Bubblegum Crisis: Stage Three

Chapter 27

Nene Romanova felt generally weird coming to police headquarters. She had been a cop, then AD Police, and now was directly employed by Genom... but the place was still familiar, if strange.

"Welcome!" the boomer receptionist chirped, then asked, "please present identification."

Nene opened up her ID wallet to be scanned as she said, "Nene Romanova. I have an appointment."

A few moments later, the boomer passed over a temporary pass. "Welcome back, Miss Romanova." she said warmly.

"Thank you," Nene said as she headed to Leon's office.

"Hey, Nene," Leon waved as she entered, "you didn't need to make an appointment, it feels like something really went wrong..."

Nene looked grim.

"Well, shit," Leon waved her to a seat. "What's going on?"

"We've gotten a break in the Boomer attacks case," Nene said, "but I need you to agree to keep it confidential."

Leon raised his eyebrows, "Does it incriminate anyone?"

"We think we've figured out how the attacks are happening," Nene admitted before adding, "but not the culprit. Well?"

Leon studied her. "Okay, I'll keep it secret," he conceded.

With that Nene explained about the receiver antenna built in all current Boomer's heads, and what that meant for their investigations.

Leon visibly paled. "You mean ANY Boomer could be overridden and made to attack someone?" he asked.

"We haven't done exhaustive tests yet," Nene cautioned, "but it appears so. It's also not just Genom models."

"Huh?" Leon asked.

"We know that Gulf and Bradly pretty much directly copied Genom's original design. As did several other rivals through copying them... so pretty much ALL Boomers have the fault," Nene said with a sigh.

"Well, shit," Leon muttered. "Is Genom doing anything? A recall maybe?"

"It's been brought up," Nene said, then pointedly asked him, "but do you KNOW how many Boomers are out there?"

"Millions," Leon admitted glumly.

"Exactly," Nene agreed.

Leon sat back with a sigh. "I sorta see why you told me," he mused, "there's pretty much nothing we cops can do."

"Well, other than be on guard," Nene conceded.

As he walked her out Leon quietly asked, "Does Geneon have a plan...?"

"We're working on a programming fix," Nene said, "but it's only just begun."

Which Leon pretty much took as 'no.' As she left he added, "Keep me informed."

"Will do," Nene agreed.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

The guy's death was in the back pages of the newspaper, and Fargo only noticed because he knew the guy. Or more accurately, had employed him for... certain jobs.

"Shit!" Fargo cured aloud.

From his open office door he heard Madigan call out, "Sir?"

"We got trouble," Fargo said, "get in here."

Madigan entered, closing to door behind her. "What's going on?" she asked warily.

Fargo passed the paper over, "Check out the obits."

"Jiro Tainaka?" Madigan also recognized the name. "Sorry, boss. I don't know how the news slipped by me."

"The obit doesn't say what happened, and I don't remember seeing it in the news," Fargo sighed. "Can you dig into this, find out what happened?"

"You think this is connected to our business?" Madigan wondered.

"The timing is suspicious as hell, but he had his fingers in a LOT of stuff," Fargo admitted, shrugging slightly.

"I'll get to it," Madigan headed back to her desk.

Fargo sat back with a troubled sigh.

Jiro Tainaka had been the 'agent' Fargo had put in contact with Quincy about the Mason situation. Fargo didn't know exactly what he had done for Quincy, and Mason's drug buy death was, OF COURSE, totally unrelated.

But with his death, Mason and now Quincy's death... it looked like someone was tying up loose ends related to Genom. And Fargo was a little connected to this mess too. So now, would someone look to clean up him, too?

Fargo opened his desk drawer, checking the pistol he kept hidden there. He also made a mental note to make sure Madigan was armed, too.

A few minutes later Madigan returned, looking unhappy. "Bad news?" Fargo guessed.

"Jiro was found in his car, in the river. It was staged to look like a suicide, but he was dead before he hit the water," Madigan said flatly.

"Fuck," Fargo cursed.

"The forensics are muddied by the dunking," Madigan cautioned but continued, "but the CSI teams found almost no trace evidence. The conclusion the investigating officers came to was it was a professional hit."

Fargo repeated, "Fuck."

"Are we in trouble?" Madigan asked frankly.

"I know you have a pistol," Fargo said after a moment, "keep it with you. Just in case."

"Will do," Madigan agreed as she left the office.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"Keep firing!" Reika ordered, shooting one in the torso. Annoyingly it kept coming.

Aoi brought up her gun and dropped the target. "Remember, the 'core' is in the head," she reminded the other woman.

"Which is dumb, design wise," Reika bitched.

"To your left," Sylia shot at another.

The three women backed up as they fired, but the army of Boomers kept advancing. Worse, while the three women were okay shots, they weren't as good at killing their foes with one shot. So, eventually, they were overwhelmed.

GAME OVER

"That was so cool!" Sho cheered his mom as they group left the public Virtual Reality facility.

"I still got killed though," Aoi ruffled her son's hair.

"So, why make us do a zombie attack sim?" Reika asked Sylia quietly. "Programmed with Boomer vulnerabilities, I note."

"So far, the only attacks have been on me," Sylia said quietly, "but I don't know if it might splash on you or the others. So I want to be sure we can all defend ourselves."

"VR games?" Reika asked, amused.

"Well, it makes training a bit fun," Sylia shrugged.

"Nice!" Linna congradulated Reika as she hurried up.

"That was so cool!" Sho gushed.

"Pretty good," Priss slapped her on the shoulder. "Wanna switch jobs?" she teased.

"And put YOU in charge of watching Sho?" Aoi teased, "I don't think so."

"Point," Priss conceded.

Sylia watched them, smiling slightly. It had actually been kind of fun going out with them on a casual outing... tho Priss and Linna were both, understandably, paranoid about the crowds. Still, it had been pleasant.

"So Nene is off telling the police about why the boomers are attacking," Priss mused as they got a snack. "How did Jeena over at ADP take it?"

"Oh, less than happy," Sylia agreed. "She was amused by one thing, though."

"Oh?" Priss asked.

"Remember when the first Boomer attacked me?" Sylia said. "Dr Yuri was right. The Boomer wasn't defective... just being controlled."

"Ha." Priss shook her head.

"You look VERY uncomfortable," Aoi noted to Sylia, amused. "Have you not HAD a hotdog before?" she asked, seeing how gingerly she was holding it.

"Not in a long time," Sylia admitted, eating her chili dog nervously.

Priss had to fight back a chuckle as she enthusiastically ate her own food... then spilled sause down her shirt.

"Ha ha!" Sho laughed.

"Little shit.." Priss muttered as she dabbed at the mess with a napkin.

To be continued...