Gaston watched the surroundings as Constable Yu replenished himself. Being cryo-frozen made him so hungry that he had been eating ramen and meat buns for a good hour. While Gaston partakes on the meat buns, keeping his focus around the diner that they were eating on.

  “No traces of them so far.”

  Constable Yu nodded vigorously, “They should be unaware of my health. We will make use of this to blind them and keep them out of trail. I am more concerned that you are far too noticeable. And if the Cult has marked you then they would know you are coming for them.”

  “They can try.”

  Gaston said. He knew that the cult was going to be after them. He had taken the right steps so far, but he also knew that he was relying on the idea that the other bounty hunters and mercenaries are after the cult. He knew that they can’t be careless since they managed to fool the cult. At least they think that they somewhat fooled the cult into thinking that their lead was dead.

  “And it would be unwise to test them. The cult isn’t so easy to deceive. Just searching for the serial numbers and the brand of the drive-engine almost got me killed. What do you think they’d do if they discovered that I got out of their watch list?”

  He spoke with confidence that Gaston appreciated. The diner was packed with customers. A western-style diner that serves western and eastern dishes that are heated warmly. The temperature control of the diner kept the customers satisfied. Outside of the diner there were cars parked. A few steps away from the diner there was a mechanized infantry standing guard.

  “Looks like the whole nation is conflicted,” Yu said. “It’s strange to see heavily-armored units on-guard everywhere.”

  Gaston blinked, “Not so strange when you have fanatics like them threatening the country. A BEHEMOTH-type being stolen under the noses of many countries, companies, and mercenaries? That makes them big enough and dangerous for your country.”

  He ate a meat bun listlessly. Gaston folded his arms and leaned back. His eyes shining dark-red, like flickers. Constable Yu didn’t notice it.

  “I don’t understand how they think that their goal is salvation.”

  “The warped mind cannot be fathomed so easily, Yu. Some are hoping to find salvation in this hellish world and being embraced by a flesh-egg? A biomass made of flesh that uses them as living batteries? Do you think that you’ll ever understand that?”

  “No.”

  He took a bite of his meat bun. His fingers played with the chopsticks before he slurped his noodles. His face visibly relaxed and there was a shade of rosiness on his cheeks.

  “Satisfied?”

  “I am. Please, forgive me, I’ve been asleep in that freezer for too long.”

  His left elbow had red marks. His neck was bruised and inflamed. There are black spots around his shoulder blade and markings around his neck where he was plugged.

  “Looks like your body doesn’t tolerate cryo. It’s a good thing that we got you out sooner.”

  There were certain limitations. Even strong bodies have certain weaknesses and from the looks of it. His body doesn’t tolerate suspended animation through the use of a cryo-chamber.

  “I don’t want to imagine how much damage the cryo would have done to me. I’m just happy that I managed to get out at all.”

  “So, you're done eating?”

  “I am.”

  Gaston paid the bill. For some time, the two of them roamed the streets before stopping into this narrow alley headed inward this small passage leading to this multi-block apartment. They entered an apartment, climbed the stairs, and stopped on the fifth floor, and entered a room.

  It was a stuffy room that has been gathering dust. There was a whiteboard with leads traced with red strings. It was an old-fashioned detective board with printed photographs. Many of these leads were crossed out in red. Gaston stopped Yu with his hand. He entered the room. Searched the room and released this static electricity that made the lights flicker.

  “No bugs,” Gaston muttered. “Strange that they haven’t bugged your room.”

  Constable Yu looked around with hands on his waist. “You didn’t fry my furniture right?”

  “I didn’t. I made sure that they aren’t affected. I have a far better control of my bio-electricity, so don’t worry.”

  “Wow, it’s quite interesting. It’s strong as well. Is that your breaker power? Bio-electricity manipulation?”

  “Kinda,” Gaston said. He pressed his palm on the desk. “Looks like the area is secure… though they could have other mystical methods.”

  “It’s alright. They shouldn’t be able to catch anything here. I made sure that this apartment is at least secure. No worries of any unwarranted intrusion or anything like that.”

  He took his things out and displayed them on a square table. Gaston leaned on the table. His eyes read the data and clues that Constable Yu had gathered.

  “You are… meticulous.”

  “I guess I am. Nonetheless I need more… data. Ah, here,” he showed Gaston this blueprint of the early drive engines.

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  “Are you sure you're showing this to me?” Gaston asked.

  Yu’s brows met. “Ah, don’t worry, they are already leaked to the public, what we are after isn't the design itself. But the construction method. The drive engines that I saw were like this.”

  “Yamamoto design…? Tell me if I’m wrong since you’re a native speaker.”

  “Indeed. This is a Yamamoto design. One of the early split-realm drive engines created. From what I saw from the ones in Tenryu Ward. The drive engine design was like this. The thing is that they have one design flaw.”

  “They explode?”

  “Exactly,” he grinned at Gaston. “They designed the engine with the drive-core located in the block. Because of the materials and the design of the engine, it causes an implosion that leads to an explosion.”

  “Rather specific… implosion and then an explosion?”

  “The drive implodes creating a small tear which then leads to a burst of energy detonating.”

  Gaston planted his trigger finger on the print. “So you believe that they are using this Yamamoto design to create the storming events, right?”

  “Only a hypothesis. But the previous investigation also tells me that it is. I believe that when we first met I was told of a possible manipulation of data?”

  “That’s right.”

  Constable Yu pulled out a document. Gaston took the document. He flipped it over and skimmed it. His AR-module took note of the keywords.

  “Is your module isolated by the way?”

  “It runs offline. It has its own packages installed. Why?”

  “Good. A secured cloud scan on that would have been sniffed out by the cult.”

  “This cult… their reliance on technology is fascinating.”

  “They are a techno-cult,” Yu said with hate in his voice. “They are reliant on technology because they believe that tech is the sacrifice to their salvation. Have you heard one of their credos? That technology itself is the continuous violation of mother nature. And to violate nature means that they must provoke mother nature into accepting them back to their earthly womb.”

  Gaston had seen their credos and websites created and dedicated to the cult. Most of them were web pages to the teachings. It was shallow and it also promised salvation to those who have lost their way.

  The terrible thing about their web pages was that they would definitely visit those who registered on their websites. Those who have signed up for their brand of salvation would vanish and never to be seen again. Their recruitment method is clean and there were little traces of where they’d come in.

  “How were they transported?”

  That was the question that has been bugging operatives and investigators who are looking for a trace of the cult. Gaston however had an idea how they were transported.

  Split-realm tunneling was a dangerous method. To use the tunneling method that forces space to tear apart, one would need strong hulls to absorb and protect from the space-pressure brought forth by the opening of the split-realm.

  “They are using their tunneling method to transport these people to their ‘realm’ where they are initiated and recruited into their cult.”

  “A portal… isn’t that supposed to be considered dangerous?”

  “It might. But are they all dangerous?” Yu said calmly. “There are many methods and techniques in this world. Centuries ago we thought that it was impossible to create split-realm ships that could tear through space or create superhuman individuals with the ability to fight monsters. We thought of this as something impossible until it happened. The cult works on the idea that it can’t be done while also using these ideas for themselves.”

  “Or they just know how to cover their traces.”

  “So clean? They are dangerous because of their ability to pop out anywhere and leave without a sign. If we have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how impossible, must be true, isn’t that a good saying?”

  “We're grasping straws.”

  “And hiring a blogger who luckily guessed something isn’t?”

  “Fine. So you say that they have a method that can transport them. It is reasonable since they showed that they have the ability when kidnapping the BEHEMOTH.”

  “That’s right. They showed this card knowing that others would come to this same conclusion. Of course, we can already determine that they are going to make traps about their methods so we can attest that they are entering a stage of their plan and they are confident about it.”

  “Confident enough that they gave the middle-finger to the world that is,” Gaston folded his arms and sat idly on the table. “They have been acting smart and I don’t believe that they suddenly decided to become reckless.”

  Yu nodded. “We don’t have time and I believe that our enemies aren’t going to gloat and suddenly stop to explain their methods since they think that they already won. Unfortunately, it isn’t as convenient as that. And so I believe that we can only stop here during the time where they are going to use whatever they harvested from that behemoth.”

  A drive-engine that was detonated to produce a storming event. The ability to transport something and someone without trace. The theft of a huge quantity of ichorium. Drive engines rely on ichor-based energy to function. Ichor which is a collection of sparticles, the energy that is powering the split-realm drive engines. The power that they could produce with an ichorium harvested from a BEHEMOTH type monster the size of a city is… terrifying.

  Gaston knew where it was going. Even if they were the greatest detective of them all. Gaston knew that they couldn't just pull something out of their ass. It would be reckless. It would be the same as gambling for the lives of many in hopes that their guess was right.

  But there is a clue that could shed light to them. And that clue was also terrible news for them. The data manipulation that allowed the belua to spawn on the nation of japan was going to be their clue. But at the same time it is also the place where they want to watch for signs.

  “Looks like we are only going to act when we know where they are, aren’t we?”

  Yu nodded heavily. “We can detect energy signatures on the places where the data is handled by sensors. We will double-check some of the instruments and run independent tests and when we find where the energy readings are… we strike them.”

  Yu looked down and made an apologetic face. “This is the only thing that we can do. If we want to find where they are. Then we can only go to them the moment they start doing their plan.”

  “Like moths to a flame.”

  “That’s right. What we can do is to follow up on the places that have high energy readings. I don’t think we can find any trace of how they are manipulating data so easily… but it’s worth a shot.”

  Gaston felt disappointed with how little they had to do with. Nonetheless, the enemy was prepared, and no one even cared until they stole a giant and made a fool of everyone.

  An enemy that was a step ahead of everyone.