I do not own Virus Buster Serge. Sunny and Moonrise are mine.
Chapter 7- Recall
Sunny kept up a constant stream of conversation at dinner, but Mirei was preoccupied by the STAND quads, and barely responded to Sunny's barrage of comments and questions.
"… So Mirei, what did you think about that last batch of quads? Do you think we're getting any closer? This is really like looking for a needle in a haystack. Aren't you glad you invited me along? Mmmmm. You've got to taste the cherries jubilee. It's outstanding!" Sunny stopped for a second to catch her breath and lick her spoon.
Mirei stared at her reflection in the window next to their table. It was late, so she and Sunny were two of the last customers in the hotel restaurant.
"And what about 'Big Mac'? He's quite a cad, isn't he? I'm not totally sure, but I think he touched my butt one time on purpose when I was walking by him in one of the rows. Mirei? Earth to Mirei. Is anyone home?" Sunny teasingly asked.
"Oh, yeah. Sorry. I'm just tired, and I'm trying to think of the best way of proceeding tomorrow. I think I'll call Chief Harata and have him send the rest of the files. There's no sense in making another trip down here if we can find it all at once." Mirei mused as she swirled a spoon around a glass of iced tea.
"Good call." Sunny said as she attacked a daifuku.
"Well, I'm going up to bed now. I'll see you in the lobby at 6:30 in the morning." Mirei said as she stood and dusted crumbs off of her lap.
"Sure. I'm just going to make one more trip to the dessert table…" Sunny mumbled as she licked anko from her fingers.
Mirei rode the elevator to the 12th floor in silence.
At 2:00 am, Mirei sat up in bed, and turned on the lights. She had been tossing and turning for hours, haunted by the STAND quads. She desperately wanted to access the information on them, but she didn't have the proper resources on hand to do so. She pulled the quads out of her case, and absently tapped one against her knee. If only she could contact some of her old hacker crew. They could make quick work of these quads.
"Well, why can't I contact them? I am in new Hong Kong, and I know they would be willing to help…" Mirei thought to herself.
The problem was, she didn't want to contact them from the hotel, and she definitely didn't want to use her implant. She decided to go down to an old hacker hangout she knew- The Golden Lotus Café- which had a back room devoted to illegal holotrip brokering. She looked down at the black tailored pants and crisp white blouse laid out on the end of the bed. She sure couldn't go to the Golden Lotus in that. She pulled her pink striped nightshirt off, and looked at it. "A few cuts here and there, and a belt around the waist..." she mused as she dialed room service and asked for a pair of scissors.
Mirei pulled her black knee-length trench coat tighter around her. She had not dressed like this in a long time, and she felt self-conscious. She had fashioned her nightshirt into a minidress, and had cut a pair of black pantyhose into a pair of footless Capri tights. Her black ankle boots, which looked so conservative with her dress pants, looked daring paired with her artfully ripped tights. She knew the costuming was essential, though, if she wanted to avoid trouble in the Golden Lotus. If she had gone in her usual clothes, they would have taken her for a security officer looking to make a bust.
When Mirei reached the Golden Lotus, she paused at the door for a second. Once she went in, there would be no turning back. She was committing herself to uncovering whatever was on those quads, no matter how disruptive or unpleasant that information may be.
The Golden Lotus was a dirty, nondescript all-night diner with painted-over front windows and a few ratty looking booths along one wall, and four scarred-up tables down the center of the room. Even though it was almost 3:00 AM, the café was doing a healthy business. Occasionally, a patron would stand and make his way casually down the hallway leading to the back of the restaurant. Mirei sat down in an empty seat in the booth closest to the door, and nodded to one of the servers as he made his way past the next table.
He came by in a moment with a dirty viewscreen and a glass of water.
"The specials are there on top. We're out of the soup, but everything else's available." The server said as he pointed at the viewscreen.
"I'm in the mood for something sweet." Mirei said, hoping the code phrase hadn't changed.
"Sweet, huh?" the server said as he looked emotionlessly at Mirei's face. "How much you looking at spending?"
"Oh, money's no object. But I definitely need something with a lot of chocolate." Mirei replied.
"Chocolate?" Mirei had the server's attention now. "How dark?"
"The darkest you've got." Mirei coolly replied. "Dark Chocolate" was code for an untraceable computer terminal with high-level firewalls.
"Just a minute. I gotta see what we've got in the kitchen. What did you say your name was again?"
"I didn't." Mirei responded. "But you can call me Drop Head".
A woman who had been cleaning off a table across the room walked up to Mirei. "It's been a while. We heard you were taken out of circulation permanently after Tai Mo Shan."
"Rumors of my demise were greatly exaggerated." Mirei said as she looked at the woman. "Do you have what I need, Moonrise? "
"Sure I do. Fees have gone up the last couple of years- business is pretty bad right now. It'll cost you 50 real , 75 if we have to chase any rabbits."
"I understand. Do you know Guru Mother' s latest drop?" Mirei asked, as Moonrise showed her to the back room.
"Guru Mother? This is sounding like a 75 real night to me. You can ping Guru Mother at Chaser's post office, but if you need her in the actual, I can direct link her for a small price."
"You do that. Will 100 real cover tonight's services?" Mirei asked.
"How big are the rabbits going to be?" Moonrise said as she opened a second door.
"I don't know. We may not get any. If we isolate correctly, we should be OK." Mirei responded as she walked past on older, balding man linked into a holotrip outfit. The way he was writhing in the chair and moaning left little doubt in Mirei's mind that he was on a sex sim. "Oh, and I'm going to need to be in a private room. I can't concentrate with these sim seekers tripping out."
"Understood. I think we can come to terms. Follow me." Moonrise put her hand on a metal pad by another door, and the door slid open. Inside the final sanctum of the Golden Lotus was a room that looked like a cross between a spaceship bridge and a computer museum. Huge viewscreens and holoprojectors lined the walls, and computers of all sizes and descriptions were set up in stations around the room. "You can use that outfit over there." Moonrise pointed to a cluster of computers on the far wall.
"Do they have a quad drive?" Mirei asked.
"Not at the moment, but I can switch one over." Moonrise made a quick gesture with her left hand, and the server who had been following them walked over to a metal cabinet and fished out a quad drive.
"Thanks." Mirei said as she sat down.
"Guru Mother is waiting at the House of Falling Leaves." Moonrise said as she stared off in the air for a minute. "Her username is Factor."
Mirei shook her head as she put on her interface, pulled the keyboard on the table closer, and accessed the computer in front of her. The House of Falling Leaves was a site hackers often used to remotely link up for jobs. Mirei typed furiously as she negotiated the multiple challenges.
" I had forgotten what a suspicious bunch hackers are." Mirei thought as she finally gained access to the site. She found Guru Mother's username on the list, and clicked on it.
A line of text flashed across the screen.
FACTOR: Little Drop Head. I'm glad to hear that you are all right.
Mirei replied, using the random username the site had generated for her.
SINK: I'm fine. I need help, though. I've got some data I need to get into.
FACTOR: Format/medium/age/security?
SINK: ALF/Quads/Unknown but within the last ten years/Unknown but possible rabbits.
FACTOR: Is this STAND related?
SINK: Yes.
The cursor blinked on the screen after Mirei's last response for a few moments. Mirei understood Guru Mother's reticence about opening STAND files. If the job went bad, a remote alarm could be tripped that would send rabbits, or reverse hack programs back at them.
FACTOR: I'm in. Do you have what you need to isolate the data?
Mirei breathed a sigh of relief. She knew Guru Mother was taking a risk, helping her with this job.
SINK: I should. I'm setting up the playpen as we speak.
Miriei's eyes darted back and forth as she finished her isolation program, and she looked at the ceiling for a moment as she transferred it to the Lotus' computer.
SINK: It's done. I'm going to load the quad now.
FACTOR: Give me a minute… OK, this looks pretty standard- a triple back system. I can decrypt… wait. It's got a keyhole. Very clever. Are you sure you didn't encrypt these originally?
Mirei shook her head sadly.
SINK: I probably did, but I don't remember. I'll start on the keyhole.
FACTOR: Good. I've almost got the first tumbler thrown. Watch for rabbits.
Mirei's hands continued to fly across the keys. If she had encrypted this, she had done the job well. She was close…
SINK: I found a rabbit. I deactivated it. You getting anyplace with your end?
FACTOR: I'm almost done. Get ready to receive my … Oh hell! A rabbit, and it's running.
SINK: Is the playpen holding?
FACTOR: Yeah. OK. I got it. The tumblers are down.
SINK: Key is turned. I'm in.
FACTOR: Good luck, Drop. I hope you find what you're looking for.
SINK: Thanks, Guru Mother.
Mirei accessed the directory. These were pretty recent entries. They appeared to be case files. Mirei clicked on one, and a video came up. She saw a picture of Serge activating the Halcyon Scarlet. She clicked on another file, and got an action report written by Macus on the Brain Lizard. Mirei winced as the memory of what Brain Lizard did to her fellow hacker Spook popped into her head. Mirei scrolled down to the last entry, and clicked. May 2, 2097. As an action report filled the screen, memories filled Mirei's head.
The day started out so beautifully. It was spring, and the trees were all in bloom. It was two weeks after the End of Incubator. Jouichirou had invited me to the park. We were strolling along, talking about STAND, when Jouichirou pulled me down to a park bench. The sound of laughter and music filled the air.
Mireigasped and shook her head. She had visited this park a thousand times in her dreams. Now, the actual memories were returning.
He looked me in the eyes, and told me that he had something to say. That he needed to get something off of his chest.
"Mirei. I…don't know how to…"
The words coursed through Mirei like an electric current.
"I guess I just need to come right out and say it. I love you, Mirei. I always have. I know I kidded with you a lot, but the truth is…I fell for you hard a long time ago. I know there is an age gap between us. I can understand if you don't feel ready for a serious relationship at fifteen…"
I giggled, and then I replied to Jouichirou. "I'm sixteen now, silly! My birthday was last week."
I remember how uncomfortable he looked, how he kept running his hand through his hair. He was blushing. He reached over, and grabbed my hand.
"I'll wait for you, Mirei. We can take it slow. If you want me, I'll wait until you feel the time is right. Until then, we can just be friends, and go on little dates. No commitment, not until you are ready. But when you are ready… I promise to be with you forever. What do you say?"
The excitement bubbled through me. I knew that I was ready now to be with Jouichirou. I wanted to tell him about all of the love just aching to burst out of my heart. I remember feeling light, almost giddy. Then… the ringing. First, in my implant. Then, Jouichirou's phone. We looked at each other. We knew. We were being called back for a mission. I met his eyes. Then we answered our calls.
We returned to STAND HQ. We were advised that a terrorist organization was threatening to discharge a dimensional oscillation weapon similar to the one that started Black Valentine. Their last known position was Tai Mo Shan Peak. In route, I was told by HQ to interface in order to receive a restricted transmission. I balked- I knew how dangerous that was- but they insisted. As I reached Tai Mo Shan, I detected and anomalous energy reading that I thought was the weapon…
The dream replayed again, in slow and excruciating detail. Only this time, Mirei was awake.
A deafening scream tore through the air. Lights flashed on the console only a few inches from my face, but I couldn't make sense of them. My hand reached out as if in slow motion, almost languidly, as I pulled on the striped lever.
Then, blackness.
Mirei slowly lifted her eyes from the screen. She had been told, after the incident, what had happened. But now, she knew. In that garbled image that had haunted her dreams was the clue. It hadn't been an external energy spike. It had been an internal one. The flashing lights from the dream- they were the warning lights signaling that the internal firewall had been lowered. Here, looking at the raw data from the internal recorders on the Razorback, it was clear what had happened. Apparently, the other team members suffered similar internal energy spikes. The last line of the action report said everything Mirei needed to know.
"Mission successfully completed at 1400 hours on date of initiation."
