Gloria faced Maine and the others uneasily.
No matter how badly she wanted to keep her deal with Maine hidden, David had already picked up on enough to realize something was wrong.
He saw a group of strangers barge into their home without warning, looking and sounding like debt collectors. From the way the big black man was speaking, it was obvious this had something to do with some kind of cyberware deal.
Did Mom take their money without delivering the goods, and now they've come to collect? But where did that implant even come from? And how did this end up involving an Arasaka executive?
Too many questions were piling up in David's mind.
He wanted to understand what was going on, but the atmosphere in the room was so tense there was no chance to speak.
Gloria noticed that David looked like he wanted to say something, and panic immediately surged through her.
If this matter got dragged out in front of him, everything she had tried to hide would come apart.
No. David absolutely cannot find out.
She knew better than anyone how stubborn and prideful he was deep down.
If David learned she had stolen something, he would rather die than keep going to Arasaka Academy.
At that moment, Kai's next words pulled her back from the edge.
"This has nothing to do with Gloria."
"Maine, I'm the one who wants to talk business with you."
"Why don't we step outside and find somewhere better to talk?"
Gloria turned to look at Kai, her eyes full of gratitude.
She had never expected that at a moment like this, he would voluntarily take over the conversation and cover up the truth that had been on the verge of spilling out.
When she had been at her most cornered, Kai had given her a way out.
Maine did not refuse outright.
Instead, he threw back a question.
"And who the hell are you? What does this have to do with you? Why should I do business with you?"
Even though Maine looked like a towering, broad-shouldered edgerunner who charged headfirst into gunfire for a living, he was not reckless.
So when Kai made the offer, he did not reject it immediately.
All he wanted was the implant.
He had no interest in getting dragged into some other mess.
Gloria hurried to explain.
"Maine! I wasn't trying to stall the deal or keep your money. I really was going to go through with it that day, but David and I got into a serious crash on the highway!"
"Mr. Kai saved us. David and I only just got out of the hospital. I never even had the chance to come explain any of this to you."
"And as for who Mr. Kai is, it doesn't matter if you don't know. He's my benefactor. Worst case, I'll return the money from the deal. I won't sell the implant after all!"
Gloria was worried that someone like Maine, an edgerunner through and through, would be highly sensitive to Kai's status as an Arasaka executive.
If things turned violent, Kai's life could be in danger.
In truth, waiting here for Maine and the others to arrive had always been part of Kai's plan.
Once Lucy sent that warning, he had already known Gloria had sold the Sandevistan to an edgerunner named Maine.
Now that the buyer had shown up in person, there was no longer any reason for Gloria to keep covering for everyone involved.
Her reaction just now had already shown enough of her sincerity and what she was willing to choose.
Kai rose from the sofa and stepped in front of Gloria, looking directly at Maine and the others.
"This isn't a deal you can walk away from."
"I can give you the implant."
"But there is only one end waiting for you."
"You die."
The words came out of Kai's mouth lightly.
But when Maine heard them, something inside him tightened.
He could not yet tell how much of that statement was real and how much was just pressure, but the tone alone had become far more dangerous.
"Don't play games with me. I don't think there's anything left to talk about."
Maine ignored Gloria's anxious explanation and kept his eyes on Kai.
"You're corp."
Obviously, from Kai's clothes and Gloria's nervous reaction, Maine had already guessed the broad truth of who he was.
What he still did not know was what kind of place Kai held inside that world.
Even corpo rats came in different sizes.
If Kai were just some ordinary office drone from a small company, Maine would have had nothing to worry about.
The moment Maine asked that question, the others with him all narrowed their eyes and looked at Kai as well.
They were just as curious.
And just as everyone waited for Kai to answer, a calm voice drifted in from outside the apartment and answered for him.
"Arasaka."
"Deputy Director of Counterintel."
The words had only just landed when Lucy stepped quietly into the apartment, a cigarette held between two fingers.
Her answer immediately drew everyone's attention.
No one had expected an identity like that.
Maine turned to Lucy, his expression dark.
"How do you know who he is?"
Lucy only lowered her eyes and exhaled a thin ring of smoke, as though none of this concerned her at all.
Then she said,
"He's right. If you install that implant, the company will track you like a monitor lizard on a scent trail, and they'll keep watching until that thing kills you, then come collect your corpse."
The tall masked woman in red beside Maine asked in a serious tone,
"What does any of this have to do with the company?"
Lucy lifted her neon-bright eyes and looked straight at Kai, expressionless.
"I don't think you want to keep having this conversation here, Mr. Kai."
The moment Lucy revealed his identity, Kai already knew she had read the contents of the chip.
That meant she had seen the conversation stored between him and Jenkins.
Still, the amount of information she got was limited.
Kai had a habit of rotating storage chips frequently, so under normal circumstances, nothing remained on one for more than forty-eight hours.
That meant what she knew could only go so far.
Kai put on his suit jacket properly and walked straight toward the busted doorway.
As he passed Maine, he said flatly,
"Don't just stand there. Bring the goods."
At that point, Gloria heard Kai's words, hesitated, then finally handed the bag in her hand over to Maine.
Inside was the military-grade Sandevistan.
Maine took the bag, clearly not expecting to get the implant this way.
He was not some unreasonable brute.
Now that he had the goods, there was no reason for him to keep causing trouble inside someone else's apartment.
When he spoke again, there was even a trace of awkwardness in his rough voice.
"I didn't know you'd been in a crash. Kicking in your door was on me. I'll cover the repair bill. Sorry."
With that, he transferred two thousand eddies to her.
That was more than enough to repair the door and cover a month's rent on the apartment.
But Gloria did not care about the door.
Instead, she handed the stack of cash wrapped in paper over to Maine as well.
"Take the money from this deal back for now. Please don't make things hard for Mr. Kai. I still owe you another ten thousand. I'll transfer that from my account later."
That move visibly caught Maine off guard.
It was obvious Gloria was trying to repay Kai for saving her and David.
A woman with almost nothing left was still willing to make herself poorer rather than drag someone else down.
On some level, Maine respected that.
The truth was, the reason he had been willing to advance the payment in the first place was because he trusted Gloria's reliability and character.
Maine took the money and nodded.
Then he turned to the skinny, bearded guy beside him.
"Pilar. You're the one who blasted the apartment door open. You're fixing it. Otherwise you can forget about that pair of gold-plated cyberarms you want."
Pilar immediately bristled.
"Maine, you were the one who told me to blow it open! I said we should just knock, and you wouldn't listen. Now that it turned into a problem, you wanna dump it on me? Yeah, no. I'm remembering this one."
(End of Chapter)
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