Dogtown's night was once again lit by neon. As residents began pouring into the streets to enjoy the nightlife, Carl waited at Gemini Blue for her two friends, who had gone all the way to the Mexican border as her representatives.
"Thanks for handling this, Jack, Oliver. Jack, you said you'd stayed there before, so I sent you. I heard the talks went pretty well. You two worked hard."
"What hard work?" Jack grinned, though his eyes curiously swept past Carl. "Where's Johnny? And why aren't T-BUG and V here either?"
"The lab finally succeeded. Johnny's matter will be dealt with in the next few days, and they need him waiting over there, so he can't come. We might have to go watch over him when the time comes." Carl gestured for them to head inside.
"T-BUG and V are waiting inside. Did you two get so used to using the satellite channel outside that you forgot to switch back to the squad channel? They said they couldn't reach you no matter how they tried. Regular communications are back up now, so remember to switch back."
"Oh, I forgot about that. No wonder nobody came to chat with me the moment I got near Night City."
Oliver smacked his forehead and quickly switched back, only to find the newly reconnected squad channel flooded with messages.
"Where are you? Are you almost here? Your location says you're nearly here. Wow, there are so many. You didn't even say anything on the satellite channel."
"We didn't expect you to forget to switch back."
Carl smiled, but she could tell her two friends had not had it as easy as they claimed.
They had even forgotten something like that, and judging by their obvious lack of bathing for quite some time, there was