Zero Sum Game (20 page)

Of course, that was after the indigenous population had been wiped out. An atmosphere suitable for a Noigel was poisonous to humans. They wouldn't die out right away—the entire process would take a couple of years—but with an unbreathable atmosphere and their wildlife and plants dying in numbers unheard of, their extinction was insured.

Shimizu pulled his gaze from the little replica of his homeworld. "How long until you have the results?"

"A day," answered Iue.

"A day," yelled Shimizu, his anger flashing. Koda bumped into the computer behind her and wrapped her free hand around her neck.

Iue and Kanemoto shared an expression of fear. Kanemoto said, "That's what the simulations predicted. At least a day of constant monitoring before we can get accurate results. As well as make sure this sample is stable."

Shimizu nodded his head, his flash of anger dying. "I'm sorry." He looked to the tank.
A day. I can wait a day
, he thought.
What's a day to a species who lives for seven hundred years?
He would wait.

Amano and Shimizu congratulated the scientists on their hard work and their extraordinary breakthrough. The two men left the lab. They walked to the administration section of the building. Although Amano didn't visit the facility often, he had his own office at the complex and that's where he led Shimizu. Amano ordered the office lady to bring them coffee. Inside, Shimizu noted that, like Amano's corporate office, it was bare and claustrophobic. It didn't bother him.

Amano took his seat behind his desk and Shimizu sat on the guest couch near the door. He propped one leg atop of the other and unbuttoned his suit jacket. Neither of the men said anything. The office lady brought them their coffee.

After she left, Amano said, "I'm surprised you didn't tell them to shut up and get back to work. Or something else like that."

Shimizu smiled. "Let them enjoy their victory. Their world is at an end. The test sealed their demise. And yours."

Amano shrugged. Shimizu was surprised Amano hadn't asked how he had gotten the scientists to go along with a plan that would render the air unbreathable and the soil unable to support plant life. Shimizu had overcome this by convincing the scientists that it would do no good to terraform soil into something that already existed on Earth. If they wanted to change an alien environment into an Earth one, they should test the catoms by doing the opposite: transform an Earth environment into an alien one. Then would they know if the catoms succeeded at true terraforming; if they had spun straw into gold and not straw into hay.

Discreet programming and hidden computer commands had done the rest.

While his smirk didn't falter, Shimizu was a little worried. Amano was a difficult fish to figure out, and he wondered if the other man might falter in his plans to help him. Amano seemed eager for the world to end, and Shimizu couldn't figure out why. He didn't want Amano to rebel against him at the last minute, when the time came to push the button and the actions were irreversible. The two men took a sip of their coffee at the same time.

"Why?" Shimizu asked.

"That's rather vague," Amano said.

"I said all your employees are going to die, and you barely reacted. I want to know why. You're going to be a willing participant to mass genocide."

Again, Amano shrugged. "And if anyone found out later, I'm sure they would hand out vigilante-style justice on me. 'Traitor to mankind' and all that crap." He paused, then withdrew a framed photograph from his jacket pocket. He handed it to Shimizu.

The photo was the same one Shimizu recalled seeing in Amano's corporate office. He handed it back.

The human stroked one side of the frame. "Her name's Rona," he said as he stared at the photo. "I loved her so much. I thought we'd always be side-by-side. We would give each other the first bite of Christmas cake, take a trip to Izumo, share hot cocoa in an ice hut at the Snow Festival in Sapporo. Live together in our parents' house."

Shimizu shifted in his chair.

"I was the only one who wasn't happy when she announced her engagement. I take that back. She and her fiancé weren't happy with me either. I should have been thrilled for her. The new man in her life would take care of her, provide for her, give her things no fifteen-year old brother could give her." The nostalgic gleam in Amano's eyes faded, replaced with anger. Along with great despair. "But I couldn't let her go. No matter how much my family tried to include me in the wedding plans, I would take no part of it."

He set the photo on the corner of the desk. "On the day before her wedding, I went to her house to confront her fiancé. I wanted to show that I was past my sense of betrayal. I also wanted to tell him to take care of her, to be the best husband she could ever have. Treat her the way I had always treated her."

Shimizu found himself interested. "Then what?"

Amano turned the picture face down. "He said I was a sick boy with a disturbing fascination for my sister. But I was just trying to watch out for her interests. The conversation got out of hand. Punches were thrown, objects were broken. A kerosene heater broke apart near a cigarette." He waved his fingers in front of his face. "Up it all went. The house, the wedding dress, the ungrateful fiancé. I didn't know my sister was there." A bitter smile pulled his lips. "My name and record were never made public. Because I was a juvenile, I received a light sentence, and the defense attorney made an arguable case for it being an accident. But I know what I had done." He leaned forward. "I killed the only woman I had ever loved and got away clean. What does that tell you about Earth? What kind of a world gives a free pass to murderers? A lousy one. An unfair planet that deserves the fire I started. But this time, I want it to consume everything."

It made sense now, the eagerness and willingness Amano had shown for his end. A sick, twisted sort of sense. Shimizu was afraid he had misread this particular fish.

He sat upright and cleared his throat, signaling a change in topic. "There is something else I want you to do," Shimizu said. Amano raised his eyebrows and waited for him to continue. "It'll take billions of catoms to terraform this planet."

"That's a lot," Amano said.

"Now that our staff has succeeded in their construction, the rest is simple. They can do it. We need a test on a larger scale. In the real world. Have them manufacture a container of ten million catoms. I'll get Fujiya to release them in a part of Hiroshima. Some countryside place."

"Is that wise?"

"Doing it in a populated place would raise too much suspicion and cause too many headaches. Do it now, in a private place, and we'll be better off."

Amano smiled as he took a sip of coffee. "Then later we'll unleash them when the populace will be helpless to combat it." Shimizu saw him thinking about it, no doubt enjoying the images of chaos he was sure were playing in Amano's mind.

Amano set down his coffee cup and leaned forward, locking eyes with Shimizu. "Now I want something from you," he said.

Shimizu heard the firm tone in Amano's voice and raised his eyebrows in surprise. The little fish was demanding.
He's brave. Foolish, but brave.
When Shimizu said nothing, Amano continued.

"Don't kill me. Leave me here while you launch your catoms. I want to watch my world burn."

The excitement in his eyes made Shimizu nervous.

— — —

Hina use to trudge home from weightlifting, happy but exhausted. Now with Voice and his catoms, she felt fine a few minutes after putting on her school uniform. Voice explained he constantly repaired Hina's damaged cells, bringing her into a state of perfect health. He said that while he energized her, recharging her like a battery, and that she had more stamina than any other person alive, she was still organic and needed food. Thus, Voice couldn't do anything about the rumbling in her stomach.

Hina adjusted her backpack, making sure it was still there. She sometimes worried that if she lost it, she wouldn't notice. With her enhanced durability and incredible strength, she didn't feel her bag at all. She boarded a streetcar and found an empty spot on a bench beside the entrance door. The streetcar was crowded with salarymen and office ladies returning home from work and students finishing club activities. A few old ladies were onboard as well, clutching their purses in their gnarled hands.

"They can't fix that platform," said an old woman nearby. Even though the other woman she was talking to sat beside her, the first woman had her voice raised loud enough for everyone to hear her.

"Was it the yakuza?" her friend asked, at a more sedate volume.

The first woman nodded her head and put her hand on her friend's shoulder. "I'm telling you it was a drunk driver."

"I heard they didn't find the driver's body."

The old woman slapped her friend's shoulder. "The police are idiots."

Hina tuned them out and slunk a little deeper into the bench. She was happy that no one had been hurt. Fujiya's escape made her nervous; he had powers like hers if he had walked away after the wreck. She wondered when they would meet next.

"It sounds like you made an impression last night," Voice said.

She lowered her chin to her chest. "Do you think I'm safe?"

"From identification, yes. I won't explain the technical works but your face didn't show up on any surveillance devices anywhere. With the speed of the chase and other factors, it is doubtful anyone recognized you," Voice said.

"What about my uniform?"

"Even if someone recognized which school it belongs to, it will be impossible for them to identify who wore it, not out of the hundreds of students there," Voice said. "Safe from Fujiya is another matter. He wears a battle suit as well. He may be able to find you."

A new situation occurred to her. "Will he be able to identify Ozaki-sensei?"

"Yes, without a doubt," Voice said in a heartbeat. "That is a good reason you should not have revealed yourself to him."

"I couldn't lie to him," Hina said.

"Why not?"

"Because," she said. The man to her left glared at her in annoyance and she turned red in the face. She realized she had spoken louder than normal; if she kept it up, she'd draw more attention to herself. She wished she was allowed to bring a cell phone to school, at least she could have it in times like this, pretending to talk to a friend. She pushed her bag onto her knees, wrapped her arms around it, and buried her face, feigning exhaustion. She kept her volume to a whisper. "Because," she answered Voice, "he's my teacher. And it's not right to lie. He saw me. I had to tell the truth."

"Secrecy is paramount on this mission, Hina," Voice said. "Whatever moral comfort you feel is outweighed by the danger you have put him in."

"Stop talking like a machine," Hina whisper-yelled. She was angry at Voice for his matter-of-fact tone but also because he was right.

"I am a machine," Voice said. "I'm a battle suit, not—"

"I know," Hina interrupted. "You're a battle suit, not a 'fill-in-the-blank.' You think not telling Ozaki-sensei will save his life. Telling him might help him instead. Maybe if he knows he can help, then he'll know
how
to help."

"I believe the human expression is 'Ignorance is bliss'," Voice said.

She could tell neither of them would budge on this issue. "How about this one, Voice? 'We'll agree to disagree.' And I don't want to talk about it anymore." She sat back up, wiped her wet eyes and hoped she had done the right thing. And wouldn't get her new teacher killed.

CHAPTER 18

From atop of the mountain, Fujiya looked over the green scenery. He held a metallic bottle with a small numerical keypad attached to the lid. Inside were ten million catoms, which he would soon release into the ground.

It had been two days since the test at AHI's labs. Doctor Kanemoto had informed Shimizu that the test tank of dirt and atmosphere had stabilized as the simulations had predicted. After congratulating the doctor and his team, Shimizu ordered ten million catoms to be manufactured and sealed into a special container. Later that day, Fujiya had picked it up and held onto it ever since. Shimizu had told him his mission: release the catoms into a remote part of the mountains and observe the results. Fujiya had told him he wasn't a scientist, but Shimizu had reassured him that he didn't need to be, he only had to watch what happened for a couple of hours with a scanner, then report back.

He wondered if the test had actually worked. He wondered if the bottle in his large hand could turn this planet into New Noigel. He had heard the theories and sales pitches from the scientists and government officials about the power and potential of terraforming. It was nonsense. But he had heard the confidence in Shimizu's voice. It wasn't arrogance, Shimizu believed this would work. There was no shadow of a doubt in his mind. They would save their people, and this planet was the key. He didn't understand what made Earth so special; but if it worked, that was all that mattered.

Fujiya admitted he was eager to see the silver dirt and purple skies of his homeworld. He hated the ark; his people weren't meant to be nomads wondering in the emptiness between stars. They needed a home. Earth could become their New Noigel.

He took another look around him: rolling hills covered with thick forests of bamboo and meandering rivers and streams, and the blue sky above. He hoped he would never see it again. He punched in the security code on the small keypad. The lid unlocked with an electronic beep. He flipped it open and poured out the contents. The millions of catoms moved like a puddle of dull gray mercury. They seeped into the ground without a trace.

— — —

Hina turned at the sound of her name being shouted and saw Ami running towards her. She was out of breath by the time she reached Hina. She was dressed as her usual dowdy self in a long, one-piece pale blue dress. She adjusted her glasses but they were still uneven, one side tilted above her right eyebrow while the left dipped. Hina didn't know if it was a problem with the frames or how Ami's head was shaped.