Chapter 26: The Meeting

Roland rubbed his temples, annoyed. Seriously — he had almost no patience left for these top-tier, thick-headed kids.

“Should I contact the NCPD?” Lissandra asked kindly. Roland was about to nod, then changed his mind.

“No. That would be too easy on them. I’ll handle it myself.”

He closed his eyes slowly. When he opened them again, only one viewpoint remained — Jhin’s. He was now standing on a building near PROJECT Corporation, watching everything below.

He walked to the edge, took a step, and plunged down at high speed. Mid-fall he drew a weapon and fired once; a steel claw sank into the stone, letting Roland slow his descent. After landing, he stashed the weapon and his form wavered, then vanished from sight.

Gauge, hiding in the shadows, watched the many security bots that had surrounded the main entrance and swallowed nervously. He felt his concern for Kiwi grow.

Then, to his astonishment, the security bots suddenly parted, making a path. Before he could process it, the PROJECT Corporation gate slowly opened—and then closed.

W-what just happened?!

Gauge’s eyes widened in disbelief. Had that been… a cyber-ghost?

“Kiwi, get out now! Something’s wrong!” he barked.

“What’s wrong?” Kiwi, who’d reached the upper levels and was busy decrypting the iron door to the server room, frowned at the comm.

Gauge reported what he’d seen. Kiwi’s pupils contracted. It couldn’t be a cyber-ghost — it had to be an Elite outfitted with optical camouflage infiltrating the building. They were probably sweeping the inside right now. Her time was running out.

Zzzzt! Zzzzt!

Suddenly, a sharp pain shot through Kiwi’s hand. She stared at the iron door in shock — someone was breaching her system. Not a direct attack, but the adversary had managed to lock her out using only the door’s security systems.

Kiwi bit her lip and, without looking back, bolted downstairs. This gig… was a failure.

As she prepared to smash a lower window and jump out, a dark figure stood silently in the corridor, watching her.

“Plot character detected, Host,” Lissandra warned immediately, preventing Roland from accidentally cutting the person down. Doing so might yield a lot of essence, but it would still be the lesser option.

Roland narrowed his eyes. After sizing the figure up, two blueberries popped into his mind.

Kiwi froze, every muscle rigid, cold sweat dripping from her temple. As a long-time solo netrunner who regularly took gigs, she’d developed good intelligence tradecraft. She knew who the man in front of her was. This was bad—she was done for.

Then Kiwi’s body relaxed. She lowered her weapon and looked at Roland with a resigned expression.

“Didn’t expect you to be this company’s enforcer…” she said.

“Enforcer? If you insist.” Jhin paused, then approached slowly. He needed to decide what to do with her.

“So you’re going to kill me?” Kiwi asked, staring at the top-tier killer.

“Not yet. I’ll take you to meet my boss.” Jhin shook his head, stepped forward, and bound her. “To be honest, you’re a little too cooperative. It makes me uneasy.”

“Running won’t help. I’d probably just end up missing some parts. Might as well wait to die — at least it won’t be as painful.” Kiwi gave a bitter laugh.

Jhin nodded, tilted his head, and cut her comms.

Outside, Rook and the others fell silent; they knew Kiwi’s situation was likely dire.

“Captain!” Brew’s eyes reddened as he looked at Rook, pleading.

Rook watched Brew without a word, then signaled to Rook. Rook understood and delivered a quick chop that knocked Brew out. Gauge climbed back into the vehicle.

“Gauge?! You’re not dead?!” Rook and Roxy were surprised — they’d assumed he’d been captured like Kiwi.

“Go. Even if you two die, I won’t. It’s just a shame about Kiwi. Let’s go.” Gauge cursed, shook his head regretfully, and left. Since the gig was impossible, they wouldn’t stick around. As for Kiwi… they could only apologize — she wasn’t one of them, and they wouldn’t risk their lives for her. Brew was on his own; if he couldn’t pull through, they’d find another teammate.

“Everyone knows your marksmanship and assassination skills are top-notch, but I didn’t expect your netrunning to be the strongest,” Kiwi said, looking at Roland.

“That’s because most of the time I don’t need netrunning. It’s like your super brain telling you to use super strength to solve everything,” Jhin replied, uncharacteristically explaining.

Then he turned to Lissandra. “System, run a check. See if Kiwi matches any template.”

“Understood… Found it. Kiwi matches the Purification template.”

Roland’s mouth twitched at the name. That template wasn’t friendly — in his backstory, Purification and Ascension were mortal enemies.

Kiwi tried to ask more, but Jhin clapped a hand over her mouth and tossed her into the car. He wondered why he hadn’t noticed how talkative she was when he’d watched the anime.

...

With a swish, the black cloth was pulled away. Kiwi saw the lavish interior — a clear sign the owner was wealthy. Then she spotted Roland in a bathrobe, with Jhin standing by.

“Miss Kiwi, pleasure to meet you. First—who is your employer?” Roland asked.

“Luvena Corporation is my employer”, she answered without hesitation.

Roland’s lip twitched. He hadn’t expected such a ready answer.

“You seem very cooperative. Now tell me how you intend to compensate our company for the damages.”

“I… don’t know.”

“Alright. I’ll give you two options.” Roland smiled faintly and stepped forward.