Night City Municipal Government Building.
Mayor Lucius Ryan stepped out of his private AV, leaving no hint that he had just driven to Santo Domingo.
As soon as he got out and entered the building, he saw Bryce from Network Watch standing in the corridor-
The agent had originally been a covert operative in Night City, responsible only for Blackwall-related matters. Recently, however, he had been in frequent contact with a group of mercenaries, and had naturally been assigned more work.
On the one hand, Ryan needed his experience dealing with those mercenaries. On the other, Bryce's repeated contact with them had greatly compromised the secrecy of his identity, so there was no need for him to keep operating in secret.
People only knew that Ryan had sponsored Network Watch and established the Network Security Foundation, but this scene showed that his relationship with Network Watch in Night City was closer than outsiders imagined.
At least, that was true of this branch in Night City.
"To be honest, I have mixed feelings about them. Sometimes I think Night City ought to have a calling card with that kind of spirit, but seeing them also reminds me of the nuclear bomb from more than fifty years ago."
Ryan lit a cigar and spoke as he walked past Bryce. The latter followed him.
"At least so far, Network Watch's psychological assessments of them have remained within a safe range."
"You don't understand. You can't predict the behavior of people like that."
Ryan took a long drag on his cigar. Sometimes his manner didn't look much like a mayor's; he seemed more like a gang boss.
Bryce immediately replied, "That's because Network Watch uses too few observation methods. The more monitoring equipment and data we have, the more accurate our predictions and control