Cyberpunk: 2075.

Chapter 971, page 182. It shouldn't be that bad.

Lazarus Group, a privately held military company with a prestigious reputation in the industry.

Its founder and the founder of the military technology were comrades-in-arms on the battlefield. This friendship has enabled them to maintain a close yet restrained long-term cooperation after they founded their respective companies.

In the past, there were often classic combinations in various places where "Lazarus provided manpower and military technology provided equipment," and together they accomplished many missions that made both sides famous.

However, the rise of the new America changed everything.

With this 'national puppet' constantly supplying personnel, military technology rapidly reduced its cooperation with Lazarus.

After all, military technology no longer depends on Lazarus's personnel.

If we compare past allies to a lone wolf hunting alongside a hunter, then today, military technology has tamed loyal hounds, so there is no longer a need for that wild partner that is difficult to fully control.

As the new United States grew stronger, relations between the two sides rapidly deteriorated, and there were even rumors that after the death of Lazarus' founder, Military Technology attempted to take over the entire Lazarus Group by relying on old friendships.

However, through the interplay of various forces and the group's own insistence on maintaining a restrained relationship with military technology from the very beginning, Lazarus ultimately maintained its relative independence.

Although they still show a bias towards commissioning military technology, the Lazarus Group is unusually cold in all matters involving the new America, given the deep resentment left by its founder, a former U.S. soldier betrayed by the United States.

Historical barriers have prevented military technology from working in tandem with Lazarus in the new America's operations. They have no choice but to deploy Lazarus personnel to the front lines in conflicts with corporate giants such as Arasaka and biotechnology, serving as a limited combat force.

As of 2077, the 'Lazarus Mercenaries' are still synonymous with elites, high salaries, and top-notch equipment. Their members not only enjoy generous rewards for their performance in missions, but also gain access to high-performance prosthetic bodies that are hard to find outside the group.

Rumor has it that when Dogtown was first established, Kurt Hansen referenced the Lazarus Group's model. The employment terms he offered to his Ghosthound soldiers were essentially the same as those of the Lazarus Group, except that they were more demanding in all aspects and paid more.

In some ways, the Lazarus Group, apart from not being a self-reliant king like Kurt Hansen, is more like a large hound of the underworld that is not so bound to its people and is more like a labor dispatch agency.

How could someone who is very likely a member of this Great Hound of the Underworld suddenly have a cyberbullying episode and assassinate the deputy mayor of Night City?

Although Karl couldn't be sure that the mysterious man was a member of Lazarus—the language he spoke was unverifiable, and the location where he repaired his prosthetic body was itself a strange point that could be traced—he could only start from this direction given the lack of information.

Lazarus Group does not keep records of every employee it hires.

Even if there are records, they would never admit them once they get involved in such trouble. It's not entirely impossible for the NCPD to make a breakthrough in this area, but it's extremely difficult.
The clues seem to be right in front of us, but the difficulty of tracking them down is simply too high.

As an advisor, Carl told River everything he had in mind.

However, after a moment of contemplation, Rivers offered a perspective that Carl had never considered.

"Since it's difficult to investigate officially and we're not making any progress, why don't we approach it from both sides?"

Rivers' past experiences may have given him the idea to bypass the program.

“Official records will be erased, but memories and local data will not. For the people of Lazarus to operate, they need safe houses, weapons, and vehicles. They conceal their identities, and even the first members have to come to the street cyborg doctor. So they definitely won’t use the channels of companies that are easy to trace, and can only find local ‘suppliers’.”

"You mean, go out and walk the streets?"

Carl immediately thought of who he should contact regarding street connections.

Wakako, Roger, the old captain, and so on—if you need help with anything on the street, these middlemen can all lend a hand. And with a reasonable compensation from the NCPD, plus their goodwill, they probably won't refuse.

"It's not just about street paths."

River said, “Even the most elite mercenaries produce household waste. They are not ghosts. As long as they have existed, they will leave traces. It is difficult to find a needle in a haystack in Night City, but the assassin’s movement trajectory has a clear anchor point: he was maintaining his cybernetic body outside Japan Street, but finally appeared inside Japan Street to commit the crime. The process in between—where he might have eaten, shopped, or even just stopped to smoke a cigarette—is the path we are tracing. We can mobilize resources and follow this path to reconstruct his activities in the last few hours like a jigsaw puzzle.”

“I see.” Karl nodded slightly. “One line is underground, tracing the source of their supplies and equipment through the streets; the other line is in the open, using official channels to reconstruct his life and movement patterns. By working on both fronts, we can always catch the tail left behind.”

“That’s it. Also, I have a favor to ask of you, Carl.”

Rivers looked at Carl, who was a police consultant, and at that moment he completely forgot about Carl's other identities, regarding him only as a key link in solving the case.

"I need you to conceal your identity and send an employment request to the Lazarus Group through anonymous channels."

“Hide your identity and post a job offer,” Karl pondered, then a look of understanding flashed in his eyes. “I understand.”

He fully understood River's intentions.

The moment River uttered the words 'Lazarus' and 'hidden identity,' he had already grasped the essence of the plan.

Hiring is a business, and Lazarus had no reason to refuse if the pay was good enough.

Tasks specifically marked as 'most urgent' will, with their substantial rewards, inevitably mobilize the opposing team's truly ready and responsive squads within the region.

When Carl initiates a hiring process, he doesn't need any complicated probing; he only needs to do one thing: accurately record the response and estimated arrival time of the order-taking team.

This timing will be the most crucial criterion, as it will clearly indicate whether the Lazarus squad was urgently dispatched from within Night City or hastily transferred from a base outside the city.

If that assassination squad was indeed Lazarus's carefully hidden "black glove" and received strong cover from the group, then Lazarus would never have deployed multiple such highly sensitive secret squads in the same war zone—neither resources nor the risks would have allowed it.

In other words, while Carl is unlikely to be able to directly hire the 'target team' itself, he can use this simple test to accurately map the real-time deployment location and status of the Lazarus Group's conventional rapid response forces in the current area.

With the combined efforts of official and street investigations, a 'baseline' can be quickly established. Any unusual gaps or time discrepancies that deviate from this 'baseline' could point to the true location of the hidden group.

Of course, all of this is based on the assumption that Lazarus's speculation is correct.

However, the speculation that the other party might be a member of Lazarus was Karl's own conjecture, and Karl was naturally willing to take on this responsibility as an advisor.

only.
Is the police department financially secure?

Karl couldn't possibly pay someone to do police work.

"I just requested it from the bureau chief, and following procedure, the bureau chief just approved a sum of money."

River transferred a sum of money to Carl without any hesitation.

Karl raised an eyebrow slightly as he looked at the 500,000 euros that had been deposited into his account.

This amount of money is not much for him now, but he approved it without hesitation.

The police department is well-off now, Mr. Johnson.

This money could hire V to do hard work. Oh, no, even if V's net worth is different now, one-tenth of this money would probably be enough to get him moving.

As for whether it's possible to be one percent, it's unlikely.

(End of this chapter)