00111: The Weakest Link in the Chain

It was a sunny Saturday with a few clouds drifting across the sky and just a weekend before the beginning of my first term at the new school. I had received several letters and emails with different information ahead of time. They provided a whole pamphlet to explain parents what the school and its secrecy was all about. After all the agreements I had to sign I was quite surprised by how honest they were – which didn’t mean that they provided even half the information I already obtained. The texts explained that the school was a special facility under protection of the Japanese government. Since critical knowledge, usage of tools and techniques from IT and Cyber security were imparted, it was important to control the flow of information.

The actual location of the school was a secret as well and therefore we were told to meet up at a big parking lot in Yokohama. Dad helped me heave the big suitcase out of the trunk of our car. I remembered filling it with clothing, a toilet bag, a few photo frames with pictures of my family and of course a very special black hoodie.

I already framed the situation in my head, when I would meet Lynx again, I would offer her the hoodie back. She would say that she did not want it back and yell at me since I followed her against her advice. Yeah … she would probably be really mad at me. It would have been totally creepy if she would be the only reason for this big life-changing decision of mine. But being honest to myself it was still a hypothesis that she also went to Ineigaikan. When I met Fujinami-kun for the next time, I would ask him again about her handle. He had not been allowed to talk about it the last time, but this time I was an official student at the school and permitted to know.

“There are still holidays. I will surely get back home then.” I muttered, when my parents and Tokiko enclosed me in a big group hug. My suitcase had already been stored in one of the four big busses.

“We’ll miss you, Onii-chan!” Tokiko called as she waved.

Then I got into the bus. A lot of students were already sitting and waited for the last people to arrive inside. I saw a free seat next to a brunette guy that looked kind of sleepy. “Hey, good morning,” I said. “Is this seat still taken?”

He smiled at me politely. “No, please suit yourself.”

I noticed a slight accent, he seemed to be American if I was not mistaking. His face also looked more western. I placed my hand baggage – a small bag – onto my lap. “Which country are you from?” I asked.

“I’m from the US. Still struggling with the jet lag a little. And you?”

I smiled. “Japan. Luckily without any jet lag.”

He nodded. “Well, nice to meet you. I hope we will have a good time.”

“Good morning, everyone,” a voice said over the speakers of the bus. A woman. “For now, all students are on board. We still have to wait for the other busses, since there seem to be a few people arriving late. But I’d like to use the spare time for a few introductory things. First, I may introduce myself. I am Trisha MacKenzie and will be the homeroom teacher for class B. A few of you will therefore see me again at the first school day.”

I leaned into the aisle to see her. She had dark hair with a few blue colored strands mixed in, looked rather young for a teacher – at the end of her twenties if I’d have to guess. Her expression was stern though.

“First things first: I know you all are still teenagers, but you have to realize that attending Ineigaikan is no game at all. You will attend the best protected and most secret school of whole Japan if not the whole world. To make it stay this way, it is crucial to control all the information about it and let’s be honest: The weakest link in this chain will always be the human – you. During our trip to the school grounds, you will receive a security briefing. We will further elaborate on the details then, but I want to prepare you to hand over all your digital devices. You will only be allowed to use devices provided by the school.” A rumoring went through the bus. MacKenzie-sensei raised her voice so she could still be heard. “We will gather all your devices in about quarter of an hour. So, make your calls and send your messages. You will receive a freshly configured phone and laptop as soon as we arrive. Your luggage will also be checked and found devices taken out. That’s everything.”

The guy beside me sighed. “So much for listening to music during the ride.” He took his ear buds out and wrapped the cable around the attached phone.

I should tell my family as well, that they better not expected to hear from me before afternoon. I wrote them a short message and turned the phone off. They did not seem to mess around at this school.

The busses left a few minutes later. I expected a very long ride, but to my surprise they drove into the direction of the coast, or more precisely to the Yokohama Port. The bus stopped in front of a big white catamaran. It did not have the size of a huge cruise ship, but all the people in our busses would fit in there easily. Where on earth would they take us?

“That was a rather short trip,” I said, as we all stood up.

The guy next to me – Bates-kun as I had found out during our talk – yawned. “They surely didn’t want anyone else but us to know that the school is actually located on an island.”

My gaze shot to him. “An island?”

“Oh … uh, you didn’t know?” he asked.

I shook my head and stepped out of the bus ahead of him. “I always heard that it is in Yokohama.”

“That is the thing everyone officially tells you. But the truth is only very few people know the exact location. It has been wiped from all available satellite footage and lies inside a huge, restricted sea area. I’ve heard they even have a missile defense system.”

“Oh!” I nodded. The people from our bus followed right after MacKenzie-sensei. We walked up the big gangway to the boat. The insides were quite luxurious and could easily be mistaken for one of those mega yachts except all pools, bars, and everything entertainment-related had been left out.

Right as we set foot onto the ship, we had to go through a security checkpoint that reminded me of an airport. A walk-through metal detector was installed right at the entrance and next to it a baggage scanner for the hand baggage. There also were around ten security guys and women. Additionally, they scanned everyone with special hand detectors that looked bigger than the ones I knew and even patted every one of us down. The women for the girls and the guys for us boys – obviously. This was also the point where we had to hand off all our devices. For me this resulted in me losing my phone and smartwatch.

Even though the people were really fast, it took an eternity to check everyone. MacKenzie-sensei had told us that other personnel was also bringing our luggage from the busses to the cargo area at the other side of the ship. They – of course – were also checked for whatever they tried to find. Somehow, I again and again underestimated the lengths this school went for its own security.

After around half an hour standing in line Bates-kun and I finally managed to get through. We were sent to the upper deck and had to wait there until all the other students were checked. The weather was a bit overcast today, but few streaks of light could be seen travelling over the water that suddenly disappeared in the distance.

“And you’re more of a programmer?” Bates-kun asked as he leaned on the railing and observed the sea.

I nodded. “Yeah.”

“I never fully wrapped my head around that. I am fonder with console commands and using these tools you geniuses create.” He chuckled.

“I guess there also have to be the guys that use them properly. That is a whole thing in itself. I even have a friend at Ineigaikan who is just in for social engineering.”

“Is that how you got your invitation?” he asked and looked at me. “Through your friend?”

“No … I had a teacher who left to the school. He gave me the invitation since he thought I might be capable enough.”

Bates-kun smiled and nodded lightly. “Hm … that is nice.”

“Excuse me?” asked a female voice. Both of us looked into the direction. It was MacKenzie-sensei. She had three security guys behind her. A grim expression could be seen on her face. She looked onto her phone and up at Bates-kun again. “Are you Cameron Bates?”

He detached from the railing and turned fully to her. “Yeah, what may I do for you?”

“Is this your bag?” she asked and one of the guys brought a black travelling bag to the front, demonstrating it to him.

He slowly nodded.

She held a small, transparent plastic bag in front of his eyes. In it was a black, rounded thing that had the shape of a grain of rice and was not much bigger than one as well. “Do you know what this is?”

“No …” I noticed slight nervousness in his voice.

“A radio transmitting device with a small microphone attached to it. A bug, to say it bluntly. It was found sewed into the seams of your travelling bag.”

Bates-kun’s face grew red. “I … don’t know how this thing got there, I swear.”

“Sure. Would you please follow these three gentlemen? We will resolve this problem.” She pointed towards the security guys.

Hesitantly he obliged. MacKenzie-sensei looked after him until they vanished behind a door and then turned sharply back to me. I only noticed just now that my hands had clenched around the railing.

“What is your affiliation with Bates?” she asked.

“I … uh, I just sat next to him in the bus. I’ve never seen him before.”

She sighed deeply and leaned at the back of the railing. “Name?”

“Isato Kanaoka.”

“Oh, really?” She typed onto her phone. “Then you must know Kousuke Ando-san, right?”

I closely looked at her. Well, she was a member of the staff and apparently, he was as well. “Did he tell you about me?” I asked

She nodded, still scrolling through her phone. “We normally eat lunch together. Both of us started as teachers at the school last year. It is quite an achievement to make someone like him talk about you in the highest terms. Unfortunately for this first year you will have to make do with me as your homeroom teacher.”

She was going to be my homeroom teacher! Apart from her stern attitude she seemed to be a good person. At least as long as I did not step out of the line too much, I suppose. “It could have definitely been worse for me.”

“How do I have to understand that?” She lifted an eyebrow and finally put her phone away.

I smiled. “You said you are close with Ando-sensei and he was the best teacher I ever had. I would assume, that you can’t be that terrible, if you get along with him. And from my first impression you already seem to be really committed. Judging that I’m really looking forward to your lessons.”

A slight but unexpected blush rose to her face. “Just … Cut that!”

What? She also had a cute side to her. Did I sense a true competitor for the first place of my ranking of teachers? I cleared my throat. “But do you really think that Bates-kun is a spy? I mean there is the possibility that someone sneaked this bug into his bag.”

She huffed. “Maybe if it had just been thrown in there, but it was sewed into the seams. You need time for that. And it’s not just done with letting that thing rest inside the bag. A bug this small needs a power supply, someone deliberately placing and operating it.”

“You assume that only Bates-kun has the capabilities of doing all that, but the operator could also be another student. Maybe they tried to use his bag as a trojan horse without him noticing it. With enough preparation time someone could have broken into his home and sneaked it into the bag. The other student would just need to get a hold of it after everyone safely arrived at the island and could cut the bug out of the seams, using it as you said. It would be much safer than carrying that thing oneself. Especially with that level of security checks you bring up,” I suggested.

Her eyes darted between mine for a second, not losing the stern poker face. She flicked my forehead. “You really are the little smartass Kousuke-san said you were.”

“Ouch.” I rubbed the spot as if it would make the pain go away. “If I knew there were such violent teachers working at this school, maybe I would have changed my decision.”

She chuckled. The first time I saw a slight crack in her façade. “You would be amazed by how far your wrist can bend before it snaps.”

I gulped. That was some morbid kind of humor. “What are you doing with Bates-kun now?” I asked.

“The school does not like to take risks. Whenever we find something in your bag that’s it for you and we don’t care about your funny argumentations. If you can’t prove who it was instead, you’ll be extorted.”

A fluttery feeling rushed through my body. This could have been me as well. Extorted because someone used my bag as a drone for spying hardware. “So, let’s assume I’d like to get rid of a teacher. I would just have to sneak something in their clothes and the rest will be done by the school.” I grinned.

“First: Respect to you, sneaking a bug onto the school grounds. Second: If said teacher is ruthless enough to get themselves bugged, then they would have nothing to do at this school anyways. You are responsible to keep your stuff safe, so you are the one who’s head rolls when you fail to make your job. We don’t have a margin for error and if there is a chain link that does not get this, it will be sorted out.” MacKenzie-sensei grinned sardonically. “But don’t worry. We will surely be able to teach you what paranoia actually feels like.”