Espionage For Dummies (Part II)

✧₊⁺

I gave Kururu the long and short of my mission and my desire to see what the Director was planning, leaving out the parts about my ex-wife for the moment. I had trust that she wouldn’t turn around and rat me out. She was a so-called defender of justice, after all.

“Oh, that’s all you wanted?” Kururu scoffed. She then relayed those same directions to Tǒng in Mandarin who gave an agreeable thumbs up. “If it’s a diversion you need, it’s a diversion you’ll get, Cowboy. I might not be in my magical girl garb, but our barrel-toting friend and I can still be plenty distracting.”

“I’ll owe you guys one, thank you.”

“You backed me up in the mine, remember? This is just what a party does.” Kururu declared proudly. “Now wait for my signal, and knock ‘em dead. Memoria is counting on us.”

I waited around the corner, wondering what tomfoolery Kururu had planned on such short notice. I couldn’t deny the sparkle in her gaze as a woman with a plan, however, and that gave me confidence that we’d be able to see this through.

Kururu walked right up to the guards, hands on her hips, and Tǒng followed her lead striking the same exact pose. It didn’t take much to annoy the guards as their brows furrowed in frustration at the two Hunters mirroring them.

“The Director ain’t in right now. If you’re pissed about something, complaints go in the mail slot.”

“You two want a cookie? Get out of here, or else.”

Kururu smiled.

“Here to protect Memoria from threats both seen and unseen, and to live up to the example of magical girls everywhere! To kick the shins of unruly henchmen for daring to stand in the way of justice. Kururu Ururaka-chan, at your—”

She cut her usual introduction short by delivering a mighty shin kick to one of the guards, and Tǒng delivered one of the same. They then broke off into a sprint down the hallway while the men were recovering, Kururu laughing all the way.

“Get back here, you little shits!” The guards finally gave chase, leaving the door totally unsupervised.

I peeked out.

“Holy hell, I can’t believe that worked…”

I’ll have to give them my portion at dinner the next time we have something with some flavor.

“I will get the door,” Archie said as I heard a click.

The automatic door slid open as I approached, revealing the control room I had sought. Monitors flashed with various goings on within the Digiscape just as before, but the Director's desk was empty, as expected.

I wasted no time in plopping down in Barnes’ chair and plugging in the flash drive. It was imperative that I copy over what I could, starting with the documents surrounding Project Memoria. Aki’s files were of more interest to me, of course, but the mission took precedence, and bypassing the encryption could take time according to Yamamoto.

I opened up the folder “CB—4151513” which was conveniently placed on the desktop for quick access, and went straight to work copying things over.

“Barnes really oughta beef up his web security, this is worse than my grandparents.”

I figured Yamamoto would brief us on the details in the Digiscape once I handed off the drive, so there was no need to spend time reading through the files myself. However, one of the document titles gave me pause.

“12-24-32 BOARD OF TRUSTEES MEETING TRANSCRIPT: GLOBAL EXPANSION.” I read out loud. “This must be what the Songbird was looking for, Archie.”

I suddenly heard chattering outside the door and panicked, copying over the final document and diving under the desk with the flash drive in hand. However, I only had time to lock the screen before the automatic door flew open.

“—I thought I'd told Yamamoto a thousand times not to bore me with numbers before I’ve had my evening shiatsu.” I heard the voice of Director Barnes, annoyed as he stormed into his office and slammed his finger on the intercom button. “To my two useless, lazy security guards, you better get your asses back here stat, before I send you back to the bread line. Test. Me.”

Archie, you were supposed to warn me when he was coming back, what’s going on!?

“We are getting technical interference from the moderator's room. My tampering has captured their attention, so I tuned out of the feed to avoid direct tracing. This is an unfortunate coincidence that the Director has returned so soon, however...”

You’re telling me! Yamamoto was supposed to keep him company until I could get out here. Can’t you trigger the fire alarm or something?

“That would not only lock down every room in the building, trapping us inside with Director Barnes, but it would also unleash a shower of fire retardant foam. The computer’s hard drive may be damaged in the attempt.”

I wondered, then, what I could do, given the circumstances. I didn’t have time to fully shut down the computer, so if Barnes jiggled the mouse even a little bit he would see that someone was accessing files on his desktop.

Meanwhile, I still sat under his desk trying to stifle my breath as much as possible. I decided the best action was inaction. My only option was to wait him out and see if he’d give me an opening to leave.

“Is it really so hard to find good help these days?” Barnes sighed, continuing his complaints. I could see his foot impatiently tapping as I lay on the ground. “Wait a minute, that’s not how I left it!”

I froze.

Barnes stomped past his desk to the far wall, disregarding the computer.

“This painting of me is crooked.”

I exhaled quietly.

“Much better, handsome.” I could hear Barnes blowing kisses at himself which gave me the urge to gag. “Pretty soon we’ll be out of this dump, and halfway to the Virgin Islands. Just a few more days until the grand opening, and I’ll have what I need to retire in style. No more conference calls, no more Tokyo, and no more distractions. Just you, me, and a bottle of—”

Grand opening?

“—Wait a minute, what’s that trash doing on my desk? A wrapper?”

Panic struck me. The slip of paper with the bypass code for Aki’s files was still sitting beside his mousepad where I had left it. I had carelessly done the very thing Yamamoto warned me not to do.

“Those bozos, making me clean up after them…”

I clenched my teeth as Barnes approached the desk slowly. But suddenly…

“Director Barnes!” Someone else burst through the automatic door, stopping the Director in his tracks.

“What is it now, Yamamoto!?”

Whew.

“Your secretary was looking everywhere for you, sir, she has the President of the United States on the other line waiting to talk business. It sounds rather urgent.”

“Always is, but tell him to wait.”

“Director, it’s the president.”

“My shiatsu—BAH, fine, I’m coming!” Barnes did a quick heel turn, following Yamamoto out of the office. “But he better have upped his last offer, the Russians are paying triple…”

“Should you be telling me this, sir?”

“I don’t care, brainiac, get moving. My latte isn’t going to fetch itself.” Before walking out, Barnes stood in the doorway and snorted in amusement. “Interesting…”

The door closed, leaving me alone in the control room. I must have let out the deepest sigh of relief in recorded history. Never had I been so glad to hear Yamamoto’s voice. I sprang up and retrieved the paper. After I shut down the computer, I promptly made my way out of the control room once the coast was clear.

“What about pulling your ex-wife’s files for clues?” Archie asked. “Was that not your purpose in agreeing from the start?”

“I’ll have to try again later. When Barnes called his security guys back to their posts, I knew it was only a matter of time before they showed up again.”

Just as I suspected, the two men returned to their standing positions outside the control room door, looking like Kururu and Tǒng had given them quite the run for their money. I was relieved that they hadn’t been caught.

Flash drive tucked securely in my pocket, I ran by the cafeteria to grab a plate of food to bring back to my room, just as I had rehearsed. Yamamoto was passing by at the same time with the coffee for Director Barnes, and the handoff was made.

“That’ll have to do, for now.”

Having achieved my end of the bargain, my shoulders finally relaxed a little, but there was still the matter of what all the files contained, and the ones I couldn’t recover during my first attempt.

There was a message on my mobile device from an unknown number.

“Head straight for the top floor of the control tower tomorrow. We have much to discuss… and I saw the paper, be more careful next time.”

“Heh. Always right down to business, that Yamamoto.”

I couldn’t help but wonder what might be hidden in those communication strings. If Barnes was talking to figures outside the company on the level of the President of the United States, then there could be some major finds within those files.

However, it was out of my hands now. I flopped on my bed and closed my eyes, taking a moment to prepare to dive bright and early in the morning, but not before a good night’s sleep.

. . .

“RED ALERT! RED ALERT!”

I was snapped awake by the sound of an alarm, and flashing red lights in my room.

“The hell is going on…?” My eyes were burning from lack of sleep, and judging by the digital clock next to my bedside, it had only been a few hours since I laid down. “Archie, is something happening?”

“ALL HUNTERS CONNECT TO THE ATRIUM FOR EMERGENCY DIVING PROCEDURE! REPEAT: ALL HUNTERS PREPARE TO DIVE!”

Before my Supporter had a chance to reply, Yamamoto came flying around the corner, skating along the linoleum before entering my room. He looked just as confused as me, hair still matted from sleep and in slippers.

“Nagai-san, if you need to use the restroom, I would suggest doing so now. I’m plugging you into the atrium to dive immediately.”

“It’s like 2 am, what’s going on? And what about our discussion regarding ‘you know what’?”

“That will have to wait, control has been alerted of a large-scale threat gathering on the outskirts of town, and a full response is requested of every Hunter in the wing.”

Every Hunter in the wing is no small order. What could demand that kind of response?

“Wait, you don’t mean…”

“Blackheart is preparing all her forces to invade the City of Memoria.”