As Bones' shuttle rattled to a stop atop the helicopter pad on the top of the factory building which is positioned in the middle of a cluster of buildings in the middle of the Edge, his mind also settled down into who he is supposed to be here.
Bonovar Skinner, a rich buyer and dealer of RED from the inner zones of S Prime, dealing with only the most prestigious and hence stringent of customers who wanted nothing but stuff of the highest quality, not only for their mental and physical pleasures but also for whatever sick acts they wanted to perform behind close doors.
He is here to earn a big one, and it is only natural for him to investigate the source, regardless of what it takes for the RED to be extracted.
As the manager leads him through the perfectly maintained corridors of the compound, he couldn't help but look at all of the processing of the RED going on all around him. According to the manager, there are different components of RED which all create different mental and physical effects, and that is reflective of what Jon had found in the supermarket. Each level is used to process all of the raw RED which had been freshly extracted and divide up into a variety of products.
'There are a total of nine farms within the plant, or compound, depending on whether you are the engineer or the biologist. Through the help of time dilating ability from one of the superhumans, we can run the farms at super-normal time, meaning they are experiencing time at a much faster rate than we are.'
'How much faster?' Bones asked.
'One hundred and twenty times.' The manager replied, 'one month up here is ten years for them. So all we had to do really is to rotate from farm to farm throughout the mouth, and we will have a constant supply of red.'
Bones can feel tension running throughout his body as energy began to travel up and down the tattoos in his arm. However, he forced himself to stay calm as he lets out a long breath and continued walking forward.
'I want to see the raw.' Bones said, following the manager's lead as he intended to take him into one of the extraction labs, 'I want to see the farms with my own eyes. As I am sure you are most aware, the best quality RED...
'...Stems from conflict, yes.' The manager nodded as he checked on his watch, 'Well, there was actually an extraction happening tomorrow. So if you wouldn't mind, you can join along for the ride.'
Bones nodded silently and followed the manager into the lab, where powdered RED laid on top of the table.
Bending over to examine them closely, it looked like tiny crystals of human blood, and yet the powdering process made it so easy to consume.
No wonder those rich assholes in zone one are all dying over these things.
'Feel free to sample if you wish.' The manager said confidently, and yet half of that confidence is gone when Bones turned around and looked at him in the eye. Taking out a small packet, Bones took the entire bunch of RED into it and put it in his pocket.
'I shall examine it later in private.' Bones said, and the manager smiled and nodded along.
'Understandable, Sir. Now please follow me.'
The manager carried on with the tour with Bones in tow, and he marked down the various key points in the plant, ending with the central command center which is located in the geometric center point of the entire plant over the nine underground cities.
'In order to foster the best production of RED, we wanted authentic communities to develop down there, which is why we are always designating city leaders and controlling the masses through them.' The manager said, 'this method has worked marvelously through hundreds of cycles by this point.'
Bones nodded coldly, and he couldn't even begin to imagine what it would be like to live in a circle of slaughter and death.
Thinking back to the information brought in by Rydel, Bones lowered his voice and turned to face the manager.
'You seem to operate rather differently to other RED farms here, don't you?'
The manager's eyebrows raised and a hint of tension came across his face.
'There...there are certainly many approaches to the cultivation and harvesting of RED...' The manager said, 'but our methods are superior due to the consistency, the organization and the management!'
'Do you have much knowledge of the other methods?' Bones asked nonchalantly, 'obviously, I would like to see a critical assessment of the different models before making a final call for my clients.'
'Yes, Sir...' The manager cleared his throat before taking a step back away from the desk of the officer who is unintentionally listening in to their conversation. He whirled his hand around and created an audio-isolated bubble around the two of them.
'As far as I am aware, there are those operations which use cities in the real world outside of S Prime to cultivate the RED, and they simply wipe away whatever evidence of their existence afterward.' The manager said.
'And how would that be possible? How can nobody remember the existence of an entire city?!' Bones asked curiously, thinking back to the case of the abandoned city. Obviously, whatever's going on here is vastly different from whatever happened there, and it only made the entire ordeal even more complicated than he had thought before.
'Sir, each operation has a few superhumans that possess powers critical to the integrity of the operation. For us, it was that of time dilation, for the others, perhaps it was the same.' The manager guessed, 'I do not know much further beyond that.'
Bones nodded solemnly and cracked into a smile.
'Personally, I like to keep things managed tightly and closely, just like the way you have done things here.'
'The EDGE appreciates that.' The manager responded with a smile and wiped away the bubble surrounding the two of them, 'Now, allow me to show you your residential quarters and the entertainment area.
The residential quarters and the entertainment area are just where the town of the EDGE was, and when Bones returned to his room, Jon and Pethant had already began planning their infiltration. Knowing that there is going to be a harvesting tomorrow, none of the three is willing to let it slide. However, there is a high likelihood that all of his transmissions in and out of the room is monitored by the eyes and ears of the Edge. Such a mega-corporation wouldn't have survived in the harshness of the underworld without a few of the security protocols.
Trusting Jon and Pethant to make their way into the plant at the right time, Bones lets all of it go and took out the little packet of RED. He pondered how many lives were ripped apart just so this can be extracted.
The next day came, and the harvesting of Leila's plant began with Bones viewing the entire situation from the central command center. The slaughter began as expected with the dropping of the harvesters, and that was when Bones took off the sunglasses he had been wearing all morning. The manager assumed that it was because he wanted to hide the dose of RED he 'enjoyed' the night before, but it was really just so he can look away from the pain and death.
Knowing every second wasted here is two minutes of killing down there, Bones also took off his jacket and rolled it up nicely before placing it on a table next to him.
'Sir, is everything okay?' The manager asked, and Bone gave him a chilling smile.
'It will be.'
Then, he moved through the crowd like a wind current weaving through the gaps between people on a crowded street, swiftly taking apart all of the officers, guards, managers and others that were directing the harvesting process. With his tattoos pulsing of energy, he cut across the security guards with his fingertips, dismantling their suits of armor, slicing open the weapons and knocking all of them out cleanly.
The entire room had thirty officers,, five security guards, two managers and a few other visitors, and Bones laid all of them out in matter of seconds.
'NO!' The manager screamed as he created the same audio-isolated bubble around him to prevent Bones from coming through, but he cut through the semitransparent bubble with his fingertips and chopped against the manager's neck, slamming him into the wall and knocking him out.
Rolling up his sleeve, Bones knocked out the central communication network, the power switch and locked the control center. Picking up his jacket and his sunglasses, he plugged in a piece of hardware given to him by Patty before making his way towards the farm which is being harvested.
By the time he got there, the harvesters had been surrounding Jon, Pethant and Leila who had just made it out from the underground cities. The timing couldn't have been any more impeccable, and Bones easily cleared everything out for the three of them.
'I didn't think you received my message!' Jon said as they started following Bone's lead towards the next farm.
'Tied down, couldn't reply or receive.' Bones said, 'I have plugged in the receiver from Patty though!'
Jon nodded before grabbing the camera back from Leila.
'This is....shit what is your name again?'
'...Leila.'
'Hi Leila. I am Jon. That's Pethant, and that's Bones.' Jon quickly introduced everyone before looking directly at Leila, 'we are here to help you.'
'No, not just her.' Bones corrected, 'we are here to free everybody.'
'Everybody?' Leila asked before her face showed nothing but horror, 'there...are more of us down there....?'
'There are a total of nine underground farms.' Bones said through gritted teeth, 'today, we are going to free them all.'