Corporate Power Plays

The negotiation was being held on the fourth floor. Maybe corporate people had some inexplicable obsession with climbing to the top—even for negotiations, they chose the highest floor available.

Aside from the ten Maelstrom members who were presumably serving as the other side's security for this negotiation, there was also a male Corpo Dog dressed in a sharp suit. Unlike Blanca, who wore casual clothes and was doing her best to suppress her nerves, this well-dressed Corpo Dog practically wore Night City's stereotypical image of a Corpo Dog on his face.

His expression was arrogant, his nose pointed toward the sky, and even his gaze carried a certain contempt. Looking at him made Carl want to put a hole in his head and let some air through.

What a punchable bastard.

After judging the Corpo Dog across from him, who looked to be twenty-seven or twenty-eight, Carl had to admit that compared to him, Blanca—the Corpo Dog who had hired him—at least had some advantages.

Namely, she was better-looking.

Well, and she had paid him a commission.

"Have a seat, Blanca."

The Corpo Dog across from them seemed quite familiar with Carl's employer. He spoke to Blanca in a relaxed tone, and both his posture and the way he looked at her made it seem as if he already regarded her as meat on the chopping block.

"Juanito."

Speaking in a rather complicated tone, Blanca sat down at the other end of the conference table, opposite the male Corpo Dog.

"No need to be so nervous, Blanca."

Juanito smiled, his expression full of confidence and satisfaction. "We're only discussing a small matter both of us can accept, aren't we?"

"A small matter?"

Hearing Juanito call it a small matter, Blanca's face clearly showed anger. Yet before his smile, she forcibly suppressed it. "Tell me. What do you want in exchange for handing over that thing?"

"My demands won't be too excessive."

Juanito's expression turned mocking. "After all, when I used to be your subordinate, I received such 'wonderful' care from you."

He deliberately stressed the word "care." It seemed that his past with Blanca had not been remotely as pleasant as it sounded.

Looks like one Corpo Dog is biting another.

As Carl listened and made his assessment, his gaze swept across the temporary conference room, which had been created by smashing through a wall to connect two rooms and covered roughly one hundred and twenty square meters. After confirming every Maelstrom member's position and weapon, he gave an almost imperceptible nod.

His employer's intelligence had not been entirely accurate. There were actually eleven people on the other side; counting the one at the entrance and the driver, there were fourteen. Still, that fell within the acceptable range of unexpected complications for the job. Overall, this mission was not too difficult.

While Carl studied the Maelstrom members, those Maelstrom members apparently hired by Juanito were studying him as well. But with ten against one, they did not sense much of a threat from Carl, and their stances relaxed slightly.

They had previously heard from their partner that the other party in this negotiation had no subordinates left to rely on and could only recruit bottom-tier street mercenaries for help. They had thought that might be an exaggeration, but now it seemed to be true. What could a mercenary wearing a bulletproof vest, without even Subdermal Armor, and armed with only a pistol possibly do?

These ten people did not recognize Carl as the one who had taken out Devil earlier. For one thing, Devil had only been a minor leader; people like that in Maelstrom died every week, hardly worth anyone's attention. For another, this batch of Maelstrom members had been obtained by their partner from a higher-ranking leader using Eurodollars. Few of them even knew one another, let alone exchanged information.

Because of that information gap, they saw Carl as a seventeen- or eighteen-year-old brat, young even by gang standards.

While Carl and Maelstrom sized each other up, the conversation between the two Corpo Dogs did not stop. After Juanito made a few more sarcastic jabs at Blanca, pushing the trembling in her arms as she suppressed her anger almost to its limit, he finally seemed to have vented his old resentment and moved into the main topic in high spirits.

"I want you to hand over all your assets, resign voluntarily, and get out of the company. Oh, and by assets, I mean everything, including your car, house, and money."

With that one sentence, Juanito completely ignited Blanca's anger.

"That's impossible!"

Blanca slapped the conference table, whose paint had already worn away in patches, and stood up. "What you have isn't enough to make me pay that price."

"Not enough to make you pay that price?"

Juanito sneered. "Did you think destroying the evidence that you were secretly selling the company's transport routes to Maelstrom meant you could yell at me? I'm not afraid to tell you: I've been doing the same thing, and I started before you did. Even your involvement was arranged when I contacted Maelstrom's higher-ups and had them give you the opportunity. You destroyed the evidence from this shipment? Fine. I have as much evidence as I want."

Juanito raised his pinky, then used it to tap the tabletop.

"Otherwise, how do you think I found out you sold out the company's transport routes? How do you think I got this evidence? By bribing Maelstrom before you did? Face reality, Miss Blanca. Other than graduating from a better school and taking the position that should have been mine, what do you have over me?"

"The entire arrangement was your scheme?!"

"What else? Don't worry, Miss Blanca. I had my Maelstrom friends set up jammers here long ago. Don't think about secretly turning on your recording device. Did you think I didn't notice you pretending to be provoked by me while secretly activating it? Nothing said here will reach the company."

Hearing Juanito's arrogant words, delivered like a final judgment, the anger on Blanca's face froze. Then, as if nothing had happened, her expression returned to calm. She silently sat back down and looked at the company subordinate before her, now her mortal enemy.

"If you loosen the terms, we can still negotiate."

"Sorry, Miss Blanca, but I'm not negotiating with you. I'm simply notifying you, so you can hand it over willingly and save me the trouble. Oh, though there's a bit of revenge in it too."

Juanito looked at Blanca's cold face and burst into laughter. "I've always wanted to see this expression on your face—this look of hatred toward me! Hahahahahaha!"

It felt as refreshing as drinking an ice-cold cola in the summer!

"Are you happy?"

Blanca's sudden question made Juanito's smile freeze. He could not understand why she could still say something like that at a time like this.

Wasn't she supposed to break down?

With that strange thought in mind, he looked at Blanca—and saw the dark muzzle of a gun.

"Idiot."

When playing corporate power games, did you not bring a gun?

Bang.

The gunshot rang out.