Lissandra stood before a barrier that split the Night City net from an independent network space of its own. Behind that veil stretched the Voodoo Boys' private domain, the rezo agwe subnet, a grid they had built and now ran end to end across Pacifica.
As a hacker crew, the Voodoo Boys were not weak. Inside Rezo Agwe, they controlled traffic, logged every packet, and watched every login. Anyone who routed through Rezo Agwe exposed themselves to their eyes. This was also why they kept slipping NetWatch dragnets. NetWatch could not tolerate a walled cyberspace outside its control, yet Rezo Agwe let the Voodoo Boys disappear whenever the heat rose.
NetWatch had another standing mandate. It maintained the Blackwall, a giant ICE barrier that separated the usable Net from the Old Net, full of feral AIs. Every day, NetWatch fought off runners who tried to pry at that wall. The Voodoo Boys preached the opposite. They wanted the Blackwall opened. Ideology made them enemies, and the chase never stopped.
The runners who had poked Ascension Technology's vault had ridden Rezo Agwe's cover to blind Lissandra's trace. She could dive after them, push into rezo agwe, and still rip up the trail to the Voodoo Boys' core. Doing that meant stepping into their home field. She did not fear being trapped, but a determined defense could delay her. If another actor tried to hit Ascension's servers while she wrestled in Pacifica, the company would lose its shield.
Lissandra kept to her contract. Protect Ascension first. She sent Rocky a full report.
As for the one runner who escaped, her mark on him was more than a beacon. When he thought himself safe and pulled out of the deep dive, the payload would bloom and burn out his brain, wiping everything he carried. Rezo Agwe could filter the telemetry from that mark, but it could not stop the detonation itself. The moment they stepped into the fortress, their endings were fixed. Lissandra did not keep souvenirs.
Ascension Technology.
Rocky scanned Lissandra's intel and raised an eyebrow. The Voodoo Boys were misbehaving again. He had never liked them. They ignored rules, lied as a tactic, used people until they were empty, then threw them away.
Rebecca leaned in, bright-eyed. "Pacifica's crew? Let's go wipe them."
He considered the direct approach. Lissandra could dismantle Rezo Agwe over time by seeding offensive code that the Voodoo Boys could not handle. That path would work, but Rebecca wanted a fight, and he had not gone to war beside her in a while. He gave a short nod.
They were about to head for Pacifica when another notice chimed. NetWatch had arrived at Ascension's front desk.
Reception room.
Rocky met the agent from NetWatch. Under Rebecca's stare, the man still managed to present his purpose.
"Mr. L, I am an agent with NetWatch." He flashed credentials. "We have been tracking the hacker gang known as the Voodoo Boys in Pacifica. They are extremely dangerous. They damage the network environment and steal corporate secrets for extortion and sale."
"You can't get to the point?" Rebecca lifted a boot and kicked the leg of his chair, then drew a pistol and held it near his temple. "Less noise. More content."
The agent froze. The barrel did its work. Words stopped.
"Relax," Rocky said. "She just runs hot. Keep it short."
The man swallowed, reorganized, and continued. "In our recent investigation, we discovered they are planning an intrusion against your company's data fortress. NetWatch has deep experience fighting the Voodoo Boys. We can deploy a professional security team to resolve this incident. If Ascension purchases our latest protection package, you will receive top-tier service from NetWatch."
It lined up with Rocky's guess. Sales call in the clothes of a warning. NetWatch wore the badge of a global policing body, but it began as a private network security company and still handled business like one. It sold defensive solutions, counter-hacker services, and network intelligence to corporations that could pay. Ascension was now on that list. He let the pitch finish without committing either way. The decision could wait until after Pacifica.