BXBX NOVEL Chapter 162 - Recruiting Mira
Chapter 162 – Recruiting Mira
"Out of all girls in this academy, and out of all boys in this academy, why did you take me here?"
Joel\'s Bistro, it was one of the coffee shops in Sneggor. The girl in front of him was none other than Mira. Now, why would Del bring Mira here? Was he looking for a date? Of course not. It was more of a persuasive discussion for her, she just didn\'t know yet.
"Negotiation."
"Negotiation?"
Del brought a file out of his briefcase that Morris provided. It was only a fragment of documentation of Mira\'s time working with the militant group. Del showed Mira his high card, hoping that Mira didn\'t have any ace up on her sleeve, or he would need to use his own ace.
Mira looked at the picture. Her mouth gasped. She glared at Del widely, then she sighed and crossed her hands. She nodded her head left and right and looked at the glass window. On the rooftop, albeit hard to see, she saw a sniper.
Those low resolution photographs showed Mira holding a rifle with a militant group which symphatized with imperial government. Mira was there to work as a mercenary, not a contractor. She had broken the rules of being a contractor by working with the militant alone.
"What do you want, Moore? I guess all of those rumors were true, huh?"
"You can figure it out."
Mira put the file on the table. She didn\'t bring any gun, mainly because a gun wasn\'t allowed in that coffee shop. If not, Mira might reach for her gun and tried to shoot him or herself to escape from her own past.
She put her hands on her head, just like someone that had a headache. "Again, what do you want, Del?"
"Cooperation."
"For?"
Del pointed his hand at the sniper on the roof. "Help Anna in investigating our leads. I have too much attention and so does Anna. You, on the other hand, aren\'t as famous as both of us."
"Ha. For what? I can just go home and kill myself and be done with it," Mira said.
"Are you sure your life is that cheap, or rather, do you dare to pull the trigger?" Del asked.
"Say, I accept your offer. What will make me think that you won\'t stab me in the back?" Mira wasn\'t sure. She wasn\'t certain about her recent threat, that was for sure. But it was not like she wasn\'t prepared for the last resort.
"I will make your old file disappear. One assignment, one file, how\'s that?" Del asked.
For Del, or any of his allies, Mira was just an asset among other assets. She was valuable, but not to the point that it would jeopardize his plan if she got killed. She was a former mercenary and a student. Those two factors alone were the only valuable assets of Mira. Other than that, Del could look elsewhere.
"I\'d double down. I want that plus one thing."
"And that is?" Del asked.
"I want a scholarship to a medical university."
Ok, that\'s rather… odd. She didn\'t want her blackmail to be erased, but she\'d rather have an entrance to a university. To be honest, it really sounded like what Del and Anna had in mind ever since both of them met their mother. There was no problem with the funding, not at all. It was just odd, that\'s all.
"Why?"
"Because I\'d do anything to get there. I will take a gap year if I don\'t succeed on the first try, and so on. After all, we live much longer than both of you,"Mira said.
"Are you on a sin-cleansing journey or something?" Del asked.
"Sort of, I guess? Both of you have been working as contractors for quite a while, right? You\'ll get to a point where too much is too much, and trust me, it will mess your mind like no tomorrow," Mira said.
"What do you mean?\'\'
"You\'ll feel that bodies don\'t worth more than the bullet that goes through it. You\'ll feel that doing anything is justified. You\'ll start seeing death not as a tragedy, but as numbers. People say it\'s a point of no return, but I decided to return," Mira said.
"I see. I guess that\'s the risk of working as a mercenary, huh?"
"Yeah. Anyway, what does Anna want?"
Del felt smug, "Where was that rejective altitude?"
Mira sighed, "It doesn\'t look like you will do nothing if I don\'t do anything to help you. So yeah, I\'m in your game. So, boss, what do you want me to do?"
"Boss?"
"Yeah, I always call my commanding officer, my leader, or anyone with "boss" once I got under their command. Don\'t expect me to call you boss in the academy, though," Mira said.
"Dully noted."
Del opened the briefcase. He then grabbed a hand held radio. "This is Blackfox, all clear." He then put his radio back into his briefcase. He then smiled at Mira. "That\'s it, I think, unless you want me to tell anything else."
"What do you want to know, boss?" Mira asked.
"I want to know your current thought on the situation right now."
"Well, boss, besides the civil war, I don\'t think I have anything not useful in particular. Unless you want to include the unofficial relationship between Daniel and Aveline," Mira asked.
"Will it prove any tactical advantage?" Del asked.
"No, I don\'t think so, boss."
"What do you know about me, so far?"
"A student with a prototype experimental weapon from the university weapon lab that happens to be working with the biggest private security in Ilbistirum accompanied with his head case of a sister that is as dangerous and scores the highest in close-range combat and marksmanship."
"That\'s rather interesting."
"Not only that. I heard you are the person that destroys a company of armored vehicles and destroy the upper chain of command in the imperial military. So yeah, I approach you very carefully, but it seems that you drop the bomb, boss."
"Because you snooped around too much, Mira," Del said.
"Fine, you got me. Helping with investigation, huh? Which one? The one you are working with Aveline, or is this any peeve project of yours?"
"The latter."
"Alright, what do you want to know?"
"I need to investigate the 12th grade students. In particular, the people that used to be involved with the imperial government. So far, my investigation hasn\'t given me any fruit yet, and this is where you come in," Del said.
"Yeah, I heard you were snooping through Adam\'s personal belonging. So, this only left Daniel and Mira, huh?" Mira sighed. "Those two couples. Never thought that I\'d mess with them."
"Why?"
"Daniel was practically an angel and Aveline wasn\'t exactly someone that you\'d call military-ish. Still, I might be able to get one thing or two from Daniel," Mira said.
"Aveline, too."
"Yeah, yeah, Aveline too. Don\'t worry boss, I won\'t fuck this thing up."
"What? Do you think I will approach a random student out of nowhere? Nah, you were on my radar for quite some time and this was the perfect moment to strike through. Still, Mira, how can I use your skill?" Del asked.
"I used to be a trench cleaner back in the militia. Just give me a shotgun and I\'ll be good. Well, an armor or something would be appreciated, never was good with rifle anyway," Mira said.
"Sure, maybe I can source you standard-issue military shotgun," Del said.
"Thank, I\'ll appreciate it. So, what will happen with my record, for now?" Mira asked.
"It\'ll be hidden, temporarily. Just do what Anna told you to do, and we can consider about working together some more," Del said.
"Whatever you say, boss. Anything else that I should know?" Mira asked.
"That\'s all. Anna will brief you tomorrow."
"Alright, I\'ll bring my old gear tomorrow to your house. See you later, boss."
Mira stood up from the chair. She picked up her backpack from the floor and she left the coffee shop without drinking any coffee. Del sighed and he picked up the radio from his briefcase. "This is Blackfox. Jackpot."
Anna opened the backdoor of the coffee shop. She didn\'t bring her rifle, and she had returned to her ordinary school uniform. "So, how\'s the result? Did she comply with out request."
"Yup, we have a control over her. Anna, it looks like you got yourself a personal assistant."
Anna smiled, "With her close-combat skill, I don\'t have to worry about someone approaching my back when I\'m sniping. I have to say, she\'s good. Even based on the rumors alone, she was once legendary."
"Well, good for us then."
"I\'m serious. She achieved a similar feat to us back then. The rumor said that she cleared an entire trench on her own," Anna said.
"Damn, that girl is pretty good with her shotgun, isn\'t she? Well, if that\'s the case, let\'s use her to our advantage