“What’s the situation?” the MDT stopped tossing its eyes around and asked through their mental connection.
“Something’s blocking the beacon,” Hao Ren said, looking dead serious. “The drone clusters have not received any navigation signals.”
“No navigation signals? Was there no communication established at all, or just no navigation information received?”
A few minutes ago, the drone clusters had received messages from some beacons irregular intervals. But, there was no navigational data in those messages. Signal was lost entirely soon after.
Hao Ren frowned slightly. “Our beacon transmitter has stopped working. But I can still contact it from here. It is on the tallest building in Black Street, but the system shows channel failure between the beacon and the outer universe. The communication between the drone clusters and the beacon only lasted four and a half minutes, and there were hardly any useful signals.”
The MDT thought for a moment and said, “Hold me up!”
Hao Ren put ‘her’ in front of the comm so that ‘she’ could see the displayed parameters. The MDT looked frustrated after looking at it. “I just realized I don’t even have a slot now. There is no way I can connect to the thing…”
“Can it get more absurd than this?” Hao Ren was agitated.
“Anyway, it’s impossible to navigate using the beacon,” the MDT ignored Hao Ren’s anger. “There is still no way to determine the location of Planet Zorm. What are you going to do next?”
“Launch the probe,” Hao Ren replied without hesitation. “If there is a layer of distorted space shrouding Zorm, then this space should have a physical limit. We can launch the probe into space and see how far it would go. If this doesn’t work, then I will bring in the Petrachelys and fly it out from here.”
The two of them began to study the best way to launch the probe; they did not want to attract unnecessary attention. They were going to leave the mercenary base in the evening and launch the probe in the suburbs, of course, all under some pretenses. Just when they were about to finish the discussion, a loud noise suddenly came from outside the barracks.
Hao Ren peeked through the alloy shutters on the side window. Mercenaries were running around as a bullet-laden armored vehicle was rolling in from the main gate. Then it ground to a halt. A tall man with the body of a bodybuilder jumped down from the vehicle. Hao Ren instantly recognized the man—the mercenary whom he met on the first day, Carl.
“Looks like they have another operation.” Hao Ren whispered. “Look! Nolan is here too.”
“I can’t see! You have to carry me out on your back and act like a necrophile again!”
“Wait in the room,” Hao Ren said to the MDT. “I go and check out the situation.”
He dashed out leaving the MDT in the room. The MDT’s voice echoed in his mind. “Connect me to your vision, please! Are you letting me staring at the ceiling here? Hey, you necrophile! Don’t go! Be professional!”
Hao Ren saw Ulyanov was standing there. He came up from behind and patted on Ulyanov’s shoulder. “What’s going on?”
“Carl has returned from Zero City. He might have come back with a deal,” Ulyanov said without looking at him. “He is the liaison officer between Zero City and us.”
Hao Ren glanced at Carl. He was surprised that the rugged guy was a Gray Fox diplomat—Nolan must have chosen Carl for the post based on metaphysics.
All mercenaries stood to aside as Nolan came out from behind the crowd. Hao Ren noticed she was still staggering slightly in her step. But other than that, her bone fracture seemed to have healed thanks to the wonder of Nano-medical technology.
“Boss, White River Consortium offers us a deal,” said Carl, his head bowed slightly. “They ask us to escort a few people.”
“Escort?” Nolan raised her eyebrows. “The old fart called you over just for this? Have all his men died?”
“What is White River Consortium?” Hao Ren asked Ulyanov next to him in a whisper. “A ladyboy headquarters?”
“Huh?”
One of the mercenaries said, “White River Consortium is one of the biggest gangs in Zero City. They control a quarter of the Zero City guards. By right, they don’t need help from the mercenary in any military operations in the Zero City metropolis and Black street.”
Carl replied to Nolan, “Their operation is not within the bound of Zero City and Black Street this time. They can’t deploy their guard this time around.”
“Target destination?” Nolan asked cautiously.
“The Northern Ring Tower.”
There was a sudden outcry among the mercenaries when they heard the place’s name. Nolan waved her hand and dismissed it quickly. “We’re not going to take this job.”
Almost at the same time as Nolan’s voice trailed off, another gruff voice said, “I will.”
Hao Ren looked at Ulyanov in astonishment: it was Ulyanov speaking.
“Are you sure you want to go to the Northern Ring Tower?” Nolan looked at Ulyanov; her gray eyes lacked emotion. “That place is a life-forbidding zone.”
“But you came out alive, and more than once,” Ulyanov said, staring at Nolan through his visor. “Gray Fox knows the safest route. Otherwise, White River Consortium wouldn’t have looked for us to do the job for them.”
“You know this is business, don’t you?” said Nolan, raising her arms and folding across her chest. “I can’t afford to lose money in any deal. I have been to the place three times and lost money three times. The most tragic one was only three persons came back alive. So I’m not going to take this job.”
Carl suddenly said, “White River Consortium is offering good money for it.”
Nolan’s eyebrows twitched as Carl bent down and whispered into her ear. Hao Ren took this opportunity and asked Ulyanov, “What…I mean is: where is the Northern Ring Tower? Why are you so adamant to go there?”
Hao Ren thought that the Northern Ring Tower was a thing. But he quickly realized his mistake when he noticed the reactions of the mercenaries. He quickly rephrased so not to appear like an ignorant.
Ulyanov remained silent for a moment before he said, “None of your business. I go there and have a look.”
Ulyanov not quite acquainted with Hao Ren yet. He did not want to elaborate.
Hao Ren felt a little disappointed. Suddenly the MDT spoke in his mind. “Northern Ring Tower? Do you want me to search information of it?”
“You?” Hao Ren hesitated for a moment. “What can you do now? You can’t do shit except moving your eyeballs.”
“I stood up just now. One of the legs is working…”
Hao Ren suddenly choked and coughed. All eyes suddenly stared at him. He quickly waved his hand, apologized, and looked down to conceal the surprised look on his face. “You could get up? You’ve mastered the ability to move in such a short time?”
“I’m a genius, right?” the MDT said with a boastful voice. “I have written a dozen drivers using programming language. Now the body can move. By the way, do you want me to look for information? I can almost reach the laptop now.”
“Do it.”
As Carl finished whispering to Nolan, she brooded. After a long while, she looked at the mercenaries around her. “Okay, you’re free to choose whether to join this mission. Anyone who could come back alive will get an eco-home in Zero City as a reward.”
It was the White River Consortium that made this offer.
Hao Ren had no clue how much an eco-home worth. But judging from the reactions of the mercenaries probably is worth a lot.
The MDT had gotten something. “Found it. The Northern Ring Tower was the control center when the Nanomachine Swarms lost control sixty-five years ago. That place is still intact, and Three-Master Computers are still buried underneath!”