CHAPTER SIX—“THERE ARE PLANS, AND THERE ARE PLANS”

“Whoawhoawhoa! Listen,” said Jon, “there are plans, and there are plans—but hell, Koto—that’s not a plan!”

“Why not?” he asked. “Did you ever hear that story of the wacko with the knife who got over the presidential lawn and all the way into the palace?”

“What?” he asked, the tone of his voice full of incredulity. Was he making that up?

“Yeah,” Koto said. “It really happened.”

Jon glanced to Nova and Mairu. Nova shrugged and Mairu nodded agreeably. “So…?” Jon asked with a shrug.

“So,” said Koto with a smirk, “we’re going to cause a distraction while somebody—me—runs in there and gets the medicine.”

“And do you know where the medicine is at?” asked Jon, and then he too smiled, because he believed he had cornered Koto into answering a question that he couldn’t—because the cop in Jon, thought this was a really bad idea.

“The medicines will be stores in the medicine cabinet, lock up for safe keeping and only accessible by the head nurse.”

“Exactly,” Jon said, though he felt surprised that Koto knew that, because he as sure as the hells didn’t! “So now you have to run in there, find the head nurse, and then then medicine cabinet. Do you even know what you’re looking for?”

“Not exactly,” said Koto, “but I’ll grab them all.”

“No you won’t,” said Nova.

“And why not?” asked Koto?

“I’m faster than you, shorty. I’ll be the one to go in.”

“No,” Koto said. “it’s too dangerous.”

“And out here isn’t?” she asked, spreading her arms. “We need to do this right. I’m way faster than you, Koto.”

“I’m better in a close quarter pinch than you are.”

“Pfft—like real you are!”

“All right! All right!” said Jon said, raising his hands. “Let’s not make a scene out here. There’s cops all over the place.”

“Where?” Mairu asked. “I haven’t seen any.”

“You gotta use your eyes, kid.”

“I have eyes.”

“I I know you do.” They all looked at Jon and finally he shrugged. “What—you want me to come up with the plan?”

“You’re the one who seems to want to,” said Nova. “Come on, mister policeman.”

“I’m a detective, dammit.”

“Were!” argued Nova. “Were a detective. Now you’re just a—“

“All right,” he interrupted. “I get your point. But we’re losing focus here. Are you kids sure you want to play things this way?”

“Hey,” Koto said, his tone a little indignant, “we’ve been doing this a long time, and this won’t be the first time we’ve come into the inner green zone to get things done.”

Jon shrugged. Koto had a good point. “All right, fine. So we decide who goes in and who makes the distraction, then.”

“Yeah,” said Nova. “I’m going in. You boys decide what you’re going to do because we all know what Mairu’s going to do.”

Then they erupted into an argument that Jon had to shush and hiss with his finger in front of his mouth. The truth was, there were enough junkies and weirdos all over the street that one guy and a group of kids shouting wouldn’t make much of a difference anyway.

“Look,” Koto finally said. “I know what a medicine cabinet looks like.”

“How?” asked Jon.

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“I’ve seen them, okay!”

And that was true. Before he had gone out of the green zone, Koto’s parents had both been doctors, but when his father had discovered the use of a dangerous drug that was supposed to help people, he had been killed in a hit.

He hadn’t been the first one either. There was a whole movement of doctors and nurses, but the whole situation was dealt with by erasure of all dissent on the holo nets and the news wouldn’t have anything do with it. What slipped through the cracks had been quickly brushed off as the overreaction of conspiracy theorists and anarchists intent on spreading misinformation.

Koto grit his teeth.

“All right,” said Jon. “What about you?” he asked Nova.

She shook her head.

“Well,” Jon said. “That might settle that. Koto, you know how hospitals are laid out, then?”

“I have a pretty good idea,” he said, nodding.

“Then that’s settled. Koto’s going in.”

Nova sighed. “Fine.”

“Come on,” Jon said. “Let’s move so we’re not spotted out here.”

*

In the shelter of a narrow and dark alley, Jon then turned to Koto and glanced above his head where he could see the hospital sign from across the street and the park. “What do you plan to do about the guards?”

He shrugged, knowing he only had two options. “Run or fight.”

“Really?” Nova asked. “Koto, that’s not a plan.”

“This was never about some thought out plan,” he said. “I’m going to run in there and get into that medicine cabinet. If the door guards are still on my tail at that time, I’ll just have to take them out.”

Jon was feeling uneasy. Could Koto really do that? “Are you sure about that?” he asked.

“Yeah,” Koto said with a nod. “I’m sure.”

“I’ll provide a distraction,” said Nova. “I’ll go in first, get the guards to chase me through the lots.”

“And Koto sneaks in there?” Jon asked.

“Yeah,” he said.

“I like it,” said Jon. “What about Mairu?”

“Cover support,” she said. “We should keep our weapons hidden until we absolutely need them, but if we need an extra distraction, I’ll draw them.”

“What will stop you from getting spotted by the police and taken down, kid?”

“I’ll find a good hiding place.”

“This is not good,” said Jon. “You’re just a kid.”

“I can handle myself,” she said with a smile.

“Listen,” Koto said. “This is dangerous, we could get caught or killed—but if we don’t do it, then Karu dies for sure.”

There was a quiet moment among them.

“All right,” Jon finally said. “We need an exit point.”

“Same manhole we came up from,” said Nova. “It’s nearby.”

“What if one of us gets caught out and has to make a run for it, thereby exposing the exit point?”

“Hmm,” Koto said with a hand on his chin. “That’s no good.”

“No kidding.”

“Tell you what,” Jon said. “I’ll go back and get those explosives in Sosai’s lab. I can plant one of them and us it as a distraction if things start getting too hot.”

“How many people you plan on killing tonight, mister policeman.”

“Detective,” he said.

“We’ve been through that,” said Nova.

“Then why are you calling me ‘mister policeman’?”

She smiled. “Because I know how much you enjoy it when I rub it in your face.”

“You don’t like me very much do you?”

She shrugged. “I’m just not sure about you yet.”

“Well maybe after all this you’ll have a reason to trust me more.”

“Maybe,” she said.

Jon sighed.

“How long will it take you to get those explosives?” Koto asked.

Jon shrugged. “Without transportation? A few hours at least. Sosai’s lab is on the other side of town.”

“Can’t you just get a cab?” asked Mairu.

Jon shook his head and lifted his arm. “No wristlet, remember?”

She sighed.

Just then someone from the sidewalk spotted them out and came toward them.

“Watch out,” Jon said quietly.

“Hey, hey!” the guy said. He was wearing grey biker trousers with bright green accents and a black leather jacket. His oni horns jutted out of his forehead a good twelve inches. “Any of you got something for sale?” he smiled dumbly. “Yeah?”

“We got nothing, friend,” Jon said. “Move along.”

“Well are you buyin’?”

“No,” he said, “now you better keep moving, pal.” He moved his jacket to the side exposing his holstered pistol.

“Whoa!’ the guy said, raising his head, and he laughed. “Didn’t mean to crash your little party.” He backed up. “I’ll leave you alone. Chill out, just chill…”

“Get outa here!”

“I’m goin’! I’m goin’!”

He turned and left down the sidewalk and out of site of the alley.

“I guess we need to move again,” Jon said.

“Why?” asked Nova. “He was just some loser from the sidewalk.”

“We have no idea who that was,” said Jon. “He could be a cop or an informant or a gangster calling his buddies right now.”

“He’s right,” Koto said. “All right, Jon—you hoof it to that lap. The rest of us will scout out some other manholes that are suitable for making individual exits in case we need to make a break for it, all right?”

He nodded, satisfied with the plan so far. It was the best they had, and even though he didn’t like it one bit, the life a kid was on the line. But… he was just one kid. Saving him was treating the symptom of this problem. They needed to find the heart of where the strings of information led. Maybe that was the Ishimura Industries factory, or maybe it went a whole lot higher, like his partner had said.

With a final nod, he said, “Good luck.”

“You too,” Mairu said. “Be careful, Jon.”

“Thanks, kid. All right, we meet back at that manhole we got out of, yeah?”

“Yeah,” said Koto with a nod.

Then Jon left them in the alley had made his way down the sidewalk, all the while thinking how crazy this was. He was a cop, he wasn’t a terrorist, and yet…

They had destroyed his life with the turn of a button—shut him off and locked him out, well, ostensibly locked him out, since he was here, but without his wristlet, which had been turned off anyway, he wouldn’t be able to live a normal life in the green zone.

Part of him wanted nothing more than to confront his partner, but wherever she was now, she was probably staring at nice little compensation packet to her accounts in the forms of many zeroes.

So that was all it took, some questions and a bit of investigation down the wrong alley, and he was done—just like that.

Well damn.