Altered Carbon

Kadmin knocks Kovacs out as they drive away. Kovacs wakes on the Panama Rose to see Carnage looming over him. Carnage tells Kovacs that he is impressed by how well he played Ryker. Now, however, Kovacs must pay, and tonight, Carnage will force Kovacs to fight against Kadmin in a humiliation bout. It will be broadcast, and Kadmin will kill Kovacs, though Carnage will say he is Ryker.

Kovacs realizes that Kawahara betrayed him, remembering how Ortega disappeared once he convinced Laurens of his own suicide. Kawahara must want Kadmin and Kovacs to neutralize one of each other, at which point she will kill the surviving one to clean up any loose ends. Kovacs demands to see Kadmin, and Carnage escorts him into the arena, where a small crowd waits, cheering for Ryker’s death. Kovacs watches as Kadmin enters in the same combat gear Carnage dressed him in.

Carnage introduces the fight as a night of revenge for the crowd, which is comprised of spectators once wronged by Ryker. There is a blade suspended in the air, which is to be used by Kadmin to kill Kovacs after he is sufficiently beaten. When the fight begins, Kovacs struggles, since his neurachem is not functioning after his recent unconsciousness.