The Fate of Shin-Osaka – Chapter 17

“Hello, Kara. It’s good to see you, finally.”

Isao smiles at me through the connection on the wallscreen. Setting up a secure meeting took a while, but we have the best of the best on our team now. Still, I’m paranoid…

“Hi, Isao. We have a secure connection, but I want to keep the meeting to vague terms in case anyone is listening in. Is that okay with you?”

He nods once. Great. No one can know this part of my plan before it happens. Not even Rin.

“How are things in Awashikawa? Are you all settled?” I give him my outward attention, but in the back of my consciousness, I’m sorting through all the data coming to me from my team, out in the field, getting work done. Ryoko and Shintaro add another corporation to our side almost every hour. Aimi has new footage of people fighting back in Matsubara, Kadoma, and Ohama Wards. Atsumi is still looking for Aka Matsuba, but they have fresh leads.

“We’re settled in, yes.” He shakes his head. “I thought for sure Aoi Uma would be on our tail from orbit on down, but we haven’t heard a peep from them yet.”

“How are the refugee camps?”

“Also good. We’re strained on space, but Hayashi and Reina have things under control. There were a few incidents with the kumojin, but overall, it’s been fine.”

I hesitate, but, yeah, I’m gonna finally ask.

“Did it ever occur to you that a lot of people are afraid of spiders? And creating a large, intelligent version was probably a bad idea?” I’ve always wanted to know.

Isao’s face falls into a frown. “Please don’t remind me. So, what’s going on with Aoi Uma?”

“They have their entire force concentrated here in Shin-Osaka.” I shrug. “They gave up ground in other cities pretty quickly. There’s nothing left of them in Amagasaki but their android facility, and even that is closed most of the time because they can’t get supplies anymore. Our economic sanctions are working.”

“I see. That’s… unexpected.” He seems skeptical, but I’ve always had difficulty reading him. His clear eyes never give a hint of emotion.

“Unexpected but welcome. Narumi is malfunctioning, and Gen is not far behind.” I sigh and lean back in my chair. “Honestly, I could see waiting this out. Waiting for them to die or become so broken they can no longer function. But too many people are dying every day. Businesses are being destroyed. Families are being separated. Aoi Uma must be stopped before they wipe out the people we’re trying to help.”

He nods once. “Then let’s help. What did you have in mind?”

“We need an advantage, and I have something from my homeworld that I think may give us a leg up if you’d be willing to look into it.” I pick up my tablet and send a data packet over to him. His attention falters as he picks up his tablet. “How good are you at gene editing on the fly?”

He raises his eyebrows. “I’m excellent.” He huffs a laugh as his eyes comb down the data on his tablet. “Hmmm, I see. How do you want to do this?”

“Start with Yumi’s body.”

“I barely need to do anything to Yumi’s body except for one or two tweaks.”

I pull away. “Really? I figured this would be an enormous task.”

“Nope. We already have a translation engine built into the brain because of the animals we create.”

“Ah, the murasakijin and kumojin. You can understand them?”

“Yeah, of course.” He says this like it’s something I should have known all the time. “And if I could get the kumojin to shut up most days, I would. Trust me. They are opinionated little things.”

Little to him, sure. To the rest of us, they are scary spider-like creatures that click and scatter when we approach them.

“Okay then. That makes the job easier. If the procedure works for her, we can offer it either as an outpatient procedure or maybe using nanobots or a virus?”

“Yeah.” He turns his head to stare into the distance. “Yeah, actually. We can deliver this to large populations through the water supply.”

I raise my hand. “I will not force this on anyone. Understood? It’ll be voluntary, as it is on my world. But… But,” I stress, “I strongly suspect most people will want this, so we should plan for something on a larger scale. This could be the first step for Shiroi Nami to be accepted by the population. Will you bring it forward to Hayashi and Reina?”

Getting the two heads of Shiroi Nami on board would be the best option.

“Sure. Will do.” The eagerness in his voice brings a smile to my face. “Anything else?”

I lean in. “I need you to prepare a team of competent people to do a mission for me. I’m going to send the coordinates and a brief separately. But they have to be ready to go soon.” This is my ace. I’m holding back until I need it.

“Intriguing. Dare I ask what this is about?”

Excitement grows in my chest when I think about my plan. I did a lot of research last night after Rin went to bed, digging in the Hikari history archives. They’re never going to expect this.

“Let’s just say it’s never happened here before, and it will shock most everyone.”

“Shock and awe, Kara. That’s what we need now. Okay. I will await your instructions. In other news, we’re ready and waiting for Yumi’s consciousness. Once I make these changes, she can arrive at any time.”

“And how long will the changes take?” I hold my breath, expecting a month or more.

He shrugs. “A week? I’ll need to look at everything, but we have the resources to make this work now.”

Letting out my held breath, I smile back at him. “That’s great. I’m so relieved. Let’s talk again when you know more.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

The feed cuts out, and a throat clears behind me. Kazuo is in the doorway.

“Our team is ready to go. Did you get good news from Isao?”

I smile as I alight from my chair and grab my tablet. “I got great news from Isao. But now we have to actually follow through on the rest. We can’t jump from point A to point Z. There’s still a whole alphabet in between.”

“Then let’s go.”

I angle past him, but he lays his hand on my shoulder. His face carries the weight of his duties, always full of alternate plans and wise words.

“Remember, Yumi is in there, and she still needs to make it to point Z.”

And yet, after everything we’ve been through, and the anger I’ve harbored for months over being stuck in this body, I still love him.

“How could I forget?”

—-

“I really wish you would stay home and not participate in missions like this,” Rin says from our spot across the street from the Aoi Uma building in Ohama Ward.

I took three butsu loops, a subway, and walked two kilometers to get here, avoiding all the crazy Aoi Uma security along the way. I topped my water storage up, and my battery is at ninety-five percent because I spent an hour in a manga café waiting for surveillance crews to pass. But after my experience in the hospital, I know it won’t last in a situation like this. The worry sits like an angry cat at the back of my thoughts, ready to hiss and pounce.

I secure my braids to my head with a few more pins. “I could say the same about you or Kazuo.” I jerk my chin at Kazuo, talking with the other recruits down the hall. “But you know the deal. I don’t send people in to do things I wouldn’t do myself. Maybe that’s dumb or reckless, but I’ve never been a fan of war. This idea that a general sits behind a desk while the soldiers go out to do all the dangerous work is stupid.”

Rin is silent, just watching me.

“That’s the coward’s way out. Wouldn’t you agree, Mr. Kiiroi Yama ‘I’m the best kenryōshi this corporation has ever seen?’ Would you have sent someone less experienced to put down a crazed android? No.”

“No. But you don’t see Okamoto running into those situations either.” Yori Okamoto, CEO of Kiiroi Yama, doesn’t do any dirty work. And if I could get into an argument with Rin right now about how little he actually contributes to our cause, I would. But we don’t have that kind of time.

“Well, when I have a giant corporation full of competent employees, we will reconsider decisions like this. But I don’t. Kazenoho is literally thirty people trying our best. We’re ants, and Aoi Uma is a big boot waiting to step on us. We need everyone pulling their weight.”

His sigh is weary, and I know I’ve gotten him there.

“Just what I thought,” I say, strapping a knife to my leg. It’s not my knife, but it’ll have to do. I don’t need a lot of weapons. I have my android speed and strength, which gives me an advantage over any humans we encounter. But it’s nice to have something for close-quarters fighting. I’m wearing body armor too, which should reduce how much damage I can take before I’m disabled.

Down the hall, the few Kiiroi Yama employees we borrowed for this mission await our orders. We asked Okamoto for five people to help, and that’s what he delivered.

“Keep an eye on them,” I whisper to Rin. “Okamoto has been distracted lately, and I’m wondering what’s going on.”

Rin’s eyes narrow. “Something is definitely going on. The knowledge an android had infiltrated them did not sit well with me. They may have been compromised. They may still be compromised.”

My body cools. That’s a neat trick of my programming. “What about these guys?” I whisper.

Rin shrugs. “We don’t have time to check.”

I swallow as I stare at the three men and two women waiting in the wings. Is it the responsible thing to do to bring them with us when I’m not even sure if they’re human?

Closing my eyes, I blow out a long breath. I’m not human. And I can’t live my life mired in paranoia. We have to go anyway.

I lean against the wall and sink to the floor, lifting my face to the ceiling. “Why are we here again? Remind me.”

I’m doubting this mission.

I doubt this mission, period.

Rin rechecks his armor, adjusting it across his chest. “You know as well as anyone that taking out the Aoi Uma building is the best way to knock the wind out of them.” He holds up his hand and starts ticking off his fingers. “They store android backups here. This is where they mobilize their entire army. Their top employees live here. Their main update node is here.” He drops his hands. “It won’t stop them, but it will slow them down. Significantly.”

“Don’t you think it’s strange they haven’t diversified their locations? All of our intelligence could be wrong.”

Doubts. Lots of doubts.

I’m missing something. I’m missing a key point to this mission.

It’s funny how human instincts continue to surface in this artificial body.

Rin shrugs. “Look at how much time they’ve had. A mere four to five months since we took out the update network from Amagasaki and introduced the Three Laws to over eighty percent of their androids. Four to five months is not enough time to get something bigger off the ground. They had this building, and that was it. This is why they’ve been so careful to expand out through the city and leave this place in the middle of a controlled space.”

I nod slowly. I should be grateful they left us with anything to attack.

But the more I think about it, the more I worry.

This could be a trap.

“Are we ready to go?” Kazuo asks, his voice ripe with impatience. “I’ve got everyone on hold until you give the word.”

Rin holds out his hand to me, so I take it and get to my feet. His fingers slowly leave mine, and he squeezes them before letting go. We nod at each other.

There’s a lot unsaid in that nod.

I double-check my body armor, my knife, my connection in my head to the outside world. Check, check, check. Everything is ready.

“Yoshi, you’re inside the system?” I ask via text. He would have told me if he couldn’t get in, but it’s better to be on top of it.

“Been inside now for hours and ready to go when you are.”

I flash a thumbs-up to Kazuo, and he nods.

We open the door and file out along the wall of the building.

The twilight sky is just dark enough to play with my eyes after being in the lit hallway for so long. The same thing will happen to Aoi Uma employees, but my android brain adjusts in less than two seconds.

I crouch along behind Rin and keep my eyes on the chain of people in front of me.

“So, what happens next?” As part of our security measures, since we’re such a small operation, we were only briefed on a portion of the mission beforehand. I handled Yoshi and his access to the Aoi Uma building and the android network that branches out from there.

Rin’s grin widens. “A distraction, of course.”

“What kind of…?”

My question is cut off as a Kiiroi Yama flying police car screams in from overhead, aims straight for the Aoi Uma building’s front lobby, and crashes right into it. The car erupts in a fireball, and the building’s security alarms scream in protest.

“Shit,” I say, my voice breathless and awed. “I hope no one was in that.”

Rin grabs my arm and drags me forward. “Nope. But now we have to move before the building locks down.”

I hasten my legs and follow along behind them.