AN: This chapter was so hard to write. Not because its particularly wonderful or insightful, or even really that great, in my opinion, but because it just wouldn't come. I had that weird version of writer's block where you actually know what you want to happen instead of being stuck for a plot. It was the type where you're stuck for how to word it. I don't know, maybe I'm the only one who gets that type of block.
Anyway, I want to give a great big shout out to Ironraven. She really helped me to see some of the holes I have to fill in my macabre little murderer, and gave me some great insight and breakdowns on his personality, which were remarkably correct, considering you've only gotten to see his work for a few pages. But I would like to ask her a few things right now: Why do you say I'm not native to American English? I was born and raised in California, LA to be exact, and now live in the middle of nowhere in Arizona. If its my vocabulary, keep in mind that a lot of authors that I read are foreign, though mainly British. And second: Why do you say I'm close to your age? I'm still in my earlier years of college, and what you said sounded more like you've been out for a while.
Ah, well, I've got other readers to attend to. I hope you like this chapter, and sorry I took so long. I bet some of you thought I wasn't going to ever post again after how I started off on the first chappie! Well, we were all wrong, weren't we? Enjoy what I've written, for this chapter's (supposed to be) funny!
Note: When people are speaking in italics, it means that they're communicating through the mind link that Section 9 has. Does anyone know what the proper term for that is? Or which is the correct spelling, Bateau or Battou?
Chapter 2
Pop-ups
Building after building scraped against the mid-afternoon sky, the unbroken blue above echoed and distorted by the panes of mirrored windows adorning them. It was a gridded labyrinth of concrete, glass, and asphalt, and Togusa wasn't with them.
"Togusa! Where the hell are you?" Bateau asked over the cyber link, tapping his fingers against a nearby telephone poll. He watched uninterestedly as the major pulled out a small handheld computer to verify they were in the right place.
"Oh, nowhere." The reply came over the link casual and unhurried. Bateau grimaced.
"Good. 'Cause that's where I am! Get your ass back here. If I have to sit through this interview, so should you." Togusa appeared behind him, emerging from a small five-and-dime store with a candy bar. He bowed to the clerk, his brown mullet flopping forward with the movement. "What! More food! Well you certainly have a one track mind."
"You're the reason I didn't have breakfast. So don't blame me."
"Keep your head in the game," the Major said, standing up from where she had leant against a wall, "We're still on the clock. This is the place."
"Yeah, yeah, sure," Bateau mocked jokingly. Togusa smiled, beginning to place his purchase in his coat. "Give me that!" The other swiped the sweet huffily, then followed their scantily clad boss across the street.
The building before them was different from the rest, standing out against the bleak greyness of those on either side. It was an example of the latest style of modern architecture, conservative with the gaudy decorations or impersonal glass usually used by the sky-rises. White stone blocks rose up 50 stories, punctuated by oblong windows tinted blue. At the ground level stretched a simplistic colonnade braced by immaculately clean glass-fronted display cases. Inside the cases-
"Boy, that's cheerful," Bateau remarked, grimacing at the prosthetic bodies on display. Designer clothing clung to made-up examples of BD Corp.'s most popular models, the bodies themselves positioned in brightly colored fantasy scenes like shopping mannequins. "They look human enough, but I've seen more life in the eyes of some mortuary guests."
"Let's just hope the only bodies here are the ones that haven't been filled yet." The major grasped the silver door handles and pulled open the double doors marked with the blue and purple letters of the logo. "Here we go." They had barely passed through the portal when a state-of-the-art secretary android shuffled up to them. Bright blue lifeless eyes peered hard at them as the severely-bunned blonde head titled in a bird like way to inspect them with a soft mechanical whirring.
"Weapons, including your side arms and hidden knives, must please be left outside." The cold voice the robot issued in its request seemed at odds with the attempt at politeness and force.
"Is that so?" The Major quirked an eyebrow at the stiffly standing 'girl' and pulled out a badge. "Public Security, Section 9." The other cocked her head to the other side and shifted her gaze to the badge, seeming to process the images and information. The cold blue eyes snapped back to the Major and the head straightened up.
"Ms. Suzuki's secretary will see you and take your questions." She spun a quarter turn to the left and twisted to point blandly at the door of a plain looking elevator unused by the visitors and customers. "Please step forward to this elevator. 34th floor, it will be the last door at the end of the hall." The turn was immediately completed, leaving the back of the drably cut black suit to recede as she took her previous place by a potted palm tree in the far right corner of the room.
"Shall we?" Shifting her short violet hair to better cover the plugs on the back of her neck, the Major flashed her companions a smile and strode in the elevator, pressing the indicated floor button. With a cheery ding, the number 34 lit up on the wall, and the drowsy music washed over them as they ascended. A few moments passed in the richly oak paneled interior and the doors slid open to the new floor. As promised, the door at the farthest end bore a shining ebony plaque engraved with the victim's name, President Shizuka Suzuki, draped in a solemn black veil.
Inside, a young woman busily waited, deep cobalt hair tied back in a tight plait resting on her shoulder. The girl looked up as they entered the large foyer, then nodded as Motoko showed her badge, stood, bowed, and gestured at some chairs that faced her desk by the large tinted windows. "You're Public Security, Section 9, right? I was told you'd be stopping by. I'm Ino Yuguchi, Ms. Suzuki's secretary. How can I help you?"
"Actually, I was hoping you could point me towards the restroom." Motoko smiled disarmingly at the secretary. Togusa made a choking, surprised noise as Ino smiled back and gave the directions to the Major, meeting Battou's eyeturrets as she thanked the girl and left the office.
"Where's she going?"
"Didn't you hear her? To the john."
"That's not like her. I mean, why now?"
"I don't know, to powder her nose?" Battou laughed slightly over the telepathic link as the door creaked softly. Ino noticed, and went to shut the door behind the major. "So, I guess you're the one who's going to fill us in then," he said aloud to the girl.
She sat down behind the desk again. "Yes, as much as I can. But I'm really only her secretary, so there's probably not much I can tell you."
The conversation didn't improve from there. The extent of what they had been able to find out was: Ms. Suzuki had arrived at work at the usual time the previous morning, done her usual workload of business meetings and important decisions, then left at her usual overtime hour of 2 am. Nothing unusual had happened, as usual.
"Wow, we're getting tons of help with this information!" Battou grumbled, "This is a corporate big wig's office, for God's sake! Where's all the scandal?"
"Maybe she's not that scandalous," Togusa suggested, "A company head honcho with a clean nose would make a nice change." Though his eyes hadn't left the secretary, they refocused on her as the clacking of a keyboard caught his attention. Her eyes seemed slightly unfocused and glassy, her head lolled a little toward her chest. But he was a distracted from worrying about it when the major's voice cut through his thoughts.
"I tend to agree with Battou. This place is too clean. Let's see if the others have anything that might give us a clue what to dig for. Pazu! Saito! Ishikawa! Report!"
Diving the net for information had become a pattern for them. Search, search, search, turn up the same things, then search some more. The tedium was broken after a few hours by the Major.
"Pazu! Saito! Ishikawa! Report!"
"Just drinking a few beers, having a few laughs, and generally ignoring our assignment," Ishikawa drawled.
"Great. So what have you found?"
"You want the good news or the bad news first?"
"The good news. We could use some over here."
"Good news it is. We have some possible suspects."
"That is good news. Who are they?"
"That's the bad news. Every anti-prosthetic group out there could be behind this. It fits what they'd be aiming for: the destruction of a highly successful prosthetic firm through the erasure of their leader. Y'know, the old 'cut off the snake's head' sort of thing. But the MO just doesn't seem like something any of them would do. Heck, I doubt it's something they could do."
The major was quiet for a moment, probably assessing what she'd been told. "Was there anything else you found?"
"Yeah, that our computer's clock might be off, that we may have won ten million yen, and that our computer may not be protected from th-"
"The Sakuhen virus," the Major cut in.
"Yep. Look's like a stupid kid hacker's joke, so I didn't open it." Ishikawa paused a moment, considering. "How'd you know?"
"I knew the secretary might be employing the principle of CYA, so I brought my stealth gear and hacked into her cyber brain after I was proven correct. I'm looking at Suzuki's computer right now. Seems our little secretary wasn't as techno-savvy as she thought. She opened the Sakuhen pop-up."
Togusa said something about how he had thought the girl was acting awkward, and that it must have been her, but Ishikawa didn't quite hear it over his own laughing.
"So you're there in disguise, Major? Invisible, probably," Batou's face was straight with just a hint of frustration on the outside, but inside, he was laughing, too. "I knew it had to be something like that."
"Care to explain yourself, Major?" Togusa asked.
"By the way, for legal reasons, I'd like to inform you that this whole conversation has been, and will continue to be, monitored. Is that alright with you?" Ino's voice jumped back into the conversation suddenly. "The camera's behind you to the left," added the major over the mental link, "so we should keep the camera happy with a little more meaningless conversation. I'll take care of making the girl keep up her end, and any information we can share over the link."
"No problem, ma'am. Thanks," Togusa answered aloud, responding both to the girl's fake question and the Major at the same time.
"So you've already given us a general idea of your employer's timeline," Battou said, "but let's get down to the juicy bits. You have any ideas where Ms. Suzuki went after work? Any late night rendezvouses?"
There was a bit of clacking on the keyboard as Ino/Motoko looked up the information on the computer. "I'm sorry, but I have no record of that information. It's not really my place. According to her schedule and day planner stored here, after she would leave here at 2 she would always stop by the same restaurant for a meal. A little family-run thing. I wonder if that would be considered breakfast or dinner?"
"Fascinating, but not all that helpful," Battou grumped"Your turn, Togusa."
"Yeah, yeah. This could be important, miss. Do you happen to know anyone she might have had any contact with? A boyfriend, maybe, or perhaps just a friend? Even a stranger?"
"Nope. Again, I'm sorry, but it's not a secretary's place know such things. I just arrange her business meetings."
"Right, a young girl like her hasn't heard any gossip, or made any herself, about her successful boss." Togusa shifted slightly to hide looking at the spot where the invisible Major must be standing. "Anything from there?"
"Not a thing. There is some gossip in a personal file here of Ino's, but all the rumors are about how she doesn'thave any guy friends, and a little guesswork off of it on her sexual preferences."
"Lovely, but again not helpful," Battou said, flippantly. "Great, thanks, miss. Is there anything you can tell us?"
"I can't, sir. I've told you everything I know. It's true, there's nothing else I can find on this computer without having the time and equipment to really hack it."
"We can always take it back to HQ," suggested Battou.
"No, I'm starting to think Togusa was right. This place really is squeaky clean."
"Hey! I thought I was right," Battou complained jokingly as he thanked the now wakening Ino and they left the office. He continued once they were out of earshot, speaking as the Major rejoined them. "Yeah, Togusa may be right, but I still have his candy bar." The mentioned item was removed from his pocket and waved triumphantly in the air, then opened with one strong rip, "So there." They walked into the elevator as Battou took a bite. Then he pulled a face.
"Still miss the taste of food, Battou?" Togusa laughed. "That was a horseradish healthbar I bought especially for you, not candy!"
"Ugh! Togusa! I'm gonna-" The elevator door shut, blocking out the rest of the conversation.
AN: So. How'd I do? I know I didn't advance the plot much, but hopefully you picked up on the little bit I left. More actually happened here than meets the reading eye. So prepare yourself, the next chapter is coming, though it too might take a while…
Sorry if it does!
And I'm really sorry if this confused you.
