Gaston stared at the reply that came to his email address.

  “No.”

  “Well, she’s expressive,” Janna said, sipping on her coffee, looking at the rain free falling from above.

  “I mean it is dangerous. So it’s kinda understandable that she’d want nothing to do with us.”

  Janna placed her cup down. She pulled on her gloves. “Mistake here is that you expect some blogger to risk her life and help regarding this situation.”

  Gaston tapped his fingers on the flat top of the table. He manipulated his AR-module with his eyes and contacted Ayumi.

  “Ayumi,” Gaston called. “I need a rundown regarding this blogger called Hijiri.”

  “A blogger?”

  “Yes, a blogger. You must have heard of our recent accidental discovery?”

  “I have.”

  The background noise on Ayumi’s side was rather noisy. He could hear many kinds of noises. But what stood out the most to Gaston was the sound of this motor humming in the background.

  “I can hear this noise. Ah, are you somewhere safe?”

  “I am. One of the safest bases in this country. Hai, to think that I’d have to stay here for twenty-seven hours.”

  “Must be horrifying.”

  “It is. So a blogger, I ran a database search on this blogger and it says here that she’s quite a popular one. Sending you the link and some extra info on her. Don’t know where you found her but she has quite a sheet. Don’t take your time to read it. It expires if you leave the page.”

  Gaston switched to his reader. The page sent by Ayumi contained a dossier of this woman named Kathy Matsui who goes by her moniker. She was a former black-hat turned activist and has a strong dislike of authority after her case in the early years of her career almost landed her on the chopping block.

  “An interesting profile.”  

Janna commented. She was connecting to Gaston’s module using her augmented eye. Gaston copied Hijiri’s number, personal email address, and her current address.

  “That’s all I want, Ayumi. Thank you for this.”

  “No need,” her voice sweetened. “Considering how you’ve helped me. This is not enough for a favor. I hope you… umm, you call me, friend.”

  Gaston nodded. He turned off his earpiece and stared at Janna who was eyeing her while taking a sip of his coffee.

  “Sure is friendly. You really do have many lady friends, Gato.”

  “Must be the reason why my best friend is also you, Janna.”

  “Well, that’s the perks of having twelve aunties to raise you.”

  Gaston nodded slowly. Janna looked away and stayed her gaze on the weather outside of the café. Gaston studied the details that he got from Ayumi and started to contact Ms. Kathy Matsui. It took a while for the call to connect to her device. When it was about to connect Gaston put on his professional demeanor and stared back at the lethargic face on the screen.

  “Ms. Hijiri. We know you. We want to talk and you said ‘no’ to us. We didn’t want to do this but you’ve forced our hand.”

  “I know my rights,” she said in her native language.

  “We know. But we also know your former activities. We want your help. And let’s say that being uncooperative isn’t the right choice at the moment. We’ll send you the address. We’ll wait for you in about three hours. That should be enough for you to get to us. And don’t make it hard for us to track you down. It will not end well for you, Miss.”

  Gaston hung up. Janna looked at him with an amused expression. “You sure have gotten better regarding being such a mean person.”

  “It’s not personal.”

  Gaston folded his arms and placed his earpiece down on the table. He took a gulp of his coffee and wiped his face with his gloved hand. “Better be threatening now. We don’t have time to play nice.”

  “If this doesn’t work out?”

  “We’ll do the usual. Investigate separately. You are far better when conducting investigations with authority figures after all.”

  “And I hate most of them. I didn’t agree with the Lady of the Babaika Lions so I can deal with politicians and schemers again, Gaston.”

  “We have little choice on this. I know that this is a problem. You hate working with the leader-types unless it’s a job. But we need to expand if we want to find something.”

  “No. That’s that, Gaston Hardy.”

  “Can I persuade you?”

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  “No, you can’t. I will agree to anything other than this. Gaston, I know that despite the reports, you were the one who ‘persuaded’ Papa Legba during your time there. I fucking know you more than anyone in this world and if there are fuckers like this involved. You’d have a temper that far surpasses mine. I won’t let that happen.”

  Gaston folded his arms and leaned back. “My temper regarding them isn’t about those. It’s about efficiency for goodness’s sake.”

  “Like I said, Gaston Hardy. I refuse.”

  She wasn’t going to be persuaded. Not when she was using his full name like that. Gaston gracefully gave up and tried to coax her but with her temper running hot. It was impossible for Gaston to convince her. Gaston spent time in silence while Janna controlled her temper or at least tried to tame it.

  When it was finally an hour. Janna finally looked him in the eyes. “Have you realized your wrong?”

  No, Gaston thought, but knowing better he decided to nod his head. “Yes, yes, this isn’t the normal cultists we are up to so I was being careless.”

  “Stupid. Utterly stupid that it makes my blood boil. Say that shit to me again, and I’ll punch you in the face, Gato.”

  Gaston said nothing. He wasn’t that willing to turn up her temper again. It was reasonable for her to be so angry. And in the first place it was indeed a stupid of him to try and take on a group of cultist that could pull the rug on one of the most secured nation in earth.

  “Sorry,” Gaston said.

  “Good. We aren’t going to talk about this again, Gaston.”

  “Sure, but you will understand if it really needs to be done, okay?”

  Gaston stabbed a finger on the table. Leaving a dent on it. Janna snorted and looked away. She didn’t want to reply or affirm, but she should at least understand that this was Gaston’s bottom line as well.

  The duo waited for hours before they spotted Kathy Matsui entering the café while holding her bag. She was wearing a beanie and was clad in a baggy hood. Spotting the two of them she gingerly walked over while staring at them with her eyes dilated.

  “Ms. Matsui. I’m glad that you can join. I apologize for the threatening tone. Please, sit down so we can discuss why we want to speak with you.”

  Gaston assumed his professional demeanor while Janna switched to her business smile that could fool even the elders in the UEDF.

  “Please sit down,” Janna said in the local language. It was rather stiff since she was using the translation module like Gaston.

  “You don’t have to worry for now, Ms. Matsui.”

  Ms. Kathy Matsui sat on Janna’s side. Janna scooted to the side and leaned her back on the window of the café while staring down Ms. Kathy who was fidgeting her fingers. She was watching Gaston and Janna. Afraid that they would suddenly attack her.

  Gaston manipulated his bracer and produced a projection light on the flat of the table. It showed the article that Ms. Kathy Matsui wrote on her blog. Seeing the article she hurriedly explained that it was nothing more than a theory she concocted herself. She was playing herself and Gaston found it easy for the intimidated ones to make wrong assumptions.

  “So you made these theories yourself?” Gaston prodded.

  “Hai!” her voice quivered. Janna’s impartial eyes remained on Kathy.

  Kathy Matsui obviously wasn’t used to being stared at and asked questions by tall foreigners. Gaston asked questions as if he was reading a teleprompter while Janna would sometimes inquire regarding what she told. When Gaston felt like they had squeezed everything that they knew of her. He told her about the beaches of Japan.

  “We were led to Odaiba beach because of your blog post regarding the strange color of the sand. Obviously, we thought nothing of it, but whether it was a coincidence or not. You made the right guess. No, your intuition was correct and we came here to ask you questions. We will not lie. We know what you did. Your activities are quite notorious… especially for such a harmless-looking woman such as yourself.”

  “W-what do you want from me?”

  Gaston leaned forward. He squared his jaw and straightened his posture. “We need your knowledge regarding this enemy of ours.”

  “Sir, I’m just a blogger posting my thoughts.”

  “And you managed to uncover a terrible truth by pure speculation alone. From the looks of it you just might be either lucky or you have something in your mind that made you think this way. You must have heard it by now.”

  “I have. It was nothing more than a speculation, Sir.”

  “It is. But you’re good at it. Truthfully, we’d rather grasp for straws than have nothing at all.”

  “Sir, I really can’t do this and… if it’s them. I don’t want to mess with them.”

  Gaston glared at Ms. Kathy Matsui. “Looks like you are a web runner.”

  Janna nodded. “Circuit eyes and from the looks of it she has a visualizer in her pocket,” she pickpocketed Kathy without her even knowing. She had this visualizer that could handle a comfortable resolution. From the looks of it also had an eye tracker and neutral plug that could allow her to interface with the machine. What was interesting about this visualizer was how much computing power it had. From the processor and to the ram. It was even customized. Gaston could tell since he had been dealing with some of the web runners in UEDF. Even Janna was familiar with the moth-like eyes design of her goggles.

  “Your previous profession. Even some of your blog posts… even if they are speculation. You wrote them in a way that made it clear that you have an obscene familiarity with how these monsters are created. Ms. Kathy, I couldn’t see in your bio that you’ve worked for any facilities or groups that handle studies. So it’s quite easy to see where you got this knowledge, especially with your background.”

  She was an information broker most likely, Gaston deduced. A black-hat hacker with a tendency to sell information. Ms. Kathy Matsui was still stiff, listening to Gaston. But as Gaston started to slowly go on about what she is and who she is. That mask slowly faded and maybe it was her being cornered that made her braver.

  “It’s insane that you are trying to get something from me.”

  “We’re grasping straws here. Besides, I think we needed a personal web runner. You aren’t so bad either so even if you know nothing of what we wanted. We can still ask the Babaika Lions to recruit you.”

  “Babaika Company,” she muttered. “That’s a good company.”

  She folded her arms and then inserted her hands inside her baggy sleeves. “Ah, this might be worth it. Then again, hmm, I see no info on you two. Wow, I didn't think that my post would actually be right. Half of it was pure speculation from one of the info I got back then. Now you actually want me to deduce where to get information against one of the most paranoid, secretive, and even mythical cults that have truly embraced the web.”

  “Yes,” Gaston said straightly.

  Ms. Kathy Matsui’s expression turned grim. She hung her mouth for a second before she lifted one finger. It seemed like she was trying to scold Gaston for a moment, but realized that there was no change in Gaston’s face at all.

  “You’re kidding me.”

  Ms. Kathy Matsui protested with such a weak voice. Gaston knew it himself that this was grasping for straws. But he wasn’t exactly worried about the results. He just wanted his employers to feel like he was doing something. He initially felt guilty about dragging a civilian to this mess, but he felt less guilty now that he knew that she had some background.