"Sure, I'll give you a day off... go watch Mewtwo, I'll swing by Pira's place."
Mercer said, giving Qiwei a reminder: "You and Lucy need to get more familiar with drone operations lately. I've written a simple swarm control system, tested it with Pira and it turned out alright,
you need to master how to use these drones quickly. If any bugs are found or improvements are needed, let me know in time, and I'll fix them. We must ensure precise control within a 3-kilometer range."
"Okay." Qiwei nodded, then turned and said, "Wanna come along?"
"...Sure." Lucy glanced at Mercer, then turned and followed Qiwei upstairs to find Pira to test the drones.
Kyoko, afraid of being assigned new lessons by Mercer after just finishing her homework, hurriedly followed them out, heading back to her room to watch Mewtwo.
Meanwhile, Mercer stayed alone in the machine room, constantly simulating the biotechnical heist process in his head, pondering what other loopholes needed to be fixed.
After thinking it over, he had arranged everything that could be done at the base ahead of time, so next was how to quietly and covertly transport the stolen items back to the base.
The word transportation appeared in his mind, and the first thing Mercer thought of was Pan'an.
He sat in the chair and called Pan'an.
"Our big boss finally remembers me?" Pan'an's brash voice came through, he was sitting in the car in the video with the wind blowing hard, obviously with the window still open.
"Haha, I think about you every day, the wind, sand, and the burning smell of bonfires in Adcardo... alright, I have a big job, I need a batch of absolutely reliable drivers — quick in action and tight-lipped, you get what I mean."
As Mercer spoke, Pan'an raised an eyebrow: "Tell me more details?"
"A heist, I need you to discreetly transport the items away, then quietly detour and deliver them to my base... you guys are experts in this, I don't think you'll need too much direction from me."
Mercer's words piqued Pan'an's interest: "Robbing who? Where is the hit?"
"Either at the border or on the road from the outskirts to the city center of Night City. The target is a joint convoy of Biotechnica and Military Science. You guys don't need to engage in the firefight, just quickly extract the goods for me after the battle."
After Mercer finished, Pan'an's expression in the video was somewhat incredulous: "Huh? A joint convoy of Military Science and Biotechnica?"
"Yes." Mercer finished speaking, and Pan'an looked at him seriously, as if checking if his head was malfunctioning.
Mercer rolled his eyes: "If you keep looking at me like that, I'll go find someone else."
"No, no, no, hey~ I'm just worried about you." Pan'an said with a smile: "Alright, I'll find you reliable people, but what's your budget?"
"Let me make it clear, if it includes transportation, hiding the items and sending them around before delivering to Dog Town, it won't come cheap; time, manpower, and resources cost quite a bit. You should give me some specifics, like how big the items are, and how much there is."
After thinking for a moment, Mercer said: "As for payment, for this job, as long as it's completed, each person will get 5,000 to 10,000 Euros, depending on the specifics, but that's the minimum.
As for how big the items are... based on my estimate, if you want to transport everything, you'll need at least the cargo capacity of three ten-ton-level small trucks."
"That big?" Pan'an hissed.
"These large pieces of equipment are transported using specialized crates, all modular storage. I'll send you the specs soon, you'll weigh it yourself."
After Mercer finished, he paused for a moment and said: "I can assure you as much as possible that NCPD will not chase you, and city cameras won't catch your details.
But try not to let it be found out that these items are being sent to Adcardo, I don't want to cause you trouble."
"Don't worry, this isn't our first rodeo doing similar jobs. This time targeting corporate dogs, we'll certainly be more careful!"
Pan'an said excitedly after receiving the big job: "It's got to be you, Mercer; if we pull off this job, we could earn a tidy 100,000, maybe 200,000 Euros!"
Seeing her pure smile at this moment... how to put it, Mercer suddenly felt a bit nostalgic, back when V first made some money, she looked just like this, only now...
That girl's drink yesterday probably cost more than her past two months' rent altogether.
"You need to arrange for people early, clearing schedules to prepare vehicles; once you've reviewed the information I sent and confirmed how many people and vehicles are needed, contact me so I can plan how to allocate."
After Mercer finished, Pan'an agreed without further ado, hanging up, and Mercer sent her the size, scale, and weight of the equipment he needed.
She quickly replied with an OK, and then enthusiastically went to find reliable people for him.
In the time after, Mercer further refined the plan while waiting for Mann's news.
It wasn't until a week before the convoy's arrival that Mann finally called him.
"A, Faraday contacted me, said he wants to snag Biotechnica and Military Science. I said I need to think about it... Do you have any opinions?"
When Mann's voice emerged, Mercer's lips couldn't help but curl slightly.
Opinions?
"My opinion is... let's do this damn job, tell Faraday there's a badass mercenary team named Spark Team willing to take the job... but I need Arasaka weapon support, you get what I mean?"
After Mercer finished, Mann understood implicitly and said: "Got it, I'll just say I lack confidence and need to pull in some tough brothers and sisters, Faraday certainly won't mind."
"So, are you in?" Mercer asked with a smile.
Before Mann made his call, he had already made a decision.
He said in a deep voice: "In, we'll be doing this job with you!"