Corpo Age

Chapter 28: Expansion

James - ???

“James, I want you to handle this incident review here.”

“Yes, sir, consider it done.” He stood straight as he received the dossier from his boss with both hands.

His boss clasped a hand to his shoulder, “You may be new, but I’m expecting good things from you. Don’t let the director down.”

He had to force himself from wincing at the mention of his dad. He tightened his facade and escaped from the office after some small talk.

Setting the car to auto-drive, he reviewed the information he had received as the car drove him to the place of the incident. This case was a typical theft from their corporation’s stores, so it wasn’t anything too important. A case that was hard to screw up on, which was likely why his boss had given it to him, seeing who his father was.

A quick check in the company’s database showed this wasn’t an isolated incident either. With theft on the rise in various retail stores that sold medium to low-value goods, whoever was behind it was targeting low-security stores.

The camera footage from the incidents hadn’t shown much, just some products up and disappearing from sight by itself.

He soon arrived at the store in question, as it wasn’t that far from the headquarters.

“Sir, we’ve been expecting you. My name is Nathan. Please allow me to be your guide,” A man greeted him at the door as soon as he got out of the car.

“Take me to your security room. I want to review all the footage you have.”

“Of course, sir, follow me.”

He followed Nathan into the store. He was brought to the elevators, up through several floors, and passed by high-security scanners before they arrived in the monitoring room.

If we had the equipment on this floor pointed at our goods, we would have caught the perpetrators right on the spot.

Looking over the monitors, James spotted hundreds of cameras being cycled across the dozen floors of retail space. Several people in reclining chairs were hooked up to the security terminal, scrolling through the camera feeds in real time. Even with this setup, they still somehow didn’t notice the incident until five minutes after the theft.

Talk about incompetence.

A woman immediately closed the distance with them once she noticed him, “Identify yourself, only authorized personnel can—”

“Stand down Debra, this is an esteemed guest from headquarters’s security team. I apologize for her rudeness sir, please feel free to review the footage you wanted here,” The man brushed aside Debra and pulled a chair back for him.

He took up his offer and plugged the cord from the security terminal into the port in his hand. The company provided SAID instantly keyed in his corporate credentials and he soon gained administrative access.

With the help of his cybernetics, he reviewed all the footage during the day of the incident at a rapid pace. He looked for all the common theft tells they were trained on, including camera tampering, tricks people placed on the product beforehand, and their internal employee’s logs during the same time.

The most common options were crossed out, so he reexamined the footage of the products disappearing. He placed the footage onto the big screen in the room and zoomed in on it.

“Nathan, you guys reviewed all the footage yourselves, right? Did you cross-check the position of every customer and employee in the store at the time of the incident from other cameras?”

“Yes, sir. They were all accounted for.”

It could be internal tampering with evidence, but he was sure their division’s cy-sec specialists would have caught it by now unless it was someone really skilled like from another corp.

…But why would another corp resort to petty theft?

“Sir?” A voice pulled him out of his musing. “Yes, what is it? I’m thinking.”

“...Apologies Sir, but doesn’t this look like the stealth tech your department’s operatives typically use?”

His gaze shifted upward to the screen at the man’s words and replayed it in slow motion. The way the product disappeared did seem similar to the stealth tech he had used in training…

A few days later, he reported his findings back at headquarters.

“James, my boy, what was the result of your investigation?” The man in front of him poured two cups of whiskey and handed one to him.

Following protocol, he printed out all his findings in physical form and placed them on the table.

“We found the method of theft and captured the suspect. It seems like stealth tech had leaked out somewhere and some kid was using it to lift our products.”

His boss raised an eyebrow, “Stealth tech? You ran it by R&D yet?”

“Yes, it isn’t any tech that any known corporation uses, but it is simple in design and function, just basic camouflage features so no new information could be extracted. It is either a new player or dead gear.”

From the lack of distinctive features and the homemade feel of the chrome, he thought it was more likely to be dead gear, disposable for some black op team, but that left the question of where it leaked from.

“Countermeasures?”

“It is a basic camouflage unit, so any IR or acoustic units could detect it. There’s no need for any specialized detection equipment. I recommend installing an IR camera at the entrance of each store. We’ll be able to identify future suspects by cross-examining the locations of everyone in the store if they choose to enter normally.”

“Excellent low-cost solution. I’ll submit the recommendation to all our retail stores as it is. Good work, James! Just make sure R&D gets a more detailed pass at the retrieved tech. We may be able to figure out how the more advanced version of this stealth tech works by exploring its application.”

“Yes, sir.”

This small investigation earned me a lot more points than I had thought. Give me another few cases like these and my promotion would be guaranteed, even without my dad’s help.

Thank you, whoever leaked the stealth tech out to some dumbasses.

---

“Hi sir, what would you like to drink?” A pretty brunette asked as she leaned down to match my eye level.

“Just water, please.”

She took a cup from her tray and handed it over to me, then proceeded to ask the person in the seat over.

I continued my movie while I had the camera feed from the clinic’s cameras pulled up in the corner of my vision. Everything seemed to be operating smoothly with the new hires, with Thorne and Claire at the helm.

The other people on the plane seemed to be moving about to the bar, but I stayed to enjoy my business-class seats. It was only a four-hour flight, so I wasn’t desperate to stretch my legs.

When I finished the movie and only had less than an hour to landing, I reviewed all the information Max had given me. He had a contact for me in the city that I should meet before I began hiring and planning for the outpost in the wasteland. Once we have that settled, I should have a stable supply of materials from scavenging to kick-start the production of my cybernetics.

Then I could meet the rising demand of the mercenary community. I would start selling not just in my clinic, but across the entire city, and I could rake in the profits.

I looked out the window at the landmass we were flying by. Further inland, a giant sandstorm engulfed everything inside while the area we flew in was eerily calm. Whatever war happened many years ago threw the ecosystem to hell.

No wonder the elites prefer to live in space now.

Inside the sandstorms of the wasteland lay countless valuable salvage and natural resources that the big corporations ignored due to the rising cost-effectiveness of space mining. It was also the key to expanding my business.

The signal for everyone to be seated and buckled up to prepare for landing turned on as I watched everyone slowly scramble back to their seats. The flight attendant returned to check on everyone and soon disappeared into the back of the plane.

A moment later, more flight crew walked by in the same direction, and the sounds of a commotion going on grew louder until people started to crane their heads back in curiosity.

It was too far away for me to see anything from here, so I used my time going over my status instead.

Status

Level:

11

EXP:

70/1100

Musculoskeletal:

76

Neural Reflex:

15

Visuomotor Coordination:

27

Endurance:

24

Sensory Perception:

52

Upgrade Points:

0

Upgrades:

• Stealth +7
• Hacking +3
• Cybernetic Engineering +6
• Stealth Technology +6
• Software Engineering +4

Enhancements:

SAID: Zenitech Hoth Mk.3

Optics: Nova Tech Stars Mk.4

Cyberarm (Left): Nova Tech Mudra Mk.6

Cyberarm (Right): Nova Tech Shiva Mk.5

Auditory: Amazing Corp FieldTac Gen 2

Cardiovascular: BioGen Labs Marathon 4

Miscellaneous: HSU Custom Shade

As I took a sip from my cup, the commotion grew louder rapidly as the source got closer. I joined the majority and peeked out; I spotted a large man with cybernetic limbs walking straight up the aisle while several crew members tried to hold him back.

“Sir, please return to your seat. The plane will be landing momentarily,” One of the crew members desperately cried out.

“Get out of my way if you don’t want to get hurt. I’m just going to take a seat where the chairs actually fit me.”

“Sir, all the seats at the front are full. Please, it won’t take long before we land.”

“I’ll go to the cockpit and sit with the captain, then.”

I couldn’t tell if the man barging his way through was on drugs or plain stupid, but it seemed like there was no getting through to him with reason.

Maybe this was why corpos had exclusive flights, to not have to deal with the riffraff. The prices were high though, and I wasn’t even eligible for it, so no point in crying about it now.

“Sir, do not approach the cockpit. We will have to abort the landing if you disturb the pilots,” The man ignored the cries around him and continued on his way, passing my seat.

“Sigh…” I really didn’t want to have a delay on my first trip abroad in this world. I guess I had to do something.

I climbed over to the other aisle and got ahead of the commotion, waiting for the man to come through. Once he moved the blinds aside and moved into my vision, I sprung my ambush and thrust a hand at his throat. I didn’t relent and followed up with elbows and threw punches to his chin and temples with my cybernetic arms.

The new surgeon at the clinic had helped me install my second arm that was more geared toward precision movements such as aiming my guns or surgery, but that didn’t mean it couldn’t pack a punch in a melee.

Surprised by the storm of blows from my metal limbs, the man slumped over as I swung, dodging my attack as he collapsed.

The flight attendants quickly closed in and restrained the man in a shocking display of unity, as they weren’t even fazed by the violence.

I returned to my seat, and the plane landed safely as scheduled at the NLA International Airport.

I couldn’t wait to recover my weapons from the checked bags. I couldn’t believe I would think this way one day, but it didn’t feel safe or right to walk around unarmed.

Security barged onto the plane soon after we landed, but skipped me and went straight toward the back where the man was held. Without even questioning me, I successfully retrieved my bags, cleared customs, and was on my way out of the airport.

What I didn’t expect when I landed was someone holding up a sign at the arrival hall with my name on it. A buff guy with cybernetic arms, similar to the man who almost delayed my flight.

I really hope there isn’t going to be more trouble.

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