"Blank!" Jack blurted, his voice nearly cracking as he stumbled around Arthur, staring like a cultist meeting his techno-deity.
"Old Arthur, you're insane! How the hell did you do that? Was that... was that a double stack Sandevistan?!"
He didn't wait for an answer. Jack rushed behind Arthur like a kid on synth-sugar, one hand reaching up to touch the protrusion on Arthur's spine through his black trench coat. His fingers ran over the ridged bulge under the cloth—thick, uneven, almost organic.
Jack froze.
"This thing feels like... a dorsal fin." He blinked, then muttered, "It's alive?"
Even V, who'd been through her fair share of corpo craziness, couldn't help but gape. "Wait. You're a street merc? Seriously? That move just now—what kind of merc pulls off that kind of time acceleration? That's top-tier corpo tech. I've only seen that level of nerve overclocking from Adam Smasher himself."
Arthur puffed a slow drag from his cigarette and gave the unconscious Arasaka agent on the floor a light kick. "What? The kids were just tuckered out. All they need is a nap and a popsicle."
V rolled her eyes, stepped forward, and proceeded to absolutely obliterate the agent's family tree. She landed several well-placed kicks, starting with the guy's ribs and ending with what Jack later described as a "career-ending low blow."
Arthur winced, hand reflexively covering his own lower half. "Oof. That's gonna leave a legacy."
"Remind me not to piss her off," Jack mumbled, stepping slightly farther away from V.
Wiping her hands, V looked up. "All jokes aside... What model is that Sandevistan? That's not standard Arasaka issue, and I've read most of the lab notes that make it out of R&D."
With a grin, Arthur unzipped his coat and peeled off his shirt. The bar's low lights glinted off the red-and-black centipede-shaped spine grafted into his back. It shimmered—half chrome, half ominous glow. LED lights blinked down its length like it had its own pulse.
"I'm running two units," Arthur said, tapping one section of the device. "This beauty's an Arasaka prototype. I didn't catch the name. It was chilling in the lab next to the corpse of an intern, probably labeled confidentially dangerous or something. I just know it used to be property of a certain Adam Hammer."
"You stole from Smasher?!" V and Jack both shouted.
Arthur shrugged. "I prefer the term relieved him of burdensome hardware."
V looked like she wanted to faint. "No wonder the whole city's crawling with Arasaka intel units! I thought the buzz was because Frankfurt's prepping a takeover—but you personally triggered the city's corpo lockdown? Damn it, Arthur!"
"Relax," Arthur said, waving his hand. "I came here tonight to check something: if Arasaka really gave a damn."
He leaned against the table, arms crossed. "From what I see, they don't. No coordinated response. No martial lockdown. No high-priority protocols. Which means this isn't corporate-wide. It's personal. Adam's pissed. But if it's not on the record, he can't burn the city looking for me."
Jack looked like he wanted to worship Arthur's spine. "That's the dopest tech I've seen since that Maelstrom guy tried to implant a railgun in his chest."
V wasn't smiling. Her eyes flicked over the exposed Sandevistan again, lips tight. "You get that even if Arasaka doesn't care now, someone's gonna start caring very soon. That kind of tech? It doesn't go missing quietly."
Arthur casually leaned back, shirt still off, cigarette dangling from his lip.
"Then I'll sell it before they care."
V blinked. "What?"
Jack grinned. "Oh no. I know that look. He's not just going to sell it. He's going to sell it loudly."
Arthur nodded, flicking ash off the tip of his cigarette. "Half the market's dying for untraceable, top-tier Sandevistans. I've got a prosthetic tailor modded from Adam Smasher's tech, an experimental spinal overclock unit, and I'm sitting on two black market contacts who would slit throats just for a schematic."
"arthur..." V whispered, rubbing her temples. "You're gonna start a damn arms race."
Arthur stood, brushing himself off. "Hey, this is Night City. If I don't start one, someone else will. Might as well be me."
After a short while, the trio unceremoniously dumped the three unconscious Arasaka agents into a dumpster behind the Ritz Bar.
As Arthur brushed his hands clean, something clicked in his mind. "Hold up."
He pulled out his holo and dialed a number.
"...Yes, Night City Trauma Dispatch? I need a pickup at—yeah, right behind the Ritz Bar. I found three senior Arasaka agents in critical condition. Looks like gang violence. Might be concussed. Probably leaking data."
He paused, then added smoothly, "Yes, I'll hold. Of course I can verify. I'm a concerned citizen."
Jack and V stared in stunned silence as Arthur's account balance blinked. A fresh 10,000 eddies deposited.
"I gave them the location," Arthur grinned. "Scav team's en route. They'll sell off the chrome. I just made ten grand for recycling corpo garbage."
"...You're insane," V said flatly.
"I'm efficient," Arthur corrected. "Recycling's part of my new green initiative. I take corpses and turn them into currency."
Jack slapped his thigh laughing. "Damn right, that's sustainable income!"
"I say we take this bonus and head to the Turbo Bar," Arthur added, spinning his keys. "We're officially not welcome at the Ritz anymore, and I'm banned for... what is it now? Five hundred hours?"
V and Jack looked at each other, shrugged, and followed him down the alley.
But V couldn't stop glancing at the red-lit spine on Arthur's back.
She'd seen a lot in her short career. But this?
This was new.
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