Corpo Age

Chapter 231: Perpetrator

chapter 231: perpetrator

i leaned against the entrance as i watched thorne stand imposingly over one of our latest captives. they were tied to a chair inside one of our empty rooms. since we were only operating the ship with the two of us, we had several unoccupied rooms to use.

hmm, maybe i should add a brig to the next iteration of the design. it’ll be useful even for the smaller ships.

“you know, you’re going to have a much better time if you talk.” thorne’s words drew my attention back to the scene.

in response, our prisoner spitted at him. it only stained the visor of the power armor, but it prompted thorne to turn his back as he readied a needle.

“if that’s how you want to play it, don’t blame me for the pain you’ll be suffering after this.”

seeing thorne proceed, i too retreated out of the room to bring out additional equipment. it was the perfect opportunity to test out our new interrogation device.

it only took me a moment to retrieve a large helmet that resembled the ones worn by motorcyclists.

i returned to the room in time to see thorne pulling the needle out of the man’s arm. he nodded at me and i proceeded to place the helmet on the man.

what the man would soon experience was almost going to be identical to what virtual reality gamers experience. their consciousness would drift away to another world, but with one key difference. with the addition of the hypnopedia function. it was what we used to train our employees, but we’ve also begun using it for other purposes.

not long ago, we used it to muffle the memories of the consortium’s inspector to infiltrate aurora corporation’s branch office. now, we would use it to fuddle with his memories, trying to convince him we were trustworthy.

it didn’t work one hundred percent of the time or for long, but it was worth trying. it wasn’t nearly as bad as the various truthserums other companies employed or downright torture. at worst, they’d just have a headache for the next day.

we replicated our methods with the other three men we captured, determined to find out about this group who had ambushed us. it wasn’t long before our first captive was ready to speak.

when we had our terminal log into the same virtual reality server, where we found him dazed, but thorne didn’t give him any time to rest.

“we’re here to help you. please tell us your name.”

despite the obvious insincerity in his voice, the man before him seem to instantly believe his words. that was because he was in a dream-like state. our avatars had built trust with him by going through a life and death scenario with him before we arrived.

“i—i’m collins.”

“collins, who sent you to set up an ambush for us?”

“ambush?”

i quickly sent a message to thorne, telling him to be more mindful of how he worded his questions. we had to ensure he didn’t realize this was all a dream. asking him such direct questions would get him thinking, and we didn’t want him to remember how he got here.

thorne cleared his throat before rephrasing.

“let me ask again. do you remember the time you went to soluna?”

“yes.”

“can you tell me what you went there for?”

“um—we were sent to find out what happened to our men.”

“on whose orders?”

“by strand, of course.”

thorne gave me a look, having found something usable. i urged him with my eyes to focus as we were just scratching the surface.

“strand is the leader of your organization?”

our boy, collins, nodded.

“and what is the name of this organization? what do you guys do?”

“we never gave ourselves any names. we simply banded together—for our loved ones.”

his words began to slur, as he tried seem to struggle to stay coherent.

“what do you mean by that? are you guys stealing for the sake of your families’ livelihood or something?”

“to—save them,” he muttered before closing his eyes.

we eventually established contact and agreed to discuss things. we settled to return to aegis so we could hold the call.

like that, our return trip to earth was decided. it took us half a day to arrive.

we didn’t waste any time and called the contact we were given the moment we got a signal.

“hello?” i called out as soon as we connected.

a stern woman’s voice replied without hesitation.

“i presume you are the mercenaries that have captured our allies. twice.”

“and i presume you are strand?”

an awkward silence ensued for a few moments before i continued.

“listen. we’re just doing our jobs. we don’t want to hurt your people if we don’t have to. why don’t i release the four men you had sent to ambush us in exchange for putting this incident behind us?”

“what about the other fifty-seven you took? you think we’d just give up on them?”

“that was a gig. nothing we can do about that. what we can do is free the four we have in our possession. hear, have a talk with them.”

i shoved the handheld terminal to collins.

“strand. i’m sorry, we failed. you don’t have to worry about us. don’t let this asshole threaten you.”

“okay, a little too talkative for my liking,” i said, while taking the terminal back. “so what do you say?”

the other party decisively answered.

“what do you want?”

“like i said. just leave us alone. oh, and an introduction would be nice. i still don’t know who you guys are.”

“we’re no one special.”

“you think no one special just kidnaps dozens of corpos and has access to a starship? sounds more like a bunch of pirates to me.”

“we’re not criminals! they kidnapped our family first! we’re only doing what we need to get our people back, and now you people keep taking from us!”

oh. now this is sounding like it’s a little more complicated than it appears.

“hm, do elaborate. last i checked, we were rescuing corporate workers from pirates. if what you’re saying is true, we don’t mind helping. we’ll need more information, though.”

“there isn’t anything for us to say over lines that corporations control. come send our people back and we’ll talk. tell them you are to bring them to zone b40.”

the call then ended, and i quickly commanded lanus to search for a zone b40. nothing concrete turned up from the search. it was likely some place only people from their organization knew, so i turned to collins.

“do you know where zone b40 is?”

“strand tell you about that?”

i nodded.

he made some grumpy noises and sighed.

“it’s on aegis. that’s all i can say. take off the rest of these restraints and i’ll guide you.”

“sure.”

he abruptly turned his head to me, surprised at me so readily agreeing.

“what? you expect me to say no? or have you guide me through a city while bound?”

he cutely scoffed in response.

“just give me a second,” i continued. “let us dock the ship first.”