As he sat down in the random cafe drinking his cup of jet black brew, Dante closed his eyes and waited. A moment later, the darkness enveloping his sight vanished, and the scenery in front of him changed.
The old table was gone, and so was the little brat sitting on the other side. Though he wanted to turn around and analyze his surroundings, he knew that wasn’t possible since he was looking at the world through someone else’s eyes, as proven by the reflection staring back at him.
[The connection is stable.] Said Volcan. [At the moment, there are no signs of jamming.]
’Let’s hope it stays that way...’
Currently, he was inside an elevator. Or, to be more accurate, the person whose eyes he was using was inside an elevator. A bit of an odd experience, to look at the mirror like walls and not see himself but a voluptuous woman with purple hair and lipstick.
Thankfully, Rose had the decency to wear something more appropriate for the day. Mr. Pike was there as well, and so was Kirk. The fourth person with them called himself Ken.
After his trip to the thirty-sixth floor, Dante provided Viktor with a few photos of the suite he was taken to for interrogation. Technically speaking, they were screencaptures from Volcan’s memories, but the details didn’t really matter.
Thanks to those photos, Rose was able to identify one of the Stahlkorps, and after working her magic on him, she was able to convince him to help her connect with some of the guests attending the big wedding.
Mr. Pike took over from there and used his social skills to form as many connections as he could with the people they came across, and after pulling a few stings here and there, they were finally granted an audience with the big man himself.
Something that turned out to be a big problem was that the Stahlkorps had a tendency to avoid putting bionics of any kind in their bodies. Having figured it out after his encounter with the two spies he killed a while ago, Dante knew it was going to make things difficult.
It was for that reason that they never had the chance to do more digging, even after Rose made contact with another one of the Stahlkorps, but things were only bound to get more annoying going forward.
If his band of elite bodyguards were prohibited from having the simplest implants, including NIMs, there was a big chance that Klaus Stahlwölfe had limited the amount of electronics in his home, practically preventing anyone from snooping through it remotely.
Today was the day they would be meeting Klaus Stahlwölfe, and since it was their one and only opportunity to get a look at the mansion before executing the heist, Finn was tasked with finding any opening that could help them learn more about the layout of the mansion and its security system. Of course, Dante was going to be the one doing most of the work.
The elevator didn’t take them straight to the thirty-seventh floor. To reach it, they would have to make a stop at the thirty-sixth, which meant that they were bound to make contact with that person.
The minutes seemed to stretch, and Dante felt the rising tension despite being a long distance away. That tension spiked when the door finally opened and the silent corridor beyond it came into sight.
Dante hadn’t paid any mind to its decor the last time he was there, which is why he didn’t find much familiarity when walking through it for the second time. Since they were guests and not low-level employees brought in for questioning, Rose and the others were taken to a waiting room in a different part of the floor.
"The head of security would like to have a talk with you first, so..." Said Ken. "Please wait here for some time."
"That is acceptable." Said Mr. Pike.
He sat down on one of the couches and Rose took her place beside him while Kirk stood behind them like a bodyguard should. After a while, Dante heard a familiar voice coming from somewhere very close.
"It sure feels like we’re having an audience with a king," Rose said.
"That is exactly what we are doing." Said Mr. Pike. "Truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."
"Oh? So you don’t believe that you will have another in the future?"
"That will depend on the impression we make, as well as our future success."
Not long after, Ken returned with someone in tow. The man seemed to be in his late thirties with clear Eastern features, with slicked-back black hair and a tailored suit that seemed simple yet was more expensive than those worn by the other bodyguards. Looking closely, one could see some resemblance between him and the much younger Ken, which instantly revealed why the random Stahlkorps member was able to help them get this far.
[That is likely the case.] Said Volcan.
Stopping a short distance away, the older man, likely the head of security, looked at Mr. Pike, then turned to Rose. His cold and calculating eyes seemed to pierce through her OAM, sending shivers down Dante’s spine and ringing the alarms in his head.
’Shit, don’t tell me he sensed my...’
[I highly doubt that is the case.] Volcan quickly jumped in to calm him down. [What you are seeing right now is a video footage captured through a bionic implant. Even if that man has he uncanny ability to sense when he is being watched, it is unlikely that he would be able to notice your gaze, since you aren’t looking at him directly.]
Dante couldn’t breathe in relief until the man looked away from him, plastering a polite smile as he addressed the leader of the group.
"Mister Pike Addison, it is an honor to finally meet you." He said, bowing his head slightly. "My name is Shirogane Ushida, master Klaus’s head of security." Fixing him with a sharp gaze, he added in a more subdued tone. "Before your audience, there are a few questions I would like to ask you, if you don’t mind, of course."