Bubblegum Hime
Chapter Fourteen
"How much trouble are we in?" Nagi Homura asked, the white haired young man frowning as he sat behind his desk.
"It's not good," the man commonly known as Smith said. He pushed up his glasses, "Someone at Fuka posted footage of the last Orphan on youtube."
"What?" Nagi yelped, sitting up.
Smith added, "It appears that Chie Harada had taken quite a bit of footage of the attacks and had posted it all to the internet."
Nagi slumped in his chair, thoughts racing. "What's the reaction from your bosses?" he asked, knowing Smith took paychecks from several agencies. He was untrustworthy scum, but as long as you knew that you could manage him.
"They aren't happy," Smith said frankly. "The government and military are willing to cut you a great deal of slack, but only if you stay covert. I suspect many of your sponsors are seriously reconsidering allying with you now that the news is out."
Nagi ground his teeth, but didn't say anything until he got his thoughts in order. "Go remind your employers that they're in this as deep as I am," he said flatly, "if I go down, all their business dealings with me go public too."
"Of course," Smith nodded then excused himself.
'That'll buy me some time,' Nagi thought to himself grimly, 'but I need to get the combat model fully online. Once I start selling it the government will forgive any sins in the testing stage, but I have to get it functional.'
Nagi activated the intercom, calling Kuga's lab. "What is it Nagi?" Saeko Kuga answered irritably, "I'm busy."
"You're about to get busier," Nagi said dryly, feeling a odd kind of vigor filling him. 'Is this my second wind?' he wondered.
"What do you mean?" Saeko asked quickly.
"Fuka has gone public with the Orphan attacks," Nagi said with a grim sort of calm, "and I'm getting rumblings from our sponsors."
"We're out of time," Saeko realized.
"Exactly," Nagi nodded slightly, "so where are we in preparing the new field unit?"
"The OS is nearly finished, though we need to extensively de-bug it before trying to launch," Saeko said briskly, "the body design is complete, but the armor coating is still giving me fits."
"Hmm," Nagi nodded, thinking. "Get the prototype ready to deploy," he decided, "I need to show it to the Japanese military."
"I don't think the OS is ready for that," Saeko cautioned.
"Then get it ready," Nagi snapped back, "we do not have time for hesitation. If we don't act in the next few days, it's over."
Very stiffly Saeko answered, "Yes sir."
"Thank you," Nagi sighed and disconnected.
Nagi sat back in his chair, silently considering another problem. Alyssa Searrs was his ally and financial partner, but she had never pretended she wasn't in this for her company and her own gain. Now that the cover was literally blown on the silent war he's been fighting with Mashiro, she was sure to try to seize the opportunity.
Dialing his phone Nagi waited, then smiled as the phone was picked up, "Tomoe?"
Tomoe Marguerite sat in her office in another part of Fuka city, the green-black haired executive leaning back in her chair. "Well, it's nice to hear from you, Nagi." she smiled, "What can Otome Solutions do for you?"
`"I need some... discrete agents," Nagi admitted, "for a special job."
Tomoe's eyes widened slightly, then narrowed. That choice of phrase was code, the 'discrete' meaning he thought his phone's might be monitored and 'special job' indicating the possibility of wet-work. "We should talk about it," she said cheerfully, "would you like to stop in to my office or grab lunch?"
"Lunch would be fine," Nagi agreed, "noon-ish at the usual place?"
"Indeed," Tomoe agreed, hanging up.
A few hours later and the two met at a private room in a busy restaurant, both in business wear. Still, Tomoe drew eyes with her short skirt, the slit up the side showing plenty of leg, even as it made access to her concealed pistol easier.
"Tomoe," Nagi smiled in false cheer.
Tomoe held up a hand to stop him, even as she took out a square device from her jacket pocket. She adjusted it and it generated a soft squeal, one that grew louder as she walked up to Nagi. She waved the device over him, found the spot where the sound was loudest and plucked it off.
"Listening device," Tomoe told him as she dropped it on the floor then crushed it under her heel, "do you know who planted it on you?"
"Searrs," Nagi scowled as they sat down at the table.
Tomoe raised her eyebrows, "The multinational? You aren't playing for chump change."
A waitress arrived, carrying drinks, then they ordered. A few minutes later the food came and Nagi sent the waitress off, ordering her that they were not to be disturbed.
"I want to hire you for a job," Nagi said grimly.
"Me, or my teams?" Tomoe asked, nibbling her food. A girl had to maintain her figure after all.
"Bit of both," Nagi admitted. He pushed his own meal around on the plate, "What have you heard about Searrs' Valkyrie Project?"
"Some kind of combat android," Tomoe said, "but according to rumors they haven't worked out all the bugs yet."
"Well, in at least one case they have worked the bugs out," Nagi sighed as he took the photos out from his coat and passed them over.
"Huh," Tomoe studied the blond and slightly dour looking blue haired woman in the photos.
"Miyu is a android, I don't know her full capabilities yet," Nagi admitted, "and that's Alyssa Searrs, your primary target."
Tomoe raised her eyebrows, "This a hit?"
"No," Nagi quickly shook his head, "kidnap. I want her held and cut off from communication for a week or so."
"Got a gambit going?" Tomoe asked.
"Pretty much," Nagi nodded. He looked at her thoughtfully, "Can your team handle it?"
Tomoe thought about it, taking out a slim personal computer from her pocket and accessing files. "I'm going to need special gear to handle the android," she warned.
"Send me a list, I'll get the gear for you," Nagi said, "but I need you to move fast on this. How quickly can you move out?"
"Soonest would be tomorrow, assuming you can have all the equipment ready," Tomoe cautioned the young man.
"It'll be there," Nagi promised with a firm nod of his head.
Tomoe slid her computer away, "Are we going to dicker on price?"
Nagi shook his head, "Send me the bill and I'll pay it, but only if you succeed. The standard retainer still applies?"
"Fifty thousand," Tomoe nodded, "send it to my Swiss account."
"Will do," Nagi agreed as they headed out, both of them committed to their plans.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Miyu winced as the bug was crushed, the blue haired woman listening in with a set of headphones. It was a programmed in human reaction, one of millions of lines of code in her OS. She tilted her head and smiled, "They didn't find the second bug."
Alyssa smirked, the blond sitting back in her office sipping from a seltzer. Sadly the smile went right off her face as they listened, both women frowning in concern. "I hadn't realized his situation was quite as precarious as this," Alyssa frowned as they listened to Nagi plot to kidnap them.
"He's rushing to try to get a product ready to deliver to the military," Miyu deduced from tidbits they had picked up earlier, "and he has clearly realized that you and I have been sabotaging his team's experiments with the armor."
"Or he just wants us out of the way to block any bid by us to seize power," Alyssa said, feeling more annoyed that Nagi seemed to know Miyu was a android. 'Did we slip up?' she wondered, 'Or was there a leak at Searrs?'
"True," Miyu conceded. She looked concerned, "Miss, we must get you to safety. We can not assume we have time merely because our foes claim it will take more than a day to move."
"You're right," Alyssa nodded, her thoughts racing, "we also need to protect our interest in Saeko Kuga." She considered various options, each one unsuitable in various ways. The US Army base was too far away, Searrs tactical teams weren't trained for bodyguard protection...
"Fuka," Alyssa murmured, a smile pulling at her lips.
Miyu looked at her in confusion, "Fuka, Miss?"
"We're going to Fuka Academy to visit cousin Rena," Alyssa declared, "and we'll bring Miss Kuga along. Who knows, we might even be able to reunite her with her daughter Natsuki."
It took Miyu less than a second to get it. "You intend to let the Hime protect us," she mused, agreeing that the armored heroes would likely react to a strike team attempting a kidnap.
"We'll need to stick close to the campus," Alyssa noted, having seen that the Hime appeared to be based somewhere nearby.
"Understood," Miyu agreed as they both got up and left Alyssa's office at District One, hurrying towards the labs. "What do we do if Mrs. Kuga refuses to come along?" she asked as they both got in the elevator.
"Be very convincing," Alyssa answered dryly as she pushed the down button, "and if that fails... we'll tell her Rena is in danger too." She paused, "Who knows, that might even be true..."
To be continued...