"Agh~~~ ooh~~~" "Behave yourself! Quit making those weird noises!"
"Ay-yi-yi~ Have mercy, good sir! I'm just a working stiff myself—don't go giving an old fella like me a hard time~"
After the Mole had been beaten down by Geno, Geno tied him up and strung him from a utility pole.
As for the rest of those rebels, they were left to Jane and Yanagi Tsukishiro to handle.
After all, in that department, the two of them were the professionals.
And the only task left now was to pry the evidence out of the mouth of this cunning rat.
"It's 'Mole.'"
Even before the man himself could object, it was our Miss Jane who raised the correction first.
"Fine, fine, fine—Mole, Mole. Then again, this guy's Inter-Knot handle doesn't even bother to hide anything."
Moore (a mole), the burrowing mole (a mole), a spy (a mole).
It was practically like slapping his ID card right in everyone's face.
"All right, back to business. It's about time you came clean, don't you think?"
"Look here, good sir—you want me to confess, then at least ask me something! You just leave me dangling here and don't ask a thing—how am I supposed to talk?!"
Uh... all right, Geno had been a bit hasty there.
Under the strange looks of the others, Geno cleared his throat and once again laid out for the Mole the intel they'd pieced together.
"So, you must have evidence that Three Gates Munitions is secretly backing the rebels, right?"
"Uh... well, this..."
Seeing the Mole hemming and hawing, Jane was not about to indulge him.
A small knife went whizzing out, grazing the Mole's family jewels with pinpoint precision before lodging itself in the utility pole behind him.
It scared the Mole so badly he flinched on the spot.
"Let's talk this out! Let's talk this out! I really don't know anything about this Three Gates Munitions business! These mechs—I found every last one of them in a Defense Force scrap warehouse!"
"Still talking back! Do you take us for fools?! Since when does a scrap warehouse hold this much factory-fresh equipment?"
Eous stuck out a tiny hand and pointed at the Mole, her little face straining its hardest to look fierce—only, regrettably, no matter how she arranged it, it came out cute as a button.
"It's the truth! I got the address from my superior, then just followed their instructions to haul the stuff out of the warehouse, that's all! I really never had any contact with the Three Gates people!"
The Mole was on the verge of tears. Sure, he'd been embedded in the Defense Force for ages, but apart from helping his bosses on both ends rake in cash and cozy up to one another, where would he ever have found the time to get tangled up with Three Gates Enterprises?
And hearing the Mole say as much, Geno and the others knit their brows once again.
"Could it really have nothing to do with Three Gates Munitions? But that doesn't add up—if there weren't some corporation pulling strings behind the scenes, how could such a massive quantity of equipment just materialize out of thin air for the rebels to use?"
Geno's mind raced, yet he still couldn't come up with any plausible explanation.
"Is there a chance this guy's lying to us?"
"As heaven is my witness! I really am not lying!"
The Mole really was about to cry! What was the world coming to, when telling the truth still got you nowhere?!
In the end, Geno and the others chose to believe the Mole's words for the time being.
But afterward, they would send him to the Anti-Air Section 6 interrogation room for a deeper round of questioning.
"Such a pity. When it comes to interrogation, you know, Public Security's interrogation rooms are hardly second to anyone's."
A cold glint lurked in Jane's eyes; if the Mole really fell into her hands, he'd likely fare no better than he would at HAND.
"In that case, Miss Tsukishiro, I'll leave this man to you."
"Don't worry. My colleagues and I will entertain him properly."
Yanagi Tsukishiro adjusted her glasses, and the light reflecting off the lenses lent her an air of mystery and danger.
In that moment, the Mole felt that his future had already gone utterly dark and hopeless.
And so, a problem they'd assumed would take a very long time to resolve had, through all manner of lucky coincidences, already come to an end.
Yet though the case had reached the point where everyone's initial goal—finding the traitor smuggling the equipment—had been achieved,
as they delved deeper, more dangers and unanswered questions surfaced before their eyes.
"So many rebels turned up inside the Crete Hollow, yet the Defense Force's intelligence never filed a single report on it."
"And it's not just the Defense Force—even within HAND, something's gone awry."
Whether it was Anti-Air Section 6's standby orders or the Defense Force's leave schedule, neither fit the logic of how anyone ought to be acting at this particular juncture.
At this thought, Geno turned his gaze toward the only person present who could be counted as Public Security personnel.
"Since both the Defense Force and HAND have come to this, could it be that Public Security's own internal ranks are also..."
But faced with Geno's conjecture, Jane's reply was remarkably firm.
"Don't worry. At the very least, the people at the Janus Precinct can be trusted."
So said Jane.
Although, as a professional criminal psychologist and a hyper-vigilant individual who'd spent years on undercover assignments, she really shouldn't have spoken so categorically at a moment like this.
But in Jane's heart, if even those few people weren't worthy of trust, then perhaps there'd be no one left in this world worth believing in at all.
"Hmm—then again, not necessarily."
As she spoke, her gaze drifted toward Geno, who was still lost in thought, an unreadable light flickering in her eyes.
"Hm? What are you looking at me for?"
"Nothing. Since matters here have come to a temporary close, I'll be taking my leave first."
Owing to their status as rebels and the crisis that remained unresolved, the Mole and his underlings would be handed over to HAND, and Public Security's role here had become all but nonexistent.
That being the case, Jane naturally had to head back to report in, and then move on to her next mission.
With Jane's departure, another member who counted as an outsider—Yanagi Tsukishiro—also took her leave.
"I'm deeply grateful for everyone's help. On behalf of Anti-Air Section 6, I thank you all for your assistance. If the interrogation turns up any leads, Section 6 will be sure to share them with you, and when that time comes, I hope we might have the chance to work together once more."
Having finished, Yanagi gave Geno and the others a very formal bow.
She still had to wait here a while; she'd already used Eous to notify her own colleagues.
After all, handling all these rebels on her own was a bit much to manage.
"Don't mention it—we're all friends here. Next time you get the chance, be sure to come hang out with us over in Sixth Street!"
Eous was quite the quick friend; their brief time together had already led her to regard this very mature deputy section chief as one of her own.
And Yanagi Tsukishiro responded with a kindly smile.
She, too, was quite fond of these people; though their time together had been short, this friendship had at least gotten off to a fine start.
The same went for Trigger and the Silver Three Sisters off to the side—different factions though they were, the goals they each sought to achieve were one and the same.
For the sake of this city, for the sake of this rare and precious peace.
They would, in the end, press forward bearing their heavy burdens.
____
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