Rebecca’s eyes followed a plane gliding to land as Taylor pulled off the freeway towards the Perth airport. They had barely spoken the entire trip; a quick update on the information Rebecca had received, a note on how Captain Jade was impressed with their work. Bec knew she wouldn’t have gotten far without Taylor, in fact she might have gotten herself killed, shot down in a Syndicate bar. The guilt still hung over her. She was glad to be leaving Perth. She’d be seeing Kelly again soon…
Taylor swung into a park, turned off the ignition, and said, ‘Well, this is it.’
Bec wrapped her fingers around the doorhandle but stopped. She was stuck in a daze of thought. The things she had seen over these last few days threatened the shatter the concrete view of the world that she held onto so firmly. Maybe she was being naïve. Maybe she had overcomplicated things, taken an insignificant piece of data and embedded it deep into her system.
‘I’m sorry,’ she mumbled, barely audible.
‘Hmm?’
‘I’m sorry,’ she repeated. ‘I’ve been nothing but mean to you ever since I got here. If it weren’t for you I…’
The understanding showed in Taylor’s eyes, they too were apologetic.
He nodded, slowly. ‘I decided to go over your record, after Christmas. To begin with I thought you were just an asshole.’ He laughed solemnly. ‘I guess we both got off to a bad start. If I had known…’
‘What did you see?’
‘You were arrested eight years ago for trespassing on a construction site, along with two others, your friends, Mikah and Jackie. There was one more, Liam—’
The sadness, the regret, immediately welled up in Rebecca’s chest.
‘—He fought back,’ Taylor went on. ‘One of the officers retaliated with unnecessary force, a baton straight for the head.’
‘That cop was a fucking monster,’ said Bec, her voice unsteady. ‘Liam died hospital not long after.’
‘Bec, I don’t know what to say. I only wanted to know why you hated me, but this…’
‘I was being stupid. Not like it’s your fault. You’re a good guy, Taylor.’
She opened the door and stepped out.
Taylor leaned over and said, ‘He got what he deserved, you know, eventually. The officer, I mean.’
Rebecca nodded. She felt sad, empty, but in the end, glad to have met Harrison Taylor. She collected her things from the back and made her way towards the terminal.
Rebecca waited for Boris to leave the gym before starting her training session. Nothing personal, just following the captain’s advice. She sat on the couch in her gym clothes and played with a holoprojector until she saw him step out of the elevator.
Things had been surprisingly ordinary since Rebecca’s return to Tokyo HQ. The others weren’t exactly glad to see her, though Bec didn’t really care. She was pleased to see Kelly’s signature half-smile as the captain congratulated her on a successful mission, even if the exchange was nothing more than a few words and a curt nod.
Rebecca stepped into the elevator and descended, the doors sliding open to the sweaty aroma of the gym, the sound of impact. Kelly was beating up the punching bag. A constant muffled snap as cross the room Akira stood in the firing range, focused on her targets. Rebecca made eye contact with Kelly then strode to the treadmill. There were no decent places to jog in this part of Tokyo, too much traffic, but the air in the city was the cleanest it had been in decades and Bec was so looking forward to her time outside HQ, especially now that Kelly allowed her to come and go as she pleased.
When the captain finished her workout she threw a towel at Rebecca to get her attention.
‘How good’s your close-quarters-combat?’ Kelly asked. ‘Can you fight?’
Rebecca reached for her phone and said, ‘I fight my battles with this,’ and then more seriously, ‘It’s okay, I guess. Not sure how I square up against robo-ninjas though.’ She glanced in Akira’s direction.
Kelly led her onto the sparring mat, Bec was reluctant to go – she had just witnessed her captain pulverise a punching bag, after all.
‘Let’s see,’ Kelly said. ‘C’mon, throw a punch.’
Rebecca raised her fists and tried to loosen herself up.
‘Okay.’
She jabbed at Kelly, who caught the blow with her right hand.
‘Not bad.’ Kelly nudged her back and looked at her legs. ‘Widen your stance, you don’t want to get knocked over.’
Kelly faked a jab then grappled Rebecca and flipped her on her back, the wind knocked from her lungs as she thumped against the sparring mat. The captain kept Rebecca pinned, slowly applying pressure until Bec had no choice but to tap out.
Kelly stood up and brushed a loose strand of hair out of her eyes.
‘No toys this time to stop me from beating you.’
‘No, you’re right on that one.’ Bec rubbed the pain out of her elbow. ‘Sheer determination. You wait, by the end of this mission I’ll get you back.’
‘That’s a good start. Alright, c’mon, show me what you learned in that military crash-course we put you through. We’ll work from there.’
By the end of the spontaneous training session Rebecca’s body ached all over, but she knew that pretty soon she’d be able to defend herself better than she could before. The captain was a good teacher. Bec watched Kelly return to the captain’s quarters, her skin shining with sweat. She’d get her back.
The next day Rebecca found herself eating cereal in the kitchen with Akira, who was cutting up some fruit to put in her smoothie. Ever since they met, Rebecca had been curious about Akira’s Yakuza background. Akira proved to be a secretive woman by nature, though not shy, just a little removed. Rebecca assumed it wasn’t personal when she avoided her attempts at conversation.
By now the identity of four Nexus Rogue operatives had been confirmed and put on the radar: Sato Yamasaki, Robb, NA7 who was in custody, and another agent known as X-Ray. There were still no leads on Hiroshi Inue’s location, or what his association to Nexus Rogue might be. The other faces Bec had uncovered from the journey into her own mind were also now under investigation. This gave Rebecca something to search for in the hopes of uncovering the other members of this shadowy organisation. The more information Rebecca incorporated into the search, the quicker she’d be able to pick up some kind of trail.
‘How goes the search?’ said Boris.
Rebecca jumped, having spaced out a little. ‘Oh, hey Boris.’
He had approached from behind where she sat on the couch. He murmured something in Russian.
‘Okay,’ said Bec. ‘Well, um, the search is going nowhere fast.’
He sat next to her, put his glasses on, and said, ‘Let me help.’
‘Oh no, you don’t have to.’
‘I’ve done this longer than you, kid.’
‘But I thought....’
‘You thought what?’
‘Nothing. Please, I couldn’t definitely use a hand.’
Yuri walked past and said, ‘She thought you didn’t know how to use a computer anymore, old man.’
Boris laughed deeply. He spoke with Yuri in Russian as he set up his computer. Rebecca massaged her temples. She had been learning Russian since she joined the team, and brushing up on her Japanese. She still didn’t like people using language to cut her out.
‘Guys, English please?’
‘Boris is no white hat anymore,’ Yuri told her. ‘But he can still hack your ass to hell, if he wants to. Now we look at the brighter side of life, don’t we Boris? Bright, loud, explosive.’
Rebecca raised her eyebrows and unconsciously touched the scar on her cheek.
‘Are all Russians as crazy as you two?’
Yuri nudged Boris with his elbow and smiled, ‘Only the fun ones.’
Something suddenly appeared on Rebecca’s laptop screen. She leaned forward.
‘Woah, hang on, I think I got something.’
‘What is it,’ said Boris, leaning over to look at the screen.
‘It looks like a stream of encrypted data flowing out of the – Czech Republic.’
Yuri peered over her shoulder.
‘Can you intercept it?’
‘I can. Once I lock it down I’ll run a decryption. But check this out. Look at where the data is being received.’
‘Afghanistan.’
Rebecca glanced at the captain’s quarters. Finally, a win. A location was all they needed. These hackers acted tough when they were faceless, but everyone knew that in this line of work identity was death. You want to kill a hacker, you find out their name. Kelly would be glad to hear this.
‘Hey captain,’ Bec called, ‘we’ve found the hacker den.’
ns 172.69.7.27da2