“If that’s how it ended up, we should have done as I suggested at the time and placed Totoki and her people under the thought manipulation system’s control.” A’s voice sounded oddly distant. “Our efforts failed, that’s all there is to it. Even though she’s been suspended, Totoki’s acting against us in secret. And next time, one of us might end up crippled, like D was.”
Echika finally realized who D must have been—Talbot.
“We don’t know why D turned out like that, nor do we know if Totoki and her people did it to him,” said C—Director Schlosser. “And A, have you forgotten that Investigator Hieda isn’t affected by the thought manipulation system?”
“A was never very smart,” said B—Cook—in an exasperated tone. “So long as Echika Hieda is at large, even if we place Totoki and her people under the system’s control, they’ll somehow end up getting the better of us. She has that oddly intelligent Amicus police investigator following her around, too.”
“Even so, the Amicus is malfunctioning now. We can take our luck and try to move against them. Totoki hasn’t given up, and even if she couldn’t Brain Dive into Greg, she won’t just—”
“Even if she did Brain Dive, the Mnemosyne bulwark would stop her. Investigator Hieda can’t get through that. Isn’t that right, F?”
Schlosser called out to one of the cocoons, who had remained silent so far. F didn’t say anything back. Echika heard A and Cook exhale in frustration. But after a short pause, a voice replied with a gentle crackle of static.
“Oh, pardon me. Your petty squabbling was just so pitiful, I ended up nodding off.”
This time, Echika’s breath really did catch in her throat.
There was no way she’d forget or mistake that voice.
She felt like something was siphoning all the heat from her core. Steve and Totoki must have looked at the monitor in just as much surprise. Because this voice, and what had just happened—it couldn’t and shouldn’t have been.
After all, she was incarcerated in a place completely cut off from the internet.
“F, we were discussing the Mnemosyne bulwark you made.” Schlosser repeated the question, annoyed. “No one with ordinary data-processing abilities could possibly penetrate it, right?”
“Yes. You can be sure of that.”
“What about the improvements to the thought manipulation system?” A asked. “You started the testing phase on it, yes?”
“It’s going well. Feels like I have a kingdom of my own to rule over.” F yawned openly. “It’s still a long way off from being good enough to implement widely. It’ll take a while before we can turn Investigator Hieda into our marionette.”
“That means our options are all the more limited,” Cook said coldly. “If we leave Totoki and her people out there, they’ll expose us sooner or later. We have to take care of them before they actually trace things back to us.”
“Eliminating them isn’t realistic,” Schlosser said. “I’ve said this before—a group of investigators dying all at once will draw attention. Investigator Hieda is especially well-known, so her cause of death is bound to be carefully examined.”
“But we have to make them disappear after this. We can just set up another fake case for them to pursue and eliminate them all. Ideally, in a way that makes it look like a tragic mishap. Like if they get caught in a fire or drown.”
“They’re not stupid. If we could get rid of them that easily, we wouldn’t be having so much trouble.”
“Let’s focus on the problem at hand, then,” A said, unable to mask their irritation. “I think Greg’s blunders call for a suitable response.”
“That’s already been dealt with,” Schlosser said curtly. “Greg, I’m afraid you’ll have to reflect on what you’ve done.”
Given the situation, it seemed clear they weren’t going to overlook Greg’s failings this time. But at this point, Echika could hardly care about that—how was this possible? How?
Another message from Totoki popped up.
<We tracked down where B and C are logged in from. They’re Cook and Director Schlosser. Keep it up for just a little longer>
Echika gritted her teeth. How was she going to stall any longer than this? Echika parted her lips, knowing she didn’t have much time. But then—
“By the way, how long are you going to pretend that you’re Greg, Investigator Hieda?”
A shapeless wind disturbed the lake, making its mirrorlike surface sway and shake. Echika gazed at the roundtable, her breath held. The cocoon avatars didn’t budge, but somehow, she could tell all four of them were glaring straight at her. The featureless face of F’s avatar was definitely smiling at her. She could see it clearly—her pretty teeth.
She wasn’t dozing off.
Throughout all the time she’d spent in silence, F had been constantly tracking where Echika was logging in from.
“What?” Cook let out a high-pitched exclamation. “F, what are you say—?”
Out of sheer reflex, Echika tapped the “log out” option. The roundtables, the Salar de Uyuni—everything crumbled and disappeared like grains of sand blown away by the wind. The brilliant blue sky turned back into the tasteless ceiling of the lounge. Echika nearly fell off the stool, but Steve caught her. Totoki pulled out the converter cable attached to Echika’s neck.
She was drenched in cold sweat.
That ended badly.
“Steve,” Totoki said, wearing a firm expression. “Did F trace us back?”
“I don’t see any evidence of illegal access,” Steve said, letting go of Echika and glancing at the blank PC monitor. His eyes were uncharacteristically confused. “F is a robotics professor. She may have some knowledge of networking, but she doesn’t have the means to trace our position without my noticing it.”
“Well, whether she has the means or not, she identified us. We have to move, now.”
Totoki swiftly closed the laptop, her face pallid. Echika likely looked the same. People they’d trusted, including Director Schlosser, had turned out to be members of the Alliance. She and the others had been dancing in the palm of their hand this whole time.
It was honestly hard to swallow. The sheer humiliation and shock of it made it all the harder to accept.
“Investigator Fokine, you were listening, right?” Totoki swiftly spoke to the group call. “Find Investigator Gardener as soon as possible. Plus, I need you to get in touch with Investigator Lin and Bigga, if possible. She might be in danger, too.”
“Got it,” Fokine replied tensely. “What will you do, Chief?”
“Well, first, since we know where the director and Cook were connecting from, I’d like to take them into custody.” Totoki closed her eyes, troubled. “But that’ll be a tall order by ourselves. We’ll need to turn to the London Metro Police for help.”
“Do you have any guarantee they’re safe?”
“None. It’s a gamble.” Those were the last words Echika had expected to come out of Totoki’s mouth. “Either way, the Electrocrime Investigations Bureau is rotten to the core. So rely on no one. Prioritize securing Investigator Gardener.”
“All right. I’ll put on an isolation unit, then, just in case.”
Fokine hung up. When Totoki turned to face her, Echika blurted out what was on her mind, driven by sheer emotion.
“Let me go to the private penitentiary in Ashford.”
“I was just about to ask you that.” Totoki nodded. “But you shouldn’t go there alone.”
“I’ll have Department Head Angus finish up Harold’s maintenance.”
“Yes, I just hope it went well… Let me know once you have him, and I’ll send you the transfer address.”
Totoki put the laptop into her suitcase, snapping it shut and quickly leaving the lounge. Echika made to hurry after her, but then her eyes met Steve’s. The Amicus was silent, but his hand was raised, like he was about to reach out and stop her. He’d gone haywire and attacked someone in the past, so he wasn’t allowed to leave Novae Robotics Inc.’s building without permission.
“Steve, I know you want to come with us, but…”
“I know that’s not possible. But after you ask Lexie about this, could you tell me what she said?”
From Steve’s position, this revelation was a nightmare. It meant that his own creator was a member of the organization that had stolen Taylor’s thought manipulation system.
“Of course.” Echika could only nod earnestly. “I’ll stay in touch, I promise.”
After this, she bolted from the lounge. She ran down the hall toward the maintenance room, at a loss as to how to break the news to Harold. It was such a quandary that it made her head hurt.
Echika had never thought of Lexie as a pleasant person, but she did think she was human. Plus, she was the only person with whom Echika shared the secret.
She had to get the truth out of her.