Gary’s hand was shaking as he looked at his phone. He had to be a bit careful in case he gripped around it too hard, otherwise that would be the second one he had thrown down the gutter.
‘What is this, NIRV are the ones behind the gang, they are the ones that have been hoarding and claiming all of these beast crystals?’ Gary thought.
It was starting to make sense. Without the system, Gary also wouldn't have known the value of the crystals, and there would only be a few people who would, one of them being a company based around turning people into Altered in the first place.
The thing was, he didn’t have fond memories about NIRV. He remembered when he had met a few of their scientists while he was in the AFA. The way they acted, the way they treated the students, it was as if only what they were doing was the most important.
‘I remember that contract I signed as well. It allowed them to call me for any special reason, as a retriever was it? If I remember correctly, past students of the AFA are retrievers as well, and who knows how many people they made sign a similar contract with, in order to get their hands on some Altered solutions.’
Gary was no fool, with a big corporation like NRIV, they were working with multiple big tier cities and gangs as a form of protection. They also had the retrievers at their call, and of course, they were likely to have kept some of the best Altered solutions that they made for themselves.
‘Kai was right, we really didn’t have a clue who we were dealing with, and now we're having to pay for it!’
Immediately, Gary turned to Elijah who was still by his side.
“Did you know about this?” Gary asked, shoving the phone in his face, but he had done it so forcefully and wasn't keeping it still, so Elijah couldn't even see what was written on the phone.
“Hey calm down, I have no clue what you're talking about, what happened?” Elijah asked.
“I’m talking about how the Scavengers gang, these factories, all of it is owned by NIRV! You said you were investigating them right, you had to have known about this?” Gary asked.
Anger was starting to fill his mind, but it wasn't because he was actually angry, it was because he was worried, what consequence would this put the others in.
“NIRV?” Eliajh’s eyes widened. It was one of the suspects, and now somehow Gary had said the name of the very same company it couldn't have just been a coincidence.
From the look that Elijah was pulling, Gary knew that he had no idea.
“This isn’t good.” Elijah said. “Crap, of all people, why did it have to be them?”
“What do you mean?” Gary said. “I thought you came to investigate who was supplying the infected Altered solutions. It's obvious that NIRV are using these guys as guinea pigs, using the gang to see how well their product will do.”
“You might be right, but everything you're saying will just be hearsay and, the higher ups at White Rose will say the same thing.” Elijah replied. “If the White Rose were to go up against NIRV, they would have to use the entire headquarters.
“Do you think, with just a guess, or somethings that add up, that White Rose would be willing to make that move. We need more evidence, and knowing they won’t want to go after the whole corporation, NIRV is just too big. They will want to just try and pin it on a single person.
“State that it was a rogue employee, have a scapegoat, and just continue on as usual. Out of all the people it could be, this is the worst result… If I tell White Rose now, about what we found, they’ll just tell me to head back.”
Gary was grinding his teeth, he couldn't believe it. Such a thing was happening, and the forces that were meant to stop this, were just going to sit back and do nothing. Is this what it meant to be at the top, is this what it means to have so much power that one could do as they liked.
“Screw it, I need to get out of here.” Gary said, turning around.
“Wait, what are you going to do?” Elijah asked.
“I called over my friends, they will be here to pick up the workers and will continue to take them to Slough.” Gary answered. “No one’s come after us for a while, probably because the whole gang is too obsessed about this Phantom Brawl thing, so I’m sure they’ll be in safe hands.
“But my friend, he’s at the Phantom Brawl right now. If it was just the Scavengers I would have to worry about, then it would be fine, but if it's NIRV… I don’t know what will happen, I have to go!”
Gary quickly went ahead and borrowed one of the masks from the other workers, they had plenty due to the fumes the factories would produce anyway. The mask itself didn’t do much but Gary was to cover his face still.
The Scavengers still had no clue that this was the Howlers' work, and now he wanted to keep it this way as much as he possibly could.
After explaining everything to the others, telling them that it would be okay, Gary was ready to leave.
“Wait!” Elijah shouted, and he picked up a mask from the side, and placed it on his face. “I’m coming with you, to help, not as a member of White Rose, but as Elijah…”
*****
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