Bubblegum Crisis: Stage Three

Chapter 23

Priss Asagiri looked around mildly warily as her motorcycle pulled up to the Stingray Memorial Cultural Center. The last time she had been here, she had slugged an old man. She wasn't sure she hadn't been called here for a repeat match. But the lady running the place had been a pest leaving messages, so Sylia insisted she go find out what she wanted.

A younger man was waiting by the door, a cool smile on his face. He reminded her of a young gang banger... or possibly a rent-a-cop. "Miss Asagiri?" he asked.

"Yeah," she nodded.

"Miss Busujima is waiting in her office. I'll escort you," he said, leading her inside.

As Priss followed she noted he was carrying a concealed gun. 'Deffinite rent-a-cop,' she mused.

The office was on the second floor, and was smaller than either Sylia or Nene's. Mind you, that fit for a charity, instead of business. The young man left, and Saeko and Priss were left alone. The attractive business woman smiled, "I hope this is a better meeting than our last one."

"I didn't throw the first punch, last time," Priss noted warily.

Saeko winced slightly. "I wanted to apologize again," she said, "as well as inform you that Mr Yoshimizu was fired by our organization, due to his actions."

"That's a bit much," Priss noted.

"He assaulted a guest of a major donor," Saeko shrugged. "It seemed fitting."

"So, you called me here to apologize. Ok, I guess we're done?" Priss noted dryly.

Saeko made a face. "There's something else I need to apologize for," she admitted.

"Oh really," Priss deadpanned.

"I contacted an associate to look into your background," Saeko informed her, "yours and Lisa Valente's. I wanted to confirm Yashimizu's story."

'That explains the flag tripping on my data that Nene told me about.' Priss thought. "And you trust this guy with my data?" she asked flatly.

"He knows there will be consequences if he shares it," Saeko said darkly.

Priss suspected those consequences would be more than a nasty note. "When you canned Yashimizu, was he swearing vengeance on me for it?" Priss wondered.

"He was somewhat upset," Saeko understated it calmly.

"Great, another person gunning for me. Lovely," Priss sighed. "Well, thanks for the apology at least," Priss strode out, carrying her cycling helmet on her shoulder.

Saeko sighed. She had HOPED to get the conversation around to her meeting Sylia again, but it hadn't happened. Well, there would be other chances... she pressed a button on her desk.

"Yes, ma'am?" the young man asked.

"Kyo, we're going to be doing another event," Saeko informed her assistant, "and we are inviting Sylia Stingray again..."

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Leon McNichol was frowning as he met with the Chief. "I'm being pulled off the Mason case?" he asked, looking confused.

"You were, in theory, only assisting anyway," the Chief noted. In fact both men knew Leon had been doing some extra digging, but they weren't going to go into that.

"Well, yeah," Leon shrugged slightly.

"This may be related as well." the Chief noted. He passed over a data slug, "You've heard about the two attacks on Romanova and Stingray?"

"RPG attack and a deliberate place crash. No direct casualties, interestingly enough," Leon noted thoughtfully.

"You think that was intentional?" the Chief asked, looking at Leon thoughtfully.

"If so they had to time both attacks precisely," Leon shrugged. "It'd be a hell of a thing. Or, admittedly, they got really lucky."

"Either way, I'm dropping it on your lap," the Chief noted. "Work with Daley Wong... he's got the technical skills you'll need to look into the computer end."

"Got it. And the Mason case?" Leon pressed.

"Mason's death was a drug deal gone bad," the Chief scowled. "Until or unless actual evidence comes up showing different, THAT is the official position of this department. Got it?"

"Yes sir," Leon said stiffly, then hurried off.

Daley Wong looked amused as the cyber security expert watched Leon hurry over. "Heard about the new case I see," he smiled.

"Daley," Leon nodded as he grabbed a chair and sat. "Is this as bad as it looks?" he asked.

"On the airplane end? Probably," Daley admitted. "I've done some early snooping... this was top of the line hacking."

"Yeah?" Leon asked.

"The signal bounced through multiple countries and satellites. I wouldn't say it's completely un-tracible, I haven't really started to dig into this yet, but I'm not expecting to have much luck," Daley told him.

"So basically I have to try to chase down who used the RPG on Romanova's place and where it came from," Leon concluded.

"Pretty much," Daley agreed.

"Which will ALSO be a bitch...," Leon groaned.

As they were talking a report was coming in. Body found in parking lot, sounds of foul play. Forensics team on the way.

"Let me guess," Leon half-joked, "it's Genom related too."

"Uhm, actually it is...," the other officer noted, "their former security chief."

"WHAT."

"James Yamako," he told Leon.

Leon grabbed the forms, then looked back at Daley. "Start digging on the plane and the RPG," he ordered, "I have GOT to check this out..."

"Good luck," Daley called as he rushed out.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Nene got the call from a police informer who wanted to stay on Genom's good side. She then called Jeena Malso, who agreed to go out with her once she heard the news. The two headed out in a ADP cruiser, heading to the site where the body was found.

"You DO know as a ADP officer I can't interfere in a regular police operation," Jeena reminded Nene politely. They were in an odd place, professionally speaking. At one point Nene had been her employee. Now Nene headed up computer security, technically making them equals. And as Nene had their employer's ear (and other parts of her anatomy if rumors were true) she could even be considered Jeena's boss.

"Yeah," Nene agreed as they drove, "I mostly just want us there so they know Genom is keeping a eye on the case."

Jeena gave Nene a thoughtful look and asked, "Do you think this is related to the mess going on in Genom?"

"We'll need to look into it," Nene cautioned, "but I don't think so."

"Oh?" Jeena looked curious.

"I did some digging into Yamako before Sylia demoted him," Nene informed her, "for his wage level, there was a LOT of extra money in his accounts. And he happened to take vacation trips to southern US states every year."

"Industrial espionage?" Jeena guessed. Dryly she asked, "And when was I going to be brought in on this?"

"When we had something more solid that extra money and vacationing near a corporate rival," Nene shrugged slightly.

"Point," Jeena conceded.

The parking garage was in the bad part of town. Relatively speaking of course... the city was prosperous enough that there was no REALLY bad parts, but it certainly wasn't a place you'd want to drop money. It'd be gone in a minute.

Leon was supervising the scene, and the taller man looked mostly resigned to seeing them there. "Nene, Jeena. Figured you'd be here."

"Hi Leon-poo," Nene waved.

"Oh god not that again...," Leon groaned as Jeena snickered.

Somewhat more seriously Jeena noted, "Do you have a confirmation of his identity?"

"You wouldn't be here if we didn't," Leon noted. "James Yamako, former head of cyber security at Genom, transfered to Communications, then fired a few days ago."

'Huh. Didn't know Sylia had actually fired him already,' Nene mentally noted.

"Cause of death? Or is that confidential?" Jeena asked.

Leon gave them a thoughtful look. "I don't really consider you suspects," he admitted.

Jeena snorted. "If anything, Yamako would be a suspect if anything happened to Nene, not vice versa," she observed.

"I've seen weirder cases," Leon noted. Still he continued, "Gunshot would to the chest, be bled out in his car. We're scanning fingerprints and looking for trace evidence now."

"Was it a computer voice that called it in, or a person?" Nene asked thoughtfully.

"Person. Older male, smoker from the recording. Didn't leave a name, used a disposable phone," Leon noted disapprovingly. Disposable phones were the bane of modern policing. Bought from corner stores, loadable with minutes with no name or address on file. Primarily used by criminals, especially drug dealers and such.

"So it was a crook who reported it, but probably not the killer. No ones that dumb," Jeena noted.

In another part of town Fargo sneezed loudly. "Cold?" Madigan asked.

"Dust," Fargo said briskly.

"Or someone's talking about you," Madigan teased.

To be continued...