The Broker's Trap
Before meeting the deception broker, we had already agreed on our positions in advance. This line of work meant always watching for the knife in your back; let your guard down for a second and you'd be betrayed. It was Eileen's idea that we prepare ahead of time. Having already learned that lesson the hard way from my first meeting with Darius, I nodded immediately.
The only question was who would stand watch, but that too was settled unanimously. The moment the subject came up, both Eileen and I turned to stare at JL. He looked back at us blankly for a while, then sighed in understanding.
"Fine, I'll do it. If it's about the Pang or anything involving the corporations, you two know it best anyway."
"Then I'll leave it to you."
With that, our preparations were complete.
And today was the day we made contact with the broker. Dark clouds blanketed the sky, and a dreary drizzle fell without pause.
The broker had chosen a spot in the mid-level entertainment district. Neon signs reflected brilliantly off puddles on the ground in a dazzling display. In the alley corners the neon didn't reach, a few gangs had gathered to shoot the shit.
"It's noisy," I muttered. The place seemed too loud for a secret deal, but spots like this were actually harder to get caught in. Enough people milled around, and the surrounding noise provided its own soundproofing. A perfect example of how the darkest place is right under the lamp.
Dressed to avoid drawing attention, we headed for the room we'd been given in advance.
"Hey, you made it!"
The moment we opened the fully sealed door and stepped inside, the broker greeted us from the sofa. Two humanoids who looked like bodyguards flanked him on either side. I didn't spot any suspicious devices in the room.
Once we sat down, the broker got straight to business.
"Shall we look at the goods first? It's that NTM the corporations have been chasing like rats, right?"
I nodded and pulled the Pang from the bag at my waist. Still undeployed, it was nothing but a dirty, heavy sphere. The broker eyed the black iron-like ball with clear interest.
"Doesn't look like a convincing fake. It really does seem genuine."
"Of course it is. It is genuine."
"Still, we should verify it for safety's sake, shouldn't we?"
The broker gestured to the humanoid beside him. A low whirring sounded, and a blue beam began to project from the humanoid's eyes. The horizontal spread suggested a scanning device. It must have been high-end; it scanned the undeployed Pang without any trouble.
Hell of a way to blow money. I didn't dwell on it. Eileen watched them with a faintly suspicious expression, though I couldn't guess why. Maybe she was as stunned by the ridiculous expense as I was.
While the scan continued, the broker spoke to Eileen.
"By the way, why's a former corporate employee doing mercenary work? Short on cash?"
"You ran a background check?"
"Not exactly. Just picked it up along the way. One of those things you hear."
Eileen narrowed her eyes and glared harder. The broker didn't react. Instead he picked up the wine glass on the table with practiced ease, his refined gesture strangely at odds with his appearance.
"Eileen. Mechanic for Jericho. Assigned Hound deceased. Took the Hounds' side during the corporation's great purge."
The information about Eileen rolled off his tongue. None of it was particularly shocking. There was nothing sensitive enough to use as blackmail.
Yet as I listened, a dark suspicion began to take root in my mind.
How does a mere broker know about the corporate purge?
Sure, someone who lived off information in this underworld might know the surface details. But knowing the relationship between Hounds and their mechanics went far beyond ordinary intelligence networks.
Is he really just a broker?
While I was thinking that, the broker kept trying to recruit Eileen. I stared at them until I suddenly realized something. At that exact moment, his gaze shifted to me and our eyes met.
"By the way, why bring a kid like this? You quit being a mechanic to raise a chi...ld..."
His voice trailed off as he looked me over. Beyond his sunglasses, his eyes locked onto my arm—specifically the adapter visible beneath the short sleeve of my hoodie.
The instant I registered his stare, I slammed my foot into the table. It lifted on one side; I kicked it over completely. The broker and both humanoids were pinned underneath, their movements momentarily trapped.
I snatched up my gear and shot to my feet.
"Got it. Get out of there now. We'll punch through here."
Eileen had already risen the moment I kicked the table. She was one step ahead, flinging the door open to clear our escape route. She sprinted down the hallway, which was growing louder by the second.
"Those bastards switched out the broker."
"They probably kidnapped the real one."
I ground my teeth, realizing we'd tangled with a real headache. The broker we'd been dealing with this whole time wasn't the original contact. He'd been replaced by Shinkai—the same corporation the invading soldiers belonged to.
We should have been suspicious the moment they equipped that humanoid with an overpowered scanner.
No, the scanner makes sense. Product fraud is exactly the kind of thing you'd prepare for.
I shook my head, trying to chase down the rest of the thought. It was all hindsight. Only after realizing the broker was a corporate plant did the suspicious details start flooding back. Regretting it now was pointless.
We kept sprinting down the corridor, cutting down the soldiers swarming in from every direction. At first the enemies were still pouring in, so we moved smoothly. But once their blockade was fully established, we were the ones forced onto the defensive.
With their forces flooding in endlessly, we could no longer push forward. Unless you held an overwhelming individual advantage, there was no beating a mass assault.
In the end we abandoned the corridor escape and took cover behind whatever flimsy obstacles we could find, determined to hold out as long as possible.
While trading fire, I spotted a bullet rolling across the floor. One of theirs. I picked it up, examined it, and passed it to Eileen.
"It's not a lethal round."
"They're trying to take us alive? Why?"
"How the hell should I know?"
There was no time for leisurely speculation in a situation this desperate. At the very least, what stood in front of us was clearly an enemy. They wouldn't have aimed their guns if they wanted friendly negotiations.
Eileen made her decision quickly. She pulled on a beak-shaped gas mask and began hurling tear gas and smoke grenades at the enemy. She threw everything she had; it looked like she only cared about breaking out of this one spot.
As if to prove the grenade barrage wasn't wasted effort, the enemy's firepower dropped sharply soon after. Eileen seized the opening, grabbed me, and sprinted the opposite way.
"This isn't the direction of the exit."
"If the exit's blocked, we'll jump out a damn window!"
"We're in the mid-levels."
"It'll work out. We can just steal one of their hovercrafts."
I had no idea where her confidence came from. Whether I liked it or not, Eileen kept charging toward the balcony at the end of the corridor.
But when we burst through the balcony doors, what greeted us was seven hovercrafts hovering in the sky, searchlights blazing down. The enemy had come fully committed. All that firepower just to catch two people.
The cost-benefit analysis is already meaningless.
They clearly weren't after us for money. The amount poured into this raid had already far surpassed any bounty.
What the hell do they want?
No answer came. Only a deafening voice blasted from one of the hovercraft's speakers.
"SURRENDER! DROP YOUR WEAPONS AND SURRENDER! THERE IS STILL ROOM FOR NEGOTIATION...!"
Was there really no way out? This was on an entirely different scale from dealing with some street gang. Even if they were a subcontractor, when a corporation threw its full weight behind an operation like this, we had no chance of breaking through.
Yet Eileen didn't panic at the sight of the hovercrafts floating above the balcony. If anything, she stomped her foot and grew even more excited, practically vibrating with energy.
"All right, you pieces of trash! I'll take your challenge!"
"...Challenge? Have you lost your mind?"
Eileen ignored me completely. She simply stared hard at something in the distance. When I followed her gaze, my head spun.
She was looking at the skyscraper on the far side of the gap. A massive canyon dozens of meters wide lay between us.
Trying to talk her out of it would be useless. Even beneath the gas mask, her eyes were blazing so fiercely that the light showed through.
Instead of wasting time, I grabbed the back of her neck in a firm hold. A moment later, Eileen exploded forward across the balcony at terrifying speed. All I could do was watch with my eyes wide open.
The die had been cast.
"Yaaaaah!!"
Eileen's battle cry rang out across the night sky. The next instant, we were flying through the air.