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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Simzy
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Pinky Dana, as usual, went to Karl’s quarters first thing in the morning and commuted to work with him. The android, who stayed in the office all day, seemed happy to have company after a lonely weekend. It beeped cheerfully and brewed two delicious cups of coffee, handing them to the man and woman.
Leaning against the break room window, Karl sipped his coffee while looking outside, whistling softly as he mentally organized his upcoming tasks. There were two crucial things he needed to verify.
First, was the decommissioned satellite actually decommissioned? And second, if not, where was it?
Of course, Karl placed a much higher probability on the satellite not being decommissioned, but he couldn’t rule out the possibility of being wrong. So, he needed confirmation.
After finishing his coffee, he returned to his desk and turned on his computer. He searched for companies related to satellite manufacturing and disposal among their partners.
While there were documents certifying the satellite’s disposal, Karl knew these could be easily fabricated. They weren’t entirely reliable.
He then looked into the subcontractors these companies used, finding one that specialized in scrap metal retrieval. “…Looks like I’ll have to go there in person.”
He went to the Chief intelligence Officer and explained the situation to get permission to leave.
“Alright. Go with Dana.”
It seemed the Chief was hesitant to send a trainee Knight with only two weeks of experience out alone.
So, Karl and Dana left the security office and headed to the basement. She asked where they were going.
“A scrapyard.”
“Why?”
“It’s related to the case I’m investigating.”
Dana glanced sideways at Kal’s profile with a curious look. Honestly, she couldn’t understand how a trainee Knight, barely two weeks into the job, could handle things so smoothly. She’d been fumbling around for a whole year, only doing what her superiors told her.
‘…He’s handsome, and smart too, I guess.’
True to her pinky nature, she simply attributed it to his intelligence, completely missing anything suspicious.
Of course, Karl didn’t care what his dimwitted senior thought. If she figured it out, she figured it out. If not, then not. He didn’t feel the need to broadcast his true identity, but he wasn’t trying desperately to hide it either.
Anyway—.
The car carrying the two of them started gliding down the road. It drove quite a distance from the city center, almost to the outskirts.
After a long drive, they arrived at a place where metal pillars were clustered together like a wall, realizing this was the subcontractor they were looking for. A pile of scrap metal was stacked on one side of the space, and a giant claw dangled from a machine above it. As expected of a place dealing with destruction, the atmosphere wasn’t very bright.
As the two entered, a ferocious-looking hunting dog barked fiercely. Of course, Pinky Dana, with her body enhancements, wasn’t afraid of a mere dog. If it attacked, she was confident she could crush its head with a single punch.
Hearing the barking, a hairy middle-aged man emerged and asked, “Who’s there?” He was the typical scrapyard owner, with a stained shirt and a protruding belly.
Dana pulled out her ID card and showed it to him.
“We’re from the Curble Knights intelligence Division.”
The mention of the Security Division made the scrapyard owner’s expression uneasy. Running a scrapyard like this often meant skirting the law, so they weren’t exactly welcome.
“What brings you here?”
“We have some investigating to do.”
“Do you have a warrant?”
“We’re not here to see your books. We just want to check a few things about the type and weight of scrap metal you’ve received. It’s not about you, it’s about something else. So, you don’t have to worry.”
Despite the explanation, he still looked unconvinced. However, since they weren’t the police but the Knights, he couldn’t afford to provoke them. He finally relented.
“So, you’re just going to check that…?”
“Of course.”
The hairy man nodded, gesturing them inside. Dana and Karl exchanged a glance and entered the small building. Inside, a plump middle-aged woman, presumably the scrapyard owner’s wife, was making cheap instant coffee.
“Here you go.”
The scrapyard owner slammed a worn leather notebook on the table. Karl took it and quickly flipped through the pages, checking the dates. The date the satellite was supposed to have been decommissioned. While he flipped through the pages, the middle-aged woman quietly placed paper cups of coffee on the table.
…Found it.
Kal located the date and checked the amount of scrap metal received that day. If the satellite had indeed been decommissioned, there should have been a significant increase, but the recorded figures weren’t much different from usual. Just in case, he checked a month before and a month after, but there were no significant changes anywhere.
As expected, the decommissioning was a sham.
He decided to ask the hairy scrap dealer about it, just in case.
“Have you received any decommissioned satellites recently?”
“Satellites? …Well, I don’t think we’ve received anything like that.”
There was no way the scrapyard owner wouldn’t know if something that massive had come through. Seeing that he didn’t remember, Karl was certain the satellite hadn’t been scrapped.
It had been diverted.
His suspicion was all but confirmed. Now he had to find the missing satellite.
“Alright, I understand. Thank you for your cooperation.”
“Oh, yes. Uh, this won’t cause me any trouble, will it?”
“Of course not. Have a good day.”
The scrapyard owner saw the two out quite a distance from the building. The dog barked again.
As soon as they got back in the car, Dana asked if he’d learned anything.
“The satellite wasn’t scrapped. If it had been, there would’ve been a sharp increase in scrap metal, but there wasn’t.”
“Then why does it say it was decommissioned?”
“…Because they have another use for it.”
“Another use? Where?”
But Karl didn’t answer that question. Dana frowned slightly at him, then turned back to the front. She pondered what this could be connected to, but no matter how hard she racked her brain, she couldn’t come up with anything.
The car started moving again.
The two remained silent, lost in their own thoughts.
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Now Karl had only one problem left.
Where exactly was the satellite?
Even with all his skills, it was unrealistic to expect to pinpoint a hidden satellite instantly. He needed some kind of clue, but aside from knowing it existed somewhere, he had nothing. This was frustrating.
Then there was only one way.
Force them to reveal it.
He had to provoke them, make it so they couldn’t resist using the satellite. Karl knew exactly how to make these thieves itch.
By secretly spreading a rumor that the money had been found. That would surely make them anxious enough to check things out.
But unless they were idiots, they wouldn’t blatantly pull out a decommissioned satellite. They would likely disguise it within a passenger or cargo spaceship, using it like a hidden satellite. In fact, there was no other way. That’s how it was done back on Earth.
The problem was that there were a lot of spaceships launching for such purposes. That’s why this kind of clever camouflage had worked so far.
Back then, the Solar Knights had vast resources, so they could invest overwhelming amounts of money and time to eventually find it. But this tiny intelligence Division didn’t have those capabilities.
‘…How do I find it?’
Karl was stuck. He couldn’t think of any viable methods at the moment.
So, just in case, he looked into the personal information of the Asset Manager’s relatives. However, he didn’t find anything particularly unusual there. ‘…Well, if there was something strange, the intelligence Division would have found it already.’
…Then, a name flashed through Kal’s mind.
Longpat Gamoshi, Head of Satellite Management.
The person who approved the satellite’s decommissioning.
No way—.
Kal began investigating Longpat Gamoshi’s relatives. He discovered that Gamoshi’s younger brother ran a cargo shipping company.
Ah.
By now, even the dullest person would have noticed something. While there was no physical evidence yet, some cases needed to be pursued even without concrete proof. This was especially true when dealing with those who knew how to exploit the department’s blind spots. That’s why the intelligence Division had been tailing the satellite Manager for months without any results.
There was nothing more he could do. It was do or die.
This was the best he could do in these poor circumstances. He had to gamble, and if he failed, he’d have to give up. Either way, they might not catch him.
However, this wasn’t something a trainee Knight could decide on his own, so he went to the Chief intelligence Officer and explained everything.
She seemed quite surprised that a mere trainee had uncovered this much in just a week. Frankly, hadn’t they been failing to find any clues of wrongdoing for months?
“So, you’re saying we should leak false information to the satellite t Manager…?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t think the chances are very high.”
“But there’s no other way to investigate further. We have to take a gamble.”
Embarrassingly, Karl was right. It seemed unlikely they’d uncover anything now by spending more time on what they hadn’t been able to find so far. At this rate, the corruption would remain buried forever.
Of course, as a principled person, she wasn’t thrilled with the method. She preferred solid evidence. However, that didn’t mean she was completely inflexible. Sometimes, bold action was necessary.
She couldn’t ignore the impressive information gathered by her new subordinate. If she relaxed her standards just a little, this could be considered sufficient evidence to initiate a plan.
After much deliberation, Karen took a deep breath and slowly nodded.
“Alright. Let’s do it. …Like you said, there might not be another chance.”
Karl smiled as permission was granted.
“An excellent choice.”
“However, given the gravity of the matter, the entire Security Division will be focusing on this. I’m not saying I’ll take credit for your work. Catching him is the priority. Do you understand?”
“Of course. I don’t care about credit. I just hate seeing these criminals running around freely.”
“Alright. We’ll have a meeting in 10 minutes.”
“Yes, Chief.”
Karl saluted energetically and returned to his seat. Karen turned back to her chair with a faint smile.
It seemed they finally had someone useful in the intelligence Division.
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