Ch.19Work Record 003 – Far Too Many Me’s (4)

I couldn’t bring the rifle. I only took a pistol and a standard tactical knife from Belvedere Company. The blade was gleaming blue.

Today, only one thing would happen. A security team member from Half & Half would go missing during his shift. The job had to be clean. It had to be thorough. I gritted my teeth.

Kay approached me carefully and pulled out a small mechanical device. He lifted his fluffy hair to show the side of his head above his temple. He looked somewhat apologetic.

“Most security vulnerabilities exist in the real world. You found that out. Remember what you said? Those guys wear helmets with visors so they can’t recognize each other. There’s not much I can do now. Before you take care of the security guy, attach this to the side of his head, right here. It’s a simple device. It will copy the signals from his computational assist device, so keep it while you’re in the company. Got it?”

His expression showed a renewed sense of responsibility. I smiled and nodded, then put the small device in my jacket pocket.

7436 had already changed out of her tracksuit into the standard Bella model outfit and was waiting for me. I reached out my hand to her, but she snapped back:

“Clients don’t hold Bella’s hand. They grab her shoulder. You need to do this right.”

She’s adapting to mercenary work faster than me. I let out a hollow laugh at the absurdity, then grabbed Bella’s shoulder and pulled her close. Bella gave a short nod.

Now we looked the part. Boss Yoon quickly composed himself. The well-crafted operation was briefed.

“This mission has no client. The objective is to infiltrate Half & Half Company and ensure Yakyung’s safety. Arthur and Bella model 7436 will carry out the mission, but the rest of Yakyung’s personnel will provide support. Vola’s pickup truck will follow Arthur at a distance, and for the escape vehicle…”

Valentina, who normally used a full prosthetic arm for driving rather than a lightweight one, walked in today with only the skeletal lightweight prosthetic. Her expression was as relaxed as ever.

“Todaay, I’ll be using my personal car, not the company one. It has back seats, so it’s not exactly a street racing car, but you’ll still need to hold on tight. Okayy? I’ll come when Kay’s device turns off, mmm.”

Entrusting my life to a street racer’s driving seemed absurd, but then again, the law-abiding street racers typically helped criminals escape, so it made sense.

“I’m sure there won’t be airbags. Hopefully we won’t need to rush. Sounds good.”

I would have to kill that security team member. It wasn’t his fault. It wasn’t our fault either. But whatever I said, I would kill him with my own hands. I grabbed a bag for organic waste.

Without a mask or helmet, I couldn’t wear a conspicuous neck microphone either. This would be our last conversation. After Boss Yoon said, “Operation commencing,” I headed out to the street with Bella.

We crossed one street and several blocks toward the drug dealers’ area where the mercenary I knew had been attacked. From a corner of that street, I took out my phone and called Half & Half’s clone establishment. The connection tone was long.

“Ah, sorry. We’re short-staffed right now… Half the rights, half the price. This is Half & Half. How can I help you?”

“Um, wasn’t it a Bella model that caused trouble? I see one Bella model walking on the street, so I wanted to return her. I don’t know who bought her, but I don’t have to pay anything, right?”

I deliberately made my voice sound more casual. The person on the other end didn’t seem suspicious at all and continued with a businesslike response.

“Ah, of course. We also provide a coupon for your next visit if you return a wandering Bella. We’re short on security staff right now, so only one person will come by motorcycle. If you tell us your location, we’ll arrive within 10 minutes. Could you share your current location?”

I gave the location, received thanks, and hung up. I hid the organic waste bag and waited. Ten minutes felt like an hour.

Since I couldn’t communicate directly, only one of Kay’s drones was quietly flying around me. Soon I heard a motorcycle approaching, and a security team member wearing a helmet with an opaque visor, just like the one I had seen before, got off.

“This is Half & Half. Are you the one who reported the Bella return?”

His voice had a similar tone to mine but went up a bit more at the end of sentences. I needed to know everything. The more I knew, the less suspicious I would appear.

“Ah, yes. She was walking around here. Whoever had her probably didn’t want to be held hostage, right?”

“Huh, must have been some coward. Just a moment, I need to find your coupon…”

The fact that he contacted me by phone meant he knew I was a genuine customer. As he searched his pockets for the paper coupon, I stepped closer. I pulled out the Belvedere tactical knife.

With one step forward, I gently inserted it between his neck and jacket. I pressed deeply to prevent blood from leaking out. I couldn’t return wearing clothes stained with blood. He tried to grab my hands.

Due to the adrenaline, his struggle was stronger than I expected. Thinking it fortunate that blood wasn’t gushing out, I removed his helmet and attached Kay’s device to the side of his head. The signal copying began.

I didn’t whisper to him that I had nothing personal against him. Death is personal to everyone. I had no intention of deceiving with such words after committing such a personal act.

I simply looked into his eyes. I watched as his pupils clouded over and completely lost focus.

With the knife still embedded, I laid him down and removed his clothes. I changed into them. There was no blood on them. Almost no smell of blood either.

A Post-Human Type IV might detect it, but an ordinary person wouldn’t notice the smell. I decided to observe a moment of silence for about two seconds.

The clothes were a bit tight but fit well enough. After sighing, I put the body with the tactical knife still in it into the organic waste bag and threw it into an android disposal trash bin.

The old Los Angeles urban legend said no one knew whether there were more androids or humans in those bins. I got on the motorcycle with Bella behind me.

I put the signal copier in my pocket and was about to start when Kay’s drone approached. Knowing time was short, he began speaking urgently.

“I checked the communication records. He uses informal speech with other security team members, and somewhat disrespectful but formal speech with other departments. His name is Frank Williams, three years of service, and he participated in the industrial spy purge. All I can tell you is his speech pattern. I can’t tell you what gestures he habitually makes. Don’t get caught, Offliner.”

“That’s enough. Thanks for the info, Kay. I’ll be back.”

I smiled, curling up the corners of my mouth, then started off. I remembered the location of Half & Half’s clone establishment from my previous visit. Driving non-stop, I could reach those painted white walls within 10 minutes.

Bella’s hands gripping my waist tightened. This was the road to her hell. All she had was a check with “freedom” written on it. It might be a bad check.

I parked the bike in the motorcycle parking area and entered, almost forcefully gripping Bella’s shoulder with one hand. I casually greeted the female employee at the lobby.

“I brought this one back. She was abandoned, so I think you need to check her serial number. Where should I take her? I believe the Bella model department was Cultivation Team 4. Didn’t their manager get killed too?”

The lobby employee looked at me with displeasure. It’s unpleasant when a security team member who carried out the purge nonchalantly asks if someone died.

But she didn’t look suspicious about why I was behaving this way. I was doing well. I mimicked more. I stepped closer and placed my hand on the lobby counter.

“If you’re not going to work, call someone else. Some of us are giving up our two-week vacation to work for the company, and you’re looking at me like that? What’s your problem?”

A security team member who would curse in front of customers would typically be this rude. Well-trained security personnel with good discipline know how to maintain dignity in front of customers.

Moreover, security teams generally have more influence than regular employees. It’s inevitable when they legally handle firearms within the company. She shook her head and said:

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. Um, they said wandering Bellas need to be examined… Please go to basement level 4. I’ll open the elevator for you.”

Basement. Yes, basement. Terrible. On the ground floor, there was at least the option to jump out a window, but in the basement, there was no escape route. I was more tense, but I had to act more relaxed.

Our Frank must have been the type to say such things. Or maybe all the security team members here were like this. After tapping the lobby receptionist’s head a couple of times with my gloved hand, I got into the elevator.

Elevators usually have CCTV. 7436 seemed to know this too, as she didn’t say anything, and I maintained proper posture. The elevator stopped at basement level 4. It was an office so sparsely populated it felt desolate.

They must have sent everyone to the information processing team and then dealt with them. Is it so important to finish quickly that you sacrifice your staff? Absolutely not. Even if it takes longer, protecting your staff should be the priority.

Half & Half won’t last long either. The rotten top part of a fruit always hates the ripe bottom part. Then the whole fruit rots, but they never realize that.

I headed toward where Bella was cultivated. The researchers’ gazes were mixed with resentment. Wearing helmets with visors that prevent others from seeing in might be a precaution against the gazes of insiders, not outsiders.

As I was about to walk straight through, I felt Bella take the same step twice. There was a door beside her. This must be it. I naturally turned and walked into the examination room. The staff here also looked miserable.

Time for more nonsense. I roughly pushed Bella toward them and spoke as if I already knew everything. It was a shot in the dark, not knowing what results had come out or even if the manager was dead.

“Why do you all look so dead? Sure, a manager and a few employees died, but there’s no connection to outsiders, so at least you guys are still working here. One of you will probably get promoted soon.”

It seemed to be true. One of the employees couldn’t hold back and approached me, pouring out words. A wounded heart is sometimes as heavy as death. If you scratch that wounded heart, it can make someone ready to die.

“Do you security guys have the right to say that? You barge in, point guns at our manager, send him to the information processing team, and then when nothing, absolutely nothing comes up, you just report that he was a spy. And then, that fucking! You dispose of the white matter. After all that, you…”

A trustworthy employer. Did he really intend to kill 7436? Maybe… It’s not a good habit to speculate, but he might have been planning something that would get him caught by the audit team.

Not everyone who dies should be made into a saint, but judging by his attitude, I wonder if he was also pretending.

Maybe he was trying to free Bella, or rather 7436, who had gained free will, by entrusting her for three days… and said he would examine her to avoid suspicion?

Even if that’s what I think, the dead man’s mouth is already closed, and with his white matter disposed of, his consciousness will never return. I raised my fist and lightly struck the employee who had been yelling, sending him tumbling to the floor.

“You talk way too much. Hey, wait. Yeah, yeah. Hey, that girl has another reservation, so just run a quick check and bring her. No, just mark it as passed. She’s just a wandering Bella, do we really need to find her serial number? Isn’t that a hassle?”

I pushed aside the need for a proper examination and reclaimed 7436. Amusingly, her tense body only relaxed after I took hold of her. Yakyung hadn’t forgotten her.

I casually grabbed her shoulder and walked out of the corridor on the fourth floor. Four people wearing helmets with the same opaque visors were walking toward us. One of them nodded in greeting.

“What’s up, did the higher-ups want you to squeeze these guys more to find something? We already searched that manager bastard’s house, opened his skull, and found nothing, so we just said he was a spy and moved on. Everyone above and below is an idiot, I swear.”

How kind of the security team themselves to confirm this. I snickered and replied, deliberately imitating Frank’s voice and raising the end of my sentences slightly.

“If they were that stupid, would they have built a building this big in the middle of LA? The old men upstairs just need us to knock out some teeth, why would they work so hard? I’ve got a reservation for this girl, gotta go.”

However, the security team member who heard me tilted his head slightly in confusion. No matter how well I mimicked the speech pattern and despite our similar ages, our voices were different. I needed to come up with an answer that wouldn’t raise suspicion.

“There’s no reservation that I know of. Are you sure you got it right?”

The corruption at Half & Half’s clone establishment is quite extensive. Inefficiency is scattered everywhere. If that’s the case, there was one thing I could try. I pushed past the man blocking my way and said:

“Are you giving me shit about making some pocket money, asshole? I have a VIP who calls me directly when they want me to bring an available girl. They tip well. That’s why it came through personal contact.”

He pushed my shoulder back, a bit forcefully. It seemed he wouldn’t let this slide. If only this security guard was corrupt in such a large security team, he would have been expelled long ago. I thought of my next words.

“You know this violates company policy, right?”

“So what? If I get called in and open my mouth, the security team will be purged right after the cultivation team. You want to see those old men screaming ‘Traitors! Traitors!’? I’d be happy to grab some popcorn if you want to watch.”

The security team member who had stopped me sighed with resignation. Bluffing worked again. A tingling sensation rose in my neck muscles, which had been tensing up. I got into the elevator with 7436 and pressed the ground floor button.

The lobby receptionist, whom I had already intimidated on the way in, didn’t stop me. I headed to the parking lot and got on the motorcycle. Less than five minutes after entering, I left those painted walls again.

This time, Bella’s arms embraced me a bit more warmly. As soon as we exited, I looked around to see Vola’s pickup truck and Valentina’s car, which looked ordinary on the outside despite all its modifications.

I turned off the signal copier. I drove the motorcycle toward a street without CCTV. It was toward Pasadena, where my hotel was. I went down to the hotel’s underground parking garage and waited for Valentina’s car.

We couldn’t leave any evidence. Still wearing all the clothes, I got into Valentina’s car with 7436. She started driving immediately.

For the sake of being lightweight, the car didn’t have proper suspension, and even the seats had little cushioning, making for a very bumpy ride. But at this moment, it was the most comforting bumpiness imaginable.

I took the in-ear piece and microphone that Valentina tossed me. I removed the helmet, put in the earpiece, and reported:

“This is Offliner. I’ve secured cross-testimonies from cultivation team and security team staff confirming that the employer was included in the purge targets, and despite white matter examination through the information processing team, no external connection points were found. There was no further information I could verify. Is this sufficient?”

The feeling of reconnecting after being cut off for just fifteen minutes was quite special. The boss’s returning voice was soaked in relief. Everyone must feel similar.

“That’s sufficient, Offliner. Thank you… thank you so much. I declare this operation complete. See you at the office.”