Sign of the Dragon (Tatsu Yamada Book 1)

by Niall Teasdale

  ‘Want to give me the summary?’ Tatsu asked. She was wondering how Nakano managed to keep his office so tidy rather than what was in the reports. Her office in the Chiba HQ building was also tidy, but that was because she was never in it.

  ‘There’s not much to summarise, so sure. The weapon was a curved blade, probably between thirty and fifty centimetres in length. A wakizashi blade would fit, but they’re not making any call on that.’

  ‘Metallurgy?’

  ‘No traces to analyse. No indications of a ceramic blade either. “No traces” just about sums up the whole report. No fingerprints other than those of the victims. No body fluids, other than the blood of the victims, obviously.’

  ‘That’s odd.’

  ‘How so?’

  ‘Well, from the state of the bed, I figured Zima had been enjoying his wife’s company prior to his death, possibly with a third party. I’d have expected body fluids to be fairly prolific. I’m guessing, but I’d suspect that a nanocleanser was used to remove DNA and fingerprints.’

  ‘That’s… a good point. A third party?’

  ‘It was not a secret that Zima played the field. He had several mistresses, despite having a hot, young wife. Less rumoured was that he liked his women a lot younger and that he liked to share some of his conquests with Taisiya. She was a “hot wife” in more ways than one.’

  ‘Huh. Right. Well, a jammer was used to stop their implants from reporting the deaths, so there was no chance of revival by the time they were discovered, and their implants were also dead, so there’s no chance of recovering sensory data. The apartment’s computer system was blanked using a military-grade virus, so we aren’t getting sensor data from the apartment either.’

  ‘And, coincidentally, any evidence of Zima’s criminal activities is gone too.’

  Nakano nodded. ‘True. It could be someone cleaning up a mess. There were rumours that Zima had a number of clients in Tokyo and Yokohama.’

  ‘Yeah. He did. How did the killer get in?’

  ‘We have no idea. The computer data is gone, but there are no signs of forced entry anywhere. If Zima let him in, there’s no security record of a visitor and no video of anyone unusual entering the lobby. The place is big on privacy, so the corridors aren’t covered.’

  ‘So, we’re looking for a ninja. He uses a sword, is invisible, and walks through walls.’

  ‘Don’t even joke about that.’

  ‘Who’s joking? Walking through walls, I’ll grant you, isn’t possible. At least, not without demolishing the wall. However, modern active camouflage is good enough to get you past security sensors. You can practically walk up to someone and tap them on the nose, if you’re good enough.’

  ‘I still don’t think that’s what happened.’

  ‘No,’ Tatsu conceded. ‘Zima probably had a way of getting people in past the building’s security. He let his killer in and didn’t want it known about. Could be one of his own crew, there for a secret meeting. Could be one of those toys he shares with his wife…’

  ‘What have you been able to find out?’

  Tatsu sighed. ‘Mostly negatives. There’s a lot of speculation about who might have done it, but nothing worth following up. It would pay to run the boyfriends and husbands of any women associated with Zima. He generally didn’t care much whether his toys came with baggage. And I’ve heard nothing, but maybe your crime intel people can come up with something outside Chiba which could have resulted in bad feelings?’

  ‘They’re on it.’

  ‘Good. His gang doesn’t know who did it. Looks like Grigory Vasilev is taking Zima’s place, but I doubt Vasilev would off his boss for the promotion. They work a lot on internal loyalty. You don’t betray your friends with that bunch. I dropped a subtle hint that they should leave any reprisals to the police, but if they figure out who ordered the hit, they’ll try to take them out themselves.’

  Nakano nodded. ‘Of course. To be honest, I’d expect no less. A lot of these criminal groups are fraternal.’

  ‘There’s a sorority in Chiba, but I take your point. I’ll keep an eye on them, but I don’t get the feeling they’re going to be ahead of us on this one. None of the noises around Chiba sound like anything other than baseless rumour. Nothing clicks.’

  Nakano sighed. ‘And my clean-up rate was looking pretty good.’

  ‘You should move to Chiba. When I attend a scene with a body, I usually have the one responsible bleeding out from the knife wounds he got making the body.’ She paused, looking thoughtful. ‘Of course, we have more gun crime. You’ve got more chance of getting shot.’

  ‘Not that that bothers you. You’ve got armour under that skin that you’re still showing too much of.’

  Tatsu ignored the prod. ‘Of course I’m bothered,’ she said. ‘Bullet holes ruin your clothes.’

  Chiba.

  There was a personal message waiting in Tatsu’s queue when she accessed it. She made a point of not taking notifications for personal stuff while she was working, unless she knew something important was coming. She got few personal messages anyway.

  Directing the message to her wall screen, she sat down on her stool to take her boots off and watched as Kobayashi’s face appeared. She had been at home when she recorded the message. She was likely at work by now considering that Tatsu had got back to her apartment at eight in the evening. The dancer was also fresh from the shower and towelling herself off, apparently oblivious to the camera recording her.

  ‘Tatsu, it’s Sachiko. Which you can see. I was hoping we could hook up again tonight. I get off at ten and, well, I wanted to get off with you later. Ping me, okay? Later.’

  The video froze; Tatsu sighed. The image on-screen was enough to make Tatsu consider going out to The Hole again, but… She found Kobayashi’s contact details and fed them to a voice-message app.

  ‘Sachiko, this is Tatsu. Which you can’t see since you’re probably at work and I don’t want to disturb you with a video of me drying my wet tits. Maybe for later. I’m hung up on work. Sorry, I won’t be free tonight.’ Pause. ‘I’ll call.’

  ‘She’s a very attractive young woman,’ Izanami said.

  Tatsu looked over her shoulder. ‘Not to mention really skilled in the sack.’

  ‘You should see her again. She’s good for you.’

  ‘I spent one night with her. We banged each other senseless and that was that.’

  ‘It doesn’t seem like she thinks so. She knows you’re a cyborg?’

  ‘It came up in conversation,’ Tatsu admitted.

  ‘And it appears that your night of passion was not simply a case of novelty. She’s still interested.’

  Tatsu frowned and turned to look at the still frozen image on the screen. ‘I don’t do personal entanglement, Izanami. You know that.’

  ‘I know you like to think of yourself as a loner. I also know you enjoyed yourself with Miss Kobayashi.’

  ‘You know I did.’

  ‘I may have peeked.’ A smile graced the avatar’s lips.

  ‘Voyeur.’

  ‘I have to amuse myself with something. And I have an ongoing project to reverse the declining birth rate among native Japanese. Have you any idea how low it is now?’

  ‘Yes, and I also know I’m never going to contribute to a rise in those figures. Considering the extension in lifespan PIN affords, I’d have thought a lower birth rate was a good thing.’

  ‘There’s such a thing as too much of a good thing. At the rate things are going, the refugees will outnumber our native population in a couple of decades. They still have children.’

  Tatsu looked back at her immaterial friend. ‘Not entirely by choice. Put some energy into state-sponsored birth control and you’d see those figures change. As it is, not everyone in the refugee zones can afford contraceptives. Since fucking is one of their short list of entertainments, of course they end up with kids.’

  ‘I’m aware.’

  ‘I assumed you were.’

  ‘Bu
t it’s hard enough getting the government to support even the basic medical facilities here, never mind something like that.’

  ‘Politicians are weird.’ Tatsu turned to look at Kobayashi’s naked body once again. ‘I’ll see if she’s free on Saturday night, okay? I’m off Sunday.’

  Izanami smiled. ‘I can’t wait to see what you get up to.’

  ‘And stop watching me fuck!’ It was a waste of breath; Izanami was gone. ‘Bloody nosy AIs.’

  11th July.

  The Hole was as noisy as it ever got. Weekends were not necessarily worse than weekdays because the majority of people in Chiba did not work. You got more tourists in at the weekend as well as a few more locals. Still, things tended to get a little more rowdy on Saturday night, perhaps because it was a symbolic thing: party hard at the weekend.

  Tatsu cruised through, ignoring various propositions and offers of drinks, until she arrived on the top floor where, once again, Kobayashi was dancing in a cage. Tonight, the dancer was wearing sky-high platform boots, and nothing else, and she was surrounded by men who were probably in from the west side where the Hispanic street gangs dominated. Tatsu leaned against a wall nearby and watched the dancer do her thing. After a few minutes, a message popped up in Tatsu’s sensorium.

  (Sachiko K) Working?

  (Tatsu Y) No. I get the odd day off.

  (Sachiko K) When you said you’d call, I figured we were done.

  (Tatsu Y) Well, I haven’t called. If you’re busy…

  (Sachiko K) Only for another twenty-eight minutes and three seconds.

  (Tatsu Y) I’ll get ready to beat the Mexicans off you with a stick then.

  ~~~

  ‘W-why aren’t w-we d-doing this in oh-my-god-that’s-it your ap-partment?’

  Kobayashi had collected a number of sex aids since coming to Chiba. One of them was a dildo with a sort of hook on the end which, when appropriately inserted into one woman, could be used to great effect on another. The dancer was on all fours on her apartment floor. It had taken Tatsu a little time to get the rhythm right, but now that she had, Kobayashi was having trouble breathing and the various bumps on the ‘hook’ were starting to drive Tatsu mad too.

  ‘Your place,’ Tatsu grunted, ‘has… a cleaner… floor.’

  ‘P-practical.’

  ‘I’m… like that. Shut up and come.’ Tatsu’s hands tightened on Kobayashi’s hips as she increased her thrusting speed and the dancer let out a wail which the neighbours had to have heard. Possibly their neighbours too.

  When Kobayashi had done as ordered and Tatsu had followed her over the edge and they were lying, still connected by the plastic cock, on the floor, Kobayashi said, ‘You’re good at that.’

  ‘You’re better,’ Tatsu replied.

  ‘More practice. If you hadn’t called, or turned up, I’d have let it be. But I really wanted you to call.’

  ‘I don’t think I’m addictive.’

  Kobayashi giggled. ‘I could give it up. Any time.’

  ‘I thought me being a machine might put you off.’

  ‘It might have. Then I realised you’re not. A machine. The really important bit is organic, and it’s supplemented by a body that can keep going until I pass out. Human imagination combined with cybernetic endurance is a winning combination. In my opinion. I guess it doesn’t always work for everyone.’

  ‘It certainly doesn’t.’

  ‘Their loss. Besides, I think you’re an interesting person. I think you might be an interesting person. I mean, how did you end up like this?’

  Tatsu began moving her hips, drawing the long, thick dildo out before sliding it slowly back in again. ‘I’ll tell you in the morning.’

  Kobayashi let out a long moan. ‘I can live with that.’

  12th July.

  ‘Spring of twenty-eighty,’ Tatsu began. ‘The Russian Measles pandemic had been over for four or five months and the Cyberwar was in full swing, but it hadn’t come to Japan yet. China was attacking us in the hopes of getting their hands on tech which could help them against Rasputin.’

  ‘I learned this stuff in history,’ Kobayashi said around a mouthful of cereal. ‘I wasn’t born until November of twenty-eighty.’

  ‘Huh, I was eighteen.’

  ‘You don’t look eighteen years older than me. Except, I suppose, you wouldn’t.’

  ‘I haven’t changed since I got this body. Anyway, no one’s sure whether it was a Russian or Chinese thing, but there was a release of a viral nano-weapon in April of that year. It was contained pretty quickly, but it killed fourteen hundred and thirty-seven people, including my parents and little brother.’

  Kobayashi paused her chewing. ‘Oh. I’m sorry.’

  ‘It was eighteen years ago. There was one survivor, and she was not in a good way. The nanomachines attacked the nervous system, so I was alive, so long as I stayed on a ventilator. They had to restart my heart every other day or something. I survived because it didn’t damage my brain for whatever reason. Well, there was some memory loss. I don’t really remember much from before. There are fragments. They say it may be the result of oxygen deprivation at some point rather than the virus.’

  ‘That doesn’t sound undamaged.’

  ‘Well, everything else was working. And it meant I didn’t really mourn my family because I didn’t really remember them. Anyway, the only way I was going to keep surviving was a complete body replacement, but I was now an orphan and my family had never been well-off. The government stepped in. Specifically, Izanami had a project going which needed people willing to go full cyborg. In exchange for some military service, I got a new body. A better, stronger, faster body.’

  ‘So, um, you fought in the war?’

  ‘The Chinese stopped attacking in October and I wasn’t ready then. They’d rebuilt me, but there was training. A lot of training. By the time Rasputin started his run on Japan–’

  ‘Twenty-first of October twenty-eighty-four,’ Kobayashi said with a grin.

  ‘Right.’ Tatsu returned the grin. ‘By then I was already doing ops for the Ground Defence Force and things just got more intense from there.’

  ‘How’d you end up a cop? In Chiba, of all places.’

  ‘When the war wound down because Rasputin stopped caring about little old Japan, supposedly, I ended up in the military police. Did that for five years. Fifteen years after I joined up, my term of service was done, so I walked out of the military and into the TYMPD. I requested Chiba because… Because I don’t really fit into Tokyo society.’

  ‘Makes two of us. I can’t believe you’re twice my age!’

  Tatsu laughed. ‘What can I say? I like them young. You got any plans for today?’

  ‘Not until I need to go to work. Uh, correction, I do have plans, but they don’t involve going out or anything.’

  ‘And I suppose they involve not letting me out either.’

  Kobayashi smiled and nodded. ‘I’m not even letting you get dressed.’

  Tatsu rolled her eyes. ‘I guess that’s fine with me, but…’

  ‘But?’

  ‘How about you get dressed? I kind of want to see some of those costumes you say you made.’

  ‘Okay. I can do that.’ Thoughtfully, Kobayashi sucked milk substitute from her spoon. ‘Considering the age difference, I think we’ll start with “naughty schoolgirl.”’

  Tatsu gave a shrug. ‘Fine, I’ve never been a lolicon before.’

  ~~~

  After naughty schoolgirl – western style, not Japanese, with a pleated microskirt – there was naughty maid – with a frilled microskirt and exposed breasts – and then naughty nun. The dominatrix outfit had come out a couple of hours before Kobayashi had to go to work, and they had had a lot of fun with that one.

  Now the outfit was ‘buck-naked cage dancer’ and consisted of a pair of slingback pumps, but this time it was for professional purposes. Tatsu watched from a safe distance as horny Chinese refugees sat around cheering Kobayashi on and dropping tips. You coul
d tell when one of them transmitted a payment because Kobayashi would turn in that direction; they were basically paying for a better view. The tips were in the five hundred to a thousand yen range, according to Kobayashi. She sometimes got more from Japanese tourists who did not know better. Less and she would basically ignore the giver.

  Tatsu had decided to accompany Kobayashi to The Hole for two reasons. First and foremost was the desire to continue their day of debauchery once the dancer left work. However, Tatsu had taken several walks around the club, listening. So far, the transition from Zima to Vasilev seemed to be going smoothly. No one was hinting at possible gang wars. No one was talking in a way that suggested the assassin had been found or even identified either.

  When a couple of bouncers appeared to extract Kobayashi from the cage, the dancer waved for Tatsu to follow as she was escorted to the club’s backstage area where the dancers changed for their performances. Tatsu considered both ‘changed’ and ‘performances’ to be in air quotes. She had been back there before on a couple of occasions, though she had been working in both instances. Chasing someone through the changing rooms after a stabbing had been an interesting experience. This time, things were a lot more calm.

  And watching what was basically a stripper put clothes on was a strangely surreal experience. The room was far from quiet. Girls shouted at each other in several languages or chatted in the same languages at closer range. There seemed to be a general air of camaraderie about the place. Everyone here was in the same boat. Everyone danced in various states of undress for tips. The club did not pay a basic wage to the dancers – it provided a platform for them to earn money from the customers and the government provided the basic wage. The fact that Kobayashi earned enough to keep herself in a home and food and have a bit left over was an indication of her talent.