Misaki returned to the lobby to wait for Neela - damn, Aisha - to complete the official release process. She had expected the contractor to accept the offer, but there was no way of knowing whether she would honor the terms at all. There was a lot at stake in this investigation; this decision had better be worth it.
The guard at the front desk asked her twice if she wanted a seat, as if she couldn't see the two plastic chairs right in front of her; but Misaki was too keyed up to sit. Instead, she paced around the room while she waited. Every little sound made her jump. The central heat kicking on; a cough from the guard. She kept one eye on her phone for any alerts from Astronomics, and the other on the main doors. A contractor couldn't be both invisible and walk through walls. If anyone tried to get in, she'd see them.
Finally, after a long thirty minutes, the elevator door binged open and Moriyama appeared, escorting Aisha. The contractor was no longer in her orange jumpsuit; instead she was dressed in shorts and a tank top that looked more like pajamas than anything else, with a pink baseball cap over her bushy hair and blue disposable booties on her otherwise bare feet. A couple of housekeeping magazines were clutched in her hands.
"All yours, ma'am," Moriyama said with a bow.
Misaki nodded. "Thank you." The guard left, and she turned to Aisha, who was gazing around the lobby as if she'd never seen it before - though she must have, through the cameras. "Are those the only clothes you have?"
The contractor looked down at herself, and shrugged. "They didn't exactly let me pack a suitcase when I was arrested."
Misaki frowned. "Well, here." She took off her coat and passed it to Aisha, who stared at it uncomprehending. "You're going to freeze out there. Come on."
Aisha took the coat and followed Misaki out of the building and into the chill April wind. Misaki's suit jacket offered at least a little protection, though she shivered without the extra layer.
"It's been a cold spring; we can take you to get some warmer clothes later," Misaki said as they headed to her car, "but first -" She broke off when she realized that Aisha wasn't walking with her. She turned, hand going to her gun, to see the contractor standing stock still at the edge of the pavement, staring up at the cloudy sky. The coat hung limply in her arms.
"I forgot how big it is," Aisha said, almost absently.
Misaki glanced towards the street; Saitou and Kouno were watching from Kouno's car across from the front entrance, but Toda was out of sight. "It's not safe to stay out in the open," she said, relaxing slightly.
At those words, Aisha seemed to mentally shake herself. She put on the coat, and followed Misaki to her car.
"I saw you drive up in this the other day," she said as Misaki unlocked the doors. "Is it yours?"
"Yes."
"Can I drive it sometime?"
"No. Get in."
The wind was mercifully cut off once they got into the car. Misaki buckled up and started the engine; after doing a quick check of the periphery, she put the car in reverse - then hit the brakes. "Seatbelt," she told the contractor.
"What?"
"Put your seatbelt on."
"I hate those things; I can't move if I'm tied to a seat."
"It's illegal to ride in the passenger seat without a seatbelt. Put it on, or we're not leaving."
Aisha cast her an amused look, but complied.
"Isn't personal safety in your best interest? It's irrational to not buckle up," Misaki muttered, checking her mirrors once again.
There hadn't been any word from Astronomics; HG-139 wasn't using his powers in the vicinity. Still, she didn't allow herself to breathe a sigh of relief as she pulled out of the parking lot and onto the street. She turned down the opposite direction from Toda's car, lest he get a glimpse of her passenger. In the rearview mirror, she saw Kouno peel off and follow.
The radio suddenly burst into life. Misaki started and turned to see Aisha leaning forward and turning the tuner dial. "What are you doing?"
"Looking for music. Wow, so many stations!"
Misaki hit the dial and turned the radio off. "I don't drive with music."
The contractor sat back, watching the city rush past. "Is this Tokyo, then? You never said."
"Yes. I'm sorry the weather's not nicer; it's usually perfect this time of year." She felt the need to defend her city, even though Aisha hadn't said a word against it.
"I don't mind; weather is still weather, you know?" Aisha pressed the window button, and cold air whipped through the car. Misaki used the controls on her side to roll it back up.
"I suppose that's true."
"So where are we going?"
"First I'm taking you to Section Four headquarters in Shinjuku for a debriefing; then we can go get you some new clothes before I drop you off at your apartment. I went ahead and leased one for you; it's a short term lease, so you can move if you don't like it. But it should be fine to start with."
Misaki was desperate to start questioning the contractor about her past work with the Syndicate, but she needed to wait until the rest of her team was there as well. Patience, she reminded herself. You'll get there eventually; one step at a time. But ever since the Tokyo Explosion, she'd felt as if she was running against the clock, racing towards some unknown deadline that was creeping closer with every hour that passed. It was impossible for her to relax, to just…sit. And it made her miss Hei and his anchoring presence even more.
Aisha, however, did not seem to feel that same sense of urgency, for she spent the entire drive staring out at the city and asking questions about everything she saw. The incessant chatter was a bit annoying - Misaki had never met a more talkative contractor - but she was grateful for the distraction.
It was almost dark by the time they reached Shinjuku and headquarters. Misaki had been on edge for the entire drive, and took several detours and unexpected turns in an attempt to shake off any potential tail. After the second U-turn, Saitou called her cell to make sure that everything was alright.
"Just tell Kouno to stay on me as best he can," she said, after apologizing for not warning them ahead of time. "You don't have to pretend to not be following me, so drive as closely as you need to." She was more careful after that to not make any abrupt changes off course. Saitou was watching for tails while Kouno drove; he'd spot anyone who was sticking with them for too long.
Despite her precautions - or perhaps because of them - they made it to headquarters with no problem. Kouno pulled into the parking space next to Misaki; he and Saitou clambered out of the car, Saitou doing his best to look like a no-nonsense detective while Kouno openly stared at the contractor. Aisha regarded them both with curiosity.
"Detective Saitou and Detective Kouno," Misaki said, gesturing to the two men, "This is RS-334, code name Aisha."
Saitou bowed and greeted the contractor formally; Kouno said, "Hey. I thought your name was Neela."
Aisha shrugged. "It was."
"Not important right now," Misaki said. She started off towards the elevator; after a moment, the other three followed. There was plenty of room inside the car, but she couldn't help noticing that both Saitou and Kouno had placed themselves at the furthest point from the contractor as possible - which was difficult, as Aisha had chosen the center of the back wall to lean against.
"I don't have an access card for you yet," Misaki told her as she swiped her own card through the elevator's security slot and punched the number five. "The HR office is closed by now, so we'll have to take care of that tomorrow. You don't mind having your photo taken, do you?"
Aisha was peering at the elevator panel. "I probably don't need a card. I can just -"
"I'd appreciate it if you only used your ability when necessary," Misaki interrupted. "It's going to be hard for a lot of people around here to accept that a contractor is working on their side now; let's not draw attention to that difference any more than we have to."
The contractor looked slightly askance, but she nodded.
Matsumoto and Ootsuka were waiting for them in the offices on the fifth floor. The Interpol team was there as well. Misaki included them in her introductions; Gmerek looked to the contractor with interest, while Francesca took an unconscious step back. Navid merely folded his arms and nodded once in recognition.
"We'll hold the debriefing in the conference room," Misaki said, gesturing for Aisha to go ahead of her. The contractor entered the room without hesitation, as if she was hired by national police agencies regularly. The Section Four team followed. "Navid?" Misaki asked, "Do you have time to sit in?"
Navid looked surprised to be included; but he nodded, and walked in.
When Misaki entered last, it was to see a confused-looking Aisha being shooed out of her customary seat by Saitou. "I just wanted to sit facing the window…" the contractor began.
"There aren't any assigned seats here," Misaki reminded them briskly as she seated herself in the vacated chair. She didn't wait for any explanations or apologies, but rather launched right in to the process. "From now on, you're a member of Section Four," Misaki told Aisha. "In lieu of the usual background check that our employees are required to go through, I'd like to get your verbal history. We won't tape anything that you say, just record notes." She nodded to Ootsuka, who was already transcribing in shorthand.
Aisha, already slouching in her seat but gazing at the others complacently, said, "Alright."
"First, can you confirm your Messier code, and describe your power and your price?"
"RS-334. I have the ability to communicate in binary."
"What, like the computer language?" Kouno asked. "I thought you could see through cameras."
"I can see through cameras that use binary."
Matsumoto leaned forward slightly. "You said communicate - does that go two ways?"
The contractor nodded. "Depending on the system. In some cases all I can do is watch or listen, or read, but sometimes I can talk to the system itself, and change what it hears."
"So you can manipulate it?" Misaki said, frowning. She didn't know much about computers or networking, but that seemed like an exceptionally subtle and dangerous power. No wonder the Syndicate wanted her under their eye.
Aisha shrugged, but now there was a mischievous quirk to her smile.
"Alright - and your payment? I'm guessing it has to do with those." She pointed to the magazines that Aisha was still holding.
Aisha looked down at her hands, slightly perplexed. "No."
"You were walking around your cell with them on your head," Navid pointed out.
"Right; because I'd just used my power, so I needed to pay my price."
"But -" Navid began, clearly exasperated.
Aisha patted the baseball cap that still sat over her thick hair. "I have to cover my head. Usually I wear a hat, but they wouldn't let me keep it in my cell."
"So you used magazines instead," Misaki said. "Then…why do you still have those?"
"Hm? Oh - Moriyama told me to take all my things. I asked if I could take these, and he said he didn't care. So I did."
"Alright," Misaki said, a bit confused. "Are there any particular rules or restrictions attached to your payment? Obviously it doesn't have to be a hat, but is there any kind of time box? How long of a delay can you stand before you have to pay?" Normally this was the sort of information that Section Four might use to track or predict a contractor that they were after; but if Aisha was going to work with them, it became an issue of liability.
"It's proportional - the longer I use my power, the sooner I have to make my payment, and the longer it takes." She patted the top of her head again. "That's why I like to wear this; saves a lot of trouble if it's just on all the time."
In an interview with a normal human, Misaki would have asked questions about her early life - hometown, family, schooling, any significant events. But contractors tended to regard their lives before turning as unimportant to the point of being completely meaningless; so instead she asked, "When did you become a contractor?"
"June eighth, two thousand two."
"And how old were you?"
"Nineteen."
"Was the Syndicate your first employer?"
Aisha nodded. "Yeah. I was in Karachi scamming a Chinese shipping company; turned out there was a Syndicate member working for them. He caught me and told me that I could keep doing what I was doing, as long as it was what they told me to do instead. Or else they would hunt me down and kill me. Seemed like a good deal, so I took it."
"'Scamming'?" Saitou asked with a frown.
"Stealing their money," Aisha clarified. "It was pretty easy - just tell the system to move certain small transactions here instead of there." She shrugged. "I wasn't very subtle in those days; it was only a matter of time."
"Any chance of us getting the name of this Chinese Syndicate member?" Navid asked.
Aisha shrugged again. "Sure. Ho Jong. He's dead now, of course, so you can't talk to him."
"We may still be able to run down some of his connections," Misaki said, making a mental note to pass the name on to Jouda in Section Two. Interpol might have some useful information as well. "So you've worked for the Syndicate since then? Eventually we'll need a complete account of your history with them, but it's getting late so we can wait on that. For now I want to focus on the previous year. You were arrested in Sapporo, right?"
"No; Vladivostok."
Misaki blinked. "What?" she said, at the same time Kouno said, "Where?"
"City near the border of North Korea and China. Russia," Aisha said.
"I know where Vladi - vas…vo…whatever - is," Kouno muttered.
"But your arrest papers - were fake anyway," Misaki realized. "Tsukuda probably used Sapporo for convenience, and to add another layer to the paper trail. What were you doing in Russia?"
"The Syndicate had me stationed there for a few months to monitor communications coming out of North Korea."
"North Korea?" Saitou frowned. "Why would the Syndicate care about them?"
Misaki nodded in agreement with the question. As far as she - Section Four - knew, that country had no state-employed contractors and nothing in the way of Gate-related research.
Aisha folded her legs up sit cross-legged on the chair. Ootsuka watched her with pursed lips. "There were rumors that the military there had come across a Gate artifact, and were trying to weaponize it."
"I suppose they didn't want the competition," Misaki said sourly. "Were the rumors true?"
"I don't think so; I think it was just an excuse. What I found out after doing some digging was that a Syndicate scientist - some kind of engineer - had been a spy for the government there, and had gone back to Korea to develop Gate-based technology. Once I located him, they sent in an assassin and killed him before he could give them too much."
Misaki thought about that, tapping her pen on her wrist absently. "If you were just doing what they told you to do, then why did they arrest you? That information doesn't sound like anything that would be necessary to keep under wraps, in and of itself."
"Well…I guess I got a little too curious after that. It seemed strange that an engineer would be so dangerous, especially if he was in a country that didn't have access to the Gate. So instead of listening in on just North Korea's communications, I started talking to the Syndicate's networks, trying to trace back to the project that he'd been working on for them."
"I'm guessing you found it?"
"It took a long time - their networks are a huge maze, with firewalls and security systems everywhere. But I finally found a subsystem that was devoted to some project named Jupiter. I never had a chance to look into it though; I must have tripped some kind of alarm at some earlier point, because they sent someone to grab me."
"Grab you?" Kouno asked.
Aisha nodded. "Right out of my chair. One minute I was sitting in my pajamas" she gestured down at her clothing "in my flat, staring at a computer screen, and then the next there was a gag in my mouth and someone was tying my hands together. I only got a glimpse of a creepy white face reflected in the monitor before a cloth bag went over my head."
Kouno gave a low whistle, while Misaki's grip tightened on her pen.
"Whattaya think?" Kouno asked, turning to the rest of their team. "Sound like someone we know?"
Matsumoto nodded thoughtfully; Ootsuka looked a little frightened. Saitou was steadfastedly avoiding Misaki's eyes.
"Whether it was BK-201 or not doesn't matter," Misaki snapped without meaning to. "We know he worked for the Syndicate up until one month ago; right now all I'm interested in is what Aisha can tell us about them. So," she turned to the contractor, "what happened after that?"
"The guy put me in a van and we drove; then I got transferred to what sounded like a helicopter; then a boat. They never took the bag off my head until I was inside the prison, and no one ever said anything except things like 'keep walking' or 'sit here'."
"That sounds awful," Ootsuka said softly. Everyone turned to her.
Aisha shrugged. "I guess. It took hours and hours, and they never gave me a single thing to eat or drink until I was in my cell. But it was better than being dead."
"That's still awful," the Astronomics liaison said again. She blushed and stared down at her hands. "I'm sorry that happened to you."
"Well," Misaki said, "the Syndicate being awful is the reason that we're here. Aisha."
The contractor was staring at Ootsuka curiously. "Hm?"
"I told you at the prison that I wanted your help investigating Hourai's murder. That's true, but it's only part of it - I think he was killed because he was about to give me information regarding the location of the Syndicate's servers. That's what we really need in order to bring them down for good." She wanted to rub her forehead in frustration; instead she settled for tapping her pen on her wrist. "When you told me that you'd been arrested for hacking into those servers, I had assumed they would be in Sapporo, since that was what your arrest papers said. But if you were in Russia…it won't be easy to gain Russian cooperation for our investigation."
Aisha's eyes widened. "Oh, no, the servers were definitely in Sapporo."
"What?" Misaki said, her heart lifting slightly.
"Well, a subnet, anyway. I was in Vladivostok, but the system that I was talking to had IP addresses in Sapporo."
"Then that's good news, right?" Saitou asked. "Where in Sapporo are they?"
Aisha shook her head. "I didn't try and find out; I was reading project files, not looking for the physical location of the subnet. And anyway, they kept cycling through a dozen different addresses; I would have no idea which one was right."
"But you remember them?" Misaki asked. Her head was already hurting; she knew nothing about computer networks.
The contractor looked slightly offended. "Of course I remember them."
Misaki nodded in relief. "Then we'll start tracking them down first thing in the morning. We'll have to proceed carefully; the Syndicate still has some kind of line on our activities and we don't want to accidentally tip them off."
"Maybe Mr. Nakahara can help?" Ootsuka suggested. "He used to be stationed in Sapporo, didn't he?"
Misaki pressed her mouth into a thin line. She really didn't want to bring Kaede directly into this; he had always had a habit of taking over any project, regardless of his ability. But Ootsuka was, unfortunately, right - Kaede might have some useful connections outside of the official channels that they could lean on until she felt confident in acting. She sighed. "He's in Geneva for another couple of days; let's do what we can on our own, then bring him in as necessary. For now, go home and get some rest - I want to start pushing tomorrow, and pushing hard."
"Great," Kouno said, yawning widely. "But how about dinner first - McDoness? We haven't that in a while."
Ootsuka shot Misaki a glance that was probably supposed to be surreptitious. "Kouno, not McDoness - we'd said we'd try and eat healthier, remember?"
A wave of guilt at Ootsuka's emphasis on healthier washed over Misaki. The team hadn't had fast food in the office since a night several weeks ago in which Misaki, during a particularly bad bout of nausea, had snapped at them for eating garbage, then spent the rest of the evening working alone in her office.
"Order whatever you all want," she told them now. Scents had been much less triggering in the past week; she could probably handle it as long as she didn't eat anything greasy herself. "Just pick up a salad for me."
~~~~o~~~~
Dinner turned out to be an awkward affair, with none of her team quite comfortable with chatting casually in front of the contractor yet. Aisha, on the other hand, wolfed down her hamburger as if she hadn't eaten in months. As soon as Aisha was finished, Misaki said goodnight to her team and left with the contractor to pick up the basics at a nearby discount shopping center - toiletries, and a couple of office-appropriate outfits.
It was the longest hour Misaki had ever spent. Aisha was intrigued by everything she saw, and her fashion sense ran more towards the street than professional aesthetics. At first Misaki assumed it was just a natural reaction, after being imprisoned for over a year, but by the end of the trip she was pretty sure that that was just how the woman was.
As they walked up to the register with Aisha's purchases, Misaki handed her an envelope. "An advance on your stipend," she explained. "You'll be paid monthly. It's not a lot, but it should be enough for rent and meals. If you work well with us, I may be able to give you an increase after a few months."
Aisha opened the envelope. "I've never seen Japanese money before. How does it work?"
"I'll explain it after we pay," Misaki said quietly. The teenage girl at the cash register was staring openly at Aisha's odd appearance, smacking a piece of chewing gum.
"Are you alright?" the girl asked the contractor around her gum.
Aisha, who hadn't understood a word of the Japanese, turned blankly to Misaki.
"She's fine," Misaki said. "She just…lost her shoes. Can you ring us up?"
"Sure. Hey, you look really familiar - you're that cop from the news, aren't you!" The girl glanced wide-eyed from Misaki to Aisha, looking her over once again. "Is she a - one of them?"
"What is she saying?" Aisha asked Misaki. "Is it not enough money?"
"She's wondering if you're a contractor," Misaki said brusquely, pushing the items across the counter at the girl. This is why she hated shopping. "Will you ring us up, please? We're in a hurry."
The girl obliged, scanning the tags without looking away from the contractor. "My friend Mako saw this article online about contractors - it said they glow blue when they use their powers. Is that really true? Do contractors glow? Hey, what's her power - is she dangerous? Are you taking her to prison?"
"Why would I be helping her buy toothpaste if I was taking her to prison?" Misaki snapped, exasperated.
Aisha drummed her fingers on the counter idly; the girl jumped, and stopped talking as she finished scanning the items. "I could tell the register that everything costs nothing," Aisha said. "It would be easy."
The statement was innocent enough, but Misaki didn't like the suggestion in her voice. "No," she said. "We'll go over everything in detail at the office tomorrow, but as long as you're working with the police, you will abide by the law. No exceptions."
The contractor didn't look terribly happy about that, but she didn't comment.
At last everything was paid for; they returned to the car, Aisha with her shopping and Misaki with a massive headache. It had begun to rain when they pulled up outside the small, shabby yet tidy apartment complex.
"I know the landlady here," Misaki said as she made a dash for the covered stairs - Aisha walked slowly behind her, staring up at the dark, rainy sky. "A lot of foreigners stay here, so you'll be able to get by with English; but you should probably start working to learn Japanese."
Aisha nodded, looking around her with interest. Misaki led her down to the second-to-last door and took out the key. She hesitated, casting one long look at the dark window of apartment 201; then she unlocked the door to number 202 and turned on the lights. "I'm sorry there isn't much," she told Aisha. "It just comes furnished with a futon and a table. But maybe you can pick up some things, brighten it up a little."
The contractor stood in the center of the room, staring wide-eyed. "It's…huge!" she said.
"Do you like it?" Misaki smiled sadly. The apartment was a mirror image of Hei's, and she felt a little disoriented to be standing in it, a world that was the exact opposite of how things should be. "There's a view of the Gate out the back window, though you can't see much of it at night."
At the mention of Hell's Gate, Aisha shuddered a little. "I thought I felt something strange here, ever since I was first thrown into the prison. The Gate…that makes sense."
"Well, I'll let you get settled. And you should get some rest; I'll pick you up at seven tomorrow morning." She pulled a cheap cell phone from her pocket. "Here. My number's programmed in; call if you need anything."
Aisha nodded distractedly, already dumping her shopping out of the bags and onto the futon. Misaki set the phone on the kitchen counter. "See you tomorrow."
"Acting Director?"
Misaki turned back. "Yes?"
"Thanks. I hope I'll be able to help."
She said it without any emotion; Misaki couldn't tell if she meant the words, or was merely saying them because they were the conventional thing to say.
"I hope so too," Misaki said. "Good night."
~~~~o~~~~
Her own apartment was dark and empty when she arrived home. Misaki changed into her pajamas before curling up on the sofa with a hot cup of ginger tea steaming between her hands, while she listened to the rain sheeting down outside.
Her father had been released back home this afternoon after a search of his apartment had yielding nothing incriminating. She had been half expecting him to call; it shouldn't be a big deal if they talked now that his confession was recorded and he'd been seen by the prosecutor. But - she checked her call log one more time - there had been nothing from him at all.
The ultrasound photo was still sitting out on the coffee table. Misaki stared at it without really seeing. She hadn't realized how much she had subconsciously been depending on her father's support and acceptance; she had Kanami, of course, but her dad was her dad - they'd done their best for each other after Yasuko had passed, and Misaki had never doubted that he would always be there for her.
Maybe he just hadn't wanted to disturb her, knowing that she was busy with her case. She flipped open her phone again, and dialed.
It rang several times, before going to voicemail. Misaki sighed, and closed her eyes.