Ch.162023rd Work Record – About the Flame (3)

Using the chip’s stored ID to barge in headfirst might not be the best approach—it would be better to contact Kay first before entering. When infiltrating somewhere, you always need an insider.

If I could solve Panacea Meditech’s information leak problem, would that earn me a bit more trust? It wouldn’t be a simple matter, but then again, none of my past jobs ever were.

Even when the Chairman was on my side, I still had to handle everything myself with minimal support, so I shouldn’t expect anything more now. Best not to push the speedometer to its final mark.

At least they wouldn’t have built an actual building for their black market like the Hive. If they had, Belwether would have already planted at least ten operatives inside to visually monitor smuggled goods.

I caught a brief rest until morning came. I woke to sunlight filtering through the hazy air. Chance’s household drone was cleaning the gunpowder-scented room when it approached me.

“I recommend installing an air shower facility at the entrance or bathroom. Gunpowder residue odor is quite persistent.”

“Chance, there’s nothing more effective at making enemies with neighbors than coming home at dawn and using an air shower religiously.”

The employee housing at Belwether had excellent soundproofing, but buildings outside of it were just average. Actually, even inside employee housing, using an air shower daily would draw complaints.

Watching Chance clean the house, I take out my carbine and the box containing Little Evil. I start by disassembling and cleaning Little Evil, which I’ve been using frequently. It’s certainly useful against body armor, so I’ve been using it quite a lot.

The carbine’s attachments were neatly customized to my preferences, and they were options any mercenary using Belwether rifles would consider… though lately they’ve sometimes been referred to online as “Gardner Custom.”

That wouldn’t be enough to identify the Gardner role. The instruction to dress Belwether’s daughter in a Fitts & Morrison dress predated Gardner—he was just following those directions.

With Chance thoughtfully playing Polaris’s music, the morning passes rather ordinarily. As I start preparing for work, Chance speaks up first.

“Today is Wednesday, Agent Arthur Murphy. You’re not preparing for work, are you?”

“Wednesday? I must have been living like a workaholic lately…”

That’s actually good news. At least I don’t have to worry about going to work tonight. When I was living in the on-call room, I could at least tell it was a day off if I woke up and the boss wasn’t there.

I send a communication request to Kay and insert the chip I found during the NFD raid into Chance’s connected computer. Chance checks the contents in a sandbox environment before opening it.

Inside was a license with a childish design befitting the black market’s name. Among randomly drawn sunflowers and meaningless scribbles, only one name written in terrible handwriting was visible.

Chance, who was examining the contents with me, offered a brief assessment—if you could call it that. It was just stating the obvious.

“This ID looks like it was handwritten by a child. There is a security certificate attached, but the primary authentication method is just this ID.”

I scan over the name “Sir Teddy” and what appears to be a crudely drawn armored bear next to it. It didn’t look like a randomly generated image.

This means something—or someone—drew it by hand. Is this some kind of handwriting authentication? Most likely, a childlike AI would determine whether the handwriting and drawing were actually done by itself.

Even handwriting forgery experts would struggle to imitate the seemingly random strokes of a child’s handwriting, and the drawing… would be impossible. It seems the black market was using the best security they could manage.

Of course, it wasn’t that impressive. While creative, there were obvious ways to steal it like I just did, and the attached security certificate was simple even to my eyes. Replicating it to sneak in wouldn’t be difficult.

This was the complete opposite of infiltrating Belwether, where I had to steal legally created access permissions from NFD and enter through the front entrance guarded by Stephanet with the Coffee Talk security protocol.

Belwether, virtually impenetrable by hacking, could limit infiltration attempts to frontal approaches, while Coco’s Play Store probably wouldn’t even know which channel was used to breach it half the time.

While I’m examining this, my communication with Kay connects. Her chatty voice comes through again.

“What? Why are you calling me on a holiday morning? Don’t tell me Eve alone isn’t enough and you’re… No, that can’t be it, right?”

“No, I just contacted you for help accessing Coco’s Play Store. I got a private job this morning… seems like there’s money to be made.”

“Money to be made? You’re not planning to steal smuggled goods from the black market, are you?”

“It’s a fairly legitimate money-making opportunity.”

Since Panacea Meditech’s security team deliberately leaked some information, there should be plenty to find. This job hasn’t even been officially posted on the freelancer network yet.

“Well… alright! I’m nearby anyway, so come to my place. Coco’s Play Store doesn’t have super tight security, but you’ve seen the ID, right? They do have one proper AI for management! I’ll check to make sure there’s no trouble.”

Hearing that, I walk across the apartment complex to Kay’s place. Some street gang members gathered at the apartment entrance glance at me, and one of them starts to approach.

Before I even need to draw Little Evil, a large man in the center of the group stops the approaching one. They quietly make way for me to enter.

I give a nod of thanks and smile before going in. I saved bullets, and they saved their lives. A mutually beneficial exchange.

However, instead of dispersing into the streets, they gathered closer. I was about to enter the elevator directly but came back out after seeing this. Even a non-freelancer should be able to easily pass through apartment doors.

The large man blocked the apartment entrance and stared at me. His expression was fierce, but he held his breath until he couldn’t anymore, then exhaled shakily. I reached out and patted his shoulder a couple of times.

“Let’s just go inside, shall we? I won’t be staying long anyway, and if I come out and see one of you… working, let’s call it? It’s obvious how that would end.”

“You know we all have at least one gun each, right?”

I nodded, indicating that was obvious. As long as dialogue was possible, I’d gladly resolve things verbally.

“Yes, of course I know. That’s exactly the problem. If you were standing there with bare fists or some pathetic tire iron, I could just use my fists, but that’s not the case, is it?”

The man who had been leaning intimidatingly against the doorframe with his arms up took a step back. He naturally brought his hands forward, then brushed them off and stood straight as if that had been his intention all along.

“It’s not that I’m letting you off because it’s a nice morning… I just don’t want to shoot people who haven’t done anything yet as a preventive measure. I’d prefer if you remained ‘people who haven’t done anything.'”

I meant that I wasn’t some deranged freelancer who would proudly gun down gang members to relieve stress on a bad day. The large man kept flinching to stop his hands from coming together in front of him.

He desperately reached out to stop another gang member who was trying to come forward from behind him, giving him a fierce look. He pushed him back completely.

“I don’t want some idiot ruining this conversation either. Really. You know that, right?”

I nodded calmly at his urgent tone.

“I know. I’m not the kind of freelancer who’s so close with Belwether that just looking at someone would generate a criminal record. If you just walk away from here, you get to go home comfortably. It’ll be your lucky day.”

At the mention of “freelancer,” even the gang member who had been waving his arms despite being pushed back went quiet. The large man quietly nodded and gestured behind him.

“We’re going home. Now! You heard what this freelancer said. Let’s call it a lucky day, okay? I’m telling you, this son of a—”

The large man pointed at me, speaking almost pleadingly before choosing his words more carefully. I waited quietly.

“I saw what this mercenary did to those gang punks who were trying to make protection money while eyeing Venus Meditech stocks. We’re not even in the protection racket in this neighborhood, right? Right?”

He seemed to be referring to when I shot the gang members who were dragging away a Venus Meditech minority shareholder while Mr. Günter was still selling kebabs here. Rumors spread quickly in the alleys.

After several negative responses, they got back on their bikes and left. Today was their lucky day. No, actually, luck had nothing to do with it.

They just happened to meet me first while loitering in front of this apartment, giving them the opportunity to abandon their plans and go home. The choice was theirs.

By the way, did they really believe I was just a freelancer? I’m not sure. Many gang members are more cowardly than they appear.

I take the elevator up and knock on Kay’s door. A drone approaches and opens the door… the smell of delivered food and Kay’s voice greet me.

“What took you so long? I didn’t hear any gunshots.”

“Just did some city beautification without guns. Everything okay here?”

“Everything’s fine, Icarus of a world without hubris. The problem is I still can’t find the remaining three… but our baby is sleeping soundly in her virtual reality cradle, so don’t worry.”

The transparent eye, imprisoned for years, was still dreaming of a world it controlled—unaware that the dream was a performance, or that someone was orchestrating it.

Kay was trapped in the same prison. So was Section Chief Dewey Novak. A prison of maintaining the status quo, guilt, and meaningless repetition. It needed to be broken. People shouldn’t lose their joy.

“Anyway! You came today for Coco’s Play Store, right? Don’t worry about that. You’re helping me with my problem, not the other way around!”

“That’s a good attitude. I brought the chip… shall we connect right away?”

“Yes, let’s connect. I’ll show you how to access it safely.”

I sit on the beanbag sofa she prepared and connect to the net with my computational assist device. Kay sits beside me, also connected, moving her hands through the air. She seemed more accustomed to these virtual screens covering her face than I was.

Since we’re not accessing a legal site, I turn on a connection location scrambler and enter the domain in the Coco’s Play Store ID… a screen that literally looks like a children’s educational flash game appears.

An AI with a profile image of a short-haired child-like figure connects. A bright, energetic voice comes through.

“Welcome to Coco’s Play Store, Sir Teddy! What are you here for today?”

A simplistic interface appears with options like ‘To buy’ or ‘To sell.’ Kay nods, indicating I should proceed comfortably, so I lightly touch the virtual ‘To buy’ button.

“You’re here to buy! Well, before I let you in, we need a quick identity check! Please show me your ID!”

I push my virtual ID toward the AI. Despite speaking like a child, it performed a proper scan. The energetic voice returns.

“Your ID is confirmed, but I have an additional question! Sir Teddy is smart, so you’ll get it right!”

Kay’s voice flows into my ear. She seems to be using a communication channel without speaking aloud. I respond through the communication without vocalizing.

“What do kids think being smart means? Probably being able to calculate large numbers? Whatever the question is, just answer with a number over a million.”

‘What about other cases?’

“If it says your calculation is accurate, answer with the real answer. If it says you’re working hard, answer with a margin of error within plus or minus 3… Here, I’ll send you an access guide!”

While we’re having this brief conversation, a simple math problem appears on the screen: 13+32. I input roughly 1.5 million something, and the Coco in the profile picture makes a puzzled expression.

“Ones, tens, hundreds, thousands… Coco doesn’t know such big numbers! Sir Teddy really is smart! You can come in!”

With those words… a page filled with items completely incongruous with the childish UI appears. I can see some Belwether standard-issue rifles that seem to still be in stock.

I access the category labeled “Information” with a crudely drawn book image, and find confidential information from mediocre mercenary companies being sold at bargain prices. As I browse, Kay giggles.

“Don’t worry, I check daily to see if any Night View information gets posted, Sir Teddy! How did the ID card you found happen to have that name? Coco assigns them randomly.”

‘It’s childish, but nothing strange about it, right? What’s yours?’

“Ms. Rain Cloud! It’s a fairly fairy tale-like, nice name, right? Are you looking for something specific?”

‘Information leaked from Panacea Meditech.’

I touch a large building emoji to check information related to megacorporations. Most messages indicated a higher membership level was required, but even with this level, I could purchase some trivial information.

Among the sold information… there was nothing about Panacea Meditech.

After looking at the screen displaying disorganized information like the disposal location for criminal evidence discarded by Belwether almost a month ago, I switch categories.

Explosives were easily available. Even Volla’s portable launcher concentrated charges used in the wasteland didn’t seem particularly legal. Well, they wouldn’t sell such things easily.

The “Wasteland Cargo” category contained various wasteland odds and ends. Most were items stripped from megacorporation wasteland research labs, but some were hidden.

They weren’t even marked as requiring a membership level—they were completely deleted. Kay’s voice comes through.

“Oh, those were attempts to sell people. Coco would have crushed them, so don’t worry! There doesn’t seem to be any leaked information from Panacea Meditech… I’m one membership level higher than you, but it’s not showing up for me either.”

Those perpetrators were ordinary mercenaries, so their membership level would be lower than mine, not higher. If they had spent money on Coco’s Play Store… no, they would have used that money for their dues.

That means the megacorporation’s customer information was dumped cheaply somewhere else. Still connected, I asked Kay:

‘There must be other black market sites, right? Could you check if they have any information leaked from Panacea Meditech?’

“Roger that! Why, planning to do something nice for your mother?”

‘It would be stranger if I weren’t a filial son. Still, I need this for myself.’

Although I gave up on finding the information, I still browsed through the wasteland cargo items. Chance, watching through my eyes, pointed out one of the items.

“That appears to be the remains of an infantry drone. Two items below, there seems to be somewhat damaged remains of a patrol drone. Would it be possible to check each of the other items as well?”

Despite searching through the wasteland cargo with Chance, apart from some drone remains, there was nothing worth salvaging. Whether for Panacea Meditech or Prometheus… Coco’s Play Store was a bust.