Crave, that bastard, had sent me out with Samuel again. We were headed to Raven this time, to ask very similar questions to our trip to Matsushima. Which didn’t bode well for the responses we’d get.
At least Andrew wasn’t here this time. Which meant Samuel would probably keep his head.
I was pretty used to the quiet that followed him around now. Samuel was the sort of person Vy would’ve hated. Doesn’t talk and can’t stand interruptions. She’d be bouncing off the walls in my position. Despite my thoughts on him, I did need to ask a question.
“Who’re we assigning to Matsushima as the observer, Samuel?” Crave had allegedly tried calling him Sam once. The result was not pleasant, according to him.
“Hmm?” He answered. “Ah. Someone trained from my side of the Bureau.”
I sighed happily. He snorted at my grin. I wasn’t even aware he had a sense of humour, but hey. Learning.
I didn’t often get to see the city in daylight and I wasn’t tired this time, so I was spending most of the trip staring out the window. The city was a mismatch of abandoned industrial areas and enormous, shining residential and office buildings. The populated areas were full of people, strolling around arcades and malls under the shade of the Suntree. The areas were bright and clean, designed around strong, flowing lines, which looked horribly out of date now. Some stores were empty, available for anyone trying to make a business, but many were full, offering anything from particular styles of food to furniture and clothes. The current trend was competition for goods; stores offered games where you would compete against other customers for discounts and freebies. The games varied immensely between store, to suit the mood. Stores with particularly good games were often frequented just for those games, forming their own cliques and minor celebrities.
The abandoned places were radically different. When we moved through them, I’d see one or two people hanging around fires in front of shacks of iron sheeting and wood. These were the people who rejected any handouts, who craved self-sufficiency and self-reliance. There were communes deeper in, huge warehouses and factories with their roofs ripped off and the inside converted into farms. Grass had grown up through the cracks in the concrete and in the dirt-filled gutters. People inside seemed to do well enough, though I had very little exposure. I didn’t really understand them, though.
Raven’s main building was isolated out in the East, near where our group did our Runs. It was huge, shaped like a sail catching the wind. Their raven logo was crafted out of the negative space between the windows and mirrors of the outside of the building. A night time, the lights inside were never turned off and it filled this part of the skyline, visible from rooftops everywhere. The inside of the sail shape was the reverse, a vast, complex network of neon tubing showing a white raven against the matte black of the building itself. The tubes were straight and came down from the edge of the building, not following it’s curve.
There was a small plaza out the front where we pulled up, car steering itself to parking after we’d gotten out. A small man was there to meet us, well-fitting suit giving him presence despite his limited height.
“Hey there!” He seemed cheerful and bright. “Welcome to Raven Incorporated. I’m Evan and I’ll be your guide today. We understand that you’d like to get this over and done with, so I’m to take you straight to the room we’re using.”
As we walked through the glass double doors, I could see where the core building met the ground, reception and the bottom three floors build around the sail. The entryway was determined to show it off, it’s concrete narrowing to a small flat section behind the automated reception desk. Raven was exercising it’s strengths in automation; Robots were everywhere. There were Dog patrols outside, but inside was more hospitable, with service robots moving plates and goods. Lines of older designs faced inwards, showing Raven’s “proud history”. Clouds of their now-famous butterflies acted as screens throughout the building. A lot of it was probably just for show, but some of it would have been actually part of the day to day.
Evan was waving us through the lobby, bringing us before an elevator.
“Hop in!” he said. “I’ll be with you in a moment.” A mono-wheeled drone had turned up with a small envelope, which he took from it and broke open, scanning the contents briefly.
I shuffled awkwardly in the elevator as I waited for him to join us. Samuel clicked the latches on his briefcase repeatedly.
Evan smiled, apparently happy with the note’s contents. “Well, that makes all of this rather easier.” he said, before joining us in the elevator. He pressed the button for the 45th floor, and hummed all the way up.
The elevator itself was smooth and silent. The doors had barely hissed shut before they opened again, showing us what I assumed was the 45th floor. The walls were panelled in wood and highlighted in silver and pot plants were placed between the doors. We were guided down a corridor, before entering a conference room. There was already water on the table, glasses set out. The back wall of the room was a window, cleaning robots skittering off out of sight as we walked in. The view was good, but not spectacular. We could see right into some of the industrial areas.
More pot plants were inside the room and now we had stopped, I could see they were semi-artificial, green temperature control systems meshed into the plants.
We pulled out our chairs and sat down, Evan sitting with his back to the window. starting to talk almost immediately.
“I’ve been told that I’m to fully co-operate and in addition, our statement about the data we’re being investigated for has been prepared. Have you come to any conclusions about the data or the Health and Safety Bureau members you’ve investigated?”
Samuel responded. “Our investigations are ongoing.”
“Hmm.” Evan replied. There was a bit of an awkward pause, before he coughed and continued. “Well, I’m in the position to be able to tell you that shortly before the data that allegedly came from us was leaked, we suffered a break-in. It was late evening, that Friday. We’re still reviewing the security recordings, but we’re have a few suspicions.”
Oh. Oh shit.
“We believe that the perpetrator used an illegal Run going on that evening to cover their escape. We’d quite like to talk to any of the Runners from that night, although approaching them is… difficult. Regardless, we believe that the stolen data was used to forge Raven standard protocols and internal file formats to make the leaked data seem legitimate. We fully deny ownership or creation of that data. In addition, it’s entirely inaccurate.”
He shuffled his papers.
“We’ll make an announcement about this when our internal security investigations are complete, but in the mean time, that is our official statement to you about your investigation.”
Shit. Shitshitshit.
I was stunned, but recovering quickly. It made a lot of sense and filled a lot of gaps. It meant that the Runners, and me in particular, had problems, though. Many, many problems. I couldn’t tell the other Runners, especially if someone was a Raven agent, but this could hardly be left sitting. The implied threat of all-out capture attempts was bad enough…
Wait.
This explained a lot about Glass and Matsushima’s actions. If she thought Raven suspected Matsushima of the break in, then the Festival must have looked like a deniable attack. Then if Matsushima thought the Runners were Raven assets…
Running Silver 