Mission Chatter

“Network Anxiety – UNFINISHED GIG 1”
Hokkaido, Nukekubi Japan, 2039

. . .

“Hai, Major. Lowering the ramp now.”

With a thunderous slow screech, the large, combined door-ramp unhooked from its locks and the hydraulic valves lowered the ramp down meter by meter giving Section Nine their first glimpse of early morning Sapporo by black ice and tarmac. A brilliant burst of cold wind crashed through the open gap, causing many to shiver against the sudden breeze.

“Alright, Section Nine! Follow me, assemble by the ticket station over there.” The Major yelled over the wind and waved for the assault team to follow her down. She pointed the person behind her to the flaring red lights atop police cars waiting at the edge of the car park along with a green-colored station alcove.

Near the police convoy of patrol cars and mine resistant trucks, a group of nondescript gray vans and extra Section Nine agents waited along with a familiar, brown mullet and dark trench coat clad Togusa waving to Kusanagi. Yet again, she could see a full suit under his jacket like some kind of ‘Aramaki Mega-Me.’ At least he wasn’t losing his hairline yet. The gray vans carried the familiar, unremarkable descriptor: Seishinkouki Co., Ltd (青心工機), one of Section Nine’s many undercover shell companies.

“Welcome to Sapporo, Major!”

“Togusa, glad to see you. How are things since you arrived?”

Togusa shook his head as the Major stopped before him. “Nothing substantially new, but the police and the cult are both getting anxious. I think the police are expecting the worst; insiders say the cultists seem to expect something.”

“Concerned about a tipoff?”

“It’s possible,” Togusa admitted with a frown.

Kusanagi’s frown matched her lead investigator as she continued, “Alright, can you get Reiko up here? Aramaki said she’s leading Team North now.”

Togusa nodded towards a short-haired, Amazonian cyborg leaning against one of the Section Nine trucks, talking on a hand device. “Full body cyborg and former cyberbrain engineer, you’ll like her, I think. Really sharp.”

“I’ve met her a couple times actually, but never long enough to make a strong impression.”

Togusa shrugged, “We’re a bigger organization these last few years, finally have regional offices. And then comes the budget cuts.”

The Major nodded glumly and watched Togusa give the Team North leader an inviting wave over. As Reiko approached, Kusanagi noted the cyborg woman stood a full head over her with an imposing physical height and nonregulation platform heels. She wore a fleece jacket covered by a digital camo plate carrier and dark form-fitting leggings revealing more than was reasonable for conservative Japanese fashion. Sharp militaristic edges beneath the leggings seem to confirm Togusa’s description, Reiko was a fully body convert who flaunted her form and machinery.

“Good morning, Reiko, congratulations on the promotion to Team Leader,” Kusanagi supplied with a soft, sympathetic smile.

Reiko didn’t show the same courtesy, only offering a tired sigh. “Thank you Major, I wish the promotion was under better circumstances.”

“Your former team leader?”

“Got a bid from Poseidon Industrial for a Security Ops managerial position. Pay and benefits were… four times our own.”

Kusanagi pursed her lips, looking away as Togusa pinched his shirt collar in hesitancy. No one liked talking budget or salary, but everyone was feeling it. Despite their larger size, Section Nine was still able to manage a somewhat open environment. Their loose hierarchy from the Laughing Man days survived and distilled down to their new recruits in some surviving capacity. And their annual black budget hadn’t grown in two years. The spoken and unspoken realities weighed on all of them.

“I’m sorry about that, but I’m glad we’re in your capable hands. Togusa tells me we’re on a sensitive time frame?”

“Other than the whole Section’s countdown clock? Yeah, that too,” Reiko nodded, pulling two wires from a black box mobile server on her hip and offered them to Kusanagi and Togusa. “Connect to my lobby?”

The senior officers took the offered wires and inserted them into their neck ports. The snowy backdrop of Sapporo and surrounding cacophony of police activity faded into a green-blue void of ambient data signals of Reiko’s cyber lobby and an empty virtual hall with a holographic map display at the center. Orange markers indicated the address of the primary Den Spirit compound at the intersection of the Chitose and Ishikari rivers.

Several of Reiko’s seated subordinates connected to the lobby via wireless, a few offering small waves to the new arrivals. Reiko continued, changing the central display from a Hokkaido map to online videos of Den Spirit public events. The footage was mostly unassuming: Shinto-style guest prayer ceremonies, public political demonstrations in Asahikawa, Chitose, and Sapporo, donation drives and commissioned faith services at community offices.

REIKO:

「 Typical of new century mystery cults (shinkō shūkyō, 新興宗教, “new religions”) types, Den Spirit embed in the local community and pursued aggressive recruitment of local business and administrative influencers. With a few key supporters as high as the provincial Diet, any political action against them will undoubtedly see blowback in Fukuoka.

Mere rumors and online condemnation are known to mobilize them as well. As Sapporo has seen increased weapon smuggling from Korea and Russia year over year by foreign mafias, we expect a heavily armed and organized response. 」

Reiko deployed another display of images at a distance featuring Den Spirit members performing blessings on a wooden rack covered by infantry weapons, and military grade surveillance drones overlooking hardened, cistern domes: sharp concrete plumes like ant hills or shield volcanoes with gaps directed towards the sky.

Togusa stepped up, projecting excerpts from three police reports dated to Summer 2039.

TOGUSA:

「 In the last seven months, Sapporo police recorded three false hostage-bomb threats traced back to Den Spirit members, a variation of the American “swatting” phenomenon. Two children lost their lives in separate suburban shooting encounters involving the city’s Special Assault Team. One incident included a confirmed hack of an officer’s optical implants.

All incidents trace back to personal devices of members of the Den Spirit group. Sapporo detectives retrieved individual confessions but local judges blocked attempts to further pursue conspiracy charges against the cult and any affiliate organizations. Conspiracy investigations through audit of the judges turned up nothing but the cult is covering their members’ legal expenses, putting them under continued suspicion. 」

KUSANAGI:

「 So illegal weapon possession, wiretapping, and criminal harassment. It’s good enough for a police raid but calling us in seems overkill. What of security concerns regarding the police? 」

REIKO:

「 Add manipulation of government officials to the list, but only suspected. For the police, we have sanctioned backlogs to the official police lines over the last six months with coordination of their cybersecurity and internal audit departments. Unfortunately, if there are any cultists in the police force, they cover up well. We haven’t seen any suspected cult traffic on police lines or from the local telecom providers. 」

KUSANAGI:

「 Any progress on identifying and intruding the cult’s private network? And what’s the concern with the local police leadership? 」

Reiko nodded in understanding, displaying a datasheet of the 53-year-old Sapporo police chief along with his name: Fujisawa Kyo. He was an unassuming man with a receding dark hairline yet to turn gray. He had small but sharp eyes, glaring into the camera.

REIKO:

「 Chief Fujisawa is a former JGSDF infantry officer and fought in the last world war’s Nemuro Landing. He’s not a fan of Public Security, or the Fukuoka government, but he’s cooperated fully in the past. It’s unclear if he or senior officers are in the cult’s pocket, but we maintain suspicion of collaborators in their ranks.

If we want to have the cult’s main facility fully secure, we need to do this before the sun is fully visible. Cloud cover can buy us a little time, but I would say we have three hours at best. By 1100 hours, it will be warm enough for neighbors to step outside and fly drones. By 1300 hours, temperatures will be at ice melt. 」

KUSANAGI:

「 We better move quickly then; driving will eat up time. Modify the planned joint mobile briefing for the police and our assault team, we’ll have to perform it on the move. Scrub anything of case sensitivity and we’ll need to designate personnel to watch the police traffic. And is there anything I should know of significant sensitivity before this all goes down? 」

REIKO:

「 My team can handle the local network domination side of things, no problem. I think you’re mostly caught up to speed but I’ve interfaced the relevant memory data if anything comes up. Let me know if you have any questions too. 」

Kusanagi’s physical body gave the mildest of shivers as she felt a 48-gigabyte collection of select memories flash over the fiberoptic wire and land in her cyberbrain. She didn’t need to parse or sort through the work of Reiko’s six-person squad as the memories became indistinguishable from her own. Some residual emotions and late-night stress burned from the collection and accented by the smell of coffee, of people still present and others who already left Section Nine for safer careers. The electric symphony of experiences correlated into two words for the Major: “melancholy” and “doubt.”

She nodded to Reiko as she had no questions.

KUSANAGI:

「 Thank you. Coordinate with Ishikawa and Borma for cyberwar and network security. 」

TOGUSA:

「 I’ll get a briefing together and we might have to meet with... Major, do you see— 」

KUSANAGI:

「Chief Fujisawa approaching. Yeah, I’m disconnecting. 」

With a sharp zap, the Major pulled the fiberoptic wire from her neck and drew her violet eyes to a high-ranking police officer with Fujisawa’s face in a dark dress uniform, gold shoulder bars, and a dark, throw-on plate carrier.

“—Disconnecting.” Togusa grunted, disengaging from Reiko’s cyber lobby.

Putting out a firm hand, Kusanagi took two steps and met the Sapporo police chief with a firm handshake.

“Chief Fujisawa, it is nice to meet you. I’m Major Kusanagi Motoko from Public Security Section Nine. I’ll be responsible for today’s ground operation.”

The police chief gave a grunt at first, attempting to experimentally squeeze down on Kusanagi’s fingers. After only minor success and the Major squeezing back on his organic hand, he let go with a smile. “Hmm. You’re stronger than you look, Major Kusanagi. I can tell, you’re a full conversion cyborg?”

Kusanagi nodded, forcing her polite smile through the unrelated remark. “Well, yes. I hope we can resolve this anti-terrorism concern quickly for you.”

“Yes, that would be great. Though I suspect even if we’re successful I will be dealing with the consequences for years after. You’re the Prime Minister’s bagwoman, right? I’m in good hands?” Fujisawa’s smile drooped into a frown.

The Major looked sideways at Togusa and Reiko before simply returning another nod to the police chief. Neither Reiko or Togusa seem to have an answer for the comment, based on their embarrassed and confused looks. Reiko added a neural communications whisper:

REIKO:

「 He’s a little too friendly. Honestly, Fujisawa is always hard to read from my interactions with him. 」

KUSANAGI:

「 Friendly might be the wrong adjective. 」

“I’m sorry if that title is problematic. Section Nine has a reputation is all. You were at Nemuro, yes?”

Kusanagi shrugged. “I’m sure many were at the Nemuro landing, it was a textbook combined arms operation. I hear it’s still taught at the Bodai Officer Academy.”

“I suppose so. Your name is familiar though. Not that it’s a real one either,” Fujisawa smirked.

The Major smiled on, sweetly. “Well, I’ve debriefed with my local commanders here and we’re ready to head out. Assuming you are? I’m told we are short on time.”

“I suppose so. Do you intend to catch them in this cold? You should know their complex is well heated, like igloos. They might have concrete domes but the structural designs retain heat well. Temperatures and winter combat won’t be to your advantage, you should expect close quarters instead.”

“You’ve been to their facility, Chief Fujisawa?”

Fujisawa sighed, scratching his uniformed shoulder. “On several occasions. I’ve received two tours of the complex in fact. Once when it was still a dual use facility for hydroelectricity and mixed contents, water purification. The old utility company went under following a Russian ransomware attack; reported the issue too late and couldn’t pay the government fines or civil charges. Den Spirit bought the site in 2026 and revitalized it as Akiya (空き家) Power Solutions.

“An ‘empty house?’ Like Akiya Bank?” Kusanagi asked, “That’s an odd name.”

“The concrete domes are former wastewater and micromachine basins. According to their leader Remuda, they still use some as clean water processors but they converted them for business and public joint ventures. They sometimes use the domes for sermons too.”

Kusanagi nodded, “Thank you, your knowledge will be useful to this operation. Do you plan to join us at the compound?”

The Sapporo police chief widen his eyes in alarm, once more scratching at his shoulder.

“Oh no, I would hate to intrude. This is your jurisdiction, Major. If the National Police Commission says a specialized team is taking over, I trust them to handle things.” Fujisawa continued after a pause, “That said, my people are rather loyal to me. I would hate to create confusion in the ranks during such a precarious operation. But if I can be of help, please do let me know.”

“Well, we plan to brief our teams on the drive. If you and your sergeants could listen in, we’d appreciate any additional input.”

Fujisawa gave a slight bow, “Of course Major, I will head back to my office but Miss Reiko has my secure line. You can patch us in and we’ll provide what we can.”

Togusa spoke up suddenly, drawing the two leaders’ attention. “That name Remuda, it’s the organization founder. But it’s not a Japanese name? During our research, we couldn’t find a proper name for the organization leader. He officially registers properties and businesses under the given name despite the current fraud laws.”

“Aw, yes. In the national census, he is Remuda but it’s a Western term converted awkwardly from Romaji and means nothing. One of my foreign friends once told me it means a ‘herd of domesticated horses’ in Spanish, an old ranching term.”

“What can you tell us of the founder’s personal life?” Togusa further inquired.

“Mister Togusa, was it? You’re the lead investigator?”

Togusa nodded and shot the Major a quick glance. She shrugged, “It was nice to meet you, Chief Fujisawa, thank you for the information and Togusa can continue to parallel with you. If you’ll excuse me, I need to muster my men. Reiko, please get the Special Assault Team switched to the shared Section Nine cyber lobby.”

TOGUSA:

「 I’ll keep an eye on him. 」

KUSANAGI:

「 Thanks, Togusa. Remember I need you in the field as well when the shooting starts. 」

TOGUSA:

「 I wouldn’t dare miss our last rodeo. 」

REIKO:

「 I’ll need a few minutes, just have everyone get into the vehicles. Will we have tiltrotor support? 」

KUSANAGI:

「 Limited at best. Do the domes give you the impression of faraday cages? I would expect mixed copper or fiber optic lining to prevent tampering with micromachine assembly. We should operate under the assumption external networking won’t work. 」

REIKO:

「 Understood Major, I’ll make do. Fujisawa told us the same during prior meetings. Still, I worry about their external communications… 」

Reiko’s voice leaked into the material world as the Team North leader’s eyes trailed to the tiltrotor’s topside, triangle electronic warfare dish. “…To think my last day in the office. I finally get a chance to play with an integrated Deadeye Array. Ishikawa you better not hog—"

Kusanagi made a hurried walk back to her assault team’s assembly area, patting Batou and the said Ishikawa on the shoulders. She couldn’t help noticing Ishikawa rubbing his reddened nose for an undetermined reason. Coincidence of spiritual comedy? Refocusing, the Major called out over hushed whispering to get the whole unit’s attention.

“We’re on an even tighter schedule. We have a 45-minute drive to reach the Akiya Power Solutions facility, the main site for the Den Spirit organization. The mission clock already started as we aim to secure the hydroelectric station in under three hours and no more. Any later and we can expect locals to become aware of this operation.

Our goal is to secure the Den Spirit main site without public notice to minimize the Interior Ministry’s need to address later inquiry. We won’t have the benefit of a press blackout for this reason. A proper mission brief will occur over secure cyber lobby with the Sapporo SAT in attendance along with leadership from their subprefecture police department. Please maintain information sensitivity accordingly. Any questions?”

A few assault team members mentioned a quick bathroom break but for the most part they were ready to go. The Major had Ishikawa take responsibility moving the Section Nine troops aboard their armored cargo vans. “Hai Major, Assault Team One will ride in the van there. Assault Team Two will ride in the one behind it.”

Batou paused, continuing to stand next to Kusanagi as the alcove was once more vacant.

“So Togusa smooth things over?”

Kusanagi nodded. “It seems so. He and the Sapporo police chief are on speaking terms, but there’s a lot we still don’t know about the police. But Togusa’s brilliant, he’ll uncover any surprises. But I can’t say the same about this operation.”

“I suppose this relates to what you said earlier on the bird?”

The Major shook her head but her answer was the opposite. “Yes… actually. These short timetables, working until the last minute, from one situation to the next. Whatever happens after, we hand over responsibility of the cult to the local police and to the National Police Agency. It feels wrong for us not to see cases through to the end. I wonder, if I didn’t come back, maybe things could have turned out better? Togusa as field commander wouldn’t seem so bad, especially if the alternative is Section Nine remains operational with full authority.”

“That’s a stupid what-if, and you know that...”

The Major shook her head, “Come on Batou, let’s just get moving. You can complain later.”

“I might take a bullet just so I don’t have to hear you whine again,” Batou grumbled.

Kusanagi’s head rotated on Batou as a twitch crept up to her right eye. “Whine? Seriously?”

Batou flashed a small grin. “That’s a little better. The problem with you is you’re all highs and lows, Major. Always so confident, and then you take a hit on your soft side that gets you all mopey. Come back or not, there’s no way to know how things would turn out. What’s really got you down?”

The Major turned silent, heaving a long sigh, and quietly called over her Tachikoma. Climbing aboard the small spider tank, she looked at Batou again.

“What this is… I didn’t prepare well enough for an alternative to Section Nine.”

Batou frowned but climbed aboard his own Tachikoma to the point only their heads were in view of one another. Behind them, the Section Nine vans and Sapporo police trucks were warming into sudden activity.

“You were always talking about being ready to find a different sponsor if things soured. What changed?”

“The Prime Minister’s budget cuts, downsizing cabinet departments. I don’t have the means to accommodate for our team anymore. The likely agencies and joint ventures are going too. Because Section Nine is the size of a small corporation now, it’s not like I can uproot us and go join other Public Security Sections. What about our other members? Azuma, or Reiko? What happens to them?”

Batou shook his head, “That’s not your call. It’s for the Chief to decide.”

“We used to make those decisions together. He had to adopt a human resources unit to keep up with our growing organization.” Kusanagi paused, looking away from Batou in the direction of deep, snowy fields below the crowded parking lot overlooking Sapporo’s outskirts. “The Chief always means well. But even that old Ape can’t protect us from everything, all at once.”

“It doesn’t really sound like you have a grudge against the old man,” Batou said softly.

“I don’t. But I’m allowed to be unhappy when doors start to close.”

“Maybe you were right,” Batou mumbled softly. “We should discuss this later. Going to need some alcohol for that one.”

Kusanagi offered him a reserved ‘I told you so’ look. “I don’t remember the last time any of us worried about job security. But you take point on the drive into the cult’s facility. I’ll stay at center and start the briefing; I’ll worry about the other thing later.”

“Hai, Major.”