Editing HEAVY OBJECT:Volume15 Chapter 2 (section)

===Part 7===

Heivia had no idea what happened in the darkness then.

To start with the result, the Bullmites did not turn them to Swiss cheese. Someone’s hands reached in from behind, covered or grabbed his mouth and dominant hand, and then pulled him away. He heard no gunshots in the meantime. This third party was not suppressing the noise and light with silencers and flash hiders. Even those would have left some sign of gunfire.

Nevertheless, the Bullmites did not pursue.

After passing through two thick metal doors, brilliant light stabbed into eyes adjusted to the dark.

His vision did not return for a while.

“When in combat mode instead of marching mode, the Bullmites choose their targets based on microwave anti-personnel radar and walking-pattern analysis instead of simple image analysis using a camera.”

Heivia heard a smooth female voice.

It belonged to the mystery person using their hands to keep him from speaking or using his dominant hand.

“Your pseudo-jamming using a corona discharge affected not just the EM Doppler but also the EM scan used for their autonomous decisions. It was a decent idea, but it seems it could not knock out the proper radar equipment.”

“Bwah!”

Heivia was finally released.

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As his vision gradually returned, he and the other potatoes quickly glanced around to grasp their situation. First of all, they were in a narrow stone tunnel with orange mining lights hanging down at even intervals. His mouth had been covered by someone in an Information Alliance officer’s uniform who had long silver hair and brown skin. The soldiers serving her were also from the Information Alliance.

Once his eyes adjusted, it did not seem like enough.

Below those dim lights, the beautiful brown woman with silver hair introduced herself. She had an adult face and voice that were used to smiling.

“I am Lendy Farolito. My rank is lieutenant colonel.”

“I’m not going to shake that hand which could have been holding anyone’s you-know-what. I’m sick of you Information Alliance people using us as your pawns. Besides, those Bullmites are your unmanned weapons, aren’t they?”

“If we were working with the Martini, do you really think we would be hiding in this ‘gap’? If we had control over those things, we could have removed ourselves from the list of targets in advance.”

The brown beauty named Lendy sounded exasperated, but Heivia and Myonri did not understand what this dark underground path even was.

However, there were no floral security cameras or bull-like Bullmites here. Melly Martini Extradry’s ubiquitous eyes did not exist here. That was enough for this dark subterranean path to feel far more liberating than the open city streets. …Although that may have been Heivia admitting that he was Manhattan’s enemy.

“Is this city nothing but secrets on top of more secrets…?”

“This is the Underground Railroad. …And I do not mean it is a literal railroad located underground. This is a free space modeled after the organization that secretly rescued many slaves and helped them escape to safety during the civil war of an older age. The privileged class who were sick of this surveillance society altered the construction blueprints to create this ‘gap’. It is primarily used by students of Manhattan’s Columbia University and by Wall Street brokers and lawyers who graduated from there. …Since they could dig something like this without causing any real harm, the Manhattan 000 must be built thick down into the ocean.”

“N-no matter what anyone is trying to say, it always sounds like they’re bragging about the Manhattan’s specs. I have no idea if you’ve saved us or not…”

The problem was the scale of it all.

And Lendy nodded toward dumbfounded Myonri.

“In the Information Alliance, the powerful rule the weak through information management. There is always a risk that the higher ups are well aware that we believe we have fooled them. You should assume there is no such thing as a perfect safe zone.”

They had no words in response to that.

They still could not tell what was going on, but it seemed the Information Alliance was not a monolith. There were two groups: the standard one that had sent the Bullmites to finish off Heivia’s group, and the special group that had gathered the potatoes and taken them to a surveillance blind spot.

Lendy brought a hand to her slender chin.

“We too are focused on the Manhattan 000’s actions. In this case, that means the actions of the Capulet AI Network, which even the military has stopped worrying about the hardware side of, and the Martini, who is constantly conversing with that network. We have decided someone has to apply the brakes on the entire affair. Even if the AI is correct, its decisions will eventually stray from the truth if the inspector Martini continues giving it inaccurate responses. We have an idea of how to apply the brakes, but you need more than a trump card to play a game. We needed to gather enough ‘normal cards’ to reach the point where we can play that trump card.”

“Thank you very much for ignoring everything we’ve said. You will be pleased to know that being ignored by silver-haired brown-skinned young women has a way of making me nice and hard. Also, what about that sniper? Based on what you said, the natural assumption is that you stirred up that trouble to drive us down into the subway station.”

“…That would certainly be nice.”

However, Lendy’s response was a surprise.

Heivia had expected either a yes or no answer that might be an attempt to deceive them.

“We are at as much of a loss as you are about that, so I don’t know what to tell you.”

The brown beauty shrugged.

And she said it.

“It seems some other problem has arisen even as the Information Alliance is split in two over the Manhattan 000. This appears to be a different force altogether.”