Chapter 36
Chapter 36
So, you weren’t just a blowhard after all
***
“Yeah. I figured a guy like you would come sniffing around sooner or later. Honestly, I’d be more troubled if you didn’t show up.”
“You knew who I was?”
“A broker, or someone in a related line of work. If it turns out you’re an acquaintance of Sprinter, that wouldn’t be a bad ending either.”
“If I really had a grudge against you, you might want to hold back on words like that.”
“Why?”
“Because I’d be looking for an opening.”
“That’s exactly why I said it wasn’t bad. I could take everything fair and square, down to the last coin.”
At the utterly arrogant remark, the middle-aged man let out a hollow chuckle. He had approached out of curiosity about who had taken care of Sprinter, but he hadn’t expected this kind of personality.
Well, considering the achievements someone like him must have accomplished at such a young age, it wasn’t unreasonable for him to have confidence.
Even so, to the man’s eyes, he was merely immature.
The way he wandered the streets at night, not even knowing where to go, was proof enough.
It was evidence that he didn’t understand how the underworld really worked.
“You really do live alone in the world. Your origins themselves are obscure, you know. Like you just dropped straight out of the sky. Maybe that’s exactly why you can charge forward like you’ve got nothing to lose.”
Unfortunately, Baek Ga-on didn’t know anything about that either. If Thomas Russell had still been alive, he might have heard at least a rough outline—
“Is there any reason I need to prove that to you?”
“Who knows? Do you have any idea what people in the industry think of you? There are even rumors that you’re someone Maximum Noise groomed in advance. Some are saying that your fight with Sprinter might just have been part of image-making.”
“So, a figurehead.”
That wasn’t rare. It was more efficient to create a fixer that suited one’s tastes than to find one, especially when the goal was to handle corporate secrets.
If you didn’t know the full story, it was an easy misunderstanding to make.
“There’s no result without a cause.”
“That’s exactly it.”
No matter how outstanding his talent might be, it made no common sense for an unknown with no reputation to take down a seasoned fixer.
“From what I can tell, it looked like your first time with cybernetics surgery too. If you’d undergone genetic modification, you’d have a distinctive body scent, but you don’t. Did you hide it? Well, deodorants are pretty good these days. At your level, everyday life must be difficult otherwise.”
“That’s far enough.”
At Ga-on’s warning, the middle-aged man swallowed the tongue that had been about to keep wagging.
“Anyway, if you’re going to stay in this line of work, you’ll need a broker. But the ones who match your level all tend to be arrogant. And who knows how many rounds of vetting you’d have to go through just to catch their interest.”
He was right.
Externally, Ga-on was nothing more than a fledgling who had just stepped out into the world. In other words, he stood firmly in the weaker position.
Because of that, he had to prove himself.
By going through that painfully tedious process again and again.
“But I’m different. If you agree, I’ll put you to work immediately.”
“So you’re volunteering to be a benevolent patron. I thought all the kind-hearted brokers died out ages ago.”
“I take pride in having lived a fairly upright life, in my own way.”
“From the moment you deliberately approached me, your true intentions were bound to be questioned.”
The chill that settled into Ga-on’s gaze was unmistakable in that instant.
“And you’re missing the most important thing.”
“Care to tell me what that is?”
“Your ability. In this district, a broker no one’s heard of is synonymous with a promising con artist, isn’t it?”
It was a sudden test, but the middle-aged man answered without hesitation.
“Isn’t it obvious from the fact that the Pier Gang bastards let this slide quietly? This isn’t something just anyone can pull off.”
“So, you weren’t just a blowhard after all.”
The fact that Sprinter was dead couldn’t be hidden, but Koln had at least made sure word didn’t spread about who killed him.
Even so, the fact that he had pinpointed Baek Ga-on meant he possessed an independent information network.
Just as he’d claimed, it seemed likely he’d reliably bring at least one job.
The proactive move of seeking him out and making an offer first was another point in his favor. It suggested he wouldn’t shy away from effort if it meant recruiting talent.
After all, it was human nature to want to work with capable people.
Especially when considering the original “objective,” there could be no better choice than this.
“I’m a fixer, Baek Ga-on. Just as you guessed, it hasn’t been long since I came to this place.”
“So now you finally accept my greeting. I’m Fernandez Peroma. I make a living connecting various requests to fixers.”
“Then, Mr. Pepe.”
“Pepe? Didn’t I introduce myself? My name is—”
Fernandez tried to protest, but Ga-on cut him off as if it didn’t matter and brought up what he wanted to say instead.
“More importantly, I’d like you to introduce me to the nearest gun shop. Preferably one where your name gets a discount. I don’t have much money on hand.”
“No, what kind of—”
“Then lead the way. I’m curious just how good our broker’s connections are.”
Even though it was nothing more than a verbal agreement, his attitude was as if he were completely ordering him around.
Had he picked the wrong person to deal with?
Fernandez was already starting to worry.
***
Humanity grew dramatically after advancing to Mars, as if venting the pent-up frustration of the era when they had been forced to remain on frozen lands.
Like ink spreading through clear water, the population exploded.
The history of the Seed Colony was, in itself, a history of expansion.
Districts that had once remained in the single digits had now grown into the forties. The radially spreading infrastructure vividly displayed its prosperity.
However, rapid development didn’t come with advantages alone.
Where there was light, there was bound to be shadow.
Because things changed by the day, there were places forced to alter their original plans. What had once been an optimal design ended up missing its chance for proper maintenance due to the sheer speed of change.
District 38, where Ga-on arrived, was one such place hit by that backlash. It had originally been designated as an industrial complex, but in order to cope with the population explosion, its purpose was changed to simple residential use.
Moreover, District 38 was adjacent to District 39, which connected directly to the underworld, so public safety was relatively poor. With incidents and accidents never ceasing, it was only natural for land prices to drop.
Even so, for people who wanted to make use of wide spaces, it was practically a hot place. If you were willing to endure a bit of inconvenience, you could obtain a building that rivaled any mansion.
The bar run by Fernandez, Columbus, was part of that same trend.
The next day, Ga-on went straight there for work and was able to hear an outline of the current request from Fernandez.
“Half a year ago, a teenage girl who grew up in a single-parent household disappeared. At the time, everyone thought it was just a simple case of running away.”
“So it wasn’t teenage rebellion?”
“Right. You could even say it was the opposite. The man she called her father was an alcoholic. She left because she couldn’t endure the violence.”
It was a common type of person. In the past, there was no choice but to endure until adulthood, but now, with the basic income system in place, things were different.
There were quite a few who chose to become independent from a very young age.
“I can’t picture someone like that commissioning a search for his daughter.”
“Sure, if it had been just that one person. I told you, didn’t I? She left half a year ago. Since then, similar cases have appeared one after another.”
At that moment, new information was updated in succession through the device.
A teenage boy who had just left an orphanage, an elderly person living alone separated from family, a man in his fifties who had become a Parasite and drifted between capsule hotels, and so on—
As the examples piled up, a certain common denominator began to emerge.
“They’re socially vulnerable groups.”
“From a certain point onward, they all stopped showing up.”
“The possibility that they disappeared of their own accord?”
“If that were the case, they would’ve acted differently than usual and shown noticeable signs. But those who vanished quietly went out and never returned, as if they had encountered an unexpected incident.”
“An unexpected incident. Abduction.”
“That’s the most likely scenario.”
There was no doubt it was suspicious.
The last place traces of the missing people were found was District 38. District 39, a crime-prone area, was right next door.
“If you bring them back alive, it’s forty million Pia. If you can at least uncover the full story, twenty million Pia.”
“That’s a considerable amount.”
“There are people who want them to return safely.”
It wasn’t an explanation that was hard to accept.
This was a society where the basic income system was in effect. If everyone pooled their resources with a shared purpose, it was possible to commission a famous fixer.
“Care for a drink before you head out?”
“Vodka martini. Shaken, not stirred.”
At the order he’d never heard in his life, Fernandez blinked his large eyes.
“Does that request have some kind of meaning?”
***
To properly carry out the request, Ga-on left Columbus and linked the information he’d received from Fernandez to his map app. At the same time, the movements of the missing people came into view at a glance across his retina.
They looked as if they’d been scattered at random, but they couldn’t escape Ga-on’s eyes. If the abductions were truly planned, some kind of pattern was bound to surface.
Sure enough, a common denominator appeared that couldn’t be found in spontaneous behavior.
Privet Road No. 128.
Moving his steps toward the intersection where the missing persons’ routes overlapped, Ga-on scanned his surroundings.
It was an outlying area with no notable landmarks, but that didn’t mean it was hopeless.
From patrol drones to vehicles and buildings, modern society was like a tightly tangled spiderweb.
So no matter how covertly someone moved, traces were bound to remain somewhere.
Ga-on became certain of that thought the moment he entered an alley connected to Road 128.
Unable to shake the strange impression that the area was unnaturally controlled, he even stopped investigating and paced around in place for quite some time.
What was it?
The moment the sense of unease tickling his temples sharpened, Ga-on’s eyes flashed. He kicked off the wall, leaped, and landed atop a streetlight.
Right. This was it.
‘CCTV.’
Coincidentally, this was the only one in the vicinity. It made the sheer number of surveillance devices clustered just a moment ago seem absurd.
It was minor, but the clear discrepancy pricked his instincts. Anyone could tell it had been deliberately restricted.
Could there be a better route than this for dragging the missing people away?
“Empty.”
As expected, the inside of the CCTV unit was nothing but a shell. They must have congratulated themselves on a perfect cleanup, but that was the end of it.
Because the starting point had been revealed.
Once he’d caught the tail, everything from here on moved swiftly.
Every time he came to a fork in the road, Ga-on checked the CCTV first. Following only the ones that had been left broken, the route converged into a single line. There was no way this was a coincidence.
This wasn’t a natural disaster but a clear man-made one. CCTV management fell under the jurisdiction of the Public Enforcement Corps.
It was possible to remove them, but it was difficult to conceal the abnormal phenomenon of an area not being recorded at all, unless someone was cooperating.
He could see now why a fixer had been called in.
This case involved the Public Enforcement Corps as well.