69. dead body
‘Humans are animals of adaptation.’
This is what the novelist and philosopher Dostoyevsky said, and indeed it struck the core of the two fields.
It took less than 10 days for the citizens of A-044 to accept the new chaos as a new routine. For example, even when a masked assailant attacked a restaurant with a gun, he calmly received food and left, and when a corporate public security officer accompanied a war machine and asked for his citizenship number, he yawned and transmitted the information.
“So, did this request come in?”
“Well, it’s because they are adaptable animals.”
Leonard and Max came to the 25-9th Street junkyard that they had fun robbing the other day. It was not to satisfy the old psychology of investigation that the criminal must appear at the scene. There were too many accident scenes for that. I just received a new commission like a professional.
“Honestly, I thought I would burn it because I was unlucky.”
Max murmured as he watched the ‘scrap’ being loaded onto the dump truck. It was emotional for a person from a junk town. A businessman from White Town who had nothing to regret said.
“These are all resources and assets, and such waste is a sin.”
Leonard took out the lollipop and put it back. I wasn’t in the mood to eat anything. These days, the word has been refined, so it’s a waste, but it’s actually a corpse. The bandit corpses pouring down from the luggage compartment didn’t look good. But the White Town businessman, a capitalist and pragmatist to the core, smiled with a full smile.
“A whopping 10,000. 10,000. They’re bandits like filth from the intestines of mutants, so not many have a usable body, but there are still 10,000.”
Well, even if I just retrieved the memory chip, I could get 2 million credits, so I was greedy. Regardless of whether the bandits had the right chips.
“Even with the factory running at full capacity, it would take 10 days to disassemble those bodies. In the meantime, junk continues to appear in the city. This is the best boom since we started operating here.”
Leonard sighed lightly. I could understand it, but it didn’t sound like something I would say in front of a dead person. It seems that the old human beings are still less. After talking for a while, the entrepreneur frowned for a different reason from Leonard.
“For that reason, we have all moved here, but there is a problem.”
“Since there is such a thing, I must have called a fixer. What is it?”
“The filthy maggots of the streets.”
The refined word for this is scavenger (=cleaner), but there was no big difference in tone. Leonard parted his lips harshly.
“You may not know because I am busy with business, but I have a murder request…”
“Oh, of course I know. Leonard Walker, the best solver in Sodom City who is talented and trustworthy, but does not take contracts. That’s why I’m specially invited.”
Praise makes even whales tap dance. The client’s rating went up slightly. Still, he was a competent businessman with an eye for people.
“All I want to ask for is a week. I just want you to stay here for a week. If the maggots are caught, you can gently brush them off or you can kill them by stepping on them with your feet. Whatever you’re comfortable with. As long as my stuff is fine, it doesn’t matter.”
As he said that, he smiled meaningfully. Leonard was neither a saint nor an immortalist. He did not accept requests based on the premise of murder, but in an unavoidable situation, he took his breath away. If you had investigated Leonard, you would have known that fact, so it was a request to kill the assailant ‘as you like’. It was beneficial in many ways because there was scrap in the scrap factory.
“If you’re just protecting the facility, wouldn’t it be better to hire a mercenary? There must be security guards and unmanned equipment here too?”
“Of course there are, but they are so incompetent that you have to be able to believe them.”
“Not that incompetent… oh, I mean it looks that way. It’s a professional intuition.”
Leonard changed his mind after recalling the incident of beating the guards the other day. But the client was thinking the same thing.
“A maggot sneaked in not too long ago. However, those incompetents even fired guns in the factory and missed it. Huh, really, so you have to be able to trust something.”
Leonard and Max desperately managed their expressions. When the identity of the maggot was revealed, it was very difficult.
“So, when I looked for a good expert, Mr. Joel Cooper recommended Mr. Leonard.”
“Hmm. I can figure it out.”
“The basic salary is 3,000 credits, but risk allowance is paid separately. I’ll add 300 credits for each maggot.”
A weekly wage of 3,000 was on the high side even by White Town standards, but considering that it was a temporary job during a dangerous time, it wasn’t that much. By Leonard’s standards, one small number was 2 or 3 thousand credits, so it’s not very worthwhile considering the period of a week. However, it wasn’t bad if I did it part-time without having to do a head-ache. In addition, the extra allowance was appealing.
“Because there’s no way a sparrow would just pass by a mill.”
Leonard trusted the Junk Town scavengers. There was no way the writers fighting over a piece of implant arm could not have overlooked this part.
“Should I write a contract?”
@
Implant cyborgs also need sleep, so 24-hour work was impossible. In the first place, if you give 3,000 credits and work 24 hours, it will show the proletarian revolutionary beam at the end of the century, so even a businessman with no conscience made such a request.
“If I don’t sleep at night, I won’t grow taller…”
Max muttered, hugging the sniper rifle ‘Winterfield’. I hired two more fixers besides Leonard to see if the scrap plant got some credit. One of them was someone Max knew well. It was ‘skinhead’ Kruger.
“The most powerful force was deployed at the most vulnerable time.”
This floor was narrow and narrow. Skinhead, whose trademark Charge Arm is a battle android, has taken over. Leonard signed the electronic document and threw away the pen. It was a formal procedure that entrepreneurs like.
“Am I the strongest?”
Max laughed hee hee hee. The skinhead raised his ignorant arm slightly, then held it back. Even though that little Walker was good enough, Leonard Walker was a bit scary. The reason why the scavenger gave up the night time when it was most likely to attack was because his competitor was Leonard. Terrible Leonard said after gesturing that he could just hit him.
“I didn’t know you would do something like this.”
It’s not comparable to Ryan Bourne or Noah Lucas, who have almost become urban legends, but it was a well-known solver for skinheads. As I said before, it’s because the floor is narrow.
“I’m saving myself because I’m having trouble with the gangsters.”
“You must have gotten along a little better.”
“……”
30% of Leonard’s reputation was from his background, and 70% was from his history of beating up gangsters. In other words, being sane after thinking like that was proof that he was a competent person.
“Then take a look. See you tomorrow.”
The skinhead stood up without hiding an expression that he did not want to see as much as possible. All that was left in the control room were Leonard, Max, and a security officer watching with a breathless expression.
“…there is something.”
Leonard watched the skinheads leave the factory on a surveillance camera monitor. Monitors are usually linked with brain chips, but they used old-fashioned monitors because they didn’t want to open the line to outsiders. Even so, the former Hexagon could have taken away the entire authority if he made up his mind.
“Another strange intuition?”
“It is more accurate than intuition.”
It is said that it is a characteristic of entrepreneurs to stab requests here and there, but there was no way to call both ‘Rattle’ Cooper and ‘Dirty’ Hancock to the factory security. It was clear that he had hired a fixer because he had more specific information.
Trusting Leonard’s reasoning, Max pulled out his firearm and did a quick check. The security officer’s expression got even worse. Leonard pointed to a screen and calmed down.
“Since the mercenaries are also here, there is nothing to be nervous about. There’s no way an ordinary scavenger can break through an armed force.”
If it was an ordinary scavenger. However, the work of the solver was not common.
@
Leonard put two chairs together and stretched out his legs.
Today was the 4th day. I told Max it was urgent, but all I had done for the past three days was grab some snacks, play cards without the head of security, and have heated discussions about classic movies. Thanks to that, I became close with the person in charge, but there was no progress.
The monitor hasn’t changed in the past 3 days either. It is an automated factory that operates 365 days a year as long as electricity is supplied, so there was no difference day or night. Even the security guards didn’t sag because it was a cyborg night with a high percentage of implants. Except for the darkness outside the factory, it was the same as the daytime video I watched during the day.
“It reminds me of the old days.”
“Once upon a time?”
When I first settled in A-044 City seven years ago, I took on any job. It wasn’t long after the war ended, and there weren’t many jobs because the implant hacker was a job that bought the original body boundary. In those days, it was not uncommon to protect gangs or monitor warehouses. If he hadn’t met Jake, he might have joined the gang. Max chuckled.
“Ah, no way.”
It was also funny to leave the army and join a gang. Some of the gangsters had military backgrounds, but they were usually kicked out because of accidents. There was no reason to work for a messy and weak gang when there was no business or mercenary company or manpower. If Leonard hadn’t come from the Allies, he would have seriously considered joining a corporate convoy.
Changes appeared when we passed the time by small talk. It was a change that was not expected by anyone other than Leonard. A security officer who was monitoring CCTV with a brain chip noticed it first.
“Camera No. 2, Area A. Area A No. 2 camera malfunction. Please check with the nearby reconnaissance team.”
“We are going,” came the reply with a chik-sound. Leonard lowered his legs from his chair and pressed closer to the monitor. I was able to quickly find out what camera number 2 was. Because only one of the 22 monitors was black.
“Take it back a minute.”
I thought I would do it even if Leonard didn’t ask me to, so I closed the video without saying anything. It was an external camera, so the quality was not good. It was not a performance problem, but an environmental problem in a junk town with no streetlights and pollutants blowing in every day. It went black for an instant without catching anything.
“Is it broken?”
Max spoke for the security chief’s wishes. A fixer was hired, but that couldn’t be the case. Cameras 3 and 4 then disappeared. Then, a gunshot sounded like roasting beans from afar. In fact, beans are more precious than bullets, so I was the one who realized that the sound of roasting beans was like this.
“Scout team! scout team! Explain the situation! what’s the matter!”
Leonard pointed to one of the monitors. It was a place where the factory lights hit, so I could see something for a moment. It was a shabby scavenger aiming a gun.
“The corpse and the maggots are inseparable.”
There was no way the solver’s job was easy.