Investing In My Crippled Heroine Wives For Infinite Rebate

Chapter 57: Chapter 57 | They’re Watching The Building!

He looked at that.

’Keep running,’ he thought. ’Past the licensing. Past the hearing. Into whatever comes after.’

He closed the notebook.

He pressed his palm to the kitchen counter.

Both wives in their rooms. Both rhythms steady. The morning going on.

His phone buzzed.

Denko.

He answered.

"Are you somewhere you can talk," Denko said.

Kai walked to the stairwell. "Yes."

"The assessor," Denko said. "The internal Renmei employee who filed the SSS-rank classification report. I found more."

Kai waited.

"The filing timestamp predates their departure from the family by eight months," Denko said. "I told you that. But I didn’t tell you the other thing I found."

"Tell me now."

"The assessor didn’t work alone." A pause. The particular pause of someone who had been deciding whether to say something and had finally decided. "The Renmei family didn’t organize the expedition. They provided the classification authority. Someone else organized it. Someone who needed the Vanguard expedition in that dungeon specifically. At that time. With those people in it."

Kai stood in the stairwell.

"The target list," Kai said.

"I don’t know if it was a target list," Denko said. "I know that the expedition roster was unusual. Joint-family, which wasn’t standard for a dungeon in Renmei jurisdiction. Three families contributing personnel. That doesn’t happen unless someone with cross-family authority requests it."

"Cross-family authority," Kai said. "The Foundation."

"I don’t know," Denko said again. "I’m telling you what the records show. The expedition was joint-family. The classification was deliberately altered. Two top-rank heroines were in that dungeon along with supporting personnel. Whatever happened in there — it wasn’t bad luck."

Kai looked at the stairwell wall.

"The name," Kai said. "The assessor’s name. Can you send it to me."

A pause.

"I already sent it," Denko said. "Twenty minutes ago. Check the secondary number."

He checked. It was there.

He looked at the name.

He didn’t recognize it.

But he wrote it in his notebook when he got back inside.

He looked at the name on the page.

’Someone decided,’ he thought. ’Someone organized a joint expedition, altered a dungeon classification, and put both of them in an SSS-rank dungeon that everyone thought was S-rank.’

’Someone who needed them gone.’

He looked at the name.

’Why,’ he thought. ’Why specifically these two.’

He closed the notebook.

He made lunch.

=====

Afternoon.

He was at the table going through the preliminary licensing file when the Nerve Sense picked up something.

Not in the apartment.

Outside.

He stopped reading.

He expanded the active focus. Eighty meters. One-hundred. One-twenty.

There — at the building’s street entrance. A presence. Standing still. Not a neighbor rhythm, not a delivery rhythm. The particular stillness of someone who was waiting and did not want to look like they were waiting.

He sat at the table and kept reading.

Sixty seconds. The presence didn’t move.

He closed the file.

He walked to the kitchen window — the angle showed the street without showing him at the window clearly. He looked.

A man. Mid-forties. Jacket with no insignia. Standing at the corner of the building rather than the entrance. Watching the apartment door.

Kai looked at him through the window for a moment.

He went back to the table.

He picked up his phone. He sent a message to Denko: Someone outside the building. Watching. Mid-forties, no insignia, been there at least two minutes.

He put the phone down.

He kept reading the licensing file.

Three minutes later Denko replied: Don’t go outside. I’m checking district surveillance. Give me twenty.

Kai set the phone face-down.

He went to Shira’s door and knocked.

It opened.

She was at her desk with the physio sheet. She looked at him.

"Someone’s been watching the building for at least five minutes," Kai said. Quiet. Level. The same voice he used for everything. "I need you and Mira to stay away from the windows until I say otherwise."

Shira looked at him.

"How long," she said.

"I don’t know yet. I’m waiting on information from Denko."

She looked at the window in her room. It faced the side street rather than the front — not the angle the watcher was using.

"What do you know," she said.

"Adult male. Mid-forties. Stationary at the building corner. Not entering. Just watching."

"Gift energy."

Kai had checked. "None readable at this range. The dampener is calibrated for dungeon environments. I need to recalibrate for street range."

"Do it," she said. "I’ll stay from the window."

He went to Mira’s door. Three knocks.

It opened.

He told her the same thing in fewer words: someone outside, stay from windows, waiting on information. Her expression didn’t change. She held the board up.

How long has he been there.

"At least five minutes when I noticed," Kai said. "Probably longer."

You noticed and then made lunch.

"I made lunch first," Kai said. "Then I noticed."

She lowered the board. She stepped back from the doorway and closed the door.

He stood in the hallway.

’She’s not going to panic,’ he thought. ’Neither of them is.’

He went back to the table and recalibrated the resonance dampener for street-range passive detection.

—----

Denko called eighteen minutes later.

"The man outside," Denko said. "He’s clean on the district registry. No hero license. No criminal record. Employment record shows contract security work — three different agencies in the last two years, none of them connected to the Foundation directly."

"Indirectly," Kai said.

"One of the agencies has a contracts relationship with a Calloway family subsidiary," Denko said. "Three steps removed. It’s not provable."

"But it’s there."

"It’s there."

Kai looked at the window from across the room — the right angle showed the street edge.

The man was still there.

"He’s still watching," Kai said.

"I know. I’m looking at the surveillance feed." A pause. "He’s not alone. There’s a second one on the opposite corner. I didn’t catch him initially — he rotated in about ten minutes ago. They’re cycling. Professional."

Kai sat with that.

"They’re watching the apartment," Kai said. "Not moving against it."

"Not yet," Denko said. "The hearing is in five days. Whatever they’re planning, they want information first. Who comes in, who goes out, what the routine is."

"They already have the routine," Kai said. "They’ve had the address for months."

"Then they want something specific," Denko said. "A window. An opportunity." Another pause. "Kai. Five days is a long time if these people decide to accelerate."

Kai looked at the licensing file still open on the table.

"They can’t touch the jurisdiction," Kai said. "The backdating is on record."

"Legal doesn’t stop people who aren’t thinking about legal."

Kai sat with that too.

"I know," he said.

He hung up.

He pressed his palm flat on the table and expanded the Nerve Sense to full range. The two watchers — there, now that he knew where to look. The second one Denko had identified, east corner. Steady rhythm. Surveillance professional. Not rushing.

He sat at the table.

He thought.

Then he picked up his phone and called Han Dori.

Han Dori picked up on the second ring.

"Two surveillance operatives on my building," Kai said. "Connected three steps to the Foundation. The hearing is in five days."

A pause.

"How long have they been there," Han Dori said.