Chapter 30

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Westbrook, Cherry Blossom Street.

In the small plaza in front of TURGO convenience store, a few modified Ford Mustang-style cars are parked around, blasting punk rock music incessantly.

Cyberpunks equipped with various shiny metal prosthetics are gathered around three food stalls on the plaza, enjoying their beers and conversations.

The skinny bearded Pilar, with his agile movements, is performing juggling tricks with plates of beer for his friends and customers.

Dorio tosses a few empty beer bottles towards Pilar, all of which are effortlessly caught by his slender cybernetic arms.

Pilar proudly shows off his cybernetic arms: "Aren't my fingers amazing? Don't you think so?"

Dorio laughs helplessly and says, "Now everyone knows what you're doing with those fingers at night."

After making a gesture in the air, everybody around bursts into laughter, implying mischief.

Pilar seems even more pleased and proud, grabs a beer bottle, wipes it, and claims boldly: "You got that right, I could do this all day!"

The crowd erupts in laughter and applause once more.

The team hacker, Kiwi, still clad in her red leather, tall and striking, sits at a table, smoking behind her visor, tapping away at her laptop.

Maine, sitting on the hood of a car, looks a bit somber at everything unfolding before him.

Tomorrow is the day for the deal with the Maelstrom gang, and he had Kiwi intentionally leak the deal information on the black market network.

Kiwi has also successfully captured the hacking attempt records from Arasaka, confirming that someone from Arasaka is now aware of the deal. As for how Arasaka will act, that depends on the arrangements made by Tang Yu.

However, Maine is currently waiting for someone special.

Whether he can get the military-grade Sandevistan or not will depend on the involvement of Arasaka and the Militech companies.

As Maine contemplates, his gaze is drawn to a burgundy luxury limousine slowly pulling up to the plaza.

The car door opens.

A white-haired man in a burgundy suit steps out with an air of arrogance. He has a special tri-optic cyber eye on his right side, scanning all the people in the plaza before setting his sights on Maine.

Maine looks up, and there he is, the man he has been waiting for, the middleman backed by Militech.

Faraday.

Even after many collaborations, Maine has little trust in Faraday; the only reason he works with him is the high pay.

In Night City, finding a reliable and wealthy middleman is tough because the middlemen vary greatly in skills, reliability, and quality. Therefore, the main criterion for measuring a middleman is the payout.

And Faraday is one of those powerfully backed middlemen with high payouts, never faltering in the face of competition from other middlemen.

Maine hops down from the hood and walks over to Faraday. Since Maine had proactively set up this meeting, he starts the conversation: "I have important intel that we need to discuss."

Faraday, with one hand in his pocket, looks displeased. Normally in Night City, it's the middlemen who arrange jobs for cyberpunks, meaning they naturally hold an advantageous position over them.

"You better have important intel," Faraday says, fixing Maine with a haughty gaze. There's little respect for working cyberpunks, and if it weren't for Maine being a regular collaborator, Faraday wouldn't have bothered coming all this way. He's here solely because Maine had mentioned that the intel is closely related to Militech.

"Get in the car."

Faraday and Maine get back into the car, intending to complete the intel exchange inside.

Once both men are in, the limousine starts up.

Doubt arises in Faraday's heart; he's had more than a few dealings with Militech companies, all of whom are incredibly arrogant, and a cyberpunk like Maine would have no chance of contacting them. The only possibility is that Maine has obtained the information through other channels. Faraday is the first to break the silence."Spill it, I want to hear how much your intel is really worth," Maine knew Faraday was cunning and ruthless but always reliable when it came to payment. So, he laid it out straight:

"I've got the military-grade Sandevistan from the Cyberpsycho James."

Hearing this, Faraday, who had been expressionless, suddenly furrowed his brows. He was already aware that the cyberware had gone missing but had not expected it to end up with Maine. On reflection, he realized it wasn't so surprising—the cyberpunks wanting to beef up would have stolen James's cyberware through underground channels, but the Militech side had no plans to recover it, so he had stopped paying attention.

Faraday said, "It looks like you haven't equipped it. If you're looking to sell this cyberware to Militech through me, I think you can skip it."

Maine shook his head: "I'm not planning to sell you the cyberware, but instead, I want to sell you information, information about a deal."

Faraday was somewhat disdainful: "Since you haven't installed it, let me give you a piece of intel first. That cyberware is in human trial stages, and it's not exactly a good thing to have it equipped."

Maine replied: "It's precisely because the cyberware is in the experimental phase that Arasaka would want to get their hands on it or, to be precise, acquire the human trial data."

Faraday almost immediately grasped the essence of this situation; the Militech might not be keen on retrieving the cyberware, but that didn't mean Arasaka wouldn't be.

Sitting up straight, his right trio of cyber eyes fixated on Maine, he inquired: "You mean Arasaka wants this cyberware. If that's the case, why not sell directly to them?"

Maine said: "A deal with Arasaka without a middleman? I'd like to live a few more years. You have a Militech background; you should understand the significance of this matter. Tomorrow night at nine, I will be in the old industrial zone of Watson, at the abandoned steel mill, trading with the Maelstrom gang. Arasaka operatives will definitely come to snatch the cyberware, and I hope you can persuade Militech to intervene."

Faraday stared coldly at Maine, trying to discern the veracity of his words. After a moment of silence, he spoke.

"So, you intend to use this setup to launder the cyberware, to avoid ending up targeted by the company like James, eventually turning into a Cyberpsycho?"

"Maine, I know you. You certainly don't have the capability to set this up. It seems you've found a new go-between, or you have some new backup."

Maine looked at Faraday's confident demeanor, convinced Faraday would never guess that his collaborator was a high-ranking individual from Arasaka itself. To work with someone from Arasaka and set up a sting against Arasaka—it would indeed be an interesting play.

Maine neither confirmed nor denied it, as his cooperation with Tang Yu was just a one-time thing and not a middleman or a new channel.

"This is the intel I offer, whether to set up Arasaka or have the cyberware taken by them in the end, it's all on you. I need this setup to launder the cyberware, and you need it to prove your worth to Militech."

After pondering for a moment, Faraday thought the deal did indeed have some loopholes, but the risks were within manageable limits. Besides, as Maine had said, he needed to show his value to Militech by taking on Arasaka.

"Your intel is not bad," said Faraday, completing a transfer of ten thousand Eurodollars into Maine's digital account.

"This is a down payment; if the plan succeeds, I'll pay the rest later."

Faraday resumed his pompous demeanor, parked his car back at the plaza, and let Maine get out.

He picked up a bottle of red wine from the car's bar, swirling it before dialing a contact from Militech...