A sound came from above Aikawa’s head at the same time the man pulled the trigger. As the gunpowder exploded in a flash of red, the sharp sound echoing through the hall, something fell in front of Aikawa.
Something the bullet struck instead of him.
“What in the…?”
He wasn’t certain whether it was him or the gunman who had spoken. His mind couldn’t keep up as events continued to unfold.
“Target safely located and narrowly protected,” came an unfamiliar voice.
“Oh, man, that was seriously the very, very, very last possible moment!” said another. “The mission would’ve failed if you’d been a millisecond late. It’s because you were so against crawling through the air vents.”
“I wasn’t against it. My hair just kept getting caught.”
The person who had thrown themselves into the line of fire to save his life was an unhappy young woman wearing coveralls and speaking to a teddy bear cradled in her arms.
. : 6 : .
VIVY DOUBLE-CHECKED that the man behind her, Aikawa Youichi, was all right, then logged relief. After that, she adjusted the light sensitivity of her eye cameras with a blink; to her, even the dark hallway was now as bright as midday. Her high-resolution night vision was only intended for when she had to perform outdoors at night, but it was just as useful now.
She could see five men with guns down the hall—the enemy. They were dressed in black, their faces hidden behind ski masks. Their builds told her they were all men, ranging in age from their thirties to their fifties. They weren’t the kind of people she’d see frolicking around in NiaLand.
“They’d be pretty dang scary if they showed up at the park in those outfits,” Matsumoto added.
“This isn’t the time for jokes. Do something about the shutter!” Vivy said, ushering the chatty teddy bear along.
“Okay, okay. It’s opening as we speak!” he replied, ever flippant.
The shutter was swallowed up into the ceiling so suddenly that Aikawa cried, “What the—?!”
“Get moving,” Vivy ordered. She pushed on Aikawa’s chest, guiding him down the hallway.
“Hey! We won’t let you get away!” cried one of the gunmen.
Although initially stunned into silence by Vivy’s unexpected appearance, they were now running toward their mark, trying to prevent him from escaping.
“You’re slow to restart an interrupted task. It almost makes me sad to see natural beings fail to utilize their CPUs fully,” said Matsumoto, his scathing words stopping the men in their tracks. No, not his words—it was the shutter that slammed back down that cut off their pursuit.
“You can’t escape!”
Right before the shutter closed, one man threw himself to the ground and managed to get off a shot aimed at Aikawa’s chest. His trigger finger must’ve been spurred on by his determination to succeed.
“Oh.”
Vivy immediately put herself in the path of the bullet meant for Aikawa’s heart. The impact flung her backward into Aikawa and sent them both sprawling to the floor. Aikawa let out a shout as they landed. But the shutter was now fully closed, keeping the men at bay.
“Wow, humans are so tenacious! I look forward to the next time we meet. Not!” Matsumoto yelled at the shutter his little body was now standing in front of.
A hail of bullets came from the other side, an expression of the would-be assassins’ frustration.
“Huh, guess they’re not afraid of ricochet. And they can’t even get through the shutter with the kind of firepower they could carry… Tsk-tsk.”
Behind Matsumoto, Aikawa sat up and faced Vivy, who was lying motionless on the ground. “H-hey! Are you all right?! Wake up!” he shouted, shaking her. He might not fully understand what was happening, but he did know that she’d protected him.
After a minute, she said, “It’s okay. I avoided a direct hit.”
“Huh?!” Aikawa blurted, so startled when Vivy bolted upright that he fell back onto his rear.
With a sideways glance at him, Vivy tossed aside the steel plate she’d been holding. It was crumpled and useless now. “It’s part of the vents. I blocked both shots using it,” she explained. She’d moved the piece of metal to slip into the building and then held on to it, which had proven to be the right decision. Vivy rotated her arms and legs to make sure the gunshots hadn’t affected her, then stood and looked at Matsumoto. “Are you all right?” she asked.
“Yep, all good. While we might be out of immediate danger, we’ve only bought ourselves some time. Unless we get rid of the problem, we’ve failed. Might as well give up for the day! And, uh, can you pick me up?”
She nodded to Matsumoto as he pattered over to her. “You’re right, but…” Her words trailed off as she looked at Aikawa, who was watching the two AI with wide-eyed confusion. “How do you feel?” she asked, concerned.
“Feel? How do I feel? What kind of joke is that?!” Aikawa said, looking up at Vivy with fury. “Actually, if that flies as a joke, this whole situation is an absolute nightmare. Yes, this has to be some sort of sick joke…”
“Humans have a bad habit of mixing their own perceptions into situational observations,” said Matsumoto. “A famous fictional detective from long ago once said ‘once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.’ Compared to the shocking twists in those stories, this seems pretty straightforward.”
Aikawa fell silent, a bitter look on his face after Matsumoto’s cold criticism.
Matsumoto was correct, but Vivy had learned from her experience in the park that people were sometimes driven away or enraged by dispassionate arguments, no matter how correct they were.
Aikawa’s vitals were elevated, and he was in a state of extreme stress.
“Take a deep breath. If possible, I suggest you lie down and rest,” she said.
“Yep. If he can, he should drink some water and place cooling pads on his forehead and under his arms, but I think we can all agree we don’t exactly have time for that, hmm?” said Matsumoto.
“I’m just following the park manual.”
“This is why grandmas like you are no good outside of their intended use!”
Vivy went through her frowning emotional pattern at Matsumoto’s insult.
Aikawa watched them argue, then bowed his head in apology and said, “I was flustered and said something foolish, even though you two are my allies.”
“I don’t object to being your ally, Assemblyman Aikawa,” Matsumoto said.
“Okay. Then we’re fine for now.”
“Oh ho ho, a clean-cut decision! It helps us a lot for you to be so decisive. Thanks!”
Despite Aikawa’s lingering bewilderment, his ability to cooperate was helpful. “I apologize for rushing, but we can’t take too long. First things first, we need to contact the outside or get out of the building,” said Aikawa.
“I agree, which is why we’ll have to use plan B,” Matsumoto said.
“Plan B…?”
“I just wanted to say it once. It would’ve been pretty cool…if I had thought of a plan B while we were talking.”
“Follow me,” Vivy cut in, squishing the head of the talkative teddy bear. She pulled Aikawa to his feet and started to run; they may have bought themselves some time, but the armed men would no doubt be looking for a way around the shutter. They had to get Aikawa to safety.
“They’ve captured the control room, so they’ll have the shutter open soon. I sort of want to take complete control of the security system since there’s no point in us fighting over opening and closing the shutters…” mused Matsumoto.
“What about modifying the surveillance footage?” Vivy asked.