Chapter 31
Raven and Dez stood at the small white grave marker in the military cemetery in the south-western portion of Capital City. There were few places not developed vertically, but this was one of those sacred green spaces. The marker in front of them looked like all the rest, but this inscription on this one read: CPT Jonathan Masters. Army & Agency. 2163-2199. Son. Patriot. A true believer.
Raven couldn’t speak because of the painful knot in her throat, but she knew the burning look in Dez’s eyes. Dez and Jon had grown close in his time in the badlands. Part of Raven had hoped that maybe Dez could show the man how to be happy enough after he finished his crusade if it didn’t kill him. But she’d worked with Jon long enough to know it was a pipe dream.
She’d dragged him into this fight hoping he could help her clean out Haltech’s influence from the Agency, and now everything was falling down around them. Haltech lay in ruins, and Toranaga was expected to make an acquisition announcement later today. Raven didn’t like how much of the end game didn’t match, and she’d been relying on Dez to help fill in some pieces. The way Jon fit into it all unsettled her.
Both women stood in silence, staring down at his marker like they expected him to show up here beside them like a planned bait and switch. Like this was just a rally point beacon or something. That somehow he wasn’t gone and would show up. Raven knew it wouldn’t be the first time he’d experienced a brush with death. But somehow this felt like it stuck. Watching that kinetic impactor smash Haltech’s skeletal tower into the earth horrified her. She knew that tower dying meant Jon was dead too.
Footsteps from behind them caused both women to tense up. Raven caught Dez’s hand, lowering to the pistol tucked into the waistline of her dark brown leather pants. Raven finally allowed herself to turn slightly and felt the blood run from her face when she saw Jon’s father. He looked in well enough shape. Well fed, he didn’t appear to be ill or anything. His arm was missing, so he wasn’t using a prosthetic. The one hand he did have was tucked into the pocket of an old army jacket with the patches torn off.
“Sorry, I didn’t expect there to be anyone else here,” his father said.
“No, it’s ok. Join us?” Raven said.
Jon’s father nodded softly and took a few steps closer to them. But only a few. Mindful of maintaining a respectable distance from the two women. Dez stepped back to allow him to merge with the pair of them better near the marker.
“Were you his friends? Soldiers or something?”
“A little of everything,” Dez said.
Raven could tell she was doing her best to keep a strong face up, but she was on the verge of cracking. “I’m Raven, and this is Dez. You’re?”
“Michael. I’m his father. Or, well, I was. We grew apart when he was young, but it was best for him. I’d created rifts in the family unintentionally and he didn’t need me around reminding him of that.”
Dez glared at Michael. “You’re wrong.”
Michael flinched, looking at Dez. “Pardon?”
“I said you’re wrong. You made a mistake. It wasn’t you. We all get it. But you left him, and that caused its own scars. Wounds that probably never healed. Sure, he was afraid he might do the same thing you did, but more than that, he lacked you in his life.”
“You’re right. I’ve had a long time to beat myself up about being a coward and running from the mess I made. Eventually I got caught in that, convinced myself I deserved to suffer for it,” Michael said.
“You didn’t need to suffer. Neither of you did. Just because you hurt your son doesn’t mean it couldn’t have been forgiven. In fact, I know he forgave you,” Dez said.
“You do?”
“This marker says he died, but the date isn’t accurate. He survived what tried to kill him that time. He lived on and kept fighting.”
Michael’s thick brows furrowed, his blue eyes faded with time, glowed with a curiosity to know his son better. Desperate to make up for his absence, and presented the chance to learn a bit more about him. “That time? What happened?”
“The details are still coming in, but we think he was drawn into an elaborate corporate take over plot.”
“I didn’t have a close relationship with Jon, but I can tell you now he never would have become a company boy.”
Dez smiled warmly and shook her head. “No. He wasn’t. Quite the opposite. He was always a fighter. Fighting the rise of corporations, however he could. It was the fight that ultimately got him.”
“Haltech?” Michael asked.
Raven nodded after a moment’s hesitation. “Yes. The commotion at their corporate tower? That was your son’s doing.”
“Haltech is being optioned up by Toranaga now, isn’t it?” he asked again.
“That’s the word on the street. Hard to say if it’ll pan out, though,” Dez said.
Raven knew, though. When the Haltech dorm pods landed in the sprawl, it was Toranaga corporate mechs and security there to greet them and place them under protection. For their safety, of course. Word had it they showed up to a vastly smaller crowd than expected, and she suspected Dez had a hand in that.
And then there was the much awaited statement from Takeshi Toranaga himself. She fully expected him to claim ownership of the company and its assets. That would mean that Takeshi had single-handedly created a corporate empire now, and with the tattered remains of the US political and legal systems hanging on by a thread, she was certain cutting those last strands would be one of Toranaga’s first acts.
Michael nodded silently to himself after considering something. “I always figured he’d follow in my footsteps in one regard. I knew he would enlist at some point. Maybe even take a commission if it suited him. It’s why I had his blood done up special. Groundbreaking stuff. Some random doc was running a trial trying to genetically engineer DNA so it wouldn’t reject implants. She said if it worked, he’d be the one to show it.”
Raven nodded. “He didn’t open up to many about his past, but he made a passing mention of your own issues with augmentation. It’d caused him to avoid them for as long as he could.”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
“You say that like he’d gotten them, anyway?” Michael noted.
“The attack that incited this grave marker. It left him badly wounded. We felt pretending he was dead would be the best play. Give him time to work under a new alias and tear down the company.”
Michael beamed proudly. “Looks like he did what he set out to do, then.”
“Yes. Yes, he did,” Raven said.
“Good then. I’m glad he could do what he meant to do. I always wanted for him to succeed, no matter what it was he set himself to,” Michael said.
Raven frowned. She didn’t share Michael’s optimism. She’d been doing this for too long to trust that they’d stopped anything from happening. She felt like this entire operation had played out exactly as someone else planned. Then there was the matter of them being unable to find any of Jon’s remains. He was still out there somewhere. She owed it to him to find him. Until then, she would search for him like it was her job.
“Well, I’ll leave you ladies be. It was nice meeting you. I didn’t expect I’d ever get any closure for him. I’ve been coming here ever since they posted it. It’s nice to know that he had a few people who cared about him.”
Dez smiled and gave Michael a warm hug, startling the old man until he patted her back reluctantly. “You would have been very proud of him, I’m sure.”
Michael shook his head. “Would? I am. Always was.”
Raven extended a hand to shake, opting to be a bit more formal with her former comrade’s father. She owed the man this due respect. Michael shook the hand firmly at once and gave her a warm nod. Thunder cracked in the distance, and Michael pushed his umbrella out.
“You guys should get indoors soon. A storm is coming.”
“You have no idea,” Raven said as Michael walked off, giving them a departing nod.
#
Takeshi Toranaga stood before the hover cam drone, fidgeting with his suit. Buying it cost more than some low tier companies made a year. Father always said if you wanted people to expect the best of you, to wear the best. But then, father wasn’t here anymore, now was he?
All of Capital City expected him to announce that Haltech would absorbed by the next largest Corporation in existence. Correction, the largest corporation in existence. While Toranaga had the now largest military share of the market, Haltech had specifically built itself to cater to that market. Something the AI he’d designed had purposefully orchestrated. When posed with earning his father’s favor back, he initially sought to topple the gaijin company with Toranaga’s own strength, but he soon realized the folly in that ploy.
But he chanced upon a unique solution. Why spend his own money when he could convince someone else to do it for him, then just step in and claim the rewards all to himself? It was this basic idea that drove him to his current place and fortune. That his plan had spoken to its inherent genius. And soon the entire world would know. They would all bask in his glory.
The KNFR station reporter began her five counts and the light on the cam drone came on, nearly blinding him for a moment. Once his eyes adjusted to the glare, it wasn’t bad. He sucked in a solid, deep breath through his nose and let it out in a slow, measured exhale.
“Ladies and Gentlemen of Capital City. I am Takeshi Toranaga, heir to the Toranaga Corporation. Many of you have speculated on the fact that I would conduct this interview to announce my acquisition of Haltech Corporation. While I do that very thing, I’ve agreed to this interview for a very different reason. Late in the evening some few nights ago, my father succumbed to his age, passing away in his sleep, and passing down the mantle of Company CEO to myself.”
Takeshi paused for effect. These interviews were never about what people already knew you were going to tell them. It was about the possibility of being given some secret morsel of information they never possessed. The tantalizing unknown.
“My sister Himiko will assume leadership of our established operations in Neo Tokyo while I guide and direct our fledgling operations here in Capital City. Long have we only partially tended to the company’s role here, and in Haltech’s absence, I believe it is prime time we stepped up and led Capital City to even greater heights. I look forwarding to building that better and brighter future together with you all.”
The lights on the camera drone dimmed once he’d finished making his statement, and he gave the reporter a polite nod as his aide escorted her from out of his office. He turned and strode to the window of the Capital City Toranaga Tower. The assets and contracts his company inherited from his liquidation of Haltech more than offset the expense and loss of Haltech’s tower. He could also use Haltech’s lobby power in Congress to get some kickbacks and to reward construction of a new tower.
Takeshi waved his hand over the massive AI core console near his desk. A blue spherical holo projection flickered into view, that rippled as it spoke with a dual voice. “Good morning Mr. Toranaga. How may we help?”
“Status check on patient Omega.”
The dual AI super intelligence projected an image of several lab techs working on a prototype combat platform. The image dropped call out tags on various parts of the hardware the techs were working on. Takeshi marveled at his masterpiece creation. Patient Omega’s body represented the culmination of decades of exhaustive development and refinement in artificial combat hardware.
“How long until it’s ready?”
“We estimate field testing at several months out,” the as yet unnamed dual AI controller responded.
Takeshi folded his arms, his gaze falling on the blues, oranges and red neons of Capital City. An alluring hologram beckoning him to join her from several blocks away. None of it registered, though, as his mind focused solely on the information presented regarding Omega. While he had every confidence in Omega’s capability to perform, several necessary steps were still between them and success.
“Ensure Dr. Nobunaga has every resource available to him to ensure his success,” Takeshi said.
“Shall I see that MaxTac secures Dr. Rebecca Preston?”
Takeshi pursed his lips thoughtfully. Dr. Preston was a genius in bio-cybernetics. She technically was a free agent, thanks to Patient Omega’s meddling. But that was an easily rectified scenario, if he willed. And he willed it.
“Do it. See to it, she’s brought in safely. No harm. We need her compliant. And if she needs encouragement? Let her in on who Omega was. That should suffice as a lure, I think.”
“Standard Blackout protocols once she’s integrated?” the AI controller asked.
“Of course. We can’t have our newest acquisition, letting slip what we’re working on before we’ve finished.”
“Understood.”
Takeshi clasped his hands at the small of his back, inhaled. It almost set the stage for Phase II. Once Omega was ready, he could begin the actual work of taking control of the world. Gone were the days of failed concepts like nations, states, and borders. Now there would only exist corporate influence. His corporate influence. Like the ancient shogun of old, he would become a corporate shogun.