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“Indeed.”
“Damn Core,” hissed Thao. “We should have shot down those Overcrafts when they showed up the first time. I’m sure the Dragon knows too.”
“What of the others?” asked Dante.
“King and Sanyam confirmed they saw them on their territories too...”
“So did Lecky,” nodded the blonde woman. “He’d be here if he wasn’t so worried about that mad ???? Pasquale... When are you going to take care of him, De Luca?”
“Soon.”
“We will take care of him some other time, Tanya,” retorted Thao. “We should deal with the Core first. I don’t like seeing those bastards sneak their machines in like that. What are they preparing?”
“They were scanning our territories.”
They all suddenly turned their eyes to Dante, who was lighting up another cigarette. The two women looked baffled.
“Scanning them? Why?”
“And how do you know?”
Dante suddenly glanced toward Eden. She was surprised for a second, before quickly grabbing the lighter in his pocket, and lighting the cigarette for him. He faintly smiled, but she may have been the only one to see it... Yet, this small interaction between them had caught some attention in the room. Although she moved back to her original position, Eden felt A.’s eyes on her, very briefly.
“They were turning on some sort of tracking system,” he said.
“Wait, tracking?”
“They were tracking everyone in the Suburbs who has a SIN implanted. The System checks their location every five minutes or so.”
Eden was shocked. Was it really alright to lay everything down already, just like that? How much did he trust those people, exactly? Moreover, this was too big. The two women exchanged a look, both visibly doubtful. Tanya crossed her arms.
“You’re not making this up, are you?”
“The reconditioned SINs cannot be tracked by the Core, De Luca,” added Thao, shaking her head. “They are out of the System, out of its reach. Moreover, why would they bother locating our people? What does that information do for them?”
Dante remained quiet while the two women kept arguing about how impossible it was. However, they were suddenly interrupted. Although his voice was very low and so faint it was akin to a whisper, A. immediately got everyone’s attention as he turned his eyes to Dante.
“...How did you get that information?”
Dante smirked behind his cigarette.
“From a Ghost.”
Eden froze upon hearing Dante’s words. She glanced at him, wondering what he was playing at. It couldn’t be; he was planning to blow her cover now? He was insane! For a minute, she wondered if she should run or deny it. He hadn’t mentioned her, though, just... Ghost. The message was clearly for her, yet the Tiger wasn’t looking at her at all. He confidently faced his peers; the two women of the Zodiac looked baffled, and even A., who had remained stoic from the beginning, tilted his head slowly.
“...From Ghost?” he repeated.
“Last time I checked, Ghost refused to work for you,” said Thao with a smirk. “I don’t know what you did to them, but that was the rumor.”
“We recently came to an agreement.”
Dante was so confident that neither of them dared to ask again. It was obvious they still doubted him, but they just wouldn’t question him anymore. Eden relaxed a little. He had no intention to reveal her identity... It was just for the others to trust the source of his information.
She slowly realized just how powerful of a being he was, even to other Zodiacs. Although the conversation sounded amiable, she had no doubt they’d all shoot at each other without blinking if the situation called for a fight. They were only conversing like normal people and politely keeping appearances for the sake of exchanging information. No one had checked how many weapons the other side had brought, or discussed how many men were allowed in. There were simply no such rules in the Suburbs. The Zodiacs had to impose their strength, and that was it. The four of them were standing, but visibly ready to run or move at any moment. Eden too thought she had to be ready at any moment, just in case things went wrong all of a sudden...
“So?” asked the blonde Russian. “What else did Ghost find? Is that tracking story true?”
“It is,” nodded Dante. “I saw it with my own eyes. Using a map, we were able to figure out and confirm the positions of random people in the Suburbs using a part of the Core’s System. It seems to update every five minutes or so.”
