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kashiwritesChapter 6
Chapter 7
For all the next day, Jin couldn't shake a feeling of vague, unfocussed unease. Miaki seemed mostly normal again when they worked together on their VR exercises in the morning. Mostly. He was no longer talkative about himself, as he'd been last night, but then, that openness wasn't his normal mode anyway, was it? But although he seemed more able to concentrate on their class work today than yesterday, it was as though he had programmed half his mind to work on it, almost robotically. Whereas, the other half of his mind, the place in which he was really living and thinking today, was somewhere else entirely.
So in his class work in the VR room, he was attentive and sharp, and impersonally courteous to Jin, and nothing more than that. To her query about his state of mind he crisply answered, "I'm fine," and went on to something else.
But now and then, the less robotic part of him would seem to surface from...wherever it was...and his eyes would darken and narrow as it peered from behind them. And when this intense, calculating gaze would land accidentally on her, that was when her uneasiness increased. She had no idea what she was worried about, but there was no doubt in her mind that she should be worried. The grieving, vulnerable person whose cold hands she had held last night seemed utterly gone.
Just one day, he had asked for. But already by lunch time, Jin was becoming sorry she had promised him even that.
Classes came and went, and then the evening meal in the cafeteria, and then before everyone got down to doing their studying for the evening, all the students and faculty gathered in the same auditorium where the first-years had congregated on the first school day. There was such a total school gathering once every week, where announcements were made, socials were announced, and all that sort of thing. Jin sat with Julie, Akio, and a couple of other first-years, but as all the other students made their way into the large hall with the mountain vista at the front, she ignored her companions and craned her neck, looking for Miaki. When she found him one row behind and across the aisle to the right, she felt an inexplicable relief.
A few minutes later, the school officials and instructors appeared on the platform at the front, and the announcements began. Everything went the same as always, until the very end when the mountain vista on the front wall changed, and a different window appeared. It was much smaller than the screens that covered the front and side walls, but still large enough that the person on the screen was visible to all.
It was Mr. Ian Woon, the founder of the Institute for Space and Cyber Exploration. The students had been addressed by him only once before, on the first day of school, when he'd briefly delivered a welcoming speech before allowing the on-site school administrators to take over the meeting. He was legendary, among students and world scientists alike, having founded the school almost thirty years ago and having kept it to exceedingly high standards. He was now rarely seen by anybody except by these remote broadcasts, since he was a bit of a recluse, but word had it that he was by no means retired. He still, apparently, kept an active watch on the school's administration, and showed no signs of planning to hand it over to anyone else.
He was a short, wizened man, probably in his eighties by now. But his black hair still only had streaks of grey in it, and his dark eyes were alert and piercing behind his wire glasses, contrasting with a benevolent smile. He stood before the students in an impeccable grey pin-striped suit, and seemed to beam at them.
"Good afternoon," he said. "I am pleased to see you all, and I hope you are enjoying your studies. There is no end to the fascinating things in our world, and our universe, and if this school is helping you discover them, then we are serving a great purpose. I especially hope that all of you in your first year have become comfortable, and are learning great things." There was a murmur of appreciation as he paused.
Mr. Woon smiled. "But I know you would rather not be in a boring meeting, when you are so eager to get to your evening studies...," he paused for the appreciative groan, "...so I will not go on and on. I merely wished to announce a very generous donation to the school, and give you a chance to thank our benefactor." He motioned to his right, and another man moved into the screen.
Julie leaned over and whispered, "Who is that?" Jin shrugged. The face on the screen wasn't a face she knew.
"This," said Mr. Woon, "is Mr. Kazuo Tanaka, who represents the government of the Pacific Rim Alliance."
Julie gasped sharply. "Jin!" she whispered. "Is that Kenji's father? That's his name, isn't it?"
Mr. Woon continued, "Mr.Tanaka has, today, on behalf of the Pacific Rim Alliance, donated ten million credits to the Institute for Space and Cyber Exploration. I am sure you all wish to express your thanks to the Alliance, for its generous contribution to the school."
The assembly applauded enthusiastically, partly because it was expected, but largely in genuine appreciation. It was an amazing sum. Yet there was also a murmuring undercurrent, as a few people recognized the man's name, and began passing the information along. Several people were already looking around, trying to find where Kenji was sitting.
Mr. Woon, however, was not finished. "One of the great achievements of this school, from the very beginning, has been its intention to educate the best scientific minds in the world, regardless of economic status or national origin. This is why there is no tuition required of students, but each student is approached by the school on the basis of achievements and abilities alone. In return for this egalitarian approach, and neutrality on the part of the school, governments and institutions all over the world have recognized and appreciated this institution for the quality and character of its graduates. Many of them have donated funds toward the running of the school and the tuition of students, desiring us to continue in this neutrality and egalitarianism. And we accept their donations in that spirit. Therefore, Mr. Tanaka, we again accept this donation, in the independent spirit of equality and neutrality. The Pacific Rim Alliance is more than generous, and is to be commended for encouraging this spirit."
Mr. Woon was smiling benignly as he shook Mr. Tanaka's hand, but Jin had the sudden thought that he had, in fact, just finished issuing a warning to Mr. Tanaka: the school will not be compromised by any amount of money. He probably made the same comments to anyone who wanted to donate.
If KazuoTanaka perceived Woon's comments as a warning, though, he gave no indication. "Thank you, Mr. Woon," he said. "We have benefitted as much as any other part of the world, from the expertise of your graduates. How can we not express this gratitude, except by helping your institute to continue its great work? We consider this donation only a small payment of our debt to your school." He shook Mr. Woon's hand.
That should have been the end of it, but Mr. Tanaka, too, had more to say. He adopted an almost-conspiratorial smile and told his audience, "I'm especially privileged that our government wished to donate to the school this year. It's more meaningful to me, personally, than it would have been in other years, since my son Kenji has just begun his studies at I.S.C.E. this year. So I am very happy to be the spokesman for the Pacific Rim Alliance in this matter, since it also allows me to say what a proud father I am. So thank you, Mr. Woon, for giving me this opportunity."
Akio smirked at Julie and Jin. "See?" he whispered, not very quietly. "That's how he got in."
"You don't know anything," Julie retorted.
Jin glanced around the large room as the applause burst out again and Mr. Woon made a couple of quick closing remarks. She didn't really expect to see Kenji, since he was probably sunk deep into his chair by now. Poor guy. Everyone was wrong, of course – he really did belong here. But nobody would believe that now.
She couldn't find him, unsurprisingly. But as she glanced back at Miaki, her eyes stopped abruptly on his pale, rigid face. He was staring fixedly at the two men on the screen. No, not at the two men – at one man. His wide, dark eyes were fastened on the face of Kazuo Tanaka so intensely that it was a wonder Tanaka couldn't sense it. Miaki's hands were clenched on his knees with such force that his knuckles were white.
Jin's unease of the day suddenly crystallized into something very close to fear, though she had no idea why. But when Miaki stood up and stalked out of the auditorium just before everyone else got up, she murmured, "I'll see you later," and slipped out of the room after him.
She followed him at a distance. She wasn't sure why she didn't do as she'd done last night: just approach him, ask if he was alright, and offer to help. But there was something different about him tonight. She wasn't sure if the ferocity of his gaze tonight was still a residue of his discovery last night, or if somehow there had been a new development. Again she told herself that she should just ask him. But still she lagged some distance behind him, relying on Julie's locator to keep from losing him.
At one point, near the entrance to the men's dormitory wing, Miaki stopped. Jin watched him from down the corridor, from behind a juice vending machine. The hall became crowded fairly quickly with students returning from the auditorium, but thanks to the locator, she could tell that he hadn't moved.
A few minutes later, she sensed Kenji's approach. He walked along the wall, his head half-turned toward it, as though trying to be as inconspicuous as possible. Nobody was saying anything nasty to him, but he was certainly getting the nasty looks. He looked like he just wanted to slink into the safety of his room and not come out again for the rest of the day. Jin wondered if he even remembered that the six of them were supposed to be having another investigative session tonight.
But now Miaki stirred, and she sensed him approach Kenji, stopping the other in the hallway. She slunk into the shadows beside the vending machine and watched. She knew that if either of them decided to check, their own locators would pinpoint her immediately. But neither seemed to be paying attention to that sort of thing right now.
Miaki was saying something, but she couldn't hear what. Kenji was shaking his head. She could almost imagine him saying, "I just want to go to my room. I don't want to do anything tonight." But now Miaki placed a hand on Kenji's shoulder, as though offering some sort of comfort. And it seemed to have worked, because Kenji turned and began to walk down the hall the way he had come. Miaki followed him, and eventually took the lead, while Jin again followed at some distance.
To her surprise, Miaki wasn't heading for the VR room where the others would shortly be meeting. As the crowds thinned, she finally heard him saying, "There's something I want to show you. I'd rather go to a different room for a minute, if you don't mind."
A different room, indeed. There were other VR rooms, with fewer terminals, that were meant to be used as backups, or practice rooms, or overflow rooms if there were a lot more students than usual in some year. The one Miaki went to seemed to be the farthest away of any of them, several corridors down from the one they normally used.
When Jin finally arrived at the door, she saw Kenji already at a terminal, gloves and boots on, and goggles in his hands. He still seemed doubtful, but Miaki stood beside his chair, smiling at him. "I'll be right behind you," he said. Kenji at last put on the goggles and logged into the system. His body sagged a little as all of his senses became enveloped in the VR world.
Miaki stopped behind his chair and put both hands on Kenji's shoulders. Jin couldn't see his face, but she heard his chilling words: "I've got you now, you bastard."
And then he quickly sat at the next terminal and donned his boots and gloves. He hesitated a moment, then pulled off the pendant with Julie’s locator device, and tossed it into the next terminal cubicle. Then he logged into the system.
Jin stood frozen in the doorway for a long, horrified moment. But finally she ran to a third terminal and, hands shaking, put on the VR equipment. Before logging in to the VR world, she sent a frantic signal to the others, hoping they got it soon. Whatever she had been afraid of all day was coming to pass, and she didn't know if she was going to be able to stop it.
* * * * *
Toshi was a little irritated that Kenji hadn't shown up, but considering the little show his father and Mr. Woon had just put on for the school, it wasn't really surprising that he'd gone into hiding. Toshi decided that when he and Chika were done tonight's investigation, he'd stop in at Kenji's room and try to cheer him up a little.
The two of them seemed to have arrived before everyone, as it turned out, since Jin, Julie, and Miaki weren’t here yet either. Maybe they and Kenji were just delayed with other first-years, and would all come in a few minutes. Whatever the case, Chika decided that she and Toshi should start on their own, and Kenji could join them later if he did come with the others. Their group had decided to explore a specific advanced simulation, to try to find out whether it impinged on the real world or not.
The test had been Toshi’s idea. If they could find a simulation that took place in a location with a security camera, then one of them could do something in the simulation while the other tapped into the camera system to see if it caught the action.
“After all,” Toshi said, “if there had been a security camera in that shed on the Moon, it should have caught the rock fall, right?”
“Yes,” Chika had mused. “But would it have caught images of you and Kenji, even if you weren’t actually physically there? I wonder what it would have seen, in the space that the two of you occupied in the simulation.”
“Maybe we looked like ghosts. Or else there were these weird empty spaces in the middle of all that rock and rubble. That’s what we need to find out, if we can find a security camera in one of the real world simulations.”
Tonight, they had hit on such a simulation surprisingly quickly, though not unexpectedly. Toshi reasoned that something like a laboratory was likely to have watchful cameras everywhere, and sure enough, there were at least two laboratories clearly identified in the simulation list. They picked one randomly, and logged themselves into it.
It was some sort of complex for developing and testing rocket fuels, apparently. They found themselves, initially, in an empty hallway outside a janitor’s closet. (Toshi checked; yep, full of brooms and cleaning equipment.) As they walked down the hall, turning a corner, they came upon a wide window with thick glass and embedded mesh, that stretched for about twenty feet along the wall around the corner. The window looked down into a large area that almost looked like a warehouse, except that it contained several different types of rocket engines, each in its own insulated section.
Wherever this lab was located, it must be after working hours, since there were no tests being conducted. But there were still several people down there, checking gauges, cleaning up after earlier tests, and generally preparing the area for work that would be done there tomorrow.
Chika and Toshi pressed themselves against the wall away from the window, to keep from being seen by anyone below.
“That’s impressive,” Toshi said. “I wonder if they use this to actually simulate tests that the students can get involved in, or if they only get to look.”
“They must be allowed to get their hands on things,” Chika said. “I don’t see the point, otherwise. And look,” she pointed upward.
There it was: a camera along the solid wall at their back, pointed so that it took in the windowed hallway and undoubtedly also some of the activity in the testing area below.
“Good,” Toshi said. “Shall I go into the security system, or do you want to?”
“Stay here,” she said. “I’ll do it.” And her avatar popped out of sight.
Toshi inched a little closer to the window, smirking to himself, “Funny, how I always seem to be the one left in danger in the simulation. At least there’ll be no rock fall. I hope.”
He peered down into the testing area, trying to identify something. He wasn’t sure if this was supposed to simulate a government lab, or if it represented a company somewhere. Probably a government, given the number of engines down there. In fact, yes, now he could identify at least three different company logos on various engines. So this was a government lab, where sub-contracting companies brought engines – spaceship engines, he suddenly realized – for testing and integration into the larger government plans.
He really wished he knew which government. He hadn’t checked many details before they’d gone into the simulation. Chika would know by now, of course, as she used the simulation specs to get her into the security system. For an uneasy moment he thought of Miaki’s forays into a government system, and wondered if he should check on his companion.
But then she messaged him to log out, and when he met her in the school system entry point, he could see that everything was fine.
And she had momentous news. “I could see you, Toshi,” she said. “You didn’t look like a real person, because I could see through you, a little bit. But I saw you there, and I could see what you looked like.”
He paused and tried to digest this. “This is…incredible. I’ve never heard of anything like this before.” He peered at her. “Did you erase me off the record, by the way? I’d hate if someone came looking for me.”
“Of course. Don’t worry. But I don’t know what to make of it,” said Chika. “Why haven’t they told us about this? We’re the students who are supposed to be using the simulations. Shouldn’t we know that in some fantastic way we’re actually functioning in the real world, not the VR world?”
“Unless it’s only revealed to fourth-years,” Toshi mused.
“Are they sworn to secrecy or something? As far as I know, that’s unheard-of too, at ICE. It’s all supposed to be open. Not secret like this. This really bothers me, Toshi.”
He said suddenly, “We still don’t know if we can really act in the real world. I should have grabbed a broom from that janitor’s closet and brought it to the other hallway. If you could see that on the security system, then we’d know for sure. Maybe we should go back in – “
He stopped with a little gasp, just as Chika said, “Oh no, what’s happening?”
They had both received the message at the same time: an urgent message from Jin, saying only, “Please come! It’s Miaki! Please come! Please come!” It was set on repeat, sending the same frantic call over and over again.
Toshi and Chika stared at each other. Chika tried to message back, to see what was happening, while Toshi tried to zero in on Miaki’s locator.
“She’s not answering!” Chika said. “I can’t get through, or get any answer.” She immediately tried to message Julie instead.
“And I – I can’t find Miaki!” Toshi cried. “I have a sense of Jin’s signal in the VR world, and Kenji’s – but not Miaki!”
He was beginning to log out as Chika began to exclaim, “Wait, don’t log out, let’s find Jin in the – “ He yanked off his goggles and was ripping off the gloves and boots as she logged out herself and continued: “ – the VR world! Toshi, it will just waste time if we try to find them in the real world – “
“I can feel him!” Toshi said. “Don’t you get it? I can’t find him in the VR world, but I can feel his locator out here! Do you – do you know what that means??” His voice rose until the note of panic was unmistakable. “They’re all out here – Miaki and Jin and Kenji – but there’s only Jin and Kenji inside! That means – “
“Toshi, it doesn’t have to mean – “
“It means he could be dead!” Toshi cried. The panic was in full bloom now. His hands and feet were free of the equipment now, and he leaped up and began to run, wildly, all his attention fixed on the locator that would guide him to his cousin – or his cousin’s body.
“Damn,” Chika said, vehemently. She messaged Julie to find them in physical space, and jumped up to follow Toshi.
* * * * *
Toshi skidded into the VR room and flew to Miaki's side, with Chika close behind him. His hands shook as he lifted Miaki’s head and touched his neck, feeling for a pulse. He could have wept in relief when he found it, even if it was racing for some reason.
“Toshi, it’s not what you think,” Chika said. “Look.” She held up the chain that Miaki had tossed aside, his father’s medal and his locator pendant dangling from it. “I don’t know why he would have taken it off, but – “
“He didn’t want to be found.” A new pang of fear stabbed the pit of Toshi’s stomach. “Oh Chika – what is he doing in there??”
He whirled around to another terminal, and as he grabbed the goggles he looked back at his cousin, sitting utterly still at his own terminal, with Jin and Kenji to either side. He was so afraid, and he didn't even know why! But he knew that something terrible had happened to Miaki, and that he had been expecting it without even realizing it.
No, not "happened to." Miaki had deliberately taken off his locator pendant and left it behind. Miaki was – he was doing something terrible. Somehow, he had snapped, as Toshi had hoped and prayed he would not. And Toshi was more afraid than he had ever been in his life.
Just as Julie burst into the room, Toshi resolutely rammed the goggles on and jumped into the VR world, his stomach tightening around its knot of fear. He wasn't going to let – whatever it was – happen, without a good fight.
He didn't bother trying to trace his way through the normal paths of the simulation, which was a very simple sim of hallways and empty rooms. He focussed his locator and immediately found two signals in the distance: one green, for Kenji, and the other blue, for Jin. With a dark gap between them, where there should have been a red signal. Oh Miaki, Miaki, what are you doing??
Toshi tensed himself, and simply leaped the distance. Before he managed to orient himself, he sensed Julie and Chika popping in behind him, and again felt that impulse to weep in relief. It was awful, feeling so alone and helpless.
He saw that they were all in a very large, empty room. Jin's avatar stood in front of him, standing with her hands up, as though pressed against a glass wall. There really was an almost invisible wall there, of energy, holding her back despite all her efforts to pierce it. And on the other side…
On the other side was Miaki. One hand out, having set up the energy wall against Jin. And the other hand – oh no, oh no, Toshi wanted to scream. With the other hand, his cousin controlled an enclosure, like a small circular cage surrounded by glass, composed of the same adamant energy that held Jin back. And inside this enclosure, on his hands and knees, was Kenji, staring up at Miaki in bewilderment and fear.
"Now he'll see," Miaki was saying. "He'll find out now, you just watch!" He hadn't even modified his avatar, yet his eyes almost shone with a wild intensity, and there was a strange, tight glee in his voice that would have made the hair on the back of Toshi's neck stand up in the real world.
"I don't understand," Kenji said. "What do you mean? Miaki, I don't get it! Why are you doing this to me? Why are you so angry with me?"
"With you?" Miaki's voice dripped contempt. "You're nothing. I couldn't care less about you."
"Then – then why are you doing this? Miaki, why?" Kenji got himself to his feet and put his hands up, touching the energy field. Instantly he cried out in pain and recoiled in reflex, leaping back and encountering the field on the other side, making him cry out again. "What have I done?" he moaned, hugging his arms tightly across his chest, not daring to move again. "If I'm nothing, then why are you doing this? Let me go – please, let me go!"
"Not until he comes instead!" Miaki growled.
"Who? Who do you mean? I don't know what you're talking about!"
Miaki's smile was the most frightening thing Toshi had ever seen. He should do something to stop him, but he couldn't. The scene in front of him was so tense, so terrifying, that he couldn't bring himself to move. He sensed Chika behind him, quickly probing the energy barrier, trying to find a way through, but even she was doing it surreptitiously, afraid of what Miaki might do if he realized what she was up to.
"Who do I mean?" Miaki said softly. "Your father. I'm not letting you go until he gives himself up."
Kenji gaped at him. "My – my father?" he stammered. "Do you know him? What's he got to do with – You don't even know him. What do you mean?" The red hair on his avatar stood out starkly above his white face. Even in simple simulations, Toshi thought, the avatars at this school were amazingly detailed and accurate.
"I'm going to send him a message." Miaki smiled again. "'If you want to see your son alive again, you will turn yourself in to police immediately.'"
Kenji gasped. "I – I don't understand. I don't...Miaki, why? What do you think he's done? Why are you doing this? Why??"
The narrow smile faded. If it was possible, Miaki's eyes sharpened even more, now tinged with rage. "What do I think...? I don't think, Kenji, I know. I know exactly what he's done. Kazuo Tanaka murdered my father!"
Kenji stared at him, frozen in horror. Toshi moved up to the energy wall beside Jin, and leaned his hands and forehead against it. "Oh no," he moaned. "Oh no. Miaki."
"That's why," Jin said dazedly. "That's what happened, then. That's the information he found last night. It’s why he wouldn’t tell me the name. And when he saw the video today...Kenji's father, making that donation..."
"Something broke," Toshi whispered. "Jin, we have to stop him. We have to get him out of here, before he...before he does something terrible."
"I've been calling to him," she said softly. "He doesn't hear me. Or won't hear me."
Kenji finally found his voice, ragged and terrified as it was. "That's not true!" he cried. "It's a lie! My father would never do such a thing! Never!"
"Of course you'd cover for him," Miaki sneered. "Or...or did you know all along? Is that why he bought you a place at ICE? To find out if I knew who killed my father? To spy on me?"
"No – I swear – he didn't! He didn't do any of it! Miaki, it's not true, you have to believe me, none of this is not true!"
"What a little dupe you are." Again the cutting contempt. "Do you mean that when you call home, he never asks about any of the students? He never asks about me by name? Does he ever do that?"
Kenji's breath caught and he grew utterly still, staring at Miaki's face. Then he said, barely whispering, "It...it doesn't mean anything. Everyone's heard of you. He just...wants to know how you’re doing..."
"I'll bet he does."
"But it isn't because of – of what you’re saying. Miaki, you have to believe me! My father can be hard, sometimes, but he'd never k-kill anybody. He'd never do that. No matter what you think -- "
"I tell you, I don't think, I know! I know, Kenji! Look at this. Look at it!" Miaki called up a holoscreen right in front of Kenji's face and began to scroll the evidence he'd found, last night with Jin. She couldn't read it from where her avatar stood, held back from the scene, but it was obvious what it said. Obvious from Kenji's changing, crumbling face, as he watched the evidence scroll by, telling the awful truth line after line after line.
It wasn’t a mistake, then. Kazuo Tanaka had murdered Miaki’s father.
Kenji slowly sank to his knees, and Miaki made the holoscreen follow him, hanging before his eyes even when he tried to turn his head away. "No," Kenji moaned. "Please...no!"
"You see?" The words snapped out. "I followed the trail my father left me before he died. I followed it all the way back, to the source. He was just doing research for a novel! He didn't know what he'd run into. It was an accident. But that signal leads back, to the government, to your father's office, to his terminal where Kazuo Tanaka was logged in at that very moment! He did it, Kenji! He sent the signal that killed my father! He didn’t even stop long enough to find out if it was a mistake!"
Kenji buried his head in his hands. Toshi wanted to follow suit.
Chika stepped up behind Toshi. "Miaki, this is enough. Let him go," she commanded.
He looked over at her, ignoring Toshi as though he weren't even there, and laughed nastily. "Oh no, not yet," he said. "Not till I get his father."
"If his father committed murder, then go after Kazuo Tanaka. Kenji has done nothing to you. Let him go."
Miaki turned away. "No. I'm not letting Kazuo slip through my fingers. He could easily suppress the evidence and do away with me once Kenji is free. But when he is in jail, and a copy of this evidence is in the hands of the authorities – then Kenji can go. Not until then."
"Oh, you fool," Kenji said, surprising everyone. "You damn fool." He looked up and began to laugh suddenly, a high-pitched laugh bordering on hysteria. "You don't know about me and my father, do you? He couldn't care less about me. It was my brother Katsu he loved, and Katsu died five years ago. I'm just a poor substitute, who never measures up. Father goes through the motions, trying to make me into somebody, but I'm never good enough. Never."
Miaki frowned. "So?"
"So! This will be the last failure – the final way I've inconvenienced him by not being my brother. Do you think, if he's really the type to murder an innocent man just for stumbling accidentally into a forbidden site, that he'd care for a single second about turning himself in to free me? He'll let me rot in this simulation rather than let himself get into that kind of trouble!"
"You're lying."
"Try it," Kenji said, his lips twisting in a bitter smile. It was horrifying, to see such an expression on his normally friendly, shy face. "Threaten him if you want. Hold me hostage as long as you like. See what he does. See if he even replies to you."
Miaki stared at him. "You're lying. He wouldn't do that to his own son. Fathers..." He faltered on the word, and Toshi could see the memories in his eyes, and the never-ending grief. "Fathers don't do that. Not to their own sons..."
"Maybe yours didn't. But mine's the one who's alive and kicking."
Kenji didn't mean it the way it came out, and he was aghast the moment he heard himself saying it. But it was far too late to take anything back.
“Damn, Kenji,” Julie muttered.
Miaki gasped sharply at the words. His hands, held out to either side from setting up the energy walls, began to shake. "You're right," he said thickly. It sounded like he couldn't get his breath. "My father is dead. Dead. And nobody...nobody knows what I...what I…"
Toshi knew, oh he knew. He remembered. Coming into the house a moment after Miaki had gone in. And starting to run down the hall as he heard his cousin screaming, and screaming, as though he were being tortured.
Miaki still couldn't seem to get his breath. Toshi could almost feel him cracking, even from behind the energy barrier. "He – he killed him. My father, the – the best person – the best person who ever – and he killed him!”
“I’m sorry – oh, Miaki – I’m sorry!” Kenji said.
“Sorry??” Miaki cried raggedly. His face exploded with rage and he slashed one arm toward Kenji in fury.
The walls around Kenji vanished, but a wave of energy hit him full on instead, and he flew backwards off his feet, with a sharp shriek of pain. He rolled and rolled, and was just getting back onto his hands and knees when Miaki came at him again, throwing blast after blast of energy at him, knocking him backwards and backwards as he threw up his arms in a futile attempt to protect himself.
"NO!" Toshi shouted. "Miaki, stop it, stop it, stop it!" he screamed, beating his fists against the transparent wall.
"Log out, Kenji!" Chika yelled. "Log out, you idiot!"
Jin turned on her. "If he was able to log out, don't you think he'd have done it by now? Miaki's got him trapped somehow!"
"Miaki, please, please!" Toshi's fists continued to bash the energy wall, and he was dimly aware that Chika and Julie were ramming against it as well. "Oh Miaki, you can't do this, you can't, oh please, don't do this!"
"He won't listen." Jin was crying. "I've been trying, before you got here. He just won't listen."
Kenji tried to fight back, staggering to his feet and throwing himself at Miaki, but somehow the barrier between them prevented him from touching his attacker, while Miaki was still able to reach him. He swung his fist again, and yet again Kenji staggered backward in pain, as the blow landed on his face.
The avatars were so realistic that he was bleeding. Bleeding from his eyes, his nose, his mouth, and gouges all over his chest. They had to stop this, or he would be in terrible danger.
Toshi screamed, "Miaki please – oh please – I'm begging you!" Again and again he beat his fists at the energy wall.
And at last, he felt it starting to give. He sensed Julie standing beside him, her hands pressed against the invisible wall, her eyes closed as she concentrated. She had learned from Miaki, after all, when they had bypassed those security barriers a few evenings ago. Surely she could use Miaki’s own tricks to get around this one, somehow.
She made a gap, which widened slowly until there was room enough for Toshi to leap through. He felt it completely collapse behind him as he rushed at Miaki from behind, grabbing his arms and yanking him backwards.
“Stop this!” Toshi yelled. “Miaki, you have to stop!”
They were all through by now, yet none of the others could reach Kenji yet, through the barrier that Miaki still held around him. He managed to get to his feet, reaching for Chika as she tried to push her hands through to him. But Miaki managed to land another couple of blows, knocking him down again.
Toshi wrestled with his cousin, and finally threw him down, shouting at him, “Miaki, you damn fool, you can’t do this! You have to stop!”
“I don’t have to stop anything!” Miaki yelled furiously. He didn’t bother with power blasts this time, but scrambled to his feet and swung his fist at Toshi.
Toshi ducked it and continued shouting, “You can’t do this! Kenji hasn’t done anything to you! He’s not his father! Miaki, I’m begging you, stop hurting him! Stop being like Kenji’s father! Miaki, please, please! This isn’t who you are! You don’t hurt people like this! You’re not this kind of person!”
He grabbed Miaki and swung him around to look at Kenji, who yet again was laboring to his feet. He was gasping in pain with every movement.
“Miaki,” Toshi said. “Look at him. Look what you’ve done. This isn’t who you are. Please, Miaki. Don’t hurt him any more.”
He saw it hit his cousin, really hit him, dousing the fury like a bucket of freezing water. Miaki’s eyes widened in shock, and his whole body began to shake in Toshi’s grasp as he took in the wounds and the blood.
“Just let him go,” Toshi whispered.
Miaki’s fingers gave a little twist, and the barrier vanished. Chika dashed to Kenji’s side and held him up as he started sagging again. “Log out,” she said briskly, and followed him out of the VR world. Julie snapped out immediately afterward, and after a moment of hesitation, Jin turned away from the cousins and logged herself out as well.
“Come on,” Toshi said. “Let’s get out of here and get you to your room.” Miaki nodded dazedly, and their avatars disappeared together.
As Toshi pulled off his equipment, he saw that Chika was already at Kenji’s side, helping him to stand up. She cast a venomous glance at Miaki. “Put him in his room,” she said, “and lock him in there somehow, till we decide what to do about this.” And then she and Kenji were gone.
Miaki still seemed to be in a daze. He had pulled off his boots and gloves, but when he tried to stand, his knees seemed to give out and he sagged to the floor, leaning wearily against the wall of his terminal cubicle. Even when Toshi knelt before him, his eyes couldn’t seem to focus, but looked right through his cousin.
“Miaki…?” Toshi ventured, warily.
“So.” Miaki managed faintly. “If that isn’t who I am, then…who am I?” At last his eyes focused on Toshi’s face, weary and sad. “Who am I?” he said again, softly.
Toshi put his hands on his cousin’s shoulders and said unsteadily, swallowing the tears, “You are my cousin. My family. My best friend. And you’re not alone.”
He got Miaki to his feet, and after murmuring a heartfelt “Thank you,” to Jin and Julie, walked with his cousin back to the men’s dormitory. As they approached the door to Kenji’s room, Chika came out. Toshi stopped briefly, but Miaki continued on without looking back.
Chika said quietly, “I managed to sneak him in without anyone noticing how beat up he is. Did you see? All the bruises he had in the VR world, he has in the real world. Something is really going wrong, Toshi.”
“You’re right. We have to figure it out.” Toshi glanced at his cousin’s retreating back. “With or without him,” he added tersely. “There’s something bigger going on here.”
“You’re right. And we’ll talk about Miaki tomorrow. Meanwhile, you’d better get some sleep. And like I said…keep him to himself for now.”
Toshi nodded, and followed Miaki down the hall and into his room. When the door closed behind them, once again he grabbed his cousin, whirling him around and slamming him back against the door. Miaki gasped and his head fell forward, his hair falling across his face.
“Dammit, Miaki, we were right by his door!,” Toshi snarled. “You didn’t even stop to find out how he was! How can you be like this? Don’t you even care how he’s doing, don’t you care what you did to him?”
He stopped suddenly, at the sound of Miaki’s shaking breath. His cousin lifted his head and his hair fell away from his stricken eyes. And Toshi saw at last the tears streaming and streaming down Miaki’s face.
“Oh Miaki,” Toshi whispered. He pulled his cousin into his arms and held him tightly as they cried together.
Chapter 8
Chapter 7
For all the next day, Jin couldn't shake a feeling of vague, unfocussed unease. Miaki seemed mostly normal again when they worked together on their VR exercises in the morning. Mostly. He was no longer talkative about himself, as he'd been last night, but then, that openness wasn't his normal mode anyway, was it? But although he seemed more able to concentrate on their class work today than yesterday, it was as though he had programmed half his mind to work on it, almost robotically. Whereas, the other half of his mind, the place in which he was really living and thinking today, was somewhere else entirely.
So in his class work in the VR room, he was attentive and sharp, and impersonally courteous to Jin, and nothing more than that. To her query about his state of mind he crisply answered, "I'm fine," and went on to something else.
But now and then, the less robotic part of him would seem to surface from...wherever it was...and his eyes would darken and narrow as it peered from behind them. And when this intense, calculating gaze would land accidentally on her, that was when her uneasiness increased. She had no idea what she was worried about, but there was no doubt in her mind that she should be worried. The grieving, vulnerable person whose cold hands she had held last night seemed utterly gone.
Just one day, he had asked for. But already by lunch time, Jin was becoming sorry she had promised him even that.
Classes came and went, and then the evening meal in the cafeteria, and then before everyone got down to doing their studying for the evening, all the students and faculty gathered in the same auditorium where the first-years had congregated on the first school day. There was such a total school gathering once every week, where announcements were made, socials were announced, and all that sort of thing. Jin sat with Julie, Akio, and a couple of other first-years, but as all the other students made their way into the large hall with the mountain vista at the front, she ignored her companions and craned her neck, looking for Miaki. When she found him one row behind and across the aisle to the right, she felt an inexplicable relief.
A few minutes later, the school officials and instructors appeared on the platform at the front, and the announcements began. Everything went the same as always, until the very end when the mountain vista on the front wall changed, and a different window appeared. It was much smaller than the screens that covered the front and side walls, but still large enough that the person on the screen was visible to all.
It was Mr. Ian Woon, the founder of the Institute for Space and Cyber Exploration. The students had been addressed by him only once before, on the first day of school, when he'd briefly delivered a welcoming speech before allowing the on-site school administrators to take over the meeting. He was legendary, among students and world scientists alike, having founded the school almost thirty years ago and having kept it to exceedingly high standards. He was now rarely seen by anybody except by these remote broadcasts, since he was a bit of a recluse, but word had it that he was by no means retired. He still, apparently, kept an active watch on the school's administration, and showed no signs of planning to hand it over to anyone else.
He was a short, wizened man, probably in his eighties by now. But his black hair still only had streaks of grey in it, and his dark eyes were alert and piercing behind his wire glasses, contrasting with a benevolent smile. He stood before the students in an impeccable grey pin-striped suit, and seemed to beam at them.
"Good afternoon," he said. "I am pleased to see you all, and I hope you are enjoying your studies. There is no end to the fascinating things in our world, and our universe, and if this school is helping you discover them, then we are serving a great purpose. I especially hope that all of you in your first year have become comfortable, and are learning great things." There was a murmur of appreciation as he paused.
Mr. Woon smiled. "But I know you would rather not be in a boring meeting, when you are so eager to get to your evening studies...," he paused for the appreciative groan, "...so I will not go on and on. I merely wished to announce a very generous donation to the school, and give you a chance to thank our benefactor." He motioned to his right, and another man moved into the screen.
Julie leaned over and whispered, "Who is that?" Jin shrugged. The face on the screen wasn't a face she knew.
"This," said Mr. Woon, "is Mr. Kazuo Tanaka, who represents the government of the Pacific Rim Alliance."
Julie gasped sharply. "Jin!" she whispered. "Is that Kenji's father? That's his name, isn't it?"
Mr. Woon continued, "Mr.Tanaka has, today, on behalf of the Pacific Rim Alliance, donated ten million credits to the Institute for Space and Cyber Exploration. I am sure you all wish to express your thanks to the Alliance, for its generous contribution to the school."
The assembly applauded enthusiastically, partly because it was expected, but largely in genuine appreciation. It was an amazing sum. Yet there was also a murmuring undercurrent, as a few people recognized the man's name, and began passing the information along. Several people were already looking around, trying to find where Kenji was sitting.
Mr. Woon, however, was not finished. "One of the great achievements of this school, from the very beginning, has been its intention to educate the best scientific minds in the world, regardless of economic status or national origin. This is why there is no tuition required of students, but each student is approached by the school on the basis of achievements and abilities alone. In return for this egalitarian approach, and neutrality on the part of the school, governments and institutions all over the world have recognized and appreciated this institution for the quality and character of its graduates. Many of them have donated funds toward the running of the school and the tuition of students, desiring us to continue in this neutrality and egalitarianism. And we accept their donations in that spirit. Therefore, Mr. Tanaka, we again accept this donation, in the independent spirit of equality and neutrality. The Pacific Rim Alliance is more than generous, and is to be commended for encouraging this spirit."
Mr. Woon was smiling benignly as he shook Mr. Tanaka's hand, but Jin had the sudden thought that he had, in fact, just finished issuing a warning to Mr. Tanaka: the school will not be compromised by any amount of money. He probably made the same comments to anyone who wanted to donate.
If KazuoTanaka perceived Woon's comments as a warning, though, he gave no indication. "Thank you, Mr. Woon," he said. "We have benefitted as much as any other part of the world, from the expertise of your graduates. How can we not express this gratitude, except by helping your institute to continue its great work? We consider this donation only a small payment of our debt to your school." He shook Mr. Woon's hand.
That should have been the end of it, but Mr. Tanaka, too, had more to say. He adopted an almost-conspiratorial smile and told his audience, "I'm especially privileged that our government wished to donate to the school this year. It's more meaningful to me, personally, than it would have been in other years, since my son Kenji has just begun his studies at I.S.C.E. this year. So I am very happy to be the spokesman for the Pacific Rim Alliance in this matter, since it also allows me to say what a proud father I am. So thank you, Mr. Woon, for giving me this opportunity."
Akio smirked at Julie and Jin. "See?" he whispered, not very quietly. "That's how he got in."
"You don't know anything," Julie retorted.
Jin glanced around the large room as the applause burst out again and Mr. Woon made a couple of quick closing remarks. She didn't really expect to see Kenji, since he was probably sunk deep into his chair by now. Poor guy. Everyone was wrong, of course – he really did belong here. But nobody would believe that now.
She couldn't find him, unsurprisingly. But as she glanced back at Miaki, her eyes stopped abruptly on his pale, rigid face. He was staring fixedly at the two men on the screen. No, not at the two men – at one man. His wide, dark eyes were fastened on the face of Kazuo Tanaka so intensely that it was a wonder Tanaka couldn't sense it. Miaki's hands were clenched on his knees with such force that his knuckles were white.
Jin's unease of the day suddenly crystallized into something very close to fear, though she had no idea why. But when Miaki stood up and stalked out of the auditorium just before everyone else got up, she murmured, "I'll see you later," and slipped out of the room after him.
She followed him at a distance. She wasn't sure why she didn't do as she'd done last night: just approach him, ask if he was alright, and offer to help. But there was something different about him tonight. She wasn't sure if the ferocity of his gaze tonight was still a residue of his discovery last night, or if somehow there had been a new development. Again she told herself that she should just ask him. But still she lagged some distance behind him, relying on Julie's locator to keep from losing him.
At one point, near the entrance to the men's dormitory wing, Miaki stopped. Jin watched him from down the corridor, from behind a juice vending machine. The hall became crowded fairly quickly with students returning from the auditorium, but thanks to the locator, she could tell that he hadn't moved.
A few minutes later, she sensed Kenji's approach. He walked along the wall, his head half-turned toward it, as though trying to be as inconspicuous as possible. Nobody was saying anything nasty to him, but he was certainly getting the nasty looks. He looked like he just wanted to slink into the safety of his room and not come out again for the rest of the day. Jin wondered if he even remembered that the six of them were supposed to be having another investigative session tonight.
But now Miaki stirred, and she sensed him approach Kenji, stopping the other in the hallway. She slunk into the shadows beside the vending machine and watched. She knew that if either of them decided to check, their own locators would pinpoint her immediately. But neither seemed to be paying attention to that sort of thing right now.
Miaki was saying something, but she couldn't hear what. Kenji was shaking his head. She could almost imagine him saying, "I just want to go to my room. I don't want to do anything tonight." But now Miaki placed a hand on Kenji's shoulder, as though offering some sort of comfort. And it seemed to have worked, because Kenji turned and began to walk down the hall the way he had come. Miaki followed him, and eventually took the lead, while Jin again followed at some distance.
To her surprise, Miaki wasn't heading for the VR room where the others would shortly be meeting. As the crowds thinned, she finally heard him saying, "There's something I want to show you. I'd rather go to a different room for a minute, if you don't mind."
A different room, indeed. There were other VR rooms, with fewer terminals, that were meant to be used as backups, or practice rooms, or overflow rooms if there were a lot more students than usual in some year. The one Miaki went to seemed to be the farthest away of any of them, several corridors down from the one they normally used.
When Jin finally arrived at the door, she saw Kenji already at a terminal, gloves and boots on, and goggles in his hands. He still seemed doubtful, but Miaki stood beside his chair, smiling at him. "I'll be right behind you," he said. Kenji at last put on the goggles and logged into the system. His body sagged a little as all of his senses became enveloped in the VR world.
Miaki stopped behind his chair and put both hands on Kenji's shoulders. Jin couldn't see his face, but she heard his chilling words: "I've got you now, you bastard."
And then he quickly sat at the next terminal and donned his boots and gloves. He hesitated a moment, then pulled off the pendant with Julie’s locator device, and tossed it into the next terminal cubicle. Then he logged into the system.
Jin stood frozen in the doorway for a long, horrified moment. But finally she ran to a third terminal and, hands shaking, put on the VR equipment. Before logging in to the VR world, she sent a frantic signal to the others, hoping they got it soon. Whatever she had been afraid of all day was coming to pass, and she didn't know if she was going to be able to stop it.
* * * * *
Toshi was a little irritated that Kenji hadn't shown up, but considering the little show his father and Mr. Woon had just put on for the school, it wasn't really surprising that he'd gone into hiding. Toshi decided that when he and Chika were done tonight's investigation, he'd stop in at Kenji's room and try to cheer him up a little.
The two of them seemed to have arrived before everyone, as it turned out, since Jin, Julie, and Miaki weren’t here yet either. Maybe they and Kenji were just delayed with other first-years, and would all come in a few minutes. Whatever the case, Chika decided that she and Toshi should start on their own, and Kenji could join them later if he did come with the others. Their group had decided to explore a specific advanced simulation, to try to find out whether it impinged on the real world or not.
The test had been Toshi’s idea. If they could find a simulation that took place in a location with a security camera, then one of them could do something in the simulation while the other tapped into the camera system to see if it caught the action.
“After all,” Toshi said, “if there had been a security camera in that shed on the Moon, it should have caught the rock fall, right?”
“Yes,” Chika had mused. “But would it have caught images of you and Kenji, even if you weren’t actually physically there? I wonder what it would have seen, in the space that the two of you occupied in the simulation.”
“Maybe we looked like ghosts. Or else there were these weird empty spaces in the middle of all that rock and rubble. That’s what we need to find out, if we can find a security camera in one of the real world simulations.”
Tonight, they had hit on such a simulation surprisingly quickly, though not unexpectedly. Toshi reasoned that something like a laboratory was likely to have watchful cameras everywhere, and sure enough, there were at least two laboratories clearly identified in the simulation list. They picked one randomly, and logged themselves into it.
It was some sort of complex for developing and testing rocket fuels, apparently. They found themselves, initially, in an empty hallway outside a janitor’s closet. (Toshi checked; yep, full of brooms and cleaning equipment.) As they walked down the hall, turning a corner, they came upon a wide window with thick glass and embedded mesh, that stretched for about twenty feet along the wall around the corner. The window looked down into a large area that almost looked like a warehouse, except that it contained several different types of rocket engines, each in its own insulated section.
Wherever this lab was located, it must be after working hours, since there were no tests being conducted. But there were still several people down there, checking gauges, cleaning up after earlier tests, and generally preparing the area for work that would be done there tomorrow.
Chika and Toshi pressed themselves against the wall away from the window, to keep from being seen by anyone below.
“That’s impressive,” Toshi said. “I wonder if they use this to actually simulate tests that the students can get involved in, or if they only get to look.”
“They must be allowed to get their hands on things,” Chika said. “I don’t see the point, otherwise. And look,” she pointed upward.
There it was: a camera along the solid wall at their back, pointed so that it took in the windowed hallway and undoubtedly also some of the activity in the testing area below.
“Good,” Toshi said. “Shall I go into the security system, or do you want to?”
“Stay here,” she said. “I’ll do it.” And her avatar popped out of sight.
Toshi inched a little closer to the window, smirking to himself, “Funny, how I always seem to be the one left in danger in the simulation. At least there’ll be no rock fall. I hope.”
He peered down into the testing area, trying to identify something. He wasn’t sure if this was supposed to simulate a government lab, or if it represented a company somewhere. Probably a government, given the number of engines down there. In fact, yes, now he could identify at least three different company logos on various engines. So this was a government lab, where sub-contracting companies brought engines – spaceship engines, he suddenly realized – for testing and integration into the larger government plans.
He really wished he knew which government. He hadn’t checked many details before they’d gone into the simulation. Chika would know by now, of course, as she used the simulation specs to get her into the security system. For an uneasy moment he thought of Miaki’s forays into a government system, and wondered if he should check on his companion.
But then she messaged him to log out, and when he met her in the school system entry point, he could see that everything was fine.
And she had momentous news. “I could see you, Toshi,” she said. “You didn’t look like a real person, because I could see through you, a little bit. But I saw you there, and I could see what you looked like.”
He paused and tried to digest this. “This is…incredible. I’ve never heard of anything like this before.” He peered at her. “Did you erase me off the record, by the way? I’d hate if someone came looking for me.”
“Of course. Don’t worry. But I don’t know what to make of it,” said Chika. “Why haven’t they told us about this? We’re the students who are supposed to be using the simulations. Shouldn’t we know that in some fantastic way we’re actually functioning in the real world, not the VR world?”
“Unless it’s only revealed to fourth-years,” Toshi mused.
“Are they sworn to secrecy or something? As far as I know, that’s unheard-of too, at ICE. It’s all supposed to be open. Not secret like this. This really bothers me, Toshi.”
He said suddenly, “We still don’t know if we can really act in the real world. I should have grabbed a broom from that janitor’s closet and brought it to the other hallway. If you could see that on the security system, then we’d know for sure. Maybe we should go back in – “
He stopped with a little gasp, just as Chika said, “Oh no, what’s happening?”
They had both received the message at the same time: an urgent message from Jin, saying only, “Please come! It’s Miaki! Please come! Please come!” It was set on repeat, sending the same frantic call over and over again.
Toshi and Chika stared at each other. Chika tried to message back, to see what was happening, while Toshi tried to zero in on Miaki’s locator.
“She’s not answering!” Chika said. “I can’t get through, or get any answer.” She immediately tried to message Julie instead.
“And I – I can’t find Miaki!” Toshi cried. “I have a sense of Jin’s signal in the VR world, and Kenji’s – but not Miaki!”
He was beginning to log out as Chika began to exclaim, “Wait, don’t log out, let’s find Jin in the – “ He yanked off his goggles and was ripping off the gloves and boots as she logged out herself and continued: “ – the VR world! Toshi, it will just waste time if we try to find them in the real world – “
“I can feel him!” Toshi said. “Don’t you get it? I can’t find him in the VR world, but I can feel his locator out here! Do you – do you know what that means??” His voice rose until the note of panic was unmistakable. “They’re all out here – Miaki and Jin and Kenji – but there’s only Jin and Kenji inside! That means – “
“Toshi, it doesn’t have to mean – “
“It means he could be dead!” Toshi cried. The panic was in full bloom now. His hands and feet were free of the equipment now, and he leaped up and began to run, wildly, all his attention fixed on the locator that would guide him to his cousin – or his cousin’s body.
“Damn,” Chika said, vehemently. She messaged Julie to find them in physical space, and jumped up to follow Toshi.
* * * * *
Toshi skidded into the VR room and flew to Miaki's side, with Chika close behind him. His hands shook as he lifted Miaki’s head and touched his neck, feeling for a pulse. He could have wept in relief when he found it, even if it was racing for some reason.
“Toshi, it’s not what you think,” Chika said. “Look.” She held up the chain that Miaki had tossed aside, his father’s medal and his locator pendant dangling from it. “I don’t know why he would have taken it off, but – “
“He didn’t want to be found.” A new pang of fear stabbed the pit of Toshi’s stomach. “Oh Chika – what is he doing in there??”
He whirled around to another terminal, and as he grabbed the goggles he looked back at his cousin, sitting utterly still at his own terminal, with Jin and Kenji to either side. He was so afraid, and he didn't even know why! But he knew that something terrible had happened to Miaki, and that he had been expecting it without even realizing it.
No, not "happened to." Miaki had deliberately taken off his locator pendant and left it behind. Miaki was – he was doing something terrible. Somehow, he had snapped, as Toshi had hoped and prayed he would not. And Toshi was more afraid than he had ever been in his life.
Just as Julie burst into the room, Toshi resolutely rammed the goggles on and jumped into the VR world, his stomach tightening around its knot of fear. He wasn't going to let – whatever it was – happen, without a good fight.
He didn't bother trying to trace his way through the normal paths of the simulation, which was a very simple sim of hallways and empty rooms. He focussed his locator and immediately found two signals in the distance: one green, for Kenji, and the other blue, for Jin. With a dark gap between them, where there should have been a red signal. Oh Miaki, Miaki, what are you doing??
Toshi tensed himself, and simply leaped the distance. Before he managed to orient himself, he sensed Julie and Chika popping in behind him, and again felt that impulse to weep in relief. It was awful, feeling so alone and helpless.
He saw that they were all in a very large, empty room. Jin's avatar stood in front of him, standing with her hands up, as though pressed against a glass wall. There really was an almost invisible wall there, of energy, holding her back despite all her efforts to pierce it. And on the other side…
On the other side was Miaki. One hand out, having set up the energy wall against Jin. And the other hand – oh no, oh no, Toshi wanted to scream. With the other hand, his cousin controlled an enclosure, like a small circular cage surrounded by glass, composed of the same adamant energy that held Jin back. And inside this enclosure, on his hands and knees, was Kenji, staring up at Miaki in bewilderment and fear.
"Now he'll see," Miaki was saying. "He'll find out now, you just watch!" He hadn't even modified his avatar, yet his eyes almost shone with a wild intensity, and there was a strange, tight glee in his voice that would have made the hair on the back of Toshi's neck stand up in the real world.
"I don't understand," Kenji said. "What do you mean? Miaki, I don't get it! Why are you doing this to me? Why are you so angry with me?"
"With you?" Miaki's voice dripped contempt. "You're nothing. I couldn't care less about you."
"Then – then why are you doing this? Miaki, why?" Kenji got himself to his feet and put his hands up, touching the energy field. Instantly he cried out in pain and recoiled in reflex, leaping back and encountering the field on the other side, making him cry out again. "What have I done?" he moaned, hugging his arms tightly across his chest, not daring to move again. "If I'm nothing, then why are you doing this? Let me go – please, let me go!"
"Not until he comes instead!" Miaki growled.
"Who? Who do you mean? I don't know what you're talking about!"
Miaki's smile was the most frightening thing Toshi had ever seen. He should do something to stop him, but he couldn't. The scene in front of him was so tense, so terrifying, that he couldn't bring himself to move. He sensed Chika behind him, quickly probing the energy barrier, trying to find a way through, but even she was doing it surreptitiously, afraid of what Miaki might do if he realized what she was up to.
"Who do I mean?" Miaki said softly. "Your father. I'm not letting you go until he gives himself up."
Kenji gaped at him. "My – my father?" he stammered. "Do you know him? What's he got to do with – You don't even know him. What do you mean?" The red hair on his avatar stood out starkly above his white face. Even in simple simulations, Toshi thought, the avatars at this school were amazingly detailed and accurate.
"I'm going to send him a message." Miaki smiled again. "'If you want to see your son alive again, you will turn yourself in to police immediately.'"
Kenji gasped. "I – I don't understand. I don't...Miaki, why? What do you think he's done? Why are you doing this? Why??"
The narrow smile faded. If it was possible, Miaki's eyes sharpened even more, now tinged with rage. "What do I think...? I don't think, Kenji, I know. I know exactly what he's done. Kazuo Tanaka murdered my father!"
Kenji stared at him, frozen in horror. Toshi moved up to the energy wall beside Jin, and leaned his hands and forehead against it. "Oh no," he moaned. "Oh no. Miaki."
"That's why," Jin said dazedly. "That's what happened, then. That's the information he found last night. It’s why he wouldn’t tell me the name. And when he saw the video today...Kenji's father, making that donation..."
"Something broke," Toshi whispered. "Jin, we have to stop him. We have to get him out of here, before he...before he does something terrible."
"I've been calling to him," she said softly. "He doesn't hear me. Or won't hear me."
Kenji finally found his voice, ragged and terrified as it was. "That's not true!" he cried. "It's a lie! My father would never do such a thing! Never!"
"Of course you'd cover for him," Miaki sneered. "Or...or did you know all along? Is that why he bought you a place at ICE? To find out if I knew who killed my father? To spy on me?"
"No – I swear – he didn't! He didn't do any of it! Miaki, it's not true, you have to believe me, none of this is not true!"
"What a little dupe you are." Again the cutting contempt. "Do you mean that when you call home, he never asks about any of the students? He never asks about me by name? Does he ever do that?"
Kenji's breath caught and he grew utterly still, staring at Miaki's face. Then he said, barely whispering, "It...it doesn't mean anything. Everyone's heard of you. He just...wants to know how you’re doing..."
"I'll bet he does."
"But it isn't because of – of what you’re saying. Miaki, you have to believe me! My father can be hard, sometimes, but he'd never k-kill anybody. He'd never do that. No matter what you think -- "
"I tell you, I don't think, I know! I know, Kenji! Look at this. Look at it!" Miaki called up a holoscreen right in front of Kenji's face and began to scroll the evidence he'd found, last night with Jin. She couldn't read it from where her avatar stood, held back from the scene, but it was obvious what it said. Obvious from Kenji's changing, crumbling face, as he watched the evidence scroll by, telling the awful truth line after line after line.
It wasn’t a mistake, then. Kazuo Tanaka had murdered Miaki’s father.
Kenji slowly sank to his knees, and Miaki made the holoscreen follow him, hanging before his eyes even when he tried to turn his head away. "No," Kenji moaned. "Please...no!"
"You see?" The words snapped out. "I followed the trail my father left me before he died. I followed it all the way back, to the source. He was just doing research for a novel! He didn't know what he'd run into. It was an accident. But that signal leads back, to the government, to your father's office, to his terminal where Kazuo Tanaka was logged in at that very moment! He did it, Kenji! He sent the signal that killed my father! He didn’t even stop long enough to find out if it was a mistake!"
Kenji buried his head in his hands. Toshi wanted to follow suit.
Chika stepped up behind Toshi. "Miaki, this is enough. Let him go," she commanded.
He looked over at her, ignoring Toshi as though he weren't even there, and laughed nastily. "Oh no, not yet," he said. "Not till I get his father."
"If his father committed murder, then go after Kazuo Tanaka. Kenji has done nothing to you. Let him go."
Miaki turned away. "No. I'm not letting Kazuo slip through my fingers. He could easily suppress the evidence and do away with me once Kenji is free. But when he is in jail, and a copy of this evidence is in the hands of the authorities – then Kenji can go. Not until then."
"Oh, you fool," Kenji said, surprising everyone. "You damn fool." He looked up and began to laugh suddenly, a high-pitched laugh bordering on hysteria. "You don't know about me and my father, do you? He couldn't care less about me. It was my brother Katsu he loved, and Katsu died five years ago. I'm just a poor substitute, who never measures up. Father goes through the motions, trying to make me into somebody, but I'm never good enough. Never."
Miaki frowned. "So?"
"So! This will be the last failure – the final way I've inconvenienced him by not being my brother. Do you think, if he's really the type to murder an innocent man just for stumbling accidentally into a forbidden site, that he'd care for a single second about turning himself in to free me? He'll let me rot in this simulation rather than let himself get into that kind of trouble!"
"You're lying."
"Try it," Kenji said, his lips twisting in a bitter smile. It was horrifying, to see such an expression on his normally friendly, shy face. "Threaten him if you want. Hold me hostage as long as you like. See what he does. See if he even replies to you."
Miaki stared at him. "You're lying. He wouldn't do that to his own son. Fathers..." He faltered on the word, and Toshi could see the memories in his eyes, and the never-ending grief. "Fathers don't do that. Not to their own sons..."
"Maybe yours didn't. But mine's the one who's alive and kicking."
Kenji didn't mean it the way it came out, and he was aghast the moment he heard himself saying it. But it was far too late to take anything back.
“Damn, Kenji,” Julie muttered.
Miaki gasped sharply at the words. His hands, held out to either side from setting up the energy walls, began to shake. "You're right," he said thickly. It sounded like he couldn't get his breath. "My father is dead. Dead. And nobody...nobody knows what I...what I…"
Toshi knew, oh he knew. He remembered. Coming into the house a moment after Miaki had gone in. And starting to run down the hall as he heard his cousin screaming, and screaming, as though he were being tortured.
Miaki still couldn't seem to get his breath. Toshi could almost feel him cracking, even from behind the energy barrier. "He – he killed him. My father, the – the best person – the best person who ever – and he killed him!”
“I’m sorry – oh, Miaki – I’m sorry!” Kenji said.
“Sorry??” Miaki cried raggedly. His face exploded with rage and he slashed one arm toward Kenji in fury.
The walls around Kenji vanished, but a wave of energy hit him full on instead, and he flew backwards off his feet, with a sharp shriek of pain. He rolled and rolled, and was just getting back onto his hands and knees when Miaki came at him again, throwing blast after blast of energy at him, knocking him backwards and backwards as he threw up his arms in a futile attempt to protect himself.
"NO!" Toshi shouted. "Miaki, stop it, stop it, stop it!" he screamed, beating his fists against the transparent wall.
"Log out, Kenji!" Chika yelled. "Log out, you idiot!"
Jin turned on her. "If he was able to log out, don't you think he'd have done it by now? Miaki's got him trapped somehow!"
"Miaki, please, please!" Toshi's fists continued to bash the energy wall, and he was dimly aware that Chika and Julie were ramming against it as well. "Oh Miaki, you can't do this, you can't, oh please, don't do this!"
"He won't listen." Jin was crying. "I've been trying, before you got here. He just won't listen."
Kenji tried to fight back, staggering to his feet and throwing himself at Miaki, but somehow the barrier between them prevented him from touching his attacker, while Miaki was still able to reach him. He swung his fist again, and yet again Kenji staggered backward in pain, as the blow landed on his face.
The avatars were so realistic that he was bleeding. Bleeding from his eyes, his nose, his mouth, and gouges all over his chest. They had to stop this, or he would be in terrible danger.
Toshi screamed, "Miaki please – oh please – I'm begging you!" Again and again he beat his fists at the energy wall.
And at last, he felt it starting to give. He sensed Julie standing beside him, her hands pressed against the invisible wall, her eyes closed as she concentrated. She had learned from Miaki, after all, when they had bypassed those security barriers a few evenings ago. Surely she could use Miaki’s own tricks to get around this one, somehow.
She made a gap, which widened slowly until there was room enough for Toshi to leap through. He felt it completely collapse behind him as he rushed at Miaki from behind, grabbing his arms and yanking him backwards.
“Stop this!” Toshi yelled. “Miaki, you have to stop!”
They were all through by now, yet none of the others could reach Kenji yet, through the barrier that Miaki still held around him. He managed to get to his feet, reaching for Chika as she tried to push her hands through to him. But Miaki managed to land another couple of blows, knocking him down again.
Toshi wrestled with his cousin, and finally threw him down, shouting at him, “Miaki, you damn fool, you can’t do this! You have to stop!”
“I don’t have to stop anything!” Miaki yelled furiously. He didn’t bother with power blasts this time, but scrambled to his feet and swung his fist at Toshi.
Toshi ducked it and continued shouting, “You can’t do this! Kenji hasn’t done anything to you! He’s not his father! Miaki, I’m begging you, stop hurting him! Stop being like Kenji’s father! Miaki, please, please! This isn’t who you are! You don’t hurt people like this! You’re not this kind of person!”
He grabbed Miaki and swung him around to look at Kenji, who yet again was laboring to his feet. He was gasping in pain with every movement.
“Miaki,” Toshi said. “Look at him. Look what you’ve done. This isn’t who you are. Please, Miaki. Don’t hurt him any more.”
He saw it hit his cousin, really hit him, dousing the fury like a bucket of freezing water. Miaki’s eyes widened in shock, and his whole body began to shake in Toshi’s grasp as he took in the wounds and the blood.
“Just let him go,” Toshi whispered.
Miaki’s fingers gave a little twist, and the barrier vanished. Chika dashed to Kenji’s side and held him up as he started sagging again. “Log out,” she said briskly, and followed him out of the VR world. Julie snapped out immediately afterward, and after a moment of hesitation, Jin turned away from the cousins and logged herself out as well.
“Come on,” Toshi said. “Let’s get out of here and get you to your room.” Miaki nodded dazedly, and their avatars disappeared together.
As Toshi pulled off his equipment, he saw that Chika was already at Kenji’s side, helping him to stand up. She cast a venomous glance at Miaki. “Put him in his room,” she said, “and lock him in there somehow, till we decide what to do about this.” And then she and Kenji were gone.
Miaki still seemed to be in a daze. He had pulled off his boots and gloves, but when he tried to stand, his knees seemed to give out and he sagged to the floor, leaning wearily against the wall of his terminal cubicle. Even when Toshi knelt before him, his eyes couldn’t seem to focus, but looked right through his cousin.
“Miaki…?” Toshi ventured, warily.
“So.” Miaki managed faintly. “If that isn’t who I am, then…who am I?” At last his eyes focused on Toshi’s face, weary and sad. “Who am I?” he said again, softly.
Toshi put his hands on his cousin’s shoulders and said unsteadily, swallowing the tears, “You are my cousin. My family. My best friend. And you’re not alone.”
He got Miaki to his feet, and after murmuring a heartfelt “Thank you,” to Jin and Julie, walked with his cousin back to the men’s dormitory. As they approached the door to Kenji’s room, Chika came out. Toshi stopped briefly, but Miaki continued on without looking back.
Chika said quietly, “I managed to sneak him in without anyone noticing how beat up he is. Did you see? All the bruises he had in the VR world, he has in the real world. Something is really going wrong, Toshi.”
“You’re right. We have to figure it out.” Toshi glanced at his cousin’s retreating back. “With or without him,” he added tersely. “There’s something bigger going on here.”
“You’re right. And we’ll talk about Miaki tomorrow. Meanwhile, you’d better get some sleep. And like I said…keep him to himself for now.”
Toshi nodded, and followed Miaki down the hall and into his room. When the door closed behind them, once again he grabbed his cousin, whirling him around and slamming him back against the door. Miaki gasped and his head fell forward, his hair falling across his face.
“Dammit, Miaki, we were right by his door!,” Toshi snarled. “You didn’t even stop to find out how he was! How can you be like this? Don’t you even care how he’s doing, don’t you care what you did to him?”
He stopped suddenly, at the sound of Miaki’s shaking breath. His cousin lifted his head and his hair fell away from his stricken eyes. And Toshi saw at last the tears streaming and streaming down Miaki’s face.
“Oh Miaki,” Toshi whispered. He pulled his cousin into his arms and held him tightly as they cried together.
Chapter 8
