Gearbound: Cyberpunk 2077

Right at that moment…

Talent: Time Zero activated.

Everything—the bike, the armored SUVs, even the swirling dust in the air—slowed to a crawl. Only Leo moved at normal speed. He accelerated the bike, slipping past the gunfire that cut clear ripples through the air.

A few seconds later, time returned to normal.

The soldier in the passenger seat blinked, confused as to why his target—already locked dead center in his scope—had suddenly vanished. He instinctively looked around, only to see Leo leveling a pistol at his forehead.

Bang!

The bullet pierced the lowered bulletproof window and slammed into the soldier's skull. His head whipped back, bursting in a spray of red and white that spattered the rest of the passengers. Horrified, they hurried to raise the window again, while the driver jerked the wheel to the right and sent the SUV lurching.

If a car collided with a bike, the bike would obviously come off worse. But Leo drifted smoothly aside, controlling the bike so it cut a clean arc around the charging SUV, narrowly avoiding being rammed.

At that moment, the turret on top of the SUV to the left swiveled toward Leo, factoring in his movement and firing a barrage of rounds onto his drifting path. Bullets hammered into the sand, sending plumes of dust into the air.

"He's done for!"

Everyone in that SUV shared the same thought. Even if he noticed in time, the bike's momentum would carry him right into the sweep of bullets—unless he had no inertia. But that was impossible, right? Newton would be rolling in his grave!

Yet just when they were certain Leo would be torn to shreds, he disappeared again. Whether it was sheer coincidence or something else, the SUV on the right—still trying to ram him—ended up directly in the firing line. The turret's barrage slammed into its side instead.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Reinforced plating held up, at least enough that the exterior just ended up dented and pockmarked. But the windshield was another matter. It was bullet-resistant, true, but that only went so far. The turret was firing large-caliber rounds at a blistering rate, unleashing a fearsome hail of bullets in mere moments.

Before long, the windshield cracked like a spiderweb, then burst apart. Bullets tore through the gap and into the interior. The driver, sweating madly as he tried to swerve, was struck by multiple rounds. His head split open like a watermelon.

Soldiers in the back seat fared no better.

Meanwhile, having avoided the shots by triggering his Talent again, Leo cut in with the bike practically skimming the ground—almost a sideways slide beneath the SUV on the left. At the same moment, he tossed several sticky explosives from his left hand, fastening them to the armored vehicle's undercarriage. Then he braced his armored gauntlet against the ground, pushing the bike upright and speeding clear.

Boom!

Behind him, the SUV went up in a plume of fire and flipped sideways. With the unarmored undercarriage blown apart, no one inside survived.

"How is this possible?"

JoAnne and the major, watching from the convoy in the rear, were stunned. Two armored SUVs had failed to eliminate a single Nomad. Worse still, they got wiped out instead.

"That's no ordinary Nomad. He's using a Sandevistan," the major realized at once. Those two times the man avoided an otherwise inescapable attack? That could only be achieved by a Sandevistan.

"This is bad—he's an assassin! All vehicles, listen up. This is the major. Pull back immediately. We're returning to Night City."

JoAnne was just as shaken, and she quickly caught on that this so-called Rocky Ridge meetup was a trap. The moment she decided to eliminate the one causing her problems, that person had evidently planned the same. She just couldn't figure out who he was or why he wanted her dead.

Still, not knowing didn't stop her from fleeing.

The convoy spun around, racing back the way they came, with Leo in hot pursuit on his bike. The turret atop the rearmost SUV spat brilliant muzzle flashes, forcing him to stay back. The major glimpsed this in the rearview mirror and felt a spark of hope.

From that earlier skirmish, he could tell the enemy's only way to break their defenses was by throwing sticky bombs from close range. If they didn't let him near, they'd be safe.

"Keep firing! Even if you can't hit him, pin him down with suppressive fire!"

That order sent the other SUVs into a frenzy of shooting, no one bothering to aim precisely. It was enough to keep him from closing in. After all, with the help of Sandevistan, he could dodge a single line of fire—maybe not multiple streams of random bullets. Leo seemed wary indeed, holding back on using his ability to approach.

JoAnne and the major both felt a surge of relief as Leo stalled out under the hail of bullets. Then, all of a sudden, a ring of bluish-white light erupted from the ground beneath them.

Every electronic device in the convoy died instantly. The SUVs lurched as if hammered by an unseen force, continuing a short distance under their own momentum before grinding to a halt. Sparks flared from everyone's neural links, leaving them limp and disoriented inside the vehicles.

The major tried to get up, but even moving a finger felt like a monumental effort. His vision swam with static, and a deafening ring filled his ears. Horror flooded through him.

"EMP mines?!"

As the name implied, EMP mines disabled electronic systems upon detonation. But since most modern humans had at least some cybernetic modifications—and their brains had been partially converted to neuralware—an EMP weapon could also harm people directly. It was happening now. Their bodies were wracked with weakness, and they had been thrown around inside the car.

Cold sweat poured down the major's back. At last, he realized Leo had never been unable to approach. He'd simply been herding them into a minefield.

"S-someone get us out of here!"

The driver, white-faced, stammered, "The engines are dead! We can't start them!"

Another soldier, not waiting on orders, tried to contact Biotechnica, only to find his internal comm implants were also fried. Panic spread through the group.

"Major, what do we do?"

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