“What are they doing?” Sebastian breathed, his face pressed up against the plexiglass. Under other circumstances, James might have objected to a young man staring so intently at an unconscious girl in a skin-tight leotard, but Sebastian was only interested in the technology.

  “A better question might be, how do we get her out?” Mitsue pointed out gently. “We do not have unlimited time here.”

  “I dunno why you thought we could help,” Matsuri griped. “Do these look like Frames to you? Why don’t you ask these tied-up caterpillars here?”

  Everyone looked at the trussed-up technicians lying on the floor. The older one was the first to speak.

  “It’s fine. Just push the orange button next to the big red button to drain the fluid. Then push the red one to open the tube.”

  “Are you crazy!” the younger man interjected. The older tech continued as if he hadn’t heard.

  “Her clothes are in that cabinet over there,” he said, jerking his head to indicate a direction. “Take her and get out.”

  “But-but— The hive hasn’t been programmed yet!” the younger man protested. “If you take her out of the development environment, there’s no telling what it will do!”

  “Ooh! I know this game!” Harue, back in her schoolgirl form and obeying the laws of physics—for now—jumped forward and leaned in. “One of them always tells the truth, and the other always lies!”

  “Harue, I don’t think that’s—” James started.

  “Don’t worry, I’ve got this,” she said dismissively. Getting up close to the older guy, she asked, “Hey, what do you think your buddy will say when I stab you in the leg?”

  “Get this freak away from me!” the tech yelled, twisting his body in a futile attempt to get away. Harue laughed with delight.

  “Yeah, that sounds about right!” she laughed. “Now, your turn.”

  She whirled and straddled the younger guy. “Now, you. What do you think your friend will say when you get stabbed?”

  “Please… I have a family… a wife, a daughter,” the younger tech sobbed. “I’ll tell you whatever you want, just don’t hurt me.”

  Harue frowned. “That’s not right. You’re supposed to say the same thing. Try again.”

  “Please, I… don’t remember what he said!”

  She pulled out a butterfly knife and flicked it open. “You want to hear him say it again?”

  “Harue! This isn’t a logic puzzle!” James shouted.

  Harue giggled. “I know,” she admitted. She pushed the flat of her blade against her victim’s cheek.

  “You’re weak,” she told him. “Your pal is much tastier.”

  She jumped up and skipped over to the other tech, who was trying to wiggle further away.

  “What do you want to tell me?” she asked.

  “Nothing, you freak! Get away from me and die!”

  “Mmn, that’s the stuff.” She got on top of his frantically struggling form and pinned his head to the ground with one hand. She leaned in close, as if to smell the sweat on his face. “That’s the good stuff.”

  “Should we?” Mitsue asked, gesturing at Harue.

  “Not right now,” James said. She had promised not to kill anyone, and she’d put the knife away again. Not that she needed a knife. Instead, he turned to the younger tech.

  “Tell me about the hive,” he commanded.

  “Yes! Yes! It’s experimental technology—a… nanoscale construction tool,” the tech babbled.

  “Nanotechnology?” Matsuri asked, perking up.

  “Not… exactly,” the tech temporised. “It can’t work outside of the development environment—” he nodded at the tube, “—but it allows us to construct macroscale structures within the body.”

  “It’s building something inside her?” James asked. The tech winced at the tone of his voice.

  “Yes, but not… harmful, not exactly. It depends on the programming.”

  “What is that supposed to mean?” James demanded. The tech tried to answer, but the older tech shouted over him.

  “You fools don’t have time for a science lesson—or whatever this monster plans on doing to me. It won’t be long before reinforcements arrive and turn you into paste.”

  “I’m not so sure about that,” Mitsue commented. “Isn’t this facility where reinforcements would normally be sent from?”

  “Also, we have allies of our own,” Harue said brightly.

  “We do?” James asked.

  “Yeah! Oh, that reminds me, I was supposed to call her when we secured the building.”

  Harue jumped up and started rummaging around behind the computer equipment monitoring the tube.

  “Be careful with that!” the young tech yelled.

  James stared at her for a moment, then returned to his interrogation.

  “What kind of ‘macrostructures’? What do they do?”

  “Um, all kinds of things… but I think the main one they had planned was the loyalty package.”

  “Mind control?” Mitsue put in.

  “Oh, no, that’s a little beyond us right now. We were going to start researching that in Phase Four. The loyalty package lets us, er, let management control the body remotely.”

  “Aha!” Harue declared. “Found it!” She held up a cable triumphantly and then plugged it into her phone.

  “That’s not a USB cable, you idiot,” the older tech sneered. “You can’t just plug it in… like… that.”

  He trailed off because, whatever the cable was, it did fit.

  “Call her,” Harue said, and the phone obligingly changed to a connecting screen.

  “Hello?” said a familiar voice.

  “Hi hi!” Harue said. “You’re on speakerphone!”

  “So I see,” Kaguya said. “One moment.”

  True to her word, her face appeared on one of the computer monitors a moment later.

  “This monitor doesn’t have a camera,” she said. “So talk to the phone if you want me to hear.”

  Harue obligingly perched her phone on top of the monitor, where it balanced… improbably. Meanwhile, the captives seemed to recognise the terrorist leader.

  “You people are working with Scarlet Moon?” the older tech snapped. He writhed back and forth helplessly. “They’re terrorists! Murderers!”

  Harue jumped back on top of him. “Less outrage, more fear,” she crooned. “It tastes gamey. Wait, is this turning you on?”

  She laughed scornfully. “I’m only fifteen, you know. You must be a lolicon to get aroused by a little girl pinning you down.”

  “Get this… thing off me!” the tech yelled.

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  “Not to interrupt whatever that is,” Kaguya said. “But thanks for inviting me to this little party. My subroutines are already scouring the datasphere here.”

  She snickered. “I hope KHI weren’t hoping to use this place ever again.”

  “That’s fine, I guess,” James said. “Is there anything in there that can help us get Junko-san out?”

  He gingerly reached out for Harue’s phone and turned it to face the tube. It felt warm to the touch.

  Kaguya whistled. “You sure did find a black site,” she said. “Let’s see…

  There was a brief pause while she interacted with the system. Finally, she cursed aloud.

  “There’s no off switch!” she declared. “Why the hell didn’t you guys include an off switch?”

  “Why would we?” the younger tech answered. “It’s not like we’d ever implant a construction hive by accident.”

  “What does that mean?” James demanded.

  “It means that once the hive is implanted, it’s got to do something,” Kaguya answered. “And what it does… is this documentation accurate?”

  “I don’t know what you’re looking at?” the tech tried. “But it should say that we’ve got a better than 90% rate on the loyalty program.”

  “92.4,” Kaguya agreed. “But the rates for everything else are shot.”

  “The hive interacts with the host system, and everyone is different, so… there’s an element of luck involved,” the tech admitted. “We’ve gotten quite good at eliminating the configurations that result in fatal outcomes.”

  “Yeah,” Kaguya said. “They went through a lot of test subjects. Long story short, if we go with anything other than the remote control thing, we’ve got around a 20% chance of success.”

  “What happens if it fails?” Mitsue said. “Does she die?”

  “Um…” Kaguya started, but the tech had a quicker answer.

  “Probably not,” he said. “It can still happen, but it’s more likely that you’ll get a known effect that you weren’t trying for, or something entirely new.”

  “And if we don’t select a configuration?” Mitsue pressed.

  “We never tested that,” the tech admitted. “But… it would probably select a random one when it detected the field collapse. That would probably kill her.”

  “So, unless we care what powers she gets, we should just select the configuration with the highest chance of survival and see what she comes out with,” Kaguya said.

  “That… sounds right,” James allowed.

  “Done then.”

  “Just like that?” James asked.

  “It’s all done by computer, so… yeah, just like that. It’ll take five minutes or so before she can come out, though.”

  They all stared at the tube. Aside from a few blinking lights, nothing obviously changed. James shook himself.

  “I’d better find her clothes,” he said.

  “Ah, do we have five minutes?” Sebastian asked diffidently. “That fellow was rather insistent about the reinforcements.”

  James looked over at the older tech. Whatever Harue had done to him—James hadn’t seen anything— had left the man unconscious and sweating while Harue was even more smug.

  “Don’t worry about it,” Kaguya said through the phone. “I had a cyberattack prepared for just such an occasion. Right now, there are a half-dozen facilities across Japan experiencing critical system failures.”

  “That sounds… expensive,” James said cautiously. “Do we owe you anything for that? And how did you get involved in this, anyway?”

  “Oh, consider me well repaid for getting me access to this base,” Kaguya purred. “I don’t know how that phone of Harue’s works, but it cut right through the jammer.”

  “I called Kaguya-chan when I was infiltrating the base,” Harue said. “She was the one who told me about the comms cupboard.”

  “You managed to disable it quite thoroughly,” Kaguya praised. “I thought you didn’t know anything about computers?”

  “I just used a grenade,” Harue said. “That works for most things.”

  * * *

  “There you are!” Shion shouted when the group exited the building. They left the techs behind, still tied up. Kaguya had assured them they would be found ‘eventually’ before disconnecting the call.

  “I’ve been looking… well, here,” Shion said. “I saw the campervan and figured you’d be coming back to it. So I’ve been waiting.”

  “Oh… please let her not have damaged anything,” Sebastian muttered as he ran over to the vehicle.

  “As if… I haven’t been here long enough,” Shion said. “I was to busy getting the good stuff!”

  She was sitting on to large metal suitcases stacked on top of each other. James approached, carrying Junko who was still unconscious. He eyed Shion suspiciously.

  “Those aren’t full of body parts are they?”

  “Not in the way you mean,” Shion replied. “I was gonna just rip some skin off a dude, but these are better! KHI Cyborg repair packs! Kanon-nee is going to be so pleased, she might not even yell at me.”

  “Are we going?” Kana asked, wandering into view, back in human form. “The battlefield has been… secured.”

  “Great… we’ve got Junko, and she’ll probably be all right,” James said. “So let’s get out of here.”

  The campervan had enough room for everyone, even with Junko occupying one of the pull-down bunk beds. Shion pulled Matsuri into the back section, eager to get repairs done. Kana deigned to use the shower. Even though no blood was visible, there was a distinct metallic odour to her.

  Harue joined Mitsue, James and Sebastian in the roomy front cabin.

  “Can we stop off at a police station?” she asked. “I need to stock up on grenades.”

  “No!” everyone chorused.

  “Fine!” Harue replied, sticking out her tongue. “I can make my own trip later.”

  “Is this really over?” James wondered, as Sebastian eased the van through the compound.

  “Ah, well, Kotodama Industries isn’t going to forget what you did,” Sebastian said. “They do have a reputation for sorting out their own grievances, so I doubt they’ll be reporting their secret military black site to the police.”

  “They were already targeting us, so no changes there,” Mitsue said.

  “I suppose,” Sebastian agreed. “Though I expect they will increase the amount of force they bring against you in future conflicts.”

  “Will you be alright?” Mitsue asked.

  “Your… terrorist friend assured me that she would both delete the security footage and claim responsibility for the strike,” Sebastian said. “Kanzaki-Volkswork should be able to keep clear of the conflict. I shouldn’t be seriously reprimanded, especially since this whole affair is KV’s fault.”

  “Wait, what? How is it your fault?” James asked.

  “Not my fault, but given the timing…” Sebastian sighed. “You remember that I came to the island to recruit Matsuri-san?”

  “Yeah, but—” James stopped, making the connection. “You initially came looking for Junko-san.”

  “Exactly. Our information was wrong. And someone must have leaked that wrong information to Kotodama.”

  “So they just kidnapped her?”

  “KV and Kotodama Industries are competitors in the same market, but they operate very differently,” Sebastian said. “When we saw what Junko-san—well, really, Matsuri-san—had done, we knew that we had to have her work for us. However, we are restricted to legal means. For the most part.”

  Sebastian coughed, blushing furiously.

  Mitsue raised his eyebrows, but refrained from commenting on the lapse. “So while you offered an internship, KHI chose to… kidnap her and implant her with controlling cyberware?”

  “I’m shocked that they had it as an option, but not surprised they chose it,” Sebastian said. “Finding out about this is going to send shockwaves through the industry. Do you think your… friend will really release those files as she promised?”

  “She may censor some details to hinder anyone who wants to reproduce the technology, but she has no use for them herself. And publicly releasing them would do harm to Kotodama, would it not?”

  “It most certainly would,” Sebastian agreed. “As soon as my superiors hear about this, they’re going to start wondering how many of these remote control victims have been placed in our corporate structure. The details in those files could help us find a way to detect them.”

  “Sounds like Kotodama will be busy with damage control for a while then,” James said. “So we really can relax for a bit.”

  “You’re so, so wrong,” Harue said. “The real nightmare is just beginning.”

  “It is?” Sebastian said with alarm.

  “Oh, not for you, just these two,” Harue assured him.

  “Oh, well, I’m sorry to hear that, guys.” Sebastian firmly turned his attention back to the road.

  “Is this about the phone call?” James asked. “The invitation?”

  “Yes, this is about the invitation!” Harue declared.

  “What invitation?” Mitsue asked.

  “I got a call when we were chasing after you,” James explained. “Harue’s… Eldest Sister? The head priestess of her temple. She wants me to visit.”

  “Which is,” Harue stated. “A disaster for the both of you. And Suki. Kana… is probably okay.”

  “If you say so,” James agreed. “But you haven’t said why, or what I can do about it. Should I just not go?”

  “That’s not an option,” Harue told him. “Especially since you already agreed. And I don’t want to have this conversation twice, so you’re going to have to wait.”

  “But that’s—” James tried, but Harue just gave him a mulish glare. “—fine. We’ll talk about it when we get back.”

  Getting back to the island was surprisingly easy. Junko woke up on the way back and was both outraged at her kidnapping and graciously grateful for her rescue. She had been unconscious since she got off the boat and had no idea what had happened.

  “The men in the flower shirts were very respectful,” she said. “Their boss was very interested in my ideas for reorganising his business. It was a mess! No workflows, no procedures… it was only when we got on shore that those other men in suits snatched me.”

  Matsuri sighed. “Don’t they teach heiresses these days to avoid strange men who want to take you away?”

  “I’m not an heiress,” Junko insisted. “My older sister will inherit the company. And… well, they didn’t seem like the sort of people you get warned about. Just business enthusiasts.”

  “Right. Well, those business enthusiasts led you right to those kidnappers, and now you have to get lectured on how your body is becoming a meld of machine and man.”

  Junko narrowed her eyes. “Machine and woman, surely.”

  “Who knows?” Matsuri threw her hands up. “I’m gonna need to read papers for weeks, just to find out what’s going on with you.”

  “I’m sure you’re imagining it,” Junko said. “I don’t feel any different.”

  “You won’t feel anything for two weeks, at least,” Matsuri told her. “It will take that long for the cyberware to grow into your nervous system.”

  “What happens then?” Junko asked nervously.

  “You either become superwoman, or you die horribly,” Matsuri said. “Maybe next time don’t go off with strange men!”

  James noticed that Harue was hanging back, listening to the conversation, but not joining in.

  “It’s not like you to avoid piling in on Junko-san,” he said quietly.

  Harue shrugged. “I’d like to, but I need to focus on figuring out a way to get you out of your mess.”

  “Which you won’t talk about.”

  “Not yet. Now leave me alone, I need to think.”

  To James’s surprise, Harue kept her promise, staying quiet for the rest of the journey. She slipped away at some point after they made landfall, avoiding the reunion with Suki and the rest of their friends. James had his hands full answering questions from the others, and especially Midoriko. There were forms to fill out for extra-territorial PMC excursions. And for involving civilians.

  It wasn’t until several hours had passed that he found a scrap of paper in his hand—that hadn’t been there a moment earlier. On it was writing.

  Gather the others. West wing, Room 3-13. Sunset

  He’d been expecting—not this, but some kind of summons. So he knew who to gather, and he’d let them know what they were in for. So the small group of his friends soon found themselves in an empty classroom.

  Empty, until Harue appeared. She threw her phone out the window.

  “Now,” she said, “Let’s talk about how you’re all screwed.”