"Mr. Carl, the target you are tracking turned into the factory district. Please wait a moment. We will arrange for personnel to assist you immediately."
Listening to the Night City Police Department over the comms, Carl declined their offer. "Just send a few people to wrap things up. I saw where they went in—it looks like Maelstrom territory. Don't come over yet. It would be bad if it raised unnecessary suspicion. I don't want to alarm them too much."
"I understand, Mr. Carl, but your safety is the top priority. The Special Operations Team has already dispatched a four-person squad to assist you. As requested, they will remain on the perimeter for now, but please be extremely careful. If anything happens, the Special Operations Team will move out immediately."
She was getting a taste of what it felt like to have bodyguards following her everywhere.
The city was still quite chaotic because of Dogtown. Who knew how many criminals who had escaped Dogtown had slipped back into the city—right now, the Special Operations Team should have been short-handed.
Still, only sending four people was acceptable.
Carl watched the vehicle turn into Maelstrom territory. With a slight movement, she swiftly slipped past several Maelstrom patrol posts.
It was hardly surprising that the person behind SSI had ties to Maelstrom.
Maelstrom's organizational structure meant that every crew under the gang operated independently. Those crews might take jobs that even their superiors knew nothing about, or make risky moves that were never reported upward at all. Such things were beyond the leaders' control.
After all, if the leader of a gang plagued by Cyberpsychosis due to excessive augmentation truly had the ability to control the entire gang, he would have been comparable to Maelstrom's original founder, Bonebreaker.
Ever since the famed Maelstrom founder