‘Guys? Hello?’
Rebecca stepped out of her room and observed the quiet safehouse. In the dark window her reflection glanced back at her as she walked past the holoprojector, then down the hallway to the captain’s quarters. In the mirror she caught a glimpse of Kelly facing away.
The captain was getting dressed. She threw off her shirt, her smooth shoulders and slender well-toned back were pocked with scars. She untied her hair and let it fall down, then she turned and saw Rebecca.
‘I thought I’d let you sleep,’ Kelly said, slipping on a new shirt that matched her black jeans and eyeliner. ‘I’d heard about your problem from your Syndicate days.’
It was a reference to the insomnia that Bec still occasionally suffered from. She slowly entered the room. The captain’s quarters had a queen-sized bed, walk-in wardrobe with a mirror, and an ensuite bathroom – Bec was suddenly jealous of the captain’s private shower, but looked back at Kelly with a shrug. ‘Bad guys don’t sleep, right.’
‘That’s right.’ Kelly slipped on a black leather jacket. ‘Get dressed. We’re going out.’
‘Where’s everyone else?’
Kelly turned around and said, ‘Downstairs. I got a call from Akira. While we were in Russia she did some digging into other potential contacts from Nexus Rogue. Says she’s found us an informant so we’re gonna go meet up with her and see what this informant has to say.’
Rebecca nodded and returned to her room.
For a Tokyo-street outfit Rebecca chose heavy-duty trousers, boots, black fingerless gloves and a durable black vest. It was important to dress as though you could win a fist-fight—she learned that from her years on the streets in Perth—hopefully the rules were the same in Japan. She wanted to avoid dealing with Street Samurai or robot ninjas while she was here.
‘Quick heads up,’ Kelly said from the couch as Rebecca closed the bedroom door behind her. ‘The laws here concerning cybernetic augmentation are a little more relaxed than in most other parts of the world.’
‘I’ve seen cyborgs before.’
Kelly nodded. ‘Alright.’ She checked her phone and they made their way outside.
This place Rebecca had found herself in was just like the simulations—the blue glow of the street like an underwater tank brimming with the augmented, the endless crowd of near-humanity in constant momentum, shifting and turning like waves on the ocean and the roads jumping with raindrops like glistening mirrors of neon.
A man with an antenna protruding vertically from his shoulder strolled by looking like some weird remote-control car, and bionic eyes zoomed in on Kelly and Bec, unblinking, staring, some with LED colours, others were blank, an icy hue as if the eyes had rolled back into the skull. A young girl wore a full mechanical helmet, her face nothing more than a black sheet of reinforced glass and a reflection, and she wore an oversized hoodie and stood on the street with her hands in her pockets, her skinny pale legs protruding from beneath.
Kelly and Rebecca departed from the main streets and entered the back alleys. They weaved in and out of buildings, past dumpsters and steaming takeout shops. Rebecca almost tripped over a slightly upturned grate in the middle of the road. The neon sign above her flickered angrily. She couldn’t stop herself from giggling when an adorably invasive floating robot with drooping metal tentacles and cute buggy-eyes floated up to her. It wore a Japanese-style hat made of copper, it’s glowing eyes expanded when they saw Rebecca’s smile and its little round head drooped nervously.
‘Hello,’ said Rebecca.
The robot emitted a strange buzzing and whistling sound, then raised one of its tentacles and made a peace sign.
Rebecca shook her head.
‘I don’t… I don’t know what you’re saying.’ She turned to Kelly. ‘Do you know he’s saying?’
‘You need one of those special translators,’ Kelly said. ‘Maybe it wants you to install one for him. Come on, we’re nearly there.’
A woman stood in the dark alley, her hair was an undercut like Rebecca’s – the left side of her head had been shaved recently, except the stranger’s hair was hot pink, not deep purple, and it flowed down past the woman’s shoulders. She smoked a cigarette, carried a makeshift assault rifle and wore a whole lot of eyeshadow. She gave Kelly and Rebecca a sideways glare.
‘Is she…?’ Bec started to say.
‘No,’ said Kelly. ‘That’s a bounty hunter. Akira won’t look like she wants to murder you. Plus, Akira is a little more elegant.’
‘So, what did Akira do before all this? Am I allowed to ask that?’
‘To be honest, Bec,’ Kelly double-checked the GPS on her phone then looked down the street to the right, ‘there isn’t much to tell about Akira. She’s ex-Yakuza. You can dream up whatever kind of dramatic backstory you want from that.’
Ex-Yakuza. Rebecca found that interesting, being ex-Syndicate. Maybe they really would have more in common than they thought, except that Akira probably knew kung-fu.
‘Here she is,’ said Kelly, referring to the location on the phone.
They came to an open area similar to the wide streets outside Pegasus nightclub back in Perth. In this part of Tokyo, it felt as though they were underground, but in fact the high-rises resembled more of a forest. An intricate system of catwalks and platforms connected the towering structures above. It must have been strange, to walk from building to building and look down at the streets like veins of gold so far below, like living in an inverted world.
They finally met up with Akira and Kelly shook her hand like an old friend.
‘Akira, it’s been too long. How have you been?’
‘How do you think?’ Akira’s English was perfect. ‘You have me out here chasing data-smugglers.’
‘Only because you’re the best at it.’ Kelly put her hand on Rebecca’s shoulder. ‘This is Rebecca Marshall, our new techie. Bec, this is Akira Takahashi – recon specialist.’
Rebecca looked at her and raised her eyebrows. Akira looked badass: black military fatigues, a pistol at her hip, sharp huntress-like eyes.
‘What is it?’ Akira said to Bec.
‘I don’t know. I was expecting some kind of mechanised katana.’
‘What? Because I’m Japanese?’
She shrugged. ‘Well, yeah.’
Kelly quickly interrupted them by saying, ‘We have an informant to talk to. Where is he?’
‘In there.’ Akira nudged her head towards a small bar. ‘I’ve been keeping an eye on him. Bought him a drink to keep him from leaving. Like I said, the guy’s like a data mule.’
Whenever hackers attract too much attention they go dark and run their businesses through people like this man.
‘He’s bound to know something, at least one person who has ties to NR.’
They found the informant, a grim-looking gentleman, bought him another drink and then sat him down at a quiet table and began the interview. When Kelly started asking her questions he only replied in Japanese. Rebecca’s Japanese was average but she missed half of everything the man said.
‘English?’ Kelly asked him. She tried again in Japanese.
The man couldn’t speak English but unsurprisingly Kelly’s Japanese was superb.
From there Rebecca sat to the side and enjoyed her drink while trying to keep up with what the informant was saying. The word X-Ray came up a few times – apparently it was the alias for another potential NR member. She also heard Afghanistan mentioned once or twice. Something along the lines of… a Nexus Rogue member was currently operating from somewhere in Afghanistan – that’s all Rebecca could figure out. The finer details were left to Kelly and Akira.
When they were done Kelly bought the informant one last drink and transferred some extra cash for his troubles.
‘It just had to be the desert,’ Akira sighed.
Rebecca woke before dawn and spent the next hour in bed grasping for just a few more precious minutes of sleep, but when she tapped the miniature holoprojector on her nightstand and watched it flicker to life she had to accept that she was wide awake. She climbed out of bed, grabbed the pants and shirt that were draped over her computer chair, and once she was dressed, went into the kitchen for breakfast.
The coffee machine hummed and Rebecca quietly ate her cereal, occasionally her eyes wandered towards the elevator and she contemplated what would happen if she simply got up and left the building. Would Kelly or Boris tackle her to the ground? Would she be sent to prison for breaking the immunity agreement? Would Akira shoot her as she tried to run down the street? Bec imagined herself laying on the grimy road, droplets of rain falling all around her, wisps of red seeping down the gutters. As she poured her coffee the captain marched into the room and handed her a computer tablet.
‘I have an assignment for you,’ Kelly said. ‘Congratulations, your first solo mission.’
Rebecca took the tablet and grouchily sipped her coffee.
‘Good morning, is what regular people say.’
Kelly masked a hint of a smile by turning towards the coffee machine.
‘Morning,’ Kelly said.
Rebecca scrolled through her mission brief.
‘So, what’s this assignment? Didn’t think you’d let me run a solo job.’
‘It’s imperative that we find out what Nexus Rogue are using those hidden servers for. If Robert Teach was using that space to construct something for them then it makes sense that he would have possessed an access key. It seems you knew Robert Teach better than most, before he died, so I want you to go back to Perth and find that key. If you must you can reach out to any contacts – trusted contacts – and see what they know. I also want you to look into this anonymous buyer, find out who he is and what he wants.’
‘Is that all?’ Rebecca slurped down a mouthful of coffee and noticed a name in the file. ‘Officer Harrison Taylor?’ She looked up.
Kelly leaned back, crossed her arms and said, ‘An old friend in the police force. He’ll keep an eye on you, and assist you in the investigation.’
‘No.’ Bec pushed the tablet back into Kelly’s hands.
‘Excuse me?’
‘I’m not working with some asshole cop. There’s no fucking way.’
‘You will do what you are ordered to do by your captain.’ The change that overcame Kelly was miraculous and terrifying, the power in her voice alone forced Rebecca to take a step back. ‘Or should I remind you what will happen if you disobey, miss Marshall?’
Rebecca was too stubborn to back down, she owed it to her old friends not to lose this argument, but the thought of herself in an orange jumpsuit, and wearing handcuffs, well, it made her pause, and think. It would have been better than getting shot, but not by much.
It’s just another job. Just play along a little while more.
She let out a deep sigh.
‘Fine. You’re right, I can get the information.’
Kelly stared into Rebecca’s eyes and saw the submissiveness, and the hidden fire that lingered below.
‘Good,’ she said. ‘You leave tonight.’
ns 172.69.58.93da2