"My name is Saito, I'm from public security, Section 9." Saito held up his ID and tried to look as non-threatening as possible. The senior grounds keeper for the Serano Genomics Warriors glanced at the ID and slipped his cap from his head in a mark of respect.

"What can I do for you, Mr Saito did you say it was?" He scrunched the cap into his hand at his side with a forced smile. He had a job to do and with the team returning from a lengthy road trip the pressure was on him to get the field looking perfect by dusk. What with his already being short staffed that day his mood was short but he didn't feel like jeopardising his job by questioning living proof that the mythical Section 9 existed and wanted a word, with him.

"It's about one of your employees, Mr Akihara. Jiro Kamimura to be precise?" The grounds keeper sagged, eyes turning downward. "Do you know something about Mr Kamimura, Sir?"

"All I know for sure is that he didn't show for work today," the man glanced out across the field from where he and Saito stood at home plate. The automated mowers were making their slow way across the grass, sprinklers firing intermitantly and most of his assigned staff were milling around at their assigned tasks with one notable exception.

"No, I imagine not. My apologies for having to be the one to inform you, Mr Akihara, but he died in the course of our investigations two nights ago." Saito placed a hand on Akihara's shoulder but the bigger man tensed under it, taking no comfort.

"Investigations? Man, I knew it was weird but we all figured, hell, so long as the woman's old enough what does it matter if the prosthetic's young enough to-" he paused, swallowing as he met Saito's eye. "Look if he's taken that sick little fantasy of his and he's hurt-"

"Whoah!" Saito's eye was wide from the sudden impassioned response. "No, it wasn't anything like that, I assure you." The sniper frowned. That was a sudden explosion, very defensive. Perhaps their man hadn't been as normal as things had original suggested. 'Ishikawa?'

'I'm here. What can I do for you, Saito?' Back at the Section 9 building Ishikawa popped the viewers from their braced position on his shoulders, leaning back to give his eyes a rest as he concentrated on the transmission. The green binocular type arrangement eased upwards on its support arms, lifting away from him like a roller-coaster support bar.

'You said something about our guy Kamimura having some odd adult sites on his history, yeah?' Saito watched Akihara sweating. 'Wouldn't have been for underage prosthetics, all nice and legal with a grown woman's brain case of course?'

'How the hell did you know that?' Ishikawa drummed his fingers on the chair rest. 'No wait, I figure his colleagues have been giving you the inside story?'

'Yeah. Sick bastard. Just wanted to make sure that's what we were dealing with. Turns out our man might have done more than look.' Saito terminated the call and leant back against the wall. "Seems we did have some intelligence about his odd tastes, but he was actually apprehended for suspected hacking of public security officers." Somehow it didn't feel right to admit it was Section 9 members themselves who'd been hacked to a man whose job boiled down to highly specialised gardener.

"That idiot?" Akihara looked intently confused. "Jori Kamimura? We are talking about the same guy, right?"

"You seem surprised." Akihara nodded. "Why?"

"Cause the damn fool needed help just getting onto public sites, that's why!" Akihara laughed. "Hell we set him up with a terminal in the basement. Some technical know-how's involved in this job, believe it or not. We need to program the mowers, sprinklers not to mention all our time keeping's online. We're sponsored by Serano Gernomics after all. A god-send to our technical resources but a pain in the ass to a ludite like Jori."

"I see. You wouldn't mind if I looked at this terminal?" Saito smiled.

"Help yourself." Akihara pulled a bundle of key-cards from his pocket, slipping one out of its clip and handing it over. "Apparently he doesn't need it any more."

-

The corridor was a non-descript affair with all the decoration and pageantry saved for above ground where the fans would see it. There was just one problem as far as Saito could see it. If the room he was down here to investigate was Kamimura's private hide-away, Kamimura was dead and Saito himself had the grounds keeper's master key then why was the door already open.

Wishing he had his tactical suit on, something other than his side arm or even that he wasn't on his own the sniper prepared himself for something a little more up close and personal as he pressed to the side of the door. There was definitely someone in there, he could hear them moving. 'Ishikawa?'

This time Ishikawa left his eyes in the visualisation module. 'Here.'

'I've got something here. I'll explain later just… keep the link open. I think I'm about to walk into trouble.' Saito took a breath readying himself for the room assault.

'Want me to dispatch support units?' As Ishikawa asked the question, Saito threw himself around the doorway, squaring his sights.

"Public security, hold it right there." The first thing that hit him was the guy's size. He was small, not particularly threatening looking. He whipped around in surprise at the challenge and tightened visibly. His eyes were tight and blank, red discs of blank metal filled his eye sockets.

Suddenly the man left the floor, bracing a foot on the desk which collapsed behind him as he propelled his body to the door. Saito fired one round and it hit the unexpected intruder square in the chest. As he dropped, Saito saw the terminal which must have been Kamimura's under one of his arms. Stepping forward he never expected the man to spring back to his feet.

His assailant spun, one foot rising in a perfectly placed kick. Saito didn't have time to bring his pistol to bare, instead he instinctively threw his arm in the way of the blow. Saito was almost entirely human but his left eye had been replaced with the hawk-eye targeting system. Equally, his arm had been replaced to provide perfect stability to his sniper rifle. Thankfully that meant it was also as strong as anything the Major or Batou had to offer. He hadn't had time to turn off the sensory receptors, however and the blow sent him across the small room and into the concrete wall. 'Yes, damn it, yes.'

Ishikawa glanced at Saito's vitals display on the visualiser when he heard the panic in the man's voice and swallowed. He didn't know that his near human partner had been sent into an unyielding concrete wall but he saw the damage clearly. Saito's heart rate had elevated alarmingly, his endorphin level had skyrocketed. A sure sign of some serious pain. It looked like he was losing blood as well. 'I'm on it.'

Saito shook his head to rid it of the haze that had fallen over his eyes when his back struck the concrete. "Damn." He pushed himself to his feet. "Damn!" The cyborg was gone. Still Saito hadn't blacked out as best as he could tell which meant it hadn't gone far. Stepping out of the door he looked up and down the corridor, wondering which way he must have run.

-

The archaic yellow Italian mid-engine sports car that was Batou's pride and joy came smoothly to a stop for the traffic lights in sight of the hotel he was making for. Whilst he waited for the lights to change he watched as a large aircraft swept around in a circle from the park opposite the hotel, its wings sweeping from vertical take off mode to flight whilst its rear ramp closed. Emerging from the park below was a small blue multi-ped tank. "Not often the cavalry gets there first, huh, Major?"

"I'm sure they'll be delighted to see you, Baotu." The Major replied with a slight smile, watching the think tank.

Batou chuckled to himself as the lights changed and he rolled up the last few hundred yards to the hotel's parking entrance, stopping and rolling down the window as he approached.

"Mr Batou!" The think tank's child-like voice was filled with excitement. To the tachikomas, every day they got let out of the Section 9 building was a game and as far as they were concerned no game was so much fun it couldn't be improved by working with Batou.

Batou himself didn't understand their strange affection for him but he returned it gladly. "Tachikoma. Glad you could make it. You know why you're here?"

"We're going to watch the exits so that if the bad guys try and get out we follow them." The tachikoma bounced, its eyeball swivelling, taking its three socketed eye from Batou to the other tachikoma following behind it. "That's right isn't it, Mr Batou?"

"You got it, pal, I'll see you soon." He smiled and turned into the garage, descending from the street to the hotel's basement.

"I told you so." The Major shook her head, amused.