WntrDrgn

Edited 6/7/19 Nekoda

Once we arrive at the gate to my old house, I see two white vans parked in the driveway and I look at Lt. Aoki questioningly.

He nods at me and says, “Yes, they are the other officers that are supposed to help. I thought undercover would be better than raising questions with the neighbors.”

“Ah, okay. Makes sense to me. I kind of wondered how you were going to get around Mr. and Mrs. Katou. They keep a close eye on the neighboring houses, but since you’ve got these marked as a cleaning service they should ignore it.”

As we arrive at the door, I place my hand on the reader and we hear the snick of the lock. I push open the door and turn on the lights.

Looking at Dad, I ask, “How have you tried to open the basement door?”

“I had some technical people try several methods to unlock it. Of course, none of them worked. When they performed an in-depth examination of the lock they found out it's a multi-layer lock. Genetically based, but the reading has to come from live tissue within a specific temperature range.” He replies.

“Hmm. After what the nanites did, I don't know if it'll work for me, but I'll give it a shot.”

Walking the short distance to the basement door at the back of the hallway, I see a small red light inset on at the top of the door handle. When I grasp the handle, the light turns green, the lock clicks and I pull the door open. Looking around for something to prop the door open, I notice a doorstop beside the entry table we always kept our house keys on.

“Dad, would you grab the doorstop by the entry table for me please?”

Dad tells me, “Sure” and brings it over. I use it to prop open the door and then start feeling around for the light switch. When I find the light switch, I flip it on, then carefully make my way down the stairs and turn on the lights in the lab as well.

Okay, first things first. Let’s see if we can find the camera records for the house. Looking around the well organized lab, I shake my head when I remember how messy my parents usually were when it came to the house, then I hit upon a computer with a storage tower in the corner of the room. I walk over to it and wake it up.

Dad’s voice comes from behind me, asking, “What did you find there Sora?”

I turn to look at him and reply, “I’m not sure yet, but this computer is off by itself here in the corner, while the other two are readily accessible from the lab bench. It might have the records from the security cameras. The drive tower is certainly big enough to hold them since it says it’s 2500 zettabytes.”

Lt. Aoki walks over to me and looks over my shoulder as I turn back to the computer. Perusing the desktop screen, I find an icon that says ‘Cameras’ and tap on it. It opens to a screen sorted by date. The top line of which shows as today's date.

Let’s see. This happened in August of 2051, but when exactly? I know it was close to the first of the month and it was a Friday because a show my mother liked came on that day at 7:00. That show was what we were watching when Akiyama came over. I tap on the date and scroll it back to the month and year. The first Friday of August was the 4th. Okay, easy enough. Bring the recording list back to the forefront and scroll to the date. I bring up the record from then and fast forward to the time and slow it down to 2x speed until Akiyama shows up at the front door. Wow! First try and here I thought I would be digging through several records until I found it. Lucky me. I stop the recording there and press play.

The recording starts exactly as I remember as the camera view automatically shifts following them through the house until they reach the living room. The next thing I know, my back is to the computer screen and Dad is gently shaking me while calling my name.

“Huh? Wh-what happened?”

Dad worriedly asks me, “Sora are you alright?”

I tell him, “I’m fine. What happened?” I’m very confused because the last thing I remember the camera view had just shifted to the living room.

“You found the record and pressed play. A few moments later you would have fallen out of your seat had Mitty not caught you. You were out of it for several seconds. Sora, if you are tired, you can go back home and rest, you don’t need to stay here.”

“I’m wide awake Dad. I wonder what happened. Umm, thank you for catching me Lt. Aoki.” I say and turn my head back to the screen when Akiyama starts screaming.

I come to in Dad’s arms. What’s going on here? “Dad, I’m fine can you put me down?”

He tells me with a very concerned expression, “No Sora, you're not fine. If you were fine whatever it was that just occurred wouldn’t keep happening.”

“Dad, please put me down. My dress is too short for the way you are holding me, everyone can see my panties.”

Lt. Aoki chuckles while Dad shakes his head, smiles slightly, and shifts me from a princess carry to me basically sitting on his forearm and I slip my arm around his neck to stabilize myself.

“Dad, please, don't make me go home. I don’t know why it happened either, but I really do feel fine. Hmm… Come to think of it, it only happened when I started to watch the recording. I was fine otherwise until I looked back at the screen again. So, it probably has something to do with that. If I promise not to look at the recording again, will you let me stay?”

He looks at me intently for a few moments with a pensive expression, sighs, and finally tells me, “Fine Sora. You can stay, but if it happens again, you’re going home. No arguments, understood?”

I reply, “I understand Dad. Thank you,” and hug his neck for a moment in thanks before he carefully sets me down.

Though I still wonder why that happened. It’s just too weird and makes no sense to me. It’s not as if I don’t remember the incident, so why does trying to watch the recording of it make me zone out, or whatever you want to call it?

“Lieutenant, these two systems are password protected, we can’t get past the boot screen.” One of the officers says.

Looking over at Lt. Aoki, I ask, “Do you mind if I take a look?”

“No, go right ahead.” He replies.

I walk over and look. Alright, password protected. Well, I could try the password they used for the other house computers. I reach over to type in ‘09SorA30@2045’ and hit enter. The boot screen disappears and the system finishes booting. Ha! My parents never changed the passwords on the household systems, ever. My birth month, name, day, followed by the @, and the year is all they ever used. At least they made this easy. I go over to the other system and do the same thing, it boots up as well.

Out of the corner of my eye, I see one of the officers reaching for the refrigerator door. I yell, “Stop! There are nanites in there and you aren’t wearing anything to protect yourself!” He immediately freezes and pales.

Lt. Aoki turns around to look at them and scowls while telling them gruffly, “What did I tell you before we even came out here gentlemen? I said not to touch anything unless you were wearing protective gear. There are things here that could quite easily kill you. I suggest you take that to heart and think before you do anything.”

“Yes sir.” They reply.

I blow out my breath and return my attention to the computer. ‘Let’s see, research notes, research notes.’ I tell myself while opening the documents folder. Okay, they go by batch numbers? I walk over to the refrigerator and look at the flask I drank from. ‘GCN125Y’ is printed along the bottom. I close the refrigerator and I head back to the computer as an officer seats himself in front of it.

“Excuse me, but I still need to use that for right now.” I tell him with a smile.

He looks at me disdainfully. Then he contemptuously says, “Little girls should be at home playing with dolls.”

“Excuse me! If it weren’t for this little girl, as you so rudely called me, you would neither have gotten into the basement, nor would you have access to that system!”

“Officer Abe, you will apologize to Sora for your rude remark and then you will go outside to wait with the vans. We will talk about this further when we get back to headquarters.” Lt. Aoki tells him.

Abe glances at Lt. Aoki, then back to me with a dismissive smirk. He stands up and turns to walk out of the basement.

“Officer Abe, You’re good with computers, but your interpersonal skills need some serious work. I suspect you are good at your job or you wouldn’t be here, but if you leave this basement without apologizing to Sora you will find you don’t have a job tomorrow morning. I guarantee you that if that happens you will find out future employers frown on this kind of behavior. You will have real problems finding more than a low paying job after I have you fired.”

Abe blanches and asks, “You would do that to a fellow officer over a child?”

“I’d do that to any officer who would talk to someone that way regardless of their age.”

Abe turns back to me with a thunderous expression while clenching his fists and Dad steps in between us.

“Officer, I suggest that you unclench your fists and not look at my daughter as if you are going to kill her. You brought this on yourself.” He looks at Lt. Aoki. “I can’t believe Tokyo Police would hire someone with so little control over himself.”

“Eiji, that wasn’t my decision, but the decision on what happens right now is his.”

“I apologize Ms. Kobayashi.” Abe snarls at me, turns on his heel and stomps out of the room. Out of the corner of my eye I see Lt. Aoki shake his head.

“I apologize for his behavior Sora.”

“You have nothing to apologize for, you did nothing wrong. That man appears to need counseling very badly. You said his name was Abe? I wonder if he’s a relative of Hiroaki Abe.”

One of the other officers jumps in to say, “That’s his younger brother.”

“Oh wonderful, as if I didn’t have enough problems already. I’m in the same grade as that idiot.” I say while rolling my eyes.

The officer that told me that he was his brother chuckles. “You seem to know him pretty well to describe him that way. Not that I blame you since all the boys in that family are idiots.”

I shrug my shoulders and reply, “Unfortunately, you could say I know him all too well officer.”

Returning my attention to the computer to look for the GCN125Y entry. Finding the entry I touch it to open the folder. Once it’s open, I scroll down looking for the summary and open it as well. I begin reading the summary and the more I read, the wider my eyes become.