Ch.215Work Record #031 – Duty Record #003, Staying One Step Ahead (4)

Harry left the sheriff’s office before closing time. Looking at the direction his car was heading, he was going straight toward the center of Madeleine’s Lot—toward the Old Road headquarters.

After watching him briefly, I clocked out and got into my car. I headed to the shopping district at the edge of the hydroponic tower where Celine was waiting. It was smart of her to wait in a crowded place.

When I arrived at the café, I waved slightly, and she stood up holding a disposable cup. Hiding her troubled expression, she walked toward me and naturally got into the car. She entered the destination into the navigation system.

I was gradually getting used to driving without the computational assist device. I was also getting accustomed to not being able to talk to Chance since I had turned off the assist device completely.

“So, you said you know which motel Fabien stayed at? If possible… it would be good to know the room number too. Was that in the case file?”

“It was. I have my deputy badge on my hip, so it shouldn’t be difficult to get in even if someone’s there. What kind of person was Fabien?”

At the mention of Fabien, she revealed the troubled expression she had been hiding. It was the kind of troubled look that comes from being able to reminisce, and despite the complicated feelings, she could still remember him.

“My brother… was a reckless genius. He believed he could do anything, and acted like the world was a game made just for him… but he really was good at solving games and puzzles.”

If that was the case, his digging into the Old Road and attempting to infiltrate it himself was probably just due to overconfidence in his abilities. Good deeds rarely come with equally good intentions.

At the same time, actions without good intentions often produce good results. Celine let out a hollow laugh and continued.

“But he was also an idiot. He thought that if he listed all the things someone did wrong in front of them, they’d reflect on it. You know what comes flying first, right?”

“A fist, I’d guess. And if what they did wrong was serious enough, they’d pull out a gun first.”

“At least you’re better than Fabien in that regard. Yes, that’s how it was. I had to protect him at those times. He hated when I said he needed a lot of looking after… so I think that’s why he went alone like this.”

She seems to think she bears some responsibility. That’s not true. All homicides are the killer’s responsibility. People around them might have done something wrong, but if the killer doesn’t kill, the person doesn’t die.

As we finished that brief conversation, we arrived at the motel where Fabien had stayed. Traveler’s Lot. Do they name everything in relation to the town? They must be people with an attachment to their hometown.

I went into the motel’s reception area with Celine. Inside the already automated interior, a kiosk turned on by itself, and an AI connected with a caricatured human face.

“Welcome to Traveler’s Lot. For two people, I recommend booking a room on the second floor. Rooms 201 through 204 have two beds each, and rooms 204 through 208 have double beds.”

I pulled out my deputy badge from my hip and showed it to the kiosk. The AI stopped its cheerful voice and outputted a clearing throat sound. This reaction, at least, was familiar.

“I don’t think we’ve had any reports… and we don’t have any guests right now. What can I help you with, Deputy? Please feel free to ask if there’s anything I can assist with!”

I could almost hear the whispered “I don’t want to close down my business.” Fabien had stayed in room 203. A room with two beds. It was obvious who the other bed was for.

“There’s no report, so don’t worry. I just want to check out room 203. I’m looking into a cold case, and someone who stayed there disappeared, right?”

“Ah, you mean Fabien Diaz. But even for a missing person… I heard he was someone who trespassed into the Old Road? Is someone like that still wandering around Madeleine’s Lot?”

“Watch your words, Traveler’s Lot. His sister suddenly showed up in Madeleine’s Lot. She says her brother couldn’t have been that kind of person… I’m helping her in case we can clear up any misunderstanding.”

I lied smoothly. Soon, the key to room 203 popped out of the kiosk’s dispenser. The Traveler’s Lot AI spoke with a slightly worried voice.

“Still, be careful! Everyone knows how furious Mr. Marcus was about that incident. I hope it was a false accusation too, but…”

AIs always maintain a certain childlike quality. Whether it’s Traveler’s Lot or whatever else. I nodded, took out my phone to send a tip, and headed up to the second floor.

As soon as we left the reception area, I naturally shrugged once and sighed, following the process like a machine operation. Creating a reason for the natural lie.

“Phew, knowing our destination would be a place like this… I even practiced making up a natural lie, but even if it’s for a good cause, lying really… doesn’t suit me.”

“You seemed natural to me. Anyone watching would have thought that was really my purpose. Oh, should I tell other people that story? That would make them less suspicious, right?”

I didn’t bother telling her it was already too late. As we climbed the motel stairs, the listening device that had been transmitting only ordinary noise began to relay a familiar voice. The voice of my kind supervisor deputy.

“Yes, Chairman Marcus. I heard you wanted to meet separately… What, is there something I need to handle? The rookie… he seems like a decent kid.”

Neither of us is cold-blooded. Saying someone is “decent” means you don’t want to shoot them. The reason is obvious. If you had to shoot, you would. Would you shed tears? I couldn’t tell.

While listening to that conversation, we went up to the second floor of the motel and opened the door to room 203. The interior was neatly arranged. No motel would leave a room unattended for a month.

“Being afraid of capable people is what the federal government does. I’d rather recruit that kid than shoot him dead. Oh, right. Do you know what he said when I mentioned that? His answer was classic.”

“What did he say?”

“He said if he wanted to be a company man, he would have joined H Entertainment. Ha, that guy is really something. We should be giving the Old Road to young men like him, the kind of Old Road that we experienced, that I experienced.”

Strangely, I often received good evaluations from my enemies. That’s not a bad thing. After entering motel room 203, I joined Celine in searching the room. We started with the usual places.

I opened the closet door and looked inside, checking if anything like an envelope was hidden somewhere. Celine was carefully examining the bottom of the drawers after pulling them out.

The Madeleine’s Lot deputies would have done this much. The Old Road people desperate to find hidden information would certainly have done this too. It couldn’t be in such an obvious place.

“See, what did I tell you? He’s solid through and through. So, who’s the target?”

“I hear Fabien Diaz’s sister has come to town. There was a woman who entered the town the day the Wasteland Gang invaded, right? She might be here to find what her brother hid… what should we do?”

“We’ll have to deal with her, like Fabien Diaz. We could keep her alive and wait until we find the information, but… what does it matter what information is somewhere in Madeleine’s Lot if the person looking for it disappears?”

Despite his words, you’re waiting, Harry. After silently muttering this to myself, I watched as Celine lifted the entire mattress with her prosthetic arm. It wasn’t unusual to check even under there.

“Did Fabien have any particular places he liked to hide things? They’ve probably thrown away all his personal belongings by now, so if it’s not hidden in here, we have no way to find it.”

“He always hid things in really absurd places, but where could he hide anything in this small motel room? They would have searched all the usual places…”

While conversing with her, the conversation between Harry and Marcus continued in my head. The plan was simple. Simple, but very dangerous because it would be overlooked.

“That’s right. Do as you please. The sheriff is… that guy is really strange. Whose side do you think he’s on? We need to secure Madeleine’s Lot firmly in our hands first, but why is he so… tsk.”

“Ned is just someone who wants Madeleine’s Lot to be fine. So you don’t have much to worry about. Killing a rat trying to stir up Madeleine’s Lot is more important. Should we make it look like a robbery?”

“Make it a robbery. Make sure to cover your face properly. If you get in the spotlight one more time, even the Market Keepers will get suspicious.”

Celine placed her hand on the wall panel with no particular intention and turned on the heater. However, the hot air wasn’t coming out properly. As if noticing something, she approached the corner of the ceiling where the heater was attached.

“Are the Market Keepers people to be so wary of? Well, they just seem like a special forces unit that moves on their own, not so…”

She lightly detached the electric air conditioner that served for both heating and cooling and inserted her mechanical arm inside. The heating coils weren’t working at all… and from inside the broken air conditioner, she pulled out a rolled-up pack.

“The Market Keepers are important because they’re a power respected by corporate politics. If we can avoid detection by the federal government and maintain the goodwill of the Market Keepers, the federal government won’t be able to touch us.”

The Market Keepers were a special forces unit specializing in decapitation operations. Anyone would have to fear them. That was natural, and Marcus Cavendish at least had the ability to use that. Typical.

I welcomed the idea of covering my face. Shooting and killing an intruder who broke into a motel at dawn, with a covered face and a gun, would be justified. I let their conversation continue.

Celine’s heartbeat seemed audible from here. Gritting her teeth, she tore open the pack’s surface with her mechanical arm and pulled out the documents inside. The documents were… encrypted.

Even Celine, whose heart had been racing, bit her lip with an expression that suggested she wanted to scream at the fact that what Fabien had hidden so carefully was not photos but codes. Blood flowed, but she didn’t care.

“Damn it… we’re in a hurry and you leave behind encrypted crap, Fabien…”

Was it enough to make her lose her composure? She seemed to believe that if she found the information, she could find Fabien too, but from Harry and Marcus’s conversation, the chances of Fabien being alive were slim.

Inside the durable vinyl pack, prepared to withstand the residual heat, there was also a small memory card. Celine immediately connected it to her phone, but it was locked as well.

Then the prepared code must be for checking the contents of this memory card. Fabien might have thought even this would be discovered.

If he expected the documents hidden in the air conditioner to be found, would there be proper information on that memory card? Probably not. He wouldn’t have wanted to show off his genius at that moment.

“Wait a minute, you said Fabien was smart, right? Would someone like that… lock information that might need to be spread with such a detailed code? That’s strange, isn’t it?”

Fabien would have known he was being tracked and would have had to place his last hope in the information. Anyone who places their last hope in a random number that no one can understand could be called stupid.

“That’s true, but damn it. We don’t have anywhere else to look. Where else could he have hidden it? Where…”

We had already searched the entire room. I took the documents from her, turned on my computational assist device, and captured them. The code was four pages long, with unknown symbols, numbers, and alphabets mixed randomly.

It seemed too random to even be called a code. We needed to figure out what Fabien was trying to hide here… and even if we couldn’t figure it out, we could use it as bait according to his intention.

“Let’s take this and go back. Let’s check what it contains when we get to the motel. Are there any hints that only siblings would recognize?”

“I’ll… damn it, I’ll try to remember. Okay, let’s go back for now. It’s starting to feel dangerous—is it safe to take this to your home? At least at a motel, we could escape if something happened.”

That was a good suggestion. I showed her the gun on my hip and then put it back. Smiling slightly, I nodded.

“I don’t mind standing guard. So… where did you say you were staying, Celine?”

“There’s a motel on the opposite side. I chose one on the outskirts of town thinking I could be in danger like Fabien… but being in a place with few people might actually be more dangerous.”

“Anyway, there are at most three hundred people living in Madeleine’s Lot. Where would there be many people in the middle of the night?”

We quickly went down to the first floor of Traveler’s Lot, informed the kiosk AI about the broken air conditioner, and got into the car. Feeling like things were starting to move quickly, I headed to Celine’s motel.

It was a cheap motel, not as good as Traveler’s Lot. The room didn’t even have a proper display attached, and the bed was much harder. Not that it was a problem.

Sitting across from each other on the bed, we examined the four pages of code. I still couldn’t find any pattern, but that wasn’t an issue. What I was waiting for wasn’t the decryption of the code.

The code… seemed to be a trap, as I thought. There were several arrangements of numbers and words that Celine and Fabien used as codes, and although they weren’t rare arrangements, they were excluded from the code.

Perhaps this was his way of telling his sister, “This code is fake.” After wrapping her head around it for hours, Celine finally sighed as if acknowledging this fact.

“It seems like a fake code, as you said, Matt. Then where did Fabien hide what he found? I mean, photos or…”

Would it be natural to have photos? Probably not. The image of someone breaking into the Old Road’s hydroponic tower with a Polaroid camera is laughable to even think about.

He would have uploaded it to the cloud. Wasn’t Fabien Diaz’s mobile phone or… computational assist device found? As I quietly continued my thoughts, a car stopped in the motel parking lot.

I peered through the darkness. Through the heavily tinted glass of the vehicle, I could see a familiar bald head with a mustache. It was Harry. He took a deep breath in the car and was putting on a mask.