Blais seemed a bit lost in his office.
Ryanâs office was a huge "Secret Room".
In the Valley Region, the sales departments and office buildings of various companies were roughly evenly distributed, everyone keeping an eye on each other, and on the mayorâs office, not letting any clue slip by, hoping to gain information and judge the opponentsâ movements in time.
Secondly, he had purchased Arasakaâs security services. Although it wasnât personal defense, Arasakaâs security team was stationed around the office building, never leaving its vicinity.
Furthermore, Military Technology had a distribution point right across the building, staffed with agents 24 hours a day.
Last, Ryan was an important investor in the Network Supervision Committeeâs Night City office, and with his help, the Network Supervision had nearly become the NCPDâs network support department, holding significant power in Night City, largely tied to Ryan himself.
But this most recent line of defense, the Network Supervision directly reported that they had observed no anomalies!
Colleagues kept setting up onsite analytical instruments, adjusting the data, using holographic modeling to analyze the situation.
But the results were vague, they could only determine that Ryan had tripped over in front of his computer, which was destroyed during a streaming AI burst, and then he had moved to a backup device.
The backup device still remained locked.
Blaisâs colleague shook his headâ
"Our mysterious mayor is really something, isnât he? Somebody broke the door open, he left quietly without saying a word, leaving us with this mess..."
Blais understood why his colleague might think this way: though Ryan had brought in the Network Supervision and provided a lot of resources and support for the establishment of the Night City office, he still maintained many private networks.
These private networks did not connect with the Network Supervision, and were quite small, just like the one he used to send messages to Blais.
That was a purely mechanically triggered one-way communication line, sending messages to Blaisâs personal terminal, even bypassing the corporate agentsâ monitoring software used by the Network Supervision...
On his personal terminal, the message was just a normal report of prosthetics deviations, the kind that might occur after drinking a bit of alcohol.
The real message could only be decoded by a second person, so Blais did not know what Ryan had told Lille.
This was an important piece of information.
"I think Ryan was kidnapped."
"Who did it? It couldnât have been Perares, could it? He was the only one here today."
During the conversation, colleagues had repaired the buildingâs database. The most recent thing in the access list was left by Perares, the chairman of the Night City council, who would be competing with Ryan in the next election.
Perares? No wonder Network Supervision didnât react...
Blais was about to confirm that it was Perares who did it, but his colleague promptly reacted.
"Hmm... the camera spotted Ryan going out, driving his own car... Arasaka let him through.
Probably got scared, maybe the door was broken by his own private bodyguards? Huangban Ninja or something?"
He understood why his colleague might think that way, but he didnât feel Network Supervision would stop their inquiry so easilyâ
Given the characteristics of Network Supervision, even if Ryan maintained secret networks, they should still try to thoroughly check through their position of convenience for cooperating partners!
They should have initiated an investigation!
Unless... the company no longer cared, no longer cared about the support Ryan could offer them.
Blaisâs mind raced: Ryanâs emergency line was one-way and secret; he knew for sure Ryan had been kidnapped!
But the companyâs attitude alerted himâNetwork Supervision simply didnât care about Ryan.
And oddly, even though Ryan was just in the next office over, his Network Supervision colleagues showed no reaction whatsoever!
"What car?"
"Thrace Jefferson, his favorite oneâthe one you see on TV? See, I told you it was nothing. Anyway, what about your assignment? Why did you suddenly come back?"
"It fell through," Blais immediately adjusted his demeanor, "Ryan had a deal with that mercenary before, and I was thinking about using it to our advantage."
"Hehe, jack up the price, typical of mercenaries, if I were you, I would have a backup plan."
"Youâre right," Blais subtly moved to Ryanâs computer desk, "I indeed should have a backup plan."
While his colleague was busy retrieving the equipment, Blais immediately started typing on the computerâ
Ryan had locked the database containing secret data, but hadnât locked the communication features.
At least for Blais, it was considered unlocked.
Just the opportunity he needed to bypass the companyâs monitoring.
[Recipient: Lille]
[Blais: Ryan disappeared, the companyâs attitude... somethingâs off.]
[Blais: All I know for now is that the most recent entry in the buildingâs access records was left by Perares, but thatâs the only information left, everything else was destroyed.]
[Blais: Arasaka released a Jefferson 388, the one you can see on TV.]
[Blais: Damn it... must be Military Technology, but isnât Arasaka curious about what Perares was doing here?]
...
"Ryan was kidnapped, and thereâs still a chance."
Mackinaw drove slowly on the highway, but no matter how slowly the car moved, it would still attract the companyâs attention.
"Why?" V asked doubtfully.
"What do you mean, âwhyâ?"
V raised a finger, his mind whirring frantically, before he gave up, "There are a lot of âwhysâ, but let me start with a simple one. What would happen if Ryan were kidnapped or killed?"
"A new mayor would take over, and policies would drastically change."
"Change to what?"
"Good question, this is also why weâre doing this job..." Lille thought for a moment, then decided to be straightforward about the impact, "Ryan is a balancer, and a great one at that, which I wonât deny
Especially since Military Technology and Arasaka are tightly controlled by him. But from another perspective, if you were these two companies, would you think itâs good to be strung along by a mere Night City mayor, continually investing resources in a prolonged battle?
Moreover, this kind of drain benefits Night City, not the companies."
"Benefit from being turned into a dumpster?"
"At least thereâs money in it." Lille, while considering potential scenarios in the car, quickly answered Vâs questions, "And...think about Atlanta.
If Ryan dies, the mayor would have to be chosen between Hot and Perares, either one clearly biased towards one of the companies.
Hot is Arasakaâs lapdog, while Peraresâ major sponsor is Military Technology, and...at least outwardly, heâs very supportive of fostering good relations with New America."
Hot and Perares are tools Ryan uses to communicate with the companies. Often times, he doesnât need to speak; these two will strategize for the companies.
Thatâs the balance.
This is the first layer.
Jack kind of understood, but V got it.
"The more you say it...I feel like both Hot and Perares have reasons to take out Ryan?"
Lille nodded approvingly, thatâs the crux.
Ryan is exactly the kind of politician companies hateâthey sponsor politicians to get things done for them, not to be played and continuously dragged into attritional wars!
Even without considering other conspiracies, both Military Science and Arasaka share a common goal before their supporter ascends to power:
Ryan must be ousted.
Theoretically they have a common goal, practically they are adversaries, absolutely incapable of conspiring against Ryanâs life.
Unless an accident occurs.
If pushing him a little could lead to his death, everyone would do it.
And everyone did.
Now is the time!
"Alright..." V raised a second finger, "then why not just kill him directly? Why kidnap?"
"Thatâs complicated...perhaps the mastermind behind the scenes wants to extract some decisive information from Ryan to help their candidate win the election."
Jack, who hadnât understood earlier, slapped his forehead, "There must be a lot of value in the information inside Ryanâs head!"
"Thatâs the idea..." Lille said, "but according to what Blais says, I guess...the mastermind behind the scenes might have another thought."
This mastermind seeks to create an illusion.
This illusion is: everyone did it, but it didnât.
Because it canât withstand investigation, it needs to stay low, it...is an AI.
Just a rough calculation, too many people could have taken action against Ryan.
When the murderer count is multiple, the difficulty of investigating the case multiplies exponentially, making the whole case increasingly perplexing.
Right now, all thoughts are mere speculation, Lille isnât some sort of psychic who can instantly deduce the events, but the objective remains unchanged.
Finding a Jefferson 388 on the street is usually tough, but today is differentâ
The streets are nearly empty of cars, but filled with gang members.
[Father: Valentino spotted the car.]
"Hold tight..."
V grimaced, "Thinking about rescuing a piece of crap like Ryan doesnât exactly lift my spirits."
"Let me put it another way." Lille said, "Weâre going to decide the future of this city."
"Thatâs a bit more interesting."
Jack in the back seat didnât say a word, feverishly began a new Chapter in his own notebookâ
[Saying this might be a bit too advanced for you two.]
[But a top mercenary must once in their lifetime do something that could determine the future of a city.]
[âJack Wells, 2076...]
[Written before doing a big job.]