NOVEL WEB Chapter 23: Tracking
A few hours later, I picked up Thorne and Claire and we drove off to one of the megabuildings in our district.
“Boss, plug this into the network for a bit and I’ll be able to get access to the cameras.” Claire handed me a small lipstick-shaped device.
“Got it. Remember, don’t leave the car.”
Having warned her, Thorne and I strode confidently into the building and went up to the elevator. There were a few people just hanging out on this floor we went to, but they didn’t seem to bother with us despite the stealth suit I was wearing.
Momentarily splitting off with Thorne, I went and plugged in the device Claire gave me when the opportunity presented itself.
“I’m in. I don’t see anything unusual on that level.” Claire’s voice resonated from my implants, thanks to the group call we were on.
“Rollo, I’ll go knock on the door. You hang out of sight in case anything goes wrong.”
“Okay, go ahead.” I agreed without hesitation, as Thorne was the one wearing proper armor while my suit’s defensive properties were questionable at best.
It had nothing to do with being happy that he was finally getting used to calling me by the name at all, though it was a welcome change.
I shadowed Thorne as he went toward the address we had found from the profile we had received from the QG, Oli. The hallway right in front of the place was narrow with no cover, so I engaged the camouflage function as soon as he knocked on the door.
After a brief moment, the door opened slightly, and a middle-aged woman peeked out behind the chain lock. “What do you want?”
Thorne visibly relaxed his grip on his weapon, “Hi, we’re looking for acquaintances of Mark Layton, we—”, the woman’s expression immediately changed at the mention of the name, “What do you want from my son? Are you one of those ‘friends’ of his? I want nothing to do with you people. Leave my son alone.”
“Um, no, we’re actually here for his friends, actually.”
Thankfully, Thorne was the one to speak with this lady. I don’t think I could talk to her face to face considering I was likely the one who killed her son, regardless of whether or not he deserved it.
“I don’t know anything about them. Go away!” The door slammed shut with a bang.
I tapped Thorne on the shoulder and signaled for us to retreat. It wasn’t likely the lady was lying and there wasn’t much for us to do.
We returned to the car and made our way back.
“So, what do we do now?” Thorne asked pensively, breaking the silence in the car.
“There isn’t much we can do but wait for Oli to turn up with some info. We don’t have a network comparable to QGs like her.”
“I could try to dig around as well. If I can’t handle it, I can ask Lana or Leo,” Claire noted.
“Don’t, you’re still new at this, let’s leave it to the professionals, and don’t bother Lana or Leo either, they do this for a living so we should pay them but I already paid Oli and her team to do the job.”
She looked like she wanted to say something back, but decided against it and started playing around with the terminal in her hand.
“Cheer up guys, learning to delegate is something you’ll have to do sooner or later. Shall we grab some desserts before we head back?”
Having worked in an office of one of the biggest companies in the previous world, it was common to wait around for the other departments to finish their part before you could start yours.
This will be a good experience for these two.
Late afternoon the next day, a call came from Oli, sooner than I expected.
“I’ll be right back with you. Please feel free to browse our wares on the terminal. The prices are listed there as well.”
I left the client to browse at their leisure while I went into an empty room and closed the door behind me.
“Hey Oli, you found something?”
“Yeah, identified most of the bodies of those who attacked you and we found out that half of em are small-time harvesters in the area and the other half are from a gang called the Rust Scrappers. I’ll send you the details. We even have the location of the base the harvesters operate out of.”
“Thank you,” I replied as I sent out a text to my two employees with the good news.
”Well, that is all for now. See ya later.” Then Oli hung up.
Later in the evening, when the clinic closed, the three of us headed to the new location from the info we got. The alleged harvester base was at a worn-down apartment where several units adjacent to each other were connected together.
We repeated what we had done the previous day, gaining control of the surrounding cameras before we approached. Unlike before, the entire apartment was sparsely populated. It may just be because it was late, but we didn’t see a single person around.
When I connected Claire to the floor of the suspected units, she called me after a few minutes. “I can’t get past the security anytime soon. They actually have some decent up-to-date shit.”
“Forget it then. Don’t risk exposing yourself and go back to the clinic first.”
“What W—”
“We’ll be fine. We can still keep in touch while you head back. There’s no point for you to be so close to danger anymore.”
With the likelihood of this place being a real harvester base skyrocketing, there was no point in Claire being here any longer if she couldn’t breach their systems.
This time we didn’t just stroll to their front door, we went to the floor above and climbed down onto their balcony. I went first with my active camouflage activated, followed by Thorne once I deemed it safe.
Thorne was hugging the wall while my camouflage system was still engaged and I scouted out the apartment through the windows. As the info had indicated, I saw the unit in front of me connected with the adjacent unit, separated by a crude half-broken wall.
The living room area in view had no one in sight as well, so we proceeded to enter. The balcony sliding doors were unlocked, which made it too easy.
Okay, with how easy this is, did I walk into a trap?
Cautioning Thorne, we stealthily entered one of the rooms. Inside was a familiar sight to us in recent times, an operating room with various sharp tools and organ containers messily sprawled out around. For some reason, the containers were empty and there were no cybernetics in sight as opposed to what we typically saw in a harvester den.
We quickly moved to the other rooms and found a bedroom with actual people inside, snoring away.
“Don’t kill them, bind them up,” I asked Thorne, who returned a nod before pulling out several bracelets from his pack and handing me a few. He then moved toward one of the unsuspecting harvesters and slapped the bracelet onto the ankles and wrists. The bracelet instantly activated with a soft hiss and bound their limbs together.
Following his lead, I swiftly did the same before they had a chance to wake up. We continued clearing out the place and found only one other bedroom, having captured only a total of five people in this base that spanned three apartments.
It was honestly strange to me to see so few people in a base of this size. Usually, if there were only half a dozen of them, their bases would be much smaller. The size of one unit instead of the three here.
They were all wide awake now, as it was hard to stay asleep when your limbs were restrained. We took each one to a different room, separating them. Once we thoroughly searched the place, we started the interrogation.
“So, you are the leader here? Were you the one who decided to attack my clinic?” I glared at the tied-up man sitting on the toilet, being mindful of any changes in his expression.
“What? No, they just forced me to work for them. I had no idea they attacked you, I swear!” He pleaded.
“Oh, then I have no need for you.” I drew my weapon and aimed it at his head.
“WAIT WAIT! I’ve been in this group for a long time. I can tell you anything you want to know! Please, just let me go after.”
“I’m listening.” I steadied my gun and kept it pointed at him. He started spewing his entire history with the harvester group and went into the minute details.
“Stop, give me only the relevant information about your leader and why you attacked me.”
“...Sir, I—” His expression looked like he was coming up with an excuse so I interjected, “We’ll be asking this of your friends by the way, if yours doesn’t match I won’t mind pulling the trigger.”
“...Of course, I speak only the truth, I assure you! Sir, the reason we attacked should be obvious, shouldn’t it?” He stared up at me with disgusting puppy eyes. “Spit it out.” I slowly placed my finger on the trigger and ensured he saw it.
“Okay okay, it’s because someone’s been sacking all the other harvester groups, that made the higher-ups worry and wanted to end the threat so we can do our business with peace of mind.”
“...And why do you think it was me?” Though he didn’t explicitly say it, it was obvious he was referring to me.
“Someone noticed a lot of the chrome you have in stock matched what some groups were holding onto. Competitors keep a close eye on each other, after all.”
Well shit, with all the harvesters I had been hunting, I thought everything would be fine as long as there were no survivors. I needed to think things through more…
“So one of you guys saw what I was selling and came to that conclusion, you guys are a lot of aware than I had thought.”
“...Well, someone else noticed and approached us about it so we teamed up…”
Oli did mention there was some gang involved as well.
“You sure know a lot for someone who swore they had no idea about the attack on me.”
“...Haha, I learned a lot of things since we had nothing to do but gossip for the past while since the boss disappeared.”
“Disappeared?” I frowned. “Yeah, after the attack failed, our boss and a few others went out and haven’t come back.”
“Did they say where they were going?”
“Yea yea… They went to meet with the Scrapers to discuss the failed attack.” I gave him a questioning look. “They’re a large gang…so we didn’t dare to bother them. We’ve just been waiting here ever since.”
“Send me the location of where you usually meet them.”
“Of course, of course…Will you let me go, please? I swear I won’t bother you or anyone again. I’ll leave the city!”
“I’ll see what your friends have to say first.”
There was no way I was going to let him go. Harvesters like him were like cockroaches that always sprung back up, but even if he really quit doing any crimes, he had to pay for all the people they had brutalized until now. While personally, I would rather have him spend the rest of his days doing hard labor and creating profits for me, the value of experience points was hard to argue against.
Corroborating all the stories our prisoners provided, we got a clearer picture of what was happening. The location they provided was some bar they met at, so it wasn’t too useful, but still worth checking out.
Once I finished dealing with the harvesters, I received a group call that included me, Thorne, and Claire. Sharing a look with Thorne, it was immediately obvious who initiated the call.
“Guys, some people just came after me. I got away and I’m tracking them down right now. I’ll ping you my location.”