Elantra glared from the holographic communications screen.
"We aren't funding this project for our health, Morris," she declared flatly. "Your initial proposal was intriguing, but as yet we haven't seen any results."
Professor Morris fumed inwardly but managed to keep his cool on the outside. He hated it,
hated dealing with these
ingrates who couldn't appreciate what he was trying to do! It was all the same with those corporate types! Whether it was Elantra and her masters, or Mizuki and the natives of this world, they were all the same! Money! Bureaucracy! Up to the minute details like these weekly status report calls she insisted on! Couldn't they understand that science, that genius could not be
rushed?
"I've made breakthroughs, as well as a certain tentative hypothesis concerning the methods by which the combination of excessive mana and no Linker Core development have provided for alternative magical manifestations on this world."
"Tentative? That isn't a word my employer will want to hear."
Morris choked down the sudden flare of anger once again. He wanted to reach through the screen and
choke her, but he couldn't, couldn't, couldn't give way no matter how
justified he was. Her support was vital, unless he somehow could use
this world's technology to--ah, but those modifications would take
months if they were possible at
all. Odds were he's already
taken local technology as far as it could go.
"I only need a live sample for verification experiments. I've already located a suitable one and have begun the acquisition process. I have every expectation that within a week, two at the most, I will have positive proof of my hypothesis. I will transmit my data and conclusions now, so that you can see the value of my work!"
His fingers flew over the keyboard, uploading the package he had prepared for Elantra's attention.
"Very well," she said. "We'll take this under review. If your theories are all that you say, then I'm sure that my employer will have no difficulty approving your conditional funding."
She disconnected unceremoniously, leaving Morris to fume. It was so
irksome having to deal with these people! Still, he'd successfully navigated the gauntlet once again. Funding, support, corporate backing were
assured! He hated, hated to give up his precious hypothesis and supporting data to them before it was
complete, but there had been no
choice. And once experimentation had provided proof of concept and refined hypothesis into theory--ah! It would revolutionize biomagical science! His name would be lauded with the greats! But only...only! Only if that fool Tengu could bring him Suzuka Tsukimura!
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Noel K. Ehrlichkeit pulled the car to a stop, then glanced to her left where Arisa sat in the passenger seat.
"The file suggests that Shimizu lives alone," she stated. "However, this is still a block of apartments, in an upscale neighborhood. Other residents will be very likely to summon the police or private security if there is a loud disturbance."
Arisa nodded.
"Hey, we just want to talk to the guy, not fry his ass, right? Well, depending on what he has to say. How do you want to do this?"
"I suggest that we knock on his door. If he opens it to talk, I can quickly subdue him without letting him make a sound. If he doesn't answer, then you can let me in."
"All right."
They got out of the car and walked past the apartment building's small parking lot towards the door.
"What if he's not home?"
"He is," Noel said. She gestured towards the parking lot. "The car that you and Miss Suzuka described is in the parking spot which matches with Shimizu's apartment."
"Hey, sharp eyes, Noel," Arisa said. "I'm glad you thought of that." She paused, then asked, "Noel, why are you so good at this sort of thing, anyway? Police contacts, covering up deaths, that's not exactly maid stuff."
"Mistress Sakura realized that Miss Shinobu and Miss Suzuka would be very vulnerable without someone to protect them. This meant not only physically but also in terms of financial management and in the kinds of pressure that could be brought by various covert groups hostile to the Tsukimuras. She therefore worked with Shiro Takamachi to help build my artificial intelligence with the kind of knowledge that would be necessary." Falin possessed a modified set of the same functions, although this was leavened by a more emotional personality suited to her 'younger sister' role.
Arisa whistled.
"I always thought you guys were impressive, but..." Arisa grinned and chuckled. "I bet Nanoha will be proud to learn that your bodyguard/special ops functions are based on her dad."
Noel supposed that was a compliment--if her being modeled on Shiro was something that made the Takamachis proud, then she herself must be worth being proud
of. It still seemed strange; she was what she was and that wasn't going to change either way.
They arrived at the apartment building door. It required either a key or a buzz from inside to admit someone. A security camera was openly visible, probably more as a deterrent measure than anything else.
"I've got this one," Arisa said with a grin. "Here, take my bag, then go up and pretend like you're using a key on the door."
"How will this help?"
"I'm going to walk through the door and open it for you from the inside. I don't cast a reflection in mirrors, and the infrared beam for opening automatic doors doesn't pick me up, so I'm guessing that I don't appear on camera, either."
"My eyes are cameras, functionally," Noel pointed out, "and I see you."
"I think that's because you're a person, not just a machine." She grinned at Noel. "If not, it'll really blow some guard's mind!"
As far as getting in, it worked fine. As they approached the door, Arisa's form took on the luminescent shine that apparently indicated that she was becoming intangible. She stepped right through the glass door as Noel fished out a ring of keys from her purse and pretended to slip one into the lock. As Noel turned her hand, Arisa pushed the door-release button inside, and the door opened smoothly.
"There, easy as pie."
They crossed the lobby to the elevator, which thankfully did not require a key to activate. They rode to the ninth floor, then walked down the quiet, gray-carpeted hallway to 903. Arisa stood to the side, out of sight from the doorway, while Noel knocked. She heard the shuffling of feet inside, then the shaft of light from the peephole that told her someone was looking out. The bolt turned with a sharp click and the door opened.
"Masashi Shimizu?"
"Yes. What do you want?"
He looked like his personnel file suggested: nearly six feet tall, with a square build and square jaw. He'd been an athlete in college and still had the build, although at thirty-eight it was now running to a softer kind of bulk. He'd removed his jacket and tie but still wore his sweat-stained white work shirt and dark blue trousers.
"Suzuka Tsukimura," Noel said.
It was there--the flash of recognition, the involuntary reaction. He wasn't a man used to having to lie expertly, not to someone like Noel to whom the slightest movements stood out as much as the most obvious.
"There's no one by that name here," he said, but she was already moving forward, a push of her hand shoving him back into the apartment. Arisa was right behind her, closing and locking the door.
"What do you think you're doing, you stupid bitch?" he growled and swung on her, open-handed. She caught his wrist even though it was thick enough that her fingers couldn't encircle it, twisting his arm painfully while her right hand covered his mouth. Noel forced him back into the apartment and steered him into a chair.
"When I take my hand away," she told him matter-of-factly, "you are not going to scream. If you do, your neighbors
may hear you and
may do something about it, but I
will kill you. Blink twice if you understand me."
Shimizu blinked, then after a moment's hesitation did it again. Noel removed her hand from his mouth but kept up her tight grip on his wrist.
"I'm glad to see that you're being sensible. Perhaps we can do this in a manner suitable to reasonable professionals."
He looked over at where his wrist was trapped in her grip.
"You...you're one of the professor's freaks, aren't you?"
"I'm kind of new at this," Arisa said, "but I'm thinking that can't be the way you're supposed to beg for your life. I mean, really, calling us freaks?"
"Who is this professor?"
Shimizu flinched, recognizing that he'd made a mistake, that they weren't from whomever he thought.
"Do you mean Dr. Mizuki?"
There was scorn there in his eyes, just for an instant, but it was there. Not Mizuki, then.
"Shimizu, perhaps you don't understand your position. You were involved in the attempted kidnapping of Suzuka Tsukimura. The Tsukimuras are a wealthy and important family. Do you think it's a coincidence that we're here? That you were identified so quickly?"
"I don't believe it. This is some kind of trick!"
Interesting, Noel thought. If he didn't believe that she was who she said, then whom
did he believe her to be? Some minion of the "professor"? If so, why? More appeared to be going on than she'd suspected.
"Geez, does it matter?" Arisa said. "The point is, we're here now and N--and she's going to do nasty things to you if you don't talk."
Noel nodded, both to agree with Arisa's summation and her restraint in holding back Noel's name.
"Perhaps Shimizu is a fanatical member of a political or religious group, prepared to give his life for his cause?" There was nothing in his file to suggest that; she'd mentioned it only to push him mentally towards the reaction she hoped for.
"Hey, wait, I'm not some crazy!"
"Then why are you staying quiet?"
She increased the pressure on his wrist, not enough to break bone but enough to be painful. He yelped.
"Damn it! Ah, lady, I didn't have anything to do with any kidnapping!"
"You were there. You had no family or professional reason to be at the school. You watched the kidnapping happen and you did nothing. Try again." She added a twist to her grip.
"Ow! Look, you've got it all wrong! Yeah, okay, I was there, but I didn't
do anything. I wasn't part of it! I was just there to watch!"
"As a lookout? To make sure the kidnappers did what your employers wanted them to do?"
"No, that's not--ahhh! Lady, you're breaking my wrist! Dr. Mizuki had hoped that this was going to happen, so he sent me to see if it really did!"
"But not to stop it? You knew a kidnapping was happening and didn't call the police?"
"We didn't want to get the company in trouble!" he yelped.
"The
company?" flared Arisa. "What about
Suzuka, you bastard?"
Noel wondered if revealing Arisa's identity might be valuable. If Shimizu genuinely believed that he was working on the Sato Institute's behalf and in its interest, this might carry weight. Sato was a wholly-owned subsidiary of Nomura-Bannings, and Arisa's father had in fact transferred five percent of Nomura-Bannings's outstanding shares into Arisa's name on her eighteenth birthday while retaining fifty-five percent for himself. That was a powerful weapon. In her experience, however, this would just make Shimizu more likely to panic. Its best application would likely be in the area of "what's in it for me?"--when it came time to offer the carrot.
Where it concerned people who would attempt to hurt Suzuka, Noel preferred to use the stick.
Arisa, she suspected, was in full agreement.
"This isn't what we wanted!" Shimizu protested. "It's the professor! He's always doing more, trying to push the envelope! He's brilliant, but you never know what he's going to do next!"
"If that's the case, then get to the point. I want to know everything that you know about this professor, why he or she would want to kidnap an innocent girl, and your relationship with him.
Everything."
He quivered, then sagged.
"All right, damn it. You...who the hell are you?"
"Just take it that you messed with the wrong girl," Arisa said. "You don't want to know the rest."
"All right, all right. Look, here's how it is. I work for the Special Projects Group. That's kind of a catchall for stuff that's kind of out there, pushing the scientific envelope, right? About six months ago, Dr. Mizuki brings in this foreigner he calls Professor Morris. It's all very hush-hush, because it's apparently all human augmentation work. Biotech, way over my head, but from what I can tell, the breakthroughs are pretty amazing. So Mizuki basically started giving him whatever he asked for. Funding, equipment, staff...you get the picture."
Noel nodded.
"The thing is, over the last couple of months, Professor Morris has gotten more and more independent. He and his people have been working on something, but their formal reports back have come less and less often. Only, his people have been pushing the line in terms of research. He's purchased human test subjects through the underworld--prostitutes, runaways, destitute foreigners, the usual markets--but now, with this kidnapping, and of a specific person..."
"If he's working independently, how did your Dr. Mizuki find out about it?"
"The research assistants are Sato Institute people. A couple of them were Mizuki's plants, to report back to him."
"Were?"
"One died three weeks ago in a car accident. I figured that it might be coincidence and might be that someone found her out. Mizuki, he's scared shitless that his pet genius is going to end up putting the company at the heart of the biggest scientific ethics scandal since the Second World War! He put me in to see if it's really happening, the kidnapping."
"You didn't follow the kidnappers?"
Shimizu's eyes went wide.
"Are you crazy? Follow a van full of crooks like I'm some TV P.I.? I don't want to end up like Kugimiya! I'm a research scientist, not some security guy! Besides, it's not like we don't know where they'd take her, anyway."
"Where?"
"Mizuki hooked Morris up with an off-the-books facility. It's basically warehouse space rented under a phony name so it wouldn't be traceable. We were going to provide him with equipment, but he said he'd arrange for his own. Whatever it was, Kugimiya reported that it was ridiculously advanced; she'd never seen anything like it. It's pretty damn obvious that Morris is getting funding from
someone else and he's setting
us up as the scapegoat."
"I want the location."
He gave it to her.
"I hope that you're telling me the truth, Mr. Shimizu. If so, you may have just saved your life. If not...I would suggest that you start running at once."
"Lady, do you think I'd--"
Connection request: Falin.
Accept.
Link Active.
Although Noel recorded in her audio memory the remainder of Shimizu's babbling protests, she didn't really "hear" him. Falin's message had immediately captured her processing capacity.
"Noel, they're here! They're at the house!"
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Arisa & Friends Omake Roadshow!
"What is this, some kind of conspiracy of silence?"
Murasaki's gaze raked his photographers with the force of a sword sweep. The tabloid editor was a big, beefy man, who drove himself hard and his staff harder in pursuit of the newest, juiciest scandals.
"I have got rumors flying in from all over the place! Tips from movie theater ushers, from waiters at fancy restaurants, from people who've seen them together at nightclubs or other hangouts, even from a desk clerk at a love hotel, all saying that Arisa Bannings, heiress to the Nomura-Bannings Industrial Technologies financial group, has been openly engaging in a lesbian love affair. We put that on page one and we'll sell out the whole print run!"
He hammered his fist on the desk.
"But you...you can't get me one single picture of them! Not kissing, not holding hands, nothing! As far as I can tell, you incompetents couldn't get one shot that even has Bannings in the frame!"
2009-08-18, 22:55
Author
Long time no see...
*sigh* It sucks not having internet where I'm currently living
)
I bet every one left on earth was jealous of Miyuki
For those that belittle their favorite characters, complain about pairings, complain about oversexed images. Stop, thank you.
