MIA

Cornered by their captors, the Major insists the terrorists fired the missile that struck Gate City, but the lead agent brushes the explanation aside for later. A brain dive with Ishikawa tells Batou the attackers are a Delta Force cyber unit fielding top-tier gear, and with no way to bargain, the Major reads the ambush as a deliberate trap and gives everyone up. Even so, she orders a Tachikoma to cloak itself and stay hidden in the buffer zone. Far away, Togusa slips into the Dark Web from his detective office, hunting a South American mercenary band called Ghost, and stumbles onto four masked men who want revenge on that same group.

By overpowering one of the men and borrowing his appearance, Togusa infiltrates the room and learns the mercenaries answer to a syndicate named Obsidian, an outfit so feared that no one dares cross it. When he presses too far the men pull weapons and sever his link. He reports his findings on Ghost and Obsidian to Aramaki, then flies to Obsidian's base in Southern California to make contact.

The squad's captor finally reveals himself as John Smith, an operative of the American government, and conscripts the group for a rescue mission he refuses to detail, which leaves Batou seething. At the missile site, the cloaked Tachikoma finds their damaged companion buried in rubble but must vanish again when Delta Force troops pass through. Reaching Los Angeles, Togusa drives a manually operated rental to Obsidian's headquarters, is held at gunpoint, proves his past ties to Ghost, and is told the team simply disappeared. The prisoners, meanwhile, are put through a battery of virtual mission simulations while John and his associates study them. Togusa later hacks the cyberbrain of a supplier Ghost once used, uncovers their last known position, and links up with one of the Tachikoma.

This is the third episode of Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045, carrying the on-screen tag MAVERICK. Japan and the wider world saw it in April and May of 2020. Goro Taniguchi and Kenji Kamiyama share the directing credit, while Ryo Higaki wrote it. The story runs between Divided by a Wall and Emissary from the Divide, and its cast spans the scattered members of the team plus newcomers John Smith and Brenda Rucker.