Chapter 10 - Cobras End

Kumojiro turned away from the window, his mind already working over the new information he'd gathered from the boss.

Sable Industries, a tech giant with a reputation for its wild inventions. Hard to miss, especially here in Stratus Point. They'd partnered up with some major security firms, or something like that. He didn't remember exactly. It wasn't a name he'd expected to come up, but it didn't surprise him either. Everyone had dirty hands, even corporations that kept up a spotless front for the public.

But he'd need D to dig deeper. Why would a tech company be arming street gangs with cybernetic enhancements, practically throwing money around like it was water? And he still needed to sift through everything in that room. His phone being fried was an annoying setback. As he walked out of the office, bag in hand, another thought hit him.

'Wait...how am I ever gonna contact D about this? My phone's useless.'

And he didn't have much time. He'd told that girl to call the cops as soon as she escaped. They'd be on their way any moment now.

'Damn...What now? Do I just leave?'

A buzz sounded nearby.

Kumojiro looked down and saw it was coming from the tonfa-wielder's pocket. He crouched, took the phone, and saw a private number flashing on the screen. Curious, he pressed it to his ear.

"Hello?"

A familiar voice came through, carrying its usual playful nonchalance.

"Kumo. Saw everything. Brute really shocked ya there, didn't he? Hehe, bad jokes. Nice job, by the way. You sure have a knack for painting the town red, huh?" D's voice crackled slightly through the line, but every word was unmistakable. 

Kumojiro could practically see the smirk on the other end.

"I'm done here. The boss gave me what I needed. Sable Industries. They're funding the Steel Vipers. But...how did you even know when to call me?"

"You didn't think I'd let you go in blind, did you? I planted a little camera on your necklace last time you visited. Can't let you keep all the fun to yourself, now can I?"

A pause followed, then D's tone softened, carrying a rare note of concern.

"You alright? You sound...off."

Kumojiro hesitated. He was far from alright. The bullet was still lodged in his abdomen, and blood seeped from the wound. Normally, a bullet wouldn't slow him down, but these were gold-plated rounds with momentum and piercing power beyond standard ammunition.

"I'm fine. It's nothing."

He didn't like talking about himself, but D's concern wasn't something he brushed off slightly. He didn't want them worrying too much.

D sighed, and there was a quiet smile hidden in the sound.

"Well, don't get too beat up before you finish the job. Listen, I need you to get the boss's phone. There's something on it, call logs, messages, something they're using to communicate with Sable Industries. It's probably linked to one of Sable's main servers. Grab it, download everything, and send it over."

Kumojiro didn't waste any time.

"On it." 

He turned back to the office and stepped up to the window. He leaped, landing on the ground with a soft thud, and looked up at the fence, where the leader's lifeless body hung, impaled through the gut. Blood dripped slowly, pooling on the pristine garden below.

Scaling the fence, he crouched on a spike near the body, rummaging through the gang leader's pockets. His fingers found the smooth surface of a phone, which he pulled free. He unlocked it with the boss's finger and scrolled through, sighing at his lack of proper equipment, he'd forgotten most of his tools back at his place since he'd expected this job to be straightforward. Kill, question, leave.

'Guess I'll my backpack I left at Cobras Nest alleyway. At least I can stash this arm and head.'

He slipped the phone into his pocket and retraced his steps back to the alleyway near the garden, Cobra's Nest. His bag was still on the ground, untouched, a rare stroke of luck. Rifling through it, he retrieved an OTG flash drive.

'Perfect.'

He kneeled to connect it to the boss's phone. He dropped his bag and trophies and pulled out a second bag, slipping his blade and other essentials into it.

The phone's screen lit up, indicating the flash drive was downloading everything. He tapped into a custom encryption protocol and called D.

"I used an OTG flash drive. All extracted data's uploading to the encrypted network I created. You should have access."

D's voice crackled back, holding an undertone of surprise.

"Good. Keep it coming. I'm entering the network now."

There was a brief pause, then an intake of breath.

"Damn. Sable Industries isn't just supplying them with black-market cybernetics. These weapons...they're barely tested. Hell, some are practically prototypes. It's like they're using the Vipers as guinea pigs. From what I'm seeing, Sable didn't disclose the type of cybernetics they were installing."

Kumojiro narrowed his eyes, absorbing the implications.

"Experimenting on them. That explains the room of cyber-enhanced people I saw. Most of them probably couldn't handle the augmentations."

D's voice grew quieter as she seemingly read through the lines of texts and logs.

"Almost all of them went missing. The ones you saw were already dead by the time you got there. The rest...Sable took them back alive, but for what, I don't know. And there's more. A lot of encrypted messages. Cracking them will take time."

Kumojiro unplugged the flash drive and slipped it into his crossbody bag. He then let the boss's phone drop to the ground and crushed it beneath his boot, scattering the shattered pieces into the surrounding trash.

D's amused voice returned to the line.

"Crushing it under your boot? Real dramatic, Kumo. Love it."

Kumojiro's lips twitched, a shadow of a smile.

"Figured it'd be more satisfying than wiping it clean."

D chuckled, then hesitated, their tone softening.

"You should come by, Kumo. I've got a lot to show you. Whatever's buried in these messages, it's going to take serious work to decode. And...it's been a while since you stopped by, you know, when it's not about weapons or tech."

Kumojiro blinked, caught off guard by D's uncharacteristically genuine tone. They weren't the sentimental type, and neither was he. But something in the way they said it struck a chord.

"I'll come by. We need to figure out what Sable's really up to. This isn't just about the Steel Vipers anymore."

D sounded taken aback, their voice softening further.

"You'll come by, huh? Well, I'll be damned. Alright, Kumo. Just...watch yourself out there, yeah?"

He didn't reply, but he couldn't ignore the warmth in D's words. It wasn't often anyone worried about him, and while D's concern was almost always wrapped in humor, it was real. The line clicked off, leaving him alone in the alleyway, the shadows pressing in around him.

He threw the boss's and tonfa wielders phone he shattered right after the line remains into a pile of trash and took one last glance at the body before heading further into the shadows.

"Ah, ah. Kumojiro. Clothes."

He stopped, confused, and glanced around. He heard D's voice again and looked down at his necklace, realizing the camera was still active.

"I'm up here, actually." D's voice echoed from a camera high on the wall, tilting down to him.

Kumojiro raised an eyebrow, surprised. D's voice crackled through.

"Don't worry, I won't peek at you changing. Unless...that's what you want."

He gave a brief thumbs-up toward the camera and reached into his backpack for clean clothes. Blood-stained attire wasn't going to do him any favors on the streets.