Scene VII: Phantoms of the Waking Day
"Maybe there's a God above,
And all I ever learned from love
Was how to shoot at someone who outdrew you."
--Rufus Wainwright, Hallelujah
Helena had been asleep for at least half an hour against Shinobu's right side when he finally got up the courage to gently place her head back on the headrest behind her and stand up to stretch and use the restroom. Across the shuttle, Hilde and Duo were also asleep. The young pilot, who was so vibrant in waking, was slumped bonelessly against the seat back, exhaustion showing in the lines of his face. Hilde was snuggled up against him, but she looked peaceful. Safe.
He looked down at Helena. Her mouth was slightly open and there were red marks on her cheek from where her face had been pressed up against his shoulder. Wisps of fine blond hair fell across her chin and fluttered in the slight exhale of air from her lips. He almost reached out a finger to brush them away, then realized what he was doing and snatched his hand back, heading to the back of the shuttle, closing the door of the bathroom and leaning against it to stare up at the ceiling.
What was I thinking?
He'd always considered himself a noble person, had tried to be, no matter what his family had said. There was more to life than the scheming and the squabbling and the occasional feuding that went on with the cartel, and that was why he had left L1. Cliffside had been a breath of fresh air, and he would have been content to stay there forever. Compared to the Breaks, the little dramas between students were like heaven to him, and he had vowed never to go back to the Black Diamond. That he would do everything in his power to sever the ties between him and that organization that called itself his family, that he would grow up and go out and make an honest living.
He'd broken his promise when he had asked his grandfather for help.
Granted, Duo had needed that information, and there wasn't any other way he could have gone about getting it, but it burned at him. It was like stooping to a criminal level. He knew his grandfather had been surprised. Their last parting had ended badly, and it had been almost two years since they had spoken, and he knew that his grandfather would ask something of him in return for the information. And he did it anyway, because Duo was his friend, but still, it burned.
And now here he was, having spent a few days close to a pretty girl who he hadn't even really known before all this happened. A pretty girl who happened to be someone else's girlfriend, who was still grieving for the loss of the boy she had loved and who would never look at him in that way, even if he were to tell her. He wasn't even sure when it had happened...perhaps he hadn't even realized it when he'd started thinking of her like this. All he knew was that this was happening too quickly, and it frightened him.
This was even lower than crime...it was like petty thievery. Chronic petty thievery, because he couldn't get her out of his mind.
When he emerged out of the bathroom, he found that Helena was awake, staring out the window at the sunlit clouds out the shuttle porthole, and he sat down by her wordlessly. His stomach did a little flip when she turned to smile at him.
"It's beautiful outside!" she said. The sunlight accented the blue of her eyes and he could barely restrain himself from blurting out something he would regret. Instead, he nodded and looked out the porthole and the scudding clouds beneath.
Footsteps sounded from the cockpit and Sally emerged, looking tired. "We're almost there," she said. "A few more minutes and we'll be over Geneva." Gesturing to Duo and Hilde. "You might want to wake those two up."
"I'm awake," Duo said in a deadpan voice, though his eyes were still closed and he hadn't moved since the shuttle had taken off.
Shinobu expected Sally to say something in response, but she simply turned as if she hadn't heard him and slammed the door to the cockpit. Duo's eyes opened and he stared at the door. "Geez, what's wrong with her?" he wondered.
"It has been a long journey," Shinobu said quietly. "She is maybe tired."
"Definitely tired, you mean," said Duo, reached out a hand to shake Hilde softly awake. "Hil? Hey love, time to get up." Hilde mumbled something and buried her face a little deeper into Duo's chest, making him laugh softly. Shinobu turned away.
Ridiculous...he wasn't jealous of Duo and Hilde. He couldn't be.
A soft hand on his shoulder made him jump. "You ok?" Helena said worriedly.
"Yes," he replied shortly. "Fine."
"Are you sure?"
He allowed himself a nod, then gently shrugged her hand away from him. "We should put on our seatbelts," he said. "We are landing soon."
"That's my man," Duo said, grinning. "Always prepared. So serious. But I guess he's got a deadly side too, huh?" Shinobu made a non-committal grunt, and Duo grinned even wider. "You know," he began, then a spasm crossed his face and he fell silent.
"What?" Hilde wondered groggily, and he patted her absently.
"I was just gonna say that Shin reminds me of someone."
"Who?" Helena said, now interested.
"I forgot," Duo said roughly and pushed himself to his feet. "I gotta go use the bathroom."
As the bathroom door slammed, the three of them looked at each other, and Hilde sighed.
The click of the intercom brought them out of their thoughts, and Sally's voice filtered into the cabin. "We're approaching Geneva. When we drop down out of the clouds in just a moment, you can see the city out the windows. We'll be landing at the Preventers' Base in about ten minutes, so be sure to buckle up. Duo, get out of the bathroom. You've been in there for five minutes."
Helena and Hilde were still snickering when an affronted-looking Duo emerged back out into the cabin, water dripping from his hair and face. "Hey, a guy needs his beauty prep time, you know?"
Shinobu turned to look out the window, feeling the shuttle drop in altitude. As they passed through some clouds, the sunlight vanished for a moment and then reappeared. Beside him, Helena made a little "ooh!" sound of wonder.
"Pretty, isn't it?" Duo said, sounding impressed. "Oh, look! That must be the base."
Shinobu and Helena hurried over to peer out of the portholes on Duo's side of the shuttle. The city of Geneva lay beneath them, not sprawling and obese like most large cities, but surprisingly neat and compact, almost exquisitely refreshing in its layout. Shinobu guessed that the square block located a little off-center, with what looked like a large tower jutting from the middle, was the base.
He knew he was right when the shuttle banked a little to the left and began to descend. Landing pads and buildings came into view, tiny at first and then larger, condensing from square building blocks and pieces of cardboard into large, imposing structures even from the air. They could hear the pilot from inside the cockpit communicating with the radio control tower. The shuttle flew in low and fast, circling once before settling with perfect precision onto the landing pad.
"There sure is a lot of security here," Hilde observed. Shinobu peered out the window again, for the first time registering the light armored vehicles and uniformed personnel that stood armed and silent in a ring around the pad.
The cockpit door slid open again. "This is it," Sally said. "Let me get off first, and when I signal, Duo comes first and the rest of you follow."
"Why me first?" Duo objected, "These guys need to get out of here...it's me that those guys are here for, right?"
"Which is why," Sally said, "they need to see that you're indeed you before any of the others get off. No objections?" Duo opened his mouth but she ignored him. "Good. Don't do anything stupid while I'm out there." The hatch opened and sunlight flooded the compartment, and then it slammed shut again.
Duo blew out a breath. "Mattaku."
Shinobu smiled, then blinked as Duo tapped him on the shoulder. The two girls were absorbed in staring out the window, and he didn't object as the American boy pulled him to one side. He felt something cold and smooth being pressed into his hand, looked down and saw it was a pistol.
"Take this," Duo said in a low voice in Japanese. "It might come in handy."
"You don't trust the Preventers?" Shinobu wondered.
Duo gave a short laugh. "At this point, Shin, I don't trust anyone."
He nodded and tucked the gun into his boot with expert ease, noting the lack of a surprised expression on Duo's face. Obviously, Duo had picked up on the fact that Shinobu was definitely not what he seemed, and he seemed to be fine with that. Shinobu smiled at him reassuringly as they rejoined the girls at the window.
They watched as Sally was greeted by an older man with general's stars on his shoulders. The minutes ticked by and the four inside the shuttle began to lose interest in the proceedings as Sally and the general stood there, apparently having a heated discussion of some sort. Duo yawned, starting to turn away from the window, and Hilde slapped him lightly.
"Pay attention, baka! She'll be calling you out in a minute."
"I hate politics," Duo mumbled, just as the conversation seemed to come to an end and Sally gestured over her shoulder. "I guess that's me."
The hatch slid open and they watched as Duo reappeared outside and walked over to the general, then Shinobu stood and followed him, grabbing his bags.
It was very warm but not hot, a few degrees cooler than it had been the last time Duo had stepped outside in China to look for Wufei, and there was a pleasant breeze. He could hear Duo conversing pleasantly, if a bit shortly, with the general. Sally watched as the three of them came across the landing pad in a huddle, then waved them over.
"This is General Brown," Sally said, gesturing to the tall, white-haired general, who bowed. "General, friends of Duo's. Hilde Schbeiker, Helena Rosenbaum, and Matsuura Shinobu."
Shinobu saw the general arch an eyebrow when she mentioned his name, but there was no other reaction in his face except for a friendly smile. "Pleased to meet you," he said pleasantly. "I get the feeling you'll be seeing a lot of me in the near future."
From the corner of his eye he saw Sally frown at the general's words, but at that moment, Duo jumped in.
"Oi...I'm sure this is nice and all, but didn't you say that the rest of the gang's here? Heero and the rest?" Brown nodded, and Duo crossed his arms in front of him, looking stubborn. "I'd like to see them, before we do anything else."
"I'm afraid that's impossible, at least for the time being," Sally said. "We need to figure out what to do with your Gundams."
Duo set his jaw and Shinobu knew that meant the beginning of a long and exhausting argument, but before the other boy could open his mouth, Hilde crossed over to Duo and touched him lightly on the shoulder. "Sally's right," she said. "This time I'm the one to say it...you need to make sure your Gundam and Wing Zero are safe before you do anything else. We risked so much to get them."
He stared at her for a second, then nodded reluctantly. "Fine." To Sally, "where are we storing them?"
She nodded at General Brown, who offered Duo a sympathetic smile. "It was short notice, but we managed to commission one of the smaller hangars for you. It's classified, of course." He gestured around at the security personnel. "All these people are specialized security maintenance crews who normally work on our state-of-the-art classified projects. They'll be taking care of your Gundams."
"Taking care?" Duo echoed.
Brown nodded. "Well, your Gundams have been neglected on the Colony for more than a year now, so before we store them away, I think it's best we do a maintenance check on them. We need you on hand to help out."
"Maintenance check?" Duo said, now sounding a little stunned and not at all pleased. "But Deathscythe Hell and Wing Zero have been through a lot worse and come out fine...they haven't even been used at all. I'm sure they're-"
"As a precaution," General Brown said. "It's standard procedure here, and you are on a Preventers' Base."
Once again Hilde nudged Duo. "You better do what he says," she whispered.
"How long will this...'maintenance check' take?" he wondered, sounding suspicious.
Sally sighed. "Duo, I swear that your friends are safe and sound on base. It's not a trap. We need these Gundams stored safely away in perfect condition so that they can be activated at a moment's notice. It's not a game anymore, Duo...this is war all over again. You of all people should know and accept that."
"Wing Zero is Heero's Gundam," Duo persisted stubbornly. "Shouldn't he be on hand to supervise it?"
A shadow crossed over Brown's face and he exchanged looks with Sally. "That wouldn't be...advisable right now, I don't think."
"What do you mean?" Duo demanded. But Brown had already gestured to some of the personnel, who were moving towards the shuttle and the cargo compartment in the back. "Hey! I want an answer!"
"Duo!" Sally said sharply. "Show some respect, to him as an elder at least, even if you don't respect his rank!"
But Brown shook his head. "It's all right, Sally. If I were in his place, I would be thinking the exact same thing."
"I doubt it," Duo muttered under his breath, and Hilde elbowed him warningly, then turned to Brown.
"General...if it's all right, I'd like to go with Duo to help check out the Gundams."
"That's a good idea," Sally said. "Brown, take Hilde with you. She could be of help."
Brown nodded and motioned to them. Shinobu watched as the Gundams were lifted out of the cargo hatch by a crane and then transported carefully to flatbed trucks and covered. "All right then. Hopefully this won't take more than a few hours, and then you can go find your friends."
Duo waved a despondent goodbye and climbed into one of the trucks with Hilde tagging along behind him, and the engines roared to life, swinging off the landing pad and onto the road beyond. Shinobu glanced at Sally, who seemed lost in thought, then to Helena, who looked frightened.
"General Po?" he began, but Sally's eyes focused and her head shot up.
"Who's in command here?" she called out to the remaining security troops. One of them stepped forward and saluted.
"I am, ma'am."
"Kindly send two of your troops to escort the young man and young lady to their guest rooms." She fixed Shinobu and Helena with a glance that, while not threatening, was not kind. "You two, under no circumstances are you to reveal why or with whom you came here. You got that?" Helena nodded frantically and Shinobu longed to put an arm around her to calm her. Outwardly, she was calm and composed, but he could tell that she was scared.
He had hoped to catch her alone after they were shown to their rooms, but Helena had bid him a good day, saying that she was tired and needed sleep. The guard that had taken them to their quarters had given them a map of the base, an intercom number to call in case of emergency, and a mealcard and schedule of mealtimes. If they needed anything else, he said, they were to go to the front desk of the building they were in, and someone would help them.
Shinobu took a long-awaited shower and then sat down on the edge of his bed, staring at the curtained window. He had thought that being on a military base would be an adventure, but so far it wasn't turning out to be much of one. Sighing, he slipped his feet into his old tennis shoes and headed outside. They hadn't forbidden him from going anywhere, and he was going to take advantage of the freedom that he had.
Turning left from the front door of the lodging building, he headed down the sidewalk, his thoughts on Sally and Duo. He hadn't known Sally for very long, but even he could tell that her demeanor had shifted suddenly when they had landed. It was as if she was impatient about something, or perhaps worried, the way she had kept throwing glances at Brown. Perhaps she'd gotten new orders that she hadn't told them about?
He almost smacked himself mentally for that thought. Of course she'd most likely gotten orders that they knew nothing about. He and the other members of Cliffside were just civilian teenagers, after all, and military secrets were military secrets. He thought of Duo, thought of the shadows in the violet eyes and the strange fate that had led their paths to cross each other.
It was getting towards late afternoon and he was growing hungry, and according to the map, the dining hall was just a block away. He crossed the street, glancing around him at the base, so clean and new, as if the entire thing was a sculpture made of white stone. Were all military installations like this? he wondered. The design was linear and spare and almost austere, but with an underlying noble beauty. He'd always loved architecture, had even considered it as a career while he was at Cliffside.
He'd never be an architect now, but it was still a fond dream.
Entering the dining hall, Shinobu stuffed the map into his pocket and set about ordering food. The hall was built along the lines of a school cafeteria, so he found it easy to navigate, and the people behind the counter waited patiently as he mulled over the English-labeled menu choices. His English was much better now than it had been even half a year ago, but ordering in English still proved a challenge sometimes.
He'd gotten his meal and was turning away from the drink fountain carrying his glass of water over to his tray when he felt someone collide into his left side. His hand shook and dropped the glass. It fell to the ground, shattering, and he jumped, backed up a few steps, looking around for the culprit.
The boy was about his age, with dark skin but decidedly Asian features, slim almost to the point of frail thinness, but there was a strength and agility about him that belied that assumption. "I'm sorry," Shinobu offered, seeing that the other wasn't going to be the first to offer an apology. A young airman emerged on the scene with a broom and dustpan, motioning for them to step out of the way while he swept up the mess, and the dark-skinned boy shook his head an muttered what seemed to be something along the lines of "It's ok."
"I am new here," Shinobu began, wondering what a boy like that would be doing on base, but the boy shook his head at him in confusion.
"No English," he said, and Shinobu blinked. That was a Japanese accent if he had ever heard one.
"You speak Japanese?" he asked in his native language, and was rewarded with a nod. He grinned and stuck out his hand. This might actually not be so bad. "Nice to meet you. Matsuura Shinobu."
To his surprise, the boy glanced at his outstretched hand as if it were a snake waiting to bite him, then shook it guardedly. "Call me Darkflight," he said, and Shinobu raised an eyebrow.
"Darkflight?"
"Yeah."
He didn't seem to be very talkative, but he spoke Japanese, was probably the only person around who did so at the moment, and Shinobu wasn't about to let him go that lightly. "So where are you from?"
"L1," the boy called Darkflight said shortly. "Just got here yesterday."
Shinobu laughed lightly. "I just arrived this afternoon, myself. Where in L1 are you from?"
"Nosy, aren't you?" the boy said darkly. "If you must know, I'm from the Breaks. That help any?"
Shinobu froze. "The Breaks?" he said, cautiously.
"That's what I said the first time. You deaf?"
"You don't have to be so angry," Shinobu said, trying to stay calm. Perhaps talking to this boy was a bad idea. "I was only being polite."
"Well, save it." The boy's dark eyes were angry, the mixed African and Japanese features grim with an emotion he couldn't name.
African and Japanese?
A nagging suspicion crept into his mind, and he put on hand on the boy's shoulder. "Where in the Breaks?"
Darkflight's shoulder muscle tensed, and for a moment Shinobu thought he was going to start a fist fight right there in the dining hall, but he only shrugged his shoulder out of Shinobu's grasp and walked away without an answer. Shinobu stared after him as the door swung closed behind him, then grabbed his tray of food and sliding into an available seat without really paying attention to what he was doing.
There were few people of African descent in the Breaks, fewer even with mixed blood of any kind, much less mixed African and Asian. Of course, there was always the odd immigrant or two, but all in all, it was rare. Except in one certain case.
Shinobu finished his dinner in ten minutes, gulping down his water and dashing out of the dining hall. Back at the front desk of his building, he asked if there was a computer lab he could use.
"Certainly," the lady behind the counter said in a kind voice. "Straight down this hallway, the first right turn. It'll be the second room on your left."
"Thank you," he breathed, heading down the hall in a brisk trot.
The computer was a decent one loaded with only the most basic programs, but that was no obstacle. He was on the network in less than a minute, flying past various level one Holes and Bugs set in place by low-level hackers. Shinobu didn't consider himself to be an expert in the field, but he was good enough to usually get what he was looking for, and in this instance, what he was looking for could only be found on the Black Diamond Cartel's private network.
His grandfather wasn't a believer in storing vital information in places where anyone could access them, but his father had convinced the stubborn man that in certain cases, it would be beneficial, such as to agents who needed information quickly but had no access to a proper communication terminal. The network was still virtually inaccessible to other hackers, even top-level hackers, though there had been break-ins once or twice, but it wasn't really a worry. There was no classified cartel information stored on the network, but there were certain things on there that could be of use.
With a few strokes of the keys, he was in. Hopefully, he would be in and out before the server managed to unravel the encryption code he'd placed on the computer. If that happened, it would leave an identification stamp on the network, indicating access from an unauthorized computer, though the stamp would point to a military computer and not to Shinobu personally. Still, better safe than sorry. He scrolled down, tapping keys quickly and quietly, hoping no one would come into the lab and catch him at work, though there was little chance of repercussions even if someone did, because the information on the network was all in Japanese.
Got it!
SHIONJI KOUHITO, the text scrolled down the screen. AC ? - AC 173. There was no picture, but Kouhito's features were easily recognizable to every last member of the Black Diamond cartel. Shinobu scrolled past the few statistics that the network had on the man. Kouhito had been the brother of the last Shionji Cartel leader, Shionji Toburo, and he'd also been the one personally responsible for the downfall of the Shionji drug empire. Shinobu hadn't relished memorizing the cartel history when he had been younger, but now it might actually be of use.
TOKAGAWA MALAKANI, SECOND WIFE, the text read. MIXED AFRICAN-JAPANESE DESCENT. DECEASED AC 163.
He bit his lip, then hit the keys to instruct the computer to run a network search. The box came up on the screen and he thought for a moment more, then typed carefully. OPERATION ARES PROTOTYPE TESTING
The screen went blank and then blinked. NO RESULTS FOUND.
Shinobu sighed. It had been worth an effort, but he should have known that they wouldn't place that information on the network. Shionji Kouhito had been involved in the genetic superman testing that the Black Diamond cartel had sponsored back in the 130's, and though the project had failed, the Black Diamond Cartel had long suspected there had been some survivors. It was only after the project's failure that word had leaked out that it had been sponsored by the colonial resistance group that called themselves Operation Meteor. With that in the open, the cartel had drawn back, breaking any ties they ever had with the project and denying their involvement. When he had grown a little older, his grandfather had imparted to him the basics of the project, warning him never to become involved with the military in any way, shape, or form.
They'll as soon cut your throat as take your help, Seki Hikaru had warned him. Remember that, or else you'll end up dead.
But that was not the reason he was searching for information on the project now. The myth circulating among the members of the Black Diamond was that the Shionji cartel had fallen because it had impure blood. Because one of their members had married an outsider, a non-Japanese, and had bred impure heirs. As a result, they had been destroyed. Shinobu wasn't one to believe in ethnocentric fairy tales, but Shionji Kouhito had married a mixed African-Japanese woman as a second wife, and he had had two children by her. Neither of them had been in direct line for the succession of the cartel, but the eldest, a girl, had been killed by her siblings when the succession quarrels broke out in AC 173, and the younger boy had disappeared years earlier.
It was the boy he was concerned about.
Shinobu put his fingers to the keys, eyes hardening. If his hunch was correct, which he suspected it was, it might lead to some interesting times. The boy Darkflight was from the Breaks, L1. He'd said that himself. He was gaunt and underfed and had the telltale marks on his arms, which meant that he'd been living on the streets for some time. He was obviously not pureblood Japanese. Of course, for all Shinobu knew, there could be hundreds of homeless African-Japanese drug addicts roaming the streets of the Breaks since he'd moved out, but he doubted it. Besides, why else would such a boy be here, in Geneva, at this time?
Something was going on, and he was going to figure out what before anything worse happened. He didn't necessarily love his family, but it was his duty to protect them, and it was his duty as a friend to protect Duo. This Darkflight was far too young to be the missing boy himself, but if he was even a descendant of the son of Shionji Kouhito, he would have to be...disposed of.
He put his fingers to the keys, but before he could begin typing in the next search, there was a rustle at the door. He froze, then was out of his chair and in a combat crouch in the next second before he could even think, gun in hand with the safety off, pointed up. "Don't move," he growled, "or I'll kill you!"
He heard a startled gasp and then looked up to see Helena backing out of the doorway, a hand to her mouth.
"Wait!" he shouted, as Helena made a sound like a strangled sob and disappeared from view. "Helena! I-!"He could hear her running footsteps down the hallway and swore, lapsing back into Japanese, flinging himself back into the computer chair and logging off, picking up the gun and dashing into the hallway.
"Helena? Helena?"
She must have run outside, he realized, and cursed himself for not thinking, for being so involved in his work that he had forgotten his surroundings. Her best friend was missing, perhaps dead, her boyfriend had deserted her, and she was alone in an unfamiliar base with unfamiliar, even frightening circumstances. And the one person who she had remotely trusted had just threatened to kill her.
He should never have let Duo give him the gun.
He was out the door of the building and halfway down the front walk when the explosions began.
Go to Heero side Scars
Scene VIII: The Diamond Age
"Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end."
--Semisonic, Closing Time
She'd checked that the security camera was still off before donning the goggles, but she couldn't shake the feeling that someone was watching her.
She'd finished her work early that day, and Une was in another staff meeting, so she wouldn't be bothered. Yet as Li maneuvered carefully past some of the top-level Holes in the system, she wished for once that she wasn't on the network. This time her task wasn't to set a Bug or collect information or even to patrol the area. This time her mission was linked irrevocably to her own position in the non-virtual world, and she didn't like that.
Data connection ports and blinking boxes signifying security keyholes moved past her at a slower rate than she was used to while traversing the network, but she was taking her time, as if on a leisurely stroll through the virtual domain that every good hacker this side of the galaxy knew that she owned. Though of course, they knew her by another name. Still, it was good to know that she was still in fine form. No upstart young computer genius would be taking her title away from her anytime soon.
She skated past several Bugs designed to trap any unsuspecting young acolyte, placing her mark on them in passing to warn whoever had set those that it was not to be tolerated. If they were still there the next time she came through, there would be no mercy. A virtual network on this plane, she maintained, was not for fun and games. People who were here because they had nothing better to do needed to take their simulations and petty revenge elsewhere.
A message drone flashed by, searching for someone's IP address to deliver a message. Li watched curiously, wondering if it was perhaps a message for her, but it passed her without a second glance and she sighed. Things had been very quiet around here lately. She had to wonder if it was the current Gundam crisis that had suddenly caused the network rats to become extra careful about the footprints they left. Whatever the case, many of the most active Holes had suddenly gone into hibernation, and some of them had disappeared altogether.
Which was not making her job any easier.
Wearing the goggles while surfing the network was an interesting experience, since the visualization mode, usually programmed exclusively for work within Holes and not out of them, could be tampered with to produce some unusual effects. Li had worked on hers for months until she'd come up with a visualization option that made it seem as if she was underwater in a sea of transparent liquid mercury. Holes were giant sparkles of silver light, while Bugs were dark spots, quivering black holes. Data transmissions were beautiful diamond bubbles rising and falling from the surface of the mercury ocean to the endless abyss beneath.
Li usually preferred to tread the middle ground in her ocean of mercury, though sometimes if she was feeling particularly ruthless, she'd venture down several levels into where the ocean became deep and dark, where the scum of the earth and the colonies dwelt and dealt their private business of life and death far beneath the shimmering universe of a normal hacker. Today was one of those days. She wasn't feeling ruthless or even adventurous, but work was work, and she'd been given an assignment.
She just hoped that someone would be crazy enough to take her up on it.
The waters were quite dark and murky by the time she had gone down far enough levels to be sure that the people here had what she was looking for. The Holes were no longer shimmering pools of light but skeletal structures placed upon floating platforms, pyramids of bone-like fragments topped with grinning skulls, crooked, crumbling buildings around which Bugs flitted like bats. It was hard not to be impressed with these structures, which had obviously been constructed with the visualization goggles in mind, advanced to the point that their visualization matrices superseded and neutralized those of her own goggles, making her see what they wanted her to see.
She'd only spoken with the inhabitants of the Dungeons, as they liked to call their home on the network, a few times before, but they'd always been very helpful, even polite, which she hadn't expected from people like them. They held disdain for the term "hacker," preferring to be called "splicers" or "runners," referring to their real-life counterparts who made their living in the narcotics trade. The Runners' drug was the network itself, more powerful and addicting and deadly than any solid substance.
Li slowed her pace and then stopped, looking around at the encircling Holes, each smiling mockingly at her with empty eyes, wondering which one was best for her first gamble. She'd taken two steps towards a smaller one on her right when she suddenly saw digital streaks of light flash before her eyes, which meant that someone was Pulling her, hacking her goggles and trying to force her into one of their Holes without her permission.
Ridiculous...she hadn't been Pulled since her first six months on the network years ago. Before she could even begin to figure out what had gone wrong and how anyone could have found a weak point in her already enhanced goggle system, the black mercury ocean had disappeared and she found herself in Hell.
It wasn't really Hell, but a realistic enough simulation of Hell to make her think for a second that she'd somehow dropped into a storybook. The jagged ground, a nightmare mass of ridges and craters, appeared to be solid enough, but shone as if coated with a sheen of the same liquid mercury that made up her network ocean. Walls of fire roared from the ground up, changing direction midway through the air and suddenly shooting sideways or diagonal, creating shimmering distortions of reflection onto the wet rock-like surface beneath her feet. At first she ducked whenever a tongue of fire spiraled her way, but after a few attempts, she found that the flames crackling around her were curiously cool to the touch. She walked forward cautiously, changing her appearance several times, debating whether to be human or android before settling for a cybernetic-type body visualization, complete with headgear and a deadly looking gun tucked into a holster at her hip.
"Hello, stranger," someone said from behind her in Japanese.
She spun around to see a monstrous spider-like creature waddling towards her on sixteen legs, bulbous eyes fixed on her with a beady stare. Resisting the urge to grimace at the sight, she took a deep breath.
"I'm looking for Masamune," she said.
The spider peered at her. "And who might you be?"
"Tell him," she said quietly, "that Aidoru wants to speak with him." She smiled grimly. "He should know I'm here."
The spider waved one antenna but otherwise made no other sign of recognition at the name. She watched as it scuttled off, wondering what in the world would make anyone want to choose a visualization like that. The hellfire cast strange glows on her metal bodysuit and she reached behind her to smooth down her hair, finally giving up and making it disappear with another quick command.
"Aidoru," a voice said gravely.
This time when she turned around, she found herself staring at a sixteenth-century Japanese samurai in complete battle gear, standing with his arms crossed. The flickering firewall behind him made for impressive contrast.
"You are Masamune?" she said.
The samurai nodded. "I have heard much of you, though I must admit it is a little startling to meet you in person. Or as in person as we may achieve here." He laughed softly at his own joke and she stared impassively at him. If her stare fazed him, he didn't show it. "How may I help the lord of the network domain?"
"I'm hardly that," she said mildly, amused by the fact that he, like all the rest, had never bothered to question the assumption that Aidoru was male. It was an old assumption from when she had been an amateur hacker and one she had never bothered to correct, preferring to remain safely enigmatic. One more puzzle for the cyber police to crack. "More of a...patroller."
"Well, aren't we all?" he said. She was aware that he was testing her, wondering if she was going to give away anything in the first five minutes of her conversation. She stood her ground. If there was any bargaining to be done, it would be done on her terms. He stared at her for a moment more, as if hoping she'd take the bait, then nodded. "I see. Come with me."
The trip over the cratered landscape took less time than she expected, probably because Masamune or one of his cronies had adjusted the visualization matrix in order to make it seem as if the Hole was bigger than it seemed. It was a common practice, and Li had done it herself once or twice. That was a long time ago, though, and she had since grown good enough to increase the size of her networks without any artificial means. It was all a matter of skill, a matter of art and beauty just as much as pure programming.
That was why she was the Aidoru, the Idol, with an almost meteoric rise to fame, or infamy, as it were, dancing through a maze of zeros and ones with balladic grace. But like her namesake, she recognized the success for what it was, a quick jump to stardom that could leave her crashing down in the middle of nowhere if she wasn't careful.
She'd joined the Preventers to test her abilities. To see if she was capable of transforming an idol into something more permanent.
So far, she hadn't found an answer.
Masamune stopped and she almost bumped into him, then found herself teetering at the edge of a vast pool of lava. Flaming bubbles rose to the surface and popped with an oozing, squishing sound, and little crimson lizards crawled in and out of the lava, apparently unaffected by its temperatures.
"All right," he said, turning to her, his voice hard. "What do you want?"
Li pursed her lips in approval. This Masamune was a hard dealer, just like they'd said. "You must be pretty good, to Pull me in here. I haven't been Pulled in years. Anyone else would have said it was impossible."
"I specialize in the impossible," he deadpanned.
"I need an assassin," she said, not bothering with any formalities. Simply laying it down on the table. "A few, if possible. Very very good ones. I pay well."
He raised an eyebrow. "Indeed." A datapad appeared in front of him and began inscribing the conversation. She ignored it.
"I have a big fish to catch and you're the one I trust to provide me with the assets to do it right."
"How big a fish?" he wondered.
"Big," she said. "I'll leave it at that for now."
"I can't get the people for you if you won't tell me."
"Find me the best there are," she said. "And we'll talk."
They stared at each other for a moment, neither willing to back down, and finally he nodded unwillingly. "Fine." Turning, he fiddled with something and a tiny panel opened in the ground, a control panel emerging and floating up to Masamune's hands. He grabbed it, pushed a few buttons. An image of a screen appeared in front of him and she could see he was typing, though in some kind of language that she couldn't read.
"Code language?" she wondered.
He smiled, showing his teeth. "It's called Scat." Paused. The lava pool boiled, and a particularly large bubble popped with a squelching noise. "The best I can offer you for a job like this is a team called Shadowwing. Ever heard of them?"
Li hissed between her teeth. She'd had a feeling he'd say that. "No good," she said.
"Oh? You don't trust me?"
She almost laughed. "No, I trust you implicitly. It's just that Shadowwing is...absent at the moment. They won't be able to do the job."
He frowned. "I haven't heard anything about this."
"It's true," she said. "Trust me. I need someone else. Someone with the same level of talent."
Masamune shook his head. "There are no other groups with their level of talent. You're asking the impossible."
"I thought," she said, favoring him with a disdainful glance, "that you specialized in the impossible."
It was his turn to hiss between his teeth, and for a moment she thought he would walk away from her. But he held down his temper with an air that spoke of long practice and the tension vanished after a second, leaving him the calm, collected man of a few moments before. "Give me two days," he said.
"I need this by tonight," she said. "It's urgent."
"Tomorrow afternoon," he countered.
"Tomorrow morning." Fixing him with a hard glare. "Like I said, I pay well. When the job is conducted according to my standards."
He considered, then shrugged. "Deal."
She was about to reply, to give further instructions, but suddenly her vision blurred and the fire and lava and moon-crater ground turned into indistinct pixellated blobs of matter, and she had the sensation of falling before everything turned black and the network was just a pair of goggles fastened around her eyes linking her to a world that had suddenly disappeared.
Cursing, Li removed the goggles, her mind racing rapidly, wondering what in the hell had caused the network to go down. Only a total on base network failure would cause something like that to happen, and there had never been a total network failure. The connection icon on her computer was blinking, and she clicked it, keyed in the password.
"The network is not available," the computer said, and she cursed at it, throwing the goggles onto her desk and massaging her temples. The sudden disconnection had left her with a headache and a vague sense of distortion and weightlessness, along with a queasy stomach, and she wished she had some medicine with her. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath to calm her nerves-
-and nearly jumped out of her skin when the alarms went off, twisted around in her chair to see that the alert light installed in her office was blinking a violent red. "What the fuck?" she snarled angrily, springing out of her chair and hurrying to the window. If this was someone's idea of an evacuation exercise, it wasn't funny.
A large cloud of smoke was rising from one of the outlying buildings at the southwest entrance to the base. As she watched another puff of smoke appeared, then another. Smoke bombs. It had to be smoke bombs.
Before her stunned mind could grasp the entire concept of why smoke bombs would be going off at the entrance to the base in the middle of the day when no exercise was planned, the intercom squawked and a voice filled the room. Une's voice, calm and commanding.
"Attention all personnel. Evacuate the building immediately. We are under attack. Repeat, evacuate immediately. We are under attack. This is not a drill. Repeat, this is not a drill."
Act VIII Part I | Act VIII Part III | Back to Sainan no Kekka