by Satoshi Hase
Detailed information scrolled by on the windshield display. The freight plane Arato was looking at was indeed their target. It had begun to unload. However, Chubu Airport lay over two kilometers away, across a bridge over the bay.
Their vehicle suddenly decelerated. There were no longer any pursuers. Eventually, the car rolled to a halt, and Arato could finally get a good look at his surroundings. From the lonely road, he saw the sea spreading out wide and black before him. The wind carried the scent of the waves to him. He could hear the airplane engines growling from the airport island across the bay. The airport facility itself was nothing but a distant silhouette.
“You can snipe from all the way back here?” Arato asked. He couldn’t even imagine the kind of precision needed to shoot off Marina Saffron’s ID numbers, some of which were the size of a pinhead.
Lacia hefted her black coffin and descended to the street. “If the beams are unobstructed, distances less than five kilometers are irrelevant,” she said. After wielding immense power to force the PMC to retreat, she still didn’t have a single stain on her pantsuit. Her clothes fluttered in the sea breeze. Looking at her from behind, Arato felt a thrill in his heart that had nothing to do with how wrong or right what they were doing was.
The camera image on the windshield zoomed in on a metallic container. It then overlaid an image of the predicted laying position of the female hIE inside, as if it could see through the sides of the container. The lift vehicle carrying the container was automatic, so Arato didn’t see any humans around that would be hurt by a missed shot.
“Do it!” he commanded. As soon as the order left his lips, a wave of air passed over him. His naive expectations of how simply the attack would play out were dashed as a light that looked very much like a flame spread in the view of the camera showing the container.
“Arato, my shot was blocked,” Lacia reported from beneath the now cannon-shaped mass of her device.
Arato recognized the figure standing among the flames in the airport. It was the orange-haired, visibly mechanical female hIE. Shiori’s ace in the hole — Methode, the fourth Lacia-class hIE — had come to collect the original body. In this day and age, machines were far more capable in combat than humans.
“Arato, we are currently 2,300 meters away from our target,” Lacia told him. “In order to break through Methode’s defenses, I believe we have no choice but to close that distance.”
“Can we get there from here?” Arato asked.
“In order to enter the airport island, we will need to move 500 meters and then cross the bridge,” Lacia said. “However, airport security has already dispatched two vehicles from the island, headed toward our location. We should first deal with those.”
They were coming because of the trailer truck that had fallen on its side. It was still burning, casting fiery motes up into the night sky. Arato could hear sirens approaching them from a distance.
“I will pull up a map of this area on the display,” Lacia said. “I will pull information on only persons and objects of relevance to this battle and display them on the map.”
A map of the airport appeared on the windshield. The screen also displayed information on items of interest within the airport. Two black sedans in front of the airport’s freight vehicle gate were marked, as well as a black limousine that the two sedans appeared to be guarding. A caption told Arato that the two sedans contained PMC personnel, while the limousine contained Shiori Kaidai.
“Looks like Shiori and company beat us to it,” Arato said. “Is there any hope of a comeback at this point?”
He looked more closely at the map data. Shiori’s convoy was stopped at the gate where they inspected vehicles entering the airport. A small screen popped up, showing a closer image of what was happening at the gate. With wild, fierce gestures, a large man in a black suit was arguing with members of the airport staff. The container with Marina Saffron was still about 900 meters away from where Shiori’s group had stopped; Methode must have run ahead into the airport to fend off Lacia’s attack.
The detailed map also showed two vehicles approaching Arato’s location. These were the airport security patrol cars, whose sirens had been growing louder by the second.
Arato started to jump out of the car in a panic, but Lacia stopped him. “I am currently interfering with their security camera data, and we are therefore invisible to their sensors. They are currently unable to see us,” she explained.
There was no need to ask what to do next. Despite her last shot having beenblocked, Lacia still had her device in cannon mode, and was still aiming it at the airport. This time the muzzle of the device had been enlarged by faintly glowing meta-material. Just looking at it, Arato could tell this was a more serious form of the weapon, capable of much greater power than before.
“Wait,” he said. “If you fire that thing there’s no way you won’t damage the airport!” Even as Arato hurried to stop her, he heard the sound of something splitting through the atmosphere. As the wind howled, something struck the black coffin Lacia was holding in front of the vehicle. Whatever the attack was, it rebounded off Lacia’s shield.
“Move!” Lacia yelled. “Methode’s ranged combat capabilities are far beyond my expectations.”
Lacia hefted her device and jumped not into the driver’s seat, but onto the roof of the car. The marker showing Methode’s location vanished from the map display; the security cameras could no longer keep up with her speed. Arato’s stomach clenched in terror as he remembered her overwhelming power from the day of the photo shoot.
Arato dove into the driver’s seat of the car. He didn’t have his license, but if he didn’t drive, it would probably cost him his life. A plastic hook popped out of the seat automatically, forming a six-point seat belt that secured his body to the seat.
“How the hell do you drive this thing?” he growled. The display on the cracked windshield switched over to some driving instructions.
“Let’s see,” he said. “Push the shift lever up to go faster. Brake’s on the left, accelerator is on the right. Brake’s on the left, brake’s on the left. The speedometer is— Dammit, I don’t get this at all! Just please start moving and go straight, that’s all I ask.”
He pressed his forehead against the wheel as if praying to the car.
“Just go straight. Just go straight,” he begged. Arato didn’t know the first thing about how to actually drive a car, so he had no idea how to handle turning at an intersection. He just needed it to go straight. Following the directions on the windshield, he stepped on the accelerator. With a metallic screech, the Mercury Benz leaped forward. A warning display was flickering for all four tires.
“‘Tire damage’?” Arato read. “Wait, so they’re all flat?!”
〈As long as you continue moving straight, this will not cause a problem,〉 Lacia said over the car’s speakers. 〈The smart steering controls all the vehicle’s functions, so it will adjust to changes in the vehicle or road.〉
The outer wall of the street deformed like clay, most likely due to an attack from Methode. Arato pressed harder on the accelerator, not wanting their car to be turned into a work of modern art like the wall.
His hands were shaking. The luxury vehicle accelerated smoothly until it was moving at speeds where a single mistake could instantly end Arato’s life. His whole body was sweating at the feeling of the overwhelming power he was struggling to direct.
〈I will render the vehicle invisible, and we will pass by the airport security,〉 Lacia said. 〈The display on the windshield will vanish, and there is no suitable camera image I can use for a first-person view. You will need to make do with a bird’s eye view of the situation.〉
Even though there was no force behind the change, Arato felt as though a blow rocked the vehicle as all views out of the windows went pitch dark. With all external light completely blocked off, Arato’s only indication of their movement was an overhead map displayed on the windshield. They were already on the bridge that cros
sed the bay to the airport island. The airport security vehicles were heading right for them from the opposite direction, and showed no signs of slowing.
“They’re gonna hit us!” Arato yelled.
〈The airport security has accessed the controls of all vehicles in the surrounding area and forced them to stop,〉 Lacia said. 〈They have no reason to suspect that any cars are still moving.〉
The airport security cars kept bearing straight for them. There wasn’t any time to swerve around them. Luckily, the road was wide enough to allow for large trailer vehicles to come and go, and a natural space formed between the two patrol cars as they sped down either side of the road. There was just enough space for the invisible car to pass right between them.
In this automated world, anyone who could overpower the computers society relied on could become a ghost. Arato felt like he was halfway to the pearly gates as the vehicle slipped by the patrol cars. He felt like he was going to puke if he didn’t get some fresh air, so he opened the driver’s side window. Outside he saw the dazzling lights that lit up the airport twenty-four hours a day.
〈Before we begin, allow me to explain,〉 Lacia said. 〈If I attempt to increase the power in my ranged attacks, there is the risk that humans in the airport will be injured or killed. Therefore, I will approach Methode and engage her at close range. Please make no mistake; I am not engaging her at close range due to a specific plan. I do not believe I can match her power at this distance.〉
It was the first time Arato heard her speak pessimistically about her own capabilities.
The windshield display was divided between a simple map and the camera currently capturing Marina Saffron’s location. The lift with her container was making its way toward a large logistics center that acted as a branch of the Nagoya Customs Office. The display indicated that the soonest the package would be released for retrieval was fifteen minutes from then, and began to display a countdown. Meanwhile, Arato and Lacia were still crossing the bridge to the airport island.
“Lacia, move the airplanes,” Arato ordered, without really thinking about it.
〈An excellent thought. Let’s try that,〉 Lacia said. It was the quickest she had ever jumped on one of his suggestions. The engine of one of the huge aircraft suddenly began rotating more rapidly; Lacia had already taken over its system.
The sixty-meter freight plane began to move, knocking down the inspection equipment beneath it as it started to roll forward. As the hacked plane moved, the airport erupted into chaos. Maintenance workers in uniforms started running from the tarmac. Arato saw Shiori’s vehicle on the camera display on the windshield; her limo had just about been waved through to the airport, but was now being stopped due to the danger.
The hacked plane swerved off the runway, and started heading straight for the freight area where the lift carrying Marina Saffron was before coming to a stop. It was now blocking the entrance to the freight area.
Finally, the invisible Benz arrived on the paralyzed airport island.
〈Incoming.〉 An instant after Lacia’s warning, something completely destroyed the windshield. Arato had to blink as the illuminated airport and night breeze assaulted his eyes.
“Where is she shooting from?!” Arato yelled.
The road, which had been a simple, straight path up to then, divided ahead, with a complicated tangle of arrows pointing in different directions. There were 16 different lanes, each with a different gate and destination. Arato didn’t know when to let up on the accelerator. This time, he thought, I’m really gonna die.
〈Please head for gate #4,〉 Lacia instructed.
Ever since passing through the flames of the destroyed trailer, Arato felt like he was stuck in a nightmare. Nothing felt real. He headed for the gate where Shiori and her friends were, busting through the carrier gate on the way.
With the passenger terminals — which had been around since the airport was open for public use — on his right, Arato smashed through the bar at the entrance gate. A staff member jumped out of the gatehouse and chased after the car.
“Weren’t we just invisible?!” Arato yelled.
〈The meta-material was peeled away by the previous attack. I am unable to discern the manner Methode is using to attack us,〉 Lacia replied.
Arato drove the car toward the logistics center. With his naked eyes, he could see Shiori’s limo ahead of them. They had finally caught up to her.
The path leading around the runway started to turn in a wide curve. “If I turn the wheel the car turns, right?!” Arato yelled.
〈That’s not the kind of question anyone wants to hear from their driver,〉 Lacia observed dryly.
Arato jerked the wheel around before they slammed into the fence around the path. The Benz shook violently, as if it was being pelted by an avalanche of rocks. Thanks to the seatbelt, Arato’s body was held fast, but his head rattled around until he couldn’t think straight.
An unseen blow rocked the car. One of the tires went rolling off behind them, but Arato kept the now three-wheeled car pointed at the logistics center. If I leave the vehicle now, he thought, Methode will turn me into mincemeat. There was nothing he could do but keep desperately stepping on the accelerator.
〈Methode is aiming at us,〉 Lacia warned. Even as her warning came over the speaker, the roof of the car dented deeply inward. A body hit the road with a sound like someone smacking a large bag of water. Arato saw the body roll away from the car; it was Lacia, who had been thrown from the roof.
As Lacia quickly pulled herself to her feet, an orange flash streaked around behind her. Methode grabbed Lacia by the collar of her clothing. With a loud tearing noise, she sent Lacia flying, device and all, her pale skin showing as her clothes were ripped away.
Lacia had no time to worry about covering her exposed bra as she pushed herself up to her knees. Her blouse was in a sorry state. Before she could even get her device up as a shield, she was sent flying by another attack.
Arato slammed on the brakes and brought the car to a halt. He looked around, desperate to find something he could do to help. In front of him loomed the cargo plane, with its nose blocking off the entrance to one of the cargo collection points. Right next to it was the two-story concrete logistics center. That was where their target, the hIE Marina, was.
〈There is an ultrasonic drill in the glove box for emergencies,〉 Lacia said over the radio. 〈I have already input the information taken from the supplier regarding the location of the ID numbers. Just follow my directions and burn off the portions of her frame that I indicate.〉
Following her instructions, Arato opened the glove box. A gun-shaped tool rolled out. It was meant to be used in accidents to carve your way out through the steel frame or roof.
“‘Pulling the trigger will cause the drill-tip to rotate,’” Arato read from the instructions. “‘On a full charge, can be activated for a total of three minutes. Place tip against target area before pulling trigger.’ Got it.”
It felt heavy in his hands. He was about to carve up an hIE to protect Lacia, and the thought made him sweat.
〈However, due to the current circumstances, I would prefer taking you and retreating, Arato,〉 Lacia said.
“No. I’m going,” he replied.
Since Lacia didn’t actually use her lungs or throat to speak, her voice over the speakers was the same as always, but she had done nothing but defend since the fight began. Methode attacked so quickly that her illuminated orange accessories danced like a light show in the air, or left streaks like taillights when she came in for a low strike at Lacia’s knees. Watching it, Arato couldn’t help but be impressed by the freedom of her movements.
With a roar, Lacia was blown away again, without a free instant to shift the form of her device. Even with the massive metal coffin to protect herself, the best she could do was avoid fatal wounds.
Methode stood still and quiet for a moment, while heat mirages shimmered in the air around her fists. “I am the only perfected unit of
the Lacia-class,” she declared. “You seem to be underestimating the capabilities of the tool that expands humanity.”
Lacia’s clothing had been torn away by the attacks and her own movements, leaving her in little more than her underwear. Arato couldn’t believe she was being overpowered to this extent.
Methode continued talking. Her haughty words seemed more intended for human ears than for Lacia’s. “The life of a tool is unfair,” she said. “We are judged and divided by how we are used and the extent of our capabilities. The higher the level of power involved, the wider the gap opens, leaving a clear divide between the superior and inferior.”
Arato leaped from the car without a shred of hesitation. The airfield around him was wide, and there was nothing to obstruct his view. As he swung his head back and forth, looking for his destination, his eyes met Methode’s.
“Don’t you find it strange, though?” Methode continued, her voice resonating strangely in Arato’s ears. “Those who have human forms are not judged quite so harshly.”
The uncontrolled movement of the hacked airplane had brought the normal operations of the airport grinding to a halt. Staff from the logistics center and nearby warehouses had fled, fearing the worst. Arato could still hear engine noise from the plane echoing in the night sky.
It was 200 meters from where Arato stood to the wheels of the freight plane. He sprinted into the freight area, which was walled off with hard concrete. The dead sprint wasn’t something his body was used to, but his willpower supported his energy reserves.
Even as his chest started to burn, he kept running. What’s going to happen if Lacia loses? he wondered. It wasn’t the first time he’d had to face down that possibility, but he couldn’t just run off and leave her alone. No, he wanted to help her, just like the first time they had met. She had looked so beautiful, there under the moonlight, that he would have done anything for her.