Ch.40Discovery! (2)

#040

Meanwhile, Dexter was sitting in the passenger seat of the police car, calling Himena.

Himena’s voice, unaware that the call was still connected, came through clearly on the speaker.

“I swear I’ll kill you guys if I catch you!”

Hearing Himena’s rough outburst, Dexter hesitated before speaking to the police officer beside him.

“Uh… she’s actually a very capable agent, despite how she sounds.”

“Haha, I know. I understand you’re trying to catch the suspects. East Flamingo Boulevard, right?”

“Yes. Himena, where are you now?”

“What? You’re still on the call?!”

“Quickly, please.”

“…I just passed Kindred Hospital!”

The police officer, having heard Himena’s response, began speaking into the patrol car’s built-in radio.

“This is Harris. Two blonde females in their twenties fleeing on a black Harley Davidson motorcycle. They just passed Kindred Hospital on East Flamingo Boulevard, requesting Code 53 support.”

Among the tactics used by American police to easily communicate situations to headquarters or colleagues is something called the ’10 Code.’

Code 53 is included in these 10 Codes, and in this case, it meant a request to block off East Flamingo Boulevard.

“Confirmed. All nearby personnel will be coordinated to assist.”

When the positive response came through the radio, Dexter relayed the information to Himena.

“Himena? The police will be blocking East Flamingo Boulevard soon. Be careful.”

“Got it!”

Dexter and Sergeant Harris were not on East Flamingo Boulevard, but on East Viking Road, a two-lane road adjacent to East Flamingo.

Compared to the busy East Flamingo Boulevard, East Viking Road had almost no traffic, allowing them to get ahead faster.

‘I hope everything goes well.’

While Dexter was looking out the window worrying about Himena, she was wiping her smeared mascara eyes while picking up speed.

With only the motorcycle’s windshield to protect her eyes, they were rapidly drying out, causing tears to trickle down.

“Damn it. Just wait until I catch you!”

As they headed further toward the outskirts, vehicle traffic decreased, allowing Himena to speed up freely.

Of course, the same was true for the two women ahead of her.

Seeing the short-haired woman increase her speed even more than before and dangerously ride along the center line, Himena made a tearful face.

“Stop running, you crazy bitches!”

If they continued for another 10 minutes, they would reach Henderson, a suburb of Las Vegas.

If they made it to Henderson, traffic would become even sparser, and the distance between Himena and the two women she was chasing would surely increase.

Himena was following the two women with an anxious expression, hastily wiping the sweat from her throttle-gripping hand onto her skirt.

“Huh?”

In the distance near the overpass, several police cars with flashing lights were lined up.

As Himena moved a bit closer, she could see police officers waiting behind the vehicles with guns drawn.

Seeing this scene straight out of a movie, Himena’s face lit up with excitement.

“I feel like a movie protagonist!!!”

Despite her mascara-smeared face, Himena was grinning broadly and shouting at the top of her lungs.

“I can hear everything, Himena.”

“Oh, uh… you still haven’t hung up?!”

Startled by Dexter’s sudden voice, Himena almost let go of the throttle.

“Strange, I feel like I’ve heard this before. Anyway, there should be police officers all over the overpass area. Follow carefully.”

“Heh, got it!”

As Himena began to slow down after seeing that both the road ahead and the side streets were completely blocked, a strong wind suddenly came from behind her, accompanied by a bright light shining from above.

“…?”

“Thud-thud-thud-thud…”

It was a police helicopter with a searchlight.

The searchlight briefly illuminated Himena, but after confirming she wasn’t blonde, it began shining on the Harley Davidson with the two women ahead.

“Step on it!”

“I can’t! There are police up ahead!”

“Then make a U-turn or something!”

When the long-haired woman urged the short-haired one, the latter sighed deeply and began to brake.

Leaving two long black marks on the road as it slowed down, the Harley Davidson attempted a U-turn about 100 yards (about 90m) before reaching the police blockade near the overpass.

They had applied the brakes early, considering the range of the police officers’ pistols.

“No! They’re getting away! Hurry, we need to catch them!”

Himena also hit the brakes, made a U-turn, and began following the two women.

“What? They got away?”

“Yes! They’re going back the way we came! Oh, we’re near Smith’s!”

Sergeant Harris, who had been listening quietly, spoke to Dexter.

“Smith’s is just two blocks ahead of us!”

“Let’s make a left turn here and try to cut off their escape route!”

“Got it!”

Sergeant Harris maintained his speed and made a left turn onto East Flamingo Boulevard.

When Dexter glanced at Sergeant Harris, he saw an expression of uncontainable excitement.

“Is this your first time doing something like this?”

“Of course! Wow, this is incredible!”

Thinking that Las Vegas residents seemed much more innocent than those portrayed in crime dramas, Dexter carefully observed through Harris’s window.

“There they are!”

When the two blonde women appeared clearly on the Harley Davidson despite the darkness, Sergeant Harris slowed down and stopped right in the middle of the intersection.

He then got out of the driver’s seat, drew his pistol from its holster, gripped it with both hands, and aimed it directly at the two women.

“You can’t shoot that woman!”

“Watch carefully, correctional officer.”

As the police car suddenly appeared in front of them, the short-haired woman was reducing speed and about to swerve right.

Sergeant Harris aimed just below the Harley Davidson’s headlight and fired two consecutive shots.

Bang, bang!

One shot missed, but the other hit the front tire.

The short-haired woman panicked as the front tire immediately deflated and became uncontrollable.

“No, no!”

The short-haired woman crashed the motorcycle into a traffic light right in front of them, and both women were thrown forward.

“Aaaaaaah!”

Fortunately, instead of landing on the bare ground, they landed ungracefully on a round boxwood bush in front of a building.

“Sergeant, you’re no joke!”

“Thank you for the compliment. Let’s go make the arrest.”

Himena, who had been watching from a distance, parked her motorcycle near the sidewalk and ran toward Dexter.

“Mr. Huuuuuuze! Did you catch theeeem?!”

“Yes, Himena! We finally caught… pfft.”

When Dexter suddenly laughed while looking at her face, a confused Himena began touching her own face.

“What? Is there something on my face?”

Her eye areas were completely black like a panda’s, and after riding for tens of minutes without a helmet, her hair was a lion’s mane of complete disarray.

Especially with black tear streaks extending down to her cheeks, she looked like the girlfriend of Arkham City’s most notorious criminal.

“Ahem, khm. Anyway, we should contact headquarters and have these two taken in.”

“…We will. But why do you keep laughing?”

As panda-faced Himena glared at Dexter, he cleared his throat to suppress his laughter.

Then, pointing at Sergeant Harris who was handcuffing the two women, he said:

“Make sure to tell them that Sergeant Harris deserves a hefty bonus for his skills.”

“I will. Are you coming with us to interrogate those two?”

“Hmm, should I? I am curious.”

Dexter and Himena began helping Sergeant Harris, who was trying to push the still-dazed pair into the police car.

* * *

At a late hour when Dexter would normally be sound asleep in his home.

Instead, he was sitting in an interrogation room in the OSA headquarters in the basement of Las Vegas City Hall.

However, this time Dexter wasn’t being interrogated but was alongside Himena as an interrogator, which gave him a strange feeling.

Sitting across from Dexter and Himena was the long-haired woman, leaning against the chair’s backrest and twirling her hair with her finger.

“Hello, Professor.”

The long-haired woman flinched at Dexter’s words.

“Professor? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Is that so?”

Dexter gave the long-haired woman an indifferent look, then turned to Himena without pressing further.

“Himena, I mentioned this to you before.”

“…What?”

Himena was looking at Dexter with a pouty face.

“Oh, maybe I didn’t. There’s a bounty on this professor.”

“A bounty? Is it a lot?”

“Of course. Plus, if I hand her over to a friend I know well, he’ll squeeze every bit of use out of her, so that’s 300 million ducats with an additional 200 million as incentive.”

Hearing Dexter’s words, Himena looked up at the ceiling, mentally calculating the exchange rate between ducats and dollars, then spoke with obvious disappointment.

“Eh, that’s stingy.”

“Come on, do you think 500 million ducats grow on trees?”

Dexter spoke while remembering the years he spent seeking jobs in dangerous places to earn enough to buy a spaceship.

“They might if you dig in my garden?”

“Ah right, Himena is rich.”

If Himena’s inheritance were converted to ducats, she could operate a spaceship ten times the size of Dexter’s until she died of old age.

As that thought crossed his mind, Dexter truly felt the reality of class immobility.

For a moment, he was tempted to stand up with a red flag bearing a hammer and sickle, but Dexter wasn’t ready to abandon his homeland yet.

Besides, many planets in space also had rigid class systems, so he had long since put such thoughts aside.

“Do you know who this friend is?”

“Who?”

“Tenpenny Corporation.”

Himena didn’t know much about Tenpenny Corporation.

She only vaguely guessed it was a company because of the word “Corporation” in its name.

However, as soon as the words “Tenpenny Corporation” were mentioned, the long-haired woman’s expression showed signs of panic.

Catching this, Himena began to play along with Dexter.

“That’s right, you mentioned you were close with them before, didn’t you?”

“Indeed. That guy is incredibly ruthless, so after stripping everything from the mimetic suit she’s wearing to every bit of medical knowledge this professor has, and when she’s no longer useful…”

Dexter began describing cruel things he had seen and heard while selling Eliya, repackaging them as what would happen to the succubus professor.

Himena was listening with a furrowed brow, covering her mouth, while the long-haired woman was trembling while gripping her chair, until she finally shouted loudly.

“Alright, alright! I’ll talk! Just please don’t hand me over to Tenpenny Corporation!”

With the long-haired woman now begging, Himena whispered to Dexter.

“Is that true?”

“About 30% of it?”

“Ugh.”

Himena stuck out her tongue and pretended to vomit.

“Well then, Professor? How about you stop pretending to be a human woman and come out of that mimetic suit?”

“…Fine.”

The long-haired woman’s body suddenly went limp, as if she had fainted in the chair, her face tilted upward toward the ceiling.

“Himena?”

“Yes?”

“This is a rare opportunity to witness a Succubus person emerging from a mimetic suit. Make sure to watch.”

Wondering what he meant, Himena looked at the long-haired woman and couldn’t help but furrow her brow again.

A transparent, jelly-like liquid began to appear from the long-haired woman’s mouth, gathering like a boa constrictor and emerging from inside.

Unlike Dexter who was watching with fascination, Himena found it disgusting and repulsive, covering her mouth and trembling.

Especially as it moved along the neck, making squelching and sticky sounds, it was like a scene from an alien horror movie.

“Ewwwww!”

Finally, Himena couldn’t stand it anymore and ran out of the interrogation room.

“Such scenes are rare.”

“…You’re treating me like a spectacle.”

The succubus professor, now speaking in a deep, dignified voice, was lying on the desk after having emerged from the long-haired woman’s body.

Ignoring the professor’s comment, Dexter said,

“Well then, shall we begin the interrogation, Professor Chris?”

Dexter looked at Professor Chris with his fingers interlaced on the desk.