Novelas:Enforcers

ENFORCERS BOOK ONE: JAPAN CHAPTER ONE: Japan 1900hours 23/10/01- The Sake tasted good on a cool evening night as this, and with temperatures averaging 10 degrees on the thermostat, Hayley knew it wasn’t going to get any warmer unless she went inside. Where the hell was he anyhow? The road smelt fresh with the rain. She glanced again at the PDC, the fluorescent green screen highlighting her face as she gulped down another swig of the amber glass bottle. The TOSHIBA sign above her was illuminating the sidewalk as she leaned against the building, the wind clipping her jacket against her side. Another curled strand of her brown hair falling in the way of her lush green eyes that blinked as the electrics whirred along in the lanes, their tail-lights bleary in the sleet, their wheels dripping rainwater onto the bitumen, the neon caught in a glaze of the puddles and off the catseyes. Hayley glanced at her watch again, her heart pounding. “ Dammit, Ryan, you have better not stopped at another brothel,” she mutters as another line of Hondas move by, their engines whirring. “ Now why would I do that?” asks Ryan, stepping up with a grin. “ GEEZUS!” yells Hayley, nearly leaping out her skin. She turned around, her eyes glaring at the closely-cut blonde with the shifty blue eyes and the smirk of a smile. “ WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?!” “ Easy! Easy!” says Ryan, putting up his hands in protest. “ No need to start up a tantrum like that. Language! I got stopped at the lights! The hell was I supposed to do? Jaywalk? Chiba isn’t exactly the loosest place to piss off cops.” He gestured at a green-suited police officer standing at the corner, directing traffic with the portable lights, the flag of Japan on his breast pocket. Hayley grabs his wrist, her fingers squeezing his wrists. “ I don’t give a fuck! I have been waiting here in the stinking rain for five minutes. When you say you’ll be here at quarter to seven, you be there at quarter to seven. Alright?” “ Yeah. I get ya. You mind giving my hand some circulation?” asks Ryan. Hayley still doesn’t let go. She looks at him, hard. “ You know Baz wouldn’t approve of this,” snaps Hayley. “ And when have you ever listened to that dipshit properly? Come on, Hayley. I don’t mean to piss you off intentionally, alright? I’m sorry. What do you want me to say? That I stopped at a whorehouse on the way over?” Seconds tick over, the heat bristling between them. “ No,” says Hayley, looking him up and down, her lips pursing. She lets him go, pulls in her coat and heads towards the bar, draining the last of the Sake away before throwing a clear shot into a wastebin, the glass shattering on it’s way in. “ Come on. Let’s go.” Ryan looks at her as she enters into the Happy Sumo. He shakes his head. “ Women,” he mutters to himself as he puts his hands in his pockets. He glances at his reflection in the window. It’s not a six foot tall Australian with closely-cut blonde hair that looks back at him. It’s a sharply dressed Japanese man with sunglasses on. Ryan tucks at his own jacket, as the image of the man in the window does the same. Ryan walks into the bar, the image following on the frosted glass and wood panellings. One step at a time. 1920hours- “ So what do you think about the situation?” asks Nick. He dipped the tempura into the soy and chewed it noisily as Mandy glanced back at him, propping her head up with her arm, her hair drifting. “ What do you make of it? I mean, the job’s in about three hours anyway,” says Mandy as Nick brushes a hand against her face. “ I think it’s suicide if you want my opinion, but then again, I always look on the bright side of life,” says Nick with a grin, his brown eyes studying Mandy’s blushing cheeks, her wide puppy-dog eyes as the eternal heartpumping beat of a 90s dancetrack echoes in the background. A bunch of drunken sailors hang out at the boxing ring. “ I bet you do,” she sighs, glancing over the makeshift rubber-steel boxing cage in which the young, muscular Taiwan fighter was up against a homegrown sumo from Hokaido. She shakes her head and smiles. “ I’m telling you, Japan has the strangest blending of things I’ve ever seen.” Taiwan kept in his Judo stance. “ I know. Who knew Jackie Chan and acting could be put into the same sentence?” asks Nick as he glances over to what Mandy was looking at. “ Oh, you mean the fighting. Who are you betting on?” “ Dunno, what are you willing you bet?” teases Mandy, a smile spreading over her face. The Sumo bowed at him from his standpoint. “ Don’t be coy. Look, are you sure you still want to go on with this mission? I mean, I can talk to Trent, get some arrangement there,” says Nick. “ I mean, he and Baz have all this planned out.” “ What do you know of it? Come on spill,” urges Mandy, eyes wide. “ Okay, okay. You got me. As you and I have known for what…” says Nick, glancing at his PDC strapped to his wrist. “ About a day, topside.” The Taiwan fell back as the Sumo lunged at him. “ Always feels longer in the base,” says Mandy. “ Why is that?” “ Basic output of relativity. Time moves faster in there because it’s separated by space and runs on a faster timeline,” says Nick. “ I know all that shit. What does that mean?” asks Mandy. “ How do I explain it… it’s their technology,” says Nick. “ Nobody knows why. That’s just how it works. You can’t change events in the world but it does give you more time to react to the situation, meaning that we can correct any mistakes we have by teleporting through the psi-gates. That’s how we got here basically without having to catch a plane.” The Taiwan connected a right hook. “ Uh-huh,” says Mandy, still looking at his wavy, greying hair and broad face. His eyes pierced the haze from the pots of hot water placed besides the ring, the managers holding wet flannels to constantly dab at their pride and joy’s during the recess of the fight. The sumo was lunging more deliberately, heaving his muscle into the fight so that he could clothesline the younger bloke, who was constantly ducking and weaving the bulk of the sumo. “ Do you know why we’ve been planning this attack for so long?” “ Yeah,” sighs Nick. I know why. The Sumo grabbed the Taiwanese. “ What? Don’t you want to talk about it?” The Taiwan headbutts. “ Not right now. I don’t want to think that in less than 5 hours our necks are going to be risked on the line because of a business,” says Nick, stuffing another tempura stick into his mouth. “ Don’t eat so quickly. You’ll get a stomach ache,” says Mandy. Nick smiles. “ I appreciate your help. I’ll be alright,” says Nick. “ I hope so,” says Mandy, taking a slurp of her strawberry milkshake, the bright overhead fluorescents highlighting her face. “ I know so,” says Nick, grinning. His face goes serious. “ Look, I want you to be safe alright? You have done all the VR training I hope? Done all the simulations? Tested all the gear?” “ Yes,” says Mandy, rolling her eyes. “ I did that like thirty minutes go, when we got here.” The Taiwanese ducks and weaves. “ Thirty minutes? That all? Seems like I’ve been here longer than that,” says Nick. “ Maybe it’s affects from the base.” “ Maybe, but God knows I’d like moments like these to last for a while,” says Mandy, looking at Nick. He blushes, smiles and glances down. He looks over the rest of the tempura and pushes it aside. “ Okay. Let’s make it more memorable. Waiter!” he calls, snapping his fingers, besides the reflected wall image of an Asian couple. 1940hours- April pressed her gloved hand against the metal plate, the grooves embedding into the metal, leaving a print. A light from inside the plate shone over the grooves of the print. A blue haze of light emitted from the top of the plate, showing an identification of a 25 year old female from Hokaido. April wasn’t from Hokaido. She knew that as a fact as she swept back a strand of her long black hair, tied back in a ponytail. The identification screen swapped to an image of a bank statement, where $20 New Yen credits were transferred from her spending account into the account of the bar. Martin looked over at April from across the table. “ Why don’t you let me pay for it?” asks Martin. “ Why is it that boys are the only one’s that have to pay the bill?” quips back April. “ I can take care of it. I’m a big girl.” Martin nodded, his light brown hair caught in the neon craze of the bar. The 50 year-old-waitress smiled politely and bowed once she checked the screen. April and Martin bowed courteously in return, before grabbing their cases and leaving the bar. As they walked out, the image of a north Japanese girl and a Javanese bloke appeared on the window in front of them. They headed out onto the street, the enormous wall screens, advertising the latest PANASONIC 360-degree digital camera and an MP3 DIGCAM in a splitscreen mode. “ Need to get my 360 upgraded,” muttered April as they flooded into the crowd around them. The streets were swept clean by the rain, with puddles splashing into the drains, echoing in the sewers. “ What was wrong with the first one?” returns Martin, his hands deep in his coat pockets, a green light from a section of his belt flashing brilliantly. The walls of the high-rise were a neon craze, with flashing lights and explosions of noise thundering out from the nearby arcades, the throbbing beats of the strip parlours and adult clubs, the smells of frying oil and the screams of Japanese was audible throughout the city. The rotting cesspools of complexes, dating back to twentieth century modern architecture was fairly visible, with the room-size holographs of martial-arts and aerial dogfighting playing on an erected stage from the roof of a building, which the brainless members of the crowd stood mesmerised. Martin gazed at the display of three-dimensional light as it displayed two Tomahawk fighters lasering a defence target deployed from an Orbital Defense Pod. The arcade thundered the shockwave. “ Boys and their toys,” mutters April as she glances over at an electronics pawn store. The doorbell siren sounds, with the cerebral montage of music drifting into her thoughts, stirring emotions. “ Basic cerebral empathy music, used to help make shoppers buy things because of their euphoria stimulated in the brains,” says Martin. He rubs his temples as he sips the green tea. “ You like this brain shit don’t you?” asks April as the 40 year old man looks at them from the counter. He turns away to his wife. “ You going to buy?” he asks in Japanese. Martin glances at the PDC, the translation in basic English after going through the Microsoft Groupspeak Translation Unit, appearing on the screen. “ Just looking around,” replies Martin, his throat itching as the words came out in Japanese. The display cases were a mix of Microsoft, Sony, Panasonic, Casio and Sekio model electrical computers, PDCs and 360 degree digital video cameras. “ You know anything we got at base is at least 1000 times better than any of the so-called first-rate shit they have here,” mutters Martin. He glances over the illegal telepathic matrix motherboard. “ I know, I know,” mutters April. She looks over the display case and the prices. She shakes her head. “ Sorry.” They walk out, the neural-music drifting through her mind again. “ Maybe I…” she began. Martin averts his eyes from the motherboard. “ Don’t let the bloody neural-net music fool you,” says Martin, holding up the bag of donuts and cups of coffee. “ Come on. We’re late.” They walk out to an alley and then over to a fire-railing. They climb up onto the roof-deck, where several other characters sit, pointing a massive laser cannon at the Tokyo skyline. “ Don’t freak, the coffee and donuts have arrived,” says April. 2000hours- Yolanda held her hands in front of her chest, her long, tapered fingers drumming against her bare arms as Sabrina glanced over the television, the high-definition screen buzzing with radiation. “ Anything good on the tube?” asks Yolanda, moving a hand through her long blonde hair, her bright blue eyes moist with the night air. “ Only a bunch of shit about the Japs signing with the US and RUSSIA to make a joint space-exploration pact for the outer territories of the ice planets,” says Sabrina, her dark tan glowing with the radiation whafting from the tube, she chews a few pretzels as her dark eyes study the shifting images. She turns it over to a music channel, where video-clips of gut-screaming death-heads paraded to guitar riffs and heavy drumming around the stage in front of screaming fans. The hotel room was quiet. Too quiet, even. Yolanda pulls out the Walker shotgun, pumping the automatic as she glances over at the streets of Chiba below. “ Gonna be a tough night,” she says, glancing at the laser cannon on the table. “ So we just gonna ditch this here?” The cannon glints in the halogen light. “ Need to get it to the roof, get it at Cyprus,” says Sabrina, tying back her hair as she pulls out a pack of cigarettes. Yeheyuans. “ Uh… the hell are you doing?” asks Yolanda, looking at the Winfields. Sabrina looks at her and then at the white rod. She puts it back into her ziplock jeans, nicotine stains her teeth. “ Sorry, forgot. You don’t spend a while smoking in Australia and then get turned over to Japan where smoking is banned,” says Sabrina. “ That’s because of the death-rates huh?” “ Japan’s ideas of cutting down cancer, which after AIDS was cured, was one of the biggest killers in Japan this century. Tobacco was something easily controllable. Heart-failure was the next big risk, the Japs got rid of that by banning everything that had trans-fatty acids, so no margarine on your toast later this morning.” Sabrina laughs. “ Japan always wanted control on their world. Now they’re lucky that they still have a world to live in,” she says. “ Amen,” says Yolanda, pulling out a black sports bag and stuffing the laser in. “ Come on. Let’s get this loaded and then shop. I need some sleep.” She pulls the blue thermoplastic coat around her pink top and black jeans. She grabs the flip-top coffee and takes a swig. “ Okay, let’s boogie,” says Sabrina, grabbing the bag. She inserts the room card into the slot and the door opens, they step out onto the corridor, the floor squeaking as the lights from the Chibatsu disco strobe onto the landing. They head to the roof, passing the hall mirror, the image of two hair-spiked Asian chicks reflecting as they step out onto the roof, the air billowing their coat around them. There’s a loud buzzing as a swarm of police Gyrocopters wasp across the Chiba highland spires of metal and glass, heading across the bay to the neverending towers of Tokyo Metropolitan Megaplex. Yolanda pulls out a black cube and points it over at the city. “ Got a focus point. Four-five-oh-oh-three,” says Yolz. “ Gotcha,” says Sabrina, opening the bag and pulling out the large black cylinder and strapping it to the building. The red light blinks from the top of the laser as the receiver starts recording. “ Radio seven, Jason, you receiving?” asks Yolz onto her PDC. “ You’re online. We’ve got three more stories covered. Keep watch on those Gyros coming your way,” replies an American voice. “ Roger that,” says Yolz, turning to Sabrina, who sets on the holograph, the laser melding into nothing, becoming part of the rooftop. The advertisements of the Energy Stockpile Department of the Mitsubishi Bank catch her eyes for a moment before they turn to the door again. Haneda Airport roars from another Aerospace takeoff. “ You sure radar won’t see this? I mean I know we sent a cursor virus before but these babies are the self-maintenance bastards,” began Yolz. Cursor virus were 20-minute acting deliverance programs. “ Yolz, chill. We didn’t come this far to get our asses walloped. Now how about some sleep, alright? I need a few more z’s in euphoria for a while,” says Sabrina. “ I’ve been working at Pizza Hut, back in Perth for a while now. I’m tired, I’m hungry, so let’s go.” “ Fine,” says Yolz, following her out. 2020hours- Hayley and Ryan walk out of the alley, Ryan clutching his stomach. “ Man. Who knew a large order of fried sushi could take so much out of ya,” he mutters. As they stop at the Taxi depot. Hayley whistles shrilly, a black cab pulling over. A beefy Honshuan looks back at them, a pack of McDonalds chips in his hand, a fry in his mouth. “ Going anywhere?” he translates on the PDC as he chews noisily. “ Chiba mall,” says Hayley. “ I need to go to the library.” “ Library? At a mall?” asks Ryan, raising an eyebrow. “ I have a psych test back at uni tomorrow,” says Hayley, shrugging. She scans 100 New Yen on the driver’s PDC. He nods, gestures to the back. They get in, the doors automatically closing behind them. They pull the seatbelts on as the car pulls off from the curb. “ Man, these guys can drive well can’t they?” mumbles Ryan. “ What is it about psychology? I mean you do this to help us become better telepaths or something?” The traffic lights glare from the windows. “ No, basic EEG, MRI, PET, NAPA shit,” says Hayley. “ Come again?” asks Ryan, his eyebrows arching high on his face. “ EEG. Electoencephalograms. They’re the technical terms for brainwaves, you know the separate signals human beings and other intelligent beings transmit from their heads,” says Hayley. “ MRI is a Magnetic Resonance Imaging device, used to produce images of body tissue by reflecting radiation in and out of the body onto relay devices that make up a two-dimensional slice of the body. PET is a Positron Emission Tomograph, which maps cerebral bloodflow, which was used to map basic sections of the brain, the info that helped lead to the genetically-altered drugs to cure tumours and shit. NAPA is your basic Neuron Activity Pattern Analyser, used to pinpoint individual neuron synapses as they receive dectric charges, used to help record memories. Used by the government as forms of espionage, to record death and also as basic memories and sexual aids that are sold often in Chiba on the black market.” She says. “ And you study that shit?” asks Ryan. “ Man. I thought you want to be a vet or something?” He rubs his forehead and glances outside. “ Nurse. After the war is over. Of course they might not need them because of these new Lifecare monitors being produced,” says Hayley. “ Where did you learn about this?” asks Ryan. “ You hack into all these top-notch computer systems and find them out?” “ Nah. Internet. Basic search engine data. Takes a while, but because of the base, we can connect into any subnet without having to pay. Pretty sweet huh?” She glances at him and then turns away. “ Yeah, good porno too,” says Ryan with a grin. Hayley slaps him on the stomach again. He laughs as he looks at the passing vehicles. “ Not the kind of shit I’m into. I want to be… I dunno, mechanic.” “ Thought you were saying you were gonna join the army,” she says. “ Well I’m already in one in case you hadn’t noticed,” says Ryan. “ Can you two keep it down? I can’t hear the radio!” calls out the driver. Hayley and Ryan glance at each other. “ You think he heard?” whispers Ryan, his eyebrows narrowing. “ No. We weren’t engaged in direct conversation,” says Hayley. Ryan looks at her blankly. “ Hello. The larynx chips? Inbuilt GTUs? They break up our language and direct them into signals that only our earpieces translate for us into our skulls? Remember the ear implants we were given a few years back?” She fingers a lobe. “ Oh yeah,” nods Ryan. “ That itched back then. Hell they still do.” Hayley smiles and nods as another cab goes beeping by on the lane. “ HEY! UP YOURS!” yells the driver in Japanese again, pointing his middle finger out the window as he drives on. Ryan laughs. “ Nice fellow,” mutters Hayley as she sits back and takes a slurp of her second bottle of strawberry Fanta. “ Hey, can we hurry it up here? I want to get to the mall before the year ends!” “ Hey! I’ll drive the cab! You just worry about if I don’t drop you two in a bodybag!” yells the driver, he pulls out a magnum 44 Ryan pulls out two double guns, pointing them at the driver’s face. “ None, whatsoever. Now you apologise, turn around and drive the fucking car.” The driver gulps and mumbles. “ Sorry, had a bad day.” He turns around and drives the car in silence. Chapter Two: Japan 2026hours 23/10/01- “ Hey! Up yours!” yells the passing driver. “ What a meanie!” pouts Mandy, looking at Nick as they drive on. “ You get a lot of people like that,” says the driver, a 25-year old lady with a headset on. “ Long hours, late shifts, a lot of tourists to deal with. One’s who don’t know what you’re saying. It’s tough.” “ Mmmm. Tell me about it,” mumbles Nick as he stokes Mandy’s hair. They pass a foodstore and head on, the electric lights of the dashboard computer blinking on and off as the fluoro blue screen guided the car within the traffic laws. The car hummed lightly. “ So you ready for tonight?” asks Nick to Mandy, ignoring the hum. “ Yeah, I’m okay with it,” says Mandy. “ Would be a lot better if we could just hack into the Cyprus mainframe.” Her eyes are dreamy. “ Don’t want to alert any attention now, do we?” says Nick with a small smile. “ Don’t worry, it’ll just be in and out. Hopefully.” “ You don’t sound that convinced,” says Mandy. She sighs. “ Well there’s a lot going on now. I’m not sure about how this will turn out,” says Nick, turning to Mandy. “ Can’t tell the future. Not yet anyway. Wish I could.” He shrugs, a hand on her shoulder. “ Doesn’t everyone,” mutters Mandy. “ Look, I’ve pulled through the other ones intact. The one on the communication bug to the Galactic Council was a little shaky, since we had to dismantle that satellite dish with all those Zychas on the roof.” She rolls her eyes. “ Hmmm. Let’s hope to God that not all these cops are members of their little gang,” says Nick. “ How did you go on Computer-calc?” “ Sokay. Learning about Self-Aware Machines. Did you know that there are several AI mainframes on the Datanets alone?” asks Mandy. “ Please, don’t go over that AI shit,” says Nick, holding up his hand. His eyebrows go taut with concern and bad memories. “ Why? What’s up?” she asks, her own forehead creasing with worry. “ I just did AI, you know that Steven Spielberg movie in media studies today,” says Nick. “ It was freaky as. I mean, it was disturbing, the scenes and all. Human beings are bad as.” “ Don’t worry about it. Robots have their rights of being treated. Heck, they own a lot of this place. I mean they have Self-Aware Space colonies and everything, what with all these…” begins Mandy. “ I don’t want to talk about it,” snaps Nick, holding a hand to his head. “ Shit. I’m sorry Mandy…” He glances out at the street. “ It’s okay, it’s okay,” says Mandy, her eyes wide as she turns his face to her. “ I’m here, alright? I’m with you. What do you want to talk about? Besides me of course,” she says with a smile. “ Well, where would I begin in describing you?” he asks with a smile. He and Mandy rub noses and smile as they hold each other. Nick glances over at the place. “ Hey, here’s our stop.” “ Okay, I hear you,” says the driver, turning the wheel, the car turning admidst the frantic beeps of the annoyed drivers. She pulls into a spare parking space. The doors open automatically. “ How much?” asks Mandy, her eyes bored at the girl in front of her. “ Seventy New Yen,” says the driver. Nick holds out his own gloved hand and presses it onto the plate. The scan is accepted and the driver waves as a new customer runs over and grabs the cab as Nick and Mandy head over to the holomax movie theatre. “ So what do you want to see? One of these old Jackie Chan movies?” asks Mandy, sidling up beside him, pulling her coat around her. “ Yeah, even though I still don’t think Chan and acting should be used in the same sentence,” says Nick. His watch beeps. “ Hold on a second. I have to take this call.” He steps aside and speaks into it. “ What are you doing calling now?” A familiar voice is heard. “ Sorry, just needed to check if we’re still going through with it.” “ We go as planned,” snaps Nick. “ We store the data and then use it to fence our way out of it. If the Zychas want it back they’ll need to provide us some security. It’s time to blow this popsickle stand. Don’t call me. I’ll call you.” He turns to Mandy, looking at the film brochures. She looks up. He smiles. “ Chan it is. Shall we?” 2042hours- Martin throws the holographic dart at the virtual dartboard as the VR phaces move around them. April sits looking over a purple flowing fountain as the green sky shifts over them. “ This construct is making me sick,” she mutters, as she adjust the goggles on her eyes. “ Shift to neutral will you?” “ I like the shifting colours. Kind of hypnotic,” says Martin as he throws a wild dart from under one leg. It goes wild and fades out of reality. “ You know, like you’re on a trip, only more control. You know?” He throws another one. The bullseye is hit dead centre. “ No, I don’t know because I don’t take drugs Martin,” says April. “ Well neither do I,” snapped Martin, he heads over across the hotel room to the oven, where he placed a TV dinner of Chicken Tortellini and pressed the nuclear symbol. The lead oven shielding door closed as the fission reaction took place inside. The heat generated from the pea-sized uranium slug heated the TV dinner to a sizzling temperature, then turned itself off, beeping to alert them. “ You know these things are considered illegal in some areas,” says April. “ It’s a good thing we buy safe.” The beeping stops. “ Yeah, good thing,” says Martin, taking out the dinner and peeling off the wrap. He plops down on the sofa as the virtual-reality image of the flowing fountain in the virtual park was shown in the living room. April laid across the futon, breathing out slowly as the image of green sky shifted across her focus point. Scattered around the futon were remenants of weapons, fission-fusion pulse bombs, fusion lasers, chaos guns… remenants of fieldstripped machinery scattered. “ Do you really think we should continue on doing this? I mean all this fighting? Is it necessary to win the war?” asks April. “ What? You thinking of pulling out?” asks Martin, as he forks in some more of the Tortellini. He pulls off an atomic power cell from the gun and checks the gauge. He clicks it back in. “ You want them to win, April? Is that what you want? For us to be under their control?” He checks the grey cylinder grenades and tucks them in. “ I don’t know what I want. What I didn’t expect was to be in a hotel room a few hours away from planning what could be one of the many biggest attacks on a Japanese enterprise in world history!” she yells, sitting up. Martin dumps the gun he’s checked on the futon. “ Alright! Alright! Chill!” says Martin. “ I don’t want to think about it either! All I want to do is eat my dinner. Then I might go somewhere, grab a whore, grab some dope, grab something to put my mind off it and then do this fuckin job so I can go and enjoy my only time here in Japan. Is that so hard to want? Huh?” “ You want to pull out too, huh?” asks April, leaning on one arm. “ Geez! Of course I do! The only real reason I’m in here is so I can blow some shit up!” says Martin, grabbing one of the guns. “ Wham, bam, thankyou ma’am. Alright? That’s all I wanted to do, not this planning my life so that I can’t get any sleep at night. Not so that Baz can go run it or something. I want to go live my life. I don’t want this war. I got drafted, just like you and everyone else.” “ Exactly. We both got drafted. Why not just piss off now and just use these identities we have now to go make some other life?” says April. She gestures to the fake Mitsubishi Bank ID chips. “ Because I like it better in Australia. That’s why. I was born there. I still have a few mates I only get to see a few hours a day,” says Martin. “ And I know I can’t go anyway.” “ Why?” asks April, sitting up. Martin tucks his ID away. “ Because I’m already too involved. I know too much about all this shit going on. About the war, about the people, about everything!” yells Martin. “ And I don’t know what to do! I don’t know what to do!” April reaches up and grabs his wildly gesturing hands. “ Chill!” says April, getting up, her hand moving against the holograph projector, the VR images flickering and then vanishing. “ Look, Martin. Just because we’re here, doesn’t mean we can’t do anything… Maybe we can do something. Go out, get drunk. Do something good. It’s only nine thirty. Let’s party like there’s no tomorrow.” “ Yeah,” says Martin, a small smile spreading across his face. “ Yeah. Let’s do that.” 2058hours- “ It’s gonna be a long night, huh?” says Yolanda as the dark trawlers moved across the black waters of Tokyo Bay. The skyline of the city was draped with searchlight beams piercing the water from the Gyrocopters, the helicopter-based fighter planes with circumvolution stabilisers and twin-jet engines, their sides burning with a blue glow as they hovered over the urban sprawl. The two girls sat on the edge of the wharf, the stench of poor caviar and fried squid filling the air as they looked over the lapping waves. A cruise of merrymakers was just audible over the wind. “ Yep,” says Sabrina, taking out the bottle and draining the last of it. She holds it out to Yolz. “ Wanna send a message to China?” Yolanda laughed as she breathed in the air. The shotgun was heavy in the bag beside her, but she didn’t mind as the gulls perched and took off, hanging around for chips and anything else they could scavenge off them. The smell of urine is evident on the port. “ One and a half hours to go. You wouldn’t think it was that soon, would you?” asks Yolz, her nose crinkling up with the stench. “ Guess not,” says Sabrina as she corks the bottle and then chucks it onto the water. “ You know if anybody catches me we’re gonna be in jail overnight.” A gull cries out above the howl of the wind. “ That’s the least of our worries,” says Yolanda as she adjusted the hood. “ So what do you think about Cyprus?” “ Not much to think about. It’s your average modern computer company, makes an average net profit of several trillion New Yen a year. Has agreements with the World Tribunual Acts, doesn’t create any illegal superintelligent AI or anything much worth worrying about and is one of the many megacorps of Japan. Perhaps it runs in the Yakuza, maybe doesn’t. The Yakuza is the least of our worries, ant these are the cutthroat jackals, armed to the teeth in the basic cyberops shit. Real William Gibson stuff. That’s what the people know. What they don’t know is that it’s a front for an army that would make the Yakuza seem like good people to send to babysit your kids. These guys are making Cyprus deal in making more of themselves by attracting the innocent public and luring them into a false sense of security. Unlike most businesses, that lure your public to sell them an item or an idea, these guys are assisting a superarmy, which plans on world devestation.” A ship toots its horn across the bay. “ And we’re chosen to stop them,” says Yolz. “ God help us,” says Sabrina, looking over the waters. “ So how come we don’t hear so often from the Yakuza?” asks Yolanda. “ They’re basically getting drummed out. They’re only hired muscle. They’re the Japanese mafia, who can hunt, kill and destroy and erase with little to nobody finding out. They’ve been around for a few hundred years and are basically the badass mothers,” says Sabrina, getting up slowly. “ Come on. I want to get some sleep. We’ve been up for a while. I want to get an hour of concentrated REM for a while,” says Sabrina. She yawns and rubs her eyes. “ Good, I’ll find us a dropspot,” says Yolz. She taps up a number on the PDC. “ We have a euphoria hangout area that costs about $100 Yen an hour. We’ll need to have an hour only. Plus we need to catch a train and get to the spot soon.” “ Great, just what I need to hear,” snaps Sabrina. She takes a stagger of a step, bends over and vomits. “ Ooh, I did not need to see that,” mutters Yolz. “ Note to self. Do not mix Coke with Japanese Rum,” murmurs Sabrina. She reaches into her belt and pulls out a vial and downs it. She leans on Yolanda, who helps her to a park bench, situated by a busstop. Yolanda whistles loudly and taps in a signal. They sit there for three minutes until a cab pulls up. “ Looking for a ride?” asks a young bloke with an ear-ring. “ Yeah, Euph Zone Ranch, step on it,” says Yolz. The drive lasts four minutes, the girls go in silence. “ Fifty credits,” mutters the young man. Yolz scans it in. She steps out at the large low-lit building that goes up for about twenty stories, surrounded by seedy bars and Thai takeaways. “ Home sweet home,” mutters Sabrina. 2114hours- Hayley sits up, her head throbbing. Ryan grins at her. “ Too much Sake huh?” asks Ryan. “ A little cerebral jolt there?” “ Shut up, Ryan,” mumbles Hayley, her eyes bleary. “ This is not good.” Her temples throb and her mouth feels raw at the top. “ Tell me about it,” says Ryan, yawning. “ Got about an hour left.” “ Hotels, hotels all around, but not a bunk to get a good rate on,” says Hayley, a small smile crossing her lips. “ You know I’m meant to be the fastest hacker in the whole gang and yet here I am drunk as a skunk.” Ryan nods, the whirr of sugarush behind his eyes. “ Come off it. I know you’ve been more drunk than this. It’s just the place here. All this cerebral synaptic neural-net music, neon and glitz and glamour gets everyone tired,” says Ryan. “ You know I finally figure out how these bloody Chaos guns work.” “ A-huh,” says Hayley, her voice droning. “ Yeah, Superstring Theory, how these energy bolts just collide and break everything apart. Very cool,” says Ryan. “ This is a first. I didn’t know you liked science,” says Hayley. “ Science? What are you stupid or something? I hate it! Can’t stand those formulas and shit! It’s just the effects man. They’re so bloody cool how it all explodes and shit.” “ Are you trying to tell me you never used a chaos gun in basic training?” asks Hayley, her forehead creasing with lines. “ Course I did. I just don’t know how these things work. That’s all. I’m a sharpshooter. I just know the feedback and energy creation. I know how the energy is made and shit. I just don’t know how it affected other things. You know… living things.” “ Oh. I see,” says Hayley, glancing over at a large advert for FUJIFILM in front of a photograph-developing store. “ You… like the explosion effects of the weapon?” “ Yeah. Not too bad,” says Ryan as he sips the mocha-chill. “ Not too bad. What are you going to do after this so-called attack on the Cyprus Corporation Headquarters?” “ Maybe get about three hours sleep, which is what I’ll get out of today. It’s Saturday so I can call off work, thank God for that.” “ Hmmm,” nods Ryan, glancing over at a geisha talking to a sailor in crisp uniform. “ Them sailors come from everywhere don’t they?” “ Tokyo’s a major port. They have them sailors coming from all over the world,” says Hayley, yawning as she reaches onto her stale coffee. She slurps some. “ Urgh! Where do you get this shit? Starbucks?” She looks over the brown liquid and then sips some more. “ Nah, not that bad,” says Ryan. He glances to the left and then the right. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a slip of sticky paper with seven blue circles attached to it. Hayley looks at him. “ Are those what I think they are?” asks Hayley. “ Pure adrenalin dermatrodes. Simply slam on and they belt you in,” says Ryan. “ Got them in Ninsei. Good price too. Sorry, no speed.” “ If Baz finds out, he’s gonna…” says Hayley. “ He’s not going to find out anything. Just take one. They do you good,” says Ryan. He peels one off. “ Here. I’ll show you how.” He rolls up his sleeve and jabs the circle onto his bare skin. The patch begins to go fainter and redder until it’s a dull pink. He peels it off and tucks it away. “ Here. You try.” Hayley looks at it and then peels off a single circle. She attaches it to her arm, the rough pinprick edges of the circle digging into her skin, the adrenalin pumping into her capillaries. Her head buzzes as the derm goes pink. She peels it off, the back moist. “ Not too bad, is it?” says Ryan. “ Not all high-grade of course. Didn’t want to give you anything that would make you go mental.” “ Ookay, that felt good,” says Hayley. She looks over the Starbucks coffee and then bolts the rest down. Ryan stares blankly at her, blinking as she swallows it and looks at him with a grin on her face. “ That’s good shit.” She looks over at Ryan and then at the stores. “ How much longer till we hit Cyp?” “ About an hour or so. You wanna keep on cruising these 24-hour shops or just take a break?” asks Ryan. Hayley grins, her eyes low. “ The hell do you think?” she quips. 2130hours- Nick moved into the cubicle and sat down, locking the door behind him. His reflection of a tall Korean dressed in a sailor suit flickered for a moment, the briefest of images flashing for a sec. “ Bloody hell, should’ve changed the batteries,” he mutters to himself. He glances up to the security camera, the red light blinking. He gropes around the belt and comes out with a small cube, about three centimetres each side. He moves it aside and clicks out one of the green orbs. He moves it for a brighter one from the recharger. His watch beeps. He holds it to his face. “ I thought I told you, for the last fucking time, stop ringing…” he begins. No image appears on the PDC, his holograph holds strong. “ Caught you at a busy time Nick?” asks the voice of Baz. “ Baz… what are you doing, calling me? These lines could be monitored you know…” says Nick, smiling. “ Using the batteries again, Nick? I told you to switch to the nuclear cell. They’re good for a few million years,” snaps Baz. “ Yeah. I know, I know… Sorry, I snapped. I have a few problems right now. Any… visitors we should be expecting?” “ None I know of. Why did you use the atomic cells for the holograph?” his voice is bored with way too much knowledge behind. “ Sorry. Slipped my mind. I need to get…” he sighs. “ I need to get some bloody relaxation here. I had to pull out of a good movie for this. Mandy has got to be worried sick about this and I don’t want to leave her alone in there!” He gestures to nothing with his hand. “ She can take care of herself. She took on five Zychas once, like she was destined to the eyeballs. She’ll be fine,” says Baz. “ She still carries a fusor on her doesn’t she? Portable?” “ Yeah, good thing they’re covered in bio-wrap. Would’ve been a bitch getting them through customs,” says Nick. “ Good thing we don’t fly,” says Baz. “ Okay. I need you guys to be at the Chiba train station in twenty minutes. Sorry if I’m cutting the time short, but lives is important in this job of ours.” “ I thought it was money,” says Nick. “ Damn, I was so close!” Baz smiles. “ I’ll make it up to you guys later,” says Baz. “ I…” “ It’s okay. Fifty billion lives are more important than two. I understand, Baz. It’s alright. We’ve had our fun, short as it is,” says Nick. “ You know, next time you’re buying.” “ Will do, say hi to Mandy for me, later Nick,” says Baz. The line goes dead and Nick just looks at it for a while. He clicks the holograph onto the nuclear cell, the holograph strong and solid as he flushes behind him and heads out the door into the hall. Mandy stands before the entrance, her face lined with concern. “ Couldn’t stay away huh?” asks Nick. “ Graph’s fine.” “ Good, I was getting worried,” says Mandy, her reflection of a young Korean lady appears on the metal wall of the theatre entrance. “ All works… We have to call the movie short in about ten or so. Need to catch a train, as so it seems.” “ What? Can’t be that soon away…” says Mandy, glancing at the PDC. “ It’s nine thirty one. We need to go soon,” says Nick. “ How much more of the movie has to go?” “ Dunno, about an hour?” says Mandy. “ But it was meant to be our…” “ Next time. We need to scoot. Don’t want to mess up, not on a night like this anyway,” says Nick. “ Look, I’ll grab us another popcorn. You go in and get comfortable. Might as well enjoy the few minutes we have. Go on, I’ll be alright.” “ Okay,” says Mandy, leaning forward and kissing him on the cheek. She turns and heads into the entrance, waving behind her. He waves back as the door closes. “ Shit,” he mutters. He heads over to the Candy Bar and orders a medium buttered popcorn. He scans the New Yen over and then heads back, speaking into the PDC, as it calls. “ Come on, pick up you bastard.” He gets the line on. “ Okay, listen good. Pickup is in an hour. Be there, be ready. I want you with the data at 12. Got it? Good. I’ll be as soon as I can.” He hangs up the PDC. He allows his ticket stub to be scanned by an usher, who bows as he re-enters the cinema. He comes over and sits by Mandy. “ Now. Where were we?” CHAPTER THREE: Japan 2136hours 23/10/01- Martin’s PDC beeps and he looks over at the tanned whore, lying naked on the futon, her eyes wandering around him as he speaks into his wrist. “ Alright. I’ll be there at 12. Over,” says Martin. “ Prick.” He turns to the lady, who stares at him with hopeful eyes. “ Sorry babe. Gotta rush. Business appointment,” he says, pulling on his jeans, zipping himself up as the whore rolls over and begins to fondle with the Genetic-Spray contraceptive aerosol. She dabs some fragrance on her as Martin glances over the Organic Superlubricant bottle, along with the whips, feather-dusters, chocolate sauce and whipped cream bottles. He shakes his head. He scans over the 100 New Yen into the black reader. She turns and looks over at him. “ I won’t forget this,” she says in Japanese, with a smile. “ Likewise,” says Martin with a grin as he pulls on the jacket and heads out into the hall. He walks past the other private rooms of the Hotel Chiba. He passes out onto the landing where April stands there, her arms folded. He removes a chip from his headpiece. “ Got the call huh?” she asks. “ You bastard.” “ Well at least I got luckier than you did with that bloke,” says Martin. “ How was he anyway?” He pockets the chip in a Sony player. “ Shut up,” fumes April, her face red. “ How much was that cheap slut?” Martin checks through the chip records and then turns to her. “ Best 100 New Yen I ever spent,” says Martin with a grin. “ You asshole!” yells April, her eyebrows down, her face red. “ Oi! Oi! I got the call, okay? Let’s go grab a drink or something at the bar. Might as well taste something before I leave,” snaps Martin, his own voice passionate and angry. “ Alright?” “ You really are a bastard,” mutters April as they head into the elevator, which smells of cheap perfume and rings with the suggestive neural-net lift music that made you want to puke. “ Yeah, but I’m practical,” says Martin as the lift descends onto the main lobby. They pass on over to the bar, where he orders a Chiba punch special. The waiter passes him a tall cocktail with a fluoro orange liquid with green leaves floating in it, a multi-coloured straw, a little umbrella and a slice of lemon with ice. “ To good health,” he says, downing the whole liquid in one gulp. He slams the glass back on the bench and takes a stagger back. “ You lameass,” says April, turning to the waiter. “ Gimmie one of those.” She scans in the payment and the bartender returns with a similar drink. Martin looks at her as she sips it. “ What?” “ Nothing, I just didn’t know you had the same taste,” says April. “ Especially that of a ‘bastard’.” “ Well if you want to fuck things up, don’t let me stop you getting the blame,” says April, downing the drink. “ You know half of the water in that hasn’t been purified,” mentions Martin. April sprays out a gush of the liquid over the bar. Martin laughs heartily. “ Got you there, didn’t I Ap?” “ Well it’s on your bill,” says April, holding up her gloved hand. He looks at the scan to see his holograph’s face. “ SHIT!” yells Martin. “ Why did I get teamed up with you?” “ Dunno, because probably they needed somebody who could think.” “ 100 New Yen is not a lot. It’s about 50 or 40 Australian,” says Martin as he orders another. April looks at him as he drowns it. “ Only about 5% alcohol. Makes up for it by having a very strong flavour that’s a bit overpowering,” says Martin. “ Pretty good for only $20 New Yen.” “ You seriously need to get a life,” says April as she downs the rest of her drink. She glances at the PDC. She places the drink back. “ Fill it,” she says, scanning the PDC into a reader. She downs another drink. Martin just shakes his head as he looks over a bunch of whores checking out a mob of sailors. “ Wonder if we’ll meet any Yaks in this deal?” he asks. “ If we do, I’m sure to make you a good sacrifice,” says April. “ Ha ha,” says Martin sarcastically, as he finishes off the drink. 2148hours- The pool hall was full of seedy characters as Sabrina sunk a red ball into the corner pocket, slamming two more in. “ Nice shot,” comments a bloke from the corner, sporting a goatee, decked in leather along with several other punks. He nods at Yolz and Sab. “ Why not play with us? Much more friendlier?” “ Yeah, whatever you reckon,” says Sab as she hands the cue over to Yolz. One of the punks glanced over at his comrade, pointed. He moved over, his tan dark, his eyes darker. He leans on the pool table, looking at Yolz through coloured specs. “ Got some moves on you girl,” he notices as she aims the cue. “ Wanna hang?” “ Don’t talk to strangers,” says Yolz, sinking three balls. “ Bet you do, bet you do,” he says, glancing at Sabrina, who stands there, her arms by her side, her eyes steady, alert. The guy stands behind Yolz, an arm on either side of her. He glances at her body and moves upwards to her neck and takes a deep breath. “ Mmmm, I could go for a little of that,” he says, moving a hand to her behind. Yolanda glances to Sabrina, who glares at the bloke. “ Why not use that hand of yours and shove it, bozo,” says Sabrina. “ It’s okay, I can handle him,” says Yolz, smiling knowingly. “ Even so, I don’t like him,” snarls Sabrina. The man grins. He pulls out a flick-knife and points it at Yolanda’s throat. “ Well I don’t like you either. I want you girl. Now are you gonna come or do you wanna play rough?” asks the bloke. Yolanda looks at Sabrina. “ Well if you want to play, let’s play,” she says, shoving the cue between her legs, the cue slamming into his crotch. He doubles back, losing a grip on the knife. She whips around, slamming a leg into his face, he falls onto the floor, his face bleeding. The other punks scramble up. A glint of metal comes from the others, and the others ditches something. Sabrina’s hand snatches out the flying shruiken from the air and twirls it at the thrower, the metal star pinning the guy’s hair into the wall behind him. Suddenly there’s the click of a gun. Sabrina doesn’t need to see a Smith and Wesson holster being held at her. She glances to Yolz, as a second bloke comes over to her, holding the knife. “ What you just did was impossible. I like, wanna join?” he asks. “ Piss off,” snaps Sabrina, her eyes glaring. She grabs the gun-holder’s arm and throws him into the table, collapsing it under his weight. The knife holder makes a swipe at Yolz and she leaps back. She ducks as he heaves at her, going onto her back, kicking her legs up and legging him up into the air, sending him flying until he sailed over the bar into a tray of glasses. There’s the noise of several guns being cocked, and Yolz turns to see several large barrels being aimed at her. There’s another sound of a gun being cocked, and she turns to see Sabrina holding the shotgun. She lets loose a blast and a blue bolt of energy shoots out, slamming into the metal holsters. The metal expands and explodes in a heap of shrapnel. The men leap back, splinters of steel embedded in their bodies, bleeding from small cuts, their hands burnt. They yell and look at the single shotgun in her grasp. The other patrons in the hall look over at them with open mouths. Yolanda glances at the mirror behind the bar and sees their reflection of two oriental girls. She breathes a sigh of relief. “ Come on, let’s get outta here,” she says. “ Good idea,” says Sabrina, pulling the gun back. They head towards the door and bolt, running onto the street, keeping low as they ran into the crowd. The holographs around their bodies shifted, the features and colours of clothing melding and changing as they jaywalked across the street, amidst the honking of drivers. One car stops right in front of them, and they leap over the car in a full swoop, the driver glancing at them open-mouthed as they run across the block and stop into a walk, their holographs now of two african sailors merging into the crowd of kimonos and saraimans. “ That was too close,” mutters Sabrina as a police car pulls up outside the pool bar. They continue walking onwards and are out of sight before anyone notices. “ Alright, now where’s the bloody train terminal?” mutters Yolz. 2200hours- Hayley and Ryan brush past the crowd as they clamber down the staircase to the platforms, full of commuters. The electrics brush past, hissing as they stop and as other trains come on. Ryan stops over to the ticket office and orders two trips to Tokyo. “ Come on, we have only a minute to find the bloody train,” mutters Hayley, pulling him aside as he grabs the tickets. “ Alright! Alright! Keep your knickers on!” he calls as they hurry past businessmen, old ladies and young children alike. They head onto platform 12, as they break across the bridges to the other side. A large silver passenger train pulls into the station, the doors open. Pushers shove suits into the freight terminals. “ WAIT!” she calls, holding up the tickets. They push past the crowd, their feet echoing against the concrete as they merge into the sea of suits. They flow into the train, where three assistants in black uniforms are directing people into their lockers. Hayley presents the ticket stubs to one of them, who scans the barcode as they place their gloved hands onto the plate, their holograph faces appearing on the screen above. The assistant nods and points to the tickets. They’re first class resting booths. “ 11-C, 11-D, down there to the left,” says the assistant in Korean, the translation feeding through the PDC. “ Thanks,” says Ryan, giving a mock salute as they head down to the lockers. For every two metres down there stood six lockers, half a metre tall each, 75 centimetres wide. They didn’t place anything in the storage circles beside the ladder. He turns to Hayley. “ You want the top mid or bottom mid?” he asks. Hayley grabs the 11-C and climbs up to the locker, inserting the remainder of the stub into the slot, the plexiglass shield sliding across. She grabs the handlebars and pulls herself onto the futon, the ceiling screen advertising a military slogan for the Orbital Defence Pods. There was an image from a satellite of the row of carefully positioned white dots in the serene black sea of space, the static of cosmic radiation filtering through the camera relay. Hayley hardly felt as Ryan slid onto the narrow rim around the case and stepped into the locker, adjusting the pillow on the futon. The ceiling was a mixture of overhead lights, a viewing screen, a keypad with a scanning plate and an overhead storage section. The time flashed in digital on an oblong screen beside the console buttons. The Japanese characters meant absolutely nothing to her, so she scanned her PDC along the nameplates and watched as the English translations appeared. She nodded and pulled the curtain across, as the shield closed. A red light was constantly flashing, and it was only then that she realised the train was already in motion. “ How long we got?” squawked Ryan over the PDC, his voice a bare whisper, as the screen showed how Cyprus was supportive of Japan’s Anti Global Warming program that had been initiated since the early 21st century. The slogan CYPRUS- BUILDING FOR A BETTER TOMORROW was clearly visible. Hayley turned the screen to a TV show, showing a violent onslaught of magana cartoons colliding with blood and gore and all the entrails. No subtitles provided by the station though. “ About five-ten minutes,” mutters Hayley. “ You mind being quiet for a few minutes? I need to psych up for this shit.” “ Okay, okay,” says Ryan. “ See you in five then.” The line went quiet, Hayley thumbed down the volume and focussed her attention on the breathing, the electronic flashes highlighting her face as she inhales and exhales deeply. There’s a light shudder. The screen shows the stop. Funabashi. The train stopped for a minute and a half each stop. There would be only one more, Ichikawa, and then they would be in the heart of Tokyo. This was the capital stop route, which went for the major stops only. The quickest they could find at this time. Hayley opened her eyes as the final call message spread across the screen. WILL ALL PASSENGERS FOR FUNASBASHI PLEASE EXIT NOW. YOU HAVE ONE MINUTE TO LEAVE THE TRAIN, it translated. ICHIKAWA STOP IN FOUR MINUTES. TOKYO IN TEN MINUTES. “ That answer your question Ryan?” asks Hayley. “ Yep, just about jumping for joy here,” remarks Ryan. 2212hours- Nick and Mandy stepped out of the corridor and onto the platform, the heating system blowing about their coats as they glanced around the hundred-odd faces at the station sector. There were over fifty stories of plain train tracks, the underground plazas a stream of bars, bookstores, travel agents, banks and toystores. The sign for Mitsubishi Bank was clearly projected in faded red neon from one of the overhangs that wormed it’s way. “ Of the four million or so commuters here and we were lucky enough to get business class,” says Nick. “ We should’ve been caught.” “ Well we weren’t. We paid for the ticket, we’re supporting the economy. We paid full rate and so we’ve probably done all we could,” says Mandy, glancing around as the green-suited police governed the flow of businessmen. People were shoving this way and right. Even though it was past peak hour, with the rate slowing to about two hundred odd per level. The area was sparse, even for Tokyo. “ Must be the tension in the air,” mutters Nick. “ Come on. Let’s get outta here.” The holographs of an asian couple reflect off the polished porcelain walls, as full-screen advertisements and the electronic throb from the dance discoteques was pulsating in the air. The crowd was a bunch of businessmen, their faces drained of colour, their shoulders bunching against each other as the single train platform awaited several thousand more new arrivals. The pushers stood at the gates, several moving more people onto the trains. A bunch of pimps and drug dealers sat at a corner outside a stripclub. Mandy and Nick pushed through the crowd, heading to an already full stairwell. Nick turned to Mandy. “ Guess this is it,” he mutters. “ Yeah, I guess so,” says Mandy. She moves forward and they kiss. Then they separated, Nick pulling off his coat, the holograph of a green police-officer uniform appearing around him. He tucked the cap in low as he moved through the mob towards the stairwell. Mandy turned down the plaza, her boots clicking against the pavement. Several other figures, looking not much different to the suits, but moving towards her, yet at a distance, were visible. Mandy turned to see the cops of Martin, April and Ryan appear from the crowds. Sabrina, Hayley and Yolanda come out dressed in servicemen overalls. Mandy digs her hands into her pockets, the white uniform glancing over the windows of the plaza. The holograph change was sudden enough to catch people off-guard, those who happened to glance their way would see a bunch of characters move out of a crowd and nothing else. Nothing new. Hayley came up beside Mandy, her glasses reflecting the bright overhead light. “ I take it you guys know where to go.” Mandy nods as the figures of Sabrina and Yolanda come up from behind them. The cop group moved into a Starbucks. “ Meet you lot outside. We’ll keep on the ground,” mutters Martin, through the ear implants. The group of cops leave the Stabucks, heading towards the stairwell. Soon they’re gone. “ Time to meet the maker,” mutters Sabrina as they head on over through the crowd. They turn an alleyway down a long corridor, passing a few drunks who are sleeping against the walls. They get to the service door at the end. Sabrina holds the PDC against the metal plate, glowing, illuminating the previous gloveprint against the service plate. Her gloved hand glowing as the bio-mesh leather rippled like water to meld into a larger hand that matched the scan. She held it against the door as Hayley connected her own PDC into the touchpad terminal. She hit a few buttons and the lock whirred, she opened the door into a large whitewashed room, Sabrina and Yolanda taking out the shotguns as Mandy closes the door behind them and locks it. Yolz grabs the drain cover and moves it aside, revealing the sewer entrance. “ This just keeps on getting better and better,” says Mandy, shrivelling up her nose as she checks the atomic cell recharge. “ Well, no rest for the wicked,” mutters Hayley as she pulls out her own gun and checks it. She lowers herself into the sewer, the others following, the grate slamming closed behind them. 2224hours- “ Cyprus corporation here boys, breathe it in,” says Nick as they look over the enormous steel and concrete complex, extending some 50 stories into the air. “ Excuse me, but there’s a lady in your company,” points out April as she sips her coffee. “ As I said before, Cyprus corporation, breathe it in,” says Nick. “ How the hell are they gonna get in there?” asks Ryan. “ That’s their problem to figure out,” says Martin. “ You can be a real asshole sometimes, Martin,” mutters April. “ The fuck’s up with you?” asks Martin, raising an eyebrow. “ I just don’t like the fact that I’m here with you joe blows while I could be down there doing some ass whooping with the real brains of this little scheme of ours,” says April. “ What is it with girls and asses? I mean they seem obsessed,” says Ryan. “ Almost as much as you,” says Martin. Nick laughs. “ SHUT UP!” yells Ryan, going red in the face. The others laugh as suddenly two police interceptors come cruising in from two sides down the road and pull up outside Cyrpus. Nick stops laughing. “ Oh shit,” April and Martin say together. The cops pull out. “ It’s not ten-thirty yet,” mutters April. “ And they aren’t there yet. They’re still in the sewer.” “ Guess you’re happy about not being in their position right now, huh?” says Ryan. “ Must have motion detectors down there.” “ No shit sherlock. What do you assume now?” asks Martin. “ How come we didn’t see this coming?” “ Well we couldn’t just send a few people down there and ask them if there were any in the afterlife or when they were giving us their only call from a Japanese prison, or worse, a Zychagrophoid’s,” points out Nick. “ At least we can blame Baz for this one.” “ No, they’re armed with dispersal holographs, they’ll cut out any bugs for a hundred metres at least,” says April. “ That part I did know, off his report.” “ Well maybe they have long-range, or maybe they have something that picked up holograms?” says Martin. “ Maybe…” A man calls out in Japanese. They turn to see several police officers starting towards them. They turn to attention, snapping their hands in a salute. “ What are you two doing here?” yells a blonde officer with dark eyes, the translation feeding through the PDC and off the ear implants. “ I never ordered any teams here!” “ We’re basic patrol team, sir!” yells Martin, the larynx microchip bursting the words out in Japanese language. “ This information was made unaware to us. We…” “ Be quiet constable… Chan,” says the captain, his shoulder bands glowing in the light from the cruisers. “ This is a direct operation ordered by Mr Gregston! We thankfully have two Synth Tact teams inside.” “ Thankyou, Captain Isoroku,” says a voice. They turn to see the black limousine beside the car and the tall form of a man dressed in a tuxedo with long wet locks of red hair. Isoroku bows. “ I’m sure they have heard clearly thanks to your loud voice. If they have happened to come across our little sting then that is no problem. In fact, I’m sure these fine gentlemen… pardon me, ladies and gentlemen can be of some… assistance to us,” says Gregson. The man looked over at the enormous skyscraper. “ I, myself has been called away from a function to deal with this little terrorist matter of ours. One that I hope you, Captain, will be able to deal with, without waking up the entire populace of Tokyo. Oh, and I want them alive.” Isoroku gulps. Martin and April hide their smiles at his discomfort. “ I’m then glad to announce that we have six teams already inside, armed with the best Synthmetal armour and weapons that can be provided. We will catch them with all our efforts,” says Isoroku. Gregson smiles and nods. “ Good, bring them with you when you make the raid. I don’t want them to miss one minute of this.” CHAPTER FOUR: Japan 2230hours 23/10/01- “ This is bullshit,” mutters Sabrina as they trudged through the liquid that rode up to their shins. “ Why the hell do those blokes get to stay up there, where it’s nice and dry and us here?” “ Maybe Baz knew he shouldn’t send a man to do a woman’s job,” mutters Hayley as she glances over the faded lighting on the curves of the sewer pipe, she looks over the PDC. She presses the button on her belt and the image of the overalls dissappear, the colours change as the top and jeans knit together to form a drab black jumpsuit. She pulls the hood over. The PDC beeps. “ Shit,” mutters Yolz, her eyes reading the screen. COPS ARE ALREADY THERE. HACK TO SECURITY INFIELD- BAZ. “ Oh great, why doesn’t he just call it off?” snaps Mandy. “ Because he needs the info. He wouldn’t send us to commit suicide,” says Hayley. “ I know the guy, went to my high school.” “ Oh, that’s reassuring,” says Sabrina, tapping into the PDC. “ Shit he’s right. Six teams, all up there.” “ Where?” whispers Yolanda. Sabrina glances at the outlet. “ Right above us.” “ Right,” says Yolz. Sabrina taps and the image of a team of TACT SQUAD team-members, decked out in pale grey suits with the flag of Japan strapped to their backs, holding massive rifles. There’s five men there. Suddenly one falls through the floor. Sabrina looks beside her to see Yolz and Hayley come down, bricks and mortar falling in from above as two greysuits come falling on top of them. There a dozen shots rung out, the girls turning and spinning against the side as bullets splash into the water. One splashes against her leg. “ Oi! I just got this cleaned!” yells Mandy. Sabrina grabs out a black cylinder and fires, the blue bolt slamming through the Synthmetal like paper, the men fall. A greysuit runs up and Yolanda fires a shot at his head, the blue bolt absorbing into his skull, his head reels back and sags. “ That’ll knock him out for a few minutes,” says Sabrina. “ Remember zero body count.” “ Yeah? Tell that to Baz,” mutters Hayley, leaping up and hoisting herself into the room above. Yolanda and Sabrina help Mandy up, as they jump up after her. They appear to be in a room where pipes and electrical wiring meshes line the walls, a sewer service entrance still closed above them. “ One team down, five to go,” says Yolanda, pumping the chaos shotgun. Suddenly an alarm begins to blare. “ Come on girls, next stop, top floor,” says Hayley. They hurry down the corridor, lined with rows of lighting, beginning to go a dull red. Security shields begin to slide down. They run faster, puffing as they duck low, keeping together. The shield in front of them closes fully. Mandy straps her PDC into the security pass and presses a button. “ Damn, you can tell the Zychas have done up this joint,” she says. “ Time for the hardware,” says Sabrina, pulling out a black auto. A coarse orange beam slams against the shield, the metal glowing and dripping as she cuts a whole section off, emergency gas jets begin spurting out a heavy smoke, but the metal clatters to the ground. They run through, the gas billowing in their wake as they scramble down into an open corridor. A door opens and another team of greysuits come over. Hayley fires, blasts of blue slamming into the greys. One of them staggers back but then comes forward. “ Calibration armour,” says Yolanda, slamming her leg over at the guy, grabbing the Synthmetal and slamming him against the wall. Hayley turns the muzzle of the gun, firing a red halo of light around the synth. Mandy fires another blue bolt in, this one slamming through the suit, the face inside unconscious. “ C’mon, time’s a wasting,” says Sabrina, grabbing the gun and burning the hole through a second shield. 2246hours- “ Ryan, get the hell in here,” yells Hayley onto the PDC. “ Already inside, shush,” hisses Ryan as Isoroku snaps his head around. Ryan stands at attention as the rest of the ground crew is gathered up inside the lobby. “ We have infiltration, and your men are dropping like flies,” spits Gregson, his face red. “ Letting them breech here is not an option. Shoot them. Shoot them now.” “ But you said that you wanted them alive?” asks an officer. “ Did I ask you to speak?!” screams Isoroku at the officer. The officer is silent, April glances at Martin. Ryan looks over the black marble floor, at the pillars and the C-shaped registration desk, at the elevators. He holds down a button. “ Isoroku. Leave him. We have now more important things to deal with. What these terrorists are capable of is obviously much destructive force. Cyprus does not negotiate under any circumstances. I didn’t order your men to shoot because I did not expect these terrorists to be the same as those mentioned on the news. Now I know that they are the same, based on what readouts from the monitoring system, I want them dead. These terrorists are a threat to not only our security but the World Tribunual.” Gregson turns to Isoroku and then to Nick and the others. “ Captain, lead this crew with what remains upstairs. I know where they want to go. Station all men at floor 36. Use the stairs. Knowing these terrorists they will probably use the elevators. The elevators are all monitored with laserfields and impenetrable stations, any firing of any weapons will trigger the lifts to shut down automatically.” Ryan held down on the transmission button as he glanced at the PDC, the image of Hayley running from Mandy’s PDC transmission bobbing up and down. They had the full suits on, hoods and all, their faces covered. They looked like ninjas. They headed into a shaft as red laser slammed into a shield. There was a pause as they plugged the PDCs into a terminal, the image pausing and shifting as a blast was sent through the wall terminal. A pair of double doors hissed open. A second alarm began to sound. Ryan looked up as the officers wheeled around to the registration booth, where the large screen behind it showed the interior of the elevator shaft, there were footsteps as a Synthmetal team ran in. Gregson smiled as the cables stopped moving. Sabrina pressed a button on her PDC, still connected to the terminal and the screen filled with white, the lights blacked out and flickered and the cables began moving again. There was a shot as the magnetic grappling hooks fired out and caught on the rising cables, the girls turning and rising up into the air. “ STOP THEM!” yells Gregson. A bunch of greysuits ran to the elevator doors, one plugging his PDC into the wall terminal. The doors hissed open. “ Would they be in that one?” asks Martin. “ Shouldn’t be,” says Nick as one of the Synthmetal holds out a portable searchlight. Light floods the shaft. Suddenly the doorframe falling inwards with a section of the wall as men fell backward with the chaos explosion. The lights dim and go red, alarms sounding. “ You idiots!” yells Gregson, he turns to Isoroku. “ Send all your men to the top floor. I want them all, bring them!” He points at Nick and the others. “ Bring them! You four! Go! GO!” “ You heard him! Let’s go!” yells an officer in Japanese. They turn and hurry down the corridor and to a second pair of double doors that swing open. They enter into the cage and stand there as it rises. The four officers beside them take out their magnums and check the magazines. Ryan glances at Nick, who nods. They nod. Ryan, Martin, April and Nick slam their hands against the other four officers, pushing them up against the wall, firing the blue bolts at them, the guns dropping onto the floor. “ Cool, a Japanese police magnum. I never had one of these,” says Ryan as Martin stops the lift and opens the door, throwing the four guards onto an empty floor. They step in and continue up. “ Okay, we got ten minutes, let’s do it,” says Nick. 2302hours- Floor by floor hurtles down beside them as they hold onto the grappling hooks. “ Floor thirty six in five… four… three… two… one!” yells Yolz. Sabrina and Mandy fire at the door, the bullets slamming against the security console, which bursts. They leap at the door, pressing release buttons, the magnetic cuffs whipping back from the cables onto their handgrips. They throw the cuffs forward which stick to the wall, they hold there. Hayley swings up and grabs the door, firing the red laser around the edges, she kicks the door open. “ Hope they have insurance,” mutters Mandy as Hayley pulls them in. “ Let’s hope they don’t, set the Zychas back a few months,” says Sabrina as they hurry along the cubicles and work stations. There are hundreds of computer terminals, their screens glowing blue. “ Shit, we’re in the wrong spot,” says Yolanda. “ Indeed we are,” says Nick, stepping out with Martin, dressed in black jumpsuits, hoods pulled over. “ Just did a search program. Nada on here.” “ Must be top floor, where else would it be?” asks Mandy. Suddenly a door slams open and a dozen greysuits run in, yelling. Bullets fire out, slashing into the terminals. The six throw themselves down onto the ground as laserfire rips into the plywood and glass of the cubicles. They crawl along on the floor, Martin shooting off from the fusion laser, explosions of yellow and red forming as the greysuits lunged back. “ Zero body count remember Martin,” says Mandy. “ Don’t worry, he’ll remember, someday,” says Nick, smiling under the hood. “ How was the sewers?” “ Oh shutup,” mutters Hayley. “ Get a room you two lovebirds.” “ Touchy, touchy,” scolds Nick as an explosion of cubicle and floor turns into a cloud of haze as April and Ryan shoot out from the chaos guns. “ Mate, watch it on the ammunition, we want to steal data, not cause a body pileup,” says Sabrina. “ Oh be quiet,” mutters Ryan as he turns and fires again at the greysuits. Curses in Japanese spring out into the air. “ Language!” yells Yolz, turning to Hayley. “ What the hell do we do now?” Her PDC beeps again. GET OUT OF THERE- BAZ. “ Oh great! Shouldn’t you have told us that earlier?” yells Sabrina. I DID. YOU FORGOT TO PAY ATTENTION. KEEP YOUR VOICES DOWN- BAZ. “ Big Bazza is watching,” notes Nick. “ Shut up, we have bigger problems at hand,” snaps Hayley. Suddenly light pierces out from the large bay windows, they turn to see two police attack Gyrocopters outside. “ So it seems,” mutters Mandy. “ RUN!” yells April as machine gun-fire shoots into the building. The windows collapse, the green police Gyro in front of them, two police officers with MPKs fire at them. Yolanda fires the shotgun, the Gyro climbing higher. Yolanda fires the shot, one slamming into the Gyrocopter side engines. The vehicle careens over to the side, heading closer to the building. The Gyro’s blades slam into the building, glass exploding out onto the street as a massive fireball spreads across the storey. “ Man, the Zychas are gonna be pissed!” yells Ryan. “ What about the occupants?!” yells Mandy frantically. Nick points to three parachutes opening and falling slowly towards the ground, one landing on a nearby rooftop. “ Well, that takes out the fiftieth floor,” says Nick. “ It wasn’t at the top,” says Martin. “ We can still make the call.” “ Now? After that? By that explosion it might go WTC on our asses!” yells Sabrina. “ Yeah, and we might’ve just missed out on finding hard evidence linking the Zychagrophoids to their latest mission to snub out the human race!” yells Nick. “ Strange,” mutters a voice. They glance up to see several greysuits, backed by Captain Imoroku standing there, guns drawn. “ Because the only thing I see wiped out, is you.” 2218hours- The lift passes up the fortieth floor, the burning wreckage of the Gyro had stained a quarter of the building, the rest was isolated as concentrated extinguishing jets were applied to the blaze. Since the WTC tragedy of 2001, all buildings were designed with automatic lockdown, defence weapons and extinguishing systems. “ Don’t you try to pull anything,” says Imoroku. He slips a card into a slot, side panels moving up, revealing short barrels. “ Automatic shock bolts.” The greysuits beside them say nothing, their weapons being looked over by the Synths. The lift stops at the fiftieth and the doors open into an enormous office. The light from the desk illuminates Gregson’s features. “ Alive, as ordered,” says Imoroku. “ All weapons confiscated.” “ Good,” says Gregson, gesturing to his sides, where ten figures stand. Around the room are a number of couches and tables. “ Tell your men to evacuate the building. They are no longer needed.” “ My men are here to keep the peace and to ensure your safety,” says Imoroku. “ Several of them are missing, but we shall find them…” “ These terrorists are dangerous, already they have killed seventeen of your men,” says Gregson. “ Bullshit, we never killed them,” snaps April, her voice dark and distorted through the hood. Gregson flicks a button and the wall behind him flashes to the scenes of the smouldering lower levels, ash and blood spread throughout the floors. “ You’re a bastard Ghargros. You know that?” mutters Nick. “ Silence,” spits Gregson. He turns to Imoroku, who’s face is pale and he’s shaking. “ Leave Imoroku. Go home to your wife and family. These men are now Cyprus’s problems which we will deal with. I assure you.” Imoroku’s face hardens. “ These terrorists have committed genocide on Nippon soil. They will be dealt with by our terms. We will not stop them by killing them,” he says. “ Are you so certain?” asks Gregson, the screen moving to the recorded shots of figures in black jumpsuits shooting the greysuits. The ten other officers stiffened as they looked over the close ups of the men burning. The image flickered off. “ You fucking sadist!” curses Mandy. “ You fucking bastard!” “ You see how insulting these characters are. Tell your men to leave the building. My men are well armed to deal with this kind of scum,” snaps Gregson. The greysuits look over at the ten other Zychas, holding large rifles with green lights flashing on and off. GET OUT OF THERE. USE WHATEVER MEANS NECESSARY –BAZ. “ We cannot do that without confirmation from our headquarters,” says Captain Imoroku. “ The Tokyo Police Force has given me their confirmation. I will show you in writing. I’m telling you that our men can deal with it. If they end up dead we’ll give you any information we can gather on them,” says Gregson firmly. He turns to the greysuits. “ Leave us.” The ten greysuits stand still. Martin glances over himself, his hand fumbling inside the lip of his jeans. He finds a grey cylinder and tucks it out into his hand. The greysuits stand there. Gregson sighs. “ Okay fire at will,” says Gregson. Imoroku turns as the ten guards aim their guns and fire single shots at the guards, sending them reeling back into the lifts. One pulls out his gun. “ NO!” yells Hayley. The laserfire shoots over the guards. They collapse in a heap, blood staining the walls. “ Now look at what you made me do,” says Gregson. “ I told your men to leave.” Imoroku fires his gun, the metal slugs slamming into him. Gregsons stands still, glancing over his shirt, yellow stains on his chest. “ This was a new shirt,” he says. He comes over to Imoroku and places his hands on his shoulders. “ It’s a good thing I’m not human.” His fingers extend, the claws slashing into his neck, purple tendrils ripping into his gugulars. He collapses. “ Always too much honour. Darn Japanese,” he says. “ Always has to believe in the right of the land. Fortunately you don’t believe in that do you gentlemen.” He smiles. “ Now to business. Shoot them.” 2231hours- “ Whoa! Whoa!” says Nick, holding open his hands. “ Gentlemen, can’t there be some kind of a deal?” “ You bloody prick!” yells Ryan. “ The information you stole will do,” says Ghargros, his long fingers plastered in purple scales adjusting on the bench. “ Oh… that,” says Nick. “ I don’t think you’ll be able to get that,” says Martin, stepping forward. “ Already your data is being transmitted.” “ Oh, then I guess I’ll just shoot you then,” says Ghargros. “ As I said before, I don’t think so,” says Yolanda, nodding at Martin as he holds up the cylinder. Ghargros pauses. “ This is a fission-fusion grenade, capable of vaporising a two storey building in less than a minute,” snaps Sabrina. “ Really? That should be enough time, considered it’s not armed,” snaps Ghargros, he turns to the ten guards. “ Give them pain.” “ We don’t do pain,” says Nick. “ Do you want the data or should be deliver it to the press?” Ghargros pauses. “ I see. My my my you little shits do give me a hard time. What is this… the third company you’re going to destroy?” “ Whatever pulls you guys down,” says Yolz. “ You won’t win, Gharg.” “ On the contrary, my dear. I think we will,” says Gharg. Sabrina glances at Yolz and then over at the others. She glances at the others and then to her belt. She taps onto her wristband. The others glance at the other’s PDCs as the message appears. “ I suggest that you all give up any attempts to escape,” says Ghargros as he gestures his long fingers to the other ten. “ We are quite well armed and will quickly take care of you soon.” “ Maybe, but this says otherwise,” says Martin, holding up the cylinder again, he twists it to the left and holds it open, a green light emitting. “ I drop this, this whole building goes nova.” Ghargros stares at them. “ Either way, you’re dead. There’s little I will have to worry about…” says Ghargros. Sabrina reaches to her back and throws out a pellet, the smoke hisses out into a cloud. One by one the holographs flash on, each member disappearing from view. The figures fire as they fall back to the floor, Mandy and Yolanda leaping back and grabbing the bags, the red laser slamming into one of the men. He stands there, three yellow lines across his chest, then it falls to pieces. The other characters fire, blasts slamming into the floor as April chucks over the guns to the others. Martin twists the timer to two minutes on the bomb and rolls it across the floor. Yolanda whips around, a chaos bolt slamming into the desk, Ghargros leaping back as the desk bursts into a hail of splinters. Blam. Blam. Another two men fall as bolts burst into their torso. The others huddle behind the furniture as blasts rip into the green leather, stuffing flying into the air. Nick and Hayley fire at the window, the glass bursting open in shards. Two more chaos bolts slam into the lowering steel shield. The air shoots around them, sleet and wind howling around them. The seven remaining figures stand there, their tailored suits wet and bloody. Sabrina and Yolanda empty their weapons into them as Ghargros gets up. Martin glances at the timer readout on the PDC. “ Thirty seconds!” he yells. “ NOW!” yells Ryan. They run out, the four remaining fire as they leap out into space, their limbs flying as they pull out the grapple hooks, the magnetic clips fly out in front of them as they fall near the building across the street. The grapple hook connects onto the metal and they grab onto each other as the fiftieth to forty-fifth floors erupt into one enormous fireball, spreading out into brilliant light as shrapnel and glass go flying out into space behind them. A bunch of Gyros pull up as they swing over into the thirtieth floor of the building, April and Mandy shooting at the glass. They break into an office space, the shards falling around them as the top levels of Cyprus go up in smoke. “ Oh God, I hope those guys got out alright!” coughs out Mandy as she looks over the burning flames of the building. “ Come on, we have bigger things to worry about,” says Yolz, grabbing each other up and they run. CHAPTER FIVE: Japan 2340hours, 23/10/01- “ BAZ! GET US THE FUCK OUTTA HERE!” yells Hayley into her PDC as they get up and run along the offices to the stairwell. Ryan glances back to the burning roof of Cyprus. PICKUP AT EDO AVENUE/ EITAI AVENUE INTERSECTION- BAZ. “ OH! LIKE THAT’S GONNA HELP?!” yells Ryan as they bolt down the stairs, leaping to the lower levels. Sabrina fires at the security shields, cutting them off by cutting into the control terminals. “ At least you’ve stopped wrecking everything,” mutters Mandy as they head down to the ground floors. “ How do we know those guys aren’t following us?” “ We don’t. Just keep on going!” yells Hayley. “ Looks like those adrenalin derms are going well,” mutters Ryan as they get to the twelth floor. Suddenly searchlights pierce into the building from the streets below. The windows blow as bullets slam in from the remaining greysuit armies on the ground. “ How are we gonna reach a pickup 1 kilometre from here?” asks Ryan. “ We’ll figure that, when we get there,” says Hayley. Suddenly the floors from the bottom open up and a bunch of greysuits fall in. “ Change of plan!” yells Nick as they run into the offices. They cut across the cubicles to the windows and then glance over at the cops 15 floors below them. A Gyro swoops over, shots firing out onto the glass. “ We can’t jump that,” says Mandy. “ Well looks like we’ll need to open our own doors,” says Ryan as the doors burst open as more greysuits run in. Hayley and Yolanda fire more bolts at them, the men falling to the ground. They run back to the stairs, the fusion lasers cutting into the concrete, entire stairwells collapsing down, more and more. “ Well, this place is out of business,” mutters Martin. Mandy fires the grappling hook onto a guardrail and bungees down into space, the cable holding her as she lowers herself to the fifth floor. The others join her as suddenly lasers burst in from the lowe levels. They swing onto the landing, one of the laser shots slamming into Hayley’s leg, blood tricking down from the wound. Ryan grabs her and pulls her over to the window. The cars are on the ground. They run over to the side looking over the alleyway, where two teams of greysuits stand at the bottom. Ryan pulls out a slice of green derms and stretches one until it covers the wound as another Gyrocopter comes in close. April shoots out a window, as Sabrina and Martin fire out more bolts into the teams below. Several calibrate and fire back. Nick and Mandy leap out into space and slam onto the fire escape of the redbrick building beside them. The lasers hitting several rungs of the fire escape, melting them. They crank up the power and fire again, Synths collapse. The ruins of the Cyprus building lays in the streets, wrecks of interceptors their occupants safely housed in the crash foam, being dug out by emergency crews. “ Zero body count,” reminded Hayley as Nick and Mandy fire out into the street, shooting down uniformed cops with the blue bolts. April and Martin rig up the magnetic grapplehooks and grab Hayley to help lower her down to the ground. Sabrina and Yolanda follow last, holding the shotguns as the greysuits groan. They gather up their weapons and dump them in the trash barrel and continue running onwards. They grab the guns and run down the alley as the final teams of Synths fire at them, their feet hitting the pavement as they hurry down the alleys, over the police cross lines and down, their holographs flowing over them, the image of eight police officers running full blast across the footpaths. Electric interceptors are heard gunning down the street, sirens screaming as Gyros wasp over the skyline, their searchlights crisscrossing. They run past the late-night bars and the tall office blocks, pedestrians huddling inside, many frightened as the firefighter crews are heard blaring down the street. “ Looks like a long night in Tokyo,” mutters Ryan. 2400hours 24/10/01- “ BAZ! WHERE IS THAT BLOODY PICKUP?!” yells Nick into the PDC as they pass the forth block. Suddenly a police van pulls out from an alley. The door opens and they scramble inside, sitting to the sides, strapping themselves in as the van takes off. The electric engine whirrs as it passes the bars, banks and business areas. A single figure sits back with them. He’s of slight build, dressed in black with short brown hair and blue eyes. “ Got the data?” he asks. “ Yeah Trent,” nods Ryan, holding a black rectangle. “ Stored. Got all terminals hacked and sorted. Left nothing out.” “ Good,” says Trent, taking the rectangle and strapping it to his belt. He nods to the driver, David, who’s brown curly hair pokes out from underneath the baseball cap. “ Got the connection down?” “ Nobody’s followed us. The public think we’ve got a prisoner or something. We need to get out of here,” says Dave. “ Good idea. Need some sleep,” says Trent. Nick sighs as he looks over at Mandy, who’s nursing a cut on her arm. She peels a derm on and lets it settle. “ You alright?” he asks. “ Yeah, just a fleshwound,” she says, shuddering. “ It’s horrible the way he just… killed them.” “ Yeah,” nods Nick, looking over at the others. Hayley winces as Ryan looks over her wound, Yolanda and Sabrina have streaks of blood on their face. Martin dabs at his cut nose. April sits there, lighting a cigarette. “ Managed to smuggle these in,” she admits. “ Fortunately the scanners here didn’t pick them up. Genetically modified of course.” “ Of course,” says Nick, taking a cigarette. He lights it with the tip of a stick of German steel. “ Need some sleep. We got what we were after?” “ Dunno, might have to confirm with our source,” says Trent. “ Source?” asks Sabrina, after wiping her face. “ You mean somebody knows? A member of Cyprus knows?” “ Well somebody called up, giving us link references about Cyprus.N We looked and saw an irregularity there. Cyprus had sharply risen in customers after releasing the latest game. One of us racked out the model from the black market, pure Zycha tech. Hypnotic suggestion transmission, makes them get attracted to the other fronts, although they don’t know of it,” says Trent. “ How come you guys didn’t get affected?” asks Mandy. “ You think we’re that crazy? We sent it through the computer, let it correlate any waves produced. Perfect match in our previous records,” says Dave. “ We couldn’t get her off the webpage contact though.” “ Webpage? You use that stuff?” asks Nick. “ It’s old use but it works. Don’t doubt the tech,” says Dave. “ I know because the others needed me to help hack the system.” “ Why the hell didn’t they ask me?” asks Hayley. “ You sure we’re not being followed?” “ If we were by anything, cloaked or otherwise it would’ve shown up on the scanners,” says Dave. “ Concentrated holograph field. They’d need to penetrate it in order to bug us. Can’t do that in Tokyo easily. Too much background radiation. Speaking of background, we need to recollect those lasers.” “ Shit not another assignment. We’ve been through enough as it is!” calls out Nick. “ Relax Nicky, these are the other teams, although we have had a lot on our plate. I have to go to another country in another part of the world to check up on one other mole who’s come to us for help,” says Trenton. “ Says he can help us in a biogenetics area. Witness security shit, you know? He’s a beginner. He just sent it. Looks like basic e-mail. We should get him before others find him hopefully, oh and Hayley, good luck with the test.” “ Thanks,” mutters Hayley as she puts an endorphin derm on her leg. Nick shakes his head as he looks over at the streets going by. He turns to Mandy, who’s asleep, her head up beside his. 2420hours, 24/10/01- Chiba is a sight for sore eyes, as Martin looks over from the bottle of Sake. The riots on the street of the late news is broadcasted loudly, with several drunkards resting with their heads on the counter, a pimp looking over the room as a whore puts her work on a young sailor in beige uniform. “ You know I could drink a hundred of these,” says Martin. “ Mmmm hmmm,” says April. Trent and the others sit at a table, looking over the bar. The van is parked outside, a jet black with Honshu numberplates. Dave plays a game of virtual pool besides a Braun coffee maker as Yolanda and Sabrina laze out at a booth. Mandy lies down at a separate booth, Nick running a hand through her hair. “ Did you ever want to do any of this?” asks April. “ Any of this shit. You know, this running around, getting injured, risking life and limb over a few billion people you never met?” “ You’re drunk you know,” points out Martin. “ Women get drunk earlier than men.” “ Don’t be sexist,” says April. “ I feel fine, just a little woozy from tonight… So what’s your answer to my question?” “ I was asked the same as you. He just came up one day and asked ‘ If there was a war going on and you were asked to fight, would you?’ I said ‘ Dunno. Depends if I had a choice.’ He said ‘ If you had the chance of helping save billions of lives and were going to be well paid, as in all expenses, you got to travel the world, meet great people and do basically whatever you wanted except when you were really needed, would you?’ I thought for a moment and said ‘Yeah. If I lived through it.’” “ You agreed?” asks Martin. “ Well, we can do what we like, we’re here in Chiba, Japan of all places and we’ve possibly have saved billions of lives from getting their brains washed, even though I have risked neck and limb for this,” says Martin. “ And we get to use kickass guns.” “ Boys and their toys,” mutters April, shaking her head, she sighs. “ You want to pull out, don’t you?” asks Martin. “ Yeah, well I can’t handle it. I’ve gotten about three hours sleep a night. Sometimes none by the fact that I have nightmares half the time of people dying, and guns going off and I don’t know if I’m gonna live through the next day or not. I get shifted to work in many areas around the world, that are darker, dangerous and easier to get lost in, while my parents, friends and family know absolutely nothing about what’s going on. I mean, wouldn’t you be stressed?” “ I do, that’s why I like to get drunk, have sex and zone out half the time, alright? That’s why I act like such a bastard,” says Martin. “ I don’t mean to piss you off or anything. I’m just suggesting that you lay back, try to enjoy the moment. Think of it like a Matrix movie you’re in, or Blade or X-Men.” “ Hmmm,” nods April, she sighs. “ I’m sorry too, alright? Sorry if I get snappy and stuff like that.” “ It’s cool. Hey, maybe before we go we can go get one of those Mount Fuji posters or something?” suggests Martin as he gulps down some more Sake. “ Something to remember the moment.” “ Maybe,” says April, looking over at the television, which is showing a Live Coverage of the Cyprus attack. The television shows a shot of an injured Mr Gregson being lead out in an ambulance. “ Oh shit,” she says, glancing over at Hayley, Ryan and Trent at the table. He looks over from the chicken wings and at the screen. “ They keep on making it. I blow a nuke in his face and he fucking makes it,” says Martin. “ You see? That’s what pisses me off!” “ Martin, cool it,” says April, grabbing his gesturing hand and pulling it down. “ We can’t let them know how we’re involved. OK?” Martin looks at her, sighs and nods. The PDC beeps. They look at it. GOOD TO SEE YOU’RE ALL ALRIGHT. GATE CLOSES AT 1. TAKE A DAY OFF. INFORMATION RECEIVED AND SECURED. LASERS BEING COLLECTED. PROUD OF YOU- BAZ. “ Most he’s ever said,” says Martin. “ Trying to be sympathetic or something. Wonder if he’s listening in?” “ Who cares. Another Sake,” April calls to the bartender. 2440hours- The van speeds past more electrics as the Gyros hover across the skyline, the enormous signs of TOSHIBA, CASIO, MICROSOFT, SONY and PANASONIC highlighting the wet street. David kept at the wheel, his head forward. Yolanda took another puff and then turned to Sabrina. By their feet sat several large black cylinders, all folded up in their chassis. “ Have to keep moving if we wanna make the deadline,” mutters Yolz as she glances out of the tinted windows. “ How are we going for shadows?” “ We have a police officer interceptor several hundred metres behind us but that’s about it,” says Trent. Nick sits next to Mandy, who yawns as she takes a swig of the bottle in front of her. April and Martin are looking pretty drunk themselves. Exhaustion washes over them like a wave. Hayley lies down at the back, her leg up as Ryan rubs it over. “ You think I can take a shot at him?” asks Sabrina. “ Did you learn anything when I taught you guys this?” asks Trent. “ Do not engage merely for the reason of engaging. The police may get tired of driving after us for a while if we don’t seem to be going anywhere in particular. Remember, it’s only if they shoot at us do we retaliate. We shoot at their tyres, not the front windshield. Zero human body count, remember?” “ Yeah, we remember,” says Hayley, rolling her eyes. “ So how’s school going?” “ School? I’m in uni. Anyway, old school’s good. We got into the finals last month against Collingwood,” says Trent. “ Ah, yes, private schools put into competition, I remember that,” says Nick. “ Yeah, we remember that too, so shut up, alright?” asks Martin. “ What’s up with you two? You got that poster in one piece so what’s the deal?” asks David. “ The deal is how much those bastards price the damn thing. Back in Aus, the going price would be $10, maybe $25 dollarcredits. In Japan, the cost is basically $50 dollarcredits,” explains April. “ Ah, sold on open market? You know from a stall?” asks Ryan. “ Yeah, why?” asks Martin. “ Well there’s your reason. There’s a lot of people in Tokyo, over five million. They have to support each other somehow, and that’s by selling ‘state-of-the-art’ shit at high-rise prices,” says Ryan. Martin mumbles and sits back, holding the sweatband to his forehead, a wire leading from it into his belt. “ What memory are you replaying?” asks Sabrina. “ The part of where I screwed this bloody gorgeous chick,” says Martin, grinning. Yolanda grabs an empty packet of fried noodles and chucks it at him, the remaining stock staining him. “ OI!” he yells, beginning to get up. “ Cool it, Marty,” says Hayley, whincing as she looks over the leg. “ Don’t think the bone’s broken, but the nerves are definitely hit,” she says. “ I need more endorphin.” “ One more,” says Ryan, holding up a red derm. “ I don’t want you getting too high right at this moment, even though it would be pretty damn funny.” “ Ha ha ha,” says Hayley, grabbing the derm and slamming it onto her leg. She breathes in as the drugs take affect. Sabrina shakes her head as she looks over the window again. David turns a corner. “ We still have our shadow on us?” asks David. “ Not that I can see,” says Sabrina. “ Must’ve lost him.” She glances back at him. “ We still in Chiba at this moment?” “ At the rate the traffic is going, oh yeah, we’re still in Chiba,” says David. “ But hopefully not for long. We’re getting up to the turn now.” He wheels the car and it rumbles into an alley, heading down to a parking lot in front of a red-brick wall. He hits a button on his belt and the wall rolls up. He guns the vehicle inside the large warehouse as an overhead fluoro flicks on. He stops the car. “ Home sweet home,” mumbles Yolanda. 0100hours- The van is parked alongside several others as they head onwards to the middle room, where a bunch of old crates “ So any other missions coming up I should know about?” asks Hayley as she stumbles over to a large loading bay. In front of the loading bay is a large set of pylons arranged into a square. “ Yeah, have to go over to Tehran to pick up this guy in the biogen area,” says David. “ Muslim territory.” “ Ouch, be careful, alright?” asks Hayley. “ Don’t worry, the guy shouldn’t be hard to find,” says Trent, taking out a rifle and checking the atomic power cell, he flicks it closed. “ Need to get myself a Browning one day.” “ Can you get us any weed while you’re at it?” asks Ryan. “ Dunno, your mother might not be open on Saturdays,” says Trent. “ FUCK you,” snarls Ryan. The others smile as they head towards the gate. Trent presses a button on his belt, and one by one so do the others. The pylons glow green as lines of energy cross from all angles. They converge into a single plane, rippling like water. Trenton scans the pack of receivers and then throws them in. Energy crackles around it and the pack sinks in and disappears. “ Cool it, Ryan,” says Nick with a small smile. He looks over at the shimmering waves of light. “ You know there’s a lot to remember about what happened tonight.” “ Yeah, what I won’t forget is how you lied to us,” snaps Hayley. “ That was cover. If the Zychas knew we had the data, they’d probably send the others on us. Lying made them pause for a while, enough for us to react in time. Otherwise they might have caught us off guard,” explains Nick. “ Whatever, Nicko,” says April, yawning. She comes over to Trent and scans herself into a reader strapped to his belt. She dashes into the light and pauses, still as ice as she vanishes inside. “ Good thing I locked her in. Otherwise she would be vaped,” says Trent. “ It’s okay, I locked the receivers in too.” “ Good. I doubt they would be easy to find in places like these,” mutters Martin as he scans himself in. He leaps into the field and disappears. “ All you need are the right connections,” says Dave, he turns to Yolanda and Sabrina. “ Heard you two got into a little rumble with some assholes. You alright?” “ Yeah, fine in case you hadn’t noticed. We handle ourselves alright,” says Sabrina as she scans herself into the reader, a green light flicks on. After she leaps in, the green light flickers off. Yolanda comes over and scans herself in too. “ It’s okay, they wouldn’t’ve recognised us,” says Yolz. “ Even so, I didn’t teach you all how to kickbox just so you could whip a few blokes who get rough on you,” says Trent. “ Sorry, we don’t usually like to give in to blokes who try to force themselves on us. Not our kind of thing,” says Yolanda. “ You taught us to be strong, so the only person you have to blame is yourself.” “ Oooh,” says Ryan with a grin. Dave and Hayley grin. “ Shut up!” yells Trent, his face reddening. He rubs his face as Yolanda leaps into the field and disappears. The sound of a siren from several blocks away makes them turn. “ Alright, let’s hustle it on ladies and gents. Come on. Time’s a wastin,” he says. “ What about the van?” asks Dave. “ What if the police try to sting the place or somethin?” “ The perimeter security will lock the place tight, and they’ll need a warrant because it’s private property. The police aren’t stupid you know,” points out Mandy as she scans herself into the reader. She leaps into the field. Nick scans himself in and goes in after her. Dave scans himself in and follows suit, after throwing in the weapons. “ Well, here we go, back to exams, jobs and taxes,” mutters Hayley as she scans herself into the reader device. She steps into the frame as energy collides around her. The world in front of her becomes a rushing tunnel of light. Then she’s gone.