My mind raced.
What the hell happened? Was it possible that this was all some sort of enormous equipment malfunction, or was I correct in assuming the worst?
I kept driving – I was travelling at well over 175 kmph, but it didn't feel nearly fast enough.
At last, the car came into view; a black sedan sitting on the left shoulder with its lights still on. It stood at an angle to the road, as if it had been forced over rather than parked there, and a sense of foreboding welled up inside me. I pulled up behind it and got out of my car, my gun at the ready.
I approached the driver's side door, slid my fingers underneath the handle, and pulled.
It was unlocked.
As I opened it, the console lights clicked on, revealing Mari, the prime minister's bioroid, slumped over the steering wheel with a bullet hole through the back of her head. White blood had oozed out of it, the liquid darkening her ash-blonde hair. A pistol hung limply in her right hand; she must have taken it from the still-open glove compartment.
Slowly, I opened the rear passenger door, dreading what I might find there.
The body of a security guard, stuffed hastily into the back seat; he too had been shot through the head. His gun was on the floor of the car – whoever had done this seemed to have just piled everything back inside once they'd taken what they came for.
There was no trace of the prime minister at all.
For the tiniest fraction of a second, I gave myself over to panic.
Once that was over, I took a deep breath and composed myself.
The prime minister's security staff was certainly aware of the situation by now, and had probably already sent a team out to investigate. It would be in my best interest to leave before they got here, as I didn't want to have to answer any awkward questions.
Due to the nature of the incident, Section 9 was bound to get involved as well – they had the means and the resources to investigate the situation properly. My best bet was to head back to Niihama and try to get in on the case. Running it solo was also an option, but that would take longer, and time was of the essence here.
I slid into my car and took off for the nearest exit ramp, then turned onto a side street and got back on the expressway as quickly as I could.
I'd been driving for all of fifteen minutes when an alert for an incoming cybercomm appeared in my field of vision. It was from the chief, and I had a fairly good idea of what it was about.
Major, where are you right now?
Outside of Fukuoka, headed for Niihama. Why?
I couldn't know anything just yet.
Get over to the office as quickly as you can – the prime minister's gone missing, and Section 9 has just been cleared to handle the investigation.
Missing? What happened?
It seems to have been a coordinated attack. The prime minister and her entourage were travelling in two vehicles; from what we can tell, they were strategically separated from one another, and then individually run off the road. There were no survivors in either vehicle – four security guards were found dead, and the prime minister's personal assistant has been disabled as well.
I'd missed the other car; it must have been further down the road from the one I'd been tracking.
And the prime minister herself?
We're assuming that she's been taken hostage by the perpetrators and that her cyberbrain functions are being jammed; all attempts to contact her have failed, and none of her GPS signals are showing up.
That was about as far as I'd gotten myself. I sighed in frustration.
I'm on my way, but it'll still be a few hours before I can get there. Any information so far as to who's behind this?
Not at this moment. The vehicles and the bodies of the security team are currently being transported to Section 9 for analysis, although you'll probably get here before they do.
Okay; what do you want me to do, then?
For now, I want you to assist Ishikawa's team in maintaining the press blackout, and in locating any demands or claims of responsibility that might point us toward a suspect.
Got it. I'll see you soon.
I closed the link and focused on the road. It was a mark of the seriousness of the situation that I didn't ask him how much he planned to pay me for this.
The drive was too monotonous; I was starting to slip into panic again. In order to keep myself occupied, I cybercommed Ishikawa to see if he had any more information.
No new developments at the moment – right now we're making sure that the net we put up is secure, and that includes making sure nothing can spread out to private sites as well. I'm glad to hear you're joining us on this one; we'll need all the help we can get.
Total blackout, huh?
Well, yeah. Can you imagine the reaction if anybody got wind of this?
I understand. Besides, if nobody knows the prime minister was kidnapped, nobody can pay attention to whoever did it, which is probably what they want.
Bingo. This goes way beyond operating in secrecy; not even everyone at Section 9 knows about it.
I missed the good old days, when you could automatically trust every member of the top-secret assault team because there were only eight of us and we had no lives whatsoever outside of each other.
I see. Who all is in on it?
The old guard, of course; Togusa's taken point on the investigation for the time being, although he'll probably be willing to hand the retrieval operation over to you if you want it. Azuma and Proto are working with him too, and I've got a couple of the boys helping me on the information side of things…I don't know if you'd remember them.
Well, I look forward to meeting everyone when I get there.
Yup. I'll keep you posted.
Thanks.
By the way, Major, it's nice to hear you enthusiastic about something for a change.
Hey, I've finally got something exciting to do.
And I needed to channel all of my energy into it to keep from getting upset and doing something impulsive and stupid.
Where had all of this anger and worry come from? It didn't make any sense; it was as if someone had broken into my house and stolen something from me – something simple and functional that I appreciated for its quiet, predictable usefulness, like a nice coffee table—and instead of just retrieving it quickly and quietly, I was mentally preparing myself to brutally murder anyone who got in my way. And this was assuming that the coffee table hadn't been scuffed up or scratched or otherwise damaged; if it had, well, then there would truly be hell to pay.
Absolutely bizarre.
I pressed down on the accelerator, and my car shot off into the night.
Even though it was well past one in the morning when I finally made it back to Niihama, the Section 9 offices were still awake and fully lit. I left my car in the garage and immediately headed for the dive room – three of the terminals were in use, one by Ishikawa and the other two by a pair of younger men I'd probably seen before but whom I didn't remember very distinctly. Not wanting to waste time waiting around for someone to notice me, I crossed the room and connected to Ishikawa's terminal, linking immediately with his field of view.
An enormous, translucent pane, shimmering like a sheet of fabric, seemed to stretch across the entire breadth of the local Net. Most of the traffic passing through it was white, although here and there I saw pieces that were a lighter or darker gray, and some that were almost black. These slid along the surface of the plane, and then disappeared when they reached its side.
Impressive.
Thanks. We didn't have a lot of time, so the filtering is pretty rough, but since it's just a temporary measure, it doesn't really matter.
He disconnected from the terminal and yawned widely, stretching his arms up over his head, and then nodded toward the end of the room where the other two men were working.
"I've got Kuro and Pikapi sifting through what we've caught in the dragnet – so far, no claims of responsibility have turned up. That's pretty much where we're at right now; the Red Suits are running forensic analysis on the two cars, the security personnel, and the bioroid, so hopefully we'll hear from them in a few hours."
I nodded. "I'm going to get inside the system for a while and give it a once-over, if you don't mind. I want to get a feel for it before I join you on data analysis."
"Sure, help yourself. I'll bring us up some coffee – looks like it's gonna be a long night."
"Thanks."
I sat down in front of one of the terminals and connected to the Net.
Injecting Chroma file…
It was so much easier to interface with virtual concepts when I had an analogue for my own physical body. Most of my colleagues had trouble manipulating this sort of digital avatar, but for me, it came as easily as breathing.
Once I was fully contained within Chroma, I let myself drift downward through the sea of information, to the enormous, shimmering web that stretched across it. It really was amazing, especially considering how little time they'd had to set it up. We'd orchestrated any number of press blackouts during my tenure at Section 9, but never anything on this scale.
Two indistinct markers were tracing alternately along its length, gathering up the pieces of information that had been blocked; I assumed that they belonged to the two other men in the dive room. As I drew closer, I registered a group of very different shapes, stationed at intervals along the net, diligently monitoring the traffic, although they all turned around at once when I came within range.
It's the Major!
What? Where?
No way!
I see her too! Up there!
Four tachikomas raced toward me, each clutching at least one bit of data in a claw, chattering cheerfully over one another.
Hi, Major!
How are you?
Gosh, it's been such a long time…
We heard you were going to be joining us, but we didn't think you'd get here so quickly!
Are you helping Mr. Ishikawa too?
He told us to scan everything that got blocked by the dragnet...kind of a waste of our superior processing capabilities, if you ask me!
Right! Couldn't this all have been left to support androids instead of our AIs?
Please, comrades, it's our AIs that make us invaluable for this task! A support android wouldn't be any more delicate than the barrier itself – that's why we were brought in, to temper this filtration system with our own advanced senses of discretion and subtlety!
That's true…and at least it's something to do!
Yeah! Jeez, it's like Section 9 just got used to working without us – there's never anything for us to do anymore!
Uh-huh!
I'd never thought I would find myself sympathizing with the plight of tachikomas, but, I supposed, there was a first time for everything.
So, have you found anything promising yet?
They immediately began speaking over one another again.
Not yet!
Yeah, barely anything is getting sent over to us…
It's probably due to the time; nobody's noticed that the prime minister is missing because they're all sleeping!
Things are going to get pretty interesting later on, though!
Right!
Hey, tachikomas!
I didn't recognize the last voice, but the tachikomas certainly did; they froze as if they'd been caught doing something they weren't supposed to.
A marker bearing an unfamiliar ID number hovered overhead.
You're supposed to be concentrating on your job! Now, unless you've found something, get back to your posts!
My Chroma form floated upward to meet it.
It's all right – I distracted them. They were just getting back to work. Weren't you?
I turned to the little tachikoma-cloud that had trailed behind me.
Yes, ma'am!
We'll catch up with you later, Major!
The cloud dispersed at once, each member zooming off in a different direction. Once they were all out of sight, I returned my attention to the unfamiliar presence in front of me.
I'm sorry, but I don't believe we've met before.
He knew who I was, of course; despite his lack of a humanoid avatar, I could tell that I was making him uncomfortable.
I'm Kuro, ma'am – it's a pleasure to finally be working with you.
Likewise. What's the situation?
So far, most of what we've intercepted has been benign. We're still looking for anything that could point us toward a suspect or location.
Well, keep looking, then. I want you to let me know the second you turn anything up.
Yes, ma'am.
I dropped down to one side of the net and hung there, watching the data as it drifted by.
I'd seen a lot of these sorts of incidents over the course of my career, and generally they followed a predictable pattern. Soon after the kidnapping, the responsible party would make some sort of announcement, either to demand a ransom, threaten physical harm, or just to make the general public aware of the fact that they existed. After all, the entire point of the venture was usually to draw attention to a specific group or cause.
Our investigation was proceeding under the assumption that this abduction was politically motivated. Given the victim in this case, it was a fairly obvious conclusion to draw.
However, as the hours dragged by without any comment from whoever had attacked the prime minister, I began to wonder.
Even if the perpetrators had planned to get to safety before broadcasting their involvement, something should have shown up by now. If their aim was to make a statement by doing this, keeping it quiet seemed a bit counterproductive.
At the same time, the abduction would have taken quite a lot of planning and coordination to pull off. What kind of group would be able to expend that amount of effort just to settle a personal score?
The whole situation was extremely unusual.
Everything all right, Major? You seem awfully agitated.
I was so deep in my own thoughts that it took me a moment to respond to the cybercomm.
I'm fine, Batou; how is the investigation coming on your end?
The forensic report just came up from the lab, and we're about to go over it in the briefing room.
I'll be right there. Tachikomas, continue monitoring and let me know if you find anything.
Yes, ma'am!
Although there was space enough in the cavernous briefing room for more than forty people, the present gathering only occupied the first row and a half of chairs; this was still too crowded for me, and instead of joining them, I'd elected to lean against the back wall. Togusa stood at the head of the room, silhouetted against the enormous screen that dominated the far wall – no matter how many times I saw him, for some reason I kept expecting to see his old face instead of his new prosthetic one, and the subtle differences between the two were bothering me.
"Yesterday evening," he began, "at approximately 6:57, security personnel lost contact with the prime minister and her accompanying staff just outside of Fukuoka, as she was returning to her offices. When a team arrived at her last known location to investigate, they discovered the vehicle in which she had been travelling, plus another that had been accompanying it, on the side of the road, along with the bodies of her security compliment and her assistant. The prime minister herself was nowhere to be found, and her status and location at this time are unknown. So far, no demands or claims by a responsible party have been made."
The team was small enough that none of us really needed the recap, but protocol was protocol; I folded my arms across my chest in irritation as I waited it out.
"Each car had a significant dent somewhere on the driver's side, indicating that there was an impact with another, larger vehicle, and the marks left on the pavement indicated that each one had been forced off to the side of the road. Fingerprints and other DNA evidence were found at both locations, although at this time, the only conclusive matches are to members of the prime minister's personal staff."
"So this group or whatever managed to kill five highly trained security guards and make off with the prime minister without leaving a trace?" said Azuma from a seat in the front row. "Just who the hell are these people?"
"There were traces," said Togusa evenly. "It's just that none of them match anyone in the MHLW database. We're currently attempting to expand the search by gaining access to foreign records as well."
"And the security guards, how were they killed?" said Batou.
Images of the deceased men flashed up on the screen.
"The prime minister's assistant and the man in the car with her were both shot once through the head, at point-blank range. The prosthetic bodies of other four seem to have taken significant damage from submachine gun fire, although they were also shot once through the head – presumably to destroy their cyberbrains. The ammunition and shell casings we recovered were consistent with the firearms commonly traded by arms smugglers in the Kanto refugee residential zones."
"That's not much to go on," I said. "The Kanto region is the heart of the trade, but there are arteries running out to all of the other zones; the most it tells us is that this attack wasn't perpetrated by law-abiding citizens, which I think we all knew anyway."
"This is true," said Togusa, after an uncomfortably long pause. "We don't have the intel to try to track the perpetrators through the weapons flow; therefore, our main course of investigation from this point on will be attempting to match the DNA data we recovered, as well as monitoring relevant channels for any claims of responsibility. That's it."
This must have been his standard form of dismissal, because the room began to empty at once. I hung back and waited until everyone else had cleared out before heading up to the front.
"Major," said Togusa warmly as I approached him. "I'm glad to see you're joining us on this case – we're going to need all the help we can get."
"Right," I said. "Speaking of which, I've been helping Ishikawa's crew with communications monitoring - did you want me to stay with them, or do you have something else for me to do now?"
Even with the still-unfamiliar prosthetics, Togusa's momentary look of confusion was oddly endearing. I usually worked as an independent contractor, and he wasn't used to being in a situation where he had the authority to command me.
"I'll leave that up to you for now," he said at last. "Put yourself to work wherever you think you'll be the most useful."
I would have felt the most useful travelling to what was left of Tokyo and tearing the spine out of each of the weapons dealers in the area until one of them gave me information about a group large enough to have orchestrated this whole thing, but this was neither feasible nor practical at the moment.
"I'll get back to combing the local Nets, then," I said. "Let me know if you need me for anything."
"Sure."
The word echoed behind my back as I strode out into the hallway.
The sun was just starting to rise above the skyline, and I stopped in front of one of the windows to watch it.
Twelve hours. She had been missing for nearly twelve hours, and I had accomplished nothing.
I'd initially joined forces with Section 9 on this because I'd thought their resources would take me further than I could have gotten on my own in the same amount of time; now it was looking as though I might have done just as well to go back home and work the case by myself.
For all the potential evidence we had, we were still at the mercy of the perpetrators, waiting for them to step up and claim responsibility.
I had rarely felt so helpless before.
The worst part was that only a small fraction of this feeling was due to my frustration at not being able to advance the case any more quickly. At some point in the last twelve hours, a line that I'd always maintained very carefully had disappeared as quickly and as neatly as the person whom it concerned.
It wasn't the Prime Minister of Japan who was missing; it was Yoko. My Yoko.
And I was not going to rest until I'd retrieved her.
I leaned back against the window, closed my eyes, and opened up an often-used cybercomm channel. It was cold and unresponsive now, and I hated myself for it, but I opened it just the same.
Where are you…?
(A/N: Thanks for all the comments so far, everyone! I really wish more of you were signed, because when I get feedback my very favorite thing is to respond with avalanches of love, but I guess a group love-avalanche right here will have to do. I'm absolutely honored by your words of praise, and I hope that you all continue to enjoy my contributions to this tiny little niche of a fandom. -love!-)