Corpo Age

Chapter 35: Following the Lead

“We got footage of her time here. The recording is right here,” He offered me a small storage chip that I immediately plugged into the port in my wrist.

I played the video file inside the chip and saw Perry entering the club from the front entrance along with three others, a woman and two men around her age. She was dragged into the club by the woman, but the footage inside showed they were merrily drinking together as they watched the fights.

“Thank you, I’ve got what I came for so, I will be leaving now. Goodbye.”

Just as I turned around, the owner continued, “You’re welcome back if you want to fight again. Watch yourself tonight though, a lot of people lost some good credits betting against you,” He grinned.

Ignoring him, I made my way out of the club and headed back toward the main street, where I met up with Vin and Jane, who soon followed after me.

Vin had a huge smirk on his face while Jane spoke, “So what was going on back there?”

“The boss back there wouldn’t help with finding Perry unless I fought. Here, check this out.” I handed the chip over.

She pulled out a terminal to play the chip. A moment later, she handed it over to Vin for him and his eyes took on a glow.

“So what now? All we got was a few new faces to search for…” Jane said with a frown.

“Use the timestamp to track her from the nearby cameras?” I suggested.

“Won’t work. Places like these would have wiped their footage by now,” Vin answered.

“...” We stood silent for a moment while no new ideas came up.

“Let’s retire for the night. We’ll plan things out first before we search again, no use wearing ourselves out,” I concluded.

The next morning, I repeated my routine in my office and checked out some job applications we received for the few remaining positions.

A college student had applied, seeking an internship that I wasn’t planning on accepting, but my curiosity won over, so I viewed her submitted profile.

Her resume was filled with various extracurricular activities on top of the usual educational background.

Like clockwork, Vin entered into my office.

“We’re ready to depart, whatcha looking at?” He stared down at my terminal in hand, “...You looking for a ‘personal assistant’ or something?”

“It’s not like that… I just wanted to take a look.”

“Hmm, she is pretty, and goes to a good school too.”

“Not like that…Whatever.”

So a good school huh, it would probably be too embarrassing to admit I barely knew if the school was reputable or not. Especially these ones from New North America.

I took another hard look at the school in the background of her picture and compared it to the ones I found online. They all looked the same to me, though.

Wait a second…

“Vin, go get Jane.”

“What? I don’t think you need to get her opinion of your personal assistant candidates, no matter how pretty you think she is.”

“No! Get her to search the schools for their records while we’re in the wasteland.”

Upon returning from our trip to the wasteland, my restored connection immediately picked up a text message from Jane.

*Message me once you’re back. We should meet up.*

I replied with a meeting location and time and returned to the city to finish off the miscellaneous tasks for the day.

When Vin and I showed up at the bar, we designated as our meeting spot; we found Jane arguing with a man twice her size.

“Say that again, bitch.”

“I said to get your fat ugly ass away from me. Your stench is making my drink taste like shit.”

The two were right in each other’s faces. If we didn’t know any better, it could’ve easily been mistaken for an intimate couple from afar.

The man couldn’t hold it any longer and took a swing at Jane, but she easily dodged it as if she anticipated it. As the man brought his arm back, Jane bashed her drink into his head. Angered, he tried to lash out once again. However, Jane was too quick for him to catch.

The two continued their cat-and-mouse fight for a full minute before one of the man’s friends seemed to be tired of it and tried to get behind the wastelander.

I intervened and sprinted toward him before he got close to her and shoulder-bashed him back. He regained his balance swiftly and shifted his target to me, opting to charge straight at me.

I was still in boxing mode from the fight yesterday, so after I sidestepped him before handing out a one-two combo as I circled around him.

“Gentlemen, that’s enough. Any more and we won’t be able to afford to pay for the damages,” Vin’s voice boomed throughout the establishment.

Everyone stilled for a moment and turned to Vin before exchanging looks with their friends.

“Fuck this, it’s not over yet, bitch! Let’s go.” The first man lashed out one final time before he left with his friend.

It was perfectly understandable that the incident got us kicked out of the bar too, so instead, we headed to one of the fast-food chains I had been patronizing lately.

“What was that about?” I asked, immediately after we sat down with our order.

“Nothing…Sorry, I was just agitated, and that scumbag picked the wrong time to approach me.”

I shared a look with Vin and we both came to the conclusion of leaving it at that.

“So, did you find anything today?”

She sat back in her seat and sipped on her drink, “Yeah, I found the kids that were with Perry from the University of Holly Corp.”

“And?” Vin urged her to continue.

“Got their address and everything, but I couldn’t get in. They’re all in the same gated community.”

“Send the info. I’ll go take a look.”

She looked up at me in surprise, “I said, a gated community. With good security too.”

“I still want to give it a try. Send it over.”

“...”

Unlike in Elevate City, NLA, located on the mainland of the North American continent, had a lot more space, so the city wasn’t entirely a concrete jungle.

Vin dropped me off near the location of the gated community I received from Jane. I approached from the cover of the thickets in its surroundings.

I carefully approached the metal gates and surveyed for opportunities for entry. The gate appeared to be the electric type that actually would sting and alert the guards, so I snuck back around the main gate instead.

There were two guards sitting in the booths that controlled the gate. I watched as they pressed some buttons on the terminal in front of them before the gate opened for a car to exit.

Okay, so they don’t have military-level security, as I feared. I should’ve expected as much for a civilian dwelling.

Having found no security measures that could threaten me around, I simply engaged my active camouflage and sprinted through the gate when it opened again. It didn’t even matter the camouflage wasn’t perfect when I did intense movements, as there were no attentive guards on the lookout as they stayed in their cozy little booths.

Once I got in, I found a dark secluded area to allow my stealth implant to rest. I searched for any geographic information and mentally mapped out a route to reach the houses where my targets lived.

I opted to have one of the men who had accompanied Perry into The Glove for my first visitation, simply due to their house being the closest to my current location. As it was nighttime, there weren’t a lot of people outside besides the few who were going on a run or walking their pets.

Sticking to the shadows, the house soon came into view. The lights were on, so it was likely someone was home.

Cautiously circling the house, I found all the doors and windows were properly secured, but found a window upstairs on the second floor opened. I warily climbed up and hung from the window with my camouflage on.

Music could be heard out of the window and a quick peek revealed a man sitting on his bed, jamming out as he sat by a desk.

I carefully climbed in and got a better look at the man.

So it is the guy I saw from the security footage back at The Glove.

He wasn’t paying attention to anything but his music, so I walked up to the terminal and plugged into it. There was a lot of junk data and porn, but nothing criminal or related to the missing girl.

Quietly exiting his room, I surveyed the entire house and came to the same conclusion that this place was clean.

With no reason to show myself yet, I left the way I came in and began making my way to the next house.

The house this time was twice the size of the previous one, belonging to the only female companion Perry had been in contact with as far as we saw from the footage.

This place was a lot easier to sneak into, as there were several workers who came in and out of the building as they threw away trash, got some air, or smoked.

I repeated my old tactic and followed one of them back into the residence with the help of my active camouflage.

It was hard to miss the dining room where the servants went in and out of, so I took a break in an empty room to let my stealth unit charge before I headed over.

In the room, I spotted five people sitting around a dining table, an older couple, a young man, and two girls. One of the girls was the one who had led the missing wastelander into The Glove, while the other one was Perry, the missing girl herself, in the flesh.

“Claudia, I hope you’ve been keeping up with your studies despite your…distractions.” The older woman glared at Perry.

“Yes Mom, I’ve been studying with Perry.”

“…Very well, I will be retiring for the night. Good night to you all.”

As the woman exited, I caught sight of the older man giving his daughter a defeated smile and shrugged.

They chatted for a little while more before they disbanded. I watched as Perry and her friend leave hand in hand.

I tailed the two and saw them head into their own rooms on the second floor that were adjacent to each other.

A few seconds later, I knocked on the door Perry went into.

“Claudia? Did you forget something?” The door opened, but she found no one there, so she peeked further into the hallway. “Did I imagine it…?”

After inspecting the hallway, she closed the door and returned to her seat by the desk.

“Perry? From the Wells clan?”

She twitched at my voice and scanned around the room. “Who’s there!?”

“Calm down. Your clan leader, Eugene, sent me,” I answered as I disabled my camouflage.

Her eyes widened as I came into view.

“What, our clan has dealings with corpo black op teams now?”

“No, I’m just a friend. They’re all worried about you. From what I can see, you aren’t being confined or treated badly. Why didn’t you contact anyone?”

“...I messed up…and didn’t want to face them until I corrected my mistakes.”

“Look, they’re really worried about you. You should go back and explain to them your situation. I’m sure they’ll help you.”

“That’ll prove that I’m incompetent!”

I remember seeing this throughout all the workplaces I’ve worked at. People who made mistakes and tried to cover it up or have others take the blame.

“No, being too afraid to ask for help and letting problems grow or persist is what really shows you’re incompetent!”

“...” She looked like she wanted to retort but couldn’t say anything and only pouted.

I took a deep breath before I continued, “Look, this isn’t any of my business. Do you have a phone?” She nodded at my words. “Give me your number and I’ll have someone from your clan call you. Promise me you’ll talk it out with them.”

“...Fine.”

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