“The cock and ball raiders have been trying to get a hold of the technology in the Allco R&D for a long time. I presume this was the reason that their leader took a sudden interest in you. The technology you’re using likely has reminded him of technology he has seen at the Allco R&D.” Jacques stated.

“Tell me something I don’t already know,” I responded with a flat voice.

I met him in the smashed-out bottom of the building that was once a car garage, the same place where I had met with Red during our negotiations. There was still a table and chairs there, and more importantly, since it was the primary entrance into the Ascension headquarters, there was also a turret. If Jacques wanted to try anything here, Cecelia would pump him full of so much lead even if he survived the holes, lead poisoning would certainly get him.

“Alright, then do you know that the entire reason they were able to build themselves up as one of the tope raider clans was because of the find. Marsh was a three-man team when he first entered that building. His two brothers died in the attempt to take the building over from security, and he was the one who survived. Afterward, he managed to find enough supplies and resources that raiders flocked to him. He named the group Cock and Balls after the names of his teammates.”

“The raider’s names were Cock, Marsh, and Balls? Nope, never mind, that sounds kind of normal for these parts.”

Whether it was Red, Raven, Hunter, Feather, or Husk, they all seemed to have very simplistic names. As for last names, few people kept them. Last names implied families, and whether it was raiders or Wastelanders, it was safer to keep yourself unattached to anything that could be gone in the next moment. Last names were something colonists had, and most colonists who were out in the wasteland wouldn’t give their last name, because that was just one more thing that would identify them as vulnerable colonists.

“It’s not a place you’re going to be able to get into on your own. Marsh had the entire place locked down. There is a ten-foot solid concrete wall surrounding the entire compound. On the inside of the wall is the main Cock and Balls camp. It’s guarded by a hundred raiders who have nothing to lose and everything to prove. However, that’s not even the hard part.”

“What’s the hard part?”

“There is a strict hierarchy to the Cock and Balls. Those on the outside are called initiates. They are the errand boys for the camp, and they get all of the dangerous jobs. They are the drugged-up and the stupid. The core members, though, have some skill. You have to prove yourself before you’re even allowed in the building. Cock and Ball’s true members reside on the first floor. The second floor is reserved for elites. These are Marsh’s trusted lieutenants. As for the third floor, no one knows what is up there except for Marsh, even those that have been up there.”

“What?”

“Marsh will occasionally bring one of his elites up there. I’ve captured one once and questioned him. I did it in a way where I was pretty confident he wasn’t lying. He does not remember what was on the third floor. All I got out of him before he died was that shortly after Marsh invited him up there, he suddenly started to know things he couldn’t remember learning.”

“What is that?”

“You haven’t met any of the elites. They are Marsh’s aces, and they are strong enough that he remains one of the most dangerous raider clans. They are extremely strong. I once heard that the military pre-war had unique teams of skilled individuals, a cut above the standard soldier. These elites would be on that level. Considering they should just be drugged-up fiends, it makes you wonder what he’s doing to them up there.” Jacques sighed. “I think he’s giving them some kind of experimental Allco drug. The one I captured was a real bitch. I managed to drug her and she still put up a fight for ten minutes and even knocked out two of my men.”

I shook my head as I continued to listen to him go on. “What about teleportation? Transporting? Anything about a mirror?”

“Huh?”

“The technology!”

“I only know that he brings trusted people up, and they come back even more capable.” He shrugged. “If he manages to successfully hack any other technology, he’ll only grow more powerful. Thankfully, he’s far too distrustful, even of his men, to allow anyone else to help him hack the tech. However, the Syndicate wouldn’t care about that. If they learn that he’s sitting on a tech mine, they will stop at nothing to take it.”

“Alright…” I responded, lifting my hands. “You’ve caught my interest. What is your plan?”

“The thing Cock and Ball needs the most is food. Whatever he found at the R&D lab, didn’t make acquiring food in the wasteland any easier. That said, he’s always eager to bring in new initiates. He uses them as fodder. As long as they pay him a tribute of food every month, he lets them into his compound. As it turns out, I happened to intercept an invite for an initiative drive.”

He reached into his coat and pulled out a small chip which he placed on the table. It was a small thing shaped like a quarter but much thicker with a red glowing light in the middle. It looked more like a tracking device to me.

“Cecelia?” I whispered into my Perco while pretending I was picking it up.

“The device doesn’t give off a trackable signal. It’s just an RFID for identification purposes. The information is locked to a raider group who are not you two, but from this, I can change the data easily enough.” Cecelia’s voice didn’t come out loud but spoke in my ear where I still had my Bluetooth headset, and thus Jacques couldn’t hear my conversation.

I wondered if Jacques knew that the identity was locked to whoever he stole it from. No, he was a planned type. Even now, he was watching me carefully, all while acting like he wasn’t. He wanted me to point this fact out. I put the ID back down without commenting on it. His lips twisted slightly.

“The plan is rather simple. You, me, and my team infiltrate their ranks as a small raiding party looking to rise in the Cock and Balls gang. You use your sources to bring food, and contributions will quickly cause us to gain the trust of the clan. Once we’re full-fledged members and allowed into the building, we’ll plan our attack. My people take care of the elites, you take care of any security restrictions, and we’ll escape with whatever technology we can snatch before Marsh even realizes he was hoodwinked.”

I started to shake my head. “He’s seen my food. He’ll recognize it.”

“We’ll just have to make it unrecognizable. It’s not too difficult to get empty containers and fill them with whatever you bring. Leave them out a day so they go stale, or smear them in mud. Are you telling me you can’t come up with food of lower quality?”

I opened my mouth and closed it again. I had already been purchasing the lowest quality food I could find. Most of the things I bought were purchased for pennies. Mizuki may have filled the warehouse several times and was worrying about profits, but the food she was buying was purchased through her suppliers. Very little had been spent so far. The crates were already the cheap stuff, beans, and vegetables in cans that would go for a few quarters. The most expensive thing was the custom labeling.

“What about you then?” I asked instead.

“What about me?”

“You want to just walk off with the technology?”

“We’ll do a typical cut. 50/50. Anything that can be replicated, like recipes or codecs, will be sold to the highest bidder, and then we split it.”

“What if I’m the highest bidder?” I asked.

He blinked. “Ah, right, I suppose you might want to keep some of those items for yourself and not exchange them for profit, huh? Well, we’ll just decide on the value when the time comes. I won’t sell any secrets that we don’t both agree on.”

“How can I trust that? Any technology we get would be something you’d have over my head?”

“Daniel, if we’re going to work together, you’ll have to give me a little bit of trust,” Jacques spoke helplessly.

“That’s rich coming from you.” I shot back.

“Master, you should accept the deal.” Cecelia’s voice spoke up suddenly.

“You’ll just have to take my word that the profits are enough that I wouldn’t betray you. You could betray me too at any time. You’re a merchant, so anything I tried to cell you could cut out from under me, or sell to the competitor of whoever I sold the technology to, which would put me in a difficult place, as you can imagine.”

Jacques was still speaking, but I was more focused on what Cecelia was saying in the earpiece. “Go on…”

Jacques thought I was speaking to him, and he started to explain just how much wealth was at stake. The technology could change the course of the wasteland. It was a major game-changer. However, my ears were on Cecelia.

“I’ve been running simulations regarding the Master code. While I can’t personally execute it, there may be ways to insert it into other codecs. In other words, any technology that Jacques distributed could be sabotaged with the Master code integrated into it. Any attempt to build or use the technology would pass on the Master code, meaning that any technology sold would acknowledge you as the Master.”

“I see…” I spoke up, cutting Jacques off. “I guess we have an agreement then.”

Even if Jacques ended up screwing me over, I’d have the last laugh as he gave me control over someone else’s technology.