TROJAN
Chapter 6: "Reciprocation"
A Sailor Moon fanfic
By Bill K.
Yuriko Watanabe sat in a small office in the security wing of the Crystal Palace. She had been asked there by Shintaro Kobe, who was the head of Palace Security. When she asked why he needed to speak to her, she was told it concerned the recent cyber-robbery of the Japanese Treasury.
The office, belonging to Kobe, was sparsely furnished. She sat in front of a desk, metallic with a very dark brown color. Atop the desk was a wire basket loaded with files, a phone, a pencil cup and a computer station. A long metal file cabinet was to the right of the desk, and a book shelf with bound law books was on the left. Atop the cabinet was a green plant.
As Yuriko sat nervously, she wondered what had happened. Had they traced the stolen funds this quickly? Who had done it? Was it someone in her department? Finance was a tight knit team. She hated to think one of them was capable of doing such a thing. But two billion, one hundred and twenty-two thousand yen could tempt a lot of people, even someone who was basically honest.
The door opened behind her. She turned to look. Accompanying Kobe was King Endymion and Queen Serenity, as well as Dr. Ami Fujihara and the cat Luna. Immediately she grew even more anxious. Were multiple people in her department compromised? Would they blame her for lax supervision? Kobe sat down at his desk, with Endymion on his right and Ami on his left. Serenity receded into the background, while Luna took a spot on the horizontal file cabinet.
"Watanabe-San," Kobe began gravely. "We've managed to trace the wire transfer to a computer station in your department."
"Do you know who it was?" Watanabe asked anxiously. Kobe and Endymion seemed slightly surprised by the response, while Ami studied the woman without emotion.
"Yes," Kobe replied. "It was your station."
"Mine?" Watanabe responded. "How did they get in? My station is password locked and nobody knows my password but me and the Director of Personnel."
Kobe sighed. "We have surveillance video of you at your station at the time the wire transfer was made. Furthermore, the video shows your screen making the transactions."
Watanabe momentarily lost feeling in her body.
"That's not possible," she said softly.
Kobe turned his computer screen to her and played the surveillance record. Watanabe watched herself working at her computer, the machine transferring funds from the Treasury to an off-shore account in Mauritius. She could feel the blood pounding in her temple.
"That's not me," she replied anxiously. "It can't be me! I wasn't in the office when this video is time-stamped!"
"So you're saying it's an imposter?" Kobe asked. She could hear the doubt in his voice.
"Kobe-San," Ami interjected, "the possibility of a natural or supernatural substitute is well documented, as difficult as it is for rational human beings to accept. I've personally encountered shape-shifting fox spirits, as well as alien entities possessing that ability."
"You're saying that aliens robbed our treasury?" Kobe responded. "Or a fox?"
"Never eliminate a possibility until it is proven impossible," Ami cautioned.
"And often the simplest answer is the truth," countered Kobe. He turned to Watanabe. "OK, if you weren't in the office during the time in question, where were you?"
"I," Watanabe began, then stopped. No memory would come. She grew more anxious. "I don't - - remember. I had to have been somewhere."
"Well, I suggest you remember where," Kobe said.
"Please don't badger her so," Serenity spoke up. "Can't you see she's trying?"
"Possession is another ability supernatural beings possess, such as yokai, ikiryo and tsukimono," cautioned Ami. "And the person possessed often has no memory of actions taken while possessed. It would be easy for a priest of some spiritual prowess to determine if such a thing had occurred. I would normally suggest Rei, but unfortunately she's - - unavailable. Perhaps her great-grandmother could be brought in if facts point to such a possibility."
"Are you saying something," Watanabe began incredulously, "some spirit - - possessed me? Made me do this?"
"It is possible," Ami replied, "but unlikely. I think the more likely scenario is that you were acting, either in concert or under coercion, with the person who owns that bank account in Mauritius."
"On my ancestors, I did not knowingly do this!" Watanabe cried.
With that, Ami produced her henshin stick and transformed into Sailor Mercury. As Director Kobe looked on, stunned, she produced her computer and scanned Watanabe.
"Hmm," Mercury mumbled. "I'm detecting an unusual brain wave pattern in Watanabe-san."
"As if she was being controlled?" Endymion asked.
"Maybe she was possessed," Serenity mused.
"It would only be speculation to answer that at this point," Mercury replied. "I would need to analyze this pattern further."
"Given the recent activity by Goro Awanishi, Director," Endymion said, "I think that puts a new light on this. He seems the more likely suspect at the moment, given his history."
"You're not going to detain me, are you?" Watanabe asked, slightly below panic. "I have children at home!"
"There's no need to detain her, is there?" Serenity asked.
Kobe frowned. "I suppose we could release her from custody, with an ankle monitor. If she was being controlled remotely by someone - - or something - - I'd like to be able to keep tabs on her movements."
"That's fine, Director," Endymion nodded. He turned to Watanabe. "I apologize for the inconvenience, but until this matter is settled. . ."
"No, Your Majesty," Watanabe stood up and bowed. "I understand. Thank you for giving me the benefit of the doubt."
"I'd like a copy of that surveillance record," Mercury inquired. "Hopefully in studying it, I can determine more information that may help us resolve this."
"Mercury," Serenity began.
"It needs to be done," Mercury replied shortly, "and it needs to be done by me. I promise I'll take a vacation when this is all resolved."
And with that, she stalked out. Serenity and Endymion watched her leave with some concern.
Queen Serenity and Makoto Kino-Ikegami met Minako Aino in the corridor of the palace.
"Fuzzy call you guys, too?" Minako asked. "He said he had something, but it must be real big if he's calling in everybody." She glanced at Serenity. "Rei still out?"
"Yes," Serenity nodded. "I hope she gets well soon."
"What about Ami?" Makoto inquired.
"She's," Serenity hesitated, "working on something. I think we should let her finish it."
"Your call," Minako replied. "Hope we don't need her."
"I hope so, too."
"OK, Fuzzy, this better be good! You got me up before noon!" yelled Minako as the three entered.
"I've got a line on Awanishi," Artemis declared. He glanced at Luna beside him. "It's amazing what you can do with a few hours rest." Luna smirked.
"So, spill! Where is the little rat?" Minako barked.
"A little beachfront property south of Touessrak, Mauritius."
"Where's that?" the three women asked simultaneously.
"Mauritius is an island nation in the Indian Ocean, east of Mozambique," Luna replied with imperious disdain.
"They also have no extradition treaty with Japan and a 'no questions asked' banking system," Artemis added.
"Add in a tropical beach and you've got the kind of vacation spot Awanishi tends to favor," quipped Minako. "Is he there now? Because I'd rather not run into another exploding beach house."
"Don't know," Artemis told them. "But Awanishi bought the place under the name of one of the shell companies I traced to him. Probably uses them to launder his stolen funds."
"Why would he care if the money is dirty?" Serenity asked. "Is he a germophobe?"
Everyone stared at her and Serenity grew increasingly uncomfortable.
"If you've got coordinates on this place," Minako said, producing her henshin stick, "I think we ought to at least check and see if he's home."
Jupiter produced her henshin stick as well, while Serenity transformed her gown into her Sailor Moon fuku.
Hayami Fujihara entered the small office in the quarters he shared with his wife, Ami. The office was sort of a mini-library and computer work station that allowed the occupant to read or work as one chose. Sitting at the desk was his wife. Though a surveillance video, to his eye, played on the computer screen, his wife had her chin leaning on her closed fist, staring morosely into space. Upon hearing him enter, Ami glanced away in mortification.
"What's wrong?" Hayami asked gently, adjusting his black horn rim glasses on his face.
"The, um, Director of Finance has been implicated in the theft from the Treasury," Ami replied, adjusting hers. "I was just going over the surveillance footage to see if I could determine any pertinent information from it."
Hayami came up behind her and put his hands on her shoulders, caressing them.
"What else is wrong?" he asked. "You usually don't let your concentration slip unless you're preoccupied with something very disturbing."
Ami gave a guilty sigh. "I blew up at Serenity again. Apparently I'm worse off than I thought. It's difficult to concentrate and I'm short-tempered with my best friend. Hayami, can you take some time off from the library? After this crisis with the Treasury is resolved, I promised Serenity I'd take a vacation, and I should probably follow through on that." She glanced up at her husband. "Of course I'd like you along."
"If you want, I can start reviewing vacation sites," Hayami suggested.
"That would be wonderful," she smiled. "I trust your judgment implicitly."
Ami turned back to her screen. Hayami headed into the other room to retrieve his lap top. However, he was no sooner out of the room when he heard his wife.
"Of course!" he heard Ami exclaim. "Why didn't I see it sooner?" He rushed back into the office.
"What is it?" Hayami asked.
"This is a recording of the Finance Minister at her desk," Ami explained. "Note the time stamp." She shifted to a second recording from behind Watanabe. "This is a picture of her screen. Note the time stamp."
"They're the same," Hayami said. "It looks like she's executing a wire transfer of - - my goodness, is that five hundred thousand yen?"
"Yes," Ami said and shifted perspective once again. This view was of Watanabe's face as she typed. Her computer screen blocked her face from the mouth down. "This is a third view. Note the time stamp is the same."
"She," Hayami began, "doesn't seem to be looking at what she's typing. She seems to be staring into space. Almost like she's in a trance."
"Precisely. And given that Artemis determined the account the funds were transferred to in Mauritius belongs to Goro Awanishi, and given that Awanishi-San has previously had some success in artificial mental suggestion, it's hardly a large leap to speculate that Watanabe-San was being controlled remotely, probably by Awanishi-San."
"That's," Hayami mumbled, "very frightening. I didn't think hypnosis was capable of such things."
"It isn't," Ami replied. "Hypnosis merely renders the mind susceptible to suggestion. It can't make someone do something they wouldn't normally do. I scanned Watanabe-San's brain wave patterns and came up with an anomalous pattern. If I were to speculate further, that pattern might be indication of some artificial means of arresting a person's conscious thought and channeling remote commands to the person's body."
"That's even more frightening," Hayami stated. "But how is he doing it? Is everyone on Earth vulnerable to this?"
"That's what I have to determine next," Ami mused.
The sand began to swirl on the beach in front of a cottage nestled among some palm trees. In moments, the swirling winds died away and Sailor Moon and two of her Senshi were now present in Touessrak, Mauritius. Jupiter and Venus each glanced along the beach, but nobody was there in either direction for at least a mile, not counting some sand pipers.
"Jupe, why don't you slip around back, just in case our boy decides to take a powder," Venus suggested. Jupiter nodded and cautiously headed around the back of the cottage. Venus nodded to a jeep parked beside the home. "Sailor Moon, do you think you can make that jeep inoperable?"
"How do I do that? I don't know anything about cars," she replied. "I know! I'll just make the whole engine disappear!"
Rather than use the Moon Tier, which she no longer needed, Sailor Moon wiggled her fingers at the jeep. Steam began rising out of the front radiator and into the sky.
"Boy, that's going to affect the resale value," quipped Venus. Then she grew serious. "I wish Mercury was here to pinpoint all of the booby traps I assume are here - - not that she did a great job last time."
"Mercury's not feeling well," Sailor Moon told her. "Mercury promised to take some time off after this is done."
"Good! She needs it!" Venus responded. "So, you think you can do the same thing you did to the explosives that you did to the engine. Because I'm sure this place is wired to go up if we breathe wrong."
"Well," Sailor Moon grimaced, "do you know what it looks like?"
"Are you kidding? I'm an actress! The 'C-4' we used on the set was really modeling clay!"
"Well, I really don't think I can do it unless I dissolve the entire house. I kind of need to know what . . ."
"HEY!" they heard Jupiter bark over the Senshi communicators. "Awanishi's on the move! He ducked out the back before I could get in place!"
"On the way!" Venus responded.
Venus took off around the side of the cottage in an attempt to join Jupiter in pursuit. Sailor Moon took three steps after her, then thought better of it. Concentrating, the Senshi levitated off of the ground and over the roof of the cottage. As she passed over the cottage, Sailor Moon could see Jupiter running into a thick grove of trees and vegetation that grew seventy feet from the beach. Venus was just turning the corner of the cottage.
Her flight taking her over the tops of the towering palms growing out of the grove, Sailor Moon peered down into the dense brush, trying to spot whoever Jupiter was chasing. However, the grove was too thick. As it was she could only spot small snippets of Jupiter running, and that was only because she knew where to look. The forest extended at least a mile inland. Sailor Moon pulled up and surveyed things, hoping to get a glimpse of someone other than Jupiter or Venus. Since she had no idea what Awanishi looked like, it was really the only option she had aside from vaporizing the entire forest.
And she just couldn't do that.
"Jupiter?" Sailor Moon called over the communicator. "Where are you? Do you need help?"
"I lost him!" Jupiter reported back. "Either of you see him?"
"I can't see anything up here," Sailor Moon responded.
"All I see is the gigantic path of destruction Jupiter carved in this jungle," Venus communicated.
"Blondie, if you're not going to help, shut up!" Jupiter growled over the communicator.
"Well, he can't have gotten far. We toasted his wheels," Venus said.
"Give me a direction and I'll follow it," Jupiter replied.
There was silence over the communicator.
"Suppose we can find some clue in the house?" Venus suggested at last.
"I'll go look," Sailor Moon said.
"Hon'! Don't go in there until we've figure out how it's . . .!" Jupiter began.
An explosion rocked the area, sending birds scattering into the sky.
"Damn, damn, DAMN!" Venus spat, turning heel and running back for the cottage.
Goro Awanishi emerged from the forest at the edge of a two lane road. The man paused for a few seconds. He was panting heavily and perspiring profusely. Anxiously he looked back behind him, searching for signs of pursuit. When he was satisfied no one was following, he opened his lap top.
"Sailor Moon and her Senshi are getting too close," he muttered breathlessly as he brought up a specific program and typed in commands. "If my proximity monitors hadn't alerted me of their arrival, they would have caught me. This can't go on."
Hitting enter executed the program, which sent out a signal to a local resident.
"I'd like to know how they keep finding me," Awanishi fumed. "It's probably that 'Artemis'. Whoever he is, he's a brilliant hacker. I'll have to find a means to neutralize him. But first I have to neutralize Queen Serenity and her agents before they manage to stop me."
He began entering new commands into the program running on his lap top. When he was finished, a car pulled up beside him. It was a 2004 Fiat Punto that had seen its share of miles. Though old, it still ran well enough. Awanishi climbed into the passenger side of the car.
"Drive me to the hotel," he told the driver. The driver, a native of Touessrak, engaged the car and drove off, staring blankly out the front windshield as if in a trance.
CONTINUED IN CHAPTER 7