District 42-Chapter 262: A programmer
Once Inna finished saying that, Drott widened his eyes at the same instant. Javir had about the same expression on his face.
They looked at each other, both thinking deeply on that matter while communicating just with their eyes. They were searching for someone to help with that need for a long while until that point. However, it was very difficult for them since it wasn’t every day that you would find a skillful programmer among a lot of poor people in the slugs.
Have Inna in front of them was just like divine providence. After months of struggle, the only thing that Javir needed to do was teach a lesson for a junkie and then let the girl tag along with him until Drott’s office.
"You finally hit the jackpot, Javir! Man, I never doubted that you would bring someone worth it after so much time! I love you, guy! And, if you really know how to help us, then I love you too, milady! Hahaha!" Drott spun joyfully while on top of the chair.
Javir, who noticed that Inna was becoming quite suspicious about Drott when seeing such behavior, walked towards him and hit him on the head with his fist. As if he had turned the power button of that annoying guy, Drott stopped acting strange and got serious all of a sudden.
"Never mind this freaking idiot, Inna. He isn’t a normal person as you might have realized a while ago. However, there isn’t any better person to deal with the handcuffs than him, unfortunately..."
"Hey! Why ’unfortunately’!? Who do you think I am? You--" He stopped to talk again when Javir growled to him like he was a furious dog, raising his fist again.
"Please, master, I will stop, so don’t punch me again!" He put both hands in front of his head and retracted his body.
"Well, anyway, I am sorry that you need to cooperate with this idiot, but we will make up for it." Javir cast a helpless look toward her, showing that he himself would have got rid of Drott if he could do it, to begin with.
She seemed to be somewhat scared, but it wasn’t something that she couldn’t deal with.
Inna stepped in front and stretched her arm towards him, smiling sympathetically with her eyes.
"That’s a deal, then? I ignore this dumb talkative man and you let me do my job?" She giggled.
Javir sighed, shrugging his shoulders. He accepted the handshake.
"Ok, that’s a deal, but remember that, if you are useless here, we will dump you to the streets again without hesitation. We don’t have time to lose with incompetents, after all. Every second we pass slacking here is more time for the city guards to discover what is going on and call the Ridires to chase after us. We can’t let things get too dangerous."
Inna had resolute eyes as she shook vigorously his hand.
"Don’t worry. I will surpass your expectations. Be sure of it."
After that deal was done, Javir took out the items he had in his backpack and spread them through one of Drott’s desks.
"By the way, buddy, these are the pieces you wanted me to take to craft that thing there." He said, pointing to a mess of cables and metal put together in a corner of that room.
Inna looked to all those things with curiosity. The young robber knew that she would ask at some point about that, so he decided to explain what they were working on.
"For now, we are constructing something that can bear the complex code lines of the masks. It has so much data and lines of code that even a powerful computer bought in a market inside the Castle can’t bear it. The only way that we could find to pull through this obstacle was to construct our own computer."
The girl widened her eyes, gazing at Drott who was greedily looking at all the things that Javir had brought to him. He was analyzing those and seeing what was useful and what was not.
"A-Are you implying what I think you are?" Looking at the figure of Javir’s friend, she couldn’t believe that her guess was the right one. Something was off there.
Nevertheless, to her surprise, Javir crossed his arms, leaning his back against a wall and nodding his head.
"Yes. Drott is actually crafting from the zero stage the most powerful computer that exists in District 42. One very similar from the Forge42, the computer that the Forger operates."
Inna was flabbergasted, her jaw dropped and she kept alternating her look between Drott and Javir.
"You are kidding, right?" When she had no response but just a sarcastic expression by the young robber, she laughed excitedly.
"You two are just amazing! I can’t believe it!" She pointed toward Drott. "You! You better do it just right, because I will work as harder to show to you both how amazing I am as well!"
...
2 months went by since the first time when those three gathered together in that mini office to talk about Inna’s entrance into their group.
Since then, they were working as hard as they could on progressing the plan. With the adding of just one person, their productivity seemed to increase by 4 times more! They barely could take how faster things became.
However, just as their plan started to work, their path became dangerous as well. They weren’t sticking to the planning of a project anymore. They had the tools, the course they needed to follow, and also the essential abilities to organize and use everything in their favor. That dream of finally regain their freedom was a reality now. And, of course, something like that would trigger bigger problems as well.
Inna was hiding in an alley with a black raincoat. She had its hood on the head, but not to protect herself against the heavy rain that was falling on the district but the threats out there.
"Damn it..." She muttered, making sure that the hood was covering her face completely.
’They are here again. Those Ridires won’t stop until they cleaned all the houses and corners of this slug.’
She walked off, being careful not to be noticed.
Inna sneaked through the slugs. She wasn’t too acquainted with that place at first since she came from a wealthier part of the South region just to search for Javir. The wealthier part wasn’t less dangerous, but it had a better structure. Anyway, after two months, she was used to the labyrinthine streets of that local.
She took a shortcut to the new hiding place that she and the other two were staying in. Instead of one room, it had three. The office was better organized and less poor-looking. It was hidden between several houses, which made it harder for the Ridires to find them.
Inna entered the secret passage to their entrance and got into the hideout door. She had the keys, so she could enter without problems.
"Drott!" She yelled, taking off her hood and rushing towards the man who was working on their computer.
"W-What!?" He got up from the chair, taking off a gun and pointing it to all sides. The guy was somewhat bewildered.
Inna couldn’t get angry at him for pointing a gun at her at all. She knew that the man was rushing to fix the computer and didn’t sleep for several days.
"Lower this freaking hand, Drott! It’s me!" She raised her hands above her head, stopping to run.
Once the mechanic could realize what was going on, he slowly lowered his pistol.
"I-I am so sorry..."
"It’s okay, but listen to me. The Ridires are on another patrol and this time they are too close! I don’t know if we can keep up here anymore, we gotta go now!"
"What are you implying now? How can we get out of here with this many technological things in this rain? And, if they really are so close, then it’s impossible to carry all these things without being noticed, you know? And--" 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚
Inna stomped her foot on the ground, making a loud noise. Just as she did it, a rumble of thunder could be heard out there and the rain became heavier.
"Shut the hell up! I know it, okay? But we have two choices: stay still, be arrested, then never reach our goals; or then, abandon everything and have at least another chance to keep struggling. What do you prefer?"
Drott became troubled about what to do. He crouched on the ground while rubbing viciously his hair and moaning as if he was in pain.
"Where is Javir?" Inna realized that the man wasn’t there.
After she asked it, one of the doors of the hiding place opened with a loud thud. Someone broke into the house.
The girl took the pistol from Drott’s hands and went to the backdoor. Then, she found Javir’s body laying on top of the door which fell to the ground with the impact. He was soaked in water and blood.
