It was time. Maine, Dorio, Kiwi and Falco crowded into a cramped room. Kiwi was mid-dive into Tanaka’s mind, submerged in ice and memory; Maine had been jittery for a while. Just when he was about to snap, the chip did its job — a tiny electric bite that dragged him back into himself.
“How much longer is this gonna take?!” Maine snapped, breath tight.
Nova walked in like he owned the gloom. At first glance nothing looked wrong: Kiwi still searching, Maine breathing steady. Still, Nova always came prepared — a handful of gadgets tucked under his jacket just in case.
“Well? How’s it looking?” Nova asked, casual.
“Tch. Great, the idiot’s here. I’m not paying you.” Maine grunted.
“You sure? I’ll be useful. Might even get you a raise.” Nova shot back with a teasing grin.
“Shut up, both of you. This isn’t a joke.” Dorio cut them off. “Kiwi should finish any second.”
Kiwi, submerged in the tank, was pulling threads from Tanaka’s memory. Files blinked up into her vision — schematics, transaction logs — and then she hit something labeled for higher clearance. David’s name floated by in a few places; the importance of David’s sandevistan showed but didn’t explain itself. Then Kiwi found a whisper of something else: a prototype sandevistan, flagged, buried under corporate locks — an experiment the megacorps were running. Tanaka didn’t have the full file. It was a ghost entry, a stub with teeth. Kiwi ripped what she could and pulled back out of the ice.
“Done. Data’s extracted,” she said, red water dripping from her sleeves as she climbed out of the tank.
“Good. Let’s move.” Dorio exhaled. “What do we do with Tanaka?”
“He knows our faces. Can’t leave him breathing,” Maine answered flatly.
“Hold up.” Nova’s voice cut the room open. “That’d raise flags. I can wipe his neural link clean — erase our presence from him. Full wipe.”
Maine went quiet, distrust flickering in his eyes. Before he could answer, a distant thrum rolled under the floor — the sound of heavy rotors. The sound mdae it evident. Dorio checked through the window.
“It’s Militech!”
"What the fuck?! Millitech —Nova said.
“Two ships,” Kiwi added, voice low. “Surrounding the block. This is bad.”
“Shit. How long you need for the wipe, kid?” Maine demanded, every muscle coiled.
“About ten minutes.”
“In ten minutes we’ll be tasting another life!” Maine barked, the grin cruel and dangerous.
We can’t let them spot us. If they see us, kill them. Get to the ground floor, make an “escape” distraction and bolt to the basement. Grab a car and get the hell out of here, now. —Maine barked, taking charge.
Maine slung Tanaka over his shoulders and they moved down the hall. Soldiers lined the corridors; whenever Dorio and Maine caught their eyes they cut them down with a single shot.
“We’re hardly gonna blend in with you two giants,” Nova joked as they ran.
“Got a better idea, idiot?” Maine shot back.
“I do. I’ll draw them off and pull attention the other way while you three drop to the basement. Prep the car and—on my signal—go. Whatever you do, don’t stop. Just leave the window open. Kiwi, come with me.”
“Fuck you, kid,” Maine growled. Dorio cracked him on the head the instant he talked shit to Nova.
“Idiot or not, the kid’s right. We’ll never slip out in a pack. Not without being seen,” Dorio said, pragmatic.
“Tch. Fine. Let’s do it.”
“I don’t know if I want to go with the rookie…” Kiwi started, but Nova didn’t wait. He grabbed her and vanished, Sandevistan burning through time like a blade. Millitech soldiers in the hall followed the blur, but too slow. Nova’s gambit left a corridor for Maine, Dorio and Falco to slip through the other side.
“All right, we drew them into the hall. They’ll probably ping the other units. Need to make more noise,” Nova said, glancing at Kiwi.
“Don’t you ever… in your fucking life… do that again,” Kiwi hissed.
“Sorry,” Nova said. “We gotta move fast or they’ll box us.”
“If you want to grab attention, shootouts or explosions are best. But I bet you didn’t bring heavy weapons, techie.”
Nova unzipped his bag and produced a tiny Lexington pistol. “I’ve got this,” he said, proud in a way that made Kiwi’s eyes narrow.
“Where’d you steal that? The kiddie bin? That won’t dent Millitech armor,” she spat.
“Then we take their guns,” Nova answered.
“You’re crazy — there could be twenty soldiers out there. Sandevistan won’t save you if you don’t have the reactions to back it up.”
“Trust me.” Nova pushed open the door.
A civilian stood there, mid-complaint.
“You! How the hell did you get in my —”
A round slit through his skull exploding his brain everywhere before he could finish. Nova peered from the doorway and froze: soldiers, more than he could count, filling the corridor. They opened fire. Nova barely dodged.
He jacked a shot, aiming the Lexington at the first helmeted head. The gun barely made him blink; the armor ate the hit. Nova flicked Sandevistan on, closed the distance, and went hands-on — a gut shot, a knee driving into the neck, ripping an MP from a body.
He started firing the stolen weapon, spraying into helmets and plates, but he’d never handled guns of this caliber. The recoil and panic made the volleys scatter. Millitech returned fire. Nova dove into melee, Sandevistan-charged, slamming bodies into the corridor and leaving several soldiers unconscious, but he couldn’t keep the implant live forever. When he cut the Sandevistan to catch a breath, a few soldiers still stood. They trained rifles on him — and Kiwi hacked them mid-snap, freezing motors and servos like she’d cut the puppet strings.
“Impressive, rookie, but you’re not immortal,” Kiwi said, dry, almost as a you welcome.
They looted the downed troops — grenades, rifles, armor plates — and used the pile to crank the noise up to eleven. By the time they hit the ground floor, Nova and Kiwi ducked under a desk while Kiwi pinged Maine.
“Kiwi, you there? How’s the car situation?”
“Floor’s clear, but what next?” Kiwi answered.
“Car’s parked outside. Can you hotwire it and ghost-drive it away?”
“I can only keep control for twenty meters. After that it runs on inertia.”
“Good enough. Make it move fast.”
Kiwi’s fingers danced. The car lunged from zero to a hundred in seconds. Nova slipped from under the desk, vanished for a moment, and returned with the car rigged and five unconscious Millitech bodies stuffed inside, grenades tucked into pockets. He’d taken their weapons and almost reappeared as a ghost.
“What… what did you do?” Kiwi asked, baffled.
“Tell Maine to start rolling when he hears the explosion,” Nova said.
“Explosi—”
BOOOOOOM. A thunderous explosion rolled blocks away.
“Maine! Go!” Kiwi screamed.
“Falco!” Maine shouted like a command, stampeding toward the exit.
From the basement another vehicle tore out in a perfect counter-run. Nova snatched Kiwi without warning and vaulted through a window, tumbling into the speeding car after a heavy smack as he and Kiwi crashed through. Heads turned. Nova landed on top of Kiwi; she shoved him off and kicked him hard.
“Told you never to do that again, shithead!” Kiwi snapped, hauling herself to her feet, breathing heavy, furious.
Nova stayed still after the kick, dizzy and spent, vision swimming.
“Nova? You okay?” Dorio called, turning back.
He leaned out the window and puked. Running flat-out on adrenaline had burned through more than a hundred percent of whatever reserve he had.
“Hurry the fuck up, kid. If you don’t mess with Tanaka’s brain, I will end him,” Maine snarled from the rear of the truck, standing by Tanaka and Kiwi.
“Hey. Let the kid rest — he saved our asses,” Kiwi said flat, voice clipped.
Suddenly Faraday stepped up in front of Maine.
“I thought I told you this was a cautious op. What kind of pathetic service is this?” he sneered.
“Fa… Faraday!” Maine stuttered, shocked. “We had complications, but we’ve got the data.”
“Now Militech knows something happened. How do you plan to fix that?”
“I… uh…”
“HOW DO YOU PLAN TO FIX IT?!”
Maine snapped. His eyes glitched; everyone turned, surprised. Nova recognized the signs, but his body wouldn’t cooperate — exhaustion pinned him. Dorio shouted at Kiwi to reboot Maine, but before she could, Maine swung and smashed Kiwi’s mask to the floor, sending her limp.
Dorio spun on him, hands like iron — grabbed Maine by the throat, cut off his air, then landed a blow to the head that dropped him out cold. Falco could only look back, fury in his eyes as he watched what happened to Kiwi.
Silence filled the truck. Then Dorio broke it, voice flat: “Take Nova, Kiwi and Maine to the doc. We need Lucy—Kiwi like this won’t pull the data we need.”
“I’m fine. I just need time. Take me back to my apartment — I gotta do something with Tanaka,” Nova rasped.
“Alright, kid. Thanks — owe you one. No telling what Maine would’ve done if you hadn’t stepped in.” Dorio offered a fist bump; Nova returned it weakly.
They rolled out. On a rooftop in the distance, a silhouette watched them go, blending into the neon like another ghost in Night City.