Chapter II
"...a man should treat every friend in discourse and opening
his mind to him as of one that may hereafter be his foe."
-- The Diary of Samuel Pepys, December 15, 1663
Chairperson Yamamoto was early to the department meeting. This was a first for her, as she usually liked to make her professors wait. She started speaking the moment she reached the lectern.
"I call the weekly meeting of the Mathematics Department to order.
"First order of business is the Monitoring And Projection Unit question. For the past three years, the day-to-day business of this university has been held hostage by this department's resistance to the implementation of Tachibana Recommendation 11-436. We have earned the enmity of the other faculty and the contempt of Tachibana Networks, our sole sponsor, not to mention the fact that the in-fighting amongst ourselves has made a mockery of our many long-term projects. This crisis must come to an end.
"As you well know, the vote has remained deadlocked for months, and I have been among those against the measure. Well, I have carefully thought the matter out, and I am ready to change my vote. I've come to feel that the notion of privacy in the Twenty-First Century has become an impossible and largely unmissed liberty that is more than outweighed by the benefits conferred by the forces of an informed and competitive market economy. Do any of the proponents of the recommendation wish to change their votes at this time?" She waited the bare minimum number of seconds set down in the Departmental Procedures. "Very well, I declare the motion passed by one vote. Installation of MAPU's in all classrooms will begin immediately, with the offices and dormitories to follow as soon as is convenient.
"As I have some urgent business to attend to, I propose postponing all other business to our next meeting."
Professor Williamson, Yamamoto's loyal toady, recognized his cue. "I second the motion!" he chirped.
The chairperson didn't even look in his direction. "Any opposed? ... This meeting is now adjourned." She then turned and left as fast as she arrived, stopping by Williamson's chair to leave him a note. Before reading it, it occurred to the professor that she had not put down her briefcase once throughout the meeting.
The chairperson speed-walked down the hallways toward her car at a breathtaking speed, her gaze darting left and right into each of the dozens of offices along the hall. The staccato echo of her footsteps clattered around her head and created the kind of symphony only a mathematician could love. Savor the moment, she told herself repeatedly, because it may be your last.
Bursting through the outer doors of the building, she nearly collided with a stoop-shouldered man coming in from the parking lot, his arms filled with papers. "Taro," she cried, "I was just looking for you!" She grabbed his arm and pulled him around the corner of the building.
Professor Okada desperately fumbled with his papers, trying to hide the blush he got when he heard her call him by his first name. "I'm sorry about being late, Chairperson Yamamoto. Forgot my badge again. Has the meeting started yet?"
"Never mind that, I've got good news for you. Williamson has unexpectedly bowed out of the presentation tomorrow night, so I've signed you up to take his place. Everyone you wanted will already be there, including a member of the Tachibana board of directors."
The professor blinked. "This is unexpected."
"But you'll be ready."
"Yeah." He shook his head incredulously. "Thank you so much...Reika. You don't know how much this means to me. My entire life..." He stopped when he got a good look at the chairperson's face. "Are you all right? You look like you've seen a ghost."
Reika just shrugged. "I've been under a lot of pressure lately." She then closed her eyes and sighed in anticipation what was about to happen next. "As I predicted, Tachibana gave me an ultimatum last night: change my vote on MAPU or we lose all funding. The meeting's over, and I just changed my vote."
"What!" Taro just stood there, trembling, looking nearly as upset as Reika. She responded by grabbing his shoulders.
"Look, you're going to have to trust me on this, but I think I've found a silver lining, from a very unusual source." She looked at her watch. "I'm afraid I don't have time to explain, but you'll understand tomorrow night."
"Huh? What are you..."
She looked around quickly to see if there were any potential witnesses, then grabbed his ears and pointed his eyes at hers. "Look, I said I don't have any time, so listen closely! Trust your instincts, but don't trust anyone, 'cause at the moment I'm the only one left who knows what's going on, and that number's going to drop to zero in about ten minutes." She looked away for a moment, her eyes unfocused. "I can't believe I told her! She's in no position to help! She's probably already dead by now!"
"What! Who..."
Reika snapped her head back in his direction. "Listen and remember! Assume that every conversation and every communication from now on is being bugged, including this one! Don't jump into anything half-cocked! What else, what else? I know I've missed something. Oh yes, please remember that this moment is our goodbye, and that you'll be the one to say hello to me, not the other way around. Anyone else is not me, get it? That's the most important one of all. If you or I don't do something stupid, there's a good chance that I'll see you again as I am now, but if not..." She pulled him close and kissed him for a full ten seconds. She had to grab him by the lapels at the last moment to keep him from falling.
"Chairperson Yamamoto!" he choked. But by that time she was in her car and gone. He watched her speed away, then turned to the graffiti-stained wall behind him. "Weirdest first kiss in history," he declared to no one in particular. He spent another five minutes in vain trying to figure out what the hell his friend was talking about. He couldn't decide if this was some bizarre joke or not, but at least he had the presence of mind to commit her ravings to his long-term memory.
A black car with black tinted windows pulled smoothly into the parking lot mere moments after Taro had entered the building.
