Resistance

by Samit Basu

  “This is our first meeting,” says Norio. “You really can’t accuse me of hiding things from you.”

  Tia laughs. “Fair enough,” she says. “And here we are, somewhere in the Pacific Ocean on a nuclear class submarine. The perfect place for a boy and girl to get to know each other.”

  “Why do you have a submarine?”

  “It’s an American Navy sub. They lost it to zombies during the Trinidad infestation, 2016. I found it. Cleaned it. And then, well, I forgot to return it.”

  “Never been in one before.”

  “Finish your meal, and then we’ll go for a walk. You’ll find me in the control room. Ask for the captain.”

  * * *

  The submarine is full of Tias. Norio meets several on his way to the control room, which turns out to be quite far from his cabin – engineer Tias in stained overalls, soldier Tias watching over missile chambers, and surplus-to-requirements Tias running around the submarine in various stages of undress for no apparent reason. The control room, when he finds it, isn’t what Norio expected either – not that he knows anything about submarines, or that the rest of the sub had led him to expect something out of a World War II film, but he’d expected at least one periscope in the middle of the room. Instead, the brain of the submarine is cool and spacious, full of computer screens, a haphazard grid of monitors of different sizes, each showing a complex pattern of falling green symbols. Norio is reminded of those old Matrix films his brothers had been so fond of – he’d enjoyed them too, despite the clunky special effects.

  “I like to wear sunglasses and a trench coat when I sit here sometimes,” says Captain Tia, swinging around in her chair in front of the monitors. “I pretend it’s just me, saving the world from evil machines. It could happen.”

  “You look remarkably young for your age,” says Norio.

  Tia laughs, and presses a button. All around her screens flicker and change, and Norio finds himself facing hundreds of pictures and news videos of himself. Tia rolls a sleek black chair towards him, and he sits, turning, taking in the room. Tia faces the screens again, and operates a complicated system of dials and touchpads laid out in front of her. Norio has seen displays far more complicated than this, of course, but those were never about him.

  “Let’s see now. Norio Hisatomi, age twenty-five, born 1995, third son of Ryuga, head and sole architect of the resurgence of the Hisatomi Zaibatsu, and only child of Ryuga’s mistress Megumi, pop singer and occasional actress,” says Captain Tia, as dozens of screens throw up family photos Norio hasn’t seen in years. “Born in Tokyo, raised in London and Los Angeles, officially adopted by Ryuga after his mother’s death in a car accident in 2003. Poor baby.”

  “I know what my story is,” says Norio.

  “I’m not telling you, love,” says Captain Tia. “I’m telling her.” Norio sees, in the shadows to the far right of the monitor, a Tia in glasses and a severe black dress. She nods sharply in his direction, and gestures to Captain Tia to continue.

  “Who are you?” asks Norio.

  “Tia Prime,” she says.

  “What is that, the oldest Tia?”

  “Yes.”

  “Aren’t you all the same person?”

  “Yes.”

  “So how can you be older than the others?”

  “Every split is a new birth.”

  “How do you all keep track of who and where you are?”

  “Private social network. Pretend you’ve been kidnapped and feel less free to ask personal questions. Captain?”

  “Yes. Ryuga keeps Norio in the UK because his other two sons are scared of him.”

  “They were not scared of me,” says Norio.

  “Scared because the father was fond, and the mother was hot. Norio does exceptionally well in school but gets a bit of a rep for a violent temper. Very good at drama and photography. Visits Tokyo about once a year.”

  “Twice,” says Norio. He seems perfectly relaxed, except for his left foot, which is tapping on the metal floor with increasing frequency.

  “In 2009, when the First Wave of superheroes goes public, Norio is thrilled. He writes his father a long letter about embracing the future, loving change, humans and superhumans working together.”

  “Like a letter? On paper?” asks Tia Prime. “Who does that?”

  “Him. Pay attention. His father doesn’t reply, but he has the letter scanned and saved, and sends a copy to his friends in America. Business moguls who will later form part of the board of what’s now known as Utopic Industries. So it’s possible that Utopic Industries’ earliest aims and goals were built around a lot of very hopeful, sentimental, things our teenaged Norio wrote in his letter.”

  Norio whistles. “Are you serious?” he exclaims, swinging his legs up on a table. “I had no idea.”

  “It can’t have been a good letter, given what Utopic became. Anyway. In 2012, the Kaiju King—”

  “Who?” asks Tia Prime.

  “That lobster we saw? His daddy. Tries to destroy Tokyo at least once a year. Doesn’t seem to want anything else, or any kind of limelight. Arrives as part of the Second Wave in 2012. His first attempt at monster building, a chunky dragon, takes out the Statue of Liberty replica in Odaiba. The Unit destroys the monster, but in the process the Hisatomi skyscraper is damaged. Ryuga Hisatomi and his two older sons are killed. Norio, seventeen years old at the time, finds he has become the head of a small but powerful zaibatsu. He disappears.”

  “Drugs,” says Norio, smiling. “These idle rich, you know. Irresponsible.”

  “Norio spends the next six years in the darkest, most dangerous corners of the world,” Tia continues. “He is involved with crime syndicates, supervillains, secret martial arts trainers and weapons experts. Norio is an early example of the urban phenomenon known as ‘Brucing’.”

  “I don’t know Brucing,” says Tia Prime.

  “You’ve been away. Brucing is where well-off human teenagers decide, after personal setbacks like missing trust funds or, you know, dead parents, to go off to dangerous parts of the world and get the training they need to become martial arts champions and detectives. To stay in the game even if the world is full of superhumans. It’s the new ‘going to India to find yourself’, but with a lot less marijuana.”

  “So you wanted to destroy the Kaiju King? He was your nemesis?” Tia Prime asks Norio.

  “You’re still trying to pin me to ARMOR? No. The Kaiju King didn’t kill my family,” says Norio. “The Unit killed my family. You should know that.”

  “I had left the Unit by then,” says Tia Prime. “What’s this, Captain?”

  “Well, the Unit didn’t kill Norio’s father, the fight did. The Kaiju King’s dragon died when The Faceless impaled it on Norio’s father’s tower.”

  “And killed most of the people inside it,” says Norio, his voice perfectly calm. “It doesn’t matter whose fault it is, of course. But since you have taken so much interest in the matter, you should know that the villain and his monster didn’t kill my father. The world’s greatest superhero team did.”

  Captain Tia leans forward. “So suddenly ‘Are you a supervillain?’ doesn’t seem that stupid a question, does it, Norio?”

  Norio shrugs. “I just wanted to show you that this connection you’re trying to draw between me and ARMOR is false. I have nothing against the Kaiju King. And I have nothing against the Unit. I spent a couple of years wanting to kill The Faceless – why am I calling him The Faceless? I spent a lot of time wondering how to kill the mass murderer Jai Mathur, your friend and ally.”

  “Never,” says Tia. “I tried to kill him the first three times we met, and left the Unit because he was in it.”

  “Well, good for you. Anyway, so thoughts about avenging my father sort of died when Mathur showed many times over the years that he couldn’t be killed. So there’s really nothing I can do about him. Life is unfair. Superpowers are unfair. But my life has been known to arouse envy too. Try not to pity me.”

 
The Tias study him closely for a few seconds.

  “Tell me the rest of the story,” says Tia Prime.

  “I don’t want to give out spoilers,” says Norio. “Do you mind if I walk around this submarine for a while?”

  “There’s not much else to see except torpedo cradles, server rooms and so on,” says Captain Tia. “You drive mechas, I don’t think the sub’s fibre-optic networks are likely to get you breathing heavily.”

  “I don’t—” Norio begins, but Tia Prime cuts him off.

  “We know about ARMOR, Norio,” she snaps. “And your denial is, well, silly at this point. Let’s say this master detective lover of yours finds our sub like you say she will, what will you say when she shows up in her ridiculous little mermaid-mecha?”

  “We are not lovers,” says Norio.

  “That’s true. Why not?” Tia Prime enquires, all traces of annoyance vanishing. “You seem so perfect for each other. And she’s kind of sexy in that intense horror-movie heroine way.”

  “I said, we’re not—”

  “Why don’t you sit down, Norio,” says Captain Tia gently. “We’re going to work together after this, and it’s important that we get to know each other better.”

  Norio smiles. He sits, putting his feet up on the control table again, and surveys the screens on which his life has been laid out. Norio is not particularly vain, but as he looks at an array of screens all featuring him, sharply dressed, stepping out of hybrid cars, inaugurating vertical farms, demonstrating a braingate neural interface to a group of thrilled disabled people, announcing the invention of a nanoparticle-embedded resin that will make Hisatomi cars and maglev trains six times lighter… he decides he looks good. He looks very good.

  “So, Norio’s father dies in 2012 and he disappears for six years,” says Tia Prime.

  “Then he returns, spectacularly, at a zaibatsu meeting and takes charge of the company,” says Captain Tia. “Is it true there was a ninja costume involved, Norio?”

  “Yes. No. Well, it was store-bought. But it got the job done.”

  “Big win. He’d been doing all kinds of financial whiz-kiddery for a year or so before this, of course, so when he finally comes back to Tokyo in 2018 all the pieces in his master plan fall together, and it’s as if Norio has been on top of the eligible bachelor lists right through.”

  “Something about a pig?” says Tia Prime.

  “Yes. The only flaw in Norio’s plan is that his green genetically modified two-headed pig, Capitalist, isn’t a society hit. At around the same time the ARMOR giant mecha-warrior makes its first appearance. Norio and his – associate – Azusa gather a group of people from Tokyo that they’ve known online for a while – they played RPGs together, and were even reigning champions at some game or other before that group of fused Korean supergamers took over all online gaming – and boom, they formed a super mecha pilot team.”

  “Well played,” says Tia Prime.

  “I deny everything,” says Norio.

  Captain Tia hushes them both. “Almost done, now, control yourselves. ARMOR protects Tokyo from sea monsters so well that the government stops hiring international mercenary teams to do the job, leaving Tokyo Bay’s defence more or less in ARMOR’s very capable hands. At the same time, Norio becomes a major player in the business world. But something’s changed.”

  “The pig?” Tia Prime asks.

  “No. The pig is dead. Focus. Instead of looking at human-super cooperation, like Utopic, which by this point has grown to become the world’s fattest mega-super-whatever-corporation, the Hisatomi zaibatsu focuses on humans – there’s even an informal don’t-hire-supers policy. Norio becomes one of the most alpha network people on the Tokyo social scene, and is kind of responsible for the social trend where superheroes, while appreciated for their work, aren’t really seen as acceptable in high society. It’s the opposite of the US, with its superpowered President. Okay. The end.”

  Norio applauds politely. “Very good,” he says. “And now?”

  “And now you take questions, Norio,” says Captain Tia.

  “What if I refuse to answer?”

  “You want us to threaten you? Why?”

  “It just doesn’t feel like a kidnapping otherwise.”

  “Let’s see. First we could tell the world that you’re in Team ARMOR. Make your teammates targets. Then we could take all your money. Then we could… I don’t know, tell the world about your secret connections with Utopic? Never friend you back anywhere on the internet? Write bad reviews on all your hero ratings profiles? Storm your base and steal ARMOR?”

  “I’ll take questions,” says Norio, wincing.

  “First. You’re secretly on the board of directors of Utopic, despite being all no-supers for your own company. I get why you don’t like supers, no one who has had anything to do with Jai ever does. But Utopic is the big daddy of the whole scene where… well, you know what they do. Why do you work for them? It seems like cheating. Utopic seems a little… shady, no?”

  “You don’t have to be polite about Utopic,” says Norio. “The company’s a hideous beast that embraces human-super cooperation in public and performs experiments on supers in secret zoos. Also, it’s taking over the world.”

  “Then why do you work there?”

  “I don’t. I wouldn’t mind being part of something that turned supers into juice and then gave that juice to everyone, but when Utopic finally manages to bottle powers, they’ll sell them for huge profits. Part of which will come to me. I own part of Utopic because my father did. From when it began, before it went the way of all big companies. Utopic keeps me very rich.”

  “So after your whole dark knight rises to the top of the skyscraper story, you end up working for this – hideous beast?”

  “It’s a loving expression. Look, are you trying to sleep with me? Or hire me?”

  “Neither.”

  “Shame. But in that case, my morals are really no concern of yours, are they?”

  “He’s right,” says Tia Prime. “Next question, Norio. How much do you hate the superpowered?”

  “I don’t.”

  “Do wish none of this had happened? That superhumans had never existed?”

  “As in, strongly enough to smuggle myself on a series of illegal plane trips and dream of a world without superhumans, and turn myself into some kind of ultimate anti-super weapon? No.”

  “But you don’t like superhumans.”

  “Of course I don’t. You only like the new world elite if you’re a part of it.”

  “What about the reforesters, the photosynthetics, the landscapers, the cleaners, the healers, the clean energy gang?”

  “No. I recognise they’re doing a good job. Still won’t work with them. Sorry, how does it matter whether I like them or not? Where is this headed?”

  Captain Tia clears her throat nervously and looks at Tia Prime.

  “The thing is, Norio,” says Tia Prime, “someone’s killing off supers.”

  “Someone’s always killing supers,” says Norio with a shrug. “Usually bigger and meaner supers.”

  “Someone very smart, and someone with a plan. These aren’t random incidents. Huge fights, disasters, explosions. Public places. There’s a pattern to it.”

  Norio smiles. “And you thought that was me? I’m… quite flattered, but I lack both the desire and the resources.”

  “No, we didn’t think it was you,” says Captain Tia. “But we could use your help.”

  “I’d love to help you,” says Norio. “Look, there’s Stockholm syndrome kicking in.”

  “But before we work together, we have to be clear about a few things. The whole man of mystery thing you’re doing must work well with most ladies, but we don’t like it. We know you’re up to something,” says Tia Prime. “We know you have a larger plan.”

  “Of course I do,” says Norio. “The further expansion of my business empire, and hopefully the downfall of my rivals. And the lamentation of their women. What is your point?”r />
  “Where did you get the technology for ARMOR from?” asks Captain Tia.

  “Designed it,” says Norio.

  “No you didn’t,” says Tia Prime. “It’s too advanced.”

  “I’m very smart.”

  “You would have built more.”

  “I will, later,” says Norio. “Any more questions?”

  “You’ve found Sundar,” says Tia Prime.

  “Who?”

  “My friend. A superinventor. You have him.”

  “Three things. One, there’s more than one person with every really useful power now. I’ve met another body-doubler, Russian. Do you know him? You’re prettier, before you ask. Two, I don’t work with supers. Three, no.”

  “You’re lying,” says Captain Tia. “I like you, and we could make the world better together. Just the two of us. But you’re lying.”

  Norio smiles.

  “I like you too, Tia,” he says. “I’m sure you hear this all the time. And I’d love to work with you, or even for you, but I can’t. Not until I meet the man you’re working for.”

  Tia frowns. “What makes you think I work for any man?”

  “Work with, then. My English was never perfect. But there’s only one way we can come to any kind of agreement.”

  Norio leans forward and smiles wider.

  “I want to meet Aman Sen,” he says.

  Tia sighs and looks away. “Aman has been dead for four years now,” she says quietly. “You can’t have missed that news, Norio. Everyone knows. He died saving the world. He became a symbol. His T-shirt is more popular than Che’s, for god’s sake.”

  “And he passed on his hacker powers to you before he died?” asks Norio.

  “He made software that ran itself.”

  “Lies. Of course he’d want to pretend he was dead. Everyone in the world was hunting him.”

  “I don’t want to talk about Aman’s death,” says Tia. “He meant the world to me. But you know he’s gone, Norio. It was pretty much a world-changing event. Everyone reported it.”