Steel Rain (30 page)

The man invites her into his private office and there bows deeply. So very deeply he appears shamed. "As soon as this current emergency is past, I will submit my resignation to the hotel director."

"What? Please explain."

"We believe we have captured the intruder, presumably a magician, on security cams. It appears that he gained access to the hotel via a sublevel door that should have been secured. The door has been physically checked and found to be unlocked, though our systems continue to show the door as secure. We can discover no physical or operating malfunction in the security systems themselves. It therefore appears likely that the mainframe responsible for supervising hotel security systems has been successfully penetrated."

Machiko shakes her head as if to clear it. But the attempt does not help. What the deputy is telling her is just one more incredible event in a series of such events.

"Show me this magician," she says tersely.

The deputy turns to the telecom on his desk and makes swift use of the keyboard. One of the images that appears on the telecom's screen shows the hotel's Grand Ballroom. At the middle of a crowd of cheering people, many waving arms over their heads, one man holds out not merely his arms but also some form of intricately crafted black wand above his head.

"Have you any images of his face?"

The deputy bows, embarrassed.

"Please enhance the wand."

The image zooms in till the wand fills the screen. The images carved into its length appear to be grotesque, misshapen faces, the faces of demons perhaps, or the tormented in one of the many Buddhist hells. Machiko uses the telecom to contact Nagato Corp Operations Center and thereby connects with Colonel Satomi, deputy chief of security operations, apparently riding in a car.

She transmits the images provided by hotel security, and says, "I am curious about this mage's wand, if it is such a wand. I would like a thaumaturgic evaluation."

"I was just on-line with the director of thaumaturgic investigations." A moment passes, then the screen divides into two windows. Machiko recognizes the woman who appears in the second window as Oki-san. She is a norm and very aged, her hair white and sparse, her face thin and frail. Her voice, though, is full and resonant, almost sultry. "It appears that this wand is intended as a mage's device," she says. "However, it is impossible to determine from a superficial visual examination the exact form of magic practiced. I would theorize that it is not a form likely to be beneficial to people."

And, with that, the second window winks out.

Machiko struggles to restrain a sudden surge of anger.
Why
must
all
magicians
be
so
difficult
to
deal
with?

They are not even tokenly polite!

She thanks Satomi-san for his assistance and breaks the link. The deputy for hotel security proceeds to display other images of the mage, the trail he followed in entering the hotel. In each new frame that appears, the mage's face is hidden from view, either by the brim of his hat or because he has turned his face away from the cam. "It would appear that this individual knows the locations of your cams," Machiko says.

The deputy agrees.

The trail ends, or rather begins in the sublevel parking complex. A wide-angled cam panning across a broad area filled with parked cars briefly displays a white van, the mage emerging from it. The van is plainly marked with the five-pointed star of Fuchi Industrial Electronics.

"Have you checked the vehicle registration?"

"Yes. We have a direct line to the state department of licensing. It is a Fuchi van."

"Could it be stolen?"

"It has not been reported stolen to any police."

Machiko breathes deeply, but not even her most determined effort can suppress the fears that snatch ravenously at her spirit. If Fuchi is indeed behind this campaign of terrorist violence, if Gordon Ito truly desires the destruction of Nagato Combine, if . . .

But surely this is absurd! Not even Gordon Ito would be so bold as to send an agent, a mage, in a Fuchi van!

What is happening?

Even as Machiko struggles with the confusion of her own thoughts, the telecom beeps with an incoming call. The deputy answers. And bows. "Chairman
-sama
."

Machiko looks to the screen and sees the harshly determined features of Honjowara
-sama
gazing back at her.

"Machiko," he says. "I am at Yoshida
-kai
headquarters.

Come now."

"Yes, Chairman-Mwa," Machiko replies.

At once.

31

The scene on the plaza before the hotel's main lobby is no less horrific for seeming somewhat more orderly than earlier in the evening. The dazzling strobes on emergency vehicles flicker and flare. Emergency workers arrange the trampled corpses of victims in neat lines along walkways and fountains. Trauma teams rush the living toward the waiting lines of ambulances, medics treat others under the open sky. Priests give blessings. Winter Systems police confer with Security Service officers. Media snoops infest the plaza like insects. Several rush toward Machiko's flanks.

"
Who's
responsible
for
the
attack
... ?"

"
How
many
dead
... ?"

"
Where's
the
Chairman
... ?"

"
Kill
anybody
... ?"

Certain snoops habitually offer insult in the form of questions in hopes of provoking a reaction. They fail. GSG do not address the media, do not acknowledge snoops as extant. The requirements of duty are normally far too critical for members of the Guard to allow anyone to interfere with them in any way. Thus, there are occasional incidents wherein members of the Guard are compelled to use force, such as to get a particularly intrusive scooper out of the way.

Tonight, these representatives of news and entertainment corps keep out of Machiko's path. They remain at a "polite" distance. Machiko breaks into a trot and leaves them behind.

Roads made impassable by cordons of Winter Systems police and emergency vehicles are now further burdened by media vans and commissary wagons and cars and motorcycles of onlookers. Machiko does not bother looking for the car sent to meet her. She lengthens her stride. It is not far to the headquarters of the Yoshida
-kai
, a mere few blocks. She soon covers the distance.

The street before the headquarters of the Yoshida
-kai
is blocked at both ends by armored vans marked for the Security Defense Force. The headquarters building itself is dark red brick, low and long and filling the middle third of the block. SDF troopers line the front of the building and hold positions on the roof. Helicopters buzz by overhead. Ryokai stands with a detail of GSG at the main entrance.

He smiles as if relieved. "You're all right."

Machiko almost gapes.
How
can
he
think
of
such
things
. . . ? Of her personal well-being. They are facing a major calamity and only Buddha and his angels know how this night will end. As warriors, they must be resolved to death. "Where is the Chairman?"

"In the second-floor conference room," Ryokai says. "The heavies are all in."

Machiko soon sees this for herself.

The room is large, paneled in black with a lacquered wood floor. A low black table easily six or seven meters long runs from near the door to the far end of the room, gleaming with the light of translucent ceiling panels.

At the far end sits Honjowara
-sama
. To his rear kneel only two GSG, Gongoro and one other.

Seated on low cushions nearest Honjowara
-sama
are Yoshida Mabuchi, head of Yoshida
-kai
, and, opposite him, Toki Bentaro, head of Toki-
gumi
. Yoshida Mabuchi is often referred to as "oyabun," father or parent, or simply "boss." With his antique vested suit and glasses, he looks like a shopkeeper, or a banker, and his fear of personal injury is well-known, but his mind is clever and his words can be very sharp. Toki Bentaro, the more progressive of the pair, prefers a title more in keeping with Honjowara
-sama's
New Way, that of "chief executive." He styles himself like a modern corporate executive, a team player, and he is careful to avoid any suggestion of impropriety, yet where the private ventures of the Toki-
gumi
are concerned he can be very selfminded, and ruthless.

Down both sides of the table sit the senior advisers and counselors, such as Zoge-san and Ohana Toyonari, and others Machiko recognizes as owing their primary allegiance to either Yoshida Mabuchi or Toki Bentaro. Here also are the senior executives of Nagato Corporation, such as Adachi Dosan of the Intelligence Directorate, and Bessho Chikayo of the Security Directorate.

Lining the walls are the deputies, advisors to the advisors, aides, and bodyguards. The one troll in the room, head near the lofty carved wood ceiling, serves as Toki Bentaro's personal bodyguard.

As Machiko enters, moving to kneel beside the door, all eyes are focused on the table's many small display screens, those set into the paneled walls, or the one large screen occupying the entire wall at the end of the room to Honjowara
-sama
's rear.

Channel 113 BizZene News tridcast.

". . . the body count is still rising. More than thirty confirmed dead at this moment and the number is certain to rise . . .

"Sources close to Winter Systems investigators indicate that the bomber arrived at the Chrysanthemum Palace Hotel complex in a van tentatively linked to Fuchi Industrial Electronics. With more on that aspect of the story we now go to Yoyo Chang in Fuchi-Town . .

". . . Here in the shadows of the Fuchi monoliths, the alleged link of Fuchi IE to the Chrysanthemum Palace attack, an attack that might otherwise be labeled just another terrorist event, is raising quite a few eyebrows. Market traders and investors remember all too well the recent Fuchi fiasco in Detroit wherein certain expendable assets were hurled pell mell against the Morgan-Mellon joint venture that held controlling interests in numerous advanced technology corps. The question now on everyone's mind is whether Fuchi is once again preparing to go to the wall in its apparent campaign against Nagato Corp. Is this the beginning of yet another corporate war? Plainly, secret negotiations between Nagato Corp and Fuchi have been going on for some time, as this next sequence of video will show."

The screens show a Toyota Elite limousine rolling down the ramp into the garage complex beneath Fuchi Plaza. A second window briefly appears, displaying the Elite's registration tags, identified as belonging to Nagato Corporation.

The limo reminds Machiko of the Security Service car that conveyed her to the Fuchi towers for her meeting with Gordon Ito's deputy.

"As to the nature and purpose of the negotiations we can only speculate. However, this latest development gives strong indications that the negotiations are not going well and Nagato Tower now finds itself under direct assault."

To Machiko, it seems impossible that she could be seeing and hearing such things on a tridcast. How could anyone even know of the Fuchi van beneath the Chrysanthemum Palace Hotel? Certainly, there were many news snoops prowling the complex in the wake of the attack, but how could anyone have divined the van's possible significance? How could they have learned that the mage responsible for the attack emerged from that van? How could they speak of a war between Nagato Corp and Fuchi as if it is already a proven fact?

She is distracted from her thoughts when another GSG enters through the door at her immediate left. He kneels to the left of the doorway, glances at her, briefly bows. The settled strength of his posture seems familiar, and marks him clearly as a warrior, yet his face is unknown, and young. Machiko concludes that he must have come only very recently from the GSG academy. Otherwise, she would have met him before now. Had there been any doubt as to his identity, he would not have passed the twenty GSG standing watch outside this room.

But now Honjowara
-sama
looks sternly to the leaders flanking the table. "There will be no war," he says in a low tone, "because, if something is not done swiftly, if this situation is not rectified,
there
will
be
no
Nagato
Corp!
"

Several of the leaders look to Honjowara
-sama
with widened eyes. Honjowara
-sama
looks to Zoge-san, who politely coughs, and says, "Word of this alleged war has spread throughout all financial markets. It is having a severely detrimental effect on the financial ratings of Nagato Corp and its subsidiaries and our various bonds and commercial paper. If this trend is not soon reversed, the banks will begin demanding repayment of outstanding loans. Various other creditors will attempt to have Nagato assets frozen and held as collateral for outstanding debt. Given the degree of investment in Chrysanthemum Palace Ventures, we may be left with no choice but to divest ourselves of assets in order to satisfy the recall of debts, or to declare Nagato Corp bankrupt."

Yoshida Mabuchi looks to Zoge-san, and says, "What is Fuchi's objective in creating this appearance of war?"