Batou scowled. "Are you absolutely sure?"

Nodding, Aoi said, "Messages and scout viruses similar to Kuze's have been flowing from her throughout the Net at an extraordinary rate."

"What are scout viruses?" I asked.

"They are little programs that assess a person's vulnerability," Aoi explained. "If they find a suitable host, they send out a signal to the replicas of the Kuze Virus. It's likely both of you were investigated by scout viruses, but were ultimately rejected."

"Maybe because we already sensed Kuze was an asshole." Batou folded his arms and stared at Aoi. "Can we get our Major back? And if so, how?"

Aoi began walking down a hallway and motioned for us to follow. "There is a slim possibility we can purge the virus from her system, but it's very risky. In the meantime, we have to move away from here. This place is hack-proof, but it won't take Kusanagi very long to figure out who hacked Section 9 using simple logic, and she knows how to get here."

Following uncertainly, Tachikoma asked, "Where are we going?"

"I built a kind of…secure center…over the years," Aoi approached a blank wall, and pulled a hookup cord from one of the ports in the back of his neck. "Originally I was going to use it to hide during the first Laughing Man incident. But after a while I got…apathetic." He unscrewed a light switch, and exposed a port under it, hooking himself up to it. After a few moments of looking spaced out, a door appeared out of nowhere.

"This is all well and good," said Batou, "but what's to prevent the Major from hacking through the door?"

Aoi smiled. "This is a lock I designed myself. It works by flashing images from my mind's memories before me. I respond by sending back a corresponding image. Even if my brain was hacked and someone tried to gain entry with it, it wouldn't work. This system is on a timer of a few seconds, and a hacker would not have enough time to find the image that only makes sense to me. If he tried it, his brain would get fried."

"Swank," I said.

Batou looked impressed in spite of himself. But he still wanted to play devil's advocate. "And what if they say to hell with the lock and just blow up the door?"

"This door and frame is made of one of the strongest materials known to man. In addition, it is located at a cornerstone in the city's infrastructure. An explosion big enough to open it would wreak havoc on the city itself." Aoi motioned for us to come in.

We walked through a long series of tunnels, finally coming to another wall with a fake light switch. After unlocking it in the same way, he led us into a small room – perhaps the size of a large master bedroom – that was crammed to the ceiling with wires, computer parts, and other hardware.

"Oh, sorry!" Tachikoma exclaimed as she knocked over a box full of odds and ends.

"It's all right. What we really need is over here." Aoi bent over a small metal object the size of a football, which looked vaguely like a cyborg braincase. It had a number of ports as well as cables looping out of it and snaking across the floor.

"Well, what is it?" Batou demanded.

"I haven't thought of a name for it yet," Aoi admitted with a shrug. "It has a number of functions. But the most important one is it allows several people to enter the Net through an extremely secure firewall."

"What will we be doing in the Net?" I asked.

Aoi set the thing down. "That depends. Do either of you have any idea when Kusanagi might have been exposed to a scout virus? She would have begun to act strangely, but more importantly, she would have been uncontactable for a short period of time. The scout virus infiltrates the victim's subconscious and implants a false memory based on what it finds. Frequently this happens when the victim is sleeping…but not always."

Batou and I put on our thinking caps. If the Major had been infected while sleeping, we were pretty well screwed. She could have had any number of strange dreams and there would be no way to tell which one was the scout virus.

It was Batou who spoke first. "There has been only one time when I haven't been able to get hold of the Major…when we weren't on a mission or something, I mean. Togusa, remember when we were testing those two newbies, trying to get more people into Section 9 to deal with the whole Individual Eleven thing?"

I nodded. "I remember she disappeared from our radar for a moment…but she was trying to make herself untrackable, remember? That was part of the exercise."

"Yeah, but we should have been able to find her. And I eventually did, but she seemed…weird…almost half-asleep…"

"That may have been the point of entry," Aoi told us. "During that time, the scout virus likely discovered some vulnerable part of her mind, then signaled to the Kuze Virus. By the time you found her, Batou, she had already been infected."

Batou shuddered. "Well, what do we do with this information?"

"We hack into Kusanagi's mind."

I cringed. "You make it sound easy."

Shrugging, Aoi said, "We don't have much of a choice. If Kusanagi is the main carrier of the Kuze Virus, we will likely see a repeat of Kuze's apocalyptic vision. And with the rest of Section 9 helping her…"

"Say no more." Batou plugged into the device. "I'm ready. But what do I have to do? I'm a fair hacker, but nothing like you or the Major…and the kid here is about a thousand levels below me."

"You two know Kusanagi much better than I do," said Aoi as I glared at Batou. "It will be up to the two of you to find the memory that the scout virus exploited. We need to know the key to its entry, because that information is likely essential to killing the virus and releasing its hold on her."

I plugged into the machine. Aoi did so as well and nodded to the both of us. "Once we enter, I want you to follow behind as close as you can. I'll fend off any attempts at hacking. Once we get to Kusanagi, I want the two of you to go in and start looking for memories that correspond with the event you just mentioned. I'll make sure her internal defenses don't interfere. When you think you've found it, let me know and I'll pull us out of there."

"What about me?" Tachikoma asked.

"I want you to watch from the outside," Aoi instructed. "Let me know if you see any unusual activity in the Net or Kusanagi's mind. You never know what we may find, what shape it may take, or how it may attack…"

-&-

I'd always hated diving. It was such a surreal experience. I felt like I was floundering around in zero gravity while I attempted to follow Aoi and Batou.

We got to the Major without any mishaps (though Tachikoma gave us a couple false alarms). I felt eerily inappropriate, like the worst kind of voyeur, when we entered her mind. Even though she'd ghost-hacked me at least once.

Memories flashed before us like spliced movies on a broken screen. Suddenly Batou shouted and pointed. It was a little back-alley, nothing that would really draw the eye. "That's where I found her that day," he said. "And look…I don't remember that shop being there."

The three of us walked up the phantom steps and entered into the shop. Once again, I didn't see anything significant; it looked like a junk store, odds and ends that wind up in antique stores when the children of the deceased don't know what to do with it all.

"Be careful," Aoi warned. "This is the right place. The scout virus is somewhere nearby." He stiffened and clamped his hands on our shoulders. We followed his gaze and saw an elderly woman standing there.

"Good afternoon," she said, very cordial but with a strange air I couldn't decipher. "Anything interest you? This shop is full of the stuff of dreams…old memories…"

Batou turned away from her with a look of disgust, and scanned the room. It certainly was an odd collection. He started moving toward what looked like an old car. Batou liked cars, so this wasn't unusual…but then I noticed what was inside the car.

There were two cyborg bodies, very primitive by today's standards, of a young boy and girl. The boy had very light hair and a necklace of paper cranes. The girl bore a striking resemblance to the Major.

"You seeing what I'm seeing?" Batou asked me in a whisper.

"Ah yes, the first love of a child," said the old lady, who seemed unable to say anything other than clichés and stock sayings. "It never leaves you…the memories are stored forever within the mind."

I stared open-mouthed, remembering the medical record Aoi had showed me. Could it be…?"

Abruptly the Tachikoma's voice reached my ears. "Mr. Batou, Mr. Togusa, something's coming!"

The three of us looked up, and I nearly jumped out of my virtual skin when I saw Kuze's face staring at me from the body of the old woman. "Nosing into places we shouldn't, are we?"