Ch.89013 Work Record – Too High a Price (3)

I carry a small evil deed at my waist as I climb up another floor. With the heavy metal piece hanging over my jeans, I thought I looked a bit more like a mercenary.

In truth, I still couldn’t tell how I appeared to others. I return to the hospital room of the two Shepherds and hand back the unfired gun to the department head. When I explain what happened, he responds with a wry smile.

“That place really does have the most vicious bastards in Belweder… Still, you earned yourself a decent gun, didn’t you? That’s enough, right?”

“You can buy a gun anywhere. The words were more important than the gun. He said I might need to get used to small evil deeds, like letting myself be captured.”

If he had said something about how foolish it was to reject small evil deeds, it probably wouldn’t have stuck with me. But narrow-mindedness was inefficient. He remained efficient to the end.

The department head looked at my expression, tucked the gun back into his waistband, and lightly patted my shoulder. Bitterness is easily noticeable. It’s an emotion that’s difficult to both feign and hide.

“The words others throw at you pile up to make you who you are. Live like that again, kid. Stefanet will probably remember something you said, and so will I.”

“I don’t think I was in any position to say anything particularly profound.”

In my security team work records, the only situations that would stand out in the department head’s memory were the times I nearly died. When his hand moved from patting my shoulder to lightly hitting my back, I casually blocked it.

“Nonsense. How often do you hear a guy who’s only worked for six months say he knows this place best, and that he’ll risk his life to take the lead because it’s his patrol area? Such a responsible kid. Don’t let it weigh you down.”

“Well… I guess I need to collect more words then. Not all words I hear from others will be this bitter. And if something bitter comes up in the future, I can pull out this small evil deed and shoot it all away.”

“As if you’re that kind of person. You’ll probably try to talk it out until the very end, and only pull the trigger when there’s no other choice, then have nightmares for a week.”

I shrugged lightly at his renewed wry smile. Considering I’d had nightmares for a month after nearly getting my neck cut off, a week would actually be an improvement.

“At least I’ll shoot when needed. Isn’t that enough?”

With those words, the eventful hospital visit came to an end. We promised to have a drink once the two Shepherds’ necks were reattached, and only then did the day’s visit conclude.

It was typically a cliché promise that wouldn’t be kept, but believing that someone from Belweder wouldn’t keep their promise was also inefficient. I only glanced at the news screen showing the Special Operations Unit’s arrest announcement.

The city would feel reassured, as he said. It would gradually become quieter. But that still seemed far off. I received a call from Department Head Dewey Novak, with whom I had only exchanged contact information before. It was marked as urgent.

I connect the call while running. With noise cancellation on, surrounding sounds wouldn’t leak through. His urgent voice began coming through the communication.

Come to think of it, he was also part of the Legal Assassination Team. To say he was involved in the coup… seemed unlikely. He belonged to the Investigation Department, not the division responsible for assassinations and disposal.

“Thank you so much for answering quickly. Arthur… um, General Employee Martin?”

“Murphy. Arthur Murphy. What’s the matter?”

He sighed heavily and continued. I could somewhat understand how busy he must be after a coup involving the Legal Assassination Team.

“Ah, damn. I’m sorry. I’ve been making over twenty calls since morning… Could you possibly provide a brief testimony or two regarding Belweder?”

Is he contacting me because he knows I worked with headquarters? I decided to listen quietly first and then respond.

“For what reason? I’m just a security team academy graduate…”

“No, no. There are no qualification requirements. Two field agents from our Investigation Team 6 are currently under internal investigation for alleged coup involvement, and I just need help with an alibi verification.”

At least it seems information hasn’t leaked. It would have been quite absurd if I needed to weigh a small evil deed right after receiving this gun. I relaxed my guard slightly and said:

“You know I can’t provide an alibi for people I wasn’t with. What were these two people doing?”

My false testimony wouldn’t work anyway. I had stayed in the trailer with the chairman and headquarters staff until the day before the coup, and was at the scene during the coup.

Moreover, the Shepherd who would now be purging coup participants was there with us, so it definitely wouldn’t work. He continued speaking, pretending not to understand my subtle refusal.

“They’re personnel drafted from the Assassination Department because the Investigation Department needed field staff. They were with our Investigation Team 6 during the coup, but my reputation…”

Belweder wouldn’t trust much the word of someone who had let a Transparent Eye escape and failed to find it for years—someone who hadn’t shown enough efficiency to make up for his mistake.

“Where were these two people? If they weren’t in the company building that day, you could prove it with work records, right?”

“Investigation Team 6’s main task is tracking TEs. So we rarely gather together in the office. Unfortunately, they returned from the addicts’ district where surveillance isn’t effective…”

I seemed somewhat at fault. I had driven the detective from the Non-Human Liberation Front to the addicts’ district, and Department Head Dewey Novak would have been searching there to follow him.

If so, I had more reason to feel responsible. But this wasn’t something I could arbitrarily decide to answer. This involved not just higher-ups, but the highest levels.

Here, I could either be cold, or I could speak well to the Shepherd who currently trusted me and easily implicate Department Head Dewey Novak as a coup participant.

And if I did that, K’s anxiety disorder would get a reprieve, longer than before. I could even kick out a detective who was closely following our trail.

But… that would be a major evil deed. How soon after hearing about small evil deeds was I already using the same standards as that Special Operations agent? It was a tempting opportunity, but the unpleasant smell of inefficiency would never fade.

Transparent Eyes should be dealt with as Transparent Eyes. To avoid even the small evil deed of lying to Belweder, one must move quickly, act smartly… and handle things decisively. I gathered my thoughts and asked:

“Have you called President Yoon? Since this could affect the company, I think it would be better to hear the president’s opinion before deciding. We shouldn’t involve Night Watch unnecessarily.”

“Of course I contacted Suyeon. She said if I couldn’t find someone to testify for an alibi, she’d try to find a way to help with the employees’ consent… but I can’t just sit around doing nothing.”

In this moment, I proved what I had told the chairman. If I had gone to headquarters as planned, I could have requested surveillance records of the two from the chairman, who was now my boss, to help him.

Choices always come with responsibilities. Like casting a fishing trap into the sea, regardless of what you expect, you never know what will be caught.

“Then… I’ll try to find a solution with President Yoon too. I can’t provide a personal testimony since my own alibi isn’t solid either.”

Be smart. I recalled the Special Operations agent’s voice mixed with mechanical tones. The addicts’ district was near the office. Perhaps… perhaps records might still exist.

“If you were in the addicts’ district that day… did you stop by Night Watch? I thought you might have come to talk with President Yoon like before. That would be your alibi.”

“I’m not a fool. It wasn’t like when I talked with you, Arthur. I just briefly stopped by to ask about sighting records of Liberation Front androids. But I came alone. While those records might prove I wasn’t at the coup site, they don’t cover my staff.”

Indeed, a Liberation Front terrorist had been caught in LA right before the coup, and it would have been a solid lead for Department Head Dewey Novak.

He couldn’t prove the whereabouts of other employees inside the addicts’ district, where even Belweder’s official surveillance was spotty. After that, the coup would have started, and a full lockdown would have been implemented.

But fortunately… Belweder’s surveillance network watching the addicts’ district or Night Watch vicinity at that time wasn’t limited to just CCTV. There was likely something he didn’t know about.

Even when I wasn’t causing any trouble, Walter had sent the Legal Assassination Team after me. That meant he obviously knew where I worked.

Moreover, on the day of the coup, I had become a much bigger threat to the coup participants than before. I had become a wanted criminal who had cut off the Assassination Department Head’s neck and ordered Ron Star to hunt down cooperative mercenaries.

It would be very natural to think that I might return to the company for resupply or whatever reason. The question was how to bring this up.

President Yoon came from a security team background. Moreover, she was the only former employee I’d seen outside the company who still routinely used the Belweder salute. Be smart. Move quickly. Handle things decisively.

“If they weren’t caught on the CCTV surveillance network managed by the security team, couldn’t we look the other way? There’s a possibility that coup participants were monitoring Night Watch, right? The Legal Assassination Team, I mean.”

I take a deep breath. This time, I wasn’t bluffing at my own table, but peeking at cards at someone else’s table and bluffing on their behalf to turn the game around.

“President Yoon is from the security team, and Night Watch is an official partner mercenary company that the coup participants couldn’t recruit. There’s a high chance they were monitoring for possible collaboration with the security team.”

Is this natural enough? It should be. I wished I could ask Chance what expression I was making right now. I continued speaking.

“Anyway, most coup participants would have torn apart the cerebral processing in the information processing team to identify additional participants. So, the Legal Assassination Team’s surveillance records might be more intact than expected.”

It wasn’t certain. Walter, that stupid brat, might have been even more stupid and bratty than I thought and left Night Watch alone, but Walter was a stupid and nasty brat. He would have done it.

This was the conclusion I reached by disguising coup suppression knowledge as something a Night Watch general employee might know. Through the communication without noise processing, I could hear anxious desk-tapping sounds.

“Legal Assassination Team surveillance records… That seems worth looking into. If there’s any Legal Assassination employee who was monitoring Night Watch and extended surveillance to the addicts’ district, and if my colleagues were captured in that footage…”

“And if they weren’t?”

Hope shines with a believable golden light, but one shouldn’t relax until confirming that golden color isn’t just paint. A mind tense for too long easily craves reassurance. I made him focus.

“Then I’ll get Suyeon’s help to tell some lies. We’ll change the story from me visiting alone to ask about the android’s whereabouts to Investigation Team 6 going together, and Night Watch can provide testimony.”

In the end, the house always wins, but we still spin the roulette, hope for the next blackjack card, and try to match our two cards with the community cards.

Just because the house wins doesn’t mean gamblers can’t make money. There was no need to talk about small evil deeds. Dewey Novak spoke first.

“Even if both fail, you don’t need to blame yourself. Maybe I’m just obsessed with taking responsibility. A foolish human who can’t even properly track one TE doing foolish things.”

Everyone in this city was paying too high a price. I got back my share for my severed leg, but the city was still bleeding. What should one do when everything is falling apart?

Just handle things one by one. That’s the efficient way. Gunshots rang out from the side of the road. A motorcycle was emerging from an alley. It was moving excessively fast.

It was a road racer. He had modified his auditory organs into a round shape to reduce wind resistance, used lightweight prosthetic arms that were almost just skeletal, and had an engine sound coming from his heart—a road racer.

“Cease fire! There’s a possibility of hitting employee-civilians, so drive him to a less populated area away from the main road before taking him out!”

From what they were saying, the security team’s mobile unit was chasing from behind, and an identity verification drone flying overhead marked the man as a coup participant.

The mission name listed under coup participation reasons was among those testified by Department Head Herbert Laurel. There was no bounty displayed, probably thinking it would trigger gunfire.

Yes, that’s right. The city is asking why I should help Dewey Novak’s subordinates but not this man. This city was sometimes a vicious place.

The answer was simple. This road racer running in front of me was 100% certain, while Dewey Novak’s subordinates had at least some percentage of possibility.

Even a tiny chance, even if it required an ace triple to win, was still a chance. One side had definitely used up their first chance, the other hadn’t.

So I would do what was appropriate. I willingly drew the small evil deed from my waist. After pushing the control lever to full auto, I aimed at the bike in the direction the man was running and pulled the trigger.

I aimed at the bike rather than his head because, as the mobile unit said, crossfire would be disastrous.

Despite being a handgun, the recoil from automatic fire was noticeable enough to require conscious control. It was definitely a powerful weapon. Still, it wasn’t difficult.

The Special Operations automatic pistol loaded with anti-reinforced suit ammunition fired with clear automatic discharge sounds even through reduced hearing, and the man’s lightweight bike became like a fish stripped of flesh. It rolled on the ground.

The ultralight prosthetics he wore offered him no protection. He was smashed into the ground in a way that made it clear why Eve kept insisting on wearing helmets.

Feeling appropriateness rather than cruelty, I tucked the small evil deed back into my waistband. The mobile unit gave me a three-finger salute before calling the cleaning department. I refocused on the communication and said:

“Where were we? Ah, right. We’re just… betting on a low probability. Even a low probability is still a possibility.”

Don’t fear failure. Embrace it. There was another saying I learned from Mr. Gunter. I gave him my day’s quota of warmth and sympathy.

“If you try and fail, it will still be tragic, but at least you won’t feel like you let them die without doing anything. Anyway, I hope for a good outcome.”

Department Head Dewey Novak ended the communication to look for other witnesses. Now I had about fifteen minutes left until I reached the office.

My heart felt quite light. At least I had used the first magazine of that small evil deed for something meaningful. After wiping off the blood spatter on my helmet, I started the bike again.