"According to the Interpol Contractor Database, SY-573 was a Chinese national who operated under the purview of the Chinese Ministry of State Security," Saitou said, pointing to the white board, where a photo taken off a bank security camera was pinned next to a photo of one of the dead contractors taken in the morgue. Both photos showed a man with East Asian features. "Alias 'Feng'."
Misaki frowned. "MSS? You're sure?"
Saitou nodded. "We don't have any intel on TX-788." He pointed to the other photo on the board, this one of a Caucasian man lying on the medical examiner's table. "But according to Ootsuka's analysis, his activity frequently correlated with SY-573 over the past two years, suggesting that they were long-standing partners."
Misaki stared down at the conference table, thinking. Well, if Hei had killed them, it was even less likely that he worked for MSS.
"Huh," Kouno said. "Chinese spies…and our witness is Chinese too? Is that a coincidence?"
"Her credentials checked out," Matsumoto offered. "She's in enrolled in her third semester at Tokyo Institute of Technology, a participant in the LAOTSE exchange program."
"Did you talk to any of her professors or fellow students?" Misaki asked. "It wouldn't be too hard to ghost an enrollment." If she knew which school he supposedly attended, Misaki was sure that Li Shengshun's records would show that he was a hardworking student with a moderate course load and average grades who never missed a class - and that no one on campus would be able to tell her what he looked like.
"Not yet."
"Hm…it wouldn't make any sense for her to be hanging around at the crime scene after the fact. Nothing we found at the scene contradicted her story. I'm inclined to believe she has nothing to do with it." Unless she stayed to meet with Hei? No, she couldn't have known that Saitou would bring him to help translate. "Kouno, did you get the transcript?"
"Here." Kouno passed out copies, a few pages stapled together. "I read through it already - Li did a pretty decent job of translating; there's nothing relevant to the case here that he didn't tell us."
Misaki resisted reading it right away. She could trust her subordinate. After the briefing, she would comb through it looking for finer nuances and details on her own. "Alright. Back to MSS. I don't recall any incidences involving them here in Tokyo in the past few years - and now two MSS-employed contractors appear? What else do we know about the agency?"
Saitou glanced down at his notes. "Not much. China doesn't have much of a presence in the global intelligence community anymore - they never recovered from the South American conflict. Most of their contractor-related operations appear to be domestic or else focused on counterintelligence - keeping an eye on Chinese communities abroad, that sort of thing. And they mostly depend on normal humans for that."
"So they don't have many contractors abroad, none that we know of in Japan, but they brought two in for this meeting in the park. Why?"
Kouno had been flipping through the transcript of Xu's story. "The witness heard two men talking about waiting, and a flash drive. We're assuming those two men were SY-573 and TX-788. They were speaking English…because TX-788 was European or American, and presumably didn't know Chinese?"
"That's logical," Misaki said.
"The important thing here is the flash drive," Kouno continued. "Was it something they had, or something they wanted?"
Matsumoto spoke up. "The way Miss Xu described the incident, it sounds like the MSS agents were waiting there to ambush BK-201. If that's the case, then he already had it in his possession, and they wanted to take it."
Misaki was ninety-nine percent sure that the flash drive had been on his person when she'd spoken with him last night, and he'd dared her to search him. You're not in control here, I am, is what his body language had been telling her. She bit her lip to keep herself from blushing. By now, chances were that he had already passed it on to someone else in his organization.
"Then where did he get it, and what was he doing wandering around in the park with it?" Kouno asked.
"We're still missing an important piece of the puzzle here," Misaki said, trying to banish thoughts of Hei from her mind. "Keep your eyes and ears open. I want to know what was on that flash drive, and what it has to do with BK-201 and the organization he works for. If that's everything -"
"Ah, one more thing," Matsumoto said. "We found two cell phones in the park: one is a Chinese model, the other Japanese."
Misaki sat up a little straighter. "Does the Chinese one belong to one of the MSS agents?"
"Uh, probably not. It's purple," the older man explained, grimacing. "Most likely it belongs to the witness. The tech guys are looking it over, just in case. The other phone probably did belong to one of our dead contractors - it's a cheap prepaid model, likely used as a burner."
"Hm." Misaki drummed her fingers on the table. "Let me know right away if they find anything."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jiao-tu's last class of the day was Professor Iwakara's. She scanned the already crowded lecture hall for her roommate. Long Mei-li was easy to spot - her bright red eyeglasses stood out in the sea of otherwise male faces. Mei-li moved her book bag from the seat next to her as Jiao-tu hurried over.
"Where have you been?" The other girl whispered in Chinese as Jiao-tu sat down. "You could have called us if you were going to stay out all night - I almost called the police."
"Liang never calls," Jiao-tu retorted.
Mei-li just rolled her eyes. "That's Liang. You're you."
Jiao-tu pulled her notebook out of her bag. "Sorry. I couldn't call - I lost my phone." Actually, she hadn't even thought to call her roommates and let them know she was ok; the events in the park and running into Tian had superseded any mundane concerns she might have had last night.
"Oh no! My parents would kill me if I lost mine - and yours is a lot nicer too. Do you know where you lost it?"
Jiao-tu shrugged. "Maybe. I'm going to look after class."
"So…" Mei-li began, drawing the word out.
Jiao-tu pretended not to hear her over the drone of fifty different conversations. She still hadn't figured out what she was going to tell Mei-li and Liang about where she had been. For some reason that she didn't understand, she had promised Tian that she wouldn't tell anyone, even strangers to him like her roommates, that he was in the city.
It was weird, how secretive and almost paranoid he was. She was sure he was friends with that police woman, but he refused to talk about her. He had acted like his old friendly self with his landlady, who had been sweeping the sidewalk when they left for the train station that morning; but Jiao-tu had gotten the impression that it was only a superficial friendliness.
And then there was that girl at the tobacco shop - Tian obviously knew her well, because he'd brought her the bowl of soup that had been left over from last night, and the girl had acted like that was a regular occurrence. But he had only introduced them after Jiao-tu had asked, and even then it was only to say "Jiao-tu, this is Yin. Yin, this is Jiao-tu" before continuing on to the station and leaving Jiao-tu to run after him.
Fortunately, she was saved from answering Mei-li by the entrance of Arakawa into the lecture hall. Instead of taking his usual seat in the front row, Arakawa turned on the overhead projector and powered up Iwakara's lecture.
"Eh?" Mei-li asked. "Where's Iwakara?"
"Damn, what happened to his eye?" the guy sitting next to Jiao-tu said. Mei-li and Jiao-tu both gasped. Arakawa's left eye was purple and swollen shut.
"He was fine last night," Jiao-tu said.
Her neighbor raised an eyebrow suggestively. "Last night?"
She punched his shoulder. "At Iwakara's office hours, Tanaka-pervert."
The noise in the room had risen considerably as students noticed Arakawa's black eye, but settled down when he began the lecture. He didn't explain Iwakara's absence, except to say that the professor was indisposed.
"He can stay indisposed," Mei-li whispered, leaning forward on her desk, eyes glued to Arakawa. Jiao-tu nodded in agreement.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"I never thought wave functions could be so sexy," Mei-li sighed as they filed out of the lecture hall.
"Wave functions are always sexy. Can I borrow your phone?"
Mei-li rolled her eyes, but pulled her phone from her pocket. "God, you are such a nerd. Here - but hurry, I've got my biology lab. Who are you calling?"
Jiao-tu took the phone. The screen was cracked and almost impossible to read, but she didn't say anything; she knew Mei-li couldn't afford a new phone, and she was touchy about things like that. Jiao-tu moved to the edge of the hallway and squatted down to dig through her bag. She found what she was looking for at the very bottom, buried in a mess of receipts, gum wrappers, and other detritus. "The police."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Misaki uncapped her pen and underlined a couple of lines in the transcript. Kouno had been right; Hei's translation of Xu's explanation of events in the park had been accurate. He'd even mentioned the flash drive, which made Misaki wonder whether it was as important as they thought. Then again, since the police didn't actually have the flash drive and had no idea what was on it or why it was important, knowing that it existed really didn't help.
He'd left nothing out except for a couple of personal exchanges with his cousin. Those lines were what Misaki focused on. On the surface, the words were innocuous - but was there a hidden meaning? A code that only certain operatives would recognize? She was almost sure that Xu really was Hei's cousin just based on his reactions, but Kouno had been right - it was suspicious that their only witness to an incident involving Chinese intelligence agents was a Chinese exchange student…who had a personal connection to BK-201.
First, Xu had asked Hei why he was surprised to hear that she attended Tokyo Institute of Technology, and he had responded that he wasn't surprised. Could this be a reference to the reason Xu was in Tokyo? Was "attending Tokodai" code for a certain type of mission? …Or did he just not expect his cousin to be studying abroad at a prestigious school like that?
Misaki tapped her pen on the desk. The next lines were a little more suspicious - Xu wondered if it was illegal to be in the park after closing time, and Hei assured her that she wouldn't be arrested for it. Misaki could easily believe that Xu was in fact asking whether the police had any reason to suspect her (or Hei's) involvement in the incident, and he was telling her that it was safe to talk. That was plausible, but by no means definitive.
Misaki turned to the last page of the transcript.
Xu: "I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't been here, Tian."
Had Xu been there to meet with the MSS agents? Things got out of hand, and they would have killed her if Hei hadn't happened to be nearby? No, he had been too surprised to see her when Saitou brought him back to the park. If Xu had been meeting with the contractors, surely Hei would have noticed her, and talked to her before the police showed up. Matsumoto's suggestion, that the MSS agents had been there to ambush BK-201, still made the most sense. Xu had been in the wrong place at the wrong time, and she was grateful that her cousin was there to comfort her; that's all.
Tian. Was it another code name or alias? Or…was that Hei's real name? Misaki felt a small thrill run through her at the thought. The translator had left a footnote: 'Tian' in Mandarin meant 'sky'. She smiled to herself. The name fit Li's personality - open, pure, honest. Then she remembered that Li wasn't real, and her smile vanished.
The last lines were the most puzzling.
Xu: "I was too afraid to even call the police. I was a frightened little rabbit. Grandfather would be so ashamed of me."
Li: "No he wouldn't. There's nothing wrong with being afraid. You might have been killed if you had moved or tried anything. Even dragons aren't invincible."
Misaki took her pen and drew two lines under the words 'rabbit', 'grandfather', and 'dragon'. 'Grandfather' could be referring to her actual grandfather; but it could also be code for a superior in their organization. She had failed in her mission, and the higher ups were going to be displeased. Misaki supposed Xu calling herself a frightened rabbit made sense, as terrified as she had been, but why had Hei mentioned dragons? That didn't seem to fit the context of their conversation or the situation at all.
She sighed to herself and flipped back to the beginning of the transcript. Maybe one more reading would help. She was halfway through when Matsumoto and Kouno interrupted her. Kouno carried a stack of papers half an inch thick, while Matsumoto held just one sheet.
"This is what we pulled off the phones," the younger man said. "The purple one definitely belongs to Xu: it's full of pictures, music files, and texts. Typical college girl stuff - nothing incriminating." He handed his stack of papers to Misaki, and she leafed through the pages. The first half of the stack was all photos, Xu herself appearing in many of them.
"She's pretty cute," Kouno commented.
Matsumoto smacked the back of his head. "Knock it off; she's a witness to a serious crime."
And the Black Reaper's cousin. Pages of texts were beneath the photos. "Half of these are in Chinese," Misaki said.
"I can stop by the Embassy again," Kouno said, rubbing his head.
"Damn, the Embassy." Misaki rubbed her temples. Her subordinates caught her meaning right away.
"Ah," said Kouno. "If MSS is involved in this…"
"We can't tip off the Chinese," Matsumoto finished.
"Hm. It might not be worth the effort anyway, since it looks like Xu isn't involved at all. What's this?" Misaki pulled out several pages that were covered in what looked like gibberish - it wasn't any sort of language or alphabet that she recognized.
Kouno shrugged. "The techies said it's meaningless - probably from a corrupt file that she downloaded accidentally."
Misaki replaced the pages in the stack. "Alright. What about the other phone?"
Matsumoto handed over his piece of paper. "Definitely a burner. No numbers in the contacts list. No calls sent or received. Only one text, received yesterday at 18:07, from another prepaid phone which is now out of service."
Misaki read the single line. It was in English:
Park near Tokodai. Look for drinking fountain. -Dragon.
"This looks like instructions to the MSS agents on where to find BK-201," Kouno said. "Pretty vague though."
"Not if they were using a doll," Matsumoto said. "There was a drinking fountain that was destroyed during the fight in the park. Maybe the flash drive was hidden there?"
Misaki didn't care about the drinking fountain. She was focused on one word. "Dragon?"
"A code name," Kouno said. "But for who?"
"That's the question," Misaki mused. Even dragons aren't invincible. It was a tenuous connection at best, but it was there. It just wasn't enough to take to the director or involve the rest of her team, not without compromising Hei. Damn it. She was beginning to regret her deal with him.
She dismissed her subordinates, and started on the stack of papers from Xu's phone, setting aside the texts for now and beginning with the pictures. She didn't expect to find anything, not if "Dragon" had been communicating with the MSS agents via disposable phones, but it was worth a look.
Most of the pictures were of the same group of friends in various locations around Tokyo, but a few looked to have been taken in China. One photo in particular stood out to her. It showed an older man, in his sixties probably, standing with his arms around Xu and a young man who looked a little older than Xu. The three were obviously related - Xu's grandfather, perhaps, and her brother or another cousin? The young man was of stockier build than Hei, but the lines of his face were the same. And the older man…take away the laugh lines, liver spots, and a few decades, add a couple of inches of height, and she could easily imagine 'Li' posing there with them, smiling wide.
They were standing in front of a paneled wall that was decorated in photographs. Judging from the uniforms of the people in the photos, Misaki thought that they might have been taken at martial arts tournaments. It was hard to see them clearly, being photos within a photo, but one, just above the younger man's head, showed two boys, arms around each other's shoulders. One boy was holding a trophy. She thought that boy was a younger version of Xu's brother/cousin - the two grins were almost identical. And the other…she squinted, but it was too hard to tell. She wondered if the lab would be able to enlarge the picture, or if it would be too grainy.
Misaki was still engrossed in the photo when her desk phone rang.
Chinese translation:
Feng...wind