Death sat just behind David.
For an instant, countless faces flickered through his mind, Lucy's and his mother's filling most of the space.
He hadn't even truly seen his mother yet.
That silence of death didn't break the boy's resolve.
After a few steady breaths, David had already gathered his strength. His eyes slid toward the still-empty passenger seat.
With the Sandevistan, maybe he could dodge the first shot.
Suddenly, the cyberware along his spine glowed faint green, like current crawling up from his tailbone.
David followed the sensation, hurling himself toward the passenger side.
In that split second, he had his next move lined up—bursting out through the door.
But reality turned against him. The Sandevistan spun up, yet a stabbing dizziness ripped through his skull. His body froze solid, locked in place.
All his plans unraveled in the face of that sudden, brutal disruption.
"A netrunner? ... No... impossible. His Neural Link didn't trigger any defense protocol..."
Trapped in his own rigid body, David's thoughts raced. His eyes burned forward, seething with rage and helplessness.
"What... the hell's happening... damn it."
His pupils shook as his mind strained desperately against the unseen grip.
He was like a drowning man, weeds binding him tighter the harder he fought, until even the light above the water vanished.
But his consciousness refused to fade.
Now he lay face-down across the passenger seat, the stink of cheap synthetic leather choking his nostrils, making his eyes water.
His body gave no support. His face was crushed into the seat, spit forced from his lips, smeared between his cheek and the rough leather. Some even ran into his nose.
It was humiliating, but David had no space left to care about dignity.
Inside, despair howled.
"I have to... I need to... see Mom one last time."
But he could do nothing. The world wasn't about to bend for a kid's will.
It followed rules far beyond anything people had made up.
Paralyzed, David had no fight left.
If no one touched him, he might just choke on his own spit.
Then, a hand yanked his hair from behind, hauling him upright.
David's arms shook, his whole body twitching weakly.
Something in his nervous system had gone haywire, twisting him.
"Target secured. Status aligns with forecast."
The voice came cold from behind—a man's, almost certainly the one gripping his hair.
At his words, the world burst into blinding light.
While David lay helpless, several armored black vehicles had already rolled up through the rain, circling him like venomous spiders closing in on their prey.
He couldn't even shut his eyes. The glare burned them red, but he kept staring at the figures approaching slowly.
They carried black umbrellas—or maybe not. The glare was too harsh to tell.
But one shadow made his pupils snap tight, the muscles around his eyes straining until veins stood out.
A fat man, standing humbly as he held an umbrella for someone else.
Like the one Kirk had mentioned.
Before David could catch the man's face clearly, the car door beside him was yanked open.
The storm roared inside. A hand clamped his shoulder and dragged him out.
He hit the ground, hauled like meat on a hook.
The rain pounded him, soaking his head and chest. The ground should have felt cold, but his legs hung limp, numb to sensation.
His head sagged toward his chest. He forced his gaze upward, trying to glimpse the figures in the light.
But even that failed.
The rain felt as dark as the night itself.
He tried weakly to gauge how far he was dragged, but the storm drowned everything. Even the lights only meters away had blurred to nothing.
Then the grip on his shoulders stopped.
They'd reached their destination.
His collar was seized, and he was lifted into the air.
He hung like meat on a hook.
The sky flashed white, burning away the dark for just a breath.
And in that moment, David saw the emblem.
On the armored wall of the vehicle, faintly glowing white: three bare branches ending in pale circles.
"So it really is Arasaka? But...
Is the Militech Sandevistan really worth all this?
Even Militech didn't seem to care this much."
He was tossed onto the floor of a vehicle. The slam rattled his body with pain—but at least he wasn't lying in the dirt anymore.
A door clanged shut above him, a gust sweeping across his face.
He was in their hands now. Corporate hands, almost certainly.
But what about the anomaly in his body? It felt like a netrunner's hack, yet his Neural Link's defense protocols hadn't reacted at all.
What the hell was going on? He hadn't crossed Arasaka.
Could it all be for the Sandevistan?
Wasn't this overkill?
Right now, he couldn't even scream.
He just stared helplessly at the swaying black roof of the moving convoy.
...
A flash of white tore across the sky over Night City.
Thunder rolled in after, deep and crushing, swallowing every sound and making the timid shiver.
Santo Domingo. David and Lucy's apartment.
The white lights gave no warmth to the vast, empty space—if anything, they made it colder.
Maybe it was the spotless, hard white floor.
The bedroom felt less harsh. Even though everything on the bed was white, its softness gave the impression of warmth.
Unfortunately, Lucy had collapsed unconscious on the floor.