They were ready to hit Painted Springs. "Y'sure you're okay to hit the defenses?" asked V, peering at Ayako, who was slotting programs into her Masamune cyberdeck. "I'm feelin' better now; I could do it."
"I'll be fine," said Ayako, working a tired smile. She slotted the last of her chipware, then clipped the deck to a catch on her obi.
"Ain't you worried 'bout Uncle Sam infectin' their hardware, y'jack in?"
"Who cares?" she said, and shrugged. "I'm gonna use a net-nuke on their subnet. Fry their hardware and soft. Ain't gonna be nothin' left Sam can download into." Ayako paused, regarding her with the restless laser-dots. Then she said, "I'm gonna be okay for now, Val. Mochi's got the sporeware under control for the moment. Found some open-source soft on the DeepNet to help her. Ain't gotta worry so much."
"Kinda hard not to," said V, sheepishly.
"I know what I'm doin', Val." Ayako smiled. "Remember, I was a Shinobi."
They started walking toward Panam's truck, dirt and sand crunching underfoot. "What 'zactly's a Shinobi anyhow?" asked V.
"Yuji already told you," Ayako reminded her, shrugging. "We were proto-onryō. Net-assassins. Supposed to kill our targets online, not offline. But some people, like lots of Nomads, or the New Luddites? They don't like implants. And some people get 'em removed if they wanna disappear, so keepin' a buncha wire-killers on retainer was dead money. And 'Saka ain't in the biz of payin' people to do nothin'. Was Gotoda who suggested they use cadavers. Enter the Onryō engrams."
The sun was sinking toward the horizon, bruising the sky deep, bloody purples and reds, insects chirping and buzzing in the scrubby underbrush and among the saguaros. Panam was leaning against her truck, chatting with Judy. But Panam got quiet when she saw Ayako, made a fuck-off face at her.
Judy was halfway through a cigarette. She flicked it to the dirt, ground it under her boot. "Mitch and Cassidy are just 'bout ready with the Basilisk," she told them, blowing a cloud of smoke. "And the 'Mancers are gearin' up, too. They got AVs, couple o' Zetatech Surveyors. Preem shit. Just doin' some pre-checks 'fore they get 'em off the ground."
"S'good to hear," said V. "We ridin' with 'em, or in the truck?"
"We're goin' in the Surveyors," said Ayako, planting her hands on her hips. She lifted her shoulders in the insinuation of a shrug, then said, "We try approachin' Painted Springs on wheels, the Rattlesnakes' mines'll blow us to fuckin' hell; they're all over the goddamn place—and they're cloaked."
Judy leaned against V, sliding her arm across her shoulders. "Well, guess we're lucky the 'Mancers got AVs," she said, and grinned. But the grin evaporated when Panam wouldn't let up on her scowling. "Look, choom, chill," said Judy to Panam. "Ayako's on our side. If she was doin' shit for 'Saka, she would've fucked us by now. Oiwa's been after her, too."
"But hasn't tried to kill her nearly as much as she's tried to kill you and Valerie," said Panam, suspicious.
"Maybe there's some kinda function in her programmin' prevents her from doin' that?" said V, shrugging. "They're the same person, her and Ayako. Kinda. Came from the same engram, anyway. Yorinobu might want her alive. She's his kid, right?"
"He just don't want Militech or the NUSA gettin' me," said Ayako. "Knows I'll sing like a fuckin' bird 'bout the shit 'Saka's done, 'cause I don't give a shit 'bout 'em, or any corpo." She paused, running a hand back through her hair, pondering the zigzagging of a dragonfly as it flitted past them. "Besides," she continued, after a few beats, "don't think Oiwa's really under 'Saka's control anymore. She's gotta personal vendetta against us now. Hates our guts, wants to see 'em steamin' on the concrete."
"We ain't even done nothin' to her," said Judy.
"Lots of people hate other people for no real reason," said Ayako. "Just human nature, and human nature's exactly what any AI aspires to." She paused, then said, "Anyway, it works to our advantage. If Oiwa's outta 'Saka's hands, they're gonna be spendin' more time cleanin' up her messes than focusin' on us. Don't want the medias sniffin' out her connection to Arasaka. Be a PR nightmare for the company, and they gotta 'nough shit on their plate right now." She grinned. "And 'Saka's tied up in that three-way shitshow with Biotechnica and Militech. Should be able to finish up here and get to the Crystal Palace without 'em ridin' us."
"Speakin' of Biotechnica," said V, snuggling into Judy's side, "this facility here, Twin Mesas? Y'think they were plannin' on kickin' up the next Corpo War with that virus?"
"Wouldn't doubt it," said Ayako. "But I don't think they were really lookin' to start war, not exactly. Think they wanted a pandemic. Get a buncha people sick, then offer 'em the cure for a premium. Take that money and expand. Start a vaccine subscription service, make even more money. Keep people sick with lab-mutated strains of the virus, keep pumpin' out vaccines. Expand more, become a major player in the market." She chewed the inside of her cheek, then said, "But I think they were expectin' maybe startin' a war, them startin' up a paramilitary and all. The other corpos would eventually catch on to what they were doin', and wouldn't be too happy 'bout it." She heaved a sigh, then said, "In the end, it's always 'bout money and power. Same shit with Militech, 'cept they probably want a war. Stand to make a shitton of money."
"So 'Saka's pretty much the only one who don't wanna Fifth Corpo War," said Judy.
"They don't gain nothin' from it, not after the string of catastrophes they sustained in Night City," said Ayako, shaking her head, absently tracing the patterns stenciled into the fade on the sides of her head. "Think that's why they were comin' after Val."
"What do I gotta do with it?" asked V.
"No offense, Val, but wherever you go, shit tends to hit the fan. And look what happened when you rolled into Phoenix." Ayako snorted, then said, "Remember when I said someone was spyin' on me, way back? That little cube communicatin' with 'Saka? Saw us teamin' up, and knew things were 'bout to go sideways. Enter Oiwa. The fact we might've known somethin' 'bout Militech was just icin' on the cake."
"Y'really think 'Saka was tryin' to prevent shit from hittin' the fan by takin' me outta the equation?"
"You're the common tripwire, choom," said Ayako, smiling in amusement.
"Dunno if I should be flattered or not," said V, chuckling sardonically.
"It makes a weird kind of sense," said Panam suddenly, peering at her. She pushed herself off her truck, hooking her thumbs in the pockets of her sun-bleached jeans. "If you think about it, you were the one who put everything into motion with that braindance you got for Danny Dean. Kunoichi contacted you. You partnered up. You started kicking up dirt, meddling in things."
"None of this is my fault," said V defensively, furrowing her brow. "Quit gaslightin' me, geez. Also, funny comin' from you. You're the goddamn poster-girl for escalatin' things, Panam."
"True. But chill, Valerie. Nobody's gaslighting you," said Panam. "Just making an observation. Maybe you were part of a dataflow pattern Arasaka wanted to stop."
"She's a nodal point," agreed Ayako, nodding. "A datanex. Data-nexus, if you ain't familiar with the term. Anyway," and she looked at them, "I've been thinking 'bout that hypersonic nuke. Don't think the Rattlesnakes stole it. Think they got help from someone inside Militech. Think this whole shitshow was just an opportunity we handed this someone when the Locos took the spaceport."
"Why would Militech give a nuke to a buncha Raffens?" asked Judy.
"So they had someone to blame when it hit Phoenix," said Ayako, and she started to pace back and forth, like she always did whenever she was working out something difficult in her head. "Don't think they gave the Locos that infected shard, though. Think they wanted to blow up Phoenix to prevent the sporeware from spreadin' when word finally got back to 'em." At the looks on their faces, she said, "Stay with me here. Uncle Sam hates 'em as much as it hates any other human. Maybe even more, since Militech locked it away. And if they let the fuckin' AI run rampant, they're as screwed as the rest of us. So they use a nuke to erase the Locos—the assholes who were gonna upload the AI—and their connection to 'em, deal a blow to Arasaka and Biotechnica by nukin' their Phoenix offices, and throw Arizona, a risin' Free State economy, into complete fuckin' disarray so they can swoop in and 'bring order'." She stopped pacing. "The NUSA wants to reunite the whole country; Myers ain't exactly been quiet 'bout that goal. It's her whole campaign, a 'united United States'. Takin' over Arizona would give 'em a foothold in the Free States while simultaneously destabilizin' the region. And at the end of the day, they can just blame the Nomads for firin' the nuke. Nobody would think twice 'bout it, way they treat Nomads."
"So why'd they take the shuttle?" asked V.
"In the shuttle's case," said Ayako, "I think they actually did steal that themselves. Shuttle components sell for a shitton of money on the black market."
Panam frowned. "Great," she spat, "just what we Nomads fucking need. Being blamed for nuking a city."
"We're not gonna let 'em," said Ayako. "Militech ain't gettin' their war. Won't be able to shut the nuke down electronically, but there's a manual override we can hit once we're inside Painted Springs."
Yuji approached them and said, "The Surveyors are prepared." He was strapped with a smart-rifle, and wore vantablack nanopolymer body-armor underneath a tattered, sand-crusted duster. His salt-and-pepper hair was done up in a kind of contemporary chonmage V had seen some of the oyabuns wearing in the Tiger Clawz, back in Night City. His oculars were screened off by an OLED infovisor, a constant stream of data scrolling down the smooth, dark glass.
"You're comin' with us?" said V, surprised.
" Hai , V-san. I'm not letting my compatriots go into that charnel house alone." Yuji motioned for them to follow him, and they did. V told him about Ayako's theory, how Militech wanted to destabilize the Free States. He didn't seem surprised. "If they took Arizona, the NUSA would be in the middle of the Free States," he told her. "A good strategic position, if you have enough firepower to maintain it. And Militech does. Biotechnica's extensive development of Arizona has made it a formidable economy, one that, given time, could easily grow the economies of the other Free States through investments, such as infrastructure projects and employment opportunities. The region could become as powerful as Appalachia, and the NUSA doesn't want that." Yuji looked at her. "They want total unification, at any cost," he continued evenly. "Even if that cost is a Fifth Corporate War. So best to strike now before Biotechnica has the time to raise and fund a Free State military that can effectively retaliate against, and repel, the NUSA war-machine."
V sighed. "I think I liked it better when this was all just 'bout stoppin' an AI."
"That's still important," said Yuji. "Even if it seems like Militech won't use Uncle Sam right now, they will when they become desperate. Best to disarm them while they're focused on Arizona."
"I don't think they even know where it is," said V. "The AI, I mean," she added.
"You honestly don't think they haven't been keeping tabs on you?" said Yuji, amused. V felt a twinge of embarrassment, because she really hadn't considered something that obvious. "They're likely waiting for you to lead them to it, V-san," he continued. "There's also the possibility that certain people in the company do know exactly where the AI is, but also understand they can't approach it without being killed outright. And if that's the case, they'll step in once you've brought its defenses offline."
The Surveyor's engines pitched to a sonic whine as they approached it, their vantablack hulls emblazoned with red pentagrams and grinning skulls. V counted a dozen, but the Technomancers had only prepped three. The door's gaskets released, then opened with a hiss, rising vertically on pneumatic struts.
"This is fuckin' nova," said V, hopping up into the AV. "Never rode in an AV before."
Five Technomancers, all tooled-up like Yuji, were inside the Surveyor, running diagnostics on a couple of Centaur exoskeletons racked along the hull. The interior of the AV was pretty spacious. Steel handholds sheathed in rubber were bolted to the ceiling. "How many gonks can these things carry?" Judy asked Yuji.
"Twenty, not counting the pilot," said Yuji, grabbing one of the handholds. The door creaked shut, the gaskets sealing. Lights flickered on, illuminating the interior in dull orange light. "MaxTac uses these AVs. Where we got ours. Bought from an NCPD auction some years ago, though we've extensively modified them with our own hardware and soft."
The Surveyor lurched into the air and rocked, the anti-gravs giving V a momentary sense of weightlessness, then a sensation like surfing as it banked with a pitched whine. V skidded, would have eaten the floor if Judy hadn't caught her by the scruff of her bomber-jacket and righted her.
"Put your feet on the fuckin' anti-slip tape, calabacita," she said, trying and failing not to laugh. "And grab the fuckin' handhold. They ain't just a suggestion, babe."
V did, snagging the handhold next to Judy. "I woulda been fine," she lied.
"Would've busted your fuckin' teeth, you mean," said Ayako, from the handhold across from her and Judy. She grinned her yaeba grin, swaying with the momentum of the AV. " Amateur ," she teased.