Juliet sat in one of the chairs in front of Tanaka’s desk, waiting for him to look up from whatever he was doing; he had a pencil in one hand and was carefully underlining words in an ancient-looking book. Juliet’s love of books reared its head, and she stared intently at the pages, zooming in with her optics to see if she could figure out what he was reading. There wasn’t any indication of the title at the top of the page, and the script was dense. Almost without realizing it, she started mouthing the words as she whispered them softly, “It is indeed incomprehensible to us how a purely intellectual intuition of the self (as the subject of the pure practical reason) is possible; we see only this much, that if we could intuit . . .”
“Ahem.” Tanaka sighed, set his pencil down, and closed the book. He looked at her with amusement in his eyes. “I should have stopped when you came in.”
“No, I’m sorry.” Juliet chuckled at herself. “I’m used to reading things with a friend.” Even she didn’t know if she was talking about Angel, Aya, or both.
“Is that so? You must be close.” He started to roll his chair back, bracing his hands on the arms to stand. “Ready for your lesson?”
“Oh.” Juliet leaned forward, holding out a hand as if to signal him to stop. “I was hoping we could talk for a moment before we started.”
“Of course.” He settled back into his seat, folding his hands in his lap. “Is it about the training?”
Juliet took a deep breath, mentally bracing herself. Was she really going to do this? As if in answer to her unspoken question, she nodded, cleared her throat, and responded, “Sort of related, I suppose. It’s about our talk yesterday morning. God, was that only yesterday? A lot happened between then and now, and I’ve been thinking. I want to keep training with you, of course, but I want it to be more than just sword practice. I want to start training with your team for a job. Do you remember what I said yesterday? About me having a problem with my past but not quite feeling ready to tell you about it?”
He nodded, leaning forward slightly. “Yes.”
“Well, I want to start getting ready to confront the problem, and I’m willing to tell you a little bit about what it is. I figure I can share details with you as needed, but you have to promise me you’re going to keep the team in the dark for now. We can train for specific tasks, but they don’t need to know who the target is or why we’re doing it . . .”
Tanaka nodded again. “Or that you’re the client.”
“Yeah. About that—I know I’m asking a lot, and I do have some money saved up—more than the nice payday we got from the Life-Ultra thing. I’m willing to cover expenses and pay for everyone’s time, yours included. I don’t know how long the preparation will take, but I have more funds coming, and I can always do more work in the meantime.”
Tanaka waved his hand dismissively. “I’m not concerned about the money. Of course, it’s good that you have the means, and I won’t refuse your money, but don’t let it be a concern.”
Juliet nodded, feeling some stress melt away as his receptiveness registered. Even so, a part of her was suspicious, as always, of Tanaka’s motives despite all she knew. She believed he’d earned the benefit of the doubt, though—why else would she be there enlisting his help? So, her smile didn’t feel forced, and she hoped he could see that as she continued explaining what she wanted, “There’s a very powerful corporation, one of the biggest, richest ones, and they’re after me. I . . . took something from a man who escaped one of their research facilities. They want it back, but more than that, they want me.”
Tanaka’s eyes narrowed as he, almost disturbingly fast, started putting pieces together. “The tech that works well with you. The tech that helps you learn things quickly.”
Juliet licked her lips and gripped the sides of her chair, annoyed at the nervousness creeping over her. “Yeah.”
“You’re right to trust me, Lucky. You have leverage over me; whether you believe it or not, I’ve tied myself, my future, to you. For me to betray you is inconceivable. Even so, don’t say any more. Allow me to ask you questions about specifics I need as those details become relevant. You should never mention these details to anyone else. As for the team, they’ll learn only what they need to fulfill their roles. Not before.”
“Don’t you trust them?”
“I trust Frida—no one else in this world.” He frowned, narrowed his eyes, and shrugged. “Actually, I trust you, too. Only because I’ve accepted that my fate is bound to your actions.”
“I thought Leo was like a son . . .”
Tanaka chopped a hand sideways, pressing his lips together. “I care about Leo, and I don’t believe he would try to harm me, but he’s a man—susceptible to trickery, pride, and foolishness.”
“Frida’s not? Why, ‘cause she’s a woman?”
Tanaka groaned, shaking his head. “I should have said human. And, yes, Frida is human, too, but I know her mind. I’ve been teaching her since I could hold her in the palm of one hand.” He held out a hand in illustration, and Juliet saw something like happiness melt away the crease between his eyes for just a few seconds.
She slowly nodded, thinking things through. If Tanaka didn’t trust his team with details, it was hard for her to imagine how foolish it would be to trust anyone she hired off the job boards. “Well? What do you need to know right now?”
“How close is pursuit to finding or identifying you? Where do they think you are?”
“Not close. I don’t think. The last time they had contact with me, I was still on Earth . . .”
Tanaka held up a hand. “That’s enough detail about the location. Now, second question: What are you hoping to accomplish? Must we eliminate the entire corporation?”
Juliet’s eyes bugged out as she vehemently shook her head. “Did you hear me? They’re a huge corporation! Like, I don't know, hundreds of thousands of employees!”
Tanaka shrugged. “Eliminate the right principles and the right producers, and we can very quickly trigger some corporate restructuring and even some division sell-offs.”
Juliet tried to imagine it, tried to think of whom they’d have to deal with to make WBD forget about her. She’d already sort of talked about it with Angel, that there was likely a “team” responsible for Angel and Juliet. They wouldn’t have to eliminate the entire corporation to make Juliet less interesting to the board of directors. In that regard, Tanaka’s statement made perfect sense. “I see what you mean. I’m sure that what I have isn’t the entire focus of . . .” Juliet paused, catching herself before she said, WBD. “Of the company. I know what city they had their facility in back when I got the thing, and I’m pretty sure I have a way to find out more.” She was thinking about Ghoul and her compromised PAI.
“Elaborate,” Tanaka frowned, his chrome eyes narrowed as he listened.
“An old friend from my pre-Lucky days. She sent me a message a few months back, and I’m pretty sure it was fake. I think the company was using her PAI or, at least, her pub-net address to send me the message. If they have a spy daemon in her software, I think I can use it as a vector to get some more details about the team that’s after me.”
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Tanaka closed his eyes, and Juliet could see he was thinking things through. She appreciated that he was encouraging her to give him as little information as possible, but it made her think. Why did he want to be in the dark if he was loyal to her? Was he worried he might be taken? Tortured? The gravity of involving others in her situation with WBD suddenly hit her again, and she almost stood up, telling Tanaka she had to think things through some more. But the question of what she’d do kept coming back to her.
Could she and Angel take on WBD alone? She supposed it was possible. The idea of having Tanaka and his team help her had been clear-cut back before she’d cared about any of them. Now, though, how would she feel if they took Tanaka or Frida and tortured them for information about her? What about the others? She hardly knew Barns, Hawkins, and Lee, but she didn’t want them hurt on her behalf.
“Stop,” Tanaka said, startling her out of her musing. When her face showed the question on her mind, he continued, “We are professionals, and I won’t send my team into danger without knowing the risks, so put your mind at ease. If things look too bad, I’ll find a way to help you without risking those we care about.” As Juliet’s face relaxed and she slowly nodded, he continued, “For now, we will continue to train. If we use your vector, we’ll have the most success if you present yourself to your old friend. That means putting yourself in the crosshairs. You’re not ready for that yet. We’ll focus on the sword, but you need more general combat and espionage training, too. Do you have footage from your escapade last night?”
“My escapade?” Juliet chuckled. He raised an eyebrow, unwilling to repeat himself. “Yeah, fine. I’ll send you the relevant vids. I didn’t think I’d be getting a critique on my performance, or I’d have been more . . .”
“Careful?” he finished for her. “You should always prepare for the worst. I wonder how prepared you were when you decided to hit that installation at midnight after attending a party in the port.”
“Are you serious?” Juliet couldn’t decide if she should be outraged or amused. “Are you having me followed?”
Tanaka offered her a rare smile and shook his head. “No need. When you asked to reschedule your lesson, you told Frida about your dinner and your plans to be out late. Remember?”
Juliet groaned, recalling her rushed decision to contact Frida on her way to Vicky’s chop shop. Had she still been buzzed? “Yeah, all right. Sending you the data. Go ahead and roast me.”
“Very good. When we feel a little closer to making our move, I think the next step is for you to tell me what city this all started in. I’ll have some independent contractors do some research, ensuring there are some levels of separation between us. After that, I suppose we should get eyes on this old friend of yours. Not yet, however. Having that person’s identity will open too many doors to your past. Let’s be sure we’re ready.”
Juliet smiled and stood. “You know what? I feel like a million kilos just got lifted off my back. I mean, even though I haven’t told you everything, having someone else to share the weight is nice.”
Tanaka stood, too, and nodded. “Hai. I know what you mean. When I told you about Frida, I felt something similar.”
Juliet’s smile faded as she remembered something she’d meant to ask about Frida but never found the right moment. “Um, is her condition related to her . . . origin?”
“Her condition?” Tanaka looked puzzled momentarily, but something must have clicked because he nodded quickly. “Ah, her autoimmune disorder? Perhaps. When I took her with me, a less-than-reputable contact put me in touch with a doctor to edit her genes, trying to make her look less like, well, less like her mother’s family. It’s very possible that some of her issues are a result of that procedure.”
Angel surprised her by stepping into the conversation, “We should get a sample of her tissue. I bet I can get Athena to take a look.”
Juliet turned toward the door, subvocalizing, “I’ll think about it. Let’s make sure we consider all the fallout something like that might have.” Aloud, she said, “That makes sense. I feel sorry for her having to deal with that all her life.”
“It’s much better in recent years; her specialist is making good progress treating the triggers to her flare-ups.” Tanaka walked with her to the door and, as he opened it, said, “I’ll meet you in the VR booth.”
It turned out he’d bought a new scenario centered around his favorite activity—pursuits—with combat and a kidnapping victim thrown into the mix. Juliet was thrilled, of course; she’d been bugging him for combat scenarios since the third day of training. This new one was brutal, however. Juliet had to sprint after a simulated kidnapping victim through cluttered train yards, up and down stairs, over rooftops, and down into abandoned subway tunnels. All the while, she was repeatedly assailed by the kidnappers’ reinforcements.
The first few times she entered the scenario, she was knocked out within minutes. She and Angel learned from her mistakes, though, and after each reset, she made it further and further. It wasn’t that she was memorizing the terrain or the behavior of the simulated enemies; those were randomized on each startup. Rather, she was learning from her mistakes: taking corners too quickly, failing to analyze the people in a crowd, choosing the wrong assailant to attack first, or picking the wrong terrain to fight over. A million little variables like that kept her endlessly engaged, and she was almost disappointed when Tanaka called an end to the practice.
Sometime around seven, he cut the simulation off and said, through the speaker in the ceiling, “Time to go home and rest. Let your mind and body process what you learned.”
“We didn’t even do any sword practice today!” Juliet said, flushed, looking up at the camera cluster in the dimly lit gray room. Some floor actuators hummed, clicking as they lowered out of a simulated staircase. There were thousands of them in the floor, making it impossible to run into any of the walls when the sim was active and providing realistic-feeling terrain.
Tanaka’s voice crackled through the speaker again, “You used a sword this entire time, Lucky. We’ll do more fundamentals and sword discipline tomorrow. Our normal time?”
Juliet wiped her sweaty forehead on her sleeve and nodded, “Yeah, for sure. 0800.”
“Good night,” he said, and the LEDs on the scanner array blinked out. He’d shut everything off.
“Well,” Juliet sighed, sheathing her practice sword and heading for the locker room, “I guess that’s a wrap.” After she’d showered and put her street clothes on, she found the offices dark. Everyone was gone, but she knew Tanaka’s apartment was just a bit further down, past the conference room, and it wasn’t like she was leaving the place unattended with the door open when she walked out. In fact, she heard it beep and click locked when it closed behind her. “No messages?”
“None,” Angel said as Juliet stepped into the elevator. “Are you happy you’ve started moving forward with Tanaka? I mean, with regard to WBD?”
“Yeah. I wasn’t lying about feeling like a weight is off me. He’s a capable man, Angel. I think we might figure this thing out.”
“I’m excited for the day when that particular specter no longer lurks in your shadow.”
“Poetic,” Juliet said, suddenly feeling a little chill. She folded her arms, rubbing her palms on her bare shoulders, already missing the jacket she’d given to Frida. “Let’s go shopping.”
“For?”
“A new jacket or two. Let’s start with something meant for a bike, like a newer version of the poor, heroic jacket that died last night.”
“There’s a store specializing in things like that in the Luna City Galleria—Tech Moto.”
“The Galleria?” Juliet groaned, walking toward her motorcycle. The Galleria was Luna’s busiest mall, occupying four stories in one of the most prominent towers downtown. Juliet sort of liked it, but, in a way, she hated the polished corporate sheen of it. Before Angel could respond, she heard a scuff off to her right and spun, snatching her Texan out of its holster, smoothly pulling the hammer back with her thumb, and putting her crosshairs dead in the center of a man’s forehead.
“Jesus! Chill!” Leo cried, holding his hands up. He’d been leaning against a concrete pillar not far from her bike.
Juliet lowered the hammer and, with a quick twirl, holstered the gun. “Don’t go sneaking up on a lady in a dark, empty parking garage, dummy.”
“Yeah, my bad. My PAI was watching the office feed and waiting for you to finish. When I saw you heading out, I thought I’d meet you down here.” He groaned, shaking his head, “I know how that sounds. No, I’m not stalking you—the opposite. I just wanted to say, face-to-face, to forget all that shit I said the other night.”
“Forget it, huh?” Her brain told her to embrace his retreat, but some stupid part of her wanted to tease him regardless of the consequences. “Already moving on?”
“Uh-uh.” He shook his head, wagging a finger as she moved closer. He watched her pull her helmet from the cradle behind her seat, then said, “Don’t play around like that. I know I put you in an awkward spot, and I’m not cool with that. I don’t want you to have to dodge me just to practice with the boss . . .”
Genuine outrage entered Juliet’s tone: “That’s not what happened! He’s the one who . . .”
“No, no!” he waved his hand, shaking his head. “Forget it. You don’t need to explain anything. We’re cool, all right.”
“Oh. My. God! You’re insufferable.” Juliet walked around her bike, helmet under one arm, and stepped up to him, poking a finger into his surprisingly hard pectoral. “Tanaka wanted to focus one-on-one! I never mentioned you. Also, I was sleeping in this morning because I was up all night. Don’t. Flatter. Yourself.” She punctuated the last three words with jabs of her finger.
“Up all night, huh?” His stupid, beautiful eyes twinkled as he lifted an eyebrow. Juliet felt heat rising in her cheeks, and she did the only reasonable thing—stuffed her helmet over her head and slammed the visor down. Then, she turned and hopped onto her bike.
She pressed the ignition button and turned her dark, impenetrable visor toward him. “Get melted, Applebaum.”
She started the bike rolling, but he wasn’t done, calling after her with an absurdly wide smile, “Glad we’re back to normal!”
“Ugh!” she growled, “I can’t believe he ambushed me in the parking garage!”
Angel’s tone was painfully tentative as she replied, “He certainly seems to know how to push your buttons.”
“Are you suggesting something?”
“I’m just saying he got a rise out of you, and I could feel certain . . . responses in you to his proximity.”
“It’s just hormones or something!” Juliet was letting her emotions drive the bike and had to consciously force herself to slow down as she exited the garage. “Ever since that night, when he was honest and said some actually sweet things . . .” Juliet groaned and slapped her helmet with her hand. “Angel, let’s forget it, all right? I basically just hired Tanaka, which means I hired Leo. That means he’s off limits, anyway.” She looked at her mini-map and saw Angel had updated her route to include a trip to the Galleria. “Shopping is just what the doctor ordered. Come on, sis.” With that, she cranked the throttle and, as much as she could in the early evening traffic, enjoyed the ride.