Free Web NovelChapter 114: [114] The Supply Chain, Robbing the Iron Convoy
The Prime Auditor slowly lowered its glass hand. It did not wait for a reply from Arthur. It did not acknowledge Cassia or Vane.
The construct turned around, stepped back into the geometric tear in the sky, and vanished from reality.
The tear snapped shut. The oppressive, sterile grey lighting of the plaza instantly faded. The normal, dingy neon glow of the Margin returned, casting long shadows over the piles of fresh ash.
Vane dropped his heavy sword. The metal clanged loudly against the stone. His chest heaved up and down as he leaned back against a nearby concrete barrier.
"What... what the hell just happened?" Vane breathed. He wiped a hand across his scarred, sweaty face.
Cassia slowly lowered her hands away from her stun pistols. A genuinely amazed smile spread across her face. She looked at Arthur like she was seeing him for the first time.
"He just out bureaucrated a cosmic executioner," Cassia said, shaking her head.
She looked at Arthur. Her violet eyes gleamed with heavy, undeniable respect. "I knew you were a shark, Sterling. But that was cold." frёeωebɳovel.com
Arthur let out a slow, exhausted breath. He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out the physical ledger he had looted from the manager earlier. He tossed the thick book into the mud at his feet.
He pulled up his system interface.
[Ding!]
[Hostile threat neutralized by third-party arbitration.]
[Notice: 0 Destruction Tax incurred. Host did not violate lethal force protocols.]
Arthur dusted off his ruined dark coat. He looked at the blue text, his heart finally slowing down to a normal rhythm. He had bet his entire existence on a legal loophole, and it had paid off perfectly.
Arthur turned around and looked at Vane. He offered the scarred hero a cold, corporate smile.
"See? No bloodshed," Arthur said smoothly. "Now, let’s go hit Silas Vance where it actually hurts."
Arthur Sterling turned his back on the fifty piles of grey ash scattered across the plaza. He didn’t spare them a second glance. They were liquidated assets. They didn’t matter anymore.
"Let’s move," Arthur commanded. "Back to the office."
Ten minutes later, the trio pushed through the heavy oak doors of the newly renovated Mayor’s office at the top of the central administrative building.
The adrenaline of the high speed chase and the cosmic audit was slowly fading. It was replaced by a sharp, focused tension. They had survived the immediate threat, but they were still sitting on a massive debt, and Silas Vance was still out there.
Arthur walked over to his desk. He grabbed a fresh white shirt from a storage cabinet and quickly swapped it out for his torn, blood stained one. He tossed the ruined fabric into a trash bin.
"Alright," Arthur said, rolling his shoulders. "Silas Vance sent the feds after us because we took his casino. He wants us dead, and he wants his money back. We are going to hit him again before he can regroup."
Cassia walked over to the mahogany desk. She pulled a glowing data crystal from her pocket and slapped it onto the holographic projector in the center of the table.
"I pulled this from Gildas’s personal files during the heist," Cassia said. Her fingers flew across the holographic interface, bringing up a massive, sprawling 3D map.
The map showed the dark, smog choked wasteland of the Deficit Zone. A bright red line traced a path across the desert, connecting a series of deep underground mines to Sector 5.
"This is the shipping manifest," Cassia explained. "Silas Vance doesn’t just run casinos. He mines raw Merit Energy from the outer rims. He uses a massive hover-train convoy to transport the raw capital back to his central vaults."
Arthur leaned over the table, his dark eyes analyzing the red line.
"How fast does it move?" Arthur asked.
"Mach 2," Cassia replied. "It never stops. It’s fully automated and heavily guarded. It rips through the desolate wastes of the Deficit Zone twice a week. It’s scheduled to make a run in exactly an hour."
Vane stepped up to the table. The scarred frontiersman crossed his massive arms over his chest. He stared at the map.
"The Iron Convoy," Vane grunted. His rough voice was thick with hatred. "I know it. They use slave labor in those mines to dig up the raw energy. Then they ship it all to the fat cats in the Inner Realms. It’s a disgusting operation."
Vane looked at Arthur, his jaw set in a firm line.
"We stop the train, we choke his cash flow," Vane declared. "We blow the tracks and let the whole thing crash in the desert."
Arthur slowly shook his head. He looked at Vane with profound, exhausted annoyance.
"We aren’t just stopping it, Vane," Arthur said. "Blowing it up is a waste of capital. We are stealing the entire locomotive. We need that raw Merit Energy to pay off our debt."
"It’s heavily guarded!" Vane argued, slamming his hand on the desk. "They have automated plasma turrets lining every single cargo car. They have elite cybernetic guards on the inside. You want to hijack a train moving at twice the speed of sound with three people?!"
"Yes," Arthur stated simply.
Arthur pulled up his system interface. He checked his current balance.
[Current System Points: 15,000 (Generated from passive Margin city taxes).]
"System," Arthur muttered. "Open the shop. Give me three high tier grav-bikes. I need speed and maneuverability."
[Ding!]
[Purchasing: ’Void-Runner’ Grav-Bikes x3.]
[Cost: 12,000 System Points.]
Three sleek, aerodynamic hover bikes materialized in the center of the office. They were painted pitch black, with glowing blue thrusters hummed quietly at the rear. They looked like mechanical predators.
Arthur tossed a set of ignition keys to Vane, and another to Cassia.
"Grab your gear," Arthur ordered. He walked over to his bike and swung his leg over the leather seat. The engine purred to life under him.
"We intercept them in the wasteland. Vane, you take the right flank. Cassia, you take the left. Keep the automated turrets busy."
"And what are you going to do?" Cassia asked. She strapped her sniper rifle tightly to her back and hopped onto her bike.
Arthur gripped the handlebars. A dark, terrifying smile stretched across his face.
"I’m going to board the engine car," Arthur said. "Let’s go rob a train."
