"So this is what a celebrity looks like up close. A pleasure, K. My name is Mr. Hands. I’m an "investor" who’d like to discuss business with you."
In the collapsed underground tunnel of Pacifica, a man whose face was hidden by deliberate digital noise and deep shadow offered a polite greeting from beyond a floating hologram screen suspended in the dark void.
"Uh... y-yeah. Nice to meet you."
The answer that slipped unconsciously from Ji-hwan’s mouth was far too dazed to belong to the "man" who had crushed countless mercs and smashed fake Aguila to pieces.
But in truth, Ji-hwan had no choice but to be flustered the moment the hologram popped up in front of him.
Mr. Hands? That fixer I only ever talked to a few times over voice calls during the Pacifica gig?
That oddly blank, almost "human" reaction from Ji-hwan, right here in Night City and in a life-or-death situation with a top-level bounty on his head, made Mr. Hands pause for a beat beyond the screen. Then, behind the shadows, he curved his mouth into a calm, deep smile.
"No need to be tense. I already know all about you."
"No, that’s not what I meant... uh, right, sure..."
"By the way, what happened to Mammoth, the original owner of this comm chip?"
The moment that name came up, Ji-hwan’s face hardened.
He thought of Mammoth, who had taken the hit for him and gone down to protect him.
That brief silence from Ji-hwan, that tiny reaction alone, was enough for Mr. Hands to infer the situation.
"...I see. He’s dead."
Hands’ voice dropped a fraction.
"He was far too valuable a man to die here. What a shame."
Whether the condolence he showed Mammoth was genuine respect or just a fixer’s smooth lip service meant to win him over as a business partner, Ji-hwan had no way of knowing.
Still, compared to the other fixers who treated mercs like meat shields and disposable tools, like Faraday, it was definitely not a bad reaction.
"Before he... died, he told me to contact this place if anything happened to him."
"...So he told you that too. Bad timing... As for that matter..."
Wheeeeee-!! Rattle-rattle-rattle!
Just as Hands was about to continue, sharp engine noise and dozens of sweeping searchlights began tearing through the darkness far down the underground tunnel where Ji-hwan was hiding.
It was the swarm of corpos and mercs that had caught wind of the chaos Ji-hwan had caused in Pacifica Plaza, along with the massive bounty hanging around his neck.
Ji-hwan knew it instantly.
He was out of time. His body was already in no condition to fight normally after tanking the fake Aguila’s attack and forcing out Gear 3 at full output.
If he clashed with them here, it would only become another pointless battle, and in the end he’d die like a dog.
"We’re out of time, Mr. Hands."
"Break me out of this cordon and get me somewhere Night City’s eyes can’t reach. That’s my condition."
At that brazen offer, Mr. Hands let out a low chuckle through the hologram.
"An interesting proposal. But, K..."
Hands’ gaze pierced straight through the screen and into Ji-hwan’s eyes.
"The only reason I accepted this call was out of respect for Mammoth. Even if he handed you that chip as proof, business is another matter entirely."
Resting his chin on a hand hidden in the dark, he posed a question.
"What possible gain do I have that would make it worth my while to risk myself, deceive Night City’s entire surveillance net, and set the board for you?"
Faced with that heavy pressure, Ji-hwan didn’t bother with a long-winded answer. Instead, he bared bloodied teeth through his split lips and smiled, then played his hand.
"Top-secret intel on a conspiracy between Zetatech and Biotechnica. The [chimera project]."
The moment those words fell from Ji-hwan’s bloodied lips, Mr. Hands’ silhouette beyond the hologram screen twitched ever so slightly.
Data on a hideous bioweapon experiment secretly conducted by two megacorps in collusion. It was the kind of information even the legendary merc Papa Sunrise had gone after, only to vanish without a trace. Of course Mr. Hands would be dying to know more.
But Hands immediately began calculating the numbers coldly.
"Certainly attractive information. I’ll admit it’s excellent bait for my interest. But, K... I don’t think that’s enough."
Outside the tunnel, the engines of the hounds combing through Pacifica and the sweep of their searchlights grew closer and closer, but Hands ignored the noise and kept speaking only his own terms.
"In short, that single piece of classified data still doesn’t justify shielding you from everyone hunting the eddies on your head. Regrettable, but I’ll have to end this call here. Good luck."
The screen’s blue light crackled as Hands tried to terminate the connection unilaterally.
He had to be given bait this picky, this rational, this impossible to refuse.
"Haa..."
Ji-hwan let out a sigh and pulled out knowledge no resident of Night City in 2068 could possibly know.
"The Unification War is going to happen."
"...What?"
For once, the ever-composed tone beyond the screen went rigid in an instant.
Ji-hwan swallowed the metallic taste of blood and pressed the point home.
"Before long, NUSA and Militech are going to launch a full-scale war to retake the Free States by force. The corporate army and the federal government will clash head-on, and of course Night City won’t be able to escape the whirlpool of that massive war."
Ji-hwan’s eyes cut through the screen and straight into Hands’ lenses.
This was no mere gangland turf war or a scandal about one or two megacorps. It was classified information about a colossal war that would pit a nation against a megacorp and reshape the map of an entire continent. For Mr. Hands, the man who wanted to manipulate Night City from behind the curtain with invisible power, it was information on a scale that dwarfed the bioweapon data by an absurd margin.
If he knew the flow of the coming war in advance and set the chessboard accordingly, the power he stood to gain could accelerate his plans by at least ten years.
"...A war, huh. Are you in your right mind saying that?"
There was obvious suspicion in Hands’ voice.
The scale was ridiculous, a full-on war between megacorps and a nation-state. But Ji-hwan kept going to bring the deal to its end.
"President Myers and Militech are going to invade the Free States by force. If you want, check the troop movements and signs of military action they’re already preparing under the table with your precious information network. If you’re the one pulling the strings behind Night City’s stage, you’ll realize in no time that I’m not saying anything strange."
Ji-hwan’s confident tone, challenging Hands’ intelligence and seeing straight through him, made Mr. Hands instantly realize that the man in front of him possessed information he himself did not know.
In an instant, the lightness vanished from the atmosphere. Hands went serious, and a heavy silence dragged on for several seconds.
Then, when Mr. Hands looked back through the hologram, his shoulders were faintly stiffened by the information he had just confirmed.
"...Turns out you’re a very dangerous man, K."
Hands’ low murmur now carried tension.
"Fine. I accept the deal. But remember this: the information you just spoke aloud is poison that could blow away not just my business, but my head, in an instant."
"Don’t be dramatic."
Ji-hwan snorted and smiled crookedly.
"Just that one piece of information I handed you already fast-tracked years of your plans, didn’t it?"
Hit dead center by Ji-hwan’s words, Mr. Hands could only give a bitter smile beyond the hologram, unable to argue back.
"I’ll admit that."
Tatatatang-! Rattle-rattle-rattle!
At that moment, hurried footsteps and searchlight beams rapidly closed in from deep within the underground tunnel where Ji-hwan was hiding.
Ji-hwan braced his collapsing body against the wall and growled low.
"Now answer me. Are we doing this deal or not?"
At Ji-hwan’s demand, Mr. Hands beyond the hologram screen no longer bothered to tap his calculator and stall.
"A splendid beginning to a partnership. I’ve sent the map data."
Hands smiled and drawled lazily.
"Good luck, K."
"Yeah, right."
Beep.
With that short, businesslike farewell, the screen crackled blue and the connection was cut unilaterally.
And the moment the call ended, light burst from Mammoth’s comm chip, slicing through the air and projecting a clear 3D holographic map of Pacifica’s underground tunnels in front of Ji-hwan.
In Ji-hwan’s pupils, a red dot marking his current position and a blue dot indicating the hidden escape route prepared by Mr. Hands flickered into view.
The instant Ji-hwan finished checking it and folded the holographic display away without hesitation...
"Over here! Move!"
"Shit, watch it! He’s a monster!"
A heavily armed merc squad burst into the tunnel Ji-hwan had been hiding in, shouting noisily as they came.
The bio-tracker they carried emitted an irritated beep while pointing into the void.
"There was definitely a bio-signature at this coordinate just a second ago."
The merc at the front swept his searchlight roughly over the pile of trash where Ji-hwan had been sitting and bleeding only moments ago.
Squeak, screech-screech!
Where the beam landed, only a swarm of giant mutant sewer rats was flapping around.
"Damn it, was it just rats? You scared the hell out of me, fuck!"
Squeak!!
The irritated merc kicked the rats aside with a heavy boot and spat, then shouted into the radio clipped to his shoulder.
"Nothing here! Just rats! Keep searching while we move to the next sector!"
"Got it, moving!"
As the mercs moved deeper into the tunnel again,
right above the spot they had just lit up with their searchlights, Ji-hwan was crouched in the shadow of a broken concrete pipe in the ceiling, holding his breath.
Looking down at the stupid hounds who were desperate to catch him, Ji-hwan waited until their presence had completely vanished. Then, like a ghost, he slipped down into the shadows and silently disappeared into the darkness toward the blue dot on the map Mr. Hands had sent.
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