Chapter 133 - New Agent

Ceres walked into the Queen’s office, all properly cleaned up and now sporting the same uniform of the Queen’s Guards.

“Looks like you really enjoyed that room.” Cardenia smiled as she saw Ceres’s beaming face. No doubt her plan to entice him had already taken root in Ceres’s mind.

“Never had such luxurious accommodation like that before.” Ceres said as he observed the equally luxurious interior of the Queen’s office.

“You’ll get more of that if you help me out for the next few weeks.” Cardenia grinned. She had given Ceres the best room to increase the chance of hooking him.

“Hmm… I’ll have to hear more about it…” Ceres was undecided, still weighing the pros and cons of using Cardenia’s network to find his friends.

“I’ll let you meet the White Fang once you’re done. Only if you succeed.” Cardenia dangled yet another carrot in front of him.

“Really?!” Ceres was surprised. This was what it was like to follow someone with connections. He wasn’t even sure if he would have been able to directly meet the ‘White Fang’ under his original plan. “Okay, lay it out for me.”

Cardenia smirked to herself. By dangling each other in front of one another, she managed to fleece both the ‘White Fang’ and Ceres for her own benefit.

Cardenia plugged her multi-terminal into the table, displaying a hologram of Rockhold City. A few trucks on the road were labelled in red as a replay of yesterday’s attack was re-enacted, showing the entire action sequence.

“Remember this place where you got shot down from?”

“Nope.” Ceres was speaking the truth. He hardly knew the city’s layout at all, especially from the air.

“Then you better. Your first mission is to find out who ordered the hit on the hovercar convoy and eliminate them. You probably already know this since you were the one who eliminated the aerial attackers, but they were hired or sent to capture you.”

“Sent by the enforcers?”

“Possible, but it seems like they were already prepared for you from even before you were announced in the arena. Like they were already prepared to capture you for some reason.”

Ceres did not believe it. His original plan was barely put in place less than two weeks before the match, how did they plan the attack and bring that much weaponry to bear just to capture him? He had thought he covered his tracks pretty well, but it seems he had already been exposed in some way.

“By the way, I heard it was a dark mercenary outfit who attacked us? What’s that?”

Cardenia sighed, realizing Ceres was still the same innocent naïve boy from six years ago. “You need a crash course on the underground and how Rockhold works. Follow me.”

The two left the office and walked to a lift. The Queen’s tower was a skyscraper, where the Queen’s office was at the top.

They took the lift down to the middle floors, where there were multiple open hangar bays that allowed one to fly through the Queen’s Tower like a tunnel.

Each hangar bay had countless hovercars and hovervans ferrying goods, with a lot of Queen’s Guards performing logistics and shipment handling.

The entire building seemed to serve as a shipping hub, the goods no doubt in a very unsavoury manner.

Ceres already spotted a few human-shaped pods being transported, but nobody was fazed by it. His time in the arena had already made him desensitized to human bodies, but it was still slightly unnerving to see it being done on a large scale.

Ceres was not morally upright – considering all the questionable things he had done in the past year, including killing others. He would not consider himself a paragon of justice. How could he alone squash the galactic human trafficking business?

Also, he could not afford to offend Cardenia now if he really wanted to. He was very aware that Cardenia had been showing off her strength ever since he arrived in order to make the impression that he should not fuck around with her.

“This is one of the major businesses of the Queen’s Guard. We simply act as the middleman between supplies and customers. Like I said before, anything goes.” Cardenia talked as they walked through the hangar bar, while everyone she walked past bowed slightly at her before continuing their work.

“Looks like you invested heavily into security,” Ceres noted a large number of Queen’s Guards donning exosuits along with automated turrets spread out over the hangar bay.

“You won’t believe the number of times some dumbass punk tries to raid this building. I don’t blame them, but I don’t pity them either. If you want to try and hijack a shipment, they better be ready to die for it. Don’t think of this as a small low-time gang operation – this is a corporate level.”

Ceres nodded, following Cardenia as he watched exobeast cages being unloaded, no doubt being sent to the arena. Crates upon crates of illegal drugs were distributed to various hovervans before being sent off.

“How do you even enter the city? Doesn’t the enforcer keep track of the exits and the surface?” Ceres asked.

“Idiot, half of these shipments are dummies. And there are more than a million ways for a hovercar to get into the city, both outer and inner. No way the enforcers can predict which route we take. We do lose a few shipments, but otherwise, our delivery rate is more than 80%, which is leagues higher than any other gang on the planet.”

The two then headed to the lower floors, where there was a large lobby with groups of soldiers gathered around staring at large holo screens filled with mission details and events. “Here’s the next major business – mercenary and exploring. One of the obvious gaps in Rockhold last time was the severe lack of experienced or trained personnel. Mining was almost a death sentence, and rookies who took on security jobs almost always died on their second run.”

“So you train them?”

“Yes, the only training centre in Rockhold, as well as the best place to hire a security squad or escorts, especially when you need safe passage into the city.”

“Can’t you use this to get off-world yourself?”

“Where would I go? Strathon so I can get hanged by my Dynasty? The Beyond where I have zero knowledge of so I can get exploited? Don’t be stupid, Ceres. I’m leveraging what I know right here. Also, the spaceport is heavily defended, and we don’t have good enough technology to do stealth launches yet into space. The only way out is via the Dreyfus Peaks, and coming back down is a pain in the arse.”

Ceres nodded, knowing that it was hard for launches to go undetected without the right technology.

The spaceport was under the control of the Five Families, so any unauthorized starship takeoff from other parts of the planet would be easily spotted, though he never heard of the Dreyfus Peaks before. Was that how orbital smuggling was done?

“Smuggling is a trade secret, no way I’m going to tell you my methods. They are proprietary.” Cardenia smirked.

Cardenia continued explaining as they walked down the lobby. “Now, you asked about dark mercenary outfits, and that’s exactly what we don’t do here. Dark mercenary outfits are like assassins, but instead of operating alone, they operate like a para-military group. Anyone can hire them, they can play for any side.”

“Wouldn’t they get shut down immediately by you and the enforcers? How are they even operating on Athen?”

“It’s a large planet, Ceres. A large resource planet at that. There are so many unknown caves and abandoned mining tunnels that one could hide them. And you could even mine the surroundings to produce your own weapons if you had the right equipment.”

“And you don’t dabble in this area as a form of business too? Thought you were out to exploit anyone and anything.”

“Dark mercenary outfits are notoriously hard to keep in check. Seeing as they can turn on their previous owners extremely fast, it’s not a very smart idea to keep them in the city or even turn a blind eye to their activities.” Cardenia frowned.

“But yet they managed to get into Rockhold and attack the convoy.” Ceres surmised.

The two of them then took a lift even lower, heading into the basements of the Queen’s Tower. “Exactly. Unlike the millions of ways to enter the city of Athen, Rockhold only has a few dozen entrances and exits, and all of them are under watch by the Queen’s Guards. Somebody within the gang is colluding or being bribed, and I need to find out who is betraying me.”

“So you need an outsider to check-in. Because you don’t know how deep the bribes have gone into the gang as a whole.”

Cardenia nodded before exiting the lift at the basement, leading Ceres to a surgery room. As they entered the room, a gruesome sight lay before them. The dead aerial attackers were all lying on flat metal tables, untouched and in their original conditions. “I kept the bodies untouched for you. I read the report from Julia, noting you have been working as a cleaner at the arena, specifically the body disposal room.”

Ceres sighed. Looks like whatever he thought was considered staying undercover didn’t mean anything to the Queen’s Guards. Was that the reason the enforcers were able to discover him that easily?

“I’m working on this mission solo?” Ceres asked.

“No, you’ll be working with Julia and Saater, but not always. Ask them if you have any questions. I have my full trust in the two of them, but we’re both no strangers to betrayals. If you find anything suspicious about them, feel free to ditch them.” Cardenia said without a tinge of emotions.

“What do I do if I find out who’s the rat?”

“Preferably capture him and bring him to me. Otherwise, kill him.”

“You trust me that much?”

“I don’t. So, if I find out you killed the wrong person, you can forget about seeing the surface or the ‘White Fang’ ever again.” Cardenia smiled as she walked out of the room, leaving Ceres alone with the five cold corpses.

Ceres looked at the bodies, who still had their original gear on. He felt like Cardenia was not telling him everything she knew, especially seeing as that she already gave an order beforehand to Julia to not touch the bodies. From his point of view, Cardenia already had a suspicion of who was betraying her.

There was no point fretting about it. Ceres just had to get the job done and then he’ll be able to see the ‘White Fang’, simple as that. He did have one trick up his sleeve, however – his ability to sense emotions via his H.T. mode.

Specifically, he could sense when one was lying unless the person was completely convinced by his own lies. He even tried to figure out if Cardenia was lying or not when she said he could meet the ‘White Fang’, but she was not.

Ceres knew this was going to be a piece of cake, but his ability to sense emotions worked much better on a living person rather than on a few dead bodies, so he decided to call Julia in to help. Perhaps monitoring her reaction to the dead bodies might prove to be insightful.

When Julia entered the room, her eyes were full of suspicion towards Ceres.

“Who the hell are you? How did you get on the Queen’s side so easily?” Julia was slightly hurt that the Queen had suddenly told her and Saater that ‘17 Dumplings’ was now the leader of the investigation team into the attack.

Had she already lost her position to this upstart exosuit designer? Was she no longer worthy to lead since she botched the escort?

Ceres was slightly happy at seeing all of the conflicting emotions in Julia. Not because he was egoistic, but rather because Julia was most likely not involved in the planning of the attack.

“I need your help identifying the different components and implants of the bodies. I don’t have full knowledge of all the different contraband or illegal devices available in Rockhold.” Ceres admitted. If he didn’t have the help of anyone, he had zero chance of tracking down anything in Rockhold.

If it was a legal component or implant, he may have some inkling of it – but he was trained in exosuit repair and design! His time in the Thorn Chamber had drilled him on exosuit components, not cybernetic and half-organic chips.

“I don’t think you answered my question.”

“I am not the one who decided to be in charge, your Queen did. If you got a problem, take it up with her. For now, you’re with me.”

Julia’s face darkened even more. At this point, Ceres didn’t even need his ability to be able to figure out what Julia was feeling now. She angrily walked over to the opposing side of Ceres, the deceased attacker’s body between them laying on a cold stone table.

“Let’s begin.” Ceres began using his bare hands to dismantle the exosuit, before suddenly realizing the shocked look on Julia’s face. “Why, what’s the problem?”

“You don’t use any tools?”

“Not for this kind of thing, no. I’m just taking it apart. Why would I need any tools for that?” Ceres continued working, becoming oblivious to Julia’s position and facial expression.

Julia became even more suspicious as she watched Ceres twist and disassemble parts with his fingers. She had never seen an exosuit repairer use their hands to directly snap locking mechanisms off before.

Julia could not wrap her head around how much strength Ceres had – she was not even sure she could do the same.

She became slightly mesmerized by the skilful movements of Ceres as he quickly stripped the attacker down to the skin, laying out all the parts that comprised the aerial exosuit on another table.

It was like watching a cooking performance, and for some unknown reason, Ceres knew the recipe beforehand.

“Hey, hello? I’m talking to you?” Ceres snapped his fingers in front of Julia, waking her up from the short-lived trance.

“I have never seen this component before, what is this?” Ceres pointed to a module that seemed like a mechanical beetle that was integrated into the attacker’s forearm, with obvious tendrils laid under the skin reaching his fingers.

“That’s an implant for enhancing hand movements, specifically for shooting. Keeps organic hands steady, especially during high-speed combat. It links with the exosuit for better synchronization but can operate separately. It’s pretty common in Rockhold though.”

“But are they supposed to be alive?”

“What?” Julia took a closer look at the beetle but did not find anything out of the ordinary, even when she prodded it. “Seems pretty dead to me.”

Ceres didn’t answer, instead using his hands to grab the beetle and rip it straight out. The tendrils snapped off, but below the façade of the mechanical beetle was a cluster of pink worms that were gorging on the dead body, squirming. Julia immediately covered her mouth as the smell of putrid decaying meat filled the room.

The flesh below where the mechanical beetle was already slowly being eaten by the worms, resulting in a gruesome paste of meat and blood. The worms, however, quickly died when they were exposed to the outside atmosphere, immediately decaying into a paste.

“I hope this isn’t common in Rockhold.”

“No this is definitely not. I have never seen this before.” Julia pondered and tried to recall all the possible people that may have access to such worms. “What is the purpose of the worms even?”

More importantly, though, how did Ceres know that there were things alive under the metallic shell?

Ceres became even more mysterious and powerful in Julia’s eyes. She made a note to herself to investigate this ’17 Dumplings’ even more.

Ceres continued inspecting all the disassembled parts of the aerial exosuit, trying to pinpoint their manufacturing facility. He got Julia to give him access to all the known parts of the Queen’s Guards, as their database contained both Loeric Empire and the illegal parts too.

However, after an entire day of memorizing and cross-referencing, Ceres came to the conclusion that none of these parts had passed through Rockhold.

“Wait, are you serious?” Julia was shocked at Ceres’s conclusion.

“More specifically, none of these parts passed through the Queen’s Guards. Whoever is targeting your gang is very careful and knows exactly how to get past your borders.”

“That’s bullshit, we cover every possible entrance and exit, in and out of Rockhold. No shipment gets past our scanners.”

“Except this dark mercenary outfit managed to get three trucks filled with anti-air guns and a group of twenty aerial exosuits complete with advanced organic implants beyond what you’ve seen in Rockhold.”

Julia opened her mouth to argue but couldn’t find the words to. “You… you’re right.”

“Now I see two possibilities. One, your enemy has such advanced capabilities that they are able to survey and plan their route around your significant security details. Or two, you have a mole in your ranks who’s leaking information.” Ceres surmised. “While you go figure out which is which, I’ll need your help in bringing in someone.”

“Who? The boy? He’s fine, he’s under Saater’s care now.”

“No, I need my assistants now.”