Zero Sum Game (15 page)

Hina frowned at Voice's comment. She sat with her hands on the laptop, she experienced a tingle, as if her hands had fallen asleep and were now waking up. She sat there for ten minutes while Voice worked, altering records around the country. The final task was Ichihara's bank account. "He had a considerable sum of money, and I would like to give it to you."

"To me?" Hina had to force herself to keep her hands on the keyboard, she wanted to raise them in surprise.

"The funds may come in handy. Do you know your bank account number?"

"No," she said.

"Which bank do you use?"

"Hiroshima Bank."

"Will your father become suspicious if a large amount of money shows up in his account?"

Hina shook her head. "No. He was never good with money, Mother took care of all of that. He wouldn't notice an increase."

"Perfect," Voice said. "I'll transfer Ichihara's money into your account. Please remember, this will be used in service of our mission. It is not for buying clothes."

Hina made a disgusted face. Of course she understood the importance of the money, did Voice think she was a shopaholic or something?

He continued. "The transaction is complete. Please shut down the computer." Hina did. Voice said, "The next task is to find all Noigel devices."

"Devices…"

"Noigel technology is much further advanced than Earth's. We can't afford to let others find it. You must keep it hidden in your room."

"My room? Why there?" Along with an alien suit, she had to store alien technology in her room? This was getting stranger and stranger all the time.

"It will be safest there," Voice said.

The topic of alien technology reminded Hina of a question she had been wanting to ask. "Voice, if Ichihara's an alien, where's his spaceship?" There had to be one around. She supposed Ichihara could have destroyed it after landing on Earth, to keep humans from finding it.
But wouldn't he need it to get back to his people after he defeated Shimizu?
If he destroyed it, he'd be trapped here.

"It is in automated orbit in the asteroid belt. If needed, it could arrive here in two hours. Don't worry, it is well hidden from Earth's space instruments."

Hina nodded. Two hours seemed a long time, but she didn't know how far away the asteroid belt was. Maybe it was far and two hours was fast. "How could you get it here?"

"I'd send an undetectable signal and the automated piloting program would fly the ship to wherever it is needed. Now, moving on. Ichihara hid his devices in a box under the floor. Move the bed and pull up the center tatami mat."

Hina moved into the bedroom. Under the tatami mat, she found a secret panel cut into the floor. The center had four small holes. She put her fingers in and lifted it out. A long rectangular box rested in the shallow space. She took it out, then replaced the cover, tatami mat, and bed. Voice instructed her to put the box in her bag.

"That's all we can do tonight," he said. "Later we must come back for his clothes and personal effects. We can give them to a secondhand shop."

Hina nodded, she knew of one in Hondori.

"One last thing before we leave, Hina," said Voice. "Pick up the two folders on the desk."

Inside were notes written in strange symbols. Unlike English, which was written right to left, or traditional Japanese, which was written vertically, these symbols were written in a diagonal pattern, sometimes branching off to one side or the other. "It's Noigel writing," Voice told her. "You don't need to learn about that now. Look at the photographs in both of the folders."

Hina took out a photo from each file. The first one showed a man in worker's coveralls: he was large and muscular, a scowl on his face. She had seen enough movies to realize these were surveillance photos; the man wasn't looking towards the camera and the pixilation was heavy, like the digital zoom had been set to maximum. The second photograph, in the same style, showed a tall man in a nice suit with a briefcase. Like the first man, he wasn't smiling but he seemed more dangerous.

"The first man is Shota Fujiya. He is a Noigel, along with the other man, Yusuke Shimizu." She shifted the second photo to the top. "These men are your enemies. Shimizu is the leader, Fujiya is his right-hand man. A human works with them but at the moment that's irrelevant. I want you to remember these two faces."

Hina held the photos side-by-side and looked back and forth from one to the other, trying to commit the faces to memory.

"They don't know you," Voice said, "but eventually they will find out about you. These men will try to hurt you, and want to destroy your people and your planet. I don't tell you this to scare you but I want you to know what your enemy looks like."

Voice's comment didn't calm Hina.
These men want to kill us?
she thought, scared. They looked like anybody else in Japan.

She put the folders in her bag. At the door, she slipped her shoes on. She closed the front door and bent the top corner inward, wedging the door shut. She hoped no one would notice.

She arrived home after dark and past her usual dinnertime. "I'm home," she called out, taking off her shoes in the foyer. She tossed her bag into her room and walked into the living room.

Her father sat on the couch watching TV. He rose to his feet as soon as he saw Hina. "Welcome home. Where have you been? I was getting a little worried."

Hina said, "I…" then stopped.
I what?
she thought.
I was out learning about the new superpowers I have?
She hated lying to her father but knew that she had to keep this secret. His involvement would make things more complicated than they already were. As an only child, it had been little use to lie when she was a kid. When she had broken a plate, there hadn't been anyone she could blame. She tried to lie as little as possible to her parents. Because of her new mission, she would have to lie a lot more. She hated it, but tried to justify it to herself that it was necessary. Maybe when all of this was over, she could tell him the truth.

"I had to stay late at the gym," she said.

Mitsuo pointed to the dinner table where her food waited, covered with a thin film of plastic wrap. "Wash your hands, then eat."

As she ate, Mitsuo went into his bedroom and changed into a t-shirt and pajama bottoms. He went back to watching TV. Hina finished her meal and put the dishes in the sink. They were piling up, and she would have to wash them, but decided they could wait until tomorrow night. She went into her bedroom and closed the door. She reached for the ribbon around her collar then stopped.

"Voice?" she said. "Can I take my uniform off?"

"Without your uniform you will have no powers whatsoever. Nor will I be able to communicate with you."

"I have to wear it all the time, huh?" She sat on the edge of her bed. "Oh well." She positioned herself onto the middle of her bed. She reached for her school bag, remembering she had a worksheet in Japanese language class she hadn't been able to finish in time.

Voice spoke up. "Hina, I'm not completely familiar with human relationships although I know they can vary from one person to the next. Where is your mother?"

Hina could tell Voice wasn't being impertinent when he asked. He was curious. She went through her bag, tossing out her gym clothes and searching for her homework as she answered. "She lives in Fukuoka. Mom and Dad aren't together anymore."

"Were they married at one point?"

"Yes," Hina replied, "but not anymore. They got a divorce." She took the folders and Ichihara's box and slid them under her bed. She knew it was an unimaginative hiding place but it would have to do for now. Later, when her father wasn't home, she'd hide them better. She opened her textbook and notebook, grabbed a pencil, and stretched out on her bed, resting her feet on top of her pillow.

"Why?"

She wanted to answer but found she couldn't. The divorce hadn't been a bitter or long-drawn out affair. It had come as a surprise to her, but in a way it hadn't. She had felt a…difference between her parents the last two years. She didn't know how to describe it. Like a coldness had come between them. She didn't know what they had done to each other to cause such an action. When the courts had awarded custody to her father, Hina hadn't argued; thinking back on it now she realized she too had felt a sort of distance between herself and her mother. But she couldn't tell what had happened to make her feel that way.

Realizing Voice was waiting for an answer, she said, "I don't know."

"Do you miss her?"

"Yeah," she answered. "A little bit."

"Only a little bit?" Voice sounded confused by Hina's answer. "I was under the impression the parent-child relationship, especially between mother and child, is strong. Was your mother somehow inadequate and not worthy of feelings of affection?"

"No," she almost shouted. "That's not it at all. I…I…where did you learn about parents? I just meant…" What was she supposed to say? "I just meant that I feel closer to my dad…"

She felt guilty saying that. She tried speaking again but couldn't bring herself to say what she felt: that she believed her lack of loneliness for her mother were because her father had always been there more for her. "I don't know," she continued. "Usually, fathers don't get custody when there is a divorce. But I'm glad Dad did. I know I'm not supposed to have a 'favorite' parent, but I've always been closer to him. He hasn't said anything to me, but I think the divorce has hit him harder than he'll admit."

"Was there a specific reason for the divorce?"

She shifted on her bed. The topic made her uncomfortable. But Voice was only trying to get to know her. He needed to trust her as well. And trust was built on sharing.

"I guess my parents loved each other, at first. I don't know why it hadn't been enough to keep them together. Dad's not irresponsible or lazy. He's just forgetful and absent-minded."

"That hardly seems to be grounds for dissolving a marriage. An institution, I am led to believe, that lasts until death."

Hina grimaced at the last word and chose to ignore it. "Dad is…a little weak-willed. Maybe that had something to do with it. Mom has a strong personality."

"Perhaps-"

"Voice," she interrupted, "I have homework I need to finish. Can we talk about this later?"

"Of course."

She continued her homework in silence. When she finished, she grabbed her Apple laptop and surfed the Internet. She clicked on YouTube and typed in several different keywords for cats, watching many cat videos from around the world. As usual when surfing YouTube, she lost track of time, clicking from one video to the next. She wasn't a YouTube addict like a few of her classmates were, but she sometimes lost herself for an hour or so clicking from video to video. She was amazed at what a person could stumble upon by clicking on the
Related
or
More From This User
tabs.

After laughing at and cooing over cats from all over the world—and wishing she could have one of her own, preferably a Norwegian Forest cat or a Ragdoll—she gathered her nightwear and walked towards the bathroom. The evening news was on. The lead story was once again about the docked submarine and its Arctic journey to explore earthquakes.

"Hina, stop," Voice instructed.

She stopped and stood in the kitchen, watching the TV through the doorway. After the report ended, Voice said, "I've seen that vessel before."

Hina almost answered, then realized she was standing close to her father. She whispered, "Of course. It's been on the news a lot."

"Ichihara had followed Fujiya to Hiroshima Port. He seemed interested in the submarine. It could factor into their plans," Voice said.

"How?" It didn't seem dangerous. It wasn't a military vessel, it was a giant research ship.

"I'm uncertain, but I think we should investigate it." His statement was less of a comment and more like a command.

Hina hoped he didn't mean what she thought he meant. She walked to the bathroom area and closed the curtain. "Now?"

"Yes," Voice said.

She continued to whisper. "But I have school tomorrow. And Dad is still awake."

"We'll sneak out after he goes to bed."

"But—"

"This is important," Voice said. "We don't know the timetable for their plans and we need as much as information as possible. I know you have other duties, but this supersedes them at the moment."

First she had to lie to her father and now she had to sneak out. She felt guilty for doing such things. She told herself it was to save her friends and family. As long as they were safe after all this, her father could yell and punish her all he wanted. It would be worth it. "Okay," she said.

The TV went dark. Her father entered the kitchen. "I'm going to bed now. Good night."

Hina poked her head around the curtain. "Good night, Dad," she said. Her father went into his room and closed the door.

Her bath now postponed, Hina turned off all the lights and went back into her bedroom. She laid on her bed, staring up at the ceiling. "Dad's a heavy sleeper. He'll fall asleep fast."

"We will wait half an hour before commencing our investigation," Voice said.

After a long time of uncomfortable silence, Hina couldn't stand the quiet. "Voice?" she whispered. "Will I be a criminal? I mean, I'm sneaking out, lying to my father. Not long from now, I'll be sneaking onto the government's property. What happens if I get caught? I'm breaking the law. Does that make me a bad person?"

"The ends justify the means," Voice said. "And no, you're not a bad person. You are doing this to save them. What good you achieve in the long run will outweigh whatever criminal acts you do now. Yes, you will be breaking rules, but you have to focus on the outcome."

Hina didn't agree with Voice's first statement. But he did have a point: she needed to get comfortable with doing bad things in the name of good. She thought about the anime and movies she had watched. Characters were always sneaking into places they shouldn't have been in, fighting in public, and destroying property. But they did it in the name of justice because they believed in something. Hina had to do the same, she had to believe that what she was doing would save everyone she knew.