On rare occasions the UN would request a member or two of Section nine for an operation. Togusa would normally oversee who would go and recently he had to send Saito back out over seas to put out a problem that had sprung up in South America. This was done only after Togusa had spoken to the sniper about it and had gotten the reassurance that this would not be a problem for the man who had spent time over in that area and had been recruited by Motoko while in Mexico.
They had all recently received word that he was returning home and reassured of their friend's health and wellbeing they focused on the main cause of the meeting they were in. The training regimen that Batou had brought to the table as a step up for the new recruits that had made it past the "FNG" stage.
While Togusa wasn't physically in the meeting, he still directed it with all the professionalism as if he had been there. It had been noted between Motoko and Aramaki that having him take the "Major's" spot as second in command of Section Nine had been a real growing experience for the man. It was now, after she had been gone on her own and watching over them that she could clearly see that his talents had been wasted keeping him in the field and not in a position where they could have been put to real use.
For Togusa, the comments about him being another Aramaki didn't bother him in the least. He knew what he needed to do and he did it. He had gotten over his insecurities after Motoko had come back and stayed on as a field agent instead of retaking her position as de facto leader of their squad. She was also a valuable source of information and advice in situations that he had little real world experience in. The more militaristic scenarios were some of them, but he was getting better calling the shots as he saw them and processing information quickly to make accurate guesses and decisions in the heat of the moment.
Everyone in the primary tactical group had grown in different ways. It was pleasing to Aramaki who has been watching this group since day one when he first got a hold of the Major and brought her in to work with him. He had watched Batou grow from a paramilitary specialist to someone who could teach those very skills to others. Ishikawa had grown, more confident in his skills at data manipulation, he had also learned when he could step in to take control of a situation. Everyone had grown, and the rookies were now growing because of it.
However Aramaki couldn't sit there and remember the "good old days". He had a meeting to get to and the Prime Minister would probably not care for it if he were late. Smiling at that thought he got into his car and headed out. Togusa knew where he was and he also knew that the Major would be meeting him at the central command building to discuss a new situation that had been coming to her attention. Normally Togusa would have been the one to go with him, but this morning he had a class to teach about tactics and couldn't have anyone else fill in for him since his plans were flexible to handle just how much the rookies were actually picking up.
It was in the middle of this class that Togusa's lecture was interrupted with a com link from Aramaki and Motoko. "Togusa, you're going to want to know about this. We've got trouble coming." Considering what he knew of their various teams, that Motoko had labeled it as trouble meant that the chances of team one being activated for the event were fairly high.
"What's going on?" He replied, holding his hand up in a 'wait one moment' gesture while he looked away from his students, a clear sign he was talking to someone via the coms.
"Someone's getting ready to do a spree of assassinations. Starting and ending with whomever was on the last cabinet." Aramaki answered, his tone neutral as he got when people were planning killings under his nose.
Togusa thought about it for a moment and replied. "I have to finish this class, but I"ll meet with you two as soon as it is over. Get all the information you can from the Prime minister and then take it to Ishikawa and Borma to see if they can't pick anything else out of it."
Both confirmed the plan of action and agreed to meet him in Aramaki's office after the two information divers came back with results. For now all he could do was continue his class and hope like hell this doesn't blow up in their faces.
The meeting with the Prime Minister however was not as smooth as anyone would like it to be. Even before the meeting opened Kayabuki handed Aramaki the notice that she and the other current cabinet members had received. Typed up, with no markings and on plain white paper that didn't show any water markings the Major and Aramaki both knew that this was not going to be an ordinary case for them. The fact that Prime Minister Kayabuki had called for them suggested that her sense of the situation was ringing alarms that put this case into their jurisdiction.
On the note were these words. 'In the days ahead, a cleansing must be done, out with the old, secure the new, so that peace may be contained.' No signature, or identifier was placed on the paper or the note, and looking at the envelope it was seen to be of the regular variety that could be bought at any stationary or office supply store.
All of the other letters that had been brought to the meeting had the same message, and lack of markings that could tell them where it came from or who was going to perpetrate the crime or even what the crime was going to be.
Getting back to Section 9's offices Motoko took the information they had and handed it over to the data hounds and told them what was going on. She told them that as soon as they had any information that would help them get this case off the ground a meeting would be called. With that she headed back up to Aramaki's office to discuss what was going on, and hopefully soon they'd be able to prevent this from becoming a full fledged problem.
