“Holy fuck,” Devin utters in dumbstruck surprise. “I wasn't expecting the call to end on that note. Why do you think he said that?”
“Probably to show that he's serious, and that we should pay attention to him,” Atreus guesses.
“Shit, you don't have to tell me twice. We just got in contact with a fucking witness – a direct witness. This could be huge. He might be just what we need to finally get something totally concrete.” Devin begins a premature celebration, but before his smile could cross his entire face, it disappears as he realizes an important detail. “But wait, how come he didn't just go straight to the police?”
“That's one of the many million-dollar questions we need to answer, and that's assuming he's not bluffing.”
“I guess there is a small chance this could be a trap, but we'll find out when he tells you where to meet him.”
“Man, this shit is heavy,” Tetsuya comments while heaving a sigh. “To be honest, I didn't think the phone would lead you to much, but I helped you crack it just as a favor to a friend. I wouldn't have guessed it would give you a direct line to someone who's either a witness or the killer himself pretending to be one. It's starting to finally hit me how fucked the whole situation kinda is. Like, I've never been this close to something as serious as murder before.” His eyes bear a shaky reluctance about being associated with the investigation.
“Don't worry,” Atreus speaks up with a consoling tone. “This'll hopefully be the only time we need to ask for you help on something related to this. We have at least two potentially direct lines to the killer, so if everything goes right, this whole thing will be over soon.”
“Two? What's the other one?”
“I met with the Blue Star, and it turns out they may have sold ammunition to the killer. I should hopefully meet the person who brought him to their vendor tomorrow.”
“Damn, you spoke to the Blue Star, and it didn't end badly?” Tetsuya asks; he might not be a member of either gang, but as a citizen of Kyoba, he's still well aware of the tension that exists between the two entities because of the incident two years ago. “Those guys are the ones took your arms, right? You were okay with doing a little parley with them?”
Atreus shrugs. “I didn't have much of a choice if I wanted to follow a solid lead. It was made worse by the fact I specifically had to meet a guy who hates the Sanada-gumi, but thankfully he was more reasonable than I anticipated, but still pretty bullheaded.”
“Man, this crime has everyone up in arms, huh? Sanada-gumi, Blue Star, I'm sure the police are likely scratching their heads more than you guys are, too.”
“Since you're here, I don't suppose you know anything about Atmos's network security?” the augmented man asks, hoping to poke the hacker's brain for some possible insight. “We've been playing around with the idea that whoever killed Camlin wanted to get into their data, because from what I've been told, he's pretty much a mastermind when it came to keeping that place secure.”
“I was actually hired to do some white hat work for them once, but that was like three years ago, back when they were testing some new things. Even then, it was totally rock solid; would definitely take some skill to break into their servers. I haven't been near them since then, but if the strength of their foundation really depended on him, then it could possibly leave some holes open. Do you know what exactly it was he did there?”
“He was the head of network security. A coworker I spoke to said he was able to find and patch up holes at breakneck speed.”
Tetsuya narrows his eyes and thinks. “Well, if he was as good as you say he is, then there's a chance they could've gotten complacent with his skill.”
“How so?” Atreus raises an eyebrow in curiosity.
“You know, sometimes companies get too comfortable with a single person's talent, then when that person leaves, they suddenly feel lost or their performance drops. Happens all the fucking time in every type of industry in the world. If Camlin was really so crucial to keeping their infrastructure sturdy recently, then they probably became complacent by releasing updates faster and with more holes, expecting him to patch them up before anyone notices. Because why not? He's fast as hell, right?”
“That sounds almost too reckless to believe, but, as you said, I've seen and heard about that happening in other industries.”
The hacker shrugs. “Atmos is like any other Fortune 500 company. They're run by a board, who in turn listen to a bunch of investors, and there's no guarantee they'll all agree on how the company should be run. So, some shit gets overlooked, or rushed, or sacrificed, all to maximize revenue and decrease spending. It's all the same shit with these mega-corporations. Maybe they came to some sort of conclusion where speeding up the update cycle will improve their stock value or some shit.”
“Is that type of attitude really so common in programming, though?” Atreus asks with a partial grimace in hopes that such incompetent management isn't prominent.
“You'd be surprised,” Tetsuya gives a blunt response.
“I don't suppose you're aware of anyone who would go so far to acquire health data on millions of people?”
Tetsuya shakes his head. “Nah, that's beyond me, unfortunately. Best nugget of knowledge I can possibly give you is that just because someone hacks Atmos to acquire that data doesn't mean it's the person – or people – who killed Camlin. They might've hired a black hat to do it for them.”
“If they did, would you be able to, like, I don't know, trace it back to them or something?” Devin asks, clearly looking out of his element.
“Man, how many cheesy corporate espionage movies do you watch?” the hacker taunts his friend with a facetious smirk. “I guess, theoretically, it might be possible, but I'd have to get direct, unrestricted access to Atmos's network after the hack in order to get an up-close look at what back doors they took advantage of, and there's no way in hell they'd give those sort of permissions to someone who isn't an employee, otherwise I need to hack into their network and then recreate the other hacker's steps, and I sure as shit don't want to do that. That'd take weeks, and they'd find my ass before I'd get any sort of progress. No point in doing it.”
“We'd probably want to solve this before Atmos gets hacked, anyway,” Atreus adds on.
“Do you have any idea when that even would be?”
“We have reason to believe that a new network update should be coming soon.”
“Shit, well, that'd probably be the best time, then,” Tetsuya leans back with unabashed confidence. “If Camlin's main thing was patching holes after an update is out, then obviously that would mean there's a bunch of holes to go through when the next update comes, assuming they don't delay it, which they might not if it contains something important. Do you know their update cycle?”
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“I don't. The coworker I spoke to about all of this didn't know, either. But they're going to ask the network team as soon as possible, and then get back to me.”
“I know your mission here is, specifically, to race against the police, but...” Tetsuya shakes his head, thinking about the worst case scenario. “I don't want to tell you how to do your job or anything, but instead of racing them, you should probably consider your deadline to be whenever that update comes out. I can't imagine what sort of company or entity would want to go to such lengths for health and body data, especially when it's up for sale anyway, but I can't imagine it's for anything good if they plan to use that information for something illegal, which it very well may be if they're stooping as low as murder to acquire it.”
“Yeah...” Atreus sullenly agrees. While nobody is sure how data on millions of peoples' bodily functions and health would be used by an unknown organization, it's still a potentially very dangerous thing to allow to be stolen.
“Well, anyway, since you guys are here, you're free to hang out,” the hacker continues, shifting the conversation to something less dreary, “but I plan on taking a mental load off by starting up Black Iron VR.”
Atreus, with Takiyama's phone still in his hand, checks the homescreen for the time. “It's past 1 AM already. I anticipate a somewhat early morning, so I think I should head home.”
“I should go back to the office and tell Ryuji what happened, too,” Devin adds as the two yakuza stand up.
“Alright. If you guys need anymore urgent hacking business to be done, just let me know. I'm still willing to work with you guys, but nothing far-fetched like hacking into Atmos myself or anything like that,” Tetsuya lectures with a wag of his finger.
“Sure, man. Thanks again for cracking open the phone, by the way. We wouldn't have found ourselves a witness if it weren't for you,” Devin expresses his genuine gratitude as approaches he front door with Atreus close behind.
“Well, don't thank me yet, it could be a trap as much as it could be an actual witness.”
“I guess you're right. I'll talk to you later, okay?”
“Sure, see ya.”
The gangsters depart Tetsuya's apartment, hearing the front door locks snap securely shut behind them after they reenter the hallway. As they make their way back outside, they go over their recent discovery once more.
“So, you think it's really safe to just meet up with him?” Devin asks, sounding apprehensive. The idea of the witness being a possible trap seems to be prodding at him. “What if it really is the killer?”
“If he's really a witness, he'll probably suggest meeting up in a public place,” Atreus answers. “In fact, he might be the one thinking I'm the killer, at least before I sent him the picture. Besides, from all the evidence we've gathered on the culprit, they seem really professional, and the person we just heard sounded so... conflicted and lost.”
“Yeah, I guess...” Devin concedes, but still doesn't sound too convinced.
On the way through the lobby, Devin summons an Automa. During their short wait for the taxi to arrive while standing idly by on the sidewalk, Atreus unconsciously rests his palm firmly on the rectangular outline of Takiyama's phone in his pant pocket, subtly caressing it as if it were a precious jewel that needs constant protection. Considering the value it now has in his investigation, it may as well be.
A silver, logo-covered sedan soon arrives, and Devin approaches it. He opens the back passenger door, but looks back to his friend before getting inside.
“Are you going to walk back to your place again?” he asks.
“Yup,” Atreus answers with a nonchalant nod.
“Alright, I'll catch you tomorrow, then.”
Devin reaches out for a farewell fist bump, which his friend reciprocates before the former departs. Now alone for the night in the middle of the hotel and apartment section of northern Kyoba, Atreus makes his way eastward to Yazawa Commons, his home. He reaches his building after a leisurely walk along the very edge of the perimeter that outlines the busier streets of the district, where the lights are vibrant and the streets are noisy with both vehicle and foot traffic. He ascends the exterior staircase of his complex and walks along the veranda facing the street, soon approaching the door to room 207. The gangster unlocks the keyless deadlock and goes inside.
Atreus kicks his shoes off and dresses into more comfortable and loose house clothes. With the next hour or two being his last opportunity to spend time on himself before his weekend away from Crown ends and his shifts start again, he decides to make himself a generous late dinner. Specifically, he constructs an extravagant double decker sandwich that features slices of lab-grown turkey and smoked ham, provolone and blue cheese, and lettuce and onion between two lightly-toasted slices of white bread and one slice of whole wheat in the center, plus a tasteful amount of honey mustard and mayonnaise for extra flavor.
He idly surfs various streaming networks on television, landing on specific films and shows for only mere minutes at a time, never settling on one for very long before switching to something else between every bite of his tall sandwich. His mind is mostly preoccupied by the events of the day and promises of tomorrow, about how his investigation will proceed and eventually – hopefully soon – conclude. The whirlpool of thoughts nearly distracts him from the taste of his delectable meal.
After wolfing down his sandwich and gently suckling on his fingertips to catch the odd smear of honey mustard, he places his porcelain plate in his dishwasher and begins his nightly shower. The near-scalding hot water reddens the skin on his chest, and fogs up his mirror almost instantaneously. When he comes back out, he notices his phone projecting a small text notification hologram to alert him of an unread message. Partially expecting it to be from Lee, he picks up the device.
[Hey, you still up?] the message reads, from Max. Atreus checks the time – 2:33 AM, well after the end of her shift at Crown.
[Just for a bit. I had a bit of a long day, had to go all around LA for various things,] Atreus responds promptly. [How was your shift?]
[Oh, you know, same old stuff. Just humoring older dudes an hour or so at a time. No one interesting stopped by. How about you? What'd you go around LA for? Or is it some super secret underworld stuff I can't know?] she casually teases him in a way that makes it easy for him to image her voice saying it aloud.
[I just had to go out of Kyoba a couple times. One of those times was to Jeonju,] Atreus gives additional details, but purposely leaves out why.
[Jeonju? Really? Is that... okay?] Max's tone changes – it's obvious even through text; she's aware of the shaky relationship between the two gangs as well as anyone who's been living in Los Angeles for the last two years would.
[Yeah, it's fine. I'm talking to you, aren't I? A gang war wasn't declared or anything.]
[That's good. You had me worried there for a second. So what's your day looking like tomorrow? Or later, technically.]
[Unfortunately, it's looking like it might be pretty busy,] Atreus gives a straightforward answer. [Of course, nothing's really set in stone, like usual, but there's a few things I'm anticipating. Worst case, I may even have to leave Crown early. I actually might have a somewhat early morning as well, so I'm going to hit the sack here in a moment.]
[Man, you really have been busy. I'm surprised you manage to get any sleep at all.]
[Yeah, I wasn't exaggerating when I said I'm a lot busier than I normally am. Working at Crown as a favor to my boss's colleague hasn't been helping much,] Atreus gripes about his stint at the club. He ponders telling Max right now that this week will be his last there, thanks to Ryuji, but ultimately decides it might be more responsible to tell her in person later.
[Well, I'll be crossing my fingers for your schedule to open up as soon as possible. I'd really like to continue where we left off from our little date,] she takes the opportunity to toss out a not-so-subtle flirt.
[So would I. Trust me,] he reciprocates with complete honesty. [For now though, my eyelids are starting to get heavy, so I'm gonna head to bed. I'll see you at work later. Good night.]
[Sleep tight!]
After their short exchange, Atreus finally begins to prepare for bed just before the clock hits 3 AM. From the comfort of his bed, he shuts off all the electronics and lights in his apartment from the centralized control tablet on his nightstand, and throws his head back onto his pillow. As he drifts asleep, images of the day's events flash in his mind, as well as those of Max's face, thanks to the conversation they just had.