Silence In Numbers: File One (6 page)

“
One
time I get on the new - two,
two
times I get on the news – and no one ever lets it go.”

“Two?” Yuri began counting on her fingers.

“Okay! Not important!” Kyo waved his hand. “Minor details, we don’t need to focus on them. Besides, it’s not like I’m causing things like that attack this morning.”

Mikoto sighed. “Ah, yes. That was a depressing start to the day.”

Ayane looked between them. “You guys saw that?”

“On the news, yes.” Mikoto looked at her. “You learned about it another way?”

Ayane nodded. “Katsumi’s leading the investigation.”

“Oh,” Mikoto sighed and squeezed her hand. “I’m sure she’ll be fine.”

“Yeah, they’re saying it looked kinda amateur,” Kyo added. “And I’ve never heard about your sis having trouble with amateurs.”

Ayane smiled. “Thanks. I hope you’re right, although from what I hear a lot of things about it don’t make sense. Not that I can say any more about it.”

“Conspiracy stuff?” Yuri tilted her head. “Is the government censoring you, Ayane? Ooh, can I do a story about it?!”

Mikoto rolled her eyes. “Put the reporter instincts away, Yu. Try to remember what ‘no’ means.”

“Oh, right… Sorry!”

Ayane smiled at her. “Yeah, I don’t think Sumi would appreciate my being an information leak.”

“Still,” Kyo put in, “it’d be pretty cool to know this stuff. You’re lucky for that.”

“Most of the time it doesn’t feel lucky.”

“You don’t care about the details?”

“It’s not that…”

“It probably makes it harder to deal with sometimes,” Mikoto explained for her, receiving a grateful look from Ayane. “Knowing exactly what kind of danger your sister is in might just make you worry more.”

“Huh. I didn’t think about that,” Kyo nodded.

“I think… that’s the wrong way to think about it.” Yuri tilted her head. “At least you know. The imagination can be a lot scarier than actual facts sometimes. If you were in the dark you’d worry all the time about what you didn’t know.”

“That’s… true,” Ayane smiled. “I’ll try to think about that more.”

Mikoto looked at Ayane. “Maybe we could help more if we really met her.”

Ayane laughed. “Very subtle, Miko. I told you before that’s up to her, and she’s really busy.”

“Not too busy to visit you twice a week. That means she must not be too busy to meet us.”

Ayane sighed. “Fine, I’ll bring it up again, but she’s gonna worry about bringing you into danger.”

“It’ll bring us into danger?” Kyo straightened. “Really? Awesome.”

Ayane rolled her eyes. “You are not normal. Anyway, let’s move on to another topic, I like to be distracted.”

Her friends obliged and Ayane only half paid attention as they talked, responding to things directed at her but lost in her own thoughts. Katsumi had never met her friends besides Mikoto, who she’d known for several years, and that had only been a very short greeting. She wasn’t really the socializing type, Ayane knew, but it did sound nice to have her friends know the person she so often talked about. After all, she’d already been guaranteed she’d meet Katsumi’s team at some point, so it made sense.

Ayane sighed; now she just had to hope they’d both survive long enough to do so.

Cold wind blew Katsumi’s violet hair around her face as she stood in the open doorway of the helicopter looking down on the lights of the city below. The sound of the blades spinning above her head drowned out all other sound, which she found made it easier to think. For the past two days they’d been moving around the city; inside the chopper, Reno was piloting, but she was the only passenger. Sano, Rufus and Law were all on the ground in different areas around the huge city.

They’d compiled a list of the most likely targets and Katsumi had put her best plan into motion; unfortunately, even her best wasn’t much this time. They’d been able to divide the likely locations into three quadrants and Katsumi sent Sano, Rufus and Law each to one of the three. They’d stay ready in a car in the most central location between their possible targets while Reno and Katsumi flew a circle in the center, ready to respond to any calls in. In addition each specific location had two or three Aegis Corp soldiers in disguise staking it out for suspicious figures.

This “safety net” was their best option for stopping the next attack. Of course, there was no guarantee there would be a next attack, but Katsumi was grateful to have a Director like M who would act on her feelings and was willing to devote as many resources to this as he had. Now it was simply a waiting game, but for how long they couldn’t know. Still, none of the soldiers complained, or if they did it wasn’t in front of her, except for Reno’s muttering of course.

Katsumi’s cyber implants expanded a window of data before her eyes, listing the names of all operatives involved. As the clock hit 9 PM each name lit up green as they checked in, which she had them doing every half hour. If there was an explosion it’d be hard to miss, of course, but she couldn’t be sure that was the only method this unknown – and unproven – criminal used. She gave a sigh as the last name lit up green, responding to all at once with her own signal. Everything was calm and everyone was fine… so far.

Katsumi leaned back into the helicopter, looking into the cockpit. “Take us around the Kitsuine Tower again.” Reno nodded and Katsumi looked back outside as the chopper turned at an angle, heading towards the city’s tallest building.

The Kitsuine Tower was the most expensive building in Tokyo. It had been constructed after the Tokyo Tower had been brought down during one of the country’s worst terrorist attacks. Built partially from materials sent from seventeen other countries, it was one of the symbols of the new world, a sign that the borders between countries were being blurred and ignored more than ever before. As such it was considered a prime target for terrorist attacks and thus had
impressive defenses, but those with a strong national pride such as Katsumi, who had been but a child watching it on TV as the Tokyo Tower fell, were very protective of the Kitsuine Tower.

Katsumi didn’t know if what they were after was really a terrorist or not, but it never hurt to be careful.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Law sat back in his car, lighting a cigarette as he looked out the window. The giant black man had a way of standing out in Tokyo crowds so sitting out of sight was always his preference on missions like this where you were meant to notice someone else rather than being noticed. Besides, he liked being able to listen to music as he waited for something to happen, he found it helped prevent anxiety. Not that he really had an anxiety problem, not after his life, but he wasn’t a big fan of the calm before the storm and always preferred the storm’s arrival to the silence prior.

Breathing out a puff of smoke he let his mind wander a bit after making sure his music wasn’t loud enough to prevent him noticing a call. As it usually did in these situations his mind chose a similar event to take him back to, delving into memories he rarely indulged in on purpose. 

2054, Central America, Amazon Rainforest:

The Amazon had once been deadly only due to its natural predators and exotic diseases, but that was before one of the biggest terrorist coalitions in the world had moved in. Private militaries had made a huge push into the region, all vying to take down the threat for varying reasons, the most prominent being the renown that would come from such a victory.

Samuel Lawrence, he remembered that was all he was known by, no nicknames. Just as large a man then, he had a big advantage in close combat so frontline fighting had always been his forte, and it was no different in this conflict. But rules had no place in those jungles. His unit lost several commanders and many men to the mines, traps, ambushes, guerilla tactics, and straight-out attacks. Military drills dissolved in the face of the true chaos that ruled that forsaken battlefield.

Still, Command refused to give up; the company he’d worked for back then had no trouble with throwing people away. After all, each death was a face they’d never seen and a name they wouldn’t remember. They’d simply hire another person to take the place of the deceased and repeat the process when necessary.

Sam remembered the last commander they had die. The men who had survived the longest, including Sam, just looked at each other and shook their heads after that little skirmish. The officers they were sent were usually the staunch military type with starched uniforms, shiny boots and stern faces. By the end of the month their posture would be slumped, uniforms torn, boots bloody and faces afraid. The ones that still had faces after a month, at least. Eventually they’d either leave or die.

Sam read the latest letter explaining their next officer and how this one was “different”, a promise they’d heard many times. However, the information they were given only succeeded in making the men even more skeptical than usual, rather than infusing them with hope.

It was a woman this time, though that wasn’t unheard of obviously. According to Command she was top in her class - every class. Not much was given about her personality, but one attribute was the main focus of the group’s discussion over the next few days: “Age: 20.”

At first they’d been shocked, then they moved on to laughter, then back to shock, and finally anger and indignation. “They’re desperate,” some offered as an explanation.

“Finally gave up on us, I say.”

“It’s ridiculous! Sending a kid to order us around? She’ll get us all killed!”

Sam had remained silent. It wasn’t that he had any more faith in their new unknown commander than the others; he didn’t. Not in the least. He was sure she’d be dead within the month, if not the week.

It was that fact right there. He didn’t find himself agreeing with sending someone so young into such a brutal conflict unprepared. It wasn’t right, but that didn’t really matter here he supposed. It would happen either way.

She arrived three days after they’d been told of her appointment. She was young and beautiful, which only added to her being out-of-place in this hell. Her curly violet hair and pale complexion seemed too gentle for the harsh reality of the jungle, and every man there was ready to disobey her orders, most not out of resentment but to stay alive. She’d stepped off the helicopter with a younger girl with bright blue hair, but they were given no explanation at the time; the younger girl (only seventeen) had simply moved away and taken a seat in front of a tent to watch while the new commander stood in front of the group of men that had absolutely no faith in her abilities.

But Sam had noticed something different. The young woman folded her arms behind her back and looked over her new charges as the transport helicopter lifted behind her, not staying in the area any longer than to drop off the girls and their supplies. She took in the hard men wearing torn and bloodstained clothes and numerous scars and moved in front of them, examining without any shown emotion. When she spoke it was far more even than they expected to come from those lips. “My name is Katsumi Samakura. You’re mine now. Things are about to change.”

One of the men shrugged. The lack of respect wasn’t really a personal insult to her; they’d heard this sort of thing before, several times. She’d break soon. “We’ve got it handled.”

Her eyes turned to the speaker. The deep lavender gaze seemed to hold some strange power within it that silenced him. “If that were true you’d have won by now.”

Anger was the response. They’d been facing death for months, fighting like mad. This new girl with no experience here had no right to talk about it like she had, insulting their sacrifices and those of their fallen allies. One of the men stepped out of the line they’d reluctantly formed, moving to strike her. Sam didn’t blame him; it was like she’d spat on the graves of their fallen allies and on the shreds of their own dignity. She hadn’t done one thing to earn their respect or the ability to speak as she had.

But she wasn’t the type to take that sort of thing. She ducked the swipe and slammed her fist into the man’s stomach, doubling him over. Her knee came up and he snapped back with a spray of blood emitting from his now-broken nose. After he hit the ground she stomped her foot onto his throat, holding him there as her lavender eyes flared to life with hidden emotion. “I don’t need your respect, but I demand your obedience.” The others were startled, but after a second rage took over, and Sam knew it was going to get ugly; out of the corner of his eye he noticed the blue-haired girl watching carefully, her fingers playing over a pistol on her belt.

Their new commander drew her own pistol, pointing it at the downed man and ignoring the others, who stopped to watch as she continued. “This company’s death count is ridiculous and its progress is nil. You’re thinking yourselves heroes? What have you done to earn that distinction? All you’ve done is survive. That’s not victory, that’s just stalling. I’m here to change that.” She removed her foot to allow the soldier up, but she kept her pistol drawn even if it was hanging at her side. “I’m not here to earn your respect. I’m just here to win battles and keep you alive, prioritized in that order.”

But despite her statement, she had gone on to earn their respect. To their surprise she not only directed them with amazing precision and insight, but she did it with an extremely cool head and even tone, even during the fiercest and bloodiest skirmishes. The most amazing thing, though, was that not once after her arrival did they ever fall into a trap. She had an almost supernatural sixth sense; she was never able to divine specifics out of thin air, of course, but she always guided them around ambushes with nothing more than a mutter about a “bad feeling”.

Progress had been made after that as they began to form into a real team, but of course that was before –

Law was snapped out of his memories by a loud beeping informing him that it was time to check in again. He sighed, making contact as he looked out the window once more. It was times like this that made him almost long for open warfare. Silence was worse than the sound of any weapon.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Sano leaned against the side of his car, running a hand through his crimson hair with a sigh. “So boring…”

He was ready to move at any moment, but there was nothing to move towards yet. All he could do was wait, just like everyone else. He slid his hands into his pockets. He’d decided there were worse things than wearing suits, especially as he caught his own reflection in the car window and winked at it, grinning as he imagined his Captain rolling her eyes at the gesture. Reno would probably throw an insult his way, too. Still, as he looked up into the night sky, he couldn’t help wishing he was in the helicopter with them rather than standing around on his own bored out of his mind.

He pulled out his phone, flipping it open and starting to look around on their network. Nothing was happening anyway, he might as well see what everyone else was doing. According to it, they were all still in their usual positions. Law was on a street corner miles away, Rufus was on a rooftop somewhere, and Reno and Katsumi were apparently circling the Kitsuine Tower again. That thought made him hope that wouldn’t be the target. Unlike the others on their team, Sano was like Katsumi, a native of Japan. He had similar feelings towards the tower.

Terrorism was always a heavy subject for him. He still remembered his first real experience actually fighting it as a rookie cop eleven years prior:

2057 was a year without wars but with enough crime to make up for it. Kurasano, 22 years old and fresh out of Academy, had been in his first year of active duty as part of a firm specializing in Public Security, basically what would’ve been the police force in the early years of the century. Sano had strong feelings about his job, strong reasons for doing it, but those were things he didn’t like to dwell on.

He was on a simple patrol the day a real terrorist group attacked. He, along with most of the men in the area, were used to criminals, even the vicious kinds that could bring dozens of deaths, but they weren’t used to what real terrorists could do.

It started with an explosion; Sano found he hated how many things had exploded during his lifetime. They’d been after government officials who weren’t important enough to bring in the real Special Forces so Public Security had been sent in. It wasn’t a fair fight.

Sano ran with familiar men into the front of the building only to be greeted by a hail of gunfire from weapons a lot more powerful than the handguns they held. Men three times his age fell around him, shredded and pouring blood, viscera and other things he still couldn’t cleanse the images of from his mind despite trying.  He dived into cover, watching his partner’s head explode near him, covering him with blood and brain matter. His eyes were wide in horror and shock. Training hadn’t taught him about this, about what real weapons did to a human’s body, about the sheer violence and brutality of a real conflict.