The Sapporo Outbreak

by Craighead, Brian

  The crowd of shoppers had thinned a little as she bounced up the stairs from the subway and into the bright lights of London's Piccadilly Circus. She was already late for 'midnight madness' class, and she didn't yet have enough goodwill built up to piss off the instructor. In a hurry, she took the last two steps at the same time, misjudged the distance, stumbled and fell to the ground. Wincing at the scrapes on the palms of both hands and the drip of blood trickling down her elbow, Emma cursed her clumsiness and started to get up.

  She never saw the paunchy, balding man in a tired polyester suit and black rimmed glasses approach from the stairs above.

  Catching his shadow in the corner of her eye, Emma looked up just as the man quickly stepped down the stairs toward her and stopped, blocking her way. Emma looked at the man, and through the dark rimmed glasses she saw his eyes - more than bloodshot, they were red raw. Emma recoiled at the sight, just as the man lifted his right knee up to his chest and thrust forward - crunching hard into Emma's face and sending her petite young body sailing backward down the concrete stairs.

  With complete indifference, the man turned on his heels, strode back up the stairs and drifted back into the London night.

  Emma felt herself sailing through the air, then felt a sickening thud on the back of her head. Loud ringing in her ears drowned out any other noise, and a second later she felt an agonising stabbing pain in her nose and jaw overwhelm her. She could taste the coppery blood as it flowed over her tongue and down her throat. She lifted her shaking hand to her face and could feel her jawbone dangle unnaturally below her shattered teeth. She scraped backwards to rest on the concrete platform separating two flights of stairs just as a young boy - Emma figured around 15 years old - ran to her side. Dazed, she turned to face him and was horrified to see burning red eyes staring back at her. The boy raised his foot and stamped hard on her chest. She heard the crunch before the pain exploded, and she felt the rush of air as her lungs collapsed. Gasping for breath, Emma's last sight was of a smartly dressed woman in her early thirties swing a steel-edged Samsonite briefcase at her head. With one last crack, Emma's head swivelled, and her unseeing eyes gazed up at the blinking lights of Piccadilly.

  Back in the throng of late night Christmas shoppers, the man carried on as if nothing unusual had happened. The boy laughed as he ran to catchup with his friends waiting for him at the cinema. The woman continued down the subway stairs past Emma's crumpled body to catch her train. She couldn't be too late tonight, the kids were up early tomorrow for a school concert and she had things to organise.

  All three continued on as if nothing had happened. Because to them it hadn't. Not really.

  It was just a game after all.

  #

  Over the Sea of Okhutsk (Minus 18 Hours)

  A loud bang woke Santos with a start. Although she didn't consider herself a nervous flyer, she didn't enjoy flying - and she really did not like turbulence. It reminded her that they were sitting in a steel tube 30,000 feet above ground, and the pilot's soothing announcement of 'one or two bumps as we near Sapporo' only made it worse.

  Santos pressed a button on the seat, and it smoothly and silently slid from a flat bed to sit up chair in a few seconds. She yawned and watched as Ben Skinner silently slept in front of her. Spikes of blonde hair stuck up at the back as he lay curled up under a thin white blanket - WhiteStar branded of course. Santos knew months ago she was falling for Skinner, and suspected he felt the same. It was so hard to tell with the professor. He was unfailingly polite and respectful - as if he didn't want to press the issue. After their interrupted dinner in Georgetown, she'd come to the view that he'd never push things - and so she'd resolved to take the first step. She'd make her feelings known and see where it took them. No point wasting any more time wondering. After all, the consulting work with WhiteStar was coming to an end,and with it any excuse to see Skinner.

  Yup, Santos mused, time to make things happen.

  "Couldn't sleep Dr Eva? Yeah, don't blame you. I have a hard time sleeping when you're around."

  Santos turned to her right and standing, slightly stooped, in the hallway was a grinning Andy Harper. His sharply pointed leather boots, tight jeans and fitted red shirt made him look, to Santos, a little ridiculous. Like a middle-aged accountant - albeit a handsome one - on his way to a singles club.

  Santos looked up at Harper, leaning over her, his legs pressing against her shoulder, and with a withering glare said "Mr Harper, I'm sure women have no trouble falling asleep when you're around."

  Harper leaned in further. "Dr Santos, I can assure you the only reason women fall asleep around me is from physical exhaustion. More so with the uptight ones - perhaps you would understand."

  Suddenly very uncomfortable, Santos silently nodded to an attendant at the front of the cabin, currently serving Tanaka. He acknowledged her with a smile and bent over to serve drinks to Tanaka and Hill.

  Santos twisted in her seat to face Harper, looked up at his handsome face twisted into a leer and said "Mr Harper, I can certainly understand why anyone would be exhausted by you. It seems to me your constant need to express your virility masks an underlying insecurity. Perhaps a struggle with latent homosexuality. I'd be happy to refer you to someone should you ever like to take professional advice."

  Harper's eyes blazed, his nostrils flared, and he crouched down until he was at eye level with Santos.

  "Listen to me you, you stuck up bitch..."

  "Is there a problem here?"

  Santos and Harper looked up to see Ben Skinner, hair ruffled and shirt crumpled, quickly getting to his feet. Skinner stepped toward Harper, who quickly stood up, emphasising the 6' height advantage he had on the 5'10 professor. Before Harper could reply, the attendant glided toward then and still smiling, always smiling, asked the seated Santos, "What can I do for you madam?"

  "I'd like a coffee please." Santos pointedly ignored Harper, instead turning to the professor. "Ben - how about you?"

  Harper glared at Santos and Skinner before his eyes caught Tanaka's Head of Security staring directly at him from his seat opposite Tanaka. It felt to Harper as if Itou was daring him to make a move. Harper didn't think twice. He definitely did not want to raise the ire of Tanaka's attack dog.

  Harper turned back to Skinner, his tone conciliatory.

  "My apologies Ben. Doctor Santos. I'm afraid I'm just a little tired - sorry if I gave you the wrong impression." With that, Harper silently turned and almost ran back to his seat. Skinner looked questioningly at Santos before replying, "Ehm. Ok...I'm not sure what that was all about! And yes - coffee does sounds good. Better make it strong though - I've got to stay awake through more Tanaka-talk when we land!"

  Skinner flashed a boyish grin at Santos before turning, and heading up the plane to chat to Tanaka, who was engaged in conversation with Alex Hill.

  Santos watched Skinner go. Beyond him she could see the CEO of WhiteStar continue his monologue, waving his hands theatrically in the air in emphasis. Santos could make out the back of Hill's head over the top of the fat leather armchair. She could see him nod frequently, imagined the man smiling and laughing when needed. In the past 18 months, Santos had travelled with Skinner, Harper and Hill on a dozen WhiteStar field trips, and one thing remained constant. Hill's eagerness to play the receptive audience for Tanaka. Santos rolled her eyes. She didn't know how he did it. She found Tanaka's endless enthusiasm exhausting.

  Unlike the dashing professor sitting opposite.

  #

  Santos looked over at Skinner, who still had a look of concern on his face. She flicked her head in Tanaka's direction, her long hair sweeping over her cheek and smiled. "Man - that Tanaka can talk. Does he ever stop?"

  Skinner's frown washed away, replaced with a knowing grin.

  Santos then glanced behind her at Harper, who returned her look with a furious stare.

  The plane thumped and juddered as another wave of turbulence hit.

  Santos jumped up in her seat as the pl
ane lurched. "Jesus, why do I do this? These rich guys are all assholes. lets get this last one over with, and then that's definitely it!"

  She slumped back in the fat leather as her coffee arrived. At least in a couple of days, she'd never have to think about Kaito Tanaka, WhiteStar Corporation or Andy Harper ever again.

  She couldn't wait.

  #

  6am Thursday, Sapporo Japan (Minus 9 Hours)

  Three heavily tinted black limousines sat waiting in a row on the icy black tarmac of New Chitose Airport in Sapporo Japan. A driver dressed in thick overcoat and gloves stood impassively at each car, seemingly impervious to the thick snow and freezing cold winter wind.

  Santos and Skinner were the last to disembark the Gulfstream jet. They'd watched from the cozy comfort of the plane while Tanaka and the ominous Mr Itou walked briskly through the blizzard and into the first limo. Harper and Hill followed quickly into the second, with Harper visibly cursing at the biting winter blizzard as he ran to the car.

  "Ok Eva, looks like the end of the world out there. Are you ready to make a run for it?"

  Skinner smiled at Santos as they stood in the exit, looking out across the runway through the swirling snow and wind.

  Santos flashed Skinner a sultry smile, and smirked, "Or we could just leave them all and keep ourselves entertained right here."

  Skinner looked back at Santos - the biting wind outside flicking her dark hair over her big brown eyes. He knew she was waiting for a response, but Skinner wasn't sure how to. He thought - hoped - she was flirting with him, but it seemed so unlikely. I mean, look at her. She's the most beautiful woman I've ever seen, any guy would want her. Hell - there's a multi-millionaire that can't stop hitting on her. I'm kidding myself - she's way out of my league.

  "Ehm - yeah. That sounds ... good Eva."

  Santos smiled at Skinner's awkwardness. He really was the exact opposite of the 'all sizzle, no steak' cocky guys she attracted. He was a brilliant man, successful and becoming quite the celebrity. And yet he was one of the most humble men she'd ever known.

  "Excuse me sir, madam, but I suggest you make your way to the car quickly before the cold bites."

  Shaken out of their own thoughts, Santos and Skinner turned their heads to see a smiling steward looking quizzically at them, his right hand gesturing toward the stairs and waiting limousine.

  "Yes. Yes - you're absolutely right" Skinner stammered, gathering himself. Assertive now, he looked at Santos and said "Ok Eva, let's get this over with." Skinner walked down the first few stairs and caught the full blast of the sub-zero winter gale. He looked back up the stairs, and stretched out his hand.

  Santos looked down at the windswept Skinner, smiled, reached to hold his hand and together they run down the Gulfstream's stairs and into the warm black limousine.

  #

  7am Thursday, Sapporo Japan (Minus 8 Hours)

  Santos and Skinner sat in silence as the electric limousine whispered its way through the winter landscape. Snowploughs had recently cleared the roads, pushing snow at either side of the road far above head height. The weak winter morning sun was shrouded in thick grey clouds casting a twilight pall over the pretty Japanese city.

  The windscreen wipers were working overtime to clear the thick snow from the car. Skinner thought that, if anything, the blizzard was actually getting worse with time. Other than a few emergency vehicles, they had passed almost no cars on the road during the slow, cautious hour long crawl over the ice.

  Despite the conditions, Skinner could understand Sappora's attraction. A roll-up computer in the limo provided an interactive guide to Sapporo and some truly cringe-worthy WhiteStar corporate videos. Santos and Skinner had laughed out loud at a few of the ads until Santos suddenly realised the driver might be offended. After a few embarrassing moments, they'd turned their attention instead to the interactive guide to Sapporo.

  Ten minutes later they'd learned that Sapporo was in the far north of Japan, encircled by mountains to one side and rivers on the other. A clean and modern city, Sapporo was dotted with pristine parks, quiet residential areas, universities and modern office towers. In the winter months, Sapporo transformed into a snow-covered sports paradise and winter Olympics venue.

  Sappora's natural beauty and high concentration of universities made it a popular location for high-tech business. However, it was the opening of the New Chitose Airport in 2012 that supercharged the growth of Sapporo as a high tech hub. As one of the WhiteStar Corp videos proudly proclaimed, Tanaka had returned to the city he'd studied at twenty years earlier to setup the heart of WhiteStar Corporation's operations. The 'brain' and nerve centre for the global iSight gaming empire, the Sapporo Network Operations Centre - referred to by pretty much everyone as the 'NOC' - was the place it all happened.

  As Santos rolled up the flexible computer, she'd turned to Skinner, and with a twinkle in her eyes said "Well - I guess we're about to enter the belly of the beast!"

  #

  Santos and Skinner were both nudged awake as the car took a sharp, sliding left turn off the main Shinkawa Dori freeway and into the treacherously icy side streets of Sapporo. Slowly edging their way through a few quiet residential streets lined with modest two-story houses, they caught a first glimpse of the WhiteStar Sapporo research and network centre.

  The six-story ultra-modern steel and glass building reflected the leaden dark grey clouds overhead. Although impressive - in some ways striking - it felt incongruous beside the conservative two-story grey concrete campus of the Hokkaido Institute of Technology and nestled in a quiet residential neighbourhood.

  The first thing that struck Santos was the level of security surrounding the building, something the corporate videos had somehow managed to avoid. Circled by a tall chain wire fence, the only entrance appeared to be a very large steel security gate manned by four uniformed guards wrapped in enormous down jackets.

  As they drove through the gate, the guards scanned the quiet Japanese neighbourhood as if they were in a war zone. The only difference was the lack of firearms on the heavyset guards. The Japanese government prohibited the presence of guns in private facilities, and not even Tanaka's power and wealth could convince the authorities otherwise. Santos and Skinner exchanged glances. It seemed pretty serious overkill for a company that made its money selling subscriptions to, and ads inside, its online games.

  It suddenly occurred to Skinner that Tanaka's obsession with security - the coiled Mr Itou and all this prison-grade fencing - were at least in part in response to a tragic accident. Three years earlier, Tanaka and his family were caught up in some sort of security incident in what was originally intended to be WhiteStar's NOC in Hong Kong. The details of exactly what happened were extremely sketchy, but Tanaka's wife came from a prominent Tokyo family, and her death was widely reported. It was this incident that drove Tanaka to sell the site and move headquarters to Sapporo Japan.

  Now safely through the security gates, the limousines purred down the ramp leading to an underground car park entrance, and - after passing through another manned security barrier - pulled to a halt behind the two other limousines. To their left, a group of middle-aged Japanese and European men in suits waited, and in front of the group stood a beautiful young Japanese woman. Behind the arrival party, a large elevator - glass walls, ceiling and floor - waited patiently with its doors open and one green light softly blinking below a small white panel. Santos touched Skinner lightly on the knee, pointed and whispered "Look at that - it's the great glass elevator. I told you Tanaka was really Willy Wonka!"

  Skinner beamed, not entirely sure if it was Santos' sense of humour that made him smile, or the jolt of adrenaline surging through his body sparked by the slightest of her touches.

  The driver of the first limousine appeared curb side and opened the rear passenger door with a deferential bow. Inevitably, Mr Itou exited first, his head pivoting to scan the area and those nearby. A few seconds later, Kaito Tanaka appeared, and as he emerged the group in un
ison bowed low. Tanaka returned the gesture, then began a short burst of conversation with the beautiful young woman at the head of the group.