Read or Dare
Twenty Two
"Ladies, please don't disturb the other patrons," Shane politely scolded the two women.
"Sorry sir," Anita King apologized as Maggie and Michelle looked sheepish.
"Again," Shane added wryly.
"Sorry," Nenene added. Changing the subject she asked, "They haven't arranged an office for me yet. Is it okay if I just write in a corner here?"
Shane was honestly tempted to say 'no' but... it wasn't that unreasonable. "It should be fine," he said diplomatically.
As he went up to the front desk, he saw Nodoka there.
Nodoka sighed dreamily as she watched the four women, "I can't believe Sumerigawa-sensei is here in OUR library!"
"You're a fan?" Shane asked curiously.
"Of course! I've followed her since her first book," Nodoka said proudly.
Curiously Shane asked, "Going to go over and ask her for an autograph?"
Nodoka looked up at him in absolute horror as she replied, "I couldn't do that! I'd be interrupting her work!"
Shane fought back a chuckle, though he could certainly understand how she felt.
"I'll go with you and we can talk to her later," Yue offered helpfully to Nodoka.
"Thank you," Nodoka blushed.
Shane fought back a chuckle as he sat at his desk. There were always book requests to process, along with various librarian issues. He hit a very LONG series of requests, and blinked before groaning to himself softly.
He picked up the phone and dialed the Professor's office. "Sensei, no insult meant but your requests are nearly a thousand dollars... hmm. Yes.. yes..." they talked a bit, and arranged that he would have to put a direct request to the board for the purchase.
"What was that about?" Yue had to ask.
"Each Professor has a budget for materials for their classes, but some try to save money by trying to get the library to supply the materials themselves," Shane explained.
"Ah," Yue realized.
"Don't pass that on," Shane added. He occassionally forgot Yue was a kid, considering her serious manner.
"Of course," Yue agreed.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Balalaika studied the woman across from her in the office. "You're telling me that there's an unknown threat sealed under the island, and you know this because of a series of prophetic dreams?" she said dryly.
Ayame Li squirmed uncomfortably under her gaze, but answered firmly, "Yes, ma'am. I felt you needed to know."
"Well, I will admit to having heard weirder stuff," Balalaika conceded with a sigh. "That's why you have the engineering clubs building mecha?"
"Correct," Ayame agreed. She continued wryly, "My great grandmother fought similar monsters in one... supposedly."
THAT was interesting, and Balalaika made a mental note to look into it later. "Any details on the attack?" she asked.
Ayame sketched in what she had seen as Balalaika listened and made notes. She fought back a response to hearing the description of her troops being overrun. And... a team of superhuman's fighting with paper? What?
"And yes, I know about the things in the tunnels under the island. I think they're a type of artificial youma," Ayame added.
Balalaika nodded thoughtfully. "So," she mused, "could we just... seal up the tunnels? Try to ignore it?"
Ayame gave her a very dubious look, "Even if that were viable, and who knows how many tunnel openings there are, they erupted from underground in my visions."
"Hmm." Mind you, Balalaika still wasn't sure she trusted these visions. Still, it didn't hurt to cover your bases... "I'll order the engineering department to support your project however they can," she said, "though I admit, building Steam Powered Mecha from the turn of the century is out of most of their skills."
"Don't I know it," Ayame sighed.
After Ayame left, Rock knocked then came inside. "Here's Ms Li's file. I asked Benny to dig as deep as he could, just in case." he said.
"Thank you," Balalaika took the documents, then sketched in details on the 'vision.' "What do you think?" she asked him.
Rock shrugged, "I can't say anything about if it was true, but hearing Revy talk about that thing she fought... I can imagine a mob of them would be horrible."
"Agreed," Balalaika said grimly.
The report was fairly generic. No employers declaring her insane, and so on. There WAS one interesting point Benny noted... just before two serious natural disasters, Ayame moved away to safety. When no warnings were available, apparently.
"Well, shit," Balalaika muttered to herself aloud.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
"What." Joker of the British Library blinked at his assistant.
The young woman who was giving a report in his office sighed, "It's all confirmed, sir."
Joker rubbed his eyes. "A OPERA COMPANY in Japan, covertly created by Gentleman, fought off a youma invasion in steam powered mecha suits?" he asked. "Along with branches in several other countries?" he added.
"Yes," Wendy said.
"Why have we never heard of this before?" Joker asked plaintively.
"There was a massive disinformation campaign afterword," Wendy said calmly, "the preformances and mecha were both supposedly staged events. Plus there was unusual psychic phenomina around the youma attacks."
"It encouraged folks to forget," Joker nodded thoughtfully.
"A little more complicated than that, but yes," Wendy agreed.
"So how does this connect to the islands?" Joker asked. He could, of course, just read the files but it made it easier to 'get' if someone told him.
"As we know, Gentleman was looking into life extension methods," Wendy said flatly. "In fighting the youma, they determined they had regenerative qualities. So apparently they set up labs on the island to study it..."
"And clearly it didn't turn out well, considering," Joker noted. "Do we know what happened with the labs?" he asked.
"No," Wendy admitted, "according to the files, they lost contact with the labs. A team was sent in to investigate, and never returned." She shrugged, "As best as I can tell, someone higher decided it wasn't worth it and cut all ties, as well as burying the project."
"Oh lovely," Joker sighed.
"Also a lot of the files were destroyed, both then AND when our former headquarters were attacked," Wendy cautioned. "The data we have is fragmentary."
"Hmm," Joker nodded thoughtfully. "All right, put together a briefing for Yomiko and her team. Don't mention Gentleman, but admit the Library may have been involved."
"Understood," Wendy nodded, then hurried off.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
Mr Smith (clearly an alias) worked for certain corporate interests. When someone wanted a job done covertly, with no connections to themselves, they called someone, who called someone else, and eventually Smith went to work.
Now he was back in Roanapur, and honestly he was a bit nervous. He had offered Greenback Jane a huge sum for industrial espionage, but had only just heard back from her. And WHY did she want to meet here? Something smelled.
"Stop being so nervous," Tomoe Marguerite chided him, the black haired merc following him closely. She was a pretty woman, slightly smaller than him, but with cold, deadly eyes.
"We are PROBABLY walking into a trap," Smith said flatly.
"We don't know it's a trap," Tomoe offered. Smith just looked at her. "Okay, it's likely a trap," she conceded, "but at least we know it's not Hotel Moscow. They all left town."
Miyu, the other guard who was staying close to him, added, "We just need to protect you from the OTHER factions."
"Not comforting," Smith sighed.
"You have us and a fast response team," Tomoe reassured him, "you'll be fine."
The 'meet' was down at the docks. Private. Of course, you could end up ambushed too. They reached the area and Smith was actually surprised to see Jane there, alone.
"Smith," Jane held up her hands in plaster casts, "Balalaika caught me."
"Fuck," Smith started before figures surrounded them. "I have an armed team..."
Gunfire filled the twilight, and cries of surprise and pain.
"You HAD an armed team," the very stylishly dressed man noted. He smiled, "I'm Mr Chang, from the Triads. Tell your guards to stand down, or we'll just shoot them."
"Boss?" Tomoe asked him worriedly. There were... well, she wasn't sure, but it looked like a LOT of guys.
Smith also saw those odds. "Guns down," he ordered. Addressing Chang he asked, "What do you want from me?"
"Weirdly, we want to deal," Chang said cheerfully.
To be continued...
Notes: Yes I'm making Sakura Wars more or less canon with this series.
Read or Dare
Chapter 12
"Run! RUN!" Nancy Mukahari yelled as they bolted down the overgrown path.
"I can't run that fast!" Yomiko Readman yelped.
"GWAR!" the huge ape roared as it ran after them through the jungle.
It had been a simple job, on paper. Get in, grab the rare books from a long abandoned Library Base, get out. What they hadn't counted on was the local animal population moving in. Including a local type of giant ape.
"What is this, King Kong?" Nancy grumbled as she used her pistol to fire warning shots.
Yomiko yelled, "Don't shoot it! It's endangered!"
"I wasn't going to shoot it!" Nancy added, "Much."
"NANCY!" Yomiko scolded.
"Bullets don't seem to scare it anyway," Nancy noted.
"There," Yomiko noted the path constricted a bit up ahead. As they ran through, Yomiko pulled out a bunch of paper, then flun it behind her, rapidly forming a paper barrier.
"Urgh?" the Ape hit it, then bounced off. "HRR!" it yelped angrily.
"Hopefully that'll buy us a few minutes...," Nancy noted as they hurried on.
They reached the clearing where the helicopter waited and swiftly climbed in.
"What...?" Drake, the pilot, started.
"Go! Go!" Yomiko yelled as multiple apes rushed into the clearing.
"Shit," Drake cursed as he quickly lifted off, thankfully before the angry apes could reach them.
"Oook! Oook ook OOOOK!" there was much yelling and arm waving as they took off.
"That was too damn close," Nancy sighed as she flopped back in her seat.
"You all right?" Drake asked as he piloted them out to a waiting ship.
"We're fine, if a bit scraped and bruised," Yomiko noted. "And we got the books, though there's some water damage."
"Well, that's not unexpected," Drake agreed.
"Joker had better not bitch," Nancy sighed tiredly, "or I'm kicking hiss ass."
"Nancy!" Yomiko scolded, again.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
"AND she's working with Boris to get a defense plan in place in case something errupts from the tunnels," Revy noted a bit disbelievingly.
Rin Asogi gave her a sympathetic look. "Well, there IS the weird stuff under there." she pointed out as she drank vodka
Revy gave her a thoughtful look as she drank some rum. Rin has done some 'jobs' for Balalaika, and was security cleared. Or they wouldn't be having this talk. "How far have the rumours spread?" Revy had to ask.
"It's spread around the island, but nothing too specific," Rin said, "just 'weird critters and tech underground' pretty much."
"Shit," Revy sighed. They did NOT need more random yahoos going into the tunnels under the campus. There was no telling what they might hit.
Rin looked surprised, "It's THAT dangerous?"
Reluctantly Revy admitted, "We're not sure, but there are signs it could be really bad."
"Yet you're not evacuating the island," Rin noted.
"Because we still barely know anything," Revy pointed out. "Besides, where would we evacuate too? The islands are goddamn remote."
"Point," Rin conceded.
"Bartender! Booze!" Revy waved.
"Yeah, yeah, keep your shirt on," Grant the bartender called back as he brought two bottles of vodka and rum over.
"Just leave the bottles," Rin noted as she paid him.
"Don't you have work?" Revy had to ask.
"Taking a few days off," Rin shrugged.
Revy raised a eyebrow as she mused, "Shane's friend Yomiko did too. Think she and Nancy took off for a few days?"
"Off to a love nest?" Rin smirked.
Both women chuckled.
"So," Rin mused, "When is Shane making an honest woman of you?"
Revy choked on her drink.
"Don't die on me damn it," Rin slapped her back hard.
"Gah, get off," Revy coughed.
"You do know he likes you, right?" Rin reminded her.
"Yeah yeah," Revy grumbled, looking uncomfortable. "He's keeping secrets, though."
Rin raised her eyebrows, "And you aren't?"
"Okay, point," Revy conceded.
"I mean, I'm not suggesting you get married or something... but a roll in the hay wouldn't hurt either of you," Rin noted.
"Are you implying I'm tightly wound and could use a release?" Revy drawled.
"You said it, not me," Rin smirked.
"Geh," Revy sighed and poured for each of them.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
"RUN FASTER!" Shane yelled as they ran through a deserted section of the island.
"Trying!" Yue yelled as they heard the animals howl in the distance.
"Oh crap," Nodoka swore uncharacteristly.
"Well, this is fun," Haruna added.
"I am grounding ALL OF YOU," Shane added as they ducked into a ruined building.
Everyone leaned against the battered walls and panted in exhaustion. "Everyone okay?" Haruna asked after a moment.
"I need clean underwear," Nodoka sighed mournfully.
"Don't say that in front of the teacher," Yue noted.
"Eeeep," Nodoka went pink as she realized what she said.
Shane just elected to ignore that.
The Library Club was actually a very active group on the Island. What Shane hadn't been aware of, was that the kids had been exploring the old, abandoned facilities looking for the mythic lost library. With, it should be noted, no official permission.
"You are so lucky that Setsuna spilled the beans," Shane sighed. He paused, "How long have you been doing this?"
"... A few weeks?" Nodoka admitted.
Shane visibly winced. "The management of the island only cleared out the areas the school and other facilities needed. There is a LOT of the island still untamed and unsafe," he sighed. "Please tell me you at least took bear spray."
Haruna held up a canister of mace, "Well, we had this."
"Well, that's something," Shane admitted.
Outside, they heard the sounds of anumals out in the twilight. Dog sounds, possibly, or maybe something... else.
Yue looked nervous, "Are we going to wait them out?"
"Looks like it," Shane admitted. He took out his phone to check, then sighed. "No signal," he noted, "of course."
"I packed lunch!" Haruna offered, realizing they might have to wait a bit.
Nodoka brought out a thermos, "I have tea!"
About a hour later, they heard gunfire outside.
"Ehh?" Yue looked alarmed.
Shane opened the door as he nodded to the security guard. "Mr Hicks, thank you," he nodded.
Hicks just grunted, "You owe me."
"You didn't shoot the poor doggies, did you?" Nodoka asked worriedly.
Hicks just looked at her,
"I'm SURE he just frightened them off," Shane lied.
Hicks sighed, "I got a jeep. Let's get out of here."
"Thank you!" all three girls chorused.
"Do NOT do this sort of thing again," Shane scolded them as they climbed in. "And tell a teacher if you do."
"You, sensei?" Nodoka suggested.
'Oh GOD no,' Shane thought grimly.
To be continued...