Secret Agent Chapter 092 - Network Access (Patreon)

Zack Adder’s overarching goal had been—since the night of the thurgenrat invasion—to build up his information network.

As a computer hacker, that had involved identifying target computer networks, writing scripts to exploit zero-day vulnerabilities, and copying the data out for analysis.

To a lesser extent, a lot of information gathering could be done using what were called ‘open source channels.’ Not open source as in, software licensing, but open source like ‘source of information.’

W*kipedia was an ‘open source.’ Of course, W*kipedia could be edited by anyone, so it wasn’t particularly reliable, but it was a good starting point.

This other world didn’t have computers, and didn’t have the internet.

It didn’t even have a printing press or any kind of journalism, as far as he could tell. No libraries, no encyclopedias, no newspaper archives.

As the God of Earth had said, it was somewhat primitive.

Zack had observed three primary ways information was shared.

The first was in books, handwritten, and guarded closely like the treasures they were.

The second was letters, like those he had couriered for the Adventurer’s Guild.

The third was spoken word—gossip, reports, lectures… even the training at the Training Day event would qualify as spoken word, even though it included physical demonstrations.

Cori, the blue-haired and blue-eyed young woman sitting next to Zack at the bar, seemed like she specialized in the last of these three methods of information sharing.

And this happened to be the method Zack was least proficient in.

To start, he couldn’t simply go around introducing himself to random strangers and asking strange questions about the world in which he lived. For one, it would be weird. And there was the standing bounty out for him at the Adventurer’s Guild. And clearly the Kingdom and the Church still wanted to catch him, if at all they could.

Zack didn’t think the entire Training Day event had been just to catch him. It was too much investment only for that, especially if they didn’t know for certain that he was still in Fortinium. Almost certainly it had been planned as a real apology to the people of the city, one that would also make them more robust to future attacks. And then at some point during the planning and organization, the parties interested in catching him had worked their own lures and traps into the event.

So Zack Adder surmised.

What worried him was that they had attempted to kill him—the poisoned sweet roll—which had precipitated his flight from the Castle in the first place, and they were still after him.

Zack could think of only one reason why that would be the case.

He was a valuable [Otherworlder] and unique skill holder, after all.

And it wasn’t like the [Hero] hated him.

But he had asked about secret magics while secretly investigating the Church’s summoning ritual.

Clearly that had been a bridge too far.

The overreaction indicated that powerful people really had something to hide, perhaps not even about the summoning ritual, but at least something about secret magic.

All that to say, Zack Adder couldn’t just go around asking people dumb questions and out himself as an [Otherworlder].

He hadn’t even felt comfortable showing his face outside until he had professional level [Acting] [Skills].

And that had obviously been the correct move.

So if he couldn’t go around fishing for information himself, what was a poor secret agent to do?

Simple.

Make use of someone else’s information network.

Cori.

She had been incredibly obvious about flaunting all the little bits of knowledge she had, indicating a wide range of sources for information. And she had demonstrated an impressive proactivity in approaching him at the orphanage.

If not there, she probably would have approached him at the Guildhall, or possibly even at the Rose Theater.

For all that she had shown off her own value…

What did she want from Jack Werdruf—the aspiring actor, the amateur adventurer, the snake [Tamer], the friend of St. Bella’s orphanage?

That was the true nature of their meeting here today.

Zack knew it.

He supposed that Cori knew he knew it.

So he sipped his Froonung Porter, with its rich and complex flavor profile and strong alcohol content, and he eyed his potential connection to a widespread and preexisting gossip network.

Cori, for her part, took a large draught of her wine and sighed heavily. She raised her glass to eye level and appraised the scarlet-colored liquid.

“It’s not the best vintage, but… I find it nostalgic.”

Small talk it is, then.

“Oh? How so?” Zack asked, encouraging her to say her piece.

“This happens to be the first wine I ever tasted. My parents were quite disappointed in it; so much so that they left their glasses unfinished at the dining table… and I snuck in and drank some before the table was cleared.” Cori’s cheeks were flushed just the faintest shade of pink in the dim candlelight, only detectable with Zack’s [Night Eye]. “I got in rather a lot of trouble for that, but the color drew me in, after they compared it to…” She trailed off, and didn’t finish her statement.

“The color, the taste, the scolding after… I’ve become enamored with this particular vintage, even though it’s objectively only middling quality.”

Zack eyed the wine in Cori’s glass. It was a brighter red than he was used to seeing in wine, though for some reason, it seemed familiar.

He just couldn’t place where he had seen it before.

Had the wine been served at the after-party he’d attended?

That would make sense…

But while he pondered, Cori smiled softly and set down her glass gently on the bar.

“Jack Werdruf, already E rank after only a few days of adventuring, first [Tamer] of the feared inland taipan… Adventurer, actor, and now businessman? What a multi-faceted and interesting man you are, Jack.”

Zack [Stifled] a grimace.

The last thing he wanted was notoriety.

It was an almost instinctual revulsion, cultivated from his time as a secret agent on Earth and his time in hiding here in this world.

He covered up any further reaction with another sip of his porter.

“Well, I like to keep busy,” he eventually responded. “Although I never intended to [Tame] Sienna. That just kind of… happened.”

“How did that happen, Jack? I’d love to hear the story.” Cori leaned on the bar, looked at him through upturned eyes, and batted her eyelashes.

It would have been a captivating sight had Zack’s [Resist Allure] skill not been so high.

The mental calculus on whether or not to tell the story was simple enough. The children at the orphanage couldn’t be trusted to tell a consistent lie in the first place, and there was no real reason for Jack Werdruf to lie, anyway.

So Zack told the story, of how he had been visiting the orphanage—though he avoided the particular reason why he had been there—and how there had been a snake discovered inside. How he had fed the snake a dead mouse, to get it into a box, and just like that, he had [Tamed] her.

“That is truly fascinating,” Cori said, and as far as Zack could tell, she meant it sincerely. “Others have tried to [Tame] inland taipans before, you know. So far none have been successful. They’re incredibly shy creatures, normally.”

Zack nodded. “Yeah, Sienna’s like that.”

They talked about Sienna a bit more, and the conversation naturally flowed into their hunting outside the city walls.

Cori pouted. “I can’t believe you sneaked in a promotion like that. I must have looked a fool the other day.” Then she squinted at him with exaggerated suspicion. “You haven’t gone and promoted to D rank already, have you?”

Zack chuckled. “No, not yet.”

His glass of porter was half-empty, and Cori had finished her glass of the Donovan wine and ordered a more expensive, higher quality wine, which was thrice as expensive.

Zack let it pass without comment. Cori was a slender young woman. If she wanted to get hammered on his dime, it wouldn’t take much and would get him through this first encounter that much faster.

A moment later, before the conversation could resume, Vince returned with their meals. Cori’s veal arrived with small amounts of mashed potatoes and what appeared to be asparagus on the side, while Zack’s plate was a heap of sausages and a much larger serving of mashed potatoes, drizzled in sauce.

It all smelled delicious.

Cori clearly had good manners, because she dropped the probing into Jack’s life to discuss the meal itself. The butchers from which the meat was sourced, the farms from which the potatoes came, and other such light topics. Zack would have liked to ask where the farms were, exactly, because as far as he could tell Fortinium was surrounded by forest on all sides, even on the hills as they rose to the west and south-west.

He assumed everything was imported, but couldn’t discount the possibility magic was involved.

Even as he participated in the conversation about the meal, in the back of his mind, he wondered.

What did Cori want with Jack, specifically?

They finished their meal, Cori ordered another glass of another kind of wine—this one a light pink color—and Zack declined another drink, his glass down to to two-thirds empty.

And so, he asked her.

“If you don’t mind, I’d like to return to business,” he said. Cori nodded and took an elegant sip of her wine, her posture completely giving the lie to her commoner façade.

“Why did you reach out to me? What is it you want?”

He lowered his voice to the absolute minimum as he asked. Cori leaned in closer, and her eyes were focused on his lips.

Lip reading?

Now that would be a skill to pick up.

She replied softly as well, so Zack focused on her lips as she answered.

“I make a point of getting to know all the interesting people,” she whispered. “As I said before, you are quite interesting.”

Zack tried the silence gambit, to see if she would keep speaking if he said nothing.

And this time—unlike with the Director—it worked.

“It was a coincidence that I came upon you in the middle of pitching your business idea. Lucky me.” She smiled and winked at him.

“And now what?” Zack asked.

“Now… what?” Cori looked at the scarred adventurer quizzically.

“What do you want?”

“Just to stay in the know. How Sienna’s doing, how your business plan is going, how your acting career is going… That’s all.”

Zack narrowed his eyes slightly. “And what’s in it for me?”

Cori winked again. “You get to buy me drinks from time to time.”

“Actually,” Zack said, as though she hadn’t responded at all. “I’d like to stay in the know, too.”

Cori’s eyes widened. “Oh?”

“The news about the cloth shipment was interesting. And if the business with the Adventurer’s Guild works out, I’d like to expand into other kinds of things.”

Cori’s eyes narrowed. Zack continued. “So if you know of any other problems that need solving, I’d like to hear about them. The swarming thurgenrats, the problem with the gathering requests… There’s also the issue with the orphanage.”

Cori eyed him warily. “What problem with the orphanage?” Her tone was suspicious.

“The building is heavily damaged, and it’s been days. You wouldn’t happen to know when—or even if—the Church is going to have it repaired, would you?”

Cori leaned back and took a sip of her wine and paused a moment to enjoy the flavor before she leaned back in, their shoulders just barely brushing together and their glasses both mostly empty, similarly close.

“I might…”

Zack took a direct approach.

“Trade?”

“...Trade?” Cori repeated. She was close enough that Zack could smell the wine on her breath. He reached into his pocket and pulled out one of his laminated information cards; this one happened to be for Belladonna primitiva. He gave her a glimpse of it, then moved it onto his lap under the bar, out of her sight.

“I’ll show you this card, and you tell me about the repair plans.”

Cori was clearly interested in the bait, but she didn’t take it immediately.

“You seem very interested in the orphanage, Jack Werdruf. Why is that?”

Zack quashed his memories of his own childhood and answered. “It’s a business opportunity. If the Church has money to repair the orphanage, but doesn’t have the labor, that’s something I could arrange.”

Cori… frowned.

“The Cartelones wouldn’t look kindly on that.”

“Well, in the meantime, it seems unsafe for the children and Sister Paula. I’d like to see it handled sooner than later.”

Cori leaned back and took her glass with her, idly toying with it before draining the glass. Vince caught her eye, and when she shook her head, he brought over two short glasses of water.

“I don’t have that information now, but I could certainly look into it, if…”

Zack cocked an eyebrow, and waited silently.

“...if you could let me take a peek at that card.”

Zack smiled and brought the card up, and placed it on the bar. Cori looked at it with undisguised curiosity and wonder, picked it up, and twitched.

The card trembled stiffly between her fingers as she gripped it tightly.

“What… the demons is this?”