"Meiru."
Her limbs didn't feel like they wanted to move. Before she could slip back into sleep, someone grabbed her shoulder and shook it. She groaned.
"Meiru, people are starting to arrive."
People were starting to...
"Let her sleep, Enzan-kun," Meijin's voice said somewhere above her. "She's been running around all night making sure the security team's briefed and ready..."
It all snapped back into place. The Net Saviors' Conference, three months in the making. Reassuring everyone and their superiors - Kifune and Manabe included - that this was the best and fastest way to ensure their culprit's capture. Getting as many major companies to participate as they could, so it would look as genuine as possible. Testing the locks, positioning the security, planning out what to do in every situation they could think of. If it went wrong, all was lost; but if it went right...
Sakurai Meiru's eyes flew open. "It's starting - ow, ow, ow..." She clutched the back of her neck with both hands as it told her exactly what it thought of her falling asleep at a wooden table in the lobby. Once she'd regained full use of her neck, she turned to see who had come in. Three men in suits; they were probably just here for the defense technology. They didn't look like Net Saviors.
"I think we've got a few minutes before everyone shows up, Meiru-chan," Roll said from above her. She wasn't surprised to find her Navi standing on Hikari-hakase's shoulder, her arm around her boyfriend's shoulders and vice versa. Rockman looked a little pink in the face, as usual. Some more businessman-looking people came in, and Roll turned her head to ask Rockman, "I guess you and Hikari-hakase are going to go talk technology, then?"
"Looks like it," Rockman said as the newest group spotted Hikari-hakase. Roll jumped off the scientist's shoulder to rejoin Meiru. "See you later, Roll-chan!" With that, he retreated into his PET in the interest of professionalism.
While Hikari-hakase walked off, another person walked in. His plainclothes look stuck out compared to all the men in suits, but what caught Meiru's attention was the wary look on his face. "Must be a Net Savior," she said. The man was walking around, probably casing out the place. Meiru didn't blame him. There hadn't been that many Net Saviors worldwide to begin with, only fifty or sixty total, but now they numbered in the twenties.
"Not many people so far, are there?" asked a woman.
"I wouldn't expect many this early." Meiru got to her feet, looking over to see who had arrived. A portly, balding man and his younger assistant, both dressed in suits, joined the group at the table.
"Ah, Commissioner Kifune!" To the woman accompanying him, she said, "No, they've been coming in at a much slower rate than the defense people, Manabe-san."
"But they will come," Enzan said. "As a matter of fact..." He looked toward the doors. Meiru followed suit to see five or six Net Saviors walk in, including a few familiar faces.
Manabe smiled. "Good, good. I think we'll be able to begin soon, don't you?" After giving the two Net Saviors a wink, she turned to their companion. "I would think you'd be back at the Ministry, Meijin," Manabe said. "Who's going to be in charge with both Hikari-hakase and you absent?"
"We've got one of our new assistants standing guard - he's proven himself to be quite capable. I'm sure it'll be safe." Meiru and Enzan exchanged glances. Neither of them were fond of the new assistant in question - Ramsay Montaile, originally from Kingland. Meiru couldn't understand how someone could take a man with such an obnoxiously large and curly mustache seriously, and Enzan just found him obnoxious, period. His favorite mode of greeting someone, crushing the life out of his victim's hand with his meaty one as he laughed loudly enough for everyone in the Ministry of Science to hear, hadn't won him any points. But in Meiru's case, it was more than that. It seemed like there was something about him under all the bluster that wasn't quite genuine. She wasn't sure if Enzan felt the same way, or even what it might mean besides either trouble or that she needed a break once this mission was over.
"Well, as long as Nova keeps quiet, I doubt there'll be any trouble," Kifune said. "Now, I am interested in this defense exhibition you and Enzan-kun cooked up. Are these exhibits... well, real?"
"Of course," Meijin said. "In fact, if you'd care to have a look..." The two adults left the table, leaving Meiru and Enzan to watch the people milling around in the lobby. A new crowd had come in: a number of businessmen, a pair that were obviously Net Saviors, and three or four people that looked more like college students. Next to her, Enzan was scanning the room.
"I'd say we've got about twenty Net Saviors so far," he said after finishing his headcount. Pointing out the students, he added, "One of that group might be as well, but it's hard to say."
"That's about as many as we expected," Meiru recalled. "Time for Phase One." She and Enzan slipped into the crowd, looking around at who all was here. There were more suits than Saviors; Enzan and Meijin had made the 'exhibit' side of things a little too convincing, in Meiru's opinion. But it did make the Net Saviors easy to pick out. There was Raoul, who definitely wasn't a suspect; on the other end of the room was one of the other Ameroupian Net Saviors, whose numbers were starting to become scarily low; taking a drink from the vending machine in the corner was a Net Savior from Choina, one of the few countries other than Japan who hadn't been hit as hard by the perpetrator. Lack of cases stuck out more than lots of cases, but both were suspicious. "I guess we should just pick somebody, huh?" she said, starting forward.
"Hey." Someone grabbed Meiru by the arm, and she gasped, startled. She turned to see a sandy-haired man dressed as if he was going to go mountain climbing; his khaki pants and long-sleeved shirt were both made of durable material, and the vest he wore had plenty of pockets. "You're Sakurai and Ijuuin, aren't you? The two responsible for leading me to my death."
Between nerves and tiredness, Meiru couldn't think of a good retort. Luckily, Enzan was there to shoot back, "Not unless you're guilty. Have anything to confess?" The man's eyes narrowed.
Before he could start an argument, their conversation was interrupted. "Aw, Austin!" A tanned woman with an Australian accent and wearing board shorts with her fitted T-shirt walked up to the two. "Y'don't have anything to fear from those two! They wouldn't hurt a fly!" She eyed them with melodramatic suspicion, eyes ridiculously wide. "At least, I hope not..."
"I doubt he can help it, Marina," said her Navi, materializing on her shoulder. She was a study in blue, from her scaly tail to the layers of flat strips that made up her ponytail. The only other accents on her, like her sleeves and the pattern on her helmet, were white. Disdainfully, she said, "After all, Commandoman's probably spouting off potential dangers as we speak!"
"I don't like your attitude, young lady!" barked a voice from Austin's PET. Commandoman resembled a tank with arms and a head, colored in the tans and browns of desert camouflage. He only got louder as he continued on. "This here's a perfect death trap fer all of us! Open doors, only discreet security-and I have never trusted anything to security tryin' to be discreet-tickets available at the front office-anyone could get in here! And the danger's only worse for an unprotected woman!"
"Would you get your Navi to stop yelling?" Marina said, unimpressed. "I think it's giving poor Meiru a headache." She flicked some of her blonde hair behind her ear. "And just because you think I'm pretty doesn't mean I'm defenseless. I am flattered, though."
"Commandoman's right," Austin said. "The only one safe here is the culprit." To Enzan and Meiru, he said, "Somehow, I doubt you two got into the Net Saviors on Netbattling alone. And even if you did, I find it hard to believe you'd be so stupid." Meiru itched to blurt out the plan, but Enzan caught her glance just in time to stop her.
"Oh, right, and running around stirring up people's nerves is going to solve all our problems! Come along, you two." Marina put an arm around each Japanese Net Savior's shoulder and steered them away. Meiru was thankful for the excuse to leave. "We'll go catch up over here, without the nutter."
0110100101100100011001010110111001110100011010010111010001111001
Spying didn't have to involve holding uncomfortable positions for long periods of time, maintaining absolute silence, or even getting physically close to the spy's target. For example, Black was carrying out his surveillance while stretched out on his bed, the radio turned up and prime for singing along with.
"...and when she rides with the others on the subway, singing, don't turn around, wa-a-oh... Der Kommisar's in town, wa-a-oh... And if he talks to you and you don't know why, they say your life is gonna make you die..."
"At least one of us is enjoying himself," muttered a voice into his earpiece.
"If it makes you feel better, this'll be the ultimate target for him," Black said, one finger tapping against the side of his laptop to the music as he looked at the monitor. Through it, he saw what Punk did; a whole lot of boring, at the moment. Net Saviors young and old were milling around the lobby, waiting for the exhibit hall to open its displays of new Net defense systems that developers the world over were working on. He spotted Meiru and Enzan talking to Raoul while his target slipped from group to group - admiring his work? Deciding who to take next? - saying hello to some, but mostly keeping his distance from everyone. "All of these Net Saviors in one place. How can he resist?"
"But I still don't think this's the best approach," Punk argued, keeping his voice down so nobody sharing the network with him heard a disembodied voice coming from his direction. Black had installed a cloaking device onto his Navi for his trip to and from the convention center, shielding him from sight and most forms of security, but his voice was still perfectly audible. It would be silly if Punk had to confront their target and wound up playing charades to get his point across. "I've yet to hear the plan in the event that he doesn't pull a runner."
"The old man wanted this done now, and I'm not dumb enough to go stick myself in a crowd full of Net Saviors. And as for that second problem, I'm thinking about it." Black spotted something and laughed. Midorikawa Kero had cornered Meijin for an interview, and the scientist looked a little nervous. Black doubted that he'd been expecting a reporter to worm her way in, but his interview fright was quickly fading away. He seemed to be building up to an entertainingly bold declaration of how the Ministry of Science was better than ever, or something; the sound didn't carry that far into this section of the Internet, so the whole crowd's noise was just a low hum to Black and his Navi. "Have you seen the Navi?"
"No." Smugly, Punk said, "He's probably ditched him, just like I said. That Navi sounded like the goody-goody type, anyway. If I were going to start kidnapping Net Saviors, I wouldn't want that sort around."
Black frowned, bringing a window out of hiding and typing in the criteria he knew the Navi matched. He'd done it many times before, with no luck. There were so many Navis in attendance who shared those attributes that finding - or not finding - the one he wanted was nearly impossible. However, the more he tried, the more he had a sinking feeling that Punk was right. "He might be in some hidden server..."
"Found 'em. Checked 'em. Admit it, you're dead wrong." Black sighed and brought up his Punk's-eye view again. The target looked over at Enzan and Meiru-would he dare approach? If anyone there could sniff him out, it was those two-before some other Net Savior engaged him in conversation. He remembered the first time they'd met, both on business, and all the times they'd worked with each other on missions afterwards. He knew this man, or had known him, at least.
"He wouldn't."
"He has. You may not find Navis replaceable, but most guys like you do."
Part of Black wanted to cling onto the image he'd had of the target, but that small part was firmly quashed by his voice of reason. People changed in his line of work, or weren't even showing their true faces in the first place. At least, he knew he was a far different person from when it'd been his first day on this job. "Okay. I admit it." No Navi to track meant different orders for Punk; almost thinking aloud, he commanded, "Find out which room he's in and take a look around. If you can't get close enough from the Internet, hijack something from the exhibit hall, steal some RC thing, I don't care. The more I think about it, the more I wonder if having him be found mysteriously poisoned isn't the right way to go..."
"You think your field agents could find his base?"
"Our field agents can find anything, trust me." Still, his superior wouldn't appreciate having to send them. Grudgingly, he said, "But I'll come up with another plan."
"Well, while you're thinking that over, I'll go check the room list." Punk left his spot and entered the tunnel that would take him to the front lobby just as unnoticed as he came.
Hello and welcome to What's on Your Mind. It's come out much, much later than I'd originally planned, and I apologize for that. I'm not really in the fandom any longer, the shine's kinda fallen off this project (all these years, writing one fanfic series? What was I thinking?) and I seem to have misplaced my beta reader. (Not his fault - he's under a lot of stress right now.) But I figure I owe the final parts of this series to the few who have read and enjoyed my fics in the past. If you're one of those people, this one's for you.
If you find yourself confused at any time, reading String Theory and Grand Championship is recommended, in that order. And if something comes up that's not covered by those... give it time, and all will become clear.
