Senshi Sabers

Chapter 38

Hotaru Tomoe put a great deal of effort into searching for Mistress Nine, but that wasn't all she did. The attractive young woman had to run Infinity as well...

"How is the recall on older Bio-Boomer models going?" Hotaru asked as she teleconferenced with regional managers.

"Not well," the Chinese rep admitted. "There's resistance to trading in, because of the added charges involved."

Hotaru grit her teeth at the stupidity of people. Old model Bio-Boomers had a better than twenty five percent chance to go rogue, which could be lethal to the owner under certain circumstances. Or worse, trigger a full on rampage. But people didn't want to fix the problem because of price?

"We had similar issues," the US rep noted. "Remind customers its in the purchase contract that we can refuse maintanance if they don't switch. I found that worked..."

"Huh. That's a idea," the other reps looked intrigued.

"I've generally found sweet reason works," the other North American rep noted.

"That's because you're Canadian. It's your thing," the US rep observed, amused.

Hotaru fought back a chuckle, too. "I would prefer we convince people reasonably," she noted, "but in extreme cases, use the US method."

"Threats and blackmail?" the Canadian quipped, and the others laughed.

Hotaru continued, "Any other issues to bring up?" There were a few other minor things to bring up, then they closed the meeting.

Hotaru sat back as she sighed tiredly. Meetings drove her nuts...

A soft knock and Kaori entered. "Coffee? Tea?" she offered mildly.

"Coffee. Today is definately a coffee day," Hotaru made a face. After Kaori brough the cup in she asked, "There was a Bio-Boomer incident yesterday, and I confirmed with ADP it was one of our old models. I thought we were making good progress in recalling them here?"

In fact on paper the Japanese recall was near ninety nine percent. It was why Hotaru was profoundly confused that there were still semi-regular rampage incidents. She looked across the desk at Kaori, who had sat down opposite her.

Kaori nodded apologetically. "The Bio-Boomer in question was sold to the company it was driving for second hand. As we don't yet have a way to track that...," she explained.

"Ugh," Hotaru grunted, displeased. "We need to get information on that. How, though..." she muttered thoughtfully.

"As secondary sales of Bio-Boomers violates the sales agreement, the re-sale clients won't willingly tell us about it," Kaori noted. "So an official notice is out."

"One of the downsides of a tightly written contract," Hotaru agreed wryly.

"Hmm," Kaori looked thoughtful. "I could look into hiring a private investigator? They can attempt to buy used, and get plugged into the illegal sales network."

"It's worth a shot," Hotaru agreed. She though for a moment of hiring Ami Mizuno for the job, then bit back a chuckle. Bad idea...

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Mistress Nine felt a profound satisfaction. Her infiltrating Bio-Boomers were all over Japan, her second generation warrior breed was nearly ready and she was amusing herself watching the ADP, Infinity and Starlight run around based on her threat against Madigan.

Viluy blinked. "We are NOT going after Madigan?" she asked, looking confused.

Nine made a mental note at how good the emoting subroutine was. It was a 'legacy' program that had survived since Dr Mizuno had first designed the Bio-Boomer. Say what you would about her overdeveloped ethics, the woman was an artist in programming.

"At this point, we're too far along in production of units to incorporate improvements from Madigan's knowledge. There's also the question if her knowledge would actually improve us," Nine noted. "After some consideration, I decided to make it a surgical strike instead."

"We're going to kill her?" Viluy asked.

"Correct, plus it will be a good test of the new combat types and their infiltration abilities," Nine agreed.

"I will lead..." Viluy started.

"No," Nine shook her head. "I have a new combat type I wish to test, in this matter. Besides, I need you supervising here."

The redhead Bio-Boomer walked up, cued by a silent signal from Nine. "Unit designation?" Viluy asked it.

"Beryl," the redhead answered calmly, "experimental model, combat leader type."

Viluy tilted her head, studying her. "Your mission?" she asked.

"Attack the Starlight secure research facility. Reach target: Madigan, assassinate target. Extract if possible, self destruct if not," Beryl reported calmly.

Nine noted a hesitation in her voice when she hit 'self destruct.' Beryl on some level didn't want to die. Fascinating... her creations were sentient, to a degree, and it was constantly entertaining to see how they were developing.

"Go," Nine ordered. "I look forward to hearing of your success."

Wihout a word Beryl strode off, swiftly gathering her troops then heading off...

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Usagi Tsukino leaned against her unmarked police car as they watched private troops hustling around Starlight's research facility.

"So, it's for Sexaroid development? Really?" Naru asked disbelievingly.

"Technically," Usagi noted, "but over all, it's for advancing Bio-Boomer development. Better skins, better emotion programs, more human bodies. I read somewhere they're also seriously improving medical tech for artificial limbs and such too."

"Doesn't Infinity do that too, though?" Naru asked.

Usagi shrugged eloquently. "A lot of that I get from my friend Loni," she added. She snickered, "I don't think she liked just working for a sex toy shop, so she brings up everything else they do."

"Heh," Naru nodded. "Is today when they're moving Madigan here?" she confirmed.

"That's the plan. She's supposed to be on the move now," Usagi checked the time, "then there'll be decoy vehicles and such. Should be here soon."

"And she STILL hasn't told us why Nine wants her," Naru shook her head.

"Maybe once she thinks she's safe at Starlight...," Usagi mused.

Before either could say anything more, they heard an large explosion off in the distance. Then another, not that far away.

Usagi cursed softly then checked the ADP police band. There was a chaotic blend of chatter, but things quickly clarified. "Decoy two and four under attack! Unknown type of combat Bio-Boomers!"

A burst of static and another voice, "Decoy one. we're being overwhelmed! We need..."

"Where is Madigan? Do you know?" Naru demanded. "Sounds like the 'secret' plan to move her is totally compromised."

They listened to more frantic calls coming in from the decoys as Usagi scowled, "No. But I know someone who probably does."

"Your friend Loni?" Naru asked.

"No. Seiya Kou gave me his number when he was hitting on me...," Usagi noted.

"Nice...," Naru shook her head wryly.

"Mr Kou, this is a emergency," Usagi said forcefully, "all the decoy vehicles have been hit with overwhelming force. Your transfer plan was clearly leaked. We need to know where Madigan is if we're to have any chance of protecting her."

There was a moment of silence as Seiya processed that. "She's still at the Tokyo Grand Hotel, under guard. We were going to move her later," he admitted.

"Have they been hit, too?" Usagi asked.

"We lost radio contact a few minutes ago," Seiya conceded.

Usagi cursed then hung up. She looked over at Naru in the driver's seat, "She's still at the Grand, but they may have been hit too."

The wheels squealed as Naru floored it.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Ami Mizuno had her team on the move almost as soon as she picked up the first police broadcasts. Annoyingly, she and the Sabers had not been brought into the plan to move Madigan, so they were basically launching blind.

"Mina, you hadn't heard anything?" Rei Hino asked as they raced along in the disguised truck.

Minako Aino shook her head grimly, "Not a thing. Though if they were moving Madigan secretly, they probably kept things very need to know at ADP."

"Well, something leaked somewhere," Makoto Kino noted as they listened to reports on the police net of all four decoys being attacked.

"Do we go help out the cops, or try to get where Madigan is?" Rei asked Ami, who was up front driving the truck.

Ami made a face, "We go for Madigan. She's their primary target..." Just then, her phone rang. She smoothly answered, "Yes? Ah, Seiya, I was just thinking of you..."

Rei watched as they talked, an odd look on Ami's face. As she hung up Rei asked, "What does he want, now?"

Ami smiled grimly, "He wants to hire US to save Madigan... if we can. He thinks she's already been grabbed by Nine's forces."

"Oh lovely...," Rei muttered.

To be continued...

Notes: Planned to get to the actual fighting, but didn't quite do it. I mentioned earlier there were still Bio Boomer rampages, but one assumes Hotaru would be fixing that. So tossed in a bit on the recall issues.