The convertible Accelerator was riding in was headed for District 23.
He gave a sidelong glance towards the frightened man next to him and pulled his cell phone from his pocket.
After thinking for a second, he entered the three-digit number for Anti-Skill.
When he pressed the phone to his ear, he did not hear an operator from the Anti-Skill contact center. Instead he heard the "man on the phone" who gave instructions to Group.
"What are you trying to do?"
"I assumed you would cut in if I called that number. If you don't like that I can use you like that, stop being so predictable." responded Accelerator. "By the way, it seems things have changed. You people seem busy with School, so apparently you can't control people just by talking with them on the phone. You haven't talked to us directly so far today, because you've been too busy dealing with all that, right?"
"Do you really think that?"
"You're trying to just smooth it over? Pathetic."
Accelerator and the "man on the phone" remained silent for a moment.
Finally, Accelerator got to why he had called.
"Give me the information on the satellite being cracked, Hikoboshi II. What's the output of the military laser equipped on it?"
"Oh, is that all you're going to ask? You could always ask a more relevant question."
"I don't trust what you say enough to risk my life on it."
"What a cruel thing to say," the man's voice responded. "Strictly speaking, the laser on Hikoboshi II is an optical bombing weapon that uses white light waves. And it is currently experimental not military. It heats its target up to about 4000 degrees, but white light waves have the power to destroy cell nuclei just like ultraviolet rays, so it can cause cancer quite quickly."
(What a ridiculous toy.) thought Accelerator, but he said something else.
"…What's the range of exposure?"
"Anywhere from a 5 meter radius to a 3 kilometer radius. Also, it cannot fire in quick succession. It can barely manage one shot in an hour. And the atmosphere randomly refracts the white light waves, so there is a slight margin of error in its accuracy."
"I can't tell you anything that's still in the experimental stage though," the man added lightly.
Accelerator hung up without saying anything more.
He sat in the passenger seat of the convertible thinking while staring at his phone in one hand and jabbing his handgun into the driver with his other.
(Burning down an area with a radius of 3 kilometer? What are they planning…?)
Then his phone started ringing.
He thought it was that man again, but he was wrong.
"This is…Accelerator-san, right? It's Unabara."
It was hard to understand him because it sounded like he was keeping his voice low or had his hand over the microphone or something.
"I'm in disguise right now, so speaking in this voice is dangerous. As such, I'd like to keep this brief."
"Oh, so you're speaking to me in secret behind School's back? Sorry, but I'm not going to listen to a plea for help. I have to stop them from cracking the satellite. If you're saying you can stop School, then I'll listen."
"I'm not with School."
"Ah?"
"The one's I'm with are the one's cracking the satellite, but they're Block not School."
"…"
From what Unabara said, the organization known as Block was carrying out a plan on that day as well as School.
"What a pain. Then what about the sniper attack on Oyafune Monaka that School carried out?"
"Don't ask me. …Wait, sniper attack?"
Unabara sounded puzzled, but then he returned to the subject at hand.
"Before this, they attacked the Virus Isolation Center and one of the External Connection Terminals, so Academy City's network counter-measure team must be in a state of confusion. They'll be done with the cracking in another…20 minutes. Then Hikoboshi II will have fallen into Block's hands."
"God damn it," Accelerator swore. "Why hasn't District 23 temporarily frozen the satellite control center?"
"There are various reasons, but the main one is that the normal method of manually freezing it takes over an hour."
When dealing with space, things cost a lot more, so even a temporary loss of connection could bring about major losses. Accelerator knew this, but it still pissed him off that they couldn't just cut off the connection once it was known the satellite was being cracked.
"What is Block planning to do with Hikoboshi II?"
"My guess is that it has to do with the optical weapon on the satellite."
"Are they trying to strike a deal?"
"No, they're just going to attack."
Accelerator clicked his tongue.
"What's their target?"
"…District 13."
(District 13?)
Accelerator frowned.
Tsuchimikado and Musujime were headed there to deal with the External Connection Terminal.
(Could they be trying to eliminate Group…?)
After thinking for a second, he decided that it wasn't that. A large-scale action like taking control of a satellite lacked certainty. Just because they caused an incident didn't guarantee that Group would head out to deal with it.
"But there aren't any major facilities there other than the External Connection Terminal. It's mostly a collection of kindergartens and elementary schools."
"That's their target," responded Unabara in a low annoyed voice that made it sound like he disliked having to explain things. "Of all the districts in Academy City, District 13 has the most kindergartens and elementary schools. If they attack there, most of the city's youngest residents will be killed. And what do you think would happen then? …To put it bluntly, do you think any parent would want to send their children to a place where that had happened?"
"…"
"Academy City is a city of students. No matter how many residents it has, they will eventually graduate. Without new students, the city's numbers will continue to fall until it can't even function."
"…So they're trying to slowly kill the city over the course of the next decade?"
Since Academy City held a great amount of scientific technology, it would not collapse on the financial front so easily. However, that didn't change the fact that an Academy City with no children would lose its reason to exist.
Accelerator thought for a second.
"Can you stop them there?"
"If I could, I wouldn't have called."
"Can we have the residents of District 13 evacuate?"
"If it caused a panic, it could be dangerous for the children in the district. And today is a holiday. The teachers may be able to gather all the students who are still in the dorms, but I don't think they could do anything about the ones playing in the district."
"You're fucking useless. So I suppose I have no choice but to destroy the antenna that communicates with the satellite."
"Please do. I will continue to gather information here and pass it on to you when I can."
After saying that, Unabara hung up.
Accelerator put his phone back in his pocket and looked in the direction the convertible was driving.
(So in another 20 minutes they'll have taken control of Hikoboshi II.)
The convertible would most likely reach District 23 in a little over 10 minutes.
There was no time to take things slowly.
"Hurry up. I have somewhere I need to be."
Once again, he pushed the gun against the driver and the convertible faithfully sped up.