Ch.62Work Record 012 – Seizing the Opportunity (7)

There was one good thing about not using a prosthetic eye. I could keep certain things to myself without having to record them as video files. Like the message I wrote on Eve’s hologram planter.

After having a meaningless conversation with Chance and checking the house I had contracted as if it were his own home, I sent Eve on her way and returned home. I placed my hand on the bed and lightly stroked it.

Eve had said the bed was nice and soft, but it didn’t feel that way to me. If I threw myself onto it, I felt like I would sink through it like diving into a sack of marshmallows and hit the floor.

So instead of using the bed, I slept on the living room floor with just a pillow. I decided to tell myself it wasn’t that I disliked the bed, but rather that I still missed my cot.

My wake-up time remained unchanged. Perhaps the on-call room would have been better. At least there, I could sense Nadia’s presence and Tina sleeping soundly, oblivious to the world.

In contrast, the house was quiet. Thanks to good soundproofing. I dispelled the fragmented thoughts floating through my drowsy mind with a shake of my head. My phone was ringing. It was Boss Yoon.

After checking that my voice wasn’t hoarse, I answered the phone with proper posture. I didn’t want to give the impression that I had just woken up, even though people could sleep in on holidays.

“Ah, yes, Boss. Is something wrong? I should have called to let you know the move went well. I was a bit busy yesterday…”

“Eve called yesterday, so don’t worry about it. She said the house is clean, the furniture is adequate, and the bed is soft… except that the landlord treats her too much like a child. Really… is this how you act just one month after being hired?”

Though it was somewhat joking, I could only respond with an awkward laugh. Before the awkward laugh turned into an awkward silence, Boss Yoon’s firm yet kind voice continued.

“Anyway. We received a private request through the company, and I thought it would be perfect for you, Arthur. There’s an actor heading to T-Enter for an audition, and you know how brutal the entertainment industry can be. They need someone who can both drive and provide personal security… Tina is useless in a fight.”

Talent and Tradition Entertainment, or T-Enter for short. They were a company that produced relatively normal media content. Not exactly the cleanest company, but then again, none in the entertainment sector were.

If it was just driving, I could do it to help wake myself up. I stretched lightly with one arm before answering.

“There probably won’t be a shootout at an audition venue, but… I’ll change at the company and head over. I’ll take the job, could you send me the address?”

“Excellent. Please wait at the office. The client requested a pickup in an hour, and they said they’ll send a vehicle to the company. Make sure you’re properly armed, and grab a couple of flash grenades from the company cabinet too. Shootouts at audition venues are practically routine in that industry.”

It seemed like a more dangerous request than I’d thought. Though I’d learned about megacorporations, my only firsthand experience was in Los Angeles, packaged with Belwether’s order and stability. I nodded lightly.

“Ah, yes. Understood. If anything happens, I’ll request emergency support from Enzo, so don’t worry.”

The person who could arrive fastest depended on distance, but the one who could provide the quickest help was always Enzo. In a world where money could buy anything, even assistance and goodwill could be purchased with enough cash.

After finishing my report, I got up and gathered my voice modulation module and in-ear device for work. When I transferred access authorization to Chance, his voice sounded in my ear.

“I’ve confirmed the call content. A mercenary staffing company appears similar to a private military corporation. However, it seems to have become a much more widespread and common business with a broader customer base. This is an unusual change to me.”

Private, private… Right. The label that nationalists stamp on activities they don’t engage in themselves. At least, that’s what I was taught at Belwether. I nodded for now.

“I guess… so? Maybe? If you’ve checked the job details, could you help out, Chance? I’ll connect you to the vehicle too.”

“Affirmative. Belwether’s engineers have also implanted knowledge of Belwether’s company regulations, so there’s no chance of breaking traffic laws.”

As always, Chance was blunt and reliable. After washing up, I left home carrying only my gun bag containing the carbine. I zipped up my Nightwatch-branded tracksuit all the way to my neck, roughly concealing the voice module.

Normally, I would change in the on-call room, but this time I had to use the small changing room attached to the small shower. It was still a strange feeling that what had been my home was no longer my home.

Whether desert-colored combat gear or black uniform, neither seemed particularly helpful for camouflage, but the black uniform seemed slightly better. For a mercenary, appearances are as important as substance.

After changing, I grabbed two sets of flash grenades from the cabinet. As I finished checking my weapons and completing preparations, Tina, who was having cup noodles without flour for breakfast, perked up her ears and said:

“Arthur, car’s here… If it’s a car sound you haven’t heard before, it must be for work. Take care, Boogeyman. Don’t stay away too much just because you moved out…”

Tina rarely mentioned Nadia. That’s how Los Angeles was. It was the worst city for genetically modified mutants to live in, and surviving there for over 20 years couldn’t have been mere luck.

I waved back at her before heading down to the parking lot. There was a fairly luxurious car, though somewhat older. You could call it vanity. I got into the driver’s seat and connected Chance to the vehicle.

“Checking systems. Please wait a moment. Confirmed. Destination is already set. I will drive to the destination. Please wait comfortably.”

Hearing this made hiring a mercenary who could drive seem pointless, but it wasn’t entirely stupid. A driver who can actually drive minimizes variables. That makes it efficient.

Chance’s driving skills were quite excellent. It felt like gliding smoothly, and if I had been sleep-deprived, I might have fallen asleep during the drive. Though I wasn’t lacking sleep at all.

However, the car headed to an apartment complex. It stopped in an apartment parking lot barely a hundred meters from where I had come from. Was the lack of location information due to embarrassment? I couldn’t tell.

After waiting briefly in the parking lot, someone approached from the apartment building. It was a full-body cyborg carrying two bags that looked like body bags. Not as high-performance as Vola’s. The movements were somewhat jerky.

I thought it couldn’t be the client, but the cyborg approached my car, opened the back door, placed the two large bags on the back seat first, and began fastening their seatbelts.

Inside the bags were… people. Or more precisely, bodies. One was a Latin woman with short black hair and somewhat decadent features, and the other was a white man with brown hair and a somewhat fragile appearance.

The client, struggling with the seatbelts in the low-performance full-body cyborg, output a sigh sound and spoke. The voice was completely mechanical.

“Ah, really. I should get a better full-body cyborg. Could you help me with the seatbelts? I have two auditions today, so I need to bring both bodies.”

Apparently, the bodies in the bags were for acting, and the crude full-body cyborg currently worn was to protect the bodies until work.

I got out of the driver’s seat and moved to the back to fasten the seatbelts for the two bags containing the performance bodies. To dispel the awkwardness of the mechanical-sounding cyborg, I said:

“The two bodies seem to have very different feels to them.”

After seeing the seatbelts fastened, the client with flat, heavy, old-fashioned robot-like hands got into the car. After changing the voice module settings a few times, a timid voice emerged.

“Just by looking, you can, um, tell that…”

After saying that much, the voice module settings changed again. A fragile yet sharp voice, ill-fitting for the cyborg, leaked out.

“How about me when I’m acting? Oh, this one I’m wearing is for self-defense. I was inspired by the corporate war between Belwether and T-Enter… it works well enough. Isn’t it great not to die when shot?”

This voice sounded much more natural than the timid one, likely closer to the original voice. After getting back into the driver’s seat, I searched for T-Enter’s Los Angeles branch in the navigation and set it as the destination.

“True. Life becomes much easier when you don’t have to bury your head in the ground every time something comes flying. Oh, I’m Arthur Murphy, general staff at Nightwatch mercenary staffing company. My experience…”

After seeing Chance start the car, I extended my hand for a handshake. The actor waved it away.

“Skip the handshake. This body doesn’t control grip strength well. I bought it cheap from some mercenary, but old models are old models. And I don’t know who you are? I just contacted Nightwatch after seeing you on Daily Los Angeles broadcast the day before yesterday. When someone was trying something suspicious during a smooth conversation… BAM!”

Ah, right. It was being broadcast live. The actor raised both hands and made a stabbing motion with the thumbs. Imitating how I destroyed the computational assist device of the android hostage-taker.

Violence on screen is just entertainment. Turner & Tucker and all newspapers and news outlets broadcast it because it brought ratings, not for any profound reason.

So this attention was as good as it was unpleasant. I was thinking it was fortunate that my face couldn’t be seen due to the mask and ballistic face shield, when the client continued speaking.

“If you weren’t working right now, I would have asked for a face scan… but this is pretty cool too. Skull mask! It’s cliché but not bad. By the way, what’s going on with mercenary staffing companies these days? I usually know someone at Lone Star, but they’re not answering my calls.”

Lone Star… The company with priority bidding rank 1. The company I went to when retrieving Chance. It seemed they hadn’t been incorporated into Belwether yet, despite their achievements.

“I don’t have connections with Lone Star. They’re number one, so they can pick and choose their jobs, right? They must be busy with their own things. Jobs that pay better than security.”

“No, no. That’s not it. They haven’t answered calls for a whole week! Do mercenaries do that kind of thing? Like deployments? Belwether headquarters’ special operations department flies across America every day.”

As far as I knew, mercenary staffing companies didn’t have much reason to travel randomly across America. Most mercenary staffing companies worked under a single megacorporation.

If they were partner companies, there would be direct collaboration at times, and even if not partners, permission would be granted by a single megacorporation. To change location, they needed new permission from the megacorporation that owned that city.

After some thought, I shook my head. Even when I worked at Belwether, every day was just getting up in the employee building and going to work in the research building. Even the top-ranked company wouldn’t be different.

“That’s not usually the case. I’ve only worked in LA and the nearby wastelands. If you give me a name, I could look into it for you? I may not have direct connections to Lone Star, but I’m not completely without connections.”

The client thought for a moment before nodding. They seemed to feel some familiarity with me as a mercenary they had seen through the screen. That wasn’t a bad thing.

“Kasim. Kasim Arif. We were job hunting together, but he got into Lone Star while I was still an aspiring actor. Oh, as a private request…”

If something had really happened, leaving a record might be more dangerous. Since it was just personal curiosity, there was no need to treat it as a formal request. If they were such close friends, payment would come either way.

“No. If something really happened, it puts me in danger too…”

As I hesitated, the client panicked and clicked their metal hands. They seemed to have belatedly realized they hadn’t introduced themselves and had just treated me like a driver.

Flustered, they cycled through voice settings a few times, and instead of the sharp voice from earlier, a soft voice filled with embarrassment came out.

“Ah, what’s wrong with me? Call me Julia. Julia Rockwell. Um, seeing you through the screen the day before yesterday made me feel like we were already familiar…”

So she has at least four bodies? Her original body, two performance cyborgs, and one full-body cyborg. She seemed like someone with too broad a self-range to worry about others, so I smiled leisurely and shook my head.

“That’s understandable. With four bodies, you must be busy just getting along with yourself. Anyway, if something really happened, it puts both me and you in danger, Julia. Just pay me well when I find information. I’ll ask around.”

Perhaps my motives for helping weren’t entirely pure. Walter, the Walter I know but don’t know, was using mercenary staffing companies. He was probably raising private soldiers.

The purpose was likely a coup. Taking over the branch. Even if he had sidelined the security team, he would still be anxious. Controlling the legal assassination team would be insane to engage in all-out war with the security team.

If he couldn’t split the security team by department, he would need people to fight for him, and Lone Star, with its public business priority bidding rank 1, was the best available substitute.

I can’t rely solely on K. I need to find my own methods, or if K’s approach fails, I’ll be left with nothing but frustration. That’s unacceptable. Never again.

As I was thinking this, the car reached T-Enter’s branch building. The client nervously tapped the armored plate button, and armored plates began to rise over the rear windows.

How ironic that the place one dreams of most is also the place one fears most. I’d never thought that about Belwether. Really? I couldn’t… tell. Today’s Belwether wasn’t the Belwether I knew.

Focus on the current job, Arthur. As I shook my head, Julia lowered her voice output and began speaking.

“There’s a button for the front seats too, raise them! Who would want to lose a kind and capable mercenary?”

“Limited visibility is more of a problem. Is the parking lot the most dangerous place?”

The outdated head attached to Julia’s full-body cyborg shook. Though it was a cyborg, the reactions were quite human because it contained a human brain.

“No, the waiting room. The last actor was killed in the waiting room by a legal assassination team sent by G-Enter. That’s why they’re holding new auditions.”

It seemed this era couldn’t function without killing people. This holiday that wasn’t a holiday felt endlessly long. It wasn’t just my perception.