Silence In Numbers: File One (5 page)

No, no, of course not. You do what you have to, just be careful. You have a tendency to be in the middle of explosions.

I’m hoping I can prevent there being another explosion. I’ll let you know if something happens.
Katsumi closed the link and headed back, her mind already working through what she needed to do.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Samuel Lawrence stepped out of the car, barely fitting through the opening. The dark-skinned, 7’1’’ and 285-lb man stood out instantly among the people gathered at the destructed site of the morning’s bombing. He found himself reminded of how fast the world moved these days as he watched the final civilians leaving the area. Fire control teams were already switching to structural integrity analysis and the area was full of soldiers and peacekeepers from the Aegis Corporation, which held jurisdiction over this area. And all of this was only twenty minutes after the bomb went off.

Samuel flashed his own Aegis badge and walked in, whistling at the destruction inside the building. “Must’ve been pretty heavy ordinance.”

He smiled as he spotted Katsumi Samakura inspecting the area. There was something special about the way she focused on a job. Even in the midst of this chaos, he couldn’t help but notice he wasn’t the only one watching. The woman was only thirty-four, after all, barely halfway to middle-aged, in her prime in every definition of the word. She worked with an efficiency and dedication beyond what most were willing to put into anything. Above all else Sam noticed that; he figured the others were more focused on the soft curls of her violet hair, the intense gaze of her lavender eyes or the shape of her body. He shook his head, realizing that by listing those things he was acknowledging that he, too, had noticed them.

Which wasn’t a problem, it was just that he appreciated his boss’s other qualities more. Still, he thought as those lavender eyes focused on him, they aren’t bad qualities. “Law,” Katsumi’s voice brought him out of his thoughts. “I’m glad you’re here. I need to know anything you can tell me about the explosive used to do this.”

“I’m hoping I can tell you a lot, Captain. Wouldn’t be much of an explosives expert if I couldn’t.”

Katsumi nodded, looking back to data screens only she could see. He wasn’t surprised by her distraction considering the state of the area. Sano stepped up beside him, raising a hand. “Yo, Law! Man, I haven’t seen you in like three days!”

Law turned to him, meeting the high-five in greeting. “How’s it goin’, Sano?”

“Man, I’m on like three hours of sleep and dealing with this at four in t
he morning, how do you think it's going?”

“That’s how the job goes some days.”

“Yeah, unfortunately.” Sano glanced back at Katsumi, who wasn’t noticing either of them at the moment. He’d been watching her since they got up, but she’d shown no signs of the horrible condition he’d found her in the previous night. He wasn’t sure if something had happened yesterday to put her in that condition or if it was something she’d been dealing with. It wasn’t likely he’d get any answers and looking for them would probably just end badly anyway.

Law tapped his shoulder. “Somethin’ up?”

“Huh?” Sano looked back at him. “Nah, man, I’m just out of it. Not a great morning person, y’know. C’mon, lemme show you the origin point.”

Sam followed him. “I’m guessing it’s the small crater in the middle.”

“Yeah, kinda hard to miss, ain’t it?”

Law stopped in the center, kneeling down to inspect the ground. “Definitely an unfocused blast.”

Sano folded his arms. “Unfocused?” He was good at using weapons, but when it came to the technical side of explosions he usually just let Law handle it, so he liked things to be clarified in situations like this.

The big man nodded, his deep voice making his explanation seem more serious than the simple lesson it was. “Focused blasts are like det charges opening doors, or modern-day missiles. The explosion is basically aimed to deal precise damage.”

“As precise as an explosion can get.”

“Point. Anyway, unfocused blasts are what you get from most grenades or bombs – the force is unleashed in all directions.”

“So since this is unfocused, you’re saying it’s not professional?”

“I wouldn’t say that. Could’ve just wanted to make it messy. But to me it looks a lot more like a terror thing than attempting to deal physical damage.”

“Any idea what the weapon was?” Katsumi’s voice cut off Sano as he was about to reply. Neither had noticed her coming up behind them, or knew when she’d done so.

Samuel looked over his shoulder at her. “Can’t say for sure, but there are a couple strange things about this.”

“Enlighten me.”

Law pointed around. “Number one is kinda hard to notice due to all this rubble, but there’s no shrapnel from the explosive. Whatever it was didn’t leave a trace of itself.”

“And number two?”

Law looked back at the ground, tracing a finger over it. “Number two is the weird one. Based on the burn patterns, I’m almost positive the explosive was inside the guy’s body when it went off.”

They all paused to take that in and Sano broke the silence as he ran a hand through his hair. “Dude, that goes way beyond weird. That goes straight past the ‘weird’ line and sails right into ‘fucked up’ territory.”

Katsumi shook her head. “Not the first time.”

Sano stared at her. “You’ve seen this kinda thing before?”

“I’ve seen a lot before.” She looked at the small crater for a few seconds longer before sighing. “Alright, that’s probably all we’re gonna get from here. Sano, I want you compiling a list of places in the area that might be hit next.”

“Can do, Boss.”

“Law, take some samples from here and see if you can figure out anything more about what did this.”

“Thinking some sort of chemical residue?”

“It’s worth a shot, we’re flying blind here at the moment.” She looked up, using a cyber link to call Reno.

It took a minute, but he finally answered, groggily. “Ugghhh… Hello?”

“Reno, I need you out here soon, ready for a fast response.”

“What? Captain, it’s my time off.”

“I’m sorry, I wasn’t aware playing in the amusement park was more important than public protection. Maybe I can send some soldiers out there to join you, give you enough to make a baseball team. It’s obviously more important than duty.”

“Alright, alright, I’ll be out there. Just promise you’ll give me time off later to make up for this.”

“Don’t try to force me into bargaining, Corporal, or you’ll get some permanent time off along with a dishonorable discharge.”

Reno hung up cursing, but Katsumi wasn’t paying his attitude any attention. Her focus was on the destruction around her, and the potential for this to happen in a more crowded area. She nodded to M as she left, heading to find the final member of her team. There was an itch at the back of her neck that told her this was only the beginning.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The train station was beginning to grow crowded as all the early-morning commuters left their houses at 5 AM and headed to their jobs. One man there just stood, waited and watched. His hair was light blond, about 4-5 inches long and slicked back, slightly spiky. He wore an expensive pair of shades with a lot of technology in them, and a white-and-silver duster over a fine white suit with a silver tie. He stood out mainly because he was alternately balancing a knife on his finger and throwing it into the air to catch it. To him it was idly passing the time; to those around him it seemed slightly unbalanced.

He tossed the knife again, but this time before he could catch it another hand shot out over his and snatched it from the air. He turned to face the woman, taking the proffered knife. “About time, Captain, I was getting bored.”

“You’re a danger to the people around you, Rufus,” Katsumi reprimanded him.

“Only if I do my job right.” He slid the knife back into its hidden sheathe in his sleeve and slipped his hands into his suit pockets. “So, did I hear right? Large explosion with no details known?”

“Some details known, but not many.”

“So we’re working off a hunch here.” Rufus smirked. “I have to say, if it wasn’t you with the hunch I’d just laugh this off, Captain.”

Katsumi looked at him. “I appreciate the trust.”

He shook his head. “Not trust, respect. Trust is given while respect is earned, so it’s worth more.”

“Both are earned unless you’re stupid.”

“Maybe.” Rufus smiled. “But I don’t completely trust anyone.”

“
That
is because you aren’t a fool.”

Rufus laughed. “These are just cynical thoughts on humanity, not mission details, Captain.”

Katsumi sighed. “Unfortunately there aren’t a lot of mission details to go over yet. You and I will have to trace this back to the source and we can’t do that until we get more evidence.”

“I can tell you’re disappointed.”

“Of course I am. I want to catch this terrorist.”

Rufus smirked. “Sure, that’s part of it. The part you tell people, anyway. Truth is, you were partially glad this happened so you’d have something to do, and now you’re stuck waiting until you can do something again.”

Katsumi gave him a sidelong glance. “You notice entirely too much for your own good.”

“Probably. The only part I don’t get is the guilt.”

Katsumi looked away again, watching the people waiting for the train. “No part of someone should be happy about innocent deaths.”

“Don’t kid yourself. Part of you enjoys killing, too. So do I. We need to have those parts, Captain Sama. That’s what keeps us from going insane while doing this depressing job. It’s why we’re the ones able to do it.”

“I suppose you’re right.”

“That doesn’t make any difference to you, does it?”

“Not in the least.”

Rufus shook his head. “Ah, well. We can head back to headquarters and start looking through what information we have, planning things out. I’m sure catching the people responsible and preventing further death will soothe your guilty conscience.”

“I can hope.” Katsumi turned and headed up the stairs with Rufus following, her mental state of determination and efficiency returning. Now was not the time for small worries and distracting emotions, now was the time to avoid mistakes. If she did everything right, she could prevent the next bombing entirely.

All of her actions now were based off of a simple suspicion, a feeling… But her team was behind her. If she was wrong, then nothing would happen and it would be a little wasted time. But, if she was right and did nothing, it would mean a lot of civilian deaths.

To her, it wasn’t even a choice.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

“Ayane, you look terrible!”

Ayane smiled wryly, looking at her friends as three of them entered the room. “Thanks, Yuri. I really needed that uplifting comment this morning!”

Her pink-haired friend put a hand to her lips. “Oops! I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it!”

A more mature-looking woman with softly curled brown hair and intelligent green eyes passed by the younger girl. “Not even two steps into the room and your foot is in your mouth already. I’ve seen better starts, Yuri.”

“It’s not my fault, Mikoto!” Yuri huffed, her magenta eyes glaring at the thirty-year-old. “I was just making an observation.”

“No one’s surprised,” Kyo said, uselessly brushing his black bangs out of his eyes as he, too, stepped past Yuri and moved to lean against the wall.

Yuri sighed. “Am I the only one here who’s concerned for Ayane?!”

Ayane grinned. “Use your inside voice, Yuri. You don’t want to get thrown out again.”

Mikoto chuckled as she took a seat beside the bed. “Are you sure you want to warn her against that? I know it’d improve my mood.”

Ayane looked at her. “Why does your mood need improvement?”

“Well as it turns out, representing your company in court becomes a bit harder when they lie to you.”

“Oh, I can imagine. Does this mean you’re switching companies again?”

Mikoto sighed. “I’m not sure yet. Although it’d be nice to be with one that was relatively sane for once,” she said in a dry tone. “Still, it isn’t like there’s a shortage of companies looking for lawyers these days.”

“Especially good ones!” Yuri put in, hugging Mikoto from behind. “You should relax and stop worrying for once.”

Mikoto smiled and patted Yuri’s hand. “Thanks, I’ll try.”

Kyo put his hands in his pockets. “Maybe you could represent the company I work for.”

Mikoto narrowed her eyes suspiciously at him. “Why, what’d you do?”

“Hey, why do you automatically assume I did something?”

Ayane looked at Mikoto. “It’s alright, we’ll just watch the news and find out.”