Chapter Summaries

Carl noticed that Melissa Rory had outdated Twilight Mantis Blades and realized she was following him through Watson District. After recognizing her from a Psycho Squad video and confirming she was suffering from Cyberpsychosis, he faced her as she prepared to attack.

• Carl noticed Melissa Rory's Twilight Mantis Blades but chose not to interfere because she showed no Cyberpsychosis symptoms.
• Melissa Rory followed Carl, and he recognized that she had deliberately matched his footsteps.
• Carl messaged Andy about a possible cyberpsycho and stopped in an alley in Watson District.
• Melissa Rory introduced herself, extended her Mantis Blades, and told Carl she wanted to test her skills against someone in the same line of work.
• Carl recognized Melissa Rory from a promotional video showing Psycho Squad dealing with her and asked if she was crazy.

Carl fought Melissa Rory, a cyberpsycho equipped with Sandevistan and Mantis Blades, and calmly judged her attacks while evading them. When Carl drew a Neurotoxin Knife, Melissa fled up the alley walls, and Carl pursued her.

• Melissa Rory attacked Carl with her Mantis Blades, but Carl evaded her strikes and assessed her fighting technique.
• Carl decided Melissa Rory posed little challenge and drew her Neurotoxin Knife.
• Melissa Rory sensed the knife’s danger, stopped attacking, and tried to escape.
• Melissa Rory used her Charge Jump and Mantis Blades to climb the alley walls and disappear onto the rooftops.
• Carl put the knife away and dashed toward the wall after Melissa Rory.

Andy entered a sealed housing area to help Carl confront a cyberpsycho and fought off a woman with Mantis Blades in a cramped alley. He knocked her away and saw Carl approaching.

• Andy ordered his officers to form small groups and retreat for support if they encountered a suspected cyberpsycho.
• Andy entered the evacuated housing area alone, leaving his rifle behind as he searched the narrow alleys with his pistol ready.
• A woman with Mantis Blades ambushed Andy around a corner, and his Kerenzikov helped him block her strike with his alloy palm.
• Andy punched the armored woman in the face and sent her flying, then saw Carl approaching.

Carl and Andy cornered Melissa Rory, but their attempts to subdue her failed to stop her escape. A Psycho Squad member crashed down onto Melissa, leaving her fate unknown.

• Andy joined Carl in confronting Melissa Rory and recognized her Twilight Mantis Blades.
• Melissa tried to escape with a Charge Jump, but Carl threw a neurotoxin knife along her path.
• Andy launched a flashbang that blinded Melissa, allowing Carl's knife to pierce her Subdermal Armor.
• Andy struck Melissa with his shock baton, but her grounding plating kept her moving.
• A Psycho Squad member crashed down onto Melissa and rose from her bloodied body.

After the Psycho Squad arrived and took control of the cyberpsychosis case, Carl and Andy encountered Dallas Foster, the captain Carl had fought before. As Andy explained the incident, Carl considered whether to recruit people from the Night City Police Department into the Psycho Squad.

• Carl assessed Melissa Rory's injuries while Andy focused on the Psycho Squad's arrival and authority in Night City.
• Dallas Foster recognized Carl and taunted him and Andy, and Carl identified Dallas by name.
• A Psycho Squad interrogator invoked the Cyberpsychosis Procedure Guidelines and rejected Andy's request to handle the case.
• Carl gave his name and occupation, verified his identity, and agreed to describe what happened.
• Psycho Squad members carried the injured Melissa Rory into their hovercar and injected her during transport.
• Carl realized the Psycho Squad might be short on personnel and considered reaching out to recruit from the Night City Police Department.

After being called away on his planned day off, Carl met Blanca at their familiar restaurant in City Center. She warned him that higher-ups at the company had noticed his work and wanted to contact him about a possible assignment, leaving him grateful for her friendship.

• Blanca called Carl and asked him to meet her privately, so he got Andy to drive him to City Center.
• Carl arrived at the Spanish restaurant where he and Blanca had eaten before and ordered his usual meal.
• Blanca told Carl that company executives had noticed how he handled the recent incident and wanted to see whether they could assign him work.
• Carl realized Blanca had brought him the information as a friend and thanked her for looking out for him.

Carl met with Smith, a disguised Militech representative, who offered him a job and paid a 400,000-Eurodollar down payment in cash. Smith asked Carl and his team to retrieve a document about presidential campaign propaganda in Southern California.

• Smith introduced himself to Carl at the Afterlife and claimed to represent Militech.
• Carl questioned Smith’s identity, so Smith opened a suitcase containing 400,000 Eurodollars as a down payment.
• Carl verified that the cash was genuine and understood that the concealed identities and cash payment would make the contract difficult to trace to any individual.
• Smith offered Carl’s team a job in Southern California: obtaining a document related to Militech’s presidential campaign propaganda.

Carl’s crew drove the modified Hera south toward a job in New American territory, realizing they had been hired to retrieve presidential campaign documents amid a possible power struggle between Militech and New America. As they crossed into the territory, Carl received a message welcoming him and suspected their vehicle had been tracked by satellite.

• Oliver drove the Hera through the Badlands while Jack questioned whether its temporary modifications would hold up on the journey to Southern California.
• Oliver explained that Southern California was controlled by New America and Militech, unlike Night City, where many factions competed for influence.
• Carl and the others discussed how their mission to obtain presidential campaign documents could entangle them in a Militech or New American political struggle.
• T-BUG noted that the documents could affect the presidential transition, while Jack said their hidden client likely wanted to keep the crew ignorant of the dispute.
• Carl received a message welcoming him to New American territory as the crew passed a boundary sign, and he suspected satellite surveillance had tracked them.

Carl and KK Squad received a notebook with intelligence about Los Angeles and instructions for finding more information. They headed toward a bar where they could use a passphrase to contact the owner.

• Carl met the disguised contact in an abandoned Badlands town near Los Angeles and received a notebook from him.
• V identified the contact’s motorcycle as a custom build and suggested the contact had professional training.
• Carl read that Los Angeles had declined after riots and economic collapse, while Night City had become the prosperous center of western North America.
• Carl found instructions directing the squad to Seven Bar and giving them the passphrase “versatile, easygoing.”

A blond young man and his companions visited a rundown bar in Los Angeles, where the scarred owner recognized them as outsiders and served them at steep prices. As the owner began explaining how locals looked, several figures kicked open the bar door, leaving the visitors to see for themselves.

• The scarred bar owner greeted the blond young man and his three companions, then said outsiders were easy to recognize.
• The blond young man ordered three grilled steaks for himself and two companions, and paid the owner 135 Eurodollars in cash.
• The owner described the bar’s cheap drink, Angel’s Dream, as rum mixed with chemicals that could kill the drinker.
• The bar door was kicked open by several figures, and the owner told the blond young man that local young people looked like them or even stranger.

Oliver and his companions met Kim Ji-woon and the Gearheads at a Los Angeles bar, where Oliver claimed to be a Snake Nation cargo runner. Gunfire outside sent the Gearheads rushing into battle, and Carl welcomed the familiar chaos of the city.

• Oliver mistook the heavily augmented locals entering Seven Bar for Maelstrom and wondered how to handle them.
• Kim Ji-woon questioned Oliver about where he came from, and Oliver denied being from Night City before identifying himself as a former Barker now with Snake Nation.
• Kim Ji-woon recognized the Barker name and treated Oliver's group as people with backing.
• Gunfire broke out outside the bar, and Kim Ji-woon welcomed Oliver to Los Angeles before rushing out with the Gearheads.
• Carl told Oliver she liked the city because its gunfire reminded her of Night City.

Carl and her team learned that Los Angeles’s rival Stone Gang and Gearheads were part of a system preparing the city’s young people for military service. The bar owner revealed that Los Angeles served as New America’s testing ground, leaving the team to grasp the scale of its reserve force.

• Carl’s team watched the heavily armed Gearheads fight the muscular Stone Gang, while the bar owner explained that Los Angeles’s young people split between machinery and muscle.
• Carl used the intelligence code phrase, and the bar owner agreed to provide five pieces of information for free.
• The bar owner explained that Los Angeles’s young people believed they were the turning gears of war and were being prepared for military service.
• Oliver calculated that Los Angeles could contain around sixty thousand reservists, and the team realized New America had built a recruit camp near Arasaka’s territory.

Carl and her team drove through Los Angeles to the Bitmore Millennium Hotel, learning how New America used gang fights to test and recruit young people. They arrived under false identities, with the Rayfield Hera disguised, ready to enter as a young master and his bodyguards.

• Carl recalled the bar owner's account of the Bitmore Millennium Hotel, which Militech had rebuilt as its Los Angeles headquarters and a showcase for visiting corporate representatives.
• The Rayfield Hera passed through a brief street battle between the Gearheads and the Stone Gang, whose fighters competed for a chance to join New America's military.
• Carl explained to V, Oliver, and Jack that Los Angeles's young fighters knew they were being tested but hoped to gain power and status by becoming soldiers.
• Jack and V put on sunglasses as the team prepared to enter the hotel using identities arranged by T-BUG.
• Oliver activated the Hera's exterior disguise, transforming it into an unidentifiable modified car before it reached the hotel's greeters.

Jack and the others entered the Bitmore Millennium Hotel under the identities arranged by T-BUG, with Carl posing as a corporate heir and Jack passing the security scan using Arasaka facial-modification technology. The hotel receptionist recognized Carl as Mr. Gaius, a member of an influential Roman family.

• Carl led the group to the hotel after Oliver activated the modified car’s auto-parking program.
• Jack passed the hotel’s scanner without it detecting his altered face or concealed equipment.
• Oliver and Carl also passed the security scan, but V surrendered his KENDACHI Thermal Katana because it exceeded the hotel’s weapon limit.
• The group entered the lobby, where the receptionist welcomed Carl as Mr. Gaius from Rome.

Carl and the team settled into a Militech hotel under fabricated identities and planned how to find a presidential candidate’s residence and campaign materials. As they began preparing to investigate, Thomas Kress—cousin of former President Elizabeth Kress—appeared in a suite upstairs.

• Carl, Jack, V, Oliver, and T-BUG confirmed their false identities and learned they had about three days to locate the residence and campaign materials.
• T-BUG warned that hacking the hotel could expose the team and leave them trapped in Militech territory.
• Carl assigned the team to survey different hotel floors and planned to begin the operation the following night.
• Jack reassured T-BUG that she was safer providing remote support, and the team prepared to start gathering information.
• Thomas Kress finished a call with his subordinates in a suite above the team’s.

Carl and Jack tried to gather intelligence by listening to restaurant guests, but learned nothing useful. As they left, Carl noticed a waiter’s hurried delivery and added the suite’s occupants to her suspect list.

• Carl found the hotel restaurant’s food disappointing and stayed with Jack to listen for useful conversations.
• Carl and Jack heard only minor complaints about the food while they finished their drinks.
• Carl noticed a waiter leave the service elevator with broth stains on his cuff and an empty food cart.
• Carl inferred that the waiter had delivered many meals to a familiar guest in one suite and put the occupants on her suspect list.

Carl's team compared their clues and identified Thomas Kress, a presidential candidate staying at the hotel, as their likely target. With T-BUG's blueprints and intel in hand, they planned to begin the operation after tracking where breakfast was delivered.

• Carl, Oliver, Jack, and V shared clues linking a long-term hotel guest to large food and wine deliveries and a reputation for overeating.
• T-BUG contacted the team with the hotel's renovation blueprints and a picture identifying Thomas Kress as the important figure staying there.
• T-BUG explained that Thomas Kress was a rising presidential candidate backed by opponents of Rosalind Myles and a relative of former president Elizabeth Kress.
• Carl realized the Militech hirer might work for Rosalind Myles or another faction, but decided the confirmed target made the job easier.
• Carl told the team to watch the breakfast deliveries the next morning before beginning their operation, which V dubbed Return to the White House.

Carl and her crew tracked a hotel guest they suspected was presidential candidate Thomas, hoping to retrieve an item from his room. After confirming his identity with a concealed camera, they planned to enter at night while he slept.

• A waiter delivered an enormous breakfast to a guarded guest upstairs, whom the hotel staff said relied on his great-aunt.
• Oliver, Carl, and Jack monitored the waiter and suspected the guest was presidential candidate Thomas.
• Carl rejected driving Thomas from his room and proposed searching it while he slept, then escaping before he woke.
• V installed a concealed camera on the food cart, and Carl decided the crew would wait for nightfall.

Carl, V, Oliver, and Jack infiltrated Thomas Kress's luxury hotel suite to search for a secret while Thomas slept. V found a suspicious lamp, but its faint crack woke Thomas, leaving the team exposed.

• Oliver, V, Jack, and Carl entered Thomas Kress's suite through a concealed emergency passage after disabling its alarm and access permissions.
• V retrieved a concealed camera that had fallen from a meal cart, while the team discussed the room's limited security and their successful infiltration.
• Carl searched the room for their target as Oliver reflected on how vulnerable powerful people could be.
• V noticed powder on the lampshade, pressed a hidden section, and heard it crack inward.
• Thomas Kress opened his eyes after recognizing the sound of a secret.

Carl and the KK Squad hid in Thomas Kress’s suite while debating how to take the secret concealed in his lamp. The next morning, Thomas discovered the compartment was empty and froze.

• Thomas woke at night, searched the suite, and went to the bathroom without noticing Carl and the others hiding nearby.
• Carl told the squad to wait, reasoning that Thomas’s fear of his secret made him avoid checking the lampshade when he woke naturally.
• Thomas washed his face, worried about his inspection in Los Angeles, then returned to bed without discovering the intruders.
• The next morning, Thomas woke and said he had three more days before returning to Washington.
• Thomas opened the lamp’s concealed compartment and found it empty.