1. B - 11, C - 1
2. A - 7, B - 3, C - 2
***
Case of the Cursed Songstress, Conclusion
“Do you know why you are here?” asks the interrogator.
“You believe I am working with Cyber Jack.” replies Nancy calmly, looking down at her hands.
“Are you?”
“Yes.” she says matter-of-factly. “I have nothing to hide.”
“Why are you working with him?”
“I agree with his ideals.”
“Why are you after Qin Kawano?”
“Her public conversion would have been a great boost to our cause.”
“Conversion, you say. Is it some sort of religion? Are you related to the Apostles? How did you plan on achieving it?”
“It is not a religion. Facts deny faith, and there can be no religion without faith. Our ideals are based on fact.”
“Very well, if you say so. What are your ideals? What do you stand to gain from all this?”
Nancy's lips tighten, pressing together in a thin, knowing smile.
“My work here is done, as the situation has changed. You will know the truth very, very soon. 'Til we meet again.”
Suddenly, her eyes roll up in her head as she begins convulsing, white foam bubbling from between clenched teeth. The interrogator leaps from his chair to grab her, but he does not make it in time before she hits the ground, her skull making a loud crack against the floor of the interrogation cell.
I pause the recording.
The truth that she spoke of had indeed been revealed soon. A day after her death, the ten thousand suicide victims had made a sudden return to cyberspace. At first, there was anger and disbelief, but as the minutes ticked by it soon became clear that this was not some insensitive attempt at trolling. Friends and relatives found that the internet personas knew everything that the deceased would. They had the same speech quirks, the same thought processes, the same emotions. If not for the fact that their real bodies were clearly dead and lying in a freezer somewhere in the local morgue, one would easily think that they were real, living people – which they claimed to be.
They claimed that they had discarded their physical shell and transcended into the realm of the digital.
As expected, this created a great uproar worldwide, having the fortunate side-effect of making Qin's encounter at the Yamaten yesterday's news. To add fuel to the fire, their location was undefined – no one could track their physical position. It's as if they really existed only in cyberspace.
After Yua had alerted me to the news, I decided to look over Nancy's death again, to see if there is anything I had missed. I get the feeling that I have missed out on some vital clues during my protection of Kawano.
“The latest medical records show that a logic bomb overloaded her cognitive augment, causing a fatal neural feedback.” reports Yua.
“The interrogation cell was shielded, was it not?”
“Yes, the interior would have been secure from all external attempts to hijack Nancy Muir's cognitive augment and implant the bomb.”
Well, that meant that it was installed before she was captured; perhaps from the very start. The use of a logic bomb would explain the other cases handily – in theory, it could be used to program the behaviour of a person bearing extensive neural augments, but such a programmer would have to be god-like in skill. I don't believe that I could do it myself.
There is also a major problem with the bomb's existence; for one, installing unauthorized software on a tracked and licensed brain disc is nearly impossible due to certain hardware locks. Nancy's augment was licensed. There is but one way to unlock a licensed augment, but that involves undergoing a second surgical procedure to manually modify the disc's circuitry after its installation. This is illegal, of course, but common amongst the augment addicts in the enclaves. Though the disc itself was too damaged to tell if it was tampered with after the logic bomb went off, there were no signs of a second surgical procedure on Nancy's skull, so I could probably rule that out.
Perhaps...
“There's an incoming call from Azo,” Yua interrupts my thoughts. I tell her to connect the call.
“Hoshikawa.” Azo greets me curtly, as is his custom.
“Minister.”
“Thank you for stopping the threat to Kawano. You did well.”
Right to the point, eh? Well, that's fine with me.
“I didn't do much, and we are still not certain that she is in the clear yet.”
“There have been no accidents on set ever since Nancy Muir was taken into custody.” He does not mention her death, but it is true that since her arrest and subsequent death a week ago, nothing strange has happened around Qin. “Of course,” the minister continues, “This does not mean that we are not supervising her anymore. On the contrary, we will be strengthening her guard with five veterans from the department.”
“Reinforcements,” I quip. “That's always helpful.”
“You won't be with them,” replies Azo with a smile.
“You're pulling me off the case? Are you transferring me to another mission?”
“Not exactly. The Federation's best hacker, Anna – I think you have encountered her before, haven't you – is currently here to assist us to hunt down Cyber Jack. I think we will be able to manage without you for a while. No, I'm giving you a one week vacation.”
“Where to?”
“That, Hoshikawa, is up to you. Did you know that Erika has returned from her mission on Rakuten?”
“Yes, but I haven't had any chance to meet up with her since I was guarding Kawano.”
“Suffice to say, the mission was a failure, and the smuggling ring is now aware that we're on to them. The whole artificial island is in a state of high tension.” he mutters. “That girl is earnest and means well, but Sadomura should've known better...” Azo coughs, composing himself.
“At any rate, she took a picture that might be of interest. Rakuten is a pretty intriguing place for a young man like you. I'm sending it over, so take a look at it.”
“File received and decompressed” says Yua. “Let's see...”
She gasps in shock and shows me the picture immediately. “Look at it!”
“I'm looking, I'm looking,” I grumble. I take a look at the picture. Immediately I see what Yua is excited about.
It's Kyrie.
At least, it looks like her; after that incident at the palace I have become a bit more wary. Only her head can be seen clearly amongst of the crowd of augments, but I recognize her features. Is she really here in Higashi?
“Check for compositing,” I whisper to Yua.
“There should be no need for that. I assure you the picture is untouched, straight from Erika's camera.” says Azo. “At any rate, should you be interested in vacationing in Rakuten, feel free to do so. Of course, you may choose to spend your time however you wish. I shall see you in a week, Hoshikawa.”
Just as Azo hangs up, I get a call from Emiri.
“I... I finally got through! Master!” she shouts, panickedly.
“What's the matter?”
“Things have gone bad, they've captured some of your loyal underlings! Apparently they didn't like us asking too much about the temple, and got really suspicious. Some of our loyal members weren't all that loyal after all, and spilled what they knew! Oh, and it seems that the fake Messiah, Rei, is there too.”
Rei is on Earth? How had she managed to slip in from space? No, that's not all that crucial right now – more importantly, if she is here, it means that they are planning to do something with the Messenger. I may have found out about this just in time, but I wonder if I shouldn't have vetted that list of names before asking them to do more.
“What do you know about the temple right now?”
“The last message I got from them was that they're apparently preparing for the Messenger's shrine to be relocated.”
“Where to?”
“Space.”
It looks like they will be fleeing with the Messenger. Still, to escape Earth orbit is a suicidal task. They must have something major planned as a distraction... like an assault by the Indus on the Federation. In a drop operation, few would be looking for a vessel travelling back into space. I doubt the Indus or the cult have sufficient resources on Earth itself to conduct any other sort of distraction.
***
A. I use my break time to investigate the Kyrie sighting in Rakuten.
B. I head north to investigate the temple before Rei clears it out.
C. I rejoin the Cyber Jack investigation – whatever he is planning, I should try to stop it as soon as possible.
D. I spend my vacation further researching the materials that I brought back from the other world, as well as the other world itself.
***
1. I inform Azo about the possibility of the Indus attacking the Federation sometime during the coming week. It would be better for them to be prepared.
2. I don't inform Azo about the possibility of an Indus attack. I don't care either way what happens to the Federation - why should I?
3. Tell Azo everything about the cult's possible plan to sneak something back into space, and let him handle it as he sees fit.
