Deceptive Tactics
Deceptive tactics. We who had been flying through the sky soon began our descent to the ground. No matter how much training we'd received, it was physically impossible for a human body to clear a gap of dozens of meters. I stayed tense and ready to jump in if needed, eyes locked on the space below us. It never hurt to prepare for the worst. Fortunately, I never had to.
Let me borrow this for a second. Eileen didn't even bother activating the NTM106 we'd brought with us. She forced it to deploy, then hurled a monster grenade loaded with five times the standard explosive charge. Thanks to Fang's user auto-protection system, we were sealed inside a small steel sphere and launched forward by the blast. The system prioritized defense over cushioning, so we got thrown around violently inside the ball and took a beating. At least we didn't die.
We bounced for what felt like forever before finally smashing through the glass window of the opposite building. The impact rattled the armor plates protecting us. With a sharp crackle, the deployed NTM folded back up. When my shaken senses finally returned to normal, the first thing I registered was the sparks spitting from the light fixture shattered by the crash. The fixture dangled from its wires, swaying from the ceiling. The tinkling sound it made reminded me of a bell.
The building's interior was thick with dust, visibility near zero. I tapped my head to force my implant online and scanned the area.
"Eileen, you still with me?"
The ringing in my ears drowned out any reply at first. But once my senses normalized, I caught a groan coming from nearby. I pushed through the haze toward the sound and found Eileen on the floor, dry-heaving. No major visible injuries. So what was this about?
"The dampening on this thing is absolute garbage..."
The wild tumbling must have given her a bad case of motion sickness. I sighed and waited quietly until she could stand. After a full minute of retching, Eileen staggered to her feet.
Outside the window, several hovercrafts were already circling the crash site. I listened carefully. No suspicious sounds nearby yet. Looked like the troops hadn't pushed this far.
"Let's move." I grabbed the still-dazed Eileen and pulled her along. She was wobbly but mobile enough.
As we walked down the dark hallway, I asked her, "What are we doing about Fang?"
She leaned on me for support, then answered. "Dunno. Deal's blown, so we'll probably need a new broker."
"Any guarantee this won't happen again?"
"That's on the broker's skill. Whether the guy gets caught or not isn't our problem."
I started to argue, then realized she was right and let it go. I changed the subject.
"Those were some strange bastards. Why would people who don't even run Hounds need a mechanic?"
Eileen nodded. "From the way that fake broker acted, it wasn't Fang they wanted. It was me."
Shinkai wasn't the one who'd put the bounty on Fang. Complete outsiders. They weren't after the money, so why target a mechanic? Eileen added while I mulled it over.
"And at the end there, it looked like they were after a Hound too."
"Hmm. Doubt it. They were probably just surprised to see one."
"Oh yeah? Want to bet? Next time they come for us, they'll definitely be gunning for you too."
I shook my head instead of dwelling on it. Whatever their intentions, guessing in the dark was pointless. Better to hear it straight from the source.
"Too bad we don't have anyone to ask."
"We could always kidnap someone connected later."
I wasn't sure it would be that simple. Either way, we used the chaos to slip away cleanly. Shinkai and the building owner must not have coordinated, because our escape went without a hitch.
No one was waiting to welcome us back at the hideout. JL had definitely escaped first, so I wondered why he still wasn't back. None of us seemed particularly worried about him, though. After checking all three floors and confirming he wasn't there, we simply shrugged at each other and went back to our routines.
We were all gathered in the second-floor living area, each doing our own thing, when JL finally returned.
"...What the hell is that?"
He wasn't alone.
"I grabbed him."
"No, I mean how?"
"Skillfully."
His mouth was sealed with duct tape and his whole body bound tight. It was the broker we'd met earlier that day. More precisely, the Shinkai employee disguised as a broker. For us, who'd been clueless about how to uncover Shinkai's real intentions, this was a godsend. JL himself, the one who'd actually done the kidnapping, looked completely unbothered.
There were plenty of questions, but we decided to start with interrogating him. I fetched a chair. Eileen lifted the man onto it, secured him, and ripped the tape off his mouth. He tried to scream the instant it came free.
"Shut up."
Eileen's fist slammed into his jaw before he could make a sound. He still didn't seem to understand the situation and tried to cause more trouble, but the moment she pressed a gun barrel to his face, he went dead quiet. The chamber wasn't even loaded, but everyone behaves in front of a muzzle.
Once he had settled down, we made him tell us Shinkai's objective. He mumbled and agonized for a long time before finally accepting reality and opening his mouth.
"We just needed experienced personnel to increase our competitiveness against other companies..."
What followed was a painfully predictable story. During the war, Shinkai's main focus had been developing Fang. The fangs that would serve the Hounds corporations used as their trump cards. But Shinkai couldn't operate Hounds themselves. Their scale was limited, and they survived on scraps under megacorps like Ares and Jericho. As a result, Fang's development relied entirely on data from companies that actually ran Hounds. If they ever offended those companies, the quality of data they received would suffer, forcing them into an unfair fight.
"We couldn't keep groveling at the feet of bigger corporations forever."
Market logic is simple. Better quality sells better. Improving weapon quality is also simple. Use field data to make the product more user-friendly for those in the field. For Shinkai, whose data from the megacorps was tightly controlled, improving quality was nearly impossible. So they decided to stop depending on megacorp data and gather it themselves.
"That's why we needed experienced personnel. A mechanic who'd worked directly on the front lines."
Corporations weren't a monolith. They moved and thought strictly according to the logic of money. Even in wartime, they competed with one another. To pull ahead. To advance. To survive.
Having laid out Shinkai's entire purpose, the man began pitching to us like this was his golden opportunity.
"Doesn't this sound good for you too? Instead of this unstable mercenary life, wouldn't it be far better to get a stable corporate job and earn real money?"
It might have been tempting to normal people. To me, it held no appeal whatsoever. I already knew exactly where I belonged. Why crawl back into a corporation? Especially one dangling "stable living" as its main selling point?
"Sorry, but stable living really isn't my style."
The broker's face fell. Clutching at his final straw, he turned to Eileen. She thought for a moment, then refused just as firmly.
"I know where I belong too. Besides, if this kid isn't going, then neither am I."
I glanced at Eileen. She was still staring at the broker, as if she hadn't noticed my gaze at all.
What are you thinking?
Just because I wasn't joining Shinkai, she was choosing to stay behind. Our bond wasn't that deep. I couldn't understand why she would say something like that so casually. I had no read on her intentions.
Eileen didn't elaborate. She simply asked the broker, "So where's the real broker? Where did you hide him?"
The man fidgeted a while longer, then hung his head.
He must have realized there was no chance of recruiting us.
"...Taros Street, number two. Warehouse out back."
That was how we learned where to find the real broker.