Path to Becoming the Greatest Space Mercenary - Chapter 364

Chapter 364: Chapter 364 Observing Easy Prey
“We really got the short end of the stick this time. We spent weeks sitting around in open space waiting for the chance to get the boss’s partner back from the Alliance Police, and after we lost around a third of our ships doing so, we immediately spent the next ten days traveling directly to this sh*thole in the middle of nowhere. And if that wasn’t enough, now we’ve been given the most mind-numbingly boring job.”

Sitting in a decently nice but fairly small apartment, two men were surrounded by several large pieces of equipment.

Two of these devices were currently pointed out of the window and directed at a building farther down the street and across the street.

“Janson, you made basically that same complaint almost ten minutes ago. Yes, this isn’t the most exciting work, but it’s what was assigned to us. Now, your whining about it is only making it worse for me, so why don’t you just shut up and enjoy the quiet instead.” The other man in the room said in clear annoyance.

“The hell’s wrong with you, Dario. I’m just trying to blow off some steam. It wouldn’t hurt you to listen and at least nod your head. The pay and benefits for all of this were great at first, but now it feels like everything has gone straight into the toilet.

“This was supposed to be a quick in and out grab and run mission. But we’ve been stuck in the Dramid Alliance now for several months, and we’re hardly able to do anything since the police have been on our tail. It took so much effort for us just to get this cramped room on this crappy station. I swear, once we get back to Vanmir, I’m quitting.”

Dario scoffed at Janson’s rant and turned around towards his current partner and gave him a nasty look.

“If you keep saying things like that, you’re not going to last much longer. You know what kind of people we’re working for. The only way you’re leaving your position is if they decide to let you go when they feel like they’ve gotten enough out of you.

“Of course, you can always get out in a body bag if you want, and with the criticism you just lobbed at the boss, it would probably be pretty easy for you to go down that route. Now for the love of everything, stop running your mouth. Or I might start recording you and send it to the higherups just to get some peace and quiet.” Dario said, fed up with his partner’s rambling.

Fortunately, his threat brought some much wanted silence to the room, and Dario turned his attention back to the screen displaying the thermal imaging of the apartment that they were watching.

Inside were two distinct individuals, currently sitting across from each other at a table and eating breakfast.

They were completely mundane people living ordinary lives. There was nothing really special about them so far as either Dario or Janson had seen so far.

Yet, this couple was the entire reason that the group Janson and Dario worked for had come here.

While they were not special in the slightest, it turned out that their son was the mercenary that had ruined the plan their bosses had so carefully crafted over multiple years.

Neither of them had been present for the catastrophe since they worked for Rook and had been part of the team that was distracting the Alliance Police, but they had heard more than enough from talking with Clarien’s suburbanites about how far things had gone off the rails.

“The woman is about to leave for her job.” Janson said, relaying the information he had received from the long-range listening device he was using.

“Got it. You keep an eye on the guy then. I’ll head out and trail her.”

Dario then began packing up some of his equipment and prepared to head out.

“I don’t understand why we’re going through all of this trouble to watch them so carefully. They’re just two normal people. It would be easy enough to just grab them on the street somewhere.”

“What we think doesn’t matter. The bosses want to be careful and monitor their daily behavior for long enough to know their patterns before making a move. That’s our job so we’ll do what we’re told even if it means crawling through a sewer. Now I’m out, don’t slack off while I’m gone.” Dario said before opening the single room apartment’s door and leaving.

After waiting a few minutes to make sure that his partner was truly gone and was not going to return for anything, Janson pulled out his terminal and immediately began watching a show he had recently gotten into.

He did not believe that there was any real reason to watch every movement and listen to each word the people they were monitoring said.

Despite this just being their second day, he already had them pegged as average colonists that were wholly uninteresting.

There was no reason to be so on guard the entire time. He had set the listening and record programs to give him an alert if any key words were said or any specific movements were detected.

For hours the man that Jason was keeping track of did not do much of anything.

Most of the time he was just sitting around in front of a computer, and the most interesting thing he did was some physical therapy exercises.

“It’s like I thought. Even if their son’s some hotshot mercenary, these people are the definition of ordinary. It wouldn’t take us half a day to set up an execute an abduction and be done with all this quickly.” Janson grumbled as he looked up from his terminal for a moment.

Yet, as he was about to turn his attention back to his show, the thermal imaging being displayed on a screen to his left showed that another person was waiting outside of the door of the targets’ apartment.

Snapping to attention, Janson focused in on this new person, who was likely a visitor.

They were far taller than the average human, and judging by their slightly colder body temperature, they seemed to be of a different species.

“Looks like they’re a half bahnen from this reading.”

Janson carefully watched the situation for a few minutes, but when he determined that the person that had just shown up was a guest of the man in the apartment, he lost interest quickly.

It seemed that the two of them were just meeting to share a drink together and talk about the local sports teams. Nothing of interest to Janson.

However, had he been watching carefully, he might have noticed the guest turning in his direction for just a moment and his equipment blipping for just a second.

From then on, for several hours, the two men appear to just be sitting at the table, occasionally moving slightly and only talking about mundane matters.

At some point, Janson lost interest completely and did not even glance up from his terminal for hours.

Eventually though, he was surprised when the door to the room he was in slid open.

Dario had been periodically updating him on where he was and what the woman was doing. So as far as Janson knew, his partner should have still been out.

At first, he thought that Dario had come back secretly to check on him and make sure he was working diligently.

Naturally, Janson had been goofing around instead, and as he turned around, he was already preparing an excuse.

“You’re back earlier than I was excepting. I had just pulled out my terminal to che-”

Except, the words got caught in Janson’s throat when he finally finished turning around and saw the person standing in the doorway.

It certainly was not his partner and was instead the half bahnen that should have still been over at the targets’ apartment so far as Janson knew.

Instantly he reached for the laser pistol at his waist and drew it with practiced swiftness.

But before he could pull the trigger, the man had rushed into the room grabbed ahold of his gun.

With his large hands, the half bahnen crushed the weapon like it was made of paper mâché.

“F*ck!” Janson yelled as he jumped back and pulled out a knife.

He swung quickly and with deadly precision, yet before he was able to slice into flesh, he felt a heavy impact against his torso as he was kicked against a wall.

“This is some pretty nice stuff that you’ve got here. Now why don’t you tell me why someone like you is watching my friend Robert?”

“Like hell I will!”

Janson attempted to send out an emergency signal with his terminal, but the intruder was not about to let him try anything.

The instant he moved to grab the device, it and his hand were vaporized by a red flash of light from a laser pistol.