9. ACPA

"Who would have thought that one of the most prosperous districts in all of Night City would hide a Scavenger den? I actually believed the city center was safe when I first arrived."

Oliver stepped out of the vehicle, eyeing the towering apartment complex before him. He flexed his wrists and picked up his Nova revolver.

"The moment I hit the streets, I stopped believing in official propaganda."

Jackie gripped his Saratoga submachine gun. Compared to his thick, powerful arms, the weapon looked almost dainty, like an adult holding a child's pair of training chopsticks.

"Everyone has their naive days."

After locking the car, Oliver looked over at Karl, who was holding his Kenshin pistol. "What’s the plan, Karl?"

"It’s on the sixth floor. Let’s take the elevator."

Karl, who had already shared the mission details with Jackie and Oliver on the drive over, continued, "The fixer has already marked the room number for us. All that’s left is for us to go in, guns drawn, and clean house. He must have some professional netrunners on his payroll; he even sent over video footage of the room. There are only four Scavengers inside, and our target is still unconscious—they haven't gotten to him yet."

"Then let’s make it quick."

Four Scavengers. Oliver honestly didn't think much of them. Scum who only preyed on civilians and lone gang members rarely had the skill to be anything more than bottom-feeders. Their cyberware and weapons were usually the cheapest junk available, barely better than what a civilian might carry. Oliver wasn't even sure if their bullets could pierce his Kevlar vest. If not for the time crunch, he could have handled all three of them himself without breaking a sweat.

Although Oliver had been kicked out of the 6th Street gang after only a week, he had spent his youth training in marksmanship, tactical maneuvers, and hand-to-hand combat under his 6th Street father. Even before meeting Karl, seven or eight Scavengers wouldn't have been enough to take him down. Now, after completing so many jobs with Jackie and Karl, he was even sharper. Taking down a group of organ-harvesters was no harder than slaughtering a chicken—though, in Night City these days, you weren't even allowed to slaughter chickens anymore.

If Oliver felt this way, it went without saying for Jackie and Karl, the team’s primary combatants. Either of them could have easily carved a path through a building crawling with Scavengers. As the trio had anticipated, the mission was incredibly easy, aside from the time pressure. Most of the effort went into the drive over, followed by the climb up the stairs, and finally, the brief task of neutralizing the Scavengers and securing the target.

"Looks like my marksmanship has improved again."

Surveying the four corpses in the room, Oliver spread his arms wide toward Karl. "Well? Give me an evaluation."

"Three headshots, one in the heart... total engagement time was two seconds. Accuracy is fine, but you could pick up the pace."

"Fair enough. I’ll go back and practice with some Western-themed braindances. You know, Karl, I never realized those could actually be used for training until now."

"That’s because you were too busy just watching the shows."

Karl shook his head and looked toward Jackie, who was inspecting the target next to a bed stained with filth and dried blood. "How is it, Jackie? Is the target okay? Do you want Oliver to take a look?"

"He's fine. Just drugged by these organ-thieves and knocked out... the dosage might be a bit high, though. He might not wake up until later today."

After ensuring the target was stable, Jackie stepped aside to let Oliver take over the extraction. Oliver walked over and realized the brown-haired male was unexpectedly young, perhaps seventeen or eighteen—about the same age as Karl.

"A kid around your age, Karl... oh, no offense, I didn't mean anything by it. He just looks young. What’s his name?"

"Let me check."

Ignoring Oliver’s comment, Karl flipped through the file and confirmed, "Julio. His name is Julio, from Japantown."

"Julio... sounds like a generic name. How did he end up targeted by organ-harvesters at this age?"

Jackie sounded genuinely puzzled, but Oliver, having finished checking the target to confirm Jackie’s assessment, remarked, "Because he’s young and lacks high-end cyberware, making him an easy mark. Japantown is close to the city center; he probably just wandered into the wrong neighborhood."

"I hope he learns a lesson about being reckless this time."

Jackie turned to Karl. "What’s next? Contact the fixer?"

"Already done. The vehicle the fixer sent will be downstairs in a moment. We just need to move Julio to the back seat, and then our part is finished."

"Looking at it this way, legitimate work really is different. The fixer handles everything; we just show up and execute."

"Sure, and then they walk away with more than half the pay."

After offering his take on Jackie’s naivety, Karl walked over to the Scavengers’ computer and jacked into the terminal. He planned to dig around to see if he could find other Scavenger outposts and clean them out while he was at it.

Even though Scavengers in modern Night City were like cockroaches in a sewer—impossible to fully eradicate—it was always better to see fewer of them. At the very least, he wanted to make sure that when they heard his name, they’d be shaking in their boots.

Rows of data streamed across Karl’s vision. Aside from some sickening transaction logs, one conspicuous file caught his attention.

*What’s this?*

Karl clicked on the highlighted file, and a series of images flashed onto his screen.

"Jackie, Oliver, come look at this. I found something strange."

"Something strange?"

Hearing Karl, Jackie and Oliver stepped over quickly. As they looked at what Karl had pulled up on the screen, they instinctively leaned in closer to get a better look.

"What is this?"

Jackie frowned. The photos were taken in dim light and were difficult to make out, but from the vague silhouettes, he could tell they looked distinct.

"Is this some kind of heavy machinery?"

"It’s not machinery."

Unlike Jackie, Oliver, with his 6th Street gang background, recognized it immediately.

What he said next made both Jackie and Karl freeze.

"That’s an ACPA."