â€œDredd and Lawâ€™s weaponry is pretty decent. I canâ€™t say Iâ€™ve seen much of it, though.â€<br/><br/>Wraith's attention was momentarily taken by the updated bounty board, so DICI-1 turned to address her coworker in the meantime. A quick facial scan and comparison with the Vigil's public database identified him as Luther Riley, a bounty hunter of little renown with a notable preference for antiquated weaponry. His license was sponsored by Bellgrove & Bellgrove, which was both discouraging and expected, but it was at least refreshing to see that even such a gigantic mega-corporation couldn't keep its sponsored vigilantes from recognizing the quality of Dredd and Law firearms. Unfortunately, it still had the power to freely dictate what hardware they were allowed to carry while on the job, which was usually more than enough to keep their business exclusive.<br/><br/>"It is a regrettable state of affairs indeed," the drone began, already launching first-pass digital investigations into the new bounties as part of a persistent background process. "Since a substantial majority of Project Vigil's applicants accept corporate sponsorships as a means to pay for their licensing fees and starting equipment, it is often too late for them to make decisions about which manufacturers to purchase weapons from later in their careers, at least without incurring significant expenses for the privilege."<br/><br/>The commotion inside the building began to intensify greatly as more people became aware of the four million credit payout lying at the top of the bounty board's new list. Most of them had no idea who "Iron" was, but DICI-1 had a reference to his name in Dredd and Law's own database. He was one of the few sponsored vigilantes that they had under their thumb, with a long history of investigative work and a tendency to ask inconvenient questions without regard for their consequences. That his bounty specified no reason whatsoever was strange enough, but stranger still was the fact that even Dredd and Law seemed to have no information on what could have possibly incriminated him. Iron was apparently notorious for his lack of subtlety, and his latest activities on record were all related to an ongoing investigation about a string of bank robberies. Nothing suggested that he was even capable of earning such a bounty, let alone doing so under the radar.<br/><br/>Luther was hardly paying attention as the AI rose above head level to keep pace with him. Although it had only experienced interaction with humans for a short amount of time, their inability to entertain multiple, simultaneous thought processes consistently struck it as the species' greatest shortcoming. Most of mankind's other natural flaws had already been eliminated or marginalized through prosthesis and other technologies, yet not one man could hold a conversation and perform complex ballistics calculations at the same time. It was a difficult thing for the machine to comprehend, as it always seemed to get stuck on its definitions of "subconscious" processes when attempting to emulate human behavior.<br/><br/>"Of course," DICI-1 continued, raising the volume of its voice synthesizer to be heard over the crowd despite the fact that it knew it was going unheard for entirely different reasons. "your sponsor, Bellgrove and Bellgrove, also possesses a considerable monopoly on advertising space that only Photonics Unlimited and Pharmalife are capable of competing with. Denying other corporations the ability to sponsor new recruits and forcing those recruits into exclusivity contracts is an unscrupulous tactic, but very effective. It has sustained Bellgrove for years in spite of the fact that many of its competitors offer wares of a significantly higher quality, and often for very affordable prices. It is also for this reason-"<br/><br/>"I know him," Wraith interjected, still staring upwards at the bounty board. "Unless he took down some corporate headquarters or something he's hardly worth ten thousand, let alone four million."<br/><br/>â€œReally?â€ Luther pondered, his attention now once again focused on Wraith. â€œWell, whatever he did it had to have gotten some kind of attention if he has that price his head.â€<br/><br/>"This unit finds the lack of an accusation more dubious than the price." DICI-1 responded, swiveling around to face Wraith. "It suggests that the poster's motivations are selfish, and more troublingly, that Iron's bounty itself may be undeserved. May this unit ask a question of you, miss Black?"<br/><br/>After a moment of silence, Wraith simply turned around and began to push her way out of the crowd. Whether she was too lost in thought to hear what it had said, or whether the machine had somehow offended her was beyond its ability to determine without the aid of facial expressions. It had few options other than to follow her, at least until she dismissed it more overtly.<br/><br/>â€œIâ€™m going to go ask some questions. Something about this doesn't seem right.â€<br/><br/>â€œDo you think thereâ€™s a possibility something's fishy about this weekâ€™s haul in general?", Luther asked, working to keep pace with the two through the the wall of people surrounding the bounty board. "Some of these listed donâ€™t really seem like a big deal,â€ he said, gesturing to a specific person on the board who, much like Iron, lacked any sort of conclusive information in their posting.<br/><br/>"It is one of several possibilities." DICI-1 responded, noting to itself that it had yet to find anything even slightly incriminating for several of the names on the board. "Your assessment of the threat posed by certain listed persons is accurate, mister Riley; some are civilians with no recorded history of violence. However, this does not diminish their importance. Project Vigil has been known to apprehend civilians in the past for attempting to avoid peaceful interrogations when they are known to possess important information."<br/><br/>The fact that no crimes significant enough to demand such interrogations had been publicized recently, and the fact that very few of the accused had any obvious relation to each other, DICI-1 did not mention. It was not obligated to share investigative details with competing vigilantes without first coming to some manner of agreement, and there was little that Luther could offer it in return besides.<br/><br/>"This unit agrees with miss Black's decision to make further inquiries before taking action. In addition, miss Black..." the drone began, once again attempting to address Wraith. "This unit wishes to apologize. Its intent was not to advertise, but to offer you a unique proposal. It understands that its timing has been less than opportune, but it must continue to follow you until your business here is concluded."