Ch.194Work Record No. 029 – Can’t Take My Eyes Off (4)

I decided to stop making strange associations in situations where there was no need to worry. I was the kind of person who could actually stop when I said I would.

After gently stroking Kei’s head as she anxiously watched the rising sun, I searched for the name Dewey Novak in my contacts.

I showed her the screen just before connecting the call, and only after seeing her nod did I make the connection. A voice that showed no signs of drowsiness came through.

“Dewey Novak, Manager of the Legal Assassination Team at Belwether’s LA branch. It’s Arthur, isn’t it? Thank you for your help last time.”

Manager Dewey Novak expressed gratitude first, even though all I had done was offer a few words of advice. He was a good person, as always.

There was no need to start the conversation with a heavy atmosphere. Since I also wanted to check in on him, I began speaking in a relaxed tone.

“I didn’t really do anything substantial, but anyway. How are those two people you brought in from the assassination department doing?”

“Ah… fortunately, they’re doing well. The records of those coup faction bastards who were monitoring near the night view had our investigation team on them.”

Fortunately, things had worked out well. Fortunately, the method I suggested had been good for him. That meant he could trust me one more time.

I did my calculations only in my head while speaking only pleasant words aloud. I’d like to call it social skills, but according to Chance, not many people would call it that.

“Well… I should say I’m glad to bring you more good news this morning. You know about that incident yesterday where the Inhuman Alliance killed a Belwether priest and all the freelancers were called in, right?”

“Of course I know. I heard there was quite a commotion in the slums when even Peshikov’s son showed up. As a certified freelancer for Belwether, you must have been there…”

“At the scene, I obtained information as important as the wanted criminal… and after finishing my freelancer duties, I spent the entire dawn searching around and completed the recovery. What word from my mouth would make you happiest?”

The fact that I was a certified freelancer from Belwether gave this seemingly absurd expectation-building some credibility. Names, appearances, and pretense give people sufficient reason to trust.

Manager Dewey Novak spoke as if slightly dreaming, yet also somewhat tired. He probably hadn’t even considered that it might be about the Transparent Eye, which they hadn’t been able to track for years.

“I’d like it to be the Transparent Eye, but that wouldn’t happen so easily. No, if it’s you, Arthur…”

“I enjoy making miracles happen. I found the Transparent Eye. It was hiding in an android research and production facility owned by Belwether in the wasteland.”

Manager Dewey Novak was momentarily speechless. As if trying to confirm whether he had heard correctly, he mulled over my words briefly before finally asking again.

“So, what? That’s not… haha, yes. That’s not something that happens so easily. I mean, the facility in the wasteland is still…”

“I told you, I enjoy making miracles happen. Can you come alone? I’d like to see you proudly return to Belwether with the Transparent Eye and sign off on the case file.”

If an ordinary person had said this, he would have been suspicious or at least brought two assassination department employees to protect himself, but I was definitely someone who could be trusted. I was a certified freelancer.

“I suppose… I could take a chance. Where shall we meet?”

I didn’t know many good meeting places. It needed to be quiet and away from prying eyes. I gave him the coordinates of where I had found Chance. Kei and I got up from our seats.

Kei was still fidgeting nervously. She had probably gone over what to say hundreds of times in her mind but hadn’t come up with a single answer. Deep down, she probably wished for the status quo to continue.

She probably wanted to keep pretending she was being responsible by saying she was still looking for ways to return the Transparent Eye and working hard to find it in the wasteland.

Perhaps my intervention was timely. I had no interest in watching people run themselves ragged just to maintain the status quo in this Red Queen’s era. I smiled and said to her:

“I thought you had already prepared yourself a long time ago?”

She leaned against the inside wall of the elevator and sighed deeply. She looked up at me.

“Not everyone in the world is like you, Arthur, who once they make up their mind, can maintain their resolve without a scratch even if they get shot or whatever happens. How should I put this?”

“You might not need many words. Manager Dewey Novak said that he just wants to see your face now. I guess he’s desperate enough to be curious about what kind of person you are.”

The elevator arrived, and we got out together and mounted the bike. I could feel Kei tightly hugging my back from behind. She was fighting her anxiety, and the battle didn’t seem to be going too well.

“But I can’t just show my face and be done with it. Should I say I’m sorry? Or should I say I was wrong? Or maybe that I was the one managing the Transparent Eye…”

“You can go back to being your usual talkative self and say all of that. I won’t help you, so make sure you prepare what to say on the way there.”

“Again, making it all my responsibility at times like this… ugh, it is my responsibility though. It really is 100% my responsibility… Anyway. Yes. Okay. I’ll do that.”

With Kei on the back, I headed toward the wasteland. Since all the trucks had already headed to the city, the highway connecting to the wasteland was completely empty.

After bumping down into the wasteland and riding a bit further… I saw someone who had already arrived. It was Manager Dewey Novak. A man in a suit with his damaged half-body covered only with metal plates rather than replaced with cybernetic parts.

He didn’t want his wounds to heal completely yet. He wanted them to remain longer. He was a man who had decided not to easily replace his body until he found the Transparent Eye.

I stopped the bike in front of him and got off. I turned off the helmet display to show my face before removing it. Manager Dewey Novak’s eye on the side with the metal plate was shining brighter.

“Honestly, even if this were a lie, I wasn’t planning to accuse you of playing a bad joke… but talk of the Transparent Eye is, honestly, well… I don’t know what to say. It’s unrealistic.”

Manager Dewey Novak was saying the same things as Kei. The reason I had decided to help Kei was precisely because she had said exactly the same things as Manager Dewey Novak. Because she was trying to take responsibility.

I handed Kei two storage devices with eye drawings on them. Leaning against the bike, I gently patted Kei’s back. Though Manager Dewey Novak looked puzzled, Kei eventually walked toward him.

Each step seemed difficult for her. She seemed to be having trouble breathing, and after just a few steps, she bowed her head deeply and took a big breath before raising herself up again and continuing toward him.

And… Kei handed him the two storage devices. Only after Manager Dewey Novak had received the memory units with eyes drawn on them did she begin to state her business. It was simple.

“It’s unrealistic but… it’s real. Arthur really found the Transparent Eye. A copy that was hiding in the android research facility in the wasteland… and the original that was held by the person who leaked the Transparent Eye.”

“What?”

This was something Manager Dewey Novak hadn’t heard either. I had lied that what I found in the wasteland was the real one. I had broken my promise to Kei about not lying, once again.

But thanks to that, Kei could speak more comfortably now. At this point, she only needed to correct my lie, not her own.

Kei spoke to Manager Dewey Novak, who was staring at her with a dumbfounded expression. She came out with something even more unrealistic than what she had just said.

“December 17, 2092… 8:11 PM. I remember it correctly. I, um, well… if I had some grand purpose, I might have at least looked like a bad person, but just…”

Manager Dewey Novak knew exactly who besides himself and Stephanet would know that date and time down to the minute. His expression began to harden gradually.

“Just… I was tired of hearing that I lacked skill and was only doing ordinary IT department work. I wasn’t dreaming of being some stupid super hacker or anything, I just… needed a medal.”

Before it happened, embarrassing Belwether’s information security department would have been a medal for Kei. At least until she hit the wall of reality. Kei spoke without crying or stammering.

“But when I got in… it wasn’t like that. Belwether immediately detected the abnormal access, and I was about to be tracked down, so I just started looking for something to distract Stephanet. That was…”

“The Transparent Eye.”

Kei seemed to be trying with all her might to avoid Manager Dewey Novak’s eyes while simultaneously trying with all her might to look at him. She nodded briefly before continuing.

“I just… thought it would distract Stephanet a bit. That it would buy me time to escape. That was true, but what the Transparent Eye did…”

Kei had at least prevented the Transparent Eye from going out to the net by downloading it to her computing assistant and sealing it in a server computer she bought. Thanks to that, the Transparent Eye had remained confined until now.

Small operational sounds began to come from the metal plate covering Manager Dewey Novak’s face, and soon his damaged face beneath the plate was revealed. A face that had been torn apart and only minimally reconstructed.

It was a horrific sight, having received only the most minimal restorative treatment. Kei quietly bowed her head once, then raised it again to face him. Somehow she kept looking at him.

She had nothing more to say now. There was nothing more I could do either. I didn’t want Manager Dewey Novak to pull out his gun, but if he did, it would be his choice.

However, Manager Dewey Novak’s voice was calmer than expected. It was trembling, but he spoke instead of drawing his gun. That was a good sign. Probably.

“So… where has the Transparent Eye been all this time? The Transparent Eye I’ve been searching for…”

“All along, um, in a server computer in my apartment… completely disconnected from the outside. I couldn’t let it spread on the net, but to return it…”

“You said there was definitely a copy. There must have been… a backup. I couldn’t find out exactly because the project data was discarded.”

“That’s right. It was waiting to become complete while occupying an abandoned facility in the wasteland. I only found out the exact location recently… and I, um, wanted to take responsibility, so I was looking for it.”

The only part where I could interject was approaching. As the two of them struggled to find more words, with Kei running out of things to say… and Manager Dewey Novak holding back his surging emotions, I cut in.

“Kei, when I asked why you were protecting the Transparent Eye, what did you say?”

Kei took a moment to choose her words, and by sheer coincidence, she said the same thing Manager Dewey Novak had said.

“That… misfortune creates unhappiness, and unhappiness is as hard to erase as fallout. And that someone needs to live with that fallout. In other words… someone to take responsibility.”

Manager Dewey Novak let out a hollow laugh. He looked at me with suspicious eyes. All kinds of emotions accumulated over years seemed about to show through his face.

He drew his gun from his waist. He pointed it at Kei and his hand began to tremble. The words meant to persuade him were having the opposite effect. This was expected.

He probably believed we had prepared these words in advance. But he couldn’t pull the trigger. Because he was a good person. Because he wanted to believe, just once.

As expected, he didn’t pull the trigger. Still pointing the gun at Kei, who neither flinched nor trembled but just stood looking at the gun barrel with her eyes closed, he asked me.

“Did you tell this… person what I said? To persuade me?”

“No. I swear on the word efficiency, I didn’t tell her a single word. It was just what Kei said. Not even on that day. It was quite a bit later, but she just happened to say something not at all different from what you said.”

Manager Dewey Novak didn’t seem to genuinely suspect it either. He believed that someone like me, who could speak sincerely, wouldn’t resort to such tricks. The gun barrel was trembling.

“Is what’s in here really the Transparent Eye? Are you, Arthur, really trusting the woman who released the Transparent Eye?”

“You know my judgment doesn’t matter. Kei knows that too. My input ends here. I don’t want you to pull the trigger, but I won’t stop you either. You have that right.”

After fulfilling my role, I returned to the bike. I sat with my back turned to what was happening behind me. Whether working as a mercenary or going through daily life in LA, everyone learns to feel the desperate need for a cigarette.

But soon, the sound I heard was that of a gun clattering to the ground. Manager Dewey Novak had dropped it. Seeing that I was still looking back, he revealed a bit of his emotional knot.

“Maybe people who have lost their lives in the same way, for the same reason, can say similar things… Don’t just stand there like a death row inmate waiting for execution, speak up. So…”

“It’s Catherine. Everyone calls me Kei. So, Manager Dewey Novak. I, um, wanted to apologize. I thought if I found the life you lost because of me with my own hands and then said sorry, it might work.”

Kei continued without making any excuses, stumbling over her words. She seemed to think that the only way to speak was to surrender to the increasing acceleration, like pressing the gas pedal to the floor.

“No, actually… I might have been rationalizing the status quo by saying ‘I’m trying to find this person’s lost life.’ But I didn’t rationalize until the end.”

“By bringing the real Transparent Eye here… I mean, what?”

“I wanted to give back the five years you lost. It was lost because of my mistake. I thought if I returned the Transparent Eye… maybe everything would be alright.”

Manager Dewey Novak let out a hollow laugh. Kei was saying everything she thought, without making any excuses.

Contrary to her wishes, this high-speed era wasn’t that compassionate. It was a heartless era that didn’t help those who had fallen.

“You know that’s not how it works. You know better than anyone that there’s no way to be compensated for lost time…”

But it wasn’t so heartless as to refuse a handshake to someone who had gotten up on their own. Manager Dewey Novak spoke almost tearfully.

“I’m sure that’s true, but… A little, yes. Just a little bit… I feel… compensated.”