HA2 3.1 – Workshop
Inside Black Zubaru, Hide drank a canned juice in one go. Then, after taking a deep breath full of relief he said, “Tonight hunt is a close call. We miss a lot of information. I enter VIP ward without even knowing the type of the door on Takeshi’s room or doctor who handled him.
And I can escape purely because of improvisation and luck.”
“It’s my fault,” Takeo dejectedly said. “So far we always have good result, so I take it easy and didn’t collect the info through fully.”
“Actually,” Hide took a deep breath before continuing, “I have biggest share in tonight mess. As the one with most experience, I should supervise your work before we carry out the hunt. Like how we did it in previous job. This time we are too hasty.”
After biting her lower lips Shizuka weakly said, “Sorry, I didn’t provide worthy assistance tonight.”
“Hey,” Hide looked deeply at Shizuka as he said, “It’s not your fault. Not to mention, in this business you are the most junior among us. Let’s be grateful that we managed to eliminate Takeshi, learn from our mistake, and move on.”
“”Okay,”” Takeo and Shizuka replied almost at the same time.
Wasting no time, Hide then started Black Zubaru’s engine, “Let’s visit our workshop before we go home.”
Vroom vroom vrooooommmm!!
With ease, the Black Zubaru leaved the dark alley and entered the main road that neither crowded nor empty, and went straight to central station, or to be precise was its rear complex.
After passing dozens of neatly parked locomotives, the Black Zubaru stopped before a tunnel. Hide then asked Shizuka to open the crossbar that sealed the tunnel, and locked it again after Black Zubaru passed it. After that, the Black Zubaru continued its journey, drove through the dark tunnel in moderate speed.
Surprisingly, after a few hundred meters the railway turned into two lanes paved road, Hide immediately increased the speed. Twenty minutes later, the Black Zubaru arrived at an abandoned subway substation, and Hide parked the Black Zubaru in front of a Black Van.
As she got down from Black Zubaru, Shizuka asked, “That van is from Villa Tigera, isn’t it?”
“Yep,” Hide calmly replied. “And our loot is still there.”
“Hide, how do you know this place?” Takeo asked after giving the dark subway substation a quick scan.
“It’s a memory from my previous life.”
It was honest answer, but Takeo and Shizuka didn’t believe it in the slightest. However, they didn’t ask further.
Under the help from a flash light, Hide then took Takeo and Shizuka into a small information center in one corner. The door to the information center was tightly locked, but Hide easily opened it, and in its backroom the three found a fully working elevator.
As he pointed to a keypad next to the elevator’s door Hide said, “The code is 6-9-6-9-6-9.”
“What a pervert code,” Shizuka gave her remark.
“Yeah,” Hide slightly smiled before continuing, “But it’s very easy to remember it.”
No sound was heard as Hide entered the code, but the small red light above the elevator turned green as soon as Hide entered the last number. At the same time, the elevator’s door smoothly opened. Wasting no time, the three entered it and as soon as Hide pressed number 13 on the keypad, the elevator was immediately going up.
The space inside the elevator was not big, only around 1x1 meter, and there was a warning of 500 kg limitation on one of its wall. From the stale air inside the elevator, it was also easy to tell that the elevator was not being used for a long time.
As the elevator went up, Shizuka and Takeo actually had lot of question flooded their mind, but they tried their best to hold their curiosity back and just followed Hide faithfully.
Then, the elevator arrived at 13th floor and after a mild “Ping!”, its door smoothly opened. Wasting no time, Hide stepped out into a pitch black dark room, went straight for the switch, and turned the lighting on.
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In an instant, Takeo and Shizuka dropped their jaw. The place where they stood turned out was very spacious. It had black wall in all sides, bright lighting, a few boxes and numbers made of yellow line on the floor, and some silhouette of human torsos in the distance. With ease, they could guess that it was an indoor shooting range.
“In order to secretly carry his hobby, a crazy rich gun nut built this place,” Hide calmly introduce the shooting range. “Other than 200 meters gun range, this range also has firearm workshop, armory, along with warehouse that store various steel plates for target practice and removable wall made of wooden plank to construct CQB quarter.
In short, other than the weapon and ammo, it has everything to be called as a proper shooting range.”
As question mark in his forehead thickened Takeo asked, “Hide, where is the owner now?”
“Death.”
“Did you kill him?” Shizuka curiously asked.
“No, he died in a plane crash last years, a few days just before he moved his firearm collection to this place.”
“Does his family know about this place?” Takeo asked another question.
“Nope, no one knows this place other than the owner.”
“Hide, please be honest with us,” Shizuka sincerely begged. “How do you know this place?”
“It’s a memory from my previous life.” Hide could tell Shizuka and Takeo didn’t believe him in the slightest, but he didn’t give a damn about it. “Follow me.”
Through a door in a corner, Hide then took Takeo and Shizuka to the armory. It was not big, only around 5x5 meters, but it had proper gun cage, equipment rack, pallet to pile up ammo can, forklift, and sturdy table specifically designed to help a shooter cleaning and maintaining their toys.
“We have to move our loot from Black Van to this room as soon as possible,” Hide calmly said.
Takeo nodded and asked, “When will we do it?”
“Next Thursday, can you spare some time after dinner?”
“I can,” Shizuka firmly replied.
“No problem,” Takeo also firmly replied.
“Good.”
Hide then took the two to firearm workshop. The room had lot of equipment that made Takeo and Shizuka creased their eyebrow, but Hide didn’t explain anything and kept walking to next room. When passing a medium-sized but well equipped martial art gym, Hide also didn’t explain anything. He only stopped when the three arrived in a small empty room.
“I plan to turn this warehouse into a lab.”
“What kind of lab?” Shizuka curiously asked.
“Chemistry,” Hide calmly replied. “Otsu will provide the equipment and materials. Next Thursday, before we move our lot in Black Van, we will take it from her place.”
Takeo added, “It’s also a good chance to take Bastard Moruyama’s second car.”
“Yeah, you and Shizuka will take it. I will carry Black Zubaru.”
Hide then took the two to the last room. It was the combination of kitchen, living room, bathroom, and laundry room. Unlike the previous rooms, it had creamy wall on three sides and one big glass wall on one side. The exterior of big glass wall was being used to hold big letters saying ‘CHIKARA TOWERS’.
Takeo and Shizuka immediately walked over to the glass walls. Through a gap on the big letters, they observed the traffic below and they immediately realized that they were far above the ground.
“Hide, are we truly in 13th floor?” Takeo asked as doubt was reflected in his eyes. Then, another question appeared in his mind as he recognizes the main road below, the nearby buildings, and the big letters on the exterior glass wall, “Are we in Chikara Tower?”
“First, we are in 46th floor,” Hide calmly replied. “Secondly, yes, we are in Chikara Tower.”
“Wait,” Takeo turned his gaze towards Hide as he said, “If I remember it correctly, Chikara Tower only has 45 floors.”
“Publicly, yes, it has only 45 floors, but actually it had one additional floor in its peak.”
Shizuka, who so far was only listened, decided to ask, “How did the gun nut get an unknown additional floor?”
“Well, people call it the power of money,” Hide calmly replied.
“Damnable rich people,” Shizuka cursed in whisper.
“Yeah,” Hide expressed his agreement, and then heaving a deep sigh before refocusing his mind. “You need to bring some spare clothes here. Firearms training will dust your body and clothes with gun powder’s residue. You can’t go home in that condition.
We also need to stock food, snack, and other daily necessity in this place. As for Bastard Moruyama’s place, I give you two the task to turn it into our IT and planning quarter.”
“”Okay.”” Takeo and Shizuka replied almost at the same time.
“From now on, other than Bastard Moruyama’s place as our base, we will have this place as our workshop. Every activity that related to our job, we will do it in these two places. Don’t leave any trail in other place, especially our house.” Hide deeply looked at Takeo and Shizuka before asking, “Is that clear?”
““It is.”” Takeo and Shizuka replied almost at the same time.
“Good, let’s go home then.”
Unlike how they came in, to leave their workshop Hide showed Takeo and Shizuka a secret access to Chikara Tower’s rooftop. From there, they then went down to lobby by using regular elevator. After that, they called taxi to take them home.
*****