Recaps

David brought Su Xiao an experimental Sandevistan and asked whether he could sell it, and Su Xiao gave him two hundred thousand euros while arranging a ride back to the Arasaka Academy. After David and V left, Su Xiao showed Lucy the implant and explained that its former host had likely been used to collect combat test data through a hidden backdoor.

• Su Xiao gave David two credit chips totaling two hundred thousand euros, divided between the academy's compensation and David's expenses, and David reluctantly accepted both after initially trying to return one.
• Su Xiao asked how David had traveled to the construction site and arranged for V to drive him back to the Arasaka Academy to protect him from the Random Blade Society.
• Su Xiao offered David a job if he could not return to the academy, but David declined because he wanted to honor his mother's wish that he continue studying.
• After David and V left, Su Xiao took the Sandevistan to Lucy and identified it as an experimental model with a backdoor used by its manufacturer to gather data from its previous host, a war veteran.

Su Xiao asked Lucy to remove the backdoor from David's Sandevistan, while David failed to persuade Arasaka Academy's principal to reverse his expulsion. As V took him away from the academy, Tanaka Katsuo cornered and provoked him.

• Su Xiao gave Lucy the experimental Sandevistan and asked her to remove its backdoor so he could sell it afterward.
• The principal told David that the school board had decided to expel him and rejected his offer to pay for the system damage.
• V comforted David and agreed to take him back to Stone Ridge Mountain so he could look for work with the Dawn Society.
• David tried to avoid Tanaka Katsuo in the academy corridor, but Tanaka followed him into the staff passage and confronted him.
• Tanaka insulted David's poverty and his mother, then suggested that she earned money through illegal work.

V rescued David from Tanaka Katsuo, then brought him to Su Xiao, who offered him a place to stay and a chance to learn useful skills. David began a new arrangement at Stone Ridge Mountain, where Mitch and Skar would teach him alongside Jose.

• Tanaka Katsuo toyed with David in a fight until V kicked him away and mocked him.
• Tanaka Katsuo charged at V, but she shot both his knees, then stomped on his hand after he threatened her with his father's influence.
• V left Tanaka Katsuo unconscious and took David back to Stone Ridge Mountain to meet Su Xiao.
• David asked Su Xiao for a job, and Su Xiao arranged for him to stay with Mitch and Skar and learn to use a gun with Jose.
• V found David a place to stay, and later told Su Xiao that he was settled in.

After V explained that she had beaten Tanaka Katsuo to protect David, Su Xiao decided to deal with the threat posed by Katsuo’s Arasaka-executive father. The group reached the Tanaka mansion in North Oak, scouted its defenses, and began planning an attack.

• V told Su Xiao she had offended Tanaka Katsuo while protecting David, and Su Xiao said he would handle the fallout.
• Su Xiao sent Mitch and Skar to bring in twenty Aldecaldos to guard their base for forty-eight hours.
• Su Xiao took V, Lucy, and Panam to North Oak, where Panam objected to attacking an Arasaka executive inside the city before agreeing to join them.
• Lucy used a camouflaged Scout Drone to locate the Tanaka mansion and identify its guards, concealed sentries, roof turrets, and escape route.
• Panam chose a nearby hill five hundred meters from the mansion as a sniper position, and Su Xiao proposed disabling the alarm with a signal jammer.

Su Xiao, V, and Lucy infiltrated Tanaka's mansion while Panam took a sniper position outside. Inside, Tanaka berated and slapped his son Katsuo, then ordered him to stay home and reconsider his future, as the attackers prepared to disable the mansion's power.

• Su Xiao, V, and Lucy activated a signal jammer and climbed the cliff to reach the mansion unseen.
• Su Xiao mapped the guards' positions and led Lucy and V through a gap in the defenses toward the mansion's power supply.
• Tanaka listened to Katsuo recount his humiliation at Arasaka Academy and showed anger at his son's behavior.
• Tanaka scolded Katsuo, slapped him, and told him to stay home from the academy and think about what he had done.

Tanaka ordered Marcus to obtain David Martinez’s address so the Special Assault Unit could kill him, but Su Xiao and his team attacked Tanaka’s mansion first. Su Xiao killed Tanaka, and V went upstairs to finish off Tanaka Katsuo as security reinforcements approached.

• Tanaka told Marcus to get David Martinez’s registration details and pass his address to the Special Assault Unit for a clean hit.
• The mansion’s power went out, and armed attackers stormed inside, killing Marcus as Tanaka used him for cover.
• Tanaka’s call for help was cut off by a signal jammer, and he suspected Militech was behind the attack.
• Tanaka attacked Su Xiao at close range, but Su Xiao evaded him and beheaded him with Muramasa.
• Su Xiao sent V upstairs to kill Tanaka Katsuo while he and Lucy held the hall as a four-man security team approached.

Su Xiao and his team escaped after killing Tanaka and his son, and Arasaka’s investigation failed to uncover them. As Su Xiao prepared to help David, River asked to meet in person and appeared troubled when they met in The Glen.

• Su Xiao, V, and Lucy killed the guards at Tanaka’s mansion, set Laser Tripwires, and escaped with Panam in a Delamain Taxi.
• Arasaka sealed off North Oak for three days and investigated Tanaka and his son’s deaths, but the inquiry fizzled out.
• Su Xiao paid the Aldecaldos he had hired and sent them home after they had guarded Stone Ridge Mountain for nearly a week.
• River called Su Xiao for help and arranged to meet him in The Glen.
• Su Xiao met River beside his pickup and saw that he looked haggard and emotionally drained.

Su Xiao learned that River’s nephew Randy was among the missing boys connected to the child kidnapper Anthony Harris, and agreed to help River investigate. River led him to an NCPD laboratory to examine recordings of Harris’s dreams, but they had no authorized way inside.

• River showed Su Xiao a news report about Anthony Harris, a kidnapper nicknamed Peter Pan, whose car contained one dead boy and evidence linked to seven other missing children.
• River revealed that his nephew Randy had disappeared and that he recognized Randy’s shoes in the news footage.
• River said the case had been assigned to Gonagar and his superiors had barred him from investigating, so he asked Su Xiao for help.
• River explained that Harris’s damaged Cyberbrain was too dangerous to examine and proposed looking for clues in recordings of his dreams.
• River brought Su Xiao to the NCPD Laboratory, but admitted they could not enter through the main entrance because his badge was useless.

Su Xiao and River broke into the NCPD laboratory to find evidence about Anthony Harris, but discovered that Harris's file was full of lies. They were caught by Yavin, who revealed River had been suspended, and River explained that Harris had kidnapped his nephew.

• Su Xiao found a way for himself and River to enter the laboratory through a window after they could not open the side door.
• Su Xiao and River searched the laboratory and located the Braindance Editing Room for Autistic Children.
• River found Anthony Harris's file, then discovered it contained only empty lies and blamed Gonagar for failing to uncover anything.
• Su Xiao sensed someone approaching, and River stopped him from knocking out Yavin when she entered the room.
• Yavin revealed River had been suspended after reporting his superior, and River told her Harris had kidnapped his nephew.

River and Su Xiao investigated Anthony Harris’s missing-child case, persuading Yavin to try to induce Harris to dream despite his brain injury. As River headed to his nephew Randy’s mother’s home to search for clues, Su Xiao explained that Harris’s “Peter Pan” alias might reflect a darker version of the Neverland story.

• River pressured Yavin into helping by asking her to extract Harris’s dreams, but she revealed that his cerebral cortex damage had left only chaotic emotions and consciousness fragments.
• Yavin agreed to try using something Harris liked to stimulate a dream, and River left with Su Xiao, encouraged by the possibility of finding clues.
• River told Su Xiao that Director Jerry Furt had corrupted the police department, leading to River’s suspension and the confiscation of his badge and gun.
• River drove to Randy’s mother Jos’s home to search their messages for clues, since his search of Harris’s home had found nothing.
• Su Xiao explained the Peter Pan story and suggested Harris might believe he was taking children to Neverland.
• Su Xiao warned that an earlier Peter Pan portrayal kept children from returning home and killed those who grew up, leaving River stunned by the possibility that Harris identified with that version.

Su Xiao learned more about Randy’s troubled upbringing and heard that River had been suspended from the NCPD and was facing homelessness. He offered River a job at his military contracting company, the Dawn Society, leaving River stunned by Su Xiao’s sudden rise.

• Su Xiao connected Levar Martinez’s abuse to the hormones, anabolic steroids, and stimulants Harris had injected into him.
• River explained that Randy had a history of petty theft, drug use, and running away, and that Randy’s father, who had been with the Aldecaldos, died in a shootout years earlier.
• Su Xiao reasoned that Joss’s long work hours, financial hardship, and Randy’s difficult home and neighborhood circumstances had contributed to Randy’s behavior.
• River admitted that his NCPD suspension might mean he had effectively lost his job, salary, and place in the officers’ dormitory.
• Su Xiao invited River to work for the Dawn Society, and River pulled over in shock after learning Su Xiao was its chairman and president.

Su Xiao recruited River to the Dawn Society, and River agreed to join after Randy was safe. They went to River’s sister Joss’s trailer park home, where River reflected on how long it had been since he visited.

• Su Xiao offered River a monthly salary of thirty thousand eurodollars, and River agreed to work for him once Randy’s situation was settled.
• Su Xiao promised to help River rescue Randy and discussed whether Yavin could still be trusted.
• River explained that he and Yavin had once dated, and that he had leverage over her if she betrayed them.
• Su Xiao and River arrived at Joss’s trailer park home on the outskirts of Santo Domingo.
• River said he used to visit Joss every weekend, and Su Xiao asked why he had stopped.

River and Su Xiao visited Joss to investigate Randy’s disappearance, and Su Xiao stopped Joss from taking her fear and anger out on River. Joss apologized, agreed to let them search Randy’s mobile home, and trusted River’s belief that Randy was still alive.

• River brought Su Xiao to Joss’s house, where Joss had been waiting for news about Randy.
• River told Joss that Randy had been kidnapped, and Su Xiao explained that the suspected kidnapper was hospitalized and unconscious.
• Joss lashed out at River and Su Xiao, so Su Xiao confronted her and River asked him to step outside.
• Joss admitted she had been wrong to blame River and apologized, then asked whether Randy was dead; River insisted he believed Randy was alive.
• River told Joss they had come to search Randy’s belongings, and Joss agreed and asked River to apologize to Su Xiao for her.
• Su Xiao accepted Joss’s apology on the condition that she cook them a feast after they brought Randy home, and River took him to Randy’s mobile home.

Su Xiao and River searched Randy’s mobile home and found a locked game cabinet and a password-protected Alienware laptop, which they planned to take to Lucy for help. As they headed to Afterlife, River explained that Joss’s late husband had often neglected the children, leaving Randy’s disappearance part of a troubled family history.

• Su Xiao searched Randy’s bedroom while River checked the trash, and they found a locked bedside cabinet containing the game Great War Heywood.
• River found the cabinet key, then spotted a laptop under Randy’s bed and pulled it out with Su Xiao.
• Su Xiao and River discovered that the laptop was password-protected, so Su Xiao said his Electronic Warfare Specialist friend could crack it.
• Su Xiao called Lucy and Rogue, arranged to use Afterlife’s hacking equipment room, and River said goodbye to Joss before they left with the laptop.
• While driving through Chinatown, River told Su Xiao that Joss’s husband had once left their ten-year-old son Dorian alone in a bar.

River told Su Xiao how Joss’s husband had neglected Randy and how poverty had strained Joss’s family. At Afterlife, Lucy broke into Randy’s laptop, and the group began searching his emails for clues.

• River explained that Joss’s husband had left Randy alone at a bar, then blamed Joss after Su Xiao brought the child home.
• River said Joss had married her husband after he learned she was already pregnant with Randy, and described how money and family responsibilities had weighed on her.
• River drove Su Xiao to Afterlife, where Emmerich welcomed Su Xiao and directed them to a room Rogue had prepared.
• Su Xiao introduced River to Lucy, who connected Randy’s laptop and bypassed its password.
• River exclaimed when Lucy opened the laptop, and they decided to begin by checking Randy’s emails.

Su Xiao, Lucy, and River read Randy’s emails and discovered how Harris had manipulated the lonely boy into trusting him. The final messages revealed that Randy had agreed to meet Harris in person and was excited about it, giving the group a clue to how he disappeared.

• Lucy read Randy’s emails with Su Xiao and River, revealing how Harris used comforting lies and gifts to earn Randy’s trust.
• River regretted not paying more attention to Randy, while Su Xiao urged him to keep searching for clues.
• Su Xiao suggested skipping to the final emails, reasoning that Harris had likely persuaded Randy to leave home for a meeting.
• Lucy found that Randy had wanted to meet Harris and had agreed to delete their first email at Harris’s request.
• River and Su Xiao saw that Randy had been excited about the meeting, suggesting Harris had lured him away.

Su Xiao, River, and Lucy uncovered how Anthony Harris lured Randy through a hidden website and concluded that Harris was likely holding him and other victims on a farm. They had not yet identified the farm, leaving the search for Randy unresolved.

• Harris sent Randy a long email about his troubled family and urged him to keep their contact secret, while Randy's messages showed he had trusted Harris but had dismissed Natalie's concerns about the website.
• Su Xiao and River reviewed Randy's emails and suspected that Gale was a small-time glitter dealer, then decided to investigate him later while continuing to search for Randy.
• Su Xiao asked Lucy to find the recovery website Randy had sent Natalie, and she discovered that clicking its red image led to Harris's hidden page, Tony's Shelter.
• Su Xiao tested the site and found that access to the hidden page appeared restricted to authorized computers, explaining how Harris had kept it concealed.
• Su Xiao connected Harris's farmer-and-livestock language and his account of his family's farm to a likely location where he had imprisoned Randy and other victims.
• River pointed out that Night City had many farms, and the group still did not know where Harris was keeping Randy.

Su Xiao, Lucy, and River tracked Harris’s hidden website to a farm southeast of Night City and reached it by helicopter. After clearing the farm’s defenses, they found the kidnapped children inside the barn and prepared to break in.

• Su Xiao deduced that Harris had hidden the children on a Badlands farm and dismissed River’s idea of finding the parcel Randy had received.
• Lucy hacked the website and traced its administrator’s IP address to a location southeast of Night City.
• Su Xiao borrowed a helicopter from Rogue, and the group flew to the farm with River and Lucy.
• Lucy disabled the Auto Turrets while Su Xiao used the helicopter’s machine gun to destroy the Laser Tripwires across the farm.
• Su Xiao confirmed the children were inside the barn, then drew Muramasa and raised it to break through the closed entrance.

Su Xiao, Lucy, and River rescued five children from Anthony Harris’s farm, though two had died. After the NCPD offered River reinstatement and a promotion, he revealed that he had turned them down because he needed the higher salary Su Xiao paid him.

• Su Xiao and River freed Randy from the machinery while Lucy shut down the farm’s systems, and River called the NCPD for help.
• Su Xiao and Lucy checked the other children and found that five of the seven, including Randy, had survived while two had died.
• The NCPD and Trauma Team arrived, and news crews began covering the rescue as River gave a statement.
• Su Xiao and Lucy discussed how the NCPD would use the rescue to improve its image and reward River, while Su Xiao said he would respect River’s choice about joining them at Stone Ridge Mountain.
• River told Su Xiao that the NCPD had erased his suspension and offered him a promotion, but he had declined because he needed the better pay from Su Xiao’s work.

River joined Su Xiao’s company after deciding he could no longer change the NCPD, and he delayed reporting for a few days to be with his sister’s family. Su Xiao and Lucy discussed recruiting Aldecaldos and building a medical team, leaving Lucy’s suggestion of Old Wei as their best candidate.

• River explained that the NCPD’s corruption had convinced him to leave and accepted Su Xiao’s offer, asking to spend a few days with his sister first.
• Su Xiao and Lucy returned to Night City, dropping River off at his family’s trailer park before heading to Afterlife.
• Lucy told Su Xiao that Panam wanted the Aldecaldos to join the company, and Su Xiao asked them to send a hundred people for him to evaluate.
• Su Xiao agreed that the company needed more staff but said he would select only twenty or thirty capable candidates.
• Su Xiao and Lucy discussed recruiting a professional medical team instead of paying Trauma Team’s inflated premiums.
• Lucy suggested Old Wei, a respected former University of Tokyo Hospital doctor, as a trustworthy medical-team leader.

Su Xiao visited Old Wei to ask him to join the Dawn Society’s military contractor as its medical-unit head. Old Wei agreed because he believed in Su Xiao and wanted to help, leaving Su Xiao moved by his generosity and concern.

• Lucy urged Su Xiao to ask Old Wei directly rather than assume he wanted to remain retired, so Su Xiao bought fine liquor and went with her to Misty’s Divination Parlor.
• Lucy stayed upstairs while Su Xiao went to Old Wei’s clinic and shared a drink with him, switching to cola when he disliked the liquor.
• Old Wei guessed Su Xiao had come to recruit him and agreed before Su Xiao could finish asking.
• Old Wei explained that he wanted to help Su Xiao, then warned him not to treat him like a cheap domestic helper.
• Su Xiao offered Old Wei a monthly salary of one hundred thousand and the position of medical-unit head, and Old Wei worried that the expense might bankrupt the new company.

Su Xiao, River, Mitch, and Skar went to Gale’s home in eastern North Oak to investigate the Glitter distribution network. After River convinced Gale’s crew to let them in, Su Xiao recognized their poor combat positioning and amateur weapon choices as the group faced a tense standoff.

• River told Su Xiao that Gale was Randy’s dealer, and Su Xiao decided to pursue the Glitter network.
• Su Xiao drove River, Mitch, and Skar to Gale’s home in eastern North Oak, leaving V and Lucy behind.
• River claimed Randy had recommended Gale and explained that Anthony Harris’s kidnapping had kept Randy from contacting him.
• Su Xiao approved putting their long guns in the donation bin, but River resisted when Gale’s men demanded their handguns too.
• Gale’s men let the group inside, shut the door, and surrounded them with weapons.
• Su Xiao assessed the four men’s positions and realized they were amateurs who risked shooting one another.

Su Xiao forced Gale to reveal the location of his supplier, Rat, then led a raid on the Rat's Nest in The Glen. The gang was wiped out, Rat was found dead, and Su Xiao ordered the Glitter-manufacturing equipment destroyed.

• Su Xiao used Time Zero to kill three of Gale's men and forced Gale to identify Rat and reveal the Rat's Nest's address.
• Su Xiao killed Gale after obtaining the information, admitting he had never intended to spare him.
• Two days later, Su Xiao led twenty-five others in an assault on the Rat's Nest, assigning Mitch and Skar to flank the building and Lucy to attack its rooftop sentries with a drone.
• Su Xiao, V, and Panam ambushed gang members fleeing through the front entrance while the other teams cleared the building.
• Mitch reported that Rat was already dead and showed Su Xiao the Glitter-manufacturing equipment.
• Su Xiao ordered the equipment rigged with explosives, and the raid ended with only two Aldecaldos suffering minor injuries.

Rogue told Su Xiao that the Voodoo Boys planned to use Johnny Silverhand to attract Alt, hoping she would turn them into AIs. She revealed that they intended to tear open the Blackwall and let Alt and rogue AIs cross into the real world, leaving Su Xiao alarmed by the threat.

• Su Xiao met Rogue at the Afterlife, where she explained that Alt still existed as a digital life-form beyond the Blackwall.
• Rogue said a Voodoo Boys defector had revealed that the gang wanted Alt to turn them into AIs so they could escape humanity's future.
• Rogue explained that the Voodoo Boys planned to use Johnny Silverhand to draw Alt to them after their netrunners repeatedly failed to reach her.
• Su Xiao questioned why Alt would help them, and Rogue said they planned to offer her a reason she could not refuse.
• Rogue revealed that the Voodoo Boys intended to tear down the Blackwall or open a large breach, allowing Alt and rogue AIs into the real world.

Su Xiao learned that NetWatch wanted him to help destroy the Voodoo Boys and traveled to Pacifica to negotiate a higher fee with its agent. The chapter ended as armed street punks surrounded his Delamain Taxi near the Grand Imperial Mall.

• Rogue told Su Xiao that a Voodoo Boys informant had revealed their headquarters and that NetWatch was offering only five million euros to eliminate the gang.
• Rogue gave Su Xiao the informant’s intelligence and asked him to wipe out the Voodoo Boys, which would also settle her own grudge against them.
• Su Xiao asked about Herman, and Rogue explained that Johnny’s relic needed a living, compatible body to restore him.
• Su Xiao traveled to Pacifica to negotiate with the NetWatch agent based at the Grand Imperial Mall.
• Several armed street punks knocked on Su Xiao’s taxi window as he prepared to contact the NetWatch agent.