Next came the official business Bryce had come to discuss.
The jammer stopped running, and everything returned to normal.
"I don't have any information on Masamune in my database, and the identities of several of these mercenaries are suspicious, too."
As soon as the time came, Bryce smoothly shifted into work mode. He even exhaled the smoke he'd just inhaled before it reached his lungs.
That way, the Biomonitor cyberware wouldn't detect any obvious change in his nicotine levels. Any slight change could be explained by the gang territory: everyone was smoking, so it was all from secondhand smoke.
Lier played along. "What makes them suspicious?"
"Network Watch has its own intelligence network. Some people shouldn't have been able to cross the European Community's borders. That's not normal."
Setting aside the fact that he'd killed a Child of Gold, the sniper was still an internationally wanted criminal-and one with an exceptionally high internal alert level.
In public, Bryce could still reveal some basic information: the European Community would never have let this man through.
Most of these mercenary groups had been sent by companies from outside Night City to act as vanguard forces. But why would they choose to let someone like this through?
It wasn't a European company. It wasn't an ordinary criminal or mercenary. Who else had the ability to smuggle a criminal across state lines?
That brought them to the official commission.
"Network Watch anomalous incident designation AIA-1: suspected unexpected data anomaly, possibly involving Rogue AI activity. Additional resources are needed to investigate.
"I believe AI was likely involved in this incident. Since you've previously helped Network Watch deal with the AI weapon Soulkiller, we'd like to formally hire you to assist the Network Watch Night City branch in investigating this matter."
Unexpected activity-some of the mercenaries