Proof positive to always read over the stupid stuff yourself or have a beta; I tried to use the comparison 'a knife through hot butter'. Needless to say, it fell through and got edited to the proper analogy. .
People in a crisis naturally moved aside if you looked like you knew what you were doing. The major, without so much as a whispered 'excuse me' parted the crowd like a hot knife through butter, and Batou knew for a fact it had nothing to do with the three men who were with her. Once they got through, though, he almost wished it hadn't been so easy. Togusa knelt on the ground beside his wife, a hand on either side of her face. While just minutes ago he had been relaxed and happy, his face was now broken, desperate. He barely registered the Major kneeling beside him until she said his name sharply the third time.
"Togusa!"
He looked up, finally, and swallowed.
"Major, I-," then he took a breath, glancing down at his wife, and his focus suddenly snapped into place again. "The computer tour requires a partially cyberized brain and snap-port." He said dully, "Kumiko has had the augmentation since shortly after we met."
The major nodded – snap ports and their augmentations were the most common cyberization in Japan. They worked through collars worn around the neck that communicated across the skin with a brain chip that in turn affected the senses. Alone, snap ports were usually used in net surfing for those not always connected, but the collar could also be used to convert different port signals. She glanced over Kumiko's inert body again, noting that the collar was still on her neck… and still active.
"We had just begun the tour when something… else, entered the system. At first it seemed like it was just another tourist, but the next moment it became hostile. I was thrown out of the system, and when I came to…," he looked down, grimacing.
"You weren't able to see the other presence in the system?" Chief Aramaki asked, having come from the other side of the room for the same reason as the rest of the section. Beside him, frowning was Prime Minister Kayabuki.
Togusa shook his head. "The program should have allowed it, but there was no physical presence there, sir."
"There wasn't anyone else connected through the snap ports," Saito said, appearing from behind Batou and the others without his date, "they're all accounted for."
"Look for the DJ," Aramaki said; turning to Kayabuki, "the music glitch and he being gone are too close to be coincidental."
She nodded. "They've already begun the search, and the building has been locked down." She opened her mouth to say something more, but was interrupted when Togusa's wife gasped, her eyes flying open and back arching off the floor in a seizure. Party guests fell back, a few of the women beginning to cry. The major stayed where she was, and the rest of section nine followed her lead as the woman opened her mouth, voice corrupted to a guttural hiss as she spoke.
"The Refugee Center is a disgrace to our country as we back down to the ideals of others! Why do we welcome them with open arms? They should be cast out of this sacred land!"
There was a collective gasp as Kumiko turned her unblinking stare on the prime minister. "By keeping them here, you have defiled the name of the Japanese, and you will suffer… you will all suffer!"
There was another screech, this time from a woman in the back of the crowd. "Victor? Victor!"
People began to back away, as if hacking were a virus contracted by breathing the same air, looking around nervously at each other as they muttered to their various security forces over closed networks that no longer seemed so safe. As their line of sight cleared, they could see another man collapsed in a heap on the floor, one of the American women shouting to him in English. Motoko nodded curtly, and Ishikawa went to check the situation with Bomer following him.
"Wait! What are your demands?" Kayabuki stepped forward, squarely meeting Kumiko's eyes. There was a pause. Then the prime minister gasped, stumbling a step back into Aramaki's arms as a hand went to the bridge of her nose. She grimaced in pain for a moment, and then suddenly relaxed; face more serious as she stood up from the episode.
"What did he say?" Aramaki asked quietly as soon as she had regained her composure. Most of the guests had not noticed the incident in the confusion about the second man dropping to the floor.
"He said…," she swallowed, "he said that he didn't need any demands; if I was smart I would close the center now. He also said that he would disable anyone who tried to leave, and one by one until I was the only one left and had no choice but to do as my pride in my nation tells me."
There were several screams as no less than ten people dropped to the floor just before the revolving doors.
"Trying to leave, no doubt," the major muttered.
"Prime minister," Aramaki said grimly, "it is obvious that this is an emergency situation in which-,"
The prime minister shook her head, effectively cutting the older man off. "No need to give me the speech. I am employing section nine as the highest form of cyber security available."
In spite of the situation, Motoko smirked at the woman's pluck. Then she twisted to look at her team, face serious. "Saito, go try and round up the crowd, if they keep trying to leave we'll have an even bigger problem." She paused and looked at Togusa, who hesitated and then nodded.
"I can go too," he said, voice rasping, "I'll… be all right."
She nodded to him, and the man rose to follow Saito. As they began to shout to the crowd of Party goers, she saw the prime minister join them, her security team in tow. "Pazu, rendezvous with security and get a full report on the building. These computer programs didn't need to be connected to the net – try to find out if it's been rigged or whether there is an outside source at work here. If they've found the DJ, inform me immediately, I have a feeling he has something to do with this."
The man nodded and jogged to the back of the building. She glanced at Batou and the chief, standing around the again inert body of Togusa's wife, and stood up. Do you think its coincidence that it was someone close to section nine hit first? she said over the com system.
It is very likely, the chief said. The computer guided tour seems to have been only a point of entry, and anyone connected at the time might have been targeted.
And if I had the choice of whether to hack Togusa or his wife, his wife would be the obvious choice, Batou added. Even if he's not head of a political intelligence agency, he's still got some heavy firewalls courtesy of section nine.
Motoko nodded, arms crossed as she studied Kumiko's face. What worries me is that her brain is more human than cyber, and even as the wife of a high rank security team, she doesn't have much to hide. Certainly, there's such a thing as serial hacking, and in his message to the Prime minister just now he made it obvious that he wasn't being discerning, but-
Major, Ishikawa interrupted her thought process, his com screen appearing in her line of vision. We've checked out the people who went down. Whoever's going after them isn't going for information or control – he's trying to deplete their battery by forcefully switching them to auxiliary power. Most of the victims are on extended auxiliary power or connected with someone that can give them power. The collapsing is their bodies suddenly shifting into a high level of power saving.
But what would power loss do? Batou asked, is there another program written in to do something but deplete battery?
Ishikawa sighed. You got it, he said tiredly, the only other thing the connection's done is program for a hard brain wipe on losing power.
It's a surprisingly simple program, the Chief said, used in the military for high officials in field combat – but there's a back up file on hand for those with the program that is updated almost daily. Ishikawa, have you tried erasing it?
First thing I did; no dice. Bomer's still trying, but it's hard since they're all still connected to the program's source.
Motoko glanced at Togusa's wife again. "I see. The hacker is using her as a base point."
"And we can't disconnect her," Batou said, now kneeling by Kumiko's shoulder, a cord plugged into the snap port at her neck, "He's turned off the disconnect protection program."
She sighed. "Well, it couldn't be easy, after all."
Major, we've found the DJ. You might want to come have a look. A map of the building appeared on their sensors, a blinking dot indicating a small room in the back.
Motoko glanced up at Aramaki, who nodded. "I will stay and monitor the scene. You and Batou go."
Without a word, they began towards the room on the map.
Kayabuki is awesome, and I want to write more of her sometime.
Also good to note: Writing this far in the future is obnoxiously complicated – however, the idea for safe disconnect came from my iPod, which is constantly going 'DO NOT DISCONNECT', and I found out why the hard way. :cue static: