“Uh oh, what did I do now?” he asked himself as he took the call.
“I’m surprised you called me so soon. What’s up?” Caiden asked.
“Caiden, I sincerely hope you are well. How are those beautiful girls?” Wizard asked, referring to the twins.
“They’re just fine,” he replied.
“Good. I’ve been thinking about our escape from Red Rabbit. In particular, that strange tracker we had to shake off. Something’s been bothering me about it and the familiar signal it gave off. And you also mentioned that you ran into a man named ‘Dr. Stein’, correct?” She said.
“Oh yeah, that creepy old guy and his enhanced body guards I ran into in the alley. What about him?” He replied.
“I would be very, very wary of that man. He is extremely dangerous. I believe that he and the tracker are somehow connected,” she alleged.
“Hmm, that seems totally random but I will definitely look into it. I’ve been intercepting the traffic on Zonos’s main network for some time now. Their network is littered with red flags and I’ve been hacking their databases regularly, implanting relay nodes at every viable juncture for easy and secure re-entry that only I know exists there. Anything worthwhile I find, I broadcast to my followers on CWR. Somebody’s gotta know the truth,” he said.
“Remarkable. How receptive are your followers to these leaks?” Wizard asked impressed.
“It’s been a tough sell; a lot of people are unsure of how to process the information. A lot of this shit is difficult to accept as truth. And now that I think about it, there’s been some chatter about Dr. Stein Volda on CWR before. He had an unsettling vibe, now that I recall. Made my skin crawl. I’ll let you know what I find out about him and if he’s linked to the tracker,” he said.
“That would be very wise. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you, but I will anyway; lay low, be careful, and get some sleep. You look like shit. Can’t go messing up that model face of yours,” Wizard teased.
“Eh, a face is a face,” he flippantly replied with a grin as he ended the holo-call. He then decided to call the twins.
“Hey there, wanna earn your keep?” he asked in jest.
“You, asshole! You left without saying goodbye!” Nami yelled.
“What do you mean ‘earn our keep’? You think you own us now or somethin’? Just ‘cause you have us locked down, you think we’re your employees?” an annoyed Hitomi chimed in.
“Whoa, whoa! I’m only kidding! I thought we were all on the same page. Chimera is still looking for you guys and it’s better to be hidden and safe, right? And look on the bright side, at least you aren’t being forced into paid sex like before,” he bluntly replied.
“We would’ve given you sex for free if you were here with us now!” Hitomi angrily stated.
“I’m flattered, but seriously, I really do need your help,” he replied.
“Whatever. What do want?” Nami said.
“Remember how we were being followed by that tracker while we were escaping last night?” he asked.
“Yeah what about it?”
“I want you guys to look into a man named Dr. Stein Volda. I think he may’ve had something to do with it,” he told them.
“Oh yeah, that weirdo scientist guy and his freaky bodyguards you were telling us about. You really think he sent that thing after us?” Hitomi asked.
“I dunno, none of this really makes any sense. Check his profile for anything out of the ordinary. I’ve been keeping a close eye on Zonos for quite a while, so I know their systems and how to hack into them. I’ll send precise instructions for entry and a custom VPN program for you to use. Encrypt whatever information you find on him, and send it to me when you can,” he instructed.
“Fine, I guess we’ll help you, if we must,” Nami teased.
“Is everything okay with you? Is there anything else we need to worry about?” Hitomi asked. It was scary how well the pair could read his mind. It seem like his inexplicable dark cloud of worries was visible to them.
“No, nothing at all,” Caiden replied.
“Okay, so when are you coming back?” she asked.
“Not tonight, I have some stuff to do,” he replied.
“Stuff to do? Like what?” Hitomi asked.
“Vantz is dragging me to club Cosmica tonight,” he grumbled.
“What? You’re goin’ to a club to have fun? I’m totally jealous! I wish we could do something like that,” Nami said.
“Well you guys won’t be locked up in there forever. Soon you’ll be free to do what you like,” he said as the twins faces lit up with excitement. “Oh hey, have you guys started training with the self-defense programs I left you yet?” he asked.
“Yeah, we have! I didn’t know you knew so much! It’s great; Hitomi and I are already sparring together,” Nami replied.
“Wait, what? Sparring already?” he asked, astonished.
“What? Is there something wrong with that?” Hitomi asked.
“No, not at all. You guys seem really into it,” he replied.
“Oh yeah, definitely! It feels kinda like we’ve done this before somehow. I can’t really explain it. I guess all we needed was the motivation to actually do it,” Nami said.
“Look, I gotta go. Got some research to do on my end. Hit me back when you find something on Stein. Later!” he said as he closed the call.
Their fast progression shocked Caiden. Clearly, there was something special about those peculiar twins from Rune Village.
CHAPTER 9
---usr/systems/server-x/PIVOTAL PROCEEDINGS---
The apartment became uncomfortably quiet after Vantz and the girls left. The past few days had been peculiarly lively. The silence took some getting used to. To distract himself, Caiden decided to do more research on the nano codec. The upload status bar was still running, and it was almost forty percent complete. I guess I still have some time before it uploads to all my systems,
