Emergence (Fox Meridian Book 5) (23 page)

‘Half-G boobs then. Don’t attempt to deflect my perfectly reasonable paranoia with facts. Did you know that there was an attempt to ban any woman with more than a B-cup from space-based military installations in the late forties? They said it was a distraction.’

‘I find it a little difficult to believe…’

‘They mandated sports bras instead. It’s a legitimate concern. No distractions for you.’

‘Unless they come from you?’

‘Damn right.’ Pushing, Fox rolled Jason onto his back, never relinquishing her hold on his lower body as she did so. She sat up and squeezed her inner muscles around him, and Jason groaned. ‘I can distract you as much as I like, and there’s not a Goddamned thing you can do about it.’

‘Oui, you are right. I am, as you say, your puppet.’

Fox’s hips began a slow rotation. ‘Well, you certainly seem to have wood…’

13
^th
February.

‘The sun’s coming up,’ Fox said. She was lying in Jason’s arms, her eyes on the bedroom window. Neither of them had slept, even when the sex had turned to cuddling.

‘Appropriate,’ Jason said, ‘since you will be in the Land of the Rising Sun soon.’

‘Yeah… Wish I didn’t have to be.’

‘You have your duties, as do I.’

‘Yeah, but better timing would’ve been nice.’

‘In a week you will be back, and then I will not let you out of my sight. I will have arranged most of the handover by then and I get a week all to myself. I was planning a few days in Toronto. Perhaps you could join me.’

Fox smiled. ‘Send Kit the dates, I’ll see what I can arrange. Maybe now’s the time for us to take a trip to Topeka too.’

‘Perhaps, yes. For now, I think you should get a couple of hours of sleep before you have to run off.’

‘Yeah, you’re right. I just want to watch the sunrise first. I’ve always liked sunrise. Warm and comforting.’

‘The start of a new day.’

‘Nah, that’s when I wake up and have to leave. For now, it’s just you, me, and the sun. Warm and comfortable.’

Tokyo, Japan.

Hasta hypersonic transport aircraft were among the fastest in the world, one of MarTech Technologies’ largest products, and still capable of reaching Mach 5.3 at their operating altitude. It took only two and a half hours to fly the trans-polar route from New York Metro to Tokyo, but the flight Fox was on still arrived in the dark, the day after she left.

‘This is not going to be an easy time-zone shift,’ Fox grumbled as she headed for the door. ‘We’ve lost a day.’

‘You’ll get it back,’ Helen said. ‘And maybe you’d be having less trouble if you’d got some sleep last night.’

‘Bringing up reality at a time like this is not going to help your next performance review. I’m making a note. “Points out the nature of real life when her boss is tired.” It’s not looking good.’

‘At least your sense of humour isn’t too damaged. You’ll probably need it to get through all the bowing.’

There was a
lot
of bowing. Yuriko Fukui was waiting for the party along with a squad of armed police headed up by the Superintendent-General and his entourage. Sakura seemed to take it all in her stride, with Iberson trying her absolute best to be polite. Fox figured that had to be causing actual bodily harm in the perennially snarky celebrity. Fox found all the formality annoying, but she had been through enough such experiences between the Army and the UNTPP that she managed to hold her fraying temper in check until they could be escorted to the vertol which would take them to the MarTech arcology.

Fox sighed as the aircraft lifted into the air. It was going to be a very short flight from Haneda Airport to the arcology which was located on an island in the bay, but at least she was out of the crowd. ‘Not wishing to seem rude,’ Fox said, ‘but all the formality here makes my teeth itch.’

‘Even though it’s deeply ingrained,’ Sakura said, ‘it is one of the reasons I left.’

‘It is necessary,’ Yuriko said. ‘Perhaps a little overdone given the changes in modern society, but necessary.’

‘Necessary?’ Fox asked.

‘There are over twenty-five million people in Tokyo Metro, double what it was at the turn of the century. Japan has always been a land of high population density. Everyone lives in close proximity to their neighbours. It is necessary to be polite to those you hate.’

‘Yeah, but those twenty-five million mostly live in huge towers with plenty of space. It’s not like the typical housing you had sixty years ago.’

‘As I said, perhaps a little overdone now, but culture does not change overnight.’

‘I know. I’m just tired. Rehearsals start at nine, right?’

‘Ten,’ Sakura said. ‘We will leave for them at nine. There will be more social matters to deal with before I can get down to work.’ Beside her, Iberson groaned.

Fox nodded and looked at Yuriko. ‘We can get there by vertol?’

‘Yes. Koma has a rooftop heliport. There are some tactical issues with Koma as a venue which–’

Fox held up her hand. ‘As soon as we get into the arcology, I’m going to grab a few hours’ sleep. I’ll be up at eight, hopefully with a working brain. You can brief me then, because otherwise I’ll forget what I’m supposed to be worried about. I assume Ryan’s people are fully briefed?’

‘Yes. The security team all know the potential problems.’

‘Great. Then I’m sure we have nothing to worry about.’

~~~

Fox narrowed her eyes at Yuriko. ‘Where is Shinjuku?’

‘The Shinjuku Koma Theatre was quite a famous music venue until the early part of this century,’ Yuriko replied. ‘It was reopened on an entirely new site only thirty years ago. The site is just north of Kabukichō.’

‘Now I see why you said there were issues.’

‘For the person without any local experience?’ Helen said. ‘I mean, “Kabukichō” rings a bell, but…’

‘Kabukichō is a famous red-light district. Loads of sex hotels, hostess bars, brothels, as well as night clubs and restaurants. Big tourist destination, but you wouldn’t catch me in the place.’

‘No host bars?’

‘Lots of yakuza.’

‘Oh… Now I see the problem.’

‘There was an attempt to crack down on crime in the area fifty years ago,’ Yuriko said. ‘It worked until the economic problems of the thirties and forties. Since then, the Fukui-kai have grown in number. They have at least some influence in almost every business in Kabukichō, and they were involved with the new Koma. Koma’s management were
not
happy that Miss Sakura was bringing in her own security detail.’

‘Brilliant,’ Fox muttered. ‘Have we run background checks on the staff at Koma?’

‘The police have. I have had considerable difficulty in getting authorisation to run my own.’

‘Things like that seem to be a theme lately. Kit, I want you to chase up the legal department and get those authorisations. Then you can transfer off onto a server to give you some more space to work in and go over everything.’

Kit appeared beside Fox. ‘Of course, Fox,’ she said. Inside Fox’s head, that was followed by, ‘Having one of my copies off-world is not convenient.’

‘She’s doing important work, remember. We’ll make do.’ Aloud, Fox said, ‘Okay, so we could have problems, but we’ll have our own staff on network security the night of the concert.’

‘I’m afraid that that is not the only problem,’ Yuriko said. ‘Koma is a venue complex. The hall occupies two storeys above a three-level structure containing an entrance lobby and mall, and three separate clubs. Koma was chosen for its large seating capacity, but also to allow other fans to attend at the clubs where the concert will be screened via v-tag displays. The building will be crammed with potential threats of one form or another.’

‘Do we have clearance to field our own armed security within the hall?’

‘Yes. Police security forces will handle the external perimeter. Within the hall itself, it is Palladium’s game. All of our people will be carrying electrolaser carbines. Using a non-lethal weapon made getting the clearances easier.’

‘Good. Go through the liaison and get permission to have assault weapons as backup.’ Yuriko nodded her assent. ‘We’ll talk more about the Fukui-kai angle later. For now, let’s get through these rehearsals without any problems.’

~~~

In daylight, Tokyo probably looked much the same as it had fifty years earlier, just taller. Arcology spears rose high into the sky, flanked by shorter, but still tall, apartment buildings, offices, and mall structures. The airwaves were jammed with v-tag traffic since, it was estimated, over ninety-six per cent of the urban populace had implants, a higher figure than America. Japanese society was massively social and highly centralised, and not being connected to the internet made you something akin to an outcast. So, everywhere you looked there were advertisements and public information displays plastered over every available surface. Tokyo looked the same as it had in movies of the early twenty-first century, but more so.

The Koma building, at six storeys including the heliport, was actually relatively short, but it covered a large area. At ten a.m. the mall level was open, but not overly busy. Fox could almost enjoy walking the area to get a feel for it. The numerous shops displaying various Harajuku-based street styles were not exactly to her taste, especially the more modern, cyberpunk-inspired costumes, but at least the place was colourful.

The citizenry seemed entirely unfazed by the passage of a foreigner through their space. Presumably it was not uncommon, though Fox saw few others. Everyone walked around with the slightly distracted expressions of those using fairly cheap implants, bombarded on all sides by v-tags they were unable to filter effectively. Fox had taken one look at the sea of virtual images and had Kit filter out everything but information notices.

Some of the adverts cheated. Just as she was about to leave, Fox found herself confronted by an overly cute, stylised girl in garishly bright colours and pigtailed, blonde hair. ‘You must not leave without checking out the fashions at Kogal Kitty. They’re paru-kawaii!’ The figure leaped into the air at the end of her little speech, arms flung out and high in joy, while a small message appeared below her bent knees stating that this was a public information announcement.

Kit appeared beside the frozen display, shaking her head. ‘I am embarrassed to have had my avatar modelled after anything to do with this concept.’

Fox smirked. ‘But Kit, you’re paru-kawaii too.’ She started walking again, through the still-suspended image, toward the exit, and Kit hurried to follow her.

‘I don’t know what Terri was thinking when she designed my avatar.’

‘She was thinking “that’ll improve sales.” Kawaii has been pretty popular worldwide for decades. Plus, I seem to recall Terri spent a month over here right before she started your project. What’s “paru-kawaii” anyway? It used to be cho-kawaii, didn’t it?’

‘Injection from Western culture. “Paru” is a pearl. “Pearl” or “pearlescent” is used to mean ultimate or special. So instead of “totally cute” you have “ultimate cute.”’

‘I am embarrassed to have come from a culture which has infected Japanese society in such a negative…’ Fox trailed off as she reached the door and turned around. ‘You put your avatar out on general broadcast, didn’t you?’

‘Yes, I usually– Oh!’ Kit vanished, producing various cries of displeasure from the crowd which had gathered around her and Fox.

‘She’s a MarTech Kitsune five nine two model AI,’ Fox called out, and then turned around to leave. ‘That should improve sales in Japan,’ she added silently.

‘I don’t
want
to be famous! I had enough of that with all the chat shows.’

‘Too late. Someone’s bound to have recorded that. You’ll be all over social media in an hour and the IB channels by lunch.’

‘Oh… How paru-kawaii.’

~~~

The clubs were closed until after midday, so Fox headed back up to the network operations room to check on things there. From the various flashing warnings she saw on entering, she figured things were not going so well.

‘I was just about to call you,’ Helen said. ‘This started about five minutes ago.’

‘Minotaur?’ Fox asked.

‘Several hallmark Minotaur features to it, but the weird thing is that we’re not seeing anything new. It’s like he’s not trying.’

Fox shrugged. ‘New site, different country. Maybe he’s retrying old attacks in case we don’t have the same equipment in place.’

‘Reasonable. I guess we wait and see whether anything new comes up.’

Fox watched the techs rather than the displays. No one was looking stressed. There was a fair amount of coffee being consumed, which reminded her that she needed some of that herself. When she returned after five minutes or so, there was still a distinct lack of urgency in the room.

‘Maybe he isn’t really trying,’ Fox commented.

‘The attack seems quite large to me,’ Yuriko said.

‘Yes, but it’s nothing we haven’t seen and repelled before. Look at the technicians. They’re barely breathing hard so the automated systems are handling it perfectly well without any input. What’s he up to?’

‘A probe? He wishes to determine the state of our defences.’

‘Yeah, but…’ Fox gave a shrug. ‘We’ll wait for the analysis after the event. Speculating isn’t likely to get us anywhere.’

‘Huh,’ Helen said. ‘We’re investigators. Unless someone gives us something to work with, speculation is all we’ve got.’

~~~

Fox sank into the bath of steaming hot water with a sigh. Across from her, Yuriko was already submerged up to her chest and looked quite relaxed, though she had done the submerging fairly quickly and was slumping her right shoulder. She was, Fox figured, keeping her tattoos out of sight: a frond of flowers on her arm, an old-style picture of a geisha on her right side, both in orange and black. Helen was still undressing, and looking a lot less sanguine about their visit to one of the sentō in the arcology.

‘So,’ Fox said, ‘one hour of battering at the network defences, no attempt to try anything new, no penetration, and then he gives up.’

‘One hour, almost to the second,’ Yuriko said. ‘This seems oddly precise.’