"Are you sure you should be doing this?"
"No."
Kenshin settled into the metal-backed chair and relaxed against the headrest, pausing long enough to smile at the coffee girl and place his order. Inside the delicately ordered café, he felt at ease enough to shake the hood from his hair. The windows were tinted glass, not to mention bulletproof, and even if someone from their earlier days should try to come inside, the bouncer at the door would be both armed and armoured enough to stop him. The owners took their safe and sterile environment quite seriously.
Net cafes had come a long way in twenty years.
"It's probably not that wise," he continued once the girl had returned to the counter. "But I can't help thinking that trying to search the clinics one by one is going to slow us down too much. What do you know about Soujiro?"
"Little," Aoshi replied. "He worked in the IA department under Shishio. He was employed last year, and he transferred to DA when Shishio did. They work closely together."
"Which makes me wonder what he stands to gain by replacing you with Soujiro."
Aoshi shrugged. "Soujiro is rumoured to have impossibly fast reflexes and an addiction to valium."
The coffee girl was returning. Kenshin took the tray from her thankfully and settled it on the table. The tea he pushed to Aoshi, and took the glass of water for himself. He ignored the sachet left on the tray for now. "Do you believe that?"
"Valium addicts don't have impossibly fast reflexes."
"Wired?"
"It's probable."
Kenshin drank the water and reached for the sachet, tearing it open along one side. "He's not prone to fits of temper, in any case. If Soujiro detonated the building it probably means he found what he came for. I have to assume he either knows where our runner is or knows how to get to her."
Either way, Soujiro was too dangerous to underestimate. Enforcement teams were meant to extract a suspect with surgical precision. If Soujiro was the sort of enforcer who liked destroying everything in his wake, Kenshin would rather find Kamiya Kaoru as soon as possible. He wasn't sure what to do once he found her – if he were totally honest with himself, he would admit he had no idea. He would work that out one step at a time.
Running on automatic. The contents of the sachet dropped onto the counter. He picked up the small swab cloth by the corner and shook it open, other hand feeling along the edge of the table until he found the ports. "It should be all right," he continued.
"You may still be monitored."
Kenshin smiled innocently. "If Shishio's informants wish to report that I am diligently attempting to find the hacker that he ordered me to pursue, that's entirely up to them."
Conversations could be privatized and precautions could be taken; now that he knew he was being stalked, it was a matter of course. Shishio had erred in pointing that out to him. He drew the wire from its berth in the table, wiping the port carefully with the disinfected swab, before placing his hand palm-up on the table and peeling the tiny strip of plastiskin away from his upper forearm.
Like every good corporate employee, Kenshin had an ID chip in his interface. Unlike most others he'd found ways to alter it as he saw fit several years ago. There was, after all, a reason he was called one of the best programmers in Japan. In a way, what he did was just legalized netrunning.
The ports were connected without fanfare.
"I'll be back as soon as I can," he said, and dropped away from the world.
-o0o-
The line between netrunner and programmer was often smudged, but it was there. Kenshin could open himself a straight passage between the outer shell of Sumitomo and its inner core and create any number of programs like magic tricks. Protection of the system was a programmer's specialty. It was their job to understand the ins and outs of the netrunner trade, whereas the specialty of the netrunner was the theft and sale of information. Of any kind. There were hackers that specialized in collecting things as trivial as electronic purchase receipts because someone, somewhere, would eventually find it useful.
Information is always power, he thought as the darkness dropped away suddenly, revealing faint lights dotted around a plain, obsidian room. The café's hub, plain and serviceable. He didn't need to leave it just yet. Instead, with a bare thought he accessed his messaging system and sent a priority flagged message, embedded in code for the access of one person only.
This isn't wise. In many ways. He'd logged in as his default Rurouni avatar; white hakama and a red gi that had been carefully shaded to look careworn. In many ways he looked the same as he did in the outside world; he only lacked the crossed scar on his cheek. Only one of the swords at his waist could be drawn, but that was all he needed. He resisted the urge to unsheathe it now.
No point advertising that he was nervous.
A small screen flickered to life, showing hissing static that reflected eerily across the dark room. A voice, flat and mechanical, said "Charlotte?"
"Sometimes," he said softly.
"Follow the path."
He stepped out of the obsidian room into the vast reaches of the Net, watching the flicker of light as it danced between connections and left a glimmer of a trail for him to follow. He paid no attention to it after a moment; he knew too well how she would react. Kenshin put one foot down on the path selected and flinched as it broke apart underneath him. Claws, shining and metallic, closed around one tabi-clad foot and yanked him down. The world twisted in on him as he fell, a kaleidoscopic vision of streaking lights and empty darkness.
He closed his eyes and waited out the ride.
-o0o-
The silver laughter of a woman, skewed and not quite human, announced that he had arrived. It was accompanied with the slithering sound of metal scraping against stone. Kenshin glanced up. To all appearances, the cavern he was in was large and made of limestone, its natural beauty spoiled by the chrome tendrils that crept along the walls and constantly slid over one another, creating the eerie sensation that the room was alive. It was an effect like any other; the Net catered to all tastes, after all. And here and now, he knew, it was meant to leave him with an impression.
"You could have waited until I took the path," he said, straightening up and peering at his feet. The claw had dissolved into the rock beneath him.
"I'm impatient," the silver voice said. "Diverting you is much faster, Rurouni-chan."
"Please don't call me that."
There was a soft sound of clicking metal and he turned, catching sight of her in the gloom as she circled him, her crimson eyes on his face. Kenshin kept his hands by his sides, curling fingers over the sleeves of his red gi as he let her inspect him. A quick electronic scan of the room showed him there were no exit ports, which made his stomach sink further. He'd have to leave this area in order to disconnect; that could prove to be difficult if she decided she didn't like him anymore.
Out of the darkness, a tiny spider scuttled past his ankle, the pattern on its back aglow with light. He stepped carefully out of the way of the others that followed, and turned back to meet her gaze as she finally left the shadows. Her long, silken hair was ebony black, spilling over curved, delicate shoulders and across bare breasts to give her the pretence of modesty. She played with it as he watched, running sharp, painted fingernails through the strands as she watched him. Red lips curved into a malicious smile.
She was very beautiful, provided one didn't look below those playful hands. At her waist, smooth flesh gave way to chrome. Metal coiled over her hips with a will of its own, loose ends twisting in the room aimlessly, and beneath the metal her body was not human at all; eight spindly legs, made of metal, razor sharp at the tips.
She also loomed over him at a good nine feet. Kenshin took a step back despite himself as she moved fluidly closer. "It's been so long," she purred, reaching out a hand to touch his hair. "But I imagine now that you aren't here for a social visit, hmm?"
He resisted the urge to jerk his head away. "Charlotte. I need—"
"Information. It's what I do best." She grinned, showing needle-sharp teeth. "Not what you do best as I understand it, but I suppose we all have our own areas of …expertise. I trust your in-laws are well?"
Kenshin refused to take the bait. Charlotte was disturbing enough as it was; telling himself that she was just another custom-designed avatar was barely helpful. She was one of the most creative hackers known in Japan; everything here would bend to the way she willed it. Including Kenshin.
But she was also an information broker. Business always spoke more loudly than personal history. Didn't it?
He swallowed. "There's a young woman who broke into Sumitomo. She escaped into the Chinatown area this morning."
"Ah." Charlotte tapped a finger to her perfect chin. "Sumitomo enforcers are slipping in their old age."
"I need to know where she went."
She laughed. "And you expect me to know? I'm flattered."
"Just tell me what you can," he said evenly.
"Hmm." He tensed as he felt the curve of metal across his back, tugging him closer to her. A cold hand cupped his cheek. "It'll cost you, darling."
"I'll pay."
"You don't even know my price."
"It will be fair," he retorted. "You may be …what you are, but you've always been scrupulous when it comes to business."
"Oh?" She arched an eyebrow, leaning down to speak to him face to face. "And what if this is personal?"
A second chrome tendril joined the first, latching on to his waist. Kenshin dropped his hand down to his sword, stony-faced.
"You killed quite a few people, little dragon of Tokyo," Charlotte continued dreamily. "I lost many clients." She ran a hand through his hair and kissed him on the forehead, ignoring his flinch. "Perhaps I should seek justice for them now, hmm?"
"Perhaps you should tell me whether or not you're going to do business with me," he said between his teeth.
He wasn't prepared for it when she laughed and pulled away from him. A moment later, her hold on him dropped away and he stumbled backward.
"Don't be angry, little dragon. I merely thought you might need reminding of the past." She smiled, twirling her hair around her fingers with an air of wistfulness. "So often, we forget what is important to us."
"I forget nothing," he returned flatly.
"Of course. Silly me."
When she threw a hand up, he breathed a faint sigh of relief. Business, after all. The room filled with flickering light and a faint tinkling that reminded him of wind chimes. At first glance what now hung through the room, delicately one after the other on long strings of thread, were fragments of glass catching the light. They both knew better. Charlotte was if nothing else a consummate performer. She reached out with one long-fingered hand to flick one shard, sending an entire succession of them spinning madly on the same thread. And smiled.
"What can you tell me of this lovely young woman?" she asked. "A name, an address? The area your people foolishly lost her to?"
He hesitated briefly before answering. "Kamiya Kaoru."
Charlotte gave him a look of surprise. "Oh, my. The 'Rose of Kenjutsu' herself?"
Kenshin blinked. Rose of- "You know her?"
"We've had dealings," she murmured. "Like many of her kind, they come to me eventually. What falls between the cracks is more important than you would think, is that not so?"
"Runners don't go by their real name," Kenshin said coldly. He would bet money that Charlotte hadn't been surprised at all. "How do you know her?"
She laughed at him. "Perhaps that is my business and mine alone, darling. Are you jealous?"
"No."
"Hmm. You should be," she said thoughtfully. "So many fine men, seeking the lovely rose. The catalyst."
No. Kenshin's hands clenched by his sides as her words sank in. Soujiro? He can't have.
"Come now, this is a good thing, isn't it?" She became cajoling, face alight with amusement at his consternation. "Aren't you happy that the search has already been done for you?"
He spoke carefully, stripping the emotion away from his words. "Charlotte. Who has been here before me?"
"You know better than that, darling." Charlotte waved a finger at him. "But as it happens, it's someone I like better than you. He's much more of an honest man." She grinned. "In a sense."
"Tell me."
"I'll give you two for the price of one, and only because it amuses me. I did, after all, say that you should remember the past." Her smile turned cruel. "Step into my parlour, said the spider to the fly."
Her hand wrapped around a thread and yanked hard, snapping the crystal fragments it held away from the ceiling.
Warning: tactile override—
Kenshin's visual feed dissolved into static.
- "Kaoru, stay with me—" Desperate words, blurred image of an arm and a woman, barely seen -
- "- pulling out! Fighting below between us and the target, armed and dangerous residents, need backup—" Skewed view, gunfire, wild spin of colour that separates itself into a fight on the ground, one girl dragging another into an alleyway –
- "Oh god, sorry! Wrong place!" A vid store; the voice is familiar, an argument is started; is the sick girl contagious? Directions given. "No sorry, go a bit further down this street and look for the herbalist sign. Doc you want is under the building." -
Other blurred images reeled past him; Charlotte's collection of snippets taken from across Chinatown. She was the biggest collector of media trivia in Japan, and she paid hundreds of people to collect it for her. Anything was worth a price in Lesser Tokyo. If Kamiya Kaoru had walked past so much as an over-eager man with a phone camera, chances were high Charlotte had retrieved the footage. Most of it was a blurred image, a glimpse of hair, a pink ribbon, a called name. Kaoru wasn't alone; there was another girl helping her. Kenshin couldn't get a good look, but her voice did seem awfully familiar.
He heard the sibilant hiss of Charlotte's voice. "Seen enough?"
He had. Enough to know the area the two women had run to. Enough to know where they had gone. A clinic located underneath an herbalist in Chinatown not too far from a vid store; it couldn't get much clearer than that.
Megumi-dono.
He blinked as the cavern came back into view and staggered as the world spun. Cool metal had snagged him by the shoulder, keeping him upright. Charlotte's face hovered close by, her smile too sly by far. "I trust that's all you need to know. I will take my usual fee. Provided of course that your cred details haven't changed?"
"They haven't," he said unsteadily, finding his balance. "You mentioned two."
"Oh, yes. I have a message for you."
He startled. "What?"
"Hm? Oh." She chuckled. "Silly me. I already gave it to you."
"Charlotte…"
"In any case, my darling, you should hurry," she said airily, ignoring his dark look. "I imagine the rose's presence is going to remain undetected for another thirty minutes at the most. Your friend the insane enforcer is already tracking his lead. Literally."
"Soujiro." Which meant Soujiro hadn't been the one to visit Charlotte. Who had?
"Oh, yes. It's so much fun watching these things happen! If I were you, I'd hope that this man—" She tapped a fragment carefully, to show him a frozen image of an injured man holding a bleeding hand and staggering across a gutter. "—runs into an accident on his way there."
Kenshin narrowed his eyes. "How do you know this?"
She laughed, silver and alien in the gloom. "You don't think there would be an explosion downtown and I wouldn't be watching, do you?"
He conceded the point. "Thank you. I have to go."
He turned to look for the exit, and was brought up short by the coil winding tighter around his shoulder. Another one seized his sword-arm, pulling it away from his waist.
"Must you?" Charlotte crooned, drawing closer. "I haven't seen you in so long. With or without your pretty scars, you're my kind of person, Rurouni-chan."
Her nail caught at his face, slicing down the left cheek and leaving a burning sensation in its wake. Kenshin clenched his teeth for a moment, and forced himself to be polite.
"Please let go of me, Charlotte."
She smiled lazily. "Will you cut me if I don't? Maybe I just want to keep you."
In response, Kenshin gave a short, sharp trill between his teeth. Charlotte yelped as the coils holding him shattered into dust. Before she could recover, his katana was drawn and at her throat.
"Let me out."
"Mimicry? Ah, little dragon." Charlotte gave a happy sigh. "You haven't changed at all."
-o0o-
Ten minutes passed, in the end. Aoshi finished his tea, blinked owlishly in the chair, and then ordered another. Now that he had little to do other than sit in silence and wait for Kenshin to return, his desire for sleep was returning with a vengeance. The girl brought him a second mug and informed him it was free of charge, giving him a faltering smile. It vaguely occurred to him that she might be flirting with him, but he had no time for her. His attention was taken by the vid screen in the corner of the café.
"—coming to you live from downtown where Ripperjack is throwing the doors wide for all comers, this is Akiyama Hitomi from Juice! We hope to see you down here, guys! The concert's free for everyone, come and forget the—"
Mid morning coverage from the trend setter channel. Aoshi frowned. This wasn't the girl that was usually on.
Where is Misao?
There was a stuttered gasp behind him. He turned as Kenshin sat bolt upright, yanking the port from his arm and flinging it onto the table. The redhead shot to his feet and then nearly fell over again; moving so fast post-disconnection was rarely wise. Aoshi put out a hand to steady him.
"What did you find?"
"We're leaving," Kenshin said tersely, weaving on his feet. "We've got twenty minutes at the most. I'll explain on the way."
The mug of tea was left forgotten on the table.
-o0o-
Thanks for all your reviews, guys! I'm glad to see how many people are still reading this.