Gearbound: Cyberpunk 2077-Chapter 170

Leo didn't have time to explain everything to Linari. He gestured for her to hide and then pushed his Fenrir bike out of sight.

Two minutes later, footsteps echoed from the entrance to the underground mall. Two Scavs, flashlights in hand, appeared in Leo's field of vision. They looked exhausted and failed to notice him or Linari as they yawned and headed deeper inside.

Linari's voice came through their team channel. "One for you, one for me?" ƒгeewebnovёl.com

"Got it. You take the one on the left, I'll handle the one on the right. Wait for my signal."

The two Scavs passed right by Leo's hiding spot, none the wiser. Over the team channel, he said, "Now—go."

He rushed at the nearest Scav. The guy turned at the sound, only to catch a kick in the face that sent him spinning through the air. If Leo hadn't held back, that blow would have snapped his neck outright. Even so, the Scav lay on the ground, dazed and unable to react.

Meanwhile, Linari finished off the other Scav. She cuffed both of them, handcuffing their wrists behind their backs. Initially, they tried acting tough and refused to say anything. But truly tough guys were rare—especially among the Scavs. Leo was certain they weren't made of stern stuff.

When sweet talk failed, Leo switched to a more direct interrogation method. If they still refused to talk, he would apply what he mockingly called "CIA Memory Restoration." In other words, he'd beat them until they cooperated. These two had no expensive cyberware like pain-editing implants, so they folded before their faces even got too swollen, scrambling to spill everything they knew.

...

Their group had two leaders: Yelena Sidorova and Vladimir Chimerkovsky. After driving out the homeless people, they had used this mall as their base. However, Chimerkovsky believed staying here was a bad idea and argued frequently with Sidorova. In the end, Sidorova gave in, and they chose to leave earlier that day.

Leo crouched in front of the pair.

"Where's your new hideout?"

Shaking and terrified, the two Scavs answered, "An abandoned factory near the Arasaka Waterfront. It's just a wall away from Arasaka's property."

Leo nodded, satisfied. "If you've already moved, what are you two doing back here?"

"We left in a hurry," one of them said. "Once we reached the new place, Sidorova realized she forgot a laptop. She told us to come back and get it."

"And where is this laptop?"

"It should be in her room," the Scav answered quickly.

Following their directions, Leo climbed the scaffolding to a second-floor room. He found a laptop on a makeshift bedroll. When he returned with it, one of the Scavs asked nervously, "That's it. You've got what you came for, and we've told you everything. Can we go now?"

Leo smiled. "Sure. I'll let you go right now."

A flash of cold light cut through the darkness. Two heads, still wearing expressions of faint relief, toppled from their shoulders. Their bodies collapsed in a heap.

Linari didn't react. Sympathy or mercy had no place for Scavs—the city's filth. The moment they were caught, their fates were sealed. Letting them go would only give them the chance to harvest more innocent people's organs.

"Let's get out of here," Leo said.

Linari nodded. They hopped onto the Fenrir and left the underground mall. Back at their makeshift lookout, they powered on the laptop to check the files. After some digging, Leo located a hidden video file. He played it at full screen.

Two individuals appeared: a man and a woman in what looked like a bar's private booth. Linari's eyes went wide with shock as soon as she saw the man.

"Chief Fort... How could—"

Leo recognized him too. He had seen the man on TV. It was Jerry Fort, the NCPD chief. The woman had to be Yelena Sidorova, leader of this group of Scavs.

On-screen, Fort struck a bureaucratic pose. "Ms. Sidorova, we've known each other for a while now."

Sidorova looked impatient. "Yeah, yeah. Just cut to the chase. What does the NCPD chief want with me?"

Fort raised a hand. "I'm not here in my capacity as chief. This can't go on the record."

Sidorova's eyebrow twitched—she clearly understood this meant dirty work. "Got it. So?"

Fort chose his words carefully. "You know the land in the northern industrial district, right? The place where the homeless people have been hanging around...?"

Sidorova thought for a second. "You mean that lot bought up by some worthless suit?"

"That's not some worthless suit, that's a developer. But yeah, that land. Look, we need the vagrants gone—think you can help with that? We'd rather not handle this through official channels."

Sidorova caught on that Fort wasn't acting alone. "We? This isn't your 'personal matter,' is it?"

Fort realized he'd said too much and tried to gloss it over. "Anyway, can you handle it? Pay's negotiable."

Without pressing any further, Sidorova shrugged. It made no difference who was behind him, as long as she got paid. "Fine. We'll chase off those street bums. Just make sure to pull back your patrols so we don't end up knocking them around, too."

"No problem," Fort replied.

The video ended there, but Linari looked more shaken than ever.

She had always assumed that Fort took bribes to ignore the Scav's brutality, yet now it turned out he was the one who had hired them in the first place—or at least one of the people involved.

Leo saw her expression and asked, "You okay?"

Linari shook her head. "No."

She paused and then said, "Do you know why I joined the NCPD?"

"Most do it just to make a living. A few do it for their ideals. I believe you're the latter."

A distant look came over her face. "My family used to run a small clinic. After my parents passed, I inherited it. Even back then, I realized that practicing medicine alone couldn't save Night City. So I closed the clinic, studied hard, and eventually got accepted into the NCPD."

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