Saigo escorted Babel toward the center of the room while the company men kept Lanier on the sidelines. Lanier looked over the facility on their way in and casually scanned the room they were in now. It was clear Renraku planned to make use of whatever information they could get from Babel as quickly as possible. The facility had all the signs of being set up as a kind of urban bunker, a command center for whatever operation Renraku had in mind for the information Babel carried. It was like a war-room, a thought that did not ease Lanier’s mind about Renraku’s plans.
The two men in white coats bowed to Saigo as he approached, although neither of them was Japanese. One was slight and had a pinched face while the other was broad-chested and sported a full beard and the unusual anachronism of a pair of spectacles. They marked him as a user of magic in Lanier’s eyes. Magic wielders disdained any biological modifications or implants, even corneal surgery to correct vision defects, since it could affect their ability to use magic.
"Michael, this is Doctor Lambert and Doctor Westcott. They will be helping you to remember."
Babel
looked at the two men and then back at Saigo. "And what am I supposed to remember?" he asked.
Saigo led Babel to the chair and gestured for him to sit down. Babel did so, although he looked as if he thought the chair might bite him.
"Your real name is Michael Bishop," Saigo was saying, "and you are an employee of Renraku Computer Systems and a graduate of MIT&T here in Boston. You were chosen for a special mission to infiltrate the Netwalkers tribe, to learn their technoshamanic techniques and bring the information back to us at Renraku."
"You mean I was sent to betray them?"
"No," Saigo said, "you cannot betray them, because you are not one of them. You are one of us. Renraku is your home and employer and we have been for nearly all of your life. The Netwalkers have brainwashed you to try and make you one of them. But don’t worry, we will help you.
Doctors?"
The two men conferred briefly and proceeded to examine Babel carefully. He sat quietly without protest as the doctors scanned and examined him, talking quietly to each other about the results. They excused themselves and went over to confer with Saigo, close enough so Lanier could make out some of what the men were saying. Dr. Lambert pointed out some items on a portable datapad he handed to Saigo as he talked.
"We have concluded that the Netwalkers must have used some kind of programmable ASIST biofeedback technique to alter Bishop’s memories. If so, detecting and undoing the process using conventional technological means will require several days of painstaking work at the very least, perhaps as long as a week."
Saigo was about to interrupt when Dr. Westcott cut him off. "However," he said, "
using
magic I may be able to break through the conditioning and access the subject’s memories immediately. There is, of course, some additional risk in using such powerful mind probing spells ..." Westcott let the rest of the comment dangle.
"Do it," Saigo said in a low voice. "We need the information as soon as possible, whatever the risk."
And
there
was
war
in
heaven;
Michael
and
his
angels
fought
against
the
dragon;
and
the
dragon
fought
Michael
and
his
angels
.
—Revelation 12:7
Lynn Osborne stared with complete dismay at the image of the man on the flat-screen display in front of her. She gripped the padded handle she was tethered to along the bulkhead of the orbital station as her world seemed to fall out from under her and she felt the effects of the zero-gravity beginning to disorient her for the first time since she’d become used to space travel.
"What did you say?" she repeated. Had she been anyone else, her tone would have earned a rebuke. Considering the situation, Richard Villiers chose to ignore it.
"You heard me," he said. "We’ve lost him. As near as we can tell, a team hit the facility less than an hour ago. We’re checking through the facility’s data systems for any information, but it looks like they’ve been trashed by some kind of progressive virus the ComSci division can’t identify. Whoever they were, they were thorough."
"It could have only been one faction," she said.
The man on the screen nodded grimly.
"Renraku.
They’ve taken our ace in the hole."
"But how
.. .
?"
"You let me worry about that, Lynn. You handle the Court." Osborne considered for a moment. It was only a couple of hours before the court was due to reconvene.
"I could get a continuance," she mused out loud. "Maybe buy us some time."
"Try and do that," Villiers said. "We might be able to mount a recovery operation in time to make a difference. If not, we’re well and truly fragged. We have no case against Renraku without proof they were trying to make use of the otaku in some way, and they’ll use this to their advantage when the next court election comes up."
"Do you think we have a chance of recovering him?" Villiers stared at her for a moment,
then
shook his head. He looked tired. "I really don’t know, Lynn. We’ve got people working on it now. There’s one possibility that’s promising, but I can’t get into it now. Not over the comm-link. Just stall the court for now and hope for the best."
"What about Hague?" she asked.
Villiers shook his head again. "He hasn’t been updated yet. I want you to take care of that. Hague is still in too tight with the Yamanas for my taste. He’ll go running to them at the first sign of any trouble and I don’t want them getting wind of this yet. Since the operation involved one of my companies, it’ll be a little while before the Japanese find out anything about the raid or the loss of the ... evidence. I’d prefer to keep them off my back until we’ve got a handle on things. Keep Hague under control up there, understand?"
Osborne nodded. It wouldn’t be difficult to get David Hague to follow her lead in this matter, considering what was at stake. Hague was loyal enough to the Yamanas, the Japanese clan who got him his position on the
"I’ll keep you updated," Villiers said just as a chime sounded at the door.
"I have to go," Osborne said. Villiers nodded and broke the connection, the vidscreen going blank.
Osborne smoothed her hands over her formal court robe and made sure her voice was steady as she called out the door. "Enter."
The door hissed open to reveal Francesco Napoli lurking on the other side, like a cat waiting to pounce. He was certainly grinning like the cat
who’d
eaten the proverbial canary.
Oh
frag,
Osborne thought.
I
should
have
expected
this
.
He
must
have
known
about
the
snatching
of
the
otaku
even
before
I
was
notified
. She did her best to keep her thoughts from her face, remaining composed and businesslike, with just a touch of surprise at seeing Napoli, even though she had been dreading this meeting.
"Hello, Paco," she said cordially. "It isn’t time to reconvene yet, is it?"
Napoli
shook he had, clinging to the support outside of the door like a spider, just waiting for a little vibration of his web to act. "No, not yet, but I thought I might take a little of your time to talk about this case. We might be able to resolve things more easily between us. May I come in?" Without waiting for a reply, Napoli flipped himself through the doorway and grabbed onto another handhold just inside. The door automatically hissed closed behind him.
"This kind of expartate communication is really inappropriate,
Mister
Napoli." Osborne put some emphasis on her formal mode of address. "Anything you have to say to me can be said when the court reconvenes."
"Come now, Lynn. I really don’t think you’re that much of a glutton for punishment. We both know your so-called case is nothing but smoke and mirrors. You have nothing on us and the court will have to dismiss your charges. Spare yourself the embarrassment of having to beg the court’s forgiveness for having wasted their time. Let’s tell them we chose to settle this matter between us quietly."
"Why would I want to do that?" Osborne asked cautiously. Napoli gave his crafty smile.
"Because you’re a smart lady.
You know you don’t have anything substantial and you know you can’t win. Why not cut your losses and have a shot at getting something out of this deal rather than losing face in front of the whole court and getting nothing but grief? Don’t you think you’d be serving Fuchi better to put the company’s best interests above any desire you might have of humbling Renraku?"
Osborne wanted more than anything at that moment to simply bash in Napoli’s face and wipe that oily smile off of it.
The
fragger
knows
he
has
us
right
where
he
wants
us
. He extended a datapad to Osborne with a bit of a theatrical flourish and let it float from his hand. It tumbled across the short span separating the two justices and Osborne caught it easily.
"That has the agreement for the out of court settlement on all of this," Napoli said. "All you have to do is read and sign it. It drops all of the charges you’ve raised against us in exchange for Fuchi getting certain distribution and licensing rights for some of our more profitable developments. Fuchi can still get on the bandwagon by distributing some of that leading-edge Matrix technology."
Sure,
as
long
as
the
technology
is
owned
by
Renraku,
who
will
get
a
big
cut
of
the
profits
while
Fuchi
does
all
of
the
work
.
Renraku
gets
fatter
and
Fuchi
falls
behind
in
developing
and
marketing
their
own
products
because
they
don't
want
to
compete
with
their
own
licenses
.
Nice
try,
Paco
.
Osborne glanced at the text displayed on the screen of the datapad for a moment before flipping the pad back to Napoli with a flick of her wrist and a bit more force than was necessary. The startled Napoli almost missed catching the pad as it sailed back toward him.
"Forget it, Paco, no deal."
Napoli
recovered from his surprise quickly and clutched the datapad as he glared across at Osborne. "Don’t be stupid," he said in a low tone. "If you continue to press this case, I will personally bury you. You have no evidence, you have no witness,
you
have nothing.
Nada.
Zero.
If you try this and fail, I’ll see to it you go up on charges of wasting the court’s precious time with this nonsense. And when the time comes, Renraku will make certain that... certain interests at Fuchi are encouraged over others, if you understand my meaning. We’ll see just how long your boss, Richard Villiers, lasts when the most powerful corporation in the world decides to come down on top of him like a ton of bricks."
Osborne didn’t allow Napoli’s little tirade to shake her. If anything, it only confirmed what she suspected. "Don’t be so sure of
yourself
," she said, her voice matching Napoli’s icy tone. "You’re not number one yet. You’ve got Lofwyr to deal with, and the dragon isn’t going to let some two-bit
zaibatsu
walk all over his plans. But before that even happens, Paco, you have to deal with
me
. You’re offering me a deal, an easy way out that saves face for everyone. Why?"
Napoli
started to reply, but Osborne cut him off before he could do more than draw breath.
"Out of the goodness of your heart?
I don’t think so. Why offer us a deal at all? You could have simply waited for this case to fall apart if you’re so sure we’ve got nothing. It would have embarrassed Fuchi and you could have walked away from it all looking squeaky clean. A settlement, even one favoring Renraku, makes it look like you’re guilty. So why bother?
"I’ll tell you why. It’s because you’re
scared
. It’s because you have something to protect that’s so big you don’t want to raise even the possibility we could win this case. You’re more willing to risk looking a little guilty than take the chance we might win, or at least create enough suspicion in the process for the court to find out something you’d rather they didn’t. Well, you don’t have to worry about dealing with the dragon just yet, Paco. First you’re going to have to deal with me, and when I’m finished, I’m going to make you wish Lofwyr had decided to bite your fragging head off. Now get out of here."