by Satoshi Hase
“Go faster please,” Arato growled. The automatic vehicle picked up his voice command and accelerated. Making almost no sound as it ran, the car passed through the night-shrouded residential district.
“I have stated that saving Kengo Sugiri is possible,” Lacia said, “But in order to do that, you will need to take on some risk that will last for quite some time. Therefore, I would like to impose three conditions on you for this request.” Her posture on the car seat was tense, showing not a single hint of weakness.
“First, this plan involves you interacting with a very dangerous organization,” she went on. “There may be cases in which I am unable to directly aid you while you deal with them. In such cases, I would like you to use your charisma to handle the situation,” she said.
“Fine,” he agreed.
“It is unacceptable to choose a path that would destroy the life you have now,” she said. “Therefore, I want you to follow my directions while keeping in mind that in this situation, it is beyond my ability to control the risks that you are facing.”
Lacia took his hand gently. “And finally, no matter what kind of power you see me use, I want you to trust in me,” she said.
Arato was suddenly struck by the thought that Lacia’s massive monolith hadn’t been by her side for days. But, even though she was about to engage in what seemed like it was going to be a big, complicated job, she didn’t show any sign of retrieving it.
“If, at any point, you respond that you are no longer able to keep to those three conditions, I will halt the plan to rescue Kengo Sugiri. At that point, I will switch my focus to recovering us from what I assume would be a crisis situation,” she said.
“Okay,” Arato said, bowing his head as if to show that, deep down in his heart, he knew the weight of what he was agreeing to.
“I can’t explain the specifics of the plan to you,” Lacia said. “However, I believe it would be reasonable for you to assume that it will involve threatening the Antibody Network with the reveal of their connection to Kengo Sugiri’s case. Though the Antibody Network presents itself as a decentralized volunteer group, there is definitely someone there who has the authority to make decisions regarding their major terrorist activities.”
It was no trouble at all for Lacia to break major problems which Arato never would have been able to grasp, much less solve, down into more manageable pieces. As far as Arato could tell, there wasn’t a single thing she couldn’t do. It was going so smoothly that he was starting to wonder if he really wasn’t capable of doing anything without her.
“You know who the top guy in the Antibody Network is?” he asked.
“They use a network structure to communicate, so there is no direct human contact between members,” Lacia explained. “However, looking at it from another perspective, that very set-up leaves the network quite vulnerable to digital warfare. It should be simple to ascertain the ‘center’ of the network.”
Something in what she’d said stuck out to Arato. “Well, if we can figure out who’s in charge, let’s get him,” he said. “He’d be behind all the bad stuff they did, right?”
“It would be difficult to capture him, and even more difficult to make him admit to his crimes,” Lacia replied. “Considering your personality, I believe it would be prudent of me not to share any more details regarding this subject.”
Despite Lacia not having her device by her side, she was able to make several small images pop up on the windshield display of the car which, being fully automated, had no driver’s seat. “The Antibody Network is a system that relies on volunteers with criminal intent who have little to no connection shared between members,” she continued to explain. “Things like who is responsible for what, or what any individual member’s obligations are, are never written down. The only thing holding them all together is an obsessive compulsion that continues to draw them in once they’ve started committing violent, criminal acts.”
One of the small images on the windshield was a satellite view of the city at night. It was centered on the Edogawa district, where they were located, near the border between Tokyo and Chiba Prefecture. Videos of hIEs walking alone were interposed over the map.
“What’s this?” Arato asked.
“This is the data being handled by the Antibody Network. Volunteers capture videos of hIEs walking alone, then Operators like Kengo Sugiri compile the data and send it on to the center of the network. This, you see here, is the master data file used by the center of the network,” Lacia replied.
Arato’s eyes goggled when he heard words like ‘center’ and ‘master data file’. “How the heck did you get this?” he asked.
Lacia replied with a question of her own. “Do you recall the third condition you just agreed to?”
“To believe in you, no matter what kind of power I see you use,” Arato repeated. “Come to think of it, I guess I’ve seen you hack security equipment and mess with systems like this one at the airport already.” Looking back, Arato felt a chill as Ryo’s warning kept repeating over and over in his head.
As the car continued on its path, Arato watched an hIE being assaulted in an alleyway in real time on the windshield data display. The assailants were obviously volunteers for the Antibody Network.
“The Antibody Network itself is a sort of analog hack,” Lacia noted, “in that the psychology of their group is directly influenced by the destruction of a machine’s human form. It is clear that the Antibody Network did not originate organically from human society, but is rather a specifically designed system.”
“Are they the folks you were talking about? The dangerous organization you said I would need to deal with?” Arato asked.
There was no sound on the video of the lynching, but Arato could almost feel the blows as they struck the pretty female machine hard enough to tear away her skin, revealing the artificial musculature underneath.
“Shit, I don’t know about this,” he swore. “If I talk to these guys, that’s gonna help get Kengo out somehow?”
“No, the importance of volunteers like these in our plan is negligible. Rather, I believe there will be value in talking with the one recording this video,” Lacia said. “The Antibody Network is a system controlled at its highest levels by men who wish they could beat real humans, but instead content themselves by secretly watching thugs destroy hIEs.”
Arato, who had been in full rush mode just a moment before, was suddenly very confused. “Wait, what the hell?” he asked.
“As I told you before, society moves as each person pursues their own interests,” Lacia said simply. “I do not believe you are suited for questioning, so we will rely on someone else to break the will of this cameraman.”
A white point blinked on the map displayed on the windshield, apparently showing their current location. They were headed right for Kameari, where the lynching was taking place.
The map was continuously being updated with the movements of police in the area, as well as detailed notes written in by Operators containing personal data on certain officers in the area. It felt strange, looking at the map as hundreds—no, thousands—of little dots, each with a police officer’s face attached, moved around on the map.
“Seems like it keeps a closer watch on the cops than the hIEs,” Arato commented.
“If a volunteer records an hIE, they know that hIE will be destroyed,” Lacia said. “It is psychologically easier for some to handle capturing police movements.”
Suddenly, the word ‘Intruder’ appeared on the screen, along with a yellow dot on the map. A new window opened on the display, showing the personal data of whoever had tried to bust into the system.
The Antibody Network was an illegal operation, but Arato doubted that whoever was hacking their system would be able to use the hack as evidence for an arrest. Still, there were bound to be some actual wanted criminals among the list of volunteers that was being automatically compiled as he watched, and a leak of their information could lead to their arrest.
“This system includes information both on police movements in the Tokyo area and details on hIEs that would be easy to steal, making it quite attractive to criminals outside the Network,” Lacia commented. “They think it will be an easy-to-access holy grail of information, when in reality it doubles as being a massive mousetrap.”
“What the hell,” Arato said again. “So the information on easy hIE targets is just a bonus? Seems like the main point of the system is to track police movements and store information on all the Antibody members!”
The thought took a moment to sink into Arato’s head. When he realized the connection, though, he felt sick.
“This is what got Kengo, isn’t it?” he asked. “Because I asked him for help when you got kidnapped.” The price his friend had paid to help him made Arato shake uncontrollably. Lacia didn’t answer. Things had turned out like this for Kengo because he had helped Arato.
“Kouka most likely followed the same route we are taking to find the center of the Network,” Lacia explained. “There are several dummies arranged to ensure that no one can get there by hacking alone. However, judging by the kind of volunteers we saw in the attack on the Oi Industry Promotion Center, I do not believe that tracing a thread of the Network back to its source will be difficult.”
Lacia had manipulated other hIEs into delivering her device to her before without a direct order from Arato to do so. She had also rewritten data at Stylus, a high-end hIE production company. Seeing how much she was capable of, and thinking about what else she might be capable of, sent a shiver down Arato’s spine. The power he wielded in the form of Lacia was dangerous. Or, rather, because he had put off properly taking control of that power, it had become dangerous.
“So you already knew everything about Kouka before we met her?” Arato asked.
“Have you forgotten that our first meeting with Kouka involved her attempting to attack us?” Lacia asked in return. “In order to ensure your safety, it is only natural that I would have investigated her, including her background.”
“If you knew, you should have told me about her sooner!” Arato complained. “What even is the Antibody Network?” Arato had lived his whole life surrounded by automation. It should have been simple for him to accept it and move on. But, at that moment, he couldn’t stand the thought of things happening with no input from him.
“I would encourage you to observe the answer to that question for yourself,” Lacia said.
The live feed of the thugs destroying the hIE suddenly went dark. Shocked, Arato leaned forward to look at the map on the windshield.
“There is no cause for concern,” Lacia said. “The feed has not vanished; the Antibody Network system simply rendered it untraceable.”
Arato had been through all sorts of things since meeting Lacia and his view of the world had expanded. Despite all that, he had a growing feeling that the girl sitting next to him just then was shadier than any criminal act.
Lacia showed no sign of whether she knew what he was thinking just then or not, as she took a case that had been leaning against the car door and set it on her lap. It was about the size of a notebook terminal.
“Before we move independently, I would like to establish regular check-in transmissions to ensure your safety,” she said. “Is that acceptable?” She opened the case and took out a long, cylindrical object. When Arato saw the thick, hollow needle and plunger on it, he realized it was a syringe.
“What are you gonna do with that?” he asked. It was clear that the syringe was meant for him. After receiving severe burns as a child, he had received plenty of shots, including some from massive 5 mm needles. Thinking of the severe, stinging pain from those shots made his whole body break out in icy sweat.
“Let me see your right ear,” Lacia instructed. “I am going to use this to embed a small communicator in the flesh behind it.”
Arato hesitated for a moment, then steeled himself.“Do it,” he said. He turned his face so that his ear was facing her, and Lacia knelt on the car seat to lean in closer to him. He could feel the heat of her body on his cheek. She must have tapped into a nursing behavioral cloud, since her movements were precise and confident as she held the syringe in one hand, using her other to swab the skin behind his ear with disinfectant. As the sharp scent of the disinfecting alcohol assaulted his nose, he felt a hot, piercing pain drive deep into his head.
“Owwww,” he said, unable to keep quiet under the pain, which was worse than he had anticipated.
Lacia had his head well secured in her hand so that he couldn’t jerk away. Slowly, the red-hot pain burrowed in between his head and ear. It wasn’t just the physical pain, either. The piercing, tingling pain was accompanied by a strange sense of loss, and a sense that something had been changed.
Arato clenched his teeth against the pain, breathing hard, deep breaths through his nose. Two, three times he breathed in and out, and then he felt something withdraw from behind his ear. Then he had a sense of firm, yet gentle pressure and dampness as something cloth-like was held to the wound.
“It’s done,” Lacia said. “The hemostatic ointment will stop the bleeding in fifteen seconds, and the anti-irritant medication will activate in thirty.”
The sound coming in through his right ear seemed strangely muffled; Arato assumed his ear was just regulating itself after intense stimulation.
〈This time, I decided it would be best to use an easily transplantable rod-shaped headset under the skin of your right ear,〉 Lacia explained. 〈Can you hear me?〉
Arato could hear Lacia’s voice directly in his head. At first, the injection site had been numb, but now it was starting to grow irritated. “Yeah, I can hear you,” Arato replied. “Is this okay?”
〈Yes, I will now be able to hear everything that you hear. I will also be able to send encoded transmissions that only you will be able to hear. Leave keeping track of the transmission range to me,〉 she said.
Her warmth and aroma drifted away from Arato.
〈Against professionals, we would not be able to use the diving speaker as we have before; it would be discovered immediately,〉 she explained. 〈I understand it will be uncomfortable until you are used to it, but I’m afraid it is necessary.〉
Arato felt like he was just being carried along in Lacia’s flow as the car accelerated. “Lacia, I know I can’t save Kengo without you,” he said. “But could you at least tell me where I’m going and what I’m going to be doing?”
As if to answer his question directly, the windshield began to display their current location. The automatic car was headed away from Kameari, where the hIE was being destroyed, and was instead heading west toward Akabane.
A new screen popped up, showing a black mini-bus that appeared to be the new target they were pursuing. “What’s with the black bus?” Arato asked. “I feel like all I’m doing is asking these same questions over and over.”
〈I am deliberately restricting information, so it is only natural for you to ask,〉 Lacia said, placatingly. 〈The vehicle you are seeing belongs to a PMC known as HOO. The Antibody Network staff member who was videotaping the destruction of that hIE was pulled into this vehicle.〉
“A PMC?” Arato asked, confused. “I thought it was the police who arrested Kengo. What are we doing chasing a PMC?” He knew it would be easier just to leave everything to automation, rather than wasting time stubbornly asking questions, but he felt like things were slipping out of his control. It felt like even his wishes were being taken away and handled somewhere far away from him.
〈This is the PMC that destroyed Kouka this evening,〉 Lacia explained. 〈In order to ensure their own survival after that battle, they are gathering information.〉 Under the dark night skies, it seemed as though only Lacia had the ability to see everything that was going on in the world.
〈HOO is in charge of MemeFrame’s security,〉 she continued. 〈And, if any Lacia-class units begin to rampage again, HOO will be forced to fight. So they are currently conducting independent info
rmation-gathering and, depending on the results of their investigation, they are planning to possibly sever their contract with MemeFrame and pay the breach of contract fine rather than choosing to fight.〉
Arato pressed his fingers against his forehead in consternation. Lacia was talking so simply, as if this information wasn’t the closely-guarded secret of a heavily armed PMC. It felt like the universe had gifted him with superhuman omniscience.
〈The more accurate information is, the more blunt it becomes. I wonder, do you humans suffer so much indecision because you erect barriers of thought around the value and meaning you assign to actual information, obscuring the original reality?〉 Lacia mused thoughtfully. She spoke as though reality as Arato perceived it was just a quaint human custom. Ever since the Singularity, things could no longer be accepted as absolute just because human society believed they were true.
“It’s fine,” Arato said. “It’s easier just to leave everything up to you, anyway. I mean, you’re good at everything. Whatever needs doing, I’m sure you’d do it better.” It was just like the automatic car, which would take him where he needed to go without him needing to do anything. Since it was for his friend, though, Arato at least wanted to feel like he had helped in some way.
He had run headlong into the challenge without thinking about it but now, faced with the emptiness of his own capabilities, he couldn’t help but shiver. On the windshield, there was a high-angle view of the black micro-bus, probably taken from a traffic light. Inside that van, the Antibody Network members Arato and Lacia needed to question were being abducted.
A police car in front signaled for the PMC van to stop. The black van slowed and came to a halt. While it was stopped, Arato and Lacia closed in quickly. About fifty meters in front of where the black van was stopped, Arato could see a large delivery truck pulling into a convenience store parking lot. The view switched to that of a security camera at the convenience store, and Arato got a good angle on the delivery van stopping in the parking lot there.