Free Web NovelThe diner was a small place. Closer to a bar more than anything, really. Tables lined the walls and surrounded a central 360 bar in the very middle of the place. Several Fang sat at the bar itself while a robot drone zipped around and poured drinks… I want it. Maybe I can ask Shinobu to send me the bot’s code?
The wall facing the street was entirely made out of windows, which allowed the dim red glow to flood into the building and illuminate everyone in red that looked straight out of a noir film. It didn’t help that the lights above flickered on and off, making the dramatic lighting all the more impactful.
Fang sat scattered around the place, but my attention was drawn to the people that definitely stood out against the rest. There were five—six Kage scattered around. The heavily chromed out cyborgs made me uncomfortable as they always did. I subtly positioned myself closer to Mira just in case, and dropped my hand onto the hidden Jade Dagger at my waist.
Aside from the Kage, there were five other people that didn’t belong alongside the others. The first was obviously a medek. He had on a white doctor's coat, and was working on disassembling a piece of chrome at one of the tables near the entrance to the place. Dr. Fugen, presumably.
"That's Dr. Fugen.” Shinobu pointed out the doctor. He, alongside most everyone in the room, looked at us as we slid into the diner. “And at the bar is Akane Misurido.”
Akane Misurido also stood out sharply. The Mama of Kake Street was a seductive woman with a certain mature aura around her that drew the eye. She slowly twirled a small umbrella around an expensive looking drink, though her attention was fully on us.
She had on a deep red kimono that drooped low, exposing the top of her bust. At the same time, it was incredibly short and fully exposed the tops of her thighs. If she shifted wrong even just a bit, the kimono would ride up. Her legs were entirely covered in fishnets that made her pale flesh bulge slightly around the black strands.
I watched her intently. She wasn’t the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen, but she had the charming mannerisms totally down. Every one of her moments seemed to ooze charm. If I could copy even a fraction of that as Nightshade, I’d be totally set.
“Oh joy, we’re saved.” A younger looking man twirled around on his bar stool and leaned against the bar with his arms stretched out. He had on a corpo suit, though lacked the corpo smile. “Shinobu finally brought eggheads to figure out our little murder mystery.”
”Enough, Otori. Why must you be so… so you?” A man that I initially thought was a Kage growled out. He was heavily chromed, and his chrome was tattooed heavily with all sorts of glowing tattoos. He sat in a booth across from another man.
Shinobu motioned to the two who just spoke. ”Those two are Otori Shimata, Elder Toro’s grandson, and Hiiro Nishin, the chief of security.”
“Won’t be the chief of security for much longer after failing his duties so hard.” Otori laughed to himself, and picked up a glass of some murky drink to sip at.
”Am I last?” The humble looking man sitting across from Hiiro asked lightly. He had a set of wireframe glasses perched on his nose, and was slightly pudgy like a hamster. “I’m Makoto Takahashi. I’m the assistant-manager of Kake Street.”
“All five of them had access codes to the safe.” Shinobu muttered quietly back to us. Not that it mattered much. It wouldn’t surprise me if at least two of them had chrome to pick up whispers better. “Their our primary suspects. You’re free to ask questions.”
Mira whistled a short tune to Vox, and the metal fox hopped off her shoulder to start sniffing around. She bounded around like an excited puppy around the diner, which helped hide her true purpose in checking everyone out. Akane watched the fox with a small smile on her face.
“Then should I start?” Mira asked the duo of investigators and stepped away from our small group. “Okay, Dr. Fugen, what’s up with Elder Toro’s biomon?”
”Ah, right, that.” Dr. Fugen put down a micro-server, and pushed away the chrome he’d been working on. “During the elder’s routine check-up this morning, Medtech pushed out a firmware update. It corrupted, causing the biomonitor to malfunction.”
Coincidence? Or… was this intentional? It lined up too perfectly. There were all sorts of ways that a firmware update could be sabotaged, too. It really was just too perfect that his biomon happened to go down at the exact same time he was killed.
”What about the logs?” Mira asked. “Do you have those?”
”Unfortunately, no.” Dr. Fugen helplessly shook his head. “With the firmware being corrupted, the biomon’s logs were also corrupted. I was actively trying to get the update on a shard to fix his chrome, but Medtech’s stingy about handing that kind of thing out.”
“He didn’t just go to Medtech’s hospital to get it fixed?” Seth asked the obvious question. “Could’ve been done just like that.”
”I suggested it.” Dr. Fugen shrugged. “He insisted he had too much to do today to push it back, and requested I reset the firmware the old fashioned way.”
”Makes sense.” Detective Bradton glanced around at the other two investigators, and then shifted the attention to Akane. “Miss Akane—“
“Please, just Mama or Akane.” The seductive woman waved a hand with a small smile on her face. Her scarlet hair draped her face, framing her pale skin perfectly.
”Akane, then.” Bradton’s eyebrows furrowed. He checked his notepad, and looked up to her. “You were the last to see him alive, yes?”
”Outside of his killer.” Her chrome eyes, larger than normal which gave her a certain innocent look, drooped. “We had a dinner date to discuss Kake Street’s water trade.”
”Did you have this… date,” Bradton twisted the word around in his mouth as if uncomfortable with it, “often?”
“Once every two weeks, at least.” The woman sighed tragically, though perked up when Vox stopped just at her feet and stared up at her with tail wagging like a fan. “I’ll miss him dearly. He was like a grandfather to me—“
“Ha!” Off to the side, Otori Shimata snorted coldly. Vox shuffled over to him, only to be slightly pushed back by the man’s foot. “More of one to you than to me.”
”Maybe if you would’ve stuck around instead of joining that stupid corporation, he might’ve been more caring.” Hiiro said.
This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.
Mira and I exchanged glances while they exchanged words. Was he stupid? In this kind of situation, expressing resentment with the dead was a surefire way to become the next trader of investigation.
Surprisingly, it was Seth that beat Mira to the punchline. “And why were you here, Otori Shimata? From what I gather, you aren’t involved in anything on Kake Street, are you?”
“I wouldn’t be caught dead working here.” Otori glared around the room at all the other people. “My grandfather asked me to come. Said it was super important.”
”Why?” Mira asked.
”Dunno.” Otori crossed his arms with a heavy frown. “The old bastard bit the bullet before our scheduled meeting.”
“Show some respect, boy,” Hiiro Nishin, the security chief, hollered at the elder’s grandson. “Just because you didn’t agree with him—“
”Didn’t agree with him? Ha! That’s putting it way too lightly.” Otori’s glare fully turned onto Hiiro. “You know as well as I do what he tried to do. Tell me, would you respect him then, too?”
Hiiro’s jaw twitched rapidly. He glanced at Vox, which had worked her way around to him and Makoto. ”That was a different time.”
“Whatever.” The grandson kicked off the wall and headed to the door. “I’ll be at the arcade if anyone needs me. Don’t need me.”
Two Fang near the door looked like they were about to stop him, but Shinobu waved them off. “Stick with him.”
The two Fang followed right after the guy instead out onto the rain-streaked streets of Portside. They quickly vanished into the ominous red glow of Kake Street. Arcade, huh? This place had a little bit of everything. It was like a micro Bukicho in Portside.
“Mokoto.” Detective Bradton shifted the conversation back to the people present, and tapped on his notepad. The Kake Street assistant-manager snapped to attention at hearing his name. “Could you think of a reason why someone would want to kill Elder Toro?”
”Outside of the obvious ones?” Mokoto frowned and rubbed at his pudgy chin. “Not really. Elder Toro, despite his name, was quite gentle in his dealings. Everyone respected him him dearly.”
”Well, that isn’t exactly true, is it?” Seth snidely asked. “He didn’t seem to have a good relationship with his grandson.”
Mokoto paused, and then nodded slowly. ”Yosh, well… that was a different time, as Hiiro said. I don’t think it would be anything to kill his grandfather over.”
The lights flickered and shut off once more, letting just the red glow of the neon sign to illuminate inside of the place. Seth finally seemed to get annoyed enough about it to speak up. “What’s with that? Can’t afford your electric bill?”
”Portside’s been having power issues for the last couple weeks.” Shinobu said from where he stood by the door. “It’s not just us. Backup generators are down from being overdrafted, too.”
“Ah, that reminds me.” Mira tapped the side of her head like she was an idiot. “Hiiro, can we see the security footage an’ logs? It’d probably help.”
”’Fraid I’ll have to disappoint.” The borg crossed his arms. “The power outages knocked out most of the recordings too. I already checked.”
”Knocked out, or wiped?” Mira asked.
”Could be either,” he admitted after a moment. “No way to tell without getting a runner to sweep through the terminals.”
”I’ll call someone in.” Shinobu said. His eyes started to glow as he immedietly got to doing what he said.
So we were back to where we started? We didn’t have much of anything at the moment. All five of them would’ve had the opportunity with them being here during the power issues. The means was still up in the air since we didn’t know how he died, as was the motive. We had almost nothing at the moment other than three shots to the elder’s chest.
The others slowly seemed to come to the same thinking as me. After a moment, Mira nodded out toward the foggy street. “Maybe we should go out and discuss the case before continuing to question them?” freewёbnoνel.com
”Good idea.” Detective Bradton stuffed his hands in his pockets. “Could use a smoke break, anyway.”
We shuffled out of the diner. Contrary to what Mira said, the three instantly separated from one another. Detective Bradton pulled a cigarette out of his pocket and lit it up while pacing along the street, Mira shuffled over to a bench and sat down heavily, and Seth just leaned against the foggy glass of the diner. No one spoke.
I waited for a moment, and then slowly slunk away from the group. Mira noticed instantly and asked through the Packheart Rings. “Where you going?”
“Need to make some calls.” I glanced back to her, and spotted Vox trailing after me discreetly. “And check her logs while I’m at it.”
”Got it.” Mira leaned back onto the bench and stared at the sky as soft mist drifted onto her face. “Lemme know if you need anything.”
I moved to a relatively clean alley, and leaned against the wall. “Hey, Saint, you hear me?”
”Loud and clear, Alpha-One,” the reporter instantly responded.
”That was a one-time thing.” I sighed and shook my head. “You busy?”
”Not at the moment. Why? Need something?” He asked.
I pulled out my phone and sent him the suspect’s names alongside Elder Toro. “Can you look through these names for connections? The elder was murdered a couple hours ago.”
”Uh, sure.” Saint went silent for several moments, probably while he gave them a cursory check through. “Give me about an hour or so, and I’ll let you know what I find.”
”I appreciate it, Saint.” It felt like I owed the reporter more and more with every passing day. “I’ll repay you someday.”
”No rush… talk to you in a bit.”
”Chek.” I tapped my phone, and this time around actually made a call. I wasn’t lying to Mira. After it rung for a bit, the other side picked up. “Hello?”
”Hey, kid.” Nael’s tired voice came through the other side. “You okay?”
”Chek, tottaly fine.” I glanced down at my still ruined hand from the plasma incident. At least, mostly. “Didn’t wake you, did I?”
”Was already awake. At a patient’s house.” He easily put down my worries. “What do you need?”
”Got a few questions about chrome, actually.” I paused for a moment. “You, uh, you aren’t busy, are you?”
”Not anymore…” He chuckled softly. His voice had a certain warmth to it that always made me feel… I dunno, safe? “She gave birth to a beautiful baby boy.”
“Oh, congrats. Didn’t realize you did deliveries.” I thought he was more of a chrome and dome type of medek.
”Do a bit of everything, Shiro.” He sighed. “You should know that. Speaking of, I sent those blood traces to a friend to check out. He’ll have results in about a week.”
“Thanks, Nael. Right, so… what do you know about a firmware update being corrupted?” It was just too convenient, so I wanted to check up on the doctor’s story. “For context, it’s a Medtech Biomonitor.”
Nael used to work at Medtech, so he was the perfect person to ask. Sure enough, he didn’t disappoint. “Well, it depends on the corporation, naturally. For Medtech, though, it happens with about every one in ten-thousand updates. Just a risk of pushing that kind of thing across the net.”
“How easy is it to fix?” I asked.
“Medtech likes to keep it close to their chest. Unless you go to them, it could take a couple days even with connections. Especially for one of their main products like the biomon.”
Hmm… so he wasn’t lying about all of that. Was it truly just a case of terrible luck on the elder’s part? One in ten-thousand—the odds were small, but not impossible. “One last question. Did Medtech push out a biomonitor update today?”
”Let me check.” The medek went silent for several moments. “Yeah, they did. Early this morning.”
”Thanks, Nael… I’ll stop by sometime soon.”
“No worries, kid.” He chuckled warmly. “Oh, and are your wire spools up for sale yet? Running low again.”
“Check, I’ll bring some by.” Though I wouldn’t charge him for it if I could help it. I could upgrade the alloy to something a little stronger now, too, since I could have the foundries pump out the wire. “See ya’.”
”Stay safe.” He hung up, leaving me standing in the alley.
I leaned back against the wall, and thought through things. For now, I’d count it as a terrible coincidence, but it was just too perfect. No idea if the doctor was involved in it, or if someone else caused the firmware update to corrupt, but it was highly suspicious. That, combined with the post-mortem shots, made this look more and more like a coverup.
”Yip!” Seeing that I was off the phone, Vox finally barked to get my attention. She stood just in front of me with her tail wagging and eyes crinkled into adorable half moons.
”Come here.” I slid my phone into my pocket, and dropped my good arm down to her.
“Yii!” She promptly jumped up and scampered onto my shoulder. The robotic fox rubbed against my cheek lightly with her synthetic fur.
I pulled the jack out of my wrist, and slid it into a concealed slot just above her neck to check her readouts. Most of it was as I suspected—“Ah, bingo.”
There, sitting at the top of the log, was a positive check for gunpowder traces. It seemed like we were finally about to move somewhere with this investigation.
— — —
AN: I know I’ve slowed down a bit recently on uploads and that kinda thing, especially over the last couple weeks. Myth//OS in particular is suffering. Hopefully everything will be sorted out soon.
