“~Listen Sora, there’s no time for small talk. I need to show you something. Meet me in the park near the guild as soon as you can! I’m waiting there right now! ~”
Sora knew from the tone that Conner was not kidding. He said, “Sure. I’ll meet you there in five seconds.”
Sora cut the call and used his new split step and arrived at the park to see Conner staring at his cell phone. Sora came up behind him and asked, “What’ve you got for me?”
Conner was flabbergasted at first, but recovered quickly and said, “Take a look at this.”
He took out a laptop and showed the screen. Sora had seen normal laptops before, but Conner’s was nothing close to normal.
Conner said worriedly, “Look, I have something to confess before I show you. But I want your word that you’ll trust me and won’t bail on me.”
Sora saw how earnest Conner was. He said, “I trust you. And I will not bail on you.”
Conner looked at Sora and said, “I’m a hacker.”
Sora was not sure if he heard properly. “Hacker… you mean those guys who do illegal stuff by breaking into people’s computer systems?”
Conner said, “No, that’s a cracker. A hacker isn’t too different though, but I don’t do anything bad after hacking. Do you believe that?”
Sora said, “I already told you that I trust you. So don’t worry.”
Conner nodded and said, “Okay. Well, I was hacking into various systems just to kill time when I came across one system with pretty advanced protection, almost around the level of guild system protection. So I took it as a challenge and hacked into it successfully. But look at this mail from that system.”
A window opened on the screen. It was a short mail from an anonymous sender to someone named BLITZ.
The message read:
Hello Blitz,
It has been a pleasure working with you. Your remuneration has already been wired to your account. The information for your service location has been attached to the mail.
We hope you do not disappoint us.
I don’t want to miss my fireworks.
The devil’s son’s nemesis would have a memorable day tomorrow.
Good luck.
Sora finished reading the mail and said, “Something’s awkward with this mail. It seems too…”
“Too reticent, I know,” said Conner. “I went through the attachment of the mail and noticed that it was heavily encrypted. It was full of numbers. It took a while, but I found the key or the pattern of the code just an hour or so ago. So, I used one of my custom software and the attachment is now being decoded as we speak.”
He showed a window where some random numbers were being displayed. They disappeared and were replaced by another set of numbers.
“This intrigued me, so I went even deeper into the system. The amount of protection in the system showed that this was no ordinary guy’s computer. After hours of decoding, I finally broke in this morning. And guess what I found.”
He opened another window. This time, a blue chart with lines drawn across it was shown.
“Is that a blueprint?” Sora asked.
Conner said, “Yes. I cross-referenced it with other blueprints and found that it was for some kind of device. And get this, most of the components here are the ones used in explosive devices.”
Sora stared at the blueprint again. He thought about it for a few moments and said, “But it could be for anything. It might not necessarily be for a bomb.”
Conner shook his head and said, “That’s what I hoped too. But look at the mail again.”
He opened the window containing the mail.
“The receiver’s name is BLITZ. I thought about it and then realized that blitz is also a word used rarely to describe an explosive attack. And the line, ‘I don’t want to miss my fireworks’ might also mean the bombs exploding. And finally, the last line stating: ‘the devil’s son’s nemesis would have a memorable day tomorrow’ is quite evidently Gildartz city, seeing as Gildartz was the name of the man, who defeated Satan’s son, Lucifer.”
Sora read the line again and said, “Tomorrow. So you mean to say that somebody is planning to bomb multiple parts of Gildartz tomorrow?”
Conner looked grimly and said, “The mail was sent the same day I hacked into the system, Sora. And that was yesterday. So that means…”
“Gildartz city might be blown up today!” Sora grimaced.
There was a small alert on the computer. Conner instantly clicked one of the windows.
“The decoding of the attachment is complete! We can access the information given to BLITZ now!”
Conner opened the attachment. The computer loaded a table showing more numbers and names of places. On further reading, Sora understood what they were. Conner looked at Sora and nodded.
“These are the time and the places where the bombs are to be placed!”
Sora asked hastily, “When does it start? Come on Conner, tell me!”
Conner gulped and said, “The first bomb… is in Genesis alley… and it blows up in… three minutes!”
Sora shouted, “Take your stuff! We’re going there right now!”
Conner said, “Its three minutes… make it two minutes fifty seconds! How will we get there in time?”
“Hold on,” Sora said. He grabbed Conner and said, “You forgot who you’re talking to.”
He used the split step again.
Conner felt his eyes being forced into their sockets and his cheeks being ripped off. Everything around him, except Sora, was a blur. The sound of them cutting through the wind deafened him. He was finding it hard to breathe as well.
Sora stopped suddenly, causing Conner to jerk forward due to the momentum. He gasped for air and felt nauseous.
Sora fumed, “Oh crap!”
Conner pulled himself together and looked around. They were in Genesis alley already, but his heart sank immediately.
“Damn it… it’s market day today!”
In front of them was a sea of heads as people walked around. Today was the busiest day in Genesis Alley. The number of people in the post lunch period would usually reach close to thousands. If the bomb did exist… if it really did blow…
Conner said, “We’re in trouble. Not only would the casualties be high, it’ll be almost impossible to find the bomb within two minutes!”
Sora asked desperately, “Conner, give me one characteristic of the bomb, like how it would look in real life, things like beeping and stuff like that. Can you do that?”
Conner nodded and started typing on his laptop with surprising dexterity and speed. He showed the screen, which had a window of the blueprint being converted into a 3D model.
The bomb had a small circuit box on top of a gray cube like container. Wires from the fuse box were attached to two small LED lights as well as the cube.
Conner displayed a graphical image of the bomb working. There was also a beeping sound from inside the cube.
Sora said, “No other choice. I have to try to listen to the beeping. How much time left, Conner?”
Conner said, “Just one minute and twenty four seconds left. Sora, how will you find it by its beeping?”
Sora closed his eyes and took a deep breath. When he opened them, Conner noticed that his eyes had changed. It was like that of a beast.
Sora had activated his wild instincts.
With his senses heightened to their limits, Sora tried to cancel out the extra noises and pick up only the beeping.
The hubbub of the crowd was downed gradually as Sora concentrated on his hearing. After a few seconds, the only thing he could hear was his breath, his heart and from a distance, a small rhythmic beeping sound…
“I found it!”
“What!” Conner exclaimed in disbelief. Nevertheless, he followed Sora, who rushed in the direction of the beeping. After a few seconds of running, Sora stopped in front of a familiarly queer stall with awkward looking small colored balls being displayed.
“Well, well
. Sora! What can I do for you today?”
The old man in front of the shop was running his hands through his long white beard. He said, “I hope you put your purchases to good use already.”
Sora said vehemently, “Old man, have you seen some kind of gray cubic box, around fifteen centimeters in all dimensions, with a box and two lights placed on it?”
The beeping was from this area. But Sora did not have time to search for it.
The old man scratched his beard as he said, “A gray box, is it? I feel like I saw something recently that resembled your description. But where did I see it?”
Conner finally caught up with Sora. He panted and said, “Sora, twenty five seconds!”
Sora turned to the old man and said, “Come on, old man, try to remember. It’s important!”
“Don’t rush me. I need some time to remember.”
“Eighteen seconds!”
“I’m pretty sure it was this morning. But why can’t I seem to remember?”
“Don’t go senile on me, old man!”
“Ten seconds! Sora, we have to leave or die!”
“We’re not leaving! Old man, COME ON!”
“Ah yes! Some young man threw it in that trashcan opposite the shop this morning. No wonder I didn’t remember at once.”
“Sora, seven seconds!”
Sora was already tearing up the trashcan. Papers, bottles, drinks and other waste scattered on the floor. A among them, a small gray box slowly fell to the ground.
“Four seconds! I’m going to die!”
Sora caught the box right before it fell. Conner shouted, “Two seconds! Sora, get rid of it!”
“How?” Sora shouted back.
There was a small click. The light on top of the box switched from the red bulb to the green one. Then, a white flash appeared, followed by a deafening blast.
Glass shattered and objects were blown away. Cell phones were going haywire and exploded all around them. Conner closed his eyes, regretting the things he had not done yet, the things he wanted to do and greatly regretted not getting a girlfriend because he loved computers more…
Conner opened his eyes after it was all over. He was staring at the sky. It was a few seconds before he realized that he was lying on the floor. He touched himself and pinched his cheeks to convince himself that he was very much alive.
It was then that he looked around. The shops and buildings around him were ragged but not totally destroyed. There was no fire or black soot anywhere like he had seen in the movies. More people were getting to their feet around him.
That was when he saw Sora standing in front of him. He was holding two great swords that seemed to have a strange aura around them. Sora was shaking slightly.
Conner said, “Sora…”
Sora turned to see Conner and said, “Hey, is anybody hurt?”
“Yeah. You.”
Sora was bleeding profusely. He fell to the floor, but was still gripping his swords. Just then, Conner noticed a strange ball of wind in front of Sora.
Conner asked, “Is that… the bomb?”
Sora said, “Yeah. My contract lets me control wind. So just when it was about to explode, I used it to create a barrier around it. It was able to hold in the worst of the explosion. But I wasn’t fast enough to stop it completely.”
Sora took a deep breath and relaxed his grip on the Wind Fangs. Slowly, the ball of wind began to falter and disappeared, revealing what was left of the bomb; a blackened, ruptured piece of debris.
“That was quite an explosion, kid.”
Sora and Conner turned and immediately choked themselves trying not to laugh. The old man was staggering to his feet. The great white beard he was so proud of was flying in all directions. And miraculously, a pair of pink underwear, which had flown from a nearby garment shop, was caught on his nearly baldhead.
Sora was nearly tearing when he said, “Old man, you’ve got quite a fashion sense.”
The old man appeared flattered, not realizing the reason for the comment. He said, “Why, thank you Sora, though that was a bit out of context. I want to say that I owe you for saving my life right now. My shop also seems to be all right. So, if you need any help, you can come to me anytime.”
Saying that, the old man scraped up the strange balls and left. Sora looked surprised and said, “Well, that was certainly gracious of him.”
Conner smiled and said, “He wanted to thank you for saving his life. And he isn’t the only one.”
Sora turned to see people in tears approaching him and grasping his hand and thanking him with all their heart. Some people brought out a few bandages and treated his wounds. Sora was taken aback but Conner grinned and said, “I know how they feel. You’re now their hero, a man who put his life on the line to save theirs. They want to show you their appreciation.”
Sora was a bit embarrassed about all the attention he was receiving. Just then, someone said, “You certainly seem to be enjoying yourself.”
Sora turned and said, “Emily Turner and Julie Croft… What’s the B rank tag team doing here?”
Julie looked around and said, “Sora, what did you do? Can’t you control yourself in public at least?”
“I saved these people’s lives, just so you know,” Sora fumed.
Emily said, “Okay, jokes aside, what happened here?”
Sora grimaced, “This was a terrorist strike; a mass murder attempt using an explosive device.”
“What! In Gildartz city?” they exclaimed.
Sora nodded. Then, his eyes went wide when he finally remembered. “Conner! Is the laptop okay?”
Conner was gripping it in his arms. He booted it up and said, “Yeah, it is. Thank god!”
Sora gave a sigh of relief. Conner said, “It’s too early to be relieved, Sora. There are still two more bombs around the city.”
Emily shouted, “What! Wait, who are you? Where did you get that information from?”
Sora said, “Don’t worry. He’s a friend of mine. I’ll explain the situation later. But right now, we should try to stop the bombs before they explode.”
Julie asked cautiously, “Wait… can we trust him?”
Sora said, “Yeah. He was the one who told me about the first bomb. I’ll vouch for him.”
Julie scowled, “It’s not like I trust you that much either.”
“Guys, this isn’t the time for that.”
Jake and Luke Miller, the C rank contractor, had arrived. Sora said, “You guys keep turning up pretty fast.”
Luke said, “We got an alert of some unknown explosion in Genesis alley. They said it was a little small, but was sent to everyone nearby.”
Jake said, “Well, seeing the condition you are in, can we say that it wasn’t as small as we thought?”
Sora licked his lips and said, “Let me put it this way. This device would make a Giant Skunk’s gas bomb look like an E rank contract in front of a Z rank contract.”
Emily and Julie groaned while Luke let out a low whistle. Jake turned to them and said, “I guess you guys understand the gravity of the situation. Our first priority will be to stop the bombs from exploding.”
He faced Conner, who recoiled a little. But Sora put his arm around him and said, “He’s a lot nicer than those girls. Don’t worry.”
Jake grinned and said, “So, Conner. How much longer for the next bomb to blow?”
Conner scrambled for his laptop and looked at the screen. He said, “We’ve got around forty three minutes. The location is said to be the… hydrogen refinery plant!”
Everyone gasped. Jake was startled as well, but then said, “That’s understandable. These terrorists are attacking Gildartz City, a major metropolitan city in the south continent. The first attack in the Genesis Alley was to trigger mass fear amongst the citizens. Now, the target is the hydrogen refinery plant located near the city outskirts. Taking that out will not only cause a very big explosion because of the concentrated hydrogen there, but also destroy the power source for every city
in a five hundred kilometer radius. So, doing that would be the logical route in terrorism.”
Sora said, “Okay. We’ll contact the guild headquarters and mobilize some contractors to evacuate people in the area and search for the bomb. And Jake, I was wondering if Professor Gopi Krishna should have a look at the bomb.”
Jake looked at the remains of the device and said, “I don’t know what he could make of that.”
Sora said, “Not that. Conner managed to get the blueprint of the bomb used and device a 3D model of its working. Maybe we should have the professor examine the blueprint and stuff, seeing as he is somewhat an explosives expert.”
Jake looked askance at Sora, but did not ask questions. Instead, he said, “Sure. I’ll take the information to the professor myself. Emily, contact the guild and tell them to assign some contractors to the hydrogen refinery. Tell them that an image of the device and its characteristics will be sent to their G watches in a few minutes.”
Emily nodded and Julie followed her as they rushed to the guild.
Luke was about to follow when Jake said, “Luke, do me a favour and tell the police what is going on. We can’t enter the refinery without their approval. Ah, the police have arrived at last.”
Luke grumbled, “Why am I given the boring work?” But he still went forward to meet Inspector Ram, who was approaching them.
Sora was amazed. “You’ve impressed me again. Emily and Julie are stuck up and Luke is way older than us, but they’re doing whatever you ordered them to do.”
Jake said with a grin, “That’s because they agree with my decisions.”
Conner coughed impatiently. “Excuse me, forty minutes left! I need time to explain the models a little more to whomever you’re showing this stuff to.”
Jake said, “Right. And Sora, if you don’t need Dr. Reed to see you, stay on standby and wait for information regarding the bomber so that you can catch him. Judging by what this model shows, there is no timer to the device. So they must be manually detonated. And the bomber must not be far because he has to have a visual on what is happening.”
Sora nodded and started flying, to the surprise of many of the onlookers, including Conner.
Jake looked at the monitor and said, “Thirty-nine minutes. Let’s go.”
Contractor: The Legendary Contract of Vento Page 19
