NOVEL NEXT Chapter 48: A Long Walkway and the Story of an Old Man
[Yes. It seems like I got a little lost. The lights suddenly went out and I got scared……]
With a voice that sounded sincerely perplexed, Louise played the role of a “young foreigner woman in trouble” with perfect Japanese pronunciation and flawless acting, just as she had always trained herself to do.
Men are weak to young, beautiful women, and Japanese are weak to foreigners.
Louise, who possesses both factors, in addition to her well-trained conversation and acting skills, has overcome similar situations many times before.
[Oya, that must be quite troubling. The lights will probably be back soon, but I will guide you out.]
Once again, Louise’s skills seemed to have been put to good use.
The old man who approached her didn’t seem at all suspicious of her and turning his back to her, he started to walk as if leading the way.
Although Louise was about to be unable to fulfill her mission if she kept on being guided past the maintenance hatch she entered, the old man continued down the gently descending passageway.
(Ahead of here should be the 7th Primary Processing Facility.)
By comparing it with the map information she learned beforehand, Louise predicted their destination.
She guesses that the old man probably intends to take her to a rest area at the facility and let her rest until the power is restored.
The 7th Primary Treatment Facility, to which the effluent pipe from the Loop line leads, is naturally on the path to the Dream Machine in the central dome.
If she can enter the facility without suspicion, the discovery of her intrusion will be delayed.
Louise decided that it wasn’t a bad idea to let the old man guide her for a while.
The fact that the small-built old man’s back, reflected under the dark, blood-colored dim emergency light, looked so unreliable and could be neutralized at any moment helped her make such a decision.
[Are you able to see your footing? It’s dark and sloping, so be careful.]
As the old man in front of her warned, the emergency lights in the passageway were very dark, as if there were only a few of them installed.
(If that’s what you think, then turn off those obtrusive lights.)
The light from the old man’s flashlight makes it difficult for Louise’s eyes to adjust to the darkness and obtain information about her surroundings with her vision.
Despite Louise’s frustration, the old man was moving forward with a surprisingly youthful gait, as if he knew the passage well, so she had to suppress her frustration and tried her best to follow him.
(Strange.)
They turned down the passage several times, but the passage was consistently descending gently.
Physically, she must have walked more than 100 meters.
If it was the 7th Primary Processing Facility that they were going to, they should have arrived at their destination by now.
[Ummm…… Where are you headed now?]
When Louise asked while keeping the act of a helpless woman, the old man who had been walking with his back to her suddenly stopped and turned around.
[Ahh! Excuse me, I forgot! There’s a break room just ahead that I always use. Please hang in there for a bit.]
It was indeed as Louise thought.
However, based on the distance they have walked so far, Louise estimates that their destination may not be 7th Primary Processing Facility, but some sort of private break room for maintenance personnel that isn’t on the map.
In large facilities or factories, employees sometimes bring in tables and chairs in a small open space and set up a private rest area.
As long as it doesn’t affect the operation of the facility, the management will overlook such little privileges of the employees.
Perhaps, it was just as the case with the young male employee she had met earlier, or the sad reality of a rapidly expanding company, MCTBH is surprisingly lax in its control of its employees.
[Grandpa, have you been working for this company long?]
Trying to fish up a conversation, Louise asked the old man as they walked along.
Most old people like to talk about themselves.
Maybe she could get some information from him.
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[I guess you could say it was long enough to say I’ve been working here for quite a while. After all, I have been with the company since it was still a prefabricated building covered with galvanized iron walls.]
[Oh my! So you’ve been with the company since it was just founded!]
If a young woman responds favorably to you, they will unknowingly end up becoming talkative and saying things that they shouldn’t say.
In this way, information would be fished out, grasped and manipulated without the other party even being aware of it.
This is Louise’s skill and nature as an agent.
She didn’t know if what he was saying was true or not, but the old man seemed to be an employee of the company since its early days.
With the intention of extracting useful information if she could, Louise continued the conversation with her well-trained social skills.
[What was the company like in the beginning? Did you ever meet the President?]
[The beginning…… Let’s see…… It’s not a good way to say this, but it looked like a suspicious-looking company. I have worked for 40 years in a local factory, covered in oil…… After retiring, I still wanted to do some more work, so I asked the government office for a referral, but when I arrived, I found myself in a remote area where there is nothing but wasteland and galvanized iron walls, and all they were apparently doing was waste disposal, you know? This is dangerous, or so I thought.]
Louise nodded and compared the information with the company history she had obtained beforehand.
There are many unknowns about MCTBH before it became a major global company, such as its establishment and the history of the development of this supposed technology.
This old man might be a surprising bargain as a source of information for her.
[So, what did Grandpa do back then?]
[Well, I was a contracted security guard, but the work I actually do was more of a drum lookout.]
[A drum lookout?]
Louise repeated the words like a parrot, unable to keep up with the sudden appearance of that strange phrase.
[There were strange things happening around the company back then, and there were boars coming down from the mountain. While I was on duty, I would sometimes find them dead, stuck in the galvanized iron wall. I would somehow try to push it into a drum and inform the President with a call. That was my daily routine every morning.]
[Oh my. You were calling President-san for that?]
[President-san was strong, you see. He would carry that drum with boar in it on his shoulder and carry it away. Now though, when something like that happens again, we just use a forklift to bring them away.]
Thinking back to the pictures of MCTBH’s Owner that had been circulating in the public, Louise was convinced that it might be possible for him to do that with his physique.
His height is well over 180cm, which is more than taller than many Western executives, and even through his suit, one could see that he’s strong enough to be said to have a background in rugby or bodybuilding.
Perhaps, such actions were done as part of his training.
Many of the Western executives do enjoy muscle training.
The MCTBH’s executives must be someone like them.
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[I’ve been in good health since I started working here…… Yes…… In a really good health……]
Even as he kept on talking, the old man’s gait was as light as before.
Following behind him, Louise, not as a mere act, really was getting tired and beginning to lag behind.
(Strange.)
After walking such a long distance, they should have reached somewhere by now.
Moreover, no matter how much in a good health such an old man is, would she, a trained person, lag behind an old man’s legs?
(Don’t tell me…… Could he be taking a long way around and stalling for time?)
That should mean that he sees that he is no match for her and calls for backup from security, and then goes a long way to buy time.
If that were the case, what a dumb agent she had been.
(No, that shouldn’t be the case.)
Louise quickly denied her suspicions.
Just as Louise is good at manipulating people’s emotions, she’s also good at sensing their emotions.
For someone who tries to trick people into a scheme, some tension could be felt in their emotions.
However, the old man who exposed his back unprotected in front of her didn’t show that kind of tension, which is difficult to hide for a human.
Besides, the passageway to which she is being led is consistently and gently descending.
If he really had led her to a side road and was stalling for time, they would have taken a passage where the incline is parallel to the slope.
(Strange.)
A glance at the dial of her watch, which she could see from the luminous painting material used in it, shows that little time has passed.
Objectively speaking, the old man isn’t stalling for time.
However, Louise couldn’t help but wonder.
What is this fatigue that she’s feeling?
Where does the uneasiness she’s feeling come from?
What is it that her intuition, which never stopped sending alarms to her mind, sensing?
Relying on the hardness of the small pistol that was inserted into the buckle on her back, Louise followed the flashlight that the old man was holding while enduring the gradual depletion of her mentality.
For some reason, she had the illusion that if she strayed from that light and wandered out into the darkness, she would be eaten by a monster that lurked behind that darkness.