"Go? Why wouldn't we go! If they only dare take potshots from cover, that means there aren't many of them. Even if there's a trap waiting, with this many of us we can handle it."
Besides, the sudden appearance of these Rebel Soldiers made it very hard for Geno and the others not to suspect a link to Perlman's disappearance.
In the end it was Geno who set the tone, and since Eous and the others had already tipped off Public Security beforehand, there was no need to worry about blowback.
"Then let's move out. You take point."
Twiggy turned it over and decided Geno had a point. And if there really was an ambush, getting out would be simple enough - just tear down a wall.
Whether or not they'd have to pay for the damage was a separate matter entirely. Worst case, they'd pin the bill on the Rebel Soldiers.
And while the group was gearing up to bag both the Rebel Soldiers and Perlman, over on the other side of New Eridu, Public Security was preparing for exactly the same objective.
Qingyi, in uniform and fully kitted out, knocked on the door of Zhu Yuan's office and stepped in, putting on an air of great solemnity.
"Zhu Yuan, everything is in order. We're only waiting on your word."
"Why do I get the feeling you're hinting at something, Senior? Never mind. All right then, prepare to move ou-"
Ring-ring~ Ring-ring~
Zhu Yuan, halfway through giving the order, was cut off by the sudden shrill of a phone, and her brow creased.
Her phone was always on silent during work hours, and her family knew better than to call her at this time of day.
But one number was the exception, and Zhu Yuan had gone to the trouble of assigning it a ringtone unlike any other so she'd know it at once.
"Hello. Something the matter, old classmate?"
On the other end of the line, the old classmate in question - Hoshimi Miyabi - gave her ears a twitch, and the corner of her mouth lifted a few degrees, so slightly that no one would have caught it.
"Mm. I've got new intel on the Charles Perlman case, so Section Six would like to join Public Security's special operations team."
That was how Miyabi put it. HAND and Public Security might be sibling organizations, but their jurisdictions didn't overlap; if she wanted a hand in the Perlman investigation, signing on as outside support was the only road in.
Fortunately, she happened to have an old classmate who had taken charge of the case at Public Security.
And not just any classmate - the kind you still call after graduation. The close kind.
"Connections."
"I see. Doable, I suppose."
Zhu Yuan mulled it over for barely a moment before agreeing.
Any way you added it up, Public Security came out ahead - they'd be gaining a Void Hunter's worth of firepower for free.
It just meant that once Perlman was hauled back in, he'd likely have to sit through a few more rounds of questioning.
And Anti-Air Section Six's interrogations were nothing like Public Security's gentle affairs.
A moment of silence for him in advance.
"In that case, let's rendezvous at the plaza in front of Ballet Twins Building. We're heading out shortly."
"Ballet Twins Building?"
The name caught Miyabi off guard, because she knew that place was Mayflower turf.
The Hoshimi family was on good terms with the Mayflowers of the municipal faction, so the fact that Mayor Mayflower had bought up Ballet Twins Building was hardly a secret to her.
What baffled her was why Perlman would run all the way out there.
The Hollow in that area was steadily shrinking, true, but Perlman had zero combat ability and zero Ether Aptitude. No matter how she turned it over, he had no business showing up at Ballet Twins Building.
Even with someone helping him, it still didn't add up.
For reasons she couldn't name, Miyabi's unease sharpened into something close to alarm. But things had gone too far to stop now; all she could do was move.
"Yanagi. Just in case, you and Harumasa stay behind."
"Understood, Section Chief."
Yanagi Tsukishiro had no idea why, but Miyabi had made the call, so she would follow it. She believed in Miyabi's strength, and believed just as firmly that she would never give Miyabi cause to regret that trust.
And then Miyabi set out.
What she never imagined was that the unease she'd felt had nothing to do with anything out there. It was about her.
Over at Ballet Twins Building, Geno opened his Ether Sight to trail the marks their quarry had left behind.
For a group of self-declared righteous types with every right to march in the open, they currently looked like a gang of burglars - all of them watching Geno stare blankly at the ground while they crept forward on tiptoe.
Exactly like you in a game, holding the walk key down for dear life because you're certain someone's waiting around the corner.
"Hey - is all this caution really necessary?" Nicole asked in a breathy whisper, genuinely puzzled, only for the others to clamp their hands over her mouth.
"Shh! Keep it down. Listen!"
Geno raised a finger to his lips, then pointed ahead. While Nicole was still trying to work out what he meant, a set of neat, heavy footsteps reached her ears.
And carried along with them came a voice that managed to be both smarmy and utterly spineless.
"Wh-whimper- where exactly are you taking me? Aren't you the rescue party Sarah Floren sent?"
Perlman's feelings at that moment were complicated, to put it mildly. In less than a single day he'd swung from crushing despair to giddy hope and back down into despair again.
He'd been so keyed up waiting for Sarah Floren's rescue that he hadn't slept a wink all night, poised every second for her people to come.
But when an entire night passed without a word, a seething Perlman had made up his mind to blow the whistle on Sarah Floren in open court and spill every last detail.
That was precisely when he heard the strange noise. The cell door swung open, and a crowd of unfamiliar figures appeared in front of him.
"You! You're here to rescue me, aren't you?! Excellent! Quick, quick, let's go!"
Perlman was beside himself with joy. Barely over a meter tall, he bounced around on the floor like a rubber ball.
His delight didn't get to last long. One of them seized him by the back of the collar and hauled him clean off the ground.
"Wait! Put me down! Is this how you people rescue someone? Let go of me, mmph- gk-"
Perlman was just working himself up to a proper tantrum when the towering figure carried him down into the shadows.
He'd been terrified out of his wits. He watched with his own eyes as his plump little body was swallowed by the dark, and then came a suffocating pressure like nothing he'd ever felt, while some strange force tried to worm its way into his skull.
It left him drifting in a haze, half asleep and half awake.
By the time he came around again, he was already here.
Still being dragged, naturally.
"Could you at least - at least stop hauling me around like this? I'm not a rubber ball."
Unfortunately, no amount of struggling or begging drew the slightest mercy from his captors.
If anything, they seemed less like human beings than a squad of robots executing their orders.
Before long, though, Perlman was released from his helpless state.
Because the one carrying him had come to a stop.
"Ow! My backside!"
Dumped on the ground with a slap, Perlman rubbed his rear with a grimace and was drawing breath to complain when the one who hadn't spoken a word this entire time finally opened up.
"Since you've come all this way, why don't you step out and say hello."
____
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