Ch.164024 Work Record – About the Flame (5)

After finishing my conversation with Chance, I fall asleep, only to be awakened by the sound of a submachine gun. I let out a long yawn, grab my helmet, and look out the window… to see an armored van.

It seems another mercenary company is operating here. I lower the Small Evil that I had pointed toward the window. The gunfire causes Eve’s expression to sour as if she’s having a nightmare before she opens her eyes.

The sounds she hears upon waking tell her this is no nightmare, so before seeking comfort in an embrace, she reaches for the pistol on the nightstand.

“First thing in the morning… ugh, damn it. Did you see what’s happening, Arthur?”

“Looks like another mercenary company is working. Interfering wouldn’t be good business etiquette, right?”

“Neither is waking people from their holiday sleep with gunfire… Let’s go to the first floor. It’s where evacuees stay, so it’s better reinforced.”

If nothing else, not being able to look at Eve’s sleepy face longer was a great loss. Going down the spiral staircase, I see guest bedrooms with folding armor plates attached to each window.

Though budget-grade, they were reasonably well-prepared. Before entering, I point toward the garage and say:

“There might be trouble, so I’ll grab some equipment. I need to go outside—can you cover me?”

Eve naturally pulls out the rifle she’s used since her days as a rifleman rather than a medic from under the living room coffee table. After adjusting her short, dark blue hair, she puts on her helmet and nods.

“Of course, my irresponsibly sturdy freelancer. Let’s go.”

I head to the garage, which is so filled with building debris there’s barely room for a single motorcycle, and lift the powerless garage door. Eve goes out first to check the surroundings of the villa before nodding.

All I need to do is open the seat compartment of the bike, take out my equipment bag, and return, but suddenly there’s a flash from another distant villa followed by an explosion. Mercenary screams echo as well.

Instead of immediately going back inside, I put on body armor over my T-shirt. I respond to the emergency support request appearing in my vision. The number of responders was 03. Someone else besides us.

I set my carbine to full auto and connect to the emergency support channel. A middle-aged man’s voice, calm for someone in distress, comes through.

It doesn’t sound fake. Though I called it calm, he takes a breath after every few words, likely due to injury.

“Mercenary company Tanovo Co., location data… transmitted. We have multiple casualties and can’t evacuate. Hoo… We only managed to get our functional sniper out…”

It seems they triggered explosives upon entry. I’ve heard enough briefing. Then, a somewhat familiar voice comes through the communication channel.

“Yes! I’m coming to help right away! Please hold on a little longer!”

It was Mila. It wasn’t strange that she’d respond to a support request given how much she liked helping people, but there weren’t many reasons for a mercenary company employee to visit the ruins on a holiday.

So the 03 responders are me, Eve, and Mila… There’s no time to think, so I’ll stick to basics. I’m not skilled enough to come up with a brilliant plan in this short time.

“Mila! The other two who received the support request are Eve and me. I’ll draw their attention by heading to the front of the villa with Eve covering me, so please enter from the side. Can I trust your shooting skills?”

“Oh, meeting in a place like… Yes! You can trust my shooting skills! I’ll move around to flank!”

With my carbine in one hand, I wrap my arm around Eve and leap over the villa wall. After setting her down, we run at a matched pace. Gunfire erupts from the road ahead.

It wasn’t just one or two shots. They were spraying with submachine guns. From the sounds of bullets hitting armor plates and what I saw from the second-floor window, Tanovo’s van was just around the corner.

After securing visual, I rush in. A woman in body armor with Tanovo’s red logo, deeply wounded in the arm, was leaning against the back of the van, breathing heavily.

Eve approaches her first and properly applies the cheap tourniquet the woman had been struggling to wrap one-handed. The Tanovo sniper speaks with difficulty.

“Huff… Those two bastards started shooting simultaneously. So…”

They started shooting simultaneously, and neither seemed to be holding back any reserve firepower. The sound of their bullet sprayers stops. Everyone has a job to do now.

First aid and covering fire are Eve’s responsibility; mine is the freelancer’s work. I leave the van we were using as cover and face the two gang members. As the sniper said, they were both reloading simultaneously.

Gray-dyed hair, explosives, and submachine guns—Ashwood Gang. They used to try to maintain some order in the back alleys. They knew how to survive under Belwether.

When did they fall so far to become a group using stupid back-alley trash? Probably since Mr. Gunter created the “truth” that Ashwood Gang suffered heavy losses to demonstrate the chairman’s authority.

I grip the barrel, aim, and cleanly pull the trigger twice for each target. I feel no recoil. Those guys were just grass that had grown too tall and needed to be cut down. So, they must be mowed.

After finishing the bleeding control, Eve starts covering and I hear her say, “I’m covering you.” To draw out those inside, there was one simple method.

I approach the dead gang members with bullets precisely lodged in their necks and heads. I lift both by their ankles and throw them toward the window beyond the collapsed wall.

The already fragile window completely shatters from the impact of the protein masses weighing dozens of kilograms. I hear a brief “What the—” and immediately shoot the one coming out with Small Evil.

Now the gang will believe their enemies have doubled. I listen carefully. The gunfire inside the building stops. Their ears must be ringing from the indoor gunfire, as they’re speaking quite loudly.

Though severely injured, the mercenary company still had enough firepower to hold out somehow. The choice between them and a few mercenaries was obvious. And that obvious choice would be a misjudgment.

“Looks like we’ve got more enemies, boss. What do we do? I think we should bail!”

“If you’re not going to run away, deal with those hiding in the garage. Shit, I can’t even throw a bomb because those bastards are hiding there…”

The remaining Tanovo employees are hiding in the garage. And the gang member who had the wise idea to flee came up with another good idea. This time, it was good for us.

“The ones outside are probably just emergency support, some random nobodies! Let’s break out, take those mercenary bastards’ van in the garage, and escape. Gather the guys and let’s go, okay?”

While they prepared their own version of a plan, I heard Mila’s voice. It was clear what would await them when they followed their brilliant plan.

“I’ve reached the side door of the villa garden! Firing control system activated! What about the gang?”

‘They’ll be out soon. They won’t enter the garden, but still, be careful of crossfire. Tanovo Co., we’ve directed the gang toward the garden. Hold your position.’

“Yes! I’ll be careful of crossfire and wait!”

After some deliberation, the gang leader made his decision, unaware of what awaited them. His ears must have recovered somewhat as he spoke quietly, but I could hear him from my position against the garden wall.

“Alright… whatever happens, we have to try. We’ll hijack their van. Don’t use explosives since the car might get damaged. Suppressive fire with submachine guns, then we go out. Execute!”

Eve takes cover behind the van again as bullets spray into the air. During the gunfire, I hear someone running into the garden. I speak only through the voice module.

‘Enter now.’

As the suppressive fire briefly pauses, I rise with my carbine. And then I witness Mila’s shooting skills that even Eve had praised. Six shots ring out in a dry, methodical sequence.

Those bullets precisely target the back of the head, hitting exactly where the skull doesn’t protect, perfectly severing the connection between brain and spinal cord. They collapse with complete functional shutdown, unable to even scream.

It was the same shooting technique I’d seen before. Eyes fixed, moving only her hands to the necessary points to shoot. The two inside who were attempting suppressive fire see their comrades fall.

I almost hesitated. Gripping the carbine barrel, I aim at the one on the right, raising my aim from the solar plexus to the head while squeezing the trigger. Eve handled the gang member on the left.

Several drones emerge from Tanovo’s van and enter the villa in our place. After a few wire-cutting sounds, the voice of an office worker sitting in the car comes through:

“No survivors inside and booby traps removed! Safe to enter!”

A well-trained company with bad luck. I follow Eve as she rushes in. In the hallway lay the cold corpse of a Tanovo employee.

It seemed to be the employee who opened the door with the booby trap. If I’d brought a jacket, I could have covered the damaged face, but I was wearing only body armor over my T-shirt in my haste.

Most of the other Tanovo employees who had hidden in the garage weren’t in such bad condition, but one had a fragment deeply embedded in their thigh and had grown cold without a chance for bleeding control.

The sniper whose arm had been treated brings a body bag, and we carefully place the mercenary who took a direct hit from the explosion into it, lightly securing it to a stretcher and carrying it to the van. We do the same for the employee killed by fragments.

Spraying emergency hemostatic spray creates a fairly solid foam barrier that helps stop the bleeding. The remaining employees will fortunately survive. Not unscathed, but alive.

Besides, if there’s a problem with leg function, they can amputate and replace it with a cyberleg. In this era, when people cut off perfectly good legs for replacements, physical aftereffects weren’t much of a concern.

Of course, the trauma of losing two people due to a small mistake was another matter. The Tanovo president, who seemed to have been at the front given the severe burns on his forearm, bowed deeply to me.

Even though I waved it off saying it was fine, he kept his head bowed for quite some time, then said it was his responsibility that two died but thanks to me, five would return alive, before boarding the van.

I didn’t expect more gratitude from people who needed to get to a hospital. Actually, I didn’t expect any gratitude at all, but they insisted on expressing their thanks before leaving the ruins.

After calling Belwether’s cleanup team, I return to Eve’s hideout with Mila. Watching Mila look around the once-glamorous villa with sparkling eyes, I asked what I’d been curious about from the beginning.

“Fortunately, we were able to help in time. But Mila, do you know someone in the ruins? This isn’t exactly a great place to spend a holiday.”

“No! I don’t know anyone here, but I’ve always heard that Los Angeles beaches are beautiful year-round. So I came to see, but the color is black… and it smells, completely opposite of what I expected.”

Listening to her, I quietly spoke to Chance through my voice module. It was probably what Chance wanted to say to me as well.

‘These are definitely those pre-war AIs, right?’

“Affirmative. Anyone can see she’s describing Los Angeles from before the war.”

How do I tactfully point this out? After glancing at Eve, whose expression showed she sensed something off, I nodded, trying not to mention Prometheus.

“They say it was like that before the war. The kebab shop owner I used to visit had a picture of the bright blue Pacific from before the war on his wall. That seems like quite an old story.”

Was Mila born and raised in some kind of bunker? If so, it would make sense that she’d rely on stories without any way to know the outside situation.

She looked a bit gloomy for a moment before returning to her usual energetic smile. Her expression was extremely natural and human-like.

“You can’t help but expect ancient stories to become reality someday, right? But still! I saw something as beautiful as that scenery! People coming together to help other people!”

She clenched her fists and bounced slightly while looking at me. Even Eve’s sensitive jealousy didn’t flare up at this childlike reaction.

“That’s twice already! I’ve seen Arthur throw himself into a place where bullets are flying for people he has nothing to do with! What’s that called these days…”

Eve, who had been quietly leaning on my shoulder, recited a maxim of this high-speed era that longs for the past while rushing forward—one I’d heard many times.

“You mean you didn’t know people like this were still in stock after that war, Mila?”

It was quite an old-fashioned thing for Mila to say. That’s what old people say when they see a decent young person. Still, she nodded vigorously.

“Yes, that’s it! I didn’t know people like this were still in stock after that war! My mother and fathers would have been so happy to see Arthur! Oh, since I invited you next time…”

I felt Eve’s hand on my shoulder tighten slightly. With slightly sharpened eyes, her usual voice reached my ear.

“You agreed to go to her home, Arthur?”

“Since I’m also from an unknown-past rookie background, I was planning to check if she has issues like me. Really.”

The hand on my shoulder relaxes a bit. What happened during the night watch due to my unknown past was definitely not a small matter. Mila, unaware of the current situation, continued brightly.

“Ah! Since I’ve almost finished cleaning up, I’ll invite you next holiday! It’s quite a journey toward the wasteland, but I want to show you that I’m not a rookie with an unknown past, but one with a clear past!”

We could get closer to the truth about Prometheus. In my head, I heard Chance’s voice. It was monotone but somehow seemed happy.

Not a negative or malicious happiness. Simply because the search for traces of that war would end here, and finally, he could announce the end of that war.

“Bring your assault rifle and spare magazines, Agent Arthur Murphy. I can unlock all magazines to help you destroy Prometheus.”