“Yes, ma’am. Sorry, Naoko. I, um, this is the kidnapping attempt.”
I’d kept a low-resolution recording of the fight just in case, and my low-res was still better than the holodisplay in the conference table could duplicate. I ran through the brief scuffle, being careful to fuzz out the part where they said Naoko’s control phrase. Then I froze the image, and pulled out close-ups of the inugami’s faces.
The catgirl on the other side of the table leaned in for a closer look, and deftly plucked copies of all the data out of the holodisplay’s memory.
“Definitely a Masu-kai model, but I don’t think they’re from Ishida’s group,” she announced. “Alice, I don’t suppose you’ve got an internal scan on any of them?”
“My radar hadn’t grown in at that point,” I admitted. “And I didn’t have enough computing power online to run all my senses at full efficiency. I’ve got a passive sonar sweep, but the resolution is pretty terrible.”
I passed it over anyway, and she gave me a reassuring smile. “This is fine, honey. I just wanted gross anatomy to do some database searches. What happened to your sensor suite?”
“Those idiots on Felicity were starving her,” Beatrice said, sounding personally offended. “Limited calories and no food supplements.”
“I, um, wasn’t actually telling them about all the malnutrition warnings I was getting,” I pointed out hesitantly.
“Because you were afraid they’d lobotomized you if they knew how extreme your enhancements are,” Naoko sniffed. “A fear which was entirely justified, according to the research I’ve been doing. It is not at all unusual for excessively capable orphans to simply vanish from their public records.”
It wasn’t? I’d been afraid of something like that, but hearing her confirm it made me realize just how lucky I’d been to meet Naoko. If they’d found me in the port…
Kavin squeezed my hand. I hadn’t even realized he was still holding it.
“That does sound like Felicity,” Rei agreed. “Alright, I’ve got confirmation. The dentition on these inugami is wrong for Ishida’s group. He likes his girls with authentic canine teeth, and this bunch has a canine-human hybrid pattern that makes it easier for them to eat human foods. I’ve got a hit on Jin in my thug database too, which matches. It looks like they’re from Yamashida’s group.”
Everyone frowned thoughtfully at that. Which left me confused, but I wasn’t about to ask after the results of my last question. Fortunately Kavin noticed my confusion, and filled me in.
“Dad called this meeting to let Captain Sokol know that the yakuza have been asking a lot of questions about him lately. Trying to figure out the Square Deal’s schedule, who the current crew are, that kind of thing. But the activity our contacts have been reporting was all from Kaneda’s group.”
I frowned. “Kaneda’s group? What does that mean?”
“Oh, you haven’t researched the yakuza yet? The Masu-kai have operations all over the sector, but they’re pretty decentralized. Each branch of the organization is run by a local boss, and they don’t usually cooperate much with each other. They’re all rivals when it comes to promotion time, you see. Mr. Ishida runs their custom android operation, so everyone probably assumed the inugami that tried to kidnap her were from him.”
“I had some doubts, actually,” Captain Sokol said. “It may sound strange if you don’t know him, but betting his personal companion in a poker game is perfectly in character for Mr. Ishida. He tends to get carried away with his gambling, and he doesn’t place much value on people.”
“You won Naoko in a poker game?” I said incredulously. Then I remembered who I was talking to. “Ah, sir. Sorry, sir, it’s none of my business.”
“No, it’s alright,” the captain said easily. “It’s not a secret, and you need to learn about these things. Ishida’s group controls most of the smuggling in the Felicity Cluster, so it’s important for us to stay on his good side. A poker game every now and then is a small price to pay for being left alone.”
“We’re smugglers?” I asked.
“We have a highly diversified business,” he replied. “Sometimes you can make a killing with a timely shipment of tobacco and soda to the right Mormon colony.”
“Or lifting warbots and ammo out of a newly-declared DMZ,” Major Vall said. “If you’re smart that kind of op can make you friends, too. Friends who might pass on useful info later on.”
“We still have a mystery, though,” Rei interjected. “Kaneda mostly deals with the Dark Space protection racket, so what’s his interest in the Square Deal? Naoko, I’m not asking you to betray any confidences, but could you have overheard something important when you were working as Ishida’s personal companion? A password, maybe, or some plot that a rival might want details on?”
Naoko frowned thoughtfully, but after a moment she shook her head. “I don’t believe so. It embarrasses me to admit this, but Mr. Ishida did not allow me much involvement in his business affairs. He was primarily interested in testing my programming, to ensure that I… ah… performed to specifications.”
“I won’t ask,” Rei said sympathetically. “Only, has Dan managed to get everything fixed? I know how tricky that can be. We’ve got some e-war talent we could put on the job if you need help.”
“It’s all hardware locked,” Captain Sokol said. “I’ve got a solution lined up, though. It’s just going to take some time.”
Rei looked pretty impressed at that. “You’ve got a contact who can break hardware locks? Damn. Okay, I guess you’ve got it covered. You’re a lucky girl, Naoko.”
“I am well aware of this,” Naoko replied.
“Unfortunately that leaves us in the dark,” Major Vall said. “You haven’t pissed off the oyabun recently, have you Dan?”
“Hardly. If anything we have a cordial relationship. His family owes me quite a few favors, and you know how they are about honor debts.”
Rei snorted. “Yeah. They’ll do anything for honor right up until the price gets too high, and then they welsh on the debt and murder you to make sure you don’t tell anyone.”
“Hence why I never tried to cash in on the relationship,” the captain said. “Well, thank you for the warning, Verkin. I’ll have to do some digging to get to the bottom of this, but at least we won’t be blindsided.”
Everyone took that as their cue to say their goodbyes, and the meeting broke up. I watched Kavin leave with his parents, feeling a little glum about it. So much for dancing the night away.
The moment the door was shut a flight of security drones rose from the corners, and swept the room. No one said anything until they were done, and Chief West finally spoke.
“We’re clear,” he said. “Not that I really expected Verkin to try anything, but Rei can be unpredictable. What do you think, sir?”