Bryce was actually pretty capable. You could tell from how he silently took down a hacker.
But ordinary people had no idea how complicated cybercrime was, especially in Night City.
"First, let me ask you something. You weren't the ones behind the blackout at Corporate Plaza, were you?"
"No."
Lier shook his head in denial, following Bryce's lead.
It didn't matter what NetWatch thought right now. Lier still remembered what Bryce had told him earlier: don't talk about cybercrime in front of him.
Maybe NetWatch suspected him. Maybe they were testing him. Or maybe they thought someone else was the hacker behind the blackout.
It was also possible that NetWatch was carrying out its duties with all three of those attitudes at once.
NetWatch wasn't one person. A mature organization could handle multiple threads at once, even pushing ahead with several plans based on different approaches in different directions.
Of course, that depended on how abundant their resources were.
It looked like Bryce had run into a resource shortage.
The agent glanced at Lier. "Since we're going to work together, let's be frank with each other. How much do you know about the hacker who supported you at Corporate Plaza?"
"I don't know. Faraday doesn't like people asking too many questions."
Thanks, Faraday.
Thanks for your contribution to Burger King's trade-secret protection.
Thinking that, Lier started on his burger too.
Bryce continued, "Then it looks like he screwed that poor bastard Faraday over as well. Anyway, he's a crafty cybercriminal.
"The blackout he caused at Corporate Plaza also damaged and destroyed a large amount of Cyberspace data. In the six hours after the blackout, cybercrime in Night City-
"It wasn't just cybercrime. All kinds of crimes surged, throwing our original work schedule off track.
"Now there are more incidents where