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Hoping to catch Jo before he ran into Satoshi, I raced out of the treatment area, but found the vestibule empty. He hadn't had that much of a head start, so I ran out into the corridor, just in time to watch the elevator doors snap shut.
Waiting for its return seemed to take forever. When it finally arrived, I hopped inside and depressed the button for level five. When the doors whished open, a cool breeze wafted inside the car, and I heard the muted roar of rain.
Buster stood in the foyer. "Oh, hey, did you want a ride back to shore, Renata?"
"No, I was"—I pointed skyward—"Do you know if Satoshi went ashore yet?"
"If he did, it wasn't on the freight shifter." After shaking the water from his poncho, he stepped into the car. "He seemed pretty pissed at your father."
"Well, Satoshi doesn't take criticism well, constructive or otherwise," I said, as the lift started to rise once again.
"Tell me about it! When we found him at that Sweeper operation, we practically had to tie him down to keep him from attacking those soldiers, although they outnumbered him twelve to one—the dozen we could see, anyway. Even if he mowed 'em all down, I don't know how he could've tackled the ones in the pit. I guess stubbornness runs in your family, eh?" Laughing, he gave me a playful nudge in the ribs.
"Yeah, you could say that. How many people were in the pit?"
"Two, maybe three times as many as the soldiers." He raked a hand through his damp curls. "Damndest things I've ever seen. Mazawa won't need a militia, if he herds enough of them around the holodome."
His statement struck a chord in me. Herd them, yes... He'd need some way to control them, so at least one of them would have to lead the pack. "Maybe there's a way we could use them to our advantage," I murmured.
"How in God's name—"
A chime interrupted him, signaling we'd arrived on the ship's uppermost level.
"I think I might have a plan." Plan? It was barely an idea, and a half-assed one at that. "I just need to check out something first. Let me get back to you later, okay?" I squeezed through the doors before they'd fully opened.
I stood in a dimly-lit corridor, which curved before ending at a set of sliding white doors with long, inlaid sconces on either side. Even before I'd reached them, I could hear voices raised in argument.
"You should have told me! It should have been you, Tetsuo, not some piece of—"
"I'm sorry you had to learn about her that way—"
"It's my child! Mine, not his!"
"If you think I'm going to let you leave this ship—"
My stomach knotted. Apparently, the path of Satoshi's tantrum had taken him straight to Umeji.
"And what if there's no truth to Mazawa's..." Tetsuo's voice lowered, so I couldn't hear the rest. Not that I needed to. The same thought had occurred to me as well.
"And if you..." Jo's voice, barely audible. "...leave her... and an orphan?"
"Stay out of this, Jo! It's not your fight!"
"Isn’t it?" he interjected sharply. "I am the reason this is happening. If anyone's going to New Edo—"
And offer himself up as ransom? Oh, hell no! I punched the button and charged inside, body slamming Satoshi. Dramatic exit foiled, arms flailing, he began to fall backwards. Hoping to avoid a crash landing atop the war cruiser's intricate navigation panel, Tetsuo quickly swiveled one of the high-backed, padded chairs beside it.
Not quickly enough.
Its arm caught Satoshi at the knees. Toppling over its arm, he sprawled across the seat with a loud grunt.
"No one's going anywhere alone," I said breathlessly. "We're going to get them back and defeat Mazawa and the Kufugaki are going to help us!"
"Kufu— Are you out of your mind, Renata?" Satoshi gasped. "How?"
"Ocular implants. I think it's how Mazawa controls the Kufugaki. Juno told me that they attacked Sawagi after Kei hustled me aboard his ship. Right before that attack, however, I met a soldier-turned-marrow-sucker just outside the entrance to the shantytown. She was wearing the same implants as Kei and Hiro: red ones. They help soldiers see in the dark, but I think they're also capable of some kind of two-way transmission."
"You can't be sure of that, Renata," Satoshi said, still struggling to right himself in his seat.
"Right before the Kufugaki died, she called me by name, even though I'd never seen her before, which means that Mazawa had some way of communicating with her. He wouldn't need all the Kufugaki to have implants—a pack always follows its leader—which also means that there has to be at least one soldier turned in every Sweeping operation. Guys, don't you see? If we can hack that frequency, we can turn Mazawa's mutants against him!"
Jo scowled. "Renata, what you're suggesting, it's—"
"Fucking brilliant!" Satoshi jumped to his feet.
"—monstrous. They're innocent people! Our focus should be on curing them, not using them as—"
"Weapons? He's already done it, to them and to us. You think the Idoron isn't a weapon? Time is the greatest weapon of all, and it's time we wielded it against Mazawa."
Turning to me, features contorted by anguish, Jo said, "No, Renata."
"You'll have plenty of time to cure them after Mazawa's dead!"
"Right now, his forces outnumber ours three to one. Though refugee containment will occupy some of his men during the monsoons, the threat of attack from a mutant army would spread them thin enough to give us the advantage." Laying a hand on Jo's arm, Tetsuo said. "Renata's right, we need those Kufugaki!"
"I can't cure them, if they're dead!"
"You can't cure them, if you're dead, either, which is exactly what will happen if you turn yourself in. You might have super healing abilities, but I doubt even you can live without a head," I said, hearing a familiar ringing inside my ears as sudden heat flooded my cheeks. "All this time you've spent hidden away from the world, away from us, perfecting a serum that could better the lives of thousands, maybe even millions of people, and now, you're willing to throw away the chance to do good on a massive scale for a handful of freaking Kufugaki?"
"All life is sacred."
"Spare me the ethical debate! War's upon us; I'm just trying to help you win it. Wouldn't my mother have wanted that?"
"Do not bring Reiko into this," Jo spat.
"She's already in it! She's the reason the Idoron exists! She died to prevent it from falling into Mazawa's hands! You owe it to her!"
"Maybe there's another way." Stepping between us, Satoshi motioned for me to back off. "We don't have to stage an actual Kufugaki attack—no, Dad, hear me out—all we have to do is make Mazawa believe that they're a threat to him. Once we're inside the holodome, we rescue Juno and Ito—"
"Assuming Mazawa kidnapped them at all," Tetsuo interjected. "He lies lower than dirt beneath a Tatami mat."
"We still need to get inside. That is, assuming I go along with your plan."
"I need your word that you will, Jo. You too, Satoshi. For this to work, we can't risk any hairbrained, one-man rescue attempts. Agreed?"
Satoshi's assent came quickly, eagerly, while Jo's slow acquiescence was accompanied by a glare as hard and dark as obsidian. "Now that we're all in agreement, Renata, how do you propose we get inside the holodome?"
I thought of the day this whole mission began. Picturing the queues outside New Edo, the lines teeming with frightened refugees, Saisei wannabes, and scientists bearing samples, I said, "With Umeji, of course."