Meanwhile, the girls didn't relax. In just a little over a month, Yamata and I really did become mercenaries, and Ada promised to pass along various assignments from the organization she was currently working for.
Well… not exactly.
More accurately, Yamata became the public face and representative of our small "organization" of newly promoted mercenaries—though I have no idea what kind of scheme the two of them worked out together. As for me, I was the add-on and the silent enforcer. Yes, until I get a proper appearance, I can't really hope for anything more.
But that wasn't the end of things.
My partner and I had still managed to seriously screw Umbrella over. It wasn't for nothing that we had gathered so much compromising material. Part of it was sent to people who were very interested in seeing the corporation cease to exist.
Sure, that might derail the canon—but revenge matters more to me.
You'll still pay for what I've become.
And when the collapse finally comes, we can help ourselves to some better equipment. Yes, I fully intend to spend the next few years looting the corporation's accumulated assets. Their internal conflicts will begin soon enough anyway, and when those disputes reach their peak in the same couple of years, they won't even notice how many people start lining their pockets with Umbrella's property.
All of this took a little over a month. During that time, we weren't the only ones providing interesting information to the right people. Survivors must have begun showing themselves to the public as well.
One evening, Yamata—sitting at the computer in my room (really, why did we even buy such a huge mansion if we spent almost all our time in the basement? Though someone preferred to sleep separately from a complete monster)—suddenly exclaimed in surprise, drawing my attention.
"What do you want, mad scientist? Or are you getting revenge for this morning? Because believe me, I'm not exactly thrilled myself that I still can't control this stupid blood and just keep absorbing it automatically," I said, sprawled across an enormous bed large enough to fit five people—or one and a half of me—while lazily reading through the local books.
Strangely enough, the classical literature here matched the works from our world, but the modern authors differed quite a bit.
"That's not what I mean." Yamata grimaced.
Right—her theory about controlling my ability, the so-called Biofeedback, or blood control, had completely failed. I suspected it was because my psionic ability worked differently from that of humans.
If those rare humans who possessed similar powers controlled them within their own bodies. In my case, that control happened instinctively—which was why the blood used to flow back into my wounds before, and still did now. We had tested it on one of the few vulnerable parts of my body: my tongue.
More than that, after the second test, the blood simply refused to flow out at all.
So, unlike humans, I can also control it outside my body (or rather, absorb it). In theory, someday—very far in the future—I might even be able to control the blood inside other organisms as well. For now, though, I am far from anything like that; it would be enough just to learn to master my own.
"So what is it about, then?" I asked with interest, tearing my attention away from yet another detective novel.
What? Even a brutal monster deserves a hobby!
"Well, I found some acquaintances from your story. You won't believe where!" Four Eyes said, spinning her chair toward me with a satisfied look.
"Acquaintances from my story? You mean those survivors thanks to whom I ended up snacking on Thanatos?" I replied, feigning surprise—well, through telepathy. My voice couldn't really convey intonation.
"Yes, exactly them. I won't keep you in suspense. I found them in Umbrella's database. The corporation has decided to cover its tracks by eliminating anyone they can still reach. So now two people from that group will soon be classified as dead, and the others don't have long either. Even though only two teams were sent after them, but judging by the available data, they're real professionals. Although… you said there were four of them, but here it lists seven. Ah—never mind, I found the explanation. They left the city in two separate groups."
"How interesting," I murmured thoughtfully, already turning the possibilities over in my mind.
"And what are we going to do? Let Umbrella eliminate the people it doesn't like?" Yamata asked.
"Hm. No. I'd like to spite the company even in something this small. Tell me, Yamata—can you arrange a leak of this information, but in a way that no one could trace it back to us or figure out where it came from?"
"Easily. It's not my first time. But I'm not quite following your line of thought yet," the girl said, frowning—apparently assuming I intended to dump the problem onto someone else's shoulders.
No thanks.
I knew those big shots in the government and similar institutions. By the time the bureaucratic machine started moving, there would be no one left to save. And that's not even counting the time it would take to send a rescue team—meaning the bureaucrats wouldn't be the only ones slowing things down...
"It's very simple. First we leak the information, and then we attach ourselves to it somehow. Let them hire us. Money and a good deed."
"And how exactly do you propose we do that?" Yamata asked skeptically.
"I don't know—and I don't need to. That part is on your conscience. I've done my job: I generated the idea," I replied, broadcasting pure sarcasm.
Yamata cursed under her breath, spun back toward her "toy," and began hammering away at the keyboard.
Yes—this was definitely something better done quickly.
Interesting times were returning.
And they were twice as fun this time around, because our opponents were only human.
(End of Chapter)
P@treon: /SadRaven
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