Chapter 127: Greed and Dismissal
After some investigation, Micks learned about several netrunners who had been extremely famous back then—Spider, Bartmoss, Shadow Cloud, and others. In the end, he locked onto the most likely candidate: Bartmoss.
The moment that thought crossed his mind, Micks couldn’t help swallowing as he stared at Bartmoss’s network access pod on the table.
“If I can crack this thing… wouldn’t I inherit all of Bartmoss’s accounts? And there’s probably records of those hacking techniques inside too…”
Money stirs the human heart—people die for wealth, birds die for food. Micks was tempted.
He stretched out his trembling hand, excitement surging, fingers shaking—and then… just as he was about to touch the network access pod, he stopped.
His expression turned complicated. Greed, excitement, fear, joy—each emotion flickered across Micks’s face in turn.
Roland sat in his chair, watching the scene with interest. What happened next, however, surprised him slightly—Micks lowered his hand and let out a long sigh.
“Ah… forget it. Even if I cracked what’s inside, could I really escape the corporation?”
As he spoke, Micks gave a self-mocking smile, as if ridiculing his own overestimation.
“Besides, this is Bartmoss’s stuff. How could I ever crack something like this… I really let greed blind me.”
Micks lightly slapped his own cheek, then picked up a bottle of liquor from the table, poured himself a glass, and downed it in one go.
After that, he prepared to report everything honestly.
Seeing this, Roland raised an eyebrow.
“I didn’t expect him to hold back.”
“Uh… so we let him go?”
Kelly blinked and asked cautiously.
“Let him go? Why would we let him go?”
Roland shook his head with a smile.
“(⊙o⊙)… Didn’t he resist temptation and avoid betraying the corporation? Doesn’t that mean he’s usable?”
“No, no, no,” Roland replied calmly. “He already had thoughts of betrayal. He just couldn’t afford the cost of betraying the corporation. If he thought he could trade this thing to Militech or Arasaka for protection and money, I’m sure he’d do it without hesitation.”
Roland clasped his hands together, his gaze steady as he watched Micks writing his report.
“In his eyes, PROJECT Corporation can’t compare to those two. Clearly, he doesn’t really understand what happened back then.”
“What happened back then?”
Kelly looked at Roland, confused.
Roland glanced at her and explained, “Militech hired Bartmoss, Morgan Blackhand, Johnny Silverhand, Alt, and others—basically all the top-tier mercenaries of that era—to attack Arasaka’s Building.”
“Wait—Militech did that?”
Kelly was momentarily stunned. In her understanding, the incident had always been blamed on terrorists or some kind of internal scheme. The truth had never been clear.
“Yes. That’s why both Arasaka and Militech are extremely interested in what Bartmoss left behind. They know better than anyone how terrifying his netrunning abilities were.”
Roland nodded, then gestured for Kelly to have the security robots on Micks’s side take action.
“Uh… are we really going to take him out?”
“There’s nothing to hesitate over,” Roland said calmly. “He’s no good person. Plenty of people could do this job. Besides, everything here is already settled—we don’t need this extra expense.”
“I also don’t want any loose ends. If rumors get out, that wouldn’t be good for me.”
“You’re not feeling sorry for him, are you? Someone who made it that far in Night City—do you really think he’s a decent person? Don’t kid yourself.”
Roland smiled and signaled for Lissandra to pull up Micks’s past records.
“And now you’re corporation personnel. Having compassion isn’t wrong, but you need to know when to use it.”
Kelly skimmed through Micks’s history and quickly reached a conclusion: a crooked businessman, with several lives on his hands.
In Night City, though… that kind of person was hardly rare.
“Give the order. Take care of him. If he’d been willing to work quietly, I would’ve given him severance and sent him on his way. Unfortunately, his choice wasn’t the right one.”
Roland shrugged and stood up, heading outside.
“Boss, where are you going?”
Kelly blinked, puzzled, having already issued the orders to the security robots.
“I’m going to check out the junkyard over there. Oh, and lay off the staff there. Give the two employees who found Bartmoss’s freezer a bonus—then lay them off as well.”
“Understood.”
Kelly nodded, immediately generating termination notices and transferring severance pay into the respective accounts.
Meanwhile, Micks finally finished writing his report. Just as he let out a long breath and prepared to upload it, a set of footsteps suddenly echoed behind him, making him turn around.
“You have violated corporation regulations. Corporate human resources cleanup procedures will now be carried out.”
After the cold electronic voice finished speaking, Micks’s pupils shrank abruptly.
“No—no, you can’t do this! I didn’t betray the corporation! I contributed! I found Bart—”
Bang!
Blood splattered across the walls and floor, cutting off Micks’s final words. The security robot calmly withdrew its gaze, then carefully secured Bartmoss’s network access pod from the desk.
The noise naturally drew attention from outside. Several employees gathered out of curiosity, only to be stopped by the security robots.
“What was that gunshot?”
“How would I know… sounded like it came from that bastard Micks’s office…”
“Corporate operations are currently in progress. Do not approach.”
The security robots stepped forward, separating the crowd. Soon after, everyone received a message from Kelly, and their expressions changed instantly.
“What does this mean?!”
“Layoffs?!”
“No—how can they do this?!”
A few emotionally agitated employees rushed forward, demanding an explanation.
Then a security robot stepped in and lifted them away—literally lifted.
“Please leave the area immediately.”
Hearing the cold electronic voice and seeing the frightening weapons in the robot’s hands, the remaining employees snapped back to their senses and chose to comply.
As they left, they could only console themselves—
At least the corporation still had some conscience. They’d even paid severance.
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