Chapter 137 - Intel
Chapter 137 – Intel
"You've been busy, I guess?"
The entire command table was littered with pictures that were interconnected to each other using tape. Those pictures were the pictures taken from the reconnaissance that Del previously did in the slum. The day was getting darker.
Anna had missed the early party. Walter and Del had surrounded the command table. They were connecting the dots, or rather, they were observing the pictures and saw every single possible opportunity.
"These are some nice pictures. What did you use to take these? A high-tech camera?"
"Kinda, anyway, tell me something about these pictures. All of these are the pictures that I took from any building that looked suspicious to me. Anything that caught your attention? Do you think there is something suspicious? Tell me."
"You know what they said Del, if everything looks suspicious, you'll think everyone is a villain. What is the empire doing in here, by the way?"
"Huh?"
Del took pictures of buildings, not imperial soldiers. But hold on, if Walter said something, he must had known something, right? He was a part of the special force, after all, information was his main tool, and his skill as a commando.
"This man."
Walter pointed at one of the pictures, a picture in which there was a building with windows. However, a person was standing in the window, he was smoking a cigarette. It was a relatively young demon. He didn't look important at all.
"Who is this man?"
"Bakker Van Bosch, otherwise known as Recker in the underground world. His track record is rather questionable, mainly because there is no evidence of his doings with the imperial government. The traces either had gone cold or became too insignificant to be a reliable source."
"Such as?"
"The sources that we found are either dead or missing. Bottom line is, this guy is a snake. DO you want to know what we suspect him of doing?"
"Sure."
"He is mainly known as a smuggler, mainly smuggling people, drugs, bombs, you name it. Anything that can ruin the federal government, this guy has it. Imperial can be blamed for everything. This guy smuggles scholars that tricks university students to create protest against the government, chaos in the government, basically, one of the well-known troublemaker."
"Can we kill him?"
"Ah, that's the hard part. One thing for sure, he's one of the protected kinds. You know what they call him, the anti-war activist. Getting killed is one of his goals, he wants instabilities or anything that will lower public support for the military. As you know, we are pretty much having trouble in that regard."
"Ok, so the troublemaker can't be killed. What is he doing in here, though? You said he is mainly an anti-war activist, but why would he visit a town in the middle of nowhere?"
"Probably smuggling something important, or looking for something important, I don't know. Del, be careful with this guy, this person might be looking like an angel, but he is really an evil within. He might preach about the evil that the military had done, but don't be fooled, this guy only wants less and less support on the military."
"Won't everyone mark him as a traitor if he does that?"
"You don't get it, do you? Del, students are idealists for most of the time, maybe some of them aren't, but most of them are. Their goal is good, wanting to advocate for peace and all, but this man will use that view to manipulate the young people,"
"Rotting from the inside…"
"Exactly."
Ok, so there was an inside agent inside of the suspected trafficking ring, but why he become relevant? If he got caught, it would be a thrust to the chest to the imperial side. He would be smart enough not to involve himself in something like that, unless…
"This man has a hidden agenda. I'm sure of it, but what is the agenda? What is he trying to achieve?"
"I'm not so sure about this too, Del. This is your job to investigate it. Make sure that you don't expose yourself too much. Remember Del, this man won't get his hands dirty, you can't catch him without any reason."
"I can do anything as long as I don't kill him, right?"
"Wrong, I don't want you to lay your hand in this guy. I don't even want you to touch him, even slight harm will get you in trouble. Best to stay away, this person in untouchable, just investigate what you need to investigate and be done with it."
"Aren't we trying to kill two birds with one stone?"
"Not really, this is your idea. I'm just telling you what I know. Remember, Del, your main goal is the informant from the imperial that somehow stuck on your academy. Retrieve the spell, and make the informant disappear."
"Got it, but I want the archive from the council and the security division. That thing might lead me to anything suspicious."
"If you think it will help, so be it. I don't care. Just don't get caught. This informant will kill you if there's an opportunity. Remember, Del, the only reason why she hadn't killed you is that there isn't an opportunity yet."
"Basically, I to our informant is like Recker to us."
"True."
"Well, we have a lot of work then," Del said. "Anna, come over here, I want to task you with something."
"What's the task?"
"Snoop around for a bit. I want you to read the archive." Anna's expression immediately showed dissatisfaction. "And who am I should be looking for, to be precise?"
"Anyone that sounds suspicious. You just have to photograph it to me, and we'll be done with it."
"Anything in particular that I should be looking for?"
"Anyone that isn't from Ilbistirum Federation. You need to look for students like that. And also, you might want to look for students whose archive has gone missing. We are not sure about what we should be looking for, to be honest, we're going to take the risk on this one."
"I see."
Anna went for the coffee machine. Walter went out of the building, he felt that he had told everything he had known. Now, it was Del's job to figure our their next action. He could start by asking for more information. However, doing that without raising any attention would be rather difficult. That would need a very abnormal approach on this one.
"You know, should we buy someone?"
Anna glared at Del. "You nuts/"
"No, I'm not nuts. We're freeing those people their captives by buying them. We would also get closer to the slavers."
"But where should we put them? Forget that idea, Del. It's too hard."
"What we should do then? Ask everyone around for intel and information, you know it doesn't work like that. We need to be sophisticated, and so far, everything that we have done only given us more and more attention."
"What's on your mind, then?"
"Put a tracker one every single trafficker that we can find. We will ambush them later. This is the safest method so far. No one will miss them, but we need to be incognito on this one."
"Which means?"
"No trace. No bullet. Every single kidnapping must be quiet and randomized. We won't use our regular military uniform either. We'll just use a black shirt and black clothing while concealing our face with a balaclava. It should work just fine."
"Great idea. That should be working better. Recker wouldn't mess with us either if he doesn't know who is kidnapping his men. However, we also need to be more randomized with our methods. We can't interrogate them here, nor lead them here. Any solution for that?"
"The mountain in the north might have a solution for us. There might be a cave or something that we can use. There is also a forest, right? We can use that place to interrogate our prisoners. After that, we can kill him."
"Anna, I have a suggestion."
"What's the suggestion?"
"Let's use an insignia of a rival group when kidnapping them. They can be tricked to believe that their competitors are attacking them. With that, we can create chaos in the trafficking ring, and hid our identity at once."
"That's a great idea, Del. But I will leave that to you, it's your suggestion which means that it's your job. Anyway, Del, you need to be careful." Anna sipped on her coffee.
Del just nodded. He might have something that he could use in that picture. There might be an insignia of a group or something. Anything that will point their doings to another criminal group would be great. They couldn't act as a contractor since it would immediately expose them.
Del kept searching the pictures and he found one symbol that might help him. The symbol of a criminal organization, most likely. Heck, if it was a symbol of a cake store, he wouldn't care either.. As long as it didn't point back to them, it would be fine.