We didn’t go the Salvatore, but rather to the Chakra Development Company headquarters, or CDC for short. This was the owner’s main base of operations, at least according to the mayor. We understood that at night he worked out of Salvatore, but normally Telestofarnus could be found at the CDC headquarters building in the “Owner’s Room.” If we believed what the mayor told us, then we could consider that place to be Lucifer’s Chakra branch office.
The headquarters building was smack in the center of Aslaville.
It wasn’t far from downtown at all. But, that doesn’t mean it was a short trip. It was a hard-to-get-to location. It was surrounded by a beautifully manicured park, with a one kilometer radius and no other structures around. Between the grass and the trees, it is completely blanketed in rich greens, making a truly breathtaking sight. It looked richer and more beautiful than the mayor’s residence or the Chakra government offices.
“It’s gorgeous…”
Yuri let out a sigh at the sight of the gardens.
“It doesn’t fit with that chubby guy.”
Thinking about how it would fit better with Jeff soured my mood. Along the drive to the CDC headquarters building through the park I swore under my breath from the driver’s seat. The front of the headquarters building rose up ahead, lording over its surroundings. It was an eight-story cylindrical building. Aslaville has not even one high-rise building. And there is a good reason for that. The ground was weak. When Aslaville was reclaimed the ground was treated with a resin, but even still, the planet’s crust remained brittle. This condition is excellent for mining minerals, but not very conducive to human living. The fifteen thousand people who had moved here couldn’t be expected to live in their simple rental homes for decades and decades on end. They did some developing and came up with codes and restrictions on building structures. A part of those was tight restrictions on building heights.
“Take a right there,” said Yuri.
The road split to the right and left. In front of the entrance to the headquarters building the road turned into a giant loop. The loop began where our car was, directly opposite of the entrance.
Getting out of the car, we walked up the wide but short grayish-white stone staircase. Mugi, who had stayed in the car at Jeff’s office, got out with us here.
We entered the lobby.
It was a grand vaulted hall. In the center hung a five-meter-tall crystal chandelier and on the walls were intricately crafted tapestries. It looked like some sort of palace. As expected, the scale was slightly smaller, but you get the idea.
To the left was the information booth. The booth itself was made up of elaborate woodcut panels. I peered closer hoping to spy some ripe young hunk, but all I saw were two fake-looking women looking at us, trying to hide their giggling. The two of them looked a little older than the two of us. We are both nineteen years old, so they were probably twenty-one or twenty-two. They both had model-class looks and figures, though not quite meeting my level of excellence. Even on this remote planet they were able to find staff of this caliber. No doubt these girls were paid well. Or could it be they were members of Lucifer, too? Either way, it didn’t matter. All I knew for sure was that they weren’t giving Yuri, Mugi, and me a very warm welcome. Their faces were twitching from their giggles.
We stood in front of the booth’s window.
“The owner in?” I asked calmly, flipping open my WWWA ID.
“One moment please.”
One girl started clicking buttons on her keyboard smoothly.
“I am afraid he is out right now,” she answered after a few moments.
“We’d like to see him soon,” said Yuri from my side. “Can you tell us where we can find him?”
“I will ask and see.”
Her fingers drifted effortlessly over the keyboard again. Her eyes seemed to be focused on a screen which fed her the information we needed, but couldn’t see ourselves.
She looked up at us.
“I am sorry to have to ask, but please inquire with that person over there.”
She pointed to somewhere to the side of the booth. The adjacent wall was a video screen.
The screen flickered to life.
The face of an arrogant-looking middle-aged man filled the screen.
“Okay, so, you WWWA TCs…”
It wasn’t just his face with the sour attitude. His intonation was snide, too.
“You are not privy to the owner’s whereabouts and I am not obliged to tell you. So, why don’t you hurry back through the door you came in?”
Textbook answer. As nice as the place looked, it didn’t take long to see the level of the people behind the façade. Put a pig in a tuxedo…
The screen went black.
“Say, Yuri,” I said, turning to her. “It’s kind of a waste, don’t you think?”
I glanced up at the five-meter-tall chandelier.
“It is a waste, Kei,” she replied, her eyes dancing over the scene.
“But, sometimes it can’t be helped.”
That’s right. Sometimes it can’t be helped. Especially if your enemy is Lucifer.
We each pulled out a small capsule from pockets in our hot pants.
“If I were you, I’d get down and get my head under a desk or something.”
Yuri was kind enough to warn the girls in the information booth. The girls in the booth gave bewildered looks, not catching what Yuri was trying to say.
Yuri and I flicked the capsules from our fingers to the center of the hall.
Explosion.
A huge red torch rose up as an ear-piercing boom rang through the lobby. The explosion created a shockwave which rattled the walls.
The chandelier exploded into a million pieces.
The shards scattered all across the lobby floor.
“Kyaa!”
The information-booth girls screamed in unison.
Of course, Yuri and I had pressed ourselves against the closest wall.
A crack ran across the ceiling, and the walls started to crumble. Anything glass broke. The beautiful tapestries fell with the walls that held them.
“What in the hell…!”
From the elevator about ten tough guys in black suits came storming out. The guy on the screen we’d just talked to was one of them.
The men took a quick look at the lobby, and seemed to all gulp simultaneously. A split-second later Yuri and I stepped forward.
“Did you two bitches do this?!” yelled one of the men after noticing us. What a mouth on this guy!
My answer was to pull out my heatgun and squeeze the trigger.
The heat ray scorched the floor.
The potty-mouthed dude was petrified.
“Kei and Yuri from the WWWA were simply asking the location of the owner,” I said.
I fired another shot from the heatgun. Just to make sure the point was clear, Mugi issued a growl.
“Ple-please stop.”
The man from the screen felt compelled to raise his hand. His facial expression told me that he probably needed to change his underwear.
“The owner is dealing with an incident in the Gautama sector right at this moment. I understand he is taking care of that. Right now communications are blocked. We are unable to contact him at this time.”
“Incident?”
“In Gautama sector?”
Yuri and I looked at each other. That’s where Jeff was, too.
“What sort of incident?” I asked the man.
“I understand there was a landslide, but I don’t know any details. I just know he went there right after hearing about it.”
“I see,” I said nodding.
No matter how we played it, where we needed to be was the Gautama sector.
“Last question,” Yuri stated calmly.
“Yes, you name it,” replied the man enthusiastically.
“Where the hell is the Gautama sector?”
That’s the question I was waiting for.