Chapter 353: New Locations.
Though he said that as if it was going to take a while, Dante had a feeling that the boy would be done by next week. He was a genius, after all.
"Still, don’t really have to worry about those connections," Dante said. "We have already gathered all the info we can gather from those places."
Dante left Volcan to do most of the watching and only ever looked at clips his resident AI believed contained crucial information. In his opinion, there was no need to keep watching the gangsters at all times now that they had seen all there was to see.
"You’re right..." Finn nodded. "We need to find new locations."
Dante’ left eye twitched at the suggestion.
"New... locations?"
"Of course. The Daggers control most of New City and Moostone. There are plenty of places where we can gather info." Finn said. "Besides, we didn’t find anything new on Jaguar, and what we already know is likely useless now that they figured out someone was spying on them."
"Damn it..."
As things stood right now, Dante really didn’t want to do anything time-consuming. He had his MLP surgery in a few days, and he wanted to work on his hideout as well.
"I got us a reservation in La Soleil." Said the boy.
"La... what?"
"It’s one of those fancy restaurants in the New City. The Dagger’s upper ranks sometimes use it for meetings, so I thought maybe we can get something if we bug the place."
"That... sounds like a really bad idea..."
The logic was sound, sure, but Dante felt like it would turn out really bad. This time, they weren’t going to deal with street rats or those pushing them around. The upper ranks were something different. People like that had better guards and sharper senses. They were bound to lock onto any oddities in their environment, and with them having just realized there was a Diver among them, they were undoubtedly on guard against anyone who might be out of place.
"Yeah, I get why you would think that," Finn said. "But we won’t get anywhere without taking risks. Besides, I heard the food there is pretty good."
"... you just want the food, don’t you?"
"Ah..."
It was as clear as Day. If they wanted to bug the place, they only needed to infiltrate it using the Scorpio-Bots. In fact, it would be even more difficult to spread the tiny robots from the inside, so they no good reason to try and infiltrate the place.
"The place has a dress code, right?" Dante said. "We would draw way too much attention."
Two teenagers going to eat at a fancy restaurant wasn’t something people would forget easily. Add to that the likelihood of the Daggers having people there and it would be like asking to be caught.
"But..."
For a genius, Finn tended to come up with stupid ideas way too often. Apparently, he had been looking forward to the chance to eat at this particular restaurant, and having it shut down pushed his mood into the gutter.
Dante couldn’t care less, of course. Avoiding potential Danger was his top priority at the moment. Still, he would be lying if he said he didn’t like the idea of dining at a fancy restaurant. It has been years since he last ate at a place that required reservations, so he was tempted to splurge a little.
"Forward me the details." He said.
Finn’s expression lit up, and he quickly sent him a message with everything about the reservation. Apparently, the boy had made it months ago, even before the two of them met.
"Were you planning on going there on your own?"
"Well... I thought I could just pretend that no one showed up..."
The reservation was for a private, family-size room. Dante guessed that the staff could be tricked into thinking that all other guests didn’t show up, but that would only draw more attention.
"Let me talk to some people."
The first one he contacted was Viktor. The fixer saw through everything right away and berated Dante for going along with such a plan, but he didn’t tell them to drop it. Unfortunately, he didn’t accept their invitation, saying he needed rest now that he was back from his trip.
Next on the list was someone who would never refuse a dinner invitation. Boris accepted immediately, and even offered to bring a car worthy of such an outing.
Having the big guy around was sure to draw attention away from them, but Dante believed they needed more. That’s when he got the idea.
[Dante: Old hag, wanna get some dinner with me tonight?
Nobara: Why in the world are you asking ME out!!!?]
Though he was purposefully misleading at first, Dante then explained what he had in mind and managed to convince her to join them. He then got her to convince Suzuka, and that led to Kizuna coming along as well.
With that, they had a group of six people. With an old lady and two cute girls with them, not to mention an over-over sized whale, no one would pay any mind to two inconspicuous guys, even if one of them had bright red hair.
"By the way." Done talking about everything with the others, Dante turned to the boy. "You have something to wear, right?"
"Well..." Finn averted his gaze. "I was planning on getting something..."
"Seriously?"
As expected, a kid who used to live in a basement would find it difficult to get service in one of the more expensive shops. Recalling that he no longer had any of his old suits, Dante decided that it might be a good idea to get something for himself as well, so after a quick online search, Dante found a store he was familiar with and made the right preparations.
"Alright," He said. "Let’s get going."
"Where?" Finn asked.
"To get you something decent to wear."
A quick train ride took them to the City Center. Dante hadn’t been there since he fought the invisible ninjas near the city hall. The place no longer had any trace of the riots from a while back, and as usual, it had a much higher police presence. It had regained the calm and prestige one would expect from the more affluent parts of the city, and most of that could be attributed to one particular Genome moving into the neighborhood.
As they walked to their destination, Dante stopped to look at one of the tall buildings nearby, staring at the flaming shield hanging on it. After a long pause, he tore his gaze and continued on with his business.