Heading into work the next day was difficult. I was still frustrated and exhausted from last night, quiet rage under a veneer of grey apathy born from sleeplessness. Still, I was expected, so I dragged myself in.
Crave was annoyingly chipper. “Hey, Ziska! Long night?”
I blinked for a second before it clicked in that I probably looked tired. “Yeah,” I said. “Went out for dinner with an old friend.”
“Oh, that sounds nice.”
We talked briefly about the restaurant, before I had to drag Crave back on track.
“Anyway boss, what did you come over for?”
“Well, you weren’t the only one with a busy night.” he said. “Bunch of Runners did a race on top of the Suntree and Matsushima went crazy. Dogs, operatives, helicopters, the lot. But what’s of interest to Samuel’s ilk is they reacted really quickly. Really, really quickly. So he thinks funny business and since we’ve still got that open case against them, someone needs to go.”
I stared at him.
“You. You need to go.”
“Crave.” I replied. “Actual interaction with people we’re investigating isn’t part of my job.”
“Yep! But I’m sending you anyway.”
– – –
So, I was stuck in a car with Samuel and someone from Administration, who was playing some pattern-matching game, tongue out slightly in concentration.
Apart from his finger taps, the car was silent.
Samuel didn’t look angry, which was a change from the last week as a whole. I imagined he wasn’t under anywhere near as much pressure. He looked bored instead, like he did this all the time.
I guess he does.
I looked back at the Administration representative. Administration dealt with keeping the city running, civilian living stipends, work supplements and general maintenance. In a sense, they were the janitors of the city, but since every other department were paid by and answered to Administration’s elected councillors, they were very powerful janitors. This guy however, seemed really absent. He was concentrating on his game, occasionally shifting, paperwork dropping to the floor. I wasn’t sure what his deal was.
Conversation wasn’t a happening thing and the scenery was buildings, so I took the opportunity to take a small nap. Probably muck with my sleep cycle, but that wasn’t stable anyway. Runs kind-of prevented that.
– – –
The Matsushima representative was not particularly pleased to see us. The implication of having a representative from Administration was that the corporation wasn’t capable of looking after their own property. We were invited into a smallish room, grey carpet sitting under stained wooden furniture. A bonsai pine sat on a display table at the opposite end to the door. A larger table sat in the middle of the room, chilled water and glasses already sitting in the middle.
The representative addressed us. “Please sit down. I’ll return in a short while to discuss… whatever it was you wanted to discuss.”
Yep, definitely pissed off.
The Administration rep, whose name I’d learnt was Andrew, sat down roughly and dropped his papers on the table. They spread out, and he pushed them further, until they covered nearly a third, all tilted towards him. Samuel and I sat down, Samuel staring at him in barely disguised disgust. It was rude, but I didn’t mind so much. We weren’t here to ask them on a date.
Andrew muttered into his papers, and it took me a while to realise he was asking us a question.
“I’m sorry?” I asked.
“Do you know why we’re here?” He said.
“Because we’ve got an open corruption case against Matsushima, so any investigation has to include someone from Corruption who is on that case.” Samuel replied.
“Mmm.” Andrew said. “Close. Administration could have just not told you that we were having this meeting. You’re here because it makes Matsushima uncomfortable and we’re not happy with their attempted monopoly on power supply.”
He was still looking at his paper. I was dumbfounded. Not that we were being used in some sort of power-play, but that he’d say it here, inside Matsushima’s headquarters for the city. They did probably have this room bugged, after all. Samuel’s expression didn’t change from the resigned look it had shifted into once he sat down.
The Matsushima representative cracked open the door and came back in with her own sheath of papers. She sat down at the end of table, shuffled her papers and put them down in a neat pile.
How has she prepared papers if he doesn’t know why we’re here?
She coughed and said, “Please, help yourself if you want any water.” before proceeding to pour herself a glass.
When no-one budged (Andrew didn’t even look up, running his finger down a column on one of his sheets), the Matsushima rep started to talk again.
“Getting straight to the point, why are government representatives in our building?”
Samuel sat up. “Because we have an open corruption investigation against you, and you responded to yesterday’s-”
Andrew raised a hand and coughed, cutting him off. “I’ll take you up on that water, please.”
He then sat proceeded to continue reading. The Matsushima rep looked shocked, but wiped the expression of her face quickly.
“The water is on the table. You may avail yourself if you wish.” she said.
“Can you get me a glass, please? I’m somewhat occupied.” Andrew responded.
What the hell is he doing?
The Matsushima rep poured a glass and slid it over. Outwardly, she wasn’t particularly flustered, but Andrew was shoving torches into a beehive here. An already angry beehive.
Samuel was outwardly flustered, clearly pissed off at Andrew ruining his delicate negotiations.
“As I was saying,” Samuel continued “We’re here because you responded to last night’s criminal activity in an amazingly short period. While such organisation is clearly to be commended, we’re wondering if you have an inside source or contact. After all, if they participated, you’d be funding illegal activity.”
The lady had turned her attention to him and calmly listened to every word.
“No.” She replied.
Blunt.
“No, you don’t have a inside?” Samuel asked.
“No. We are merely very organised and to be entirely honest, the Suntree makes rather a large amount of sense as target. As it’s a large investment, we’re somewhat jealous of it.”
Andrew shifted some paper, seemingly as loudly as possible.
“I’ve got some stuff here about a missing fifty thousand dollars? Oh, I know it’s here somewhere.” Andrew said, still moving paper. “Just curious, wouldn’t happen to know anything?”
Samuel stood up. His face was red and veins were very strongly highlighted on his forehead. He tapped Andrew on the shoulder, gestured outside the room and firmly gripped Andrews upper arm, practically hauling him out of the room.
The door shut behind them.
The Matsushima lady lifted her drink and took a sip, and without Andrew messing around, I could hear her limbs. They were very good civilian models, but at least her right arm was cybernetic.
I could hear loud voices outside. The quiet within the room was deeply uncomfortable. There wasn’t even a clock, which somehow made things worse.
When Samuel and Andrew finally came back in, Samuel was looking, if possible, even more furious. Andrew didn’t look any different, distracted and a little vacant.
I guess Samuel lost, then.
When they both sat down, the Matsushima representative said. “We’ve helped you all we can on that account, I’m afraid.”
“Okay!” said Andrew. He seemed kinda cheerful about that and started cleaning up his papers. “Well, you’ve been very helpful. Thank you for your time and-”
Samuel interrupted him. “I have a couple more questions.”
Andrew sat back down. “Well, gotta keep everyone happy. Go ahead.”
Samuel did not look like he appreciated being given permission, but still kept a professional tone.
“Would you mind overly if we attached an observer to your repair and maintenance operations for the Suntree, to make sure you do not require assistance?”
“That will be permitted.” The Matsushima representative said. “We’d appreciate assistance should it become required.”
Samuel continued. “We’d like access to additional finance documents. I’ve got the details here.” He pushed a sheet of paper over.
The lady didn’t even look at it. “As last time, a warrant will need to be issued before we will hand over any financial documents. We’re aware our reluctance could be construed as guilt.”
Well, we didn’t expect any different.
The questions continued for nearly an hour. We didn’t get many more concessions and Andrew drained the whole pitcher of water, thankfully pouring his own drinks.
The car ride back to the office was… interesting.
Running Silver 