Chapter 09 – When Is A Rhino Not A Rhino?
It was the morning of 15th February, and the GGs were dozing.
The night before, Amy and Tab had updated each other on everything they'd both found out. They'd decided to say nothing about Breaker, yet, and see if he did anything else suspicious. Tab had been amazed to find out who Amy really was. They'd exchanged Valentine's gifts, and then met up with the other GGs.
Beat had apologised to Amy about what he'd said, and she'd apologised for not being able to save Gum. Then they'd all slept, each person knowing that tomorrow was the day. R-Day, as Tab termed it.
Beat stirred as he heard someone knock on the door. He sat up, and saw another letter being shoved under it.
"Hey, guys," he called. "It's the Rhino post."
GGs blinked, yawned and complained as Beat picked up the envelope.
"Come on," he said. "This could be important."
"Get on with it, then," Slate said.
Beat opened the envelope, took out two sheets of paper, and quickly scanned them. Then he froze. His face went dead white.
"What is it?" Tab asked. "What does it say?"
Beat swallowed. "It says, 'It's – it's good to see that…" His voice sounded strained. "To see that you obeyed my – my instructions. As you – as you can see…"
He stopped. "I can't do this."
"What? What's so horrifying?" Cube said.
Beat dropped the papers, then turned and dashed towards the garage door. "I'll be back in a minute…"
The door slammed behind him.
Mew walked over and picked up the letter Beat had been reading from. "It says, 'It's good to see that you obeyed my instructions. As you can see, I am serious about this. The evidence enclosed in this letter is from your friend. Don't forget, I am expecting you at ten p.m. today, 15th February. Notifying the police, failing to arrive, or in any other way disobeying these instructions will lead to the death of the girl."
"What made Beat freak out then? What's the 'evidence enclosed?' " Tab asked.
Mew picked up the other piece of paper, and shuddered. "I think they mean this."
She turned the paper round, and there was a collective gasp.
One piece of paper had been stuck onto another, and the front piece was covered with blood. It had dried to a rusty brown, but you could see where it had flowed, where it had soaked through the paper.
"That – that's from our friend, is it?" Tab said. "I'll see if Beat's okay."
He got up and headed out of the garage. Beat had just finished being violently sick in an alleyway.
"You okay?" Tab called.
Beat was shivering. "What did they do to her?"
"Probably they just cut her and smeared it around a bit," Tab said, trying to sound positive.
Beat groaned.
"Look, they don't want her to snuff it before we get there."
"How do you know?" Beat said. "This is the Rhinos we're talking about. They're not exactly famed for being gentle and fair."
"I don't think they've killed her," Tab said, talking to himself as much as his friend.
"Oh, yeah? Why not?"
"If they had there'd have been a lot more blood."
"Don't say that."
"Look, we'll go at the right time, and it'll all be fine. You okay to go back inside?"
"Yeah…I guess so. I wouldn't have run out, it was just a shock, that's all."
"Sure it was."
They walked back into the garage.
"Right," Beat said, anger filling his voice, "I want to see who's delivering this stuff."
"A Rhino, surely," Mew said.
"Oh, yeah? And how do you reckon he'd go about on the streets without causing an outcry? Everyone knows the Rhinos and what they did."
"Well, do you think we're likely to get another letter? Koji's made his point."
"I know he has, but I want to make mine!"
"Hey, cool it," Combo said. "If you want, me and Slate can wait out there and see if anyone comes, and if it's not anyone dangerous we can grab 'em."
"Good." Beat clenched his fists. "I'm sick of this."
Combo and Slate went out to lurk by the garage door, and the rest of the GGs waited. No one really felt like tagging. Everyone was quiet, which in itself was quite unusual.
Amy leant back against the sound system and sighed. Music had been banned because of the mind-control risks. It made the silence heavier, and the atmosphere depressingly solemn.
It was about two o' clock when it happened.
There was the sound of tapping footsteps approaching the garage door. Amy sat up and listened. She saw another envelope slide slowly underneath.
The garage was silent.
Suddenly there was a loud crash of a dustbin hitting the pavement. Someone yelled, "Let go of me, you freaks!" Someone else gasped as though they'd been hit. Slate shouted, "Oh, no, you don't!" Another crash. A yelp. Some dashing footsteps, and then the garage door was flung open.
Slate and Combo entered, dragging Breaker.
"Here's your Rhino postman," Slate said, pulling the ex-Jammer forward.
"Huh?" Garam looked at them. "I don't understand, you said you hated the Rhinos!"
"Look, I can explain," Breaker said. He didn't look very happy.
"Then do. We'd love to hear it." Beat was glaring at him.
Breaker swallowed. "I didn't know you'd get so freaked out by what was sent. If I'd known you'd be that screwed up by it I wouldn't have done it…"
"Why did you do it?" Tab asked.
"I did lose this leg cos of the Rhinos, okay? That was true, what I told Garam. I did want revenge. Then – then someone approached me, and told me they were sorry 'bout what happened. They said they'd give me a job."
"Which was what? Being a lousy, sneaky, two-bit traitor?" Garam snapped.
"They said they wanted to increase communication between the rudies and the Rokkaku."
"Oh, please," Mew said. "You knew what was going on, you knew Koji was summoning a demon, and you knew that they'd kidnapped Gum."
"And you must have warned them about us," Amy said. "My aunt saw you go into the building just before Gum and I got there. No wonder there was only one alarm. They were expecting us."
"And no wonder you knew how to locate Koji's files and get in through the back way!" Garam stood up. "They'd told you everything!"
"Hey, cool it." Tab quickly moved between Garam and Breaker. "Who exactly told you to do this? Koji?"
"No, I never met him. It was one of the Assassins, I don't know which. He brought Koji's orders to me and he took my info to Koji."
"Info about what?" demanded Slate.
"About the music. About when you guys were gonna spy. About everything." Breaker's voice broke a little. "Look, I was starving, okay? I was on the streets! He said he'd pay me and I needed the money. I was told to try and pal up with you guys. That's why I spoke to Garam in Kogane-cho."
"But Koji might be going to destroy the world!" Cube said. "You as well as us! Didn't that occur to you?"
"I never got the chance to ask," Breaker said. "What he would do, I mean. At first I thought he was just trying to help the company. When I downloaded that file I was curious…when I read it I got worried. I told Koji I'd quit. I was told if I did the Rhinos would tell you guys what I'd done. Then I'd be screwed."
He sighed. "So, what're you gonna do now? Tagging me ten times'll be a waste of paint. I haven't been a rudie for months. So you may as well tar and feather me or whatever and get it over with."
"You're damn right you aren't a rudie," Beat snapped. "No rudie would do what you did."
Breaker sighed, and gazed down at the floor. "I'm sorry, okay? I didn't know what they sent you in that envelope."
"I'll show you what they sent us." Beat grabbed the previous letter off the floor and showed Breaker the bloodstained paper. "That's Gum's blood. I don't know how they got it. It could be they cut her finger or it could be they cut her throat."
Breaker swallowed as he stared at the stains. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I – I didn't think they'd do stuff like this."
"They're Rhinos!" Beat shouted.
"Well, maybe I didn't want to know what they were doing!" shouted Breaker. "You try and see how bloody ethical you are when you haven't eaten for four days!"
There was an angry silence. At last Cube said, "Well, what are we going to do now?"
"You gonna carry on spying?" Garam asked. "Cos if you are you better not come back here."
"How can I? You got wise to me."
"Then go back to them," Amy said. "Be a double agent. It might help us. It could be like repayment for spying on us. Spy on them."
Breaker shrugged. "They don't tell me much. But I'll try."
Slate and Combo let go of him, and he walked towards the door. "I gotta tell them delivery was successful." He opened it, and stood silhouetted in the sunlight. "See y'around."
There was a shot.
Breaker dropped to the ground.
Amy rushed over to the doorway and looked out. She could just see a winged figure skimming away through the skyscrapers.
"Assassin #2," Tab said. "Looks like they were tracking their spy."
Breaker was lying there, blood pooling through his shirt. The other GGs were clustered round him. Slate was checking for a pulse. Then he stood up.
"He's dead," he said.
"Shit." Garam looked shell-shocked. "Can't we call an ambulance or nothing?"
"We can try," Slate said. "But I don't think they'll be able to save him."
He was right. They couldn't.
The GGs trailed back to the garage. It was now three-thirty.
"What was in the letter?" Cube said as they walked inside.
"What letter?" Mew said.
"The one Breaker was delivering."
Beat picked it off the floor where it had lain since they'd left for the hospital. His hand was shaking slightly.
"It just feels like a normal letter," he said. "I mean, there doesn't seem to be anything else in there…"
Like a finger, Amy thought.
"I'll open it if you want," Mew said.
"No." Beat slit the envelope. "I'm not scared of them."
He took out the paper, and began to read.
"These are your final instructions. Tonight, at ten p.m., I wish to see all nine of you at the Rokkaku building. Come to the front door and say that you have come to see Koji Rokkaku. Once inside follow all instructions given to you. You will meet with your missing gang member. Do not notify the police and do not disobey these instructions or else she will die."
He crumpled the paper. "Well, that's clear enough. So everyone's agreed – we go, like it says?"
"Yeah. Don't see there's much else we can do," Tab said.
"Well, we're taking paint. We've all got skates – oh. Amy, maybe you better not come."
"But it says all nine of us," Amy said, trying to fight down the hurt she was feeling. "I've got to go."
"Here," Tab said. "You can borrow mine, and go practise on 'em for now. I'll come with you."
He shepherded her out of the door.
After three hours of skating, Amy had finally mastered grinding. Sort of.
"But it's one thing grinding along a railing a foot from the ground," she said as they walked back into the garage. "It'll be another doing it on top of the Rokkaku building." She licked a finger and rubbed at the grazes speckling her knees and shins. "And I don't even have skates."
"That's where you're wrong!" Tab grinned.
"Huh?"
He dragged a box out from behind the sound system. "I thought you could use these."
Amy opened it, her hands trembling. Inside were a pair of skates, painted in swirling shades of blue, like the tag she'd done for the GGs ages ago.
"Oh, wow…" Her mouth fell open. "You – you got them for me?"
"Well, who else would I get 'em for?"
"But – but you already gave me a Valentine's Day gift."
"This isn't a Valentine's Day gift, though, is it? This is a survival gift. I just thought you'd like them."
Amy jumped to her feet and hugged him. "Thank you…thank you so much…"
"Ah, come off it." Tab straightened his hat. "It was nothing. All in a day's work."
Amy kicked off her shoes and tried the skates on. "And they fit…how did you…"
"Detective work, honey." Tab bowed. "Well? Am I marvellous?"
Amy felt tears sting her eyes as she stood up again, now as tall as Tab on her skates. "You're the best…"
Tab kissed her. "I know."
Gum was dragged out of a deep, dark well of sleep by rough hands shaking her awake.
"Come on, rudie, some of us have lives to get back to."
She shook her head, trying to throw off the drowsiness that clung to her brain, but it was no good. She swallowed down a yawn and opened her eyes.
Still darkness. And now she was cold as well.
Suddenly she felt something being forced down over her head, some sort of mask. She struggled and a fist hit her in the stomach. Before she could recover, she had lost her vision completely.
And her hearing. She could dimly hear the voices of the people who'd woken her, but only faintly, like she was underwater.
"Get this thing off me!" she snapped, but she had a horrible feeling they could no more hear her than she could hear them.
The mask went over her face and covered the back of her head. It seemed to be made of some sort of plastic. It smelt of glue and tools, a scent which caught in her throat and tongue.
Someone pushed her up and forward, the soles of her shoes catching on the stony floor. She was no longer wearing her skates, instead it felt like some sort of platform shoes. There were hands on her arms, keeping her moving.
Her bare arms.
For one horrible moment she thought she must be naked. Then, slowly, she realised she appeared to be wearing some sort of bikini.
"What the hell is going on?" she muttered. Someone was shoving her along, making her move quickly.
"Tell me I'm not going to become Koji's sex slave," she muttered to herself. She knew none of them could hear her, but it made her feel better to hear herself speak. She was still alive.
They made her stop walking. They stood there for a second, then she felt her stomach drop as they began to rise. They were going up in a lift.
"I'm not scared," she said. "I'm not scared. Nothing's gonna happen. I'm not scared. Oh, who am I kidding?"
The lift stopped at last, and she was pushed out of it. There was a mutter of voices. Gum strained to listen but she couldn't pick out any words.
She focused on it desperately, because she could feel the terror at losing her other senses rising up her mind. Get me out, she begged silently, not speaking now because she knew her voice would tremble. Get me out…
Now she was going up steps. She stumbled on her platforms, stubbed her toe on a step, and yelped, but the hands on her arms forced her on. She counted the steps – there were six – and then suddenly she felt icy cold air on her skin.
The ground under her feet changed. Her shoes kept tripping over what felt like deep grooves.
Grooves.
I'm on the roof, Gum realised. I'm on the Rokkaku building roof, I'm blind, deaf and dumb, and I'm wearing a bikini. Shit.
And they've set up the same old turntable of evil and they're going to unleash a demon or something.
Why am I up here?
Well, either they're going to throw me off –
Gum shuddered. She realised she was putting one foot in front of the other with no guarantee that there'd be any floor to land on. She tried to stop walking, but someone shoved her and she stumbled a few steps.
Okay, either they're going to throw me off, or…
She tried to think, to remember how the roof had looked when they'd been up there the year before. Goji in the middle in a glass DJ's booth…the huge record spinning under their feet…the two girls in rhino masks trapped inside glass cases…
Oh.
Gum felt something hard crash into her shins. Someone was shoving her upwards, their hands under her arms. She fell onto her knees, but the floor felt different now – not like the grooved surface of a record any more. She reached out, trying to get some clue as to what was going on, and touched glass walls.
There was the sound of a door behind her slamming shut.
I've become a Rhino girl, she realised.
"Earplugs," Tab said.
"Huh?"
"They might have mind control music. So I got us earplugs."
It was nine-thirty. The GGs were preparing to go to the Rokkaku rendezvous.
"What, you went out and bought nine pairs of earplugs?" Beat said. "Didn't you get some strange looks?"
"So they thought I had some sort of earplug fetish. It'll be worth our while."
Amy looked out at the dark street that passed in front of the garage. She was wearing her skates, she was equipped with as much paint as she could carry, and she was with friends.
So why did she feel so terrified?
The other GGs didn't look too happy either, though. Beat kept glancing out at the darkness and sighing, Garam was lurking in the corner with heartbreak in his eyes, Cube was pacing the floor, Combo was listening very hard to his ghetto-blaster, Slate was playing pinball and not complaining when he lost, Yo-Yo was talking maniacally to Mew, and Mew was automatically flirting back at him.
"Don't worry." Tab walked over to stand next to her.
"Don't worry? Tab, he's gonna unleash a demon – or something – and we're going to be a hundred feet up watching him do it. Add to that the fact that he's already had one of us murdered and that he's secretly my cousin, and I think you'll agree I can be worried."
Tab grinned, but she could see he wasn't totally calm either. "No, I mean it. Don't worry. I'll take care of you."
It melted the chill in Amy's heart, and she clutched his hand.
"Come on, guys," Beat called from behind them. "Let's go. Everyone got their earplugs in?"
The GGs nodded.
"It doesn't work, though," Mew said. "It just fades the sound out a bit, it doesn't block it."
"Well, every little helps. Let's get moving."
The GGs trailed out of the garage into the darkness.
Gum had almost dozed off, when suddenly she heard music echoing in her ears.
Grace And Glory. She clapped her hands over the sides of her mask, but the music was coming from speakers inside it. Cursing, she wished she'd been able to pull off the mask. She'd tried, earlier, but it fitted her too snugly.
As the music droned through her brain, she felt herself rise to her feet. Her heart pounded as she realised she hadn't chosen to. The music was controlling her.
And she could still notice it. Odd, that.
The air rushed over her arms as they moved. She tried to stop them, but they kept on going as though they weren't part of her body at all.
She was dancing for the Rhinos now.
Stop it! she thought angrily. Stop making me do stuff I don't want to do! Stop it!
Flip the rap, split the track…
Stop!
Flip the rap, split the track…
Get me out of here!
Flip the rap, split the track…(Are you okay?)
Huh? Gum felt her mouth drop open. Was she going nuts, or had the music just spoken to her?
(Gum, is that you?)
What's going on? she thought. Who's talking to me?
(Gum, it's me.)
Who's me?
(It's Piranha.)
The GGs clustered outside the Rokkaku building. They were all silent now. The building was dark, but on top of the roof there was a blaze of light.
"Doesn't look good," Tab muttered.
Beat looked at his watch. It was 9:55.
He knocked on the door of the building.
The intercom crackled, and a female voice said, "Please state your business with the Rokkaku Corporation."
"Uh – we're here to see Koji Rokkaku."
"Oh." The voice sounded cool. "Are you the bunch of kids he mentioned?"
"Probably."
"All right." The door buzzed. "Please come in."
Beat pushed the door open, and they trooped into the lobby. It was empty except for the secretary, who was looking rather nervously at them.
"Just a minute." She picked up her phone, pressed a button on the keypad, and said, "Mr Rokkaku, the people you told me about are here. May I leave now?"
She put down the receiver and quickly got to her feet. "Please wait here. Someone will be down to see you directly."
She put on her coat, and hurried out of the building.
The strip lighting above them flickered. The shadows cast by desks and chairs seemed deeper.
I don't want to be here, Amy thought. I really don't.
But she wasn't going to run out. No way.
"So we wait, then?" Mew said.
"Doesn't seem as though there's much else we can do." Beat sighed.
A clock ticked somewhere in the room, echoing Amy's heartbeats. The place smelt of carpets, printer's ink, cigarette smoke. Normal office stuff. But the air in the building seemed tense, like it was waiting for something. It was stifling conversation and magnifying the sounds around them.
Like footsteps.
Amy looked up as a posse of men in black suits entered the room. She heard Mew whimper, and next to her, Tab gulped.
"Nice to see you again, rudies," said one of them. "Now if you'd like to follow us…"
Something in his tone implied that liking didn't come into it much. They would follow, or else.
The men led the way to the lift in the corner. It was a large one, big enough to accommodate both GGs and Rhinos.
"Your little blonde friend's fine," said one of the Rhinos as the lift began to rise. "Not everyone is who goes snooping around, though, you know."
"What, like you did in Tokyo-to?" Mew snapped.
The Rhino moved fast. Suddenly Mew had a knife pressed against her throat.
"Don't make me," he said. "Cos if you do, Koji'll be mad. He wants you all to be there for his little show."
He let go of Mew. Amy could feel herself trembling.
At last the lift stopped. Amy slid a little on her skates, and hoped she'd be able to keep upright. The doors opened, and the Rhinos escorted them out onto the floor that Amy remembered contained the Rokkaku twins's bedrooms. They were led round the corner to a flight of steps. One of the Rhinos unlocked the trapdoor at the top and motioned for them to walk up and out.
Grace And Glory filtered through, muffled by the earplugs, but still loud enough to be familiar. Amy fought down the urge to rip off the plugs and just listen. The music was so – so something…
Beat took a deep breath and began to climb. The others followed him. Amy was last. She wriggled out onto the roof, feeling the wind whip at her hair and face, and looked around. Behind her the trapdoor slammed shut.
She was standing on a large, grooved surface which looked exactly like a gigantic record. Through the middle of it rose a glass case. Two other cases, attached to the central one by metal arms, spun slowly around, each one containing a girl in a red bikini and a rhino mask, dancing to the music. The entire scene was lit by a strange greenish light that warped colours and cast deep shadows over everything.
Amy tried to focus on the person in the central booth, but something was wrong. Her eyes didn't seem to be picking up enough messages. Every time she tried to look an argument broke out in her brain about what she was seeing.
Blinking, she stumbled a little as the record beneath her feet began to turn. Tokyo-to glittered below her. Suddenly she realised how high up they were, and shuddered.
"Glad you could make it."
The voice sounded like Koji's…sort of. Her brain was arguing about that just like it was arguing about who was in the control box. It was beginning to give her a headache. The other GGs looked disorientated as well.
"I'm sure you recognise this scenario. My late father was very specific about what it should look like."
"Where's my girlfriend?" Beat shouted.
"The young lady caught here two days ago will be restored to you eventually, don't worry."
What was wrong with her? Amy closed her eyes for a second, trying to ease the throbbing headache developing in her skull. Why couldn't she see or hear him properly?
It sounded like there were two voices…speaking together…and it looked like one image was being laid over another.
"But that wasn't my primary purpose for calling you here tonight. Take a good, long look at the city, GGs. I'm going to show it what the name of Rokkaku really means!"
"The Devil's Contract was a hoax!" Tab shouted. "You're crazy!"
The record spun faster and faster. Amy tried not to look at the far away ground.
"No, my father was crazy." That voice was made up of two familiar ones…but she couldn't pick them out. "I am quite, quite sane. I'm not relying on devils and superstition to take my revenge. I'm relying on technology."
"Like what?" Garam folded his arms and sneered. "Daleks?"
"Not quite. The free videos and computers the company gave out…they all had a little surprise packed into them."
Amy remembered the plans they'd heard the two workers discussing. The wind was buffeting her from side to side as they revolved above the city. "What sort of surprise?" she heard Mew ask.
The twisted voice sounded smug. "Just a little command to explode when they're switched on. The blast covers a fifty-metre radius. I think you'll agree that devastates the city more than any demon ever could."
Amy looked at the flickering figure, unable to take it in. She remembered how many Rokkaku vans they'd seen outside houses.
The city would be a fireball, with everyone in it trapped inside.
"Don't do it!" Beat's voice echoed around the sky. "You'll be ruined!"
"You think I care? The most important thing is to commemorate my father. Crazy he may have been, but he had a vision that only I can now carry out. I'm now going to pull the lever that will make the bombs ready to detonate. Watch and learn, GGs."
Amy saw a hand that couldn't decide its shape reach towards a lever in the booth.
Piranha? Gum wondered if she was going crazy. How can it be? You're dead.
She shivered. Tell me you're not a ghost.
(I'm not dead, Gum. I was kidnapped, brought here to the Rokkaku building. I've been here I don't know how long. They kept me drugged.)
I'm going nuts. Gum tried to pinch herself, but her arms were in the middle of a hip-swinging move and paid her no attention. I'm going crazy. The gas is making me hallucinate.
(No, it's not!) Piranha's tones were as clear as the music was. (Look, they confronted me and Garam. Knocked Garam out and grabbed me, ripped my goggles off and torched them for him to find, then knocked me out too. I came to in the Rokkaku basement. They gave me some food and told me I was here for good, that you guys thought I was dead.)
Damn right we did, Gum thought. We gave you a tombstone. Hang on – we found a body. It was wearing your watch. What's that all about?
(They took my watch away from me soon after I got here. I guess they must have put it on some other poor sap so that you'd really think I'd snuffed it. Anyway, they woke me up so I could eat but kept me drugged most of the time. Then I woke up and I was…wherever we are now, with a mask on. The music starts, I have to dance, and then suddenly I hear you shouting.)
How can we be talking like this, though? Gum wished she could tear off that damn mask. She wanted to see.
(You've got the music pumping through your ears, right?)
Right.
(I think it's somehow carrying our thought waves. It must be coming from the same source. You guys thought I was dead?)
We had a funeral. Garam's been really cut up about it. Well, we all have.
(Oh, man…) Piranha was silent for a moment, then she thought/said, (What's going on now? Do you know?)
We're the Rhino girls. Koji's doing something that I'll bet bears more than a passing resemblance to his father's little act last year.
(Uh-oh…Is there any way to get these masks off?)
Nope. We're stuck.
(Arrrgh!) Piranha's yell reverberated through Gum's head. (I don't believe this! Do the others know? Are they here?)
They know. I don't know if they're here.
(And all we can do is sit back while Koji destroys the world.)
"Stop!" Amy screamed. "Don't do it!"
"Why not?" The voice grated on her ears.
"You don't need to! You're rich, successful, good-looking – you don't need to throw it all away! They'll catch you. Even if you kill everyone in Tokyo-to, there are others. Someone will catch you." Whoever you are, she added silently. Was this blurring Koji's way of disguising himself?
She saw the GGs spreading out around the record, each person holding a paint can. Tab stayed with her, and whispered, "Keep him talking."
"Admit it." Amy's heart was pounding, but suddenly she was desperate to provoke a reaction. "This is suicide."
"You don't understand." The voice sounded bitter. "I have to do this. I've thought very hard about it. I'm not playing second fiddle any more."
"No one has to do something like this." Amy could see the GGs moving, leaping onto different parts of the roof, tagging, grinding, jumping. She wondered if they had a plan or if this was a last-ditch attempt to do something, anything.
"You don't know my motives." There was anger there now. Well, Amy didn't care about that. Anger was an old friend of hers.
"No motive is good enough to destroy people," she snapped. "What is your motive, anyway? Your father never give you enough attention so you're trying to upstage him?"
There was a short silence. Then the voice said, "I am doing this for him. I must do it."
"Why?" All Amy could think about was finding out the answer to that. She could no longer see Tokyo-to below her. That pause before the last answer. She'd struck a nerve.
"Surely he doesn't want to see someone succeeding where he failed?" she said. "Especially someone he never had faith in."
Silence.
"Is that it? Is it just plain old family jealousy?"
The figure turned a switch and suddenly Grace And Glory became much louder, booming out from the speakers around the roof into Amy's skull. She winced as Koji's image began to become clearer, and his voice became more whole. Her brain was putting up a fight, trying to blur the image again, but was slowly being crushed.
And then she got it.
"Tab!" she cried out. "The music's making us see things that aren't there – that's why he looks so warped, because we can't hear it properly so it isn't working as it should! We've got to try and turn it off!"
"How?" Tab clung onto his hat with one hand.
"The speakers. Try and put the speakers out of action."
"What about Dr Evil in there?" Tab indicated Koji.
"I'll deal with him." Amy shook her paint can. "Let's go."
She skated towards the booth, and began tagging it.
She saw Koji, his eyes wide with frustration, his image blurring round the edges like it had been edited badly – and then he was cut off, hidden from her by a swathe of paint.
Flip the rap, split the track, flip the rap, split the track…
Shut up, Amy told the music as she worked. I'm not interested in you.
Yes, you are, a voice whispered. Whether it was the music or her mind she didn't know.
If only she could hear it properly. It was so frustrating hearing it on the edge of her senses and not being able to enjoy it totally…
She put a hand up to her ear, to pull out the earplug.
No! What the hell are you doing? her brain yelled. Quickly she dragged her hand back down again and carried on painting. Koji was becoming hidden from view by the tags she was doing.
But she could feel the desire for the music sucking in her ribcage…she bit down on her lip to try and ignore it, but it was getting harder.
Hurry, get rid of it, she thought. Hurry.
No, don't…leave it…let it play…
Will you stop trying to think without me! Amy yelled at her brain.
Her hand stopped as she tried to tag.
She dropped the can.
She reached up to take out the earplugs.
"Amy, come on! What are you waiting for?"
She looked up. Tab was standing there, clutching his own paint.
"I've got Combo on it," he said. "He'll put the music off. Now ignore it, okay?"
Amy pushed away the begging voices inside her skull and picked up her paint again. She carried on tagging. She could still feel the yearning in her ears but Tab made it easier to ignore. He kept talking, and she focused on his words and his voice.
"The others're trying to distract his attention…Combo's going after the speakers, like I said…at least there's no demon, huh?"
"I suppose that's a blessing." They'd nearly covered the booth with tags now. Koji wouldn't be able to see them. But of course they couldn't see him,. and she didn't like that. She didn't trust him. What if he set off the bombs now?
"Isn't there anything else we can do?" she asked Tab.
"I'll see if anyone's got a phone on them." He turned and skated off again.
Amy tagged the last tag and breathed a sigh of relief. But the music was still playing.
Oh, come on, the voice in her mind murmured. What'll happen if you do listen? I don't think Koji's expecting anything to happen, or he'd be puzzled that it wasn't working.
Then why is it playing?
Amy followed the thought, holding onto it as her mind battered the storms of music.
She remembered what she'd shouted to Tab. Koji looked and sounded warped because the music wasn't being totally absorbed. So if they weren't wearing the earplugs, what would they be seeing and hearing?
Koji would seem completely normal. Their vision and hearing would seem unaffected.
And if there was no music, the same thing would apply.
But would they be seeing Koji?
It's someone else, Amy realised. Someone's setting Koji up for a fall.
(We've got to do something!) Piranha's voice rang in Gum's mind. (We can't just sit here!)
Can you stop dancing?
A pause, then Piranha thought/said, (Not really. But you fought the music when we first had it. Can't you do that again?)
Gum gritted her teeth and tried to stop moving. It didn't work. Her body wasn't listening to her. She couldn't even take one step that the music didn't want her to take.
How had she fought it before?
Of course. Beat had been kissing her at the time. Well, that was a fat lot of good now, wasn't it?
Unless she tried imagining…
Hang on, she told Piranha. I'm just gonna try something.
She closed her eyes, making the darkness thicker, and tried to remember how it felt to have him holding her.
Flip the rap, split the track, flip the rap, split the track…
Shut up, she told it. But her concentration had been broken. Feeling her brow wrinkle, she tried again.
But it was too hard to keep her thoughts straight in her mind.
"I love him," she said, hearing her voice echo inside the mask. "I love him. He always tries to make me happy. Even when he forgot Valentine's Day last year he tried to make up for it. He worried about me when the music made me freak. I love him, and he loves me."
That made her feel slightly better. Someone loved her. She carried on speaking, feeling strength forming inside her from her words.
"I can be really snappy to him sometimes, and he just forgives me for it. He doesn't laugh at me if I cry or anything, he just lets me and even when I get mad because I'm crying, he doesn't desert me."
Yes. She could feel it, she could almost regain control, it was there, just blocked by a thin wall of music.
Even as she carried on speaking, she was thinking. What can I do? I mayn't have much time. The music might drag me back down.
Well, I could start by getting this mask off. And there's got to be some way to do that or else they'd not be able to get it on me, right?
So if and when she could move, she'd start grabbing.
Keep on speaking.
"He never lorded it over me when it was just the three of us. He's never acted like that at all. He's not some stupid laddish prat with an attitude problem."
Yes. She could do it.
"I love him. I love him."
She felt the music's grip shatter like plate-glass, and instantly brought her hands up to her mask. She didn't grab at the back, like she'd tried earlier. She went for the chin, and she felt some sort of catch. Her fingers ached as she tried to open it. She could feel the music rushing back over her body, trying to force it into the set dance. She gritted her teeth and focused on everything she could think of: music, tagging, Tab, Crunchie bars, love, sunlight…
Click.
The mask fell off her face, and she could see.
She was standing, as she had thought, in a glass booth which was slowly orbiting a giant record. Dotted around the roof were bright figures she recognised as the other GGs. The sky was black, but light was shimmering around the rooftop from some source she couldn't pinpoint, making the whole scene look like it was on a stage. Piranha was in another booth, her skin warm against the red of her bikini, her head covered by a rhino mask.
Gum kicked at the glass, but it wouldn't break. But at least now the music was no longer there to control her, though she could still hear it ringing in the speakers of her mask.
But she couldn't hear anything else. The booth was soundproof.
And she'd lost contact with Piranha. Damn.
Think, Gum told herself. Think!
She pressed her face to the glass and stared out at the rudies. There were Amy and Tab, tagging the central booth…Combo slapping paint onto the giant Rokkaku speakers dotted around the roof…Mew standing still, talking into her mobile phone…
Where was Beat?
Suddenly she was frightened. What if he'd fallen off the roof or been shot or something? The thought of it made her ache all over. Where was he, damn him?
"Get me out of here!" she shouted, and kicked the glass. The impact sent pain rushing up her foot and she cursed.
Suddenly she saw a figure rushing up to her on the other side of the glass. Beat.
He followed her booth as it carried on orbiting, but Gum couldn't see how he was going to get her out.
She shuddered. About the only thing worse than not being able to see what was happening was being able to see it and not being able to do anything as Koji destroyed her world.
Amy wished she could consider her theory, but the music was seeping into her brain again. It hurt to resist now.
"Tab…" she said. "Someone set…someone set Koji up."
"Huh? What do you mean?" They were both sliding around as the record spun. Amy gripped onto one of the metal struts attached to the DJ's booth and tried to think.
"The music…is making us see that Koji's there…but…but he isn't. Someone else is. And…" Suddenly she remembered someone else. "How did…did Breaker know to access that file? Someone told him…not Koji. Koji wouldn't…would he? Someone's trying to frame Koji."
"But who?"
Suddenly there was a gigantic explosion.
Both rudies were thrown off their feet by the blast. The record was starting to tip from side to side now.
There was nothing but silence. The music had stopped. It was bliss, like someone had taken a knife out of Amy's head.
"What happened?" she gasped, trying not to think about falling.
"Looks like Combo solved the music problem."
"He may have created another, though…" The record jumped, and Amy dug her fingers into one of the grooves, shivering. "We may all be heading for a fall."
Gum felt an explosion rock her glass prison. It spun faster and faster. Around her the world blurred into streaks of fading colour. She dropped to the floor, hoping she wouldn't throw up.
Suddenly the glass smashed. Gum threw up her hands to protect herself, feeling tiny knives of glass spatter her skin.
"Come on!"
Beat was standing out there, clutching a long piece of metal.
"A speaker blew up. I got this out of it. Quick, move!"
Gum nervously wriggled out through the jagged edge of the glass. She landed on the record and literally fell into Beat's arms.
"Woah, what's going on?" she gasped.
"This place is going psycho! Come on, let's get out of here!"
"No, we've got to get Piranha!"
"Huh?"
"Just let out the other dancer!"
Beat looked baffled, but he skated across to the other booth, chased it a few yards and then smashed the side. Gum followed him, and quickly climbed through the hole into the booth. She grabbed Piranha's mask and undid the clip.
"Boy, am I glad to be out of that!" Piranha grinned, shaking her hair loose. "What's going on?"
"I'll explain later!" Gum was pretty freaked out by this resurrection, but she knew this was no time for a heart-to-heart. "Move it!"
All over the roof, GGs were racing towards a cable which led to another skyscraper. Gum watched them grind onto it, and then remembered, with horror, that she and Piranha were not wearing skates.
"We're trapped," she said.
"Hang on, girls!"
Combo's voice rang out behind them. Then Gum felt a huge arm sweep her off her feet. She closed her eyes as Combo leapt onto the cable. When she opened them again they were speeding along over empty space.
Gum swallowed. Combo's grip didn't feel totally secure round her waist. If he dropped her –
She imagined falling, seeing the lights rush towards her, knowing she was going to die.
Combo's fingers slipped on her skin. He was slowing down.
"You're too heavy," he said slowly.
Gum couldn't speak. She could see Piranha on Combo's other side. The GG looked petrified.
"I'm gonna try jumping, okay?"
Gum closed her eyes as they left the wire. She felt the judder rush through her as they landed again. Combo kept jumping, trying to reach the other roof, but Gum could feel his hands becoming damp with sweat. Any minute now she'd slip out of his grasp, and plummet. Dizziness rocked her skull.
And then suddenly he'd stopped jumping. He let go of her, and for a moment she was terrified – and then she landed on rough concrete.
She breathed a sigh of relief, and lay back, enjoying the sensation of solid ground and trying to ignore the icy air whipping across her chest and stomach.
"Hurry!" she heard Beat yell.
She sat up. Only Tab and Amy were left on the roof now, clinging on next to the DJ's booth. Tab struggled to his feet, but the record wobbled again and he fell.
The record plunged violently, and the cable to the skyscraper snapped.
"Oh, my god!" Gum looked in horror at the chasm between the two buildings. No way could anyone jump that. "They're trapped!"
Amy looked at the distant figures of the other GGs, and groaned. She'd heard Gum's shout float across the rooftop, and she agreed with it totally.
"Well, good thing there's someone left to see who the bad guy is," Tab said.
There was a humming sound, and Amy turned to see the glass walls of the DJ's booth retracting into the ground. When about a foot of glass still remained, there was an ominous crunch, and they stopped.
Amy stared at the figure standing against the horizon. "You?"
"Me." Camilla Rokkaku straightened the jacket of her crimson suit. "I must admit, I didn't anticipate earplugs. Which is unfortunate."
Amy couldn't speak. She supposed she should have guessed this, but she couldn't think of anything to say.
"You sure had me fooled," Tab said. He sounded pretty mad. "So, underneath all that glamour you're a secret serial killer?"
"No." Camilla shrugged. "Why else do you think I wanted you to be here?"
"I don't understand," Amy said slowly.
"I do." Tab came to stand next to Amy. "You wanted us to stop you, right? We were the only people who tried to stop your dad. So you figured we were your best hope."
"Correct." Camilla flicked back her smoky hair. She was acting very calm, very controlled, but there was a slightly brittle edge to her performance that made Amy wonder how nervous she really was.
"I don't get it," Amy said. "Why would you want us to stop you?"
"She didn't do all this to get revenge on Tokyo-to," Tab said. "She did this to get revenge on her brother. Isn't that right, Camilla?"
"You're smarter than you look," Camilla replied.
"You mean it was all a hoax?" Amy said.
"Not exactly. There are bombs in the computers, but I haven't activated them. I hoped I wouldn't have to."
"The music was meant to make us see Koji, wasn't it?" Amy said. "If we hadn't had the earplugs, we'd have thought it was him."
"And you'd have testified to that end." Camilla sighed. "And he would have been out of the way at last!"
Her voice rose in fury.
"Why?" Amy stammered. "Why do you hate him?"
"Why? Oh, let me pick a reason." Camilla's blue eyes were blazing. "When we brought our report cards home at the end of term, Koji had got Cs and Ds, except for Business Studies, which was A*. I'd got all A*s, including Business Studies. Dearest Daddy takes one look and starts praising Koji for his excellent report. Did I even get a mention? Like hell I did!"
Camilla's voice rang with rage.
"Koji was the one who inherited the company. When our father's will was read, he got the company, the fortune, everything. For me, my father arranged that I be given a permanent desk job at the Rokkaku corporation. Never mind I'd got the grades, I'd got the mind to be able to manage the company. I was a girl, so down I went to typing letters and opening envelopes."
"So how'd you end up to be partners with Koji?" Tab asked.
Camilla smiled. It was not a pleasant smile. "Oh, it was much more fun having me there so he could remind me of how I was only there on account of his charity. I got the worst of both worlds – all the pressure with none of the praise."
She smiled. "So I decided I was sick of it. I decided I'd show him what I could really do. I developed the music myself, and I made contact with the Assassins, and with Breaker. I never met them, so none of them knew I wasn't Koji. That was good. Less people to betray me. Then I made sure you rudies knew that something funny was going on at Rokkaku Towers."
"I thought Koji was being sort of obvious." Tab's voice was calm, but Amy could feel the rage in his hand, which was gripping hers.
"I didn't want to kill the girl. So I brought her here, to be a dancer, and let you think she was dead."
"Huh?" Amy's mouth dropped open. "Piranha's alive?"
"I think so. If she survived the upheaval tonight. I got you two out of jail so that I could make you suspicious of my brother. When Breaker told me two girls were heading my way, I thought you might think of the roof. I couldn't risk this set-up being found too soon. I ensured that when you arrived only a GG – only someone who'd seen it before – would recognise it for what it was. Then I alarmed the roof so that I could monitor all access. And I gained another dancer."
Amy looked over at the two dancers' booths. They had been shattered like eggshells and the dancers had gone. Gum and Piranha?
"It was a good plot," Tab said. "I guess it doesn't bother you we've all been played for fools. Or that we've been mourning one girl and worrying ourselves sick 'bout the other."
"I'm sorry about that. But you know what they say about making omelettes and breaking eggs."
"What – what are you going to do now?" Amy asked.
"There's still time," Camilla said. "I can still succeed."
"You can't," Tab said. "We called the Keisatsu. They'll be here soon and you'll be a jailbird."
"They don't have earplugs," Camilla said sweetly. "And you've only put the main speakers out of action."
Still keeping her eyes on them, she began to fiddle with the battered control panel in front of her. Suddenly there was a click, and Amy heard the music begin to drone out.
"No…" she said. She could see Camilla's image wavering in front of her, trying to transform itself into her brother. "Stop it…"
Tab leapt towards Camilla, grabbed her wrists, but she moved quickly. Amy didn't see exactly what she did, but suddenly Tab was lying flat on his back.
"Everyone knows rudies are crazy," Camilla said. "They won't believe you. And I'm sure Captain Onishima will be very glad to see you two again."
She pressed a button on the controls, and the music acquired a new edge to it. Amy gripped her skull. The music sliced through her brain like a cheese wire. Through the tears pooling in her eyes, she saw Camilla press another button, and the piece of roof with her on it began to sink into the floor.
"Stop her!" yelled Tab, picking himself up. Amy rushed forward, trying to ignore the agony the movement produced. She reached the booth and slammed her fists down on the button she'd seen Camilla press. The roof stopped sinking. Camilla reached up to try and press it again, and Amy grabbed the first bit of the other girl she could reach – her hair.
Camilla shrieked. She leapt out of the booth and slapped Amy round the face. Amy stumbled back, her head burning with pain, trying to keep her balance. Camilla didn't give her the chance. She rushed forward and shook Amy viciously.
It brought back a host of unpleasant memories. Amy felt terror rush through her, and to fight it she hit out at Camilla. She landed a few hits before the other girl somehow threw her, knocking her a few feet away. Tab rushed forward as Camilla made for the control panel again, and caught her feet. Camilla fell, and Tab grabbed hold of her wrists. Amy rushed over to the control panel, banging at the controls, and her head suddenly felt light as the music disappeared.
Then a voice rang out behind them.
"What on earth is going on?"
Koji.
All three fighters turned to look at him. He stood there, balancing with tigerish grace on the tilted record, looking down at them.
"Camilla?" he said. "Care to explain?"
There was a long silence. Amy stood there, trying to catch her breath, feeling her hands trembling. Far below her, she could hear cars rushing past the building.
"I'm waiting," Koji said.
Camilla shrugged and got to her feet, shaking Tab off her. She no longer looked immaculate; in fact she looked more like she'd been dragged through a hedge. Her hair was tangled; her shirt ripped; her tights laddered; and there was a long scratch on her face which was dribbling blood across her sun-kissed skin.
She surveyed Koji calmly, then said, "Well, what do you think?"
"What do I think?" He walked closer to her. "I think I know why you've been wittering on about rumours in the city lately. Obviously you're the one who started them in the first place."
"You're accusing me of summoning a demon?" Camilla said.
"Yes."
Koji slapped her across the face.
Camilla stumbled, but when she spoke her voice was still calm. "So what do you propose to do about it? Call the cops?"
"No." Koji's face became wooden. "You're going to return to your secretary's position in my company. You will receive no promotion, but neither will you be arrested for tonight's escapade. I will simply tell people that you have found it too stressful at the top, and so you'll be giving sole command of the company to me."
"And these two witnesses?" Camilla's voice had become slightly strained, but her posture was steady. "Going to bribe them?"
"No."
Amy saw the gun in his hand, and felt sick.
"I'm going to remove them."
"What's going on? Can you see them?" Gum strained her eyes to peer across to the Rokkaku roof.
"Sort of." Garam shaded his eyes as he strained to see. "Koji's there…and…someone else…"
Piranha watched Garam. He wasn't looking at her. It was difficult to tell, but she was pretty sure he was avoiding her.
Why? she thought miserably. What have I done to you? Aren't you happy to see me or anything?
"I think it's Camilla Rokkaku," Garam said. "But I can't work out what they're saying. Mew, what did the Keisatsu say when you called 'em?"
"They said they'd check it out, but I'm not sure if they believed me."
"Then all we can do is wait, right?"
"Yeah. No way we can get back over there."
Piranha crept over to Garam. She didn't know what to say, so she just stood and watched until he turned, and met her eyes.
"You can't be real," he said. "You were dead. I saw your body."
"That wasn't me. Garam, I'm alive, and I missed you so much."
"If I start thinking that you'll just be taken away from me!" Garam's fists were clenched. "I'd just starting getting used to losing you and now you turn up. I'm not going to let them hurt me now."
Piranha stared at him, and then at last she choked out, "Well, you're hurting me."
Garam stared down at the dots of light below them. He didn't move.
"I won't let you be hurt again," Piranha said. "Face it, Garam, we're in a risky line of work here. If you just close yourself off you'll end up hurt anyway. You've been given a second chance, right? Why not take it?"
She waited, wondering what she'd do if he threw her offer back in her face. Leaping off the roof would seem to sum up her feelings.
Then he grabbed her and kissed her, clutching her as hard as if she were being dragged away from him.
"I missed you…" he whispered. "I missed you so much."
"Don't worry," Piranha said. "You'll never have to miss me again."
"Are you crazy?" Tab yelled. "You can't just murder two people like that!"
"It's for the greater good," Koji said. "Think about it. No one will miss a couple of rudies. However, if you blab to the world, the entire Rokkaku company could crash, meaning hundreds of people becoming unemployed and causing widespread suffering."
Amy heard the click of the safety catch being released. Sweat bubbled on her skin. She gripped Tab's hand so hard she could feel the bones digging into her palm.
"So killing family members is okay in your world, is it?" Tab said, defeat echoing in his voice.
"Family members?"
"Amy here is your cousin, I believe."
Camilla and Koji gaped at him. Koji finally stammered, "What on earth are you talking about?"
"Your mother was my father's sister," Amy said at last. "Mari and Ken Winters. I'm Amy Winters." She faced Camilla. "You visited my aunt yesterday morning, didn't you? I lived with her. She was my guardian."
"She's lying," Koji said, speaking to Camilla. "She has to be."
"I did visit Ima Winters yesterday," Camilla said slowly. "Are you telling me you're the child who was staying with her?"
"Yes, I am. We're cousins."
"Koji, no." Camilla walked over to her brother and pushed the gun away from Tab and Amy. "I am not having you do this."
"Then what do you suggest I do?" Koji snapped. "Let everyone find out what you've done? You've destroyed the corporation. No one will ever trust it again."
"They might not find out." Camilla had gone very pale.
"They will. Rudies live for rumour. There were more of them here, weren't there? Tongues will wag. Sales will start falling off. We'll be ruined, and it'll be all your fault."
"Maybe if you hadn't been so damn patronising to me all the time it wouldn't have happened!" Camilla shouted. "You must have realised I'd get sick of it, being put down and insulted and ignored every second of the day!"
"You're just so touchy, aren't you? Can't take any sort of criticism! That's why our father didn't give you the company. You'd have ruined it!"
Camilla gave a shriek of fury and rushed towards her brother. She slapped his face, then tried to grab the gun off him. He pushed her back, and one of the heels of her shoes snapped. She stumbled off balance. Koji grabbed her wrist and flung her down onto the surface of the record.
"Listen," he snarled. "One more stunt like that and you're looking at an electric chair. Do you have any idea how badly a good lawyer could screw you in court?"
Camilla looked up at him, blue eyes burning with rage, but she didn't say anything. Koji turned away from her and pointed the gun towards Tab and Amy again.
"Sorry," Tab whispered. He put an arm round her. "I should've got us out of this."
Amy couldn't speak. She stared at Koji, wondering what it would feel like to die.
She saw a movement out of the corner of her eye. Camilla was crawling towards the wrecked DJ's booth. Before Amy could say anything, Camilla hit the controls, and the record began to spin again. Everyone was thrown to the ground.
"Are you crazy?" Koji yelled at his sister.
Camilla ignored him. The record was spinning faster and faster, tilting and twisting as it went. Amy could see the skyscrapers around them blurring into one smeared mass. There was nothing to hold onto, nothing to stop the speed. The record tipped violently. She rolled over and over and over, faster and faster –
Her hand touched thin air.
And then she started to fall.
Desperately she grabbed onto something.
And then she was hanging from the edge of the record as it spun, her hair almost being dragged out of her scalp, her eyes stung by the air. She screamed, but it was lost in the whine of tortured metal.
Her hand began to slip, and she thought, in horror, I'm going to die.
Tab saw Amy get thrown away from him, towards the edge of the record, and struggled to crawl after her. The record was throwing itself around like an injured horse. Every so often he was sent spinning in the other direction.
Then he saw her fall.
Oh, god, no, was his first thought. She can't have done…
He crawled faster, trying to reach the spot where she'd disappeared. As he got closer he could see her hand gripping the record's edge, the skin white and the bones clenched.
"Amy!" he yelled. "Hang on!"
"Good suggestion…" Her voice echoed faintly up from below him. "But I don't think I'll be able to much longer…"
As her fingers began to slip he grabbed her wrist.
Her weight dragged him down. He lay flat on the record, clutching Amy, while far below them the Tokyo-to buildings jumped and twisted.
"Can you pull me up?" Amy asked.
"No…" His arm was aching as though the muscles were slowly being torn apart.
Amy swallowed and closed her eyes briefly. "Then I guess this is it."
Tab felt himself slowly slide towards the edge. Amy was pulling him down. "Yeah."
If only I was stronger, he thought. If only I could save her…
Suddenly he felt someone grip his ankles, stopping him sliding. He twisted round to look, and saw Camilla.
"Try and pull her up," she shouted, hair whipping round her face like a storm cloud. "I'll stop you falling."
Tab tried to drag Amy up, but he couldn't get enough lift. "It's no good," he called.
"Come on!" Camilla dragged him backwards by the ankles. She was surprisingly strong.
Tab let himself be pulled away. He clutched onto Amy's hand and watched as she dragged herself up onto the record's surface again. She dashed away from the edge as she did so.
"Why…why did you save me?" she asked Camilla.
Her cousin shrugged. "I don't know."
A shot ricocheted off the record next to Tab's arm. He looked up and saw Koji, balancing on the twisting record, pointing the gun at them.
Tab swallowed, wondering if he could dash over and grab the gun or something. Just at that moment the record gave a violent tilt and knocked everyone back down again.
Including Koji. His head struck the side of the DJ's booth, and he lay still.
Camilla's face was grey. "Is he dead?"
Amy crawled over to the fallen man and checked for a pulse. "No…no, I don't think so."
Camilla closed her eyes and shivered. Then she sat up, looking businesslike as she did so. "Listen," she said, "You don't have to turn me in. You think he's any more fit to run the corporation than me? He tried to murder you. The only thing stopping me from getting him what he deserves is you. Just tell them you saw him in the booth, not me. Your friends did, didn't they? It won't matter."
"You must be joking!" Tab yelled. "You think I'm gonna let you get away with all this?"
"All what? Nobody's dead."
"No thanks to you!"
"Anyway," Amy said quietly, "It's not fair. Koji mayn't be great, but he didn't do all this. You did. That's the important thing."
The record was still spinning, and now everyone was gripping onto the metal poles coming from the booth. Koji was beginning to slide down the record, but Amy put out a hand and gripped his shirt.
"Is there any way to turn this fairground ride off?" Tab said as the record jumped again. This time he felt himself actually leave the ground for a few moments.
"I'll try." Camilla stood up, wobbling on her broken-heeled shoes. Gripping the metal with one hand, she leaned over to the control panel and started to tap at it.
"What do we do?" Amy whispered to Tab. "Turn her in or what?"
"I'm not letting her get away with it." Tab remembered how frightened he'd been about what had happened to Gum…how Garam had looked when he'd seen the body in Benten-cho…how Amy had been smashed unconscious by the Assassin's bombs.
"But can't you see why she did it?"
"Sure, her brother's a sleazebag. But that doesn't mean she gets to go round manipulating us."
Suddenly the record began to grind to a halt. Tab heard Amy breathe a slow, nervous sigh of relief as the buildings around them stopped spinning. Camilla dropped down next to Koji's unconscious form and sighed.
"You are crazy," Tab said, waiting for his stomach to stop lurching. "This ain't the way to sort out sibling rivalry."
"Don't lecture me." Camilla spoke like she didn't care much any more. "Do you know what it was like?"
"I don't know and I don't care." He remembered Beat's horrified face, a knife being brandished, silver against Mew's pale skin. "It's still no justification for doing this."
"But I haven't!" Camilla shouted. "I didn't do anything, did I? I made sure you knew, I prayed you'd come and stop it. I'm not a psycho. I'm not my father. I'm not."
Tab didn't answer. He just let his eyes travel around their surroundings, making sure she noticed.
"So – you'll turn me in?" Camilla's voice was suddenly younger, the strength of age ripped away. "Onishima'll love that."
"You played the game and you lost," Tab snapped. "Accept it and grow up."
Camilla's eyes narrowed. Her face seemed to harden, grow brutal. Tab saw her grab the gun too late. Her red nails scrabbled at its dull surface. A shot. He heard Amy scream. Then he was shoved back. Red soaking into his boiler suit. Amy was crying. He reached out to her but the world was going crazy, there was no way of reaching her. Then his sight blanked out.
Gum saw Tab crumple as though his strings had been cut.
"We've got to do something!" she yelled.
"How? None of us can jump the gap, can we?" Garam stared down at the urban chasm between the two buildings.
"Then let's get down to ground level and do something that way! We can't just stand here!"
"Hey, guys!" Slate called from further back. "There's a plank here, and I think it's long enough to bridge the gap!"
As Combo went over to see, Gum kicked off her platform shoes and turned to Mew. "Give me your skates."
"Huh?"
"I'm not going to stand by while Tab's – Tab's –" She felt a sob rising in her throat, and bit it down. "I've got to help him."
Mew didn't protest any more. She sat down and began undoing her skates.
As Gum put them on, she heard Combo cheer, and turned to see that the plank had touched the edge of the Rokkaku building.
"Right," she said. "I'm going."
"You?" Garam said. "Why you?"
"Because Tab's my friend," Gum said. "Someone hold the plank."
She skated a little to build up some momentum, then leapt onto the plank, and ground along until she reached the Rokkaku building.
Then she crept towards the scene.
Camilla Rokkaku was kneeling next to the DJ's booth, looking frightened. Tab lay in front of her, red smearing his boiler suit like a cheap movie effect. Amy was staring at him, tears spilling from her eyes. Suddenly she whirled to face Camilla, and screamed, "You bitch! How could you do that? How could you?"
Camilla shook her head and swallowed. "I didn't – I didn't mean to – I lashed out –"
Gum skated a little closer. A weapon…she needed a weapon…her hand closed on a piece of twisted metal that the broken speakers had spat out. Right. Now to show that Rokkaku whore that no one got away with hurting her friends.
Camilla laughed slightly. "I shouldn't have stopped Koji, should I? Should have let him do it. It's all the same in the end."
She raised the gun again. Pointed it towards Amy.
Afterwards Gum remembered it as slow motion. Amy's tearstained eyes widening in horror, painfully slowly. The muscles in Camilla's hand tensing as her finger tightened on the trigger. Herself rushing forward, feeling as though her legs were pushing through treacle. The metal bar catching Camilla's hand. The gun falling, falling, the light glinting on it. Camilla pressing her hand to her mouth, grabbing for the gun. Hand catching it, a shot being fired, slowly, so slowly.
And then time went back to normal. The shot echoed. Gum ran forward and grabbed the gun, wrenching it from Camilla's fingertips, and flung it over the edge of the building.
"Back off," she said to Camilla. "Us GGs don't die so easy."
Camilla's blue eyes burned. "I could see you do so."
Suddenly Gum heard the sound of rotor blades cutting through the air. Her hair began to tangle and blow around her face, and draughts rushed over her bare skin.
She looked round to see a police helicopter hovering at the edge of the building. A megaphoned voice echoed from it: "STAY WHERE YOU ARE. THIS IS TOKYO-TO POLICE."
Camilla shivered.
"Shouldn't we get out of here?" Amy said. "If Onishima's in that thing…"
Gum agreed, but before she could do anything paratroopers dropped down and landed on the roof around them, surrounding them all.
"Rats," she muttered.
A cop climbed down from the helicopter and walked over to them. "What's going on?"
As Amy stumbled out the story, Gum felt dampness on her arm, running down her skin. She looked down at it.
The blood grinned darkly up at her.
"How'd that happen?" she said, half to herself.
"Camilla shot at you," Amy said. She grinned weakly. "Who'd've thought you'd take a bullet for me?"
"I didn't choose to, schoolgirl rudie," Gum said.
"You saved my life."
"And I don't know why, all right? Temporary insanity, maybe."
"You do realise," the cop said, "that skating is illegal."
"Of course," Amy said. "And you do realise that we felt it was in the interests of the city to break that law, as otherwise our mobility on here would have been severely restricted…"
"Big words from a little girl," Gum said.
The cop sighed. "I won't book you this time. But only this time."
Both girls nodded.
"We'll take your friend along with us. He looks like he could use some help."
Gum glanced at Tab, and shivered. "Please." She saw the paleness return to Amy's face.
"What about you?" Amy said.
"I think it just grazed me," Gum said. "It don't hurt that much."
They stood together. Tab and Koji were being airlifted on stretchers, Camilla marched into the chopper by two cops. Her face was blank.
"He'll be okay, right?" Amy said as the helicopter took off again.
"Of course he will." Gum closed her eyes, telling herself their dampness was due to the wind smacking her in the face. "He's got to be."
"Beat really missed you."
Gum grinned. "I bet you didn't."
Amy shrugged. "I didn't get the chance. A lot happened."
They both stared up at the helicopter, now fading into the sky.
"He's gonna be okay," Gum said at the same time as Amy did.
She glanced over and met Amy's eyes. There was a short silence. Then she said, "I'm sorry."
"That's all right. I'm sorry I left you to get caught."
"Forget it." Gum smiled. "Let's go back to the others. Come on, Amy."
