“Have you seen my report about Keiko Izumi and those girls?” asked Erika.
Hiro nodded. “Yeah, we’re trying to find out more information about Izumi, trying to figure out exactly how Miyata might have known her. And as for those girls, we’ve sent the photos out to the Immigration Services Agency and the Orphanage Association and asked them to cross-check them against their records. But even then, there’s no guarantee anything will turn up. If those girls were in the country illegally, we may not be able to find any records on them.”
“It makes you wonder,” said Erika. “That poor soul we fought under Kitano’s place, he was also a ‘non-entity’ in the eyes of the system.”
“You suggesting there’s a connection? Maybe Miyata was using these girls as test subjects, too?”
“They certainly didn’t seem that way in the photos I saw. In fact, it seemed Miyata cared for them.”
“It’s more than likely a dead end anyway, so I wouldn’t worry too much about it,” said Hiro. “What do you say we leave these bastards danging on the hook for a while, get in a sparring session, and then come back and question them?”
Erika stared at Jo through the two-way mirror. Then she looked at Hiro and gave a tiny smile as she shook her head. “Thanks, but I think I’ll pass. Takasu gave me some files detailing Miyata’s history with the company, so I think it’d be better if I go through that stuff first. And there’s quite a lot in there.”
“Suit yourself. I’ll come back in about two hours and we can question them then.”
Hiro left with that, but Erika remained in the room, her gaze still trained on Jo. While they waited for the prisoner transport to arrive, he’d reached out to his contact, but there was no answer. Erika checked her pocket. The small phone was still in there. Most people communicated with implants these days, but there were those who couldn’t or didn’t want to. In some cases, it was a simple matter of financial difficulty.
But that wasn’t always the case. Legal implants were registered to the host’s genetic markers, which made tracking calls very easy. That meant there was a very large market for untraceable phones.
She took the device out of her pocket and turned it on. There was an unread text message from a blocked number. Erika opened it. Jo’s initial message—which he sent in her presence—told the buyer they’d found the ‘book.’ She knew that at least was a reference to the computer.
“Is it the latest edition?” was the response sent by the buyer.
Erika stepped outside the room and looked around. There was no one else here and so she went into the interrogation room. Fortunately there were no cameras in here in order to give the Ministry of Defense deniability if any allegations of prisoner abuse were ever raised against the Tokkei.
She walked up to the table and set the phone down in front of Jo. He looked at the message and then up at her.
“I need to know everything about this code your buyer’s using,” said Erika.
“He asked if it’s the latest edition. ’Yes’ means we got in and out clean. ‘No’ means there was someone else. If it’s a first edition, that means we ran into some problems, but we managed to get away with it. Say it’s a second edition, that means they didn’t see us, but we saw them.”
“Okay,” said Erika. “Tell him it’s a secnd edition.”
“You sure?”
“Did I stutter?”
Jo sighed and typed out the reply. Erika didn’t want to make it seem like it was too easy. Whoever this was seemed smart, and would probably expect some other people were also interested in the computer.
“Got a reply,” said Jo. “Asking about the quality. Good condition means the other people after it were cops or government types. Poor means it was his company. Decent means we don’t know who they were.”
“Decent,” said Erika.
Again, Jo typed in the response. And once more, the response came almost immediately.
“He said he’ll contact soon with more details about where to meet.”
“Good.” Erika took the phone back and put it in her pocket. She went to the door and just when she was about to open it, she looked back at Jo. “Listen, you’re going to be interrogated in a few hours. If you mention anything about our deal or this conversation, you’re going to wish you ended up in a blacksite.”
Jo swallowed hard and nodded. “Okay, I gotcha. No problem.”
Erika left the room. These two were just regular street toughs and they didn’t know much. Hiro wouldn’t have a reason to lean on them as hard as he did Kitano, so she doubted she’d have anything to worry about.
But there was still the issue about the computer. She needed to find a way to read the data on there and determine just what it said about Miyata. She had a hunch it would lead her to the next clue in this investigation, but for some reason she didn’t trust the Tokkei to keep her in the loop about this.
Erika boarded the elevator for the Tokkei office. As she rode the elevator up from the detention level, she sent a message, asking to meet in the conference room. After a moment, a response came.
“Why?”
“There’s something we have to talk about,” she wrote back. “It’s not what you think. Honest.”
Erika waited for the next response to come through on her AR-HUD. The elevator reached the floor and she hesitated before stepping off. Then finally, it came: “Okay, which one?”
She sighed with relief and left the elevator. Erika found an empty conference room and walked inside. She sent him the number and then sat at the long conference table, just waiting.
A few moments later, there was a knock on the door and it opened. Masao stood on the other side of the door and he peeked in with some apprehension.
“Come in,” she said.
He entered, looking sheepish. She almost wanted to laugh at the way this big, tough guy acted like a junior high schooler trying to approach a girl for the first time.
“Listen, Kuroki…about last night…” he began.
She held up her hand. “Masao, I didn’t ask you here to talk about that. I’m being serious here. But there is something I need your help with.”
“Oh?” he asked. “What, is this like…a case?”
She paused before saying, “…something like that.”
Masao’s brows were arched in confusion. “Don’t think I really follow…”
She sighed, knowing this would be difficult to talk about. “Okay, listen. Say…I needed to break into some encrypted files…”
“You’d talk to cyber, obviously.”
“What if I couldn’t?” she asked.
Masao raised his head and looked down at her through narrowed eyelids. “And…why couldn’t you go to cyber…?”
“Just…” she huffed. “It’s a sensitive issue, okay? And I don’t know who can be trusted with it. There might be some corruption angles to this.”
Masao sighed and turned, going for the door. Erika jumped from her chair and onto the table. She ran across, the nanites swarming over her body. She flipped off the table and landed right in front of Masao. He gasped and backed off a few steps as her helmet nanites receded to reveal her face.
“Kuroki, I dunno what’s goin’ on here, but—”
“Please, I just need you to trust me,” said Erika. “If you needed to go to someone to break an encryption—and we’re talking encryption too strong for our armor—who would it be?”
Masao took a deep breath and thought about it. He went to the door and opened it just a crack to look down both ends of the hallway, then closed it again.
“Midnight,” he said. “There’s a basement bar in Roppongi called Karasu. Don’t tell anyone you’re going.”
“Thank you,” she said, and then added, “…Masao.”
“Don’t be late.” Masao left the room and closed the door behind him.
17
The minutes and hours seemed to drag as Erika waited for the opportunity to advance her investigation. She’d gone through the mo
tions of the rest of the day, reading through Yoshida’s records on Miyata. But just as she had assumed, there was nothing in there that really told her anything useful.
And there were indeed a lot of redactions on the projects he was involved with. Gardner had told her she had the option of going through Hiro to see about getting more details on those projects, but she didn’t feel like it would be worth the effort. Gardner would find a way to stall and slow-walk the process. And since Hiro’s family owned the company, he wouldn’t be willing to push back against them too hard.
But if Masao had someone who could get into Miyata’s computer, that seemed like the better path. And then, if it turned out the computer proved useful, how would Erika explain it? How could she explain why she didn’t go to cyber to have them try it or why she lied about even having the computer? That was a question for another time. She couldn’t dwell on it now.
After she left the office, she had a quick dinner at a ramen stand, then returned home and just waited. But she felt restless the whole time. Trying to find ways to kill time before she had to head to Roppongi just made her even more anxious.
When it was time to go, Erika left her armor behind, but she took a small bag with the computer inside. After Hiro proved he could track the armor, she didn’t want to risk that the Tokkei may have been monitoring her movements. Roppongi was in her ward and she could get there on foot.
It was just before eleven-thirty when she left her apartment, and that gave her time to reach the bar in Roppongi. There was a chill in the air and she pulled up the hood of her windbreaker. She could see the environment beginning to shift as she moved from one neighborhood to the next. There was a decrease in the newer apartment buildings and an increase in older, more dilapidated ones. The restaurants and bars became dingier and less flashy.
She was now in the midst of a web-like pattern of narrow streets stretching throughout the entertainment district. Off on the outskirts was an old, six-story building. The signs advertising each floor were not lit up and sometimes broken. And there was a staircase leading down into a darkened area with a dim, red light. Erika descended the steps and saw a solid door with KARASU scrawled over the front. She reached for the door and opened it.
It was a narrow establishment with a high counter. There were no stools and there was just enough room to stand in front of the bar. A young black man stood behind the bar and looked at her.
“What are you drinking?” he asked.
“Beer is fine,” said Erika as she moved in front of the counter.
“We don’t have a tap, just bottles.”
“That’s fine, just give me whatever you’ve got.”
The bartender nodded and turned around to retrieve a bottle of Asahi from a refrigerator behind him. He removed the cap and set the bottle on the counter in front of her. Erika picked up the bottle and started sipping the drink. She stared at the entrance out of the corner of her eye and wondered just when Masao was going to get here.
“Don’t see many girls like you in here,” said the bartender. “Mostly it’s just roughnecks.”
“I’m meeting a friend.”
“What’s your name? I’m James.”
Erika looked at him with a sigh. “Listen, James. I don’t mean to be rude but I’m really not up for small talk. I know you’re just trying to do your job, but I’d prefer waiting in silence.”
“Fair enough,” said James. “Sorry to bother you.”
“Nothing personal,” she said.
Erika finished the first beer and ordered another. She checked the time and saw it was almost quarter after midnight. Finally, the door opened and she looked towards the source. The man who entered had the same large frame as Masao and he wore a baseball cap with the brim pulled down low. James didn’t even wait for him to ask for a drink, just produced another Asahi from the refrigerator and put it down in front of him.
Silence lingered in the air. James looked down at his phone and said, “I’ve gotta make a call. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
He left the bar and Erika heard his footsteps going up the stairs. Once the sound was gone, the man took off his hat.
“Sorry about the cloak-and-dagger routine,” he said. “You never know who’s watching.”
“Never pegged you for the paranoid type,” said Erika.
“I grew up in a rough neighborhood. Jietai was my ticket out, but I’ve still got friends.”
“James?” she asked.
“He’s a good guy, we grew up together. Knows how to connect you with just about anyone you might need,” said Masao. “Well…you know…the extra-legal stuff, that is.”
“You could probably earn yourself a nice little commendation if you took him down,” said Erika.
“Oh no doubt. And if I did that, then not only would I be sacrificing a valuable source for times like this, but I’d also be screwing over someone who’s like a brother to me.”
“Not the kind of talk you’d expect from a Tokkei agent,” said Erika.
“You grow up the way we did, you don’t got the luxury of racism,” said Masao.
They heard footsteps again and Masao put his cap back on. The door opened and a young woman entered with James behind her. Her hair was cut short and stylized in the form of pink spikes. She came into the bar and stood between Erika and Masao. James served her a beer and then left once more.
“Erika Kuroki, born in Osaka,” said the woman as she took a sip of her beer. “Mother, Mako Kuroki. Father, Adam Kim. Korean descent, born in America, emigrated to Japan as a university student.”
“You seem to know a lot about me,” said Erika.
“Parents divorced when you were nine years old. Your mother took you to her hometown in Shizuoka. She worked as a secretary, struggling to make ends meet. Eventually, you joined the Jietai.” She looked at Erika. “Why did you join? You wanted citizenship status? An education? Or do you believe in the cause?”
“What does it matter?” asked Erika.
“Because the reasons say a lot about you.”
“You know a lot about me, but I don’t know a thing about you,” said Erika.
“That’s because I work very hard to keep it that way.” She took a swig of her beer. “Call me Himiko.”
“That your given name?”
“The one I gave myself,” said Himiko. “So you gonna answer the question or what?”
It had been some time since Erika had thought about her reasons for joining the Jietai. But she had never forgotten them.
“Money,” she said. “Like you said, my mother struggled to make ends meet. I wanted to make sure she could retire.”
“How’d that work out?”
Erika looked down at the bottle and started picking at the label. She felt the emotion deep in her gut, but she’d learned over the years how to suppress it. She took a deep breath and steeled herself, then took a sip.
“She died while I was stationed overseas,” said Erika.
“And your father?”
“He was killed at a protest rally.”
“You’ve been honest with me,” said Himiko. “I like that.”
“Can you help me out?”
Himiko finished off the rest of the beer and moved from the counter. “Come with me. Stay a few steps behind.”
Erika looked at Masao and he nodded. She took a final sip and then followed Himiko out the bar. Himiko was already crossing the street once Erika reached the top of the steps.
She followed, with Himiko leading her down a series of side-streets, taking turns that seemed random. Erika saw Himiko go into a dilapidated building, maybe seven stories. She climbed the stairs behind Himiko, all the way up to the top floor. Once they reached the top, Himiko unlocked the door and stepped inside first.
Himiko turned on the lights and Erika was a little surprised at what she saw. It seemed like this had once been a hostess bar and there were even booths and couch still lining the walls and a bar. But what was more amazing were the changes Himiko
had made to the place. There was a desk and once Himiko had turned on the lights, about a dozen holographic displays flipped up on the plastic panels.
Erika was impressed by the system she had set up here. “How did you end up here?”
“My mom used to own this place,” said Himiko. “Left it to me after she died. But I wasn’t willing to run a hostess bar. Plus, most other businesses had gone out by that point, so I decided to set this up as my place.”
Himiko turned and fixed her gaze on Erika. “Now let’s be clear about something, okay? Masao’s an old friend, so I’m just doing this as a favor to him. And I’ve got cameras recording us right now, so if any of those Tokkei guys come after me, I’ve got material on you.”
“You seem paranoid,” said Erika.
“That’s why I’m still alive,” said Himiko. “Masao said something about a computer you need to get into?”
Erika took the small computer unit out of her bag and handed it to Himiko. She took the casing and examined it from every angle.
“That’s interesting…” she muttered.
“What is?” asked Erika.
“It’s got ports.”
“And?”
“Most devices these days use wireless data transmission, so many don’t even have ports anymore. But this does, so you’d need to physically connect storage devices to transfer data.”
“Still not sure I follow,” said Erika.
“No matter how secure your device may be, no matter how well-encrypted your data, if you’re transmitting wirelessly, there’s a risk it could be intercepted. That goes for both peripherals and transferring data,” said Himiko. “The ports suggest whoever had this computer intended to stick to more secure transmission.”
That backed up her encounter with the bosozoku and Gardner. Whatever Miyata had on this computer was no doubt very sensitive. And she wanted to know what it was.
Ronin Born Page 10
