20. Now this is getting interesting.

Karl possessed what could be described as a golden-finger ability: the power of synthesis. Relying on his memory, this power now strung together everything he had encountered since arriving in 2075, connecting all the events that could logically be linked and hanging them along a single thread.

Let us begin the summary with the cargo.

The Maelstrom gang caused trouble in Kabuki, and Kabuki is Tyger Claws territory.
Maelstrom intercepted a shipment belonging to the 6th Street gang in Watson.
Maelstrom intercepted a shipment in Watson belonging to the corporation Blanca worked for.
A Militech field investigator came today to ask Old Huotou about cargo shipments from Heywood to the City Center. Militech had lost some cargo.

Pause right there.
Which corporation did Blanca work for?

Karl sent a message to Blanca, asking which company she was working for.
"What's this? Planning to do another job for me? I must say, I quite appreciate a edgerunner like you."
"Just trying to understand my employer's background. Consider it building my network."
"Why the sudden interest? Did you hear something from Faraday?"

Blanca seemed to happen to have some free time. After exchanging a few casual remarks with Karl, she revealed the identity she had never really bothered to conceal—though Karl had simply never asked before.

Militech.

Looking at it that way, could the half-faced cyberware man asking Old Huotou about the lost cargo, and Blanca selling transport vehicle information within the corporation, be the exact same incident?

The timeline matched up quite well. Thinking back to Juanito, Blanca's subordinate and rival within the corporation, he had once said:
"As for the transport evidence from this time, go ahead and destroy it if you want. I've got as many of those as I want."

The transport evidence in Watson had been destroyed by Karl, Oliver, and Jack. That was also Karl's first gig taken from Blanca. When Juanito said he had as many as he wanted, he must have meant that this wasn't the first time Blanca had leaked transport vehicle routes, and Blanca's partner back then had been Maelstrom.

Deducing from this, the cargo shipment hijacked from Heywood to the City Center in Militech's name was very likely also the work of Maelstrom, especially considering Watson sits right next to the City Center.

If that was the case, however, things started to get terrifying.

Let's sum it up.
Maelstrom had offended the Tyger Claws, the 6th Street gang, and Militech. If they were the ones who hijacked the cargo in Heywood, they might have even offended the Valentinos.

Even though nine out of ten Maelstrom members were absolute psychos, psychos were still human enough to understand what death meant. Unless they were deliberately seeking their own demise, there had to be some specific motive behind this wave of insane hijackings.

Considering that during the first Blanca gig, the loot Maelstrom hijacked was casually tossed to a low-level punk like Demon, what they were after might not have been corporate evidence like the kind Blanca handled.

So, what were they looking for?

For some reason, an image flashed suddenly through Karl's mind from the mission where he had rescued a hostage from the Scavengers.
It was a blurry picture of an ACPA.

Everyone in Night City knew that Maelstrom and the Scavengers were birds of a feather. Maelstrom members worshipped cyberware modification; once they finished upgrading themselves, they would often dump the removed parts, or the corpses of accidentally deceased former comrades, onto the Scavengers for quick cash. If that ACPA picture came from data extracted off the chip of a dead Maelstrom member...

Was there a connection here, or was it entirely unrelated?

Karl wrung his memory, trying to recall any other information he had regarding these various gangs, and then he suddenly remembered the cyberpsycho he had encountered a few days ago.

That cyberpsycho had been muttering something about the Tyger Claws under his breath. When he uttered the word "Tyger," his mental state had visibly cleared up a fraction. The word "Tyger" clearly held immense meaning and importance to him, so much so that even in the throes of a cyberpsycho episode, it brought a momentary flash of lucidity.

And the place where that cyberpsycho had gone on a rampage happened to be Kabuki, the territory of the Tyger Claws.

Carried on that cyberpsycho lunatic was an information chip, and its contents were:
"The cherry blossom born of chrysanthemum and rose has arrived in the City of Night's Glow."

The Tyger Claws were a gang composed of Japanese-descended members, many of whom were either first-generation descendants or had Japanese roots themselves. The gang was saturated with Japanese cultural motifs, and their metaphors tended to lean toward Japanese habits.

Let's analyze this using that perspective.
Japan did not have an official national flower, but there were two flowers that could be considered such: the chrysanthemum, favored by the imperial family, and the cherry blossom, favored by the common people.

If flowers represented social status and identity, the chrysanthemum should refer to nobility, while the cherry blossom should represent the commoner class. Then what was the rose...?
The rose was the national flower of America.

Karl felt as though something had just clicked in his mind.

Translated through the metaphor of these flowers, it meant that Japanese nobility and an American had given birth to a child. Because one parent was American, this child was considered to belong to the commoner class of cherry blossoms rather than the nobility.

And this cherry blossom—someone with Japanese blood—had already arrived in Night City, according to the intel carried by that cyberpsycho who likely originated from the Tyger Claws or was connected to them in some way.

The Tyger Claws were a Japanese-heritage gang; for them to run rampant in Night City without the shadow of a megacorporation behind them was impossible. Just like the 6th Street gang that Oliver came from—which worked for Militech-backed fixers and was originally founded by retired American veterans.

Behind 6th Street was Militech. As for the Tyger Claws, there was only one corporation in Night City that fit the bill.
Arasaka.

Looking ahead, the mission would begin at the Arasaka Waterfront shipping port, an area strictly off-limits to outsiders.
The mission was an escort.
Escorting whom?
The cherry blossom?

But if it was the cherry blossom, why would Faraday, who had deep ties to Militech, be given this job...?

The rose...
Could it be that the background involved the rose faction?
Did the rose want to protect its child, the cherry blossom?

If you strung this line of thought together, the matter began to edge into the realm of deep secrets that ought not to be known.

Arcchenemies Arasaka and Militech were actually briefly uniting over this mission. Just how noble must the background of the chrysanthemum be? How powerful must the identity of the rose be? And how vital must the identity of the cherry blossom be...?

Summary.
First piece of intel: Maelstrom seemed to be searching for something, and for that, they were willing to offend various gangs and corporations.
Second piece of intel: The cherry blossom—very likely the target Karl was hired to protect—possessed an extremely crucial identity involving both Arasaka and Militech.

Transport intelligence.
Freight.
Personnel.

Could Maelstrom's target be the cherry blossom? If it was the cherry blossom, where did they get such unbridled audacity? If the cherry blossom's identity was truly so special that Militech and Arasaka were willing to form a temporary alliance, how could Maelstrom dare to offend the world's strongest and second-strongest corporations?

Unless...
Karl thought of Blanca and Juanito.

Just like the internal office politics within Militech where not everyone was aligned, within this mission, not everyone inside the two corporations necessarily accepted this arrangement either. Maelstrom might have been hired by someone internally, just as they were hired by Militech's Juanito.

If the intelligence concerning Militech and the Militech-affiliated 6th Street gang had been leaked by Blanca and Juanito, could there similarly be a "Blanca" and a "Juanito" within Arasaka and the Tyger Claws who opposed this brief alliance?

Information summarized.
Could the mission really be like this?

Karl began to look forward to the verification that lay ahead.
Whether he was just overthinking things out of boredom or hitting upon the hard truth, he would know soon enough.

If he actually guessed right...
ACPA.
Now that was going to be interesting!