Ragnarok (15 page)

It looked rather like the fish that had just passed. A tall, thin, one-man craft. A one-man
Cetacean
craft. It made no contact, just looked them over. Veikko said nothing, so Violet wasn't concerned. He had a sixth sense for when the Fish posed a danger. This one, he just watched, so she followed suit. The craft luminesced once, red, and swam away.

“Just one blink. They know we're not broken down, probably want us to go.”

Violet asked, “In a hurry?”

“No, we can stay the full fifteen. They're never in any hurry.”

A short time later, they lifted from the sea and started toward Ukiyo. Ten thousand kilometers. With a long wait ahead, Violet leaped into the net. A clean, polished net with full Alopex protection. Three other black avatars popped in behind her. With only hours to Ukiyo and the fate of Earth in the balance, the team made the best of their net time by watching all the funny kitten videos they could find and forwarding the best of them back to Valhalla.

A few servers south and a transfer protocol away, Shika was reading up on more pressing matters. The first real world meeting with Pelamus had gone poorly. He was offering most of the former YUP holdings but not the navy. That made sense, he was Cetacean. But the whole reason Zaibatsu wanted them in on the deal was to seize a real navy. They had the weakest sea force of any major UNEGA outfit, and general assembly was powerless or unwilling to stop predation within its companies. Zaibatsu, as part of the charter, couldn't have any military of its own, so that fell to the less-than-legal divisions. The Yaks had beaten out the Unspeakable Darkness at the last net meeting. They had the contract, but if they didn't get a navy out of it, Zaibatsu would replace the Yakuza as its favored knuckle. That would mean an intraconglomerate war.

Both Shiro and Ota were going to be in Ukiyo to see that it didn't come to that. With two oyabun on the way, security was going to be as tight as possible. A new difficulty given the changes in Ukiyo. For the first time on the floating city, they had found detectors and monitoring bugs. All were cleaned out of course, but it meant someone new was onboard, someone disrespectful of Ukiyo's blindness policies. So after Shika dropped her useless companion and rendezvoused with other security, they'd be on the hunt. If someone was planting bugs in Ukiyo, they were desperate. If they were desperate, they wouldn't stop at the removal of their tricks. They would send agents. Spies into the next meeting. It was inevitable: before the week was through, Shika would be adding another new stripe to the dragon on her irezumi. It had thirty-five so far. A thirty-sixth for Zuhoor. If she could catch four more spies in the next day, she'd have a full dragon.

Wart linked to V, “Arrived at Ukiyo. Standing by.”

Veikko paused the kitten playing in zero gravity and linked back, “Any sign of Yakuza activity?”

“Nothing yet. We've put our Tiks in the air sniffing for skin dyes. So far we've got some temporary motion tattoos on kids, holographic tattoos on adults, mod-ink on the modified, and various other colorful insignia but nothing big under fine suits. Nothing like the Yakuza. Your ETA?”

“Nine hours now, puts the Yaks at just over eight. Likely their next event is tomorrow. Intel on any good hotels?”

“All hourly, all full. Lots of good hides, though. We're keeping to the back of a lamp locker. Did you see the one with the guy brushing the Maine coon's teeth? It's all ‘yowmrowmowow.'”

“Negative, we'll keep an eye out for it, top priority.”

W linked out, and they flew on into the night. When dawn broke, V was at the edge of the Nihonkai. They couldn't see the sun or the sea, only a monsoon. Violet thought, growing up, that the tropical Scottish storms were as bad as skies could get, but Ukiyo was in the midst of the Arashinigatsu, a hot winter monsoon that began in the early 2100s, around the same time Kvitøya thawed out. None of the causes were of as much concern as the results—pogos try to stay a fixed height above the ground. On land, it meant they gently bounced along and absorbed most small shifts in height. Over water, they caused a light ripple beneath them. Over waves, they followed each and every wave up and down. The Nihonkai had three-meter waves, and Veikko was getting either airsick or seasick. He couldn't tell which because the air and sea had merged.

Rain wasn't falling in drops. It was just a solid wall of water flowing constantly downward. Varg flew with great care, letting the auto-navigation do its work but not the autopilot, which would likely have sent them into the sea bottom with the constant lightning skewing its sensor array. They'd decelerated to a snail's pace, and it was a relief when Varg finally spotted the Ukiyo link label.

“Three minutes and we'll hit the Ukiyo grid. Then it'll clear up.”

Vibeke had been reading Ukiyo specs for the last hour. She quietly added, “Then parking's the problem….”

As promised in three minutes, they fell from the cloud bank into the crystal clarity of Ukiyo's fake weather, drizzling lightly below the torrential rain and black sky just atop the grid's edge. Ukiyo itself sat in the middle of the open airspace, a wooden city under a great tan canopy. At a distance it looked like a giant motionless buoy, a tall column in the center for the canopy and a stout squareish plain on which the city rested. Even from a kilometer away, they could make out the huge lanterns, banners, and mountains of apartments built atop stores atop walkways. The main street itself was completely hidden behind kiosks and side markets that hung off the sides like moss.

They unclingered their microwaves and handed them to their Tikaris. Veikko's carried his own and Varg's, Violet's and Vibeke's held their own. Sal, Bob, and Nelson flew toward the city where the weapons could be sneaked in covertly. Pokey stayed on Varg disguised as a bandolier.

 

 

“M
ORNING
,
FELLAS
,”
linked Weather. A large mechanical grasshopper greeted them, floating in the air in front of the pogo briefly before flying back to the city. Weather continued. “We spotted our first Yak today. Couple of them arriving, and a few coming up from subsurface condos. Security's tight, personnel twitchy. Bugs everywhere, the Yaks have disabled a ton of devices and complain loudly to the locals every time they do. No concentrations forming yet, no Cetaceans. Looks like you didn't miss the big show. We're coming out of the lamp locker, gonna get some pierogi at Restaurácia Radicová. High up the center column, good view.”

“Stay high,” replied Veikko. “We'll take the main street when we get there.”

There were few other vessels in the air, but the ocean was full of docked boats, ships, pogos, copters, hovercraft, surface skims, blimps, and spinners. Luminescent algae patterns lit their way to the valet system. Varg let the pogo down to a meter over the still water. A small hoverbot came out to scan them.

“Four persons, one craft, 900 yen. Save 250 yen by parking underwater?”

“Yes, please,” Vibs called out. An autoparker linked out to the pogo, and Varg handed over the controls. It took them to the Delta quadrant, row 5, space Q and set the pogo down on the water where a small punt was waiting. They hopped onto the rickety little boat and locked the pogo, then watched it sink down to the Strawberry level. The boat headed for the city. The thing was terribly slow and made several detours to pick up new customers.

Vibeke ventured a subtle hack on the parking system to look for the Yakuza pogo. It came into the weather grid seconds after she began. They'd passed it in the storm. Two persons, one craft, 700 yen. Cancel parking, drop off only. Only one to drop off, 150 yen. Four-minute wait for the boat. It would call their boat. Vibs had Alopex give her a programmer signature and altered the system so the Yak would take a different boat. Best not to be seen at all. Six-minute wait for boat. Shika cursed quietly, and Vibs logged out.

The punt finally came to its dock, a small portion of the larger dock used by the massive cargo ships. One was present, towering above
them, its deck almost level with Ukiyo's. V team disembarked and
began
climbing the 224 steps up to Ukiyo's main level. Their suits turned gradually to match the brown wood tones. Other tourists didn't seem to care. Their outfits were blinking green to red and flashing skull cartoons and rainbows. The walls of Ukiyo didn't stay wood colored either. Link windows opened along the hull of the city and began to
speak.

“
Irasshaimase
!”

“
Irasshaimase! Welcome to Ukiyo
!”

“
Irasshaimase! Only 200 steps to go! Do you not liking to climb so much? You can sail to Ukiyo too! Parking in Tottori is free, and we boat you! 4000 yen is you at the top!”

“Irasshaimase! You may not do drugs here!”

“Irasshaimase! The child is forbidden in forbidden child zones! You can place the child in our daycare place for 600 yen per child!”

“Irasshaimase! Only 100 steps to go! Do you not liking to climb so much?
” It went on, playing out in broken English designed to instill a deceptive feeling of superiority in tourists.

Every step creaked slightly, all cantilevered out from the main hull, a deep weathered wooden shell that held the lower innards of the city. Employee housing, storage, and the like. At 214 steps they came to the guardhouse and weapons check. A guard gave them all a quick scan, their armor hid everything they had kept, and he waved them on. A small traffic jam waited at the top few steps. In the confusion and crowding, they called in their Tikaris.

Nelson was on the spot. Swooping down to the level of the crowd's feet. He flew in and adeptly dodged all the moving legs on his way to Violet. He made it from the low air to her palm in seconds flat, where she holstered her microwave and allowed Nelson back into her chest. Vibeke's Tikari flew in next. As skilled as Nelson, it darted between oblivious bystanders and dropped her microwave directly into its holster before climbing into the vent on her armor.

Sal, Veikko's Tikari, was slightly weighed down from holding both boys' microwaves. He aimed straight for foot level but drooped and stuck his front right wing into the wooden step with a quiet thud. His legs were holding the microwaves, so he tried to swing them up onto the deck to free his limbs. It worked too well and threw Varg's microwave directly into the small of a guard's back. The guard turned and looked, but luckily saw nothing at eye level.

Sal pushed his way loose and went for the microwaves. Veikko's was easy to find, but Varg's had bounced off the guard and was lying in the busy walkway. Sal rushed toward it. He tried to grab it but accidentally grabbed the trigger and gave a tourist a hot foot. As the tourist shouted and ran, Sal picked up the second microwave and darted for Veikko.

He smacked into the side of Veikko's head and knocked him into Violet, then went for Veikko's chest before handing over the microwaves. Varg's fell and landed directly in his hand, while Veikko's was stuck awkwardly half out of his chest. He quickly removed and holstered it and checked around to make certain nobody had seen the fiasco. Aside from a shouting tourist and a confused guard, they were safe. They stepped up to the deck.

It was loud. Thousands of voices mashed into one chattering buzz. It was bright. Even after they dimmed the link labels, there were neon labels on half the buildings, talking moving posters on others, vibrant floating ad-bots, and shouting marketers on stilts between kiosks. The place didn't look all that different from the worst of the Nikkei—utterly stuffed with shops, stores, malls, swap meets, kiosks, bathhouses, miniplazas, sales centers, eateries, and the occasional wholesaler. Between these structures, where normally would have been streets or paths, were pedestrians crammed shoulder to shoulder, not so much like sardines as carbon atoms.

Up close the urban sprawl was even more impressive, built up to give the effect that they stood, as they approached the main road, in the middle of a valley. Especially in the center, wooden shops on stilts on other shops rose almost all the way to the canopy itself. Giant lamps of old Asian design lit the shadows and tinted the last neutral colors into more brown woodiness. They could smell the fishmonger forest, though the link said it was still far away. Flyers for wig shops and porn haunts stuck to their boots. Various food courts belched their odors onto the plaza, hoping to lure a hungry patron, odors that soaked into every last raw cherrywood wall.

Another grasshopper Tikari floated briefly before them, then flew up top to direct their eyes to the restaurant where W team waited. All W team had their Tiks in orbit, blending in perfectly with the air traffic of ad-bots and security cameras. Vibeke's parking hack announced that the Yak had arrived at the dock clockwise from their own. Violet spotted a perfect place to see the incoming mobster, a flat-topped building high up the outer mountain range.

Not to risk anyone seeing their microwaves, they climbed a series of gutters, slant roofs, scaffolding, and open windows to make the spot. The crowd on every level of the hill was too distracted to notice their abridged ascent between walkways, and the target building was a bookstore so it had nobody outside to watch them arrive.

Looking down over the edge, they saw the guardhouse crowd. Violet sent her Tikari back out to survey it for Yakuza ink. Nelson spotted not only Shika but two other Yakuza. None of the three spoke to each other, but one raised an Alopex alert. He was already labeled from an old N team mission, Shiro, an oyabun. Leader of an entire family. Vibeke sent out her own Tikari to keep an eye on him. Veikko put his on the last. Widget linked in.

“We've got a guy named Ota, two Tiks on him and his guards. He's the head of Aizukotetsu-kai, master of all the Yaks in space. We've got a few more previously labeled members, mostly lieutenants.”