Chapter 28: Expansion

Chapter 28: Expansion

James - ???

“James, I want you to handle this incident review here.”

“Yes, sir, consider it done.” He stood straight as he received the dossier from his boss with both hands.

His boss clasped a hand to his shoulder, “You may be new, but I’m expecting good things from you. Don’t let the director down.”

He had to force himself from wincing at the mention of his dad. He tightened his facade and escaped from the office after some small talk.

Setting the car to auto-drive, he reviewed the information he had received as the car drove him to the place of the incident. This case was a typical theft from their corporation’s stores, so it wasn’t anything too important. A case that was hard to screw up on, which was likely why his boss had given it to him, seeing who his father was.

A quick check in the company’s database showed this wasn’t an isolated incident either. With theft on the rise in various retail stores that sold medium to low-value goods, whoever was behind it was targeting low-security stores.

The camera footage from the incidents hadn’t shown much, just some products up and disappearing from sight by itself.

He soon arrived at the store in question, as it wasn’t that far from the headquarters.

“Sir, we’ve been expecting you. My name is Nathan. Please allow me to be your guide,” A man greeted him at the door as soon as he got out of the car.

“Take me to your security room. I want to review all the footage you have.”

“Of course, sir, follow me.”

He followed Nathan into the store. He was brought to the elevators, up through several floors, and passed by high-security scanners before they arrived in the monitoring room.

If we had the equipment on this floor pointed at our goods, we would have caught the perpetrators right on the spot.

Looking over the monitors, James spotted hundreds of cameras being cycled across the dozen floors of retail space. Several people in reclining chairs were hooked up to the security terminal, scrolling through the camera feeds in real time. Even with this setup, they still somehow didn’t notice the incident until five minutes after the theft.

Talk about incompetence.

A woman immediately closed the distance with them once she noticed him, “Identify yourself, only authorized personnel can—”

“Stand down Debra, this is an esteemed guest from headquarters’s security team. I apologize for her rudeness sir, please feel free to review the footage you wanted here,” The man brushed aside Debra and pulled a chair back for him.

He took up his offer and plugged the cord from the security terminal into the port in his hand. The company provided SAID instantly keyed in his corporate credentials and he soon gained administrative access.

With the help of his cybernetics, he reviewed all the footage during the day of the incident at a rapid pace. He looked for all the common theft tells they were trained on, including camera tampering, tricks people placed on the product beforehand, and their internal employee’s logs during the same time.

The most common options were crossed out, so he reexamined the footage of the products disappearing. He placed the footage onto the big screen in the room and zoomed in on it.

“Nathan, you guys reviewed all the footage yourselves, right? Did you cross-check the position of every customer and employee in the store at the time of the incident from other cameras?”

“Yes, sir. They were all accounted for.”

It could be internal tampering with evidence, but he was sure their division’s cy-sec specialists would have caught it by now unless it was someone really skilled like from another corp.

...But why would another corp resort to petty theft?

“Sir?” A voice pulled him out of his musing. “Yes, what is it? I’m thinking.”

“...Apologies Sir, but doesn’t this look like the stealth tech your department’s operatives typically use?”

His gaze shifted upward to the screen at the man’s words and replayed it in slow motion. The way the product disappeared did seem similar to the stealth tech he had used in training...

A few days later, he reported his findings back at headquarters.

“James, my boy, what was the result of your investigation?” The man in front of him poured two cups of whiskey and handed one to him.

Following protocol, he printed out all his findings in physical form and placed them on the table.

“We found the method of theft and captured the suspect. It seems like stealth tech had leaked out somewhere and some kid was using it to lift our products.”

His boss raised an eyebrow, “Stealth tech? You ran it by R&D yet?”

24

Sensory Perception:

52

Upgrade Points:

0

Upgrades:

Stealth +7Hacking +3Cybernetic Engineering +6Stealth Technology +6Software Engineering +4

Enhancements:

SAID: Zenitech Hoth Mk.3

Optics: Nova Tech Stars Mk.4

Cyberarm (Left): Nova Tech Mudra Mk.6

Cyberarm (Right): Nova Tech Shiva Mk.5

Auditory: Amazing Corp FieldTac Gen 2

Cardiovascular: BioGen Labs Marathon 4

Miscellaneous: HSU Custom Shade

As I took a sip from my cup, the commotion grew louder rapidly as the source got closer. I joined the majority and peeked out; I spotted a large man with cybernetic limbs walking straight up the aisle while several crew members tried to hold him back.

“Sir, please return to your seat. The plane will be landing momentarily,” One of the crew members desperately cried out.

“Get out of my way if you don’t want to get hurt. I’m just going to take a seat where the chairs actually fit me.”

“Sir, all the seats at the front are full. Please, it won’t take long before we land.”

“I’ll go to the cockpit and sit with the captain, then.”

I couldn’t tell if the man barging his way through was on drugs or plain stupid, but it seemed like there was no getting through to him with reason.

Maybe this was why corpos had exclusive flights, to not have to deal with the riffraff. The prices were high though, and I wasn’t even eligible for it, so no point in crying about it now.

“Sir, do not approach the cockpit. We will have to abort the landing if you disturb the pilots,” The man ignored the cries around him and continued on his way, passing my seat.

“Sigh...” I really didn’t want to have a delay on my first trip abroad in this world. I guess I had to do something.

I climbed over to the other aisle and got ahead of the commotion, waiting for the man to come through. Once he moved the blinds aside and moved into my vision, I sprung my ambush and thrust a hand at his throat. I didn’t relent and followed up with elbows and threw punches to his chin and temples with my cybernetic arms.

The new surgeon at the clinic had helped me install my second arm that was more geared toward precision movements such as aiming my guns or surgery, but that didn’t mean it couldn’t pack a punch in a melee.

Surprised by the storm of blows from my metal limbs, the man slumped over as I swung, dodging my attack as he collapsed.

The flight attendants quickly closed in and restrained the man in a shocking display of unity, as they weren’t even fazed by the violence.

I returned to my seat, and the plane landed safely as scheduled at the NLA International Airport.

I couldn’t wait to recover my weapons from the checked bags. I couldn’t believe I would think this way one day, but it didn’t feel safe or right to walk around unarmed.

Security barged onto the plane soon after we landed, but skipped me and went straight toward the back where the man was held. Without even questioning me, I successfully retrieved my bags, cleared customs, and was on my way out of the airport.

What I didn’t expect when I landed was someone holding up a sign at the arrival hall with my name on it. A buff guy with cybernetic arms, similar to the man who almost delayed my flight.

I really hope there isn’t going to be more trouble.