"You guessed right, Ace. Marcus is being kept on the 95th floor of the local C.I.B. branch headquarters. His security consists of strictly Sky-tiers led by a Void-tier. The last time I had such tight security was when our 35th president wanted me to build his wife a villa on a private island near the frozen north. Or was he the 37th president? Either way, that was a fun winter," Dee3 informed, but midway through the report she got sidetracked reminiscing her adventurous past.
"That means he is being guarded by at least two Void-tier," I muttered, counting the Void-tier Curse Master Atticus guarding the prison underneath the local C.I.B. branch headquarters. Though the last time I ran into Atticus, he seemed uninterested and barely interfered with the Sarmasa cult’s attack, but this time stakes were a lot bigger, it had the potential to change the entire curse community as we know it now. If his interest was threatened, he would act. "Damn it!"
"If you put it that way, it would be more accurate to say he is being guarded by an entire C.I.B. branch. Honestly, I didn’t know a curse caster’s innate curse tool was worth so much. Now I was feeling a lot worse about blabbing that I knew a source to find one," Dee3 confessed the guilt she was feeling while continuing to dig deeper in hopes of finding something damning that would rekindle her interest in this.
"It isn’t just a curse caster’s innate curse tool. It’s a Sky-tier curse caster’s innate curse tool. I don’t have to tell you how rare that is. What I can’t believe is that a terrorist— no, a foreign organization could afford to use one as a discardable pawn. Even our country can’t afford to be so prodigal. Things make me wonder if our country is still holding hegemony in the mortal world’s curse community," I remarked, expressing my disbelief over a foreign organization capable of using Sky-tier curse casters as disposables.
I corrected myself, calling the organization responsible for the attack on me today as a foreign organization instead of a terrorist organization because, if C.I.B. were to conduct an unauthorized operation in a foreign land, I bet the natives would also call them a terrorist organization.
I wasn’t being sensitive. I was being realistic. If anyone were to ask if I was attacked by a terrorist organization, then I would definitely answer them with a resounding yes. Because that will help me. But I need to be able to differentiate between the propaganda and the reality. After all, there was no good or bad in this world, just interest. If one didn’t understand this, you uses them if you could. If not, you stays as far as possible from that ticking time bomb.
"This is interesting," Dee3 suddenly murmured, catching my attention, "What is it?"
"Did you know that Agent Marcus’s real name is Kevin Klempner? There is actually a funny story to how he got the code name Agent Marcus," Dee3 replied, going through a complaint Kevin Klempner had filed with the HR as a young C.I.B. agent, that she found during a deep search.
"Did you ever wonder why Agent Marcus’s code name is actually a name and not a combination of words describing his abilities or personality like the code names of every other agent? Apparently, his department head’s plumber was called Marcus, so he gave Klempner the code name Agent Marcus. Funny, isn’t?" Dee3 asked, only to find the boy nodded, forcing a smile on his face with a confused look in his eyes.
Dee3 squinted her eyes and then immediately said, "You know that Agent Marcus’s innate curse tool is a cursed pipe wrench, right?"
"Yes, a pipe wrench is used by plumbers. I get it now," I lied, finding the tidbit not the least bit amusing. My mind was instead focused on how I’d get past the two Void-tier guards to reach Agent Marcus and retrieve the curse caster’s innate cursed tool. Yep, in my mind, the curse caster’s innate curse tool was already mine. It was only a matter of how I would get it.
"No, that’s not it. You see Agent Marcus’s pipe wrench innate curse tool allows him to travel through water pipes of any water supply and drainage system regardless of how narrow or wide the pipes of the systems were, including but not limited to the natural water supply system like rivers, creeks, or even the underground water channels.
"That is how he was able to escape from the curse terrorists that sacrificed his partner for a curse spell. Under the cover of explosion, he made use of his innate curse tool’s ability to access the underground water channel directly beneath the mountain. However, his seemingly overpowered ability has a minor shortcoming when it comes to navigation.
"It’s not a problem when traveling through the manmade water supply and drainage system or even rivers and creeks thanks to his curse senses. But his curse sense’s range was too small to help him when traveling through the underground water channel. Therefore, he only travels through them when there is absolutely no other choice. Honestly, he was very lucky this time around.
"If he somehow manages to solve the navigation problem when traveling through the paleochannels, he will make a killing by mining the precious and rare natural resources down there. It truly would open him to a whole new set of possibilities, what a pity, it’s easier said than done," Dee3 began with explaining why Agent Marcus’s origin story was funny but midway she got side-tracked with the possibilities of his innate curse tool’s abilities.
"Yep, it is a funny story, but your delivery wasn’t helpful. However, that’s an interesting curse ability. Even with its flaws, it shows huge promise. No wonder Matthews saw him as a threat to her ambitions in C.I.B.—" I was genuinely intrigued. Agent Marcus’s curse ability made all the world’s water supply and drainage systems his personal pneumatic tube systems—a personal water park, even.
Dee3 interrupted me suddenly, uttering, "I think I found something you could use."