Chapter 14 – Surgery: Part 1
Kay's mind wandered, replaying the past like a corrupted BD.
Dexter DeShawn.
The man had a reputation in Night City: middleman, fixer, shot-caller. But also a traitor. He'd betrayed his crew, sold out V, and tried to cover it all up with a bullet.
Still, if you stripped away the betrayal, what did that leave you with?
A guy who, at the very least, wasn't as foolish as that naïve doll Evelyn Parker.
Evelyn had approached V with promises of a fifty-fifty split—kick the middleman, keep the score. She never factored in the logistics: Dex had to bankroll a netrunner, purchase a custom Flathead, secure Delamain's top-tier escape package, and handle the post-op fallout.
And the end result?
Saburo Arasaka—emperor of Arasaka—was assassinated inside Konpeki Plaza.
That wasn't just a mission gone wrong. That was a tectonic event.
And for Dex? The fallout was immediate and inescapable. No fixer, no matter how high up the food chain, could survive the wrath of a megacorp like Arasaka.
World-class corpo. World-class death sentence.
That's why Dex panicked. That's why he pulled the trigger on V.
It didn't matter if Takemura never found him. His days as a fixer were over the moment the old man hit the floor. No merc would ever trust him again—not with their lives.
As for Evelyn?
She was just a doll with delusions of grandeur. The Voodoo Boys hired her to scope out the relic chip. She didn't know what it was, what it did—only that it could "change her life."
Yeah, well. It did.
She sold out the Voodoo Boys, brought in DeShawn, and roped in two green mercs—V and Jackie—for a job too big for even seasoned crews. It blew up in everyone's face. People died. Trust burned.
In hindsight, Dex wasn't even the worst part of that disaster.
Kay leaned back in his chair, muttering a quote to himself.
> "This isn't the fault of war. It's the will of the gods."
It felt fitting for Dex's story.
Kay turned to Riko Vega, who stood by with an eager grin plastered across his face.
"How the hell did you find Dex? He didn't leave Night City?"
Riko scratched the back of his head, grinning sheepishly. "Got a delivery gig from the old captain. Dropped off a Mizutani Hayabusa and a Wild Coyote to Taiping District. Found Dex bleeding out in an alley. Someone sliced him up good. So... I scooped him up."
Kay blinked. The old captain? He ran through names in his head.
"Wait… Muammar Reyes? Fixer from Santo Domingo?"
"Yeah! That's him!" Riko said, excited. "Didn't you say we needed a middleman to offload jobs? He found our Puff Tavern in Santo Domingo."
Kay nodded slowly, filing that away. Muammar Reyes was competent—someone worth keeping in play. But right now, Dex was the real prize.
No fixer in his right mind would set foot back in Night City, not after what happened at Konpeki. And yet… here he was. Wounded. Vulnerable.
Perfect test subject, Kay thought, eyeing the surgical table.
Time to try the Mind Tamper Chip.
He waved Riko over. "Put Dex on the table."
"You got it." Riko hoisted the unconscious fixer up with a grunt and laid him down.
Kay glanced at Dex's vitals. Still alive—barely. That arm wound was clean, amputated at the shoulder. Quick cauterization, likely field-bandaged by Riko on the spot.
Kay pulled out his tools.
"Riko, wait outside. He's stable. Won't die on my table."
"Cool. Thanks, Kay. You're the best."
---
Operating Room.
Kay slipped off Dex's shredded coat and got to work. He examined the stump—sharp, surgical cut. Clean, but exposed. He scanned and logged measurements.
He imagined Dex later, striding through Night City with a gleaming chrome arm. Golden arm. Legendary rep. Clean slate.
He wouldn't wake up during surgery. Not on Kay's watch.
Kay administered a strong anesthetic—then got to work.
He grabbed the prosthetic limb: industrial-grade, no frills, not packed with weapons or gimmicks. Just strength, precision, and mobility. After fifteen minutes of grinding, polishing, and calibrating, the replacement was ready.
He peeled off the bandage, revealing muscle and nerves beneath.
With a scalpel and forceps, Kay parted the tissue and bone, lining up the implant's neural connectors. Dozens of micro-spikes extended from the chrome interface, latching onto the nervous system and anchoring into bone.
Dex twitched.
The painkillers dulled it, but the body always remembered.
Then came the hum.
The arm activated, locking into place.
Kay observed the readings. Neural pathways syncing. Biometric responses stabilizing.
Good. That part was done.
But there was still one more procedure.
Kay picked up a small black chip. Unassuming. Insidious.
Mind Tamper V4.0.
He had refined it over weeks—after dozens of tests and failures. The new version wouldn't simply make Dex obey like a dumb robot. It would subtly reshape his cognition. Alter perceptions. Increase trust. Forge loyalty.
Once active for 48 hours, the changes would become permanent. Even if the chip were removed, the rewritten mental code would remain. Burned into the soul.
And if resistance emerged?
Kay had already installed a hidden receptor in his own body—a signal override that could remotely trigger compliance.
He slid the chip into Dex's spine, sealing it beneath layers of synthetic tissue.
It was done.
Exactly one hour had passed.
Kay cleaned up, pulled off his gloves, and stepped into the hallway.
"Riko!" he called.
"Yeah?" Riko poked his head in.
"All done. He'll live."
Riko gave a low whistle. "Damn, Kay. You're a miracle worker."
Kay didn't reply. He just watched Dex on the table, his new golden arm glinting under the surgical lights.
Soon, he thought.
Soon, you'll be mine.