Chapter 4
" Good evening Miss Kirisawa, Mr. Mikagami, what brings you here tonight?" the receptionist asked as she hurried after them, a notebook in hand.
Fuko turned to her in immense surprise.
" You mean, that security have not found anything yet?"
" What do you mean? It's been perfectly all right these past few hours. The system has been working perfectly fine. I just used it myself too!"
Fuko muttered a curse and spun on her heel. With one strong hand, she pushed open the door that led into the main intelligence room, where high- powered screens and computers filled the whole area. Finding Mr. Kubota, she strode up to him and asked
" Have your technicians discovered anything wrong with the system during the past five hours?" she asked
" No nothing, it's been quite quiet. Why is anything the matter?"
" Larson hacked into the system, and none of your anti hacking devices caught it." Fuko informed him smoothly. Mr. Kubota's face turned into a bright red.
" No! Impossible. We had five technicians on the monitor list, and none of them reported any disturbance."
" He did. He called my cell twenty minutes ago to inform me so. I supposed the intelligence put my info on the system."
" We do that for everyone who has connections with headquarters."
" Larson was not supposed to know that I was here. Now he does, and it makes things more complicated. I need you to halt all computer activity immediately and restart the system."
" But. that's impossible. " Mr. Kubota spluttered.
" Sir, it's true whatever Miss Kirisawa is saying. You need to shut down the system immediately." Tokiya said from behind.
Mr. Kubota cursed, then gave the order. Fuko then took the time to connect her and Tokiya's laptop to the main system. While she was doing so, she shouted out orders.
" I need a security check on every person who has entered headquarters during the last 24 hours, and I need a list of all files downloaded or imputed into the system during the past 24 hours too."
Fuko was frantic as she performed all the necessary checks. True to her suspicions, she found a backdoor and two traps.
" Tokiya, what have you found?" she asked. Tokiya had been sitting beside her all this while, staring into his computer.
" I've found two backdoors. I've closed them, but the traps are tricky."
" It's a game isn't it?" Fuko asked, as she leaned over to his side.
" Yes, it's a crossword puzzle. The clues are somewhat easy, I can solve all of them, but it surprises me so that he would give such an easy puzzle if it's a trap."
" Fill it up." Fuko decided.
" It could be a trap, I'm going to run a check on it."
" You have no time. You opened the trap. You have exactly one minute to fill it up. Look at the clock at the corner."
True enough, there was a tiny clock at the edge of the crossword puzzle. So far they had thirty seconds left. Deftly, Tokiya filled it up and pressed the enter button
Almost immediately, a clown's face appeared on the screen and computerized streamers burst into air as the words ' congratulations! You broke the trap.'
Then the original face of the program appeared on the screen, and Tokiya and Fuko breathed a sigh of relief.
" That was an easy one. I expect that he laid several." She said as she turned back in her chair. " What's important that we closed all the backdoors first, and put up traps for him if he tries to hack again."
They worked all night, closing the backdoors and traps. When Fuko took a few seconds off for a breather, she found that it was already 4am. Then, she found a cup of coffee in front of her and she looked up at Tokiya who was holding another cup in his hand.
" It's been a long night. But I think that we're almost done now."
Fuko smiled at him in gratitude. " Thank you." She took a sip of coffee, and felt the usual adrenaline rush. Then as if she remembered something, she looked up again at Tokiya
" Tokiya, we need to cancel your records.
" Why?"
" Larson cannot know that you're working with me. Once he knows, your life will be in danger. I need to cancel your records and every connection that you have with headquarters."
" If Larson has already hacked into the system, won't he already know my records?"
" No, he looked only for me, because usually I work alone, but in this case. I have you. But once he finds out, he will come back, and I need to wipe out every record of you."
" But if he sees us together, what will happen?"
" We'll have to pose. But it'll only give him another target."
" I can take care of myself. You're acting like a big mummy now you know?"
" What. no way." Fuko laughed. " I'm too immature and irresponsible to be one."
" So relax. I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself." Tokiya replied, and Fuko realized that he had been teasing her.
" Oh you.." Fuko laughed. " But whatever it is, I'm going to delete your records, I won't take any risks."
Tokiya nodded and took the seat beside her.
" Well, looks like all done now. I suppose that Larson just wanted to give us a scare."
Fuko looked at him in wonder, " How did you know that." Then her face dawned in realization and she smiled, " I should have known. You have been studying him. He was just too easy on us wasn't he?"
" I thought so. I've already imputed a program that seals up all files. I'm going to play him back in his own game."
" I know, I saw that already, hopefully that will stop him for the moment till we can pinpoint his movements."
Fuko closed her eyes and stretched her arms out wide, leaning back in her chair. When she opened her eyes again, Tokiya was staring at her in a strange way.
"What." she asked, her eyelids still half closed.
" You've changed, ever since that fight, you changed. You seem so obsessed now with preventing people from getting killed. You're so obsessed with catching Larson that you chased him all round the whole world."
" When Larson triggered the bomb that killed 50 people in a German subway station, I blamed myself for it. Earlier on, I had received a tip off, and because I didn't heed it, people died. I didn't want that to happen again. Never." Fuko explained, cradling her mug of coffee in both hands. " And now. because of my obsession, I have become too suspicious of anyone who tries to help me. which is also why you had to miss your sleep tonight."
Then, she felt a hand on her arm, and she looked up at Tokiya.
" It wasn't your fault that people died. You mustn't put the entire blame on yourself. It was a tip off, you had to take the risk of believing it or not. Anything could have happened."
" But I didn't. And people died. After the explosion, Larson called me. He laughed as he described the scene to me.."
Fuko rested her elbows on her knees. " It was so gross."
" Come on, it's not fun, remembering such scenes, we need to take your mind off them." Tokiya got to his feet and pulled Fuko up from her chair
" Hey! Where are you taking me." Fuko protested as Tokiya dragged her out of the room and into the locker room. He tossed her duffel bag at her, saying
" I'm sure that you brought an extra change of clothes. I'll meet you outside in fifteen minutes, and wear your exercise shoes."
Before Fuko could reply, Tokiya walked out of the room, leaving Fuko to ponder to herself what did he intend to do to her.
Exactly fifteen minutes later, Fuko emerged from the building dressed in shorts and a sweatshirt, and in her running shoes. Tokiya was in running pants and a singlet.
" All right, what is this about Tokiya." Fuko demanded, striding towards him
" We're going for a run." Tokiya replied
" A run?" Fuko echoed
" A long run. It'll cool you off."
" You're crazy." Fuko spluttered, " We don't have time for a long run, we should be inside."
" Are you scared?" Tokiya asked, and Fuko looked up at him
" No, I'm not."
" Then why are you hesitating? You're not up to it?"
" Says who! I can run as much as you can run." Fuko replied, jabbing a finger at his chest.
Tokiya smiled, " All right then, lets go."
Then he took of into a run. Fuko followed after him, matching his pace and stride easily. The night air was cool and blew slightly across the back of Fuko's neck as she ran. Her stamina was still strong, they had jogged about 3 kilometers now, and she was hardly breaking a sweat. She sneaked a glance at Tokiya and he looked at ease, as if it was nothing but a mere walk to him.
" How you doing?" he asked, suddenly
" Great. " she replied, with a grin " Told you that I could match up to you!"
Tokiya lifted up his eyebrows as he replied, " We still have a lot of ground to cover."
Fuko laughed and continued jogging.
In the end, they jogged around the whole of Tokyo and back to the park just beside headquarters. Fully exhausted, Fuko collapsed onto the nearby bench, her sweatshirt drenched with sweat and she was perspiring profusely despite the cool breezes. However, Tokiya pulled her up again saying,
" Come on, let's do some stretching exercises."
" Oh please. all my muscles are aching!" Fuko protested, but still she got down to the ground, and started doing push ups and stretching exercises for the legs. " You're a maniac." she called out, as she did the stretching exercises. Tokiya just smiled at her, as he did the same exercises without much complaint.
When it was all over, Fuko was lying on the bench, while Tokiya sat on the ground beside the bench, where her head was.
" So how did you find it!"
Fuko glared at him " You still have to ask."
" It was fun right." Tokiya pointed out
" Oh well, I suppose it was." Fuko conceded. Then she smiled upwards towards the sky and repeated her previous words to herself " It was."
" What are you thinking?" she heard Tokiya ask and turned her head to meet him. Her heart thumped loudly as she was brought up face to face with him. Their noses were almost touching, and the closeness unnerved Fuko a little.
" It's just been a long time since I ever felt so relaxed." She heard herself reply, her heart still thumping loudly.
" I've noticed." He replied, keeping his gaze on Fuko.
Unconsciously, Fuko moved closer and she thought she imagined it when she felt Tokiya do the same thing. Together, their mouths met in a passionate kiss. Fuko closed her eyes and savored the moment. Her head was feeling cloudy, as if she was in a dream. But dream or not, she didn't want it to end.
" I have no more love to give. I have given all my love to my sister."
No! You love Yanagi too. You always have.
Fuko's eyes sprang open and she pushed herself away from Tokiya, getting up from the bench and onto her feet. Dusting her shorts, she said in a cool voice
" I think that we should be getting back now."
Without waiting for him to reply, she walked in the direction of the headquarters. To her surprise, Tokiya just followed behind, not even saying a word.
When they reached headquarters, Fuko punched the button for the lift to open, and both she and Tokiya got inside. It was the only the two of them inside, and the main room was at the fifteen floor. It was all quiet and dark except for the dim lights that gave light to the lift.
" It ain't gonna wash Fuko, pretending that it didn't happen." Tokiya spoke. Fuko tensed up almost immediately, her head frantically searching for a reply.
" It was a mistake on my part and I apologize. What happened just now was a result of tiredness. Furthermore, being both intelligence agents, it would not be good for our relationship to go beyond that of a professional level."
Just then, the lift door opened and Fuko walked out as quickly as she could, but not before she heard Tokiya's reply.
" You just don't want to cry again don't you?"
" Good evening Miss Kirisawa, Mr. Mikagami, what brings you here tonight?" the receptionist asked as she hurried after them, a notebook in hand.
Fuko turned to her in immense surprise.
" You mean, that security have not found anything yet?"
" What do you mean? It's been perfectly all right these past few hours. The system has been working perfectly fine. I just used it myself too!"
Fuko muttered a curse and spun on her heel. With one strong hand, she pushed open the door that led into the main intelligence room, where high- powered screens and computers filled the whole area. Finding Mr. Kubota, she strode up to him and asked
" Have your technicians discovered anything wrong with the system during the past five hours?" she asked
" No nothing, it's been quite quiet. Why is anything the matter?"
" Larson hacked into the system, and none of your anti hacking devices caught it." Fuko informed him smoothly. Mr. Kubota's face turned into a bright red.
" No! Impossible. We had five technicians on the monitor list, and none of them reported any disturbance."
" He did. He called my cell twenty minutes ago to inform me so. I supposed the intelligence put my info on the system."
" We do that for everyone who has connections with headquarters."
" Larson was not supposed to know that I was here. Now he does, and it makes things more complicated. I need you to halt all computer activity immediately and restart the system."
" But. that's impossible. " Mr. Kubota spluttered.
" Sir, it's true whatever Miss Kirisawa is saying. You need to shut down the system immediately." Tokiya said from behind.
Mr. Kubota cursed, then gave the order. Fuko then took the time to connect her and Tokiya's laptop to the main system. While she was doing so, she shouted out orders.
" I need a security check on every person who has entered headquarters during the last 24 hours, and I need a list of all files downloaded or imputed into the system during the past 24 hours too."
Fuko was frantic as she performed all the necessary checks. True to her suspicions, she found a backdoor and two traps.
" Tokiya, what have you found?" she asked. Tokiya had been sitting beside her all this while, staring into his computer.
" I've found two backdoors. I've closed them, but the traps are tricky."
" It's a game isn't it?" Fuko asked, as she leaned over to his side.
" Yes, it's a crossword puzzle. The clues are somewhat easy, I can solve all of them, but it surprises me so that he would give such an easy puzzle if it's a trap."
" Fill it up." Fuko decided.
" It could be a trap, I'm going to run a check on it."
" You have no time. You opened the trap. You have exactly one minute to fill it up. Look at the clock at the corner."
True enough, there was a tiny clock at the edge of the crossword puzzle. So far they had thirty seconds left. Deftly, Tokiya filled it up and pressed the enter button
Almost immediately, a clown's face appeared on the screen and computerized streamers burst into air as the words ' congratulations! You broke the trap.'
Then the original face of the program appeared on the screen, and Tokiya and Fuko breathed a sigh of relief.
" That was an easy one. I expect that he laid several." She said as she turned back in her chair. " What's important that we closed all the backdoors first, and put up traps for him if he tries to hack again."
They worked all night, closing the backdoors and traps. When Fuko took a few seconds off for a breather, she found that it was already 4am. Then, she found a cup of coffee in front of her and she looked up at Tokiya who was holding another cup in his hand.
" It's been a long night. But I think that we're almost done now."
Fuko smiled at him in gratitude. " Thank you." She took a sip of coffee, and felt the usual adrenaline rush. Then as if she remembered something, she looked up again at Tokiya
" Tokiya, we need to cancel your records.
" Why?"
" Larson cannot know that you're working with me. Once he knows, your life will be in danger. I need to cancel your records and every connection that you have with headquarters."
" If Larson has already hacked into the system, won't he already know my records?"
" No, he looked only for me, because usually I work alone, but in this case. I have you. But once he finds out, he will come back, and I need to wipe out every record of you."
" But if he sees us together, what will happen?"
" We'll have to pose. But it'll only give him another target."
" I can take care of myself. You're acting like a big mummy now you know?"
" What. no way." Fuko laughed. " I'm too immature and irresponsible to be one."
" So relax. I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself." Tokiya replied, and Fuko realized that he had been teasing her.
" Oh you.." Fuko laughed. " But whatever it is, I'm going to delete your records, I won't take any risks."
Tokiya nodded and took the seat beside her.
" Well, looks like all done now. I suppose that Larson just wanted to give us a scare."
Fuko looked at him in wonder, " How did you know that." Then her face dawned in realization and she smiled, " I should have known. You have been studying him. He was just too easy on us wasn't he?"
" I thought so. I've already imputed a program that seals up all files. I'm going to play him back in his own game."
" I know, I saw that already, hopefully that will stop him for the moment till we can pinpoint his movements."
Fuko closed her eyes and stretched her arms out wide, leaning back in her chair. When she opened her eyes again, Tokiya was staring at her in a strange way.
"What." she asked, her eyelids still half closed.
" You've changed, ever since that fight, you changed. You seem so obsessed now with preventing people from getting killed. You're so obsessed with catching Larson that you chased him all round the whole world."
" When Larson triggered the bomb that killed 50 people in a German subway station, I blamed myself for it. Earlier on, I had received a tip off, and because I didn't heed it, people died. I didn't want that to happen again. Never." Fuko explained, cradling her mug of coffee in both hands. " And now. because of my obsession, I have become too suspicious of anyone who tries to help me. which is also why you had to miss your sleep tonight."
Then, she felt a hand on her arm, and she looked up at Tokiya.
" It wasn't your fault that people died. You mustn't put the entire blame on yourself. It was a tip off, you had to take the risk of believing it or not. Anything could have happened."
" But I didn't. And people died. After the explosion, Larson called me. He laughed as he described the scene to me.."
Fuko rested her elbows on her knees. " It was so gross."
" Come on, it's not fun, remembering such scenes, we need to take your mind off them." Tokiya got to his feet and pulled Fuko up from her chair
" Hey! Where are you taking me." Fuko protested as Tokiya dragged her out of the room and into the locker room. He tossed her duffel bag at her, saying
" I'm sure that you brought an extra change of clothes. I'll meet you outside in fifteen minutes, and wear your exercise shoes."
Before Fuko could reply, Tokiya walked out of the room, leaving Fuko to ponder to herself what did he intend to do to her.
Exactly fifteen minutes later, Fuko emerged from the building dressed in shorts and a sweatshirt, and in her running shoes. Tokiya was in running pants and a singlet.
" All right, what is this about Tokiya." Fuko demanded, striding towards him
" We're going for a run." Tokiya replied
" A run?" Fuko echoed
" A long run. It'll cool you off."
" You're crazy." Fuko spluttered, " We don't have time for a long run, we should be inside."
" Are you scared?" Tokiya asked, and Fuko looked up at him
" No, I'm not."
" Then why are you hesitating? You're not up to it?"
" Says who! I can run as much as you can run." Fuko replied, jabbing a finger at his chest.
Tokiya smiled, " All right then, lets go."
Then he took of into a run. Fuko followed after him, matching his pace and stride easily. The night air was cool and blew slightly across the back of Fuko's neck as she ran. Her stamina was still strong, they had jogged about 3 kilometers now, and she was hardly breaking a sweat. She sneaked a glance at Tokiya and he looked at ease, as if it was nothing but a mere walk to him.
" How you doing?" he asked, suddenly
" Great. " she replied, with a grin " Told you that I could match up to you!"
Tokiya lifted up his eyebrows as he replied, " We still have a lot of ground to cover."
Fuko laughed and continued jogging.
In the end, they jogged around the whole of Tokyo and back to the park just beside headquarters. Fully exhausted, Fuko collapsed onto the nearby bench, her sweatshirt drenched with sweat and she was perspiring profusely despite the cool breezes. However, Tokiya pulled her up again saying,
" Come on, let's do some stretching exercises."
" Oh please. all my muscles are aching!" Fuko protested, but still she got down to the ground, and started doing push ups and stretching exercises for the legs. " You're a maniac." she called out, as she did the stretching exercises. Tokiya just smiled at her, as he did the same exercises without much complaint.
When it was all over, Fuko was lying on the bench, while Tokiya sat on the ground beside the bench, where her head was.
" So how did you find it!"
Fuko glared at him " You still have to ask."
" It was fun right." Tokiya pointed out
" Oh well, I suppose it was." Fuko conceded. Then she smiled upwards towards the sky and repeated her previous words to herself " It was."
" What are you thinking?" she heard Tokiya ask and turned her head to meet him. Her heart thumped loudly as she was brought up face to face with him. Their noses were almost touching, and the closeness unnerved Fuko a little.
" It's just been a long time since I ever felt so relaxed." She heard herself reply, her heart still thumping loudly.
" I've noticed." He replied, keeping his gaze on Fuko.
Unconsciously, Fuko moved closer and she thought she imagined it when she felt Tokiya do the same thing. Together, their mouths met in a passionate kiss. Fuko closed her eyes and savored the moment. Her head was feeling cloudy, as if she was in a dream. But dream or not, she didn't want it to end.
" I have no more love to give. I have given all my love to my sister."
No! You love Yanagi too. You always have.
Fuko's eyes sprang open and she pushed herself away from Tokiya, getting up from the bench and onto her feet. Dusting her shorts, she said in a cool voice
" I think that we should be getting back now."
Without waiting for him to reply, she walked in the direction of the headquarters. To her surprise, Tokiya just followed behind, not even saying a word.
When they reached headquarters, Fuko punched the button for the lift to open, and both she and Tokiya got inside. It was the only the two of them inside, and the main room was at the fifteen floor. It was all quiet and dark except for the dim lights that gave light to the lift.
" It ain't gonna wash Fuko, pretending that it didn't happen." Tokiya spoke. Fuko tensed up almost immediately, her head frantically searching for a reply.
" It was a mistake on my part and I apologize. What happened just now was a result of tiredness. Furthermore, being both intelligence agents, it would not be good for our relationship to go beyond that of a professional level."
Just then, the lift door opened and Fuko walked out as quickly as she could, but not before she heard Tokiya's reply.
" You just don't want to cry again don't you?"