Mom’s gone quiet, I noted. Maybe she’s just thinking it over, or maybe I shouldn’t have let slip that I know about a diamond mine and a polonium incident that no one in this world should know about. She’s going to ask me how I know. I need to think of an excuse.
“All right,” Mom said. “We’ll negotiate based on those pieces of information. But afterward, I want you to tell me how you know all these things no one else knows. And no dodging the question this time.”
“...The mine is located at 71° 39' north latitude, 111° 11' east longitude. Open air mining of the area is possible, so it should be easy to locate. I’ll leave it to you to gather more info about the location.”
I ignored the real question and just told her where the mine was. Mom just looked at me and started chewing her thumbnail without saying anything. I had that same bad habit of chewing my nails, and Mom was always telling me to stop doing it.
We continued looking at each other like that for some time. Mom then did something I wasn’t expecting. She walked over to the coffee machine, poured herself a cup of coffee, and then added five sugars and a generous amount of milk. She normally drank her coffee black, and there was only one time when she’d make coffee like this.
“Mom’s brain has overloaded...” I murmured to Shingo.
“Buh hee? What do you mean?”
“Mom’s brain is normally capable of processing everything at high speed, but when there is too much for it to deal with, it stops working and needs sugar to refuel. I’ve only seen it happen a few times. Geniuses are weird.”
“Is she going to be all right?” he asked, concerned.
“It’s no big deal. I think she’s already recovered.”
I looked over and saw that Mom was shaking as she drained the cup. As the sugar diffused through her body, she abruptly lifted her head and continued talking as if nothing had happened.
“Yes, I’ll check what’s at those coordinates. Now can we make contact with Anton right away?”
“I’ll do it,” I said. “Can I get a headset?”
With Mom’s permission, a staff member removed their headset and passed it to me. I looked at Mom to ask whether it was okay to start talking, and she gestured with her hand to tell me everything was ready.
“Mr. Baldy, can you hear me?” I said softly into the microphone.
“Kouki?! Crap! My terminal!”
His voice sounded panicked. I tried not to smile at the thought of Baldy panicking because I wanted to act as calm as possible.
“Don’t bother trying to cut me off. Even if you turn the terminal off, we can still take control of it from here. There’s also a reconnaissance satellite monitoring the building that you’re in. Now please listen to me. You need information from me, right?”
I didn’t have any information of my own to give, but they were under the impression that I did. What I did have was Noa’s intelligence network cooperating with me, so it wasn’t exactly a lie.
“How much did you hear?” he asked, panicked.
“Everything. I want to give you my support, Mr. Baldy... I suppose I should call you Anton. But in return, I’ll need you to provide us with all the information related to the Alice Project.”
“Do you mean it?” the other man said. “If we grant your request, you’ll help us rescue the captain?”
“I’m sorry, what was your name?”
“I’m Joseph. I’m a member of the unit that Anton was formerly assigned to.”
So this is Joseph... Anton’s comrade in arms. He called on Anton out of desperation, so I think we can trust him.
Mom must have reached the same conclusion. She signaled to me to be quiet so she could talk to Joseph herself.
“This is Miki Arakawa. Perhaps you’ll feel more confident now that I’m participating in the discussion? The answer to your question is yes. We can provide you with money and manpower, if that’s what you need.”
“Thank you,” said Joseph. “In that case, I’ll allow Anton to send you the information right now.”
“You sound awfully hasty. No one likes a man with no patience.”
“Spare me, witch, I don’t have the time,” the man snapped. “At 10 PM tonight, eleven hours from now, the captain will be executed.”
Mom and I looked at each other.
In eleven hours? But why?
Before I could say anything, I realized that the data sent from Anton had reached my terminal. I ran it through a virus check just to be safe, and then opened the file. It was data about some sort of experiment on humans. I asked the person who’d given me their headset to display the data on the main screen.
Mom stared at the data in disgust. “DNA-Modified Reinforced Soldier Project? Is this for real?!”
“Yes. As a researcher yourself, I’m sure you already understand, but the experiment induced genetic mutations in humans. The ultimate goal was artificial evolution.”
“Experiments like these are forbidden for ethical reasons!” she cried.