Are You Really Doing This? (4)
Are You Really Doing This? (4)
Was it because I hadn't gone to see a cyber-shaman? My luck had been absolutely terrible lately.
Of course.
It really was an unlucky situation, that much was true. But that said, if you asked whether it was something that could 'never' happen—it wasn't.
I thought about it objectively.
Assassination, kidnapping—an ambush plan. They could obviously overlap.
Starting with the plan to fire a missile, for one. Executing a plan in the wasteland between cities was difficult, no matter how you looked at it.
On a small scale, there were things like radioactive monsters. On a larger scale, there were variables like toxic storms.
Simple issues like supply lines got tangled up in it too.
So inevitably, nearly every plan had to start somewhere near the city.
Thus, it wasn't strange at all for an operation that involved launching a missile from the garbage landfill to overlap with another.
Besides, this was Neon City, the free city. It was famous for responding to problems outside the city with 'indifference.'
Whether bombs went off outside the city. Whether people died. It didn't care about any of the problems that happened out there.
That was probably why our plans had overlapped.
If they'd known the Vice Chairman's movement route in advance, this was the perfect and final opportunity.
So in this current situation, what could Catherine and I do, and what should we do?
First and foremost, we had to stop what seemed to be their objective: the assassination of the Vice Chairman.
We had to block the competitors and protect the Vice Chairman. Whether we kidnapped him or not would come after.
Next, assess the situation inside the airship at present.
There was me and Catherine. Kozaka's employees, including the Vice Chairman. And the guys who appeared to be assassins.
We were split into a three-way standoff.
In a situation with these conditions, teaming up with someone else was unconditionally the far more advantageous way to work things out.
Of course, I had Catherine with me. So even in the worst-case scenario, we could somehow accomplish our original objective, but...
Still, minimizing the hardship was preferable.
Having thought that far, I discreetly sent a glance signal to Catherine.
Catherine, her face hidden behind a hologram mask, silently nodded.
We'd spent a long time together. She'd already picked up on how I was going to act here.
I cleared my throat briefly to steady my voice, then turned on the mask's voice modulation function.
Earlier, flustered, I'd accidentally said, 'Um, just a moment.'
But changing our voices was also an essential measure to hide our identities.
I opened my mouth with confidence.
《Situation confirmed. We have been dispatched from 'Cyber Force,' the tactical unit under the NCPD, to protect the city's VIP, Mr. Kozaka William.》
This sort of thing was all about momentum. I squared my shoulders confidently and lied.
《Mr. Kozaka William, is that correct?》
I'd decided to start by borrowing someone else's name.
12. We're Actually Doing This? (4)
"......Cyber Force, Neon City's special tactical unit. I've heard of them, but I was told they never operate outside the city."
《That is fundamentally correct, but that too varies depending on the severity of the situation.》
I bullshitted with brazen confidence.
They wouldn't be able to ask to verify an ID badge here.
《We received orders to protect the Vice Chairman of Kozaka Corporation and deployed immediately.》
And as if there were no issues whatsoever, I naturally turned my back to the Kozaka employees and Kozaka William, and faced forward to block the way.
Still, just in case—in case my acting didn't work—I secretly wrapped my whole body in defense magic.
Soon, another brief silence followed.
《.......》
I wasn't sure if my acting had worked, but it didn't seem like I was about to get shot in the back right this moment.
Given the situation, after all.
For whatever reason, the assassins had boarded the Vice Chairman's airship one step ahead of me and Catherine. And they'd even fired a high-yield missile at that airship.
But that yet another set of kidnappers would appear here—no one would have imagined it.
......Well, we hadn't expected this situation either, which was why things had gotten this tangled up.
《Agent C, consolidate the situation.》
For reference, C was taken from Catherine.
Catherine slightly hunched her shoulders, as if holding back a laugh. The movement was so subtle that no one but me seemed to have noticed.
Our plan hadn't changed.
Naturally kidnap the Vice Chairman, land the airship, and move to the designated point.
The only addition was the part about subduing the assassins alongside the Kozaka employees.
The assassins, realizing we weren't allies, raised their gun barrels. There were six of them.
"Dammit, die!!"
The words they spat out were in Japanese, interpreted through the neural computer chip translation module.
What, so this was an internal corporate fight. The assassins appeared to be Japanese.
I'd naturally assumed they were orc terrorists. It wasn't the distinctive raspy voice of an orc.
Naturally, the target of their bullets was Kozaka William.
However, because I was blocking his front, the bullets lodged in midair thanks to the defense magic I'd deployed in advance. Thankfully, the bullets weren't that large of a caliber.
"......What is this."
The Kozaka employees, startled by the sight, grew clamorous. And understandably so. To anyone watching, it would've looked like the bullets had stopped in midair, so the reaction was only natural.
"It appears to be some new cyberware technology. ......A force field technique, is this using a gravity field?"
"...That would be a physically impossible technology while maintaining human structure and volume."
They had cyberware researchers with them too, it seemed.
Ah, so this technology. It's called magic. Something talentless muggles can't use.
I wanted to tell them that, but I exercised patience and held it in.
When they nodded, murmuring 'as expected of Cyber Force,' I almost let out a hollow laugh.
I hadn't noticed at first glance, but looking closely now, there were no professional guard personnel in sight. The people near Kozaka William looked like ordinary researchers, or at best, regular employees.
I wondered why there were no security staff with him, but that wasn't something I needed to worry about right now.
I kept my eyes fixed forward while protecting Kozaka William.
The only thing I had to do right now was protect Kozaka William. Because... Agent C, Catherine, was with me.
[Decrypting the airship's signal jamming, commencing hacking of enemy cyberware.]
Ah. And Eve was here too.
"Wh-what the!"
The assassins' cyberware began moving on its own. Sparks flew as it strangled their own necks. Several firearms self-destructed as well.
And for Catherine to clean up the entire situation, that brief opening was more than enough.
Catherine's neural acceleration cyberware activated. It was the same cyberware I'd seen before, back at the café the terrorists had occupied.
It wasn't the kind of spec you could use so casually and without side effects, but Catherine didn't seem to have any issues with it at all.
Sure enough, the protagonist was the protagonist.
Afterimages of movement flickered past. Maybe a few seconds had passed by feel, and compared to that time, the result was exceptionally clean. You couldn't even call it a fight.
- Kuung!
Catherine slammed the remaining assassin into the wall with one hand. The metal plating caved in deeply, dented through the assassin's body.
......We wouldn't have even needed to pretend to be Cyber Force.
"......An acceleration implant, the strain on that must be immense."
"...As expected of Cyber Force."
Still, the muttering from the employees who looked like researchers was pretty amusing to hear.
Well, whatever. As long as the situation was resolved favorably, that was all that mattered.
I turned around and looked at Kozaka William. Catherine, who had approached at some point, silently maintained her stance near me.
Our faces were hidden. And our voices were modulated. There was no worry of him recognizing me.
《Could you explain the current situation?》
"Hoo...."
Kozaka William let out a short sigh tinged with relief. He continued speaking.
"First of all, thank you. It seems information leaked from the inside. I never imagined the security staff I personally selected could have been bought off."
If that was the case, this situation made sense.
Then now, all that remained was to naturally approach and kidnap him.
......Wait.
《Um, by any chance, are there still a large number of hostiles inside the airship?》
"That would be the case, since they seem to have started this with full intent. Based on what I've confirmed through the cameras, there are at least several dozen more."
Hm.
A sudden unease crept over me.
Now I understood why the research employees were here too. They had been holed up here with the Kozaka Vice Chairman.
When we broke through the room, we'd arrived with genuinely perfect timing.
And when we'd nearly reached Neon City, the missile they'd launched had ended in failure too.
So now the Vice Chairman's enemies, for their assassination to succeed, had very few options left.
We would be entering Neon City's interior soon. Once that happened, the assassination was naturally a failure.
In that case, just what option remained for them?
That was when a voice came through the radio of the assassin Catherine had pinned to the wall.
《This is White No. 3, airship cockpit secured, reporting and standing by for further orders.》
In that instant, I drew my gun.
It was too late to gather mana and cast magic.
At my sudden action, the Kozaka employees aimed their handguns at me.
I didn't care in the slightest. The defense magic was still active anyway. And there was something more important than that.
The moment my gun fired felt slow. I had to hit the head—.
──Taang!
I fired several more shots in succession.
However, my trash-tier marksmanship made a mess of things.
The bullets I fired were blocked by the thick hands the assassin pinned to the wall raised up. He took a few hits to the body, but none where I'd been aiming.
Catherine had dashed out the moment I fired as well.
But even faster than that, he spat out a single word.
"......Crash it."
He didn't stop talking even as he coughed up blood from his mouth. Catherine finished him off, but the situation was already too late.
Fuck.
With those words, the airship's vibrations grew violent. The previously balanced interior lurched wildly in every direction.
......If it was fated to crash anyway, I should've just dropped a lightning bolt on it from outside.
Inside the plane falling toward the garbage landfill, that was what I thought.