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I found Tetsuo and Jo at the edge of the lakeshore. Ringed with lights, an enormous warship hovered over Lake Sai. Waves, whipped by the rising wind, lapped at its belly and along the sides of the freight-shifter that was already headed to shore, ready to ferry the injured across.
Jo's face fell when I handed over the phials. "I know you took more than this."
"Someone stole the rest," I explained between gasps. "Will these be enough?"
"No, but it's a start." Jo scanned the area. Campfires illuminated stunned, frightened faces; torches picked out anonymous backs and legs, when not focused over the bodies of victims on the ground. Those nearest the shore, backlit by the warship's floodlights, appeared in silhouette, a dark wall of bodies with bobbing heads. Somewhere in that throng of shadow people, Satoshi was helping to care for the injured.
Sensing something amiss, Tetsuo emerged from the crowd. "Ready, Jo?"
"Not as ready as I'd hoped." He held up the phials. "Seems someone in your camp has light fingers."
"One of us?" Tetsuo eyed the crowd narrowly, cursing under his breath.
Soon, Satoshi hurried over to us. "What's the hold-up?" After I filled him in, he turned to Tetsuo. "Has anyone left camp recently? They'd probably be traveling in a small ship."
Leaving him to consider this, Jo motioned for Satoshi to walk with him. The two huddled together, conversing in hushed tones for only a short time, after which, Satoshi left at a run.
"I've given Satoshi instructions on how to administer treatment. There's enough in the phials for six people, but we're going to need almost three times that much. I have more hidden at the hostel, but we'll need to quarantine the others until I can get it."
"But Jo, the virion in those implants has been mutated to move quickly through the system. It'll take you hours to walk back there— even longer in the dark," I protested. "By that time, the disease will have taken hold of them! I know. I've seen it."
"Then I'll have to make even more to accommodate the increase in dosage." He shrugged. "Right now, Renata, what other choice do I have?"
"I think I can help you there." Before Tetsuo could explain, his wristlet whined in alarm. "What is it?" The reply that crackled through its soft static set him pacing before us. "Who did? When? The hell I did, Kenzo! Stop them! I don't— isolate the damned pod and put the whammy on its engines! Use the focused thrust jammer at full—yes, you have my permission! Shoot them down, if you have to—just stop them!" Turning back at us, he said, "Unauthorized night ride. I think I might've found our thieves."
"Who?" Both Jo and I asked.
"If I heard Kenzo correctly—well, I just can't believe it! Anyway, he hasn't captured them yet, but they won't get far with a thrust jammer gumming up their navigation system. Until we get more of that serum, they can cool their heels in the brig." He signaled to his ship. Moments later, a fighter pod glided across the lake.
"Climb in. I never thought I'd be returning to that particular clearing again, but you have to admit, it's faster than walking."
After sandwiching ourselves into its cockpit—Tetsuo and Jo up front with me buckling into the rear gunner's swivel perch—we slowly rose above the camp. Below us, bearing its first load of injured, the freight shifter headed out across the waves. "Aren't you afraid one of Mazawa's creeps will spot the searchlights?" I asked, noticing the powerful beams that flooded the ground with near-daylight clarity.
"Our cloaking shields should hold up just fine."
Leaning forward, I brushed Jo's shoulder. "Are you sure you don't...mind? All this time, you've been in hiding and now, thanks to me, in the space of one day, you—"
Clasping my hand, he said, "Finally get to use the Idoron to help others, the way I always intended. It's what your mother wanted, too. If she were here, Renata, she would be proud of you."
"Even though I turned out to be, as you said, a paid assassin?"
"One who cries over anonymous Kufugaki, no less." Jo laughed.
"What's this, now?" Tetsuo glanced back at me. "Crying? Renata, you didn't!"
"Well, I thought he was—never mind."
Tetsuo slapped the controls. "Satoshi will bust a gut when I tell him!”
"Oh, no you won't! That never leaves this pod, I mean it!" Hoping to change the subject, I asked Jo, "Mazawa said that the two of you developed the Idoron. What was his contribution to the project?"
"Contribution?" Jo snorted. "He was an upper level laboratory assistant at the time, a chemical analyst with a background in genetic engineering whose security clearance allowed him access to all projects under development on the base. Though he possessed some real talent, instead of applying himself, Mazawa made his junior technicians do all the work, then took credit for their discoveries. The only serious contribution he ever made was a rudimentary torture device that looked like a seven-headed snake and violated the terms of almost every international treaty in existence at the time."
"A psyche scrambler? Kei had one of those. What's it made of, anyway?"
"I don't know. Mazawa always kept his discoveries closely guarded." Pausing, he looked down at the forest canopy. "I've never known anyone so sadistic. To him, everything is a potential weapon, even the Idoron. He makes me sick."
All the more reason to kill the bastard. Glancing out the window, I tried not to wince. Ugh! Trees, trees, and more trees! This time, at least, I wouldn't have to fight my way through as many of the damned things alone.
The pod's floodlight caught a flash of yellow below. We'd arrived.
"Hold on, I'm going to set her down." Tetsuo eased the fighter pod into a wide arc around the crash site, and then we drifted down, our descent scattering leaves and snapping small branches.
After Tetsuo set the pod's searchlights to stun and distributed flashlights, we exited the ship.
The tarp lay in a crumpled heap against the side of the old war cruiser. Though our landing had probably unmoored it, the wind generated by that force definitely was not responsible for stripping the flesh from Hiro's fingers. Nor did I need to wonder what besides rats had been gnawing on him recently: a potent, eye-watering stench hung over the immediate area, an invasive musk that obliterated every other smell around it, including (thankfully), that of Hiro's rotting remains.
Not content with mere digits, the foraging skunk had dragged his severed head away from his body. Resting beside a heap of rusted parts, empty, blood-smeared sockets gazed out from a face marred with gouges and claw marks.
"Phew! Seems our landing interrupted someone's dinner. That the kid you told me about?" Tetsuo's attempts to wave the stench away only increased it.
"Hiro." I nodded. "What's left of him. He was one of Mazawa's junior recruits, only six-years-old."
"Despicable." Jo retrieved the tarp and replaced it over the tiny body. Then, sweeping the beam of his torch towards the embankment, said, "This way."
With him lighting the way and Tetsuo's torch in the rear, we made our way back to the hostel, following the same path I'd used to make my escape. Moments after we'd crawled up the ridge and over the fallen tree with the unwholesome, spongy bark, rain began pattering softly against the leaves. Soon, the lights from the fighter pod, which had broken through the trees by the embankment in great, misty streaks, dimmed, then disappeared, leaving only our flashlights to guide us in the darkness.
As we picked our way through the tree-lined tunnel, the storm increased, making the more eroded and rock-studded sections of the path that much slipperier. I never thought I'd be so happy to see the hostel again. By the time the back of it appeared, we were covered in mud and sodden mulch.
Jo led us through the main foyer and down the hall. After we passed the washrooms, he veered right. Entering the abandoned cafeteria, he weaved around benches and tables, his course taking him to the collection of vending machines. Stopping there, he began to fiddle with the display door on one of the larger units.
"You buying? I'll take a can of corn scum and a fur pie," Tetsuo joked.
Chuckling, Jo undid the latch. The door groaned open, revealing another opening, one still bearing the remains of its rusty hinges. As he motioned us to follow, I could hear a soft thrumming sound coming from somewhere in the dark recess.
I stepped into an echo chamber, a room whose cracked red tiles were fitted with drains. Once part of a large kitchen, thick dust now covered its stoves and mildew tarnished its metal sinks. To our left, its length was broken at intervals by closed doors, where not lined with shelves. Unlike the appliances, the shelves, suspiciously dust-free, boasted a number of boxed and freeze-dried foodstuffs.
Footsteps echoing on the tiles, Jo went over to one of the shelves and pulled down a box. Handing it to me, he said, "Take these. I could hear your stomach growling all the way here."
"Thanks, as long as you don't make me drink any more of your tea," I said, digging into the box of sugar-coated senbei.
The thrumming, which had increased, seemed to issue from a metal door. While I munched on the crackers. Jo pulled it open, revealing the inside of another refrigeration unit. He disappeared inside it, then reappeared moments later with two small wooden boxes.
"There are a dozen phials in each of these. That should hold us for now." Cradling the boxes in one arm, he closed the door behind him. As he headed out, he did not turn down the hall that led to his laboratory, but walked us back into the foyer. Here, he stood for a moment, looking about the room.
"That brings back memories," said Tetsuo, who'd spied the old parachute.
"It's kept out many a winter draft, too."
Accompanied by rain and low-lying banks of stubborn mist, we made our way back to the ship. Aokigahara, though still a forlorn and unpleasant place, seemed much less intimidating with Jo as a guide, I decided.
As our slick, winding way brought us closer to the ship, rays of light, bright and reassuring, shot through the trees once again. Nearing the end of the tree-lined tunnel, we were about to clamber over the enormous hinoki, when horrible screams pierced the night. Emanating from the clearing just ahead, the high-pitched, gut-wrenching cries seemed more animal than human in nature.
Nudging past me, laser pistol raised, Tetsuo hurried to join Jo, who quickly discovered the source of the sounds.
Sprawled on its back at the bottom of the embankment, a tanuki clawed frantically at the engorged pallid sphere. Yowling, shaking its head like mad, it rolled over, intent to dislodge the ghostly assailant that swaddled its head like an oversized turban.
"Kei's psyche scrambler!" Horrified, I watched, as two tendrils snaked from the device's bloated center.
"Not for long." Tetsuo's first shot spit-crackled through the long body of one, severing its mind-sucking 'head' from its neck. Winking out, the severed section pattered to the ground like a rain of black hailstones. Its mate, recoiling for a strike at one of the tanuki's ears, soon met the same fate.
Weakened by the blast, the rest of the psyche scrambler began a series of strange, staggered bulges—hideous pulsations, which grew more and more erratic. Sensing its opportunity, the tanuki clawed itself free.
With the mind-sucker now clear of the creature, Tetsuo fired his final jet, which hit the psyche scrambler dead center. It disintegrated with a pitiful whine, scattering small stones over the ground.
Still not convinced, the tanuki pawed at the ground, growling. When it failed to rally an attack, it gave its fur a head-to-toe shake, sneezed forcefully, then bolted off through the trees.
Tetsuo holstered his weapon. "Well, that's something you don't see every day."
"The forest never fails to surprise," Jo agreed.
Having had my fill of surprises for one night, I was happy to clamber back aboard the fighter pod and head back to camp.
We disembarked in one of the launch bays of Tetsuo's massive warship. Jo headed off to deliver more of the Idoron to Satoshi, while I, curious to learn the identity of our thieves, followed Tetsuo down a wide corridor to the ship's brig.
Much larger than the one in Juno's ship, the brig's interior still boasted the same gunmetal coloring and spartan design. Nothing but the worst for our enemies.
Kenzo, who'd been standing near the center of the room, came over to greet us. "That thrust jammer worked like a charm, except we'll be one pod shy of a squadron now. They went down over water."
"We'll manage; we always do. And the stolen goods?"
"They said these were all they took." He handed Tetsuo three phials. Luckily, all still intact. "Good work, Kenzo! So, where are our culprits?"
"Over there, and still insisting that theirs was a noble cause." Shaking his head, Kenzo ambled down the cellblock.
While prepared to see rows of shatterproof holding cells, I nearly dropped my box of senbei when I saw the occupants of one of those compartments. Though I didn't know the man by name, I'd seen him twice. Once, piloting Juno's ship, but more recently, accompanying another member of that crew on a lakeside stroll.
I raced to the cell. "Nozomi? What the fuck were you thinking?"
"We didn't have a choice, Renata," she wheedled, pressing herself against the far wall of the cell.
"And you, Umeji, what do you have to say for yourself?" Tetsuo scowled through the glass at the tall man whose arms were covered in snake and dragon tattoos.
"Let Nozomi go. She had nothing to do with this," he said. "I stole the phials." His eyes flicked to me. "It wasn't difficult. You left them in plain sight."
"Oh, so, it's my fault? Fuck you!"
"But why?" Tetsuo's voice rang through the space.
Sighing heavily, Umeji raked a hand through his wet hair. "Not long after Renata entered camp, I received a communique from New Edo." His lower lip quivered. "M-Mazawa said, if I ever wanted to see Juno or Ito alive again, I had to bring him the Idoron. He said he'd kill them— kill us all, starting with Renata—if I didn't. I didn't know what else to do!" Sobbing, he slid to his knees.
"You should have come to me," Tetsuo said.
"When everyone started screaming, all I could think of was Juno and the baby! My baby!" he wailed.
"Yours, eh?" Tetsuo bristled. "I'll deal with these two, Kenzo." Then, handing me the phial boxes, he said, "Take these to your father; you'll find the sick bay on the second level. And Renata, for now, say nothing of this to Satoshi."