Silence In Numbers: File One, page 42
Katsumi groaned. “I’ve been in bed enough as it is over the past few weeks.”
Ayane grinned at her. “Maybe we can actually take a break now, huh?”
Katsumi sighed. “I wish we could, but… Despite everything we gave – and sacrificed – we still lost. Our father is still out there, and he has what he wanted. And Sigma may be out there in some form, too, whatever he is, or was. After all this time we still don’t know anything, and we haven’t accomplished anything.”
Ayane sat on the bed beside her. “We defeated the demon – you protected the city, which is your job. Father has been a problem all our lives, that’s nothing new. And whatever this Sigma is, we’ll find out – you still have a great team, and all of them are with you. This isn’t over yet, Sumi. Law didn’t die so we could lose.”
Katsumi rubbed at her face. “I know that… You’re right, I know, you’re right. It’s just… It feels like… I just…”
“I miss him too,” Ayane said sadly as Katsumi turned to face her.
“There was nothing I could do. I just keep thinking… If I’d been able to kill Father, or if I’d managed not to get injured and been able to help hold him off Law wouldn’t have had to-“
“That’s just going to drive you crazy,” Ayane cut her off. “We knew him longer than anyone, Sumi – you know that’s not what he was thinking when he did it.”
“No…” Katsumi looked away sadly. “That’s not what he was thinking…”
Ayane studied her for a moment, frowning at her sister’s fallen demeanor. “Katsumi?”
Katsumi hesitated, biting her lip before looking back at her. “Ayane, I-“
“Katsumi.” Katsumi looked at her sister, who was glancing over her shoulder; her tone and expression had both grown serious. “Roof of the building opposite – sniper.”
Katsumi didn’t visibly react, but she did stand and stretch, moving with Ayane out of the view of the window. “We need to get out of the room.”
“I wouldn’t do that.” Both of them looked over as Rufus pushed open the door and entered the room. Six soldiers filed in past him, surrounding them.
“What’s this about, Rufus?”
Rufus smiled at Katsumi. “The Board just wants your sister to come visit them, as they feel she could be an important asset,” he stated casually. Katsumi and Ayane watched as the soldiers tightened their grips on their guns – this was no invitation, that much was obvious.
“I see…” Katsumi looked from the soldiers to Rufus. “So they asked you to bring her in.”
She watched as a knife slid into each of Rufus’ hands. “It’s nothing personal – they dealt me a Full House.”
Katsumi met his eyes through the shades. “Not even a Royal Flush, huh?”
Rufus shook his head, smiling. “Unfortunately…”
In the next instant, Rufus’ knifes were buried in the necks of the two soldiers on either side of the sisters. Before the soldiers could even react, Rufus was driving a new knife into the throat of the soldier to his left, and Katsumi and Ayane had torn the knives from the other two soldiers’ throats and killed two more. The last went down after Ayane kicked his gun, throwing off his aim and making his shots hit the ceiling; Katsumi grabbed the rifle of the soldier she’d just killed and pulled the trigger, gunning down the last one.
As soon as they were down Rufus looked at Katsumi. “They’ve got a car outside, a sniper on the building over there, and a spotter on a building to the northeast.”
“We’ll head out the south, then.”
“Take a window, avoid the first alley – and head for the alley next to the bank two blocks south; enter the parking garage on the other side.”
“Got it.” Katsumi smiled at him. “Straight Flush beats Full House, huh?”
“You’re just lucky this sounded more fun, boss,” Rufus replied, making her chuckle. He drew his pistol and flipped it around, handing it to her. “You know what you’re going to have to do – just try to find a balance between ‘looks real’ and ‘fatal’, if you can.”
Katsumi sighed as she leveled the pistol. “I really am very sorry for this…”
She winced as she shot him in the side and he grunted, leaning back against the wall. “Not the first time…”
“That looks like it hurt…” Ayane said with a grimace.
“No, no… Feels fine…”
Katsumi stopped beside him, setting a hand on his shoulder. “Thank you,” she whispered softly; he just nodded as they moved past him and out into the hall.
Rufus sighed, pushing himself off the wall and keeping an arm pressed against the wound as he made his way to the North exit, making sure he was visible as he stumbled out of the building. He knew the spotter would see him and call back-up; as soon as they arrived and the medic began inspecting Rufus’ wound, he spoke to the commander. “They jumped us… I overheard them planning to head to the Major’s apartment north of here.” As the commander got his soldiers together, Rufus had to hide his smirk.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Katsumi and Ayane made their way around the soldiers, slipping by buildings and using their considerable experience at remaining hidden. Entering the alley Rufus had pointed them to, they found the parking garage just past it, and entered as he had said. Inside they discovered Sano and Reno waiting for them beside two cars, one of which was running. Katsumi recognized the sleek black vehicle as hers, and the two men smiled as they approached.
“Hey, you didn’t die!” Sano said with a smile.
“Hey boss, you ever think about visiting a casino?” Reno offered. “I don’t think the odds would be nearly as bad as all the ones you’ve beaten so far.”
Katsumi smirked. “I don’t exactly like facing bad odds, Reno.”
“All your things are in there,” Sano said with a nod towards the car. “Guns, swords, clothing, pictures, pretty much everything we could find in your apartment. Rufus is pointing them towards your apartment, so they’ll think you just got there ahead of them.”
Ayane looked surprised. “How did you set all this up?”
Sano shrugged. “It wasn’t hard – Rufus called me right after he got his orders, and since I live like twenty feet from Katsumi’s apartment I had all your stuff packed by the time Reno arrived with her car.”
“Also, I already knew where all the tracking and ID transceivers were on the car, so I’ve removed them all, too,” Reno added. “And then Sano changed the license plate because apparently you keep a spare one around your apartment?”
Katsumi shrugged. “It pays to be paranoid, doesn’t it?”
“I guess so. Oh yeah, uh…” Reno rubbed his head. “I kinda told Lenora and she made me bring a bunch of food for you, too, so you shouldn’t have to stop for a while.”
Katsumi grinned. “You’ll have to thank her for me. And thank you, too – I know the risks you’re both taking for us.”
Ayane nodded. “We aren’t really used to people putting themselves on the line for us like this, so… thank you.”
“Just be careful,” Sano cautioned. “This is all worth it, but it won’t be if you get caught anyway.”
Katsumi smiled as she opened the door for Ayane. “Don’t worry, we’re pretty damn good at this.” She shut the door after her sister was inside, pointing at Sano as she walked around the car. “You’re their leader while I’m gone, Sano. Don’t let any of them get hurt.”
“I won’t, boss – I promise.”
Katsumi smiled at him a final time before getting in. Sano and Reno stood aside as the car backed out and then drove away, soon turning out of sight. Reno sighed and looked at his friend. “When did we all become crazy?”
Sano shrugged, giving a slight smile. “When we met each other.”
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
“So we have two runners,” Hackett said, barely concealing his anger.
“It appears that way,” M responded, lacking his trademark smile as he reported to the board in the HQ control room. “At the moment we have no idea where they are, but I assure you, I have the entire team searching for the traitors.” For once he actually seemed angry; betrayed, even.
H sighed and rubbed his face. “This is a disaster… Get those two back now, M. The future of the company may depend on it.”
“Loyalty only goes so far,” M stated harshly. “It ends with betrayal. They will be found.” As the call cut off, M immediately smiled and turned to another screen where he had a different call open. “You know what I know, Major.”
“Thank you for doing this for us, M,” Katsumi responded over the call. “I know the position I’m putting all of you in…”
“Position?” M chuckled. “I’m looking forward to this.”
“Well if I’d known that I’d have done all this sooner,” Katsumi replied, sounding amused.
“I knew you were going to be trouble the moment I met you.”
“That explains why you made me the leader. Alright, I’m running out of time – I’ll contact you at the next opportunity.”
“Do keep safe,” M said before the call was disconnected. He then turned to the remaining four, who had been standing to the side listening to both exchanges – Sano, Reno, Rufus and Hitomi. M smiled at them, using two fingers to push up his reflective glasses. “Well, my friends, things are about to get interesting.”
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Outside of the boardroom at the Aegis Headquarters, one of the Directors moved down the hall away from the others, opening up a door none of them knew existed. Inside, the Director closed the door behind him and continued down a long corridor that appeared on no building plans. Eventually, the Director arrived at a hidden room and gave a sigh, sitting in a chair surrounded by computers and screens and lit only by the glow of the monitors. A switch was flipped on a monitor, a cable was plugged into a spot normally hidden on the Director’s neck that a synthetic skin plate slid aside to reveal, and the SIGMA AI uploaded itself onto the network, establishing a connection with a hideout in Tokyo.
“So everything is in motion,” Joseph said after the connection was made, his face appearing on the screen. “We have the Demon Soul, you’ve successfully convinced them that they need the sisters, and their team is split apart; are you certain everything will still go as planned?”
Sigma smiled. “No need to worry, it’s all working out even if there are a few discrepancies from the original plan. I admit I didn’t foresee it going exactly this way, but everything is still on schedule. I will have to put more effort into my next Active Shell, however; I didn’t expect them to be able to destroy it.”
“That will no longer be a problem; without my daughters, they are virtually harmless.”
“We haven’t come this far by being careless,” Sigma cautioned. “Try not to forget this was simply the first step.” Sigma grinned. “It’s the next step that’s going to cause all the chaos.”
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Outside of a gas station at the city’s outskirts, Katsumi hung up the payphone she had used to call M. Their cell phones had been left back in the city, and using their cyber links wouldn’t have allowed her to hear the conversation with the board. She didn’t know quite what to think about Aegis’ betrayal, but she didn’t even consider that she could be making the wrong decision; especially when she turned around and smiled as she saw her sister leave the station’s convenience store waving the candy she’d just bought.
They’d ditched their clothing, as well, and were now dressed in civilian clothing; Ayane wore a pink hoodie and blue jeans, while Katsumi had opted for a simple black long-sleeved shirt and black jeans. Comfort and durability were the main goals for clothing when on the run, because you never knew when you would get a chance to change. Katsumi walked back through the cool night air to the running car, getting back inside and shutting the door.
Ayane watched her from the passenger seat as Katsumi shifted the car into drive and pulled back onto the road. “I’m sorry we have to leave it all behind,” she said softly, breaking the silence of the road and drawing Katsumi’s eyes to her. “Our first real home, family, friends, your job, and everything else… I’m sorry it had to go this way.”
Katsumi shook her head. “All of those things are nice, yes. I care about them, I enjoy them, I’ll even miss them while we’re gone. But there has always been one thing, one, that I’ve been able to count on for my entire life, and since I’m in the car with her right now, I don’t care what else is going on.”
Ayane smiled, leaning over to lay her head on her sister’s shoulder. “So you aren’t upset that you’ve ended up here?”
Katsumi looked out the window as rain began to fall upon it, taking in the road they were heading down. She then looked back at her sister, who was taking her hand. Katsumi squeezed it, giving a genuine smile. “This is the only place I want to be.”
END OF FILE 1
###
About the Author:
Jake Taylor lives in Austin, Texas. A passionate collector of all things Final Fantasy, Marvel Comics and Star Wars, he writes both Fantasy Fiction and Science Fiction. His characters are his roommates (they unfortunately refuse to chip in for rent) and his writing is his life.
Discover other Titles by Jake Taylor
in the
Silence In Numbers Series
and
his Fantasy Fiction series, Victis Honor
Connect with Jake online:
twitter: http://twitter.com/@The7thShadow
Blog: http://www.theseventhshadow.com
Taylor, Jake, Silence In Numbers: File One
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Ayane grinned at her. “Maybe we can actually take a break now, huh?”
Katsumi sighed. “I wish we could, but… Despite everything we gave – and sacrificed – we still lost. Our father is still out there, and he has what he wanted. And Sigma may be out there in some form, too, whatever he is, or was. After all this time we still don’t know anything, and we haven’t accomplished anything.”
Ayane sat on the bed beside her. “We defeated the demon – you protected the city, which is your job. Father has been a problem all our lives, that’s nothing new. And whatever this Sigma is, we’ll find out – you still have a great team, and all of them are with you. This isn’t over yet, Sumi. Law didn’t die so we could lose.”
Katsumi rubbed at her face. “I know that… You’re right, I know, you’re right. It’s just… It feels like… I just…”
“I miss him too,” Ayane said sadly as Katsumi turned to face her.
“There was nothing I could do. I just keep thinking… If I’d been able to kill Father, or if I’d managed not to get injured and been able to help hold him off Law wouldn’t have had to-“
“That’s just going to drive you crazy,” Ayane cut her off. “We knew him longer than anyone, Sumi – you know that’s not what he was thinking when he did it.”
“No…” Katsumi looked away sadly. “That’s not what he was thinking…”
Ayane studied her for a moment, frowning at her sister’s fallen demeanor. “Katsumi?”
Katsumi hesitated, biting her lip before looking back at her. “Ayane, I-“
“Katsumi.” Katsumi looked at her sister, who was glancing over her shoulder; her tone and expression had both grown serious. “Roof of the building opposite – sniper.”
Katsumi didn’t visibly react, but she did stand and stretch, moving with Ayane out of the view of the window. “We need to get out of the room.”
“I wouldn’t do that.” Both of them looked over as Rufus pushed open the door and entered the room. Six soldiers filed in past him, surrounding them.
“What’s this about, Rufus?”
Rufus smiled at Katsumi. “The Board just wants your sister to come visit them, as they feel she could be an important asset,” he stated casually. Katsumi and Ayane watched as the soldiers tightened their grips on their guns – this was no invitation, that much was obvious.
“I see…” Katsumi looked from the soldiers to Rufus. “So they asked you to bring her in.”
She watched as a knife slid into each of Rufus’ hands. “It’s nothing personal – they dealt me a Full House.”
Katsumi met his eyes through the shades. “Not even a Royal Flush, huh?”
Rufus shook his head, smiling. “Unfortunately…”
In the next instant, Rufus’ knifes were buried in the necks of the two soldiers on either side of the sisters. Before the soldiers could even react, Rufus was driving a new knife into the throat of the soldier to his left, and Katsumi and Ayane had torn the knives from the other two soldiers’ throats and killed two more. The last went down after Ayane kicked his gun, throwing off his aim and making his shots hit the ceiling; Katsumi grabbed the rifle of the soldier she’d just killed and pulled the trigger, gunning down the last one.
As soon as they were down Rufus looked at Katsumi. “They’ve got a car outside, a sniper on the building over there, and a spotter on a building to the northeast.”
“We’ll head out the south, then.”
“Take a window, avoid the first alley – and head for the alley next to the bank two blocks south; enter the parking garage on the other side.”
“Got it.” Katsumi smiled at him. “Straight Flush beats Full House, huh?”
“You’re just lucky this sounded more fun, boss,” Rufus replied, making her chuckle. He drew his pistol and flipped it around, handing it to her. “You know what you’re going to have to do – just try to find a balance between ‘looks real’ and ‘fatal’, if you can.”
Katsumi sighed as she leveled the pistol. “I really am very sorry for this…”
She winced as she shot him in the side and he grunted, leaning back against the wall. “Not the first time…”
“That looks like it hurt…” Ayane said with a grimace.
“No, no… Feels fine…”
Katsumi stopped beside him, setting a hand on his shoulder. “Thank you,” she whispered softly; he just nodded as they moved past him and out into the hall.
Rufus sighed, pushing himself off the wall and keeping an arm pressed against the wound as he made his way to the North exit, making sure he was visible as he stumbled out of the building. He knew the spotter would see him and call back-up; as soon as they arrived and the medic began inspecting Rufus’ wound, he spoke to the commander. “They jumped us… I overheard them planning to head to the Major’s apartment north of here.” As the commander got his soldiers together, Rufus had to hide his smirk.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Katsumi and Ayane made their way around the soldiers, slipping by buildings and using their considerable experience at remaining hidden. Entering the alley Rufus had pointed them to, they found the parking garage just past it, and entered as he had said. Inside they discovered Sano and Reno waiting for them beside two cars, one of which was running. Katsumi recognized the sleek black vehicle as hers, and the two men smiled as they approached.
“Hey, you didn’t die!” Sano said with a smile.
“Hey boss, you ever think about visiting a casino?” Reno offered. “I don’t think the odds would be nearly as bad as all the ones you’ve beaten so far.”
Katsumi smirked. “I don’t exactly like facing bad odds, Reno.”
“All your things are in there,” Sano said with a nod towards the car. “Guns, swords, clothing, pictures, pretty much everything we could find in your apartment. Rufus is pointing them towards your apartment, so they’ll think you just got there ahead of them.”
Ayane looked surprised. “How did you set all this up?”
Sano shrugged. “It wasn’t hard – Rufus called me right after he got his orders, and since I live like twenty feet from Katsumi’s apartment I had all your stuff packed by the time Reno arrived with her car.”
“Also, I already knew where all the tracking and ID transceivers were on the car, so I’ve removed them all, too,” Reno added. “And then Sano changed the license plate because apparently you keep a spare one around your apartment?”
Katsumi shrugged. “It pays to be paranoid, doesn’t it?”
“I guess so. Oh yeah, uh…” Reno rubbed his head. “I kinda told Lenora and she made me bring a bunch of food for you, too, so you shouldn’t have to stop for a while.”
Katsumi grinned. “You’ll have to thank her for me. And thank you, too – I know the risks you’re both taking for us.”
Ayane nodded. “We aren’t really used to people putting themselves on the line for us like this, so… thank you.”
“Just be careful,” Sano cautioned. “This is all worth it, but it won’t be if you get caught anyway.”
Katsumi smiled as she opened the door for Ayane. “Don’t worry, we’re pretty damn good at this.” She shut the door after her sister was inside, pointing at Sano as she walked around the car. “You’re their leader while I’m gone, Sano. Don’t let any of them get hurt.”
“I won’t, boss – I promise.”
Katsumi smiled at him a final time before getting in. Sano and Reno stood aside as the car backed out and then drove away, soon turning out of sight. Reno sighed and looked at his friend. “When did we all become crazy?”
Sano shrugged, giving a slight smile. “When we met each other.”
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
“So we have two runners,” Hackett said, barely concealing his anger.
“It appears that way,” M responded, lacking his trademark smile as he reported to the board in the HQ control room. “At the moment we have no idea where they are, but I assure you, I have the entire team searching for the traitors.” For once he actually seemed angry; betrayed, even.
H sighed and rubbed his face. “This is a disaster… Get those two back now, M. The future of the company may depend on it.”
“Loyalty only goes so far,” M stated harshly. “It ends with betrayal. They will be found.” As the call cut off, M immediately smiled and turned to another screen where he had a different call open. “You know what I know, Major.”
“Thank you for doing this for us, M,” Katsumi responded over the call. “I know the position I’m putting all of you in…”
“Position?” M chuckled. “I’m looking forward to this.”
“Well if I’d known that I’d have done all this sooner,” Katsumi replied, sounding amused.
“I knew you were going to be trouble the moment I met you.”
“That explains why you made me the leader. Alright, I’m running out of time – I’ll contact you at the next opportunity.”
“Do keep safe,” M said before the call was disconnected. He then turned to the remaining four, who had been standing to the side listening to both exchanges – Sano, Reno, Rufus and Hitomi. M smiled at them, using two fingers to push up his reflective glasses. “Well, my friends, things are about to get interesting.”
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Outside of the boardroom at the Aegis Headquarters, one of the Directors moved down the hall away from the others, opening up a door none of them knew existed. Inside, the Director closed the door behind him and continued down a long corridor that appeared on no building plans. Eventually, the Director arrived at a hidden room and gave a sigh, sitting in a chair surrounded by computers and screens and lit only by the glow of the monitors. A switch was flipped on a monitor, a cable was plugged into a spot normally hidden on the Director’s neck that a synthetic skin plate slid aside to reveal, and the SIGMA AI uploaded itself onto the network, establishing a connection with a hideout in Tokyo.
“So everything is in motion,” Joseph said after the connection was made, his face appearing on the screen. “We have the Demon Soul, you’ve successfully convinced them that they need the sisters, and their team is split apart; are you certain everything will still go as planned?”
Sigma smiled. “No need to worry, it’s all working out even if there are a few discrepancies from the original plan. I admit I didn’t foresee it going exactly this way, but everything is still on schedule. I will have to put more effort into my next Active Shell, however; I didn’t expect them to be able to destroy it.”
“That will no longer be a problem; without my daughters, they are virtually harmless.”
“We haven’t come this far by being careless,” Sigma cautioned. “Try not to forget this was simply the first step.” Sigma grinned. “It’s the next step that’s going to cause all the chaos.”
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Outside of a gas station at the city’s outskirts, Katsumi hung up the payphone she had used to call M. Their cell phones had been left back in the city, and using their cyber links wouldn’t have allowed her to hear the conversation with the board. She didn’t know quite what to think about Aegis’ betrayal, but she didn’t even consider that she could be making the wrong decision; especially when she turned around and smiled as she saw her sister leave the station’s convenience store waving the candy she’d just bought.
They’d ditched their clothing, as well, and were now dressed in civilian clothing; Ayane wore a pink hoodie and blue jeans, while Katsumi had opted for a simple black long-sleeved shirt and black jeans. Comfort and durability were the main goals for clothing when on the run, because you never knew when you would get a chance to change. Katsumi walked back through the cool night air to the running car, getting back inside and shutting the door.
Ayane watched her from the passenger seat as Katsumi shifted the car into drive and pulled back onto the road. “I’m sorry we have to leave it all behind,” she said softly, breaking the silence of the road and drawing Katsumi’s eyes to her. “Our first real home, family, friends, your job, and everything else… I’m sorry it had to go this way.”
Katsumi shook her head. “All of those things are nice, yes. I care about them, I enjoy them, I’ll even miss them while we’re gone. But there has always been one thing, one, that I’ve been able to count on for my entire life, and since I’m in the car with her right now, I don’t care what else is going on.”
Ayane smiled, leaning over to lay her head on her sister’s shoulder. “So you aren’t upset that you’ve ended up here?”
Katsumi looked out the window as rain began to fall upon it, taking in the road they were heading down. She then looked back at her sister, who was taking her hand. Katsumi squeezed it, giving a genuine smile. “This is the only place I want to be.”
END OF FILE 1
###
About the Author:
Jake Taylor lives in Austin, Texas. A passionate collector of all things Final Fantasy, Marvel Comics and Star Wars, he writes both Fantasy Fiction and Science Fiction. His characters are his roommates (they unfortunately refuse to chip in for rent) and his writing is his life.
Discover other Titles by Jake Taylor
in the
Silence In Numbers Series
and
his Fantasy Fiction series, Victis Honor
Connect with Jake online:
twitter: http://twitter.com/@The7thShadow
Blog: http://www.theseventhshadow.com
Taylor, Jake, Silence In Numbers: File One
