Ryo Kaidai had done nothing but wait for the last two months; It may have been easier just to give up, at that point. “Execute the strategy,” he ordered Methode, through a transmitter. “Draw the attention of the military.”
〈Understood,〉 Methode replied, her tone decidedly unenthusiastic.
It had been two days since Lacia’s fight against the Japanese military. Despite the massive siege laid down by the army, which had included tanks and combat helicopters, Arato and Lacia had both slipped away. Meanwhile, the anti-MemeFrame sentiments in Japan had grown even fiercer, which Ryo took as a cue that something big would be coming soon.
He wondered if things might have gone more smoothly if he had just left it to the adults. But, to keep hold of Methode’s reins, Ryo couldn’t afford to bow out of this fight now. He had wanted out after coming into contact with Astraea, but his little sister Shiori still technically had partial ownership of Methode. If he dropped out, Methode would almost certainly abandon the sinking ship that was MemeFrame and look for an owner outside the company. When that happened, she would come to tie up the loose ends her old owners represented. By Ryo’s calculations, the probability of he and his sister making it out of that situation alive was approximately zero.
“Man, this whole living thing is too much trouble,” he muttered. He had been talking to himself a lot more, lately. “You can’t just go with the flow when it comes to threats to your own life.”
He was sitting in a house near Mitaka Station that had been abandoned during the Mitaka Incident, glaring at the screen of a tablet terminal. Of the two stations that had been damaged in the Incident, Kichijoji was getting the most immediate attention since it was the more prosperous of the two. Mitaka Station was still an untouched ruin.
In the darkness of the abandoned building, only the faint light of Ryo’s terminal lit up the night. On his screen, Ryo was analyzing images captured by some of his comrades who had taken pictures at his direction.
“This is the car we’re looking for,” he said. “Stop it, just as we planned. I’ll head that way, too.” He flicked the safety switch off on his handgun, and moved out. After chambering a round, he put the safety back on and stuck the gun in the waist of his jeans.
The people helping him hide were some of those he’d met and forged connections with during the Mitaka Incident. He had participated in the looting, of course, but nobody could deny that he had been the first one to get things moving during the siege. To the abandoned people of Mitaka, desperate for aid, he was the one who had reached out his hand the fastest. His actions hadn’t been praiseworthy, but they had still earned him the people’s support.
By the time he left the building and got to where the target car was located, his comrades—who were already on the scene—were gesturing to let him know that everything had gone smoothly. The car itself was black, and of a fairly standard model. It had been stopped by a group of men and women wearing flashy but coordinated outfits. Ryo’s impromptu gang was starting to look like the real thing.
Anyone coming through Mitaka Station, which was still covered in vinyl sheets, left the area quickly. The front of the station was essentially deserted. As a result, the people of the city were blissfully unaware of the midnight raids happening in the area.
“Toss that guy underground,” Ryo ordered. “You can let him out tomorrow once it’s light.” The bodyguard Ryo indicated was dragged from the car, after which Ryo got in. He recognized the passenger inside.
“Mr. Suzuhara,” Ryo greeted the man. “I never would have pegged you for an errand boy.”
The man in the car was Shunji Suzuhara, the director of the Strategic Planning Office at MemeFrame. Under hair whitened over the course of his fifty-plus years, Shunji’s tense expression relaxed a little.
“I had heard you were in Mitaka,” Suzuhara said. “But I must say, your friends have gone a bit overboard with playing at street toughs. I was seriously scared there for a moment.”
Many of Ryo’s companions were youths who spent their time hanging out in clubs in Kichijoji; these were jobless kids, who had too much free time on their hands. These were kids whose whole world revolved around their limited allowances. For anyone with money, being surrounded by a crowd of them could be quite terrifying.
“Well I did have two whole months. Plenty of time to get some things ready,” Ryo said. “I managed to surprise you, right?” He hadn’t seen Suzuhara since the night Kouka had been shot down. It felt strange to Ryo, meeting again under those circumstances.
“I’ll take care of this guy,” Ryo said to his comrades. “You’re dismissed, for today.” He then ordered Suzuhara into the driver’s seat, showing him his gun and telling him not to do anything rash. Ryo’s companions, in their flashy white suits, bowed and left. Once they were gone, Ryo rolled up the car windows, creating a small private room.
White-haired, middle-aged Suzuhara let out a sigh. “I suppose we owe it all to you that there haven’t been any rumors that Higgins’ main hardware is housed in this area,” he said, his light, jesting tone returning. Without waiting for orders from Ryo, Suzuhara started the car rolling. Apparently, he had no intention of resisting.
“The army patrols have decreased, and it seems you’ve kept Methode in check,” Suzuhara continued. “I should have expected as much of you. But, to think that instead of the army or the police, I’d end up in the most disadvantageous net of all: yours.”
“Because the company could be going bankrupt, of course,” Ryo said. “I’ve been wondering how all those who put all their eggs in Higgins’ basket would be reacting.”
The fully automatic car carrying Suzuhara and Ryo ran along the midnight streets of Mitaka. They came in view of the south side of the old Inokashira Park, where the army had lost the largest amount of soldiers in the Mitaka Incident.
As if avoiding the installations that had been unearthed in the attack, the car turned right toward a residential district. The army had erected a cordon of armored vehicles and guards for a radius of about two hundred meters with the unearthed installations at its center. Lacia’s blast, which had pierced through several city blocks, had left a massive hole in the shutters protecting the front of the installation. What had been left of Snowdrop had been found there, and seized by the government.
The car turned into an old corner of the residential district, where they stopped in front of a factory building with no external markings. All of the employees appeared to have abandoned the place, as the metal gates were closed tight. Suzuhara punched something into his pocket terminal, and the rusty gates swung open much more smoothly than Ryo would have imagined from their appearance.
“MemeFrame’s in trouble,” Suzuhara said. “The VIPs who’ve been using the youngsters that have Higgins’ backing can’t agree on anything. Of course the President knows all about this, and he’s using the leaders of the Higgins faction as a buffer around himself. If he decided to really move out, I don’t think anyone in the company could stop him. That’s what you get when you leave all the power with the founding family.”
“Huh, I never would have expected you of all people to be a disposable pawn,” Ryo said. The Higgins faction had been begging their ultra high-performance AI for an answer that would keep them alive when the boss started making drastic cuts. Of course, if the President found out what they were doing he wouldn’t let it slide. So, for just such an eventuality, they had selected Suzuhara of the Human Faction to be their fall guy.