The Cage of Zeus

The Cage of Zeus
© 2004 by Sayuri Ueda
Originally published in Japan by Kadokawa Haruki Corporation.
All rights reserved.

Cover illustration by Tatsuyuki Tanaka
English translation © 2011 VIZ Media, LLC

No portion of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means
without written permission from the copyright holders.

HAIKASORU
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ISBN: 978-1-4215-4245-4
Haikasoru eBook edition

TRANSLATOR’S NOTE

In order to reflect the bigender state of the Rounds, this English-language translation of
The Cage of Zeus
employs Spivak pronouns—a set of gender-neutral pronouns devised by mathematician Michael Spivak—to refer to the Round characters. Spivak pronouns are formed by dropping the
th
from the plural pronouns “they,” “them,” “their,” etc. Although gender-specific pronouns exist in Japanese, they are used less frequently, making it easier in Japanese to avoid using pronouns that specify gender.

I

1

ALTHOUGH IT WAS
the weekend, Cryse University on Mars buzzed with activity. The walkways and cafés were alive with the chatter of students and scholars visiting from Earth and the Moon, while the staff, rushing to prepare for the next lectures and presentations, remained on high alert. A symposium of leading bioscientists was the target of radical groups demonstrating in the name of human rights. Any lapse in security and something terrible was liable to happen.

Ever since a clash decades ago that left many injured and even resulted in a few fatalities, it had become customary to exercise the utmost security precautions at any symposium. That people had died at a gathering to preserve the sanctity of life was deplorable, but the violence also indicated just how far bioscientific technology had advanced after the twenty-first century. Today marked the final day of the symposium hosted by the Planetary Bioethics Association, and a reception was scheduled for later in the evening. The five-day symposium was a major event that took place biannually on Mars, during which research presentations, reevaluation of bioethical measures, and all manner of political maneuvering took place.

David Lobe glanced across the lush lawn of the campus and felt horribly out of place. Although he had come dressed as Eddie Morgan had instructed, he found it hard to believe he blended in, even as he tried to pass himself off as a security team member or guest speaker.

“You were born on Mars, weren’t you?” Morgan asked, as they walked down the path toward the courtyard.

“Yes,” Lobe answered.

“Bring back memories, this place?”

“Well, no. I never went to college.”

“No?”

“I moved to Asteroid City as soon as I finished my schooling.”

Asteroid City was a space city orbiting within the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Originally built as a waystation between the two planets, it developed into an industry town that mined and processed mineral resources for export. The city was comprised of not only factories but housing for workers as well. Because most of the labor was automated, Asteroid City wasn’t large as far as cities go, but was an industrial space city nevertheless. Lobe had worked there for ten years.

“One thing led to another and I ended up on Earth, with this job.”

Morgan decided to drop the subject. He muttered, “The gravitational difference feels strange.”

“Oh?”

“This is my first time on Mars. Even if a molecular machine can help to control the body’s fluidic circulation, this strange lightness takes some getting used to.”

“It’s like jet lag. You’ll get used to it soon enough,” Lobe answered. “I wonder if she’s actually going to show.”

“If she’s sure she won’t get made. No one’s made contact with her in almost twenty years. Most people don’t even know she’s alive.”

“She might run at the first sign something’s not right. People like her have a nose for sniffing out danger.”

“If that happens, you go after her. Don’t come back until you find out where she’s been hiding,” Morgan said.

They sat down on a bench in front of a fountain emblazoned with the university insignia’s design. A steady stream poured forth from it. A landscaped lawn surrounded the bench, and there was a rose garden in full bloom, flowers as large and brilliant as the sun, on the side. All of the plants on campus were bioengineered to boost photosynthetic efficiency, thereby playing a role in supplying Cryse City with oxygen.

Lobe sat back and stared up at the man-made sky projected onto the interior of the canopy.

This was his first time visiting Mars in quite a while. There used to be only one orbital elevator when he was a kid, but three more elevators had been built along the equator since then and banded together with rings. The two moons that had once orbited Mars, Phobos and Deimos, had been completely consumed for resources during the construction of the elevators. But no one on Mars paid any notice when the two moons disappeared from the night sky. Then again, there was no way they could notice, living as they did inside the canopy.

Hearing footsteps, Lobe lowered his gaze. A woman in a lavender-colored suit was approaching.

Morgan stood up and shook the woman’s hand. “I appreciate your taking the time to see me.”

“Not at all. Thank you for making the trip from Earth,” the woman said.

“Tickets are cheaper during symposium season, so it was no trouble at all.”

Morgan showed her to the bench. “We can talk here, where it’s quiet and private.”

Lobe got up and stood behind the bench. The woman furrowed her brow and eyed him suspiciously. “My assistant,” Morgan said. “It’s all right, he’s young. He won’t mind standing for a while.”

“But…”

“I’d hate for you to be uncomfortable.”

“Then why don’t we go to the café? We can sit, have a drink and talk there.”

“I prefer to have our talk here, Ms. Karina,” Morgan said.

A smile crept across the woman’s face. “You must have me mistaken for someone else. My name isn’t—”

“And while we’re at it, I’m not a professor from Stanford. Merely an excuse to get you to agree to see me. You wouldn’t have come otherwise.”

The woman turned to leave, but Morgan grabbed her arm. “We know your history. You’ll only make things worse by running now.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“If you don’t want to be turned over to the police, you’ll sit down. We’re here about a job. Not a bad job either. You’ll be compensated generously.”

“Let go of me.”

“You’ll lose your job, is that what you want?” Morgan said. “Everything you’ve worked to build over the last twenty years. I’m capable of destroying it all in an instant.”

“Then do it,” the woman said coldly. “I knew a scumbag like you would come and try to threaten me someday. I was ready for it. If you want to inform the police, be my guest. I’ll find a way to survive.”

“We’ve taken something you treasure above everything else hostage. If you refuse the job, the hostage will die.”

“I have no family or friends that can be taken hostage.”

“You’re wrong. There’s one thing you refuse to abandon. Something you’d give your own life to protect.” Morgan whispered the name of the hostage. He explained just how he would kill the hostage if she refused the job.

Suddenly, the look on her face turned fierce. The woman shook off Morgan’s hand and shoved him against the bench. She jammed a knee against his chest, stopping his fall from the bench, and wrapped both hands around his neck. His head thrown back, Morgan wheezed and struggled to break free of the chokehold.

Lobe ran around the bench, drew his gun, and pressed the muzzle down against the top of the woman’s head.

Calmly, she cast her eyes upward. Lobe recognized the sneering confidence in her eyes and shuddered. At that instant, he realized idle threats would be useless against her. She was ruled only by arrogant pride and an iron will. People like her refused to submit under any circumstances.

“Go on. I dare you to shoot,” she said, tightening her grip around Morgan’s neck. “Do it and I’ll break the boss’s neck.”

Lobe silently kept his gun trained on her head. Though he was armed, he felt his knees might start to tremble. One false move, and she would kill not only Morgan but him too. Her fingers might take out his eyes even before he got off a shot. She might punch his nasal bone clear into his brain. Or slip behind him and snap his cervical vertebrae.

“Lower the gun,” Morgan said, gasping for air.

“But, sir—”

“Just do it.”

Feeling relieved but feigning reluctance nonetheless, Lobe lowered his gun.

“The hostage will die whether we come back alive or not, “ Morgan rasped. “And using us to bargain with our superiors will get you nowhere. We’re nothing but pawns here. We’re not afraid to die. Think about this rationally. Accepting the job is the only way to save the hostage.”

The woman removed her knee from Morgan’s chest. She fixed the hem of her skirt and shot him a wicked glare.

Morgan finally sat up, rubbing his throat. “The job is simple,” he said, as if to mollify her. “You carry a package into a designated location, open it, and leave immediately. There’s nothing to it.”

“Don’t lie to me. If you’ve gone to all this trouble to enlist me, there has to be more. What are you plotting? Just who are you people anyway?”

“A group fighting to protect the sanctity of life. If we succeed, our name will go down in history as heroes. As the ones who led humankind back from its errant path.”

“I have no interest in money or glory,” muttered the woman. “Look, I’m in my mid-thirties. I no longer have the drive or stamina. And I’m tired of killing. If I have to kill again, I’d rather kill myself right now and be done with it.”

“The hostage will die even if you refuse the job via suicide. Simply put, you have no choice but to take it.”

“You sons of bitches.”

“Say what you will. But we desperately need your services.” Morgan shot her a piercing gaze. “So you’ll accept?”

2

WHEN HIS DAUGHTER
Rui asked for help with her homework, Koichiro Hasukawa looked up from his enewspaper. He stared at his daughter, a bit nonplussed.

“I’m learning about the history of Mars,” she said. “Tell me about when you were little, Daddy.”

Rui was six. She was old enough to have mastered a computer terminal.

When Hasukawa suggested she access the database from the Mars Museum and look it up herself, Rui replied in a high-pitched whine, “But the teacher said we have to ask our mommies and daddies.”

This appeared to be not just an assignment but also the Ministry of Education’s attempt to investigate the home lives of their students. Are the students communicating with their parents? Any distortions in student character development? Warning signs of criminal behavior? It was an education program aimed at detecting the first signs of trouble by observing children via a sociomedical perspective. There were also assignments involving scans of the children’s brain activity. Hasukawa recalled having to make a “brain album,” compiling records of data, as a kid.

By profession, Hasukawa believed these efforts to be meaningless. Plenty of people raised in positive home environments went wrong, while others endured unimaginable hardship in their youth and grew up to be great men and women. People continued to change over a lifetime, for better or for worse.

When he called out to his wife, Kyoko, she gently admonished him. “You look after Rui once in a while. You’ll collapse the way you’ve been working lately.”

Hasukawa relented. He couldn’t remember having a proper conversation with his wife or daughter in the last month.

Ever since the assassination attempt of a Martian government official in Pavonis City, Hasukawa had been obsessed with tracking down the terrorist group claiming responsibility for the crime. He belonged to the Special Security Division, the antiterror units, of the Mars Police Department. As captain, he was charged with overseeing day-to-day operations of the entire division.

He had little field experience. After completing his specialized training as a cadet, he had been assigned to a command post in a regional city and, after having gained some experience, returned to the capital city. He was one of those who’d chosen a conventional path straight to the top.

The SSD had narrowed its investigation by sorting through the voluminous reports coming into headquarters, but the suspect had escaped just as they were moving to make an arrest. There had been a leak from the inside. Although the Central Intelligence Bureau had launched an internal investigation, the leak’s source had yet to be discovered. Either someone had hacked into the network or the SSD had a rat. He had yet to receive any reports on the matter. After watching Hasukawa chew his fingernails to the quick over the investigation, his boss had finally urged him to take some R&R.

As much as Hasukawa wanted to redeem himself as quickly as possible, he also knew that getting needlessly wound up would not force luck to fall his way. He accepted the offer and decided to take a two-day leave. He asked to be notified at home if there was any movement.

But he could hardly unwind at home. He was far more preoccupied with reading the incoming news on his tablet than talking with his family. Kyoko was right to scold him. Possessed by work as he was, he was liable to forget he even had a family.

Hasukawa took Rui into the living room. The little girl sat on the sofa and, after pressing “record” on the tablet, gazed up at her father with expectant eyes.

Hasukawa sat back and searched for a distant memory of when he was a child on Mars. Around the time he was born, several cities had already sprung up on the planet. The orbital elevator’s entrance was located on the volcano Pavonis Mons, at the foot of which was Pavonis City, covered by an enormous canopy. With Pavonis as the hub, a transportation network was being built in every direction across the plains region, expanding the infrastructure daily.

Work was done around the clock to change the climate on Mars. Methane hydrate was extracted from the ground to create a methane layer in Mars’s atmosphere, thereby raising the planet’s temperature by way of the greenhouse effect. The seeds sown in the crimson wasteland had sprouted and were beginning to grow.

Ice from both the polar caps and the permafrost beneath the surface was being melted with massive reflective mirrors in order to transform shallow gullies and valleys into lakes. Settlers gravitated toward water sources, like they would an oasis in the desert, and there a city was born. The canopy protected the lake and the entire city, so the restored water did not evaporate into the atmosphere.

Hasukawa had heard about plans to submerge Marineris Canyon entirely under water, so as to create an ocean. But such plans had not gone forward as of yet.

“Let’s see,” he said to his daughter. “When I was little, Mars still had a moon. There used to be a moon, shaped like a potato, called Phobos that went around the planet.”

“How fast did it go?” Rui asked.

“At first, it took seven hours and forty minutes to make one revolution around Mars, but then the orbital path was changed so it wouldn’t get in the way of the elevator. Its traveling speed was decelerated at the same time. But when more elevators had to be built, the moon was consumed as a resource. Oh, and the sunset on Mars used to be blue.”