Thorton is a long-established American automobile company focused on the mid-range vehicle market, standing alongside the eastern Skyfall Company as the twin kings of mid-tier automobiles.
But over the course of their long competition, Skyfall remained focused on developing mid-range sedans, while Thorton shifted toward functional vehicles—pickups and off-roaders.
And they got absolutely smashed for it.
The Thorton Mackinaw was the result of that failed product strategy.
Not because the vehicle itself was bad.
Quite the opposite.
The Mackinaw was rugged, durable, powerful, and handled beautifully.
The problem was its market positioning.
City people didn't want a giant truck that scraped everything if you weren't careful.
Nomads usually couldn't afford one.
Until one absurdly badass Mackinaw smashed through the gates of Night City's Corpo Plaza, electromagnetic-bombarded the corporate towers, disabled several MaxTac Manticore AVs—
And escaped intact.
Thorton's market cap exploded from barely struggling around 40 billion eurodollars to 80 billion overnight.
The sudden wealth hit like a tidal wave.
Exciting.
Terrifying.
But Thorton wasn't run by clueless business idiots.
If anything, decades of painful lessons from poor product positioning had made them extremely cautious.
So cautious that they created something absurd:
"Mackinaw concept stock."
And just like that, the genuinely serious investors bought actual Thorton stock—
While everyone trying to make fast money piled into the concept stock instead.
Retail investors were that easy to fool.
Especially after the concept stock jumped from 2 eurodollars a share at market open to 5 in a single day.
At that point it wasn't investing anymore.
It was gambling.
Surprisingly, many investors actually admired the move.
And after the Mackinaw truly became popular in Night City, combined with several interesting technologies it later revealed, Thorton stabilized around an 80 billion valuation.
It even looked capable of breaking 90 billion and charging toward 100 billion.
Of course there was still plenty of water mixed into those numbers—
But nowhere near as much as the Mackinaw concept stock.
Which was exactly the result Thorton wanted:
Risk control.
As for the concept stock…
It started at 1 billion.
Then after the Extreme Metal race ended, it surged past 60 billion eurodollars.
People even started using it for money laundering.
European securities agencies didn't care at all.
As long as eurodollars were being traded, Europe couldn't care less whether American criminals used them outside Europe.
If chaos erupted, that was New America's problem.
Which was why Thorton dared to create something so obviously borderline fraudulent.
But now things were different.
The Mackinaw—or rather, the armored vehicle identified as a Mackinaw—not only won the electromagnetic-bomb-ridden Extreme Metal race through Night City…
It also detonated a nuclear weapon.
Thorton, as the largest holder of Mackinaw-related assets, absolutely could not absorb that kind of heat.
They were just a car company.
A mid-range car company at that.
If anyone suspected they were hiding nuclear weapons—
Then every military contractor with a functioning survival instinct would start eyeing them as a threat.
Militech.
Arasaka.
Those corporations treated nuclear warheads like oversized grenades during the Corporate Wars.
Tiny little Thorton survived by paying those companies enormous "security service fees" every year.
One misunderstanding—
One tactical nuke—
And the company would simply cease to exist.
There were levels to corporations.
And pickup truck manufacturers definitely lost to actual military megacorps.
More importantly—
They didn't even want to compete.
Santo Domingo.
Mackinaw Night City Regional Distribution Center.
Sherman lay sprawled on the couch, having completely given up thinking.
[Thorton Corporate System Notice: According to Employee Management Code Article 42, you have been terminated. Thank you for your contributions to company development.]
[According to Financial Management Regulation Article 18, your salary account has been frozen by Thorton.]
[According to Employee Benefits Agreement Article 12 and Employment Contract Article 5.7, all unpaid loans have been transferred to your personal account.]
[Housing provided by Thorton Corporation will be reclaimed. Please vacate within 24 hours.]
[According to Cyberware Usage Agreement Article 7.4 and Network Security Protocol (NetWatch Revision 2075) Article 2, all network services provided by registered corporations have been terminated.]
[Your cyberware has been locked.]
[Company vehicle authorization revoked.]
[Legal support services terminated.]
Yeah.
He'd lost everything.
Well—
Not quite everything.
[According to the Special Equity Transfer Agreement, Thorton Corporation has transferred all Mackinaw Concept Stock (Code: MKNC).]
[Transferred Shares: 40,000,000]
[Current Market Value: 18 billion eurodollars]
[Legal Notice: According to Securities Transfer Agreement Article 15, you now bear all legal and financial responsibility related to Mackinaw Concept Stock.]
That giant fucking burden remained.
El Capitain sat across from him.
The two had become much closer after working together for a while.
But even El Capitain, experienced as he was, had no clue what to do now.
Sherman stared blankly at the ceiling.
The lights had just been restored through emergency backup lines.
Workers bustled around repairing the damaged circuitry.
"…Guess I'll go traveling tomorrow."
El Capitain glanced sideways at his gloomy coworker.
"Yeah, real convenient. We scatter your ashes into the wind and you'll make it to Mexico by sunset."
Sherman took a long swig of murky beer and belched.
"Burp—fuck you… what now?"
He was lost.
Honestly, all of the Hamburger King's business partners were lost.
Everyone thought they'd ride the boss's momentum into the upper class.
Instead the boss became an internationally wanted criminal.
Illegal nuclear possession.
Assaulting Night City political officials.
Harboring rogue AIs.
Plus countless violent felonies committed during Extreme Metal.
Honestly, the first three charges were the real killers.
The rest merely made Leo a legendary criminal inside Night City.
The first three turned him into an international threat.
More accurately—
An international criminal organization.
RUMBLE—
The engine noise of a Behemoth armored vehicle was heavy and unmistakable.
Anyone who worked with corporations could recognize it instantly.
You could already predict what came next:
Militech.
Arasaka.
NetWatch.
NCPD.
Even unrelated corporations would start probing them.
And those probes were never polite.
BANG!
The newly repaired electrical system inside the room exploded again.
The technicians froze.
The lead repair engineer looked terrified as he stammered toward El Capitain:
"Boss… somebody's intruding…"
"It's fine." El Capitain waved dismissively. "Probably NetWatch or Arasaka. They'll take a quick look and leave. No big deal."
…What?
The technicians' brains stopped functioning.
They all slowly lowered their tools.
"Arasaka" and "No big deal" really didn't belong in the same sentence.
Sherman laughed bitterly.
"You really know how to talk. I already dumped all my stock just to survive this mess, and now I'm unemployed too. Meanwhile, you…"
BZZZT—
[OCT Network entering Safe Mode.]
El Capitain and Sherman both froze simultaneously.
Because the signal came through a very specific frequency:
The private network established by the Hamburger King himself.
But that network should've collapsed along with the nuclear EMP!
Except the signal only originated from the special encrypted exchange devices—
The OCT network was actually split into two sections.
One part used cross-dimensional information exchange channels to transmit encrypted keys and communication protocols.
The other part used ordinary infrastructure built separately inside each world.
"Safe Mode" meant the communication was now happening directly through the cross-dimensional exchange hardware itself.
When worn by approved users, those exchange devices simply looked like ordinary wireless cybermodems.
Structurally, they appeared completely normal.
At most, someone might think the design looked slightly different from standard corporate products.
Nobody could possibly realize the signal came from another world.
El Capitain and Sherman both went completely blank.
Because they also realized what the signal source actually was—
A physically disconnected wireless cybermodem.
A wireless cybermodem receiving signals without performing wireless decoding.
Before either of them could process the implications, Leo sent Sherman a single message:
[Hamburger King: This is the opportunity you wanted—the chance to climb upward.]
[Hamburger King: So what's it gonna be? Spend your whole life as a corporate dog, or cling desperately to this opportunity even if they might shoot you dead tomorrow?]