Corpo Age - Chapter 141: Friendship (Patreon)

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I stared down at the unconscious man before me, whom Thorne had tied up with the restraining bracelets.

From the conversations I overheard he had with the other workers, he was the CTO of Sensorial Corporation.

Great…What the fuck do I do with this executive-level figure now?

Killing him was out of the question, as that would easily escalate our conflict. We planned to negotiate a ceasefire to stop all the espionage stuff that’s been going on and needed our sabotage mission to be as successful as possible to hold leverage in our negotiations. If we just left him be, he would inform his company of us, which would ruin the surprise factor I had in mind.

The unknown was what humans feared the most. I wasn’t sure if we would be able to get them to stop their sabotage activities if we failed this mission. The company behind them, GrainScape Tech, may continue to spur them on, and I wanted definitive results.

“So what do you want to do with him Rollo, take him back with us?” Thorne asked.

While that was an option, it would create a huge red flag for Sensorial and they would definitely launch an investigation into their disappearing CTO. That would mean they may discover when we had infiltrated them, once again ruining my plan of keeping them entirely in the dark to make them fear us.

A perfect solution would avoid killing this man while keeping Sensorial in the dark about us. To do that, we can’t let this CTO talk or let their entire company think anything is amiss. 

The longer we needed to hold up this farce, the harder it would be. There was an enormous difference between a person missing for a day to a week.

I looked down at the devices I had been tampering with. It was set to break down in a few days, but I may need to lower that timeframe.

“I have an idea… Help me strip him down.”

“...What?”

-----

“How do I look?” I asked the big cyborg in front of me.

“...Should be good as long as they don’t touch you or something.”

“Perfect. You can be on your way. I shouldn’t be long after you.”

“...I’ll have the teams outside be prepared to storm in, then.”

“Come on, have some confidence in me. It won’t come to that.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

He proceeded to place the unconscious man into one of the larger crates where they had stored the large detection systems, then placed my power armor inside another crate before climbing in himself.

I went over and closed the lid for him, and I was then alone in the warehouse. 

I glanced around the place before taking one final look at myself, then towards the pile of devices I had successfully tampered with.

I had donned the guise of the CTO we had knocked out. I went over the recording of his conversation to let my vocal implant imitate his voice and dressed in his clothes. It wasn’t needed, but helped lessen the strain on my Shade. After all, I needed a high-definition projection of his face to fool anyone who knew the man.

With everything set, I walked off toward the break room where I last saw the warehouse workers had gone off. I opened the door and immediately heard chatter coming from within.

A figure soon approached me to check who it was.

“Oh, Sir. Why didn’t you just message us? There was no need for you to personally come get us.”

The reason was that I didn’t have his contact information. An executive’s terminals and SAID were much more secure than the average Joe’s and even if I did breach them, I wouldn’t even know which contact was the correct one.

“Just stretching my legs. I had been sitting too long, inspecting all the products. I’m here to let you know I’m done. I left all the devices that had passed my checks there and will be taking some of the problematic ones back with me for further analysis. You can clean everything up and place them back where they belong now.”

“Right away, sir!”

I nodded at the enthusiastic warehouse manager, who sped back into the room to rally his men into action. They all respectfully nodded their heads at me as they passed by.

As they went about their work,  I proceeded back to the cart with the large crate on it and made my exit. I went out the same way I came and thankfully, no one dared to stop me. Even when I pushed the cart past the weight sensors, the guards only saluted as I walked by.

I ignored the gaze of the people outside and headed straight for the front gate. That was where my luck ended and the guards stopped me.

“Sir Luford, are you heading out alone, without any security accompanying you?”

“Yes, I have something sensitive to attend to. I’ll be gone for a day or two.”

“...Does the acting CEO know, sir?”

“No, but you can inform him.”

“...Are you sure you don’t need a ride, sir?” 

“I know what I’m doing! I’m in a hurry. Get out of the way.”

“Yes, sir!”

The soldier instantly complied with my order, but also seemed relieved to get out of my hair. He performed a stiff salute.

Having escaped from a rival corporation, I hurried along to a more secluded area, where one of our teams was waiting. They had already disabled the nearby cameras and were sitting in an unmarked car with fully tinted windows.

We quickly opened the crate and transferred over its contents. We left the container and cart there for another team to pick up and dispose of while we drove back to our headquarters.

-----

Luford Perez - Sensorial Corporation

Ouch, my head! It really hurts.

Luford woke up to find himself tied to a hospital bed. He tried to nurse his head but to no avail. His limbs were tightly tied to the corners of the bed.

With his movement robbed away from him, he could only survey his surroundings with his eyes to situate himself with his current predicament.

Where in the world am I? I was just in the warehouse inspecting our devices…Right! I saw one of our products get tossed into the completed pile from nowhere.

A sense of realization hit Luford, and he quickly looked around the room in fear. All he found was medical equipment, typical of a clinic, with no one in sight.

I knew it! Dad was right! It’s dangerous to break out into conflict with other corporations. Fuck, am I going to be tortured and killed for my brother’s stupid plan? Fuck you, Harold.

Frustration welled up in him and he tried to release it by tugging violently at his restraints. It did nothing but produce noise.

For better or worse, it managed to draw the attention of whoever was outside as a man peeked his head into the room. Luford froze as he made eye contact with the fully armed man. From the attire and equipment the man had, it confirmed his suspicions that he was in the hands of another corporation.

The guard quickly closed the room behind him.

“Wait! Come back!”

No response came back to Luford. He could only lay there on the bed, as his mind raced to all the possible bad endings that awaited him. Nothing good ever came out of being captured by a hostile corporation. Even he knew that despite his sheltered upbringing.

He breathed in deeply as his imagination spiraled out of control.

It was only when the door opened again that he was brought back from his wild imagination.

“Luford Perez, was it? Can’t say I expected the CTO of Sensorial Corp to be the son of the CEO as well. How are you feeling?”

“...Just kill me. I won’t talk.”

“Oh? And I had thought the first thing you would’ve asked was where or who we are.”

“You’re from the Halls Corporation, right? Who else would it be…Our company doesn’t have a habit of making enemies.”

“Really? I find that hard to believe. You guys suddenly made us your enemy from out of nowhere. I don’t think we even had any other interactions before besides being in the same market as one of our products.”

“This isn’t what we normally do!” Luford cried before quickly calming himself down. “Whatever, just do what you want with me.”

Luford closed his eyes as he awaited his fate. The man questioning him stayed silent as he took a sip from his drink out of a straw. His cup was soon empty as only the sound of his sucking on air resonated within the room. 

Luford couldn’t help but open his eyes to watch what the man was up to. He simply wiped his mouth.

“Calmed down now? It’s okay, you can relax, you know? We’re not looking to harm you. I’m just having a casual conversation with you. Here, why don’t I take off those restraints? You can handle that, right?”

The man’s threatening gaze sent a shiver down Luford’s spine. His instincts screamed out at him that the person before him was a seasoned killer. One who had likely taken more lives than he could count.

Luford could only nod weakly, unable to muster up a response while being glared at by such an intense gaze.

He watched silently as the man’s cybernetic arms went about removing his restraints. He didn’t even dare to sit up until the man had taken some distance and took a seat.

“Now, then. Let’s continue our conversation. Why did you guys suddenly agree to act out against us? Just because we stepped into your market or because some other corporation told you to do it?”

“No…”

“Come on, there’s no harm in telling me right? We’re the victims here. We just want to know your motives.”

“...It’s my brother’s stupid idea. Our father would normally never agree to such risky actions, but he’s hospitalized.”

“Hm…If you know it was stupid, then why did you agree to it?”

“I didn’t! I…I just don’t have the same charisma and political power my brother has. I prefer to just stay in my lab, so I don’t have much political sway in the company…”

The man interrogating Luford rubbed his chin as he pondered his words. Luford could see from the look in his eyes that whatever he was thinking about was definitely something no good.

“So, would you say your brother is a person who wouldn’t be amenable to holding peace talks?”

“...Yes. He’s confident he can take on your F-Class corporation.”

“Even if we give him some… setbacks?”

“...I don’t know. He won’t want his plan to end up a failure, but he’s not foolish enough to ignore the opinions of the other executives. He doesn’t have full control of the company like our father does.”

“I see…Well, I actually don’t enjoy conflict with other corporations either, so I’m looking for a way to end this peacefully. Are you willing to go back and facilitate peace between our companies?”

“What? You’re not killing me? Are you serious? …Are you trying to blackmail me later?”

“Calm down. I don’t plan to do any of those things. I don’t believe in such short-term solutions where I have to stay guarded at all times. I prefer a healthy friendship more. Why don’t we be friends and stop this stupid fight together?”

Friendship between corpos? Is this guy nuts?

“...”

The man stared at Luford while he contemplated in silence. His eyes suddenly opened wide and he let out a cry, causing Luford to flinch back.

“Oh, that’s right. How rude of me to be saying all that stuff about wanting to be friends without introducing myself. I’m Rollo Halls, the owner of the Halls Corporation. Nice to meet you.”

“...”

Luford blinked blankly as he alternated between looking at the man and his outreached hand.

…This guy is the CEO?