Expelled From Paradise

Chapter 9

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2.2

The flock of sandworms was completely destroyed by the arhan and it landed near Dingo. The rear opened and a c.o.c.kpit appeared. Angela jumped down from it. Dingo greeted her with applause.

“Excellent job. I didn’t expect for you to be able to kill them all.”

Angela walked over and glared at Dingo who towered above her.

“You’re supposed to be my guide, but all you do is cause problems. How can you explain this?”

“Oh come on”, Dingo retorted. “Now I will help you with your work. As they say, you roll my log and I’ll roll yours.”

Angela noticed two canisters behind the buggy. A wire was tied to the back of the buggy. Were they really the cause of that sand cloud?

“What are these canisters? If you wanted to escape, you had to get rid of the extra load. Or are you completely stupid?”

“Actually I didn’t want to escape. And I purposefully dragged them after me.”

“Huh?”

“Sandworms are very sensitive to metallic sounds. Just a little noise and they go mad with rage.”

Angela was puzzled.

“I don’t understand. You lured them?”

Dingo looked at the horizon. A dust cloud was heading their way.

“There they are.”

Trucks appeared out of nowhere. Seeing a pile of sandworm corpses, they stopped. Men began to come out. The mountain of insect corpses was an incredible sight. Someone joyfully yelled, “A huge catch!”

Clearly not expecting this, Angela frowned. And here Dingo spoke, “Well gentlemen, here is the sale promised. For 300 nano-carat per person, take as much as you can carry!”

He held his cowboy hat upside down. The satisfied people put cash and coins into it. After this, they came back to their trucks, took their meat cleavers and went to cut up the sandworms. They were all butchers. Stunned, Angela watched things unfold before her. She became enraged.

“Listen up…”

“Oh, thank you. I didn’t even ask you, but you helped. What a wonderful employer I have. I’m sure you and I will get along.” Dingo said while counting his money.

Folding her arms, Angela continued silently raging. Mad screams wouldn’t lead to anything. While displeased by looking at the working butchers, she said, “Regarding the reward.”

“As always, satellite information about the underground resources. I’m counting on you.”

Angela took out a memory card from a terminal in her arm.

“Cash would also be nice, but Deva doesn’t use them.”

Dingo reached for the memory card, however, Angela pulled her hand back.

“Payment will depend on the success of the mission.”

“Hey, maybe it will be worthwhile to win my trust over a deposit?”

Angela glanced at Dingo.

“You’ve been trying to sabotage my mission from the very beginning. What trust is there to be?”

“You’re really trying to slander me,” Dingo said unperturbedly and then smiled bitterly, “It’s just that I thought you would surely kill all those worms if you saw…”

“Oh really!”, Angela flared up. “You aimlessly wasted 37 minutes and 20 seconds of my precious time! And for me every second counts right now. This is real sabotage!”

Dingo even backed away from such pressure.

“Why are you so angry? The operation starts tomorrow. None of the agents of the security system have even arrived, except for you.”

“Exactly. This is the perfect opportunity to get ahead of them. For this, I even finished the development of my body early.

“So that’s why you look like a teen. I thought you just liked this.”

Angela snorted at him again. Dingo decided to stay silent.

“Now listen. If someone gets to Pioneer before me, you won’t get your payment either. So take this seriously.

“You try to get a raise even in situations like these?”

“So you know the operation…”

“An unknown hacker broke into Deva’s system, and he is located somewhere on Earth. The situation is rather unusual.”

Dingo looked at the butchers, placing the meat into their trucks.

“Look around, we’re hunting monsters for meat to survive. And you think, that one of us can compete with you in cybers.p.a.ce? Maybe there are aliens here.”

“Whatever he is, he is hacking from the Earth. My mission is to find his location. And yours is to help me. All clear?”

“Clear to me.”

Dingo headed towards the landed arhan.

“This robot deserves respect. Is there some trick in the firing mechanism?”

Angela started to show off.

“Through satellite communication, he is connected to the main server of the security system which provides processing support. It makes fire adjustments. Even if the enemy moves at the speed of sound, it can predict the future.”

The arhan can use Deva’s infinite resources for tactical support.

“Ooh!” Dingo glanced at the arhan, “So this is a kind of terminal to Deva, that is constantly in touch with it. A reliable machine. And as strong as a hundred men.”

“Wow, for a man living in the stone age, you catch on fast.”

“You say it used satellite. Does it have an antenna?”

“In the center of the back. But don’t you dare touch it.”

Dingo went behind the arhan. Above the hatch with nozzles was a small antenna module.

“Ah, there it is.”

From the holster of his belt, he took out and antique revolver.

“What?”

Angela couldn’t believe what was happening. Dingo emptied the revolver into the antenna. Loud shots even got the butchers interested. Angela started yelling at him.

“What are you doing?”

The 45 caliber magnum pierced the antenna module. The surprised butchers realized that they had nothing to do with this and got back to work. But Angela had a reason to be concerned. She looked at the antenna shot by Dingo. Smoke came out through the bullet holes present on the electronic components.

“What are you doing? Idiot! Fool! You…”

“Actually the fool here is you,” Dingo said coldly, flushed from Angela’s rage. “Our enemy is a hacker from whom we have no protection. Were you going to carry around a terminal connected to the network? Thanks to your companion, he will be able to determine our location. Or are you going to play hide and seek with him, constantly telling him where you are?”

Angela stood without saying a word. He was absolutely right this time.

“You didn’t have to break it…”

Dingo returned his revolver to his holster.

“There will be no more communication with Deva. If we use satellite communications, our opponent would instantly find out all the information. “

“Well, how will we complete the mission?”

“If the other agents arrive with the same equipment, then most likely they will make the same mistake. They will be walking around always connected to the network. We are better. We can use them as bait. We will be able to sneak up to our prey. We can rely only on our eyes, nose, ears, and legs. Maybe then we can outsmart the wizard, who calls himself Pioneer.”

“But will this work…?”

“Smartness, patience, and endurance; that is what we have. Only G.o.d knows if we would achieve anything.”

Angela didn’t answer. All of this didn’t go against her plans, it was quite logical, and there were no other options.

“So,” Dingo pointed at the smoking arhan and said, “Does this thing work when it’s offline?”

“Now this is a heap of sc.r.a.p metal!”

Dingo looked at it.

“Useless you say… Well, even a heap of sc.r.a.p metal can be found worthy of use.”

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