Dungeons Online

Chapter 111: Empty results of the investigation

"Just what the hell was that?" Jason asked as soon as the two of them sat back in his office. Even though their car appeared to be relatively secure, he refused to say a word ever since they left the mansion. 

"You finally said something," Kira replied in a low voice, sitting down in the corner of Jason's office, on the very chair that he never agreed to share with anyone. "I thought you were so scared you turned mute," she added, sending the man a peculiar look.

"You didn't realize it, huh?" Jason said, refusing to elaborate as he sat down directly at one of the many tables fitted into his glass-covered office of his. 

"Realize what?" Kira asked, sending the man an annoyed look. Even for someone as antisocial as Jason, it was clear that she didn't enjoy the game of ignorance he played with her. 

"Those people..." Jason attempted to start his explanation, only to get stuck as soon as he opened his mouth. "Their level of expertise... It's really hard to put it into proper words," Jason shook his head, troubled with how nearly impossible it was to explain the technical details to someone completely out of their own field of expertise.

"Then try to put it into words I will understand," Kira said, leaning forward as her face tensed up. As annoyed as she could be with Jason's inability to report properly, she was more than capable of guessing the reasons behind the stress that made it hard for him to speak up. 

"Do you have any history on them?" Jason asked, raising his eyes at the beautiful female with curiosity. "I know this seems like a change of topic, but I need to know if a few of my guesses are correct first," he explained, crossing his arms on his chest. 

"Their history?" Kira asked before turning her lips into a wide smile. "You mean the official or the real one?" she specified her question before shaking her head. "According to what is officially out there, they are just a bunch of families set by the retired veterans of one of the units that took part in the great war," she said before biting her lips. "As for their real history? Beats me." 

Kira bit her lips as she closed her mouth and refused to elaborate any further. For a moment, the two of them just sat in the silence of Jason's office. At the same time, just beyond the glass panels that separated the place from the rest of the department, numerous groups of informatics and technicians drilled their brains out to figure out the nature of the bug. 

"If that's their official story..." Jason said, cutting his sentence short as a powerful shrug shook his body.

"Yeah," Kira nodded her head. "I dare not to think what's the real story behind them," she added, swallowing a mouthful of saliva. 

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"Then you really won't like what I'm about to tell you," Jason said, finally raising his eyes. The shaky, anxious, and socially awkward man disappeared. He was replaced by an expert confident in his abilities and now going to release a massive bomb of a report at his superior. "There is one simple reason why I didn't talk at all before we reached this place," Jason said, turning himself around before tapping his fingers against the keyboard for a moment. 

In just a few seconds, the graphics on the set of wide screens that covered one of the room walls changed completely. From the array of numbers where Jason previously hoped to find the bug out, the screens change to the grid of the local town with several circles of different colors covering it. 

"What is that?" Kira asked, standing up from Jason's chair and approaching the screens. 

"My rough estimate of how far they can see and hear everything," Jason said before slipping from his desk and rushing to take his seat back for himself. Once seated comfortably, he pushed it closer to his desk before tapping at his keyboard a few more times. 

This time, the circles suddenly expanded, covering the entire area not only around the town but also reaching far into the deserted outskirts all around. In this new map, there was only a single point that stood out from the color-coded areas. 

The online Hub itself. 

"Do you mean this is the only place where we can safely talk?" Kira asked as her eyes opened wide. 

"Even that I'm not so sure about. In terms of being fully free from eavesdropping, only this room I can be certain about," Jason said as he lowered his head and turned silent. "Listen, the technology they are using and the way they do..." he shook his head before swallowing a gulp of saliva that was stuck in his throat. "I think there is only one lie in that official story of that family," Jason said before glancing over at the female. "It's the part about them being retired."

For a moment, the room turned silent. Once again, there was a huge contrast between the messy environment outside the glass panels and how silent it was inside. 

But soon, it was all about to change. 

"How long is it going to take you to fix that damned bug!" Peter asked, forcing his way into Jason's private compartment. The only reason why he managed to enter unnoticed was just how messy the outside of the room was. 

"The bug is already long gone," Jason instantly replied, unwilling to share the entirety of the situation with his direct superior. Between Kira and Peter, even someone as unsocial as Jason knew who was the better person to tell about his guesses regarding that strange family. 

"Then how long is it going to take you to find out who was responsible for it?" Peter asked, not changing his aggressive tone at all. 

"Peter, what's wrong?" Kira forced herself into the discussion, surprising the Online's Hub High Manager by doing so. 

"Huh?" Peter shrugged. "What are you doing here?" he asked as his eyes opened wide in surprise. 

"This was a bug that could potentially compromise the integrity of our data," Kira replied in a relaxed tone, taking the very same spot on the desk to sit as Jason did before. "It's well within the scope of my responsibilities to look into it," she added, shrugging her arms to show how little she cared about the man's opinion right now. "But on the other hand, I would like to know why are you trying to push your own anger at failing the report on your subordinates," she asked as her expression suddenly turned sour. 

"What the hell do you mean by that?" Peter asked, squinting his eyes. For the high manager of the local online Hub, having someone disrespect his authority was certainly new, especially when it came to people that were supposed to support him here. 

"What I mean is that you can stop trying to push the blame for failing the report on the others and take it on yourself," Kira replied with a lovely smile before sliding down the desk. "The bug is already taken care of. Right now, I'm trying to help Jason figure out who was behind it. Do you have anything else to ask, or are you going to scram and not bother us as we are working?" Kira asked, proving that outside of serving as Peter's secretary, she was perfectly aware of what she could and what she couldn't do. 

*******

"This went surprisingly well," Marvin said once the car with the spies from the Online Hub left the area of their drones' surveillance. Despite tuning their capabilities to the limits, they didn't manage to catch those two talking in the car off-guard. 

"We didn't get to learn anything. How is that a good outcome?" Marvin's father asked, glancing over at the several screens on which the live feed of the car was shown. 

"Oh, father," Marvin sighed as he shook his head. "This is the reason why you were only a subordinate of the uncle rather than the leader yourself," he added in a manner that many would consider disrespectful. 

"What do you mean by that?" the man asked his son, squinting his eyes after the low-key insult. 

"You were never able to read between the lines," Marvin said, biting on his lips. "But now is not the time to talk about this. As for now, we are fully pulling out," Marvin said, tapping his fingers against the screen of his tablet.

"Full withdrawal?" Tom's uncle asked, barely able to believe his own ears. "Are you going to leave them to their own devices now?" He asked one more question, just to make sure that he heard correctly and that his son was aware of what his order entailed.

"We lost their signal, didn't we?" Marvin raised his eyes, biting on his lower lip again. "Right now, there is nothing we can do to help them. And it's only a matter of time before those two will figure something out," he said before standing up from his wheelchair. 

Thanks to the military-grade medicine that Marvin consumed every hour ever since his accident, he was long capable of walking on his own two feet. The only reason why he remained in his chair was the fact that in case of someone visiting them during the ongoing operation, they were likely to look at him through the prism of his handicapped state. "Make sure to kill all the traces of what we did and mend the surface of the sphere," he added before looking up at his father's face and smiling sadly. "Right now, we can only hope that Tom won't return right when those bastards will be doing a full check of their system!"