Chapter 145: Hitching a Ride

Chapter 145: Hitching a Ride

Yuki - Halls Corporation

“Sir, my team is ready to proceed at any time. Just give us the command,” Yuki said as she saluted to her superior on the other end of the video call.

“Please hold until the appointed time. The CEO has yet to arrive at the command center and has given the order to follow everything as scheduled. ‘There is no rush’, he says.”

“...Understood. We are on standby, awaiting commands.”

Yuki ended the call and glanced over to her teammates. She had been assigned to various teams before but has recently gotten to learn a bit more about her current teammates since they were reorganized to form a new elite team.

There were three others current with her, a man with a buzz-cut, another who always wore darkened visors, and a middle-aged woman that you wouldn’t expect to be out in the field.

They were each making their preparations for the upcoming mission, working on their vehicle, fine-tuning their equipment, or typing away on their terminal.

“Command says the mission will start on schedule, not one second earlier.”

“Understood.” They each replied in their own fashion.

“Bobby, double-check the conditions of the chemicals. We have to ensure this looks like an organic issue.”

The man with the shades turned his head toward Yuki.

“I’ve got it, but it’s not like the other parties won’t find out its sabotage.”

“It doesn’t matter if they know or not. It’s about proof. The inspectors are only able to make decisions based on provided facts. It’s our job to help adjust those facts for them so they make the most correct choice.”

The man simply shrugged as a response and returned to tuning a small handheld device.

Yuki sighed and moved on to the next member of her team.

“How about you, Edith? Are you prepared to breach into their vehicles undetected?”

“Yes, hun. The prep team made everything easy by already having tried out the program they provided on a vehicle of the same model. I’m just optimizing it to make it more streamlined with all the new information we received.”

“Great, keep up the good work.”

The middle-aged woman smiled at Yuki’s attempt to sound like the model superior.Nnêw n0vel chapters are published at novelhall.com

“Yes, ma’am.” She teased. “Oh, and would you like a cookie, hun? The sugar helps keep your mind sharp.”

“...Is that made from real sugar and butter?”

“Yes. The CEO keeps a pantry fully stocked here in NLA, too. And they sometimes hand out things that have been around for a while. It’s nothing surprising, considering he spends most of his time in Elevate City.”

“How do you even know this? We only came here from EC for a week...”

“Oh hun, you simply have to ask. Plenty of people chatting during lunch.”

“I see...”

Yuki tactically retreated from the conversation as she sensed it heading in a direction she didn’t want to tread. She was no social butterfly, and she knew it. It was a part of herself that she didn’t mind keeping unchanged.

She moved on to her final team member.

“Guys...This isn’t supposed to happen. What is going on?” Yuki cried out.

“...We don’t have a connection with Quentin, but from my readings on my Argus, I think we have company,” Bobby replied.

Swiftly pulling up the latest scans on her optics, Yuki quickly understood what her subordinate was referring to. A large dot that indicated an organic organism was detected just behind them.

“Is that what I think it is, from the company training?” Yuki muttered.

“Should be, unless you know any other gigantic mutants with a cylindrical shape? That should be the Devil Worm we were warned about.”

“...What are the chances—Whatever! We need to get out of here. There’s no way we can deal with that.”

The trio glanced back at their companion in the car. The entire convoy had picked up speed, forcing Quentin to pick up speed as well. They were far past the speed at which they could safely transfer vehicles in.

“These convoys are operated by an experienced corporation, right? They must have a way to deal with the Devil Worm,” Edith calmly stated.

“Yeah, but we’re due to exit the sand dunes area soon. We’ll be going too fast to jump back into our car. I’d rather not jump off a high-speed vehicle and get detected. Bobby, you said you were prepared for such a situation. It’s time to live up to your word.”

The man nodded. His eyes were hidden by his pitch-black visors, but he exuded confidence.

The operatives waited patiently for the convoy to deal with the Devil Worm, and they did. All they heard was an enormous explosion behind them, along with the wails of the mutant, before their cars sped up again. While they heard the mutant screaming as it chased them, it grew quieter until it could no longer be heard.

Even with the Devil Worm far behind them, the convoy didn’t slow down and continued their journey at a high speed. The two women looked at Bobby to take action.

“Get ready to jump when we slow down.”

He calmly climbed onto the roof of the car. Making use of his company’s provided magnetic boots, he silently trekked toward the driver’s seat.

He lay prone once he was there and fished out a small handheld device. He attached it just above the windshield and fiddled with it. A moment later, the front car of the convoy slowed down and steered toward the right. It didn’t immediately pick up speed as it waited for the rest of the convoy to readjust.

Bobby immediately retrieved his device and doubled timed it back toward his companions. From his sensors, he found that they had already made it back to their car, so he didn’t hesitate to leap over as well.

It was scary to make a blind jump into the sandstorm, but he soon made contact and landed safely in the back of the reversing car where his squad mates were.

The sound of the howling of the wasteland abruptly softened as the doors closed behind him.

“Floor it Quentin! We’re all back!”

“Roger that!”

The Halls Corporation agents safely distanced themselves from the convoy and Yuki could breathe again. She glanced toward Bobby, whose visors were slightly off-centered, and pointed it out for him.

“Good job, Bobby, but what did you do to get them to slow down?”

“I simply had produced some fake sensor readings for the front car. I made them detect another one of those Devil Worms ahead, so they quickly steered clear of it. However, it’s not perfect. If I sent out the fake readings to every car, they would each detect it at the same fixed distance I set it to. It would be easy to see through it if they were coordinated, so I had to target the leading car only.”

“Whatever works. You can leave the tech stuff to the brains back in the labs. Now then, since our job is done, let’s quickly catch a plane back to Elevate City! I want to watch the results of our hard work with our boss!” Yuki excitedly declared.

It was something she was surprised was allowed. Usually, agents didn’t get to know many details except what they needed to get the job done. It made Yuki especially happy that she got to observe the fruits of her labor. It let her know her job had a meaningful impact.

“Let’s see how GrainScape Tech feels, now that they’re on the other end of sabotage!”