23. Do or die anyway.
23. Do or die anyway.
Pink-head Dana visited Kal's room bright and early, just like any other day, and they went to work together. The android, which only guarded the office all day, seemed happy to have a human around after being alone all weekend, so it let out a beep-boop and handed two cups of delicious coffee to the man and woman.
Leaning against the window of the break room and watching the outside world while enjoying the coffee, Kal whistled a light "Whew," and organized the tasks he needed to do in his head.
Now, there were exactly two important things he needed to verify.
One was whether the satellite that had been marked for disposal was actually disposed of. And the other was, if the satellite hadn't been disposed of, where it was.
Of course, Kal saw a much higher probability that the satellite hadn't been disposed of, but he couldn't rule out the possibility that he had guessed wrong. So, he had to be sure.
After finishing his cup of coffee, he returned to his seat and turned on the computer. Then, he looked for companies related to satellite manufacturing and disposal among the subcontractors.
Of course, on paper, there was a certificate stating that the satellite had been disposed of, but that wasn't evidence he could trust unconditionally, as it could be forged as much as one wanted if they set their mind to it.
Kal looked for companies that this company subcontracted to. Among them, there was a subcontractor that collected scrap metal. ...It seemed he would have to go there in person.
He went to Team Leader-nim to get permission to go out and explained the general situation.
"Alright. Then go with Dana."
It seemed it was a bit ambiguous to send a trainee knight who had only been on the job for two weeks alone.
Thus, Kal left the Administration Squad office with Dana and headed to the basement. She asked where they were going.
"To the scrap yard."
"Why there?"
"It's related to the case I'm currently tracking."
Dana squinted at Kal's profile with a strange look. She honestly couldn't understand how a trainee knight who hadn't even been in the Administration Squad for two weeks could handle work so efficiently. She had spent the whole year without even getting a clue, just doing what she was told from above.
...He's handsome, and he seems smart too.
The pink-headed airhead, being a pink-headed airhead, didn't notice anything suspicious at all and simply thought it was because he was smart.
Of course, Kal didn't care what this dim-witted senior thought. If she noticed, she noticed, and if she didn't, she didn't. He didn't have the intention of going around blabbing about his identity, but he didn't have any intention of forcing himself to hide it either.
Anyway—.
The car carrying the two began to slide down the road in an instant. It went quite far from the city center, almost to the outskirts.
After driving for a while, they arrived at a place where iron pillars were stuck together to form a wall, and they knew this was the subcontractor they were looking for.
On one side of the space, piles of scrap metal were stacked up, and a giant claw was dangling from a machine above them. As it was a place related to destruction, the atmosphere didn't feel very bright.
As the man and woman entered, a fierce-looking hound barked roughly, "Woof woof!" Of course, the pink-head, who had body enhancements inserted into her, wasn't scared of a mere damn dog. If it attacked, she could just kill it by blowing its head off with one punch.
A hairy middle-aged man who came out hearing the dog barking looked at the man and woman and asked, "Who are you?" It was the typical look of a scrap yard owner, with a shirt stained with soot here and there and a bulging belly.
Dana took out her ID from her pocket and showed it to him.
"We're from the Keuble Knights Administration Squad."
At the mention of the Administration Squad, the scrap yard owner's expression became a bit bitter. Well, if you run a scrap yard like this, you end up committing illegal acts knowingly or unknowingly, so it was inevitable that they wouldn't be welcome.
"Why are you here?"
"We came because we have something to investigate."
"Do you have a warrant?"
"We're not here to look at your ledgers, we just want to check a few items and the weight of the scrap metal that came in. It's not your problem, it's about something else. So you don't have to worry."
Even though she explained it like that, he still had a dubious face. However, they weren't police, and it wouldn't be good to offend the Knights, so he had no choice but to allow it.
"Then, you're only checking that, right...?"
"Of course."
The hairy guy gestured with his chin for them to come inside. Dana and Kal looked at each other once and entered the small building. Inside, a stout middle-aged woman, who appeared to be the scrap yard owner's wife, was just making cheap instant coffee.
"Here you go."
The scrap yard owner plopped a worn-out, shabby leather notebook onto the table. Kal took it and quickly flipped through it to check the dates. The time when the satellite was supposed to have been disposed of. While he was flipping through the papers, the middle-aged woman came over and quietly placed paper cups containing coffee on the table.
...Found it.
Kal found the date and checked the amount of scrap metal that came in that day. If the satellite had definitely been disposed of, the amount would have increased significantly, but the figure written there was not much different from usual. He checked a month before and a month after just in case, but there were no changes that could be considered a singularity.
As expected, the disposal was a sham.
Just in case, he asked this hairy scrap dealer about it.
"By any chance, has an artificial satellite been disposed of recently?"
"Artificial satellite? ...Well. I don't think anything like that has been disposed of."
Such a huge object wouldn't have come in without this scrap dealer knowing, right? Seeing that he didn't remember, Kal could be sure that it hadn't been disposed of.
They diverted it somewhere else—.
The speculation became almost certain. If so, now he had to find the diverted satellite.
"I understand. Thank you for your cooperation."
"Ah, yes. Well, uh, there's no disadvantage for me, right?"
"Of course. Then, take care."
The scrap dealer saw the two off to quite a distance outside the building. The dog barked "Woof woof" again.
As soon as the two got back into the car, Dana asked if he had found anything.
"The satellite wasn't disposed of. If it had been disposed of, the amount of scrap metal would have increased rapidly, but there was nothing like that at all."
"Then why does it say it was disposed of?"
"...Isn't it because they have another use for it?"
"Another use? Where?"
However, Kal didn't answer that question. Dana narrowed her brows slightly and looked at him, then turned her gaze back to the front. She pondered what on earth this could be related to, but no matter how much she racked her brain, she had abso—lutely no idea.
The car started driving down the road again, vroom.
The man and woman were both lost in their own thoughts and didn't speak.
· · ·
Now, there was only one problem given to Kal.
Where on earth is the satellite—.
However, no matter how capable Kal was, it was honestly nonsense to find the satellite, which must have been hidden away tightly somewhere, in one go. If not, there should at least be some clue, but since he knew nothing other than the fact that it was somewhere, he couldn't help but feel a bit stuck.
If so, there was only one way.
Make them crawl out themselves—.
He had to stimulate them so they couldn't bear not to take the satellite out. Of course, Kal knew all too well how to make these thieves' balls itch.
Spread a rumor secretly that the money was found. Then those bastards would definitely be anxious and try to check it.
However, unless they were idiots, they wouldn't openly take out the disposed satellite. They would definitely put it in the warehouse of a spaceship disguised as a travel or cargo ship and use it like a satellite. In fact, there was no other way besides that. It was like that on Earth in the past, too.
Of course, there was another problem that there were quite a lot of spaceships taking off for such purposes. That was the very reason why such clever disguises had worked so well until now.
In fact, back then, the Solar Knights had tremendous financial power, so they poured in money and time to eventually find it, but this tiny Administration Squad didn't have the means to do that.
...How to find it.
Kal was stuck there for the moment. He didn't have any suitable methods coming to mind right now.
So, just in case, he looked into the personal information of the Asset Management Department Head's relatives. However, he didn't find any particular singularities there. ...Well, if there was something strange, the Administration Squad would have discovered it long ago.
...At that moment, a name flashed through Kal's mind.
Satellite Management Department Head, Longpat Gamoshi.
The person who approved the satellite disposal.
Could it be—.
Kal started investigating Longpat Gamoshi's relatives this time. Then, he confirmed the fact that his younger brother was running a cargo shipping company.
Ah.
Actually, at this point, even a dull person would notice something. Of course, there was no physical evidence yet, but there are cases that need to proceed even without evidence. Especially if you want to catch people who know the loopholes of the department well and know how to use them like this. That was why the Administration Squad had been digging into the Asset Management Department Head for months and kept coming up empty-handed.
Anyway, I have no other way now. I have to go for broke.
This was the best he could do in such a poor environment. He would throw a winning move here, and if it failed, he would just have to give up. It was the same either way, not being able to catch them.
Still, since this wasn't a matter that a trainee knight could decide on his own, he went to the Team Leader and explained the content as it was.
She seemed quite surprised that a mere trainee had found out this much in just about a week. Honestly, hadn't they been in a situation where they couldn't even find proper clues to the corruption for months?
"So you're saying, let's leak false information to the Management Head side..., is that it?"
"Yes."
"In my opinion, the possibility isn't that high."
"Still, there's no other way to dig deeper now. We have to make a winning move."
It was embarrassing, but Kal's words were correct. It didn't seem like they could find out what they hadn't been able to reveal until now just by spending more time. Anyway, if things went on like this, this corruption would be buried forever.
Of course, from her perspective as a stickler for principles, it wasn't a very welcome method. Because she preferred having solid evidence. However, that didn't mean she was a person who didn't know how to exercise flexibility at all. When you need to be bold, you have to be bold.
Her subordinate, who hadn't been with them for long, had gathered such great information, so she couldn't just ignore it. If she relaxed her standards a little more, she could consider this as evidence of a level sufficient to start the plan.
Karen, who had been agonizing for a while, took a deep breath and nodded slightly.
"Fine. Let's try it. ...Like you said, it seems like there won't be another chance if not this."
Kal smiled when the permission was granted.
"An excellent choice."
"However, since the problem is the problem, the entire Administration Squad will put effort into this. That doesn't mean I'm going to share your credit. First of all, catching the guy's tail is the priority. Do you understand what I mean?"
"Of course. I don't care about my credit. I just don't like seeing those bad guys running around freely."
"Understood. Then let's have a meeting in 10 minutes."
"Yes, Team Leader."
Kal saluted vigorously and returned to his seat. Karen, who turned her chair straight again, wore a smile that was barely visible.
Thinking that a useful guy had finally joined the Administration Squad....