Morning came with bad weather.
Rocky sat up, pinched Rebecca's cheek, and woke her.
Two days had passed since Arasaka took him.
Today, V scheduled him to attend a cooperation meeting at Arasaka Tower.
Those two days stayed quiet. The scene in front of the clinic had been loud enough that every company in Night City saw where Arasaka and Militech stood on Ascension Technology. With those two giants already on the board, no one else rushed in, and Rocky got a rare calm window.
He washed up and called Jackie.
"Hey, Jackie, it's about time. Let's move."
"No problem. I'll wait at the base of Arasaka Tower."
After the call, Rocky and Rebecca headed down, got in the Deluxo, picked up Lucy, and drove toward the tower.
He had planned to go alone. Both insisted on going with him when Jackie and Rebecca learned he was heading back to Arasaka Tower. Even Lucy, who feared Arasaka, asked to wait for her downstairs. Rocky refused to let Jackie and Rebecca enter with him; inside the tower was too dangerous, and unexpected trouble would only tie his hands. They compromised and chose to wait below with Lucy.
At the tower's base, Jackie waved him over. "L, if anything happens, tell us right away."
Rebecca echoed him. "Yeah. Don't repeat that night. If something comes up, tell me. I'll cover you."
She pulled a heavy shotgun with pink-and-green paint from her left hand and shook it in front of him. A black fingerless glove sat on that hand—an inventory glove Rocky had modded for her—now packed with heavy hardware. Rebecca was a mobile armory.
"Come back safe," Lucy added.
"Relax. I'm here to discuss cooperation, not blow up Arasaka Tower. They won't do anything to me."
Warmed by the three of them, Rocky turned and walked into Arasaka Tower.
…
Elsewhere, inside the tower, a conference room.
A huge wall display played a video.
First-person view. The recorder was on a job, fully armed teammates tightening a ring around a car. An explosion hit the far side of the cordon. The view snapped over to a man standing on a teammate's corpse, laughing like a monster. Then came the slaughter. No one resisted. Teammates fell one after another. The recorder never even caught the man's silhouette.
The screen went black. A second clip rolled, this time in third person, looking down on the "monster" cutting through the unit.
Both videos showed the battle outside Rocky's clinic. Militech operators ran braindance recorders built into their cyberware. Arasaka had collected the scattered prosthetics that night and, with them, those BD captures. The clips came from that haul.
"Adam Smasher, what do you make of him?"
A man in a fine suit sat at the head of the table, tapping the surface as he looked toward a steel-skinned figure on the sofa.
"Interesting. Looks like an unknown Sandevistan setup," Adam Smasher said.
"How confident are you against him? In the BD he even mentioned you."
"Just a meat bug with some strength and speed. I've sent too many like that to the grave to count. They die chanting my name."
Smasher's face did not move. Wiping an ordinary Militech squad was trivial. This did not earn his attention.
"As long as you're sure," the suit said with a nod.
A secretary stepped in, bent to whisper. "Director, Mr. L has arrived. Begin the meeting?"
"Let him in."
He killed the video. He was the decision maker for this session, a board member of Arasaka's Night City branch. Not the core of the family, but real senior leadership. Ascension Technology was not small enough to ignore, not large enough to summon the Arasakas themselves; a board signature would do.
Several people entered under the secretary's guidance.
Besides Rocky, a deputy director from Logistics attended—the group handling serum testing and evaluation—and representatives from Finance and Marketing. They would assess feasibility. The board director would make the final call.
As Rocky stepped in, he noticed Adam Smasher on the sofa. Smasher looked back. Eyes met. It was their first face-to-face in Night City.
Smasher's presence here was obvious: board protection. He had not yet become Yorinobu Arasaka's personal bodyguard, but after what Rocky did outside the clinic, ordinary security was not enough, and board attendance made Smasher the natural choice.
"Mind your movements. Or I will tear you into pieces," Smasher said, flat.
Rocky did not flinch and did not answer. He sat in his seat.