Corpo Age

Chapter 66: Operation C

*There, it worked.*

Once we got inside the room, we turned toward the only occupant. He was a large man who had maroon-colored cyberarms. On his shoulder was the symbol of their gang, the Rust Scrappers.

We circled around him as he was busy working the terminal on his desk. Behind him were the tinted windows that gave us a clear view of the casino down below.

Rather than waiting any longer, I immediately lashed out and stabbed the man’s nape with a syringe. It was simply a drug to knock him out, and it worked fast. Before I could place the syringe back into my pack, the man fell face-first onto the table, unconscious.

Thorne and I disabled our active camouflage in unison as he stepped in to put restraints on the man.

We lifted him together and brought him to the corner of the room before I sat down in his chair and browsed his terminal.

It seemed like he was in the middle of writing a report about the casino’s business and was about to send it to someone named Luther. Diving further into the terminal, I didn’t find any conclusive evidence that tied them to us, but I did find that the Rust Scrappers were going to be having a meeting between the various executives soon.

They were even hosting it in this casino itself in three days’ time.

“Nothing here, but they’re having a Rust Scrapper meeting here soon. Let’s come back then.”

“I’ll hit him with a drug to make his memory foggy. He shouldn’t make too much of a fuss about it.”

His terminal was still logged into his account and had access to the security throughout the place. I downloaded the schematics and swiftly made our way out. With administrative access, I disabled the sensors out front for the next half hour to allow us to escape.

The next time we return, we’ll be much more prepared.

For the next several days, I focused on paperwork during the day, and back to hunting harvesters during the night.

We didn’t uncover anything vital during this time, just several Rust Scrappers hideouts. We were waiting for their meeting to take place first so we could learn more before we took any overtly hostile actions against such a big gang.

I enjoyed a stroll in our neighborhood and visited the cafe that was having a limited-time flavor milkshake.

There were still several hours until the meeting, so I returned to finally put some hours into the VR game Claire had gotten.

The immersive VR here wasn’t what I imagined it to be, where I would be put to a sleep-like state. Instead, it was a pod where I floated around inside like a fetus in the womb. I logged on and immersed myself in a Victorian-era RPG, and relaxed while enjoying something other than work.

The game had a lot of freedom with lifelike NPC that I could almost mistake for a real person if not for the indicator above their heads. Dungeons had descended to the backward society, causing upheaval with all the changes it brought. From skill orbs, levels, and monsters, it was a world more akin to what I would have expected myself to end up in after being hit by that truck.

My alarm rang, covering my vision, and prompting me to exit out of the game.

I met up with Thorne in the security room, who was in the middle of briefing our men about the operation tonight. I stood out of the way and analyzed the layout of the underground casino in case anything went wrong.

“So, you guys are going off into the lion’s den again, huh?”

I turned to the speaker and found Claire standing beside me.

“We’ll be fine as long as we have you guys looking out for us.”

“We’ll need you to get us a connection into their system first. I have been improving pretty fast, so Lana says, but it’s still Leo and Lana who will be doing the bulk of the work. Let’s get this done fast so we can resume dealing with all the paperwork. It’s starting to pile up with Vin finishing up our branch in Salt Lake.”

I looked around the room and saw the cy-sec duo busy on their terminals while the men started filing out of the room with Thorne headed straight toward me.

“Rollo, we’re ready,” He said

“Alright, let’s go.”

An advance team that included me, Thorne, and two others, retraced our steps from our previous visit to the underground casino. We came a few hours early, before the start of the meeting, to get into position.

It didn’t take long before we spotted someone heading into the spa that was the front for the casino. Just like last time, we tailed behind them as they entered the basement where the casino was.

From the information we downloaded last time, we found information on their defenses, which included the scanner they had. I adjusted our implants to counter its precise detection method using the frequency they used.

We waltzed through the checkpoint this time without setting any alarms and made our way into the casino. Rather than going to the same office, though, we split off to find a place where we could connect to their systems, so our cy-sec specialists could do their thing.

The main floor where all the slot machines and tables were had too much traffic for us to plug in unnoticed. I took breaks in the washroom to allow my Shade to rest. Just as I was about to head out to continue my search, I received a text from one of the security members who infiltrated together with us.

*Found the mechanical room in the staff-only area. It’s beside the chip exchange.*

With that taken care of, I made my way to the room where the Rust Scrappers meeting would soon take place. I bugged the room and its adjacent washrooms before I made my way to reunite with the other three.

I found Thorne already plugged into the control panel on the wall as the other two stood guard.

“Did you guys get a count on how many people are here tonight? Especially around the meeting room.”

The man who had found this room answered, “Sir, we found around thirty staff and the same number of security. Not too different from your reports.”

“That doesn’t account for all the men those other executives in the gang will bring when they arrive,” Thorne added.

“It should still be manageable as long as we still have the element of surprise.”

Not long after, we received a message from Leo that they were in. We had admin access the last time we were here, which gave us a backdoor we could breach through quickly.

We had a few teams that were waiting outside, taking turns to infiltrate one team at a time while the others stayed outside to keep watch. They had to wait for guests to show up, but we were trickling into their casino.

In the meantime, I killed time by scrolling through the camera feeds throughout the premise.

I settled on one that observed the guests playing. They mostly played the same games as the one in Firebird, a variation of baccarat.

After observing for over an hour, I unsurprisingly found that the casino cheated. The table I was observing had played normally until one of their patrons kept doubling his bet. He had won twice in a roll and was about to go for one last gamble, but from the angle of the camera, I could see the dealer discreetly added a card to the top as they dealt.

The gambler who lost was so frustrated he threw his drink at the ground, shattering glass everywhere. I watched as he argued with a manager, who pressed him to repay his debts. The argument soon ended when security came in and escorted him out.

I guess casinos can still get clients, even with a bad reputation, as long as people still get hooked on gambling.

After another hour of waiting, the meeting time fast approached.

“All units, we’ve spotted several vehicles pulling up to the back of the spa. Be advised, there are at least twenty members of the Rust Scrappers coming in now,” Claire’s voice broadcasted through our comms.

We continued to stay put in the mechanical room and watched the new additions through the camera feeds. The Rust Scraper executives moved in groups of five, where one stood out from each group as the apparent leader. The executions were easy to spot, as they all had one thing in common; they all confidently strode into the building like they owned the place and were flanked by their bodyguards.

All of them soon arrived at the meeting room, and the familiar man with two maroon-colored cyberarms we encountered last time strode in last. He sat at the front of the table, where six other executives of the Rust Scrappers were already seated.

“Thank you all for coming here. Our leader isn’t here, so I will go by tradition. As the host, I will be the facilitator for this meeting today. First thing on the agenda…”

They started going over mundane business reports and finances for a whole hour until they took a break. Several of them headed for the washroom while others headed out for refreshments.

In the bathroom, I watched as the facilitator, the man whom I had previously knocked out, chatted with another man who was using the urinal next to his.

“I’ve got a few more people who couldn’t pay their debt around. Can you still liquidate them quickly?”

“The war out in space is over, so laborers aren’t in demand anymore. I can reach out to a few harvester groups, though. Unless you have some young and attractive merchandise?”

“I’ll send you their profiles later…”

Having heard enough of their conversation, I switched channels to listen in on three female Rust Scrapper executives at the bar.

“Where is your pretty lieutenant you always have with you?”

“Dead. That useless thing went and got himself killed without my permission on a simple mission.”

“My… how wasteful.”

“Don’t get me started on it. I thought I would do the late Dr. Bennett a favor and avenge him in a small way against that corpo who took him out. But I can’t believe he couldn’t even manage a simple sabotage mission.”

And bingo! We have a winner. To be honest, I don’t think I was going to let them go from what I’ve heard, even if I didn’t find our saboteurs.

“Attention all units. We’ll be proceeding with plan C, starting in fifteen minutes. Teams outside, did you track where they took the man they brought outside an hour ago or so ago?”

“Yeah, it’s in the next building over,” Claire responded.

“Have a team split off to secure that area as well. They got possible prisoners there that we should free.”

“Roger that.”

I turned and exchanged looks with Thorne and the two other guards before we made our way back outside. We shared our vision, allowing enemies to be highlighted through the walls if others in our network saw them.

I watched as the blue outlines of my allies got into position. When we were finally ready, I headed right toward the meeting room that had resumed their session.

More than a dozen guards stood outside as their charge was in the meeting. Once I got into position, I gave out the command to begin the operation.

*Start.*

I immediately lifted out my SMG and unleashed the armor-piercing rounds I had loaded it with. The rounds sliced through their cybernetics and armor like cheese, tagging their allies behind them.

+10 EXP

+10 EXP

+10 EXP

+10 EXP

+10 EXP

+10 EXP

Thorne and the other two struck as well, firing off their assault rifle into the crowd with me. Once we released our fingers from the trigger, the hallway didn’t have a single enemy left standing.

I moved to finish off the ones I hadn’t hit as the rest of my team got ready to breach into the meeting room.

Thorne had placed a breaching charge on the doors and looked back at me.

I nodded, “Do it.”

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