Night had settled over Heywood by the time Jackie’s Thorton Galena rolled to a stop beneath a flickering streetlamp.
The doors opened, and the rescued children climbed out one by one.
They moved cautiously, remaining close together as they studied the two figures waiting beside the road.
Sebastian Ibarra stood beneath the streetlight with his bodyguard a few steps behind him.
Most people in Night City simply called him Padre.
He wore his usual dark suit, with a silver crucifix resting against his chest.
Age had left deep lines across his face, but his back remained straight and his gaze sharp.
Padre did not look toward Lena, Valerie, or Jackie.
His attention went directly to the children.
When he noticed their malnourished bodies and the restraint collars digging into their skin, his expression darkened.
For several seconds, he said nothing.
Then he slowly raised his right hand and made the sign of the cross.
“May the Lord judge those responsible.”
Padre approached Alek and lowered himself to one knee.
His hands moved carefully as he released the collar around the boy’s neck, making sure not to scrape the raw skin beneath it.
“Child,” Padre said gently.
“You’re safe now.”
Alek stared at the old man, unsure how to respond.
Padre gave his shoulder a reassuring pat before standing and turning toward Lena and the others.
“Leave the children with me.
I’ll take care of everything else.”
His gaze lingered on Lena.
“Thank you.”
Lena waved dismissively.
“We were already there.”
Padre smiled but did not press the matter.
Night City had no shortage of mercenaries willing to kill for money.
Finding people willing to risk their lives for five children who could not pay them was far less common.
Jackie returned to the Galena with Lena and Valerie.
The engine rumbled to life, and the vehicle pulled away.
Padre remained beneath the streetlamp until its taillights vanished.
Then he opened a communications channel.
“It’s me,” he said.
“Check every missing-child report filed in Heywood over the last six months.
Prepare several safe houses as well.
Keep these children somewhere secure tonight.
We’ll decide what happens next after we know where they came from.”
He ended the call and looked toward the towers of Night City.
Neon advertisements burned across the skyline, painting the clouds in artificial color.
Padre gently closed one hand around his crucifix.
“May the Lord bless them.”
After leaving the children with Padre, the three mercenaries returned to El Coyote Cojo.
Mrs.
Welles had grown accustomed to seeing her son drag bags of bloodstained equipment into the bar after a job.
When Jackie dropped two heavy sacks beside the counter, she merely shook her head.
“Struck it rich again?”
“Nothing like that.” Jackie flashed her a grin.
“Just a generous donation from some Scavs.”
Lena opened the first sack and sorted through its contents.
She kept a Tamayura, an Omaha, and the Mountain Ghoul’s Overture for the team.
The remaining firearms were lined up on the bar for Mrs.
Welles to sell through her contacts.
“Same arrangement as before,” Lena said.
“Sell what we don’t need and transfer the eddies to my account.”
Mrs.
Welles nodded.
She did not ask where the weapons came from.
Instead, she began inspecting each firearm with practiced efficiency.
“Go upstairs and sleep,” she told them.
“You all look terrible.”
No one argued.
They had spent most of the night fighting Scavengers, clearing the warehouse, salvaging cyberware, and transporting the children.
Exhaustion was beginning to settle in.
Once inside their room, Lena sat on the edge of the bed and closed her eyes.
Her consciousness entered the system inventory.
Two newly acquired pieces of Tier 3 cyberware floated before her.
The Black Mamba and Reinforced Tendons.
Lena selected the Black Mamba first.
The cyberware dissolved into countless streams of pale-blue data.
They flowed through her fingertips and entered her body, spreading across her chest before branching into every limb.
There was no pain.
Instead, a warm current moved along her blood vessels, carrying thousands of tiny electrical impulses through her organs and muscles.
Lena remained still and focused on the changes.
Her breathing became smoother.
The heaviness in her lungs disappeared, and the room’s stale mixture of gunpowder, alcohol, and cigarette smoke no longer irritated her.
Her sense of smell had not become sharper.
Rather, the Black Mamba was actively helping her body filter harmful substances while accelerating its natural recovery processes.
Curious, Lena picked up a small knife from the table and drew it lightly across her palm.
A thin line of blood appeared.
Almost immediately, an itching sensation spread through the wound.
The bleeding stopped within seconds, and the cut began closing at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Lena smiled.
“So that’s how it works.”
The Black Mamba would not stop a bullet from entering her body.
It would not save her if her brain or heart were completely destroyed.
But any injury that failed to kill her instantly could be repaired far more quickly.
Combined with her Blood Pump and Cellular Adaptation, it dramatically increased her endurance.
Wounds that would force another mercenary to retreat might become little more than temporary inconveniences for her.
Without wasting time, Lena selected the Reinforced Tendons.
A second stream of data flowed into her legs.
A dull ache spread through her ankles, knees, and thighs, resembling the soreness that followed an intense training session.
Artificial fibers integrated with her muscles while new control signals connected to her nervous system.
Several seconds later, the discomfort vanished.
Lena stood and walked toward the window.
She bent her knees slightly, allowing her body to gather strength.
Then she jumped.
Bang!
Her body shot upward so quickly that her head almost struck the ceiling.
As she reached the highest point of the jump, Lena instinctively triggered the newly installed cyberware.
Energy stored inside the artificial tendons released all at once.
A second burst of force propelled her higher.
She twisted in the air and landed silently on the floor.
“It isn’t an actual second jump,” Lena murmured.
The Reinforced Tendons stored part of the force produced during the initial leap.
Once she was airborne, the artificial muscle fibers released that stored energy, creating another upward burst.
The result looked like a double jump, even if the mechanics were different.
Lena rolled her ankles, satisfied.
The upgrade offered more than simple mobility.
In battle, it would allow her to change direction unexpectedly, cross obstacles without slowing down, attack from impossible angles, and escape situations where ordinary mercenaries would be trapped.
She returned her attention to the crafting interface.
Two damaged pieces of cyberware remained.
[KIROSHI ORACLE OPTICS — DAMAGED]
[RECOIL DAMPENING SYSTEM — DAMAGED]
Lena consumed four Tier 3 item components.
A soft blue light surrounded both implants.
Cracks sealed across their surfaces, scorched nerve interfaces returned to their original condition, and corrupted calibration data was reconstructed piece by piece.
Moments later, the repaired cyberware rested inside her inventory in perfect condition.
Lena smiled.
“Valerie’s going to enjoy these.”
Elsewhere in Night City, information about the warehouse assault had already begun moving through the fixer network.
In Japantown, Wakako Okada inserted a newly delivered data shard into her terminal.
Footage appeared above her desk.
It showed the abandoned cold-storage warehouse in Heywood.
The Scavenger stronghold had been destroyed, its leader—the Mountain Ghoul—confirmed dead.
More importantly, five kidnapped children had been rescued alive.
The final frame showed three figures leaving while flames consumed the Scavengers’ bodies behind them.
Lena Hale.
Valerie.
Jackie Welles.
Wakako lifted her teacup and watched the recording twice.
“Kind-hearted,” she murmured, a faint smile appearing on her lips.
She looked toward one of her assistants.
“Keep investigating.
I want to know where those two women came from.”
At the Afterlife, Rogue Amendiares glanced at the same report and tossed the data shard onto her table.
“Newcomers?”
She swirled the drink in her glass.
“If they survive three months, then they might be worth remembering.”
In Watson, Regina Jones sat before a crowded wall of monitors.
Her eyebrows rose as she read the mission summary.
“They rescued the children?”
She leaned back in her chair.
“There are still mercenaries like that in Night City?”
Regina highlighted all three names and moved them onto her priority observation list.
Out in the Badlands, Dakota Smith lowered her communicator and watched a freight convoy crawl across the distant highway.
“Heywood,” she murmured thoughtfully.
“Interesting.”
A faint smile touched her lips.
“Looks like Night City has gained a few promising new faces.”
No fixer contacted the team that night, but by morning, nearly every influential broker in Night City had heard their names.
Lena, Valerie, and Jackie had earned their first trace of a reputation.
Early the next morning, Jackie sat inside El Coyote Cojo, devouring the breakfast his mother had prepared.
Across from him, Lena placed a metal case on the table.
Valerie wiped her mouth and eyed it suspiciously.
“What’s inside?”
“A gift.”
Lena smiled but refused to elaborate.
Twenty minutes later, the three arrived at Viktor’s clinic.
The rolling shutter groaned open, revealing the familiar underground room.
The air carried its usual mixture of disinfectant and machine oil, and the medical chair waited beneath the surgical lights.
Viktor pushed his glasses higher on his nose as they entered.
His attention settled on the case Lena placed on the table.
“What are we installing this time?”
Lena opened it.
The Kiroshi Oracle Optics and Recoil Dampening System rested inside.
Viktor picked up each piece and inspected it.
Scanning beams moved across the implants while diagnostic information passed through his lenses.
After several seconds, he nodded.
“Perfect condition.
No damage to the neural interfaces, and the calibration data has been restored to factory settings.” He looked at Lena but did not ask where she had found them.
“They’re practically new.”
He placed the cyberware on a surgical tray and gestured toward Valerie.
“Lie down.”
Valerie settled into the medical chair.
Mechanical restraints descended, securing her head, arms, and legs.
Viktor activated the equipment.
The surgical machinery carefully removed her old optics.
A moment later, the Kiroshi Oracle Optics slid into place.
Its neural connections linked automatically, establishing contact with her optic nerves and operating system.
Viktor then installed the Recoil Dampening System into her wrists and hand joints.
The implant’s buffers integrated with her existing cyberware, ready to stabilize weapon movement and reduce recoil during sustained fire.
The surgery took less than twenty minutes.
Viktor connected the final neural wire and activated both systems.
“All done.” You are reading on g.com, the official source.
Valerie slowly opened her eyes.
The clinic came into perfect focus.
She could see residual heat lingering on the surgical equipment, individual dust particles floating beneath the lights, and the faint scanning beam produced by Viktor’s own optics.
She blinked.
Her vision adjusted instantly, without delay or distortion.
The Kiroshi Oracle Optics transformed the world around her into a stream of readable information.
Viktor returned to his terminal and began typing.
“Don’t get up yet.
There’s one more step.”
“What now?” Valerie asked.
“The database.”
He did not look away from the screen.
“Powerful optics are useless without information.
Otherwise, you’re just looking at people in higher resolution.”
Viktor completed several authorization prompts and connected the optics to the public NCPD database.
“If someone’s identity exists in the system, scanning them will show you their basic profile, criminal record, and public bounty.”
He glanced at Valerie.
“Unless they’re a ghost from beyond the Blackwall or someone whose existence was deliberately erased by a corporation.”
Jackie grinned.
“So now she can look at any gonk and immediately know how many eddies he’s worth?”
“In theory,” Viktor replied.
“But I’d prefer all three of you learned to recognize the people you shouldn’t touch.”
The terminal emitted a soft chime.
Viktor disconnected the cable and tapped the medical chair.
“Now you’re finished.”
Valerie stood and activated her new scanner.
A pale-blue beam passed over Jackie.
[JACKIE WELLES]
[CYBERWARE DETECTED]
[GORILLA ARMS]
[SUBDERMAL ARMOR]
[DENSE MARROW]
[MICRO-ROTORS]
[SMART LINK]
[KIROSHI OPTICS]
[NCPD PUBLIC BOUNTY: NONE]
Jackie spread his arms proudly.
“Well?
Don’t I look handsome with all those upgrades?”
“You look like someone installed every piece of brute-force cyberware he could afford.”
Jackie opened his mouth to protest, but Valerie had already turned toward Lena.
The scanner activated again.
[LENA HALE]
[CYBERWARE DETECTED]
[SELF-ICE]
[GORILLA ARMS]
[GENERAL AUGMENTATION]
[DENSE MARROW]
[KEREZNIKOV]
[SUBDERMAL ARMOR]
[CELLULAR ADAPTATION]
[ARASAKA MK.II CYBERDECK]
[KIROSHI STALKER OPTICS]
[RECOIL DAMPENING SYSTEM]
[BLOOD PUMP]
[MICRO-ROTORS]
[REINFORCED TENDONS]
More data continued appearing.
Valerie stared at the list.
It felt less like she was scanning a human being and more like she was examining a combat machine disguised beneath human skin.
“Wait.”
She scanned Lena again.
The results remained unchanged.
“When did you install all of this?”
Lena had deliberately limited the cyberware visible to external scans.
Revealing anything more would risk attracting attention from corporations eager to drag her into a laboratory.
This was what she considered a safe amount.
“I got lucky,” Lena said.
“Picked up a few things.”
Valerie stared at her.
“You call this a few things?”
Jackie leaned over to inspect the list.
“Gorilla Arms, Kerenzikov, Arasaka Mk.II Cyberdeck…” He whistled.
“Lena, you’re almost equipped like an elite corporate operative.”
“More cyberware makes me feel safer.” Lena shrugged.
“Besides, Viktor examined everything.
There’s nothing wrong with me.”
Viktor raised his head from the terminal.
“The fact that your mind is intact is the surprising part.”
He studied Lena and Valerie for a moment.
“Both of you have the highest cyberware tolerance I’ve ever seen.
Most people would already be suffering serious neurological complications with half of what you’re carrying.”
Lena merely smiled.
She knew the truth.
Her compatibility did not come from natural talent.
The system was protecting her from the consequences that should have accompanied so many implants.
Valerie was the one whose extraordinary cyberware tolerance was entirely her own.
]”
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