File 017:
“Paranoia is just another mask for ignorance. The truth, when you finally chase it down, is almost always far worse than your darkest visions and fears.”
— Hunter S. Thompson
Our detention concluded after lunch. We received our gears back: phones, universal translators, and the all-important portal device. My call history and inbox were overflowed with angry messages from my teammates, suspecting that I had eloped with Sasaki.
Hmm, what should I tell them without getting hauled to Guantanamo Bay for leaking military secrets?
Hell nah, let’s just plead silence. After this project ended, this team would be disbanded anyway. I would be back my merry way to take care of Gladstone’s various ventures, which sat on the duller side of things but perfectly sane and safe, as long as a certain Arab wasn’t involved.
Sasaki got off a bit easier than I did. Her contacts all had sufficient security clearance to be informed. Daisuke, though, also found out that she helped Haruko sneak to Taiwan and go on a date with my big brother. He was fuming on the phone. I knew because she was putting the part where Daisuke threatened to have her fly economy for her next field mission on loudspeaker.
That didn’t sound much of a punishment to me, given that we both bought economy class tickets to Taiwan two days ago.
“It means I’m doing the next field mission without a portal device. The risk is significant”, she clarified.
“Is that even allowed?”
It would be akin to sending a soldier into battle without a gun. I doubted they would allow–
Apparently, he could just make up some bullshit excuses about budget saving or mid-life maintenance of the portal devices to deny her use. He had done that before, and he would do it again.
“That siblings will get me killed one of these days. The colonel’s post is looking very tempting right now”, she closed her eyes and heaved a sigh, “then again, better have it sometimes than none at all”, she concluded, speed running all five stages of grief in less than a minute after Daisuke hung up.
“You can also just quit doing so dangerous stuffs, you know?”
“Nah, I can’t do that.”
“Why?” I pressed.
“I just can’t. Okay? Stop asking”, she groaned.
So, there were other reasons why she had to remain in Kiyomizu Technologies, reasons I was not privy to. Fair enough.
“More importantly, this is not my portal device. The coordinates are all wrong and it has expired”, Sasaki solemnly informed, showing me the portal device. Its rings were dead stuck and couldn’t slide around freely anymore.
“What do you mean…expired?”
“It ran out of battery, the wormhole imploded, and the generator core went to kingdom come. It’s…a thing with these legacy devices.”
It took a lot of energy to expand a wormhole, but not more than the initial energy to open one. In a nutshell, after the first activation, a micro-wormhole was always maintained inside the portal device to the original position, leading to a battery time limit of 76 hours.
“Are we going to use the warp gate then?” I pointed my thumb at the structure in the harbor.
“That’s for ships, not people”, so she said.
“B-But, we did come here through that…”
She snickered, slowly shaking her head and casting a pitying look on me. Her lips read: “No, sweetheart, we don’t talk about the things I do in an emergency here.”
“Can’t you just, I don’t know, plug it into a charger somewhere? We still have a few hours before the transfer.”
“Which part of the core went to kingdom come implies it can be recharged? This thing is single use.”
“I thought you already had reusable portal devices in 2007?” I pointed out the fact that I had seen both Daisuke and Sasaki reused portal devices in combat while I stayed in Bermuda.
“No, the export model we supplied to the yankees is single use. Obviously, we can’t give them the latest and greatest model. That’s why they went through the trouble swapping this scrap metal with my device, thinking I wouldn’t notice. Sneaky bastards.”
The coordinate and time for the last portal departure was still available so if she had a new device, she could open a portal to wherever the bastards who took her device were hiding and give them a piece of her mind.
Easier said than done.
I looked at the napkin she got from the canteen. She wrote on the back of it with a ballpoint pen hundreds of mathematical formulae and some vector coordinate diagrams in font 9. She didn’t come up with them. She was only writing them down from memory and solving them accordingly.
I didn’t expect operating a portal device would require solving four-dimensional matrix equations and performing multiple coordinate system transformations, but it was just that complicated. She briefly mentioned something about the Earth being always in motion and coordinates weren’t fixed.
Given that I clearly was not equipped to follow this topic, she simply waved her hand and spared me the explanation.
From what I could tell, they created a whole new coordinate system, dubbed “Keisian coordinate system”, using the center of the universe as point zero and factoring in the expansion of the universe into account. This implied Kiyomizu had reached the point where they were laying the foundation for interstellar travel with portal technology. Impressive lot.
Not a big fan of the math, though, I imagined I could whip up a software to do that for me in an afternoon. In fact, it begged the question why these people, as brilliant as they were, didn’t do that in the first place.
“I’m not sure why we would need that. This is the only difficult formula, and, as you can see, it can easily be done on literally the back of a napkin. Others are simple enough that you run the numbers in your head.”
“Show me the “simple” math you could do in your head…” I requested, having doubted if it was as simple as she made it out to be.
“These two formulae you can use to designate a portal offset from your current position after a few seconds. I usually just use 2 seconds. It doesn’t have to be very accurate”, she wrote down two lengthy formulae with more Greek letters than numbers.
I admitted. It wasn’t matrix math, so it did look simpler. The problem? I didn’t even recognize some of the symbols she was using. Was that the symbol for triple integral? No way this was solvable without a calculator.
“You mean…you run this…incantation in 2 seconds while being shot at?”
“No, that’s the time I need to turn the knobs, more like 0.02 second for the math. It’s that simple”.
No wonder they struggled to fill combat positions. The monsters at Kiyomizu had no common senses at all.
“Nah, I’m just kidding. Only three people in kTech could do this in combat. Everyone else just panic jumps to a beacon at best.”
“You mean, Haruko can do this too?”
“What? No. Think, Han. She wouldn’t be asking for my help if she could.”
“I thought that she just did that to be, you know, incognito. Not like you can just nick a portal device from storage without anyone noticing…”
She spent some thoughts on this scenario and agreed it was a reasonable explanation.
“That too, I guess? But it’s more like…she doesn’t even know how to use it out of combat. Nobody is as helpless with technology as she is.”
So, Sasaki, Daisuke and a third individual whose identity she wouldn’t tell me, citing my lack of security clearance and the lab’s policy.
I raised my phone and turned down the volume to take a photo of the napkin without being noticed.
“Han…” she scolded and halted her pen.
I lowered my phone. Sometimes, it felt like she had an eye behind her back.
“No, you’re just too predictable.”
Really?
“Yes, you totally are.”
Please stop reading my mind.
“I’m not. Your respiration rhythm is betraying you. You shouldn’t be breathing down my ear if you don’t want to be cold read.”
I gave her some space. Her ballpoint pen began to move again. Having done all the calculations, she dissolved the napkin with some water and swallowed it.
“Do you…really have to–“
“Yes”, she interrupted, “That how to get yourself motivated to work on mental mathematics. You will have to keep eating paper until you can make do without leaving a paper trail.”
“That…sounds extreme. Extremely bad for your stomach, that is.”
“Don’t you also do that in China? Burn the handouts and drink the ash to cram for an exam?”
“Okay, yes. Some people do that…”
“Then I see no problem.”
I saw a lot of health issues but, given the psychological effect might lead to an enhanced performance, I couldn’t bother arguing further. Strange how a place full of scientists and engineers like Kiyomizu still had its fair share of superstitions. People would always be people, I suppose.
That aside, she asked me to wait while she went to make a call to Daisuke. Strong implication she would kill me if I tried to eavesdrop.
I eavesdropped on her anyway. She was using Cat Talk Net and that network had next to no internal security. Intruding from the outside would prove challenging given how many round-about air gaps they employed. However, once inside, wiretapping an active line was trivial. They didn’t even have end-to-end encryptions for private calls.
Speaking of wiretapping. I bet the CIA was listening in on her conversation as well.
The thing is. I had developed a sort of paranoia when it came to security breaches. It got to the point that I would introduce trip wires and tamper seals to alert me of intrusions. I picked up a few tricks from Lance, whose security strategy relied heavily on silent alarms and reactive defense.
One of those tricks involved a bit of thermal paste squeezed between the two halves of a phone’s outer shell. A pinhole located on opposite of the thermal paste allowed checking the integrity of the seal without breaking it. I covered the pinhole with hot glue to waterproof the phone and avoid arousing suspicion.
I just checked the seal. My gut tied into knots when I saw a clear tear across the thermal paste layer. Someone definitely opened the casing while the phone was not in my custody.
It meant the phone could be wiretapped. I chose this model because the SIM card and SD card were stored inside the outer shell. In all likelihood, the Americans should have cloned both already. I wasn’t particularly concerned about SD card’s content, but I might need a new phone number.
For the time being, I was under no obligation to protect Sasaki’s confidential information. I decided to just quietly listen in and relayed the recording to Lance’s business email.
The coordinates she calculated led to a German address in Karlsruhe. Search result indicated the building belonged to Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research.
Fraunhofer. I hadn’t heard that name for a long time.
After Kiyomizu Technologies took over all research and development contracts for Europe and the United States, Fraunhofer Society had become a bit of a dinosaur. Germany lost a lot of prestige and money fighting against Kiyomizu in recent years, unlike the Brits and the French who were fully behind the newcomer.
The fact that the United States might be resurrecting Fraunhofer to keep Kiyomizu in check added weights to what Cunningham informed us earlier. They were using Kiyomizu to keep Gladstone in check and Fraunhofer to keep Kiyomizu in check. Perhaps, they would use Gladstone to keep Fraunhofer in check later, just to complete this cursed RPG matchup.
In response to the switcheroo, Daisuke issued a gag order and told her to return without making a fuss.
The board of directors would convene to discuss how to retrieve the stolen portal device, but Sasaki said she wouldn’t count on anything drastic as Daisuke’s active period was ending soon and hers wouldn’t come at least in a month or two. A strongly worded complaint was the most she could expect from Kiyomizu for the time being.
Unlike the risk averse Kiyomizu, I had other plans for that rogue portal device. Lance should have enough breadcrumbs to figure out what I needed. Hopefully.
Like Washington, Gladstone also wanted every piece of Kiyomizu technology. Gladstone Security could arrange a break-in to recover the device or, at the minimum, hack into Fraunhofer and take their research data related to the portal device.
Sasaki returned, looking downcast. The silence stretched on as we locked eyes. Eventually, she closed her eyes first in resignation and let out a weary sigh.
“Do you still want to see the carriers?”
“Without saying.”
“Good. We’re flying back after Stennis.”
“After what?”
“It’s an aircraft carrier. Nimitz-class. Oh, here comes our ride.”
A large cargo plane flew above us, heading for the runway nearby. I turned my head to trace the plane as it landed in the base. Sasaki heard it coming from miles. The commodore already reserved two seats for us after he was told that we missed our return flight due to the untimely arrest.
“Where is it going?”
“Yokosuka.”
“Another military base?”
“Not like you could use a civilian flight without a deployment order or a valid visa.”
Right. My main base of operation was the Middle East and East Asia. I didn’t have a visa for the European Union so, technically, I came here illegally. Sasaki did say she dropped by France to meet Haruko from time to time, therefore, she had visa for the European Union.
Actually, I had a feeling she had visa and possibly a few spare passports for all regions in the world, considering how global she is.
“Hmm, I don’t have a departure stamp for Taiwan. Does that mean I need to go back via a portal to legitimize my passport?”
“Just get a replacement when you’re back. Besides, it’s not unheard of that the customs officers forget to stamp.”
“Well, if you say so…”
I prayed Lance would contact me before I took that plane. It would be difficult to stay connected once in the air and I could not afford to do nothing for another twelve hours plus. Fraunhofer already had two days head start. Once invaluable data started accumulating, they would ramp up their security accordingly.
“I should check the parachutes before I board that plane”, she murmured, walking away as I craned my neck after her.
Was she insinuating that the Americans would silence us to keep the warp gate a secret? Or that Daisuke would take down the plane like he did to his own father? If the experiences of the past few days had taught me anything, her paranoia tended to bear a strikingly prophetic quality. I should do exactly as she was doing. No question asked.
Oh good, a parachute under my seat!
No, to be exact, the entire bloody seat was a parachute.
Unlike civilian airliners, inside a military cargo plane, there was no rows of passenger seats. Instead, seat-style parachute packs hanging on harnesses along the side walls functioned as seats. Extremely uncomfortable seats that looked and felt like adult diapers.
Apparently, that certain portion of the seat was literally called “diaper”. One more useless trivia I wished I hadn’t learned from one of the passing marines.
A few lucky Kiyomizu staffers got to chill inside air-conditioned power suits. A few of these unarmed Big Steve models were being returned to Japan. Putting two and two together, I concluded that the Americans wanted to upgrade their naval base in Yokosuka with a warp gate.
“If it’s alright, can you tell me what happened to you before we met?”
“What are you asking specifically?”
“I want to know why you are always on edge, why you can’t sleep normally, eat normally, and act normally. You have been like this even before, you know, Bermuda. The Dreamcatcher probably made it worse, but the root cause lies elsewhere.”
There was a brief pause. I could see a subtle reaction uncharacteristic of this girl. Even though she didn’t give an answer, the fact that she was swallowing her saliva indicated hesitation. Her sharp eyes softened and broke contact with mine. Her hands moved swiftly to pack the parachute she had just inspected.
“Gimme yours”, she extended both hands to receive a parachute pack from me. These things weighed a ton, harness included. It felt as if I would fall to my demise faster wearing one of them even though my rational mind said otherwise.
“A tall order but not impossible. It depends on what you are going to do once you know the cause.”
“I want to cultivate my own paranoia to at least half as great as yours.”
“Han, we’re not close enough that I can overlook you making light of my trauma. Tch! I’m done here. Don’t follow me.”
“Wait, Aiko!”
She ignored me. Okay, I deserved that. I thought cracking a joke would make it easier for her to talk about a serious topic but that backfired spectacularly.
Just as I was about to chase after Sasaki, my phone rang. Lance called, telling me he was a bit preoccupied and asking what I needed to carry out the assignment. Nothing, really. I needed HIM to hack into or raid Fraunhofer. My hands were tied as I was about to board a plane. Plus, Langley might be listening in on my phone, it was not so convenient to covertly carry out the plan.
“Keep calm. Nobody is listening. I know you are using it as a nuclear football, so I took the liberty to secure your hardware. Your data has always been proxied through our satellites to the nearest network provider. Geofencing is activated by default so even if someone cloned your SIM, they wouldn’t be able to intercept your line unless they were within earshot. At that point, wiretapping would be moot.”
“You mean, I have been paying premium for the internet phone that you promised to be free of charge?”
“Well, the part where you call the landlines belongs to the network providers. The charges related to internet services went into your pension fund. In a way, you didn’t lose any money.”
“I still wouldn’t be able to connect while in the air.”
“Is it going to be a problem that you cannot observe the attack in real-time?”
And we both knew the answer to that was a resounding “No”.
Fujihita 