safety. He shook his head.

"No. Even if the Batty is only meant to be the Voodoo Boys fake base, most of their members are still there. If I don't go in person, I won't be at ease."

When it looked like V was about to argue, Leo lifted a hand to stop her. "That's enough on that topic. We don't have the time to keep debating it."

Mitch raised his hand on the other side.

"Boss, can we be sure this map of the Chapel is accurate?"

"It came from an informant inside the Voodoo Boys. I can't guarantee it's flawless, but it's highly reliable."

The intel had passed through Rogue before reaching Leo. Rogue had been in Night City too long not to know who she could trust. And if the informant were false, the Voodoo Boys wouldn't bother planting them just to feed Rogue fake intel—it would gain them nothing and only make more enemies. Only an idiot would take that risk.

Still, Leo knew better than to place all hope in someone else's hands.

"Even if the map's accurate, the Chapel is a hidden base. The guards there won't be many, but they'll have plenty of traps set. I've prepared multiple recon drones—send them in before breaching. Be careful."

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It was late at night.

But the leader of the Voodoo Boys, Maman Brigitte, was still awake.

The Voodoo Boys had been close to success.

They had paid dearly to discover that Yorinobu Arasaka had brought a relic containing Johnny Silverhand's engram to Night City. Brigitte had privately met with Yorinobu's favored doll, Evelyn Parker, offering her benefits in exchange for one simple act: when Yorinobu called for her again, she was to record a braindance of the Konpeki Plaza penthouse suite and deliver it to Brigitte.

With that braindance, Brigitte could plan an infiltration to steal the relic. Once Johnny Silverhand was in her grasp, she was certain she could lure Alt Cunningham into the open.

But while they were still planning the job, trouble had struck Konpeki Plaza.

Dexter DeShawn, a fixer who had spent time in the Pacifica region, had teamed up with mercs Brigitte couldn't identify and hit Konpeki. The result was Saburo Arasaka dead, the relic missing, and the whole city in uproar.

There was no direct evidence linking Evelyn to the heist, but if Brigitte couldn't see her involvement, she had no business leading the Voodoo Boys.

So Brigitte had taken matters into her own hands, frying Evelyn's neural link when she fled to Clouds.

Truthfully, with the Voodoo Boys tradition of treating outsiders like rags, Brigitte would never have spared Evelyn. Originally, she could have just killed her outright—but she didn't.

It was deliberate.

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