Chapter 131

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"How is everything prepared at the scene?"

Lucius Ryne sat in the leather-upholstered vehicle, script in hand, rehearsing his lines as he readied himself for the upcoming speech.

Next year was the election year in Night City, and he planned to deliver his official candidacy speech today.

The location he chose for his speech was the plaza of the company, on the fifth level of the hub—the same place where Kerry had his concert last night.

At the copilot's seat, the Mayor's secretary promptly reported, "Mr. Mayor, the stage is set up, the crowd, security, and the banners are all in place."

"Following last night's riot at the company's plaza, city sanitation workers were promptly arranged for cleanup, and the damaged public facilities were all replaced."

Upon hearing the word 'riot,' Lucius Ryne frowned deeply, his voice betraying a hint of displeasure as he reminded, "Remember, last night's events at the company plaza were not a riot but a movement, a 'libertarian' movement."

Today's speech was about 'freedom,' aiming to leverage the unrest as a springboard to rally votes.

Back in the day, Night City was on the brink of being ravaged by the Metal Wars, with imminent threats of destruction.

As a council member, Lucius Ryne managed to contact the Arasaka Family to counter the overwhelming Militech, resulting in a stalemate between two corporations that spared Night City the flames of war and preserved its "independent" "free" "system."

Thanks to this achievement, Lucius Ryne was elected the new mayor of Night City, earning the title of "free" "mayor."

Over time, as the benefits of his past achievements waned, the people of Night City had newer demands, and his approval ratings began to plummet. Worse still, scandals within the city government, the council, and office workers were continuously exposed, tarnishing Night City's reputation.

Especially troubling was the recent leak of the NCPD's military tech procurement agreement. The ensuing scandal significantly affected the NCPD's stock prices.

Everyone in Night City knew about the gaping holes in the city budget and profit transfers to military tech.

With the upcoming elections, Lucius Ryne faced an increasingly difficult challenge to secure another term as mayor.

Moreover, he had a strong contender, Jefferson Peralez, whose campaign momentum was unexpected.

Jefferson, once a lawyer and district attorney in Night City, was now a member of the Night City Council. With broad support, he was preparing to run for mayor.

Born into poverty with a high level of competence, charismatic looks, and slogans that considered the welfare of the poor, Jefferson quickly carved out a space for himself in the political realm.

For many in Night City, Jefferson seemed like a knight in shining armor, vowing to change the city's unfair practices.

Hence, Lucius Ryne decided to play his trump card—'freedom'—to confront this strong opponent.

He firmly believed that by consistently promoting 'freedom,' he could win the majority's support because, for most people in Night City, 'freedom' was more desirable than 'fairness.'

After all, 'fairness' was practically a joke in Night City.

Checking the time, Lucius Ryne noted there were only ten minutes left until the press conference. He instructed the staff to direct the convoy into the company plaza's hub.

A fleet of black limousines was slowly making its way into the hub of the company plaza.

Wherever the convoy passed, there was heavy security—law enforcers at every ten steps and guards every hundred, as NCPD deployed considerable forces to escort Lucius Ryne.

When the convoy reached its destination, black-suited bodyguards promptly opened the car door for him, staying alert to their surroundings.

Stepping out of the vehicle, Lucius Ryne waved at the crowd gathering around the stage, which erupted into thunderous applause and cheers.

Surrounded by the crowd, Lucius Ryne, with his bulk, made his way onto the stage.

The Deputy Mayor, Haught, followed behind Lucius Ryne, stood to the side, and clapped softly.

Looking over the crowd below, Lucius Ryne's mood darkened.

The number and quality of the audience were far from what he expected, pale in comparison to the concert held by Kerry the night before.

During Kerry's concert, the crowd filled the fifth-level disk. But now, only the fifth level was packed, the fourth had a sparse audience, and the first to third levels were left with mere onlookers who lost interest and left.

To his dismay, he knew that a good portion of the crowd consisted of paid stand-ins, not genuine supporters. To better leverage the situation, he even had the stand-ins dress up as veterans or wanderers, hoping to attract votes from these demographics.

Yet, despite the pretense, he had to continue the act. Every major media outlet had arrived, and the cameras pointed at the stage, broadcasting Lucius Ryne's image across every electronic screen in Night City.

Lucius Ryne addressed the crowd, "I apologize for the wait."

As his words fell, the crowd responded with deafening shouts and applause, with many hailing the 'free' 'mayor'.

...

On the thirty-third floor of the Arasaka Tower, Anti-Intelligence Department's full-screen panoramic display in the Director's office showed Lucius Ryne's speech at the company plaza.

"That was a decent speech."

Tang Yu sipped his tea, approving of Lucius Ryne's oration. Having wrapped up his work, he took the opportunity to gauge Lucius Ryne's stance. After all, the riot he had orchestrated in the company plaza last night could impact his plans.

If Lucius Ryne wished to delve into the matter, Tang Yu would need to forewarn Kerry, Lizzy, and the rest to prepare. Additionally, preventive measures for Gloria's and Maine's teams were necessary to avoid involving them in the incident.

But so far, it seemed Lucius Ryne was not interested in pursuing the matter. Instead, he was aiming to capitalize on the unrest to piggyback off Kerry's concert, gathering support for his reelection. The police response last night already indicated Lucius Ryne's preparedness for the situation.

Lucius Ryne, pudgy and unassuming, proved to be nimble-minded, concocting a clever strategy for his campaign.

If we continue to pursue the matter of the riot in Corporate Plaza, there will be no winners; it's a deadlock.

It appears that although the riot at Corporate Plaza seemed uncontrollable, it specifically targeted the biotech corporation.

Due to the limited duration of the riot, once the fervent atmosphere dissipated, it became difficult for the crowd to maintain unity, and only half of the biotech building's floors were looted and torched.

However, the upper echelons and core facilities of biotech were not severely affected.

The massive electronic short-out only managed to burn some electronics and office equipment.

Most important facilities had already installed surge protectors. Even with significant voltage fluctuations, it was unlikely they would get burned down.

Overall, it's true that the biotech corporation suffered significant loss in various aspects such as security, fire services, finances, real estate, and office systems.

But the foundation of the biotech corporation remained unshaken.

If the security forces were insufficient, they could simply purchase more from Kang Tao.

If the office systems were damaged, company hackers could rebuild them.

If servers were lost to fire, they could procure replacements from other companies.

As for the burnt and deteriorated building, throwing money into renovations would have it up and running in no more than a few months.

These problems are solvable with money, and to a top conglomerate like biotech, they are hardly an issue.

What really causes headaches for the biotech company are the stock market plunge, the damaged market reputation, along with scandals such as the 'painkiller' and 'new antibiotic trials,' which have sparked a wave of backlash worldwide.

The biotech corporation, despite knowing the riot was aimed at them, was helpless and could only try to settle the situation.

If they continued to aggressively pursue the matter of the riot, it would likely provoke more opposition.

For the biotech company, the best outcome would be to quell the incident as if it never happened.

The biotech corporation wants to smooth things over, the municipal government seeks electoral support, and other major companies are indifferent.

Naturally, the riot would not lead to a public investigation, at most there would be covert investigations by various forces' agents.

Even if some leads were discovered, they would only reveal the involvement of two titan corporations, Arasaka and Militech.

Tang Yu indeed used Arasaka's resources to help Kerry resolve the concert issue.

Meredith definitely arranged for N54 news to expose some secrets of the painkiller project.

Unless a high-level executive of those two titan corporations takes an interest, outsiders reaching this clue is essentially a dead end.

Having analyzed thus far, Tang Yu felt he had a thorough grasp of the situation and lost interest in Lucius Rhyne's upcoming speech.

The rotund Lucius Rhyne, during his speech, was all empty talk, a typical smooth-talker.

Tang Yu also knew Lucius Rhyne quite well; he had deep ties with corporations and would indulge in pleasures at night. At the Red Queen's Race secret club, he enjoyed those brutal cold dreams.

However, this guy's life wasn't very long; by next year, he would suddenly die under mysterious circumstances.

Lucius Rhyne's death had an undeniable connection to his right hand-man, Hauk.

As for the 'election' fortunes of the 'Freedom' Mayor, Tang Yu didn't care to know.

He withdrew his gaze, returned to his desk to review his work to ensure nothing was missed, then planned to clock out.

Suddenly, the arrival prompt lit up outside the office door.

Sasha looked and saw Kate had come to visit, standing in the passage for a blue light scan.

Sasha then looked back at Tang Yu, waiting for his instruction on whether to allow Kate in.

Tang Yu, seated on the leather chair, gestured with his hand, signaling to let Kate enter.

Quickly, the stainless-steel gates slowly pulled apart.

Kate walked straight into the department head's office with its usual spacious and luxurious dark layout.

As she passed Sasha's desk, she glanced over but said nothing further, continuing to Tang Yu's desk.

Tang Yu looked at the arriving Kate with a hint of displeasure but kept his composure, seeing through her intentions at a glance.

Kate, standing across the desk, coldly asked, "Deputy Director Tang, isn't it inappropriate for you to act as the head of Counter Intelligence like this?"

"Why are you neglecting so much work and not responding or dealing with it?"

Tang Yu didn't take offense to Kate's challenge, emphasizing 'deputy' to imply that he was only acting temporarily, not the true director.

He gestured for Sasha to bring over the results of the work items, speaking calmly, "I'm not sure which task you're referring to as unhandled. Although your position doesn't qualify you to review these contents, since you just joined Counter Intelligence, you'll understand some rules later."

Sasha placed the electronic tablet on the desk, displaying the director's task outcomes.

Tang Yu made a gesture inviting Kate to take a look if she wanted.

"If you have any good suggestions, feel free to report to me, though I might not always have time."

Kate glanced at the tablet and noticed all work items had been addressed except for her inquiry had been deleted.

Feeling a surge of indignant annoyance, her expressionless face involuntarily twitched.

Kate understood that the acting director before her was intentionally targeting her.

Previously, he excused his absence with fieldwork and didn't respond to messages, which was one thing.

Today, with Tang Yu in his office, deliberately deleting the work item concerning her, was an overt disrespect.

Kate's cybernetic red eyes flickered, revealing no change in emotions but spoke coldly, "Regarding the investigation results of the military-grade Sandevistan, you were personally responsible, right?"

Tang Yu signaled her to go on without confirming or denying.

"There are obvious problems with this investigation result. I've looked into the Voodoo Boys, and they don't have the capacity to attack three Arasaka Special Task Forces."

"Instead, the Voodoo Boys have lost dozens of members, which contradicts your report. Shouldn't you clarify this?"

Tang Yu had foreseen her taking issue with this, clinging to the problem of that night, because it was Militech who had taken out the three Arasaka Special Task Forces.

If she discovered evidence, pinning an unreported, private collusion with Militech on Tang Yu would be an easy feat to topple him.

Tang Yu ignored Kate and countered with a calm inquiry.

"Do you want to restart the investigation?"

Kate certainly wouldn't pass up such an opportunity; the best outcome would be Tang Yu failing to clarify, and then she could formally request an inquiry with the board.

She could then legitimately target Tang Yu, digging up anything substantial would undoubtedly doom him.

Kate had no previous beef with Tang Yu, but she aligned with the Arasaka Rai-san faction, and her promotion to deputy head of Counter Intelligence was orchestrated by Executive Director Tanaka and Director Susan Abernathy.

As a thorn in their side, she was set to be removed to prove her worth.

Kate took up the challenge, speaking icily, "Of course, if you can't explain this, I will request that the board conduct a new investigation, and you will have no choice but to cooperate."

Tang Yu nodded slightly, encouragingly said, "Good, you have a strong investigative spirit to get to the bottom of things."

"Well, let me tell you."

"My report stands as written in the investigative report, there's no need to reiterate to you."

"You can write the application for the new investigation now, in the name of Counter Intelligence, and submit it here for approval."

While still speaking, Tang Yu received a new visitor prompt.

Immediately checking, he found it was Michiko's bodyguards, inviting him for 'tea' upstairs.

Tang Yu stood up, straightened his jacket, and prepared to leave.

"You can go down first."

"I have things to do."

"Send your report to my email."

"Sasha, make sure to keep an eye on it, lest I forget."

Sasha promptly stood, nodding in acknowledgment, and watched Tang Yu head towards the door.

The gate automatically parted.

Subsequently, Tang Yu, at the invitation of Michiko's bodyguards, walked towards the communal elevator area.

Seeing Tang Yu had left, Sasha glanced back at Kate, who remained stationary, and politely urged her, "If you finish the report about reopening the investigation, you can send it to Mr. Tang's work email."

"I will confirm it promptly and pass it on to Mr. Tang."

Kate stood in place with an emotionless face, and after a snort, she turned and left the director's office.

As Sasha watched Kate's angered departure, she stuck out her tongue at her retreating figure.

"Crazy old witch, making a fuss!"