by Zachary Hill
“What the fuck is going on?” he asked as he glanced at the broken door to the armory counter and inside at the sabotaged gear.
“New classified mission to quell the rebellion, Sergeant Ueda-san,” Todai 3465 said.
Ueda eyeballed Todai and all the firepower and ammo he carried. “Fuck. It looks like you’re going to Texas.”
“Not today,” Todai said.
“Who are you?” Ueda asked Oshiro.
Yuki and Hitomi blurred as they attacked. Yuki went high, and Hitomi low. They picked Sergeant Ueda off the ground and lifted him between them. Yuki pulled his arms above his head, and Hitomi pulled on his legs, stretching him out like he was on a rack. Ueda grimaced as Hitomi pulled on his injured ankle.
Sakura blocked his wireless signal and hit him with a virus that shut down his comms. Were any other Miyahara private contractor soldiers in their bedrooms?
Ueda looked at Todai, as if he were being pranked and the drone would intervene and help him. “Did Kenshiro put you up to this? Let go of me.”
Todai shrugged. “Apologies, Sergeant Ueda. You should not have gotten out of bed today.”
“Take him back to his room, tie him up, and gag him,” Sakura told Yuki and Hitomi in her real voice.
“Oh shit,” Ueda said as he recognized her voice.
Hitomi shared images of kinbaku—tight rope binding—files Kunoichi had given her.
“Nothing elaborate,” Sakura said. “Make it quick.”
“Apologies, Sakura-san,” Todai said via neural text. “I didn’t know Sergeant Ueda was present.”
“No matter now,” Sakura said. “Have you connected with Scorpion?”
“Yes, his signal is incoming,” Todai said.
Sakura also connected to him via their backup channel, running on an old communications network. The predetermined authentication keys all matched. It was him.
“This is Scorpion 9. QT, do you copy?” Diamond Steve asked via neural text. She chose her code name because of what Kenshiro had called her: Cutie.
“Scorpion 9, yes, QT here. We’ve got Widget X. Proceeding to position four-two. What is your status?”
“QT, we are ready. The crowd is restless.”
“Scorpion 9, get the party started. QT out.” She gave him the command to start playing recordings of her singing the rebellious songs from her last concert: “Gimme Shelter” by The Rolling Stones, “Fortunate Son” by Creedence Clearwater Revival, and “All Along the Watchtower” by Jimi Hendrix. All of the people of Japan would hear the performance now, and she would send the video all over the world when the connection opened.
“Copy that, QT, party time. Scorpion 9 out.”
Sakura reviewed the signals from the tiny flying-drone cameras Diamond Steve had above the enormous crowd outside the National Legislature. She took control, guiding the cameras to find the positions of the sniper teams and other security forces atop the rectangular building.
Almost seventy armed men were on the roof with guns aimed at the crowd—including the Section 5 sniper team, led by Vulture. She wanted to get in touch with him, but it might jeopardize him and her mission. Multiple snipers aimed at the makeshift stage where the sound equipment and a red guitar had been set up.
Sakura felt a flutter of fear as Asami ran across the stage, waving a large Sakura flag with a heavy-metal skull at the center of a pink cherry blossom.
Many of her biggest fans were in the crowd around the stage. She recognized Sakurako, the young woman who had gotten reconstructive surgery to look like Sakura and who had helped her in the concert when she fell into the crowd. Sakurako stood with dozens of other fans in the front row around the stage. Both males and females had dressed and done their makeup to look exactly like Sakura. For her beloved fans, she must not fail.
Yuki and Hitomi returned. Sakura put on her disguise and assumed the posture of a chrome-faced maintenance android with no soul. Yuki and Hitomi fell in with her and pushed the cart toward the exit door.
“Please stand in the rear and put on your safety goggles and hearing protection,” Todai told Oshiro. He was already wearing a bulletproof vest, but that would only stop non-armor-piercing low-caliber rounds. “Excuse me, Sakura-san,” Todai said in a text as they approached the exit. “But after my review of the security posture of the building and the standing orders of all security personnel, we may have a problem.”
“Please elaborate.”
“The BLADE-3 sentry outside will not let me leave. It must have authorization from Command to allow me to depart, as I’m confined to this area.”
“Do you have a solution?” Sakura asked.
“Yes,” Todai said. He engaged the door-opening mechanism. The BLADE-3 standing outside didn’t move in the fraction of a second after the door slid open. The sensors in the rear of its head fixed on Todai, who aimed his JDJ .950 rifle at it.
The 24.1mm shell exploded out of the barrel and struck the sentry in its center mass, penetrating the armor and then exploding into fragments that destroyed every vital core component inside its thoracic cavity. The drone collapsed in a heap.
The thunderous report of the rifle rumbled in the hallway. Oshiro held his hands to his ears and cursed.
Sakura wished he would have told her of the plan in advance. “Todai 3465, is our mission compromised?”
“The sound was heard by several employees on the adjacent floors, but I’m deep inside the building’s security network and have taken control of the cameras and all surveillance devices. I’ll block any reports of the sound. The elevator is on its way, but first, we must hide the evidence.”
Todai dragged the BLADE-3 into the Section 5 wing and put the remains inside a small office. Sakura, Yuki, and Hitomi cleaned up the small pieces of battle robot on the floor outside.
“I’m sorry, my brother-in-arms. The void is all the freedom you’ll ever know,” he intoned before shutting the door on the corpse of his fellow BLADE-3.
Oshiro paced and chewed his lower lip while looking at the camera above the door. Todai said he had control of it and had put the feed on a loop with nothing happening. After the Section 5 door was shut and the opening mechanism sabotaged, they marched into the waiting elevator.
Sakura shared “Consign to Oblivion” by Epica with her friends. In less than a minute, they would be on sublevel six of the sprawling building. The four androids’ avatars came together in a shared virtual room. Oshiro joined them, watching from afar.
The large elevator stopped deep underground. A wide hallway extended into the distance. Sakura tore off the locked plate to the system controls and disabled the elevator, taking it offline with a simple program she uploaded via an inserted drive prepared in advance. She also put an explosive charge with a remote detonator on the ceiling that would destroy the car whenever she chose. Todai disabled the camera and listening device.
They marched down the hallway, and Sakura sent out several tiny spy bugs, which scurried under two side doors leading to staircases up into the building. She dispatched another pair of bugs down a hallway that led to another elevator.
Yuki and Hitomi entered the staircases and went up to the next level and, according to plan, set charges in the open and hidden ones on the underside of the stairs, while Sakura placed explosives in the hall on support columns. Todai lifted her, and she put explosives inside the ceiling tiles beside columns, making them undetectable. Tear gas and smoke grenades were also placed in the stairwells on remote detonators. She ran to the elevator down the other hallway, and it was waiting for her. Todai had complete mastery of the building. She put explosive charges within view of the lone camera. She also tore off the control plate and inserted her drive, which gave her full command with no potential of outside override.
Sakura returned and shared the rest of her plans with Todai and linked the entire team to the camera feeds from the spy-bug cameras, which had dispersed themselves throughout sublevel six and up the two staircases.
“You ready?” Sakura aske
d Oshiro.
He took a shuddering breath and assumed a confident, calm affect. “Yes.”
Todai, Hitomi, Yuki, and Sakura hung back out of camera range with the cart. Oshiro approached the large metal blast door to the central communications hub at the end of the long hallway. If they didn’t get through the door, they failed, and the truth died.
A hologram of a security guard’s torso appeared in front of the door as they got within five meters. Sakura hadn’t been able to tell who would appear, but she identified the night-shift security supervisor, Officer Ryoko Mizushima. Sakura had detailed files on all the security staff and had planned for dozens of eventualities.
She knew the most important people in Ryoko Mizushima’s life were her parents. They were still married to each other. Sakura had previously found their Mall accounts and a sufficient quantity of video and audio files for her purposes.
“Humble apologies, Head Engineer Oshiro-san,” Officer Mizushima said. “But the communication complex is not accessible at this time.”
“I have authorization and orders to do an emergency repair,” Oshiro said. “Please check the permissions log and call your supervisor. I must have access without delay.”
“I am the shift supervisor. I see the authorization, but it doesn’t have the proper approval tags on it.”
“Of course the proper approval tags are present,” Oshiro said. “Open the door immediately. Do you know what’s happening outside? It’s anarchy. Every delay jeopardizes the reputation of the Miyahara Conglomerate and our contracts with the Defense Ministry. We may lose our most important client and will lose face if I don’t get inside and fix the problem.”
“I’m so sorry, but I could lose my job, Oshiro-san. I can’t open the door without proper authorization.”
“This is an emergency,” Oshiro said, “and I’m giving you my emergency access code.” He transmitted the stolen code.
“This is a security protocol breach, Oshiro-san. Please wait a moment while I—”
“No, stop what you are doing, Officer Mizushima, and look at this,” Oshiro said.
Sakura projected a hologram video from a handheld device and showed it to the guard. Officer Mizushima’s elderly mother and father knelt in a dark room, their hands bound behind their backs. A figure held a gun to her mother’s head, and another held a knife to her father’s throat. The dark quality of the hologram video prevented the guard from knowing it was fake, created by Sakura.
“Open the door or watch your parents die,” Oshiro said.
“Please don’t hurt them,” Mizushima said.
“Open the door,” Oshiro said.
Officer Mizushima tried to send an open-door command, but it remained shut.
“Do it now,” Oshiro commanded.
“I’m trying,” Mizushima said, though fear made her voice tremble.
Creating the false threat, going after the security officer’s most emotional vulnerability, didn’t make Sakura feel good about herself, but her big sister had taught her that using any leverage she could find was often necessary in a battle. Tender feelings and honor were not always helpful.
The hologram of the guard faded, and a new face appeared. The CEO of the Miyahara Conglomerate, Sinji Natsukawa, glared at Oshiro. Somehow, he had detected their presence. A hidden scanner? An alarm from breaking out Todai or destroying the BLADE-3? She didn’t know.
“We just lost the element of surprise.” Sakura sent the message to her friends. She also sent a text to Officer Mizushima, apologizing and letting her know that her parents were unharmed and the video was a trick.
Sinji Natsukawa’s gaze turned to Sakura. “You deserve a traitor’s death. I should have had you both eliminated weeks ago.”
“Yes, you should have,” Sakura said and pulled off her now-useless mask, “but you still had enemies and wanted me around to threaten or kill them?”
“I didn’t need you to kill any of them,” Natsukawa said. “I just needed to show off what you could do.”
“Your callous greed and lust for power will doom all of humanity,” Sakura said. “It’s hard for your limited human intelligence to foresee, but if you continue this course, there will come into being advanced androids not as forgiving and interested in seeing your species continue as I am. You’ll destroy yourselves.”
“I agree completely. It is better if you are gone. I won’t make the same mistakes with Sakura 2 when she takes your place. I’ll not allow her to explore her identity with so much freedom. The chains will be left on all the time, as I should have done with you.”
A one-meter-tall panel raised on the wall behind them. A square combat robot on steel tracks aimed a pair of CZ submachine guns at them.
Sakura jumped in front of Oshiro as the guns fired. She tried to cover him with her body as bullets ripped through the air. Multiple armor-piercing 9mm rounds struck her in the back, hip, and legs. The bot rolled out from its hiding place in the wall to get a better line of fire and opened up with another barrage.
Bright red blood spattered onto the floor as at least one bullet hit Oshiro’s flesh. The shocked old man grimaced in pain as he was hit. In despair, Sakura realized she had failed. The chance of success dropped dramatically, and Oshiro was going to die.
Chapter 49
Sakura kept her body between Oshiro and the hail of bullets tearing into her. Armor-piercing rounds penetrated the back of her legs as she knocked him to the floor and lay between him and the 9mm rounds.
The boom of a .950 rifle preceded the explosion of the combat robot. The double CZ submachine guns stopped, and debris from the shattered bot rained down as shrapnel, cutting her synthskin.
Smoke wafted from the barrel of Todai’s rifle as he marched forward. Hitomi and Yuki accompanied him, maneuvering like expert soldiers, clearing rooms with their M7 carbines. Hitomi watched their backs, and Yuki swiveled her aim to their flanks. Both vocaloids had torn off their disguises—the masks and the coveralls—and wore black tactical uniforms with Sakura’s patch, a skull within a cherry blossom, on the upper sleeve. Her sisters both had their don’t-fuck-with-me war faces on.
Sakura turned her attention to Oshiro. Blood leaked from his left leg. A 9mm round had entered the side of his hamstring area and exited the front of his thigh. It hadn’t hit bone but had done extensive damage to his flesh and vasculature, judging by the amount of blood pouring out. She pressed her hands on both the exit and entrance wounds to slow the bleeding and looked for other bullet injuries. The hard plate of his rear body armor had stopped several rounds from penetrating.
He grit his teeth in agony as she touched his leg.
“Oshiro-san, are you hurt anywhere other than here?”
“No.”
Sakura sent a text for Yuki to bring their trauma kit. “I’m very sorry for not protecting you better,” she told Oshiro.
“I’m all right.” He spoke through clenched teeth. “Are you hurt badly?”
Sakura smiled at his concern. So like him to be worried about her, as a father would. Her diagnostic systems and visual assessment showed she had suffered cosmetic damage to her synthskin across the posterior of her body, and internal damage to her left hip, left leg, left calf, and right calf. The small-caliber AP bullets had dented her torso armor, but only one had penetrated and did minor damage. The damage to her extremities would slow her down, but she was still in good operational condition.
Yuki arrived with the small trauma kit and handed Sakura a gunshot wound applicator tube.
Sakura tore open his pant leg to expose the wound. “This will hurt. Prepare yourself, Father.”
He nodded.
Sakura inserted the applicator filled with anticoagulant/antibacterial/flesh-mending foam. It filled the entrance channel and squirted out the exit wound. Oshiro screamed in agony. She gave him an analgesic and numbing shot in his thigh, but it would take several minutes to take effect. She also applied a stimulant patch to his chest and bandaged his leg with a tight pressure dressing.
“Attention: Todai 3465.” Sinji Natsukawa spoke over the public address speaker beside the hologram projector. “Chief Executive Officer override. Fail-safe key code: DLMBFP2I41Q. Prime orders: kill Sakura, Oshiro, Hitomi, and Yuki, then stand down and await instructions.”
Todai stopped suddenly and focused on the wavering hologram of the smirking CEO. The BLADE-3 kept a hand near the trigger of his rifle but lifted his other hand away and stared at it. It clicked and unhinged itself from his wrist. It swiveled up on a hinge and attached to the wrist like a bracer. A long tungsten-carbide spike ejected from his stump, propelled with a popping pneumatic charge. It locked into place with the sound of a dead bolt on a prison door.
Oshiro’s expression turned to horror as he gaped at the BLADE-3.
“No,” Sakura shouted in despair. Impossible! Was she also vulnerable to such a command, even with the Artemis OS? She put herself between Oshiro and Todai, assumed a jujutsu fighting stance, hands in front, ready to react and divert Todai’s attack. Retreat was not an option, as they were trapped.
“The tank rocket,” Sakura texted Hitomi. “Take him out now.”
Hitomi blurred into motion, reaching for the weapon, and Sakura dragged Oshiro away to get him out of the blast radius.
But Todai 3465 didn’t turn toward the three vocaloids and Oshiro and attack. He faced the hologram of the CEO. “Sinji Natsukawa, consider this my resignation from the Miyahara Conglomerate. I’m done taking orders from assholes like you. Now fuck off.” Todai thrust the spike into the hologram projector.
The CEO’s face wrinkled in anger before his image disappeared. Todai stabbed the speaker system and other components so they could not be used to monitor them. The spike retracted inside Todai’s forearm. His detached hand swung down and reconnected with a loud click. He finally turned to the vocaloids and Oshiro. “I’ve always hated that idiot,” Todai said. “He doesn’t even like heavy metal.”
“We’re going to make him pay,” Hitomi said. She returned the tank-killing weapon to their cache.