Chapter 315: Chapter 279: Special Security Team

Before the crack of dawn, Brooke, Captain of the Seventh Brigade of the Security Department, returned to headquarters after another fruitless all-night search.

He had intended to continue the search, but the area had expanded. He needed more manpower, and with his terminal still without a signal, he had no choice but to return to the department to report.

He still wasn’t sure if the culprit actually had a female in their possession. The matter had wide-reaching implications, and his superiors had ordered him to keep it quiet. He was to report any developments personally.

Hurrying into the building, Brooke brushed the snow from his shoulders and checked his terminal—still no signal.

The network had been down for over a day. It wasn’t just the headquarters building; it seemed all of Zone 15 was offline.

Brooke stopped in his tracks, an increasingly strange feeling creeping over him.

His terminal had lost its signal ever since the unexplained fight the night before last. ’Could the unidentified criminal his superiors warned him about have done something to cover up the fact they have a female, or something else entirely?’

He had a feeling this wasn’t as simple as it looked.

Although Zone 15 had only recently been promoted from a Lower District to a Central District, its security and armament levels were on par with those of the Upper Districts. Security had been especially tight lately. ’What criminal organization could be so powerful as to knock out the communications for the entire zone without anyone noticing?’

He had a nagging suspicion that the loss of signal was connected to the case he was handling. With a grim expression, he got into the elevator and headed for his superior’s office.

The elevator rose to the ninth floor. Brooke stepped out, walked straight ahead, and turned right into a wide corridor.

The offices on both sides of the corridor had glass walls, offering a clear view of the work happening inside.

At this hour, only a few Beastmen were on duty. With the onset of winter, that number was even smaller.

But lately, between the incident in Zone 19, the intel about a criminal infiltrating Zone 15, and the case he was currently handling, his superior had practically been living at headquarters. He was always in.

"Sir, we’ve scoured the Central District and still haven’t found them."

"Nothing in the outer zones, either..."

"Keep looking! They must have hidden them somewhere."

The low murmur of conversation reached Brooke’s ears like the buzzing of a fly. He looked toward the sound and saw a group of Beastmen in black combat fatigues gathered at the end of the hall. The lights in the office next to them were on.

Brooke’s brow furrowed slightly when he saw them.

This group of Beastmen wasn’t from the police or the Security Department. They were soldiers from the Third Military District, recently transferred from the Seventeenth District.

Zone 15 had even established a special department for them—the Special Security Team—and handed over security for important checkpoints. For routine street patrols and other inspection duties, they bypassed the Security Department completely.

This had caused considerable dissent within the Security Department, leading to frequent clashes with the Special Security Team.

Their issue wasn’t with the Special Security Team as a department, but with this particular group of soldiers and their barely concealed roguish attitudes.

Many zones had Special Security Teams. Their purpose was to counteract potential abuses of power, negligence, and corruption within various administrative departments, using specially selected Beastmen with Military Department backgrounds to create a balance.

The administrative bodies of the Military Department and the Beast Alliance operated under two separate welfare and security systems, minimizing major conflicts of interest. If one side tried to overstep its bounds, it would be suppressed by the other.

The establishment of the Special Security Team was a lesson learned from Zone 5.

In Zone 5, the Wolf Pack had seized absolute power. They began by infiltrating the Security Department, using the pretext of security checks to throw the zone into chaos. Then, they dismantled any groups that posed a threat and drove them out of Zone 5. As for the rest—those who just wanted to stay out of trouble and keep their heads down—most couldn’t stand the constant searches and eventually left as well.

The Wolf Pack in Zone 5 had perfected the art of ganging up and carving out territory.

With the precedent set by Zone 5, the Beast Alliance and the Military Department conferred and established the Special Security Team, a department directly under the Military Department, to act as a mutual check and balance.

The Security Department’s animosity toward the newly formed Special Security Team had another root cause: they had originally nominated their own candidates. Zone 15 wasn’t short on Beastmen with Military Department backgrounds; many had come from the First Military District and the Second Military Zone and had to pass rigorous training and a multi-layered selection process to qualify for the Special Security Team.

Not long ago, however, the candidates who passed the selection were either transferred away by their military zones or stripped of their qualifications. The Special Security Team had been disbanded before it was even officially formed.

This current batch of Special Security Team members were all new faces. They were arrogant and did as they pleased, often intercepting or obstructing the Security Department’s missions. They showed no respect for Security Department personnel, and their conduct was deeply disliked.

Brooke shot a glance at the Beastmen from the Special Security Team before pushing open his superior’s office door.

The office was dark. His superior—Flynn, the Deputy Director of the Security Department—was dozing off, leaning back in his chair at a cluttered desk.

Brooke tossed a leftover takeout container from the desk into the trash. The noise startled Flynn awake. He jolted, kicking the desk and sending files and trinkets scattering. A glass picture frame teetered on the edge, and Brooke snatched it out of the air before it could fall.

"Hey, can’t you make a sound when you come in? Stop scaring me all the time." Flynn set the cup that had spilled on him back on the desk, grabbed the tissue box, and pulled out a few to dab at the water spots on his pants.

Brooke glanced down at the frame for a moment before setting it back on the desk for him.

"Thank goodness Yuanbao didn’t get smashed." Flynn reached for the frame, carefully wiping the fingerprints off the glass before placing it back in its spot with immense care.

Brooke poured him a fresh glass of water and set it in front of him.

"How’s the investigation coming along?" Flynn asked, shaking off his drowsiness after downing half the glass in one go.

"No progress. I need more authorization," Brooke said.

Flynn laced his fingers behind his head and leaned back in his chair, eyeing him. "What authorization do you need when you have no progress? The most I can do is give you another team. Coincidentally, Team Five is back from their leave."

As he spoke, he pulled out a document, switched on his desk lamp, signed it, and handed it over. "Go get Team Five."

With no signal, terminals were useless for communication. Tasks had to be assigned on paper.

Brooke took the document and glanced at it. "Sir, I need your authorization. I might be able to get some information out of that group."

Flynn said, "What authorization do you need just to ask them a few questions?"

"I need to interrogate them, not just question them," Brooke said. "They have special permits from Zone 3 and a travel pass issued by the Military Department. I can’t touch them without your authorization."

Just as he finished speaking, the group of Special Security Team members walked past the office.

"See?" Flynn jutted his chin toward the arrogant bunch. "Look how easy they have it. No one can control them, they don’t have to follow any procedures. They do whatever they damn well please."

Brooke frowned. "Don’t the higher-ups do anything? Even the Military Department can’t just do as it pleases. The Special Security Team has to follow the rules, too."

Hearing the anger in his voice, Flynn said, "They’re probably new recruits for the Third Military District. Don’t waste your anger on them. Someone will deal with them eventually."

Brooke was confused. "Why would the Third Military District send a group like that over? Aren’t they just shooting themselves in the foot?"

"New recruits" meant that these soldiers had either been thugs or had been locked up for committing crimes. This was a huge difference from the Beastmen who were recruited into the military districts through the proper channels.

Usually, soldiers like that were destined to spend their lives in the military zones, fighting Mutant Species. At most, they might be allowed to return to live in a Lower District, but they would never be allowed to hold any important government or official positions.

Flynn waved his hand dismissively. "The higher-ups are fighting amongst themselves. These guys are just pawns. That way, no matter what trouble they cause, they’re easy to disown. Trading a little bit of face for minimal losses is a good deal for them. Don’t you get involved, or I won’t be in this chair for much longer."

The Director of Security had already made himself scarce, leaving him, the deputy director, to take the heat. He was afraid of being made a target himself.

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