Sensh Sabers

Chapter 35

Setsuna Meiou ran a private detective agency, though that was mostly a cover for her other activities. But having a detective license and company provided a very good excuse for any snooping she cared to get into, as long as she stayed on the right side of the law. Some of her actions involved digging into abandoned military facilities and daring escapes. Most of the time, however, her job was much more boring looking.

"Explain to me again why we're doing a data crawl from the public library?" Kakyuu Kinmoku asked wryly, the tall, good looking redhead warily keeping a eye on the crowds. She was one of the only employees that Setsuna kept on staff, having met her on a case and discovering that she had certain useful talents.

Setsuna sighed, her long black hair shimmering in the bright lights. "Because our targets would trace us back, normally," she noted, "I'd rather have them just find a public computer rather than my office one, or a computer belonging to a ally."

"I guess that makes sense," Kakyuu admitted. "Will they try something against us here, you think?" she wondered.

"Depends on who spots my trace," Setsuna admitted.

Fingers flying on the keyboard, Setsuna sent 'worms' out to attack the computers she needed. In moments several 'slave' computers began bombarding her targets, seeking openings in security systems. Her targets were Infinity, Starlight, Tokyo Police and the ADP, as well as several research companies with ties to Professor Tomoe's research.

"Why the police and ADP?" Kakyuu wondered.

Still typing away Setsuna noted, "Someone at a very high level of rank killed several Bio-boomer related investigations in both police departments. I'm hoping to find some traces of who, as a favor to Rei."

"Ah," Kakyuu nodded thoughtfully. Not that the woman had met Rei, but she knew some about her. Setsuna liked to gossip, a bit, though nothing TOO shocking.

"She's really fast," a young man noted as he wandered up, "do ya think...?"

"No," Kakyuu told him flatly.

"But I didn't even ask...," he tried.

"Answer is still no," Kakyuu told him firmly, "now go on, shoo. You do NOT want to be hanging around us."

The boy seemed to want to argue with her, but something in her eyes shut him up and he quickly scurried away.

Kakyuu was going to say something about her new fan to Setsuna, then paused, putting a hand over a concealed ear piece. "Something on a military style net," she reported as the communications intercept device she wore worked, "incoming, maybe a minute or so."

"Right," Setsuna swiftly logged off from the public computer and collected her data storage. Pocketing it she asked, "How many?"

They walked casually towards the enterance as Kakyuu quietly answered, "From the chatter there's ten at least."

"Lovely," Setsuna said as they walked slowly together.

Ironically, the best method to escape persuit was to go slow. Running or hurrying made you stsnd out more, making it easier to be tracked. Move slow, blend in and you had a much better chance of escaping notice. In theory anyway.

The two women made it to the enterance, nodding to the librarian before heading outside. "Still coming," Kakyuu noted, "communications are partially encrypted. No idea if we've been specifically targeted yet."

"Let's see what happens," Setsuna smiled slightly.

The two women found a moderately concealed spot in a alley and watched as two transports pulled in. "Regular police," Kakyuu noted, "I would have bet on Infinity."

"Or maybe the ADP," Setsuna nodded, watching the cops off-load and hurry into the library in a reasonably organized way.

"Do you think they'll get anything off the security cameras?" Kakyuu wondered, watching the remainder spread out to guard the enterance.

Setsuna smirked at that. "I chose that branch because the internal security system is down," she told her smugly.

"Don't gloat, it's unseemly," Kakyuu teased.

Unfortunately, one of the cops milling outside noticed them watching them. "Ladies," the young man walked up to them with a warm smile on his face, "I was wondering if you saw any suspicious individuals around here?"

"Sorry, no," Setsuna smiled sweetly, "now, if you'll excuse us?"

They started to walk away and the officer grabbed at Kakyuu, "Wait a moment..."

'Oh crap,' Setsuna thought.

Gracefully Kakyuu slapped the man;s hand off her arm, then moved close. A flat palm to the chest, a punch to the gut, then she chopped him across the neck before dragging him out of sight. And all done before anyone else could see it.

"Should I kill him?" Kakyuu asked Setsuna conversationally, looking ready to strike a killing blow at a moment's notice.

"That'd be a bit much," Setsuna answered her firmly, "leave him, and let's get out of here."

"Yes ma'am," Kakyuu said a bit regretfully as they moved away, soon blending into the afternoon crowded traffic. Quite cheerfully she noted, "They responded awfully fast. Do you think we got anything important?"

"We'll have to review the data we snatched," Setsuna noted, "but I think we got something of interest, at least."

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"So how bad is it?" Hotaru Tomoe asked tiredly later that evening. The attractive young woman was sitting in her office, her third energy drink of the day on her desk. And it was looking more and more likely she'd need number four.

"Not as bad as we feared," Hazuki Shinai answered, the head of Infinity's computer services looking visibly nervous in front of her boss.

"But still bad," Hotaru noted.

"Actually, we were fairly lucky," Hazuki bravely corrected. "The computer hacker didn't get into any core systems or data bases. They got away with accounting data, which may be a issue, but otherwise we're still tight."

Hotaru tapped her pen on her ornate desk a moment. "And can they do this again?" she wondered aloud.

"We've upgraded security, and have replaced and reprogrammed the breached firewalls," Hazuki answered, "they won't get in like that again."

"Thank you," Hotaru said, "can you send me a copy of what we think they got away with? I want to assess what the damage is."

"Yes ma'am," Hazuki nodded then fled with as much dignity as she could muster, happy to escape with her life and job intact.

Hotaru sat back with a sigh, then buzzed her secretary. Kaori Knight strode in, the attractive slightly older woman smiling grimly. "Ma'am," she nodded.

"You have heard the news, I take it?" Hotaru asked wryly.

"Yes. This is... not horribly bad, but very damaging if it gets out," Kaori admitted with a sigh, having reviewed some of the information on the breach.

"Accounting data...," Hotaru groaned as she asked, "how much of dear old daddy's dirty dealings are in those files?"

"Quite a lot," Kaori readily admitted as she explained, "he had to track expenatures for various projects, and while he buried a lot of it in off the books black projects, more needed to go through official accounts somewhere."

"So, can someone decode it and figure out who he bribed and paid-off, for instance?" Hotaru asked her grimly.

"With enough time and computing power? Yes," Kaori shrugged.

"Great," Hotaru sighed. "Call the lawyers, get ready for damage control..."

Kaori gave her a sympathetic smile, "Yes ma'am."

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"Wait a minute," Mina blinked, "BOTH the head of ADP and the Tokyo Police were on the take from Infinity?"

It was a day after the raid on the Infinity servers, and Setsuna had turned over the data to Ami. Well, Ami suspected it was only some of the data. What Setsuna would do with the rest of the information... was something to worry about. Possibly.

"It's not quite as bad as it sounds," Ami noted.

"How so?" Rei had to ask.

Ami sipped her drink. "Not that long ago Infinity practically owned this city. If you weren't in their pocket, your chances of advancement were zero."

"So even if you were totally honest," Makoto said thoughtfully, "if you refused Infinity money you'd never get anywhere."

"That's just fucked up," Rei shook her head.

"You won't hear a argument from me," Ami agreed. She took another drink, "And it doesn't mean they weren't corrupt. It just makes looking into it more complicated."

"Huh," Mina murmured quietly.

"And as a example," Ami casually highlighted her own name on the list of people sent money from Infinity.

"Huh?" Rei blinked.

"I always found it ironic that I used hush money from Infinity to help fund building our Hard Suits," Ami smiled.

To be continued...