Cyberpunk: 2075.

Chapter 795.5. Taking Over the Terrorist Mobile Unit

Chapter 17, Section 3 of the Night City Regulations clearly stipulates that the NCPD manages the Terrorist Mobile Unit. Although this has become a formality, it is still an ironclad rule written into Night City's laws.

According to the rules established many years ago, in order to prevent the Terrorist Mobile Unit, a group of madmen who have undergone intensive cybernetic modifications, from going out of control, elite police officers who have passed political vetting and genetic testing must be assigned to serve in the unit and be subject to 24-hour shifts for supervision.

After all, the initial members of the Terrorist Response Unit were selected from the elite officers of the NCPD.

However, times have changed. In Night City today, the NCPD's management of the Terrorist Task Force is practically nonexistent. On the quarterly reports piled up in the City Hall archives, the NCPD chief's electronic signature is nothing more than a routine symbol.

The real control of the Terrorist Mobile Unit comes from agents who are nominally part of the NCPD's personnel structure but are actually secretly appointed by the City Council. They obey only the City Council and have remote forced shutdown authority over all cybernetic psychopaths, ensuring that this most uncontrollable and terrifying security force in Night City is firmly under the control of the City Council.

The NCPD's return to substantive management of the Terrorist Response Unit is ostensibly a routine adjustment within the police system, but in reality, it is an inevitable product of power struggles within the city council.

To understand the origins of the city council's decision to send personnel to the NCPD to manage the Terrorist Response Team, one must first mention Mayor Lucius Lane—the overweight yet ambitious political genius.

Amidst the bloody smoke of the unification war, while other politicians in Night City were still trembling with fear at the iron heel of the new America and fearing the possibility of the new America being unified again, it was this seemingly mediocre Night City senator who, with a strategy of fighting fire with fire, introduced the Arasaka Group to counterbalance the expansion of military technology.

This risky move not only preserved Night City's autonomy but also propelled him directly to the mayor's seat. Of course, Arasaka's political maneuvering behind the scenes cannot be ignored, but Ryan's sharp insight into the situation was something even the most critical commentators had to acknowledge.

What's even more intriguing is that after establishing himself, the mayor secretly extended an olive branch to military technology, attempting to use this arms giant to restrain the increasingly powerful Arasaka faction.

Although this dangerous game of balancing ultimately ended in tragedy—like the usual ending of Night City stories—no one can deny that during those turbulent years, Ryan was indeed the only player in the Night City Council capable of tearing a crack in the iron curtain of multinational corporations.

Even Hansen, who now entrenched himself in Dogtown, the war hyena who moves among various corporations, is no more than a toddler in terms of political acumen compared to Ryan.

There is a fundamental difference between the two: one can barely maintain the fragile neutrality of a small island, while the other has made the entire Night City dance a death tango between military technology, Arasaka, and major corporations for seven whole years.

While Hansen was still haggling with whom to secure the smuggling route through Dogtown, Ryan had already turned the company into chips on his private gambling table, even if it was a reckless and insane act.

Ryan's body has long since cooled, but the poison vines he planted still entwine the lifeblood of Night City.

Those meticulously crafted policies are like old-fashioned chips implanted in the central nervous system, which must be removed one by one with a political scalpel—and the NCPD's reinstatement of the Terrorist Mobile Unit is a rather ingenious one of those removals.

Not a single company raised the banner of opposition, not even the Night Group, the company that laid the foundation for Night City, remained eerily silent.

After all, everyone understands that this is beneficial to every company.

During Lucius Lane's golden age in office, this shrewd fat man was indeed a political genius. He gradually transformed the city council from a corporate puppet theater into his own personal stage. The citizens loved him—his approval rating soared like Mewtwo in the KK's rankings, and Lane in the election hologram always wore that 'I can handle everything' smile, and many in Night City were sold on it.

If Lucius Lane hadn't died, there would be no one in Night City who could rival him for the mayor's position. To avoid the emergence of another mayor who was so popular and tried to use the corporations to create his own personal city, the corporations have united in this regard, unwilling to let some of Lucius Lane's policies continue.

"This reminds me of a classic joke."

At NCPD headquarters, looking at the busy NCPD officers around him, Carl said to Andy beside him, "Old America had a Roosevelt during World War II, and all the policies of old America afterward were to prevent another Roosevelt from emerging. Although Lucius Lane was essentially just an excellent politician and did not have the same talent as Roosevelt, the two approaches were quite similar."

"I think it's best if I don't comment on this."

Andy tidied up the documents in his hands, and looking at the friends he had invited who were standing around the NCPD office with curiosity, he said, "After all, I am a beneficiary in this regard."

"To be honest, I didn't expect that you would be the one selected by the city council to be in charge of the Terrorist Response Team."

Carl crossed his arms: "I thought that after the city council reached an agreement, they would still choose an agent who was actually sent by the NCPD under their name. This shows that the city council is ultimately still a council of those companies."
After Lucius Lane's death, facing new territories where they could potentially intervene, the mutual distrust persisted. Ultimately, they had to choose someone acceptable to all parties, much like supporting the Terrorist Squad – every company was involved, but no one was allowed to monopolize the role.

"Maybe."

When Carl called him a 'person acceptable to all parties,' Andy's expression remained unchanged: 'For those companies, stability is the biggest advantage,' right?

“It seems that Mr. Johnson’s performance since taking office, coupled with the performance of your special operations team, is very much to the company’s liking. But thinking about it, it makes sense.” Carl tilted his head. “For those at the top, as long as the lower-ups don’t cause any trouble that affects the company’s reputation, and there are no more cases of damage to company property on the streets, it is indeed logical to choose a compromise candidate under the checks and balances of all parties.”

"But this can also be considered a test."

Andy had finished tidying up the files he had on each member of the Terrorist Mobile Squad and looked at Carl and V, who had been invited.

"The man Lucius Lane left behind, unable to be affiliated with any company, used his years of experience controlling the Terrorist Mobile Unit to destroy the old control agreement before his death—since he couldn't survive himself, he might as well turn the Terrorist Mobile Unit into a time bomb."
I'd actually prefer him to activate the protocol and send all those cyberpsychotics down, at least then I could rebuild a clean team from scratch. But right now, we only have some incomplete secondary protocols that can weaken them, but killing them like the old protocols are going to be difficult."

Andy's face showed a rare hint of indifference: "I guess that person was hoping they would lose control so that Night City would be thrown into chaos again. Unfortunately, I'm the one cleaning up their mess now."

"That's why you invited us, isn't it?"

Carl chuckled and said, "We need to teach those cyber lunatics what rules and superiors are."

(End of this chapter)