Espionage For Dummies (Part I)

✧₊⁺

I had freshly woken up in bed, mouth parched to hell as usual. I thought about the conversation I had with Yamamoto minutes before Hunter Protocol was initiated as I scooped up what he had left to assist in my mission, and advanced in the direction of the control room.

. . .

“If you’ve been working with the Songbird the whole time, why did she not have you infiltrate the system?” I suggested, crossing my arms. “I reckon you’re more than capable with tech, more savvy than I am at least. And you know Barnes better than I do.”

“Familiarity is the biggest issue here, Nagai-san,” Thresh replied. “I’m too close to the Director, and he’ll suspect something is up if I act directly. I’m also a bad liar, so I’d prefer to assist where I can’t get hurt or mess things up.”

“Hanging back and letting me do the work, just what I’d expect out of you.” I sighed, exasperated. “What I still don’t get is what you’re getting out of this. Why bite the hand that feeds you, and pays your salary? On a whim?”

“Nothing I do is on a whim, Nagai-san. Answer me this: If that same hand that feeds you also—let’s say—beats and humiliates you, you might feel the slightest temptation to bite as well.” Thresh paused for a moment. “Your ex-wife, Ueda-san… always treated us lab assistants well. We mourned her like a sister when she passed, and I can’t stand the thought of her dream being twisted. Is that sufficient motivation for you?”

“I guess so...”

“Very well then, I’ll continue. I did some digging into your Supporter friend after our adventure into the mine, and his source code was fascinating, to say the least. I think it might be the ticket to phase one of our plan.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, A.R.C.H.I.E., as Ueda-san called the program, has the capability to bypass certain systems in LiveRite Labs, and exercise admin control to a small extent,” Thresh explained. “I originally thought something might be amiss when you were automatically released from your restraints during your first resuscitation. Now I know why.”

“You noticed, huh?” I chuckled. “Should’ve got me that bottle of water sooner, like you said you would.”

“Archie was designed to be an executive program capable of succeeding Ueda Aki herself, but it was not ready in time.” The Songbird added. “Barnes scrapped the program, but kept some data for Memoria’s security drones you see around.”

“The drones did look pretty similar to him, I suppose.”

“You drawing Archie’s last remaining data fragments to serve as your Supporter was no coincidence, I’m sure. He’s done well to guide you to this point.”

It was all within her expectations, huh? I wonder what else Aki anticipated would happen.

“Bringing us back to the matter of data extraction, your way into the control room will be simple. I’ll guide Director Barnes away to a late-night conference call I’ve set up to discuss my findings while acting as Thresh. I’ll show him some very interesting, albeit time-consuming, charts and such.” Thresh smirked.

“And I assume that's where I come in?”

“Once your Supporter friend knocks down the security feed with a temporary replacement and unlocks the door, sneak inside with the flash drive I leave you and get whatever you can as quick as you can. Barnes’ most pertinent files on Project Memoria should be under a folder called CB—4151513.”

“What about Aki’s personal files, like her notes and things?”

“Those would be under system archives from last year. I’ll leave a slip of paper with the bypass code for the encryption, but make sure to dispose of it immediately. I can’t stress that point enough.” Thresh’s tone was serious. “Any physical evidence will leave a trail of breadcrumbs to us moderators, and I’d like to avoid a witch hunt, if possible. Bad for morale.“

“Right, so to summarize: get in, get out, don’t be seen, and don’t leave evidence?” I repeated.

“You can handle that, can’t you?”

“I played Metal Gear Solid once or twice, how hard could it be?”

. . .

I wandered through the halls of the Ueda wing, glancing over my shoulder every few seconds. I must have seemed nervous, or even a bit frantic, as I received some strange looks from the other Hunters who exited their rooms in a mad dash to the dining hall for our regularly scheduled slop.

“You are behaving unnaturally, Jiro.” Archie scolded me. “Try to keep your eyes forward so you do not blow our cover.”

“Well, excuse me for not being the world’s top spy on my first mission,” I muttered. “There’s a lot on my mind…”

Apparently spy work could be pretty hard.

“Out of curiosity, what did Yuna do after I left?” I asked, having not heard the story from Archie yet.

“She returned and relieved me of my babysitting duties with her thanks. She did not mention your time together.” Archie replied. “Your locational signature had moved outside my range, so I calculated that you must have come into contact with Autumn who has a field of interference around her quarters.”

“Makes sense.”

“Though it is not my place to say, I will offer a word of advice, Jiro. Apologize to her while you still have a chance. Putting it off would be highly inefficient.”

“I intend to, after we settle this business with the Songbird and Director Barnes,” I said, surprisingly sure of myself. “Hopefully he’s just planning more ad breaks or something, and we can file this away as a big nothingburger.”

“Does anything resolve itself so easily?”

“Unfortunately not, but I can hope, can’t I?”

I was nearing my destination, despite my general lack of stealth, but there was a bigger problem ahead.

“—!” I ducked behind a corner as two imposing men in suits, the ones in Director Barnes’ security detail from that first night we met, were posted outside the control room door. Seemingly on high alert for something or someone, I would add.

Shit, what do I do now?

Yamamoto had failed to mention that there might be armed security, and I figured they would just follow Barnes around like two lost puppies. I was wrong.

“Tch.”

Though I didn’t have much time to think of a backup plan, since Archie had already knocked down the security footage. We had limited time before Barnes would return, and the next diversion might be more difficult to execute for Yamamoto.

“What do you propose we do about those guards, Jiro?” Archie asked in my head. “According to the security feed, Director Barnes has just entered the conference room with Yamamoto-sensei.”

“I’m not sure, let me think this through…”

We had to divert the guards’ attention somehow, but by what method? I couldn’t tell them I was there to visit the Director since he was gone and they would just shoo me away, or get violent.

“Cowboy?” I heard a young woman’s voice behind me as I paced around in thought. “Cowboy, is that you!?”

There was only one person I knew who called me by that nickname. However, I did not seem to recognize the two people who approached me as if we were good friends. I raised an eyebrow as they came to stand in front of me.

There was a young woman beside a tall, full-faced fellow who wore a big grin. They were wearing the same uniform that I was, which told me that they were fellow Hunters.

“Uhh, howdy, do I know you two?”

I focused on the woman in particular. With frizzy black hair and tired eyes, she finally seemed familiar. I remembered seeing her on the way back from my smoke break on my first night as a Hunter, but I had never had a real conversation with her, or so I thought.

“C’mon pal, I know I look a lot different than my character data in the Digiscape, but when you act so unfamiliar, even I would get a bit bummed out.” The girl sighed, shrugging. “You look pretty much the same though, besides that bald head. Did the Iron Colossus fry your brains to make you forget your own friends?”

“Wait, magical girl-san!?” I exclaimed.

“Uruka Kurumi at your service.” She bowed with a smile. “But you can keep calling me magical girl-san or Kururu if it’s easier to remember. I prefer that over my civilian name anyway.”

“Civilian name… and this is..?” I gestured to the gentleman beside her.

“I like it.” He gave me a big thumbs-up.

“Barrel guy!” I chuckled to myself. “Sorry, y’all just looked so different, I couldn’t make the connection at first.”

“Ah, don’t sweat it, Cowboy. I just felt like ribbing you a little.”

Though it had only been about a week since I had seen them in-world, with accelerated day and night cycles in the Digiscape—and the mountain of trouble I had run into today—it felt like much longer.

“You been Hunting together since the ByteCoin mine?”

“Actually, we had to have our Supporters recalibrated in the capital city of Memoria since that one abnormal corrupted the data, and we met there again by chance,” Kururu said. “Turns out, barrel dude has a name. Tǒng.”

“Is that… Mandarin?”

“For barrel! Yeah, turns out he isn’t just quiet, he can’t speak a lick of Japanese.” Kururu laughed. “Tǒng fled the Chinese Colonial Federation after the last Civil War, and Mandarin happened to be part of my at-home studies. So—we’ve had a lot more opportunities to talk while traveling together… Good friends, we’ve turned out to be.”

“Huh.” I was impressed by their quick camaraderie.

Archie hadn’t required any recalibrating which delayed my first trip to Memoria by several days. If I had been a more personable sort, I might have grown closer to them as well.

“是那个约翰-韦恩吗？” Tǒng whispered in Kururu’s ear.

“没错，他就是克林特-伊斯特伍德。” She replied.

Though I couldn’t speak any Mandarin myself, I could clearly see them referring to me. Suddenly Tǒng smiled like he understood and gave me a nod.

“We were just heading to the mess hall for gruel hour. You’re welcome to come with us.” Kururu suggested. “Though, come to think of it, you looked kind of stressed over something before we strolled up. Something wrong, Cowboy?”

“Well…”

Should I tell them? I feel like knowing what I know is a burden, more than anything else.

But perhaps they could provide a little diversion for me if I spilled just a bit…

“Earth to Cowboy?”

I decided to tell them.