This chapter is Loba PoV
I've read this message about ten times now but can't face the evidence of it yet.
This can't happen. It must be a mistake. Or maybe a joke. I won't even be mad, i'd rather have to deal with someone terrible sense of humour than accepting this as something real i will have to manage.
I'm frantically typing a phone number i thought i would never use again and try to clear my throat from my obvious anxiety during the dial tone.
...
"Who is it?"
"Loba Andrade."
"Ah... Miss Andrade. I suppose you want to talk with our leader."
"Indeed."
...*dial tone again*...
"Greetings, Loba. You got the message, didn't you?"
"What the hell happened? How did he escaped! I thought you could deal with him and now he is back! You..."
"You should tone down, my friend. Barking on us will just give you more problems to deal with."
Right. He is right. The Demonio is back and i can't afford having the Harvesters on my back.
"Ok. I'm calming down. But tell me what happened."
"We can't tell yet. All we know is that his tracker got deactivated almost two weeks ago. We know for sure that someone help him since every part of him, even the screws and bolts on the floor, had been missing from his apartment. And who ever did that knew what they were doing because they got rid of the spy so fast that all files are corrupted and it's almost impossible to recover any data from it."
"You're telling me that not only he escaped but you cannot find him back and he has support?"
"That's what we think, yes."
"And what can we do now?"
"Our hackers are trying to work with the corrupted data. Until they find anything useful, i've one of my best SimulacrumHound investigating. I can give you his number so you can work together."
"I'll take it. Text me whenever you got some fresh news."
...
It wasn't enough for me to deal with the other legends about where is Revenant and what i did to him, or to get Hammond on my ass because i'm their main suspect in his dissapearance...
Of course it wasn't enough ! Now he is back and if the Harvesters don't put him down soon... i don't know what he will do to me and i don't want to know.
I'm texting Jamie to get him informed about everything and make up a plan to protect myself in case things go very wrong. At the same time, i recieve another message from an unknowned number.
/Salutations, Miss Andrade. I'm the SimHound our leader told you about.
Call me Soan.
You will find a document attached to this message with all the evidences i've found lately.
I'm expecting from you to get all the knowledges you have about that Hammond dog.
Tell me when and where do you want us to meet./
There is not that much to read in the document yet. As the leader told me, there is evidences that someone picked him up and took everything in order to repair him.
He managed to get all the recording of the street cameras surrounding the district two weeks earlier, twenty-four hour before the tracker get corrupted. He took notes of all the vehicle license plate that seemed to come from the building (since there is no camera directly placed near it) but found nothing more yet.
He also investigated in all the mech, sim, cyborg and robots shops to see if anyone had made any purchases that could coincide with him. Nothing.
I passed the next four hours texting, calling and organising with both Soan and Jamie until my doorbell ring. I just frooze there. Can it be him? Soan told me that he couldn't be fixed yet, knowing how damaged he was, but what if...
The doorbell rings again and i hear a very familiar voice, muffled behind the heavy metallic door.
"Loba? It's me, Kairi! Are you here?"
A deep sigh escaped from my mouth and I let her come in.
"Hey Kairi. Sorry if i didn't answered right away. I wasn't expecting you to be here."
"Don't worry, i wanted to do a little surprise. I felt that you had been stressed out those last months and i wanted to cheer you up tonight."
She lifts a tote bag to me. It's full of delicious food freshly cooked.
"I don't know anything better than a good curry, a miso soup and some matcha mochis to comfort someone ! And i feel like you need some comfort right now."
The only fact that she made all those efforts to make me happy is already heartening me up.
We sat in my living room to ate this delicious dinner together and chat a little about the last games and how she tricked Caustic and Seer by getting the "high ground".
It was all fun until she asks me:
"It's him right? Revenant is the reason why you're so anxious lately."
"Kairi, please, not you too."
"I know, it's bothering you and that's why i avoided the subject until now. But i'm getting worried about you. Everytime someone asked about Revenant absence, not only you refused to answer but you became agressive. You're hidding something and it's obvious to everyone. And whatever you're hidding, it's burning your mental health slowly but surely."
I'm hesitating to tell her. She has been so supportive to me lately and i know she will understand about what i've done to Revenant. But will she understand my collaboration with the Harvesters?
"Kairi, listen, i am very grateful for everything you did for me, that meal included."
She smiles.
"But i'm in a very complexe situation and i can't talk about it. But yes, it's all about the Demonio."
"How did you made him vanished?"
"That's my secret. A magician never tells how he does his tricks."
And the thief I am won't tell her that I stole more than once for a very controversial mafia in order to avenge myself.
"Ok. Fair enough. But why is it stressing you out? If you got rid of him, you should be happy. Did something went wrong and did you felt guilty?"
I did felt a bit of guilt when leaving the sim at his dredful fate, but i got over it quite promtly.
"Something went terribly wrong indeed. For some reason, he is back. And after what i did to him, his promise of ruining my life and making me beg for death will just worsen."
She stayed there, silently looking at me with compation.
"I'll help."
