In the end, the advanced new drug data forgery caused severe side effects that led to her death.
Sasha currently doesn't know that her mother's death was due to this drug—and Mercer doesn't want to tell her for now, to prevent her from disrupting his plans.
The intelligence data Mercer sold to Rogue and Wagako also didn't include this dirt, because he knew very well that if this information broke out, it would be equivalent to telling the biotechnology folks that the server data had been hacked.
Or there was a mole.
And Mercer still needed to ensure Dr. Kuno stays alive to deliver the cloning machine to him, so he needed to suppress this part of the information for now. Once she safely lands and resolves Joanna's situation, with no more value to exploit, then he would expose the news.
Right now, just exposing the matters in Red Ochre and Sillan Town was enough to keep biotechnology occupied. The rest, he would take his time with.
Mercer sat around chatting with them for a while, and seeing that V and Rebecca were about to drink too much again, he decisively decided to end the meeting.
After exchanging contact information with Mann and the others, he bid them farewell and left.
A group of people left Rebirth, and as they got to their own cars, Mercer reminded them, "Tomorrow I'll take Rebecca and Pira to see Old Wei, V you just hold off for a bit, next week we'll go in together and replace some of the components inside."
V nodded nonchalantly, she wasn't in a hurry. Despite having nosebleeds every time she activated Sianwistan, with her physical condition, the original parts still had some distance to go before wearing out.
Rebecca giggled, hugging his arm, "Alright, I heard from Qiwei that V's surgery was done by you? Then I want it too!"
"Getting a couple of arms replaced can be done by Old Wei, as for subdermal armor or whatever, I'd be happy to do that myself."
After Mercer finished speaking, Rebecca nodded without a care, "Sure~ let's replace everything!"
She seemed to treat getting cybernetic surgery as casually as buying new clothes.
Mercer nodded and didn't say much more, while Lucy suddenly spoke up, "Mercer, I think... if there's any job, I mean an on-field mission, Qiwei and I can take it too.
Do you think I need to upgrade any cybernetics?"
Mercer's attitude towards her was different from Rebecca. He knew that Rebecca was likely to stay the way she is all her life, changing parts wouldn't basically affect her development.
But Lucy was different.
"You don't need to upgrade your cybernetics for now, let's talk about it in a couple of years. Hackers don't necessarily need cybernetics to be effective, at most upgrading the Network Access Vault and adding some cortical plugins will suffice.
For on-field missions... I was planning this anyway, after the base is set up, I will start buying some equipment, and conducting research at the base. You guys will handle the missions on the outside."
Mercer had great confidence in his squad's setup.
Once V and Rebecca's cybernetic configurations are further improved, common mission commissions would be a piece of cake for them, without needing him to personally go out.
Against ordinary hackers and network equipment, Lucy and Qiwei together would generally have no opponents.
Then he could send them out on missions to earn money, and with just 40% of the team's revenue, Mercer could cover his basic research and development expenses at the base.
Once the research results came out, they could either be used to enhance the squad's strength or be sold for money. Only then would the squad formally enter the right track and a virtuous cycle.
Upon hearing this, Lucy could only nod reluctantly—if she had a choice, she would rather be the one installing those cybernetics on herself.
They chatted a bit more outside, agreed to get in touch if anything came up, and then parted ways, each heading home.
.....
Early the next morning, Mercer took Rebecca, Pira, and Lucy to meet Old Wei.
It was time to give Rebecca an upgrade too.