Chapter 95: Company × Company

It seemed best to trust no one completely except yourself.

Sad as it was, humans appeared to be that kind of creature.

Well, as living things, surviving even if it meant betrayal was probably the correct choice, so maybe all living things were like that. Ah, but naked mole rats had individuals whose role was to be eaten by outside enemies, and there were ants that self-destructed, weren’t there?

I was getting off track.

You could not talk about eusocial creatures and humans as if they were the same.

For now, three people had betrayed the others, so to keep them from matching stories, we interrogated them separately. While we were at it, we also secured the letters they had exchanged. It seemed they had been using Dolls and Monoz to communicate.

The inability to use long-distance communication was something to think about. It was terribly inefficient.

But this time, it was a blessing for us. Everything had been left behind on paper.

That much was a blessing.

Up to that point, it was a blessing.

The problem was their business partner, the buyer.

To put it simply…

“I want Eevee…”

Leaning my weight against Ox, who happened to be in a convenient position, I spat out the words.

“Eevee?” Endo tilted his head,

“Hm? Ah, she is his this.” Rikan raised his little finger¹.

“Oh my, you have a lover? How lovely. But in that case, what should I do? Should I call you big brother? Should I call you father? Which would you prefer? I would love to hear a gentleman’s opinion.”

“Big brother. So, why is he suddenly asking for his lover?”

“I have a younger sister myself, so I will say this, but that is not very cute, you know. So, father. Perhaps Touji has fallen into a critical situation and is trying to leave behind his genes?”

“That isn’t very helpful… It looks like I should ask him directly.”

The peanut gallery was saying whatever they liked.

They did not seem to understand the current situation.

Only I, who understood the situation, and my Monoz, who knew her, were panicking.

Her. Yes, her. A woman.

White hair, red eyes, colorless skin, a nonexistent left arm.

An albino, one-armed assault trooper.

The researchers had sold their technology to Tatara Heavy Industries. The one contracted to recover it was its subsidiary, Company × Company. And the person in charge of recovering the researchers was Yuri.

Within the range of people I knew, the only ones who could go toe to toe with that thing were Komainu, Master, and Ed’s bodyguard. That was about it.

“…”

I wanted Eevee.

I should have brought her, the girl who could do anything.

“Endo, Rikan. Let’s talk seriously.”

Well, there was no helping the absence of someone who was not here. Time to switch gears.

I called over the two squad-leader equivalents.

“Have you looked over the materials?”

“I have. The recovery date was today.”

“Yes. And the current time is eighteen hundred hours. This place is surrounded by mountains, so it’s getting dim outside.”

In other words…

“The Bubbles are slowing down and starting to gather.”

“We cannot use the entrance. Is that what you mean?”

“That too. Or rather, because of that, there is another entrance and exit.”

I should have suspected it the moment I saw only three Dolls guarding the front. That was far too few. They probably had not accounted for pursuers who would make it through a swarm of Bubbles.

“So, where is that entrance?”

“He insisted he really wanted to talk, so…”

As I said that, I fiddled with my terminal and sent the map data. It was a map of the underground passage extending from this underground facility.

“I sent it just in case, but we can’t use it.”

“Why not?”

“Because if it’s the only entrance and exit, then the enemy unit will come from there.”

“You’ve been awfully concerned about this for a while now. Is it someone you know?”

“She’s my mother in this era. More than that, she’s an extraordinary assault trooper.”

“How extraordinary?”

“This was almost two years ago, but she dodged my sniping while walking and eventually got close enough to punch me with her fist.”

Without thinking, my eyes went distant. That had been terrifying. Extremely terrifying. Even now, it was traumatic.

Can you do that? I asked Rikan with my eyes. He shrugged. Apparently not.

“No, you can’t dodge bullets…”

“Among real professionals over here, there are rare cases.”

“I suddenly don’t want to call myself a soldier and engineer anymore.” Endo made a deeply disgusted sound.

“Rare cases. Among the members here… Rikan if he’s in good condition, and Friege on a fluke, perhaps?”

“Only if the gunner is not you, Ratchet.”

I gave a shrug of my own.

“Now then. Yuri before us, Bubbles behind us. We are trapped underground and unable to move, so… how about dying together?”

I smiled brightly.

“…”

“…”

For the record, the two squad-leader equivalents both looked extremely displeased.

***

The underground passage could not be used because Yuri would be coming through it.

The original entrance could not be used because the Bubbles had sealed it off.

In other words, we were trapped on all sides. That was what it meant.

But think about it.

The original entrance and exit could be used if the Bubbles were gone. And the Bubbles would leave once morning came. There was no trick to it. No mystery. As locked rooms went, this one was painfully crude.

The problem was time.

As for how to deal with Yuri, who was coming to retrieve them… that could also be managed. Since the routes available at this time of day were limited, we only had to block them.

…No. That was not quite accurate.

If we simply blocked the route, she would wait until morning, use what had truly become the only entrance, and that would be the end of it.

So we had to take Yuri with it and do her in.

“To think a son would try to bury his mother alive, even if you aren’t related by blood. The world really is ending.”

“Look outside. The world ended a long time ago.”

“…Right. It did.”

As he spoke, Endo placed the explosives Acht had carried in.

The underground passage was fairly wide. It looked wide enough to lay a single-track railway through it. …No, most likely, it had been built on the assumption that rails would be laid there. Not only that, it was wide enough to be used for unloading cargo as well.

I disliked that width.

Yuri was not fast. But she was skilled.

The more space you gave her, the more she would take advantage of it. Even delaying her long enough to bury her alive would be difficult in this much space.

Then what should we do?

Simple. Narrow it.

That was what I thought.

Endo was the one who said no.

He told me to make better use of it. In other words…

Make it look as if we had not narrowed it, while actually narrowing it.

Its apparent width would not change. But in reality, traps would be set, and there would not be as much usable space as there appeared to be. That was what he said we should do.

If we did that, the enemy would narrow the path on their own.

In other words, we would psychologically narrow the passage.

I was honestly impressed by an idea I never would have come up with myself, so I decided to adopt it.

And that was why I was setting traps in the underground passage. It was not particularly difficult work. After all, the Monoz were first-rate combat engineers.

“?”

That was when it happened.

Suddenly, the back of my neck burned.

It was a metaphor. Even so, my ears heard the faint chiri of something scorching.

I raised my gaze.

I looked in the direction Yuri and the others were expected to come from.

The darkness blinked.

“Get down! Sniper!”

Damn it, they were here already? That was awfully fast. Still, it was within our predictions. I hurriedly called Likan over and…

『Hello. Do you know who I am, Rookie?』

Who was that?

That was what I thought. But I recognized that voice. The man who called me Rookie was…

“…Alex?”

I answered the enemy communication.

『Correct, Rookie. Now for the next question. How does it feel to be a rat in a trap?』

“What are you talking ab…”

About?

That was what I tried to say.

But I could not.

Because…

“This is bad, Ratchet! Those bastards came from above!”

I was forced to understand the meaning of his words.