Chapter 99 - 95: Invisible Assassin

As a typical high-tech company, it’s not uncommon for Biotechnology to work overtime until the next morning.

However, Diana Kuno thought today might be her last day working overtime at Biotechnology—

The Nightingale Project shouldn’t have resulted in any deaths.

It was a human enhancement program, and the client was Military Technology—such projects; a death would be a huge problem.

If something went wrong, the client wouldn’t pay, and all the company’s initial investments would be wasted!

At times like that, the problem would become massive.

"Damn it..."

Hanging up the phone, Kuno cursed under her breath and then looked at her colleague beside her.

Her colleague was also staring straight at her.

Kuno felt uneasy: "Why are you staring at me?"

"Something went wrong, didn’t it?"

This colleague was also a woman, wearing a white lab coat, a typical technical staff.

Seeing the anxious look on Kuno’s face, she instead smiled.

"What went wrong? What could possibly go wrong? Emilia, you seem a bit nervous."

"Come on, something definitely went wrong. Let me guess—someone experienced intense nerve pain, and the test subject’s behavior became uncontrollable, right?"

Kuno paused for a moment: "You knew something would go wrong?"

"I’ve warned Joanna Koch, that fool, that this kind of experiment would have issues. She didn’t believe me. Now, this bitch knows better!

I’m at odds with her, but when it comes to the experiment, I was right."

Kuno gritted her teeth and said: "You guessed right. I’m going to make a run for it now..."

"Run? Why run?" Morton asked back, "Joanna’s done for! She’s the one who should be running! With so much money invested and killing so many test subjects, you think the company will let her off that easily?

When the time comes, we’ll have the upper hand! Don’t run; you’ll take my position, and I’ll take Koch’s position. Isn’t that good?"

Kuno was actually the local operations team leader of Night City, temporarily transferred to assist with the Nightingale Project.

Although Morton was just the project manager, he was directly from headquarters, so his authority and status were naturally higher than Kuno’s.

However, for projects conducted in Night City, the regional director would naturally have higher authority, so Morton had to listen to Koch—such complex workplace relationships.

Kuno paused for a moment, suspiciously saying: "So, you orchestrated this? You wanted to sabotage Dr. Koch? No wonder you’re always against her."

"Of course not, but I warned her about the risks. This woman is too greedy for success. Now it’s all over!"

Morton, looking relaxed, undid a few buttons on his white lab coat and sat back on the sofa.

"Let’s wait for the scandal to break out. The company will deal with Koch. How could I miss such a good show?

Looks like we don’t need to work overtime today—oh, by the way, I have some evidence of Koch’s misconduct. When the time comes, I’ll expose it too and make sure she’s finished!"

Seeing the confident look on Morton’s face, Kuno felt a bit swayed.

An old friend rising to power? How clever she was, keeping evidence of Koch’s misconduct all along?

She thought about it and then flattered: "When you make it...

"Don’t worry, you’ll take this seat. So, what’s the situation?"

"The outsourced security I sent to retrieve the corpses got infected by the bodies. He said he lost an arm and threatened to expose everything if he didn’t get the money."

"Ha, let him expose it—no, we should help him." Morton thought for a while, then took out a chip from his pocket, inserted it into the neck slot, processed it a bit, and then handed it to Kuno.

"There’s some useful information in here, but not all of it. The media can dig for clues from it—in the end, they might trace it back to us. You know what to do, right?"

Tracing it back to them, they could either take the money or reveal Koch’s misdeeds in righteous indignation—it all depended on the company’s intentions.

Cut ties? Handle it quietly, or swiftly? The key was to position themselves where there would naturally be work to do, either for the company or side gigs. It wouldn’t be a loss either way.

Of course, the risk was extremely high.

Kuno took the chip, full of admiration.

Morton was ruthless, daring to use any risky move to gain benefits and to prove himself to the company.

Since that was the case, then she should expose everything first—

Blow the whistle and put all the blame on Koch’s shoulders.

"Alright, I’m leaving work early today."

"Go ahead."

Kuno quickly walked to the dressing room to change clothes, then headed towards the agreed meeting place.

While walking, she thought—wow, workplace conflict, blame Dr. Koch for messing things up.

However... Morton forgot one thing.

Regardless of whether Koch messed things up, whether the company would deal with her in the future, she was still the regional director of Biotechnology now.

...

The central square was truly the core area.

Unlike Haywood, which was dirty and chaotic, here you could understand why Night City continued to attract people from all over the world.

Luxury cars everywhere, hovering cars zipping by, glowing company signs, and holographic advertisements painted the prosperity of the central square.

In the mercenaries’ work, any job with a reward over 100,000 could be considered a big deal.

And in the central square, the cars running on the street and flying in the sky far exceeded that amount in worth.

The NCPD appeared more frequently, with even 24-hour nonstop posts, trying to maintain order in this chaotic and free city.

A black Mackinaw seemed out of place here.

Lille shouted to V: "Stop looking at the cars! Look for the person! Kuno is black, with an exaggerated mohawk, and likes to wear fur coats!"

"What’s wrong with looking? Can’t drive it, so why not look?" V said discontentedly, then exclaimed, "Oh, damn!"

A Gudela 66 sports car sped by in front of their car, not even caring about the traffic lights.

The nearby NCPD officer glanced at it and skillfully picked up his radio.

"...Central Square, a Gudela 66 sports car traffic violation, guide traffic, don’t let other cars get hit."

Indeed, the NCPD wouldn’t even try to stop this supercar for two main reasons.

First, they couldn’t catch up.

Second, instead of wasting effort writing a ticket, it was better to note the license plate and later ask the owner for money—after all, such people were rich and wouldn’t care about a minor fine.

Rather than enforcing traffic rules, it was better to move others to avoid bigger losses—a bizarre form of law enforcement.

V showed an envious expression, then looked at Lille with displeasure: "It’s all your fault for borrowing my money."

"...Look! That seems like Kuno! Follow her."

V kept driving while glaring at Lille, but Lille pretended not to notice.

The central area’s traffic system nodes were under NCPD supervision, making the cars harder to hack. Actions here still needed to be low-key.

Kuno was driving a Mizutani, the most common sports car in Night City.

The Mackinaw’s big, black body seemed out of place in the city center, and Kuno had noticed the trailing car a while ago.

She immediately knew it was the rendezvous party.

She didn’t act unusual but drove steadily towards Japan Town, like she was going home after work.

They needed a quiet, hidden place to talk.

Soon, the cars reached the boundary between Westbrook and the city center, and both cars tacitly left the main road and entered an alley.

From this point, they could see Tiger Claw Gang members—this was their territory.

Five Tiger Claw members gathered together, with their motorcycles parked nearby. All with green and purple hues and "World’s Best" written on them.

Passing through the alley, the five Tiger Claw members glanced at Kuno’s license plate and then looked away.

Unlike other gangs, the Tiger Claw Gang, whose turf was close to big companies, actually had close relationships with the companies and wouldn’t usually provoke corporate dogs.

After parking, the four of them got out of the cars, but Kuno stood in the shadows, where the streetlight couldn’t reach her.

Seeing Lille and the other two, Kuno suddenly froze: "You guys...damn it, where’s Murphy?"

"Don’t be nervous, lady, we’re Murphy’s friends. He didn’t dare come here, you know why."

Kuno nervously bit her nails, cautiously observing the three for a while, then said:

"Whatever, let’s talk about the matter—Murphy wants compensation, but no way, the company won’t give it, and neither will I."

Lille raised an eyebrow: "So? I guess you didn’t come here just to say that."

"You’re right." Kuno took a few steps forward, "I won’t give Murphy the money, but he can earn it himself.

I have data on Biotechnology’s incident, you can sell the information to the media or whatever."

Lille and V exchanged a glance; nowadays, every corporate dog wanted to sell out their company?

"Listen, I don’t care how you plan to make money, but remember one thing: this whole mess is because of Biotechnology’s regional director..."

Kuno reached for the chip in her neck slot, extending her hand out from the shadows.

"Joan...

Thud!

In the next moment, a samurai sword appeared out of nowhere in the shadows, slashing down from Kuno’s head, cleaving her in two!

Lille’s pupils shrank—

The pattern on the hilt... Tiger Claw Gang?!

"V!"