Chapter 220

As for Abernathy's house, it's not that it's impossible, but the feasibility is very low. That place is an upscale corporate community with a very high level of security, so not many people can get in.

It's really difficult for V to access Arasaka's resources to do this kind of private job, which is tantamount to overthrowing his superiors.

Is there a time limit?

Jackie asked again, "Has your department head been decided yet?"

"No. There's plenty of time available."

V said, "However, the sooner the better."

"OK, I understand. Phew... Let's tentatively decide on a few plans. A direct assault is almost impossible... The safest plan is still to ambush and kill outside the city."

"I will keep a close eye on the target's schedule."

Upon hearing this, V nodded.

"Furthermore, we can't put all our eggs in one basket."

Jackie lightly touched the Separate Chip storing Abernathy's recent information with his finger, his expression somewhat strange. "Judging from this lady's spending records, her needs in that area are quite strong. She's called 'Cloud Top♂ Sex Doll' quite a few times... Let me see if I can start from this angle."

Glancing at Jackie, whose tone became somewhat inexplicable when Cloud Peak was mentioned, V added, "Don't forget to scout around her residence as well."

"Let me know."

Both were decisive and efficient, and they quickly finalized the details of the commission. Jackie stroked his chin and slapped his thigh with his other hand, "Alright, the plan is finalized. I'll contact you in a while. Now, let's have a few drinks."

He filled his glass with tequila, raised it, and said, "To my younger sister's promotion."

Infected by Jackie's optimism, V's tired face broke into a smile as he raised his glass, "To my brother Jackie's path to stardom!"

"Cheers." ×2.

At the same time.

Night City, a private mid-sized airport on the Arasaka Waterfront.

Buzz... Buzz...

The fully armed airship escort formation slowly decelerated and landed, and a luxurious orbital-class airship stepped out from the crowd and quickly came to a stop in front of the welcoming crowd.

Opening her eyes from a light sleep, Vera straightened her clothes, glanced at Michiko Arasaka was traveling with her, and got out of the car.

"Uncle Thomas."

Since she did not notify the Night City administration when she returned, there were not many people picking her up at the airport; they were all her confidants. Vera immediately spotted James Thomas, the vice president of the Night City Arasaka Tower Director of Operations, in the crowd.

He followed in Vera's footsteps and rose from the position of First Executive Deputy Director of the Security Department.

James Thomas was particularly pleased and gratified by Vera's sentimentality. His serious brows relaxed, but in person, especially at work, he was never one to act superior because of his seniority. He addressed her by her title and stepped forward, saying, "Director Vera."

Then he looked at Michiko and said, "Miss Michiko."

"Vice President Thomas."

Michiko nodded in return.

Seeing Vera and Thomas walking familiarly to the other side, clearly having something to talk about, she wasn't annoyed. She casually called someone to lead the way and waved to Vera as she walked towards the reception center of Arasaka Waterfront Airport.

Vera waved her hand, turned her head, and strode off to the tarmac where she and Thomas could overlook the construction site of the new Watson Arasaka Research Center. Her eyes began to gleam with an orange-red light.

[Vera: While I was away from North America, did the operation to find the remnants of the new Federal Intelligence Agency yield any results?]

Thomas: There have been some results, but not many. After Washington rebuilt Night City's intelligence system, the person in charge became much more cautious and slippery. But it wasn't without major gains; we can roughly confirm that their base is in the Pacifica area.

[Vera: Pacifica? That makes sense. Since Dogtown went from being independent to being under the jurisdiction of the municipal government, there's been a lot of population movement and a mixed bag of people. It's been stagnant for over half a year; let Kurt Hansen do another major cleanup.]

Thomas: Let Hansen handle it then, I'll get the intelligence department to assist. Speaking of the intelligence system, the mess in Frankfurt really turned the Counter-Intelligence Department and Special Operations Department upside down. Now, after the issue was put on hold, Arthur Jenkins and Susan Abernathy are at it again.

"Oh, really?"

Vera's lips, hidden in the night, suddenly curved into a smile.

214

Chapter 214 No one understands Arasaka better than me!

Frankly, in Vera's opinion, the responsibility for all that mess in Frankfurt really didn't lie with Arthur Jenkins of the Counter-Intelligence Department.

He's just a scapegoat.

V is the scapegoat who takes the blame.

Although the 'Frankfurt Incident' was not directly under her jurisdiction in North American Region, as Board Member Sano Arasaka, no one except Saburo Arasaka could stop Vera from seeing the confidential documents she wanted.

In short, the cause and effect of the incident are as follows:

While spying on the Arasaka Unkai base on the moon, those perverted bastards in the Militech detected abnormal geological readings. So they sent a spy team to investigate on-site and discovered that Arasaka was secretly building a mass accelerator. They then promptly leaked this information to other factions.

In short, a mass accelerator is a giant multi-stage railgun, also known as a super electromagnetic gun or a Gauss gun, which can accelerate spacecraft to the first cosmic velocity using Ampere force on Earth, and then be recovered by personnel in satellite orbit.

Compared to traditional rocket launchers, it is not only more efficient but also cheaper.

Building a mass accelerator on the moon would greatly accelerate Arasaka's construction of Lunar Colonization and further free him from the constraints of the European Bank. Similarly, the mass accelerator's launch material could be either returning spacecraft or huge fragments of lunar soil containing high concentrations of helium-3.

If it is the latter, then it would be a nuclear strike with a yield far exceeding that of conventional nuclear weapons.

Therefore, the construction of mass accelerators without authorization is explicitly prohibited by the European Space Council (ESC).

The incident came to light just as Arasaka's lunar contract was about to expire and needed to be renewed. The European Space Agency (ESA) held a meeting in Frankfurt to discuss the issue of renewing Arasaka's authorization for Unkai.

Undoubtedly, if things are left to their own devices, this mess will completely destroy Arasaka's lunar plan.

Unfortunately, just as Arasaka was mobilizing manpower and resources to suppress the scandal, in Frankfurt, due to a sudden leak of internal information or the defection of relevant personnel, several intelligence points of the Arasaka Tower in Frankfurt were raided, and spies were exposed.

The perpetrators have been identified as the Federal Intelligence Agency of the United States and the Militech Agency.

The North American Night City Arasaka Tower, therefore intervened.

Then, Susan Abernathy, the Director of Special Operations in charge of Night City Arasaka Tower intelligence system, passed the buck to Jenkins, putting the Counter-Intelligence Department in charge.

Even though the two have always been at odds and often try their best to smear each other in front of higher-ups, and their relationship is notoriously bad, it is important to know the rules of Arasaka: when faced with a task assigned by a superior who is only slightly higher in rank, Jenkins must obey.

The first rule of the Arasaka Employee code of conduct is that subordinates must strictly follow the orders of their superiors 100%.

He was sitting in the city at night when trouble fell from the sky, leaving him no choice but to bite the bullet and clean up the mess in Frankfurt.

By then, the mass accelerator at the Arasaka Unkai base had been discovered by the European Space Agency. Negotiations in Frankfurt had failed, and conventional off-the-ground tactics had been sabotaged by adversaries. Under the circumstances, the mission would have been a hot potato for any department.

Faced with a passive and deteriorating situation, Jenkins ultimately had no choice but to resort to the most brutal method of silencing witnesses.

But to be fair, Jenkins did manage to resolve the issue, preventing the vote and buying them a week.

Although things were handled sloppily and the methods were questionable, Arasaka did not lose his authorization.

If we were to truly assign blame afterward, the Arasaka Tower European headquarters in Paris, the Arasaka Lunar Cloud Sea base, the Arasaka Tower space agency in Tokyo, the Arasaka Central Intelligence Headquarters, and even Abernathy himself—every single one of them would be held accountable.

In any case, aside from keeping the two sides from fighting amongst themselves and demanding cooperation in resolving the issues, Vera was mostly busy sorting out the military and political affairs of Night City Arasaka Tower, the Free State Alliance, and related allies, keeping things separate and uncomplicated.

Norinobu seized power but neither took the blame nor did he manage the situation.

Michiko didn't even want to hang herself.

Wako is praying for blessings at home...

Afterwards, Saburo, who had recovered his energy, personally took charge. It is unknown how many battles and power struggles there were, but Arasaka finally managed to renew the lunar development contract.

The quality accelerator under construction is undoubtedly excellent, but it has been halted due to compromise.

Arasaka doesn't want to completely clash with the world's number one European Bank.

Yes, temporarily.

According to what Vera gleaned from her game of chess with Sanlang, the equipment was indeed dismantled, but modularly, and used as construction materials for the Yunhai base...

Today, the matter has been settled.

Once the storm had passed, the scandal had subsided, and the external enemies had fallen silent, Vera no longer suppressed Arasaka's beloved traditional skills.

At this Arasaka moment, aside from the overtly strict hierarchical management system that is among the most stringent in global Major Corporations, another unspoken rule that naturally arose from the oppressive and rigid hierarchical system of the former—tacitly accepted subservience—began to take effect.

Sometimes, a completely legal and compliant natural promotion process is still too slow.

Just like the blood circulation in the human body, some mediocre and inferior employees who are not suited to the company's development need to be optimized and replaced.

When employees in a department are dissatisfied with their superiors' management, as long as you have the ability to prove that you can create greater value for the company, then appropriate subversion is tacitly permitted. This is similar to how company executives like James Thomas knew about the conflict between Jenkins and Abernathy but did nothing, allowing it to continue.

You two should have a fight.

Whoever loses will bear the blame for the 'Frankfurt Incident'.

The loser will lose everything.

And these two are not isolated cases.

It is foreseeable that during this period, there will be many depressed and disillusioned people in Arasaka who will attempt suicide.

This maintains the apparent hierarchy while eliminating the weak in the workplace. For those "inferior blood" eliminated through internal competition who are not meritorious contributors in external battles, Arasaka Corporation doesn't even need to provide compensation or preferential treatment; all their assets are frozen and confiscated.

Of course, the above rules do not apply to members of the Arasaka Family themselves.

"What are you looking at so intently?"

At the Arasaka Waterfront Reception Center, Michiko put down her knife and fork, wiping her mouth with a napkin as she looked at Vera.

Vera, her eyes gleaming with an orange-red light, raised her fork and put a piece of flank steak into her mouth. "It's not like we're in front of old man Saburo; we can play VR games while eating," she thought. After savoring the taste, she asked Michiko:

"Personnel file. Guess what type it is? If you guess correctly, I'll give you a miniature, custom-made dinosaur pet."

Michiko raised an eyebrow. She hadn't wanted to guess, but then she thought of the dinosaur pet Vera had personally commissioned... She tentatively replied, "The list of those to be purged?"

"Cough, I have no interest in looking at the files of people who are about to die."

Vera paused, coughed, took a sip of coconut milk to cleanse her palate, and explained, "On the contrary, it's a list of people we think are suitable for promotion."

It has investment and mutual benefit value.

On the virtual screen grid built into her prosthetic eye, documents from the Security Department and the North American Secret Service (inherited from Kei Arasaka) were laid out:

Jimmy [Security Department] - First Deputy Director of the General Security Bureau (Vera's former assistant adjutant)

Brian [Security Department] - Section 3 Chief of the Security Bureau (Former Black Bodyguard)

Laurie [Security Department] - Section 4 Chief of the Guard Bureau (Former White Bodyguard)

Shuntaro Matsumura [Security Department] - Cyber Attack Countermeasures Center

Valerie [Counter-Intelligence Department] - Head of Agents and Assistant Director.

Vera was indeed looking at the proposed list of people to be promoted.

The Security Department faction goes without saying; it's the most elite of the elite.

Valerie, or V, was someone Vera was well aware of, and why not bring her under her wing? The only problem was that her mentor, Jenkins, was her primary political ally, but that wasn't a big issue; Vera would make him her own.

Another document.

It was just sent in encrypted form.

Jackie Welles

Heywood, of Hispanic, comes from a single-parent family. His mother, Guadalupe Alahandra Wells, runs a bar called 'Wild Wolves'. She is a former member of the Valentino Gang and is now Free Mercenaries and middleman.

[Maine]

A Maine native, from a single-parent family, a former NUSA special operations force member, retired, a seasoned Cyberpunk, and now the leader of a mercenary group...

[Dorio Dottier]

An Icelander from Sports family. Maine's lover.

Pilar and Rebecca

Locals, siblings, from a single-parent family, orphaned as children, children of the famous Cyberpunk 'Sunrise Daddy' of Night City.

Falco