Red Queen Hypothesis
Eileen continued her investigation, uncovering a number of strange details. It was true that bizarre things always happened on corporate networks, but this particular case was enough to genuinely pique her interest. 'The number of changes to the Hound entries has skyrocketed.'
Of course, the security was airtight, so she couldn't actually breach it. Still, the sudden spike in traffic around that sector alone told her everything she needed to know about the corporation's suspicious movements. It was like a massive overhaul of the entire Hound category. Eileen felt a flicker of curiosity, but she decided to set it aside for now. What she and JL were currently investigating was the identity of whoever had orchestrated the attack on them. She couldn't afford to waste time on security she probably wouldn't be able to crack anyway.
But a few moments later, when the incoming transmission arrived, both Eileen and JL froze in the middle of what they were doing and stared at the window that popped up in front of them. The sender's information was completely masked. Eileen and JL exchanged a quick glance. Neither of them had any particular guesses about who it might be. After a brief hesitation, they accepted the call.
An video feed immediately appeared before them.
In the video, Asa was tied to a chair, beaten to a bloody pulp. She couldn't even open one of her eyes properly. Eileen and JL were momentarily stunned by the sight, but then their expressions shifted to something closer to exasperation at how calm she looked despite her condition.
Eileen asked, half-scolding, "A little? Are you out of your mind?"
"Yeah, just a little. I caught them first."
"That's not the problem right now. You're about to get your head chopped off."
Eileen rubbed her face in frustration and added that they would head over immediately. But Asa angrily cut her off instead.
"I can handle this on my own just fine. So there's no need for you to come. In fact, if you do, I'll kill you myself."
From outside the frame, a sharp rebuke flew in. They had probably allowed the transmission thinking they could use her as a proper hostage, but here she was openly threatening to kill anyone who showed up. Asa was kicked hard and sent flying out of view along with the chair. From where it had fallen came the sound of several people beating her in unison.
A moment later, the camera shifted, changing what it was showing. Jude's face, pale as death, appeared on screen.
"The kid's pretty brave, huh? You two sure raised her well."
"Brave, my ass..."
That wasn't bravery. It was more like childish stubbornness. She was the type who would rather die than admit she was in pain, all because of her pride and obstinacy. Jude let out a small chuckle at Eileen's words.
"Bring Lish to the abandoned building with a view of the New Age clock tower. I'll be waiting. If you refuse, the price is this girl's death."
With those final words, the transmission cut off. Eileen and JL stared at each other for a moment before shrugging. It looked like Asa had finally done something that matched her current appearance. Catching their pursuers was good, but the cleanup had been sloppy.
In the silence, Eileen spoke first. "Shall we go?"
"We have to."
Honestly, they weren't particularly worried, but seeing Asa in that state left them no choice. In the end, they gathered their gear and left the hideout. JL, however, wore an unusually dark expression.
I observed the situation from inside the rattling truck. Most of my body was wrecked and I couldn't move for the time being, but I could at least activate the implant in my head. I leaned against the vehicle like a corpse, waiting for the right moment.
The truck I was in appeared to be a heavily armored military transport. It probably wouldn't budge even under considerable external impact. There were four people riding in the cargo hold with me, each armed with personal firearms. The moment I made any noticeable movement, they would intervene immediately.
I couldn't move my body, and I couldn't call for outside support either. The only thing I could do was make maximum use of the resources in my own body.
As I idly rolled my eyes, I met the gaze of the man sitting across from me. When I didn't look away, he made a show of drawing a knife across his throat. I stared at him quietly, thinking of a way out. I didn't have an immediate solution, but if I limited myself to the implant, something might come to mind.
Just as the irritated man across from me began twitching his eyebrows, an idea surfaced in my head.
Scan implant.
Despite the name, it was still a military-grade implant. It didn't just scan signals; it could hack into electronic devices and other implants to transmit far more precise information. Because of that, it functioned more as a hacking tool than a simple scanner.
I carefully lowered my eyes, checking the mood, then activated the implant. Immediately afterward, the strain hit my body and I staggered, collapsing onto the truck floor. The man who had been twitching his eyebrows must have sensed something was off, because he stood up and approached me.
"Hey, hey, get up."
"Is she dead?"
"No, she's still breathing."
I took advantage of the commotion in the cargo hold to quickly review the scanned data. Fortunately, there were no conflicts, and I successfully hacked the implants of everyone in the truck. The man who had been roughly shaking my body with his foot slid his hands under my shoulders and hauled me up. The disturbance in the cargo hold quickly settled down. He sat me back in the chair and returned to his seat. Maybe he'd confirmed that my condition was poor, because he stopped openly threatening me like before.
They had to keep me alive for now if they wanted to make any kind of deal. I mulled over the hacked implants in my head. To buy myself time to escape, I would need to inflict physical damage on everyone inside this truck, but I wasn't sure how to use the hacked implants to generate that kind of shock. I'd used hacking to locate targets before, but I'd never dealt direct damage through it. If that had been possible, the scan implant would have been a lethal weapon all on its own.
In the end, I could only grind my teeth and squeeze out every thought I had, no matter how useless. While I agonized, the vehicle drew steadily closer to its destination. The truck crossed the middle of a main road and headed toward an abandoned building tucked away in a corner of the plaza. That seemed to be the rendezvous point with Eileen and the others.
But at some point, my scan implant collided with someone else's, and all the hacked data was wiped clean. The backlash sent sparks flying through my head and made me reel. The people gathered in the cargo hold jumped in alarm at the sight and pointed their guns at me.
"What the hell? What happened?!"
"Suddenly acting up like a damn dog...!"
Eileen must have been nearby. Otherwise, there was no way their scan implants would have collided at such a precise moment. I cursed inwardly and clenched my teeth. Eileen would have noticed my proximity from the implant collision as well. From now on, it was a race against time if I didn't want to owe her any more unnecessary debts.
I reactivated the scan implant, drawing inspiration from the recent collision. This time, perhaps because Eileen was being cautious too, the implants didn't clash again. After hacking every person's implant inside the truck, I located the driver. Position-wise, he was the human in the front-left of the cargo compartment. Having gained access to his individual implant, I began repeatedly activating the same implant over and over.
The safety protocols fought with everything they had to block the abnormal access, but by focusing all my concentration, I was able to neutralize even those defenses. The implants embedded throughout the driver's body began to overload. The overwhelming traffic from the repeated executions put a severe strain on my own body as well, but it wasn't enough to kill me. Burning out an entire body and burning out a single implant were on completely different levels.
In the end, the driver, having lost all bodily function, lost control of the vehicle. The truck, accelerating without any sign of stopping, smashed through the safety barrier at a sparsely populated crosswalk and launched into the air. It bounced across the road and rolled several times. Naturally, the cargo hold became complete chaos. By the time the truck finally came to a stop, everyone inside had been incapacitated.
I dragged my battered body out of the truck. Right after I escaped, the ammunition cache caught fire and the cargo hold exploded. The shockwave sent me bouncing across the road. A groan escaped me before I could stop it; my body felt like it would fall apart at any moment.
Footsteps approached through the sound of roaring flames. A moment later, someone appeared in front of me as I lay sprawled on the ground.
"You look fine. As expected."
"I told you... I could handle it on my own..."
"Still, you look like you're about to die any second."
I tried to say more but stopped. My throat felt like it was burning up. In the end, I could only watch blankly as Eileen headed toward the truck. JL was already beside the burning vehicle. He had dragged Jude out of the passenger seat and was holding a gun to his head. They seemed to be arguing about something. JL's arm, pointed at Jude's head, was trembling. Eileen stood at a distance, quietly watching the two of them. The shadows cast by the backlight of the flames subtly obscured their expressions.
The standoff continued for a brief while. Then Jude shouted at JL. He pointed at Eileen and me in turn, saying something. That was Jude's final moment.
It was also his last will.
Bang.
JL, whose arm had been shaking, blew Jude's head off. Seeing that, I finally let my body go limp. It felt like all the energy was draining out of me. For now, I just wanted to rest a little.
Boom.
The sound of the truck exploding reached my ears. I let out a sigh as I listened to it. Red flames, contrasting with the cold neon signs, were dyeing the night sky.