No Light

The silence, as they descended into the bowels beneath the city, was as oppressive as the pressure that increased the lower they delved. Ginoza led them down the utterly out-of-date ladder, the area they were accessing too primitive for elevators. Kougami followed after him. The monitor strapped to his wrist, a steel cuff he knew could deliver a full-body shock to his system, glinted in the light of the automated torches Yayoi and Shimotsuki held as they followed him. The petite Inspector, in particular, glared at it and him more than once. Kougami met her gaze and she gave a slight quirk of her lips, as if she thought he was cowed by the cuff.

Kougami let her think what she would. Clearly, it was worn more for her benefit than anyone else's, to explain to her why she should feel safe enough to trust his leadership in finding the Runners. It was a thoroughly perfunctory device, of course. Kasei needed no greater leverage than the one she'd already applied.

"The old train tunnels split off two miles back." Ginoza was the first to speak, his voice as clipped and blunt as Kougami remembered from the old days. "One of them is caved in. The other might still be open." He shined his torch in front of them. "Here we have two sub lines, and then an old bunker from over a hundred years ago. They could have split up and each taken a tunnel."

"But they didn't."

"Oh?" Ginoza's scowl is also as Kougami remembers.

"They would have known exactly where they were headed from the start. They will move as a group; they won't take detours." Kougami eyed the tunnel to their right. "They won't worry about us catching them, so long as they get to their target first."

"Your target," Ginoza said icily. "The one you mapped out for them."

Kougami met his former friend's eyes. In this, at least, he had no shame. "We head left."

The odd new Division One trekked in yet more silence for a few yards. Kougami led from the front, Ginoza on his right. He slowly became aware of a smaller figure at his left, one which made her presence known through a series of huffs and pointed sniffs.

"Something smell off to you, Inspector?"

Shimotsuki looked up at him with a scowl. "You are the only one who could have known this part of the city sub-system. They are only continuing your plan."

Kougami didn't slow his pace. "Your point?"

"My point?" Shimotsuki stuttered. "My—you're leading us to the very place you always planned this to end!"

"So?"

"So!" Shimotsuki almost managed a growl. "So there's no reason to believe this isn't part of your plan!"

"It isn't."

"You could still be working with the terrorists!"

"I'm not."

"Why?"

When Kougami did not deign to answer, Shimotsuki increased her pace, pulling ahead to look across him. "We're just supposed to take his word for it? Inspec—Enforcer Ginoza, surely you can see where he's leading us?"

"Not really," Ginoza responded. "The torches have a limited range."

Sputtering, Shimotsuki rounded on Kunizuka. "Enforcer Kunizuka! Surely you don't trust this man to lead the team?"

Yayoi continued to look forward, using her torch to scan the damp sides of the abandoned tunnel. "I thought you were leading us, Inspector."

"I—" Mika flushed, but kept up her scowl. "I don't understand you all! How can you possible think he won't betray us?"

"It's quite simple, Inspector," Ginoza said calmly. "We know he won't because he already has."

"What?"

"He knows he can never come back from that betrayal, and what it has done," Ginoza continued, nonplussed as they angled right with the turn of the tunnel, "so now all he can do is desperately attempt to make amends, ever attempting, ever failing, like a dog chasing his tail."

"Gee, Gino. Don't go too easy on me."

"You think you deserve more consideration?" Ginoza still didn't look at Kougami, but his voice went a few degrees icier.

Kougami paused, examining the left side wall. "It's not about what I deserve," he murmured, so low it was barely for anyone else to hear. But they did, and Ginoza couldn't help but share a look with Kunizuka, that Shimotsuki couldn't help but see.

"So, what?" she fumed. "You all just have your own, secretive little history with each other, and that's supposed to be enough to go on? No wonder you were downgraded to Enforcers. I should give Tsunemori more credit – she at least maintained her psycho-pass."

Kougami wasn't expecting it; he wasn't able to hide his flinch. Shimotsuki opened her mouth to respond, but he was saved by the sound of their coms going off. They opened the wrist links and the tiny holo of Shion beamed extra light into their darkness.

"Well?" the Analyst said. "Is anyone here going to include me? Or do I have to keep eavesdropping through the coms?"

Kougami huffed, Kunizuka rolled her eyes good-naturedly, and Ginoza's lip twitched in something dangerously close to a smile. "If you've been listening you know there's nothing much to report," Ginoza answered. "We've yet to find any sign of the terrorists."

"Always work, work, work with you, Nobuchika," Shion purred amiably. "Don't neglect the interpersonal. You boys always supply us with plenty of tension. I just didn't want to miss out on the action."

"Still the same Shion," Kougami remarked. "Glad to know you're entertained."

"This isn't a chat line, Analyst," Shimotsuki cut in sullenly. "If you have nothing of import to add—"

"Actually, Inspector…"

Shion's face blinked out, and was replaced by a tiny holo diagram of the MWPSB. A bright blue dot was pulsing at the bottom-most area.

"You all are here," she explained. "And right now, I'm still able to keep track of you all. But a few meters ahead you'll enter a dead zone, where all of my communications will break down."

"Why?" Ginoza asked. "We should be right below you. It's not as if the tunnel descends any further down."

"I have no idea," Karanomori confessed. "Everything just goes dead up ahead of you. I've never seen anything like it."

"It must be how old this place is," Yayoi stated. "If no signal can penetrate down here, it must have something to do with the age of the tunnels. It's happened before, remember, Kougami?"

Kougami nodded. "But there's something more this time – isn't there?"

"I shouldn't be surprised that you'd know," Shion replied. "Yes. I said the air goes dead ahead of you, and that's what I mean – always ahead of you. The blackout zone is moving."

All eyes turned to Kougami. "So it's them," Mika said, and then added, voice rising, "and you knew. You're leading us into a trap!"

"We're supposed to catch them," Kougami answered without inflection. "That was the directive you got from Sibyl, wasn't it?"

"You could have warned us!"

"I'm warning you," Shion put in. "That's my job – to monitor the tech, and make sure none of it malfunctions or is used to harm any part of Division One. I can promise you all, I will fulfill that duty."

Mika frowned, still peevish, but Kougami shot a quick glance at Yayoi to confirm his hypothesis. Yayoi nodded, just slightly, affirming her lover's message.

"There's something else," Shion began. "When I first checked, I thought it was a glitch. But now, running over the cameras again I can see…if…-definitely a way of—read…forward…"

Shion's voice died as the wrist holos went black. The Dominators Mika, Yayoi, and Ginoza held made a hissing sound, as if fighting something, and then also blinked out. The torches in their hands slowly dimmed.

"What's happening?" Mika demanded into the dark. "What is it?"

"Exactly what we were just discussing," Kougami answered, his voice lower, harsher, no longer the voice of a detective, but of something more hard-bitten. "We're in the dead zone."

"Wait, why?" Mika snapped, panicky. "We haven't even moved! How are we already in the dead zone?" She rounded on Kougami; he could feel her tiny frame quivering beside him. "She said they were still meters away! We shouldn't be on them yet!"

"They were," Kougami replied grimly. "And we shouldn't. But something changed."

"What?" the Inspector demanded.

Ginoza was the one to answer. "They turned around," he surmised darkly. "We're not on them anymore. They've about-faced; they're coming after us."

Scattered shafts of light burned through a mass of indistinguishable sounds. She could feel his body, the heat of it, but fading, leaving her cold. Numb. "kane…Ak…an…e…"

His voice morphed, becoming higher, thinner, colder. Akane felt pain surge into her body, and with it sharp awareness. The light codified, becoming shapes.

"Akane Tsunemori."

For a moment, Akane felt she was staring into a snake, it's coils wrapped around her aching hand, as feeling returned to her limbs. Then her sight cleared.

"There you are," Kasei said, her voice bare of sympathy. The robotic face of Sibyl grinned. "Well, Inspector. Shall we begin?"