Editing HEAVY OBJECT:Volume6 Chapter 1 (section)

===Part 7===

Heivia also took action. The actions of the Unicorn group disguised as the Night Edge Platoon on the Cook Addition Islands was one thing, but he had no way of investigating the actions of the main force in Southern Africa just by observing. He had to find a net terminal that could access the military database.

“What a pain in the ass. Why can’t Quenser just look into it using a researcher’s computer?”

“I doubt he’ll have a chance to even touch one of those top secret computers. And the higher ups in the military can tell when a computer inside accesses something outside.”

“Hey, marriage scam artist. Why did you come with me?”

“I’ve awakened to a sense of love and justice.”

“…You’re not part of Unicorn too, are you?”

Heivia and the others had originally been ordered to dispose of the large amount of excess ammunition stored up. None of the soldiers given that task had any motivation and plenty of them had snuck off somewhere else. The fact that they were all beginning to “rot” like that allowed the higher ups to inwardly smile while rebuking them. No one would place any serious blame on Heivia and Genelia for disappearing.

“Hey, where do you think the external lines are? Somewhere in the experiment building?”

“We’d be caught by sensors if we even tried to approach that place. The only facility removed from the classified information on Object design is in the living quarters for the soldiers like us. And that place is basically Night Edge’s fortress.”

“So we have to get the information out of Unicorn’s computers?”

“That would be the fastest way to approach the truth. If they do have a hotline connected to someone else, they have to have a net terminal hidden from the higher ups.”

Heivia wondered what it would look like he and Genelia were doing to someone else. It may have looked like they had grown bored of the never-ending inventory reduction so they were sneaking off to the living quarters to take a nap.

“Hey, I know a quick way to make us look less suspicious. Wrap your arms around my arm.”

“…You don’t look like you have any money, so no thanks.”

“I am one of the Legitimacy Kingdom’s foremost nobles, you know!! Even if it is true that every single member of my family is opposed to me being the successor!!”

“Presideeeent, what is the total sum of your asseeeets?”

“Hey, don’t cling to me like that! It gives me goose bumps!!”

They walked across a large road-like bridge and arrived at the soldiers’ living quarters. It was a large steel piece of land that resembled an offshore drilling platform. And instead of having buildings built on top, the barracks were built hanging down below.

“Night Edge’s area is completely cut off from everything else. And the quality of the facilities on their side is better. I guess that’s what you get when you’re acting as bodyguards for those rich designers. I hear they get to eat dinner in the dining hall rather than just getting ready-made lunchboxes like us.”

“I had thought they were just your stereotypical discrimination lovers, but it may have been a way to restrict information. A lot of data gets passed around during mealtimes in the form of chitchat.”

“So they wanted to cut off any careless information leaks?”

“I’d say so.”

“But then won’t it be difficult to get into their area? They probably have tons of cameras set up.”

“No, they won’t.”

“?”

“They’re up to no good. Why would they leave any evidence of it?”

The two of them walked by the most obvious entrance to Night Edge’s area and spotted an obvious human guard out of the corner of their eye. It was a masked member of the Night Edge Platoon. They used the human eye so their surveillance would leave behind no records.

“I want to just punch him and head on in.”

“Do you want to fail?”

“Then I guess we have no choice but to find some other way in.”

They checked the ceiling ducts, but they were made of pipes only 10 cm across. They were much too small for a human to pass through.

“We can’t do this like an action movie then.”

“We need to check everything one by one. We might get lucky and find a way in.”

They checked the openings for electric wiring and plumbing, but they were too small and filled with too many twists and turns for a human or UGV to get through.

But…

“Here we go,” said Heivia after opening a steel door. “This place is constructed like an offshore oil platform. Maintenance passageways and stairways are prepared around the large pillars. If the entire core construction is connected, we can use them to move between living areas. And that means we can access Night Edge’s area.”

“Why would that be so open? They went to such effort keeping the ducts and plumbing inaccessible.”

“They were probably made by different contractors. Military facilities are often a complex collection of pieces made by different companies. It’s the same as building a castle. But that means the countermeasures change between contractors. Some areas will seem overly sensitive and other areas will be wide open. The people making it don’t always know how important it is.”

The facility was not the same as a commercial facility. The passageways were narrow and dark, and the wiring and such were sticking out in the open. The walls had no wallpaper covering them. The passageways looked more like something from a military ship than a building.

“So what do we do once we make it into Night Edge’s area?”

“We check the electric meters. This is a horribly hot tropical island. They’re on the winning side of things, so they’ll use the air conditioner 100% of the time instead of opening a window. The rooms the meter isn’t running for are the ones without soldiers in them. We sneak into one of those and search for the terminal.”

“I feel like a sneak thief.”

“That’s sort of what we are.”

They walked down a long passageway, down some stairs, and then grabbed the knob of a steel door. They opened the door a crack and checked on the other side, but they saw no sign of Unicorn.

“Dammit. Where are the electric meters? Do we have to wander around in here when those masked bastards could show up at any moment?”

“Hey, hey. Wouldn’t it be faster to just touch the door and see whether it’s cool or not? That should tell us if the air conditioner is on.”

Someone who ignored good advice to protect his pride would have a short life. And so Heivia did as Genelia had suggested. He placed his palm against one door in the room, being careful not to make any noise. As he repeated the process a few times, he came across a door that was clearly warmer than the rest.

“This is it.”

“But an empty room will be locked. How do we get in?”

“…We might have to kick down the door.”

“They’d hear that right away. But the deadbolt is made of polycarbonate, isn’t it? That’s usually used to make nonmetallic knives or shields.”

“So?”

“It’s weak to heat. It should melt if we heat it with a fire.” With a metallic clicking noise, Genelia opened the cap of an oil lighter. “Of course, they’ll notice the melted deadbolt later. This is our only chance to investigate in here, so be prepared.”

“Sure thing.”

“And this will create the smell of melted plastic. That could draw their attention. We need to be careful.”

“You sure know a lot about this.”

“I exchanged information with other criminals before I was caught. And I learned some things at bars too. Unfortunately, just hearing about it wasn’t enough to pick up some trickier skills like picking locks.”

It took about 30 seconds to unlock the door.

It did indeed create a bit of an unpleasant odor. The smell made them feel uneasy, but fortunately Unicorn showed no sign of coming in from the other rooms.

“It’s open.”

“Sorry about the intrusion,” said Heivia jokingly as he turned the doorknob and slowly opened the door. 

He peered in through the crack.

In the next instant, two arms reached out from the room and wrapped around Heivia’s neck.

Someone was inside.

A dull pain spread from Heivia’s neck and assaulted his entire body as he came to a quick decision. Instead of trying to remove the arms, he used his shoulder to tackle the door and the person inside.

The sudden impact sent the attacker rolling back into the room. Heivia charged in and straddled the person.

To Genelia, he said, “Shut the door. Damn this economical bastard! I can’t believe one of them likes to stew in his own sweat!!”

Heivia grabbed the collapsed masked man by the collar to constrict his carotid arteries which quickly knocked him unconscious. Heivia lightly lifted up the limp soldier’s black mask to check his neck.

Heivia grimaced when he spotted what he had expected to find.

“Scars from stiches circling around the neck. He’s from Unicorn too.”

Heivia bound the soldier’s arms and legs with the cable to an electric hot water dispenser, stuffed his mask in his mouth to keep him from speaking, and tossed him in the bathroom.

“Did you kill him?” asked Genelia.

“If I had, I wouldn’t have gone to all that trouble. …God dammit. I have nothing against bondage, but why does it have to be with a guy?” spat out Heivia as he looked around the room. 

It looked like a simple business hotel room. It was mostly tidy, but a few bags had been left in one corner.

Heivia checked inside and found a high speed modem. He also found a parabolic antenna about 30 cm across. It seemed they had been contacting someone outside the base via a communications satellite.

“There’s a metal fixture on the window’s handrail. It’s probably what they attach the antenna to.”

“This building hangs down from the offshore oil platform. I guess they can receive the signal down here.”

They could not find the actual computer used, but they found a small device when they checked what the man in the bathroom had on him.

“We can do this.”

“What’s the password?”

“That important information was carelessly left on a memo in one of the bags.”

“…Sigh. This must have been supplied to him, so he hasn’t had time to memorize the password.”

They used the small device to access the network.

It connected to the information network used exclusively by the Night Edge Platoon…or rather, Unicorn.

“They were originally a unit that carried out missions undercover. It isn’t surprising they would have a network set up that doesn’t use the official military format.”

“What have you found? Anything on their activity in southern Africa?”

“Wait, here it is. I have it. Something related to the water resource business using clouds in southern Africa.”

That was when they heard several sets of footsteps on the other side of the door. They were not simply heading down the passageway. They were clearly gathering around the door.

They must have noticed something was happening.

“Not good… Genelia, move all that data over to your device!”

“How did they notice us? The man in the bathroom is bound and gagged, right!?”

“He may have only pretended to be taken out and actually woke up pretty quickly.” Heivia approached the window and checked to see if it could be used to escape. “If he kicked at the wall with his bound feet, he could send a message using Morse code. Maybe I should have just killed him.”

“The data transfer is complete!”

“Okay, c’mere. This way!”

Just as Heivia and Genelia leaned out the window, the door to the room was violently kicked down and a stun grenade was tossed in.