CHAPTER 6:
FROM RUSSIA, WITH LOVE
"It's too bloody cold," Harry declared into his smartphone. "I haven't felt this cold since the Second Task of the Tri-Wizard Tournament."
"We all are cold, Harry," Motoko said. "Even full-body cyborgs feel cold this intense. Just buck up. Don't you Brits have the term 'stiff upper lip'?"
"Yeah, but that's not due to ice or frostbite," Harry snarked back.
Section 9 was, officially, on escort detail to the Russian cultural attaché to the airport. Unofficially, she was giving them intelligence about some shaky deals in Bertrave, on Iturup Island (or, as the Japanese called it, Eturofo), in Russian hands since the end of the Second World War. Now it had been reclaimed by Japan recently, though the area retained a mixture of Russian and Japanese aspects.
Harry wasn't there. He was currently tailing Koil Krasnov, a cyborg soldier working for Asechinov, the successor to the Russian diplomat the others were escorting. It was either Harry, or a rookie called Yano that Batou put forward, but given Harry's Invisibility Cloak, it was decided to use him. It was thought that Krasnov and Asechinov, along with Asechinov's financial backer, General Marlov, a noted embezzler, were working with elements within a corporation called Sagawa Electronics to some dodgy end or other.
The hunched-over Krasnov had a distinctive large metal arm he used in combat. Harry didn't want to be on the wrong end of that. Instead, he kept a discreet distance away in the train as it stopped in Bertrave, before following him, donning the Invisibility Cloak once he was sure he was out of range of any cameras. He then scurried closer, and followed Koil into a bathroom.
It was a trap. Koil lashed out with his arm. He shouldn't have hit Harry, given that he was invisible, but Koil got lucky. Harry got flung into a wall, a third of his ribs crushed. The Cloak fell off him.
"I knew some mudák was following me," Koil said in a thick Russian accent. "Who are you with? You're not Japanese."
Using the translation charm, Harry said, "Pošól ná xuj." He knew that he was going to die, though at least for him, it would only be temporary. Might as well piss him off.
"No, it is you who will be fucked," Koil said, gripping Harry's head in his metal hand…and squeezed.
When the darkness receded, Harry was staring into the concerned faces of Batou and Ishikawa. "Harry!" Batou yelled. "You okay?"
"Apart from being dead and coming back to life?" Harry winced as what felt like an icicle stabbed through his skull. "I've been better." He looked at his watch. Koil killed him about half an hour ago. Sometimes, the time it took him to regenerate was variable. Given that Koil popped his head like a grape, it probably didn't help. "Where's Koil? Is he still being tailed?"
"No. We only just arrived," Ishikawa said. "It seems like Koil's willing to kill anyone who he thinks is tailing him. Lucky you're immortal. You gave the cleaners a fright when your head slid back together. I told them it's experimental nanotech."
Batou nodded. "A good thing you came here instead of Yano. Listen, we'll be heading to that Sagawa factory that they're expanding. They're digging into the old Russian base. We haven't got a Fuchikoma for you, so the old ape said you should use that Apparition thing to join the Major." He handed Harry the Invisibility Cloak.
"Okay, thanks, Batou. Just don't take any risks with Koil. Take him down hard. Don't fuck around."
Harry had to Apparate to an area of Bertrave near Motoko, and then run to find her. He saw her just in time to witness a man riding in a truck scream, "DEATH TO THE MILITARY-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX!", and smash an axe into her back as it drove past her. On a human, such a wound would have been probably lethal. With a snarl, she drew her pistol and shot the man, sending him crashing from the truck.
"What a waste of a perfectly good axe," Harry muttered, picking it up. He transfigured it into a walking stick.
"I'd say what a waste of a perfectly good brain, but I didn't see any when I shot him in the head," Motoko growled.
"Hey, babe," said a rotund, rather shady-looking cybernetics dealer. "I can get you a nice new skin job for cheap."
"Fuck off, creep," Motoko said, glaring at him.
As she and Harry moved off, he asked, "How're we going to do this?"
"We're infiltrating Sagawa's head office, but I need to find an old acquaintance of mine first. His name is Krolden, a master hacker who used to work in the Cabinet's PR office. We met during the Nemuro landing op, when he helped pass some vital information along. I want more information on Sagawa." She looked at him. "Harry, are you all right?"
"As all right as I can be for having my head popped like a balloon, yes," Harry said. "It's a good thing it was me and not Yano, or Batou'd be in a right tizzy. Yano isn't immortal."
"Yes, but I still don't feel good about you dying, even temporarily. It's not healthy, psychologically."
Harry laughed bitterly. "I was kept in a cupboard for ten years by my oh-so-loving relatives. I had a wizard terrorist after me since the age of one. I was all but shaped into a good little soldier by a manipulative old goat who had the best intentions, and you know what the road to Hell is paved with. Frankly, I'm surprised I don't have more issues."
"Harry, that's not reassuring."
"I know. You probably deal with your issues better than I do," Harry said. The sound of a fight nearby caught their ears, and Motoko smiled.
Following Motoko, he saw a squat man in what looked like an old uniform beating up a couple of men in an alley next to a brothel. The man seemed to recognise Motoko. "Oh, it's you, ma'am. You want something?"
"Yes. I heard a rumour that Krolden's still working around here. Well?"
"Yes. Come along, follow me," the squat man said, gesturing for Motoko to follow.
As they did so, Motoko said, "I suppose etiquette and diplomacy are dying arts around here. Nice to see you still know it."
The squat man chuckled. "I know you. I gotta be nice to you and your friend, or I'll really regret it later, ma'am."
They went through the various alleyways, until they came to a household. Motoko gestured for Harry to put on his Cloak, while she used her own optic camouflage. The squat man called out to the man inside the household, "Master Krolden! The lady from the Nemuro landing op is here!"
"Where?" Krolden asked. He was a man with a ponytail, dishevelled clothing, and a pudgy face that reminded Harry a little of Neville Longbottom. He was nestled in amongst a group of computers, with a pair of women…no, gynoids lounging around in skimpy outfits.
"I'm right here, Krolden," Motoko's voice came out of the air. "My friend and I are here on business, I'm afraid. We need information about Sagawa Electronics, and considering that you're the best info-shark on Iturup Island…"
"I'm flattered," Krolden said with a smile. "Sagawa's the Yamaton corporation I hate most. They were the first and biggest of the corporate carrion-eaters to descend on Iturup when the Russians returned the Kuril Islands to Japan. Then again, it's an odd return when the Russian military bases are excluded."
As Krolden began typing at his computers, he gave a potted history of the politics of the region. Harry zoned out until Krolden announced that he had access, and gave Motoko and Harry some special press passes, as well as hacking the memory of the security chief to have them noted as the daughter of Kamizawa Studios' owner, who had links to Sagawa, and her husband, both photographers.
Motoko chuckled. "Thanks, Krolden. You should never have quit your job at the Cabinet PR office."
"Flattery gets you nowhere," Krolden chuckled as one of his gynoids draped her arms around him.
"True. Even so, it's a pretty unhealthy life you're living. A cluttered, stuffy old room with sex gynoids that cost more than a Ferrari…your parents would either die of a heart attack or commit suicide if they found out." Harry wondered at the insinuating tone in Motoko's voice.
Krolden, nervously, said, "Well, how about this one is a freebie, for an old friend, okay?"
"Thank you, Krolden. I'll see myself out…"
Escorted by the short man to the edge of the Sagawa compound, they waited at the edge of it as their escort left, wishing them well. "You and Krolden have history?" Harry asked.
"Let's just say he leaked one thing too many from the Cabinet, something that nearly got me killed before," Motoko said. "He gets enough income from other people wanting info, he's not going to be deprived of anything. I'll send him some intel as a bit of compensation. Wait a moment…" Motoko looked pensive for a moment, listening to her cybercomms (Harry having turned his smartphone off as they approached, in order to prevent their comms from being branched), before saying, "They've got Koil. He's in a coma, but they managed to get him alive. Batou and the others investigated that geofront Sagawa are excavating into the old Russian base, and were attacked by Sagawa security operatives using powered armour. Koil and the Sagawa personnel were smuggling gold bars out of the country. I think I've got a hunch who's behind it too."
"Who?"
"Lieutenant-Colonel Sohei Kagasaki. I've met him before, when I was still a lieutenant. The last I heard, he was assigned up here to investigate the Russian bases. I'm willing to bet he may be behind Sagawa."
They went through the corridors of Sagawa, with a hairy moment when they nearly got caught by a security robot. They managed to keep their cool enough to show off their passes, before they made it to the CEO's office. They heard a man yelling, "…no radiation leak whatsoever, you idiots! If you want to keep you jobs, do as I say! Connect the controls to the demolition charges over to me now! I'm going to blow the whole section!"
Motoko, realising that Batou and the others were in the geofront, and could be trapped or killed by the explosion, broke down the door. "Don't move!" she yelled at the rotund man sitting behind a desk.
As he went to press a button, Harry sent a Body-Bind, causing the man to topple over. As Motoko rushed over to the desk, Harry looked around at the office, lined with what looked like marble columns and elegant statues. One column had a trio of what looked like angels at the top, and above one control panel was a muscled Adonis torso. That one gave Harry an odd feeling, as if it was watching them.
"Harry," Motoko called. "This guy's a robot, a proxy droid. He was connected to this." She pulled out a cable from her special secondary barrier device on her belt, and plugged it in. She stiffened, before the barrier device sparked, the cable cutting loose. "A pretty nasty attack barrier," she said. "Too powerful to be covered by the Secrets Preservation Act. And whoever was controlling this droid is either nearby, or escaped."
"What did he try to do?" Harry asked, moving around next to her.
Motoko tapped in commands, and part of the elaborate electronic desk opened up, revealing a series of discs. "He was trying to erase these," she said, plucking one out and putting it into a portable reader she connected to her secondary barrier device. "Nothing too fancy."
"Must be something incriminating, then, if he was erasing them," Harry said as he wandered around the room, frowning. His instincts were whispering to him.
"And it's only a simple, crude encryption," Motoko said, as she analysed the data. After a moment, she said, "It's land sales data. Land around the Russian base being sold to 'K' by 'M'. M being General Marlov, I suppose, and K being Kagasaki. They're using the public funds to line their own pockets, the money being embezzled in the gold bars."
Harry nodded, before he saw movement near Motoko. That Adonis torso that he had seen earlier was moving towards Motoko on some sort of boom, arms outstretched, ready to crush Motoko. "Motoko!"
Motoko whirled, and leapt out of the way, just before the torso could try to crush her skull. The head of the torso, now animated, looked at the two intruders. "My, my, we have two unwanted visitors. I'm afraid I can't let you leave this room alive, Lieutenant Kusanagi," a man's voice said, emanating from the statue's head in an eerie, flanged electronic tone.
"Kagasaki…you're looking statuesque. Anyway, FYI, I'm Major Kusanagi now," she said, before activating her optic camouflage and fading. Harry, taking the hint, brought out his Invisibility Cloak and draped it around himself.
"…Your pressure marks on the floor are gone…" Kagasaki said. Then, his eyes swivelled over to where Harry was. "But this one's hasn't."
As the statue lunged on its boom, Harry yelled, "BOMBARDA!" The statue was hurled back by the explosive spell, smoke pouring from its joints.
Meanwhile, Motoko said, in an eerie, sinister voice, "Harry's not to be underestimated. By the way, thanks for the discs. Have fun having your own country against you!" She cackled rather frighteningly. "Let's have a real fight when we next meet. Stay alive until you retire, Kagasaki, as that'll make our little game all the more interesting…and easier to finish." Once more, she cackled. Harry, meanwhile, took the opportunity to remove his broomstick from the mokeskin pouch, mounted it, and began rising off the floor.
Kagasaki looked around, the statue's head looking puzzled. "You're on the wall? Or maybe you've escaped already. I think I'd better follow suit." Then, as Harry watched, the statue's torso reconnected to the wall. And then, one of the angel statues on the column he had noticed twitched, and then detached itself from the column. Harry noted the wires and IV lines leading to it. As the statue hit the ground, revealing itself to be a full-body prosthetic, Harry heard 'her' mutter, "Dammit, this gynoid's joints are so stiff. Should've maintained it more often…"
Harry sent a Body-Bind, sending the gynoid to the ground. "Yeah, otherwise you might just seize up," Harry said, landing near her and removing the Cloak. "Motoko?"
Motoko appeared, dropping off the wall. "Good job," she said, taking out her gun, and aiming it at the gynoid that Kagasaki was in. "Remove it, he knows he's beaten."
Harry did so, and the gynoid glared at them both. "You…" 'she' hissed at them.
"You've been hanging around, being decorative. For a man, you'd do almost anything, won't you?"
"Damn you, Kusanagi," Kagasaki snarled. "Over two decades of working for my country in the far north, and for what? Crap pay, and no promotion?"
Motoko shrugged. "Life's a bitch."
"Don't be so smug," Kagasaki snarled. "You only won because you had your pet Esper here."
"I'm not her pet. I'm her boyfriend," Harry snarked.
Once they had gotten back to Newport, Harry and Motoko were given leave. Aramaki had insisted on it, partly because Harry had 'died' while confronting Koil. As they got ready for bed, Harry said, "So Marlov intended to use those gold bars to win the next Russian election, right?"
"Right. The Russians used us to foil Marlov," Motoko said. "And Kagasaki is looking at a nice, long jail term." After a moment of looking pensive, Motoko asked, "Harry, are you all right?"
"Motoko, I'm not a piece of glass. I'm fine. Especially with you and the others giving a crap. I hate dying, true, but…I can cope with it. I coped fine before you came along. With you, well, it's even better. Anyway, if we'd sent Yano instead…well, he may have died, and things might have been worse."
"True," Motoko said. The two lovers then clambered into bed, naked. "Harry…do you feel alive?"
"…Yes. Sometimes I don't feel that way, but other times…I do."
Motoko nodded. "Sometimes…I have to wonder how much of me is really me. So much of me is machine, I wonder...and of course, knowing that the Fuchikomas have Ghosts. Where's the line between human and machine?"
"There isn't one," Harry said. "A human being, in the end, is a sort of machine. But a Ghost is a sign of humanity. And humanity isn't just about being human. It's about having the qualities of humanity. You have them all, Motoko."
"And so do you. That's why I worry."
For a moment, Harry nearly told her not to worry, until he realised, her worry for him made her human. He leaned forward, and kissed her on the lips, not out of lust, but out of thanks. Then, he said, "You want to take your mind off your worries?"
Motoko smiled, knowing what he had in mind without any kind of cybernetic link. She scrambled onto him, straddling him, before leaning down for a more lustful kiss, a prelude to their impending coupling…
CHAPTER 6 ANNOTATIONS:
This chapter was based mostly on the events of Chapter 7 of the manga, Phantom Fund, albeit with Yano surviving and Koil being disabled rather than killed by Batou. The next chapter of the manga, Dumb Barter, won't be adapted, partly because I don't want to, and partly because, given how Motoko's boyfriend is not the Section 1 operative but Harry, I'm not sure how to bring it about. Assume some of the events happened, but not in that way. In all likelihood, the next chapter will be an adaptation of the Stand Alone Complex episode Missing Hearts.
No numbered annotations.
