The Mech Touch novel Chapter 524

Ves conveyed his suspicions about a traitor among the Vandals to Major Verle after the latter accepted his request for a private conversation. Privacy screens enveloped them both as they talked among themselves.

The mech commander didn’t look pleased. "Even I can figure that out Mr. Larkinson, but what will that help? My ships and mechs are surrounded by mines and it will take hours for us to disentangle from them! If your solution doesn’t help us get out faster, it’s not worth my time!"

"Sir, we already inferred there is at least one Imodris stealth ship in the vicinity that is directing the minefield. What if the traitor in our midst is transmitting our telemetry to them? I want to find this traitor not to shut him up, but to piggyback on his signal to the enemy presence. Once we know the approximate coordinates of the enemy ship, we have more options available to us."

Ves actually didn’t know how useful that information would be, but Major Verle definitely took note. "I’m intrigued, but I can’t allocate any personnel to search for the traitor. You can be assured that our quantum entanglement nodes are locked down, so those who are attempting to transmit something will have to resort to regular methods."

The major basically foisted this task on his lap without any further help. Ves was only willing do pursue this matter because he didn’t have anything else to do. Trying to crack the mines was impossible, while the enemy hadn’t shown off any mechs for him to analyze.

Ves did keep one eye on the status of each mech designer in the task force. So far, they all remained at their stations and on standby. No mechs sustained any damage so far, and the most complicated operations the mech technicians had to perform was to replenish supplies.

They could do without his supervision. In any case, they wouldn’t try to pull anything off while Imodris aimed to kill them all. With their survival at stake, the mech designers definitely did their best.

At least he thought so. "Could one of our mech designers be the traitor?"

The possibility was real. If they worked for the enemy, they could do a lot of damage. Their position enabled them access to many mechs, all of which they could tamper in various ways. They also possessed the technical acumen to screw around with computer systems, thereby installing some sort of backdoor through which they could transmit hidden signals to an unknown receiver.

After some thought, he eventually ruled it out. First, the Mech Corps already screened everyone’s identities, and even if the Vandals got the dregs, they still passed at least a minimal security check. Secondly, mech designers never worked in isolation. All of their actions received scrutiny, whether it was from the everpresent security surveillance or from the mech technicians that received their instructions from them. A mech designer almost never worked alone.

Still, that didn’t rule out mech designers entirely as a risk. Since they fell under his responsibility, Ves checked them out one by one. He pulled up live feeds that watched over the mech designers and skimmed them over, looking for any signs that seemed suspicious.

Though he eventually found a handful of figures who attempted to do some shady activities, Ves tentatively ruled out the possibility that they passed on information to someone else.

"Too many of them are working alongside the mech technicians."

He took a step back and regarded the Flagrant Vandals as a whole. If Ves wanted to put a traitor with the Vandals, who should he pick?

"Mech pilots are under too much scrutiny. It should be a ship crewmember of some sorts. Not enlisted personnel, since they often worked alongside their colleagues. It’s more likely that the culprit is an officer. Perhaps a communications officer or a sensor officer."

Major Verle at least handed him a temporary boon that allowed him access to the task force’s entire surveillance system. If Ves wished the Vandals ill, he could do a lot of damage with this expanded access.

Perhaps the only reason why Major Verle expanded his access privileges was because they occupied the same compartment. The mech officer would always be able to keep an eye on his actions while Ves did the heavy lifting.

Ves shrugged at that. They all shared the same goal in the end, and that was to make it out of this trap alive and free.

He began to scour through the feeds depicting the communications and sensor officers with a very wide sweep. He projected dozens of feeds in a grid and ran the footage simultaneously. He strained his enhanced mind to cope with the sheer amount of multitasking needed to interpret the footage.

"Nobody?"

None of the people looked suspicious. They all did their jobs with varying levels of enthusiasm, but Ves didn’t care about that. Though there were many ways in which someone could hide something dastardly in front of someone’s eyes, Ves wouldn’t be able to tell. He didn’t specialize in sniffing out deception. He only investigated these Vandals on a hunch.

"So it’s not the officers, and looking through the enlisted spacers takes too much time."

Where did the traitor hide, presuming that the traitor even existed in the first place. This could all be a suspicion borne out of his habitual paranoia. Only a vague sense of intuition pushed him to continue his search. He thought it would be worthwhile to go through with his investigation. Even if he couldn’t achieve anything else, he would feel better if he verified the trustworthiness of every Vandals.

After ruling out certain officers, Ves shifted his mind onto a different track. "What if it’s not the ship officers at all? Many of our mech pilots come from shady or troubled backgrounds. Who’s to say that they are all repentant and sincere in their time with the Vandals.

Questioning the loyalty of mech pilots was an exceedingly contentious issue. Nobody wanted to be foisted with a baseless accusation of being a traitor, and mech pilots often lashed out with physical violence.