Chapter 374. Operation: Brainjack, Phase 1; War of Attrition Day 1 (6/6)
“Hold up, what are you doing?”
“Well, if you don’t want to help, then I’ll have no other choice but to go out like this and offer my head up to Swastika on a silver platter.”
“You’re bluffing. There’s no way you’d do that.”
“Sure I would. Here you go.” I tossed the wig over to him and started to remove the shirt over the fat suit.
“You can take the fat suit and clothes and get out if you’re too scared to go through with this. There’s nothing wrong with being afraid. You could die if I betray your trust after all. Dying is scary. Nothing is guaranteed, and if you can’t trust me, then I agree with your decision to not help me.”
“I said I’d trust you if you agree to be friends.”
“Well sorry, I will never trust friends with my life. Meaning, I won’t be able to trust you if we’re friends. That will make this plan impossible.”
“You’re saying that you’d trust someone you’re not friends with more than a friend?”
“I don’t trust anyone… unless... they’re willing to sell me their soul to me through a contract.”
“What are you, a devil?”
“Yeah, I am actually.” I shrugged in a nonchalant, unserious fashion.
“Devil my ass. Fuck off, who’s scared man? Me? I’m not scared at all of dying and I’m definitely not getting cold feet. Tell you what, if we do get rid of Swastika somehow, I’ll sell you my damn soul. My soul for getting rid of a gang of rapists and murders while simultaneously increasing the number of future hot babes in the city to gawk at isn’t a bad trade at all.” Jass walked up to me and slapped the wig down on my head.
“Rosa, let’s go. I’ll show him who’s scared of dying. This is for the future of hot babes coming to this city.”
I quickly readjusted the wig on my head and fixed my shirt as Jass opened the door. Rosa and I followed out behind him. She had a rather amused smile on her face.
I naturally didn’t forget my plastic bag with my things inside.
Rosa and Jass exited the store together and headed to our pre-established destination. I didn’t immediately leave the store after them. Rather, I waited inside reading a magazine with the window to my left. Between the pages of the magazine, I took out my phone, connected to a logless VPN, and checked a disposable email I’d set up.
There was an email. When I read the contents, there were only two words, ‘Call me.’
I wouldn’t call them here though.
I turned off the location tracking services, put it into airplane mode, removed the SIM card, and powered down the phone. I did the same for Rosa’s. Even then it still wasn’t impossible for the phone to be tracked, but it was still extremely unlikely for the police at least to be able to track it like this.
If for example there was a Trojan on my phone or even a chip connected directly to the battery internally, it could potentially be tracked, but there was no chance that would happen.
Why didn’t I go to such lengths for the operation as the school yesterday? Well, there’s no way anyone above the police would get involved for that.
This time too that was pretty unlikely, but I wouldn’t take any chances this time around. The ending of this wasn’t going to be something minor like trespassing or petty theft. This time around, someone was guaranteed to die, no, to be murdered in cold blood.
It didn’t matter who the deceased person was, a murderer was nevertheless a murderer.
I exited the store and hopped on my motorcycle. I put my helmet on, started it up, and took off. I traveled around the city for a while taking constant random turns to make sure nobody was following me. When I was confident nobody was, I headed to the parking lot at the mall and parked my motorcycle there.
I got off it and started walking in the direction of a building. I was leaving my motorcycle here for Jass tomorrow. Today, after they encountered Malory, they would head to a vacant but furnished apartment Rosa scouted out before work and lock picked.
The unit directly below it was also vacant. They would enter the top one then grapple down into the unit below it and Jass would stay inside that one. During his stay, he would never turn on the lights in the unit. This was to prevent anyone who might be keeping an eye on the building from noticing them when they moved to the lower unit in the dark of night from the outside. Rosa would then slip out from the building in a disguise she’d prepared and left there earlier today. She’d return home after that.
I’d instructed Jass to leave his phone in that unit by slipping it in through the mail slot before he showed up at the store. This way, he’d have his phone in case anything unexpected happened and he needed to call for help.
As I thought over the plan in my head while I walked, I turned into a small dark alley between two buildings.
“What do you want fatty? If you’ve got no business here, then scram.” A girl donning a helmet with a dark visor hiding her face, dressed in an all-black leather jumpsuit, spoke up when I turned the corner. She was leaning against the wall of the building with her arms crossed.
“Lea, it’s me.”
“Huh? Ran?”
“Yeah.”
“The hell, how much do you need to eat in one day to get so fat?”
“It’s a fat suit.”
“Pfft. This look suits you well. Hahaha!” She started holding her stomach and laughing as she poked my protruding belly.
“Shut up. It’s all part of the plan. It’s going well so far. Let’s hurry up and get out of here.”
“Yeah, yeah. You said we’d be heading out of the city, right?”
“Yeah. Make sure we’re not followed.”
“I’m free to go as fast as I want, right?”
“Yeah.”
I followed behind Lea deeper down the alley to a dead end.
“Where’s your bike?”
“Behind this, duh.”
She put her hands on the wall and pulled to one side. When she released it she raised her right leg up and kicked at the dead end. The wall flew open to the side. Behind it, her motorcycle awaited us. In front of it was another wall that she repeated the same actions for.
“Is this one of the ways you evade the cops?”
“Yeah. There are a bunch of other locations we have set up for losing them though. This is just one of many littered throughout the city. There’s also a manhole here which we can slip out through if we’re ever really trapped without any escape. We’d have to ditch the bike, but it’s better than getting busted. My gang has fully mapped out the city’s sewer system. It makes for a pretty solid escape as I can change out my clothes and pop out where I have my street legal bike at.”
“I see.”
“Hey, close that one behind us. Don’t bother putting the lock on it though. That’s only to be used if the cops are hot on our tail and we’re buying time to get out through the sewers.”
“Right.”
It had been made to look like a natural wall between the two buildings. In reality, neither wall was a real one. They’d even installed a ceiling above the two walls. It was essentially a makeshift parking garage created by transforming an open alleyway between two buildings into a dead-end one.
Honestly, I was pretty impressed by their work. When it came to evading the cops, they were definitely well prepared. She wasn’t kidding when she called herself a street rat. She’d gone as far as mapping out the city sewer system and was willing to use it for a last resort escape plan.
I did as she requested and closed the wall to our rear as she moved her motorcycle out the other side that opened up to the sidewalk.
I followed her out and closed the second wall off while she got on her motorcycle and started it up.
“Hop on fatty.”
“I’m not fat, I’m big-boned.”
“Pfft hahaha! Yeah, yeah. You’re big-boned. Sure you are. Let’s go.”
When I climbed on the back she said, “My baby sounds like it’s crying from all the extra weight.”
“Did you put on too many points latelyyyyyyyyy!” She cranked the handle and we went from 0 to 100 in a few short seconds. Caught off guard and terrified I’d fall off I hugged her tight. I wouldn’t complain this time since I’d told her to go as fast as possible to ensure we couldn’t be followed.
In a short ten minutes, we were out of the city. Ten minutes after that, going at about 350 kilometers per hour, we were pretty far away from the city. We parked up in a ditch about a hundred meters away from a gas station in the middle of nowhere.
“What now?”
“I want you to call this number using the payphone in the booth outside the gas station.” I handed over a piece of paper with a number written on it before I opened the plastic bag I brought with me and retrieved two two-way radios I borrowed from Rosa. After I handed one over to her I explained, “Hold this two-way radio up to the phone. I’ll communicate with the person we’re calling through this.”
“All this just to make a call? Isn’t this a bit excessive?”
“Yeah, it definitely is.”
“Just who are you calling that you’re going through all this effort for?”
“Don’t worry about it.”
“Haaaah. Fine.”
“Leave the key with me.”
“Are you planning to ditch me here?”
“No, it’s just a precaution. Remember, with the contract we have, if I betray you, I die.”
“Oh yeah, I forgot about that.” She tossed the key over to me as she started walking toward the gas station.
“Your phone is off, right?”
“Yeah, it’s been off this entire time. I never even have the battery connected when I’m driving this motorcycle unless I have no other choice.”
“Good.”
Not too long after that, Lea stepped into the payphone booth and inserted a coin. She dialed the number and held the two-way radio up to it.
Ring.
Ring.
Ring.
Click.
It connected.
“...”
“...”
Both sides were initially quiet and didn’t say anything.
“Is this… Devthor?”
The other end was the first to break the silence. Before I responded, I pressed a button on the two-way radio designed to scramble and distort my voice and confirmed, “Yes, this is Devthor…”
Chapter 374. Operation: Brainjack, Phase 1; War of Attrition Day 1 (6/6)
“Hold up, what are you doing?”
“Well, if you don’t want to help, then I’ll have no other choice but to go out like this and offer my head up to Swastika on a silver platter.”
“You’re bluffing. There’s no way you’d do that.”
“Sure I would. Here you go.” I tossed the wig over to him and started to remove the shirt over the fat suit.
“You can take the fat suit and clothes and get out if you’re too scared to go through with this. There’s nothing wrong with being afraid. You could die if I betray your trust after all. Dying is scary. Nothing is guaranteed, and if you can’t trust me, then I agree with your decision to not help me.”
“I said I’d trust you if you agree to be friends.”
“Well sorry, I will never trust friends with my life. Meaning, I won’t be able to trust you if we’re friends. That will make this plan impossible.”
“You’re saying that you’d trust someone you’re not friends with more than a friend?”
“I don’t trust anyone… unless... they’re willing to sell me their soul to me through a contract.”
“What are you, a devil?”
“Yeah, I am actually.” I shrugged in a nonchalant, unserious fashion.
“Devil my ass. Fuck off, who’s scared man? Me? I’m not scared at all of dying and I’m definitely not getting cold feet. Tell you what, if we do get rid of Swastika somehow, I’ll sell you my damn soul. My soul for getting rid of a gang of rapists and murders while simultaneously increasing the number of future hot babes in the city to gawk at isn’t a bad trade at all.” Jass walked up to me and slapped the wig down on my head.
“Rosa, let’s go. I’ll show him who’s scared of dying. This is for the future of hot babes coming to this city.”
I quickly readjusted the wig on my head and fixed my shirt as Jass opened the door. Rosa and I followed out behind him. She had a rather amused smile on her face.
I naturally didn’t forget my plastic bag with my things inside.
Rosa and Jass exited the store together and headed to our pre-established destination. I didn’t immediately leave the store after them. Rather, I waited inside reading a magazine with the window to my left. Between the pages of the magazine, I took out my phone, connected to a logless VPN, and checked a disposable email I’d set up.
There was an email. When I read the contents, there were only two words, ‘Call me.’
I wouldn’t call them here though.
I turned off the location tracking services, put it into airplane mode, removed the SIM card, and powered down the phone. I did the same for Rosa’s. Even then it still wasn’t impossible for the phone to be tracked, but it was still extremely unlikely for the police at least to be able to track it like this.
If for example there was a Trojan on my phone or even a chip connected directly to the battery internally, it could potentially be tracked, but there was no chance that would happen.
Why didn’t I go to such lengths for the operation as the school yesterday? Well, there’s no way anyone above the police would get involved for that.
This time too that was pretty unlikely, but I wouldn’t take any chances this time around. The ending of this wasn’t going to be something minor like trespassing or petty theft. This time around, someone was guaranteed to die, no, to be murdered in cold blood.
It didn’t matter who the deceased person was, a murderer was nevertheless a murderer.
I exited the store and hopped on my motorcycle. I put my helmet on, started it up, and took off. I traveled around the city for a while taking constant random turns to make sure nobody was following me. When I was confident nobody was, I headed to the parking lot at the mall and parked my motorcycle there.
I got off it and started walking in the direction of a building. I was leaving my motorcycle here for Jass tomorrow. Today, after they encountered Malory, they would head to a vacant but furnished apartment Rosa scouted out before work and lock picked.
The unit directly below it was also vacant. They would enter the top one then grapple down into the unit below it and Jass would stay inside that one. During his stay, he would never turn on the lights in the unit. This was to prevent anyone who might be keeping an eye on the building from noticing them when they moved to the lower unit in the dark of night from the outside. Rosa would then slip out from the building in a disguise she’d prepared and left there earlier today. She’d return home after that.
I’d instructed Jass to leave his phone in that unit by slipping it in through the mail slot before he showed up at the store. This way, he’d have his phone in case anything unexpected happened and he needed to call for help.
As I thought over the plan in my head while I walked, I turned into a small dark alley between two buildings.
“What do you want fatty? If you’ve got no business here, then scram.” A girl donning a helmet with a dark visor hiding her face, dressed in an all-black leather jumpsuit, spoke up when I turned the corner. She was leaning against the wall of the building with her arms crossed.
“Lea, it’s me.”
“Huh? Ran?”
“Yeah.”
“The hell, how much do you need to eat in one day to get so fat?”
“It’s a fat suit.”
“Pfft. This look suits you well. Hahaha!” She started holding her stomach and laughing as she poked my protruding belly.
“Shut up. It’s all part of the plan. It’s going well so far. Let’s hurry up and get out of here.”
“Yeah, yeah. You said we’d be heading out of the city, right?”
“Yeah. Make sure we’re not followed.”
“I’m free to go as fast as I want, right?”
“Yeah.”
I followed behind Lea deeper down the alley to a dead end.
“Where’s your bike?”
“Behind this, duh.”
She put her hands on the wall and pulled to one side. When she released it she raised her right leg up and kicked at the dead end. The wall flew open to the side. Behind it, her motorcycle awaited us. In front of it was another wall that she repeated the same actions for.
“Is this one of the ways you evade the cops?”
“Yeah. There are a bunch of other locations we have set up for losing them though. This is just one of many littered throughout the city. There’s also a manhole here which we can slip out through if we’re ever really trapped without any escape. We’d have to ditch the bike, but it’s better than getting busted. My gang has fully mapped out the city’s sewer system. It makes for a pretty solid escape as I can change out my clothes and pop out where I have my street legal bike at.”
“I see.”
“Hey, close that one behind us. Don’t bother putting the lock on it though. That’s only to be used if the cops are hot on our tail and we’re buying time to get out through the sewers.”
“Right.”
It had been made to look like a natural wall between the two buildings. In reality, neither wall was a real one. They’d even installed a ceiling above the two walls. It was essentially a makeshift parking garage created by transforming an open alleyway between two buildings into a dead-end one.
Honestly, I was pretty impressed by their work. When it came to evading the cops, they were definitely well prepared. She wasn’t kidding when she called herself a street rat. She’d gone as far as mapping out the city sewer system and was willing to use it for a last resort escape plan.
I did as she requested and closed the wall to our rear as she moved her motorcycle out the other side that opened up to the sidewalk.
I followed her out and closed the second wall off while she got on her motorcycle and started it up.
“Hop on fatty.”
“I’m not fat, I’m big-boned.”
“Pfft hahaha! Yeah, yeah. You’re big-boned. Sure you are. Let’s go.”
When I climbed on the back she said, “My baby sounds like it’s crying from all the extra weight.”
“Did you put on too many points latelyyyyyyyyy!” She cranked the handle and we went from 0 to 100 in a few short seconds. Caught off guard and terrified I’d fall off I hugged her tight. I wouldn’t complain this time since I’d told her to go as fast as possible to ensure we couldn’t be followed.
In a short ten minutes, we were out of the city. Ten minutes after that, going at about 350 kilometers per hour, we were pretty far away from the city. We parked up in a ditch about a hundred meters away from a gas station in the middle of nowhere.
“What now?”
“I want you to call this number using the payphone in the booth outside the gas station.” I handed over a piece of paper with a number written on it before I opened the plastic bag I brought with me and retrieved two two-way radios I borrowed from Rosa. After I handed one over to her I explained, “Hold this two-way radio up to the phone. I’ll communicate with the person we’re calling through this.”
“All this just to make a call? Isn’t this a bit excessive?”
“Yeah, it definitely is.”
“Just who are you calling that you’re going through all this effort for?”
“Don’t worry about it.”
“Haaaah. Fine.”
“Leave the key with me.”
“Are you planning to ditch me here?”
“No, it’s just a precaution. Remember, with the contract we have, if I betray you, I die.”
“Oh yeah, I forgot about that.” She tossed the key over to me as she started walking toward the gas station.
“Your phone is off, right?”
“Yeah, it’s been off this entire time. I never even have the battery connected when I’m driving this motorcycle unless I have no other choice.”
“Good.”
Not too long after that, Lea stepped into the payphone booth and inserted a coin. She dialed the number and held the two-way radio up to it.
Ring.
Ring.
Ring.
Click.
It connected.
“...”
“...”
Both sides were initially quiet and didn’t say anything.
“Is this… Devthor?”
The other end was the first to break the silence. Before I responded, I pressed a button on the two-way radio designed to scramble and distort my voice and confirmed, “Yes, this is Devthor…”
