The moment Jackie shouted, Karl had already pulled the trigger.
Four targets.
One bullet each.
Splat.
The sound of bullets tearing through flesh echoed in unison. Three of them didn't even react—just stood there stunned before dropping dead.
But only three.
Karl had been about to rush to Room 3 on the first floor to finish off the remaining five Tyger Claws when he felt it—time slowing down.
Of the four guarding the door, only one reacted to the gunfire.
The woman.
Mantis Blades sprang from her forearms. Her Sandevistan flared to life. Time crawled. In that slowed-down moment, she sliced the bullet flying straight for her head.
Mantis Blades and Sandevistan.
Classic combo.
From Karl's perspective, she leapt at him like a lion pouncing on prey, both blades raised high, aiming to run them straight through his chest.
Flying leap, huh? Cute.
Seen it before. Next.
Data surged.
Cyberware Overheat.
Mid-lunge, her body seized up—then crashed to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut.
Mantis Blades and a Sandevistan? And you're just a Tyger Claw?
No way you've got anti-hack support on top of all that.
Karl stepped over her, not even sparing a glance.
"Sorry, kinda busy. Still need to figure out what I'm having for lunch. No time to play."
Without hesitation, he kicked in the door to Room 3.
From the first shot to now—two seconds flat.
Inside, the Tyger Claws were still stunned, their booze-saturated brains failing to process what was happening. Clearly, they hadn't shelled out for detox implants or hormone regulators.
"Pardon the interruption."
Karl said it like a proper guest as he raised Twin Night.
One second later—
"All clear on my end."
His voice came through the comms.
Four seconds after that, Jackie chimed in:
"Same here, mano. That leader guy had some tough skin—damn near like that Maelstrom boss we ran into. Good thing my firepower's up to spec."
"The target—she okay?"
T-Bug had been monitoring everything, but she still wanted confirmation on the hostage.
"She's good. Clothes are still intact—looks like these Tyger Claws really were planning to get a good price for her."
Jackie paused.
"But... looks like they slotted her with some kind of virus chip. She's still out cold."
"Can you access it, Jackie?"
"Let me check. I'll jack in while carrying her down. Data port's... yeah, found it. Behind her ear, covered by her hair. Guess she cares about her looks."
As Karl listened to their chatter, he searched the bodies. Total haul? Barely 500 eddies.
With a sigh, he called an old contact—NCPD's Johnson.
"Mr. Johnson. Just wrapped up a gig. Got a bunch of flatlined Tyger Claws here. Think you can handle cleanup?"
"Scavs, sure. Tyger Claws? I'm no corpse collector—that's Trauma Team's job."
"Got some decent guns."
"Send the address. I'm on my way."
Karl gave him the location and let out a yawn. He really had gotten up too damn early today.
Selling the weapons wasn't worth it. Gun vendors lowballed secondhand gear like it was garbage. Better to hand them off to Johnson—at least his crew could put them to use.
Karl knew Johnson wasn't exactly a saint.
The guy took bribes, extorted street vendors for protection money, and roughed up the ones who didn't pay.
But in Night City? That practically made him a model cop.
When shit hit the fan, Johnson showed up. He took on cyberpsychos. He got civilians out. That already put him above 90% of the NCPD.
Most of the force were just glorified Scavs—looting weapons, stripping implants from corpses, selling whatever they could. Johnson and his crew? At least they did their jobs.
Karl knew the guns he handed over would actually be used to take down Scavs, gangs—maybe even a psycho or two.
That was enough.
Hm?
While gathering weapons, Karl felt something hard on the woman's waist.
He hadn't noticed it when looting her earlier.
A chip?
He flipped it over. Japanese text etched across the casing.
Karl blinked and read it aloud:
"Experimental In-House Sandevistan Records – Subject #8."
Experimental Sandevistan…
A Tyger Claw with both Mantis Blades and a Sandy?
Now it made sense.
Cheap Mantis Blades existed, sure. But a Sandevistan? That was a high-end implant—minimum 70K eddies. No average gang grunt could afford it.
She was a test subject.
Classic corpo play—turn some street rat into a lab rat, offer premium gear, and let them loose.
Hard to say no when you're desperate for power.
And at least gangsters were better test material than random civilians—they had combat experience.
Karl was curious what was on the chip.
But there was no way he was slotting it in here.
It could be loaded with malware. One wrong move, and Jackie and Oliver would be hauling his fried ass to Vik's clinic while cracking jokes the whole way.
Just picturing it made him shudder.
Getting double-crossed by a client was one thing. Falling for an avoidable trap because you got curious?
Embarrassing.
By the time Johnson and his crew showed up, Karl and the others were already getting ready to leave.
After a nod of greeting, they loaded the unconscious girl into the trunk and headed for Japantown to meet Wakako at the agreed location.
"Nicely done, KK. The target's unharmed. Client'll be happy. I've transferred the payment—this job's done."
Forty thousand eddies. Job complete.
Just as T-Bug was about to disconnect, Karl tossed out a casual offer:
"Hey, T-Bug... you up for working together again sometime?"
.
.
.
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