After we spoke with Erza’s teammates, we found the contact information for one of the QGs they normally worked with. It took a bit of convincing and reassuring before Trisha, their team leader, was willing to hand it over.

I was thankful that Eli’s message had informed them of the situation, so they were willing to cut me some slack and take a risk by working with us.

Once we saw the mercenaries off, I immediately placed a call to the new contact I received. The call was answered on the second ring.

“Speak.” Unlike what I expected from the name, a deep voice curtly responded.

“Is this Zenith?”

“You give your name first, Corpo.”

The last part of his words was filled with thorns, giving me pause as I thought about how to go about the conversation.

I guess passing myself off with my Cloak identity was off the table. Then again, I wasn’t planning on it while I was outside Elevate City, anyway.

“I’m Rollo. I take it you know what I’m contacting you for since you were expecting my call?”

“Maybe. But I want to hear it from you.”

“...I was hoping you could act as our middlemen to negotiate with the QG that is targeting your acquaintances.”

“And?”

“We plan to give them monetary concessions and a promise to stay out of their business if they give up on their manhunt.”

“Just money isn’t going to buy anyone reputation in my line of work. Your talks will fail.”

“...Then what type of concessions do you think will work?”

“Not my job to advise you.”

“Okay, fine…I would like to hire you to help me. Will you do it?”

“For the right price.”

“I thought you just said money can’t solve the problem?”

“The price is to do an errand.”

“...Stop playing games and just spit out what you want.”

“Not over the comms. Come to this address.”

I immediately received a ping with an address and the call was cut short.

Inspecting the address, I found it was for some bar in the district where mercenaries regularly hang out.

What is with mercs all hanging around bars? Do they all really like to drink that much?

I shook my head as I got Thorne, Flow, and Andrew’s team up to speed before preparing to set off.

We pulled right on the lot in front of the bar and did some sweeping around until Andrew’s team deemed it wasn’t a trap and I could go on in. Only Thorne came with me as the rest spread out to set up a defensive position or stealthily went ahead to clear the way.

As soon as I entered, I found the interior of the building filled with smoke and people who were merrily conversing. I could spot many of them gathered around tables and were currently engaged in gambling.

The bartender didn’t seem to be busy, so I approached her and took out my personal terminal. With the address pulled up on the screen, I held it toward her.

“I’m meeting someone here. It says booth #01. Where is that?”

She gave me a polite business smile before pointing behind me. I turned around to find a clouded glass panel near the center of the room. Within seconds, the glass began clearing up.

“You can’t miss it. It’s got the best spot around.”

Once the glass walls completely cleared, I could spot a man with the physique of a gorilla standing on the other side of the glass staring towards me.

I took to exchange looks with Thorne.

“That guy is bigger than you, and he doesn’t even have any visible chrome.”

“It’s just those well-hidden cybernetics that all the high-level corpos use, right?”

“Can’t be sure from afar, but he seems organic to me. Maybe some of those bio mods that are popular in Europa. It should have a market around here too, since the inner residents here aren’t a fan of cybernetics.”

We didn’t stand around and chat for much longer as we made our way toward the private room that oversaw the entire establishment. The gorilla-like man had stared at us for the entire duration of our small trip towards him.

At least he opened the door for us when we got close. When the doors closed behind us, I witnessed the clear transparent glass turn back cloudy.

I surveyed the room and found that only the muscular man was inside besides Thorne and me.

“I’m Rollo. Are you Zenith?”

He slowly walked back to his seat and gestured for me to take a seat across from him before he replied.

“Correct. I am Zenith.”

“I’m here in person, as you requested. Can you tell me what you want now?”

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“Yes, it is secure here.” He picked up a terminal and placed it on the low table between us. “Find and capture this man, and scrub the criminal records for the names on the list.”

I read the tablet and found the details of the people listed on it. They all had one commonality in that they were last seen in Elevate City and were mercenaries by profession.

“I’m not looking to do jobs for you as payment. Can’t you just accept credits? I’m willing to pay a premium to speed things along.”

“This is my price. I doubt other QGs would agree to take this job from you for just credits. You can try reaching out to them, but trust me, I am your best bet.”

It was annoying how QGs became less cooperative ever since my corpo identity had taken the main stage. They always made dealing with them so complicated. It’s like they were the scheming corpo in our relationship now, always trying to get ahead of me.

“...Is there a time limit?”

“No. But I work on your negotiations only after I got confirmation you completed the job.”

“How confident are you in getting the other QG to back off?”

“Very. I will make use of my connections and favors I’m owed to get him to play out the contract. Much more effective than just money.”

“So we are giving him money, too.”

He looked at me with a serious expression before nodding.

“Money makes the world go round. But it is only effective when combined with my social capital.”

I glanced over at Thorne, who only shrugged, and didn’t comment. I sighed before accepting his request.

“I’ll make some calls and see what we can do. It shouldn’t take long, maybe a day or so, before we get results. I expect you to start reaching out to that QG as soon as I send you proof the job is done.”

The towering QG nodded, stood up, and reached over to shake my hand.

“Deal.”

I shook his hand as I commanded my SAID to place a call back to my headquarters.

----------------------------------------

Claire - Halls Corporation

“I don’t know, Rollo. Lucy and her department are busy enough as it is. It won’t be easy for them to suddenly find this person.” Claire replied to her friend and boss over the video call.

“I know, they’re shorthanded. That’s why I called you. You should be able to do most of the legwork if you use our new power with the police.”

“The…ECPD?”

“Yes, don’t you remember? We’re a proper F-Class corporation now. They should be willing to help us as long as we make it worth their while.”

“That’s the first I’ve heard of this. We can order the police around now?” Claire narrowed her eyes at her boss.

“Didn’t tell you? It’s one of the perks of going up a tier….”

“No! You didn’t!”

“...Well, just keep in mind they’re open to helping us only if they have no skin in the game. They won’t fight for you or anything.”

“Yeah, yeah. That’s common sense with those losers. I’ll check it out and keep you updated. See you soon.”

Claire shook her head as she stood up once the call ended. She couldn’t wrap her head around the fact that they could now order around the police of all people nowadays. They had been an oppressive yet useless bunch throughout her life. She was taught to stay away from them from an early age.

She went over the files Rollo had sent over on the terminal, a detailed description from the Bank of Lion City on the procedures of how to invoke the assistance of the police through them. All the payments could easily be handled by the bank. The only part she was examining in detail was the liaisons she was supposed to reach out to.

After spending some time going over the numerous liaisons she could select from, she placed the call.

“Hello, this is Yolande speaking.” A feminine yet uppity voice responded energetically.

“Hi, I wanted to place a request for assistance with the ECPD. I’m sending you our code and credentials.” Claire swiftly sent over the packets the bank had provided for her, allowing her recipient to be assured of their payment.

“Of course, ma’am. Just give me a second to confirm…and there. Can you tell me what your assistance request entails?”

“Um…I want to access the ECPD’s resources to search for an individual and adjust some records that I believed had been wrongfully written.”

“Understood! I’m sending you the relevant forms now. Please let me know if you have any questions.”

As Claire went over the documents, she couldn’t help but wonder if the person she was talking to was part of the police force or the bank. Liaisons were documented to be prior members who now work for the bank, but she wondered if that was true, considering their extensive access to the police network.

She quickly shook away her thoughts as Yolande was ready to proceed.

“Ma’am, I’ve sent you some access codes that you can relay to your cyber security department. They should be able to set up the initial connections to the relevant databases.”

Having received what she wanted, Claire wasted no time and sent the code to Lana. While she had been continuously learning about cyber security, a year or so of training wasn’t going to make her an expert.

She compiled and sent off a brief summary to her while she made her way down to where the cy-sec department was.

Claire walked into the office and found all the employees there busying away on their terminals. In one particular corner, a frequent clacky noise rang out from the single mechanical keyboard being used in the room. The woman on it typed at tremendously fast speeds and had several keyboards sprawled before her.

“Lana, were you able to gain access?”

“Yes, I’m in right now…” The sound of clicking didn’t stop, but intensified instead. “And… there, done. I’ve connected it to a new database I just set up. You should be able to access the information much easier from now on once you send them a request. The files you wanted to be changed are done, too. Now that only leaves the search for your friendly merc here.”

Claire leaned over to peek at the terminal, showcasing the internal police database where records of almost every resident were stored. Lana pulled out a chair from out of nowhere for Claire and tilted her screen over before continuing her work.

“Searching now for one Issac Tannic…there’s only a few dozen within the hundreds of millions of people in this city. Great…”

Clare watched as the screen changed quickly from one profile sheet to another. It had a detailed record of the person listed on there, with information regarding their residence, biometrics, history, assets, and even travel records.

With Lana’s speed, it wasn’t long before she went over all the suspects before she narrowed in on the one.

“This guy should be it, right? Everything matches, from his place of origin, Lion City, down to his cybernetic profile.”

“...Yes, that should be him. What information does it have on him?”

A few key presses later, Lana brought up all the important details on the screen. It had his ID, contact information, and more importantly, his address.

“Got it! I’ll get the intel department to follow up to see if he’s there and capture him if he is.”

“You have fun, then. Was there anything else you needed before I dove back into my own stuff? Anyone you need to look up?”

“...Umm, not really. Wait! Can you look up Rollo and Thorne for me? I want to see their profile.” Claire declared with a smirk.

“You know he’s our boss, right?”

“Come on, pleaseeee!” Claire tugged on Lana’s shoulders and employed her puppy eyes, eliciting a sigh from her.

“Fine, but it’s entirely your responsibility.”

“Love you!”

As Lana began her search, Claire hummed a tune to herself as she thought up pranks she could pull when the two came back.

They deserve it for always leaving at the drop of a hat with all their work!

“Hey Claire,” Lana shook her friend out of her scheming. “Look at this…Rollo’s file is completely scrubbed clean. All this information here is just junk and placeholders… None of it is accurate.”

“What? But he shouldn’t have had access to the database before! We just became an F-Class corporation not long ago. It should be impossible for him to have done it…!”