Bubblegum Crisis Post 2040 Fanfic Series

Bubblegum Crisis Post 2040 File 1: Dominant Species

Part 2: Hunters

Chapter 22: Opportunity For Improvement

by P. Kristen Enos (bgcpost2040@aol.com)

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A Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040 English Dub Version Fanfic. All rights belong to AIC, ADV Films and the other creative powers that be. I just want credit for writing the story. Contains spoilers! Rated PG13. Yuri warning! Nothing in here should be a shock if you've watched the episodes and paid attention. All I'm doing is filling in the gaps with my own interpretation of events! Special thanks to egret for betaing!

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" - And we will certainly keep you viewers posted of any new developments on this case!" the newscaster promised earnestly into the TV camera. "Now, for the weather - ."

Quincy clicked the off button on the remote control and tossed it onto his desk. He leaned back in his chair with a satisfied look.

"I haven't seen such hungry news coverage since the revolution," he mused. "The lack of facts is obviously driving the press and public crazy."

"That part of the plan went perfectly," Madison agreed. She had come into his office just in time to see this latest news blurb. Now that the TV was off, she took the opportunity to tell him the latest news. "I just spoke with Dr. Yamada. He asked for the rest of the week off, saying his fiancée is in the hospital. Just as we expected he would."

"Did he say why she was in the hospital?"

"No. I think Dr. Yamada received the message loud and clear."

"Well, we still have some time to test him out. Since we conducted the trial without his knowledge, he may feel a little secure in his status as an innocent party. He may change his mind in the next few days about saying anything to the police so continue to keep an eye on him," Quincy mused. "However, I do believe he will keep quiet in the end. He knows Irene wouldn't be shot with just a tranquilizer dart the next time. And I would hate to kill him. After all, he did provide our company with valuable years of service."

"What about our client? Have you talked to him yet?"

"He's very pleased with the results. Especially if we can maintain the public status as an unsolved crime. And thanks to the police department's own secrecy, our client doesn't yet know about our loose end. I'm trying to figure out how to deal with that once the news becomes public. Have the police uncovered anything else?"

Madigan shook her head as she scanned her data pad. "Not in their internal communications. They're doing the standard forensics research but we know they won't uncover anything that will lead to anything, much less back to us. Detective Wong hasn't yet filed a report but our sources confirmed that he went to the hospital this morning to interview Ms. Chen. If she points him in the path of trying to hunt down our girls, should we terminate her or him?"

Quincy shook his head. "Spare Ms. Chen for now; she's too valuable as our leverage to keeping Dr. Yamada quiet. It was just bad timing that she happened to be down in the plaza area instead of inside of the gym as planned. However, it's not as if our girls have names and addresses they can be traced to. Just instruct the lab to change their appearances as soon as they've finished downloading all of the data from the trial. That should remove any risk of Ms. Chen being able to identify them. And keep on eye on Detective Wong. I'd be curious to see what he uncovers. Now, what about our loose end? Have you figured out who she is?"

"Yes, her file has been transferred to your directory."

Quincy pulled up the file on his terminal to see the picture and data flash on his screen. "She's cute. Linna Yamazaki, hmm?"

"She works as an O.L. for Hugh Geit. She's also a member of the gym, which is obviously why she was there that night. And she is apparently a friend of Ms. Chen, given that they were talking to each other at the time of the trial's start. Her official records indicate that she's unmarried, lives by herself, and her family is in the country. However, the report submitted by Dr. Sonoda, the physician who examined her this morning, indicated a female significant other. There's nothing else noteworthy about her."

"What's Dr. Yuri's explanation for why she's still alive?" Quincy asked as he skimmed the data.

"Sylvie's is the only file they've been able to analyze so far. But it seems that as soon as Ms. Yamazaki passed out, Sylvie registered her as deceased and removed her from her target list. It would stand to reason that the other girls had a similar response. Sylvie's audio and video recorders didn't pick up anything unusual in the environment which would have caused such a reaction in the woman. And in pulling Ms. Yamazaki's medical files, it seems she's had a history of black outs and migraines for the past couple of years. However, she never went and received medical treatment for them so her records up until today were clean. We only know about her previous black-outs because she admitted them to Dr. Sonoda, who included the information in her medical report."

"Has Ms. Yamazaki check out of the hospital yet?"

"No, our contact indicated that she's staying there for at least one more night for observation."

Quincy finished reading the file and looked at his assistant. "What are the ramifications and risks if we allow her to live?"

Madigan mulled that over for a bit and then answered, "She could potentially reinforce Ms. Chen's assessment that our girls were involved since the recordings did show that she saw them before passing out. This could also compromise our client's wishes about making this trial as simple as possible since two living witnesses will definitely make it harder for government officials to abandon such a case. Otherwise, she's of no risk to us."

"And if she was terminated?"

"Depending on how it was done. If we chose the most discreet method possible, which could be helped by her personal medical condition, the police may not consider her part of the crime and therefore not investigate her further. And then our other risks are minimized all the way around, even with a surviving significant other."

Quincy leaned back in his chair and stared out of the window at the view of Tokyo Bay. He was quiet for a moment and then said, "Notify Dr. Yuri immediately that I have a special trial I want to set up for Sylvie tonight. Just do some basic cosmetic changes in her, like her hair color or something. But I want Sylvie to take a more hands on approach to this one so I can report a positive result to our client about the whole matter, as well as impress him even further."

"Yes, sir."

-- End Chapter 22 --

Special Author's Note: I've decided to try an experiment by using the Private Forum feature and allow for a public discussion (with occasional input from me) on this series: update notification, discuss what's currently going on, and explore ideas for future stories. Interested? Go here.