Chapter 249
The door to the private room slammed shut. After everyone took their seats, the Black woman wearing a sleeveless trench coat introduced herself first, followed by Song Zhaomei, who was removing her Mimetic Shroud.
Although the two had met a few times in Cyberspace, this was their first time in the real world.
The black man, with his silver hair slicked back and flowing to the side, had a somewhat aggressive face, thick lips, gold coin earrings, a long neck, and pure black swirling tattoos in the style of the ocean on his cheeks and chin—he was indeed the leader of the Voodoo Boys. The biometric information and data encoding also matched, and Song Zhaomei had already made her judgment.
She glanced again at the Voodoo Boys's henchmen: ignoring the errand boys, the only one worth noting was the black guy with dreadlocks, the cyber hacker nicknamed "Neptune." Brigitte trip, perhaps.
Beep, beep.
[The Lark: It's not them, it's them. Relax, don't put too much pressure on our sensitive friends.]
[FIA: Received.]
The FIA agents who followed Song Zhaomei into the house immediately withdrew their undisguised scrutinizing gazes.
"A lark?"
Brigitte chuckled as she took in all these little actions. "Kouri E Fè Bouch Ou (Haiti Creole for burying one's head in the sand), codename... Guys in the system like to waste time in these meaningless places."
"That's not important."
Song Zhaomei gave a perfunctory smile. "The important thing is that I'm here, as requested by you."
He may seem nonchalant, but he is actually very anxious.
Honestly, she was secretly grateful to the Haitians in front of her.
Her successful arrival in Santa Fe was thanks to Brigitte.
Taking advantage of the latter's greed and his relentless pursuit of the "Black Wall," especially AI outside the wall, Song Zhaomei only needed to subtly induce him to propose a cooperation condition: to meet the "Black Wall comrade," the Nightingale.
"Ase, I hope you have mastered something that satisfies me, Miss Nightingale."
Without dwelling on the question of whether to reveal her real name, Brigitte asked directly, "Where is the aid?"
Where is what we're looking for?
Song Zhaomei calmly countered with a question.
She tried her best to appear uninterested in the journey to the west.
Brigitte gave the Korean hacker across the table a deep look. She didn't say anything, but simply took a box out of her pocket, opened it, Separate Chip was neatly placed inside.
Seeing this, Song Zhaomei turned her head to signal.
Whoosh!
FIA agents responded by pulling open the blinds on the second floor.
Looking down from here, in the parking lot not far from the restaurant, an inconspicuous old Villefort van is parked, and two street urchins are squatting on the curb eating Mexican tacos.
But their eyes remained fixed on Garcia Restaurant.
Without a doubt, they were undercover agents.
Further away, there are bustling crowds, dilapidated commercial and office buildings, and some ruins caused by the conflict between the 2076 Ghost Dogs Lazarus have not yet been effectively cleared.
"This is the list."
Glancing over there, Song Zhaomei's lips curved into a subtle smile, as if she were both confident and relieved. With a whoosh, she took out a Separate Chip and pushed it in front of Brigitte: "That car is the first batch of goods."
Brigitte, who hadn't noticed anything amiss, nodded and said, "Have my men inspect the goods."
As she spoke, she exchanged chips with Song Zhaomei.
"No problem."
Song Zhaomei is perfectly acceptable.
After gesturing for her to proceed, she picked up the Separate Chip Brigitte handed her and inserted it into the access compartment in her neck.
"A straightforward person."
Seeing this, Brigitte, after instructing the dreadlocked Neptune to inspect the goods, also swiftly grabbed the Federal Intelligence Agency chip and inserted it directly into the chip slot behind her ear.
Song Zhaomei simply responded with a smile.
Has this Haitian woman misunderstood something?
But she didn't bother to explain, and was even less inclined to check her brainwaves.
Because they are all going to die.
A deep red fluorescence shone in the depths of Song Zhaomei's pupils.
She glanced at the backdoor on the Separate Chip, the virus, and the information about the Voodoo Boys rummaging around on the Black Wall before stopping the information reading. She only needed to use the Separate Chip as a pretext to secretly launch the combat hacking program stored in RAM.
I'm waiting for Arasaka's signal, what are you waiting for?
Not far from Garcia Restaurant, in the gaps between buildings, the intense preparations for battle were drawing to a close.
Operation Codename: Break the Cage
Details: [Decrypted]
Mission location: Santa Fe, the capital of New Mexico.
Mission objective: To rescue NUSA Joint Intelligence Bureau Lark, who has defected to the Party, and to ensure her safety.
Mission-related: Attachment 1 - Lark; Attachment 2 - Voodoo Boys; Attachment 3 - NUSA Escort Team; Attachment 4 - Map of Pro- Washington Forces in Santa Fe City.
"Song Zhaomei, of Korean descent, female, of medium build, with extensive cybernetic enhancements throughout her body, and rose-red hair... These are the characteristics of the target."
"We've received orders to take action."
Inside the Badlands van, in the back seat, Katsuo Tanaka was fully armed except for the limited space that prevented him from equipping it with heavy weaponry, said in a low voice, "Suneo, prepare for the assault. David, you over there are ready to support us at any time. Danny, your sniper team keep an eye on the scene."
"Receive."
David Martinez, who was inside a shop across the street, watching the restaurant from the perspective of the cashier's security camera, put on the EXO exoskeleton he had secretly brought into Santa Fe and picked up the M2067 Defender light machine gun.
Arriving earlier than the Voodoo Boys, he had been waiting there for half a day and then shut down the data unit in the action attachment of his prosthetic eye's visual interface.
"The lark, is it Song Zhaomei...?"
He murmured, click, pulled the lever, cocked the gun.
Just as Arasaka's support team approached the restaurant, on the second floor, Bridget, having quickly reviewed the NUSA aid list on the Separate Chip and satisfied with the amount of the special allowance, Brigitte up. "I see the Federal Intelligence Agency's sincerity."
"This is the sincerity of the Voodoo Boys."
After receiving assurances from Neptune, who had inspected the goods, that they were "top-quality," she pushed the box containing the remaining Separate Chip over.
Song Zhaomei kept her eyes lowered, with dark red data streams flashing rapidly in her eyes, as if she was still checking something.
The FIA agent standing guard beside him had his doubts but didn't say much, after all, he had never touched anything like the "Black Wall." Agent Nightingale, on the other hand, was a top-tier hacker skilled in this area and certainly knew more than him.
"Um?"
Brigitte frowned slightly. "Miss Lark, there's plenty of time for research later."
She vaguely sensed something was wrong, but couldn't quite put her finger on it. Those guys in the system, they really had ulterior motives; were they trying to coerce her into using the Voodoo Boys against Arasaka?
Thinking of this, her eyes narrowed, she placed her hands on the table, her body already hunched over, ready to question him.
Buzzing and booming—
The engine roared.
"Damn it, can't you drive? Don't you have eyes?"
"Did this idiot lose control of his car?"
"Holy crap! Why is it crashing into me?!"
After the pedestrians shouted, a series of loud banging sounds followed, along with gasps from the diners! The tremors caused plaster to splatter.
"Alert!"
FIA agents immediately shielded Song Zhaomei behind them, shouting, "Report the situation immediately!!"
He contacted his colleague who was keeping watch downstairs and asked.
"A car crashed... splat."
Before the words were even finished, quick as lightning, clattering sounds rang out—
It was gunfire!
"Enemy attack!"
Another agent downstairs roared, "Damn it! EXO exoskeleton! It's Arasaka's scum!"
In an instant, gunshots rang out incessantly, interspersed with faint groans of people falling to the ground and the sound of walls cracking. The restaurant diners, who had come to watch the drama unfold, scattered like birds and beasts, running away in a chaotic frenzy.
"You idiots, you black devils, you've been exposed!"
Several FIA agents on the second floor, their faces contorted with rage, pointed their guns at the Haitians present.
"Withdraw, escort the lark away."
"Call for backup to the Lazarus barracks on the outskirts of the city!"
At this moment, Brigitte was somewhat bewildered, her face filled with astonishment.
I'm being followed? When did this happen?
Could it really be my oversight that attracted Arasaka?
In short, the Voodoo Boys's doctrines are similar to those of the Adventists in the Three-Body Problem.
Also, Happy Lunar New Year's Eve and Happy New Year!
Chapter 245 Bad news came from Santa Fe City. jpg
The sun was blazing overhead, and the air was dry and windy.
The afternoon sun shone through the thin highland air, casting its rays on the bustling, murky outlines of the old town of Santa Fe.
Scattered throughout the area, both inside and out, are numerous ruins, some new and some old. The neighborhood's landmark—the earthen-yellow Catholic church—has also been ravaged by the turbulent times.
Those are the marks left by the iron hooves of war.
Since the collapse and disintegration of the Old USA at the end of the last century, the people of Santa Fe have been resigned to their fate.
Because of their insufficient strength but strategic location, and their inability to resist anyone, whether it was the separatist forces of the Free State on the West Coast, the isolated forces of Texas, or the New American Unification Forces on the East Coast... they all 'joined forces' here.
Even in this godforsaken world of 2077, it's considered one of the worst places.
But life has to go on, doesn't it?
If you can't change the world, change yourself and adapt.
Sadly, the people here have gradually become accustomed to living with turmoil.
"Hey, hey, hey! Everyone passing by, take a look! Newly arrived neural interfaces, exclusive to the Black Market. Install one, and your brain will run faster than Mewtwo! Think it's too expensive? Ha, look at your crappy prosthetic body, it's rusted to the point of crumbling!"
"Mediation? Peace is coming? Those good-for-nothing idiots think they can mediate Arasaka and Washington? Ha, I bet this is just another endless cycle. They've lost all shame for fame, no different from those hypocrites trying to raise their prices."
"Civil engineering? Even a dog wouldn't do that! You can make money but you won't live to spend it. Doing construction around Santa Fe, are you trying to build bunkers for some idiot like the Hound of the Underworld or Lazarus? Who knows when a bomb that grows out of the desert might fall down?"
"Hey buddy, wanna relax a bit? We have a discount!"
On the pedestrian street, forged from reinforced concrete and sludge, neon advertisements featuring holographic projections of cacti, North American foxes, and voluptuous nude women, along with images of muscular men, sway precariously above crooked, rusty storefronts. Groups of people dressed in light, windproof, and sun-protective clothing typical of tropical deserts stroll in small groups. Along the roadside, vendors hawk their wares, people offer their opinions on the news they see, and others loudly proclaim their ways to make money...
The myriad aspects of human life are too numerous to mention.
Until, rattling and banging—boom!
The noise stopped abruptly when the gunshot rang out.
The bomb exploded, creating a deafening roar.
Someone let out a howl, and everyone's expression changed.
"It's a fight between Corporate Dog!!"