Chương 171: B3. 15.2 - Matt, The Friendly BID Agent

"A crazy idea you got there, Matt, the BID agent," I said in monotone. I couldn't have made it more obvious that I was admitting there was weight to his theory, but couldn't confirm it out loud. This explained why Four Arms didn't attack me earlier. He was expecting to meet a Corebring. It wasn't just that story about an Adumbrae randomly exploding, which might've been the work of a Corebring. Not sure if that was even true. Never in my wildest dreams could I have come up with this twistedly twisty plotline.

I mistakenly thought that I didn't have the means to make it believable. I should be bolder in my roles next time. Take risks to further my showbiz career. Four Arms chuckled lightly, sounding very human. Either his vocal cords were still intact, or he had a very high-quality sound system.

"I don't think it's that crazy. I should know because many say that I'm crazy. This is one of my saner thoughts."

"We don't have much on Red Hood," I said.

"Likely, the same information as you have. Maybe even less. But she is an Adumbrae. Not a Corebring."

"You say that, but indulge my craziness while we have this relaxing stroll. Red Hood can turn into a giant hairy beast, right? More than two stories tall, by some accounts. And then, she could switch back to her original human form. We got loads of evidence that Red Hood struts around in her human body. Testimonies, some pictures, some videos." Those fucking gangsters, I thought. Did the BID catch them? During the raid at the PCM base outside the city or afterward? In any case, it was only a matter of time.

This was my opportunity to find out what the authorities had on Red Hood and mislead their investigation. It turned out for the best that Four Arms came here. That was my plan all along when I called Tower Cop. I'm such a genius.

"An Adumbrae freely switching from a Titan form and human form…" Four Arms continued.

"Most Titans can't even shrink themselves, much less return to their human bodies. This extent of control? Sounds damn powerful, if you ask me. You should ask me—my reply would be that Red Hood is a damn powerful Adumbrae."

"Sounds powerful," I nonchalantly repeated.

"We're investigating Red Hood and—""But!" Four Arms raised the index fingers of his right hands.

"Let me interrupt you right there. But we didn't find any of the usual traces of a powerful Adumbrae at the docks, where Red Hood first made her bombastic appearance. That we know of, anyway. There's also this area called Marsh Row that's said to be Red Hood's base, but you already know about that. Marsh Row is also clean. Traces of Adumbrae readings, but not of a Titan's level. Odd, isn't it?"

"Maybe you're on to something here," I drawled.

"Thanks for sharing the information." Four Arms burst out laughing.

"Information that you already know? I can't shake off this feeling that Red Hood is an industry plant. She's not some independent, self-made singer. She has the backing of a major record label! We're made to believe that she's an Adumbrae even if she isn't. I have a keen sense for things that don't seem right." The investigatory instincts of Four Arms had prompted him that something was wrong. But his suspicions also took a very wrong turn, taking him far from the truth.

"That's a huge leap from your equipment not having correct readings," I said, continuing to half-heartedly deny his assertions.

"Have you considered that? Maybe you also made a mistake detecting Core energy at… Where did you say it was again? The docks?"

"Feigning ignorance. You keep that up, Pino the Corebring. You won't be lying when your Corebring pals ask if you've spilled the beans to me. But I'm going to continue sharing my thoughts because I'm a thoughtful guy. So, here we have Red Hood establishing her turf, controlling the gangs of the city through terror. We've interrogated some criminal elements, and they claim Red Hood was going to eat them if they didn't follow her. They said they saw her do it. Even tortured some of them."

The gangsters did get caught! And they were spreading a bunch of lies. I didn't eat any of them. Torture? I beat up Overdrive's goons, but that was hardly torture. I didn't hurt any of them after that. But I couldn't really get angry because the gangsters were just shooting for any justifying circumstance to get them out of the bind for aiding an Adumbrae. Should I break them out of jail? Where would they go afterwards? I realized that I sort of ruined their lives. Just that. A realization. No remorse or anything.

They were already criminals anyway. One could even say that I helped society because my presence led to their arrest. Although… if I saved them, they'd be tied to me. It'd also be fun to break people out of prison.

"Why is Red Hood fighting the M Brothers and the PCM?" Four Arms loudly wondered, taking me out of my jailbreak musings.

"An Adumbrae as powerful as her surely has something else better to do? If the PCM succeeds in making a Purple Bloom, so what? I meant 'so what' from Red Hood's perspective. Obviously, it'd be a very bad situation for us."

"Very bad. Yep."

"The world is vast. Red Hood should've picked somewhere else to hide. If she truly is a powerful Adumbrae, and we don't have any record of her, then she has been hiding all this time. Makes sense to me. Why break her hiding streak now? She'll attract Corebrings who'd hunt her down." Four Arms gestured at me with all of his hands.

"Would you look at that. Corebrings are here. Or maybe… Corebrings have been here all along, preventing the formation of a Purple Bloom in the shadows. It's only now that Corebrings openly move, hiding behind the mask of Red Hood, the fake Adumbrae."

"Certainly, an interesting… interpretation… of the situation you have, Agent Matt of the BID. But if Red Hood is actually a Corebring, why did you find Adumbrae energy signatures in the places she has supposedly been? The docks, it's understandable—it's the base of Mark and Big Marcy. This Marsh Row you speak of—""Is the base of the PCM, it turns out. For some time, at least. Red Hood herself doesn't give off any Adumbrae energy. She was simply in places with Adumbrae presence.

For some reason, she let down her guard at the docks, leaving behind evidence of Core energy."

"That might've happened," I said, holding back a celebration in my head so that Deen wouldn't detect it. I didn't even have to do anything. Four Arms did my homework for me. Stuff they'd uncover that might be traced to my real identity wasn't reliable in his eyes, suspecting some Corebring cover-up. For now, this was enough. You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

"Can't you give me anything more than that? No one will—" Four Arms stopped. We had reached a fork. One path led back to the house. The other headed to the PCM base. Four Arms nudged some rubble aside with his foot. He bent down to pick up something I couldn't see.

"Well, well, well… What do we have here?"

"Don't tell me that you're going to make me guess what's in your hand?"

"This!" Four Arms presented to me a tiny circular object, no bigger than a marble, between his palm and index finger.

"A camera."

"A camera? Could it have been here when you passed by this spot earlier?" I asked.

"I would've detected it." Four Arms' hand slightly glowed. The tiny camera sparked. I assumed that it was rendered useless while preserving most of it for analysis later. Four Arms stowed the camera in a compartment around his waist.

"Some sneaky bastard was here after I moved ahead," Four Arms added, entering the tunnel to the PCM base. It was Dario, I thought. Too bad that he had already escaped. But on the bright side, he saw me with the BID agent who killed Trigger Happy. I'd sacrifice eating sweets for a month if I could gain the power to see Dario's reaction. He must be utterly confused. And probably afraid, too. (Erind, what was that?) Deen must've detected a surge of excitement. (The BID agent believes the fake story I'm telling him. I'll explain later.) (You're awfully good at telling lies. I didn't expect… Never mind.) Ugh, my best friend just has to start a new issue. Couldn't Deen accept what she knew to be me had this side, too? There was a huge difference between being a natural liar and adapting to the situation. Put a pin on fixing this later. Changing the topic. (Where are you now?) (At the second intersection. Myra and Kelsey have gone.) (Good. I won't take long here.) I looked over my shoulder at the first intersection while walking behind Four Arms. That really wasn't an intersection, was it? An intersection should be two lines crossing each other, resulting in four paths. Back there, it was three ways. A fork wasn't an intersection.

"Do you know who could've planted the camera?" Four Arms asked, interrupting my very important thoughts.

"The same person digging this tunnel, I presume. You seem to know a lot about what's going on here, Pino the Corebring. Give me something here. Anything. We're robot-looking buddies, aren't we?"

"As you can tell from the fresh digging," I said, "this path was blocked until recently." I told the truth—when the raids of the police and BID began, the PCM blew up tunnels to collapse the way to their underground bases, hiding their experiments and machines. We were now heading to the most important base. Another group knew about this and decided to excavate the tunnel, intent on getting stuff from the PCM base.

"There's another group?" Four Arms asked.

"This isn't the PCM returning to their stinky burrow?"

"The PCM would've waited until the BID and the police left."

"Right you are, Pino the Corebring. This new group I know nothing about. They dug this place using what? These marks are not made by machines." He kicked away a weirdly shaped concrete slab mixed with spaghettified steel bars that must've been Myra's shell.

"Not even shovels."

"You know the answer," I said, imagining thrilling music.

"Powers. Adumbrae. But you said this is a different group."

"It is." I didn't want to complicate the story by explaining artificial Cores. Four Arms might also rethink his Red-Hood-is-a-Corebring theory if he learned about that.

"Why is this group different from the PCM and the M Brothers, as you called them? Simple. The creatures that dug this tunnel were made through a government experiment." Four Arms didn't immediately speak. He pushed aside a pile of rubble and gestured for me to pass first. Following after me, he said, "There's a lot to unpack with that last sentence of yours. Creatures. They're not Adumbrae. Not exactly. I detect faint Adumbrae energy… and something else. What was that about a government experiment?"

"You heard me right. The Adumbrae that attacked the train were made at Red Island. The monsters that dug this tunnel were made by your side. Well, some rogue elements of your side. So, not really your side. Pretending to be." I hoped this was enough for Four Arms to hunt for the Professor, starting with investigating Trigger Happy. We'd see how the Professor's organization would react to an existential threat. Would the Professor pack up shop, capture all of us, and send us to labs?

Or would Dario tell us to chill for now? In any case, I just wanted to annoy Dario and the Professor. Yes, this might blow up in my face. But I could regenerate my face. And I bet that the Professor would protect their test subjects with artificial Cores from the BID. Surprisingly, Four Arms didn't bombard me with questions. Was he formulating a theory more insane than Red-Hood-is-a-Corebring? Or did he know something about the Professor? I was tempted to link with him to try to read his mind.

But where could I even shoot my link? A few minutes later, we reached the entrance of the PCM base. Four Arms finally spoke.

"Project Defiance." I tilted my head.

"What?"

"That's probably the government experiment you're talking about. I've heard about it. How did you know about this?"

"Captured some of the monsters they made." Was Project Defiance the Professor's thing? I should mention this to Dario the next time I'd meet him as Pino.

"This means Agent Blue didn't work for some dirty mob bosses," Four Arms mumbled, probably talking to himself.

"Somehow, that makes me feel a bit better. And clears up a lot of things, too. Anyway, shall we go—?" Four Arms placed his hand on his ear. A call? This better not be a reveal that would out my lies. The universe could be a bitch sometimes. (Erind?) (Danger?) I hurriedly asked Deen. This had to be connected with the call! (What's the threat?) (I-I'm not sure. I think the booster is running out. We have to leave.) I touched my chin, but didn't remove my mask yet. I turned to Four Arms.

"What's the delay?"

"I got word that one of your buddies revealed himself to the police. I knew that you guys were responsible for killing that Adumbrae at Belvedere." Fuuuuudge cake! My mind raced while I tried to steady my voice.

"Oh? This wasn't part of our plan. Our meeting isn't part of it either."

"The Washington Protocol has been activated. An official request was sent to the Hive and approved. It's an odd look that Corebrings are suddenly here after the request, but the President probably thought, 'Might as well make it official'. Isn't this great?" Shit, shit, shit! Profanities flooded my brain. Some of them reached Deen, but I didn't care. This was the worst outcome. Well, there was a lot of worse things to happen. Like, what if a meteor crashed in La Esperanza.

What was the difference between meteor, meteorite, and comet? Probably not the size— Focus! (Erind, we need to leave now!)"Agent Matt, I should probably take my leave," I said.

"Why? You're already here on official—""I have to consult with the other Corebrings about this. Don't tell anyone we've met." And I removed my mask.