Gearbound: Cyberpunk 2077
Chapter 306

Chapter 306 

2-IN-1 chapter

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That's right—these kinds of people didn't need direct threats. They still had families, and Hector didn't even have to threaten them personally. All he had to do was withhold help repaying their debts, and loan sharks would crush their families under high-interest loans.

There was no chance they'd betray or turn on him.

As long as Hector remained alive, the Salamanca Cartel would keep hunting them like sharks drawn to blood.

You could be a thief for a thousand days, but no one could guard against a thief for a thousand days.

So Hector had to die.

Only with his death could they finally rest easy.

"Didn't that thug brag at the taco shop talk about his cousin working as a hired gun for Hector? Does his head hold any intel on Hector's residence?"

Lucy brushed aside the hair on her forehead. "Yeah. His cousin really is working for Hector. Hector lives in a mansion on the outskirts—a large estate with grounds that are always guarded by about three hundred Salamanca Cartel members."

V's eyes widened. "Three hundred? That many?"

Even when they'd hit the Clemente Family's compound back in 6th Street, it only had a few dozen shooters.

Now the boss of the Salamanca Cartel had three hundred armed men just guarding his home?

And these weren't producing anything—they were just being paid to sit around with guns.

Even Leo didn't know if Hector was just paranoid or if the cartel was simply that rich.

V muttered, "He's seriously afraid of dying, hiring that many people to protect him."

"This complicates things. Even though we know where he lives, storming that estate head-on would be near impossible with that much protection."

"That means we need to think of a way to reduce the number of guards first."

V's words pulled a heavy silence over the car.

No one spoke.

Leo glanced at the weapons case in the back of the SUV—the one he'd brought from Rogue's stash.

But after some thought, he gave up the idea of using that particular weapon. As powerful as it was, it had counters.

And it alone wouldn't be enough to break through a defense net of 300 shooters and take Hector down.

"Actually," Lucy said, "I just thought of something. Look here."

She pulled out a tablet and brought up a map of Tijuana, circling several red zones.

"These are all Salamanca Cartel properties. The cartel runs on money, and Hector throws it around because of the cash flow from these operations. If any of them come under attack, they'll have to pull men from the estate to protect the income source."

Her plan was simple: strike at Salamanca's assets.

As soon as their revenue streams were threatened, even if Hector suspected it was a diversion, he'd be forced to send men from the estate to guard the businesses.

It was a direct play. A bold and open one.

And Hector had no choice but to play along.

If he didn't act, the other cartel leaders would panic and pressure him into responding.

Even in a worst-case scenario, even if the upper echelon of the cartel couldn't apply that pressure, Hector couldn't just sit there while his territory was burned down piece by piece.

V, however, voiced her concern: "But there are so many targets. There's only three of us. Can we really hit enough of them?"

Lucy smiled and shook her head. "We don't need to wipe them all out. Even if we could, it wouldn't help us much—it'd just wear us down."

She tapped the screen.

"We just need to take down one or two of these. That's enough to show Hector we're back in Tijuana. If he has half a brain, he'll shift some guards to protect the rest."

V frowned. "But wouldn't he know it's a trick? What if he doesn't move any of his people?"

Leo answered, punching his right fist lightly into his left palm.

"Then we'll wait him out. Guerrilla style. We hit one place today, another tomorrow. It's all on Salamanca turf anyway—everything we destroy costs him, not us. Let's see who breaks first."

Lucy shut the tablet. "Exactly. The only real concern is if Hector retaliates by attacking our families in Night City while we're making a mess here."

"Honestly," Leo said, "I think that might actually work in our favor. If he sends men to Night City, that also pulls guards from the estate. That might be our opening to go in and kill him."

….......................

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"This the place?" V leaned on the rolled-down window, looking at a fried chicken restaurant not far ahead.

The place was doing booming business—even outside of peak hours, the tables were mostly full.

Servers in uniform buzzed between tables, dropping off food orders.

Leo used his tactical goggles to scan beneath the restaurant. Below it was a massive logistics warehouse.

The Salamanca Cartel shipped finished Glitter from elsewhere to this warehouse, where it was sorted, weighed, packaged, and sent to cities across North America.

That's right—Mexico was too poor to consume that much Glitter.

All of it was bound for the other side of the border.

Only North America had the population and demand to absorb it all.

Of course, they couldn't buy off every border guard.

So they hid the Glitter inside frozen chicken, transporting it via the fried chicken restaurant's trucks.

It sounded crude and a little silly.

But it worked. The Salamanca Cartel had used this method for over twenty years—moving Glitter northward, nonstop.

The scan finished. Leo nodded.

"This is it."

"Then let's begin," V said.

Lucy, seated in the back, handed out weapons to Leo and V. Once all three were fully equipped, they exchanged nods and simultaneously opened the SUV doors, stepping out.

"The workers in the fried chicken joint are probably just cover. If they don't draw weapons, spare them. But everyone in the underground logistics warehouse has to die."

With guns in hand, Leo and the two women approached the restaurant. Pedestrians nearby instinctively scattered at the sight of the armed group.

A few customers seated by the windows noticed the three walking toward the entrance and stared in shock and confusion.

Ignoring them, Leo kicked the door open and fired a full burst from his Ajax kinetic assault rifle into the ceiling.

The ceiling tiles and a hanging fan were instantly torn apart by the storm of bullets.

Everyone inside hit the floor, heads covered, too terrified to run. Hands locked over their heads, they crouched on the floor, eyes wide with panic, all staring toward the entrance.

Leo scanned the staff and customers using his tactical goggles.

After confirming none of them were carrying weapons, he stepped forward, clearing the doorway.

"You've got twenty seconds to get out of here! Otherwise, you're never leaving."

No one moved. All of them just continued to stare in terror.

"You're not going? You all want to stay and catch bullets?"

Leo lowered the muzzle from the ceiling and fired a few shots into the glass windows, shattering them into fragments.

Only then did the crowd, screaming in terror, bolt for the exit.

"We move."

With the place cleared and trashed, Leo, V, and Lucy proceeded directly into the back of the kitchen.

At the rear was a sealed door with a white sign reading "No Entry" in Spanish.

Through the goggles, Leo could see that the people inside had already been alerted by the gunfire.

So had the ones below, in the underground logistics warehouse.

If this were Night City or the New United States, they'd likely be scrambling to destroy evidence.

But this was Tijuana—Mexico. There was no fear of a government raid.

Which meant anyone arriving like this had come to wreck the place. And were most likely from a rival gang or some thugs who didn't know better.

In the warehouse, people were simultaneously calling for reinforcements and distributing weapons.

Leo shared his visual feed with V and Lucy. He and Lucy positioned themselves on one side of the door, V on the other.

"Lucy, breach it."

Her eyes flashed red. A few seconds later, the automatic door slid open.

The moment it did, a storm of bullets erupted from within.

But Leo had already seen that weapons were trained on the entrance, so none of them rushed in immediately. Instead, they stayed close to the wall, waiting for the attackers to dump their mags.

There were three inside—two using an overturned table for cover, firing toward the door. The third was silently hiding just behind it.

When the two emptied their mags, Leo gave V a look—stay sharp.

Then he tossed in a stun grenade he'd been holding.

Two seconds later—bang. An ear-splitting concussive blast.

They were ok since they were outside the room. But inside, all three—especially the one lying in ambush—were hit hard.

Leo stormed in.

Pop—he dropped the one hiding behind the door.

Two more shots and the pair behind the table were dead as well.

…........................

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Skrrt—

Tires screeched outside, kicking up smoke.

Multiple cars bearing the Salamanca Cartel emblem pulled up haphazardly outside the chicken shop.

Over twenty armed gunmen exited, using their vehicles for cover, raising their weapons toward the restaurant with trained precision.

These weren't random punks—they were either former Mexican police or military and special forces veterans. Their tactics were clean and professional.

The squad leader clipped a scanner over his right eye—a device resembling a miniature camera.

A cone of invisible scanning beams radiated from him as he slowly rotated his head, sweeping every inch of the restaurant and the warehouse below.

When the scan finished and he removed the device, his face tightened with concern.

This was bad.

The scanner showed no signs of life.

Which meant they were too late.

He randomly pointed at a few subordinates. "Go inside. Assess the damage."

He stayed near the car, pacing back and forth, already thinking about how he was going to explain this to Hector.

Technically, it wasn't their fault.

They'd rushed over the moment the call for help came in—not a second's delay.

If the attackers were already gone, it meant they were well-prepared. And knew exactly what they were doing.

Can't blame our troops for being incompetent when the enemy brought a goddamn Gundam.

Problem was, the old Hector might've listened to reason.

But the current Hector? He was a madman now. Who knew if he'd even hear them out before blowing their brains out.

Still, there were too many of them to feed to the lion.

Even a lunatic wouldn't go that far....

After pacing for a while, the squad leader finally made the call to tell Hector the truth.

But just as he was dialing…

BOOM!

An earth-shaking explosion tore through the chicken shop behind him.

Fire erupted through the shattered windows, black smoke billowing skyward.

The shockwave knocked the squad leader and the nearby gunmen flat to the ground.

Stunned and bloodied, the squad leader lay there for a moment before slowly rising.

His shocked face was lit by the inferno consuming the fried chicken shop.

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