Silicon Valley 2033
Chapter 2: Restaurant Rumble
Nene found the convention floor to be a little bit too crowded for her liking. She had to push and shove everyone just to make it to the gutted computer exhibition. Nevermind that everyone was already a few feet away from her, it always helped to push them out of the way.
One american boy started following her. He was wearing jeans torn to shreds and kept together only by safety pins. His hair was spiked up like a mohawk, and his black sweater was covered with oldies band names like Nirvana, Limp Bizkit, and Newer Order. Nene looked back and saw that he was still behind her. She started walking a little bit faster, and he came even closer.
Finally, exasperated, she turned around and shouted "What do you want?" She still remembered some English from asking Leon to teach her some.
"Hey. You know, it's pretty rude to push and shove people." The boy was probably not even a boy at all. His voice made him sound more like he was 25 at least. "But you know what? I'll pretend you didn't do that if you have dinner with me at an expensive restaurant."
Nene stumbled back for a moment. Americans could be so frighteningly direct, but this one at least had a sense of courtesy. How nice of him to ask her over! "I'm going to look at these things first," she said very slowly, so that she could pronounce all the words correctly, while pointing at the gutted and seriously overclocked computers.
"Alright, I can live with that." The boy smirked.
The lawyer leaned over towards Linna, obviously tired by the fact that he had been questioning other witnesses nonstop for the past few hours. "So, tell us about the report on Oracle's stock you wrote last month."
Linna cleared her throat and began, in a language that she had not learned until the past year to get into the business world, "We found their accounting practices in the wrong, and the numbers did not add up correctly."
"Okay, so about these accounting practices, what happened to... shoot, I forgot. Your honor, I would like a recess."
The judge suddenly stopped drawing a sketch of the room. "Huh? Ah, yes, of course. The court is adjourned and will reconvene tomorrow at the usual time." He slammed his gavel, waking up everyone else in the courtroom and making them ooze out of the doors.
Linna wiped her head off with a handkerchief. She had almost thought that she would have to endure the same long grueling process that everyone else in her company did today.
Her lawyer caught up to her. "Hey, I'm sorry that I just totally messed things up today..."
Linna interrupted him. "It's okay. I will be fine."
"Well, I was thinking of talking about this over dinner. I mean, I could use something to eat."
The model turned away and started walking back from whence she came. Sylia was too busy talking to someone to notice that the model's outfit was one of hers.
"How can you be so certain that Genom is going to be broken up soon?" asked Sylia.
Her companion, a man in a cheap suit who didn't shave or sleep often, replied, "There is increasing pressure from all sides, both from outside and within, for each division to break off and become their own company."
"You're lying. I know Quincy would never allow such a thing to happen."
"Well, that's all I know. Regardless, I want to make another request of the Knight Sabers."
"You are aware, of course, that there has been little Boomer activity in MegaTokyo as of late, and thus the trail of the Knight Sabers would be difficult for me to track this time." Sylia turned away from Fargo to look up at another model.
"I don't care. I just want to find out the nature of the deal between Genom and Sun."
Sylia shook her head. "The news report was very forthcoming, and I see no reason to believe that there was more to it than a simple information technology deal."
"Well, I'm hungry right now. Maybe I'll remember more if I get something to eat."
"Very well then. I know a good place in the area, if it is still there."
Priss wiped off all her makeup and watched the colors go down the sink. She now truly understood the meaning of a "nonstop" concert. She and her band had only performed once per hour, but they'd been going at it for twenty four hours now. When they weren't busy preparing or performing, they'd been furiously shouting and dancing in the audience.
The guitarrist and bassist walked up to her. "I think we ought to celebrate," said the guitarrist.
The drummer woke up from the floor. "Ah, we've already been partying too hard. I wanna relax."
The keyboarder entered the room. "You know what? I just want to eat at a half-decent place."
Priss was already putting on her bike helmet. "What do you mean by half-decent?"
"I mean, I wanna just blow a bunch of money on a place that's not crawling with insects and dirt!"
"Whatever. We'll stop by the first place we see."
Leon tried his best to fend off Daley. "So, ah, Mr. Kirkbride, we at the AD Police have a lot of experience dealing with Boomers. I don't think it's a waste of our time to be here."
Zax sighed. "Do you ever shut up? You're giving me a freaking headache." He saw Leon's face looking for words. "And I bet your love life sucks, too. That's why the ADP had no problems with sending you over on a stupid 'advising' mission. You prolly annoyed the hell outta yer chief, so he sent ya over to be rid of you for a while."
Daley leaned near Leon's head. "Everything would be easier for you if you would just come over to my place one of these days."
Zax slammed his locker shut. "Your advice put my men at unncecessary risk, and that's the end of that."
Uncharacteristically, Nene was not even eating her food, but was listening intently to this boy genius. It seemed odd for him to have taken her to such an expensive restaurant, especially when he himself was not exactly wearing a shirt or tie, but his profound knowledge more than made up for it.
"So anybody can submit anything they want to the kernel. In fact, you can just download it yourself and do whatever you want to it. It's really amazing."
Nene said, "Uh-huh" as her eyes remained wide in wonder.
"And they're closely linked with a website called Slashdot. I mean, slashdot.org, it's a news site. I read it every single day."
Nene was absolutely speechless.
In a private room in the same restaurant, Linna and her lawyer hastily munched on noodles and rice while the rest of her partners ate somewhat more casually. "So the key is to focus on the integrity of your report. They're gonna attack the validity of your data and all that," continued the lawyer.
"I'm sorry, could you speak normal English?" Linna asked. "I do not understand why you say 'and all that.'" She nervously smiled.
The lawyer was stunned. "Huh, I didn't say that."
Everyone else turned to him and shouted "Yes you did!"
"Oh, whatever..." He solemnly turned back to his food.
Sylia and Fargo passed right in front of Nene, but Nene was so busy hearing the boy say "They're represented by a cute demon logo, with a devil's pitchfork" that she did not see Sylia pass by. Sylia turned to Fargo to mention something about the Bu-33S and did not see Nene during the one moment she could have.
Priss and the Replicants were woken up at their table by the waiter. "Are you going to pay anytime soon?" asked the waiter.
Priss started snoring. The waiter decided that they were not ready to pay yet. Her face was buried in her arms. The rest of the Replicants were slumped in their chairs, or in some cases on the floor.
The waiter continued on to meet somebody who had just come in through the door. This somebody was extremely tall, muscular, and bulky. He wore shades and a dark suit. The waiter took the initiative to ask, "Would you like the human or boomer menu?"
The fellow did not answer with words. He did, however, spit a laser beam through the waiter's head. The waiter flailed around and tried to grab the spot where his neck was as hydraulic fluid sprayed out. The Boomer then tossed the waiter to the side, smashing it into pieces and leaving a hole in the wall.
The manager, who was sitting at the desk, immediately hit a red button. Thick barriers suddenly popped out of the floor, isolating each individual table and the desk in a prison of solid walls. The Boomer punched a wall but barely scratched the paint. It screamed in anger and shot a laser into the wall.
"The emergency anti-Boomer system has been activated. Firearms are being dispensed from the ceiling. Fire on all berserk Boomers at will if they should penetrate your wall."
The gun that fell on her head woke Priss up.
Zax leered at the front door of the restaurant. "McNichol, Wong, stay here and don't move. If the Boomer comes out, shoot it."
"Aye-aye!" acknowledged Leon.
"Alright. I'm going to start by releasing the lock on the front door. We'll reassess the situation then." They could hear the sounds of something banging on a wall and shooting lasers at it. Zax popped open a small panel to the side of the door and typed in a numerical code. The doors released some steam and seemed to relax as it suddenly slid out some.
Zax took a stick from his holster. His gloves glowed faintly as the stick suddenly assembled itself into a large handgun. He pointed at the door. After a few seconds, he put one hand on the door. Finally, he kicked it in. He surprised the five Bu-55Cs inside who were trying to knock down one of the walls.
While Zax blew them apart with his handgun, he commented, "The manager reported one Boomer. Apparently, more came soon after." One of the Boomers got up again, so he kicked its stomach in. "Stay there for a minute." He carefully walked near the desk while pointing his gun further down the corridor. All of the walls were perfectly intact, and the noises had stopped. That meant that those five Boomers were probably the only ones here right now.
He carefully typed a numeric code into one of the larger walls, causing it to slide open and reveal the manager's desk. The manager came out after he saw Zax.
"I think all's clear. I'm going to start taking deactivating the barriers, one by one." The manager nodded. Zax did as he said, until the whole restaurant was clear. It was uneventful, although stressful, since Zax had to remain prepared as each wall came down. The people were calm as he talked to each table about the situation before relaxing more barriers.
He walked over to the doorway and told Leon and Daley, "All clear. This incident is finished, so we can---"
The door's security barrier suddenly slammed shut as Zax jumped back from it. He turned around and saw all the window barriers also go up. Most of the people in the restaurant started panicking - they had been calm before, when Zax was still defusing the situation.
"We're locked in. Grab your guns again and take cover behind the manager's desk," he announced. As they all scrambled, four of the people in the crowd seemed to especially know what they were doing. It was as if they had experience that extended quite a bit farther than normal public safety education. Zax nodded to the manager, and the desk's barriers went up again. It wasn't a busy night, so everybody had some breathing room back there. Zax saw that nobody was left out and looked over the rest of the restaurant. It dawned on him that the five Boomers were merely a diversion. Whoever was serious enough to gather five of them would have also been smart enough to know what it took to break down these walls.
The Knight Sabers immediately recognized each other. To anyone else, this was nothing more than just seeing who they got to spend this Boomer alert with. But the four women knew that fate had brought them back together again. They could not say a word to each other, but they all knew they would have to arrange something later. Everyone else talked to each other as if there was not an alert going on, except for the Replicants who were very confused.
Nene's companion commented, "This happens a lot, you get used to it." Nene nodded to him. The other three struggled to contain their inner laughter at Nene for managing to go out with that kind of a boy for a date.
In the meantime, Zax carefully walked near the main walls of the restaurant. Nothing.
He waited while pointing his gun at a vent shaft. Nothing.
Leon shouted from the outside, "We're calling backup, okay?"
Zax turned to face the wall. "Hurry up." When he turned around again, he was staring right at a very ugly creature that could only be a Boomer.
It reached out for him, but he deftly sidestepped the grab. He responded by kicking straight up into its chin, making it stumble back but little else. He took this opportunity to open fire on it, but the high-powered shells exploded harmlessly on its armor plating.
The crowd inside the tight space stopped talking. They came to understand that something was wrong.
Zax stuck the gun back into his belt, where it was disassembled and absorbed into the side of the belt. The Boomer got into a very proper Kung-Fu stance. Zax responded with his own Krev Maga stance. He tested the Boomer with a few jabs and a low kick, but the Boomer properly blocked all of them.
"Since when did Boomers know Kung Fu?" he wondered out loud.
"I will not divulge the information," it replied. So they continued sparring. Zax knew that he could not afford a hit to the body, whereas the Boomer's body plate was able to withstand the power of his gun.
"He's in trouble!" exclaimed the manager. He pointed to an array of small video screens that showed what the surveillance cameras saw. "We have to do something!"
"Yeah - hide," answered Nene's companion. Her faith in him was totally shaken. She had thought he would be such a brave young man, ready to face that Boomer in battle no matter what the cost. Perhaps she still did not completely understand Americans.
Zax tried to catch an incoming roundhouse and throw the Boomer. However, as the Boomer flew towards the ground while being held by its leg, it twisted around and threw Zax instead. He crashed into a table, but his shirt took most of the force. He backflipped onto his feet. He would have to try out some of the undocumented functions of the DarkSuit.
He made a punching motion towards the Boomer, creating a large spinning fist-like image that smashed the Boomer against the wall while crushing all the tables in between.
Priss knew she had seen an attack like that before.
The Boomer immediately picked itself back up, its armor undented. It was surprised, but undaunted. It popped open one of its arms to reveal a gigantic cannon. Its legs also popped open and seemed to stick supports deep into the nice restaurant carpet.
Priss shouted in Japanese, "Forget this!" She hit a green button on the desk, lowering the barrier, and opened fire on the Boomer's exposed parts as soon as she saw it. The others wanted to say something but were too stunned.
The Boomer turned to look at Priss shortly before its legs buckled from under it. It tried to stand up but its legs started falling apart.
Zax took the opportunity to run at the Boomer and grab its neck. The Boomer grabbed his hands and tried to pry him off, but it could not. Priss ran out to the midst of the restaurant and started banging on the Boomer's head with the stock of her gun.
Nene tried to get up to help but tripped over her friend and fell crashing into Sylia who fell into Linna.
Zax finally tore out the Boomer's neck and threw the head away. He wondered what the hell that crazy woman was thinking and pulled the Boomer away from her. He plunged one arm deep into the Boomer's neck cavity and pulled out its computing and data units.
Priss muttered something about incompetent cops and the AD Police, none of which Zax understood. Well, he did understand "AD Police."
Just as everyone else in the crowd had managed to sort themselves out amidst cursing and grunting, Leon crashed through the front door with a heavily armed SWAT squad.
"What took you so long?" asked Zax. "I could've used some help here."
Leon looked embarrassed. "Well, we were stuck in traffic, because you crazy Americans can't build a half-decent subway system and you can't drive either! Maybe if you had--- NANI?"
Priss turned and saw that the SWAT team member screaming gibberish was actually Leon!
Nene peeked up from the desk and fell over backwards. Again.
Linna and Sylia saw the figure at the door and froze.
Priss shouted, "What the hell are you doing here?"
Zax stomped on a broken table. "Listen, could you please stop with that Japanese gibberish? Here in America, we speak English, and that's that. Anyways, we're going to set things straight. First, I'm the unit leader, and even if you're a guest adviser from the AD Police, you do as I say. Second, you all need to shut up so we can have some law and order. Third, all of the restaurant patrons stay for interrogation."
The SWAT team members began to clean up the mess while the manager called up his insurance agent. Everyone else was gathered together for interrogation. Sylia discreetly told the others, "Remember rule nine," when the SWAT troopers, Leon, and Daley weren't looking.
Leon got the opportunity to interrogate all the Japanese-speaking patrons, which coincidentally happened to be exactly eight. After he quickly sent the Replicants on their way (to get driven to their hotel because they delivered an authentic demonstration of the drunken man's walk), he started with Priss.
"So, Priss-chan, why weren't you wearing your night tight metal suit, hmm? You look so good in it!"
Priss kneed Leon in the groin as hard as she could. She screamed at him, "Don't call me that!" Linna, Nene, and Sylia were giggling madly.
"What the hell are you doing here anyways?" Priss asked.
"I'm here to teach the Americans the true way of fighting Boomers!" Leon struck a pose.
Priss gaped. Then started laughing. "You? Teach them? Teach them how to get killed, maybe!"
Leon folded his arms. "Just you wait and see."
Daley grabbed Leon by the shoulder. "Shouldn't you be asking them what they were doing here? And by the way, we're still on for San Francisco tomorrow."
Leon sighed. It would be a long evening.
End Chapter 2: Restaurant Rumble
