District 42-Chapter 235: Interception

The team of criminals had finally arrived at the Ax corporation. The time they would need to put the weapons inside the Drakkars would be considerably long, so they couldn’t slack there.

Once they were near to arrive, they called the encharged for their order of products to open the gates as soon as possible and enable them to finish it quickly.

As the encharged was acquainted with the hurry that they always had when getting the materials, he promptly followed their orders.

The gates were opened once they got there and some of the weapons already were laying around the expedition of the Corporation.

That kind of efficiency was always welcomed by them. They never knew when a bunch of Ridires could be around patrolling that place or, worse, an Aesir.

The criminals committed a huge mistake when they tried to do one of their tasks imprudently and let Canute notice them.

Deal with that Aesir was fast, they didn’t need to hold the fight since they had finished with what they needed to do before, however, he let them very harmed. They barely couldn’t stay alive under the power of the portals of that man.

The bastard could even call some Ridires afterward and their escape was harder than it should be. They needed to abandon the Drakkar and get a Teleporting pad to one of their hiding places, which was a huge loss. It wasn’t easy to get illegal Drakkars in the Castle, after all.

Even with the few Drakkars they had left though, they could still carry all the weapons they bought.

All the criminals were gathered in the expedition and cooperating to gather those boxes filled with all sorts of guns and explosives to the vehicles.

There were some of them serving as scouts outside and seeing if any possible threat was coming and representing any risks for their operation.

Rat wasn’t doing anything useful at all. As always, he just kept looking here and there.

The man seemed to be analyzing something carefully. Sometimes he would try to carry a box, then drop it on the ground all of a sudden, claiming that it was too heavy for him to carry.

As per usual, no one could know, nor suppose, what was happening inside his mind and why the leader wasn’t... leading.

Nonetheless, no sane man working there would dare to ask such a thing to him.

It was better to let Rat do whatever he wanted, and see the outcome.

Once they arrived at the corporation, Rat wore his overcoat, making sure to put on the hood and hide himself the better way he could.

Everyone knew about the existence of Rat, the new criminal of the Castle that used a voice modifier, after all.

"Hello!" Suddenly, the faces of the criminals went pale after they spotted their leader, who was supposed to be acting in the shadows and hiding his identity, calling an employee that was helping them.

Some of his subordinates needed to hold their boxes more tightly to stress off. For a second, everyone stopped and just looked at that scene.

Even the other employees got paralyzed for a moment before going back to their usual posture and keep working.

"Ah... Hmm, hello?" The man seemed to be dumbfounded, even nervous, while receiving an approach of an eccentric person who had a strange voice.

He looked to the sides and behind him to make sure that he was the one being called, since he couldn’t see the eyes of that mysterious man.

"What’s your name, my dear?" Rat asked.

He faltered, tilting his head to the side while fidgeting his fingers.

"Hmmm... It’s Jargen. What do you need?"

Even though Rat had raised his face a little bit to look around, the employee still couldn’t see his eyes, which were probably hidden by dark lenses.

Dark lenses were prohibited and considered a really bad lack of education in District 42. The eyes were seen as a way to identify and to help to talk with someone. It was often used by guards and Ridires as a way to find criminals and such.

The employee started to sweat a bit as he slowly squinted his eyes towards that strange man. He put his hand on his waist casually, changing his support foot two consecutive times due to his anxiety.

"You seem to have more workers here than usual. More people got hired on the Ax Corporation?" He asked after finishing his careful inspection.

"Ah! Yes, sir! A lot of opportunities were given to people outside the Castle. However, it won’t last for long. They just hired more because of a problem with their robots’ system, so the manual labor was needed."

The explanation was smooth and concise. Too smooth and concise to Rat’s eyes. He knew exactly how humans were full of flaws naturally speaking, but also could seem perfect (too perfect) when they were in need.

At this point, that creepy grin was already appearing on his face and even if no one could see it, they could still feel it.

"Are you exercising or something? You seem to have quite well-developed arms. Your new friends as well. And that one was carrying the boxes like they didn’t have any weight at all."

He heard the employee giggling.

"W-well, we are used to heavy physical work since we were young, you know? The citizens from outside the Castle need to work starting their ten years of life if they want to give a decent condition for their family. Some boxes with guns are nothing compared to clean a dump of scrap metals!" He hit his bicep, proud of himself. 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

"Weapons? Are you saying that those boxes have weapons? I think they all have explosives!"

The employee froze in the same place, looking flabbergasted to that criminal in front of him.

"One of the boxes was too heavy to have just weapons inside there. There was something more. I wondered for a while, but then came to this conclusion. After all..." He took off his hood revealing himself, then drawing quickly his gun. "What does Sgails would put inside it to mess with my plans!?"

He started to shoot at the disguised Sgail, who also quickly drew the hidden gun attached to his waist while jumping to the cover of a near metallic box.

The criminals had grasped the situation quickly and drew their guns as well, shooting at those Sgails.

Outside the city, the noise of the battle could be heard. People just thought that it was another busy day at the Ax Corporation’s factory.

While the citizens ignored those sounds and lived their normal lives, blood was being spilled on the floor of the corporation.

...

Casper was gathered with the other Sgails inside of a building.

They were waiting for the call of the other group they designated to act inside the expedition of the Ax Corporation.

The plan was to not enter in direct combat with the criminals, but trap them instead, so they could avoid losses and end with them as quickly as possible.

The boxes they would carry were filled with grenades that would be activated once they returned to their hiding place. The exaggerated quantity was because the Sgails wanted them to be annihilated and their base destroyed.

It was a furtive and cunning operation schemed by Thor and Leonel. They both seemed to be the smarter ones among the Sgails regarding tactical strategy and their plans were always very straightforward.

That wasn’t an organization of Ridires, of warriors, after all. Their style should be different from just go and throw themselves into a battle without prudence.

That was why most of the Sgails weren’t acting in the front lines, but more like spies to the Royal Family.

They had the spirit of a true warrior inside then and would do whatever they could to accomplish their goals and help the Royal Family, though. Even if it meant fighting an army alone.

Leonel was leading the troop together with Ivar. The latter wasn’t doing his role as a leader at all and just kept looking at his bow to check its string, his quiver, and also testing several times the sword edge to see if it was sharp enough.

’Won’t this guy take off this grin from his face!?’ Casper thought, getting each time more uncomfortable with that.

He was looking to the hour, confirming that it was about time for the service to be done and the Sgails start to move towards their hiding place.

’I hope that they can do it just in time. We are prepared for some delays, though. Anyway, it would be better if they don’t. Our plan this time needs to be more perfect than Rat’s plans seem to be.’ Leonel thought.

His smartphone rang just in time and the Sgail answered the call.

The others stayed as quiet as they were before.

"The weapons are delivered. They already parted to the city. The first part of the plan is a success!"