.HackRelapse
A .Hack fanfiction by Renfro Calhoun
Disclaimer: Project .Hack and attached characters and concepts do not belong to me.
Notes: Takes place during Outbreak. Parentheses = thoughts, brackets = writing.
Chapter 3 - They
----------------
"How many?" Ryo started to turn.
"Don't look, don't look!" hissed Dean, facing Ryo but eyeing the two men tailing them. "Two of 'em, plainclothes. Might be CC, might be cops."
"Cops? Why would they be following us?"
Dean sighed. "It's a long story, I'll tell you all about it soon as we get out of here. Where'd you park?"
"I didn't, I took the train here." Ryo twitched, struggling to remain still.
"Relax," urged Dean. "If you act all nervous, they'll know we're on to them."
Ryo took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, trying to stay calm, fighting his furiously pounding heart. "So, now what?"
Dean carefully scanned the surrounding area, eyes roaming up and down the footpath through the garden. "We have to get to my car, but we gotta lose them first."
"Should we run for it?"
"No, not yet. If they figure out we've spotted them they'll back off, and we won't find out anything." His mind raced, generating numerous possible escape plans and discarding them one after another. Finally he fell on an outlandish idea that nonetheless appealed to him. His eyes lit up as the proverbial light in his head clicked on. "Take out your wallet."
Ryo blinked, confused. "What? My wallet, why?"
"I'm gonna snatch it and bolt, and you chase after me." Dean moved in closer, placing his right hand on Ryo's shoulder. "We're gonna play a little game of 'tag'. Chase after me down the path yelling 'stop thief', or something; once you hit the archway, head through, bank right along the wall and follow it to the parking lot, make like I lost you. I'll cut through the commons to get there faster and have the car waiting."
He wasted no time in deliberation; Ryo nodded. "Got it... wait, what kind of car?"
"Blue Honda Civic; look for dice in the window."
"All right," said Ryo, angling his body away from the two followers and digging his wallet out of his pocket.
Dean eyed the wallet, then the tail, then the wallet again. "You ready for this?" he asked.
"Ready as I'll ever be," muttered Ryo. "Just go. Now!"
Steeling his nerves, Dean lashed a hand out and ripped the leather wallet from Ryo's waiting hand; in the same motion he turned and broke into a dash down the path, his eyes trained on the distant archway leading out of the inner garden.
He heard Ryo shouting behind him in his native language, his voice muffled slightly by the pounding of shoes against gravel. A handful of onlookers, in various tongues, also offered their shouts of surprise and alarm as Dean raced by, quickly tucking the wallet into his jacket pocket and doubling his efforts to exit the garden.
What took no more than half a minute felt like six whole ones. Dean scrambled beneath the arch winded, flustered and sweating bullets; the humidity helped nothing, adding the appearance of weight to his overdressed body. Slowing to a jog, he made his way through the lush commons, avoiding eye contact with any of its human occupants.
All the way, his mind fired off questions, a condition he was more than used to by now. (Masamoto said nothing about a tail. Who the hell were those guys?)
He dropped to a casual saunter as he entered the parking lot, one hand fishing through his pants pocket for his keys, chest still heaving as he caught his breath. (CC, maybe... that guy Lios? Nah, they got bigger fish to fry than me, but who else is there? Another company? Government? The mob?)
None of the answers fit the picture in his mind, so he shrugged them aside and stepped up to his car, pressing the unlock button and giving the door handle a gentle yank. The detective climbed into the driver's seat of the Civic, immediately regretting having opted for a leather interior as a wall of compacted heat pushed into him, impeding no progress into the car but making the journey quite uncomfortable, to say nothing of cooling down from his dash.
No sooner had he closed the door behind him than he shoved the key into the ignition and started the engine; his second act was to turn on the air conditioning, an act that was not necessary considering he had left it on. He scanned the sidewalk before the gardens through the windshield, eyes carefully watching for his companion. (C'mon, Ryo, hurry up.)
knock knock knock
Dean froze, his heart skipping a beat as someone's hand rapped the passenger-side window; he cocked his head right, and breathed a sigh of relief as he spotted Ryo, waiting patiently outside the still-locked door. Dean flipped the lock switch and opened the door, which was promptly opened by Ryo. "I think I lost them," he said as he climbed in and closed the door behind him, "but we'd better get moving, they weren't far behind."
Dean nodded and hastily slid on his seatbelt before shifting to reverse. He glanced out the rear window as the car idled out of the spot; a quick turn of the wheel and shifting to drive later, and the car was off and away from the parking lot.
With his free hand, he pulled Ryo's wallet out of his jacket and tossed it onto his lap. "Here," he said, turning the car left from the lot and into light traffic. "You got here fast, I'm impressed."
"Track team in high school," explained Ryo with a small smile, a slight redness to his face hinting at his own exhaustion. "Been a while, though," he said amidst a heavy sigh, falling back against the seat with his eyes shut.
"So can you put me in touch with BT?" asked Dean as he glanced right over his shoulder; spotting no one close behind, he changed lanes.
Ryo's eyes blinked open. "That depends," he replied. "Why would the cops be after you?"
Dean clenched his teeth. (Damn... was hoping I wouldn't have to go into this.) "You remember those shootings at the hospital and at CC's headquarters about a week ago?"
"Yeah, they were all over the... news..." Ryo trailed off. He recoiled slightly, his eyes wide. "You don't mean..."
"That was me," said Dean. He noticed Ryo's reaction, and lifted a hand off the wheel to wave it dismissingly. "Relax, it's not what you think. I'll explain."
"Please do." Ryo eyed him cautiously, appraisingly.
Dean could feel the impending judgment in the man's eyes, but continued. "Before I started this case, I came here on a contract from Asara corporation to steal data from Cyber Connect. I was working with two men, one of whom died at the Takashi complex shooting that same night. CC sent goons out to silence us; they're the ones that killed those cops at the hospital, and they killed our partner Shinji, who used to work for them."
Ryo nodded slowly, his expression blank. "Uh-huh..."
Dean sighed. "See, Asara told us they wanted accounting information from Cyber Connect; what they didn't tell us was that the 'accounting information' was actually a program called Delphi in disguise, a prototype AI and some sort of a super virus-protection program. Asara wanted it because the same thing it used to block hackers and viruses was capable of harming people through 'The World', just like those Guardian creatures you told me about."
"I see." Ryo furrowed his brow for a moment. "So they hired you to steal this... Delphi?"
"Yeah. And CC wanted to protect it, so they had it attack us. At the same time, they dispatched two agents to kill us and keep this thing under wraps. They didn't want anybody finding out. They killed Shinji and tried to kill me, but I stopped them and destroyed the rest of the data, with the help of my friend Kite - a hacker in 'The World'." He slowed the car to a stop as the light before him turned red. "That's when I decided to stick around and investigate CC, see if I couldn't find out what was going on with all the disturbances online."
"That's... that's quite a story," said Ryo quietly.
Dean nodded. "I already did time for the mess, so it's not like you think with the cops; but I am on bail, that's why I thought it might've been them. Still, I don't think it was."
"Me neither. I'm not sure what to make of it, myself."
"That's why we have to get in touch with BT and get to the bottom of this mystery. CC may not be responsible for all that's happening online, but somebody made this Morganna thing. Finding this guy Harold may be the only way we can get some answers."
Ryo swallowed dryly, lack of moisture causing his throat to burn. "All right," he said. "Take the #4 and drop me off at my place, I'll get ahold of her and give her your number."
The light turned green, and Dean pulled into a right turn onto the next street. "Why don't you just give me her address and I'll mail her?"
"I told you she's kind of a recluse lately." Ryo shook his head. "She's worried about something same as me; she might not buy it if you contact her out of the blue.
"All right," said Dean. "The #4?"
He nodded. "I'll tell you when."
-
The door clicked as Ryo popped it open, climbing out of the comfortably-cooled Civic, he glanced back at Dean, a smile on his lips. "Hey, good luck Dean."
"Thanks, Ryo. Be careful."
Ryo grinned. "You too."
"I'm workin' on that," replied Dean with a chuckle.
The door slammed shut, prompting Dean to release the break and drive off, away from the Sakuma household. With nothing new to add to his thoughts - outside of questions regarding what to expect from the woman behind BT - he twisted the dial on the radio to the nearest rock station and turned the volume up.
Guitars and drums, loud as they were, did nothing to quiet his inner discourse. (This brings back way too many memories. Hell, do they even count as memories? It happened a goddamn week ago! Now they're after me again, Jesus Christ. Of course, I don't even know if it's them this time...) He lightly pounded the steering wheel with the flat of his palm. "Goddamnit," he whispered under his breath.
(Who's really behind all this? Is it Cyber Connect, or is it Morganna? Who do I blame?) His eyes narrowed. (And what if this BT doesn't know anything else? What then?)
These thoughts led him to the next question of who, exactly, BT was; a question he had no immediate answer for. His guesses ran the gamut of stereotypes, from demure bookworm to icy femme fatale - none of which seemed to fit what little Ryo had told him about her.
(Let's hope the mystery woman can tell me something I don't already know,) he thought.
A muffled warbling erupted from the glove box; he turned down the radio with a flick of the wrist, and popped open the box to reveal a ringing cellular phone, which he promptly snatched up and opened. "Hello?"
"Hi, Dean! It's Hiroshi."
Dean grinned. "Hey, Hiro man! How's it going?"
"Pretty good. How about you?"
A left turn brought him face-to-face with the sun, forcing him to drop the visor over the window. "Not too shabby. Haven't heard from you in a while, man; what's up on your end?"
"Well, I ran into Balmung - one of Yasu's friends in the game - and straightened things out with him; then I found out the name of someone involved with 'The World'." Hiroshi paused. "Someone named 'Seijiro Tanaka,' but I'd never heard of him before. Have you?"
"Nah, doesn't ring a bell. Who is he?"
"I don't know. The player we talked to said it had something to do with 'Fragment,' how they were having problems similar to what's going on now. I was wondering if maybe you could find out more?"
"Hmm." Dean chewed his lip. "Well, it certainly couldn't hurt to check it out. How do you spell Seijiro?"
"S-E-I-J-I-R-O."
Doing his best to mentally store the name, Dean replied, "Thanks, I'll see what I can dig up. If I find anything, I'll let you know. And you do the same."
"Sure thing. Thanks!"
"No problem." Dean smiled. "Hey, tell BlackRose I said 'hi'."
"Will do. See you later!"
"Later man." Dean pressed the 'off' button and folded the phone back up, tossing it into the glove box from whence it came. (Seijiro Tanaka, huh? Well, not like I had any other leads aside from BT. Maybe the lieutenant will know something.)
-
"Please, for the love of all that is holy, tell me it wasn't you."
Dean drew back from the receiver, puzzled. "Huh?"
He heard the lieutenant sigh. "Dean, we got a report about a mugger near the Meiji shrine that looked an awful lot like you. Now I know you wouldn't think about lifting some poor guy's wallet so soon after getting out of jail, would you?"
He rolled his eyes. "No, sir, I wouldn't. I can explain."
"I think you'd better."
"Listen, I met with a guy trying to find out more about what's going on, he was involved in that fiasco about a year ago involving some girl, one of the first that fell comatose while playing 'The World.'"
"Oh yeah, I remember that. So what happened?"
"These two guys were following us; we had to pull a fast one to lose 'em, so I made like I robbed him and had him chase me so we could get out of there."
Masamoto sighed again, this time in obvious relief. "Okay, so it wasn't a mugging. Good. I was wondering why no report was filed. Who were they?"
Dean blinked. ('Who were they?') "I thought they might've been your guys."
"No, we didn't have any plainclothes officers around the garden at noon. Why, what did they look like?"
"Just regular guys. Wasn't sure who they were, guess they could've been CC goons as well, but I don't know what they'd be after this time."
"Damn. Did you find out anything?"
Dean spun in his chair, reclining and kicking out the footstool. "Ahh... nothing much, really. I got two more leads, one I'm meeting with later, and another I was hoping to ask you about. Does the name 'Seijiro Tanaka' sound familiar?"
"No. Should it?"
"Found out from another one of my sources. Supposed to have something to do with that test version of 'The World'; y'know, Fragment? Haven't been able to find out anything on him, though. I was hoping maybe you could tell me something about him. An address, for starters."
"Well, I'll try, but no promises."
"Thanks, lieutenant."
"No problem. And Dean?"
"Yeah?"
"Next time, pretend the guy following you stole something from you. Gives you a reason to turn the tables."
Dean laughed aloud. "Ha ha! I'll keep that in mind. Later, Mas."
"Have a good one."
He shut off the phone and leaned back, letting the receiver drop into his lap. His eyes drooped shut, the ceiling of his apartment the last thing they saw before darkness filled his vision. He threw his arms up over his head, stretching in the chair and letting out a deep groan of satisfaction as his stagnant joints and muscles were pulled and twisted.
Folding his hands beneath his head, he let his body relax and mold to the chair. (Hope they don't call for a while. I'm beat...)
Hope springs eternal, but not fortune; the phone rang, jarring him from his moment of peace. Slightly irritated, he picked up the phone and answered the call. "Y'ello."
A woman's voice answered him. "Is this Dean Stollis?"
Ears perking up, Dean erred on the side of caution. "Depends who's asking."
"Someone who doesn't plan on getting off this train we're on."
That got his full attention. He sat up. "Another gamer, huh?"
She let out a soft, throaty noise that might have been a very brief chuckle. "It was Ryo's idea."
Dean smiled, moving off the chair and to his feet. "Then I presume this is the BT I've been hearing so much about?"
"You presume correctly. What is it you wanted to speak with me about, detective?"
- End of Chapter 3
A .Hack fanfiction by Renfro Calhoun
Disclaimer: Project .Hack and attached characters and concepts do not belong to me.
Notes: Takes place during Outbreak. Parentheses = thoughts, brackets = writing.
Chapter 3 - They
----------------
"How many?" Ryo started to turn.
"Don't look, don't look!" hissed Dean, facing Ryo but eyeing the two men tailing them. "Two of 'em, plainclothes. Might be CC, might be cops."
"Cops? Why would they be following us?"
Dean sighed. "It's a long story, I'll tell you all about it soon as we get out of here. Where'd you park?"
"I didn't, I took the train here." Ryo twitched, struggling to remain still.
"Relax," urged Dean. "If you act all nervous, they'll know we're on to them."
Ryo took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, trying to stay calm, fighting his furiously pounding heart. "So, now what?"
Dean carefully scanned the surrounding area, eyes roaming up and down the footpath through the garden. "We have to get to my car, but we gotta lose them first."
"Should we run for it?"
"No, not yet. If they figure out we've spotted them they'll back off, and we won't find out anything." His mind raced, generating numerous possible escape plans and discarding them one after another. Finally he fell on an outlandish idea that nonetheless appealed to him. His eyes lit up as the proverbial light in his head clicked on. "Take out your wallet."
Ryo blinked, confused. "What? My wallet, why?"
"I'm gonna snatch it and bolt, and you chase after me." Dean moved in closer, placing his right hand on Ryo's shoulder. "We're gonna play a little game of 'tag'. Chase after me down the path yelling 'stop thief', or something; once you hit the archway, head through, bank right along the wall and follow it to the parking lot, make like I lost you. I'll cut through the commons to get there faster and have the car waiting."
He wasted no time in deliberation; Ryo nodded. "Got it... wait, what kind of car?"
"Blue Honda Civic; look for dice in the window."
"All right," said Ryo, angling his body away from the two followers and digging his wallet out of his pocket.
Dean eyed the wallet, then the tail, then the wallet again. "You ready for this?" he asked.
"Ready as I'll ever be," muttered Ryo. "Just go. Now!"
Steeling his nerves, Dean lashed a hand out and ripped the leather wallet from Ryo's waiting hand; in the same motion he turned and broke into a dash down the path, his eyes trained on the distant archway leading out of the inner garden.
He heard Ryo shouting behind him in his native language, his voice muffled slightly by the pounding of shoes against gravel. A handful of onlookers, in various tongues, also offered their shouts of surprise and alarm as Dean raced by, quickly tucking the wallet into his jacket pocket and doubling his efforts to exit the garden.
What took no more than half a minute felt like six whole ones. Dean scrambled beneath the arch winded, flustered and sweating bullets; the humidity helped nothing, adding the appearance of weight to his overdressed body. Slowing to a jog, he made his way through the lush commons, avoiding eye contact with any of its human occupants.
All the way, his mind fired off questions, a condition he was more than used to by now. (Masamoto said nothing about a tail. Who the hell were those guys?)
He dropped to a casual saunter as he entered the parking lot, one hand fishing through his pants pocket for his keys, chest still heaving as he caught his breath. (CC, maybe... that guy Lios? Nah, they got bigger fish to fry than me, but who else is there? Another company? Government? The mob?)
None of the answers fit the picture in his mind, so he shrugged them aside and stepped up to his car, pressing the unlock button and giving the door handle a gentle yank. The detective climbed into the driver's seat of the Civic, immediately regretting having opted for a leather interior as a wall of compacted heat pushed into him, impeding no progress into the car but making the journey quite uncomfortable, to say nothing of cooling down from his dash.
No sooner had he closed the door behind him than he shoved the key into the ignition and started the engine; his second act was to turn on the air conditioning, an act that was not necessary considering he had left it on. He scanned the sidewalk before the gardens through the windshield, eyes carefully watching for his companion. (C'mon, Ryo, hurry up.)
knock knock knock
Dean froze, his heart skipping a beat as someone's hand rapped the passenger-side window; he cocked his head right, and breathed a sigh of relief as he spotted Ryo, waiting patiently outside the still-locked door. Dean flipped the lock switch and opened the door, which was promptly opened by Ryo. "I think I lost them," he said as he climbed in and closed the door behind him, "but we'd better get moving, they weren't far behind."
Dean nodded and hastily slid on his seatbelt before shifting to reverse. He glanced out the rear window as the car idled out of the spot; a quick turn of the wheel and shifting to drive later, and the car was off and away from the parking lot.
With his free hand, he pulled Ryo's wallet out of his jacket and tossed it onto his lap. "Here," he said, turning the car left from the lot and into light traffic. "You got here fast, I'm impressed."
"Track team in high school," explained Ryo with a small smile, a slight redness to his face hinting at his own exhaustion. "Been a while, though," he said amidst a heavy sigh, falling back against the seat with his eyes shut.
"So can you put me in touch with BT?" asked Dean as he glanced right over his shoulder; spotting no one close behind, he changed lanes.
Ryo's eyes blinked open. "That depends," he replied. "Why would the cops be after you?"
Dean clenched his teeth. (Damn... was hoping I wouldn't have to go into this.) "You remember those shootings at the hospital and at CC's headquarters about a week ago?"
"Yeah, they were all over the... news..." Ryo trailed off. He recoiled slightly, his eyes wide. "You don't mean..."
"That was me," said Dean. He noticed Ryo's reaction, and lifted a hand off the wheel to wave it dismissingly. "Relax, it's not what you think. I'll explain."
"Please do." Ryo eyed him cautiously, appraisingly.
Dean could feel the impending judgment in the man's eyes, but continued. "Before I started this case, I came here on a contract from Asara corporation to steal data from Cyber Connect. I was working with two men, one of whom died at the Takashi complex shooting that same night. CC sent goons out to silence us; they're the ones that killed those cops at the hospital, and they killed our partner Shinji, who used to work for them."
Ryo nodded slowly, his expression blank. "Uh-huh..."
Dean sighed. "See, Asara told us they wanted accounting information from Cyber Connect; what they didn't tell us was that the 'accounting information' was actually a program called Delphi in disguise, a prototype AI and some sort of a super virus-protection program. Asara wanted it because the same thing it used to block hackers and viruses was capable of harming people through 'The World', just like those Guardian creatures you told me about."
"I see." Ryo furrowed his brow for a moment. "So they hired you to steal this... Delphi?"
"Yeah. And CC wanted to protect it, so they had it attack us. At the same time, they dispatched two agents to kill us and keep this thing under wraps. They didn't want anybody finding out. They killed Shinji and tried to kill me, but I stopped them and destroyed the rest of the data, with the help of my friend Kite - a hacker in 'The World'." He slowed the car to a stop as the light before him turned red. "That's when I decided to stick around and investigate CC, see if I couldn't find out what was going on with all the disturbances online."
"That's... that's quite a story," said Ryo quietly.
Dean nodded. "I already did time for the mess, so it's not like you think with the cops; but I am on bail, that's why I thought it might've been them. Still, I don't think it was."
"Me neither. I'm not sure what to make of it, myself."
"That's why we have to get in touch with BT and get to the bottom of this mystery. CC may not be responsible for all that's happening online, but somebody made this Morganna thing. Finding this guy Harold may be the only way we can get some answers."
Ryo swallowed dryly, lack of moisture causing his throat to burn. "All right," he said. "Take the #4 and drop me off at my place, I'll get ahold of her and give her your number."
The light turned green, and Dean pulled into a right turn onto the next street. "Why don't you just give me her address and I'll mail her?"
"I told you she's kind of a recluse lately." Ryo shook his head. "She's worried about something same as me; she might not buy it if you contact her out of the blue.
"All right," said Dean. "The #4?"
He nodded. "I'll tell you when."
-
The door clicked as Ryo popped it open, climbing out of the comfortably-cooled Civic, he glanced back at Dean, a smile on his lips. "Hey, good luck Dean."
"Thanks, Ryo. Be careful."
Ryo grinned. "You too."
"I'm workin' on that," replied Dean with a chuckle.
The door slammed shut, prompting Dean to release the break and drive off, away from the Sakuma household. With nothing new to add to his thoughts - outside of questions regarding what to expect from the woman behind BT - he twisted the dial on the radio to the nearest rock station and turned the volume up.
Guitars and drums, loud as they were, did nothing to quiet his inner discourse. (This brings back way too many memories. Hell, do they even count as memories? It happened a goddamn week ago! Now they're after me again, Jesus Christ. Of course, I don't even know if it's them this time...) He lightly pounded the steering wheel with the flat of his palm. "Goddamnit," he whispered under his breath.
(Who's really behind all this? Is it Cyber Connect, or is it Morganna? Who do I blame?) His eyes narrowed. (And what if this BT doesn't know anything else? What then?)
These thoughts led him to the next question of who, exactly, BT was; a question he had no immediate answer for. His guesses ran the gamut of stereotypes, from demure bookworm to icy femme fatale - none of which seemed to fit what little Ryo had told him about her.
(Let's hope the mystery woman can tell me something I don't already know,) he thought.
A muffled warbling erupted from the glove box; he turned down the radio with a flick of the wrist, and popped open the box to reveal a ringing cellular phone, which he promptly snatched up and opened. "Hello?"
"Hi, Dean! It's Hiroshi."
Dean grinned. "Hey, Hiro man! How's it going?"
"Pretty good. How about you?"
A left turn brought him face-to-face with the sun, forcing him to drop the visor over the window. "Not too shabby. Haven't heard from you in a while, man; what's up on your end?"
"Well, I ran into Balmung - one of Yasu's friends in the game - and straightened things out with him; then I found out the name of someone involved with 'The World'." Hiroshi paused. "Someone named 'Seijiro Tanaka,' but I'd never heard of him before. Have you?"
"Nah, doesn't ring a bell. Who is he?"
"I don't know. The player we talked to said it had something to do with 'Fragment,' how they were having problems similar to what's going on now. I was wondering if maybe you could find out more?"
"Hmm." Dean chewed his lip. "Well, it certainly couldn't hurt to check it out. How do you spell Seijiro?"
"S-E-I-J-I-R-O."
Doing his best to mentally store the name, Dean replied, "Thanks, I'll see what I can dig up. If I find anything, I'll let you know. And you do the same."
"Sure thing. Thanks!"
"No problem." Dean smiled. "Hey, tell BlackRose I said 'hi'."
"Will do. See you later!"
"Later man." Dean pressed the 'off' button and folded the phone back up, tossing it into the glove box from whence it came. (Seijiro Tanaka, huh? Well, not like I had any other leads aside from BT. Maybe the lieutenant will know something.)
-
"Please, for the love of all that is holy, tell me it wasn't you."
Dean drew back from the receiver, puzzled. "Huh?"
He heard the lieutenant sigh. "Dean, we got a report about a mugger near the Meiji shrine that looked an awful lot like you. Now I know you wouldn't think about lifting some poor guy's wallet so soon after getting out of jail, would you?"
He rolled his eyes. "No, sir, I wouldn't. I can explain."
"I think you'd better."
"Listen, I met with a guy trying to find out more about what's going on, he was involved in that fiasco about a year ago involving some girl, one of the first that fell comatose while playing 'The World.'"
"Oh yeah, I remember that. So what happened?"
"These two guys were following us; we had to pull a fast one to lose 'em, so I made like I robbed him and had him chase me so we could get out of there."
Masamoto sighed again, this time in obvious relief. "Okay, so it wasn't a mugging. Good. I was wondering why no report was filed. Who were they?"
Dean blinked. ('Who were they?') "I thought they might've been your guys."
"No, we didn't have any plainclothes officers around the garden at noon. Why, what did they look like?"
"Just regular guys. Wasn't sure who they were, guess they could've been CC goons as well, but I don't know what they'd be after this time."
"Damn. Did you find out anything?"
Dean spun in his chair, reclining and kicking out the footstool. "Ahh... nothing much, really. I got two more leads, one I'm meeting with later, and another I was hoping to ask you about. Does the name 'Seijiro Tanaka' sound familiar?"
"No. Should it?"
"Found out from another one of my sources. Supposed to have something to do with that test version of 'The World'; y'know, Fragment? Haven't been able to find out anything on him, though. I was hoping maybe you could tell me something about him. An address, for starters."
"Well, I'll try, but no promises."
"Thanks, lieutenant."
"No problem. And Dean?"
"Yeah?"
"Next time, pretend the guy following you stole something from you. Gives you a reason to turn the tables."
Dean laughed aloud. "Ha ha! I'll keep that in mind. Later, Mas."
"Have a good one."
He shut off the phone and leaned back, letting the receiver drop into his lap. His eyes drooped shut, the ceiling of his apartment the last thing they saw before darkness filled his vision. He threw his arms up over his head, stretching in the chair and letting out a deep groan of satisfaction as his stagnant joints and muscles were pulled and twisted.
Folding his hands beneath his head, he let his body relax and mold to the chair. (Hope they don't call for a while. I'm beat...)
Hope springs eternal, but not fortune; the phone rang, jarring him from his moment of peace. Slightly irritated, he picked up the phone and answered the call. "Y'ello."
A woman's voice answered him. "Is this Dean Stollis?"
Ears perking up, Dean erred on the side of caution. "Depends who's asking."
"Someone who doesn't plan on getting off this train we're on."
That got his full attention. He sat up. "Another gamer, huh?"
She let out a soft, throaty noise that might have been a very brief chuckle. "It was Ryo's idea."
Dean smiled, moving off the chair and to his feet. "Then I presume this is the BT I've been hearing so much about?"
"You presume correctly. What is it you wanted to speak with me about, detective?"
- End of Chapter 3