Chapter 189 - Bounties (2/2)

”Yes, I am. I own the cyber cafe. Nice to meet you, Mr.?'

”Justin Barber. It is an honor to meet you, Colonel Balthazar,” said the man.

”I hope that you have the required parts to replace them,” said Balthazar.

”You understand these systems?” he asked surprised. Though Balthazar had a reputation of a person who managed to stop an invasion effectively and helped the alliance realize that there was a hierarchy among the apes, none know of him. They all expected him to be a capable administrator not a man with much technical knowledge.

”I started my military career as a communications engineer,” replied Balthazar. ”I have a very good idea of these systems and would have set it up if I had the required equipment.”

”Oh!” said Justin. ”I will need to go and get the required parts from the office. I didn't expect this. I just thought that there would be some reassembling of the box and some basic components.”

”I suppose so. I doubt a security company would allow personnel to move encryption ch.i.p.s and the like without proper paperwork,” said Balthazar. ”The serial numbers were partly melted but these were the ones at the end. I managed to get these from the part that was a bit legible. I believe you can match them,” he continued as he gave him a paper on which he had copied down the numbers at the end.

”I would rather have the devices,” said Justin. ”You know company protocol.”

”We put them in along with the rest of the electrical equipment and threw it in the trash. The smell was disconcerting to the customers. So, we disposed of it. But I do know that you need to verify it. So, I had the serial number or whatever is readable ready for you,” replied Balthazar with a smile.

”I am sure you meant for the best, Colonel, but I would have to inform my boss,” said Justin worried. He was afraid that Balthazar might take it to be insinuating that he might be stealing or something. Most people would misunderstand.

”I understand. It is protocol. You don't need to explain,” said Balthazar in a cordial fashion. ”I would insist that you inform and get the process moving. It would help in replacing my systems faster.”

”Ok. Cool,” said Justin nodding his head enthusiastically. He called his boss and talked about it. The boss was a bit pissed initially, but Balthazar joined the conversation and told that he had just disposed of it as he had already known of the systems and apologised for jumping the gun. Considering his reputation and his family, the man let it go.

”I will go and get the parts, then,” said Justin. ”By the way, can I get an autograph,” he asked Balthazar.

Balthazar had been planning to find a way to get friendly with the Justin, request his tools to help assemble the parts he managed to steal, but he didn't expect to be given a way by Justin himself.

”My autograph?” he asked as if he was confused. ”Sure.”

”Dude, can you get me a hat the one in the merchandize section,” he asked Rudra. He immediately signed with him and after a few minutes of friendly chat, he managed to convince Justin to leave his tools here as he went ahead and got the parts required to repair the control box.

”You are quite good at this,” said Rudra who had been staying quiet all this time.

”Practice,” said Balthazar calmly as he took the tools and went ahead to the private room to assemble the device that he needed. He had already done everything other than assembling the encryption devices which are main parts of the security device with the network interfaces, which he managed to do in a couple of minutes with tools from Justin's toolbox.

”You did this all for a device to setup a secure comm channel? You could request it from your family or the military,” said Rudra.

”Don't want any of them to know about it. I hope you can keep this a secret,” said Balthazar.

”You some kind of government spy or something?” asked Rudra.

”No. I am not doing this for the government, but I am hunting a few criminals. Nothing that would hamper my reputation. It just needs to be hidden,” said Balthazar.

”I don't think it is best to keep secrets from your family.”

”If that was true, I would have been dead by now,” said Balthazar looking at Rudra with a smile. ”It is best if you don't worry about it. I will go ahead. I hope you will keep this a secret.”

”Fine. I guess you want to use the workshop for using it,” said Rudra.

”No. God no. Why would I want to do that? I will find some other location an isolated place to get it done. It wouldn't be useful to do it in a place which I own,” said Balthazar as he got up and made way out of the room.

He also needed to get a hold of a decent chunk of money to use freely, if he had any intention of accepting a bounty in the ShadowCard. He needed to get to a place to get a set up a bounty anonymously in the ShadowCard.

Apart from his own city, the nearest place that he had a place to stay was in the Entora City. He had a large plot of land, some of which he was using to set up a hospital. He had already talked to Winston about it and they were setting up a hospital which he intended to leave in the hands of his cousin if possible.

The construction of the building had just started for about a week, but it was just the bas.e.m.e.nt and a few rooms that were done. Though Winston had his contacts start the work, the land was under Balthazar's name and he was the one who signed the required paper online to begin with the construction.

He went to them under the pretence of checking the development of the project. About 90% of the land used to be covered with trees, but that reduced 70% now. The area was being considered by development by the local and apart from his land, there were other area where construction of buildings are already underway. This was relatively isolated are where he could have a small place for himself away from the supervision of his family.

He went to the constructor and asked for a small private villa to be made beside the hospital. It was the best he could do. He needed a place, a safe house away from his mansion and this was the best he could think of right now. He told the contractor that it was for a friend who was interested in buying it and he gave the name, Branson Shades which was used to make his ShadowCard account.

Having discussed the future plans for a private place away from the family mansion, he went out to a shopping mall. He bought a laptop and went to a cyber cafe in the Entora city and booked a private room. He used the device to setup a secure communication channel.

He had to check a bunch of things in the ShadowCard. The first was to check the available contracts in the ShadowCard. This is the main reason for which he needed an account urgently. One couldn't have access to the bounties put on the ShadowCard without an account. He needed to check if there were any that were placed for two people.

One was Dave and the other was Ryan Rowley. He found that there were bounties on both Dave and Ryan. There was only one bounty on Dave, but it requested for any verifiable information along with addition bonus pay for capture and specified that there won't be any pay on death of the person.

On the other hand, Ryan Rowley had three different bounties on him. All three were to kill him as fast as possible. It also provided pay to anyone who gave information regarding his location and information about any who came into contact with Ryan Rowley and these were placed just for more than a single day. It was clear that the people who put these bounties were convinced that Ryan has some information and wanted to bury it. This made him more convinced that working with Ryan Rowley might serve his needs.

There were a few bounties which have been placed for any person of the Nirbaadh pirates and he also saw a few other bounties that he could be interested in. These were on some well-known rebels and brigands. He took a large-scale bounty set against the stragglers of Nirbaadh pirates before he logged out.