Chapter 64: Back in black (2)

A-Secure Corporation, Eastern Suburbs Branch Manager’s Office.

A strikingly young man slammed a file onto the desk.

“Is this really something a branch manager should be saying?”

He was Enderson, the company president’s fourth son and an executive director dispatched from headquarters.

Enderson openly berated the branch manager, a man old enough to be his father.

“Our service share in the nearby districts has been cut in half, and you still want to just observe the situation?”

At those words, the middle-aged man, his face tense, carefully opened his mouth.

“Executive Director, what I meant was… we should have approached this more cautiously.”

“The Church of Radiance here is a group with enough power to have pushed out all existing mafia forces to establish themselves.”

“So-“

Enderson scoffed.

“What exactly are you being cautious about?”

“They beat some mafia trash?”

“Do you think we let them be all this time because we lacked the power to eliminate them?”

He clicked his tongue and continued.

“No.”

“That’s not it.”

“It just wasn’t necessary!”

“Thanks to those thugs, the scared rich folks in the suburbs willingly handed over their money to us.”

“It was a perfectly designed setup, and some crazy religious nuts just came in and flipped the well-running board!”

Enderson glared at the branch manager once more.

“So, while things got this bad, what exactly was the branch manager doing?”

“Th-That is…..”

“I don’t want to hear it.”

“In this dump of a slum, what are you so afraid of, and how long are you going to keep dragging your feet?”

“It was so frustrating I already took matters into my own hands.”

“I blew up one shop, so everyone should have gotten the message.”

At Enderson’s words, the other man’s face turned deathly pale.

Just as the branch manager, who was trembling strangely, was about to say something more.

Bang-!

The office door burst open violently, and someone rushed in.

“What is it?!”

Just as he was about to scold the rude behavior, the employee who entered spoke in an urgent voice.

“Reporting!”

“We’ve lost contact with the personnel who went out on patrol!”

“Their scheduled return time has already passed…!”

“What?”

“Did they make a move already?”

Enderson clicked his tongue.

Truthfully, although he had provoked them first, he hadn’t intended to wage an actual war.

To eradicate something like a church, they’d have to sweep the entire vast suburban area, and apart from a few affluent neighborhoods, the rest was just a den of beggars.

So, rather than pushing them out, he thought it better to create a moderate conflict situation like this, increase the number of security service subscribers, and then, as a show of goodwill, toss the remaining unprofitable areas to them under the pretext of negotiation.

He had always dealt with the existing mafia forces that way.

They wouldn’t even dream of antagonizing a city corporation.

Therefore, they always wanted to negotiate.

They had chosen to become a kind of partner, creating an atmosphere of fear among the residents while collaborating with security companies under the table.

‘But, these Church people… they seem crazier than I thought.’

To charge in head-on without even testing the waters.

However, creating this confrontational situation itself was intended, so it wasn’t too bad.

‘No, still… they’re arrogant.’

He decided inwardly.

Even if they negotiated, he would do it after making them painfully aware of the difference in power.

The executive director thought this to himself and asked, annoyed.

“So… which team hasn’t returned?”

The employee, his face drained of color, barely managed to squeeze out his voice.

“….All of them.”

============

On the road connecting the suburbs and the city center, black smoke billowed from between wrecked car bodies.

All around, armored vehicles lay mangled like grotesque wreckage.

Soldiers from the security company were strewn about as numerous corpses.

Even the remains of aerial support AVs, shot down and smoldering, were present.

It was the result of a single rash misjudgment.

All forces of the A-Secure Corporation’s 1st Street branch went missing or were suppressed in less than half a day, and whoever was in command at the time had panicked and attempted to escape the suburbs with the remaining troops….

The end result was just a few captives, caught amongst overturned armored vehicles.

“…….”

The captured security company employees were forced to kneel, their heads bowed low.

One of them, Enderson, scanned the surrounding atmosphere with terrified eyes.

“………”

Mercenaries equipped with combat cybernetics that were clearly out of the ordinary surrounded them.

Among them, there were even some strangely familiar faces.

‘Th-That man…!’

He had definitely seen that face somewhere before.

Enderson desperately wracked his memory.

‘Yes, the list…!’

And a page from a document he had seen before came to mind.

A list of top-tier mercenaries the company had once tried to scout.

The man at the very top of that list was him.

Since he had vanished at some point, Enderson had thought he must have died from cybernetic rage, but to meet him in a place like this.

He realized it belatedly, but there were many other familiar faces among them.

‘My god….’

As he intuited the level of strength gathered here, Enderson felt his mind go blank.

It was strange.

Everything was unfolding outside the realm of common sense.

And people feel fear in the face of the incomprehensible.

He belatedly began to beg.

“H-Hey…! Let me meet your representative!”

“I am Enderson, Executive Director of A-Secure Corporation!”

“……”

“I’ll pay a ransom!”

“I’ll give you whatever you want, so let me go!”

“If you harm me, the army from headquarters will come!”

“Then it’ll be a real all-out war!”

At that moment, an indifferent kick struck him in the face.

Thwack-!

“Keoheok!”

Enderson spat out broken teeth and crawled on the ground.

The mercenary roughly grabbed the man’s hair and lifted him.

To him, who could only make “ub-ub-ub” sounds due to his dislocated jaw, the former top-tier mercenary spoke softly.

“When an innocent person died, the war had already begun.”

=========

At the A-Secure Corporation headquarters, a mid-tier security firm located in the city center, such reports were coming in.

“Contact lost with the Eastern branch?”

To the deep voice of the middle-aged man buried in a luxurious leather seat, the secretary bowed his head and replied.

“Yes, that is correct.”

“Hmm…. How long has it been since Enderson was dispatched there?”

“The Executive Director just arrived the day before yesterday, and the most recent report was seven hours ago.”

“A communication error, that’s impossible in this city.”

“Then something must have gone wrong.”

“That impetuous nature of his, I knew he’d make a big mistake someday.”

At that cold voice, the secretary flinched involuntarily.

Because even while speaking of a situation where his own son might be missing, perhaps even dead, there was not a hint of agitation.

Then the middle-aged man spoke again.

“From the beginning, I received reports that this so-called Church was of a considerable scale.”

“Even a mangy dog fights harder in its own yard.”

“There’s no need to incur losses in that den of beggars.”

“This incident, prepare the necessary documents and get ready for a lawsuit.”

“A lawsuit, you say?”

“Yes.”

“File a complaint with the Judicial Adjudication Bureau.”

“Even if it’s just a branch office, if they were taken down without even being able to send a message, it means they were more dangerous than we thought.”

“It seems some of the more capable sewer rats from outside have banded together, but if we mobilize the ODPD, we can wipe them out cleanly.”

“Yes, I understand.”

Thus, city corporations often used police forces like private armies.

Through connections with city government officials, legalized lobbying, and bribery.

The Omega Detroit Police Department, ODPD, appeared to be disregarded here and there, but in reality, it was an armed group ranking among the top three in the city in terms of size.

However, constrained by the limitations of public authority and entangled in complex interests, it was often unable to exert its power in important matters and was forced to display a semi-compulsory laziness.

It was from the very fact that they could use these entities that a hierarchy existed between ‘corporations’ and other factions.

Illegal organizations, whose strength was at most their own, and companies that could even wield public authority as a tool.

It was never a fight fought on equal terms.

That’s why even mafia or gangs that had grown to a considerable scale could not challenge the dominance of corporations within the city.

‘Could it be, even this loss… was part of a design leading up to this point?’

In truth, no matter how much they were bought through connections, public authority was still public authority.

For a mid-tier corporation to move them, at least some justification was needed.

And now, coincidentally, an executive from a branch office was missing.

It was just the right level of justification.

‘Was sending his arrogant youngest son there first also groundwork for this?’

Even if it was his own flesh and blood… he would use anything if it meant creating a situation advantageous to the company.

A ruthless manager who treated people like pieces on a chessboard.

The schemes of a company president operating in this city were on a level that even a long-serving aide could hardly fathom.

Faced with that iron mask that betrayed not a single human emotion, the secretary shivered involuntarily, his shoulders trembling slightly.

==========

A few days later.

Mekenzie, the president of A-Secure Corporation, appeared at the Municipal Courthouse of the Judicial Adjudication Bureau, his demeanor impeccably composed.

His hair was slicked back, his suit without a single wrinkle.

The middle-aged man glanced around the room, then at the empty defendant’s seat opposite him, a faint sneer playing on his lips.

Of course, it had to be empty.

He had filed the lawsuit under the name of a 3rd-class citizen who couldn’t even enter the city, so there was no way they could attend the trial.

In reality, all of this was merely a pre-arranged procedure.

Win the formal lawsuit, and based on pre-established connections, gain the authority to mobilize police forces.

Of course, in the process, Mekenzie had to offer a considerable amount in rebates to the bought-off officials, but he considered that an investment for the future.

A security corporation’s regular forces were valuable assets.

Having already suffered unnecessary losses, it was far more efficient to handle matters with overwhelming force that money could buy, rather than allowing for any more variables.

Thinking this, the man leaned back in the plaintiff’s seat.

He was waiting for the proceedings to begin, along with a few legal professionals who would assist with the formality of the trial.

However, into the defendant’s dock, which should have remained empty until the trial’s end, a group of men in suits was now filing in and taking their seats.

The man’s expression, as he watched this scene, creased faintly.

“……”

And when one of them stood up and introduced himself-

“Apologies for being late, Your Honor.”

“We are the Lumina Group Legal Team, representing the defendant in this lawsuit.”

Mekenzie’s iron mask began to crack, bit by bit.

Even the judge, who had been preparing for the start of the trial, stiffened for a moment before composing himself.

He began to observe them with a much more deferential attitude than before.

“E-Excuse me, did you say the Lumina Group?”

The air in the courtroom changed with the mere mention of that name, one difficult not to know if you lived in Omega Detroit.

Watching the center of gravity in the room shift in an instant….

A cold sweat now began to trickle down Mekenzie’s back.

“……”