Chapter 97: Short by Ten

"G36 here, Commander. Group Three is in position. No suspicious activity outside the target building," G36's voice echoed through Reno's earpiece as she stood near the brightly lit headquarters of the Doll Rights Association.

He'd checked with the guards earlier. No vehicles had left the city from the northern gate since the theft of Griffin's Dolls, and Sangvis Ferri reported no suspicious individuals entering or exiting through the southwest gate.

The entrances to the civilian areas, according to Victor's intel, showed no signs of movement either.

Though the reliability of these sources was questionable, Reno pressed on in his pursuit of Poryushkin and his associates.

While it wasn't definitive, the fact remained that the only communication requests originated from the Doll Rights Protection Association.

Someone here, or perhaps one of them, had contacted Poryushkin.

MDR's scans of the building revealed an underground area resembling a prison, with several Doll objects lying motionless inside. Yet, the life-sensing devices showed no response from them. They were either Doll wreckage or human corpses, certainly not figurines.

In this day and age, nobody would opt for non-lifelike figurines when lifelike Dolls were available, unless someone had a peculiar fetish.

His objective now was clear: apprehend everyone in the building and extract information about Poryushkin's whereabouts.

Reno leaned towards the belief that Poryushkin was still within the city, especially after his remote dispersal of the virus in Griffin's 939 base city.

After all, he'd destroyed the city's communication tower, allowing control of the illegal Doll models via communication vehicles.

Though now all the Dolls under his command were illegal.

But none of this mattered. What mattered was that they hadn't found anything resembling a communication vehicle near the Doll Rights Protection Association building. Apart from a short-range communication station, there were no high-power signal transmitters.

"P38, along with Vector, launch tear gas grenades into the building. MDR, cut off the main power supply. Move!"

Boom!

As soon as Reno gave the order, the sound of AGS-30 grenade launchers firing erupted!

P38 and Vector, stationed in front and behind the building respectively, unloaded the entire 30-round drum of 30mm tear gas grenades made by Reno through the windows into different rooms.

The sound of glass shattering was drowned out by the firing of grenade launchers. Within the building, screams and cries followed!

"Ahh! My eyes! Cough! Cough!"

The panicked crowd inside stumbled out of the doors or ground-level windows, only to be struck unconscious before they could take a breath of fresh air.

With a bundle of ropes in hand, Reno calmly knocked out those who fled, immediately binding them and handing them over to Nagant and MG3 for custody.

Within five minutes, most of the people inside the building had been securely bound by Reno and placed in the Doll Rights Protection Association's lobby.

Those remaining on the second floor were also individually found by Reno and brought down to the lobby.

"Count the number of people."

"Commander, there are only forty-six people in total, ten fewer than during the day," MG3, responsible for transporting the captives, had already counted the numbers. Upon Reno's inquiry, they reported to him promptly.

Ten fewer people meant there were remnants still outside. Though their exact intentions were unclear, it was certainly not good news for them.

"Understood. CF05, together with SPAS-12, go to the basement and retrieve those unidentified Dolls. Let's see if they're Griffin's Dolls."

"Roger."

"M1911, fetch some water to wake these folks up."

As Reno spoke, MDR, who had gone to cut off the building's power earlier, returned with a small communication device similar to Griffin's communicator.

Clearly, these folks also knew the city's communication tower wasn't reliable. Once it went down, they could use this short-range communicator to contact their rescuers.

As for why the security bureau's agents weren't equipped with such devices? Because a communication tower was only a few hundred meters away. Unless it was destroyed, it would take only a few minutes for communication to be restored. Why bother with an additional communicator?

Was it a waste of money?

Moreover, the security bureau's operations in the city had never been exposed, so no one had anticipated that their communication point would also be compromised.

Splash!

A whole bucket of cold water poured over the Association members, catching the unconscious folks off guard and jolting them awake.

However, as they regained consciousness, they realized they were tightly bound. The cold night air, coupled with the drenching from the water, caused them to shiver involuntarily.

Especially under the dim emergency lights, seeing themselves surrounded by towering, red-eyed figures was enough to frighten some into leaking out cries.

"Ahh!"

"Waaah!"

Amidst the screams and wails, some remained calm, refraining from shouting despite their predicament. Instead, they struggled to sit up, looking at Reno in front of them and asking,

"Who are you people!? What do you want with us!?"

"Good question. This is just a minor private matter. Of course, if none of you are involved, that is," Reno replied. If not? Well, then, apologies were in order.

"A private matter? Is it seeking revenge!?" The calm man's heart skipped a beat upon hearing Reno's words.

If it was indeed revenge, it was quite likely. After all, the Doll Rights Protection Association wasn't exactly a beloved organization.

There were countless people in the world who detested them, especially those employers whose Dolls had been rescued by them from abuse.