Arthur Vale and Sasha Yakovlev waited nearly ten minutes before the elevator doors finally slid open inside the H10 skyscraper.
The lobby of H10 was bright, artificial, and too clean for Night City standards. Neon light reflected off polished chrome walls, and the faint hum of corporate-grade security systems vibrated through the floor. Arthur kept his hands inside his coat pockets, scanning the corners without moving his head. Old habit. In Night City, elevators were more dangerous than alleyways.
Inside the elevator, a cheerful advertisement began playing on the wall screen.
"Come and try the butcher shop's signature dish! Seventy percent real meat! Fresh, juicy, and still dripping!"
Arthur glanced sideways.
"Seventy percent?" he muttered. "That's optimistic."
Sasha burst into a soft laugh. "Wow, Doctor Vale, that actually looks kind of good. Have you tried it?"
He raised one eyebrow. "If something needs to advertise that it's mostly real meat, that's already a warning sign."
Sasha leaned back against the elevator wall, hands behind her back, rocking lightly on her heels. "Come to think of it," she said casually, "you're the first man I've ever brought home."
Arthur looked at her calmly. "That so? Should I feel honored? Or concerned?"
She whistled playfully and looked away. "It just feels strange, that's all. Don't overthink it."
"Ding."
Sixth floor.
The doors slid open.
They stepped into a narrow hallway lit by cold white light. No windows. No decoration. Just identical doors on either side, each one reinforced and connected to private security systems.
Sasha walked ahead with light steps. Her boots barely made a sound. When they reached Room 606, she didn't even touch the door.
Her eyes flickered faintly.
A soft electronic click followed.
The door unlocked remotely.
Arthur watched the small movement carefully. Neural interface control. Clean signal. No visible delay. She wasn't just a casual hacker — her setup was advanced.
The door opened.
He stepped inside.
The room was simple, almost empty. Minimalist. A bed against one wall. A small kitchen counter. No decorations. No personal photos. No unnecessary items. Just survival and work.
But the other half of the room was different.
Four powerful server units hummed quietly near the wall, each connected through dense cables that ran across the floor like metal vines. In front of them stood a large workstation with twelve screens arranged in layers. Data scrolled across several of them. Encryption algorithms ran in the background. Network traffic flowed like digital rain.
Arthur walked closer.
"These aren't cheap," he said.
Sasha closed the door behind them and locked it again. "I don't buy cheap."
He glanced at the server towers. Military-grade cooling. Custom wiring. Reinforced power backup.
"You built this yourself?" he asked.
"Mostly," she replied. "Some parts came from... creative shopping."
Arthur smiled slightly. "Night City's finest tradition."
She dropped into her chair and kicked her feet up lightly. "So, Doctor Vale," she said, spinning slowly, "what exactly did you want to show me?"
Arthur didn't answer immediately.
Instead, he walked toward the windowless wall and listened.
Nothing.
No hidden signals. No unusual interference. The room was shielded properly.
Satisfied, he reached into his coat and pulled out a small encrypted shard.
Sasha's expression changed instantly.
That playful tone disappeared.
"You're serious," she said quietly.
Arthur placed the shard on the desk.
"Very."
She picked it up and slid it into one of her data ports.
The screens flickered.
Lines of corrupted code filled the display.
Encrypted corporate signatures.
And then—
Footage.
Dark. Distorted.
The faint sound of breathing.
Sasha leaned forward.
The video stabilized.
A warehouse.
Metal floors.
A body lying still.
Corporate soldiers standing around it.
One of them speaking.
The audio cleaned up automatically through Sasha's software.
"…confirm neural override test successful."
Sasha's fingers froze above the keyboard.
Arthur's voice remained calm. "Keep watching."
The body on the ground twitched.
Its eyes opened suddenly.
But there was no focus in them.
Just empty compliance.
One of the soldiers lifted a remote device.
The body stood.
Moved.
Raised a weapon.
Fired at a target without hesitation.
Sasha's jaw tightened.
"They're controlling him."
Arthur nodded. "Full neural override."
The footage jumped forward.
The subject began shaking violently.
Then screaming.
Then—
Blood.
Nose.
Ears.
Eyes.
The screen glitched.
The body collapsed.
Silence.
Sasha slowly removed her hands from the keyboard.
"That's illegal even for them," she whispered.
Arthur leaned against the wall. "Nothing is illegal for them."
She replayed the footage. Slowed it down.
Zoomed in on the corporate insignia.
Her eyes widened.
"This is Arasaka testing mind control software."
Arthur said nothing.
Sasha looked at him sharply. "Do you understand what this means?"
"Yes."
"If this works, they can turn anyone into a weapon."
Arthur's voice was quiet. "That's why you needed to see it."
She stood up abruptly and began typing faster, digging deeper into the shard's hidden layers.
"Where did you get this?"
"Does it matter?"
"Yes, it does! If Arasaka flagged this data, they'll be hunting whoever extracted it."
Arthur gave her a faint look.
"They already are."
Sasha stopped.
Slowly turned toward him.
"What?"
He walked over and tapped one of her screens.
A small red warning icon blinked in the corner.
"I was marked three hours ago."
Her breath caught.
"You're joking."
"I don't joke about this."
Sasha quickly opened network diagnostics. "Did they trace you here?"
"No. I came dark."
She scanned for outside pings. No active probes. No signal breaches.
Still—
"You brought corporate hell to my door," she muttered.
Arthur met her eyes calmly. "You can throw me out."
She stared at him for several seconds.
Then laughed softly.
"Too late for that."
She pulled up a fresh window and began isolating the shard from her main system.
"I'll copy it to an air-gapped drive," she said. "No network exposure."
Arthur nodded approvingly.
For several minutes, the only sound in the room was the steady hum of servers and the sharp tapping of keys.
Finally, she leaned back.
"Done."
She looked at him seriously now.
"What's your plan?"
Arthur didn't hesitate.
"Expose it."
Sasha blinked. "That's suicide."
"Not directly," he clarified. "We leak fragments. Enough to create panic. Not enough to trace."
She crossed her arms. "You want to start a fire without showing your face."
"Yes."
"And what do I get out of it?"
Arthur smiled faintly.
"Survival."
She rolled her eyes.
"Besides that."
He stepped closer.
"Leverage."
That caught her attention.
"Explain."
"If Arasaka's enemies know they're testing neural override tech, everyone will panic. Militech. NetWatch. Political bodies. Investors."
She understood immediately.
"Stock manipulation."
"Chaos," he corrected. "Chaos benefits the prepared."
Sasha slowly smiled.
"You're dangerous."
Arthur shrugged lightly. "I prefer careful."
She studied him for a long moment.
Then she walked to the small kitchen counter and grabbed two cans of synth-drink.
She tossed one to him.
He caught it easily.
"Fine," she said. "We leak it."
She cracked open her can.
"But if we die, I'm blaming you."
Arthur opened his drink calmly.
"If we die, you won't have time to complain."
She laughed again.
The tension in the room eased slightly.
But outside—
Night City moved as always.
Neon lights flickered.
Corporate drones patrolled the skies.
And somewhere far above, in a glass tower that pierced the clouds—
A security analyst noticed a minor irregularity in flagged data logs.
Just a flicker.
Just a ghost trace.
But enough.
Inside the H10 building, Arthur felt it before the system detected it.
A faint instinct.
He looked toward the servers.
Then toward Sasha.
"Prepare fallback routes," he said quietly.
She froze.
"You think—?"
He nodded once.
"We might not have as much time as we thought."
Her fingers flew across the keyboard.
Encrypted backups.
Remote kill switches.
Emergency identity wipes.
Arthur moved toward the door.
He listened again.
Still silent.
But silence in Night City was never comfort.
It was warning.
Sasha's voice was tight. "Backup secure."
Arthur nodded.
"Good."
She looked at him.
"Arthur… if this goes wrong—"
He interrupted softly.
"It won't."
And for the first time since she met him—
Sasha saw something in his eyes.
Not fear.
Not excitement.
Not recklessness.
Just certainty.
Outside, a corporate drone passed by the building.
Paused.
Then continued forward.
Inside Room 606—
Two hackers prepared to start a war they could not fully see.
And somewhere deep within the Arasaka network—
A red alert quietly activated.
Target status: Arthur Vale — Active.
The game had officially begun.